Art Show Closing Party Tonight

Dear Friends--

Please join me this evening
Saturday, June 28th
for the closing party of my group show,
BWAC @ Clinton Hill Art Gallery

The gallery is located at
154a Vanderbilt Avenue
Brooklyn
718-852-0227

7 - 10 PM

Hope to see you there,
Karen

Diligent Work

Just about the time FAST went into high gear, I received the opportunity to go into a middle school and teach a residency. The school, MS 223, is in the South Bronx. I had 8 sessions to give 3 sixth grade classes a grounding in art skills and the focus to make some great art.

Being a teaching artist is always an adventure. I deal with the unknown: the students, classes and administration in each site, have their own special take on things. In this school, they were all responsive and we took the adventure together. Many of the students had little or no art in their background, so I began with basics. Since our time was so compressed, we quickly progressed & got to work on our major project.

Having studied ancient civilizations during the year, I decided we would use Greek vases as the format. With the Olympics coming up this summer, the project became Olympic Amphora.

I will tell more about it in the next entry, but here are some photos of diligent workers and their creations.

WOMAN ENTWINED

"Woman Entwined" Acrylic on hardboard 24"high x 36"wide






This piece is part of my "Nude" series. What started out as a straight nude painting, evolved with greater complexity as she began to sprout branches and leaves. Her body and the tree forms merged as they wove in and out of one another. This painting is a commentary on the conditions of women's lives, rooted and tangled in the many branches of our lives.

Studio Tour Weekend Finally Arrives

June 7 & 8

It took a while to get my house all ready for the tour. Because I was sharing with 3 other artists, I had a lot of work to do to accommodate them. Selma Cooper was on the porch with pastels, Keren Moskovitch was in the front parlor with her c-print photos, Brenda Becker in the dining room with handmade books & I was in the livingroom. Lots of cleaning, hanging, moving furniture and taking down artwork (to make room for others’ work) to turn this into four galleries. It looked fabulous (if I do say so myself)!

The weekend was blistering hot – 96 degrees & humid—breaking all records (who said there’s no global warming?). We were afraid no one would come. But art lovers seem to be a stalwart group and shortly after noon on Satuday, people started trickling in. By the end of the day, about 80 people had signed our book.

Sunday was even hotter & Selma came inside, off the porch, into the a/c. The Victorian House Tour ran simultaneously but it was hard to tell if we got any people from there. But come they did! Individuals and groups—at times, we were mobbed! People loved the art & seeing it in this home environment. But many did not seem to realize that it was for sale, so sales were light.

It was wonderful to have all these people share our work and by the end of Sunday, apx. 200 had come through to look. We all agreed it was a great success and we’re already making plans for next year. Thank you to all my guests for sharing your weekend with us. What did you think of the tour and how can we improve for next year?

Photos: large at top: Karen, Brenda, Selma, Keren--the four artists at my house. Smaller photos: guests looking at artwork during studio tour.

FAST Group Show

June 5, 2008

Tonight was the opening reception for the Flastbush Artists Studio Tour Group Show. Housed at two local cafes- Connecticut Muffin and Vox Pop- the beautifully hung Group Show debuted to a responsive crowd. Neighbors, friends and family members joined the artists to revel in the beauty of their collective work. Each of
the artists
participating in the tour this weekend has a representative piece in the show, allowing visitors the chance to preview the artists' work and determine whose studio they wanted to make sure they didn't miss.

A highlight of the evening was the arrival of Jamila Josephs, from Borough President Marty Markowitz's office, who came as Marty's representative. She brought a proclamation from Marty proclaiming the day for Flatbush Artists Studio Tour and presented it to me at Vox Pop.

Flatbush Artists

Press Release

Contact: Karen Friedland Brenda L. Becker
brendabecker@optonline.net
ArtistKaren@mac.com


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Flatbush Artists Studio Tour Debuts June 7-8, 2008

First major open-studio event in ‘Victorian Flatbush’ neighborhood;
Public to be welcomed by 27 artists on self-guided tour


Brooklyn, NY, May 20, 2008 -- The visual artists of Flatbush will open their
studios to the public in a weekend-long self-guided art tour throughout the
historic Victorian neighborhood. The first annual Flatbush Artists Studio Tour
(FAST) will take place Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8, from 12 to 5 p.m.
Tour maps may be downloaded and printed at www.flatbushartists.org, or picked
up at many local merchants. Admission to the tour is free.

The artists represented on the tour include painters, sculptors, printmakers,
jewelry makers, mosaic artists, and book artists. “We’re all familiar with the
creative life of areas like Williamsburg and Gowanus,” said tour organizer and
painter Karen Friedland. “Now art lovers can add the beautiful streets of Victorian
Flatbush to the vibrant artistic map of Brooklyn, and meet the artists who work in
one of the city’s most diverse communities.”

In addition, a group show of local artists will take place from June 5 - July 2 at
two lively cafés in the heart of the area: Vox Pop and Connecticut Muffin (1022
and 1106 Cortelyou Road), giving tour-goers an opportunity to preview the works
of all the participating artists on the tour. An opening reception for the group
show will take place on June 5, from 7 to 10 p.m.

The Flatbush Artists Studio Tour, presented in cooperation with the Brooklyn
Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC), will take place the same weekend as the
popular Victorian Flatbush House Tour. The studio tour is a separate and
unrelated event with free admission, and will offer both old-house fanciers and art
lovers yet another reason to explore the leafy streets of the area, with its broad
lawns, spacious front porches, and fanciful architecture, on the weekend of June
7-8.

“This event has prompted an outpouring of community support, for which we’re
very grateful,” said Ms. Friedland. Studio tour sponsors include Brooklyn Borough
President Marty Markowitz and two dozen local businesses.

Getting to Victorian Flatbush
The “Victorian Flatbush” area includes the landmarked historic districts of
Prospect Park South and Ditmas Park along with Midwood, Beverley Square
West and East, and Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park.
Visitors may start the free tour anywhere on the self-guided neighborhood map
available at www.flatbushartists.org or at local shops. The closest subway stops
to the tour area are the Q train to the Beverly Road, Cortelyou Road, or Newkirk
Avenue stations (see the map for station locations). In addition, the neighborhood
is served by the B68, B16, B35, and several other buses. Details and driving
directions are also available on the FAST website.

Go West, Young Woman

9 June 2008

Last weekend, we went out West to attend the annual booksellers convention, Book Expo America, held this year in Los Angeles. My husband, Gary, is a book publisher. You can see him here with his latest book, The Merck Manual for Pet Health. A great book, it is invaluable for anyone who loves a pet.

Before going to LA, we visited the ranch of his spokesperson, Joan Embrey and her husband, Dwayne, in San Diego. It’s a fabulous ranch with horses, chickens, stables and barns. But there’s an African twist here. Joan & Dwayne have exotic animals—it’s like they have the beginnings of their own zoo! She has wonderful birds and snakes, frogs, hedgehogs & an armadillo. Fearsome cheetahs made it clear they are wild animals, while the sloth hung out beside the kinetic lemur. But my favorite was the aardvark! He didn’t look one bit like Arthur of book fame and is so benign that they sometimes take him for a walk on a leash. I think having this close experience with the animals will help them find a way into my artwork.

I already paint a lot of elephants. My most recent is here, entitled “Two For The Road”. I was going to call it two tushies, but decided that didn’t sound professional enough. I just loved this backview and the companionship, parent and child.