Booklyn, Kerry Downey, Heliopolis

Last week, The class took a trip down to Greenpoint, Brooklyn and visited two very different studios. and a gallery put together by my professor.

The first studio we went to was the studio of a really great organization called Booklyn. This group has over 500 members and counting. The organization helps artists all over the world create publications, cataloging them, and finding ways of getting the work out to the public. They have many gallery shows in their space in Greenpoint as well as around the world at book fairs, craft fairs, art shows, and even in libraries and museums. 

Our tour guide was really great. I don't remember her name but she was hilarious and so down to earth. She told us the history of Booklyn and how she reluctantly became the person in charge of going to museums and libraries to try and sell different books. I loved her attitude towards us, she spoke to us as equals and was just bullshitting with us at the end of the visit. She also told us to get a day job that won't interfere with out art making (if anything it should help with it!). 

So many books!

View from a window in Booklyn's studio

A few blocks away was the studio of Kerry Downey. This was a very interesting artist to visit. Unlike many of the artists that we have spoken to, Downey never plans on selling any of her work. 

This seemed crazy! One of the many topics of this class has been how to find a way to make a living from your work. Instead, she makes her living by teaching. She said it was probably because she gets too attached to what she makes. It was kind of refreshing to hear. I really relate to her because of that. I have a really hard time detaching from a piece I spent forever working on just for someone to hopefully hang it on their wall to look at occasionally.
It is very easy to understand why she would be so attached to every drawing or print she makes. A lot of what she does deals with very personal issues, such as phantom limb. Her work also deals a lot with the idea of failure and elderly people. She explained that she grew up in Florida and has been surrounded by and working with elderly since high school. Most of her work stems from an obsession with self help magazines trying to sell you mostly junk that you really don't need and a few things that might be helpful to a handful of people. So, there is a strange humor in all of her work that I really enjoyed. 

Her deck had a beautiful view!

Some of Downey's work.

Basically around the corner was a gallery called Heliopolis. The show that was currently there was put together by my professor, Bill. The show consisted of proofs, works that didn't actually work, notes, and other forms of planning. It was a really interesting show. I was very surprised by the fact that if I wasn't told what the show was about, I would have just guessed that everything was a final, well thought out piece.