'Catfish Friday, the exhibit''

Today's fotos reflect some experimentation with liting. Some are taken with flash, some without. Thus, similarly framed pictures will look somewhat different. The actual colors are in many cases somewhere between the two versions. Interestingly, different details make themselves felt in different liting.

On July 12th I attended the (Saturday) opening of a group show at Newark Art Supply by the women's group "Catfish Friday". This was another lively get-together with music and conversation at the congenial little display space at the back of Newark's own art store. (This is a long entry, with two artist interviews and lots of fotos. I won't be offended if you only want to look at the pictures.)
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Catfish Friday is a group of female visual and literary artists from the Newark area who meet on Fridays. They put(ted) together a show of some of their visual works, curated by one of their number, Toni Thomas. (See my interview with her, below.)
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I do not offer fotos of every work in the show, so if you'd like to see them all, you'll just have to get yourself to Newark Art Supply, at the northwest corner of Halsey Street at New Street, Downtown, before the show closes July 31st.

This group of 4 injet transfer prints on Arches paper is by Diana Jensen. The larger pieces are $175 each; the smaller, $90 each.
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A very different sensibility produced Gladys Grauer's political painting The Gift.

Most of the pieces in the show are two-dimensional, with a bit of 3D texture in the case of some of the pieces in mixed media. But two dolls by Janice Anderson, Spirit Doll #5 and Spirit Doll #6, are soft sculptures that hang from the wall.

#5 is offered for sale at $65; #6, at $85. Alas, I'm not sure which is which.

The two fotos above were taken without flash, and show roughly what a person in the room sees. This next foto, taken with flash, shows the lower doll quite literally in a different lite.

I asked Adé (accent only to show that the name has two syllables) if any of the artists was present, and she pointed out two, whom I approached to discuss their works. Both graciously agreed to be interviewed for you, dear reader. The first was Sadee Brathwaite, the woman with the hat seen here near her sole work in this show, which looks like a cross between a portrait and a still life.

LCS: Tell me what you thought when you were creating this piece, which is
called...?

SB: Private Conversations

LCS: OK. It is made to look like a still life but has a face.

SB: Yes.

LCS: What are the other things?

SB: Actually, it's just one face in the painting. And when it was done and I showed it, I realized from the feedback of others that there are several things going on in this painting, unbeknownst to me when I created it. Someone said they saw a figure on the bottom — a nude figure on the bottom. Someone else said they saw several birds. But actually this was just created because that's where the hairline was. That's where I cut it off. So it made this sort of beak shape. ...

LCS: So you've got an empty circle here, an ellipse there, another circle there, another circle there; all of which is to say?

SB: The circles represent biomorphic forms, forms that represent organic movement in the piece.

LCS: And this [a recessed curved line]?

SB: It's another form that is actually carved into the canvas. There are about 8 to 10 layers, and the first layer is me carving into the [sounds like] jés.o.

LCS: Into the what?

SB: Into the jés.o, which is the primer on the canvas.

LCS: Spell that.

SB: G-e-s-s-o. [Definition: "gypsum or plaster of Paris prepared with glue for use as a surface for painting".]

LCS: It's pronounced jés.o? You wouldn't gés.o. OK. So you start with the face —

SB: No, actually I started with the forms I carved into the gesso.

LCS: So all these forms were carved first into the gesso. Now, is this on canvas?

This flash foto is a bit washed out, but reveals some of the brushwork not noticeable in the other picture.

SB: It's on canvas. So I stretched the canvas myself, and I primed it with the gesso, about two layers. As the third layer was drying, I carved these images into the gesso, so as it dried, they were already there. And if you wanted to touch it, you could feel that it is carved in —

LCS: So what color was the gesso?

SB: White.

LCS: I don't see white, but you covered it up later with other layers.

SB: Oh, yes. Well, the gesso is merely to prime the canvas, so it can hold the paint on it. So as soon as that was dry and as soon as I carved into the gesso and that dried as well, I worked from this black-and-white fotograf, that I took, of this lovely lady.

LCS: Who is she?

SB: She is a friend. And usually I work from black-and-white fotografs that I take, generally of women. I develop the pictures myself and prints myself, and so I'm inventing all of the colors.

LCS: Excuse me if I mention that it [the part, in the black hair at the top of the woman's head] looks like the stem of either a pepper or pumpkin. I think she might prefer to be thought of as a pepper than a pumpkin.

SB: [Laffs] I like that! Every time I talk to someone about this piece, they see something new. I think it's so interesting.

LCS: Or maybe an onion.

SB: Or an onion, yeah. Kind of like, bulbous. Yeah.

LCS: Sort of like a Bob Hope nose [laffing]. Is she a funny lady?

SB: Hm. I don't know. Not right now, tho, because she's having, sort of, like, a quiet moment, of reflection.

LCS: Bob Hope wasn't all that funny either [laffing again]. Alrite. So this is your one piece in the show?

SB: Yes.

LCS: I like it, and I'm glad you were here to talk to me about it.

Later, I spoke with the other artist present.

LCS: I am talking to Toni Thomas, who is the artist of these two pieces labeled "G". The top one is called —

ToniT: Mermaid West.

LCS: And the bottom one is called —

ToniT: Mermaid Observing Wolf.

The first foto of Toni standing by her works was taken, I think, without flash, so is a tad dimmer and less titely focused. The camera needs good lite for autofocus to work best. This second foto of the same general area was taken with flash.

LCS: So, do you have anything you want to say about what it is you wanted to show? What is this material [on which the paintings appear]? Is it fabric?

ToniT: The Mermaid West is acrylic paint on fabric, and after it's painted, then it's quilted.

LCS: Then it's quilted?

ToniT: Yes.

LCS: The background is quilted?

ToniT: The whole painting is quilted.

LCS: [I look more closely and see that there is stitching in loops and other patterns across the entire surface.] Oh, I see what you're saying.

ToniT: All this texture is from the quilting.

LCS: Is that writing, or is that just —

ToniT: That's the sewing machine's stitches.

LCS: They don't form writing.

ToniT: No. I mean, they could —

LCS: No message from the devil there.

ToniT: It's free-motion quilting, so it can do whatever you want it to do. If I wanted it to make letters, it could do that too.

LCS: Oh. What fabrics are we talking about? Is it cotton, or linen, ... ?

ToniT: Yes, this is all cotton, 100% cotton.

LCS: As to the meaning, is there a specific meaning or is it just supposed to be decorative or illustrative of —

ToniT: Well, the mermaid is symbolic, of myself, I guess. She's in the mountains. It's part of a series that I did. I was in Costa Rica about three years ago, doing a residency there, and —

LCS: Artistic residency?

ToniT: Artist residency. Actually I was there to write, but I also did some drawings, because I'm a visual artist too. I'm a visual artist more than writer, but I'm both.

LCS: English language?

ToniT: English language, yes. So, while I was there, I was inspired by the landscape, and by my view from my casita, where my studio was. So I drew this drawing of the landscape, and then I put this mermaid inside the landscape, the mermaid as an observer of the landscape.

In this foto, taken with flash, some of the colors may be truer, but the piece looks washed-out.

LCS: So how'd she get up that mountain?

ToniT: Well, that's one of those things where you have to use your imagination, as to how she could get there.

LCS: Does she fly? There are flying fish. Why not flying mermaids?

ToniT: They have a way of getting around.

LCS: OK, so this one's in the mountains, and this one, below, which is with the wolf, is apparently undersea. because there are fish and seashells and other things.

ToniT: Right. I was drawn to this paper first.

LCS: What kind of paper is it?

ToniT: It's like a handmade paper. It's almost batik. There is wax on it. Anyway, I had bought the paper. I was attracted to it.

LCS: Was the wax on it, or did you put the wax on it?

ToniT: It was already on it, the diagonal diamond shapes.

LCS: Where did you buy it?

ToniT: Jerry's Artist Supply in West Orange. So I bought the paper and was doing another residency, in Vermont, and got inspired again. I was there to write but got inspired to sketch and draw. So I did this particular mermaid, and I bought some fabric while I was there and I started cutting out the fabric and collaging it onto the paper, playing around with the glitter.

LCS: So you painted it on the fabric and then cut it out?

ToniT: I painted it on the paper. The figure is painted on paper, and the fabric is collage. It's cutout fabric glued on the paper.

LCS: So the design included all those shells?

ToniT: Yes.

Here's part of the crowd mingling agreeably.

LCS: Where did you find that?

ToniT: It was in this fabric store in this small town, Johnson, Vermont.

LCS: And the wolf?

ToniT: Well, the wolf — I had this calendar, so I cut him out and glued him on there. He's collaged on there.

LCS: So why is a wolf underwater? He's looking happy about it.

ToniT: He's actually not underwater. It's almost as if she's in this world, in this sea world, but she has the ability to observe, to look thru the world into other aspects of nature. And the wolf is a part of nature, just as she is.

LCS: So it's almost as tho she's in an aquarium looking out?

ToniT: Or like a window where you can look out and see other aspects of the environment.

LCS: What is this glittery stuff?

ToniT: It's glitter. It's mixed media, so there are a lot of different things thrown in there.

LCS: And the overall point of each piece or both pieces is?

ToniT: I use mermaids as a symbol to communicate with nature. They are here to communicate with us. I use them to communicate with humans about various aspects of nature.

LCS: So you see yourself involved with nature, and this represents your involvement?

ToniT: Yes, in a way it does. In some other paintings I have mermaids communing with humans about different situations of nature that have occurred.

LCS: Conservation message?

ToniT: Conservation. You can commune with them for healing, because mermaids are kind of mysterious and beautiful and exotic.

LCS: And nonexistent.

ToniT: Yes, but in the artist's mind they can be existent.

LCS: Anything can exist if you can think it.

ToniT: Exactly.

After these interviews, I mingled with some of the people I already knew, like Papa Gora Tall, a Senagalese artist, resident in Jersey City. I asked him, "When are you going to move to Newark, ba-by?" [Gentle jab.] He was at the front of the store talking to Chris Sedita, Adé's husband, and partner in the store. PGT was explaining that "Papa" is a term of respect to one's grandfather, and "Gora" means "the man" in Wolof, which he says is the majority language in Senegal. He was standing and looking at this print on canvas, and he said he liked it. He should: it's his. Chris was not going to sit still for that, and demanded, "A little humility!" Papa also has some cards (the blue figures in the small rectangles) in the same area.

This last foto today shows some of the crowd (and N.A.S. is getting a good turnout for its opening receptions nowadays) enjoying the art, music, and conversation of the cozy, friendly Newark arts scene. Where else are you likely to be able to talk face to face with artists about their work, and not be pushed aside for media or more famous attendees of a gallery opening? Newark is a great place for new artists, old artists — artists of word, form, and sound. Newark is especially great a place for people who like to spend some time feeling part of the world of the arts, without having to dress up in tuxedo or evening gown and spend a fortune to prove how cultured and hip they are. Newark is hip on a budget. But if you happen to be rich, we won't discriminate. Newark is effortlessly egalitarian. Nobody in the ever-growing Newark art scene cares if you're rich, poor; white, black, Oriental; straight, gay, lesbian; or anything else. All we ask is that you accept that Newark is a special place — in a good way. And if you can contribute to making Newark even more special and good, we will love you long time.