CURRENT AFFAIRS

This year and all of its events brought a depth and change in my work and I hope you can make it out to BWAC to see not only what I have done but also how other artists have been affected and the effect this year has had on their work.

Below Say My Name. $1800 (16 x 20). This collage paper relief sculpture is in the ground floor juried Black and White show. The timely title of the exhibit was decided even before 2020 began and gave it a whole new meaning once the new year arrived.

You can purchase a 14 x 16 inch print in the Makers Market for just $175. framed print $200.

As a general rule my work is about small moments of human connection. But there was a metaphorical change in my work after weeks and months of the re-awakening of black and white Americans and people all over the world. All this while hearing the constant sounds of sirens and nightly hearing the numbers of dead from covid-19 increasing. The NY Times posted on their front page the names of the then 100,000 people who had died. A number that has now almost doubled.

Black and White juried exhibit Double Duty framed 16 x 20 inches $1800.

Upstairs in the members exhibit CURRENT(s) are five more pieces of my collage work addressing current events. I was struck by the painful similarities of then and now. The 1960’s as I was growing up and now showing how far we as a nation still need to go.

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Then, on the left, and Now on the right. The 16 x 20 framed originals are each $1500, but affordable prints are $200 framed and $175 matted. Smaller 11 x 14 framed prints are just $160.

I hope you can make it out to see the three shows plus the Makers Market then go outside and sit by the water and contemplate all you have seen. Then come again and bring your friends after telling them what you have experienced.

If you can’t make it to BWAC but are interested in purchasing prints of my work you can go to our etsy shop and buy them on line.

BLACK & WHITE EXHIBIT

The national juried exhibit opens at BWAC and its a great show. Give yourself a treat to come and see BWAC’s three shows: ground floor is the Black & White exhibit (plus there is the makers market overflowing with functional art to purchase).  Our member’s exhibit, CURRENT(s) is on the second floor in bay one flowing into bay two along with our second juried exhibit Transparent As Glass. I was blown away by many of the pieces from this show.

Come see how the arts express the experiences we have all been sharing, covid-19, BLM movement, political unrest, isolation and the bonding and distance that has created. And again there is the big expansive open sky to prepare your mind for what you will experience inside BWAC, the crisp water and the sound of the waves surrounding the one part of NY harbor that lady Liberty faces. Treat yourself to comfort and culture.

Before I sign off framed prints of some of my works for these shows are available in the Maker’s Market

BWAC Wall

After you have checked out my small collages and tableware in BWAC’s Makers Market and the ground floor Black & White juried show head upstairs to panel 159A as you enter bay 1 and see my wall. You will see a lot of interesting art throughout the two shows and enjoy Red Hook, fresh air and the water.

FALL SHOWS

BWAC had planned last winter for this year fall show to be BLACK & WHITE which has now taken on new meaning in the mist of BLM and covid-19. Usually my work tells about little moments of human connection, but 2020 brought a whole new dimension to my work. First all three pieces I submitted to BWAC were accepted into the show and the first piece below, Say My Name, is being used as PR for the exhibit. 

16 x 20 inch prints of Say My Name will be on sale in the Brooklyn Makers Market on BWAC‘s first floor and through this blog so check back for more information about purchasing one of three different prints.The juror for Black & White exhibit is Jenée-Daria Strand from the Brooklyn Museum and the curator for the exhibit is BWAC member Kenneth Jackson.

Aside from the national juried show on the first floor our members show, Currant(s) is upstairs in the two bays on the second floor. I will be exhibiting several pieces including Then below. I want to show you through my eyes a journey of black history in this country.

 

Also available in the first floor Brooklyn Makers Market Study of A Dancer in Pause which a detail from The Dancer and the Poet.

 

There is always a journey and a process to a finished piece. I First discovered the paper that I used as the background for dancer and poet and then realized the figure would be too small for the background and went on to do a much larger piece but still loved the expression on the  smaller portrait and searched for the story she had to tell in her eyes.

 

Black and White and Current(s) will be at BWAC September 26th until October 24th. Come and spend a day by the water out on the pier in a place where the sky is greater than the land and the water reminds you we are an island and we are all in this together. Mask must be worn inside and social distancing required but outside there will live music and drinks.

 

Excuse images below. WordPress changed their format and I’ve no clue how to fix what has become of past postings.

BWAC is BACK

And the opening is this weekend August 11th, 2020 and the next three weekends from 1 to 6 pm. So you have four weekends to experience the wonders of Red Hook before or after you see our spring/summer exhibits which includes two juried shows…. Wide Open 11 and Transparent As Glass. I am part of our member’s exhibit Art From The Inside and you can find my work on the second floor of the gallery in Bay 1 panel #160. Here is a sneak peak.

Moving left from right there  is Otherwise Engaged (16×20) a piece I made before the pandemic. At the time I was focusing on people isolated from one another by their devices but now it is about them being 6 feet apart from each other and what connects them are the very devices that in the past had been divisive.

Lady Zoom (29×20) was created  or conceived during a zoom workshop on how to make a paper collage self portrait. She’s all dressed up with no place to go wondering how we got here. Live music is on a hold these days in Took Five and Split (20×16) and once again we have the wonder of technology to keep us entertained.

Finally Nap Time For Everyone (14×14) as parents are home with their children and discovering new things about one another. So head out to be by the water in that place where the sky is greater than the land and after a day looking at art you can sit on the pier and watch the sunset over the Statue of Liberty. Drinks and simple snacks will be served through our windows with no food or drink allowed once inside where everyone must be masked and socially distanced but in 24,000 square feet filled with hundreds of pieces of art in several different exhibits that should not be a problem.

I have to include the photo I took of this great piece in the Wide Open 11 exhibit. Aquatic In Nature by Gene Hiracho. It will greet you as you enter on the ground floor.

And while you are on the first floor stop in the Brooklyn Makers Market to your left as you enter. I have a great bowl for your summer salad. It would look beautiful with a watermelon/feta and mint salad.

SAY MY NAME

I finally made it back into my studio and knew there would be some change or shift in my work. I wanted in some way to address both the pandemic and the demonstrations and this piece reflecting life layers the two. I debated what to titled the piece and had thought to call it 2020 but settled on Say My Name.

 

RESURFACING

I am getting ready to head back into my studio as I wrap my head around the fact it may be another six months before there is a vaccine and we all find our new normal. Making repairs or repurposing furniture has occupied my time the past couple of months. The bedroom is no longer blue. A color it was painted after 9/11, but now I was ready to return to a shade of white and no longer have my ceiling look like shadows of the dark side of the moon. I gave the room in which I begin and end each day the calmness I needed in my isolation.

You could say I live alone but I say I live with my art and that includes my apartment which I consider to be a three dimensional portrait of myself that you can walk through. When I said to another artist with whom  I am to collaborate that I’d been procrastinating working on my home he kindly said our homes are our art ….. So that’s what I‘m going with.

But in spite of the break or shift in artwork my art has been out there working for me. BWAC, like so many other things, went online and you can find me both on the BWAC site Art From The Inside. Have a cup of ice tea or coffee or maybe a frozen margarita and check out the wide range of our artist and their work. For those of you who are making your homes more comfortable and are looking for my functional art you can go to BWAC’s makers market on etsy and find a piece of Brooklyn you would like to hang on your wall since we all aren’t getting around much anymore. Maybe the times call for a new bowl to put your salad in or perhaps in your solitude you are ready for real napkins and a more formal table once we can have company around our tables again.

But please keep coming back and checking out my blog as I begin posting my new work and see how the new lives we have been living has had an affect on my art.

 

ART in a time of Isolation

I’ll begin this post with the piece I finished around the time of lock down before you think its all talk and no art. At the moment this is called Me! More art further down. But do read on to appreciate my journey in isolation.

 

Many of my fellow artist have talked about the difficulty of feeling inspired to create in the mist of sheltering in place. I think we have all found that in spite of the fact that many of us are solitary in nature when creating there is that need to share when we come up for air. I don’t know that I ever got over whatever grade show and tell stopped being a part of school.

I woke up one morning weeks ago and my life became about what I would not be doing.  First it was a workshop I was to teach would not be happening, then exhibitions that would have been a source of inspiration and info postponed and then shows in which I was to exhibit or planned to submit work were up in the air as to how they should proceed. Once again I had lost show and tell.

Even my volunteer work at the hospital was put on hold. For our own safety they had let us all go and we have no idea when we can come back. I have been volunteering there for around twenty years. Creating art with children and their parents in pediatrics, art and writing with people while they were receiving chemo and for the longest time art workshops in the psych ward and dementia wing. I miss it. I miss sharing what brings me joy. I miss helping them open that door to their own creativity. I love that moment when you see the joy and light come on in their eyes. There is life in creating

The huge dining room table I had made to sit with 16 friends and share a meal became where I made my mask and mask for friends.

My friend in Germany zooms with a group of us once a week to deal with his isolation. His friends are all over Europe and here in the states. One person wanted us all to put our mask on and for a moment we were all united in a shared experience and there was a comfort in we are not alone. As the saying goes we are all alone in this together and at the same time the frightening thought that the whole world is in danger together and the Star Trek Enterprise is not going to appear and release something into the atmosphere to save us. We are on our own to do that with isolation and with faith in each other.

But then my friend asked if I would like to do an art project with everyone and I decided to do the workshop I would have taught last month and in the psych ward. I was to just give a quick 15 minutes of instruction and then show and tell was to be the following week but we ended up working on our portraits for 2 hours showing, telling, laughing.

Here is my piece I have titled Lady Zoom … All dressed up and no place to go!

Sharing what I do was a release to the blocked door to my creativity. It set me free. There was a portrait I had been very excited about creating . First I found the background paper was the inspiration and then decided who would be in the foreground and then we were put on pause. We artist went into this thinking no problem we’ll just make art not realizing because of the isolation our creativity had also been paused. But after sharing and creating Lady Zoom I was able to go into my studio and let it (my creativity) flow out into my living room. Which means I made a big mess while creating.

Here is the end result of that. Whenever I do one of these portraits I look at them and keep asking them who are you? What is your story? She came first and then he followed. It is titled The Dancer and The Poet or they told me that was who they are.

 

Another New Show

Otherwise Engaged was accepted into Salmagundi Club for their Exhibition of Portraiture and Figurative Art. The show opened yesterday and will run until March 12th, 2020. When I commuted on a regular basis I was always struck by the number of people continually on their cell phones unaware of heir surroundings or each other.

Some of the papers in this piece were either made by me or my friend Anita. When I go to visit she and I will spend hours in the garden making paper. So when I look at this piece I think of the hours in Anita and Rob’s peaceful garden totally engaged in our  making paper our only distraction to not loose the sun. Its my adult summer art camp.

The exhibit at 47 Fifth Avenue @ 12th Street  will run from February 24th until March 12th, 2020. Mon.-Fri 1 to 6 pm and Sat. & Sun 1 to 5 pm. Artist and guest reception Thursday, March 5th 6:30 to 8:30. Hope to see you there.

But you can still catch my work at the WAH Center in Williamsburg for its 21st Salon show that has been extended to April 4th and until this Friday the 28th you can still catch the Black History Month Exhibit at Gallery 18 in Riverdale .. Where We Were, Where We Are And Where we Hope to Be. Below Honeysuckle Days

NEW YEAR ~ NEW SHOWS

I also should add new opportunities because I can now add juror/curator. I was invited along with Tony Wells, a fellow collage artist to choose the work for the Black History Month exhibit in Riverdale’s  Gallery 18 Opening this Sunday, February 9th from 12 to 2 pm.

But the day before, on the 8th, see this years salon exhibit at the WAH Center in Williamsburg in the beautiful old bank building on the corner of Broadway and Bedford. Actually its the 21st Anniversary Show at the beginning of the 21st century. Hours of the opening 4 to 6 pm on Saturday February 8th.

And now a little peek at a works in progress. Generally the work selects the paper but in this instance I found this paper and it chose and inspired the art.

The opposite of that is the art choosing the papers. I will keep you updated on its progress which has also happened since this photo below was taken with many new changes .

I like taking several different approaches because they each teach me something new. And now that I have finished the paperwork to have my taxes done and can get back to work in my studio including new works in clay!