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Writer's picturefrida@artyardbklyn.org

Wicked Smart

Saturday we met up at The Brooklyn Museum with artist Rodney Ewing. While we waited to assemble in the lobby, I was delighted to find Trailer, 1998-2000 by Liza Lou! Take one step into the structure to experience this awesome, glittering, life -sized beaded interior.

 

Liza Lou, Trailer, 1998-2000, installed at The Brooklyn Museum 2024


Rodney lead us to his work Bad Blood, 2022 in the gallery where he shared his concept, materials and methods and answered questions. Fascinating cultural commentary combined with innovative methods and suberb technique makes Bad Blood a real winner! Jacob pointed out that the selection of work and installation created an excellent viewing experience.


We asked Rodney to bring us to another area in the tightly packed, high-ceilinged salon style installed walls. Then we took turns with that process. We loved seeing two pieces by AYB Teaching Artist Aisha Tandiwe Bell. Evelyn enjoying a wall of small well rendered observational paintings. Several of us thought Lisa Ludwig’s cut and painted re-claimed cardboard landscape could be a great school project. Evelyn and I were impressed with Gem flexing her fingers along with an articulated sculptural hand. I took a photo of Sam Messers huge painting of a typewriter as I knew Dennis would love it! Maria was enthusiastic about Johanna Burke’s sequined Green Orangutang. While the yellow walls were loud, the work was chosen to work in that context!



We decided to spend the last 20 minutes of our visit in critique style discussion. It was a great visit, everyone found something to love, yet most of us are of the opinion that we will have to take at least one more visit to really appreciate the exhibition.


 

In AYB Advanced Studio on Zoom with AYB Artist Ajani Russell  presented a session on comic drawings of Charles Addams. Ajani’s well-chosen examples of Addams cartoons started us off on the right foot – with laughter all round!

 

Ajani summarizes: “This week students took a look into the comic series The Addams Family created by Charles Addams. Before the movies, TV shows and video games, the Addams family was a single panel comic published in the New Yorker, beginning in 1938 and running for several decades.


As I (Ajani) shared examples of the artworks, I analyzed the dark humor specific in each drawing.  Then I  prompted participants to created their own pieces with focus oriented in irony and wit. The results ranged from Thanksgiving jokes to highlighting more personal micro-aggressions faced in day-to-day life.”

 

Ajani’s drawing shows a clear delineation between the average dog walker and Morticia walking her three headed Cerberus, the monstrous guardian of the gates of Hade.

 

Adji’s clothspinned eyed character is suffering from the unfortunate scenario when one is told ask for help when you need it, but when you ask, help is not forthcoming.

 

Richie works the panels and text like a pro in his saga of Dismal Davy.


Ed depicts mother Morticia and the Addams children gardening.

 

Facile use of text help bring home the message in Nylah’s fabulous piece about hair style/presentation and identity.

 

Ajula takes a vernacular phrase from her home-state of Rhode Island “Wicked Smart” (smAHt) into an evocative eerie-funny graphic.

 

Vera revives favorite characters from childhood.

 

Neah harkens back to an old chestnut of a commercial.


While Travis reflects on past and change.

 

Fatima makes it personal while exploring phrases. She describes: “My second piece is inspired by Morticia. I wanted to lean into her diva and nonchalant aura. I can relate to not having the capacity to care about everything because it’s exhausting. I am however sensitive about and choose to care about the important things in life.”

 

Jules references one of her favorite contemporary cartoonists in her satiric look at life today.

 

Jules Lorenzo, Unique Decor


In Addam’s New Yorker style – with the oval format, text placement, and ink washes Meridith told the story of the new, as yet unnamed, wild-man of a kitten attacking her slipper. Poking fun at the kitten’s lack of name and crazed-attack style, she referenced the The Princess Bride in the text.

 

Karla searches for humor in trying times.


Marilyn and Lila bring us holiday humor!


This session was a wonderful reminder of the healing power of laughter!

 

On Tuesday AYB Advanced Studio met up at M55 Gallery, 548 West 26th Street in Chelsea, NYC to view AYB Artist Ed Rath's exhibition Nirvana/Urbana

 

Ed explained that the imagery for his exhibition grew out of a myriad of sketches and drawings produced over several years. He noted that keeping small sketchbooks and notebooks are a vital part of gathering ideas and imagery, which later gets edited and distilled into a cohesive sequence. We encourage all ART YARD BKLYN artists to keep journals for this purpose.

 

The first room of the exhibition contains seven bucolic landscapes, inspired by his childhood experiences exploring the forests and pastures of Midwestern farms. These vignettes, referencing rural places that no longer exist, transport the viewer into a different time, into a world before cell phones and the internet, a world experienced perceptually through our physical senses. Memory, slippery and ephemeral, tends to idealize the past. It was noted that Rath’s artistic representation of the past is seen through rose tinted glasses.



The second room features seven Urban scenes, contrasting man-made environments with the natural imagery in the first room.  Rath elucidated that as an artist he is compelled to record the world around him, with all its grime and grit. 

 


Like thousands of artists of his generation, Rath came to NYC after finishing graduate school, to pursue his art career.  The glaring lights, abrasive pollution, crowded subway cars, and endless din of traffic make great subject matter for artists but take a toll on one’s sanity. To survive, Rath retreats into the rural imagery at times, or into other types of narrative.

 


        


After the lesson, a lively question and answer exchange ensued, followed by a reading of Rath’s Manifesto, Why Paint?

 

 

Manifesto: Why Paint?

 

To learn about the world

To share my vision with others

To make my contribution to world culture

 

Artists, clarions of the First Amendment

Make your voices heard

Old man, throwing paint at canvas

Why paint?

 

Why not?

 


Lastly the exhibition includes collaborative work with fashion designer Satoru Sasaki. After printing Rath’s paintings on fine fabrics, Sasaki designs shirts and dresses incorporating Raths iconography into his unique designs.

 


Advanced Studio Artists enjoying Ed Rath's exhibition

 

If you missed this trip, there is still time to view the exhibition now on view through December 14th at M55 Gallery in Chelsea.

 

Other Art News

 

AYB Artist Gem Mercado writes from Connecticut, where she is with family for the holiday: “I was thoroughly impressed by the collection at Yale University’s Art Gallery. I found so many pieces that moved me to think deeper about how they were made, what materials were used, and what the artists were feeling while creating them. And the best part- it’s free and accessible for everyone to experience!”

 

Gem’s favorites include Charles Sheeler's American Interior, which reminded her of Meridith's work:

Edwin Austin Abbey, The Hours, 1909-11, Salvadore Dali, La libre inclinación del deseo, 1930, and Pablo Picasso, Chevalier, Page et Moine (Horseman, Page, and Monk), 1951 (photos by Gem Mercado)

 

 

What We Are Reading

 

As mentioned above, we encourage AYB Artists to keep sketchbooks as part of their ongoing art practice. We expand our appreciation of these visual by studying sketchbooks of other artists in person when possible, and reprinted in books.

Published by Knopf this week, Nobel-prize winner Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2009–2022 offers a fascinating glimpse into the creative world of one of Turkey’s most celebrated writers. This lovely collection of writing and paintings is compiled from several years of journalistic practice. The color and line quality shimmer with the authors hand. Topics are far reaching and include travel, home country, art, family, the process of writing and politics. These illustrated notebooks are clearly fertile ground for the author.


AYB Artists regularly share their work throughout the week. It is key to note in the context of this book review on an illustrated journal, that this week Gem and Shellorne are really developing their sketchbook artmaking practices!!


Sketchbook drawings by AYB Artists Gem Mercado (left) and Shellorne Smith (center & right)


I will bring in my copy of the book to Advanced Studio on Tuesday so that you all can peruse for yourself!

 

AYB is thrilled to be one of the great organizations you can support at BROOKLYN ORG for GIVING TUESDAY!!! Click to donate here.



AYB Artist Maraya Lopez articulates what our programs mean to her:


 

💗💜❤️♥️🩷💙💛🩵


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