A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- 3 days ago
- 11 min read
This week at ART YARD BKLYN, we stretched in multiple directions and at multiple scales.
In Advanced Studio on zoom, we explored semiotics; in Advanced Studio in person, we depicted spacecraft. Work on the dollhouse continued, becoming smaller and more detailed, while migration remained a central focus in ART YARD Art Matters in the School. With some exciting exhibition news as the cherry on top!
Let's start with today's news -- we were back in Jersey City today exploring migration with ART YARD Art Matters with PS 6.
Evelyn writes: “This week at PS 6, we continued a lesson on animal migration inspired by the fiber artwork of Dahlov Ipcar. Dennis, Simone, and I (Evelyn) worked with three classes in Grades 3 and 5.
Evelyn, Simone and students at work
We examined Ipcar's needlepoint and rugs as well as oil paintings, all of which feature lively and imaginative scenes of animals in bright colors and geometric patterns. Last week, each student had chosen one of six animals that migrate (Whale, Zebra, Canada Goose, Sea Turtle, Wildebeest, or Monarch Butterfly), traced the animal, and learned how to use yarn to create fiber art of their own. Students who were absent last week worked with Simone to get up to speed and were soon working diligently alongside their classmates.
Over the weekend, students had an optional assignment to research the migration patterns of the animals they chose, along with the names for a group of each animal. We heard some enthusiastic reports describing animals swimming, flying, or galloping for miles in search of food or warmer climes. Each class identified the sometimes surprising words for the groups, as shown in Dennis's photo of the whiteboard (above).
Extra optional research assignments
Each class had begun working with yarn and glue last week to bring color and texture to their animal silhouettes, so they were ready to jump right in this week. With a quick refresher of the term "mixed media," students now had the option to add patterns or details in colored pencil alongside the yarn. All three classes were focused, productive, and conscientious of sharing supplies and asking politely for help when they needed it. Time flies, so we advised students how best to achieve a finished piece by the end of next week's class. We have heard lots of appreciative comments from students about this project and are very glad they're having fun!
One of the strengths of our intergenerational art-making community is the opportunity to share experience across contexts, broadening and enriching one another’s practice. This week in Advanced Studio on zoom, long-participating AYB artist Sigrid Dolan—now in her second year of her BFA at Hampshire College—brought us into the intellectual terrain of art school, leading a challenging session centered on the concept of semiotics.
Sigrid recaps the session: “For this lesson I wanted participants to observationally and associatively study an object near them to uncover a concept from it to form the basis for a new visual expression. I have been thinking about turning things into words, and reading objects like texts, ideas related to my study of semiotics at Hampshire College. Semiotics is the study of symbols and meaning. When I’m making art I find it useful to dissect a sentence I want to explore visually to help me better understand what I’m working on. I think about and write down the different meanings of a particular word, what images appear in my mind, and what other ideas I’m reminded of. I’m not sure if this is something other people do but I find it very fulfilling so I wanted to share this process with other artists for my lesson. To begin the process I asked participants to consider many facets of an object of their choosing, including its name, its relationship to the room, its elements and qualities, and the social values it points to. I wanted people to question both the object as they see it and the associations that arise within themselves from it. I wanted people to really break down the object and then break down their associations too, not to stop at an answer but continually think about various possibilities. I hoped for people to gather a collection of words or a concept sentence from their questioning, and then turn those words into images.
Fatima’s object was a bottle of perfume. She walked us through her thought process and the ideas that arose. The ideas of personal fumes, and how a scent bottle holds memories of moments.
Aaron depicted a scotch bonnet pepper as the face of Jamaica.
Adji did some research on the apple of the Bible, finding out that the fruit could have been an apricot. She explored ideas of ignorance and knowledge and what is gained or lost with either.
Nayarit’s object was a plant gifted to her. She thought about gifts, divine femininity, an awe of nature, and ways nature gives and how people give back care.
Nayarit Tineo, Semiotics: Plant
Leah spoke of caring for sick loved ones, making food that is eaten with a spoon. How spoons could be a baby's first object.
Leah Eliopulos, Semiotics: Spoon
Abby’s object was a washcloth. This object reminded her of taking a bath and how she resets and reflects during this time. She mirrors the texture of a towel in her drawing, and includes color symbolism of empowerment and peace.
The object I (Sigrid) chose was a tape measure on my floor. It made me think of units, fingers, and the idea of adornment. I felt that the tape measure had a ribbon-like structure on the floor, and I saw that the inches side was a total of 5 feet, my height and the number of fingers I have on each hand. I considered the idea of standardization but flexibility.
Sigrid Dolan, Semiotics: Measuring Tape
Karla chose a circle protractor to study. She thought about stencils, measurement, how shapes become movement and line, as well as the phrase “full circle”.
Karla Prickett, Semiotics: Protractor
Abriel (bob) reflected on the similarities between a lamp and crutches in her room. Their light flexible metal and value as assistive devices, as well as other possible uses for these objects. How they could be seen as parts of sculpture made in a bedroom.
Abriel (bob) Gardner, Semiotics: Bureau, Crutches and Lamp
Marilyn’s object was a flamingo sculpture she got from a local artisan on a trip to Africa. She thought about flamingos as beautiful, graceful and elegant and the sculpture as vibrant and playful. She noted that flamingos are a flock species but her flamingo was solitary. Her flamingo reminded her of happy memories of travel.
Marilyn J. August, Semiotics: Flamingo Sculpture
Meridith reflected on a speaker she often brings to Art Yard classes. How the object is small but projects and fills an entire room. It reminded her of fun memories of shared space and community.
Meridith McNeal, Semiotics: Speaker
Rashidah thought about a handheld fan she had, as well as fans in general. They could be electrical, used for cooling or used to kill bugs. She got her particular fan at a Roots picnic concert, which is represented in the tree roots she drew.
Rashidah Green, Semiotics: Fan
Flow chose a pencil sharpener to reflect on. He thought about the spiral turning motion of a pencil in a sharpener, and the hole of the sharpener. He visually depicted the feeling of sharpening a pencil and also considered the idea of conception.
In Advanced Studio in person at 180 Franklin Avenue, AYB artist Evelyn Beliveau began the first of a two-part session focused on space travel. We put the pink speaker I drew in Sigrid’s class to good use, listening to an eclectic Space Travel playlist. At times, this led to conversation about why certain songs made the list, and more than once had us all singing along. I was impressed that Richie seemed to know the words to every song.
Evelyn presents lesson, Evelyn's sample paintings and the board of questions
Evelyn recounts: “We took our Year of Migration to the stars with a lesson about space travel, in anticipation of next week’s field trip to view Voice of Space: UFOs and Paranormal Phenomena at The Drawing Center. I (Evelyn) invited participants to consider what comes to mind visually when we think of spacecraft—the equipment or furnishings inside, the shapes and colors of the exterior—and how this is shaped by our cultural reference points, the real and fictional spacecraft we’ve seen depicted onscreen. Each participant set out to create an interior or exterior view (new vocab words for our youngest participants!) of an imaginary spacecraft.
We looked at paintings by Hortensia Mi Kafchin, whose exhibition Paintings Made for Aliens Above at P.P.O.W. Gallery partly inspired this lesson, as well as Rene Magritte and Georgia O’Keeffe. Then, we passed around images of real-life spacecraft such as the space shuttle, the International Space Station, a lunar lander, and fictional spaceships from Star Wars, Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Alien. Participants thought of more and more space movie references as the discussion went on.
As we got to work, I asked participants to consider the purpose of their spacecraft (such as scientific exploration or escape from a dying planet) and how that purpose influences the form of the vessel. Working on watercolor paper, participants had a choice of watercolors, pastels, colored pencils, markers, and collage materials. The results were varied and inventive.
Use arrows to scroll through photos of artists at work.
At critique, we started by opening the floor to questions, and so heard some backstories for Ariel’s robotic space horse, Jazz’s control-panel view of a ship leaving behind a dead Earth, and Cheyenne’s view through clouds from a planet’s surface of an alien spacecraft with a swirling form.
Ariel Abdullah, Jazz Giulett, Cheyenne Rivera, Space Craft Exteriors
Several artists took inspiration from bugs or other animals in the forms of their ships, with comments at critique connecting Ajani’s craft to a dragonfly, Sebastian’s to a jellyfish, and Richie’s to an insect’s head and mandibles. We noted that the body plans of Earthly creatures that are very different from humans are often used as shorthand for the unimaginable forms of alien species.
Ajani Russell, Sebastian LaBossiere, Richard Lee Chong, Space Craft Exterior
Other comments drew comparisons between the geometric shapes and primary colors in Meridith’s Tesseract from A Wrinkle in Time and Lilo’s depiction of seepage between a neighboring universes; the use of the white of the page and lengthwise division in Lilo’s piece and Dylan’s purple-and-blue rocket ship; and the swirling symbols around Ariel’s space horse and Delanny’s stars and planets. Jazz and I received compliments for rendering the deep darkness of space, and Sebastian and Richie for the intricacy of their structures. We noticed a strong sense of movement in the artworks, bringing up metaphors of water and space, bubbles and stars—particularly in Sebastian, Ariel, and Ajani’s pieces, which use mark-making and the play of light and dark in different ways to evoke swirling motion. Diving into outer space, we opened up new topics within the realm of migration that we can build on next week during our field trip.”
Meridith McNeal, Lilo Lewis, Dylan Gomez, Delanny Gomez, Space Craft
We continued work on our AYB at 180 Franklin Dollhouse. Ajani and Abriel (Bob) focused on tiny books, while Evelyn painted a miniature version of the tree-shadow mural Evelyn and Ajani painted on site for our current exhibition, Movers & Shakers, at The Gallery at 180 Franklin Avenue.
Working from images of the original piece, Evelyn drew directly onto the dollhouse wall, replicating the process while creating a variant of the artwork. Together, they carefully mixed paint to match the original colors. The studio banter moved easily between making and reflection. Ajani noted how well Evelyn’s painting captured the sinuous movement of the larger mural. Abriel (bob) created a stack of books referencing an AYB favorite, Moby-Dick, which led to a conversation about the Ishmael–Queequeg relationship and then to a shared appreciation of Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, a favorite among us all.
Tiny books by Ajani and bob, miniature mural by Evelyn, and Dollhouse detail view with mini-mini by Meridith
We sang along to the Space Travel playlist (which we started on Tuesday during class) on the small pink speaker (see drawing in Sigrid’s class above) and ended the session by taking installation shots, including images featuring the mini-mini dollhouse I (Meridith) created.
Other Art News
Best of luck to AYB Board Member Cecile Chong who is installing her exhibition Broken China/Porcelana Trozada at Q Galería in Quito, Ecuador as I type!
Rumor de la Tierra: Ecuador | Jamaica | China is the first exhibition dedicated to Broken China / Porcelana Trozada, a collaborative practice formed by writer, theorist, and interdisciplinary artist Tao Leigh Goffe, and multimedia artist Cecile Chong, whose artmaking spans painting, sculpture, installation, and public art. Chong and Goffe’s shared Chinese heritage, combined with their individual Ecuadorian and Jamaican ancestries, is synthesized through poetic storytelling and layered visual artistic strategies that unpack the fragmentation, resilience, and the myth of cultural purity that has been projected throughout history by orientalist fantasies of “the other.“ In their shared practice, the two artists challenge such colonizing narratives and stereotypes through reconstructing archival materials rooted in the truths of their common and distinct experiences of diaspora, memory, and kinship, drawing connections across oceans and between generations.
Chong and Goffe titled the exhibition Rumor de la Tierra (Rumblings of the Earth) after a 1950 painting by Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), the Cuban modernist artist of Afro-Cuban and Chinese heritage. Lam’s work evokes the land as a living, ancestral force shaped by memory, displacement, and resistance, ideas that resonate with the exhibition’s exploration of diaspora, family histories, and cultural fragmentation across continents. Presented at Q Galería at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Rumor de la Tierra: Ecuador | Jamaica | China represents Chong and Goffe’s conceptual, collaborative framework in which they seek to reformulate their inherited cultural legacies, on their own terms, informed by both art and research. Goffe’s research-based practice explores race, climate, and creative technology, and Chong’s artwork weaves together personal and global histories using the motif of blue-and-white ware, which emerges as a visual throughline within the exhibition, reflecting Chong’s long-standing interest in the universal resonance of the blue and white ceramic glazes, a metaphor for the horizon line where ocean and sky meet.
The exhibition builds on Chong and Goffe’s recent curatorial collaboration, A Silence So Loud, presented under the auspices of Goffe’s research organization Dark Lab, last spring at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, in Brooklyn, New York. The exhibition was curated to reveal the vast and nuanced fractures, silences, and omissions that are the result of colonialization, through a series of multi-sensory activations, including culinary performances, collage, video, and sound installations. On view at Q Galería, several new bodies of work expand on Chong’s initial investigations into the circulation of blue-and-white ware. Together, the two artists convey the complexities of their transnational experiences, charting a journey that acknowledges the violent fragmentation endured by colonized cultural communities, which they seek to reconfigure and celebrate through the transformation of familiar artifacts into artistic interventions - snowglobes, family photographs and documentary photography, collage, clothing, and a newly finished video - making for more accurate and inclusive archives of their respective and overlapping cultural legacies.
Rumor de la Tierra: Ecuador | Jamaica | China is curated by Sara Reisman. The exhibition opens on January 21, 2026.
We are pleased to report that a photograph of AYB Advanced Studio in action by Meridith McNeal will be part of an exhibition celebrating The Year of Assembly at The National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia.
The piece on view depicts AYB artists during an Advanced Studio session lead by AYB Artist Evelyn Beliveau. Seated in a circle, each artist drew the person ahead of them from a rear-three-quarters perspective, inspired by the Ouroboros symbol of cyclical renewal. This exercise fostered focused observation, empathy, and a shared creative process, embodying the act of assembly through artistic practice. It is poignant to note that we are in our former studio space at BWAC, which burned on September 18, 2025.
We applaud the National Liberty Museum’s aim to explore freedom, expression, and civic connection through art, and are honored to be included in this exhibition which opens on March 5, 2026.
♥️🍒🐦⬛
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