“Art must be an integral part of the life we lead. It’s about who you are and what you create, what you believe in, what you live for.” ~ Patti Smith, M Train, 2015
This week in Advanced Studio on zoom, AYB Artist Jacob Rath, recontour extraordinaire, introduced us to the second Montessori great story: the story of life.
Jacob recounts: “I taught a class on the second great Montessori story: the Story of Life. This story was developed by Maria and Mario Montessori, with the purpose of introducing six year olds to the study of biology. I began by briefly introducing the story. Then I took a few seconds to get into storytelling mode, and told the entire story to the group.
The story discusses what Earth was like before there were any life forms. The first life form was given three special rules: eat, grow, and make others like yourself. These first single cell life forms cleaned up the oceans. These life forms soon tried various experiments. The most successful ones were: joining together to form a larger creature, having different cells in a creature do different jobs (creation of body parts/organs), the creation of internal bones, the ability to breathe outside of water, the ability to lay eggs with hard shells, having fur and warm blood, and having the three special gifts that make us human.
After telling the story, I asked students to make artwork in response to the story. Students interpreted the story in a variety of ways. Some made artwork depicting the life forms mentioned.
Richie and Meridith both made drawings of sea lilies.
Meridith McNeal, Story of Life (with side view to show off metallic paint)
Many people made work focusing on the relationship between water and life.
A few people made art focusing on the energy of the story.
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In person on Tuesday at BWAC Advanced Studio celebrated our Pieces in a session called Fish Folks with AYB Artist Jules Lorenzo.
Jules recaps: “For this week’s lesson, in celebration of Pisces season, we took a deep dive into the history behind the art displayed on tinned fish cans. We discussed the folklore, traditions, and cultural influences that went into the packaging designs for brands like Fishwife, Ati Manel, and Nuri.
Many canneries that produce “conservas” (aka Portuguese tinned goods) have been established for hundreds of years now and sometimes even maintain ownership from the same families that initially created them! So much of that familial heritage gets represented in the symbolism found in these designs as well as the stylistic renditions of them. For example, Fishwife in particular chose the European folk history figure of the hardy fishwife to be the logo of their brand, a foul-mouthed daughter or wife of a fisherman who sold catch at the local market. She’s usually depicted with a basket of fish upon her head. “By continuing elements of that design heritage, but with a unique twist through sea symbolism, simple line work, and reduced RGB color palette, the brand has introduced a timeless Portuguese tradition to a modern American audience.” (Ellie Howard, WIX)
For class work, students were instructed to recreate their own tinned fish label designs using color palettes consisting of no more than 3 colors and incorporating oceanic imagery. The results that came after were simply “fin-tastic”!
(use arrows to scroll artists at work)
Leni crafted a sweet drawing of two fish sharing a kiss for her tinned can with hearts outlining the edges, reminiscent of playing card suits.
Fish Folk by Daniel Ruiz, Shellorne Smith, Mich Goenawan, Amiya McCargo, Sabryn Ferchichi, Neah Gray, Carolyn Bernucca, Jules Lorenzo, Cheyenne Rivera, and Lori Lorenzo.
Ed Rath went all out with his classic collage work style, creating a striking “Delish Fish Dish” for us to feast our eyes on.
Chace was one of the few students, along with Brenn Lorenzo, to create a very tactile piece of a 3D fish can.
Both Chase, Brenn, and Meridith had pull tabs on their cans that lifted directly off the page and into our world!
Speaking of jumping off the page, the movement of Adji’s fish was simply transcendent and was made even more alluring by her purple and green color palette.
Lastly, I wanted to highlight the humor Rain brought to their piece by using a Blobfish as the mascot and protein source for their can “con limón.”
Overall, our fishy folk lesson was a complete success! And don't’ be too surprised if you happen to see a can of tinned blobfish hitting your local supermarket sometime soon.”
On Wednesday AYB Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau along with Dennis and the gang at ART YARD Art Matters at PS 17.
Evelyn writes: “This week at PS 17, we continued our multi-part project titled Meeting a Dragon. So far, we’ve learned about dragons in different cultures, made practice sketches, and created underdrawings of dragons on the final watercolor paper. This week, Dennis, Leo, Scarlett, and I (Evelyn) guided students to add the two remaining components to the underdrawings—a posed person reacting to the dragon, and the surrounding scenery. Most students are ready to start painting next week!
We considered that pose is how we can guess what a person in a painting is thinking or feeling. I asked students to think about how they or a made-up character might react to meeting a dragon: with excitement, with fear, or with a power pose. After striking a pose and then following along with a demonstration of how to draw three basic body positions, students made the drawings their own with facial expressions and clothing details. This component of the project links back to AYB’s Year of Literacy, asking students to consider how viewers will “read” the thoughts and feelings of the characters in their images based on visual signals.
Next, we learned more art vocab: foreground, middle ground, and background. The person and the dragon are in the foreground of the artworks: closest to the viewer and (in the person’s case) rooted to the ground in the lowest 1/3 of the paper. In the middle ground (objects in the middle distance, taking up the middle 1/3 of the paper), students added trees, roads receding into the distance, and other landscape elements. In the background, farthest from the viewer and located in the top 1/3 of the paper, students added distant mountains and clouds in the sky.
Use arrows to scroll through outstanding dragon drawings!
With all the parts of the underdrawing in place, students’ drawings are dense with detail. Students are very excited to start adding color, and we can’t wait to see how they’ll take their artworks to the next level with watercolor paints.
Dennis adds: “With so much going on during 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade lessons (with Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau) - lots more art making takes place on Wednesdays at PS 17.
In our afterschool program, Teaching Artist Marina Soliman worked with a group of 8 students (from various grades) on still life pencil drawings of an apple and avocado with an emphasis on shading. Marina reviewed each piece and offered critiques and allowed students to critique each other. Marina (and Evelyn) were assisted this week by Scarlett and Leo.
In the library, Teaching Artist/Muralist Giannina (Gia) Gutierrez added beautiful detail to the mural by including books in the trunk of the tree. Gia works solo in the school's massive and newly renovated library with the much appreciated assistance of Livio, who heads the custodial team. Livio arranges for paints, ladders, and Gia's other supplies, to be ready for Gia's arrival and then stores everything at the end of the day. Thanks to Livio!
Gia at work on mural and mural detail.
Leo and I met with Dr. Brower, the principal, to discuss a project for Women's History Month - Leo and I will brainstorm this week and come up with a plan to meet with Dr. Brower's request.
Did I mention that there's always a lot going on at PS 17 each Wednesday?”
Today as I worked on this recap Dennis sent over photos from ART YARD Art Matters at PS 6 in Jersey City. The enthusiastic smiles, the obviously deeply engaged students, and the spectacular work just wowed me. I wrote to Dennis suggesting we create an “AYB Funny Paper” to share these excellent comics in print! Wouldn’t that be great?! If you have any ideas or connections on how we could accomplish this, send me an email or text!
Gem recaps the session: “For our last class of the session, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at PS 6 put the finishing touches on their comics—and they did not disappoint. They took everything they learned about Charles Schulz and Peanuts and ran with it, creating some seriously funny, clever, and impressive work.
We wrapped things up with a class critique, where they shared their comics and gave each other thoughtful complimentary feedback with some very funny takes. A few students said this was their favorite class and were genuinely bummed they weren’t coming back next week, and I truly feel the same.
I’m so proud of them for their creativity, their storytelling, and their commitment to their drawings. I had a great time teaching at PS 6 and I’m excited to do it again!”
Vocabulary for the week
Beguiling (adjective) - charming or enchanting, often in a deceptive way. Used by Patti Smith in a conversation at Cooper Union.
Conservas (plural noun) - A European term for high-quality canned fish or seafood. Used by Jules during her presentation on the history of artwork on canned fish.
Blobfish (noun) - A type of boneless deep sea fish that loses its shape outside of its high pressure natural habitat, making it look like a pink blob.
Other Art News
AYB Artist Ajani Russell invites us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition True North (they have work included) on Saturday March 8, 5-9pm at Art by City, 254 36th Street, 2nd floor, Brooklyn.
Congratulations to AYB Artist Liv Collins who shares: “I got to be on TV the other day to talk about my skateboarding classes. My students got to inspire even more moms to pick up this hobby!”
AYB Abriel (bob) Gardner is traveling in Mexico and sends images of her favorite street art! Exclaiming: “So far so good in Mexico (: everyone has a dog here which is amazing and have already seen some great public art. I thought this was great. Aztec head crushing a tesla.”
Photos by Abriel (bob) Gardner, Public Art in Mexico, 2025
Our friends at Kentler International Drawing Space, 353 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn have a lovely exhibition of large scale graphite complex still life drawings by Mayuko Ono Gray.
Executive Director Sallie Mize has curated a complementary show Interiors of work she selected from the Kentler Flatfile. The work is beautifully installed throughout the gallery. A testament to the power of drawing! On view through March 16, 2025.
Wednesday night, during the epic deluge, Christine and I went to hear Patti Smith speak at Cooper Union. As ever, Patti Smith was erudite, thoughtful, funny, generous and beguiling. She spoke about finding joy from within, and not letting external forces get in the way of doing your best work and being the best artist you can be.
The interviewer asked that she bring a Magical Thing (really!) to share with the audience. To my delight, she brought a beribboned tambourine hand-made by Robert Mapplethorpe as a birthday present to Patti in 1968.
She capped the evening singing a rousing version of My Blakean Year, mentioning after the song that William Blake is an excellent example of a person who dedicated his life to making beautiful art -- “even if his friends when handed his painstakingly created folios, tossed them on the sofa, saying ‘looks good Bill, thanks.’ as they hopped into their carriage.”
Fortune breathed into my ear
Mouthed a simple ode
One road is paved in gold
One road is just a road
Save the Date!
We hope you will join us on Saturday March 22, 2-4pm at BWAC for the reception for the AYB exhibition Reading Music.
The party will coincide with a BWAC members meet-n-greet, providing an opportunity to meet the BWAC artists who provide AYB with wonderful studio space for Advanced Studio sessions! If you have not yet attended an in person session, this celebration will provide a glimpse at our wonderful studio space.
Vee and I created large format signage for our exhibition inspired by the work of Tim Rollins & KOS, we painted on top of glued together pages of John Ashbery, Something Close To Music: Late Art Writings, Poems, and Playlists (David Zwirner Books, 2022).
💛❤️💙💜🩵🧡💚
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