Hallwalls Drawing Rally, Winter 2023
I was thrilled to be invited to participate in another Hallwalls drawing rally, my fourth! The live drawing rally & online silent auction is my absolute favorite art event in Buffalo. 36 artists draw live over the course of the evening, each starting with the same size (12”x18”) piece of white paper and tasked with creating a unique piece of art in their own style in 45 minutes. There is a DJ and everyone can walk around and watch as artists work on their pieces, which get auctioned off at the end. They are serious about the 45 minutes too – there is a giant clock counting down while you work. A bit nerve wracking, but so much fun!
Here are a few images from the event!
What is Art? (A love story)
I figure most of you are here because you know me, or love art, or love my art. So, here is a story about love, and art!
Aaron and I met in the first period of our first class our freshman year of art school. It was called Methods and Concepts, a foundations of art class, Monday morning at 8am. A short time into that Monday morning class we were divided up into groups to discuss the question – what is art? Our little group of 5 or so went back and forth for a few minutes tossing out things that might be, or might not be art. It can be hard to define art. Is a painting on a wall in a museum art? What about a photograph? Are the marks the cavemen scrawled in the caves art? Is my couch art? What about music or dance? Do they count as art?
The groups dispersed and the teacher opened up the conversation to the class. What is art? One person thought that art was indeed a painting on the wall of a museum. Others thought it was more inclusive and roped in dance and music, sculpture and words. And some of us thought it was concept or intention that made art. Really, anything could be art if it was imagined to be so. A desk could be art. An idea could be art. A life could be lived as art.
Two kids nearing art school graduation, and same kids last month at the Carnegie International exhibition
Aaron and I were very much aligned in the anything can be art camp and that started our friendship. And that friendship grew into a love and that love still grows. And so does our drive to keep exploring art – it is the way we try to make sense of the world around us.
I've found the phrase “blur the lines between life and art” written in several notebooks and sketchbooks over the years. I recently went to a virtual artist talk with two artists who I deeply admire Deborah Roberts and Vanessa German – and that phrase came up in their conversation as well. Let's live life as the ultimate artistic practice and fill our lives with the love and magic of art!
What is art to you? I would love to hear.
Spinning Plates
Me & Dad! Note the rainbow sleeves on my shirt…
My dad is an architect and was the design partner in his firm when I was growing up. Occasionally, I would go to work with him on early release days or days off of school. I remember playing in the back of his office with all the tile samples and giant sets of prismacolor markers. I would build little worlds on the shelves where they kept office supplies. There were walls covered in tile and counter samples, and binders full of carpet and fabric swatches. I was a kid in a candy store.
One of my favorite things to do was play with the electric erasers. I realized that if you turned them up so the eraser was pointing up, the clean white eraser became a little potting wheel that I could use to make miniature dishes. I would carve out little bowls, plates and cups with exacto knives and then color them in with the markers while the makeshift electric potters wheel was still spinning. It was always so much fun… until I got caught chopping the clean new erasers up into little bits by someone in the office. It was harmless fun, but from what I remember they weren’t too pleased with my creative waste of supplies, lol. It is fun to think that those little eraser dishes were my first taste of product design!
Electric eraser, in case you aren’t familiar.
Modern studio reproduction of a tiny plate and bowl.
Recap of 2022 – My Year of Play
In 2022, I focused my energy with one guiding anchor – PLAY. I've tried to do this before, but was never able to narrow it down to just one word. I think in 2021 I had four, slimmed down from years past. I knew that wonderful, magical things can come out of play. I lept in hoping that joyful work and new opportunities would arise if I leaned in and followed my curiosities. In my notes I said my goals for the year were to have fun, define my style, learn and grow.
While I avoid most structure (hello artist and entrepreneur, lol) I find that having some sort of framework and parameters to create is key. I decided to choose a monthly focus under the play umbrella to offer some guide rails. I had wanted to create a deck of cards for several years and it seemed like an excellent goal to have as a takeaway for the year of play, so that set me on my path forward. Here is how the year went:
Jan: Hearts
Starting with the heart (and drawing heart suitmarks) seemed a fitting and centering practice. It also gave me a collection of artwork to create Valentine’s postcards that I was able to offer up for sale in February!
Feb: Spades
I knew I needed to be creating lots of artwork that I would be able to use in the deck of cards, so for the next few months I chose a suit a month and tried to make at least 5 pieces a week.
March: Diamonds
Again, taking steps towards creating that deck of cards.
April: Clubs
Clubs were the intended focus, but ended up pausing on the cards to allow me to create proposals for mural projects.
May: Deck of Cards
I started to pull together all of the suitmarks I had made to date and am working to see how things fit together and evolve. I knew it would take time to sort through the art and figure out how the puzzle pieces could fit together.
June: Story, Call & Response
I spent this month carving out time to play in the studio and in the garden. Both are an investment of energy with unknown destinations – a leap of faith that something beautiful will grow in time.
July: Shape & Rest
I worked on my artswatch project as a way to focus my creative energy. Things tend to go off the rails a little in the summer for me without the structure of the school days. I took a bit of time to rest and recharge before some mural projects and gathered info on playing card producers.
August: Product Play
In preparation for the holidays, I used this month to do a call and response with my newsletter friends – creating mockups of products and reaching out for feedback. This month was also crunch time to finalize the deck of cards. I made two alternate decks (three total) and reached out to a small group for design feedback. Also started moving into my studio space for my residency at Hunt Gallery.
September: Mural painting
I finalized my deck design, sent it to the printers and opened pre-orders in my shop. Painted the Title IX mural at UB. Packed and shipped card orders. It was a busy (and stressful) month!
October: Residency & Holiday planning
This month was full of preparation for holiday pop-ups, and diving back into a studio art practice through the residency at Hunt Gallery. Also started some new bodies of work that I’m excited about.
November & December: Pop-ups, and online sales, Residency
While I was in the holiday hustle and not playing much in the studio I thought a lot about ways that the year of play could translate to mindset. A lot of my work appears bright and cheerful, but I take the work super seriously and can be really hard on myself. I often overanalyze and spin my wheels on taking big next steps. I focused on giving myself grace and leaning into opportunities with a sense of exploration and playfulness.
Lessons learned: Play was a stellar word for me in 2022. I am so prone to overthinking things and getting stuck before even starting… but having play as my anchor gave me a sense of lightness to not take myself too seriously. It is great to have a plan, but I’m learning time and time again that when I complete a goal it often looks different than expected. I had hoped to pitch a lot of licensing projects, but ended up focusing more on looking for more art and mural projects (and getting that residency!). I played with saying yes to opportunities that popped up and tried out several holiday pop-up shops over the course of the year. I even played with being more business-y and got up and running on QuickBooks.
When I started this year of play, I thought that sounds so fun! But, wow… play can be WORK. It is hard to play. We don't live in a culture that really values grownups having playtime. We are so primed to be constantly productive. It seems so ironic that I'm working to make time for play – to allow my mind to wander. My creative well is expanding, growing deeper and more fulfilling, and that feels exciting and worthwhile. The reward was huge. I’m especially grateful for the sense of lightness and flexibility in how I am approaching work/art/play moving forward.
xo!
Hunt Residency "Verge" Opening
Installation for our group show Verge started yesterday at Hunt Gallery! I snapped a quick photo of two of my pieces before I had to duck out, but would love to see you at the opening this Friday from 5-9PM! Above on the right is one of the pieces included in the show, and the start of a new series titled Ways to Grow 1.
About the show: Hunt Residencies II opening reception for the group exhibition Verge will take place January 13th, 2023. Verge will showcase the artwork completed by the six artists that entered Hunt Residencies studios in August 2022. Work by resident artists Avanna Duff, Eugene Sims, Laura Valkwitch, Cassandra Ott, DJ Carr, and Nicholas Wheeler are taking over the main gallery. The evening will also introduce the arrival of seven new artists in residence for the third cohort of Hunt Residencies. The exhibition will be on view through February 10th, 2023.
Images above by Spicy Creative