Sandy Stir-Crazy

By Maria Teicher (MFA 2013)


Now that the affects of Hurricane Sandy have quieted and all is back to normal within the New York Academy of Art community, I’d like to tell you about a group of students who nearly went crazy waiting for the madness to subside. 

For anyone that’s ever met us or hung around our studios for more than a few minutes, you know we’re not the most “normal” group of people.  I know, at least with my class (2013), that at any given time you can find us making weird voices, playing musical instruments, dancing around (sometimes with tap shoes), crazily on our third (sometimes fourth) cup of coffee for the day or running to the dean’s office grabbing more candy (thanks Denise and Peter!).  That’s just a small list and all is done in between a dire need to be drawing, painting, printmaking or sculpting.  Our hilarious madness and laughter between pencil lines and brush strokes help create a steady flow of inspiration and constant motivation.  None of us thought our studios, supplies and even our ability to see one another, would be taken away for as long as it was during the hurricane. So what happens to this group when they can’t get to one another AND their art materials are far from their fingertips?

The first and second day stuck at home you could see almost everyone jump on Facebook.  Social media seemed to be the best way for all of us to check up on one another and make sure everyone was ok.  Within the first 48 hours minds began to ease and feelings of being stir-crazy were setting in.  We were probably the only bunch of students in New York wishing we could actually get to school instead of rejoicing for the few days off. This is when second year sculptor Jess LaRotonda created a Facebook group to start posting whatever we were working on with whatever materials we had laying around.  It was quite amazing to see the materials being played with.  Every medium from pencil, clay and paint to make-up and dance videos showed up.  We seemed to have found a strange substitute for our typical studio environment (that even included dancing) and made it work. 

I’ve never before seen a group of people going crazy from not being able to go to school.  The drive of an artist and our need to be around those who are similar is most certainly unique. 

Here are some photos from the group and what we did to keep ourselves from going mad.