DRAWING CHALLENGE IX
We are thrilled to announce Cynthia Hartling, Therese Tripoli, and Jennifer Viola as the featured contestants of our Drawing Challenge IX
which was inspired by the the following excerpt from Maya Angelou's poem 'A Brave and Startling Truth', which she wrote for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations in 1995:
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
Cynthia Hartling, We The People, 2017, oil on unstretched linen, 66 x 83 inches
”Starting with earth toned linen to inform my palette, harkening back to a reverence for the natural world, I wanted to use color as my voice to speak about racial inequalities. I chose the oblong shape, using variations of the color brown as catalyst, while adding other human flesh tones to represent the harmony of all races, together as one.”
- Cynthia Hartling, 2020
www.cynthiahartling.com
Therese Tripoli, En Route to Davenport, 2017, watercolor and thread on paper, 9 x 6 1/2 inches
“In my work, I am interested in creating a surface or form that i an intersection of body, memory and land - a notated landscape. I build my surfaces through mark making, color and texture. I often use knots, including some made by boaters and some woven by birds in nest-making, a metaphor for the labor of building and rebuilding. Human anatomy, the sense of place and moment are the framework of my practice, where the search for person history is a source of meaning. My interest is to reconstruct events and emotions lost with the passing of life.”
- Therese Tripoli, 2020
Jennifer Viola, Double Dazzle, 2016, Acrylic, gouache, watercolor, ink, pen on paper, 22 x 30 inches
“A double self-portrait from behind, I am my own twin here. We are unable to see what lies ahead wait through the uncertainty together, Me and I. Whatever it is that is presenting itself is important, and/or precious and/or scary and/or ecstatic. We'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully we are not blind by then.“
Suejin Jo, Swimming in Phosphorescent Sea, 2018, oil and acrylic on canvas, 42 x 30 inches
Joan Wadleigh Curran, Arch, 2018, charcoal and pastel on paper, 30 x 22 1/2 inches
“My work explores the relationship of nature and the urban environment. In my drawings vegetation and man-made artifacts intertwine to present tangible evidence of conflicting human values. I find my subject in the margins of my everyday experience where the discarded and the overlooked have a special poignancy for me.”
- Joan Wadleigh Curran, 2020
www.joanwadleighcurran.com
Friederike Oeser, From the New York New York Series UNITED NATIONS, 2019, original screen print on digital photo collage, single work, paper size 27 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches
"There is always a lot of activity going on when you walk past the United Nations buildings on First Avenue in New York City. My friends live close by and sometimes you can hear the angry, shouting voices of people nearby arguing in protest of injustice. This huge building, symbolic of hope and power yet distant from reality, seems to absorb all the problems of humanity...the people who shout in front of it all too real. I tried to express hope, power and severity in this artwork which shows an abstraction of the entrance to the United Nations Headquarters."
- Friederike Oeser, 2020
www.friederike-oeser.de
Walter Markham, Strings Attached, 2020, mixed media with sand and shoelaces, 18 x 17 inches
Alicia Rothman, Uninhabited 2, 2020, oil and handmade stencils on panel
www.aliciarothman.com
Nancy Azara, Crow and Sandal 9, mixed media with mylar and paper, 22 x 30 inches
Jackie Meier, Splice, watercolor on paper, 9 1/2 x 10 inches
www.Jackiemeier.com
Tony Moore, Fire Painting 14. 11.18, 2018, wood-fired ceramic, glass, 15 x 22 ½ x 2 ½ inches
www.TonyMooreArt.com
Leonor Mendoza, In Anita's hands all bloom. 2020, drawing without paper
www.leonormendoza.com
Alice Zinnes, Cascades of The Night, pen and ink on paper, 2 ¾ x 4 ¼ inches
www.AliceZinnes.com
Linda Stillman, Circle Out, 2020, collaged leaves on paper, 14 x 11 inches
www.lindastillman.com
J.Costa, Lonely, hand-printed relief on paper, 24 x 18 inches
”Crippling fear; isolating. Alone. Inside, looking out. The world swirling, changing.”
Susan Moss, Colorsphere 2, 2019-20, oil and oil crayon on canvas, 86 x 76 inches
www.susanhmoss.com
Elisa Decker, The Possible, 2020, archival pigment print, 9 3/4 x 13 inches
www.elisadecker.org
Gloria Fiero, Covid series number 6, 2020, acrylic, 18 x 20 inches
Carol Warner, Another Sky, 2020, acrylic on paper, 22 x 28 inches
www.carolwarnerstudio.com
Carlos Mendoza, Inner, 2020
”The night in NY is a whirlpool.”
Robert G. Edelman, Once Around, 2020, ink, charcoal, pastel on paper, 14 x 17 inches
www.robertgedelman.com
Martin Mullin, Waiting Week IX, 2020, charcoal/Flashe/Paper, 42 x 36 inches
www.martinmullin.com
Peter Schroth, March, 2020, Solvent on Magazine, 9 x 12 inches
Lisa Taliano, Shorakapok, 2020, mixed media, 9 x 12 inches
www.taliano.com
”Shorakapok is the original name of Inwood Hill Park, the last natural forest in Manhattan. Since our lives have been put on pause, I've enjoyed getting to know the trees in this park, and find comfort in these woods, reconnecting to the city through the earth that supports it and its layered history – sometimes violent and dishonorable but always ready to reinvent itself. The ink in the drawing was made from boiling the fallen oak leaves of the park trees.”
Julie Shapiro, Reach, 2019, cut and collaged carborundum aquatint monoprints, 28 x 21 inches
www.julieshapiroart.com
“This poem implies a sense of and need for strength. This piece was not made directly from the poem, but I found it evoked what felt like the right response through color and drawing, the clear-cut edges and the given and possible connections and conjunctions. The open spaces within the form allow for the possibility of extending the image in relation to what is physically behind it, this also felt right.”