I am thrilled to announce that our newest program ART YARD Advanced Studio will take place on Monday evenings at Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook Brooklyn this fall!
ART YARD Advanced Studio participating artists (teens – young adults) will work with Director Meridith McNeal and Teaching Artists/College Professors Claudia Alvarez, Rachael Wren and Ed Rath to create artwork in this college level studio art course. Students will develop their own voice as artists along with skills in drawing and painting, with possible forays into other contemporary art practices. 2019-2020 is the ART YARD Year of Reflection, this theme will serve as a springboard for lesson content. Integral to classes is a critiquing process that is key to developing self-expression, confidence, and public speaking skills; participants actively engage in review, informed exchange, and thoughtful comments about the work of the day.
Our first session on Monday was led by Claudia Alvarez who used her own painting Mi Jardin as a starting point for a project entitled Self Reflection.
Claudia brought in many samples of portraits employing water as a device to add depth, emotion, and mystery to the artwork.
Working from memory, from life (using a mirror or a bowl of water) or a photograph, Advanced Studio artists began with thumbnail sketches or with pencil directly on professional grade Masonite panels.
Critique showed us that everyone had a successful start to the project. Several participating artists expressed their gratitude that we have embarked upon this program. I heartily concur!!!
In other exciting news -- Dennis and I installed Jersey City Spode (inspired by Susan Hamburger’s series Brooklyn Spode) created by our PS6 students working with Teaching Artist Rachel Rath in the office of Assemblyman Raj Mukherji! We plan to bring students to see the work in situ later in the semester.
Big thanks to our hard-working Web Consultant Roger Dapiran. Roger, who designed and maintains the ART YARD website pro bono, spent several days working with me to get a PLEASE DONATE page and buttons that link to that page on our website!
The page brings supporters to the donate page of Kentler International Drawing Space our fiscal conduit and home base.
This means if you know anyone who would like to support our work you can send them this recap or a link to our website and they can easily make a tax deductible contribution!!
Until next week,
