Showing posts with label Noelle timmons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Noelle timmons. Show all posts
Summer of Prisms
By Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013)
As all humans experience their lives through the bubble of their own environment, we as artists, and especially students, also get to see our artwork through the said bubble. So, luckily for us, and all other thinkers and creatives, we basically get double-bubble-exposure—we create work that exists within our environment and we process it in a way that is conducive and representative of it. Of course this is nothing new. But, when you are so completely cut-off from your bubble, for the first time, in regard to your art-making practice, when you’ve been dropped from outer space and find yourself in the most East-of-East-Germany-Leipzig, with absolutely nothing familiar around, your bubble is understandably popped. And now it’s been replaced with something different: a prism.
The prism is Leipzig, it’s the Spinnerei, and our entire abroad experience. It’s not as constricting and suffocating as the bubble; it’s multifaceted for more variety and interpretation. But, the prism makes everything seem crazy, kind of Twilight Zone. So I began to see the art world differently, to see some of my favorite artists differently, and of course, to see everything I painted, drew, and scribbled differently. It took time to see my work through this prism. It especially took time to figure out which version, which plane of the prism, I wanted my art to sync with, if any. But the most monumentally difficult thing was to become so comfortable with the new-ness and large-ness of the prism, that I saw myself, and my artwork, in spite of it all. To not get overwhelmed, to not loose sight of my core intuition and creative drive (to not runaway with the German circus), that was the real challenge of the brilliant Leipzig prism.
And so we were free to experiment, to make things we never would or “could” make in New York. We received insight from fellow residents and artists, insight so new and fresh, and sometimes severe, that we were again faced with the warped prism. This residency was enchanting, confusing, and at times, downright maddening (communal living was, ahem, new, for all of us). But I feel lighter, more free, inspired, and confident in my art practice than I ever have. I don’t think I shattered the prism; I still imagine it and let myself sit uncomfortably in it for a moment. But there was a moment in late June, and another in late July, when I just seamlessly wandered out, found myself painting, and knew I had gotten what I needed from Leipzig, from the residency, from the prism of our new space and environment.
NYAA Leipzig International Artist Residency (LIA) 2012: Farewell Leipzig
On June
1, Four Academy students arrived in Liepzig, Germany to start an
8-week Artist in Residence Program. Brian
Dang (MFA 2013), Robert Fundis (MFA 2013), Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA
2013) and Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013) will share their experiences here
throughout the summer.
By Brian Dang (MFA 2013) - Originally posted in God in the Gallery
When people ask me next semester how
my time has been in Germany, I don’t think there’ll be words and time enough to
explain how much I experienced this summer. I am still reflecting how my time
there has influenced my work but in the meantime I know it has greatly
influenced my life.
I've made friends at the famous Spinnerei including artists who
have permanent studios there to other international artists that hail from Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Holland, Australia, Poland, Croatia, France, and
Mauritius (French Island off Madagascar). Its good to know you have friends
from other parts of the world if I ever visit their homeland and need a place
to stay. I am going to miss Leipzig altogether, truly a great energy for
artists to live and do their practice. Germany is a beautiful country I just
wish I had experience more of it although I had visited many sites such as
Documenta (13) at Kassel, Dresden, Berlin, and even to Nuremberg with Edgar
Jerins to see the Albrecht Durer show.
Our
little Leipzig
family from NYAA had greatly bond and welcome all the challenges of
living aboard. I think we are better for it relationally and I am glad
to share this experience with them. Our show was a huge success I only
wish I had taken more pictures of our opening night. Nearly 100 guests
artists and collector alike came by to see what we had done.
Back of our Belgium artist friend Samuel with Edgar Jerins to Nuremberg
to see the largest collection of Albrecht Durer's work assemble at
Germanisches National Museum: "The Early Durer".
Picture of me in the back of Samuel van to Nuremberg.
Our Denmark artist friend Peter with David Schnell in front of his
music score or topographical landscape painting.
The gang at David Schnell critique.
Elizabeth Glaessner with David Schnell critique.
My finished painting German Farming Deutschland. 130"x63". Oil on canvas.
My money paintings on 3 €5 euro bills from scenes of a movie I watched at LIA.
Peter Greenway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. 3"x5" Oil/Money.
 |
Samuel was our opening reception personal DJ
standing in front of his painting installation.
|
NYAA Leipzig International Artist Residency (LIA) 2012: Final Week
On June
1, Four Academy students arrived in Liepzig, Germany to start an
8-week Artist in Residence Program. Brian
Dang (MFA 2013), Robert Fundis (MFA 2013), Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA
2013) and Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013) will share their experiences here
throughout the summer.
July 26, 2012 by Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA 2013)
It's the final week of our residency in Leipzig and its
going to be really hard to leave. Our summer show opens this
Friday and I think that I share everyone's sentiments here of
excitement, eagerness and satisfaction.
Last week we had critiques with David Schnell, who I
found to be extremely intelligent, thoughtful and intuitive. He
spent a good portion of his afternoon with us discussing our works
and answering our many questions about his experiences an artist in
Germany. A few days before we had the chance to see some of his prints in
Vlado and Maria's print studio. They work with select artists to create
prints, mostly etchings, in their space in the Spinnerei. It's
really an incredible initiative that has resulted in an extremely
impressive number of collaborations with artists such as Neo Rauch,
Matthias Weischer, Christian Ruckhaberle and many more. They also work
with many young artists and have put on several shows with their
prints.
Per Alex Barton's request, we finally visited the
legendary antique store. It was definitely worth the visit and I will
go back before I leave. I bought two stuffed rodents and a bird which
I have incorporated into a piece that I will exhibit in the
final show. On Sunday I went with Kristina to visit the diploma
show in Halle. It was a beautiful town and the campus was pretty
incredible. The school is known for their design program but there were also
many impressive sculptures and paintings displayed.
Today I had the chance to visit the studio of Rosa
Loy, an artist whose work I have admired for a while now and who happens
to have a studio above us. She was incredibly gracious and I left
feeling completely inspired and thankful to have established a
connection with such an interesting, intelligent, thoughtful and talented
person. I have experienced so many things in Leipzig that I
never would have dreamed of experiencing and the many wonderful people
that I have had the chance to talk with have made my time here
completely transformative.
This experience has made a huge impact on my work so
far and I am now one of the many people who come to Leipzig and return
knowing that I will be back.
Now, back to painting!!
 |
Maria and Vlado doing studio visits
|
 |
| David Schnell studio visit with Elizabeth Glaessner |
 |
David Schnell studio visit with Robert Fundis
|
 |
| Halle |
 |
| Halle |
 |
| Halle |
 |
| Potluck supper with other Spinnerei artists |
NYAA Leipzig International Artist Residency (LIA) 2012: Influences in my work
On June
1 Four Academy students arrived in Liepzig, Germany to start an
8-week Artist in Residence Program. Brian
Dang (MFA 2013), Robert Fundis (MFA 2013), Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA
2013), and Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013) will share their experiences here
throughout the summer.
Time had gone by so quickly; I still can’t
believe it has been a month so far at Leipzig. It makes me sad to count the
days left of trip here in this crazy art town. I can’t describe how wonderful
it is to be surround by the many artists that work here and make Leipzig
their home.
 |
| Brian with Neo Rauch (and his baby) in the Studio |
The energy is positive
and uplifting a great sense of an artistic community exists here that I can not
compare to anywhere else I have been before. You see the same
familiar faces at local drive bars and it is a great feeling to be greeted by
many recognized figures in Germany—Neo Rauch, Dave Schnell, Steven Black,
Christiane Baumgartner, etc. The culture has influenced my work here
directly and indirectly. The biker town of Leipzig and green thumb of the city
has woven into my work, incorporating nature with man-made objects.
 |
| Liz and Noelle in Dresden |
My
consciousness is more awakened at how little I know about the world. Seeing the
rich cultural history of Germany from traveling to places like Dresden where the
town has been rebuilt from WWII bombing and Berlin’s GDR era and reunification of
the city.
 |
| Brian at the Berlin Wall |
I am so privileged to work
with accomplish LIA artists from other countries (Belgium,
Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland) and stay engaged in art dialogue.
NYAA Leipzig International Artist Residency (LIA) 2012: Falling in Love and Tearing Away
On June
1 Four Academy students arrived in Liepzig, Germany to start an
8-week Artist in Residence Program. Brian
Dang (MFA 2013), Robert Fundis (MFA 2013), Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA
2013), and Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013) will share their experiences here
throughout the summer.
It's week six in our residency here in Leipzig, and the multitude of planned events and scheduled critiques will keep flowing through the end of the month.
 |
| Noelle Timmons & Neo Rauch |
In June, Rosa Loy and Neo Rauch visited us in our studios, and we not only received thoughtful and thorough words from both artists, but also a promise for a return visit, in order to give us feedback on a larger breadth of work, and in preparation for our final show at the end of the month.
 |
| Edgar Jerins visiting Spinnerei |
We also had the arrival of Edgar Jerins just a few weeks ago, and during his first weekend here we took a day trip to Berlin. Anna toured us around the city, and we got just a taste of the amazing capital. My favorites were the Kaethe Kollwitz Museum and the Holocaust Memorial: both were incredibly heavy, touching, and inspiring. Looking ahead, we will soon get our studios visited by David Schnell, and just tomorrow we will tour the etching studio here at the Spinnerei.
 |
| Noelle's Studio at Spinnerei |
With all the art-related-goodness we are experiencing, I've been incredibly motivated, and am getting a true absurdness for my own art practice. As our time is slipping away, I keep thinking, "thank you Leipzig, you have so much to offer..." We are constantly hearing whispers from other residents, people around the city, all agreeing, to something of the sort, "You will fall in love with it. You will come back to Leipzig." We can all feel the draw of the city, and sense the unique drive of art, and of alternative and underground movements, that do not exist in other cities, at least in not such a potent way.
And so, we have three weeks left, to keep painting, keep inspired, keep falling in love with our little art city. And three weeks to tear ourselves away from it...
 |
| (L-R) Noelle, Elizabeth, Robert, Brian |
NYAA Leipzig International Artist Residency (LIA) 2012 - Week 1
June 1 - Four Academy students arrived in Liepzig, Germany to start an 8-week Artist in Residence Program. Brian Dang (MFA 2013), Robert Fundis (MFA 2013), Elizabeth Glaessner (MFA 2013), and Noelle Timmons (MFA 2013) will be sharing their experiences here
throughout the summer. Below is the first of many posts from Liepzig.
Originally posted in God in the Gallery
Originally posted in God in the Gallery
by Brian Dang (MFA 2013
Week 1: Willkommen in Berlin
 |
Our Lufthansa airbus (2 store mega-airplane) to Frankfurt-Berlin
Above: Brian Dang, Robert Fundis, Elizabeth Glaessner, Noelle Timmons
|
Technically we didn't get to sit with each other since our assigned
seats were in different rows but thought this would make a great family
picture.
 |
Berlin from above (Photo by Robert Fundis)
|
Funny story we got to Berlin at 5:30 am and our transfer connecting
flight to Berlin leaves at 6:30. We almost miss our flight because we
didn't realize how big Frankfurt Airport is from our arrival gate to the
other gate. As well we had to go through German International Customs
and security checkpoint again which by the time we got there they were
preparing to close the gate but luckily we were able to board.
 |
Anna-Louise Rolland with her baby Claude at Grafikstiftung Neo Rauch
(Photo by Noelle Timmons)
|
Anna was so wonderful to drive us from Berlin where she lived to Leipzig
to drop off our belongings before the grand opening of Neo Rauch's
foundation in a small town of Ascherslet (where he was born and raised)
for the permanent collection where his graphic artworks will be store.
While at the Spinnerei look what we found. Picture of last year NYAA
LIA residents (Alex Barton, Nick Holiber, Holly Sailor, Aleah Chapin).
Apparently they keep scrapbook pictures of every residents that stayed
at LIA.  |
| On the road to the Neo Rauch's event we saw tons of these wind turbines. |
Apparently there are more than 21,607 wind turbines in Germany ever
since Germany decide to be an eco-friendly country decommissioned 17 of
its nuclear power plants and wanting to use more renewable energy. The
US can learn a thing or two about renewable energy from Germany.
 |
Grafikstitung Neo Rauch
Photo by Robert Fundis
|
We had just arrived and immediately we were on what suppose to be 1-hour trip from Leipzig to Ashcherlet. It's my first time in Germany and I had heard that people
travel to German just to drive super-fast on the highway. I learned
quickly that driving 120 km/75mph or faster is the norm. We arrived and
apparently everyone imaginable in Germany art world was there. Anna was
pointing left and right art dealers, art collectors, gallery directors
all of which I had forgotten their names. We were star struck to be
shaking hands and eating side-by-side at the the after party with Neo
Rauch himself. (Apparently Neo Rauch's personal studio is just the floor
above our studio at the Spinnerei)
 |
| Yum! Noelle having her first bookswurst (German boiled pork sausage) at the outdoor vendor of Grafikstitung Neo Rauch. |
700 years old renovated building was the after party place of Neo Rauch's opening
(Photo by Robert Fundis)
The Grauer Hober was home of Neo Rauch's opening of his foundation and
what a treat it was to celebrate on our first day in Germany. Food of
plenty and drinks & wine at this three-store restaurant dining with a
fire-pit outdoors. We were invited to this private event and even had
the opinion if we wanted to sleepover at a nearby prison which they
turned into a loft but declined.
 |
Welcome to the Spinnerei. Spinnerei which means "Spinning".
|
This once was the biggest cotton spinning mill in the continental Europe
will be our home for the next 2-months. The place is now home to 10
galleries, exhibition spaces, artist-in-residency buildings, communal
art cultural center Halle 14, art library for many who come visit. We
are staying at the Gwangju Pavilion LIA.
 |
It feel like home when the building halls welcome you
by automatically light up when you pass by
(Photo by Noelle Timmons)
|
 |
Noelle and Elizabeth Studio
(Photo by Elizabeth Glaessner)
|
 |
Robert and Brian Studio
|
(Above: While staying in Leipzig our main transportation will be
our niffy bikes which LIA offer to give each one of us to use here).
I still can't imagine the space we were given. 13ft ceiling with two big
24ft walls with big glass windows which two of us share is a dream. If
there is even a dream studio, it would look very similar to this.
Imagine how much work we can produce here and the possibilities of
upscaling our work. That is why I am working right now on this 138"x 63"
canvas (biggest painting I had done yet). Hope I'm ready for this.
 |
| Graffiti SNOW |
This graffiti SNOW is pretty popular around Spinnerei and Leipzig if you
visit here. I have to find who's the tagger responsible for these.
 |
| Noelle and Elizabeth covering up a graffiti BABIE |
 |
Flughafen Leipzig-Halle (Aero Park Aviation Museum)
|
 |
Kaholische Pfarrel Liebfrauen
(a nearby landmark by the Spinnerei if I ever get lost)
(Photo by Robert Fundis)
|
 |
Center of Leipzig, City Festival on June 2nd
(Photo by Robert Fundis)
|
 |
Garden by the Spinnerei
where cotton mill workers used to grow their food, now used by locals |
 | ||
| LIA family potluck dinner
(Not only are they talented artist but they can cook too!)
Above: On the left- Sarina Scheidegger, Noelle Timmons
On the far right:Brooke Tomiello
|
NYAA residents are not the only one staying at LIA. Other international
artists are staying at LIA which we have the privilege of befriending.
Sarina is from Switzerland and her practice is mostly performance art.
She been here so far 2 months and will stay another month with us in
June
Brooke unfortunately left today but we will be seeing her soon in
Brooklyn. She practices mostly performance art and studied her
undergraduate at School of Visual Art in New York.
Marin de Jong not in the picture but another artist who will be staying
with us in June is from Holland and his primarily practice is painting
in egg tempera.
 |
| Kanal River in Leipzig, Germany |
Here what I learn about Leipzig so far. Leipzig was once an industrial
city home of textile factories like Spinnerei but after World War II
Leipzig became a ghost town with not much employment. Leipzig now though
is one of the two largest cities in the state of Saxony, Germany.
Although there's not much businesses still it is recuperating with
artist that want to come and making it their home. It rival Berlin for
Germany art and cultural scene with big names such as Neo Rauch, Jim
Whiting, Aris Kalaizis, Matthias Weischer and artists from
New Leipzig School. Since Leipzig is less populated than Berlin more
artist prefer living here because of the cheap rent and artists can get
free housing if they have a social art project proposed.
 |
| Kanal Cafe |
In the forest by the Kanal River by the Spinnerei.
 |
Guten Appetit
|
At the Kanal Cafe I had my tastebuds try an Easter German favorite soup:
Solyanka (orginally a Russian/Ukrainian dish made with pork, cabbage,
tomatoes, parsley and cream.
 |
| 128 years old cotton. What I learn about the history of the Spinnerei. |
Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei 10 acre site in 1884 was once the largest
cotton mill company on the continent with housing over 240,000 spindles.
This place once employed thousands of women which helped produced
sewing thread at the three Spinnerei. It was its own city within Leipzig
with housing for their workers, training school, gardens for worker
food, fire brigade, powerhouse, doctors, etc. In 1993 when the company
production came to an end a Western German buyer by Regina Lenk
purchased the site. The owner allowed empty rooms to be used for
alternative projects-architecture firms and few artists to give
workshops. After Regina Lenk closed three owners Florian Busse (Heintz
& Co.), Tillmann Sauer and Gertaim Schultz bought the place seeing
the potential the space had for "tentants". The artist Jim Whiting in
2002 brought his project "Bimbotown" a robotic art environment to the
Spinnerei. Soon a not-for-profit contemporary art center took over Hall
14, the largest of the Spinnerei buildings. Artist-run galleries
followed for this artist colony with Dogenhaus, ASPN, Galerie
Kleindienst and maerzgalerie. On May 1st, 2005 galleries opened their
new space for the first time. Followed by international galleries once
the Spinnerei gain reputation Brooklyn's Pierogi gallery and London's
Fred gallery. Welcome to the Spinnerei.
 |
Hal Le 14
Above: Far left- Kristina Semenova, Robert Fundis, Elizabeth Glaessner, Noelle Timmons
|
Thanks to Anna's wonderful LIA assistant Kristina, she's so wonderful
in giving us a tour of the Spinnerei today and other helpful things such
as organizing LIA events and helping us fix our bikes.
Hal Le 14 is a public space where you can find a public art library, art
events partnered by Columbus Art Foundation and Academy of Visual Arts
Leipzig. Also I discovered that former NYAA alumni Candace A. Goodrich
is housing an art project at Hal Le 14 called One-sided Story as the
director there from May 2012-April 2013 (she also was an
artist-in-residence at the Pilotenkueche in Leipzig, Germany).
 |
Art installation at the Hal Le 14.
|
What to look forward to...
- A new artist staying with us in July from Belgium by the name of Samuel (another fellow painter).
- Jon Beer NYAA alumni 2012 will be staying at Spinnerei with another residency.
- Neo Rauch is expected near the end of June to do a mid-critique with the LIA residents (unless his schedule changes).
- Art fair June 14th Museums to see in Basel: Schaulager, Tinguly Musuem, Kunst Museum, Foundation Beverie
LIA is not the only international artist residency here at the
Spinnerei. Looking forward to tomorrow we will be attending a barbecue (if
it doesn't rain) with all the other international residencies for
lunch.
Look out for more blogs about my trip here in Leipzig, Germany and Europe....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)