When: Sunday, January 17th, Noon til 9pm

Where: CastleBraid 114 Troutman Street (between Central and Evergreen) Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY J/M/Z to Myrtle-Bwy or L to Morgan Ave.

$10 min. suggested donation at the door

RSVP: http://www.castlebraid.com/haiti

50,000 feared dead 3,000,000 injured or homeless and the ground’s still moving. COME OUT FOR THE CAUSE! Dancing, Drinks, Donations ALL PROCEEDS from the event go to the EMERGENCY RELIEF EFFORTS OF THE RED CROSS

***All ages! (21+ to drink) ENTRY INCLUDES: ***Happiness that you’re HELPING! ***Brooklyn Brewery OPEN BAR! ***Free RAFFLE TICKET! (***more can be purchased for more chances to win while donating to the RED CROSS for HAITI) ***

Performances by: Jaleel Bunton of TV on the Radio Yellowbirds (myspace/yellowbirds) Aman Ellis (soundcloud.com/amanellis) VulpesVulpes (www.sonicbids.com/vulpesvulpes) Green Street Records (greenstreetrecords.blogspot.com) Photon Dynamo & the Shiny Pieces (myspace.com/photondynamo) Ellis Ashbrook (Ellisashbrook.com) My Cousin the Emperor (mycousintheemperor.com) and many more… stay posted! ***Short Film Premieres: Jason and Helena Madera, “The Little Birth that Could” Andrew Raab and Co., “The George Series” ***

2 TIER RAFFLE…. LEVEL 1: $1 CASH tickets will be sold to win Level 1 prizes LEVEL 2: $4.99 “TEXT TO ENTER” donations for Level 2 prizes YOU CHOOSE what you try to win! ALL WINNERS ANNOUNCED & WILL RECEIVE PRIZES @ the event!!! UP FOR GRABS: -8 hours of free engineered recording studio time from Castle Braid (www.castlebraid.com) -Book Package from Mark Batty Publisher (www.markbattypublisher.com) -A cut and color at L’atelier de Laurie (www.latelierdelaurie.com) -Multitude gear & skate deck (www.multitudenyc.com) -Pleasure Chest gift card (www.thepleasurechest.com) -Work generously donated by Artists and MORE! (check back for updates!)***Flipbooth – Get a personalized photo flip book made by Michael Sherriff

$10 min. suggested donation at the door Even if you can’t make it, you can help! Text HAITI to 90999 to make a donation to the Red Cross!

http://www.castlebraid.com/haiti

[Read more →]

It’s been a fantastic year and you’ve helped to make it possible, so thank you!

I’ve gotten married, had my work featured in several exhibits, got a new art studio, revamped my website, started developing a new group of paintings (see one of my latest pieces above), and posted the work of 50 artists at Art in Brooklyn. Thanks for your support and please stay tuned for more exciting events in 2010!

Health and happiness to you and your loved ones in the New Year

[Read more →]

Centerpiece

Multiple Leaf Print

Leaf Relief

Pile of Maples

Ginkgo Leaf Circle

Artist Statement
In 2007, while walking home from my studio on a rainy Fall day and looking down at sidewalks covered with leaves, it occurred to me that the damp, resilient surface of a recently fallen leaf might be able to hold the image of a small, circular copper plate I had recently finished etching. Soon afterwards, I began to experiment with printing on fallen leaves collected from the streets and parks around Brooklyn. As a result, I created an initial series of single and multiple leaf print arrangements using circular copper plate etchings and Plexiglas plates in various combinations to print etchings, monotypes and monoprints directly on the leaves. Several of the arrangements contained leaves with no prints on them at all and some I attached to small branches and suspended with fishing wire to create three-dimensional leaf mobiles.

In 2008, I continued collecting leaves, and began to print monotypes on paper, monotypes directly on leaves, and soft ground etchings of leaves on leaves, while continuing to create new leaf arrangements and mobiles. By the Spring of 2009, I started collecting hundreds of Samara seeds produced by budding Maple Trees and used them to create new monotypes.

I am interested in how the use of the leaves and Samara seeds to make prints on paper removes the plants from their usual context and imbues them with a permanence that does not exist in the natural world. I use multiple plates and colors, along with carefully executed arrangements, endeavoring to make intricate, multi-layered images and patterns that transcend the singular identity of the individual leaf or seed. Yet, somehow I am preserving the memory of each plant’s passage through the world, even while interrupting nature’s intent.

I am also interested in the process of how the leaves are transformed into art objects. I use the botanist’s method of drying and flattening the leaves to preserve them, but they are not chemically treated. Interestingly, a similar technique is used by printmakers to dry and flatten dampened paper after printing. Dried plants can last for hundreds of years, but they have a limited life span. Eventually, the leaves I’ve used will decompose, but the decomposition is designed to be an ongoing and evolving feature of the artwork and functions as a metaphor for life as well as for art.

By using a leaf that has fallen from a tree in November or a seed that has fallen from a Maple Tree in May, I endeavor to capture a moment in the growth and life cycle of a tree and to convey its transient beauty. It is perhaps this ongoing transformation through the inexorable passage of time, this mirroring of life, that has the greatest effect on me.

Biography
Jessica Baker lives and works in Brooklyn, where she collects her materials from the streets and parks of Brooklyn, and creates all of her own prints on a table-top etching press in her studio near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Her artwork has been presented in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally.

Jessica will create her first installation, Seasonal Fall, opening December 4, 2009 in the window of the Soapbox Gallery in Brookyn. From June – August of 2009, Jessica’s work was featured in the exhibit The Nature of Being curated by the Flanders Art Gallery in Raleigh, NC for the Greenhill Center for the Arts in Greensboro, NC. From January – March of 2009, Jessica’s prints and leaf prints were featured in the exhibition Ancient Echoes in Contemporary Printmaking at the Hofstra University Museum in Long Island, NY. In 2008, Jessica’s mixed media leaf work and circular prints were featured in two solo exhibitions, Leaf Circle Line at the Lifebridge Foundation in Rosendale, NY and Leaf & Circle, at the Prospect Park Audubon Center at the Boathouse in Brooklyn, NY. In 2007 and 2008, her work was exhibited at the Galería Nacional and the Dar(t)do Gallery in San José, Costa Rica, the Flanders Art Gallery in Raleigh, NC, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland’s Gormley Gallery in Baltimore, MD, the George Washington Carver Gallery at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center in Brooklyn, NY, the Monroe Center for the Arts in Hoboken, NJ, the JMS Gallery in Philadelphia, PA and the Arlington Art Gallery in Poughkeepsie, NY. In 2006, Jessica’s work was featured in a traveling exhibition, Four Points of View: Figuration in Printmaking, presented at the Galería Naciona in San José, Costa Rica and the Dutchess Community College’s Washington Art Gallery in Poughkeepsie, NY.

In 2007, Jessica was awarded membership in the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA). In the past five years, Jessica has been awarded three artistic residencies at Weir Farm in CT, Skagway National Historic Site in Alaska, and The David and Julia White Artists’ Colony in Costa Rica. In May 2005, she was awarded an etching fellowship at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.  Her work has been collected privately and is also in a number of public collections.

Website

http://www.jessicabaker.net

Upcoming Exhibit
Seasonal Fall, will be presented by the Soapbox Gallery at 636 Dean St. between Carlton & Vanderbilt Avenues in Brooklyn.  It can be viewed daily from 12 – 10 p.m., December 4 – 17.  During the opening reception on Dec. 6 from 4 – 7 p.m., attendees are invited into the gallery for refreshments and an exhibit of additional artwork by Baker, as well as the related sculptural work of Soapbox Gallery founder, Jim Greenfield.

[Read more →]

Little Swimmer, 20”x30”

Entering Neverywhere, 48”x48”

Artist Statement
This series of oils on canvas and wood panels explores Desire. It examines how the things we lust after gain our interest and how our imaginations process them. Color, movement and light are tools Life uses to attract attention. Emotions run through the landscapes in the form of teardrops. Colorful balls are planets, meteors, and objects to be collected. Here, in the pseudo-sexual circus-world of Neverywhere, one-eyed flowers, myopic slugbunnies and painted women are both the main attractions and the audience as they passively experience the world from the safest place of all – inside their own shells.

Artist Bio
Rick Midler’s paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries throughout the United States, including the Brooklyn Artists Gym,
The OmniGallery at the UBS Building, The Art Vanguard Gallery and the Premiere Wall at Crew Cuts Space.

In addition, his work is in private and corporate collections, including those of Big Foote Music, Triple Nine Entertainment and Audio Alchemy in Warwick, NY.

Among various other awards, Mr. Midler received an Emmy for a short film which appeared on HBO and honors at The London International Festival. His work as been published in Communication Arts, Creativity Magazine, The One Show Annual and The New York Times.

His artwork and creative direction helped bring the animated M&M’s characters to life. Throughout his commercial career he worked for companies such as FedEx, Pizza Hut and AT&T. Midler also worked with top names in the entertainment business, such as Spike Lee, John Turturro, Ashton Kutcher, Fran Drescher, Roseanne, Megan Mullally, Jack Palance, Stanley Tucci, Elijah Wood, Forest Whitaker and Sydney Pollack.

Rick Midler was born in Clifton, NJ in 1966. He received a B.S. in Visual Communications from University of Delaware in 1988. He currently lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with his wife Samara and son Jude The Dude.

Website
http://www.RickMidler.net

[Read more →]

Here’s some photos from this weekend’s annual Art Under The Bridge Festival in DUMBO. My pick for most unique setting is Gleason’s Gym at 77 Front Street. Gleason’s is an old school boxing gym and they’re featuring mosaics by Grace Baley. In addition, Grace worked with several of the female boxers to create a series of work whose sales will benefit Girls for Gender Equity. Great work and a great cause.

[Read more →]

A PATH FOR THE LIGHT, Installation, A.L.I.C.E. Gallery, Brussels, Belgium June 11 – August 22, 2009

BLACK HOLE INFORMATION PARADOX, 144 x 72″, triptych, acrylic on canvas and wood panel. Detail from SEXY GAZEBO at Cinders Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, February 2009

HANDS ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, 84 x 60″, acrylic on canvas
This painting was made in collaboration with Iman’s aura, who’s image was projected by video artists, Coodie & Chike.

Artist Bio (courtesy Cinders Gallery)
Maya Hayuk is a muralist, painter, photographer, printmaker, curator, player of records, writer, performer, collector, Barnstormer, video maker, documentarian and lover of life who’s lives in Brooklyn, New York by way of San Francisco, Baltimore, Boston and Toronto. From her large-scale murals to small works on paper her obsession with symmetry and her collection of images of mandalas, playing cards, hexes, totem poles, Ukrainian Easter eggs, quilts and bandanas play out in works that espouse the traditional as well as the innovative. Embracing both sexuality and spirituality via symbolism evocative of radiantly woven geometries to the beckoning parted orifices of the body, there is something very classic rock, punk folk rainbow peace, freak out about Maya Hayuk that is very hard to put a finger on, but really it’s all about love. Her vividly bold geometric works evoke the process towards continuity and wholeness whose forces seem bent on maintaining the triumph of this love over evil. Along with her solo work, Hayuk frequently collaborates with other artists and musicians.

Website
http://www.mayahayuk.com

Upcoming Exhibit
Circle of Plenty
Sept 11 – Oct 11
Opening Reception Sept 11 from 7-10pm
Cinders Gallery
103 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
http://www.cindersgallery.com

[Read more →]