Brooklyn Artists Display Life, Work and Passions

I'll admit, as I made my way to the A.G.A.S.T. (Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour) Arts Festival in Brooklyn, my expectations weren't too high. I've heard good things about the creative atmosphere of Brooklyn, but my surroundings in this particular part of the borough - Union Street, to be precise - weren't too auspicious-looking. Apartment after apartment was covered in drab graffiti. Nothing popped out at me indicating that this was A.G.A.S.T.'s annual exhibition.

A few blocks in I was greeted with a purple and yellow awning that was the home of motley pottery. Small dishes painted in earth tones were predominant while others were decorated with irregular polka dots resembling a culture on a petri dish. Claire Weissberg, who became interested in pottery ever since she took a class on it in college, was the creator of these pieces and said, "I guess you could say it was love at first touch. I was always the one to make things, once I discovered clay." Aside from pottery, Weissberg also delved into quilting, jewelry-making, painting and drawing. She praises the annual arts festival and considers its location to be perfect: "It's a gentrifying neighborhood. There are lots of people here who care about the arts. They can see a huge variety of affordable art; they get to see where it's made, in our working environments and studios."

Upstairs a labyrinth of several artists displayed works in their respective studios. Margaret Neill, who described her paintings as being, "abstractions derived from nature," displayed smooth swirls of cool colors like teal and slate gray oftentimes clashing with warmer colors of orange and burnt umber. Formerly an urban - oriented painter, Neill changed her outlook and art after discovering hiking and nature. With titles like "Vantage" and "Stakeout" Neill takes the viewer on some of her best encounters with nature. Neill supports herself by cooking and teaching, allowing that her lifestyle as an artist is not for everyone, deeming it "more holistic than other jobs."

Joelle Shallon, an abstract artist, described her art as "oil paintings with lots of texture and color on plywood panels with irregular shapes." A piece entitled, "Ray of Light," represents her work well by featuring lines of various bright colors which unite to form semi-concrete shapes and intricate dots which have a similar effect. Her art also features arches, domes and minarets- shapes found in Islam architecture. "I grew up in the Middle East for eight years," Shallon said, continuing, "in places like India, Iran and Turkey. Artists create inspiration; we distill ideas, observations, experiences and skills learned onto our work."

Abstract expressionist Charles Truett said art doesn't necessarily have to be driven by motivation to have weight and meaning: "The motivation is not always clear," he said. "I make art in order to find motivation." Truett's artwork features spattered paint on a canvas which gives a disorienting and apocalyptic aura to the viewer with its chaos and sharply contrasting colors. "I saw a giant black painting in Chicago when I was 19," he said while explaining the inspiration for his work. "It was really beautiful and I didn't understand it." It was the mystical nature of this piece of art which made him want to create it. "I'm really passionate about things I don't understand," Truett said. Describing A.G.A.S.T., Truett said that it is "a great opportunity to get feedback from people. The rent's cheap, and I get to share the building with other artists [...] but the neighborhood is changing." Pretty soon, Truett thinks that the artists, including himself, will have to leave the area as the cost of living becomes increasingly unaffordable.

Joanne McFarland has an eclectic collection: abstract works on paper, dress collages and representation oil paintings and poetry. Her favorite piece, "Stunned by What She Saw," depicts a black baby doll dressed in a starched white dress lying down upon a pink, flowery background. McFarland said, "The composition is successful. There's a lot of emotional weight, and it's a subject I'm particularly attached to [it].The doll refutes current notions of beauty as it is very dark, bald, and small." Beauty is a term she believes is stereotypically defined by society as "shallow, noisy, pale, blonde, well-endowed, and cynical rather than innocent." The black baby doll in this painting defies these stereotypes, and its graceful nature is done so hauntingly.

Kenneth Sean Golden reflected upon his desire in exploring the "queer sensibility," identity, masculinity, gender and sexuality with the human body in his artwork. Incorporating his own photography with images and text found in catalogs, cartoons, food packages and newspapers, Golden processes his gatherings via the computer to achieve his final product. He described his artwork as,"a critical investigation of identity and other issues; it's a layering of images, a masking that hides and reveals different meanings." The image of a fingerprint is found throughout his works, as Golden believes it embodies the notions of "identity and community." In a demonstration on the computer, shows how one's fingerprint can be magnified to the point of being unrecognizable and moot; thus, putting into question one's identity in the scope of one's environment.

A renewed appreciation for modern art and an artist's mentality in doing what he or she is passionate about stayed with me as I left the festival. Sure, to the naked eye artists' work may seem to blend into one another and lose their individuality. Upon closer inspection it can be asserted that each artist brings to the table his or her own unique experiences, identity and interests. Ultimately, much like our fingerprints, what each one of us has to say and how we choose to say it is different. Perhaps if I looked harder at the rows of dull apartment buildings I passed by while getting to the exhibition, I would've noticed each one's uniqueness. After all, art is what you make of it.