Doodle: 10 Artists’ Attempt To Throw Conceptuality Out The Window
September 1st-15th, 2006
Opening September 7th, 2006
Curated by Tchera Niyego
Participating artists are: Gulay Alpay, Susan Carnahan, Vanessa Garcia, Monica Hernandez, Richard Hodges, Stephen Pauley, Van Renselar, Michelle Sakhai, Stephen Spiller, Matthew Zaidan and Mirela Zdjelaric.
The idea that inspires this show is letting go of our tight hold on the perceiving of our self as a separate entity; even if for a wonderful little moment, in what happens… Doodle until there is no more you doodling, until there’s no more separation between who’s doing the doodling; the drawing, painting, sculpting or the acting, and the action Itself. “Do do do what you’ve done done done before…doodle!†It’s easier said than done yet this is an attempt…
Gulay Alpay
Alpay is very happy to open her Solo Exhibition “Sound of Silk” at the Turkish Consulate spontaneously with “Doodle” where her abundant and exuberant doodling can be viewed until Sept. 17 th . The Turkish Consulate and Tourism Office Gallery will be keeping many of the artist’s works afterwards for a continuous exhibition. Curated by Tchera Niyego.
Susan Carnahan
Much of my work originates from probing my past in order to assess my present identity. I was an only child, and the solitude caused me to construct fantastical narratives in my mind. Now, as an adult and an artist, I am reinventing the dark and fantastical actions that I would never dare act out as a child.
The latest chapters of my life have allowed me the opportunity to reexamine my ideas from many different perspectives. In the last five years, I have brought two new people in the world and also lost the two who brought me into this world. I have been an adult examining from the perspective of a child in my art. Now, as a parent, I am able to see myself in the role of my own mother, gaining a better understanding of how these cycles come together, full circle.
In my latest piece, “Punished”, I took cues from my five-year-old son, examining him during several periods of punishment (time-outs). After researching his behavior, I recreated my own punishment via improvised reenactments. Watching my child in this way has helped my to clarify the interrelationship between myself and my mother and myself as a mother.
Vanessa Garcia
Most of my work deals with blueprints in one way or another, whether it’s the about the blueprints of urban development, or an attempt to decipher our social, moral, and functional codes. Paintings are depictions of life and should be taken apart like DNA. In this case, I made a kind of automatic blueprint out of an invented visual code of sorts, which is what painting and drawing is — a visual code. It’s a blueprint of thought, the day in the life of a person through ship and wave and sea-change. I was going to call it “Full Fathom Five,” but then I realized Jackson Pollock already took that title…c’est la vie, doodle-e-dee.
Monica Hernandez
I can say that all my artwork comes from my subconscious so maybe my creative process can be named doodling, and my final art pieces doodles.
What I love of being an artist is the freedom and the peace of mind that the artistic process gives me; for me it is my way of having a therapy.
At the beginning when thinking about the concept of the “Doodle” show, I wasn’t sure what I exactly had to do, and to be sincere I was stressing myself. I couldn’t stop imagining a way of making a Doodle that would make sense to me, and that would allow me to express something that not only I can understand.
I want my work to communicate; this is the only clear idea I always have before starting any piece.
So while thinking about it, I decided to start working on something else following my usual process:
I never know what I’m going to do, but I do have my own creative ritual. I stare to the prepared surface ready to be intervened with my mind in blank. Upon feeling completely free from judgments, I start dropping coffee on it, when it is dry I automatically start drawing on it.
I don’t think about what I’m drawing, it’s like somebody else is doing it, I’m only following the lines and allowing the characters to be born from that coffee stain.
This time while I was doing a new piece I realized that my artwork is a big DOODLE. I found out why I couldn’t think about anything for the doodle show and I saw how I was just driving myself crazy for no reason, because the only thing I know to do well is “doodling”.
Richard Hodges
I was born in Chicago , Illinois on December 17, 1930. I retired form commercial photography in 1987 and began taking life-drawing classes at a local community college. There, I developed a style and technique that uses elements of mystery, ambiguity and invention to convey my ideas. I free my mind form art rules so not to limit myself to copy work. I make comments about our governmental policy and social trends which makes my work has an offensive and in your face attitude. I am expressing my past experience and what now goes on around me. I will use my art and my voice to help bring about the change that will ensure that the gay community will have those freedoms that are fundamental to all Americans, which includes marriage whether or not the breeder class and the right-wing Christian evangelist like it.
Stephen Pauley
Doodling in public restrooms is a past time for many people, male and female alike.
I have reconstructed a marble bathroom stall divider and sandblasted the graffiti and doodles verbatim from the Mt. Royal Tavern in Baltimore , MD into it. I traced the scribbles exactly as they were as to document the differences of gender communication. It is a double-sided structure, men’s room on one side, women’s on the other.
Van Renselar
My pictures begin with an impression of what they will look like when completed. I make many drawings and painted elements which are then collaged together. During this process I discover that the picture can be improved with an addition here, a color tweak there, a compositional adjustment elsewhere…
The picture creates its own life - its own logic. The artistic imperative begins to give the picture its own energy - the picture becomes its own subject.
Michelle Sakhai
The hardest thing is not to think while painting. Like when we were all kids and we all just “doodled.” But you cannot ignore your own age or the experiences that you’ve had throughout your life. It all comes out somehow. I try and paint with a clear head and just what is in front of my eyes and nothing else. The rush of time pushes me to grasp the air at that instance before the light changes and the moment is passed on. Sometimes the world stops around me and that’s when I know I’ve got something- when you’re so focused and in such a pure state of mind….
That’s when you know you’ve got something true.
Stephen Spiller
In a persistent effort to develop a sense of self, and to relate to others, we continuously send and invite messages predicated on how we dress, decorate our bodies, and behave.
Capturing those messages in images is the starting point for me. From there I’m interested in puzzling out their meaning, first as to the individuals photographed, then in a larger cultural context. I’m attracted to the idea of encouraging viewers to recognize aspects of themselves in others, acknowledge feelings as a common-denominator language and, most importantly, value their unconscious.
My photographs are made in public spaces. There, realities like sadness, sexual desire, anger, shame, etc. are often hidden. Presentation and image rule while feelings and emotions are repressed because gold stars go to the “mature”. Clothing, behavior, and body decorations speak to the real story. What’s visible is metaphor and the meaning is subjective.
Because spontaneity encourages honesty and immediacy I shoot on instinct, often without even aiming my camera. I’m looking for performance broadcasting meaning. I’m drawn to what’s sexy or obnoxious, gorgeous or ugly, or just plain weird. I connect viscerally with people I’d hate to be, or love to be.
Occasionally I write text accompanying the messages photographed. My words can be a gambit supplying a voice as I imagine it laced with private emotion.
Matthew Zaidan
I have expressed myself through the visual arts for as long as I can remember. I became fascinated with the qualities of ink drawing at the age of 10, after being asked to design a silhouette drawing for a school advertisement. Since then ink has always been my favorite medium of expression. I love the permanence of ink, and the saturation quality of black on white paper the most.
Largely self-taught, I shy away from many of the generally accepted drawing principles and techniques, and have developed my own drawing style. I Tend to work at a very slow pace, and like to consider my drawing time as a very reflective, and meditative process.
As this will be my first art show since I was in high school; I am very excited about “Doodle”, and could not think of a better theme with which to present my work. Spontaneity, and “Going with the flow” is my favorite way to work, and it fits in with my personal vision of where true art comes from.
Mirela Zdjelaric
So many experiences happen in rooms.
Born and raised in Montreal , Quebec , I have since traveled all over the world, seeing many different types of rooms and having diverse experiences in all of them.
Since each room is, in fact, an imaginary construction, they are like rooms within the mind of a person, all the different places we escape to as we go about our daily lives. I am exploring the rooms people create.
