Creating + Community + COVID

Above: Our "COVID Art History Collage" was inspired by Sandro Botticelli and Amedeo Modigliani.

What is the best that can be said about the year 2020 (other than it is almost over)? It was a socially distancing, zoom-group-chatting year, allowing us to view artist symposiums and exhibitions online; it was also a year in which DOEprojekts (Deborah Adams Doering and Glenn N. Doering) persevered to create art and community through diverse creative projects. In addition, we taught art to several groups online, and took time to visit whatever museums and galleries were open in person (with masks, of course).  

We participated in "Masked NYC," a thoughtful and diverse documentary project by photographer AJ Stetson. We wore our custom-made Coreform masks (and Deborah wore a Coreform shirt) to Stuyvesant Square Park in Manhattan to be photographed. We were introduced to AJ by our artist/photographer friend Todd Drake, who took the photo of us shown at the conclusion of this blog post. More of AJ's work can be seen at www.ajstetson.com, and Todd's multimedia work can be seen at www.the-equalist.com.

In a previous 2020 blog post, we wrote about the "100 Mandalas Series" that we created at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, inspired by our Coreforms (zero, one, hyphen, tilde, and period) and also our cultural keywords and phrases. Some of these mandalas inspired us to conceptualize and cut stencils from a mylar-type material called Yupo. We have spent the last few weeks of 2020 painting the stencils on various surfaces. Two prints (overlapping) are shown here:

And, we were invited to be a part of a future exhibition titled "Net Gain: Experimenting with Geometric Folding," curated by Maddy Rosenberg, artist/director of CENTRAL BOOKING. We thank Maddy and her staff for their dedicated work during the pandemic. The exhibition, which already has a catalog-pdf, will ultimately travel to community venues and galleries, hopefully later in 2021. Until then, check out https://centralbookingnyc.com/exhibitions/net-gain/

As we prepare to enter the New Year, we anticipate the COVID vaccine releasing us from the restricted movement we have experienced in 2020. It has been helpful for us to remember that the "heart" of DOEprojekts' Coreforms concept is Movement. Moving, changing perspectives, and creating community connections through art continue to be our focus and our central goals for 2020.

We thank all of you who have supported our journey to date and we wish you a healthy and happy 2021. Keep in touch and stay safe.

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Our "NYC Green" Flag Waves From Rockefeller Center

In late July 2020, DOEprojekts received a rewarding email -- one of the seven flag designs that we submitted in June to "The Flag Project," sponsored by Rockefeller Center, was in production and would be flown with 192 other flags in Rockefeller Plaza beginning August 1, 2020. The stated goals of "The Flag Project" include showing love, strength, diversity and creativity during this time of social distancing because of the COVID pandemic.  We, Deborah and Glenn Doering/DOEprojekts, were very excited and honored to be included as part of this public art project, which includes flags designed from creative people around the world. Well-known artists who designed flags include Carmen Herrera, Faith Ringgold, Hank Willis Thomas, Jenny Holzer, Laurie Anderson, Marina Abramovic, Sarah Sze, Shantell Martin, Sanford Biggers, KAWS, and many others.   

Above: Our design for NYC Green (right) and the social media image that was sent to us by The Flag Project @Rockefeller Center (left). A PDF file of the catalog showing all the flags can be downloaded at this link: https://bit.ly/2PXvtDi
    

Above: On August 1, 2020, we visited The Flag Project for the first time -- the weather was beautiful, but there was absolutely NO WIND. It took several more visits before we saw all the flags, including ours, waving in the wind. (Again, a PDF file of the catalog showing ALL the flags can be downloaded at this link: https://bit.ly/2PXvtDi )

Above: "The Flag Project" Celebrating New York -- signage showing all 193 flags can be seen in the area of the Rockefeller Center Lower Level (location of the famous ice rink in winter months). We thank all the people involved in creating The Flag Project and encourage our readers/supporters to see the exhibition in person or online.

ART 2 ❤️ SOHO, NYC

In June, we participated in another public art project, sponsored by ART 2 ❤️ Soho NYC -- local artists were invited to create meaningful and timely messages on the boarded up windows of the shops near Prince and Green Streets in SoHo, NYC.

Above: We created several stencils that featured our DOEprojekts' Coreforms and phrases such as "Seek Justice," "Black Lives Matter" and "Watch Beauty" for the boarded up store at 79 Greene Street. 

Our process: The DOEprojekts' designed and hand cut Yupo stencils were taped to the protective plywood boards and then black acrylic paint was applied to the stencil with a brush by Deborah and Glenn Doering. Designing, cutting and painting the stencils took about 35 hours total. The project was a volunteer effort.

Above: "Black Lives Matter" was a very popular message for the ART 2 ❤️ Soho NYC project. More images can be seen on the group's Instagram and other media pages.  

ART ON PAPER, PIER 36, NYC

It seems like a long time ago, but it was only the first week of March 2020!  The COVID19 pandemic infiltrating NYC was still a rumor, not a fact. No one was wearing a mask at Pier 36 for the "Art on Paper" exhibition, one of the satellite art fairs held yearly during the Spring Armory Show in NYC. DOEprojekts was pleased to be invited to exhibit two of our works by CENTRAL BOOKING's curator Maddy Rosenberg. Just 8 days after these photos were taken, we were all ordered to "stay-at-home" and the COVID19 quarantine began.

   

Above: DOEprojekts' sound book TRIO and a "Gestures of Hybridity" drawing were exhibited at Art on Paper 2020.

Above: Enjoying the views from TOP OF THE ROCK (made possible through the generosity of The Flag Project, Rockefeller Center). We are still social distancing in NYC, but for the selfie, we took off our masks! 

As always, we are thankful to all of you who continue to read about and support our DOEprojekts' art work! If you would be interested in a T-shirt with our "NYC Green" flag printed on the front, please email us at DOEprojekts@gmail.com. (We are contemplating setting up an "order on demand" website link for the T-shirts, but we won't if there is insufficient interest.) 

We enjoy hearing from you and knowing that you are staying healthy and safe during this ongoing pandemic. We look forward to the day when we can once again be in large groups without face masks or gloves. We trust that day will be here soon.

Please follow us and "Like Us" on Social Media: 

Instagram/DOEprojects

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www.DOEprojekts.org

www.DOEprojekts.com  

Mandalas for a Time of Opening and Awakening

On Monday, June 8, 2020, DOEprojekts posted our 80th consecutive mandala (literally "circle") on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  All were created during New York City's quarantine (a.k.a. "stay-at-home" to avoid the novel corona virus, COVID19).  However, for our 80th mandala, our "tag line" changed from the previous seventy-nine; instead of "Mandalas for a Time of Quarantine," we posted "Mandalas for a Time of Opening and Awakening."   

We feel we have moved from a time of quarantine to a time of opening and awakening -- physically, socially, and hopefully spiritually.  There is a newly heightened awareness of how racism and income inequality has disproportionately endangered the lives of black and brown people, especially after the murder of George Floyd on Monday, May 25th, 2020.  We grieve such injustices -- and we strive to be even more conscious of large and small ways we can contribute to making a much more equitable and open world.   

We created our mandalas, in large part, to keep the wheels of our creativity greased and lubricated during quarantine. We were surprised and pleased that a select number of organizations asked us if they could link to, or showcase, our mandala series. 

The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture (above) is the most recent; we hope you will read their website, not only for the link to our mandalas, but also for their many theater, music, and film events.  

Another organization that featured our mandalas for Mental Health Awareness Month is the Froedtert Hospital and its Medical College of Wisconsin.  Sarah Turner, a registered nurse at Froedtert, contacted us and asked permission to print out and post several of the mandalas on their community board. We were so very pleased to be asked, and of course, we granted permission. She sent us photos of the community boards -- positively eye-catching!

To our surprise, Nurse Turner also sent us a wonderful thank you letter signed by many of the doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital! It is WE who should be thanking these hard-working and brave professionals during the COVID19 pandemic!

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) also featured our mandalas in their "Weekly Gifts from LMCC" (e-blasts). We are looking forward to working again with LMCC to complete our SU-CASA grant at Lenox Hill Community Center in Midtown Manhattan. Our "Let's Do Modern" workshops were put on hold in mid-March.

Lastly, the mandalas were mentioned in an interview that Deborah gave to award-winning photographer John Noltner for his ongoing podcast series titled "A Peace of My Mind: How Life Changed." John contacted Deborah after he saw her Facebook post with photos she took of an empty Manhattan, during her Citibike ride on April 8, 2020, not long after the quarantine began.

We are grateful to all who have shown interest in our DOEprojekts work during this time of COVID19. We look forward to creating more mandalas (and other projects) as the world moves forward into openness and greater awareness of how all of us are connected. We send healing energies to all of you!

A Time and Place to Rest — Distant Socializing

Mandalas for a Time of Quarantine

A mandala -- literally "circle" -- offers viewers a place to "rest their eyes and minds."  Circles (zeros), are one of five coreforms of our DOEprojekts artistic practice.

Thus, during our present reality, during the time we are quarantined in our Manhattan apartment because of the rapid global spread of the COVID 19 we have decided to create a series of mandalas. "Mandala" has become a somewhat generic term for a circular pattern indicating the transitory nature of the universe, but the practice originated as an aid to meditation.

Making mandalas, considering circles and zeros, is a way for us to focus, with resting eyes, on the transitory nature of materiality. 

We share with you, dear blog readers, our recent explorations of mandala-making; there will be more mandalas to come as we continue to post on Instagram and Facebook.

As a way to participate in "Distant Socializing," if you would like us to create or locate a mandala image for you, or a person or people you care about, we would be glad to do that as a gift, and send the image to you and/or your friend(s). It may take us a bit of time, but we will do it! Email us at DOEprojekts@gmail.com and tell us more about how you hope to use a mandala image, and for whom. We will reply by email and set a schedule.

Rest Installation, 2008

Contemplative circles and zeros have been a key form in past works. In 2008, shortly before we began to officially work together as DOEprojekts, Deborah was invited by curator Beth Shadur to participate in The Poetic Dialogue Project at the Chicago Cultural Center. Beth paired Deborah with poet Eloise Klein Healy, and the theme that emerged through their "dialogue" (which was done at a distance since Eloise lives in California) was "Rest." Here are photos from the Rest Installation, 2008. 

Below is Eloise's original poem written as part of the Poetic Dialogue Collaboration (and translated into four other languages that may be read by clicking here).

REST by Eloise Klein Healy

rest so solitary

an away

a sibilant quartet

of reedy winds blowing beyond and back

a want so solely more

than body need

touchpoint

intangible in the 
O  O  Overhang

of effort

to find it

We send healing energies to all of you! Keep in touch during this time of rest (and rest-less-ness).
Deborah and Glenn •  DOEprojekts@gmail.com