Unless you attend a Dr. Sketchy’s event in another city. What began in Brooklyn in 2005 by illustrator Molly Crabapple has spread to 80 cities worldwide, reaching 4 continents with over 100 participating branches. Once a nude model herself, Crabapple hoped to offer a spicy and affordable alternative to the usual sterile atmosphere she tired of during formal drawing sessions. This February’s event, Tandem Tootsies or Babes on Bikes, saw New Haven into its eighth edition of Dr. Sketchy, which, aside from a brief hiatus, has been running every month for a year. And who, you might ask, do we have to thank?

Polly Sonic recalls bringing Dr. Sketchy to New Haven after she was unable to find affordable life drawing opportunities in town. Also an illustrator, Polly points to Crabapple as a real inspiration. Sonic explains that her “main mission is to get more participatory events in New Haven for artists and non-artists” and she has certainly spearheaded quite a few. Between working in Yale Drama School’s costume department, illustrating children’s books and being a puppeteer, Polly Sonic, a.k.a. Linda Wingerter, somehow finds the time to organize a go-go dancing troupe, roller durance club, circus/fire eating happenings, street performances and of course, monthly Dr. Sketchys. Polly’s hope is that the event will be a place for artists, and those who don’t think they are, to come together and socialize. Virtually all art forms and skill levels are welcomed and artists come equipped with anything from charcoal to Crayola crayons to pencils to watercolors and even Wacom tablets.

This February’s models, Linda Loo and Sarah Burntheart are members of the Pink Cycle Skirt Team and posed to raise money for their 50K bike ride for Multiple Sclerosis in May. In charge of both costumes and scenery, the duo put on quite a show. “It’s a theatrical production,” commented Loo. From the half eaten plastic chicken and classic coco cola bottles to the fake butterflies pinned to a blue sheet sky, every detail added to the 50’s pin-up girl theme of the evening. Past Sketchy events include themes such as New World Old World: a Thanksgiving extravaganza, Holiday Breakout: a jailhouse rock holiday and Queen of the Night: Dot Mitzvah posing 7 months pregnant.

Whether an artist or not, you will surely find Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School entertaining to say the least. Polly Sonic and her team which includes Tony Baloney Juliano, Dot Mitzvah, Phil Matz, Mike Franzman and Rev Al Mighty encourage fun above all else. A painter from New Britain expressed, “It’s a good time. How many other places do you get to draw and drink at the same time?” And who knows? You may even create a masterpiece by the end of the evening! Dr. Sketchy’s is certainly a unique experience. One that should not be missed and one that this artist looks forward to attending again in the future.

To find out more about Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School, please visit sketchynewhaven.blogspot.com

Sarah’s knowledge of both fields resulted from a combination of her schooling and work experiences. Paolucci remembered her years at the University of Hartford fondly, pointing to her teacher, Bill Thompson, as someone who ”always pushed [her] to be better.” Sarah graduated with a degree in Illustration and her training proved to be formative:

“I’m not a very spontaneous artist. I plan it out – because of my training, I think. They teach you to take reference shots and now I take that into account whenever I do anything.”

Paolucci continued her studies in the real world. She worked in a print shop for two years where she “learned everything [she] needed to know.” Sarah then took a job as lead graphic designer in New Jersey based company. While stating she did very well in this position, Sarah quickly realized that corporate life was not for her. She then decided to move back home to build her own business.

Sarah explained the growth of Paolucci Illustration and Design as a process that took place over time through acquiring the necessary connections and compiling a portfolio. Paolucci attested that her business sees equal parts design and illustration, but then admitted, “I do a lot of design work. It pays the bills and it’s easier to find.” While most of her clients are Connecticut locals, she also has a few international connections, which she acquired through her shop on etsy.com (www.sarahpaolucci.etsy.com). Paolucci grew up in Tolland Connecticut where she remembers discovering her love of drawing at an early age:
“When I was young and annoying and I would say to my mom, ‘I don’t know what to do, I’m bored,’ she would tell me to go draw. And so I would. I would go into the kitchen and I would draw the dog. That’s where I got my start.”

Sarah is also a portrait artist, offering realistic renderings of both humans and animals. She commented that portrait orders roll in during the holiday season and December is her busiest month. Colored pencils are her medium of choice, but “it all depends on the piece and what it calls for.” She also uses watercolors, graphite and pastels to capture her subject matter.

While work can often override pleasure, Sarah always tries to have personal projects going as well. Currently, she is working on Escher-esque inspired drawings and points to M.C. as someone who “is always in my brain. He’s always sitting back there somewhere.” Sarah’s current work-related projects include designing wedding invitations for a Bristol-based company, an Emerson Theater program as well as the promotional postcard for our very own Connecticut Creative Online. Sarah does everything from greeting cards to portraits to promotional posters to brochures and more; Paolucci Illustration and Design truly does it all!

For more information, please visit, www.sarahpaolucci.com.

From afar, the viewer makes out a mass of circular shapes that appear to expand and contract. Closer inspection reveals eyes peeking out from intricate swirls reminiscent of muscle tissue. These shapes appear like a pulsating cellular being floating in a sea of computer chips or wire grids. Faces begin to emerge, bending and turning upon one another. Daniel would later explain to me that he prefers his audience not think too much about what his drawings ‘mean’: “I want to provoke sensation in the individual. It’s not about seeing my work, it’s about feeling it.” True to his intention, Flesh Sensation pulls the viewer in and one almost feels the expansion and contraction in the pit of her stomach. Perhaps though, the mind’s interpretations serve only to deepen the bodily reactions the artist so hopes to inspire.

Daniel Kaminski’s solo exhibition, Streams of Subconscious, is a series of pen and ink drawings that explore the mind’s inner thoughts. Daniel explains his process as “my own meditation, my own contemplation.” Daniel says his “body takes over physically” when drawing, and his “mind is almost totally disengaged, like a trance.” One can draw parallels to stream of conscious writing as the cognizant mind takes a backseat to access otherwise unknown thoughts. Daniel said with a smile, “It’s a fascinating thing to start drawing without intention – it’s mysterious!”

Daniel states that drawing has always been part of his life, but points to recent experiences as critically influential to his artistic development. Kaminski spent the summer at Tasha Hill, a Provincetown artist community. Daniel remembers interactions with fellow artists as both inspirational and educational, mentioning his author roommate as particularly encouraging. Kaminski points to his reading during this time as influential as well noting authors such as Joseph Campbell, Henry Miller and psychiatrist Carl Jung. Daniel also visited many Provincetown galleries and began to think about how each work of art made him feel:

“It is not good enough to be technically proficient. It’s like in singing. Some people are technically great, but it doesn’t move you, there’s no power of expression. When the individual is poured into it, the piece of art radiates and has a greater effect.”

Even in some of his more abstract works, one feels the individual radiating through.

For instance, in Self Portrait, Daniel posits a uniquely abstract sense of self. Repeating and interlocking petal fans, varying in size, but similar in shape, fill the page. The pattern of shape and line repeats in black and white, continuing into four small squares of color toward the bottom. When considering the title, the piece comes to resemble a two dimensional layout of the brain; the conservative bursts of color could then represent the few parts in use: our conscious thoughts. From afar, the red and orange stand out, while the blue and green are near invisible. Up close, all four squares sink back, giving way to the more dominant bold black lines. With this subtle difference, perhaps Kaminski is leading us to understand the necessity to look more closely, more deeply, in order to discover the power and beauty of the subconscious mind.

Daniel Kaminski is an explorer concerned more with what lies below than what floats on the surface. Through his work, he hopes to inspire a kind of automatic reaction, a physical sensation. In this way, Kaminski seems to struggle to reach his audience’s subconscious through an expression of his own, to provoke feelings we ourselves are unaware exist. Whether or not we feel our subconscious rise to the surface, one thing is for sure: Daniel Kaminski’s drawings move his audience to think on a deeper level, one that for most might well be hidden below the conscious plane.






Daniel Kaminski’s work may be viewed at Koffee? on Audubon in New Haven, Connecticut for the rest of February 2010.

104 Audubon Street
New Haven, CT
06511

Richard White is a working artist that has been discovering his love of faces since he attended New York University in 1970. He was indecisive about his major and enrolled in half art and half psychology courses. He enjoyed the art classes more and spent the following semester building a portfolio and studying with painter and printmaker Juan Gomez-Quiroz. He earned a BA of Fine Arts in 1973 and then in 1976 an MFA degree, both from State University of New York Buffalo. Since that time he has been a painter, photographer, graphic designer and web site developer. He currently teaches illustration and graphic design at Gibbs College in Farmington.

Much like any art, drawing faces is a craft that requires practice. Mr. White said that he creates at least one drawing a day. “There are piles and piles of them,” he said, “Paintings are more of a project. I feel a block sometimes with painting because it seems so much more monumental. You have to mean it. But once I get started, I roll.” He began painting again in 2007 after a 20 year hiatus. “After college I was a color field painter. I was abstractionist. Two things happened – the entire avant-garde was changing and in the abstract I was missing representation. So I began doing photography. “

Photography changed his work significantly. “When I moved to Connecticut in 1995 I built a dark room and never used it. What did I want to do now? I took the representative in photography and painted. I don’t care so much about avant-garde now, I just want to paint.” Mr. White also said that photography made him a more attentive, detail oriented drawer. “I practiced in the era where you had to pay someone to touch up your photographs. I paid attention to composition and details of images. “

My eyes fell on a painting of a woman sitting in water and staring intently at the viewer. “She’s so intense,” I said as we stood in the center of his exhibit. I asked where he received his inspiration. He said he paints friends, family, colleagues and students. He takes his inspiration from life, from a model or a photograph, and then “the page takes on a life of its own. They’re not really portraits of people – they’re more like character studies. Halfway through you begin to make decisions about the expression. By the time I’m working on that I don’t pay much attention to the photograph. The people are the starting point, the inspiration.” Richard went on to describe that his subjects do not always see themselves in the finished product, but that is part of what he wants to say through his art. “Faces are only a part of someone. The viewer takes what they see – the faces are characters, like actors or actresses.”

Currently Mr. White has his work permanently displayed in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. In a more local attraction his drawings and paintings are showcased at the Galleria Vivace in Rocky Hill at Falcetti Music and will be on display through February 5th. His photography, paintings and drawings can also be viewed on his website, www.whitesite.com.

“It is important to me that the user questions the painting and brings forth their own interpretation.”

If I could render a brief depiction of artist Geoff Houghton, I would say that passion for family and creative discovery rule his persona. He is a Systems Engineer by day and a loving husband, father, and artist by night. This difference echoes within his works of art. As Geoff tells us, “I thrive on bright, bold colors in my paintings…I find it a challenge to preserve whites by contrasting with rich dark colors.”

Karen: What role did art play in your life while your creativity was dormant? Essentially, where was the bridge between the arts in your teens vs. the role art plays currently in your adult family life now?

Geoff: My earliest appreciation and involvement with art began with landscape architecture. As a young golf course maintenance worker in the town that I grew up in, my manager allowed me to design and oversee the construction of a new fairway bunker. After receiving much recognition in its location and design, I realized how rewarding it was to construct something and have it appreciated. I later took Landscape Architecture at UMASS and continued about earth, forms, and structures.

Geoff Houghton mimics his life experience with watercolors in his figurative works, stating “I like the challenge of creating something new.” Other than his wife and four children, Geoff has said, “creating art from my imagination is the biggest reward I can provide myself.”

Geoff Houghton’s whimsical watercolors seem to truly perform in his fantastical world for his audiences. Through my interview with Geoff it seemed that he prides himself on creating a carefree, stop and smell the roses, kind of world where family reigns supreme and fanciful memories of the past come to life.

“My wife, is truly a tribute to my success.”
-Geoff Houghton

Website: www.steamfolk.com

As we sat on the floor of his artist loft in Westville, Connecticut, I asked Kwadwo to describe how he works:

The first part is to choose a few colors that I want to see together, colors that I’m craving at the time. I’ll start with an idea of form and I will establish a non-objective rule that is the law in the piece. For example, purple hyperbolic squares only or yellow green triangles or squares.

Kwadwo went on to explain that he layers color and forms in ways that “interfere with the first design or form,” adding a “contrasting” element. And then the final step:

It’s math, so you have two variables that you’ve got and you want to add a third to make them complete so that’s when I add thicker parts and I add a color family that will balance the piece until it’s visually silent.

While speaking with Kwadwo, I took “visually silent” to mean the moment in which the artist reaches a balance and harmony within the piece, the moment the work ceases to tug on your coattails, ceases to demand more. However, to those who have viewed Kwadwo’s work, his pieces are anything but silent.

In all of his works, a kind of conversation seems to exist between the various levels of paint. In XXX, for instance, the brilliant blacks and navies might seem to tease the overlapping lighter shades of purple, pink and blue as they weave in, out and around this design. One might view this relationship as antagonistic, the points poking at the pattern below. Or perhaps the swirls are not teasing at all, but caring and loving as they nestle up to their brighter counterparts. Then, with the addition of a third dimension, the piece becomes even more vibrant, more alive. Golden worms, dewdrops, leaves, stripes, cheerios, squids seep into the purple blues and playfully overlap the dark waves. I asked Kwadwo to explain how he creates this third dimension to his works:

I’ll take a tube and squeeze it right on top and then I’ll play with it using knitting needles, staples, swizzle sticks, palette knives, my finger, regular brushes – whatever it takes to get the desired shape. And the rule for the textures is that they cannot repeat themselves. I want to make sure there is enough variation, that there are enough forms unique to just that painting.

Kwadwo explained with a smile that he has been working on his thesis for years and is still excited by each piece: “I never know what [the paintings are] going to look like until they’re done so it’s exciting to keep making them.”

As well as working on his own paintings, Adae now teaches at Adae Fine Art Academy on Chapel Street in New Haven. Beginning as a way to pay for the studio space, the Adae Academy opened with six students in 2005 and has now grown to twenty: “Students are taught on an individual basis, pursuing their own specific artistic interests. There is no set curriculum and students are encouraged to create with a variety of media, subject matter and technique.” Kwadwo founded the school after earning a Master in Painting at New York University; it was there that he traveled down the path ultimately leading to his current series:

I was making abstract figures that were faceless – rather, they were minimally featured, identity-less more than anything else. I got bad feedback, which led me to creating landscapes in the same style but with no people. I was trying to figure out where the people who were in my paintings would be hanging out. I did four landscapes and the last one [of dead trees] was awful. I hated it so much that I got mad and painted over it recklessly. I put in soft pink forms, then hard dark violets and blues over the trees. It led me to the non-objective pieces … Thirty-two paintings later, I’m still trying to define what non-objective means and how it can be conveyed.

With each piece, Adae’s overarching goal is always the same: to make a truly non-objective piece, one that transcends any sole objective association. Kwadwo explained that “making things objective is a lot easier than you realize! You have to work to make something non-objective.” Adae’s hope is that each of us will not only see something different from one another in his works, but also that each of us will see multiple interpretations within each painting as well: “If I have a group looking at one piece all seeing the same objective thing then that means I failed. Or if I see only one objective thing then that means I have to change it.”

Adae’s paintings call to the viewer and lead us around in a fantastical world that changes as much as we allow it. Virtually every time I look at one of his works, new shapes, images, relationships and ideas spring to mind. Take XXIX for example. At first, I see a gloomy cityscape infested with parasitic insects. On second look, rows of pink Gumbys waver in a murky coral reef waters. As I stare longer, rock sculptures at Monument Valley studded with gold sequins and lace emerge. The list continues.

Adae is now in the midst of developing a new way to display his work: The Cube Route. With the help of a good friend, Kwadwo has constructed a giant 58” by 58” by 40” deep cube, weighing approximately 120 lbs, on which his paintings will be displayed. As presented in his solo exhibition at New Haven’s Artspace in February 2009, Kwadwo sees his pieces as part of a larger grid:

All of the paintings are squares. I was playing around with the fact that you can make more squares exponentially by adding them to each other; they make grids. But a 15 foot square is tough to install, so I began thinking of other formats to hang the squares. I was looking at dice and thinking it would be cool to make a cube of paintings. I began thinking about other cubes, like the Astor Place Cube or the Bienecke Cube and all of them stand on one of its vertices. I decided to suspend the cube from the ceiling so the viewer could walk around the paintings; the viewer will have to interact with them. You can only see a maximum of three paintings at once. The more cubes there are in an exhibition, the more walking you would have to do. The idea is paintings as kinetic sculptures instead of just paintings.

In this sense, the cube seems to be an extension of an idea already present in Kwadwo’s work. Just as each piece pulls the viewer in and the paint moves about within (and outside of) the canvas, the viewer will now be forced to actively interact with the pieces themselves, to walk around the cube to view each work. Moving perhaps like a swirl present on one square or a slither present on another: a movement that will potentially compliment the movement within each piece. The new associations and ideas that promise to arise from such a display are endless and I look forward to watching Adae’s work continue to transform and take on new life.

To view more of Kwadwo Adae’s work, please visit: kwadrants.blogspot.com

Meg Duffy: When did you first start to focus on art seriously as a career?

Alyssa Joy: Well, I’ve been drawing ever since I can remember. From the time I was very little I always knew art was my favorite subject in school. I always felt like it was the only thing I was really good at, that I excelled in. I was that kid who all the other kids came to when they needed help drawing something, or just plain wanted to see if I could draw whatever I requested. All my art teachers through the years took notice of my talent and were very supportive, encouraging me to take part in art activities like painting school murals and entering competitions. It wasn’t until high school that I realized I was passionate enough about art to seek it out as a career path. I didn’t know what to expect from that. I just knew I didn’t want to do anything else, like God designed me specifically to be an artist, and any other path wouldn’t feel right. By my senior year in high school, my schedule was filled with art classes, I was president of the art club, and I had a permanent pass from study hall to the art room. So high school is definitely when I started to embrace my passion as a possible career. It was a goal that finally seemed tangible.

Why did you choose illustration over other mediums?

In high school, I was exposed to a variety of mediums: acrylic paint, watercolor, pastel, oil pastel, charcoal, clay, etc. While I liked some better than others, I still had a place in my heart for all of them. I could never stick with any one medium to work with. I liked to draw, I liked to paint, and I liked having the freedom to experiment, to explore. And I was inspired by a variety of artists, from all different periods.

My first year of college was the foundation year, when they train the freshmen in the basics. In drawing classes, I was exposed yet again to all the things I loved to draw with, and learned new ways to use them. In 2D I learned more about painting in acrylic, and discovered ways to include other materials into my paintings. I was also exposed to graphic design for the first time really. And in sculpture, all the word around became a possibility when it came to being creative. In all of this I learned creative problem solving, and my passion for art grew even more than ever. And every week I learned about more and more artists.

So, sophomore year was when we all started branching off to work toward different fields of art. Some students knew exactly what they were there for, whether it was painting or photography or graphic design. I didn’t know what I wanted to do because I still liked everything I had tried my hand at. The only limitations I felt I had lied in my technical skills as an artist, not in the mediums I used. I still wanted to explore and grow. In the end, I decided on illustration because I felt it was the program that would best facilitate my artistic needs and desires. I knew I would learn how to draw better, to paint better, and still have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of mediums. I even got a taste of mediums I’d never tried before, like oil paint and ink wash, and I learned a whole new creative process overall. Illustration, I learned, has virtually no limits. It can be anything. Any style. Any medium. As an illustrator, I have the freedom to express every and any artistic desire within me. If I want to draw, I can draw. If I want to paint, I can paint. If I want to play in the mud, I can play in the mud.

Not every artist goes to art school, but you did. How did you make the decision and how did you decide on the University of Hartford?

To be perfectly honest, I fell into the mindset that most kids in high school do. You go to college after school because that’s just what you do. That’s what come next. And I didn’t really know what to look for as far as art schools went. My art teacher really helped me out with everything. She had taken a great interest in my future as an artist, and did everything she could to encourage me. When I told her I was thinking about attending a nearby community college, she pleaded with me to reach higher. She said I was better than that, and that I should go where I could be challenged.

I don’t think my parents were exactly sure about me going to art school, not sure what kind of job I could get doing art. But they loved me and supported me anyway. I applied to Uconn, Southern, and Hartford. I didn’t really have the means to apply anywhere else. I got accepted to Uconn academically, but I hadn’t been able to have a portfolio review, an so I wasn’t able to get into the art program. Southern didn’t even require a portfolio review, so while I was accepted, I was skeptical that the art program was very serious at all.

The Hartford Art School was actually my dream school. I had heard very good things about it. And a representative of the school came into my class and gave a presentation. He had a slide show with many pictures of student works, and explained all the kinds of things they got to do at the school. I was hooked. I longed to learn what those students were learning. I wanted to make art as beautiful and as clever as theirs. The representative, after his presentation, looked at my portfolio at the request of my teacher. He made a decision right in front of me. He liked what he saw and accepted me on artistic merit to the Hartford Art School. All I had to do was apply academically and wait for an official answer.

I got in! I almost didn’t get to go, though, because my parents said it was too expensive. Then my dad and I went to a parent/student open house kind of thing, where we got a tour of the school. At the end of the day, my dad basically said, “We’ll make it work.” He liked it that much and wanted me to be able to go.

What kind of opportunities did UHart afford you?

There’s a LOT I can say about that. I loved the art program. It was very challenging and very stressful at times, but it forced me to think differently about the creative process. My work ethic got better, as did my motivation to do the very best work I could. The professors are all very educated and passionate about what they do. They were willing to teach if I was willing to learn. And if I didn’t understand something, I was never afraid to ask. One of my favorite things about my professors was how understanding they were, and how encouraging. Even now that I am out of school, they are a constant resource to me. I could always, and still can, email them with questions or concerns. My senior year I discovered a medium I’d never used before, and though it wasn’t part of the curriculum, I was able to learn how to use it. I went to the professors who had knowledge of it, and went to them in my spare time. Even professors I’d had only one semester, or never at all, were willing to answer my questions.

Besides the art program and great professors, I’ve made many new friends. (I even met my husband through a very close friend I had made my freshman year.) I loved being part of a community. Sometimes you learn things from other students that you never thought you would. Like how to use a toothbrush to splatter paint so you get a speckled texture. I was constantly encouraged and inspired by the people around me. The opportunity to meet different people, with different personalities, and from all different parts of the world was a great part about going to college.

I was also able to take part in different service trips through Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, like New Orleans for Katrina relief, and Hartford Urban Plunge to learn about the North End and meet people in the area. These experiences inspired me to come back and express what I saw and learned through my artwork. It was how I began learning to put my two greatest passions together: art and faith.

How is being a post-grad artist different from being a student? How are you navigating that transition?

Being an art student at college is a very rare and precious opportunity. At college, you are constantly surrounded by your element. Everyone in your classes is striving for the same things. You eat, sleep, and breath art everyday. And because you are always drawing, always painting, always brainstorming, and always working to make your deadlines, you are constantly being sharpened in your craft. You don’t have the option of getting rusty or losing motivation. You may not always be in the mood to work, but you do it because you have to. That is something I miss about college.

After you graduate, there are no professors giving you assignments, no pressure to draw everyday, no class to get to on time. You lose the environment that drives you to make art until you are stressed out. This may seem like a good thing, and in some cases it is, but when you are on your own in the real world, you have to do anything you can to keep yourself motivated. You have to look for ways of staying in touch with other artists, people that you know will challenge and encourage you.

Personally, I have a hard time drawing everyday. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to just sit down and tell myself to draw. As far as the transition though, I’d have to say I feel like I never got a real taste of what it’s like to be your average graduate. My whole life since graduation has been one HUGE transition. After I graduated, but I didn’t really have time to think about what I was going to do next as far as art goes, because I jumped right into the next big thing, which was planning my wedding (and trying to find a place to live). I did try to find time to draw and paint a little, and I even made my own thank you cards as an excuse to draw and be creative. So post-grad, marriage, moving into an apartment… all big changes in the last several months!

So how am I navigating the transition? Well, everyday is a new day. Sometimes I play it by ear, but most of the time I try to have have a plan. And I make a lot of lists. Always gotta have a list. And now that I’m getting used to married life, I’m learning new ways to keep myself going. I take pictures when I can, and sketch when I can. And sometimes I’ll start little projects that will have a potential final outcome so that I have something to look forward to.

What’s your proudest accomplishment as an artist so far?

Let’s see… I’d have to say that learning how to be productive while getting 8 hours of sleep almost every night is my favorite. As far as real accomplishments go, I’d have to say that graduating with honors and getting my BFA was a major highlight in my life. Particularly because I’m the first person in my family (at least on my dad’s side) to finish college and get a degree. Crossing the stage to receive my diploma was such an overwhelming relief. Every all-nighter, every break down, every drop of sweat and tear shed, every bit of energy spent… all led up to a single moment that screamed, “You’ve finally made it! You’ve earned this!”

And while I am excited in the moment about all my accomplishments, I generally don’t think about the things I’ve done unless the knowledge I’ve gained from them concerns what I’m going to do next. Where am I going now? How am I getting there? How can I make better today what I did yesterday? And most importantly, what does God think and where is he taking me? That is the mindset I try to have when it comes to my goals.

Tell me a bit about the Open Sketch Book Society. Who’s in it? What do you do? How does it keep you motivated?

The Open Sketch Book Society is a collaborative art blog that was started by my former classmate, Jenna Zona. It was created in an effort to retain that sense of art community among our classmates. Not everyone from our class is on it, but there are quite a few of us. It is a place for us to post recent sketches or things we’re working on. Sometimes it’s a way to just show people where you’re at, other times it’s to ask for help or get feedback. And sometimes, if you don’t know what to work on, there are occasional monthly challenges posted. You don’t have to do the challenges, but they are there to encourage and motivate people to keep making art.

The blog has been a good resource for me. I like checking up on people and seeing what they’re working on. It’s actually a good way to get inspired and motivated to do something when I haven’t posted anything in a while. The one thing that sometimes makes posting hard for people, though, is limited resources. Myself included, now that I don’t have my dad’s scanner to use all the time. At school we had access to scanners and bright lamps for taking good photos. You don’t always have those options outside of school. But you do whatever you can to let people know you are still alive and drawing. For example, I emailed Jenna about the current commission I’m working on and asked if she would check in with me on certain days to see where I am in my schedule. Having another artist to keep you accountable is a great way to stay motivated.

What’s on the bill next? Any projects in the works?

I still have to get my name officially changed. I’ll be going from Alyssa Joy Byram to Alyssa Joy Lewis. I’ve been using Alyssa Joy as a transition name in terms of my artist identity.

Art-wise, I am currently working on a personal commission for someone. It is being given to her boyfriend as a Christmas present. I plan to have it done by the end of November.

I was also recently asked by a local author to illustrate a book. I have not signed the contract yet, so it is not official, but I hope it works out because I would love to have that kind of opportunity. I was job hunting in the area until that offer came along. If I take the book job, I will need all my time to work on it. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll continue to apply to jobs in the area. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to afford the luxury of waiting for a job if it weren’t for the encouragement and support of my wonderful husband.

For personal projects, I have started a little silverpoint portrait of my friend. It’s the kind of thing I like to do in my spare time, aside from casual doodling. I also hope to start an art ministry at my church in the near future. Other goals include illustrating something for my husband and my sister. Both are very good writers, and it would be great to work with people I love.

Visit Alyssa Joy’s Website: alyssajoyart.com

The Creative Arts Workshop is a community based visual arts school that offers three hundred different courses in fine arts and crafts, including among others, drawing and painting, printmaking, pottery, photography, fiber, ceramics, jewelry, design and sculpture. They are additionally one of the few institutions around to offer workshops in book art, and the various aspects of binding.

The history of the Creative Arts Workshop goes back over forty years. The 1960’s saw a period of growth and restructure in Downtown New Haven, with Audubon St. earmarked for redevelopment. A progressive bill was passed wherein organizations devoted to the arts were the only ones that could purchase the now vacant land. CAW’s parent organization, founded in 1960, bought the land at 80 Audubon St. and moved into their newly renovated building in 1972.

With neighbor institutions such as the Educational Center for the Arts, an art driven magnet high school, as well as the New Haven Ballet, New Haven Arts Council and the Neighborhood Music School, The Creative Arts Workshop rounds out a kind of Campus-like aesthetic and feel on Audubon St., separate from that of the Yale branch of New Haven’s fine art scene.

Classes and workshops generally fill up fast, though anyone with a passion for the arts, desire for top instruction and access to specialized studio space is welcome and encouraged to become part of the CAW community, regardless of age or artistic background.

“It never occurred to me that I’d be in an art community, or that people would see me as an artist,” says Lianne Audette, whose specialty is metal smithing.

“There was a social, productive, and aesthetic connection here that really spoke to what I needed at the time,” says Audette, was just looking for something to do after moving back from California to be with her ailing mother. “It was the first time I could totally invest all of my time and my passion into just me.”

Audette plans to open her own studio soon, and credits the Creative Arts Workshop for awakening her latent artistic passions.

Each year the Hilles, and the smaller Creative Works galleries play host to one faculty and two student shows, an annual themed August showing, as well as an invitational juried exhibition.

“The primary function is education, and the exhibitions should serve to augment that mission,” says Executive Director Susan Smith.

Currently, the Hilles Gallery is hosting the “41st Annual Celebration of American Crafts”, an exhibition open to the public that began Oct. 31 and will run through Dec. 24 of this year. As its name implies, it is a celebration of the best in American contemporary crafts, with a variety of ornate pieces made by over three hundred artists from Connecticut and across the country.

“It’s the melding of fine art and craft—well made and designed,” says Smith.

The exhibition offers a modern philosophy on the relationship between the fine arts, and craft making.

“Functionality is no longer a criterion through which we distinguish fine art from craft,” Smith explains. “It’s the form of the piece rather than the function; the process that distinguishes them both.”

The arts come together provide us with a context; a sense of community, a collective like-mindedness whereby our creative proclivities and processes manifest themselves into something personal, and beautiful, be it hewn from metal, molded from clay, or captured under just the right slant of light. For over forty years, The Creative Arts Workshop at 80 Audubon St. in New Haven has been that context.

For more information about The Creative Arts Workshop, class schedules and purchasing information, and The 41st Celebration of American Crafts, visit www.creativeartsworkshop.org

DuFour was never trained as an artist. He traveled the world, visiting galleries along the way to feed his love of art. But it took a turning point in his life to inspire him to pick up a brush.

He hit a rough patch in 2005 that left him floundering and looking for something to lose himself in.

“I realized one morning when I woke up that it had to stop. I had to pull myself in a direction and find something to latch on to,” says DuFour.

But instead of getting lost, art is where he found himself. After buying supplies and building himself an easel, DuFour dove in and never looked back.

Since he had no formal training, he focused on simplicity in his pieces. His first serious painting, Window of Opportunity, features a sparse and barren landscape with a single square of lush color.

The tree quickly became a motif in DuFour’s early work, which included fluid, swirly branches on warm browns, yellows and reds. The pieces were an instant success at last year’s Open Studio Weekend. It was his first show.

“Open Studio is an opportunity for everyone—established artists, new up-and-coming artists. If it weren’t for that, I never would have gotten in,” he says.

Despite the looming recession and being virtually unknown, DuFour saw steady sales and even received several commissions following the event. This year, he hopes to build on that success.

Recently, he’s begun training with Rebecca Schweiger at The Art Studio NY to expand his vision. He also says his work tends to be more abstract these days as he experiments with materials and subjects.

“My eyes are just wide open like a kid in a candy store and it’s the best thing in the world,” he says.

For more information, visit Chris DuFour’s web site at www.dufourart.com.

This is the second piece in a series profiling artists exhibiting at Hartford’s Open Studio Weekend. The event begins with a gallery opening November 13th and runs 11 am to 5 pm November 14th and 15th. For more information, visit openstudiohartford.com.

He recalls that as a young boy he, like many elementary school students, spent much of his class time covering his school work with scribbles and cartoons.  However, unlike most of his fellow classmates, his doodling was a hobby, that later became a passion.

In May 2009,  Horak graduated from the University of Hartford’s Hartford School of Art with a degree in Illustration. Prior to attending the Hartford School of Art, Doug had very little formal training. Entering Art School was a difficult period of adjustment for the artist, but it wasn’t long before he found his stride.

During college, Horak was able to gain experience with unfamiliar mediums such as watercolor, and styles including portraiture and still life. During this time which Horak refers to as the “academic” period of his life, he gained an education in, and appreciation for traditional techniques and it’s founding masters.

Horak now works primarily with oil paint and digital photography and employs a wide range of subjects and styles in his art. “It’s nice to enjoy a large scope of subject matter and styles,” however, he admits there are possible drawbacks to the range of approaches he uses, “but it can also be a challenge marketing yourself to a specific field with a portfolio that’s so eclectic.” The styles he uses range from photorealism to gestural abstract shapes, while subjects range from traditional portraiture to Science Fiction and Fantasy.

It is the latter subject that seems to provide Horak with the most inspiration, and comes from a life long love of the fantastical and extraordinary, “As a child I had a wild imagination and grew up watching Star Wars and playing video games…” he explains, “I think the love of fantasy art stems directly from my childhood.” From hazy otherworldly environments, to machine based creatures, Horak has applied these ideas to some of his favorite and most treasured works.

For most recent art school grads, the process of breaking into the art world is a intimidating and perhaps even frightening experience. It is a challenge that Horak fully acknowledges, and has committed to making a career out of his passion “wherever and however possible.”

Although there are challenges to be faced, Doug B. Horak sees a future for himself in art. Even though the “academic” period of his life may be over, his art education continues . “…no matter how many hours you spend studying it and drawing it over and over, there’s always more to learn and room to improve.”

Website: www.dbhorak.com