Preview of "Unnatural Election," in mybergen.com

“Unnatural Election: Artists Respond to the Impact of the 2016 US Presidential Election" at Puffin Cultural Forum

The Puffin Cultural Forum presents “Unnatural Election: Artists Respond to the Impact of the 2016 US Presidential Election.” The exhibition runs from Sunday, September 24 through Friday, November 10 and is curated by artist and activist-curator Andrea Arroyo featuring images by over 230 international artists. “Unnatural Election” initially launched a day after the U.S. presidential election on November 8, 2016 as an online project that invited artists from around the world to submit their reactions. The response was massive and immediate, so far, Andrea Arroyo has received more than 300 works by over 230 artists from 37 countries, and the project keeps growing.

This third physical installation of the exhibition features prints as well as original art that question the election’s impact on social justice, race and gender issues, human rights, immigration, economic justice, the environment and international relations. Images feature paintings, drawings, illustrations, photographs, collages, quilts and poems by a vastly diverse group of artists who tackle concerning issues in styles that include literal, shocking, humorous and poetic.

The project aims to keep asking the ever-relevant questions: How do we face the impending challenges of the new presidency? How do we recover, rebuild and resist? Previous physical installation of “Unnatural Election” were held at Kimmel Galleries, New York University, and Out North Gallery in Anchorage, Alaska; the project will be traveling to additional venues in 2018.

The Exhibition Opening will be held at the Puffin Cultural Forum on Sunday, September 24, 2017 at 4:00 pm. Participating artists will be in attendance to present their works along with a discussion panel lead by artist and curator-activist Andrea Arroyo. The Opening is free and open to the public. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

Artists Include:

Andrea Arroyo, Mexico/USA; Ercan Akyol, Turkey; Lalo Alcaraz, USA; Maryam Amirvaghefi, Iran/USA; Marta Barragan, Mexico; Yael Ben-Zion, Israel/USA; Suzanne Benton, USA; Barry Blitt, Canada/USA; Serge Bloch, France; Steve Brodner, USA; Sue Coe, USA; Marco De Angelis, Italy; Denise Deleray, USA; Liza Donnelly, USA; Randall Enos, USA; Felipe Galindo/Feggo, Mexico/USA; Cau Gomez, Brazil; Sylvia Hernandez, Puerto Rico/USA; Martin Kozlowski, USA; Peter Kuper, USA; Robert Sikoryak, USA; Elizabeth Starcević, USA and Muhammad Zaman, USA (Complete list available upon request.)

Award-Winning Artist and Curator

Andrea Arroyo is an award-winning artist and curator working in a range of media including public art, painting, drawing, illustration and site-specific installation. Her public art projects and commissions include The Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum, The New York Women’s Foundation, El Museo del Barrio and The International Museum of Women. Honors received include New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, Global Citizen Award Artist, Clinton Global Initiative, 21 Leaders for the 21st Century and Outstanding Woman of New York. Andrea Arroyo has received multiple grants from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the Puffin Foundation, the Harlem Arts Alliance and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her artwork has been published extensively, including on the cover of The New Yorker and The New York Times, and has been the subject of over two hundred features in international media.

Arroyo’s curatorial projects include “Tribute to the Disappeared,” “AriZONA: Artists Respond to the Immigration Issue,” “Women in the Heights,” “Political Neighgbors” and “eARTh Alert.”

Puffin Gives Voice to the Arts

Puffin Cultural Forum, a project of the Puffin Foundation Ltd., is a gallery and performance space located at in Teaneck, NJ that seeks to give voice to the Arts, ideas and culture engaged in making the world a better place. The Puffin Cultural Forum explores the space occupied by the Arts and the struggle for human rights in an endeavor to realize the Foundation's governing motto: "...continuing the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people." We deeply believe in the crucial role that the arts play in shaping our consciousness, and the role of artists as agents of social change.

My pieces in exhibit, Unnatural Election, curated by Andre Arroyo

Come see, "America under Gun" and "Bouquet His and Hers"
Unnatural Election curated by Andrea Arroyo
Reception on Sunday, September 24 at 4 PM; show runs through November 24
Puffin Cultural Forum 20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, New Jersey o7666-4111, tel: 201-836-3499
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America under Gun, mixed media quilted flag

• See more at PUFFINCULTURALFOUNDATION.ORG

Bouquet, His and Hers, mixed media ceramic sculpture

Check out FishFood Magazine, Family Portraits, Issue I

I ordered the print version and it is worth it:http://www.fishfoodmagazine.com/family-portraits-issue-1-1/.  Poetry, Essays and photos with photos of artwork too.

My work appears on pp.107,108,109 and 110.  Here are 2.  The other two, please treasure hunt in the magazine.  It's also online.

Mythic Couple, "WE"

"Adam and Eva in the Garden," mixed media ceramic- the earbud plug actually comes in and out of the socket hole!

Opening Reception Thursday, July 20, 6-8PM of Friends of Ceres Gallery

What do I do?

Written after Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, December 14, 2012

Inspired by the poet Maxine Kumin, “What you do”

Aurora, rosy-fingered dawn gave her name

to a town in Colorado

where a redhead opened fire

and filled their movie theater

with real-red-blood.

That was last year.

December afternoon, lowers itself to dusk

cellphone loose in my hand

Lake Carmel, mirror quiet

“Getting chilly,” I say to my childhood friend.

Bleep-bleep. Breaking News.

Mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Fairfield County, Connecticut

That’s 26 miles away!

My world drops.

shrivels— two dark-moon eyes, in a watery pear of lake.

Between shock-stabs she and I remember—

       atom bomb drills.  The dive under our wood-topped metal desk.  How we cowered and              clung together,      

       pigtails wedged into the sharp corners. 

       It hurt to crawl out to a world

       about to fry.  Please, we whispered—2             little girls,

       please don’t let us die!

             26 dead

           20 children

          6 grown-ups

        details to follow

        gunned to bits.

I speed dial my daughter in Virginia.

Blurt and squeal-sob the news.

Manage to advise,

Turn off NPR in the car

when you pick Hayden up from school.

Pulse my breath

       protect him.   Four year old laughing              sunshine of my life.

                What do I do?

Limp home

rant for pages in my notebook

squirm—a mass of blood-streak-sleep

night following night.

               I plunge into my studio

sculpt

guns—His Hers, Junior, Princess

fingers stiff, stuck into shooting clay

eye rims red

daylight fled, sink into my bed.

                Weapons’ whisper

blood- barrels thrust. Blow

sweet-first-sucking-kiss of bullet

god-speed juicy babes.

       Strew those pink, brown babies,

       make them climb. Put them to sleep

       safe in ready-aim-fire-nests.

 Spring Guns, Summer Guns,                    November guns

December.

Fireplace upstairs

flames the small room

brash-red-orange.

Like Betsy Ross, 

count, cut,

       7 red,

       6 white stripes,

       place and space rows—6/5, 6/5, 6/5, 6/5

       stars on a field of denim blue.

Stitch and glue

tear white sheets

scraps-rip.  Become hearts ripped

100 rounds a minute.

Fly and dance the pistols, the rifles the

Sakos™, Sig-Sauers™, Savages™-

swift, above the stripes.

I pledge allegiance (under god), to the flag of the United States of America

my child-hand over my heart. 

each day, year

after year, I stood behind the wood-topped metal desk.

The needle pricks my finger.

        America under gun loses her stars

We bleed.

July 18-August 12, 2017.  On view my: Mixed Media Quilted Flag, ”America Under Gun”

Artist’s Statement

         One week after my Exposure 2012 show at Ceres, the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, occurred. As a grandmother, with a grandson close in age to the murdered children, the horror resulting from America’s love affair with guns hit hard.  For months, in order to penetrate their mystique and macabre hold on us, I sculpted guns and wrote poems to accompany them.

         I found out that Wal-Mart sells them on line at a discount with free shipping. There are pink guns for women and guns for children of all ages- even toddlers.

         The guns themselves on all of my pieces are my approximations of the real deal, both modern and ancient, as well as some which are fantasy exaggerations.

          The flag on show, was the culmination of the series.  In researching art images of the American flag, the blue field with stars is depicted on the left.  Mine is a studied reversal, to highlight the emotional “right brain” field. The famous pieces in museums are by men.

         Since Sandy Hook, there is a never-ending stream of mass mayhem and murder with legally acquired military grade assault rifles.

They have nothing to do with protection or hunting and continue to be readily available.  This artist’s statement is being written shortly after the mass shooting inside Bronx Lebanon Hospital, New York City.

         So, I consider America under gun. I have included photos of the work in progress.  First came the paper renditions, which I had to arrange to “dance” across the flag.  At the time I was moving and only had a big enough surface to begin with on my bed!  Then I moved to the floor.  I used quilting techniques with my sewing machine and took advantage of modern iron &stick-on purchased stars.  The torn and bleeding hearts are dyed with mercurochrome, an old fashioned antiseptic I found in an abandoned medicine cabinet, which stains beautifully.  Plus, there is the irony imbedded in using a medicine, which is woefully inadequate to heal those of us left behind.

         The poem was inspired bypoet  Maxine Kumin’s stirring, “What you do.”

I am one of the artists selected to participate in Connected 2017

An exhibit featuring fine art created by members of the Connect Visual Arts Forum!

This exciting exhibit will open on Sunday, July 16 from 3-5pm and will continue through Sunday, July 30, 2017 with gallery hours, Monday, Tuesday & Thursday from 11:30-3:30pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 1-4.  

 Belle Levine Art Center, 521 Kennicut Hill Road, Mahopac, NY  

Two earth goddesses from a set of four.  One has a new home.  Only two can be shown at this show.  And the last one an orphan?  She is available through the website!