Barbara Allen - 2003 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
One Hundred Thousand. That was the headline in the New York Times on Sunday, May 24th 2020, marking the grim three months price of COVID 19 in the United States. Listed inside were the names of 1000 of these souls along with a single short descriptor of how each of these lives would be remembered.
“School custodian and steppin’ aficionado.”
“Engineer forever chasing the wind.”
“Transgender immigrant and activist.”
“Surgeon who separated conjoined twins.”
“Survived being shot in the line of duty.”
“Always looking out for others.”
One thousand descriptors, bringing into focus a miniscule monster that held no bias or favor for any group. COVID 19 would rear its ugly head and devour anyone regardless of religion, ethnicity, or socio-economic standing. This work is the objectification of this reality. The wings and eyes are created from the pages holding these 1000 names. The rest of the work is made from objects found during quarantine.
“School custodian and steppin’ aficionado.”
“Engineer forever chasing the wind.”
“Transgender immigrant and activist.”
“Surgeon who separated conjoined twins.”
“Survived being shot in the line of duty.”
“Always looking out for others.”
One thousand descriptors, bringing into focus a miniscule monster that held no bias or favor for any group. COVID 19 would rear its ugly head and devour anyone regardless of religion, ethnicity, or socio-economic standing. This work is the objectification of this reality. The wings and eyes are created from the pages holding these 1000 names. The rest of the work is made from objects found during quarantine.
Jessica Baker, 2002 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I create thematic series of individual artworks and installations that explore the ephemeral nature of art. Since New York State’s lockdown in March 2020, my work has become decidedly more personal with artworks that reflect the loss of loved ones due to the pandemic and the divisive social and political atmosphere in this country. The pandemic and ensuing challenges have left an indelible mark on my life. Making art has provided some solace, allowing me to express my experience of these turbulent times through the creative process.
My digital artwork “us” marks the first time I created an artwork using a drawing manipulated digitally to produce the final image that was then commercially printed as banners for two separate outdoor installations. Since traditional galleries have been closed or are limiting access due to safe distancing protocols, I was excited to create art that anyone could view safely outside.
My digital artwork “us” marks the first time I created an artwork using a drawing manipulated digitally to produce the final image that was then commercially printed as banners for two separate outdoor installations. Since traditional galleries have been closed or are limiting access due to safe distancing protocols, I was excited to create art that anyone could view safely outside.
Roberley Bell - 2003 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
The series which has emerged, Foreign Objects, during this lockdown reflects both a departure and continuation of my Still Life series. I have become dependent on what is readily available to work with, at times a challenge at times a sense of freedom allowing form to be found in accidental ways. All the component parts of a sculpture are transitory, till they are not, arrangements that in the end become fixed are fluid as they begin. My compositions are formal, the balance becomes fixed as I resolve a sculpture. The works exist as they are; spatial compositions of color, contrasting material textures and distinctive forms straddling the space between representation and abstraction.
My current state of making, the state-of-the-art world, the state of the world, is an infinite uncertainty of being. The future unknown, yet brighter.
My current state of making, the state-of-the-art world, the state of the world, is an infinite uncertainty of being. The future unknown, yet brighter.
Suzanne Benton - 1998 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I’ve been an activist feminist artist since the Second Wave Women’s Movement, Sheltering in place during the pandemic has not boosted my creativity or output because of constant alarm perpetrated by White House actions/non-actions before, and since COVID struck the world. However, when Trump was elected, I began Conscious Woman monoprints depicting a mythical woman’s reaction to that administration’s actions. The series continued until March, 2020. The three submitted monoprints are the last of that series.
The first Conscious Woman, titled Shift, became a giclee fundraiser for the St Petersburg Women’s solidarity March of January 21, 2017 that I founded and organized with my Steering Committee. 25,000 peaceful marchers came. I soon after received the ACLU Civil Liberties Award for my efforts.
Biden’s election brought a more peaceful state of mind and my output increased. Hopeful works had begun to emerge though Potus’s continues mayhem has again slowed me down.
The first Conscious Woman, titled Shift, became a giclee fundraiser for the St Petersburg Women’s solidarity March of January 21, 2017 that I founded and organized with my Steering Committee. 25,000 peaceful marchers came. I soon after received the ACLU Civil Liberties Award for my efforts.
Biden’s election brought a more peaceful state of mind and my output increased. Hopeful works had begun to emerge though Potus’s continues mayhem has again slowed me down.
Laura Bidwa - 2003 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
The pandemic started at a time when my life had been particularly difficult for a year already. I thought “Great, I’m WAY ahead on this because I’m already an expert at being completely dislocated and ruptured!” But of course, the rupture deepened. Over the summer, I found myself looking so much at the stars. I made some work that imagined the stars mapping out other kinds of drawings. Touching the paper in all the different ways helped keep my body alive to the kind of sensation I need for my whole studio practice (ok, my whole life!) and using ink felt really satisfyingly epistolary in such an isolated time. The pandemic has brought the hard questions about how one should conduct a life as an artist and whether art is even needed at all right up into daily life for me.
Mariella Bisson - 2001 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
Having been in strict lockdown since March, I have not been free to hike and travel. I used field watercolors and drawings from previous years to make paintings during this difficult year. I have painted specific locations, such as Plattekill Falls (NY), Peekamoose Ravine (NY), and Skinny Dip Falls (NC), on many occasions. Each day is different - the light, the mood, and my responses to landscape are unique to each field painting. I still feel those days as if I were there. This has required a leap of imagination and a fine-tuning of sense memory in order to make new paintings exciting and fresh. I’ve had to set aside feelings of grief and frustration. I’ve had to concentrate on recalling what I saw and felt in past years to bring that immediacy to creating larger works in my studio this year. I miss the waterfalls. I miss the world.
Carrie-Ann Bracco - 2001 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I live in NYC. During the early months of the pandemic, I found it impossible to make art due to constant anxiety and having to adjust to the "new normal" for daily necessities. By May, I was attempting small works, mostly as an exercise to regain focus. In June, I created small monotypes, quick studies that were direct responses to my daily experiences with the pandemic and at Black Live Matter protests. Once the acute stress settled down, the pandemic provided a rare opportunity to more deeply focus on my artwork. The other activities normally competing for my time were gone and I could paint more leisurely, explore methods and fully immerse myself in the process. Creating landscapes was a refuge and an escape from the difficult present moment into more comforting worlds, even if they were only memories and my own invention.
Pat Brentano - 2005 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
During the lockdown, I created work on a table in front of a large window. The discipline of staying in one place, pushed me to look deeper at the native habitat found in my backyard. Using old tablecloths from the 50s, I created collages on paper and canvas. Working for months from my living room, looking out the same picture window, reaffirmed the idea that inspiration is limitless.
The pandemic provided an opportunity to enrolled in the NYSS online drawing course, Finding Abstraction in the Landscape. I worked in my garage using my yard as inspiration. I have learned to slow down, be more observant and value what is already in front of me. I had time to read, write exhibition proposals, explore new ideas and take a good look at my work and career path.
The pandemic provided an opportunity to enrolled in the NYSS online drawing course, Finding Abstraction in the Landscape. I worked in my garage using my yard as inspiration. I have learned to slow down, be more observant and value what is already in front of me. I had time to read, write exhibition proposals, explore new ideas and take a good look at my work and career path.
Karen Bright - 2018 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
Perhaps the silver lining of the pandemic is that it has provided a quarantine state of mind. This is helpful for an artist who needs time away from distractions to focus and create work. That being said, extra time to focus on creating, while at the same time using the act of painting as a means to work through the fear, anxiety, frustration and worry brought on by the pandemic, has been a form of coping.
Before COVID, my work was quieter with the message being more encased in the title, giving the viewer a chance to retrieve their own interpretations and feelings. Since the pandemic, the work is not as quiet; the message is still there and very much focused on the natural world, climate change, and the fragility of life, but the messaging is more direct and angrier, I would think of it as—in your face.
Before COVID, my work was quieter with the message being more encased in the title, giving the viewer a chance to retrieve their own interpretations and feelings. Since the pandemic, the work is not as quiet; the message is still there and very much focused on the natural world, climate change, and the fragility of life, but the messaging is more direct and angrier, I would think of it as—in your face.
m Burgess - 2002 & 2013 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
When we New Yorkers were first quarantined, I found it difficult to focus on my work due to extreme emotions and attempts to assure safety. Sharing home-space without access to studio, I maintained my usual grounding exercise: sitting 20 minutes without thinking. It was still difficult to prevent disruptive thoughts from returning, so I started singing. Knowing it would be awhile before I could approach my usual work, I changed my process entirely with a simple project: painting mythological healers while I warbled. As Japanese legend has it, the Amabie sea-creature and landbound Amabiko are prophetic critters gifted with the ability to heal. It is said that keeping an image of them in your home can protect you from epidemics. When some friends got the virus and others worried, I texted them these images, which became a welcome form of support. As time wears on, this project is gaining complexity.
Linda Byrne - 2006 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
As the pandemic began, I became unemployed and my art studio was closed. Moving my art making space to our small dining room table, I struggled. At the same time I was caretaking my mom with little energy left to focus on art. I managed to make a small mail art piece and spent several hours most days walking an ever widening area of where I live, taking pictures of all the closed storefront signs as an ode to the compromised city. When an open call came from Drawing Rooms, a gallery in Jersey City, for interpretations of prayer flags for an online exhibition and catalog called Prayers For The Pandemic, I was inspired to make physical art again. That experience influenced my style, resulting in a series on endangered trees. This new focus came from a needed hike in nature combined with the news of the devastating forest fires.
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