Barbie dressed in festive attire, says “Happy holidays and here’s to 2021!”

AND A TOAST TO THE NEW YEAR!

My goodness, who didn’t want this year to end? Usually I’m writing upbeat recaps at this time of year. Despite everything, there were several silver linings. I’ll start with those. But as hopeful as I am about 2021, I am still deeply concerned how we will climb back out of all this.

EXHIBITION: SEEN X UNSEEN

For years I thought about aging, especially among women, as a way of becoming invisible. That was my initial focus because my work is about women and our bodies. Before the pandemic began, I was bouncing ideas around invisibility off of two friends, who are both now members of the Collective. I also wrote a proposal for an art residency that featured a project and an exhibition about invisibility. Then I decided to put together a group of artists to discuss these complex issues around invisibility, and to expand on my initial ideas to honor the multi-faceted breadth and depth of the concept of “invisibility”. I invited a handful of friends – all nationally-acclaimed artists, curators, and social activists with a variety of backgrounds and from California and Pennsylvania to form what is now known as The Invisibility Collective.

We convened last summer with regularly scheduled talks on Zoom. In just a few months we produced our first group exhibition, “Seen X Unseen” which is currently underway at Radian Gallery, in San Francisco. Each Collective Member invited one or two artists to participate in the show to form a cohort of a dozen.

Angela Tirrell, Lonnie Graham, Susan R. Kirshenbaum, Sophia Green, Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen (left to right).

THE ARTISTS

Collective Members: Lonnie Graham / Susan R. Kirshenbaum / Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen / Samira Shaheen / Angela Tirrell

Bios for Collective Members: The Invisibility Collective

Invited Artists: Mary Graham / Sophia Green / Rell Rushin / Sawyer Rose / John Stone / Christopher M. Tandy (Courtesy of Glass Rice Gallery, SF) / Nancy Willis

On Opening Day, December 5, 2020, at Radian Gallery in front of the first panel in the series that fills the room “See Through Us”. Photo by Candice Jacobus

FROM CONVERSATIONS TO CATALOGUES

The Collective took a deep dive into exploring invisibility at a poignant time in the world – in the midst of Covid; sheltering in place; and people hitting the streets to express dissatisfaction with our systemic racism and violence toward people of color. During this profound moment in history our group solidified and our conversations blossomed, and ideas flowed in many directions.

We decided to form a collective and proceeded to create an identity, build a blogsite and a presence on social media. By the end of August I had lined up a location for a group exhibition at my friend Tony Wessling’s spacious SoMa gallery, Radian. The Collective and our invited artists met and got to know each other on Zoom calls and in person during installation while masked.

Recently we had a very successful Artist Talk on Zoom. The unedited version is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/MbFBd0K5lAO6y5c8N9jBgySJhcKhzdttkVplCzQsQerLRXapoLB5UTrouR09h0aX9A5WuEp38mfxjTBg.BH87HqyVhTsTPZgy?autoplay=true&startTime=1608407292000

Our exhibition catalogue has arrived! Want one? They are a very limited edition…but a few are available for $25 each. Email me to enquire: srkirshenbaum@gmail.com.

CATALOGUE FOR SEEN X UNSEEN

VIRTUAL VS IN PERSON

The tricky part of having art exhibitions during these ongoing Covid days is trying to get more virtual. I struggle with how to create an effective virtual experience when so much of art is physically experiential, and this show is especially spacial and experiential. So if you are local, try to visit. Contact me to arrange an appointment. It’s not illegal (retail=20% occupancy and/or by appointment) and we will take every precaution! Most of the art in this exhibition is for sale.

EXHIBITION INSTALLATION

For the first show I ever really produced I sure made it a doozy! Much of our work is challenging to hang and the gallery space has 22’ ceilings, both a blessing and a curse. But all of the artists were troopers. And Collective Member Lonnie Graham flew in from Philadelphia with complex artworks to install for three people. It took days to work out but it was well it worth it. Pieces by Christopher Tandy and Sawyer Rose each took a half day to install. My own work was difficult too, employing the use of the Pythagorean theorem to hang the five panels from the rafters. Special thanks to my husband Jack who installed so much of the show for me. (It’s a problem having a torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder while making and hanging art…but I felt I had to delay the surgery until I get the vaccine).

It also became evident during the installation that there was a remarkable synchronicity in our art materials, color palettes, and ideas. With the bright winter light streaming through the huge gallery windows and the cool cross-breezes, Radian Gallery is the ideal setting for our pieces to sway in the breeze – with fabrics, feathers, bones, and sculptures strung together on ribbons, chains and strings. That powerful cross-ventilation also importantly helps maintain a safe indoor environment.

Our gallerist, Tony Wessling, pointed out that while we’d filled the gallery beautifully, we had also taken over the entire space so that there could be no other events during the show (except those that featured us). Good thing there really are so few events taking place these days.

OPENING THE EXHIBITION

Yes, I’m meeting people one-on-one under strict Covid-safety precautions. On December 5, Opening Day, we watched a ritual performance piece by Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen (left). On December 12 we hosted a second Open House (right). On December 13 the SF Bay Area went back into lock down. Email me to make an appointment: srkirshenbaum@gmail.com.

Pittsburgh artist and Collective Member Samira Shaheen’s two mixed media paintings (left) and Philadelphia artist and invited guest John Stone’s “Is a…” assemblage (right).

OUR COMMERCIAL

SEE THROUGH US SERIES

I created a brand new series inspired by our conversations leading to “Seen X Unseen” and it is composed of seven pieces called “See Through Us”.

In deep jewel tones they are meant to attract like a colorful bird or butterfly. Each panel is titled: (Emerald Panel) Dissolving; (Tanzanite Panel) Bounding Across Boundaries; (Poppy Panel) Slipping into the Abyss; (Coral Panel) See Concealing/Revealing; (Scarlet Panel) Here/Not Here, There/Not There, Here/Not There. Each digitally printed chiffon panel is 54” x 104” with multi-layered life drawings. The fabric panels are like abstracted bodies that they are the fabric flutters in the breeze and should be gently touched. It’s meant to be a sensuous experience of being caressed by these obfuscated figures. There is sense of moving through ghosts of the unseen. My models are aerial dancers drawn during Covid on Zoom, with strong identities as Black, Queer, and Trans—all groups struggling to be seen and heard, and which I drew at the peak of our nationwide uprisings. The fabric is meant to be touched – to be “swished through” starting from the first (green) to last (red) and landing the viewer in front of the two works on paper that are part of this series. One arrives at “And You?” and is asked to answer the questions. Pencils are supplied.

Annice Jacoby writing on my piece And You? (left) as I requested from viewers. From my series See Through Us. — Annice Jacoby writing on my piece *And You?* (left) as I requested from viewers. From my series *See Through Us*.

Part of our Collective’s research work entailed asking each other and people we know “How do you describe yourself in one sentence? AND “Do you feel / or have you ever felt invisible?” That is what you’re asked to write about here.

The second drawing, Appear/Disappear, has many of the words and phrases we bandy about pertaining to invisibility. The figure is disturbingly headless and upside down with her back to us.

Death, ghosts, and ancestors were a powerful thematic direction in this exhibition. The work shown by Member Rhiannon and her invited artist Christopher as well as Member Lonnie and his invited guests John and Mary all have this in common.

As I’ve said throughout my last few Covid blog posts, I love Zoom life drawing sessions. I hope these sessions really are helping our models and drawing groups stay afloat! It is also virtual travel. Plus, several friends have taken up art during sheltering, and they have discovered the joy many of us have known our whole lives. It took a pandemic…

INSIDE MY ART PROCESS

I have lots of art process videos on YouTube, but they don’t really explain how I work. They are just recordings of me working in Procreate, rather like David Hockney’s art process videos - if I can be so bold as to compare my process to his! See my art process videos here.

MY STEPS

PHASE 1: LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS

These days I research the various model sessions available, sign up, and attend from my home or at my studio.

PHASE 2: PREP FOR DRAWING SESSION

I start with my iPad Pro in Procreate and draw with an Apple Pencil (stylus) on color-tinted digital canvases of varied shapes and scaleable dimensions that I’ve prepared.

PHASE 3: CONTINUE TO BUILD AFTER THE SESSION

Then I go back and and experiment with the background color, the sequence of layers, the percentage of strength per layer, make more color and effect changes, and adding layers of photographs and paintings. I often take photographs now with collage-making in mind.

PHASE 4: FINAL PRODUCTION

Depending upon the output I want, I make a Photoshop file to fit the required specifications I either print the artwork or have a supplier print my work on paper, metal, or fabric. I’m eager to try glass and/or acrylic printing soon!

MAKING THE SERIES OF FABRIC PANELS

These are the initial quick gesture drawings of art models Titania and Kyla which I made during summer Covid Zoom sessions. The art has been reformatted, multiplied, and layered, showing movement, complexity, falling, leaping, and flying. In this series I reshuffled my drawings, took them apart and put them back together again, to overlap and become intentionally unclear and hard to “read”. I made the final files in Photoshop to send to print at a fabric-making vendor. My friend Connie Walker-Shaw (of SEW, in West Portal) did a beautiful job hemming them.

WHAT’S IN THE SILVER LINING?

THE SF BAY AREA

I am fine. I am lucky. My health issues are minor. My friends and family have also been very lucky. As winter arrived, I have become even more aware that I live in a perfect temperate climate especially during what appears to be another draught. So I can walk or cycle around comfortably outside every day. It’s very quiet and pretty in my neighborhood and I live close to beautiful parks and the ocean. Most importantly, I have a superb life partner who loves to cook and bake and do things together. And I have a wonderful community of friends and I haven’t lost any of them.

MY GROUPS

I’ve got several ongoing groups in my life. I have exercise buddies I see near-daily at Zoom Pure Barre classes. And I’ve reconnected and gone deeper with some friends and some groups, like my drawing group – by now we know each others faces and hands intimately.

John Goodman’s Drawing Group on a field trip to a gallery exhibition between lock down orders, summer 2020.

FOUNDING THE INVISIBILITY COLLECTIVE

Of course there’s my wonderful, powerful, Invisibility Collective newly formed during conversations from June to September which were especially poignant and nurturing. That was before we had to put effort into the logistics for our current exhibition. I look forward to continuing our in-depth discussions in the new year and to deciding what artistic projects we’ll tackle next.

ON BEING A GODDESS

I’ve connected with some new folks, too, internationally, as one of the “goddesses” of a brave group of women who formed Grace of No Age this past summer. I wrote my second article for the website and it’s live now. Susan Kirshenbaum - check out my latest feature on the Grace of no Age website and find more like it – the group is dedicated to tackling issues relating to women and aging - which is something many of us think about!

BOOK LOVERS AND CURLY GIRLS

I love fiction and discussing books, so for years I’ve run a fiction-reading book group. I miss the in-person dinner parties we had but Zoom talks are not bad if it’s all you have. We are currently reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I sure do enjoy the time travel theme – and what a great read – and it’s nothing like his horror novels! Recently we read Richard Powers’ The Over Story which I loved. It reminds us of our place in the world. And I love trees.

Just for fun I host a Curly Girl group too, which talks politics more than hair.

A STUDIO AT LAST

In March – of all times – I acquired my first art studio – all to my self. It’s large and empty enough to exhibit my work and to invite visitors. I will have a new show there in spring 2020.

TRAVEL BACK TO 2019

I sure did travel a lot in 2019! Who knew it’d be like a savings account for a rainy day? I visited NYC, Mexico, Spain, France, Yosemite National Park, and Japan.

PETS ARE THERE FOR US

There’s nothing like a warm, furry critter to soothe the soul. I have two delightful cats, Reginald and Nigel. I know there’s been an explosion of animal adoptions in the USA, and I hope that people keep their pets post-Covid! How many friends do you have who recently acquired a furry pet? Nigel has a pet black cat with a little white heart. It’s an ornament, I think. One reason he likes this toy is that it’s made of wool and Nigel is a wool eater. Now I know everyone doesn’t love cats, but allow me to show you some of their indisputable charm as we spend so much time together these days.

BREAD BAKING

Many folks took up baking bread and so did my husband. I never want store-bought bread again! This is a great outcome of Covid as I know many share in this exciting new pastime. What have you taken up?

RECENT WORK (IN BATHING SUITS)

Portrait of Titania in a swim suit I made recently during a zoom drawing session.

LAYERS OF BOTANICALS AND PAINTINGS

As a result of drawing sessions being on Zoom now, many art models are not comfortable posing fully nude, so I’ve been drawing them with bathing suits and other minimal clothes. It helps the models feel less vulnerable out there where anyone might access their sessions. There are ongoing issues around what is allowed on different social media platforms and their rules about appropriate content. Clothing is like another layer of obfuscation to me. I continue creating new iterations of my original drawings by adding layers of paintings and photos, changing colors, and trying special effects. Here are some of my recent multi-layered collages. I am hoping to have some of this work land in a Breast Health Center in Philadelphia. I always thought that would be an ideal environment for my work.

AN EXHIBITION ABOUT CENSORSHIP

I have started planning an exhibition about Women and Censorship for the spring of 2021. There are updates on my censorship experience with YouTube – which would be amusing if it wasn’t so disturbing. A friend, Ken - the above videographer, made a video about me - just a short piece about a show I was having at City Art Coop Gallery (SF) in September. He posted it on YouTube and it was completely removed! When he wrote YouTube a complaint letter, they returned it to the site, but had labeled it “age restricted” (18+). If you see a black hole on anyone’s YouTube channel it’s because their video was removed.

NEW YEAR WISHES

My hands as drawn on Zoom by drawing group artist Dieter Tremp.

I wish for the vaccine to reach an enormous swath of people around the world and save lives while allowing us to be able to move on. I’m excited about the future yet I know how uncertain it is. I love to plan so this is tough. Still, as soon as it’s SAFE we will take off on more adventures (but we’ve learned to stay home, and that’s a good thing too)!