DOEprojekts exhibits “Pochoirs” folio with CENTRAL BOOKING’s “The Visual Read” at Graceland Arts Centre, UK

DOEprojekts (Deborah and Glenn Doering) is a decade-long member of CENTRAL BOOKING, is an international artist-run gallery specializing in the book as art, (especially art & science book art), and collaborations with cultural institutions. DOEprojekts has been curated (by Maddy Rosenberg, artist/curator) into many CENTRAL BOOKING’s exhibitions, the most recent being “The Visual Read” at Graceland Arts Centre, Dumfries, Scotland, UK.

Pochoirs Folio 002 offers individuals and communities ten hand cut pochoirs (pochoir is the French word for stencil). Each pochoir-stencil is designed using DOEprojekts’ basic forms, called Coreforms (circles, horizontal and vertical lines, swashes and dots), as a point of departure and an invitation to participate.

Above: “Draw” hand-cut stencil (left) and “Draw” frottage (rubbing) on a found page of a former book.

Each pochoir may be used in multiple ways; each participant decides how to generate physical and psychological movement through their individual creativity. 

Additionally, DOEprojekts has created one frottage (rubbed image) with a wax block for each pochoir, suggesting one way that the pochoir-stencil may be used. Other ways to participate include stippling paint through the stencil or using the stencil to create shadows, and then documenting various effects photographically (stencils may also be used with cyanotype/sun printing papers). Participants may discover limitless creative ways to use these pochoir stencils.

Above: “Pochoir Folio 002” cover (left) and "The Visual Read" entrance at Greacelands Arts Centre, UK.

“The Visual Read” focuses on the breadth and depth of book art of more than 30 distinguished artists from New York and two Scottish guest artists, Hugh Bryden and Linda Mallett. A full list of artists, and video documentation of the exhibition, may be found at this link: https://youtu.be/t_rF6gz9nBo 

Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Grant

In April, DOEprojekts was awarded a 2024 UMEZ Arts Engagement Grant. The goal of UMEZ is to connect Upper Manhattan artists with venues and audiences in the same area.

Above: Coreforms hand-cut stencil.

With some of the UMEZ grant funds, DOEprojekts will be hosting a community workshop in upper Manhattan. We will be using some of the techniques and examples shown in the Pochoir Folio. Stay tuned for more information, OR, if you are interested in reserving a place at the workshop, contact us at DOEprojekts@gmail.com. 

DOEprojekts' 2024 Mid-year Review

The year started out with a “bang” for DOEprojekts (Deborah Adams Doering and Glenn N. Doering)! Opportunity knocked in January, and we answered. (And it was not until July that we “caught our breath.”)

Through networking and diligence, and with the help of our New York friend, Ronnie Glattauer and her Viennese nephew-in-law, Walter Glattauer, (and his artist-friend, Peter Baldinger), DOEprojekts was invited by Vienna-based gallerist Michael Bella to install a two-week solo exhibition at “Bellart Galerie” near the world-renowned Upper Belvedere Museum (famous for Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss).

Above left: Exterior of Bellart Galerie. Above Right: Deborah and Glenn Doering, with gallerist Michael Bella in between, in front of the gallery.

Above: Bellart Galerie’s invitation to the opening of “Eye Eat Too.”

Our exhibition, titled “Eye Eat Too,” included a series of monoprints of DOEprojekts’ Coreforms that reference dinner plates, visualizing a German maxim about the aesthetic presentation of food on a plate, “Das Auge isst mit” – translated in English as “the eye eats too.”

Thus, with aesthetic art works and edibles as our theme, we prepared to fly to Vienna with our monoprints and three dozen home-baked, fondant-covered cookies (and a collection of edible-ink pens). Our goal was to offer community participation at the “Eye Eat Too” opening, a trademark of our socially-engaged DOEprojekts. Special thanks to artist friend Beatriz Ledesma for assisting in the cookie creation (and for cat sitting while we were gone). 

Above: Deborah and Beatriz apply the white fondant to our home-baked cookies. We wrapped each cookie individually, and then carefully packed them in a box lined with bubble-wrap.

Just as we had hoped, our “Eye Eat Too” opening reception was well-attended and many cookies were decorated by attendees with an artistic flare. And we were able to practice our German, and the Viennese were able to practice their English.

Above: Eye Eat Too participants created their own “Coreform Kekse” (cookies) during the opening of the exhibition, some inspired by our monoprints.

More photos from the opening and ongoing exhibition:

Above: Opening of the exhibition “Eye Eat Too”

Above: Six of the 25 monoprints displayed in “Eye Eat Too” at the Bellart Galerie

Above: The exhibition included pieces of broken dinner plates that had been repurposed into neck chains

While in Vienna, of course we “had” to participate in its famous coffee culture. So not once, but twice, we went to Café Hawelka, one of Vienna’s most famous traditional large coffee houses. It has been a meeting place for writers and artists of the past and present - famous, infamous, or still undiscovered - run by the Hawelka family for over 80 years.

So thank you to our new Viennese friends for making this a memorable experience and welcoming DOEprojekts!