DRAWING CHALLENGE XIV
We are pleased to announce Ken Buhler, Elisa Decker, Laura Karetzky, and Tara Mahapatra as the featured contestants of our Drawing Challenge XIV, which was inspired by the following words from Jack Whitten's "Notes From the Woodshed" published in 2018. We would like to thank the artist Barbara Friedman for submitting these lines.
“I want this raw material to be my playpen… a means of doing anything I wish…to exercise every fantasy, myth, every feeling of the absurd within my grasp."
Laura Karetzky, A Foot Between Us, 2020, oil on wood, 8 x 10 inches
My painting is a play with raw materials, an exercise of alchemy, as a means of dialog between the actual with the virtual.
- Laura Karetzky, 2020
@LKaretzky
www.LauraKaretzky.com
Elisa Decker, Rust Assemblage, 2020, 3 x 5 x 1/8 inches
The sidewalk of New York City is my playpen. Much of the raw material for my photographs and assemblages is found there. Often I photograph what I see in situ, but sometimes I pick up objects that call out to me (something Whitten mentioned in his Notes). I look at these objects for a long time and play around with them long before they turn into anything. I get pleasure just looking at them as they are.
- Elisa Decker, 29 September 2020
www.elisadecker.org
Ken Buhler, Faithful Compass Series: The Rhône, 2020, watercolor and metal leaf on Rives BFK, 42 x 32 inches
Tara Mahapatra, Vortex, 2016, ink on paper, 20 x 26 inches
I enjoy drawing so much because I have the freedom to draw anything I can imagine, and sometimes also things I can’t even imagine. Jack Whitten’s words reminded me of my drawing “Vortex”. The drawing depicts form-giving forces in action. These immanent driving forces can’t be seen, but they can be sensed. In my drawings, I explore the dynamic process of physical manifestations and the creative potential for change.
- Tara Mahapatra, 2020
www.taramahapatra.com
Jennifer Viola, Mess, 2019, gouache, graphite, acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches
www.jenniferviola.com
Marie Schoeff, Autograph #28, ink on paper made by the artist, 8 inches diameter
www.marieschoeff.com
Lisa Hess Hesselgrave, Pilgrim on Crimson Cliff, charcoal and mixed media on tinted paper, 17 x 14 inches
www.lisahesselgrave.com
@hess.hesselgrave
John McDevitt King, Central, 2018, encaustic and randomly poured encaustic on panel, 24 x 18 inches
www.johnmcdevittking.com
Mirjana Ciric, cardboard box, scotch tape and paper, 16 x 12 x 22 inches
www.mirjanaciric.com
Tony Moore, Resonator, 2020, wood-fired ceramic, slip, 17 x 20 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches
www.TonyMooreArt.com
Soonae Tark, Uprising, 2020, acrylic, cut paper on paper, 24 x 18 inches
www.soonaetark.com
Julie Shapiro, Stopover, 2020, acrylgouache, colored pencil, monoprint, 39 x 38 1/2 inches
www.julieshapiroart.com
@julieshapirostudio
Moses Hoskins, Untitled, 2018, painting & drawing media on sutured 3/4 inch plywood scraps from a neighbor lady's scrap barrel, 25 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches
www.moseshoskins.net
Cody Jones, Mountain Bluebird, 2020, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches
www.codyjonesart.com
Ute Hoffritz, Diwan, 2019/20, papermaché, paper, wood and wire, 10 x 24 1/2 x 9 inches
www.ute-hoffritz.de
Josette Urso, Amber Sun, 2019, watercolor on paper, 22 x 30 inches
www.josetteurso.com
“I make drawings and watercolors in the most present of tenses with a playful sense of purpose, an exploratory urgency and a “moment-to-moment” focus. Place and space are malleable substances and I manipulate them acrobatically in a kind of gymnasium of mark making governed by intuitive leaps of scale, color, and wayward geometry.”
Jo Wood-Brown
www.jowoodbrown.com
”I find that my work comes to life not through the creation of the sylphs themselves, but rather through the insertion of these figures in the world around me. During shelter-in-place, I found myself wandering the city with a couple of sylphs in the hopes of finding a location in which they could be placed. The kneeling sylph in the attached photo was painted as an homage to Colin Kaepernick's protest. Finding this particular ship at the South Street Seaport was entirely serendipitous; I had not planned to pair this figure with this location, but a random confluence of events brought them together. I feel that the collision of imagery—at the same time magical, truthful, and absurd—responds to the above quote.”
Suejin Jo, Studio in the Time of Pandemic, 2020, oil and acrylic on canvas, 25 x 36 inches
www.suejinjo.com
www.instagram.com/suejinjo
”’Studio in the Time of Pandemic’ is loaded with ideas of pushing the walls for an exit. As a prisoner of Pandemic my mind is even more active seeking intense colors and complex forms throwing lines out of the boundary of the canvas. As an artist I use everything as a row material, everything that finds me in my path of life. Pandemic is no exception.”
Stephanie Franks, Interior Observations 1 - From My Space To His, 2018, charcoal graphite & pastel on paper, 43 x 46 1/2 inches
www.stephaniefranks.net
@steffifranks
Aga Ousseinov, The Ship of Babel (Kite), 2015, ink, gouache and pastel on paper, 46 x 24 inches
www.agaousseinov.com
“Kites are the earliest flying machines used for wars, games and for delivering visual messages. In these works, I chose a slow way to “deliver” messages that contrasts the chaos of visual information on the web. These kites are inspired by the aesthetic of early modernist travel posters from the 1920-30s and made to point to a series of urgent questions. These questions are addressing the crisis that humanity is facing at the moment. The crisis is not a tragedy: in fact, our lives are possible because humanity is in a constant crisis. The crisis encourages us to improve our knowledge and skills. There is a constant need to learn and improve our lives; we are like children who get excited while playing with kites in the park. Our lives become more meaningful while we can play and entertain ideas and move toward improvement."
Mina Cohen, Petroglyph, encaustic, acrylic, oil paint, oil stick, watercolor on canvas, 12 x 20 inches
Deanna Sirlin, Mapping, 2020, mixed media on paper, 12 x 6 inches
www.deannasirlin.com
”My artwork is about choice and engagement with all aspects of my life: conceptual, perceptual, external and internal, physical and emotional, in and out of the studio. The painting is a world where I enact all my dramas and emotions as filtered through memory and meditation. Each gesture, each layer of color I spread is specifically meaningful to me. Each subsequent stroke, I respond to what is already there and what it means, a chess game where one move instigates the next. I am primarily interested in color and in exploring the ways dialogue between color and shape or mark can change the meaning of color in the context of painting.”
Friederike Oeser, NEMO, Cut-Out, aluminum panels, high gloss car paint, neon tape, 81 x 59 x 27 1/2 inches
www.friederike-oeser.de
Nancy Berlin, Constant Revisioning, 2020, mixed media on found paper, 18.5 inches x 24 inches
www.nancyberlinart.com
Alicia Rothman, Uninhabited VI, 2020, oil and handcut stencils on wood, 8 x 10 inches
www.aliciarothman.com
Mary McFerran
www.marymcferran.com
Alice Zinnes, An Open Center Speaks to The Clouds, oil on canvas, 36 x 44 inches
www.AliceZinnes.com
”My painting was inspired by one of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Ovid’s story a mortal dreams and strives for his deepest love and passion, a journey reminiscent of Whitten’s quote about creating whatever the imagination might conceive.”
Dane Goodman, Untitled, ink, color pencil on paper, 12 x 8 3/8 inches
www.estradafineart.com
Susan Mastrangelo
@Susankmastrangelo
www.susanmastrangelo.com
Fran Shalom, Untitled, 2020, oil on canvas
www.franshalom.com
Nina Meledandri, Portrait of My Studio, 2020, archival inkjet print, 20 x 26 1/2 inches
gallery.meledandri.com