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Greetings!
The energy and passion for the Arts is alive in our July Issue! Artists showcase their talents in exhibitions, public art and community outreach to reach the local communities. Please continue to share your contributions to the artist community with us.
Celeste Walls-Kepler |
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| Membership
The Blue Door Artist Association is the only not-for-profit art gallery in Yonkers. We invite you to join us in our efforts to serve both the artists and the public in our community.
Member benefits include: - An artist gallery page on our website
- Inclusion in a yearly members-only exhibition
- Opportunities to organize exhibitions and programs
- Listing on our Arts Calendar
- Notification of special art opportunities
Yearly membership dues are $35.00
For more details, go to Blue Door Artist Association
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Community Outreach
Reflection on Yonkers Green Wall
The Yonkers Green Wall consists of murals designed and painted by high school students. The artwork depicts environmental and conservation themes, and is being exhibited in downtown Yonkers.
The hard work and dedication of the teachers, students, and project manager Ann Ladd Ferencz was not left unnoticed. They were all so proud to have distinguished members of the community come and support their work over the months. I witnessed family and friends running and pointing to their panels and telling the stories of how they decided to do the piece and what it meant to them.
What an amazing way to use art as a means of communication and a way to bridge community efforts!
Quotes to Remember:
Donald Perdomo, a student from Saunders Trades and Technical High School, shares the overall experience with the artists. The students noted, "I have learned how to work better in a team. I feel that it is important to not only this project, but also growing into a young adult. Remember the paint brush is an extension of your mind. No Art is bad."
"As an organization dedicated to incorporating Art into our community we are happy to have had the opportunity to collaborate with community members and businesses. These visionaries of our community helped to make this project a success and provide the youth of our community with the added resources for education and creativity." Celeste Walls-Kepler
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Public Arts
Mosaic Planters
The Blue Door Artist Association has helped beautify Yonkers by sponsoring mosaic artists in transforming many planters along South Broadway. Here is a sampling:
Peter A. Davis
Liz Biddle
Emily Phillips
France Garrido
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Youth in the Arts
Moving Art Beyond the Classroom
The ARENA gallery, an art gallery founded by four Yonkers International Baccalaureate High School students (Daniel Boccato, Julieta Cardenas, Guadalupe Maceda, Nikko Mernaci), had its first exhibition from June 6 to June 13. Rightfully entitled "Collective Struggle," this exhibition had an opening reception on Friday, June 6, which had the elegance of an actual art gallery, inside a school building. The event brought together students, family members, faculty, and the school's principal, Mr. Vigliotti. Important figures from the art world were there to show support for the event, such as Barbara Segal, director of Yonkers Arts, Inc., and acclaimed artist and educator Tim Rollins. A sense that this was only the beginning, and that many more ambitious projects would arise hovered in the air.
Everything started with the four student's flaming desire of not being apathetic and idle. "We do not want to conform ourselves to the neutral lifestyle of this world, which drives the passive, stagnant masses into a self-destructive and perverse system. We call ourselves intense people, because we see limitless potential in the resources we have access to, and we will do something with them. The 'something' in itself is not our concern; the verb is the essence. Nouns are temporary; verbs are eternal."
To know more about this project and of upcoming events, visit www.arenagallery.net
ARENA Gallery Crew:
Daniel Boccato, Julieta Cardenas,
Guadalupe Maceda, Nikko Mernaci
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Current Exhibitions
July Members' Exhibition
Blue Door Annual Members Exhibition will take place in the Yonkers Room at Yonkers Riverfront Library. Please join the featured artists at the reception on Saturday, July 12th, from 2:00 to 4:00pm.
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Current Exhibitions
Storefront Exhibition on Main Street
Two local Yonkers artists are displaying six of their paintings in the windows of 49 Main Street in Downtown Yonkers throughout June and into the month of July.
This exhibit was organized by the Blue Door Artist Association and the sponsorship of Rising Development - Yonkers, LLC in order to contribute to the efforts to bring art to Downtown Yonkers.
By an unusual coincidence, both artists, without consulting with each other, have selected works dating back about twenty years. Paul Greco selected three artworks of abstract fiber, definitely indicative of his interest in construction and balance. Biagio (Gino) Civale displays three figurative works. He reflects his love for this area with "Statue of Liberty;" the excitement of international travel with "Feluccas," set on the Egyptian Nile; and finally, the sorrow of the earthquake in Italy 20 years ago with "After the earthquake."
We invite you to stroll down Main Street in Yonkers and view the artwork on display, day and night.
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Paul Greco
Biagio "Gino" Civale
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Public Art
Elm Street Park: Planes, Trains and Automobiles 
Haifa Bint-Kadi, a local public art artist and Blue Door member designed a public art project in the form of an interactive park. The park features transportation- themed equipment, mosaic, a chess table, and fantasy fencing. Come and visit, you might even have the opportunity to join in on the unique experience. The park is located on Elm Street, off of Nepperhan Avenue. |
Artist Spotlight
The problem of low-contrast lighting in some snapshots used for painting portraits
The truest "recording" of portrait subjects' fleeting facial expressions and body language is often family snapshots. (To read more on my unorthodox view of portraiture and snapshots, see "Fine art from snapshots?" on blog.AnneBobroffHajal.com.) But using family snapshots as the basis for fine art portraits can present artistic challenges that wouldn't come up with photographs taken under controlled conditions (the procedure usually followed by portrait painters today). My blog will explore a number of these challenges over the coming months. My most recent post investigates the problem of flash lighting, which often creates seemingly unpromising references for portraits. In the post, I look at a lot of images of ambient, non-classic lighting in portraits. While these paintings are not based on flash images, the methods they use to create terrific art in the near-absence of shadow points to ways we can manage the problems of flash lighting.
For more, see blog.AnneBobroffHajal.com
Anne Bobroff-Hajal
 Portrait of Dr. Aileen Low by Derek Clarke |
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Newsletter Management Team
Celeste Walls-Kepler
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