3rd Ward Member Goes From Big Bird To Big Time: Meet Illustrator and Caricaturist Cathy Nolan

Cathy Nolan and her showcase table at the Craft and Hobby Association Winter show.3rd Ward member Cathy Nolan made her first illustration when she was 18 months old. "Of course it was a bunch of scribbles and circles," she says. "I waddled up to my mother and my first words were 'Big Bird.' A million years later she still has that drawing!"

By eight she knew that she wanted to be a caricaturist. "As a kid growing up in the Chicagoland area my family would often go to Great America amusement park," she remembers. "When I first saw artists drawing people I was mesmerized. I couldn't get pulled away from watching the process of someone sitting there and getting drawn. My siblings had to drag me away from the caricature booth to ride the cool rides."

At 18 she turned pro. "I did my first county fair drawing people and made $1000 in five days," she says, "so I thought 'Hmmm... I could get used to this!'"

Nolan has been drawing ever since. Her caricatures allow her to engage and connect with her subjects in a unique way. "I love talking to people, putting them at ease to talk about themselves and their passions and then drawing them doing what they enjoy doing in life," she says. Hit the jump to read more about Nolan and see some of her work.

Nolan's career has naturally led to some fascinating experiences, such as her caricature of one Vietman veteran:

I was working at a county fair and he came up to my booth and told me his life story. He asked me to draw all of the aspects of himself with his different personalities.  I wasn't sure if he was schitzophrenic or crazy. I drew him in the middle of the page and drew all the different personalitlies around the main image. When I began to draw his evil crazy side, I was a little bit nervous while drawing him because I didn't want that particular personality to appear. He loved the drawing and later that day his wife came up to me to thank me. She said, "He has NEVER told anyone about his time in Vietnam and of his personality disorder! Great art!"

We often think of a caricaturist as someone that we'll only encounter on a stroll through Central Park, but many major clients have commissioned Nolan's work, from American Airlines and Citibank to Highlights for Children and the New York Rangers.

Working for Scholastic Media she also picked up valuable skills in licensing and product development. She teaches student illustration workshops and has presented her work in showcases such as the Brand Licensing Show in London and the Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim, California. At 3rd Ward she's also honed her skills even further through Photoshop and Illustrator classes.

You can see Nolan's work in person at Connecticut Muffin (423 Myrtle Ave) in Clinton Hill. She'll be hosting a reception there on Friday, March 30 from 6:30-8pm.

"All are welcomed to attend!" she says. "If I'm feeling inspired, I might be drawing caricatures of those who attend too!"

Cathy Nolan with author Elizabeth Gilbert.

-- John Ruscher

Essential Event: Six Decades Of John Chamberlain's Sculptures Loom Large At The Guggenheim

John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

While you're planning your March museum outings to check out MoMA's Cindy Sherman retrospective or the Whitney Biennial, we highly recommend adding the Guggenheim Museum's John Chamberlain: Choices to your list.

Chamberlain, who died in December at the age of 84, began his career as a sculptor in the mid 1950s, following four years of service in the Navy. He became known for forging sculptures out of automobile parts, which brought Abstract Expressionism into three dimensions and blended elements of Pop Art and Minimalism. "His astonishing, balanced sculptures stressed the deep volumes and eccentric folds that he managed to achieve by squeezing or compressing the metal and then welding the disparate elements into highly developed, collage-like compositions," says the Guggenheim.

Choices, which "pays tribute to the artist's process of active selection, or choosing, that is fundamental to his practice," is installed chronologically in museum, with his long career unfolding along Frank Lloyd Wright's upward spiral. C’ESTZESTY (2011), "a nearly 20-foot-tall work of painted and chromium-plated steel and stainless steel" is also installed along Fifth Avenue.

John Chamberlain: Choices is on display at the Guggenheim through May 13. Hit the jump to see some of the works featured in the exhibition, and as you do, meditate on a couple quotes from Chamberlain:

Kline gave me structure. De Kooning Gave me color. But I only agreed with him because the auto color was the same. It had nothing to do with being derivative. De Kooning knew about the color of America. The color of America is reflected in their automobiles.

One day something—some one thing—pops out at you, and you pick it up, and you take it over, and you put it somewhere else, and it fits. It’s just the right thing at the right moment. You can do the same thing with words or with metal. 

Fantail, 1961 Painted and chromium-plated steel 70 × 75 × 60 inches (178 × 190.5 × 152.4 cm) Collection of Jasper Johns © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.

SPHINXGRIN TWO, 2010 Aluminium 192 7/8 x 165 3/8 x 145 5/8 inches (490 x 420 x 370 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationUntitled, ca. 1960 Paper, metal, painted and printed tin-plated steel, printed paper fabric, and paint on painted fiberboard 12 × 12 × 5½ inches (30.5 × 30.5 × 14 cm) Private collection Photo: Kristopher McKayC’ESTZESTY, 2011 Painted and stainless steel 238 x 67 x 67 inches (604.5 x 170.2 x 170.2 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationShortstop, 1957 Painted and chromium-plated steel and iron 58 × 44 × 18 inches (147.3 × 112 × 45.7 cm) Dia Art Foundation © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New YorkLord Suckfist, 1989 Painted, chromium-plated, and stainless steel 83 3/4 × 57 × 56 inches (212.7 × 144.8 × 142.2 cm) Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Sammlung Brandhorst © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Courtesy The Pace Gallery

-- John Ruscher

NYC's Kailyn Kent Captures Live Bands In Gorgeous Color Sketches

YACHT at Santos Party House - by Kailyn Kent

Last spring Kailyn Kent wanted to draw more people. "But I hate asking people to hold still and pose," she says. At the time she was helping run The Cave, a music venue in Minnesota, and she soon found that the subjects she was looking for were right there on the stage. "I started drawing shows, and couldn't stop," she says. "I kept doing it when I moved here to NYC—I drew a show my first night here, actually."

Kent has been regularly sketching shows around the city ever since. Her work requires a good vantage point, but she hasn't had much problem getting close to the stage. "Being a small girl with a sketchbook helps," she says. "My favorite place is near the speakers, because you're close but not straight on—but I'm afraid I'm developing tinnitus." Once she's found her spot, she'll take out her crayons and knock out a few sketches over the course of a band's set. "One show sketch takes one to two songs, usually," she tells us.

What does Kent do when she's not sketching shows? "I go to shows and dance! I also draw other events. Surreally, Maurizio Cattelan saw me sketching at 285 Kent, and invited me to draw at his gallery Family Business, which was a thrill. I'm also cartooning over a series of very long scrolls—10 to 30 feet each."

Some of her favorite bands to sketch include Brooklyn groups The Babies and Dinosaur Feathers and Portland electropop band YACHT (see above). "And I was very starstruck drawing James Murphy and Pat Mahoney of Special Disco Version last fall," she tells us.

Hit the jump to see more of those sketches. Then check Kent's show sketches archive or Tumblr blog for more, and keep an eye out for her the next time you're at a show. "I love the various scenarios and connections I share with people," she says. "If you spot me at me at a show, I'd love for you to say hi! I might draw you."

Dinosaur Feathers at Tammany Hall - by Kailyn Kent

Special Disco Version at House of Vans - by Kailyn Kent

Ducktails at Glasslands - by Kailyn Kent

At Family Business Gallery - by Kailyn Kent

INC at Glasslands - by Kailyn Kent

-- John Ruscher

Our Picks: Five Must-See Artists Featured In The 2012 Whitney Biennial

 

The 2012 Whitney Biennial kicked off on Thursday, and while the major art world shindig has already attracted its share of protest and controversy (it even got "punk'd" with a fake website mocking its corporate sponsorship), we're looking forward to checking out the 51 contemporary artists that curators Elisabeth Sussman and Jay Sanders have selected for the renowned showcase.

To give you a head start in your own biennial explorations, we've picked five participating artists whose work we're particularly excited to see (along with a small slice of trivia to accompany each one.) Check out the first two below and hit the jump for the rest.

Werner Herzog - The renowned filmmaker's contribution comes in the form of the multi-media installation Hearsay of the Soul, which incorporates the work 17-century Dutch printmaker Hercules Segers. 

Fun fact: At the biennial preview earlier this week, Herzog told Gallerist, "I don't go to museums because I don't like art. That's true. I don't like art."

Georgia Sagri - The provocative artist and political activist  presents an ongoing performance installation where you'll likely never know what to expect. 

Fun fact: Sagri played a role in early stages of Occupy Wall Street, which has called for an end to the biennial.

Mike Kelley - The recently-passed artist is represented by a series of films in which he chronicled his "Mobile Homestead," a replica of his childhood home in Detroit. 

Fun fact: The biennial has been dedicated to Kelley, who died of an apparent suicide on January 31.

The Red Krayola - The psychedelic rock band, which formed in Houston, Texas way back in 1966, will perform a "free-form freakout" on April 13 and collaborate with British conceptual artists Art & Language for an opera, Victorine, on April 14. 

Fun fact: While known as a rock group, The Red Krayola is no stranger to the art world. Founding member Mayo Thompson was a studio assistant for Robert Rauschenberg in the early '70s and renowned German artist Albert Oehlen has played with the band since the '90s.

Bess Forrest - The late "painter/fisherman" developed elaborate theories about united the male and female forms and operated on his own body to transform himself in a "pseudo-hermaphrodite." Fun fact: New York art critic Jerry Saltz almost got kicked off of Facebook for posting an image of Forrest self-surgery. 

Fun fact: New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz almost got kicked off of Facebook earlier this week for posting an image of Forrest's self-surgery.

And of course don't limit yourself to these five. There is a lot of other amazing work to see at the Whitney, and you've got plenty of time experience all of it. The biennial runs through May 27.

-- John Ruscher

Mu Pan, Our Summer Open Call Winner, Finishes His Epic 'One Thousand and One Noon'

A detail of Mu Pan's One Thousand and One Noon

Last month we gave you an early peak at some of the amazing work that our Summer Open Call winner Mu Pan will be presenting in his March 23 solo show at 3rd Ward--including the first panel of his One Thousand and One Noon, an epic watercolor work that takes its title from One Thousand and One Nightsand High Noon. 

Pan has now finished that piece's other two panels, and...just...wow. There's really no way to adequately describe this astounding triptych, so we'll just let you explore some of its vast expanses, intense images and rich themes in the details below.

For more on Mu Pan, watch a video profile after the jump and check out this a recent interview by Japan Cinema. And, of course, mark those calendars for March 23—you truly don't want to miss this one.

-- John Ruscher

UbuWeb Offers Up A Vast Treasure Trove Of Avant-Garde Art

Still from a Salvador Dalí television spot - watch it on UbuWeb.We all have those moments, don't we? You're trying to get work done, but it's just not happening. So you click on over to YouTube for some cat-on-a-vacuum videos, or to [insert any gossip website here] for some juicy tidbits, or to Facebook to see what your friends (and people you haven't spoken to in twelve years) ate for breakfast today. Sure, those escapes can be necessary, but when you finally turn back to your work, you tend to feel a bit dirty, like you've just consumed too much digital fast food.

For a more healthy and enriching diversion we recommend UbuWeb, a website that'll provide a long-lasting diet that's high in intellectual and artistic nutrients. Founded way back in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith, UbuWeb is a gold mine of artistic goodness, offering a range of materials from "all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts," including a huge collection of film and video art, an eclectic sound archive, an anthology of conceptual writing, and the always-fascinating Outsiders section, which highlights "broader cultural trends toward the legitimization of Outsider work, be it in the visual, musical, or literary arts."

There's an overwhelming amount of stuff to check out on UbuWeb, so after the jump we've culled five choice nuggets to get you started.  Here they go:

The Blank Generation - Amos Poe's film offers the earliest look at New York's punk scene, featuring Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, Television and many others.

Salvador Dalí videos - A collection of television ads and other strange moments with the famed surrealist.

Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine archive - The entire decade-long collection of the bimonthly audio publication, which featured works by many experimental and avant-garde downtown New York artists, from Fluxus icon Alison Knowles to Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo to turntable innovator Christian Marclay.

Videos and audio by Mike Kelley - A range of work by the acclaimed interdisciplinary artist, who died earlier this month.

Curated Top Ten lists - Lists of of UbuWeb goodies curated by a wide range of notable figures, including renowned designer Paula Scher, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, graphic novelist Warren Ellis and Whitney Biennial curator Jay Sanders.

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries // NYCDOT's Barrier Beautification Program Wants Artists to Add Some Color To City Streets

"Planes A-Way" by Almond Zigmond - 21st Williamsburg St W between Kent and Flushing Aves, Brooklyn - alll photos via nycstreets

While our streets could definitely stand to benefit from the rogue creative touch of a guerilla gardener like Steven Wheen, NYCDOT is also trying to add a little more color to some of the city's many swathes of asphault and concrete. 

In 2010, as part of its Urban Art intitative, NYCDOT launched the Barrier Beautification program in collaboration with volunteer organization New York Cares and Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit. The program commissions artists and designers to create murals for those ugly concrete barriers that often separate bike lanes from automobile traffic. The cost of all materials is covered, selected artists are also awarded a $2,000 honorarium for their work, and New York Cares volunteers assist the artists with their murals, which stay up for 11 months.

Want to give some New Yorkers a more colorful commute? Got an amazing mural idea in mind? If so, the open call deadline for Barrier Beautification proposals is February 24.

For inspiration, we've included some images of past Barrier Beautification murals after the jump. You can also check out more examples over on NYCDOT's Flickr archive and get all of the details in the program's application packet.

Tillary Street Barrier Art by Chris Beck and Tanya Albrightsen-Frable - Tillary Street north of Adams Street, Brooklyn

"Roots/Routes" by Julia Whitney Barnes - West 155th St between Edgecombe Ave and Harlem River Dr, Manhattan

"Reflecting Pond" by Corinne Ulmann - 97th and Centreville Streets, Queens

"Face to Face" by Debra Hampton - Furman St between Joralemon and Montague Sts, Brooklyn

"Antimacassars" by Jennifer Cecere - FDR Service Drive North between 35th and 37th Sts, Manhattan-- John Ruscher

Epic Ideas // Illustrator James Gulliver Hancock Hopes To Draw Every Building In New York

All the Buildings in New York - Mott St, by James Gulliver Hancock.

Brooklyn-based Australian illustrator James Gulliver Hancock loves drawing. He also loves buildings. It makes sense then, that he's taken on an epic project bringing those two passions together. The project's name, All the Buildings in New York, says it all. His goal is to draw all of the Big Apple's buildings. While that ambition might be as far-fetched as Sufjan Steven's Fifty States Project, Hancock has done quite a few, and you can browse them by location via this nifty Google map. Hit the jump below to watch a video interview about the project.

Here's Hancock's explanation of how All the Buildings in New York got started, from an interview with CasaSugar:

I'd been doing this series of drawings where I capture a cliché of each city I'd visit; you can see the other ones on my website. So when I moved to New York, it was natural to do one here. However, moving to this great city, I was a little overwhelmed, so this became a special one.

It was interesting, because when I moved here it was like moving to a familiar place. Being originally from Australia, I'd seen so many pop culture images of New York that I almost didn't believe it was real. When I arrived, it had this kind of movie set-like mystique, so the blog was a conscious decision to try and tackle that, to make connections to my new home through drawing. And it's worked, through sitting down and taking in different places through the city, I've made new connections, planted markers of familiarity for myself within its structure and its reality, almost to the point that the buildings become little friends everywhere.

That sense of fascination and connection with his surroundings is what we love about Hancock's work. His project doesn't come across as a gimmick or contrivance, but a genuine glimpse of what it's like to discover the city. That's probably a familiar feeling for anyone who's moved to the New York, as is another moment that Hancock describes in that CasaSugar interview:

Sometimes in Summer, crossing one of the bridges, I've found myself with an uninterrupted view of the city, and I get heart palpitations, worrying that I may not be able to draw it all. I am a really focused person and it almost stresses me out the volume of buildings! But I hope to be here for a while, so we'll see!

Want to make sure Hancock gets to your building before he's old and gray? No problem: Commission the NYC building of your choice via his website.

And now for that video interview with Hancock, by Marisa Guzman-Aloia:

-- John Ruscher

Upcoming Show // Open Call Winner Mu Pan Brings His Epic Art To 3rd Ward In March

We announced the winners of our Fall 2011 Open Call last week, but we're also excited to tell you that we've set the date for a solo show by Mu Pan, the Grand Prize winner of our Summer Open Call. The Taiwan-born, Brooklyn-based artist will be showing his work at 3rd Ward on March 23.

Pan tells us that he's working nonstop to get finish up the artwork that he'll be presenting, including some massive oil paintings and watercolor works. One of those is the astounding One Thousand and One Noon, pictured above. "This is about America entering the Islamic world, and the bitter war we have been fighting for the past decade," he says. "I am a huge fan of Indian miniture paintings, so I wanted to do something like that with the subject of what is going on today in that part of the world.  I used a very narrow and ignorant view point to make this project, because I want to emphasize how ignorant people are about Muslims in this country, especially this city. As you can see, I love to put what I like in my images, so this time I borrowed so many elements from those Sinbad series movies I loved when I was very little."

The scene above, which is only one panel of the One Thousand And One Noon triptych, took Pan about two months to finish. He'll have all three ready panels ready for March's show. The piece's title, Pan tells us, is a combination of One Thousand And One Nights, the famous collection of folk tales, as well as the classic Western film High Noon.

As our Grand Prize winner, Pan was also featured in Art Tapei back in August, and he tells us that it was a great experience, though somewhat sentimental. "I've only gone back three times since I left there in 1997, and I can still feel the love and acceptance from my people after all these years," he says. He sold most of the work that he brought for the fair and was featured in an article about Art Taipei in one of Taiwan's major newspapers.

Hit the jump for a few details from One Thousand and One Noon, as well as a sneak peek at more work that Pan will be presenting here. Mark your calendar for his show on March 23.

-- John Ruscher

MEMBERS WITH 9-to-5's // Heather Ripley Balances Tax Law And Visual Art

Heather Ripley's Yeah, You.

A lot of the 3rd Ward members we feature on this blog are full-time creators, spending their days adjusting lights and snapping shots in the photo studio or forging and crafting things in the shop, but many other members come to 3rd Ward to pursue passions that fall outside of the scope of their day jobs. Take Heather Ripley, for instance, who spends her days as a tax lawyer but is also an active visual artist.

One might not typically imagine a lawyer shedding business attire for an artist's clothes at the end of the work day, but Ripley sees her professional and artistic pursuits as quite similar beyond that surface level. " My hope is to fully invest in whatever is in front of me at the moment, a quality that both creating art and practicing law often demand," she says. "That level of investment can be tough to achieve and sustain, especially with a million other things going on. But there is a cycle of intensity, restraint, and release common to both fields, and I want to learn as much as I can about how those patterns play out. Plus, art and law each entail creativity, problem-solving, setting priorities, and communicating with an audience."

Hit the jump for more about Ripley and the relationship between her work and art.

While a 9-to-5 job might require her to separate her creative and professional time, Ripley says her mind is often occupying both realms. She might be drawing on her notes during a stretch of tax research, or using the bulky Internal Revenue Code to prop or her art materials. "I can't just shut down the lawyer-y parts because I'm holding a paintbrush," she says. "Ah, if it were so easy!" But that overlap can results in some unique connections. "For example, my work includes line drawings where I set up arbitrary constraints or problems and then work my way through them," she says. "Not to say that law is a set of arbitrary constraints, but the notion of working in and through (even around—legally!) restrictions and limitations appeals to me."

Ripley was first drawn to 3rd Ward by Drink N' Draw. "Less for the drinking, more for the drawing," she says. "The existence of this low-cost, high-quality time and space to draw and engage with others was utterly fascinating." Since becoming a member she's found that it offers much more. "The simple premise of artists coming together, making art, and having a good time sort of sums up the place nicely," she says.

Her most recent project was crafting holiday cards for her friends and family. "I really wanted to do linoleum block printing, which I hadn't done since, oh, elementary school," she says. "As sometimes happens, the demands of law practice set me a little off-schedule with the cards, but I got them done!" For the last Member Show Ripley showed her painting Yeah, You (pictured above), which "considered the juxtaposition of being loud/in-your-face with being quiet/subtle, definitely a tension I experience in my lawyer life."

"That dichotomy is something I want to examine more," she says. "And there's a modest queue of portraits to get to." Ripley will surely explore and expand her work this year, but, as always, she's also keeping her professional work in mind: "April 15th is just around the corner!"

Check out more of Ripley's artwork below:

-- John Ruscher