The Magic Circle
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
The ART YARD BKLYN week in review...
On Monday, during Advanced Studio on Zoom with AYB artist Assata Benoit, we explored the migration of Caribbean Americans to New York City and the lasting impact this movement has had on the city’s cultural landscape. The discussion examined how Caribbean traditions have shaped New York’s food, music, and fashion scenes, as well as the visual arts. Together, we looked at the work of artists who contribute to this ongoing cultural dialogue, including Renee Cox, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Firelei Báez, Renell Medrano, Yelaine Rodriguez, Gabriel Moses, and Assata’s friend Nyzere Dillon.
Assata reflects: “This lesson was a long time coming. In past sessions, I’ve touched on my Caribbean heritage, but this year’s theme of migration finally gave me the opportunity to truly highlight it.
I began by sharing the origins of Caribbean migration to the United States and how, over time, that journey has deeply shaped the culture of New York City. West Indian people are known for our carnivals, our food, our music—but most importantly, for our spirit. Through a collage of images, I tried to recreate that unmistakable “vibe” we bring to any room: effortlessly chill, yet bold, vibrant, and mystical.
The challenge for the class was to translate that spirit into visual form. How do you create a piece of art that captures not just an idea, but an energy? Something that is more spirit than concept?
Our artists rose beautifully to the challenge:
Leah illustrated a story her mother told her about an experience she had as a teenager growing up in Barbados, infusing her drawing with an otherworldly spirit presence.
Adji created a digital piece depicting Jab Jab—the devilish masqueraders from Grenadian carnival—seen behind a chain-link fence, a powerful image of rebellion and resistance.
Assata began her own mixed-media collage by layering drawings over pasted-down figure studies, allowing the textures to echo the complexity of her own heritage and identity.
Aaron drew guinep, a small, tangy fruit beloved in Jamaica, rendering it with such care that you could almost taste them.
Liv turned to the natural world, creating a brightly colored oil pastel depiction of a swaying palm tree on the beach.
Karla composed a striking collage inspired by the traditional masks Assata shared in class.
Karla adds: "Thanks Assata for a very inspiring lesson! I loved the carnival images and the expressive traditions of Caribbean culture! So many approaches and wonderful stories came from the lesson! And, great pieces!!!
My collage and colored pencil work was inspired by the Carnival masks and the works shown by Basquiat. It is a masked celebratory figure with sparklers in hand created with old welding instruction illustrations. Thus, the mechanical feel to the composition. Some of the line work in the illustrations remind me of the line work I see in Basquiat's work. And the combo of frontal/profile twist!"
Nayarit celebrated her Dominican heritage with a collage layered with images of sea life and jungle animals.
Neah began a drawing that combines Caribbean flags and a beautifully braided hairstyles viewed from above, weaving together symbols of her many ancestral roots across the islands.
Richie and Margaret both found inspiration in the iconic red, green, and yellow palette of Caribbean culture, translating those hues into dynamic compositions full of energy.
Meridith merged two of her passions—food and books—by recreating a recent window display from her favorite used bookstore, complete with a Caribbean cookbook illustrated by Romare Bearden.
Vera designed an elegant graphic portrait featuring the reflection from the center of a steel drum as a shining earring—an inventive tribute to music of the Caribbean.
This week at Advanced Studio at 180 Franklin Avenue, we dove into part two of a three-part lesson cycle taught by AYB Artist Evelyn Beliveau called The Dynamic Self, following up on the first part from 10/7. Part three will take place next week. The end goal for each participant in this lesson cycle is an observational self-portrait in acrylic paint on an 11x14 inch canvas board, using a palette without white paint. Along the way, we’re writing and discussing responses to reflection questions that call attention to our changing and interconnected selves.
Evelyn describes the session: “After exploring color palettes and paint-mixing in the first part of the cycle, this week’s session focused on portrait drawing from observation. Using pencil on canvas boards, each participant created an under-drawing as a structural framework for the paintings they will create next week. Participants used mirrors to observe their own faces from life.
I (Evelyn) provided a visual handout (graciously modeled by my friend Saidou) with guidelines for certain proportions and placements of facial features that I find helpful when making a portrait. During a quick demo, I recommended keeping marks loose and schematic, outlining major shapes and minimizing shading (since all the pencil marks will be covered up with paint in the end). Participants came with a wide range of experience levels--some had never made a self portrait, others had made many--and brought their own styles and approaches to their drawings.
During work time, I invited everyone to reflect on a set of questions, two that were familiar to returning participants and several more that were new.
Artists at work. Use arrows to scroll through photos
Questions from Part 1:
What are your tributaries?
What are your outlets?
Questions from Part 2:
How does your physical form reflect your inputs and outputs?
Do you feel connected to your appearance? How might it fall short in reflecting you?
What parts of yourself do you wish people knew from looking at you?
In what ways have you changed (physically and otherwise)?
What parts of you have stayed the same?
I heard interesting snippets of conversation on these themes during class, and some chose to share more during critique. Participants discussed the intimacy of the act of looking closely at oneself, and shared that the questions provided inroads to reflecting on why we look the way we do and how we relate to that appearance. The trio who set up stations in the meeting room (Arielle, Alex, and Jazz) had an in-depth discussion about their formative experiences and self-perception. We also heard from Neah about how she sees her ancestors in parts of her facial structure. Sisters Fisola and Dami also share a gorgeous smile! Kevin, Cheyenne and Leni depicted nuanced expressions and are easily recognizable.
Jazz, Ariel and Alex at work, and Abriel Abdullah & Jazz Guilett, Self Portrait Sketches
Neah Gray, Fisola Famuyiwa, Dami Famuyiwa, Kevin Anderson, Cheyenne Rivera, Lenika Silva, Self Portrait Sketches
Turning to the drawings, we noted a range of responses to the facial expressions in the drawings from the artists themselves vs. from others viewing their pieces, with some artists expressing ambivalence about whether they see themselves in their drawings, while their peers saw a strong likeness. Participants pointed out a signature smirk in Richie’s and Ed’s drawings, and Gem and Alex reflected that the neutral expressions in their drawings belie their usual smiling selves. Delanny received compliments on her inclusion of the mask she was wearing, along with more of the upper body than was included in most of the portraits. And we were all floored by Dylan’s drawing, which was the only one to include the outside of the mirror he was looking into, in Escher-esque style.
Richard Lee Chong, Ed Rath, Gem Mercado, Self Portrait Sketches
Alex Lopez, Delanny Gomez, Self Portrait Sketches
Dylan Gomez, Self Portrait Sketch, and M.C. Escher, Hand with Reflecting Sphere
We also heard many compliments on recognizable facial features and well-observed glasses, hats, and jewelry across the board. Overall, I was very impressed by the structural solidity, impression of volume, and acutely observed specificity in this group of drawings—and I can’t wait to see how they bloom as paintings next week.”
AYB Movers & Shakers Benefit Party & Exhibition Opening
Saturday, November 22 | 6:00–9:00 PM180 Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn
Celebrate creativity, resilience, and community with AYB! Join us for the opening of our Movers & Shakers exhibition and benefit party—an evening filled with live music, poetry, hands-on art-making, and joy.
Event Tickets start at just $20, with tiered options for those who wish to give more in support of ART YARD’s educational and exhibition programs. Purchase Event Tickets Here
Raffle tickets are $20 each—and prizes include original artwork, home décor, and art-inspired services by AYB artists. You don’t need to be present to win to be present to win (a proxy can pick if you do), but it’s definitely more fun if you are! Buy Raffle Tickets Here
What We Are Reading
Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, by Francesca Wade (Scribner, October, 2025) offers a richly layered and well researched biography that begins with Stein’s childhood as a coddled youngest child and traces her development from Radcliffe student to Parisian avant-gardist. Wade’s attention to Stein’s formation—as both a writer and a thinker in dialogue with the modern age—anchors this biography. The book situates Stein’s evolution alongside the great shifts of twentieth-century art and literature, grounding her abstractions in lived experience and historical context.
Wade devotes thoughtful attention to Stein’s experiments in language, exploring how her deliberate break with conventional syntax helped forge what she called “modern writing.” We see Stein not only as a bold innovator but also as a tastemaker and mentor within the revolutionary art circles of Rue de Fleurus, where Picasso, Matisse, and countless others found both audience and advocate. Her lifelong partnership with Alice B. Toklas—and Toklas’s unacknowledged role as collaborator, editor, and emotional ballast—is handled with insight, revealing a creative symbiosis that shaped Stein’s voice as surely as any aesthetic movement.
The “afterlife” of the title takes on full resonance in the second half of Wade’s narrative, where she traces how Stein’s legacy was remade through the scholars, librarians, and biographers who wrestled with her vast archive at Yale. Using newly available material from the Leon Katz interviews with Toklas, Wade sheds new light on The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, recasting it as literary innovation. The result is an informative and compelling biography with nuance and empathy, with particular thoughtfulness to explore the human complexities behind her art and her lifelong love. I (Meridith) recommend the book, which is available through the Brooklyn Public Library.
Other Art News, some seasonal! 🎃
I’m thrilled to share that my new retrospective in miniature, Peer, is currently being installed at Small House Gallery in London—a site-specific exhibition created within two side-by-side vintage wooden dollhouses.
AYB Artist Susanne Santiago, currently studying abroad in London, was on hand to assist Gallery Director Eldi Dundee with the installation.
Suzanne writes: “Yesterday I made my way down to South London to work with Eldi Dundee, who warmly welcomed me into her art-filled space and showed me the small houses and packages awaiting our unpacking. It has been a while since I’ve connected with Art Yard in person, and even though I’m still in London, I was excited to reconnect with the community from afar by helping prepare the Small House Gallery.
The structures are quite impressive and beautifully made—they reminded me of the elaborate dollhouses I saw in French toy stores over the summer and at the Young V&A Museum. As we unpacked the labeled boxes and began arranging the furniture and artwork, we sipped tea and listened to Eldi’s disco playlist made with her high school friends. The afternoon was filled with conversation, laughter, and the quiet satisfaction of watching everything come together beautifully.”
AYB Artist Ajani Russell is currently in Japan on a learning quest exploring the deep traditions of ceramics. During their travels, they visited the Benesse Museum on Naoshima Island, Japan.
On the journey there, Ajani was reading Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing—a book we both highly recommend and I reviewed in a past recap. In this inspiring collection of essays, Laing makes a vivid and politically engaged case for the importance of art—especially amid the turbulent weather of the twenty-first century.
In a perfect convergence of art and experience, many of the artists Laing writes about appear in the Benesse collection.
The enormous painting by David Hockney, and Ajani color coordinating with the most excellent Jean-Michel Basquiat (look at those details—bus driver and below the bus!). Plus, the excellent photographic portraits by Shigeo Anzai of a youthful Jean-Michel Basquiat, the indomitable Louise Nevelson, an impishly winking David Hockney, and a rugged Rauschenberg.
Portraits by Shigeo Anzai, rephotographed by Ajani Russell
It’s a beautiful full-circle moment—reading about artists in Funny Weather one day, then standing among their works the next. We can’t wait to see how this journey continues to shape Ajani’s artistic explorations.
AYB Managing Director Dennis Buonagura writes: "There’s a WITCH in CENTRAL PARK! She’s located on the western pillar of the staircase at Bethesda Terrace - a small intricate stone carving/relief. And she’s facing … WEST. She's known as the Witch of Bethesda Terrace - and facing west has nothing to do with the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of OZ" (or even "Wicked").
In this case, the Bethesda Terrace Witch is facing West to represent night-time and Autumn. The carvings on the opposite pillar represent morning and dawn of Spring.
It's really crowded on the terrace so many people might just pass the witch by. But it's worth the time to find her - there's even a Jack-O-Lantern by her side.
It was designed and sculpted in the mid 1860's by an English immigrant named Jacob Wrey Mould. Mould’s contributions to Central Park are iconic. He designed Belvedere Castle, numerous bridges and arches, and the Old Bandstand and the Bethesda Terrace Arcade.
I used to walk my dogs by the witch almost every day. It's pretty close to where I live but, with their little 3 inch pug legs, it got a bit tougher as they got older - now I take special walks just to see her, most especially on Halloween - TODAY! I took these pictures purposely for our AYB recap.
Many say there are 2 witches in the Park - but I don't agree. The other statue is of Mother Goose at the Rumsey Playfield (which used to be a children's playground) - yes, she's wearing sort of a witch type hat - but was Mother Goose a witch? Anyone know? I don't. I personally never refer to that statue as a witch - only as Mother Goose.
BTW, Mother Goose was dedicated in 1938, when the Rumsey Playfield opened.
Mother Goose was made by the American sculptor Frederick Roth (born in BROOKLYN !). He was the head sculptor for New York’s Parks Department from 1934 to 1936 and is the most represented artist in the Park. His works include the popular memorial to Balto (my favorite of all in Central Park), Honey Bear and the Dancing Goat at the Zoo, and several more.
I didn't walk to Rumsey today so this photo is from a google search.
Happy Halloween!"
AYB Teaching Artist and Art Therapeutic Advisor Jenn Dodson shares a gorgeous painting in progress worked on during two weeks leading workshops at Witch Camp in a beautiful New Orleans location.
Interior photo, and Crystal Ball painting in progress by Jenn Dodson
“Samhain brings restoration and renewal, as the cold weather closes in, so the soul is led to more reflective depths.” ~ Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Devotional, 1996
🧡🧹🐈⬛ 🎃
