ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY!!!!
the record shop
360 Van Brunt Street
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Saturday November 4th, 6-8pm
The artwork included in COVERS was created during ART YARD Summer Session, an intensive three-week artmaking program for artists of all ages, which also serves as a training program for the behind-the-scenes work we do. In fact, this session, in which we re-imagined record covers for songs of protest and action, was taught by AYB Artist Abby Johnson -- who has been a participant since about age 7! Abby will provide music as the DJ for this event!
ART YARD Artists at work on the record covers during Summer Session 2023!
This week in ART YARD Advanced Studio on Zoom ART YARD Artist Karla Prickett presented: Do Some THING: Observation/Abstraction/Deconstruction in which we deconstructed an object to create an abstract composition utilizing our discovered elements. For inspiration Karla shared artwork by Braque, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Lee Krasner, Wyndham Lewis, Helen Saunders, Jessica Dismoor, Lee Bontecou, Fabian Oefner and E. V. Day. She then challenged us to choose an object we find interesting in design, shape, texture, color, graphics, etc., then study the object closely to visualize its identifying components.
Karla writes: “The class was really a lot of fun! Abstract composition was the subject of the lesson. I’ve always been drawn more to abstract and non-representational art than to realism. I pulled together several resource images of abstract works from periods of art history such as cubism, vorticism, and futurism – also adding works by contemporary sculptors and installation artists. Each historic artwork featured on the PowerPoint was accompanied by an image of a real object/s that likely inspired the expression. It was great to see what each AY artist chose as their object and to see to what degree its elements informed and were integrated into the new abstract compositions. A variety of mediums were selected, adding to compositional interest and personal expression!
I (Karla) pulled the antique pencil sharpener from my drawing table and created stencils based on its elements such as base, handle, barrel, pencil holes, etc.
Karla Prickett, Do Some THING
Ed’s red guitar really shows off his observational collage and cutting skills!
Meridith’s lamp stem became a mandala-like painting with metallic colors hearkening to the brass and golden beads of the lamp.
Fatima’s Halloween cup was almost a ghost itself amid the motion of repeated line and abbreviated script! Her perfume bottle became an engaging work highlighted by choices in color and the use of black line.
Fatima Traore, Do Some THING: Cup, perfume bottle, and Do Some THING: Perfume
Ajani composed a lovely work using a multi-colored-lead pencil. They captured elements of their object with warm and soft effect.
Ajani Russell, Do Some THING
Marilyn ventured into collage inspired by her mysterious potted patio plant – her new composition of braid-like overlapping paper forms hinted to the essence of the plant’s stem and leaf structure.
Marilyn August, Do Some THING
I really liked Richie’s line work in both his drawings - we are left to identify the source of inspiration!
Richard Lee Chong, Do Some THING l & ll
Vera’s keyboard became a more complex expression of itself incorporating an intentional selection of letters and a great combine of tone and texture.
Jules was complemented on the shapes she created and composed from her guitar.
Jules Lorezo, Do Some THING
Thanks to everyone for the enjoyable lesson and such interesting and engaging approaches to altering reality!"
ART YARD Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau recaps: “In Week 2 of Figure Drawing at AYB Advanced Studio in person in our studio at BWAC, we started by looking at some images from art history as well as images from my own practice.
We compared the different interests, styles, and approaches of Egon Schiele and Michelangelo (their respective interests, as I see them: angles, joints, and concave forms vs. roundness, muscles, and convex forms) and examined works by John Singer Sargent to compare gestural marks, hatching, and blended shading. I included two of my charcoal drawings from 2018 as examples of faces constructed from sharply delineated planes of light and dark, using broad strokes with the side of the charcoal stick alongside hatching and detail-work with the point of the stick.
Inspirational figure drawings by Michelangelo, John Singer Sargent, Egon Schiele, and Evelyn Beliveau:
Our new tool this week was shading. We continued to incorporate everything from Week 1 -- gestural line of action, anchor points, weight, sketched-in contours -- and now introduced value as a method of describing forms. Last week, we'd discussed planes and drew contour lines between shapes of light and shadow; today, I demonstrated filling in shapes of shadow and carving out highlights with an eraser. As we moved through a series of 30-second, 1-minute, 5-minute and drawings and then a 10-minute and final 20-minute drawing, participants chose when to stick with line work and when to incorporate light and dark. Our model, Jacob, did a great job again with poses this week, and the overhead lighting at BWAC often created dramatic contrasts of light and dark for participants to respond to.
Drawings by ART YARD Artists: Elijah Bobo, Morgan Day, Sigrid Dolan, Michelle Kim, Marcy Leiman, Delphine Levenson, Ajani Russell, and Akash Wilmot:
Use the arrows to scroll through these stellar figure drawings!
The drawing period took us right up to the end of the session, so we ended with a lightning round of compliments and will start Week 3 with a critique of this week's work. Participants achieved a sense of volumetric, present figures and continue to display their own personal "hand" or style, just as we saw with Schiele and Michelangelo.
We have two new designs featuring art by Abriel Gardener and Karla Prickett available in the ART YARD BKLYN Redbubble shop!
Other Art News
CONGRATULATIONS to ART YARD Artist Vera Tineo whose sculpture Gardening Angel has been selected by West Harlem Art Fund and NY Artist Equity Association for public installation in Jackie Robinson Park in spring 2024!!
Kudos to ART YARD Managing Director Dennis Buonagura who contributed many hand knitted garments to Auburn business woman Melody Smith Johnson for her fourth annual My Hands Warm Your Heart giveaway! Melody Smith Johnson bedazzles hand knit hats gloves and scarves in service to women and families in Auburn as well as the southside of Syracuse.
I was thrilled to receive this image of my Windowphilia painting of Locanda Vini & Olii now hanging in collector Zita de Zágon’s beautiful home in Italy!
The City of Ladies, on the top floor of the Judy Chicago Herstory, now on view at The New Museum is well worth a visit!! I loved seeing so many inspirational favorites on view. My only complaint is the label system which is terrible – two labels on far corners of long art-packed walls means the viewer is traipsing back and forth, counting off and trying to match names and works up. The remainder of the museum is devoted to Chicago’s 60 year career. My favorite are the car hood paintings (sprayed automotive lacquer on actual car hoods) from 1964!
Above snap shots of highlights from the exhibition include: Pierre-Louis Pierson, Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis de Castiglione, 1863-66; Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Myself, 1923; Artemisia Gentileschi, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 1620; Rosa Bonheaur, Permission to cross-dress document, 1850-62; Jeanne Mammen, Karneval, 1931, and by Judy Chicago, Santa Barbara Museum Atmosphere, 1969; Great Ladies paintings, 1973; and Car Hood, 1964.
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