#engagingartists

[engagingartists-blog]

Engaging Artists Resident: David Wallace

What inspires your art making practice? My art practice is inspired by people I care about who challenge and teach me to see both myself and the world critically and courageously, and who expect me to try and share the way I’m seeing the world in a way that is both complex and accessible. What are you working on currently? Currently I’m working on a writing project that reflects on my experience as a volunteer. Outside of the residency I’m also creating a series of video portraits in which I ask people to pose for a few minutes in public space while they hold a model MQ-1 Predator Drone. I share with the participants that the project is exploring questions of surveillance, remote warfare, and violence, and I ask them what their thoughts are on these issues. Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering?

I volunteer at St. Xavier’s Homeless Shelter. Every week I help clean the shelter where 18 men make their home for the night. I help clean the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the sleeping room areas. After that I help clean the cafeteria where 900-1500 people eat every day. I wipe down tables, clean and stack chairs, and mop the floor. Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering. My current goal as a volunteer is to clean things. I do maintenance and I try and make things clean and well maintained for the people using them. What would you like to accomplish during Engaging artists? During my time with Engaging Artists I would like to come to a better understanding of what it means to be a volunteer in New York City. I’d like to look critically at why volunteers are needed and how volunteers think of ourselves and how others think about us in our roles as volunteers. I’d like to try and find a respectful way to offer my skills and labor to folks that might need them. I’d like to learn more about the structural issues that cause homelessness. I’d like to feel like I’ve gotten to know New York City in a deeper way when I’m done with this residency. I'm not sure how my experiences as a volunteer will translate into art. I don’t want to force anything. I’m feeling right now that I might do something simple like a little book of writing or video essay about my experiences cleaning toilets, washing counters, and mopping, which takes into account the various research I’m doing about the structural issues that cause homelessness.

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Engaging Artists Resident: Julia A Rooney

What inspires your art making practice?



It might sound redundant to say that painting inspires my practice of painting – but it’s true. Of course, as a subject-driven painter, concrete images and ideas inevitably become central to my painting, and do often provide the initial spark for me to start. But really (in a more long-term way), it is the activity itself that keeps me doing it. The endless possibilities of what can happen in a painting – from chaos to structure – keep me going.As for those specific subjects that have been driving me the past few years, they include: urban maps; the interplay of architecture and foliage; detritus and wearing facades; portraiture; found photographs; the mail as a medium; the kitchen; and city pavement. From a material perspective, I am investigating the following: the absorbency of plaster as a painting surface; the materiality of 35mm slides; the fragility of ceramic tiles; and the durability of oil paint. What are you working on currently?

I’ve been painting faces since 2011, the year I returned to New York. The paintings capture this city’s long-term residents – artists, friends and colleagues of mine – in moments of disclosure, longing, anticipation and recollection. They are inspired from conversations and collaborations we shared – their stories, aspirations and regrets about what New York has become and is becoming. They are sourced from 35mm slides, Polaroids, head shots and film stills, which I shot myself or culled from the archives of these collaborators. As I work, I am both painting and arranging the paintings: pairing them into diptychs, ordering them on a wall. I am interested in the questions that arise from these arrangements. Is this the same sitter? Is this a narrative sequence? What span of time has passed? These paintings are a form of question-making, recording and reinventing -- portraits of NY residents, their stories and their moments of telling them. Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering?

This past week, I volunteered through NY Cares at St. Bart’s church on 51st street. I helped cook a meal for about 200 guests, and then served it during their breakfast shift. In the coming weeks, I hope to partner with CAMBA, and the Bowery Mission Women’s Center to do more one-on-one, arts-based activities with the women there. Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering.

My hope is to develop an arts-based program that has continuity for the participants and myself. I imagine this taking the form of weekly workshops – a type of open studio, where women can drop-in at the same time of each week and work on a project there. As an artist, I see myself providing guidance and resources, but essentially allowing the women to explore projects independently. Creating a safe space where they can express themselves visually, vocally and performatively is my goal. I believe consistency is important: having them know that this space is theirs, and will be there for them at the same time each week. What would you like to accomplish during Engaging Artists?


For me, this residency is about people – the other resident artists, the populations we volunteer with, the weekly guest speakers, and residency’s organizers/founders. While I have specific project ideas, my underlying hope is to begin a meaningful collaboration that can be maintained well past the 6 weeks. Long-term, I want to find a sustainable balance between my own studio practice (often a solitary one), and my desire for a more publicly involved form of art-making and sharing. I hope this residency lays some groundwork for achieving this balance.

[engagingartists-blog]

Engaging Artists Resident: Dato Mio

What inspires your art making practice?

Inspiration comes from many different places. Reading, walking, memories, and things I hear people say. I work in projects where I can investigate forms and concerns I have.

What are you working on currently?

I have an ongoing collage project exploring the beginning of the 21st Century. The collages are both visual and text pieces on paper, boards, canvas, and wood. I also make collages directly on a flatbed scanner. I continue working on my project "Manufacturing a New Value System for Harlem" which includes photography, video, text, and performance. This project is about gentrification and I began it in 2010. "Una Vida Secreta" (A Secret Life) is a photo project (B&W and Color) exploring my own personal history and poetics. I will begin editing a film this summer.

Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering?

I am working with the Washington Heights Men's Shelter. I will also be volunteering with City Harvest in Washington Heights and other places in the coming weeks.

Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering

I'm looking forward to connecting with the people I meet and assisting them in any way I can. I am always interested in learning and challenging my own notions about people and ideas. I'm excited about workshops I may begin leading in a week or so, but I'm more excited about what will emerge naturally form the residents. I have been told that several of the residents are into art so I'm thinking about it as a collaboration. Ultimately, I am hoping to continue working with the men's shelter after the residency dates and developing some more art with the residents.

What would you like to accomplish during Engaging Artists?

I'd like to have some meaningful interactions with the people I'm working with. I would like to walk away from the residency with more knowledge about survival within the human condition. I would love to make some art that reflects some of the issues that are emerging from this process.

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Engaging Artists Resident: Kate Weigel

What inspires your art making practice? I think about the ways that the notion humanity is manifested. I am inspired by the fact that no person can truly grasp the idea of infinity and about that loneliness that is inherent in being human. Themes of futility and mortality as they relate to the human life span run through my work as well as our relationships to technology and the internet. What are you working on currently? I am currently working on some cast glass sculptures and a large scale installation for the New York Poetry Festival in late July. Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering? I have been volunteering with New York Cares organizations and I plan to help out with Common Ground during their barbecues. Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering I think that volunteering should be mutually beneficial. I want to help others but I also think it's important to be introspective and take away a new perspective from the experience. I want to engage with homeless communities and find ways to give them an outlet for creative expression. Mostly I want to have the opportunity to listen and to learn from to their stories. What would you like to accomplish during Engaging Artists? I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and work with people outside of my own social identities. I want to learn from populations that I haven't interacted with before and use the experience to make art that reflects human experiences outside of my own biography.

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Engaging Artists Resident: Corinne Cappelletti

What inspires your art making practice?

Environmental injustice and socio-economic devision. Public behaviors and patterns of interaction, flow and movement with one another and our environment. Stories, life experiences and personal concerns that are shared among strangers as well as long-term friends, neighbors and lovers. Group dynamics. Interaction between people and the emotional/energetic terrain as well as within the physical environment. Parks. Access to public spaces. Urban culture's attitudes towards and interaction with nature. The resilience of people and plants. The rebellion of weeds and nature in general. What makes people resistant verses open. What makes people expressive or detached.

What are you working on currently?

I am developing curriculum for two different collaboratives. One is a group collaborative with 6 people. We are working on educators curriculum in museums. Time is our medium. The other is a dance collaborative with one other dancer/choreographer/body worker. We are developing our curriculum called IMPRINT, which brings consciousness to our movement choices and our body systems through touch. We are writing a 6 week curriculum with middle-school aged people in Red hook to develop their understanding of body systems and experiential anatomy, to increase and explore our range of expression and interaction with the trees in the neighborhood, and to investigate our relationship to the group, our selves and the community.

Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering?

I volunteered at Child Development Support Corporation helping sort food and give out food to homeless.I am going to talk with Bianca at Sylvia's Place now about teaching yoga there once a week.Next week I am scheduling an appointment with Alison Fleminger at the University Settlement to discuss possible project ideas.

Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering

Giving my skills, presence and commitment to something, to people and to a community without financial compensation creates a very different kind of exchange. Not only do I learn about unconditional generosity, but I can understand the life situations of different people and understand the landscape of community service organizations and programming.I would like to offer some of my various people-skills such as empathy, keeping a positive attitude and clear communication as well as professional skills while keeping an open mind. I want to enhance my ability /participation with and definition of collaboration, critical discourse, human rights, and community-action

What would you like to accomplish during Engaging Artists?

I would like to set up new relationships within the community and with a partnering organization who I can work with long term. I want to learn and experience how I can participate and learn more about the various communities I can work with, their assets, and their questions and concerns.I hope to discover new ideas for my choreography, in particular for new structures or concepts of interactive dance and walking projects. I hope to learn about the life, goals, ideas and experience of the communities I work with during this period of volunteering. With this, we can build a creative relationship and a healing one as well.I have extensive experience facilitating individuals, and groups through dance, movement improvisation-related workshops, choreographic projects, yoga classes, neighborhood interactive walks as well as a variety of initiatives such as art social justice, stress-management-wellness programs, and place-making. I am a Yoga Instructor, specializing in Restorative Yoga with an interest in rehabilitation and I am also certified in Laban Movement Analysis through my Somatic Movement Therapy training and hold a Masters degree in Modern dance, for which I devised a place-making model through choreography and improvised duration performance.I want to share my knowledge in yoga therapeutics, ayurvedic self-care practices, meditation, and creative arts with an open mind and curious spirit in a consistent, meaningful way I deeply believe that movement and fostering collaborative and individual creative expression can empower, heal and enliven.

[engagingartists-blog]

Engaging Artists Resident: Anna Adler

What inspires your art making practice?

Humans, and this crazy city.

What are you working on currently?

Art Apartment -- an art show with older adults in Morningside Gardens (final part of my SPARC Residency)

Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering?

Common Ground's Domenech House, in Brownsville

Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering

Connect with a community I don't know yet and understand the city through their eyes, make some art, generally, strengthen my sense of place

What would you like to accomplish during Engaging Artists?

Engagement! I'd like to have a sincere exchange with the people I volunteer with/for, find a way to make/show art about the experience and expand my network of artists and others.

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Engaging Artists Resident: Anne Peabody

What inspires your art making practice? 

Life! Things I see on the street, obstacles the planet and I face, hopes, dreams and stories told to me all come out in my work one way or another.

What are you working on currently?

I am working on a piece about a homeless mother and son and their relationship(s) with the 20-30 pigeons they keep in the van they live in.

Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering? 

I have volunteered with St. Xavier Church Food Kitchen, The Bed-Stuy CAH Food Pantry and and at Baby Buggy in Manhattan.

Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering

I am interested in the things that people hang on to, whether it be a pet, an item of clothing, piece of memorabilia or just a memory itself. I am interested in volunteering with as many people as possible in order to see if there are patterns and overlaps in the things people preserve when keeping anything at all becomes very difficult.

What would you like to accomplish during Engaging Artists? 

I would like to volunteer as much as I can, learn the personal stories of as many different people as I can, and hopefully come up with a beautiful and thought-provoking way to showcase these stories.

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Engaging Artists Resident: Anthony Heinz May

What inspires your art making practice?

Its hard to define what inspires my creative practice. Generally speaking, everything in the everyday brings new inspiration and I believe that both external and internal interactions are apart of the core influence in my work. Ideas are precarious and teeter the lines between stubbing my toe on the groggiest of mornings, to intentionally scouring the details of natural and artificial world that surrounds me.

What are you working on currently?

My current projects appropriate nature in the form of recycled/dead/degrading tree trunks and appendages.Through a process of physical deconstruction, I cube (pixelate) raw natural material into equal-sized units and reconstruct forms to appear compromised by the technological maelstrom.These abstracted assemblages identify as digital glitches of nature.

Where are you volunteering now or where will you be volunteering?

I am volunteering through New York Cares and have participated in the All Souls Church Dinner for the hungry/homeless.I have also spent time working with God's Love We Deliver, packaging and arranging home delivery meals for those in need.

Describe your thoughts and goals for volunteering

It is important to help support those communities without a solution for problems we all face.  Food, shelter and employment are not available for everyone in the greater community, and volunteering offers various opportunities for those of us who can offer energy, time and resources to help better circumstances of others who cannot support themselves.

What would you like to accomplish during Engaging Artists?

By offering my time in residency through Engaging Artists I hope to gain a more rounded perspective on the issues that face those communities in need. The residency offers a unique chance to see how the New York City Metropolis deals with the problems of homelessness, hunger and issues that plague marginalized communities displaced by hardship.The initiative is a way for artists to give back to the community at large, and I am pleased to be a part of this process.