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Sarah Gumgumji is the Program Manager for CREATE. Sarah will post a new topic each Wednesday. You are encouraged to join in the conversation! Please note that disrespectful content will not be tolerated. This page will be monitored to ensure we uphold the standards of the ART YARD community.
Inspiration for this week: Art Yard Interview with
" Cecile Chong”
In this strange time of quarantine I think we have all faced unexpected challenges.
What are your stories of unexpected challenges? How did you work through the situation? What kept you focused? How did things turn out in the end?
In particular, how did your art making feature in the challenge, action or result?
An art related unexpected challenge for me came from a museum in Greece!
The Copelouzos Family Art Museum in Athens, Greece has invited me to participate in an upcoming international art project called 35x35. Invited artists have been asked to make a 35x 55 centimeter piece which will become a print book and then becomes part of the museum’s permanent collection. All of this sounds great, right?!
They sent a prepared canvas packed in a very elegant box, not unlike a book box for a rare book:
35x35 centimeters is just an inch and change over a foot square. This detail paired with the timing of the project propelled my decision to paint a version of my current series, similarly sized, Magical Things From Quarantine.
Here’s where the next twist comes in to this story... It has been a very long time since I’ve worked on canvas. And I will admit this turned into quite big challenge for me. My excellent and beloved Schmincke watercolor just rested on the surface sort of blobby and inelegant. My usual method of building up layers of color led to disasters of smudged grimy color. I had several moments during the painting when I feared the piece was destined to be a flop.
Here is an image from the first layers of color:
Then, eee gads!, things started to get messy. Adding a layer of blue to start the shadow of the plate looked more like a messy bruise.
Finally I managed to finish Magical Things From Quarantine Purple Potato Salad on Turkish Tablecloth, painted on the seventh week of stay-in-orders, for Copelouzos Family Art Museum’s 35x35 art project.
Now back in that fancy box awaiting return shipping to Greece.
During this period of quarantine, I find solace in knitting while listening to podcasts (television is distracting and it'd be quite miraculous for one to read and knit at the same time altho I'll bet there are some experts who do!) BUT my challenge has been finding yarn! I had a lot - but I gave away most of it to a neighbor who is learning to knit at age 78. That was before all the shops closed. I thought I could just order via Amazon or Michael's - but I never considered that I could not actually FEEL the yarn when ordering online. I overcame this challenge by taking all the yarn that I had in stock (at home) and either twisting different colors together, creating skiens by knotting loose pieces end-to-end, and/or just using WHATEVER - no matter if types, textures, or colors were the same. I kind of like the 'patchwork' results. I miss many things during this time - riding the subway, going to the theatre, eating at a restaurant and not having to cook and wash up, but I sure do miss going to the yarn store and touching before choosing!
Dennis, I have the same feeling you do about missing the things that make NYC our place!
I love your knotted ball of mixed yard solution! It also looks really pretty. Is that a special bowl for yarn while knitting? It's so interesting looking.
Are you making a scarf?
It is hard to stay home for so long, but we are all in this together; we are going to pass this ;). How is your neighbor who is learning to knit at age 78? Is it challenging for your neighbor to learn knitting, or is it easy to learn? I bought a soft solids yarn from Amazon, and it's very smooth if you want to check it out! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00172V5W2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@sarah.a.g Sarah, are you crocheting with the yarn? what are you making?
I love that yarn bowl too! Every year, we visit our friends in Wisconsin in late September/early October and it's around the time of my birthday so they gave it to me as a gift a few years back. It's from a shop called Art Beat - which is a terrific place and the highlight of that little town (Hayward, WI). The bottom of the bowl says Healing Touch Pottery. I just finished a scarf using all those yarn scraps (it turned out quite big and wide - I was in a Madame Defarge mode and just kept knitting and not counting!) but the piece in the photo is the back panel of a dog sweater. I hope my dogs will not be upset to wear something made with mis-matched pieces!
@Dennis Buonagura I think it's more likely that Hazel and Olive start a fashion trend! Soon all the pups in Central Park will be sending in orders.
@Dennis Buonagura What a great birthday gift. The bowl is beautiful. Have you met the artist who made it from Healing Touch?
@frida@artyardbklyn.org I have not - but I'll ask the next time I am in Hayward (goodness knows when THAT will be - we were set to go this October but ..... ?)
@slaughterskater20
Another thing that’s been challenging is not being able to celebrate birthdays and other milestones with friends.
Today is Blaze’s birthday!!! Happy Birthday 🎊🎁🎂
I sent a book from my library to Blaze which I thought would be interesting to him —
Blaze says this is one of his favorite pages. Pretty cool!!
Excellent!! I look forward to seeing pictures of it!
You can start a crocheting club!
Yes - for sure - I'll get the principal and all the teachers to join!
I hope you make THIS:
But this is cool too!
Donuts and coffee for all! I’m in.
Can't wait
Akash sends in this drawing for this weeks CREATE topic of unexpected challenges. I think many of us can relate!