Bushwick open Studios

I was fortunately dislodged from my apartment by art gang to go to Bushwick open studios this Saturday.  What a great couple of hours.  I am so lucky to have my friend, Eleanor, who although not an artist herself, is a relentless appreciator of the arts, and a tireless sender of emails about local events.  Here are some highlights: 

Nick Greenwald—Walls covered with intricate graphite drawings. Human charactaes with bulging eyes and forced perspective. Complex intricate compositions with the details in the background so detailed and minute, I had to wonder how he accomplished it. But the real treat was further in the back...tiles of venetian plaster coated in many layers of graphite and polished to a high sheen...some burnished with wax, so that they shone with a mesmerizing steely luster. He was generous with descriptions of his process and answered all our many questions. Figures the best artist of the day is the one that has no website.

Dwightcassin.com --Before going into Dwight's studio, we discussed the etiquette involved with walking into an artists private space and what the interaction should be like. I felt a little guilty about treating the last few like galleries.  The artists are right there and part of the experience is to interact with them.  Dwight's work features wooden biomorphic assemblages embellished with “pin nails”. We loved their colorful playfulness, and the four of us sat and chatted with him for a bit. 

Another artist, Hunter Renolds, makes art about living through the aids epidemic in the 80s. Although postcards fanned out on a table showed him in his early years, a handsome, young, and brazenly wearing a tutu on the steps of the nyc public library . He said Giuliani made nudity legal for the day, knowing the gays would be doing it anyway, and didn't want to be bothered with policing them. The man in front of us, however, had a  disfigured face. His nose appeared to have completely come off and had been reattached as a twisted  band of flesh that was fastened to his forehead. You could see openings in his face where it had come unattached. We barely noticed though, because we were enjoying his banter and his encaustic art, which was of special interest to us since we had just taken the encaustic workshop for my birthday. 

@heajungpaints

@heajungpaints