Milton Shinberg

It seems to me that it matters less whether you have a camera or brush or piano in your hand than whether you feel the process and forces of making art. The commonalities are far, far greater than the differences between them.

Someone asked me how I started my engagement in art.  
The answer: I wanted to be a doctor!  

I went to the National Gallery of Art when I was 13, to study anatomy by “copying” art, which meant in this case drawing from Michelangelo and DaVinci.  I got hooked on drawing instead.  That led to art and architecture.  Goodbye medicine.  Hello drawing, mostly architectural for the next 55 years.

I’m a native Washingtonian architect, artist, architecture professor and amateur musician.

watercolor painting

I took up painting 8 years ago, partly to try something new at past-60, but also to see if I could counter the relatively tight approach to drawing that can go with architecture.  The struggle, or dialogue between “tighter” and “looser” approaches is still very much in my painting.  The ultimate goal is to work comfortably in the flow of water and paint, to enjoy the unpredictable and unintentional, though with the momentum of an underlying intention.  That was and is the challenge.

photography

I’ve been a photographer for as long as I’ve been an architect.  I focus on faces quite a bit, and on scenes that have, like the paintings, good compositional tensions, forces that pull your attention and engage you in the image.  I continue working on them in LightRoom and then they are open to more painterly treatment. 

architecture      

I’ve retired from my previous firm, Shinberg.Levinas Architects after twenty-five years with Salo Levinas and twenty years of productive work before then. I now have a small consulting practice. I’m grateful to have received a good bit of recognition by the AIA and in various publications.

teaching       Adjunct Associate Professor

Beauty & Brains

Graduate Architectural Theory Course, Catholic U.  It’s about architectural aesthetics from the viewpoint of cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary necessity.  Compressed versions of the course have been presented to the AIA and the National Academy of Sciences DASER series (YouTube).

Architectural Design, 4th Year Comprehensive Building Design Studio, Catholic University of America

art/architecture

Graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University in Architecture   1971
Established independent architectural practice                               1975
Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America             1978–current
Co-founded Shinberg Levinas Architects                                          1995
Solo Photography Show                                                                         2013
Art League of Alexandria 1st Prize Student/Faculty Show Award  2014
Potomac Valley Watercolorists Award                                                2016
Cross-MacKenzie Gallery Architects’ Drawing Show                       2016

Solo Watercolor Show at the Art League of Alexandria 2018