Now: 16:00 Greenwich Mean Time every Friday.
Here: A community of artists in Washington Heights / Inwood and the world meeting in this online gallery.
This: A piece of art created Now and sharing the most important thing on our minds.
Scroll down to view the exhibit below. Thank you for participating in and viewing Now: Here: This.--Peter Ferko, Project Director
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all work ©2004 by artists named
Now: Here: This is funded in part by the Puffin Foundation
Now:
Here: This
February 27, 2004, 16:00 Greenwich Mean Time
Joel Adas, Brooklyn
untitled
I decided to do a straight forward drawing with no erasing. The
figure was what I saw in the mirror. The background was the shelves
behind me. The shelves were literally sagging under the weight of
all the art texts, boxes of photos, slides, TV, VCR, and so forth that
were assembled on them.
I was thinking about my influences and how they are there for me.
By simply opening a book and sitting down in our easy chair in the evening
I could strengthen my artistic resolve. Here were artists taking
the plunge, cutting out in new directions, going against the grain.
Powerful stuff to be poured over. The energy I get from these books
is electric.
I was also thinking about my visit to see my sister Claire, her husband
David and their baby son Malcolm this weekend. They live in Lambertville
NJ, a small quaint town right on the border with Penn. across from the
town of New Hope. Thinking about visiting them casts my whole life
here in a different light. They have a rambling, beautiful house
from the mid 19th century with a shop connected to it where David sells
his antique style furniture. My sister jogs every day on the canal,
a beautiful stretch of overgrown pathway along an old canal that we used
to walk on all the time when I was growing up. And here I am in
the city with my books and paintings and galleries to be visited and movies
to be seen and no kids in sight except for the ones I teach which are
plentiful. Does it just boil down to the culture vs. nature dilemma?
I'm not sure. I think there is richness in both places; culture
to be found and nurtured in Lambertville, nature to stumble on here in
the city in the light on a building or a community garden.
Peter Ferko, Washington Heights, New York City
'Does Bliss Show?' Portrait #9: Dad's Birthday
Reversals, cycles, instant karma. As stepfather of a teen who is just beginning to exert independence and has less and less interest in hanging out with me and Wendy, it's fascinating to see myself coming full circle and finding great enjoyment in simple family pleasures like going to visit my father for his birthday. And I thought it would make such a nice portrait, but I had to invert it.
Scott J. Plunkett, New York City
Untitled
I don’t have a lot to say because this week’s project just presented itself.
Connect.
Rosa Naparstek, Washington Heights, New York City
Upping the Jones: Trickle Down Economy
I grew up in Detroit. My parents worked at Chrysler's
then Ford's, moving from factory to Factory for better paying jobs. When
my father came home with our first car, my sister and I were disappointed.
We had been counting pink and red Cadillacs as they drove past our house
My father told us that the kind of car we had wasn't important, because
once we
were driving, it was other peoples cars we saw.
Coming home the other day, I saw my neighbor pull out of a garage in her shiny new black car, and then, immediately behind her, her husband in their SUV. I began to feel bad because I had to drive and drive and drive in circles, sometimes for an hour, to park. But then I realized that their luxury made more space available for us street people.
Anya Szykitka, Brooklyn
Worn New York #4
This idea for a series has been rolling around in my head for some time, and I just recently started it. When I say "worn," I mean the places where the actual physical city has been worn down or away or out by repeated use: walking, stepping, rubbing, pushing. There is some love in the way an object is used over and over and over again, and use of the city reminds me of that. It's also about the evidence of us sharing the city: I see where many people have stepped; now, I step there too.
Tim Folzenlogen, Washington Heights, New York City
Generations
Prophets, are to the advanced stages of religion and philosophical belief, what candles are to light bulbs.
Ultimate truth is like the sun coming up.
That is what is about to happen.
Maybe this is an extremely primitive planet that is just beginning to emerge from the cave.
Maybe there are truths, real obvious truths, on the order of gravity or the sun rising in the East, that have thus far gone unrecognized (obvious though they may be) simply because people never asked the right questions.
Maybe there are thus far undiscovered truths pertaining to life in this universe, that are undeniable, once experienced, that will easily unite all of humankind, making all prior divisions seemingly petty and silly.
Maybe, instead of making war, problems will soon be solved by tears and laughter, once this greater truth is realized.
If you are depressed, don’t check out just yet.
Something truly magical is about to occur on this planet.
PP, New York City
Wedding Gift-Wrap Paper
It's such a surprise that human rights are appearing within Bush's fundamentalism. Gay weddings are the last thing I expected. Yeah, the S.F. marriages might be annulled but it feels gooood and it will help us get thru George's upcoming $100 million tv ad campaign of absurdity. It's pretty damn simple, everyone should have this right, period, the end. Duh, being against it is like defending "whites only" at the 60's lunch counter. And Hillary Rodham, I'm very disappointed in you.
Laura Traverso, Washington, D.C.
vista 1
[Note: Bridget Shields has a late entry in February 6. See it in the archives]
This Week's Guest Artists (How to join this project)
Mike Fitelson, Inwood, New York City
untitled
I've been having a hard time returning to my photographic spirit. My professional
endeavors sap much of my creativity and I am not sure photography brings
me enough joy and satisfaction to justify the time comitment. I feel I
have hit a wall.
Karen Greene, Washington Heights, New York City
untitled
I recall the walk when this view drew me-- maybe it was about all the aspects which were present in the reflectioon, and all the different distances which came together in the image.
Helena Kupperman, Washington Heights, New York City
White Dreams I, oil on canvas 46 x 40
Here and now ...and then, every piece of art holds a promise for the future.
Renee Tamara Watabe, Verona, New Jersey
Belly / Hara
We all have this soft underbelly side.
If I dared to show you mine, what would happen then?
Would you Honor It?
Or
Would you try to take it for yourself?
Try to control it, or Use it, just to feel your Power.
Would you see something that made you uncomfortable?
Something you didn’t like?
Or found different,
Or distasteful?
Would you Hate me for it?
And Try to smash it, as you would smash a Mirror that shows you what you
don’t want to see, what you cannot Love within yourself? Sweep the
pieces under the rug?
Would you,
Could you,
Honor it?
Get beyond the smudges. Maybe even polish your own damn mirror.
I think, when we are honest, we become these brightly polished
mirrors.
Facing one another in perfect honesty, it just becomes so…. Infinite.
Nothing to fear.
Nothing at all.
Anthony Gonzalez, Washington Heights, New York City
Double Devil Trampoline Boogie
I'm thinking my personal demons love being on this web site. And I won't miss them for a few weeks. Just don't turn your back on them.
Comments on Last Week's Now:Here:This
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From Peter in response to a lot of what Tim's been saying:
I understand your desire for "utopian" behavior from others (which is an admittedly rough label for the urgings that I see in your writings), but how do you reconcile those urgings with one of your seemingly primary tenets: "if you were in someone else's shoes, you would do exactly what they are doing?" Isn't it more likely that we can see changes in front of us by evolving changes in ourselves? I'm not sure I buy that we can tell the world (or its inhabitants) to be a better place. The world is inherently characterized by opposites (good/evil, dark/light, masculine/feminine) being played out by others.
Of course the writers of gospels, self-help books and manifestos tell others what to do to find happiness, so there's no reason you can't share your wisdom in that format as well.
I'm curious to know how you think this activity (i.e., writing as a primary component of your art) affects your painting and vice versa.
[coincidentally, I wrote this before receiving the comment below from Tim]
From Tim Folzenlogen
We are about two/thirds of the way through this project, and hardly anyone has commented on anything that anyone else has said or done here.
What does this mean?
(If you think about it, it means all kinds of things, all of which are true.)
Truth is, this is what it is like everywhere.
The world is a blank canvas for those who are ambitious enough to want to paint something.
If you do, hardly anyone will respond to you, most will try hard not to notice you at all - but if you really want to make something happen out there, the flip-side is that absolutely no one will try to stop you.
Nothing stops honesty and sincerity, when balanced with humilty, when considering and responding to what (extremely little) comes back.
Everyone just steps out of your way, and lets you pass.
From Renee
Had a rough week and needed to lighten up a bit...Regarding Jacie's photo
I find the big earthy sweaty green of this image very comforting and real.Regarding Rosa
Feeling in groove with these thoughts. About community: I had a flash of what it would be if everybody contributed an image, a creative spark from the week, the day, the moment, and their most important thought. How cool would that be. And I mean EVERYbody. Everybody weaving a fiber of creativity throughout their week. Being excited about it. How would that change people's demeanor, interactions, energy flow? The crossing guard thinking about
"Hmm...what am I gonna submit to Peter this week? The light is pretty damn good this morning...." The checkout girl, taking her mid morning break to scribble a poem she can email later...Walking past people in the street thinking, "Gee, what is he gonna come up with this week, or her, or that guy over there?"
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Thank you, artists, commenters and viewers, for participating in Now: Here: This. -Peter Ferko
How to join this project | About the artists | Archived weeks
all work ©2004 by artists named