Your Daily Insight as told by Eleanor Roosevelt

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Essential Event: The Armory Show Returns For Its 14th International Art Showcase

It's March, and here in New York that means its prime art season, from major retrospectives of Cindy Sherman and John Chamberlain to premier showcases like the Whitney Biennial and The Armory Show, which is happening this Thursday, March 8 through Sunday, March 11 at Piers 92 and 94.

Not to be confused with the original Armory Show (the infamous 1913 modern art exhibition that prompted such reactions as former President Theodore Roosevelt's "That's not art!"), The Armory Show is an international art fair that started in 1994 and quickly grew into one of the world's largest and most important contemporary art showcases.

This year the fair has implemented "sweeping changes to the fair layout, amenities and services." They've enlisted renowned architectural firm Bade Stageberg Cox to design a new floor plan, and there will also be a new Media Lounge hosting "a curated performance series and film screenings that will feature artists' films and videos" as well as discussions and panels. This year's Armory Focus, which highlights a different art scene each year, will feature galleries from the Nordic Countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. With its Armory Artist Commission the fair has also enlisted the work of Chicago artist Theaster Gates to serve as the fair's visual identity (he's also "holding court" at the Pier 94 cafe Thursday through Saturday).

If you're looking for an exhaustive preview of the Armory Show and all of its related counterparts, this ARTINFO article has you covered. If you're like us, you might want to just grab a ticket, head to 55th Street and 12th Ave. and explore all of the latest art from around the world. We were particularly excited, though, to hear that Bjork and Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson will be teaming up for a discussion on Thursday.

-- John Ruscher

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

Your Daily Insight as told by Jay-Z

I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice--anything just to get a paper bag. And I'd write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook...

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

Kickstarter Pick: The NewerYork Lit Mag

Anyone brave enough to start a literary magazine--especially an experimental one--knows it's a labor of love, not money. Most "established" lit mags don't even turn a profit. That's what makes the editors of The NewerYork literary magazine so deserving of our support: Because even though they've just reached their $7,000 goal, that only covers the bare minimum of printing and distribution--not the long, hard, unpaid hours of work it takes to actually put the thing together (and what makes it into something wonderful.)

NewerYork is an experiment in process. It publishes "lists, fictional glossaries, Internet forums, classified ads, post cards, love letters, aphorisms, fragments, punctuationless stories, upside down stories and other absurdities." The first issue, which was also funded on Kickstarter, made an impressive debut with distribution in Los Angeles, New York and Paris. For the next issue they promise "higher quality writing, higher quality art and twice the number of narratives."

They have some fun incentives, too. For $3,000 a minimum of two contributors will come to your house and "read from the mag/entertain you and your friends for a night with literary delights (Only US/Canada/Mexico). Flip through an excerpt from the first issue online or pledge $35 for a print copy of issues one and two.

-- Perrin Drumm

Your Daily Insight as told by Georgia O'Keefe

I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.

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

Woodworking and Your Appetite Converge: Baker D. Chirico--A Bakery Built Like a Breadbox

Maybe you've heard, but 3rd Ward's got iteslf a Culinary Incubator in the works. Though in the realm of the "very much established," we've got ourselves a woodworking community that'll take on any other woodworking community on the planet (truth, that's an official dare.) So when we came across what you're seeing above, our culinary appetites and woodworking obsessions fused into one--and then we fainted.

Australian architecture firm March Studio has wowed bread lovers and the gluten-free alike with their interior for Baker D. Chirico in Victoria, Australia. To make the most of out the shop's limited street visibility, March Studio wrapped the interior in a sculptural wooden facade that acts as both a striking visual for passersby as well as practical storage for Chirico's freshly baked breads and treats. March drew inspiration from a bread basket, a highly modified bread basket, of course. The long wooden counter serves as a retail space, checkout and chopping board. There's special storage for the knives, pockets to catch crumbs and the scales are set flush into the wood.

The smooth undulations in the overall shape were achieved with a CNC router--all done by hand--a painstaking process that, judging from the intricate plans (see below), must have taken an eternity. According to March Studio, "The varying depths of the shelves and heights of the subtractions [were] meticulously arranged to accommodate long baguettes, large round pagnotta, ficelle loaves and other creations. The variety and expanse of the wall gives freedom to arrange and alter the display according to mood or season."

Yes, we're in heaven.

Meanwhile, work your way up to CNC routed plywood with 3rd Ward's Woodshop Project: Cutting Board.

Your Daily Insight as told by Ralph Ellison

The antidote to hubris, to overweening pride, is irony, that capacity to discover and systematize ideas. Or, as Emerson insisted, the development of consciousness, consciousness, consciousness.