New Year, New Critique

After a planned one week delay to move out of the shadow of New Year's Day, tonight we held the first critique group of 2012. Twelve artists showed work, and no one cried. I guess that's why Bravo doesn't give us a television show of our own.

Most of the work can be seen on the main wall above. At ground level from left to right: a watercolor from Harriet, a graphite drawing in progress from Katie, an oil painting from Tim, prints and printing plates from Mary, a mixed media sculpture by Edy, and a painting from TJ. On the wall above those: mixed media pieces from Molly, a completed graphite drawing from Katie, a small watercolor from Molly, and my just completed pencil sketch. (click the photo to enlarge).

A little later we looked at two more, a digitally derived image from Vince (above, far left) and Sheilagh's diptych (above right), now reconfigured with hinges to form a triptych when opened. Below is the opened piece, so we could see the work in progress.

After that we moved to our annex (the cafeteria) to see the last two artists. Lisa's construction (above) this time was intended to be a cereal bowl, though she was admitted the results looked more like a basket.

Jane brought two pieces of alabaster, leftovers from a class she teaches. Both are in progress. She also brought in the pastel drawing below, part of a never ending series of family portraits.

When it was my turn, I passed around the little linoleum print I made for the upcoming workshop (my most recently completed artwork) and presented my very preliminary version of the next boardwalk print, executed moments earlier. It got some interesting reactions. This may have been the first time I showed such an early state of one of these boardwalk prints, and so some wondered how the composition would be affected by the eventual dividing lines of the diptych format. I explained that I would work out what would be in each half at a later stage in the process. There was a request for a more prominent position for the former Howard Johnson's (triangular windows/roof near the center), as an iconic Asbury location. I'd think that Convention Hall would have that effect, but I'll consider the suggestion.

In a carefully worded suggestion, Molly wondered if any of the people in the print would be gay. Not a completely random question- over the past few decades Asbury Park has become as known for its large gay community as much as anything else (something that I'm sure many residents prefer to other associations like drugs, gangs, economic ruin and decay, political corruption, etc), which figures heavily in local arts and businesses. Relatively recent New Jerseyan Molly is most familiar with this version of Asbury, but I guess my associations are older, more Springsteen related- his time and song subjects, and it hadn't even occurred to me. I'm not sure how it would even be relevant, as I expect that most of the figures will be small and crowded and relatively indistinguishable. For what it's worth, that photo show I saw in Asbury a few days ago was full of images from the boardwalk, but mostly empty buildings lacking people of any particular orientation. I'm still a long ways away from worrying about any individual figures in the print, so I can consider the matter later.