This Friday: Works by Graphic Novelist and betterArts Resident Maggie Fishman
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| "Faceoff" by Maggie Fishman |
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| "Fieldwork Detail" by Maggie Fishman |
Fishman, a Brooklyn-based artist who
focuses on drawing, painting, and graphic poetry, has spent the last
several weeks in Northern New York as an artist-in-residence through
the betterArts Residency Program. That program invites artists of
every discipline and from all over the world to visit the Better Farm
campus in Redwood to focus on a body of work against a backdrop of
sustainability initiatives and green living.
In addition to her work as a
professional artist, Fishman has worked in education, activism,
anthropology, and writing while exploring how we put beliefs into
action, how we connect the personal with political and artistic
expression and social change—and how we can nurture and educate the
next generation to build the world anew. By combining drawing,
painting, comic narrative, and visual poetry, Fishman speaks in
different voices from the unconscious to the documentarian.
The End of Oil is
a series of drawings and paintings in ink and watercolor which
Fishman is building into a book. The pieces explore how common
stories and themes shared by humanity are acted out in a world we are
told is near its end. The book has three parts: The first follows a
claustrophobic car journey of a nuclear family; the second, they
gather with others in the countryside; and in the third, this small
community joins the wider public by the sea. Fishman has used her
betterArts residency to work on the second section, using her time in
a community-based living situation to reflect and clarify the themes
and stories in her work.
Fishman possesses a PhD with Honors in
cultural anthropology from New York University, a BA with honors from
Haverford College, and has earned fellowships and scholarships to New
York University and the New York Studio School. She has worked as a
lead researcher, visiting professor, adjunct instructor, and
developer for arts outreach organizations and at colleges; and is
co-founder of the River School Project. Her work has been featured in
solo and group exhibitions for more than 20 years.
This gallery event is free and open
to the public. Better Farm is located at 31060 Cottage Hill Road in
Redwood. To learn more about Maggie Fishman's work, click here.
For more information about the betterArts Residency Program, visit
www.betterarts.org.
