Feel the Resonance
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- May 9
- 11 min read
Updated: May 9
I had a conversation last week with AYB Artist Vera B. about the importance of children starting to look at and make art as young as possible. We take this practice seriously!
Ailey and Meridith visit Cream & Sugar, back in the day. Marley and Ailey at a recent Advanced Studio session.
This week has been a whirlwind of artistic accomplishments! Last weekend there was our Party celebrating the opening of From A to Z, which went overtime into that Electric Slide time of the night. Advanced Studio artists created resistance art on zoom, and abstracted portraits in person -- so good. Plus so many of us are industriously working on new projects and performances. Pay close attention to the Other Art News section as there are invitations to two not-to-miss performances of AYB Artists!
This week let’s go in reverse chronological order, and thus start with ART YARD Art Matters School Partnerships so we can appreciate the work being done in our elementary schools under the exceptional guidance of AYB Managing Director Dennis Buonagura!
Today Dennis and Leo did remarkable work with our young artists participating in Art Yard Art Matters at PS 6!
George and Ira Gershwin wrote "A foggy day in London town, had me low, had me down" in 1937 but their words surely fit the bill on Friday in Jersey City. Out of our classroom window, pea-soup fog, black clouds, and lots of downpouring rain was all we could see. But - the students at PS 6, our partnership school, brought sunshine to the day.
Screen shot from Dennis' PowerPoint presentation, and sample illuminated letter M
Two groups of K to 2nd grade students learned about illuminated manuscripts, reading by candlelight, fonts, embellishments, and decoration in a lesson on creating personalized bookmarks. While still in the practicing/drafting stages, students either created their own fonts or added adornments to their block or bubble letters. Several referred to this style of letter making as 'fancy' and I guess I agree.
Most all chose the first letter of their first names but others chose letters they simply liked. There were many X's. Once their pencil drawings were done, we discussed how gold metallic markers were as close to painting with gold paint as we were going to get. They were asked to go over ONLY the letters in gold (some had moved forward with decorations) and the results were magical. Lots of big smiles - and it was hard for them to resist going over all of their pencil marks with the gold marker, until it was explained that they would be using color brush tipped markers next week. Of course, we had to discuss the meaning of 'scale' since they will need to create their letters onto bookmark sized paper next week.
Muhammed asked what my middle initial was and was surprised when I told him I didn't have one. Soooo ..... Joshua decided that I looked like a person whose middle name is Alan (ALAN???) and he plans to refer to me as Dennis A. from now on.
Our 4th grade class, led by Teaching Artist Leo Emabat, was the Wayang puppet project from a few cycles back. The students learned about side profiles, different types of puppets (hand, glove, shadow, marionettes), creating characters, and assembling the pieces to create a moveable puppet which can express emotion.
As we did with other puppet lessons, we showed images of (what I thought were famous) puppets from literature and entertainment - like Pinocchio (they knew him!), the Muppets (they knew them!), Lamb Chop (not even the teachers knew Lamb Chop - which is now the most popular dog toy today according to the NY Times!) and Howdy Doody (you guessed it - I was the only person in the room who knew who Howdy was). I offered them a trivia fact (one never knows when one will be on Jeopardy): Howdy Doody had 48 freckles on his face - representing the 48 states, in the 1950's. A smart 4th grader stared at me and said "Hey wait a minute - how old ARE you?"
"And suddenly, I saw you there, and through foggy London town, the sun was shining everywhere".
Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau describes the work this week at ART YARD Art Matters at PS 17: “Students at PS 17 are channeling music into visuals. Our newest project, entitled The Shape of Music, is inspired by the mural project I led for AYB Advanced Studio, Resonating Chamber. Dennis, Leo and I (Evelyn) missed our wonderful interns Scarlett and Clementine—and the students send their well wishes!—but were excited to continue working with our classes. We worked with Grades 4, 1 and 2 (missing Grade 6 due to a scheduling changeup).
This was the first day of the project for Grades 4 and 1, who started drawing with pencil on watercolor paper. Each student received a reference image of one of four musical instruments: trumpets, flutes, violins, and grand pianos. Students were asked to simplify shapes to their essentials. Once the pencil drawings were finished, they bolded the linework with Sharpies in preparation for the next stage.
Our Grade 2 class, who had completed the first stages last week, began working with black watercolor paint. I asked students to envision the vibrations of sound waves that occur when an instrument is played and to create many energetic brush marks within or around the outlined shapes as a metaphor for this resonance. This is a different way of using watercolor than what we’ve used in other projects, so it took a little while for students to get used to making choppy brush marks instead of shading in areas. By the end of class, we were all starting to feel the resonance in students’ artworks!”
Dennis recounts the busy afterschool session: “The afterschool program at PS 17 continues to grow (in attendance) as students work independently with Teaching Artists Marina Soliman and Lionel Emabat's (Leo) guidance. This week, our 6th and 7th grade students worked on colored pencil drawings of a lion (realistic, in comparison to those of the younger students) - kind of ironic (or nostalgic) as this is the school where we participated in a production of "The Lion King". The 3rd and 4th grade students drew cartoon-like lions - altho surely not Disney-esque - using the same colors as the older students. The comparisons were fun to see.
Marina and Leo hosted separated critiques - which becomes sort of loud since we are in one room (altho cavernous) and all "comparing, contrasting, and complimenting" at roughly the same time. However, it turned out to be excellent and well-participated.
Leo and Marina run critiques
Time goes quickly so these lion drawings will continue next week.”
At Advanced Studio in person in our studio at BWAC AYB Artist Jules Lorenzo treated us to a get to know each other first session on abstracted portraiture.
Inspirational art images from Jules presentation
Jules recounts: "We’re not always given the chance to see ourselves through someone else’s eyes. To see the way our eyes crinkle when we laugh or the way a tooth can be endearingly crooked in a smile. Even outside of physicality, there are so many parts of our souls that sparkle and shine when you take the time to get to know someone. For this week’s lesson, students paired off into groups of two or three to create abstract portraits of one another.
Use arrows to scroll through photos from this session.
Whether through collage work or sketches, students brought each other to life in new and visually stunning ways. While creating their portraits, students were instructed to conduct small interviews with one another to create a small bio that would be attached to their piece.
Questions ranged from meanings of names to if you think you fall in love too quickly? Reminiscing on important childhood memories was a recurring theme in some of the portraits, such as Ty growing up with a garden in Florida and a tree to pick mangoes off of, which Meridith depicted in her portrait of him.
Meridith McNeal, Ty, and Ty Fletcher, Meridith
Assata depicted a vignette of her partner Ed Rath’s early school years in which he wasn’t allowed to get glasses until the 3rd grade, leaving him blind in the back of the classroom leading up until then.
Assata Benoit, Ed, and Ed Rath, Assata
Jacob Rath’s use of movement in his portrait of Josue had cubist influences, which earned a comparison to Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 by Marcel Duchamp. That same movement reflected a key point in their conversation about how Josue loves to look at moving water (and made a clear emphasis on not liking still water!) as a means to calm down and find inner peace.
Jacob Rath, Josue, and Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending The Staircase, 1912
I (Jules) had the pleasure of working in a trio with our newest student Ifeanyi and Simone! Wasting no time to dive into classwork, Simone managed to craft not one but TWO beautiful portraits of Ifeanyi and I in conversation, executing details such as the width of Ifeanyi’s glasses lens in a side profile with brilliant precision and care. She also incorporated a double meaning with the materials she chose to use for the collage work of our hair. The initial image depicted two sisters in traditional Nigerian clothing, which was representative not only of me having a twin, but also of Ifeanyi’s Nigerian heritage.
Ifeanyi Iwelumo, Jules, and Jules Lorenzo, Ifeanyi
By the end of the lesson, all the participating artists were able to know each other a bit better than when they walked in, on top of making such incredible and well thought out pieces. Despite our smaller class size for the evening, in hindsight it ended up being essential for the level of intimate conversations and connections that were being had. In the words of our Reiki Master Dr. G. Love, “Everyone who’s meant to be here, is here.”"
In Advanced Studio on Zoom on Monday AYB Artist Adji Ngathe Kebe presented a session exploring Resistance Art in honor of Cinco de Mayo.
Adji summarizes: “I began the lesson with a central question in mind; Is all art political? The history of Cinco De Mayo is a history of resistance. Mexico was fighting to regain its independence from France and over the years this history has been sanitized and the resistance defanged. We looked at the art of Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Patricia Ortiz. Rivera was a controversial artist for many reasons, including his ties to communists. His paintings often depicted the working class.
Ortiz, is an oil painter and art therapist. Her art often depicts our memories, traumas, and how mental health conditions affect us. Audre Lorde said ‘‘the personal is political.’’ Our identifies are inherently political because of the world we live in and how it’s structured. Both artists use art to shine a light on the taboo. Their art is their form of resistance. Ed Rath said the artist is inherently political because we expose and speak on truths that make others uncomfortable. Rachel said “not all art is political. It depends on the output and the artists intention.” There’s a lot to be said about the power of art and the work we are able to accomplish as artists.
Everyone did a stellar job! The art pieces were personal and meaningful.
Karla writes: "Yes, this art is political! My work symbolizes personal emotion within the current political environment. Caught in a web of woven un-realities which become a new and disturbing reality. How to weather this storm? How to reclaim rootedness amid what seems to devour? The green specks represent hope.
Thanks to Adji for a very inspiring dialogue which produced very meaningful artworks."
Vera B created an art piece focused on truth. She posed the question; What happens when truth has to live inside the body?" Adji sums up: "I think it’s our job as artists to live in this truth and find a way to communicate it to others.”
Vera captions her work: "Allowing truth to live in the body, while living in a world governed by systems rooted in lies and fear, is an act of resistance."
Vera (above), Assata, and Cheyenne worked on their pieces during the week.
I sent updated images around to the artists who participated in this session, here are a few of the responses:
Ed: “Wild!”
Rashidah: “Freaking AMAZING”
Cheyenne: ”Omg these are stunning!!! Omg this is inspiring me to finish now I’m gonna have to work on it tonight 💕💕💕”
Simone: “Stunning. 💛💛💛💛💛”
Fatima: “Oh wow! Had no idea this was where she would take it.”
Karla: “WOW These are great!!!”
Adji: "THESE ARE SO GOOOOD!! I'm so happy with everyone’s piece. It’s beautiful, political, and really personal."
Last Saturday, The Gallery at 180 Franklin Avenue was the scene of the opening reception for the AYB exhibition From A to Z. Our AYB family came out in full to support and celebrate the event and celebrate we did!
DJ Abby kicked off the party immediately by providing a dynamic playlist that complemented the diverse artwork populating the gallery space. Just as viewers were moved by the display and range of pieces attached to the walls, many were moved to dance by the sounds coming from the speakers which suggested “no wall flowers allowed.”
Other attendees found themselves spontaneously immersed into the exhibit as they were transformed into fine portraits by artists Evelyn Beliveau, Ajani Russell, and Mia Lew (with aura driven interpretations) who set up welcoming stations for this magical service.
At another station, participants made bracelets and other jewelry pieces from an array of materials that cast a warm vibration or else mystical brilliance throughout the room. This energy was enhanced and extended by an additional station where Adji Kebe provided tarot readings. Spirits were elevated.
The wine, food, and refreshments definitely added to this elevation as they were central attractions at the reception; the wine provided by importer Jan D’Amore livened our conversations while Kris Bevelaqua and Kyra Trippens Richan AKA Critter Cookies provided such delicious offerings, it was rare to find a person without plate in hand with goodies delicately stacked. The cookies were absolutely extraordinary! The Brooklyn Seltzer Boys provided the means for us to wash it all down.
By far, the star of the evening was the raffle as orchestrated by Clementine Finn. The stakes were high as participants with winning tickets received their pick from a broad range of coveted AYB merch. Reg Lewis and Meridith McNeal teamed up on the mic to add some suspense and light humor to the moment as they announced winner after winner to festive verbal fanfare.
We love our raffle haul!
Overall, the ART YARD BKLYN family came together to celebrate each other and the artwork which raised spirits (raised funds) and raised our collective creative consciousness which easily ranged From A - Z. What a wonderful reception.
Our GoFundMe campaign is still up. We are currently at 69% of our goal. YOU can help us reach the goal with a contribution now!
Other Art News
Congratulations to ART YARD BKLYN Teaching Artist Rainy Lehrman on her upcoming solo exhibition What Once Was Lost at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, on view from May 26 – July 11.
Rainy’s gorgeous wooden sculpture explores the allegory of Eden, American craft traditions, and the evolving role of the handmade in a technologically driven world. Highlights include The Weeping Tree of Life and The Anthropocene, a layered sawdust wall installation that mimics geological strata and honors labor, material, and time.
As promised, here is an update on my progress on my (Meridith) miniature retrospective exhibition PEER which will be on view this fall at Small House Gallery in London. I am thinking of making a tiny zine version of a catalogue. What do you think of that idea?
ART YARD Artist Abriel (Bob) Gardner invites us to her upcoming dance performance in connection with the group exhibition Couch Paintings, taking place on Friday, May 16 at 5pm at Canada Gallery, 61 Lispenard St, NYC.
ART YARD Guest Artist José Carlos Cruzata Revé, saxophonist extraordinaire, premieres his newest album TONIGHT—Friday, May 9 at 8pm at Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean Street. If you've heard José during our Advanced Studio sessions, you know this will be a performance not to miss!
Update: Evelyn, Simone, Diana and I LOVED this performance! Evelyn drew as they listened. You can enjoy the show through this live feed video on YouTube!
Flyer, screenshot from live feed, and Evelyn Beliveau, José playing at Soapbox Gallery
🌞
