Category Archives: Uncategorized

Red Hook Film Festival

The Red Hook Film Festival opens this weekend featuring movies from Brooklyn filmmakers. The screenings begin at 1pm on Saturday Oct. 3rd, with a special tribute film titled “Robert Guskind: 1958-2009” by Blue Barn Pictures, followed by a 10th anniversary screening of the seminal Brooklyn documentary “Lavendar Lake: Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal” directed by Alison Prete. The rest of the weekend will feature several blocks of short film gems from Brooklyn, New York City, and beyond. Films include pieces about a Bushwick tailor, rooftop farms in Greenpoint, the Atlantic Yards boondoggle, Coney Island’s lost roller coaster, Williamsburg industry, Urban Explorers under Queens, lesbians in the Bronx, a Manhattan balloon deliveryman, an abandoned Connecticut insane asylum, and a city symphony set in L.A. More info at http://www.redhookfilmfest.com

DUMBO Art Fest This Weekend

Looking forward to this weekend’s art festival in DUMBO, always a lot to see and do. More information is available at http://dumboartfestival.org/press_release.html. I’ll be putting together a special photo essay at www.ArtinBrooklyn.com next week. Be sure to stop in and see the work of Randall Stoltzfus who I profiled earlier this year. He’s located at 89 Bridge Street, maps are available on the street during the event.

Museum: Behind The Scenes At The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Just finished reading the book Museum: Behind The Scenes At The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Danny Danziger. Danziger interviews museum employees, from maintenance staff to trustees, creating a uniquely intimate profile of the institution. Many people talk about favorite works and exhibits but they also reveal their personal stories and paths to working at the museum. More than just caretakers, they bring life and vibrancy to one of the city’s most popular venues. Very interesting and absorbing read, great for the subway.

Dutch New York

PBS has a new show in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Dutch settling New York. It’s by Barry Lewis, the same historian that does the walking tours of various NY neighborhoods. The concept is similar, he walks through various areas pointing places of historic significance. Although this show also travels outside of the city to Albany. If you’re interested in the early history of NY or the US (as various aspects of Dutch culture were essential in the formation of American values) watch this show.

http://www.thirteen.org/dutchny/

NYFA Artist Fellowships

Artists’ Fellowships are $7,000 cash awards made to individual originating artists living and working in the state of New York for unrestricted use. Grants are awarded in 16 artistic disciplines, with applications accepted in eight categories each year. Since the awards began in 1985, NYFA has awarded over $22 million to over 3,688 artists. In 2009, NYFA awarded 131 Fellowships to 134 artists, with six of them working in a collaboration.

http://www.nyfa.org/level2.asp?id=1&fid=1&sid=101

Insight Magazine

My work is featured in the latest edition of Insight Magazine. Committed to uncensored artistic expression, INSIGHT provides a platform for emerging and established artists to share their perspective on art. They’re a publication of the F.O.K.U.S. organization which produces a great series of events in NYC and Michigan. More information is available at their website http://www.onefokus.org

Special thanks to Atiba, Maya, and the whole F.O.K.U.S. family!

Food and Art

Food and art are both sensual pleasures, easily appreciated by all and capable of endless refinement. I remember first seeing the work of Wayne Thiebaud in a retrospective as a high school student in California. The vibrant colors and symmetrical rows of pies spoke of joyous pleasures and platonic order. Apollo and Dionysus meeting at a diner for a slice of Boston Creme or Lemon Meringue.

Tonight I saw the movie Julie and Julia, and completely recommend taking the plunge (and yes, I am a devoted Netflix viewer). I’ve had an interest in cooking for years, immensely enjoyed the PBS show in 1999 featuring Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. I’ve also read the blog and later the book of The Julie/Julia Project. The movie was faithful to the spirit of all of the above.

Of course, my first introduction to the delight of cooking was at home. My mother is an amazing cook and we grew up eating delicious meals. If I was looking for an equivalent in the arts it would be the exhibition of Chardin works at the Met in 2000.

At MOMA my favorites are the Claes Oldenburg sculptures. The double hamburger and pastry case pieces are incredible, they’re practically alive they have so much energy compressed into their form and surface paint.

Now I’m hungry.

Underground Together: The Art and Life of Harvey Dinnerstein

Just picked up this beautiful book at the used bookshop. Harvey has taught for years at the Art Student’s League and paints using traditional techniques. He’s got mad skills. There’s a nice overlap of subject matter with my own work. Many scenes of city streets, parks, and subways. Always nice to see a different artist’s approach to the same subject. Guess that’s one of those things that you miss from art school. Perhaps a good theme for a group exhibit? I’ll file that away under “future projects”. See the work of HD here – http://www.freynorris.com/artwork_list.php?id=3