Macaulay Seminar One at Brooklyn College

For those that stayed at the memorial when it got dark, they got to see the waterfalls actually light up, including the names a little bit later. This is how it looked:
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Notice in #3 and #5 how with the light, the waterfall on all sides is now a reflection of the rest of the pool, giving each wall ‘depth’. The pool seems much larger now as a result of this mirror effect (thanks to Amanda for pointing it out!).

Hi everyone!

I have lived in Rye, New York my entire life–except now, of course, I am currently in Brooklyn. It is a rather small, unknown town, but one with historical significance nonetheless! It is the location of the Jay Property, for instance, which is the childhood home of John Jay, our nation’s first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The historic 23 acre park is all that remains of the original 400 acre family estate, the centerpiece of which is an 1838 Greek Revival mansion (above). It was built by his son, Peter Augustus Jay, and is, in my opinion, more than just an old building. The architectural detail of the large Corinthian columns make them a work of art in and of themselves.

The property also has a beautiful view of the Long Island Sound and is located next to the Marshlands Conservancy- an example of what I consider to be art in nature. With public trails, the marshlands are a beautiful  place for nature walks and daytime jogs. Thus, it has become a popular and rather iconic spot in Rye, which is why I chose to share it with all of you 🙂

Hello!

I found some beautiful pictures of the architecture in Taishan, China. The buildings look like buildings from ancient Chinese movies. I remember seeing them in an old Bruce Lee film. There are a lot of stairs leading to the buildings because the buildings are usually built on top of mountains. The buildings in my current neighborhood are modern apartment buildings and my family is one the few Chinese families in the neighborhood! The architecture in Taishan really portrays a suburban and simple lifestyle, unlike our current lifestyle. 🙁

There are a lot of mountains and hills in Taishan, so it is only natural to have paintings of them.

Chinese calligraphy (some people consider art) is found on some mountains.

I currently live near 74^th street of Jackson Heights, which is predominantly a South Asian neighborhood. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are many things around the neighborhood that remind me of my hometown of Dhaka, Bangladesh. However, for this assignment, we have to find art and no piece of artwork reminds me more of Dhaka than the lone rickshaw standing near a restaurant on 73^rd street.

You may be wondering how a vehicle such as a rickshaw can be considered art. At first glance, there is nothing artistic about it. However, after closer inspection, you can see that there are various designs and drawings on the seat, back, and hood of the rickshaw.

Source: http://crs-blog.org/bangladesh-message-look-again/

The designs vary from rickshaw to rickshaw, but they are mainly bright and colorful. The artwork serves two purposes: to make the rickshaw look good and to attract potential riders. The reason that rickshaw artwork is such a strong representation of Dhaka is because it is everywhere in the city. No matter where you go in Dhaka, you are bound to see rickshaws and the colorful artwork associated with them. Personally, when I see the rickshaw parked in Jackson Heights, I am reminded of the various times that I rode a rickshaw with my parents in Dhaka.

While rickshaws are the most common, they are not the only artistic vehicles that you will find on the streets of Dhaka. Some buses, for example have colorful designs.

Source: http://www.bengalnewz.com/bangladesh/dhaka/narayanganj/071122666.html

Trucks in Bangladesh are sure to catch your eyes because of their usual bright yellow color as well as a beautifully designed “crown.”

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainerebert/4749545440/

Also, there are vehicles called auto rickshaws, or better known as “baby taxis” to Bangladeshis. Similar to rickshaws, auto rickshaws have different designs.

Source: http://jschenke.tumblr.com/page/2

Source: http://zzeecatt.multiply.com/journal/item/710/For-Mr.-Chippy-…..the-Phat-phaty.

These various designs on vehicles make Bangladesh’s vehicles a unique form of art.

This is the view that I saw from my 9th floor balcony in the beautiful neighborhood of Bensonhurst.

Stunning, isn’t it?

I felt the sudden urge to go out and explore the unknown, though nightfall was rapidly approaching. There beyond the bridge, the rainbow beckoned me. I slipped into my Brooks and got out into the cool breeze fast as I could.

Though it wasn’t forecast to rain, the clouds hovered ominously above. A light drizzle moved south as I made my way down Shore Parkway. Before the first bend in the path, I considered the majestic Verrezano Bridge, a familiar landmark and a beacon to guide me.

As I got closer, the bridge grew bigger and bigger. The rain had ceased, yet my journey was just beginning. With an unobstructed view, I stood in awe.

Soon the lights upon the bridge were lit, and I was beside a true spectacle. Meanwhile the sky grew darker and darker as I was passing through the neighborhood of Dyker Heights.

It was now very dark as I approached the bridge, my ally. From beneath this behemoth of a bridge, I wondered whether to continue the journey or to end it prematurely. Naturally, I didn’t want to turn back. A new frontier lay within my reach. I looked on down the long, pitch black road. Above me was my last safe haven. Without a glimmer of doubt, I pushed on, but not before I bid the Verrazano adieu.

I was now in uncharted territory, uninhibited and alone. My confidence began to waver as I got farther and farther away from the bridge everlasting. The road seemed neverending, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to get back. But there was no turning back. I was commited to discover the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Yes, I could feel a sense of something far greater than myself. The road took a sharp bend to the north, and as I rounded the corner, a city of gold revealed itself. Yes, a miracle of lights, a city that never sleeps, I saw the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

I was not afraid as I came to the end of the road, the American Veterans Memorial Pier in Bay Ridge. On the one side I saw Lower Manhattan, and on the other side, the Verrezano Bridge. What a view!

http://youtu.be/D4a4YHQOC1A

Hi everyone!

These are a couple of photos of Hyderabadi architecture, which (in my opinion) is a major reflection of Hyderabadi art. Like I said in class last week, Hyderabad was a crossroads of Arab, Persian, and classical Indian culture. The architecture reflects Mongolian and Ottoman influences (the Mongols invaded India and ruled for centuries). Note the tall minarets that are so characteristic of Islamic architecture.

This picture is of the Chawmahalla Palace located in the Old City of Hyderabad. Construction of the palace grounds was completed in 1880’s. The palace belonged to the Nizams (or rulers) of Hyderabad long before India gained its independence in 1947. The Chawmahalla Palace received the UNESCO Asia Pacific Merit Award for cultural heritage conservation back in 2010.

This is a picture of Mecca Masjid, which is one of the oldest mosques in Hyderabad and one of the oldest “religious buildings” in India. Prior to the mosque’s completion in 1694, the French explorer John-Baptiste Tavernier stated that Mecca Masjid was at the time, “a splendid pagoda which will be the grandest in all India when it is completed.” According to mapsofindia.com, the main hall of the mosque can accomodate 10,000 worshippers at a single time.

The Charminar was build in 1591 and it is internationally recognized as one of the most well-known structures of India. The name “Charminar” translates to “Four Towers.”

As we began to decide on which exhibits to visit out of the thousands listed in the Brooklyn Go! Art Extravaganza, we decided to start local. We visited the two artists located on the 6^th floor of Boylan Hall, in Brooklyn College. Mitch Patrick and Cecilia Whitaker-Doe were both there, and had two very different types of art. Mitch’s art was fascinating, with multimedia typeface and fonts being used as art and being presented in a truly fascinating way. See image 1. Below. Mitch also had a really interesting worldview on the state of privacy in the Internet, and how everything appears in tableau form to him. He presents it in a very cool way, with computer programming acting as art. A truly new innovation. Cecelia-Whitaker Doe’s art was also really interesting; her work can be seen in image 2 below.

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I visited a total of 13 studios, in the neighborhoods of Ditmas Park, Flatbush, and Prospect-Leffert Gardens. I saw some truly amazing things, from Silvia Maier’s work of giant, 6’ x 8’ detailed portraits of inspiration figures in her life, including her currency series, in which she imposed images of notable black people over coins and monetary items. But the one artist that stands out to me the most, and the one that’s receiving my #1 vote, is Nina Talbot. She makes huge works of art as well, on massive pieces of canvas, but her art tells a story of the Brooklyn she calls home. Having work featured all over the place, from the official Art Gallery of the G.E. building in Connecticut, to private homes and art galleries around the city, she truly bleeds Brooklyn. Born and bred in Brooklyn, she paints in different series to truly capture life. Her series’ are very fluid too; she presents one series of the Vendors of Newkirk Plaza, which are vendors living in her neighborhood that fight against the influx of big box stores. One of her subjects in this series was a Korean War veteran, and that smoothly led her into her next series of 15 works, one on the Veterans of Brooklyn. Her work truly is amazing, from the heart, and full of feeling, and I believe she deserves to win.

Overall, it was a great weekend out in the art-filled streets of Brooklyn. Brooklyn is full of life and character, and I can’t wait to visit more galleries and art as my academic career continues.

Any of the artists we saw would be thrilled and completely deserving of a show in the Brooklyn Museum, and we made sure to wish them all the best of luck on our way out.

Included below are a few other miscellaneous photos taken during the weekend of Brooklyn Go! Art. I have about 120, but couldn’t possibly include them all.

On Saturday Jake and I visited some artist exhibits as part of goBrooklynart. We first headed to Boylan Hall, where there were two studios on display.

Cecilia Whitaker Doe

Cecilia uses a process called Monotyping (?) to create her paintings. Not entirely sure what that means, I could see that several paintings have exactly the same shapes, painted in different colors to create a unique work. My favorites include the following two:

Notice the similarity between the next one and the first one above:

The second artist in Boylan was Mitch Patrick. He focuses on ASCII art and perpetual flash videos. One of his works (shown below) was composed from an entire alphabet of abstract shapes and symbols. Unfortunately, my camera was incapable of producing the definition necessary to distinguish them.

The pieces in the link below are also completely made of letters and symbols.

The most striking image in Mitch Patrick’s catalogue was that of a smartphone taking a picture of a painting on the wall (the phone being held by two anonymous hands). Mitch explained that too many of us are documenting our experiences without actually experiencing them. The person taking the photo is not appreciating the actual work, but is looking through a viewfinder to take a quick snapshot and move on. This was particularly moving, because I’ve had a similar ‘experience’. Videotaping my high school’s choral concerts, I spent the entire time making sure that my friends were in the shot that I wasn’t able to really experience and enjoy the concert. In other words, I spent two+ hours watching a video screen when the performers were right there before my eyes.

Leaving Boylan and heading west, we spent some time admiring Nina Talbot’s collection. In stark contrast to the first two, who were most probably students at Brooklyn College, Nina had layers upon layers of paintings hidden behind the ones on display. It was clear that painting was her life and her passion. The amount of paintings in her house alone could probably fill up half a floor at the Brooklyn Museum.

Nina’s collection is unique in that it is both artistic and biographical. The people that she paints are from her neighborhood and throughout Brooklyn; when she meets an interesting person, she tries to find out more about their life, their history, and eventually makes a portrait of them. Instead of trying to explain, instead I’ll share my favorite painting of hers, from her newest collection of war veterans:

In addition to these three, I also saw two exhibits for whom I failed to get the artist code, as well as two Russian painters from Coney Island. It’s interesting how the Russian painters spent a lot of time painting landscapes (pronounced ‘peizazh’ in Russian), which may be considered more traditional works of art, whereas the other artists (Mitch, Cecilia, and Robert Franka), were a little more creative, and produced abstract pieces.

As I visited these artists, I thought about what the words ‘Art’ and ‘Beauty’ meant to me. There was nothing beautiful in Mitch Patrick’s work, yet there seemed to be an element of art hidden within the endless lines of characters that viewed from afar were somehow meaningful. On the other hand, the ‘peizazhe’ were very beautiful, but they were mere imitations of something that already existed. A sunset on the Dead Sea as viewed from a cliffside may look very nice on canvas, but being physically present, experiencing the sights and sounds and tastes first-hand, is infinitely more satisfying. Is it perhaps that ‘Art’ and ‘Beauty’ are two extremes on a spectrum? That something very beautiful cannot be not very artistic, while the epitome of Art lacks the grace of beauty? I think that is up to debate.

Hi everyone! This past Sunday, I went to visit various studios situated in the Flatbush neighborhood and I’ve got to say that I was REALLY impressed by the artwork that I saw.

Ifirst visited Ernesto Pavone and Chieko Inayama’s joint studio. While Pavone primarily workedwith head sculptures and photo collages his wife Inayama utilized abstract expressionist ideas of space and subject matter. Between the two, I was particularly interested in Inayama’s works because she used a lot of Judeo-Christian imagery in her works  (which made some of her pieces stand out in my mind).

Mitch Patrick, another artist who I visited, used ASCII code to create custom code images, drawings, and digital prints. His works were definitely unlike anything that I have ever seen. I thought that it was really cool that he employed ASCII code to create art that were inspired by random things like “bunch[es] of appropriated images from Tumblr” or “shipping palettes.” Prior to my visit to Patrick’s studio, I did not fully realize how artists draw inspiration from literally, everything.

In the end, my favorite artist was Cecilia Whittaker-Doe. I loved her artwork because she incorporated silk screens and mixed media to depict imagined landscapes. Everything in the studio was nature-oriented and gazing at her artwork gave me a sense of peace and happiness.

This past Sunday, September 9th I participated in the GO Brooklyn Art project. I mainly chose the studios around Brooklyn College (mainly Flatbush) because they were closer to me than the other studios.

The first studio I visited belonged to a artist named David Fry located in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He specialized in mainly “Surreal Art” which is art that is a mix of both fact and fantasy. One of his paintings that stuck out the most was entitled, Hecho Por USA.

The painting was a photo negative and if you shined a certain lamp across the painting, the real colors would show. I found the especially interesting because I haven’t seen a photo negative picture before that an artist made.

The second studio I visited belonged to a artist named Brian Fernandes-Halloran located in Prospect Lefferts Garden. I enjoyed viewing his paintings rather than the sculptures he made. What distinguished Halloran from the other artists I’ve seen is that he froze certain events in life and painted them. An example of this can be seen through his painting, Showing off the Dog.

 I found myself picturing what the man in the red was thinking of when he saw a ginormous beast pounce at him from the shadows. As if the dog was attacking him, rather than showing off. 

The third studio I visited belonged to a artist named Gregory Hayes. Hayes had a very similar style as Jackson Pollock. However, Hayes’ artwork was more structured than of Pollock. Hayes used numerous squeeze-bottles filled with paint and stood over a giant canvas consisting of small squares. Allowing gravity to do his work, Hayes dropped a drop of paint into each of the squares starting from the middle and continuing to the outside. The finished project looked something like this

Once I saw the painting, I didn’t see the colors or the structure of the painting. I saw an artist standing over this piece of work for countless hours on end, dropping each drop with precision and accuracy with the final product in mind.

The last two studios were in the same location. Chieko & Ernesto Pavone were a couple with their own studio. Ernesto Pavone dabbled in sculptures, paintings and various portraits of people. Ernesto mainly drew abstract faces with obscure meanings behind them. He did this with various brushes that he used ever since he was in Italy. Chieko had a very unique type of art. She used fabric and then drewon top of it. Each piece of fabric she used set a certain background for the picture. One piece of her art consisted of camouflage from a solider’s uniform and then drew animals on top of it, as if to have a jungle setting.  I unfortunately don’t have any pictures of either person’s work.

All in all, GO Brooklyn Art was very interesting. It allowed me to see different perspectives of people from all across the world right here in Brooklyn. It was a great experience that made me look forward to learning about various types of Art in the world.