“I wanted to create a piece that captured a message that’s been stirring in my heart over the past few years. I believe we are all creative and reconnecting with this part of our nature, from a place of love, will allow us—the world—to begin creating systems that foster community and interdependence. I decided to create a collage using two main colors. The black background represents darkness/void which is the starting point of the creative process. It also represents a symbolic “death.” Creating from love requires that we “die” to old beliefs and ideas that support systems of independence and separation. The red represents love. Instead of soil, I decided to create red water to denote love as a flowing force. The word is emerging from the water and each letter remains in contact with it. The use metallic material for the word CREATE was inspired by Meridith. It is intended to mimic a mirrored effect. To create from love also requires self-reflection.” ~ AYB Artist Vera Brown
Thoughtfully, we began the week in Advanced Studio on zoom with AYB Artist Nayarit Tineo in a session entitled Your Voice Matters: Making the personal political with posters and public art. As inspiration Nayarit shared with us work by Beverly McIver, Shepard Fairey, Carrie Mae Weems, Edreys Wajed, and Simone Wojciechowski.
Depicted at the top of this recap in its completed state Vera’s artwork so eloquently resonates that I decided it needed to begin this recap as a powerful message we need right now. Pictured below is the same piece in progress as we first viewed during critique.
Abriel (bob)’s piece is moving and important in that same visceral manner.
Nayarit sums up: “The lesson at hand emphasized the importance of recognizing that our voices matter and sharing our opinions, values, and morals strengthens us as a community. We truly embraced this, and I was delighted by the range of issues we addressed, from war to mental health. We pushed our perspectives to the forefront with conviction.
I especially appreciated those who used bold text to emphasize their messages, like Ed’s Behold, Marilyn’s Vote, and Karla’s Choice and Voice.
Others expressed themselves through thoughtful motifs and symbols, each choice enhancing the meaning behind their work.
It was moving to see how each person poured their values into their pieces, revealing their beliefs. The entire class did an exceptional job, and I’m grateful for everyone who shared their voice so openly and passionately.”
Lila’s gorgeous illustration reminds me (Meridith) of the powerful book cover designs of the mid-late 20th century! Nayarit’s piece is equally moving, graphic and polished!
Kevin writes: “I spoke about the discrepancy of fair wages within America. It can be applied to anything: Teachers, social workers, artists, animators, fast good workers. What these professions and many more have in common is that people look down on them, when in reality they provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Which is why I believe that American government (left side) should provide more for the marginalized as they do not fit the mold of the American system (represented by the right side). I didn't realize it until now, but if I had switched the sides I could have actually implied the leftist and rightest movements.”
Chaela encourages us to support mental health and Neah is thinking about coping.
At Advanced Studio in person at our Studio at BWAC AYB Artist Evelyn Beliveau presented Abstracted Letterforms (Drawing and Painting from Observation) inspired by the work of Joe Wardwell, and AYB supporter Nicolette Reim.
Evelyn summarizes: “I was glad to return to Advanced Studio on Tuesday for a refuge of peace in a chaotic week. I led Part 1 of a two-part lesson cycle called Abstracted Letterforms, with a focus on drawing and painting from observation; Part 2 will occur on December 10 and is open to new or returning participants. In this lesson, participants create pencil drawings (to be painted in Part 2) from observation of a three-dimensional block letter on 6” x 8” canvas boards.
Use arrows to scroll images of class in action
I opened the session with two questions: What happens to our perception or reading of a letter when it is taken out of the context of forming a word? What can a letter “mean” on its own?
Then, during introductions, we asked participants to list the languages they know. The list was impressive! This opened up a conversation about language learning, which was the perfect segue into the text excerpts I was planning to read. I selected excerpts from Anne Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet, including the following:
“[T]he written consonant imposes edge on the sounds of human speech and insists on the reality of that edge, although it has its origin in the reading and writing imagination.”
Carson quotes historian K. Robb as follows:
“What must be stressed is that the act which created the alphabet is an idea, an act of intellect which, so far as signs for the independent consonants are concerned, is also an act of abstraction from anything an ear can hear or a voice say. For the pure consonant (t, d, k or whatever) is unpronounceable without adding to it some suggestion of vocalic breath.”
Carson goes on to discuss learning to write:
“To take pains over letters is an experience known to most of us. They are enticing, difficult shapes and you learn them by tracing the outlines again and again.”
For us, drawing the letters (in the guise of three-dimensional particle-board objects) took us back to that effort of learning, before you have come to know the shape of the letter: in fact, we endeavored to forget the familiarity of the letterforms, making them strange by tilting or upending the block letters on the table, in order to simply see them as a collection of shapes. This act—forgetting what you “know” and allowing yourself to freshly see what you are truly looking at—is essential to drawing from observation with any subject matter, and is especially difficult with such a well-known subject as the letters of the alphabet.
Before starting our drawings, we took a look at the work of an artist (and friend of AYB!) who uses letters in her work, Nicolette Reim. I read from her recent interview with Amy Gordon (https://www.theartsection.com/reim):
“Removing the symbols of writing from their usual orderliness, she investigates the effect of placing them within the different context offered by visual art.”
“[T]he letters, shorn of adornment—no fancy fonts or flourishes—cannot rest as objects merely to be looked at; letters, after all, are the building blocks of words. The brain yearns to make meaning.”
From here, I began a demonstration of observational drawing techniques focused on determining angles and distances. We used the pencil, held at arm’s length and with one eye closed, as a measuring tool, trying to match the angles of lines to times on a clock face and to assess the relative lengths between points. With these tools in mind, each participant chose a letter of the alphabet, observed it for 60 seconds, and then began to draw. I challenged participants to “zoom in” on the letter such that the drawing intersects at least two edges of the canvas board.
The results show strong draftsmanship and the clear grasp of complicated forms that comes of careful looking. I was struck by creative cropping and use of negative space in many of the drawings.
Gem Mercado, Y (l &ll)
Jacob Rath, N & D
We noted a sense of monumentality in the drawings of the P and the M, and a quality of an architectural blueprint in the drawing of the K.
The hand-hewn quality of the linework, whether faint and ethereal or heavy and bold, has a certain charm—but I’m excited to see these transformed into acrylic paintings during the second part of this lesson.”
Fun Fact - Look at this impressive list of languages spoken amongst the AYB Artists present in this session: Antiguan Dialect, Bahasa Indonesian, English, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian, Spanglish, Spanish, and Wolof/Lébou.
Other Art News
AYB Artist Shellorne Smith shares a new piece, Empty Vessel, summing up her feelings about these recent days. She has been experimenting with new materials, for this artwork she used the watercolor pencil and watercolor paint.
As Vera Brown reminds us (see above): To create from love also requires self-reflection.
What We Are Reading
In a recent recap Dennis reviewed Christian Cooper's book Better Living Through Birding: Notes From A Black Man In The Natural World. Dennis wrote “I was interested in Cooper's story because I was a long-term volunteer for the Central Park Conservancy and the team I worked with was influential in obtaining the NYC Parks rulings (even tho we went to court, they're not laws but rules) about off-leash times and locations for dogs to run free (with supervision!) in city parks - and Cooper made big news a few years back after an encounter with an off-leash dog and the woman whose actions resulted in coining the term "Karen". Cooper's book only touches on that incident (not victimized but defiant) and it's about his love of birding, his career as a science writer, a comics designer, and editor and an LGBTQ+ activist.”
I (Meridith) listened to the audio version which I borrowed from the Brooklyn Public Library, and loved it! Read by the author in a lively resonant voice with a Long Island regional inflection, the story is enhanced by recorded birdsong! These avian trills brought into focus Cooper’s style of bird identification by first recognizing their song.
HIP-HIP-HOORAY!!!!!!
We are so excited to announce that AYB has received funding from the Ellis L. Phillips Foundation for one full year of Advanced Studio and Summer Session.
Abundant heartfelt gratitude to Paula Edgar, who championed our proposal, and to the board Directors at ELPF who granted this meaningful support. 💗💚🧡🩵❤️🩷💜♥️💙
PARTY TONIGHT with AYB - Friday, November 8, 6-9pm at the AYB Art Words Benefit in the Gallery at 180 Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
The evening will feature poetry readings by AYB artists Reg Lewis and Delphine Levenson, live acoustic music by Jules Lorenzo and Liv Collins of Joopi, and Gem Omoh. DJ Abby will be keeping things lively throughout the evening. With a bracelet making station for all you fancy folks!
On view is Read Between The Lines 50 paintings by AYB artists. We will enjoy delicious refreshments from All Seasons Hospitality, Brooklyn Seltzer Boys, Critter Cookies, and Impasto Pizzeria. Thanks to our sponsors: 180 Franklin Avenue, Olivier Berggruen, Alex & Renata Weiss, Rocco Spagnardi, and Glossier.
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