future plans...

In April, I will be participating in Everything Must Go at the Flux Factory in Queens, NYC. This amazing collective art space is closing up due to the immanent demolition of the building it inhabits... I'll be conducting Show Someone How You Feel About Something with the current residents of the space, as well as with visitors to the opening reception on the evening of Friday April 4th, 2008. Participants will be invited to make a drawing and paste onto the wall of the ill-fated building... photo documentation will preserve the drawings for posterity.

And, back in Philly:
For the month of May 2008, I'll be doing the Show Someone project at the A-Space in West Philly- literally around the corner from my house.
Exact times to be determined, but I'll be out on the street encouraging people to make drawings to be mailed, a few times a week during May. The drawings and addressed envelopes will be on display in the A-Space throughout the month, and the project will culminate in a Postage Party when all the drawings will be put into their envelopes and stamped.
Hooray!

Artist-Centered Critique

Unfortunately, this Continuing Education course at the University of the Arts didn't attract enough participants, but I'm keeping it here because I love the idea so much! Please contact me if you are interested in being part of an artist's group like this in the future.

Artist-Centered Critique using the Critical Response Process

In this course, participants help one another achieve their artistic goals by requesting—and providing—useful and sensitive feedback on creative work. (While this process can be used for all varieties of creative work, the instructor’s area of expertise is the visual arts.) This collaborative back-and-forth is guided by a method called Liz Lerner’s Critical Response Process, which provides a safe, considerate environment in which creative people can ask for specific input and receive the constructive opinions they need to move their work forward. After a workshop outlining this communication process, participants will take turns being presenters of their own works and responders to requests for opinions regarding the work of fellow participants.

metropolitan bakery show: extended

You have more time to see my ink drawings at Metropolitan Bakery...
The show will be up through Sunday November 11.
All work is custom-framed and for sale.
Enjoy!

Connective Tissue
Recent Ink Drawings

Metropolitan Bakery and Cafe

4013 Walnut St
West Philadelphia

October 6 - November 11 , 2007

Cafe open 7:30 am - 8 pm daily

images from open studios

Open Studios was lovely last weekend... thanks to all those who stopped by!
Here are some images ( taken before everyone showed up):

metropolitan bakery and open studios!

the show at metropolitan bakery opened saturday with a nice little reception.
all 6 drawings are custom framed and ready to find new homes after the show ends!

































my friend, artist Zarouhie Abdalian, said of the show, "I love seeing large works on paper, and your drawings really took over the space - your presentation was excellent. I also enjoyed seeing your work installed in a cafe setting - it definitely made me see the sections of tissues differently - seeing the work in the cafe with pastries all around as I sipped my coffee made me think of my intestines, which was unappetizing, but I enjoyed how it made me reference my body."

This exhibition is in conjunction with Philadelphia Open Studio Tours...
mark your calendar for my Open Studio,
i will be there for one day only, although my studio will also be available for viewing on saturday the 27th...



Sunday,October 28
Noon- 6 pm
1370 South 46th Street
West Philadelphia

also, make sure you check out other west philly open studios while you're in the neighborhood!
use our awesome google map.

images of recent shows!

finally! i give you... images! ( more coming very soon)

from "artifact-metafact" at Repetti Gallery, Queens.
A group of three drawings from the series Eyes Like Black Cherries/ Eygelech vi di Shvartse Karshelech, drawn with Black Cherry Juice, based on a yiddish expression to describe a beautiful Jewish woman:













from "milky images" at arttransponder, berlin.
an installation of breastmilk (donated by lauren krug) on paper:

updated list of updates...

***

August 24- September 29, 2007
Milky Images/Hexenmilch
Arttransponder, Berlin, Germany
Curated by Lisa Glauer
Opening Reception: Friday August 24, 7-9 pm

I will be presenting an installation of drawings, made with breastmilk donated by Lauren Krug. This work presents the product of the female body as both sacred and mundane, and as a reminder of the physical and metaphysical connection of our bodies to those of our mothers.


***

September 8 - 30, 2007
Artifact/Metafact
Repetti Gallery, Long Island City, New York
Curated by Carla Aspenberg and Tamas Veszi
Opening Reception: Saturday September 8, 7-9 pm

I will be presenting a group of drawings based on the yiddish expression to describe a beautiful woman: " eyes like black cherries". These drawings, based on the patterns in my own iris, are made using black cherry juice, and explore the symbology of the eye in seeing the self and other.

***

Sundays In September, and First Friday:
Show Someone How You Feel About Something
Landmark Contemporary Projects, Powel House, Philadelphia
244 south 3rd St, Philadelphia

The next occurance of this public drawing project will take place at the Powel House in Old City:
Sundays in September, 2-4 pm.
( exception: Sunday September 16, Noon-2 pm)
and
First Friday- September 7, 6-8 pm.

***
Philadelphia Open Studio Tours
October 27 and 28, Noon-6 pm
1370 South 47th St, Philadelphia

My studio will be open to the public, with recent work on display and available for purchase.
check out the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours Video! I'm in it!

And, a wonderful map specifically for West Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. check us out!

***
Recent Work on Paper
Metropolitan Bakery and Cafe
4013 Walnut St, Philadelphia

During the month of October, as part of Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, I will be displaying recent work on paper at the cafe.
Exact dates to follow.

so many things.

To start with, I have been invited to exhibit my work in Berlin! I will be one of four artists in the show "Milky Images" at Arttransponder, curated by Lisa Glauer, who is also writing her PhD on breastmilk in art.
The show will open Friday August 24 at 7pm, if you're in Berlin...
I will be showing breastmilk drawings that reference natural and physiological connections, as well as creating a performance relating to my attempt to make glue from human breastmilk. I'll be in Berlin for about a week, and I'm so looking forward to it, having never been to Germany before.

( straining sea water in Maine)

The group show "Artifact-Metafact" at Repetti Gallery in Long Island City, Queens, NYC, now has an opening reception date:
Saturday September 8, 7-9 pm.

On Friday, July 20, I was part of an artists' panel for the Philadelphia Museum of Art's VAST program for educators, along with Syd Carpenter and Sarah McEneaney. What an honor!

I will be with a brigade of art-activists in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia encouraging passers-by to make a drawing to "show someone how you feel about something" and then mail it to a public official. Come by to help facilitate, or to make a drawing!
Noon-1pm on the following dates in July: 19, 23, 24, 30, 31.

And, my drawing " Encounter 1"
will be featured in the 2008 InLiquid wall calendar.

Join me in the studio this summer!

Ernst Haeckel: Ascidiae, 1904.

I will be teaching an evening Continuing Education course at University of the Arts, over five Thursdays from July 12 to August 9.

The course description is below, and you can register and read the syllabus and supply list at:

http://www.uarts.edu/continue/edu/index.cfm#courses
(click on "Fine Arts" and then "From Cells to Stems")


From Cells to Stems: A Workshop in Drawing from Nature

CE 1645C
1.5 CE credit $275
CE 1645N Non-credit $245
5 Thursdays July 12-Aug 9
6:30-9:30pm
Act 48 Hours: 15
Observe the fascinating world of nature this summer with new eyes, a range of explorations and a variety of drawing media. In this course, you'll be able to intimately observe biological details that often go unnoticed—or are unnoticeable—in the everyday world; the effect of this close-focus concentration can be calming and meditative. You'll create finely detailed drawings based on sources ranging from cellular tissues viewed through a digital microscope to botanical still lifes created with local flora. Working with repetition, scale, pattern and texture, students of all levels will create breathtaking abstract and realistic images in pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor.

Lawsuit Settlement!

I am pleased to announce the settlement of "Cohen et al v. City of New York et al ".

This is the lawsuit that was filed on behalf of the 18 artists from the Brooklyn College Masters of Fine Arts class of 2006, whose Thesis Exhibition, "Plan B" at the Brooklyn War Memorial was censored by the Brooklyn Borough Parks Commisioner Julius Spiegel in May 2006, and whose artwork was subsequently removed and damaged by Brooklyn College.

For the full back story and links to previous press, please see our blog: www.PlanCensored.blogspot.com

The settlement includes a payment of a total of more than $56,000 by the city, which includes $750 per artist, and fees paid to our lawyers.

Most importantly, Julius Spiegel released this statement:

------------
Statement of Defendant Julius Spiegel, Brooklyn Borough Commissioner of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, in Connection with the Settlement of Cohen, et al V. Coty of the New York, et al.

While I had no role in the removal and subsequent damage of the Plaintiffs' artwork by others, I acknowledge my responsibility for ordering the closing of the Plaintiffs' art exhibit at the Brooklyn War Memorial, and for thereby setting in motion actions that led to the damage of Plaintiffs' artwork, which a reviewing court might find constituted a violation of the student-exhibitors' First Amendment rights. Whatever the outcome in court might have been, I apologize to the Brooklyn College art students who spent long hours and considerable effort in creating their artwork and in mounting their exhibition at the Brooklyn Memorial site.
------------

We have a few new items in the press:

www.nysun.com - we are at the top of the front page right now.
http://www.nysun.com/article/56021 is the permanent link.

and, arts briefly in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/arts/07arts.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

other press notices:
http://chronicle.com/news/article/2452/new-york-city-pays-up-and-apologizes-for-censoring-students-art-show
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06072007/news/regionalnews/xxx_art_victory_regionalnews_stefanie_cohen.htm

Some of the artists will be donating a portion of the settlement money to benefit the production and distribution of the documentary that is being made about the Plan B exhibition and its censorship. For information on the film-makers, see: www.eidia.com.

blogging links to blogs...

I'll be participating in this year's Art for the Cash Poor on Sunday June 10th...
and am profiled on the philly arts and culture blog uwishunu...
check it out!

on the horizon...

things are slowly blooming in the background...








I've been selected for the second round in the selection process for the Fleisher Art Memorial 2008 Challenge Exhibitions...

Soon I'll have a page up as a new member of the InLiquid network...

I'm bringing the Listening Stations as a visiting artist to a course at UPenn this week...

I am featured in the just-released Seed edition of Art World Digest Magazine...

and plans are afoot for a Philadelphia art/action network (email me if you're interested!),
and a new public, participatory project for the summer...

stay tuned for updates!