Build your life around that necessity
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
AYB Summer Session – Drawing The Line will take place July 6 - 23, 2026.
Classes are free. Monday and Tuesdays all ages are welcome. Wednesday and Thursday field trips participants over 18. Registration is limited and sessions will be filled first come serve. Enrollment link goes live Sunday June 28 at 5pm.
AYB Summer Session – Drawing The Line
Mondays & Tuesdays - 180 Franklin Avenue, from 11am -3pm. (All ages welcome.)
Wednesdays & Thursdays - Field Trips, time may vary. (Over 18 only)
Mon July 6 Ajani Russell: Drawing The Line
Tues July 7 Delphine Levenson: Writing The Line visual art and poetry
Wed July 8 Jacob Rath: Field Trip to MTA - Art on the Rails
Thu July 9 Ajani Russell: Field Trip to Metropolitan Museum - Gothic Architecture
Mon July 13 Jacob Rath and M Boucai: Exploring Mirrors
Tue July 14 Chris Allen: Sculpture with Line and the work of Ruth Asawa
Wed July 15 Adji Ngathe Kebe: Field Trip to Morgan Library - Tarot Exhibition
Thu July 16 M Boucai: Field Trip to Abolitionist Place, Downtown Brooklyn - Public Space/Public Art: Drawing the Square
Mon July 20 Evelyn Beliveau: Gesture and Contour Line Drawing from Observation Part 1
Tue July 21 Evelyn Beliveau: Gesture and Contour Line Drawing from Observation Part 2
Wed July 22 Neah Gray: Field Trip to Museum of American Indian - Jeffrey Veregge
Thu July 23 Delphine Levenson and Flo Kiniffo-Neven du Mont: Field Trip - MTA - Poetry and Art in Motion
ART YARD Art Matters in the School programs are completed for the year. Dennis reports: “I went out to our schools in Jersey City to organize supplies for next year, offer congrats to retiring teachers who’d participated in our programs, and met with principals to discuss budget planning and start dates for next semester. How is it possible that’s it’s the end of June?”
While Advanced Studio is on an end of semester break, I asked AYB Artists to report in on their studio projects, exhibitions they are in or recommend, books they are reading and any opportunities they would like to share.
Other Art News
Neah Gray reports: “I recently made two colorful drawings for the season and have been helping to paint a community art mural these past few weeks with the BedStuy Block Association.”
Neah Gray, Drawings and Bedstuy Mural in process images
Marie Roberts writes “Someone gave me a CD notebook from Japan and after years I took it out and determined to fill it with brush drawing, good or bad. The first three are water solvable graphite and the figure is ink. I don't think they are good enough for any use but I did get through 100 drawings and ready to start the next 100. The paper is super smooth and of course I mixed in solid paint marker in some.
Marie Roberts, Drawings in soluble ink, 2026
Delphine Levenson “was inspired by a photo I took of two hands together and then I kind of got inspired by the look of a heart for this new drawing.”
Cheyenne Rivera shares a new painting which reminds me of the work of one of my all-time favs, Maira Kalman, in particular her series Women Holding Things.
Cheyenne Rivera, Woman Walking, 2026 and Maira Kalman, Girl Holding Doll and Book, 2022
I (Meridith) have just completed two new paintings. The larger of the two is from a trajectory related to my Inside Outside reflective surface images, these particular paintings show the outside getting in. As Leonard Cohen said: “There is a crack in everything, That is how the light gets in.” (Anthem, 1992). Inspired by my visit to Leonora Carrington Shape of Dreams, the other painting depicts my reflection in the surface of Justice.
Work in Progress
Rachel Palmer lets us know: “I’ve been working on this vase in the ceramic studio! I am in the process of burnishing it in the video. I haven’t burnished a piece this big before, so we’ll see how it comes out of the kiln!”
Florian Kiniffo-Neven du Mont shares two drawings in progress. “The second of the two is a continuation work I just picked up again from Adji’s class on Artist Emily Kam Kngwarra she taught us before the equinox.”
Leah Eliopulos writes “this a recent piece I made for Flow when he was back home in France last month for his family keeping his Granddad company while being in hospice.”
Travis Pereira shares: “I’ve been thinking a lot about Breath, Eyes, Memory. There’s a story in the book about a young woman whose suffering becomes so unbearable that she asks a spirit to take it away. The spirit tells her the pain can only end if she’s transformed into something else—a plant or an animal. She chooses a butterfly.
This piece imagines that transformation, but through the lens of motherhood. The central figure is inspired by a photograph of my mother holding me as a baby. Since I’ve been spending so much time with her recently, she’s become an unexpected source of inspiration. I started wondering what it means for one generation to carry pain, hope, memory, and wishes for the next.
The dandelions reference a wish—the moment before change. Their seeds drift through the composition almost like prayers or spirits, moving toward this woman who exists somewhere between human and butterfly, mother and guardian, memory and myth.
I’m planning to watercolor the piece because I don’t want the transformation to feel literal. I want it to feel elusive, almost like something that’s disappearing as you’re looking at it. I’m interested in that space where beauty and grief can exist at the same time.
Ed Rath is keeping busy with Gallery business at M55! He sends these photos of drawings for work he is developing for a solo exhibition in the fall.
Exhibitions to see and Events to Attend
NYC: Marie Roberts TONIGHT at 7pm Marie is speaking NY ARTIST NETWORK at Dixon Place, 1614 Chrystie Street, NYC.
Marie reports that the Art Students League borrowed a lot of work for their 2026 Dream Ball: Circus of Wonders.
Nati Amos poses with Marie’s work
NYC: Evelyn Beliveau invites us to join them Tuesday June 30th 6-8pm for the closing reception of The Ordinary, Collective Z Gallery 325 Broome St. No.1W, NYC.
Ed Rath has work included in the Member Exhibition at nohoM55 Gallery (548 West 28th Street, Suite 634, NY) June 23- July 11, 2026. Ed invites us all to the artists reception on Thursday, July 2, 6-8pm.
NYC: AYB Supporter Lisa Peet and I (Meridith) recommend three exhibitions currently on view in Chelsea: Leonora Carrington: Shape of Dreams at L’Space (524 W 19th St. through July 25, 2026) as well as Romare Bearden: Figure in Collage at DC Moore Gallery (535 West 22nd Street) and AYB Teaching Artist Rachael Wren’s new paintings included in In the Ecstasy of the Sun at Rick Wester Gallery (526 West 26th Street) both closing today!
Lisa writes: “What a wonderful show! It feels a bit easy to use the word “alchemical” about Leonora Carrington, but I can’t think of a better way to describe how she transforms her two-dimensional worlds into sculptures. The delicacy, the magic, all maintain, with the extra gift of being to walk around them and see her mind at work from all angles—such a bonus to enter that much further into her weird and wonderful world. The hands of her creatures alone are worth the price of admission (if there were a price, which there isn’t). There’s not one of them that I wouldn’t want in my home or garden, which is not something I often think about a collection of this size. It will have something for everyone to love, I think. And her work absolutely belongs in a Tarot deck, also on display—this makes me even more excited to see the Tarot show at the Morgan (See Summer Session schedule above!!) soon.”
Leonora Carrington, Dando de comer a una mesa (Feeding a Table), 1959 and Shape of Dreams installation views. Installation photos Meridith McNeal.
“As someone who was mainly familiar with Romare Bearden’s collages, the show at DC Moore was really rewarding—to see his work in different formats and media offers a deeper understanding. He has such a sure hand—I really liked his line-making in the drawings and paintings, and what’s not to love (as a recent adoring reader of The Odyssey) about his collage The Siren’s Song? It’s wonderful how something so simple can hold the eye so strongly. Another winner on a winner of an art-viewing day.
Romare Bearden, Before Troy, 1973, Before Dawn, 1985, Untitled from The Iliad Series, 1946, and Siren's Song, 1979
Rachael Wren’s new paintings included in In the Ecstasy of the Sun are even more energetic and subtly colorful that ever! Particularly to all of us who have watched Rachael’s paintings develop over time, and have had the pleasure of learning color theory in her AYB sessions, this show is a not-to-be-missed. Rick Wester Gallery 526 West 26th Street, NYC, closing today June 26, 2026. Congratulations Rachael on recent press for the show!
Philadelphia, PA: On view at the Barns Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin ParkwayPhiladelphia, PA, Sudan Green recommends the permeant collection – See Art Differently which showcases paintings, sculpture and decorative arts from the collection. He particularly likes the work of Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Lancaster PA native, exceptional painter known for splendid skill with watercolor. Also an out and proud queer artist (Happy Pride Month!).
Sudan enthuses about his reaction to the permanent collection exhibition: “I was brought in to Charles Demuth’s watercolor paintings each time due to the color and emotion that seeps from each one. The vibrant purple, red, & green in the scene of “The Masque of The Red Death”. The red heat around the dancers at the point where their faces touch in “two women dancers”. The dark menacing emotion in the face of the man in “at Marshall’s”. All of his pieces seem to be made to create a space of large emotion on these small pieces of paper.”
Charles Demuth, Two Women Dancers, 1916 and At Marshall’s, 1915
Salina, Kansas: Congratulations to Karla Prickett who “will have a showing of the past year-and-a-half of pieces made in AYB Advanced Studio along with two of my own larger studio pieces. The show “Two Studios” will open July 3 and run till the end of August at the Lobby Gallery, Peaceful Body and Wellness, 148 S Santa Fe, downtown Salina. I will be speaking about the collective process in creating the body of AYB works in comparison to my personal studio process. I will also talk about the significance of this special creative exchange to my own development as an artist and the friendship and support and joy of participating with such talented artists who form this inspiring community!”
Collage work by Karla Prickett
Karla’s collage “Picking Up The Pieces,” will be part of a self-portrait invitational show, “Look At Us Now,” at the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery, Lindsborg, KS from August. 2 through October, 18, 2026
What We are Reading
Assata Benoit pens “I recently purchased the summer 2026 edition of EE72, a magazine curated by former British Vogue EIC, Edward Enninful & featuring multi-hyphenate mogul Rihanna. As a curious buyer and a Rihanna cover collector (they’re always so evocative) I had to have this one. On first impressions, the photos seem dated, as if they were plucked straight out of a renaissance painting. Photographed by Szilveszter Makó, the softness of the film & editing makes it seem like I’m flipping through a family album - of a very rich and very strange woman. Inspiring to say the least.
Szilveszter Makó, Rihanna, photographs
The magazine also has a feature on painter Michael Armitage, whose work explores ancient & contemporary Africa. The paintings are so dense and emotional that I am still processing my thoughts on them, but I think they speak for themselves.”
Michael Armitage, 52,000 years (2025) & Cave (2021), Oil on Lubugo bark cloth
Vyomika Tewary is reading Pulitzer Prize winner & AYB favorite, Maus by Art Spiegelman, a graphic novel documentation the life of a Holocaust survivor (serialized from 1980 to 1991).
Vyomica opines: “I’d recommend Maus as an art book because its artwork is simple but incredibly meaningful. The simple visual metaphor used—Jews as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs— clearly highlights the prejudice, power, fear and identity in an effective and visually striking manner. It cleverly adds depth to the story telling without an explicit analysis of the social dynamics of the time. The clean black-and-white style keeps the focus on these ideas, making the artwork just as important as the words.”
Margaret Hardigg recommends: “I am rereading “Letters to a Young Poet” by the famous German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. This book is a collection of 10 letters that Rilke wrote in response to Franz Xaver Kappus, the “young poet”.
As a reader, you feel as though Rilke is speaking to you personally. I got this book over 5 years ago and I keep returning to it because I always find something new that resonates with where I am in life.
In Rilke’s first letter, he responds to the young poet’s question of whether his poetry is any good. Rilke writes to look inward not outward: “Ask yourself, in your night’s quietest moment, Do I have to write? Dig deep down into yourself for the answer. And if it is yes, if you can meet this solemn question with a strong and simple “I must,” then build your life around that necessity.”
Fun fact: Lady Gaga has this quote in the original German tattooed on her arm.
Although Rilke says to not seek reassurance from others, he does offer his insights into what is important in the life of an artist. Finding creative strength in solitude and patience are key: “Being an artist means not calculating and counting; it means maturing like a tree, which does not force its sap, standing confident in the spring storms without any fear that summer might not come. Summer does come. But only to those who are patient…”
I highly recommend this book to fellow artists; I find it really encouraging.”
Adji Ngathe Kebe is reading The Intentions of Thunder collection of poetry by Patricia Smith which she commends as: “raw, complicated, and beautiful.”
I look forward to seeing you at AYB Summer Session 2026! The best artist residency around!
