For days of auld lang syne
~ Robert Burns, 1788
ART YARD Advanced Studio finished out 2020 with Teaching Artist Fatima Traore’s session Community of Light.
Fatima explains her inspiration for the session: “December always brightens up the end of the year with holiday celebrations and traditions that illuminate our personal lives in many ways, big and small. After seeing inspiring images by Viggo Johansen, Jane Offner, Simon Claude Abramovitch and Thomas Kinkade, Advanced Studio Artists created two scenes illustrating light or things that give off light during day and night. If possible, artist were also challenged to include water resist technique, using white or yellow crayon and watercolor paint. Each artist translated the essence of light in phenomenal and personal ways.”
Fatima relates “hearty compliments to Kevin and Claude on their use of space and shapes to communicate light in abstract forms.
Jacob's subtle holiday lights from the first candles lit for Hanukkah, to the small lights wrapped around the tree topper casting a twin shadow.
Meridith and Marilyn on their distinct and precise black and white resist, using dots to imply light details of a chandelier and a tree.
Akash on the way he implied light shining indoors, through line and direction. (Image to follow of what Ed referred to as a “Near perfect drawing, with not a single unnecessary mark” soon.)
Eden's amazing digital rendition of airplane windows and how we see light through them.
Nayarit’s on the concept of people having light within themselves and shining onto others. Compliments to Sarah on her thoughtful explanation of moonlight and how it relates to Ramadan along with her warm, glowing, and greeting cafe painting.
Pat on her use of water resist and color to create a bright glowing door. Ed on his experimental use of candle wax to highlight both holiday and city views.
Compliments to Jane on her wall of tree light photographs and the way she recreated them with paint and ambiguous shapes including more decorative light. Vera on her visual interpretation of city lights, off by day and on by night, and the use of blue connecting each piece.
Pat adds her observations: “Jacob's Christmas tree troll combined whimsy with just a little bit of menace (for me)--the shadow on the wall gave an edge to it! Eden did great things with a limited palate in her airplane window pieces, and she really brought to life the experience of plane flights (they can be kind of boring, until you realize how to notice things). And Meridith and Marilyn's black and white pieces were delicate and haunting--made me feel like I was in fairyland, but the Hans Christian Andersen version."
Fatima created a piece in advance as a sample, then made two additional pieces along with the crew. Looking at Fatima's pieces made me think that we should print ART YARD Cards of Light!
Claude sent me this uplifting text after the session: “I couldn’t appreciate you guys more than I do now. It means a lot to me to be a part of a great community of creators. I won’t stop thanking you for letting me be a part of you all. 💜”
Sarah has started a New Year’s CREATE Thread with this introduction: “It was a tough, challenging, strange, and joyful year for so many of us. But we here in ART YARD BKLYN tried to make it creative as much as possible between the ART YARD Advanced Studio taking place on Zoom or at CREATE page, where it is an open forum for artists creative people of all ages. Let's continue doing that as we enter a new chapter and a new year by sharing our emotions and a favorite thing of 2020.
Head over to CREATE to add your thoughts and images!
Board Member Cecile Chong thought it would be fun to include "First Four Words You See are Your Focus for 2021" She adds that she got connection, self-care, alignment and health. What do you augur from the chart?
Earlier this week Dennis and I were discussing the Robert Burns poem at the top of this recap, when he thought of this lovely related tale: “The Scottish expression Lang May Yer Lum Reek translates into English as "long may your chimney smoke" and is used as a toast for the New Year (in Scotland, that's known as Hogmanay).
When my friend's father passed away in Glasgow about twenty years ago, she sent me this little shot glass that belonged to him (and his father before him - it's over 100 years old now) to remember him by. I've always kept it in "pride of place".”
Salute and Happy New Year!
