Howl! Festival 2012

At Howl!  Keep in mind I'm 6'5"...

On June 2, I was part of an event at Tompkins Square Park in New York called Howl! Festival 2012.  According to howlfestival.com...

The mission of HOWL! Festival is to honor, develop, create and produce. With an estimated 100,000 visitors last year, the many performances celebrate local cultural icons and lionize, preserve, and advance the art, history, culture, and counterculture unique to the East Village and Lower East Side

I participated in their "Art in the Park" event which is...

A live action weekend-long event involving 140 artists of all ages turns an 8 foot high, 900 foot long blank "canvas" encircling the exterior of Tompkins Square Park into an explosion of color and creativity.

This event was awesome because almost anyone that submitted an application to paint was accepted, there was no submission fee, the event was well organized, and all the artists were able to cut their slice of the canvas out and bring it home with them.  Needless to say, the neighbor is a lot of fun and the people I met who lived there were friendly. 

I drew on my vinyl "canvas" thing (the material was not cotton canvas but something able to withstand wind, rain, sleet, snow...) from 11:30 to 4pm.  I brought nothing but a handfull of black oil bars with me and jumped right in without over thinking what I was going to draw.  I always work from direct observation... so when I arrived at my section I looked around I started drawing the interesting shape of a light post.  For there on out the drawing filled itself in... albeit slowly but surely.  When I was finished someone offered to buy the piece from me and so I sold it.  Not bad for a Saturday afternoon in The City!

Thats me sweating it out while working hard

Finished!

I thought I'd share with all of you a few recent oil paintings as well.  All of the below work is created from outside of my Nyack apartment on South Broadway.  I just sit outside, look around, and paint whatever it is that excites me that day.  After seeing a Richard Serra drawing retrospective I can't help but to have thoughts of Minimalism running through my head while painting these days.

Flower Pot and Mail Box 30"40"



Flower  22" x 28"



Chuck 40" x 30"

And I'm working on this one...

Plant 22" x 28"

Artists and Facebook

Collaborative Drawing and Paintings

The Internet has real potential to connect artists who produce similar work and materialize into curated group exhibitions.  The only real criteria that you need to do this is to be active on Facebook, read blogs, be willing to meet with people face to face (don't be shy now), and oh yeah... create art.  Julie Torres, a Brooklyn based artist, organized one such exhibition of painters and drawers titled "All Together Now".  I saw this exhibition among others during the Bushwick Open Studios 2012 in Brooklyn this past weekend at The Coin Locker.  The show was excellent.  About fifteen artists were showing several works each.  Moreover all of the artists were non-Brooklyn based and came from around the country and some internationally. 

  

The common thread holding these artists together other than all of their work being abstract was Facebook.  That's how they all met and as Julie Torres explained they didn't just "friend" each other on-line and decide to have a show together... they developed relationships with one another, shared each others art online, and then decided to meet in person to have an exhibition and collaborate. 

And that's just what they did just days before "All Together Now" opened.  The artists participating in this exhibition met at Hyperallergic HQ in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and collaborated on several pieces that were later exhibited.  Interestingly enough these collaborations appeared as if created by one artist... one mind... which is a manifestation of their similarities as artists and the connection they have with one another.

I spoke to two artists in the exhibit about their participation in the show.  Brian Edmonds was from Alabama and Brian Cypher was from an hour north of Seattle.  Both were about 40 years old and had families to support.  Neither had easy access to a thriving art scene and did not want to move to New York or any other major city.  So they turned to the Internet, found blogs to follow, and made friends on Facebook, all the while continuously expanding their network of artists from around the globe.

Other painters like the abstract artist Valerie Brennan, who now lives in Spain and writes a popular blog named "Studio Critical", have become Facebook hubs for emerging artists to connect with one another.  Julie Torres, curator of "All Together Now", is the same.  By friending artists with vast networks on Facebook you can follow their activity with a watchful eye for ideas, suggestions, and people that you relate to.  But remember, the point is not to take from the on-line community but rather to participate in and offer it something everyone can benefit from.  Sharon Butler, artist and blogger of "Two Coats of Paint", and Lauren Munk, artist and vlogger of "The James Kalm Report" on YouTube, have amassed enormous networks throughout the art world because they give the rest of something we find really useful... namely, an intimate day by day glimpse into the contemporary art world.

What about me?  I must admit, I'm not a dedicated Facebook user.  For some people, like myself, we just don't enjoy it enough to be on it everyday.  My way of being part of the on-line community of artists is to write my thoughts about exhibitions I see, articles I read, or artists I meet on my blog.  I originally started "Always Be an Emerging Artist" because I wanted people who visited my website to get an idea of what I'm interested in, looking at, thinking about, so they could get to know me better.  But now, I'm motivated to blog because its a great way to meet other artists and make new friends.  When I go to a show and see an artists work that I really like I can write a positive review of the exhibition and email it to the artist, or in some cases, interview the artist.  Again, it's all about offering the community something it can benefit from.  And most importantly, if you enjoy what you are doing your audience probably will too.



Brian Cypher




Yifat Gat



Yifat Gat

Julie Alexander



Vincent Hawkins




Vincent Hawkins



Collaborations



Ian White Williams

Ian White Williams

David T Miller

The following images are from other exhibitions in Bushwick that I happened upon.

Eric Gottshall

Sara Marie Miller

Bushwick Street Art

Inkternal: Kari Lindstrom and Sky Pape

A few weeks ago I went to the opening of Inkternal... an exhibition of the work of Kari Lindstrom and Sky Pape at the Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY (30 min. north of Manhattan along the Hudson River).  The show was curated by Shari Lin Fischberg.  The opening night of the show featured performances by Kari Lindstrom in Hopper's backyard garden.  According to the Art Center's website...

Inkternal showcases the recent work of New York City based artists Sky Pape and Kari Lindstrom.  Working within the historical context of sumi ink brush painting, the artists’ practices reflect clarity, simplicity, and contemplation. The resulting abstract images speak to our internal and external natures.  Pape moves the material in new directions, and Lindstrom experiments by drawing with innovative technology.

The Work of Kari Lindstrom

www.karilindstrom.com

The Work of Sky Pape

www.skypape.com

*** ©Sky Pape, all rights reserved. Courtesy June Kelly Gallery, NY. Photo Credit: Jean Vong Photography

More images of Sky's art from her website...

Here are a few thoughts...

The work of both artists meshed very well together.  The exhibition presented the work of both artists side by side as opposed to relegating separate rooms for each artist.

The art of Kari and Sky is subtle, modest, and meditative.  This kind of work has a calming affect on the senses.  In a fast paced and technological world where we are in front of computer screens, have our ears to cell phones, and are bombarded with news and images from mass media outlets around the globe, we can all benefit from walking into an art gallery and quietly contemplate the intricate gestures of Kari Lindstrom's art and the organic fluid forms of Sky Pape's.  Thanks you for that experience Kari and Sky.

I thought the breadth of work Kari exhibited (sculpture, drawing, video, performance) gave the audience the opportunity to explore many different perspectives of her interest in organic patterns and body movement.  Her performances tied together her sculpture and drawing which at first glance was difficult to see the connection between the two.

Sky's large sized sumi ink drawings are very beautiful and etherial.  But thats not all she does.  After viewing her work on her website it became apparent to me that the art exhibited at Inkternal was just a fraction of the styles and mediums that Sky has worked with.  Its impressive to see such a varied exploration of nature and traditional drawing materials.  I would very much like to see an exhibition that highlights the range of her art.

Kari's performances were really fresh.  The dancers next to her flowing sculptures drapped over trees whirling to the live flute music was not weird or out of place.  The dancers did not distract from the sculpture or the music.  They all seemed to blend together and added to the meaning of each instead of detracting meaning from each.  The other performances she did were more entertaining than the first.  Kari and another dancer slowly danced to the saxaphone on a large white sheet of paper holding charcoal in their hands.  As they danced they drew.  Then Kari and two other dancers drew on a large black sheet of paper pinned up on a wall with white chalk to the sound of a solo sax player.  So often it seems performances over step their bounds.  They can come across as artsy fartsy, way too conceptual, or flat out bizarre.  Kari's performances enhanced her art... that should be the goal for performances that incorrporate art-objects.

As a side note... a very cool video was just uploaded from TED Talks of dancing, light, and music.  FYI this is not the work of Kari Lindstrom.