BRENDAN L. SMITH Brendan L. Smith is a freelance journalist who has worked for newspapers, magazines, and websites across the country. He covers the D.C. art scene for DC magazine and the Pink Line Project. Brendan also is a mixed-media artist who shows work on political and social themes in galleries and exhibitions in the D.C. area. His unconventional paintings and sculpture offer a silent conversation on love and war, religion and patriotism, icons and demagogues, and our materialistic consumer society. More of Brendan’s articles and columns are available at www.brendanlsmith.com and he can be contacted at news@brendanlsmith.com.