CatRutgers4Art

Street Smart

Posted on January 6, 2012 by CatRutgers4Art

Church Avenue is one of those all-time great streets full of every kind of commerce going on. Fresh fruit, flip flops, flowers, fajitas. Fabulous. And that’s a short list.

But when you move west toward Coney Island Avenue, the streetscape changes. And despite the fact that there are many cool business venues, several storefronts are empty.

In the fall of 2011, the Church Avenue Business Improvement District launched a plan to do something about this: a mural competition open to all artists, age 16 or older, who live, work, or go to school in New York City. Great idea.

There are five storefront security gates just waiting to be painted. The artists have responded to the call, contributing a beautiful array of ideas and styles. Now the community gets to vote on their favorites.

And there’s an exhibit opening Tuesday, January 17, on view through February 24, 2012, at the Flatbush Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The topic, by the way, is “Church Avenue is …”

My design proposal for Uncover Church Avenue is based on the spectrum, minus red and indigo. Here’s the text, followed by the images:

Church Avenue is home. I’ve been tremendously lucky to live just around the corner from this amazing street since 1988. Truly a rainbow of the world: delightful, exciting, unmatched in diversity of people, buildings, and landscape, one block away from the Parade Ground and Prospect Park.

The mural sites are unusual in that only one side of the avenue is commercial and the other homes, which are part of the Prospect Park South national historic district. My proposal is a very simple design that offers substantial areas of color where each store owner could add written information, a logo, or other graphics. My goal is to bring an eye-catching, refreshing brightness to these storefronts, with a coherent vision that will enhance this complex environment.

Update! Number two will become art for the street. This is amazing and wonderful!!
And it was a great experience to have an interview with Mary Bakija, editor of
the Ditmas Park Corner.

Original photographs of the storefronts by Melissa Skolnick, Program Coordinator, Church Avenue BID. Variations on the theme by Catherine Rutgers.

Posted in Introductions & News | Tagged brooklyn public library, color, community participation in art, design proposal, painting, street murals, urban landscapes | 2 Comments

New Year’s Eve 2011

Posted on December 31, 2011 by CatRutgers4Art

As so beautifully phrased by the good folks at home remedies for acne, “Somebody necessarily lend a hand to make severely posts I would state. That is the first time I frequented your web page and to this point? I amazed with the analysis you made to make this actual publish extraordinary. Excellent task!”

This is post 54 and every one has been a thrill to create. The lineup for 2012 is already in the works. Revelations on the art of composting. Photos from the archives as well as freshly snapped. And for the thesis book-in-progress, two more posts for the Rauschenberg analysis, then on to the poetic and very personal conclusion.

A hearty shout-out to the Guest Spot artists for sharing their work: Tom Burnett, Samm Cohen, Jamie Kelty, Brian Olewnick, Kristen Terrana, Ellena Rutsch, and Carolyn Rutgers Clark. You light up the screen (and my life).

Thank you, one and all, for your comments, support, and all around love. Even you wild and crazy spammers. All best wishes for a fabulous 2012!!

Images by Catherine Rutgers © 31 December 2011

Posted in Introductions & News, Revelations | Tagged color, handwriting, rock and roll, watercolors | 2 Comments

Guest Spot: Carolyn Rutgers Clark

Posted on November 13, 2011 by CatRutgers4Art

Carolyn Rutgers Clark brings nature to art in watercolor, drawing, and fabric collage. We don’t often get to see such birds and butterflies, such mammals prickly and smooth, in the course of a typical day.

This artist, however, knows the critters who share our planet from experience – as a teacher and environmental educator, in her work with nature centers and museums, as a preschool director who can walk through the forest at night and navigate a kayak through the shoals of a barrier island.

Once a year, she sends out a very special holiday card, each one reflecting love, awareness, and hope for a more joyous and peaceful world. Here’s the good word from Ms. Clark:

“These pictures are from a series of Christmas cards that I have been making for the past twenty-five years. They have become a special part of my celebration, and I wait each year for inspiration to get them completed in time.

“I usually make about eighty of them, and while the main drawing is photocopied, each card is embellished … a touch of watercolor, fabric, a ribbon or feather. The inside message always reflects the sentiment of the picture in some way, and sometimes I have dedicated a card to special people in my life.

“It’s amazing how personal they have become and how many friends and family have kept every one they have received! Now, I really need to get started on this year’s card.”

In the meanwhile, I am very happy to introduce Ms. Clark’s whimsical, elegant, astonishing creatures to Guest Spot. In order of their appearance: Hairstreak Butterfly, European Hedgehog, American Avocet, Saw-Whet Owl, Dragonfly, Chickadee, White-Tailed Deer, Yellow-Throated Flicker, and the Egret (at sunrise).

Posted in Guest Spot! | Tagged art inspired by nature, birds, butterflies, Carolyn Rutgers Clark, drawing, hedgehog, watercolors, wildlife | 2 Comments

24 Ecstatic Minutes: The Clear as Mud Session

Posted on November 5, 2011 by CatRutgers4Art

Ah, the rush of trying something new and it works. Works well! I’ve just downloaded my first set of photos in six months from the trusty Canon PowerShot, which is no less ingenious than its lucky owner, though much more reliable in certain aspects.

How I let this lacuna happen I do not know. As the darling buds of May were just emerging, the camera batteries ran out. The batteries I had on hand did not work. The Canon kept saying “Replace the batteries.” This caused both dismay and distress. I was afraid it might be broken.

The past six months have been gorgeous, the sky in crazy sweeps of changing light. Near-extreme weather: an earthquake, hurricane warning, mega heat in June, mega rain in July and August, snow in quite early October. Gardens flourishing, bubbling toward tropical, sunflowers and zinnias, the ferns overflowing their original boundaries, the roses still sweet in November. And I didn’t photograph a single thing.

I went to the local camera shop today. Asked for good batteries. The helpful store owner opened a fresh package, popped them in the camera … and I was ready to snap the pix for the Clear as Mud thesis post.

The first image in this series is a violet on the lawn, Monday, May 2, 2011 at 7:27 a.m., and that was the last photo taken until November 4. Click, click, click from 3:21 to 3:45 p.m. This is the first time I have set out to take pictures just for a post. I love it! It was sparkly and windy out there. To keep my hair away from the viewfinder I had to wrap it around one hand and hold the camera with the other. Awkward. Repeatedly. Then came one of those imaginative leaps we love so well. What if I let my hair fall into view? Answers appear in this lineup.

Posted in Snapped | Tagged autobiography, bliss, favorite photos, gardening, light, urban sky, violets | 1 Comment

The Origins of ‘Origins’ and Then Some

Posted on October 30, 2011 by CatRutgers4Art

“In Origins,” I wrote, days after the artwork was done, “a plastic pomegranate is a playful indication of Persephone’s meal that set the course of the seasons; circular layers echo the earth and the face of a clock.”

And that’s not inaccurate, but I wasn’t thinking anything about Persephone when creating the image. Time was on my mind, because it was part of a series for the ArcheTime exhibition in 2009. As not unusual, my first thoughts ran to CD versus LP and I began with scanning a particularly rainbow-esque bit of plastic (which, however, didn’t become part of the finished image).

Next in line was a sculpture from 2001. The slides weren’t so good, so I re-photographed it and was happy with the results. There were many digressions along the way, just as there have been while creating this post. The first six images are from the original process for Origins of Time; the next five from the evening of October 29, 2011.

P.S. Seeing the image in Infinite Instances: Studies and Images of Time was one of the best surprises ever. Curated and designed by Olga Ast, and edited by Buzz Poole and Eli Stockwell, “Origins” is the first full-page spread in this marvelous book.

The images in this post are original artwork by Catherine Rutgers © 2011.
As of February 2020, Infinite Instances is available online.