Seeds in the City, NYC Artist Corps Grant

Immediately after returning to New York City from our teaching workshops in Washington State (see previous blog post), DOEprojekts -- Deborah Adams Doering and Glenn N. Doering -- began work on our "Seeds in the City" exhibition and installation, funded in part by the New York City Artist Corps/NYC Cultural Affairs grant.

The Metro Baptist Church Community's "art space" in Midtown Manhattan hosted the installation. DOEprojekts created a site-specific "Seed Mantel" after considering the special architectural features of the space. The suspended Seed Mantel spanned an 18-foot gap between two major pillars. The mantel (cloak) consisted of 360 individually hand-cut "Hybrs" (DOEprojekts' abstract seed forms) arranged in continuous color fields. 

The Hybr-seed is a form created from the integration of several DOEprojekts' "Coreforms" -- circle, horizontal and vertical lines, swashes, and points. These forms symbolize growth, community, collaboration, and creativity. The semi-circular mantel suggests other social keywords as well.

Drawing, cutting, and installing the Seed Mantel took 50-hours of painstaking work. We were fortunate to have the help of Joe Bergquist and Tiffany Triplett Henkel, members of the MBC community (and good friends as well).

Also site specific was a gold-brown temporary graphic work titled "Wick." In Yorkshire dialect of English, "wick" denotes "active, bustling, nimble, and quick." The semi-circular work, featuring hybr-seed forms was divided in quarter-circles. Each quarter circle was placed on either side of MBC's sculptural cross.

A third part of the installation was an arrangement of 20 "Seed Crop" oil on canvas paintings. This series of paintings were created as part of Deborah's Master of Fine Arts thesis project at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The paintings were displayed at the Cenacle Retreat Center in Chicago for many years. 

Sadly, the Cenacle closed this year (2021) because of the ongoing COVID pandemic. We made a special trip to Chicago in July to remove all the "Seed Crop" paintings and transport them to New York City where, happily, they were displayed as part of "Seeds in the City." 

Our installation's open-to-the-public hours were well-attended, both in person and via Zoom. The exhibition/installation was open to the public on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from Sept 18 to October 23, 2021. Deborah and Glenn spoke at the celebratory opening on Sunday, September 19. We also led art workshops for youth in the community. 

As we prepare to enter the New Year, we are thankful that the COVID vaccine (and booster) freed us from the highly restricted movements of 2020. Yet, even now, there is concern about new variants of the virus and how it will affect our communities in 2022. 

At the "heart" of DOEprojekts' Coreforms concept is Movement. Moving, changing perspectives, and creating community connections through art was our focus in 2021 and will continue to be our focus in 2022.

Happy Holidays to all our friends and supporters! We wish you a safe and healthy New Year!

Deborah and Glenn

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New York City, USA

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Teaching at Grünewald Guild and Holden Village 2021

We, Glenn and Deborah Doering, DOEprojekts, were very pleased to be invited to teach at the Grünewald Guild, near Leavenworth, WA. The Guild's Fiber Arts Studio (pictured above) is where we lived with other Guild faculty during our Summer 2021 Sessions. We have been teaching classes at the Guild for over 20 years, sometimes as a team and other times individually. Summer 2021 allowed each of us to teach our individual interests to eager participants.

Glenn taught "Fashion Jewelry: Redesign, Repair, or Replace." Participants learned how to design pieces of jewelry, how to repair broken jewelry, and how to redesign older pieces of jewelry into something new and more interesting. Although the in-person class was small, the design output was large, as seen by the photos above.

Glenn presented his jewelry design portfolio from the past 20 years to the Guild community. Attendees and Guild staff were especially delighted to see his unique custom commissions for individual clients.

Deborah's Guild class was titled "Matisse and More." Participants were introduced to Henri Matisse (1869-1954, France) who created large "Cut-Outs" in the last decade of his life.

Deborah's interest in Matisse stems from her own stencil-cutting and printmaking (also known as "Pochoir" printmaking) and how basic shapes and a variety of colors can be applied to DOEprojekts' Coreforms. The collage above is one that Deborah created using Coreforms and Matisse's "cut-out" process.

Participants created many outstanding "cut out" collages during this one-week Guild class, cutting out forms from their hand-painted papers, just as Matisse and his assistants did almost 80 years ago. It was very rewarding for Deborah to work along side such dedicated and talented "students" -- we had a great week together and inspired each other with our work!

Holden Village, Washington State

Holden Village was formerly a remote copper-mining village. It was transformed into an educational retreat center by the Lutheran Church (ELCA), with the help of the US Department of Agriculture and Forest Service, in the early 1960s. Deborah and Glenn have "team taught" workshops at Holden since 2017.

 This summer's workshop was titled "Mandalas, Manifestos, Ciphers, Circles." Participants were introduced to a brief history of mandalas -- the word "mandala" is Sanskrit for "circle." They were also shown examples from DOEprojekts' 100 Mandalas for a Time of Quarantine (see Instagram/DOEprojekts).  DOEprojekts' mandalas include manifesto phrases such as "Seek Justice," "Love One Another," "Watch Beauty," and "Black Lives Matter." Other mandalas include ciphers (code-like symbols), and some have been created using a variety of circular forms/Coreforms.

Holden Village has an "Art Gallery" that doubles as an art studio -- it is one of the "coolest" places in the Village, a fact that was extra special this year, as temperatures rose to almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit on many days! Even so, some "mandala-makers" chose to sit outside the Gallery-Studio to work on their images. 

We appreciated that many "Villagers" came each day for 2 hours or more to work on their mandalas. Below is a small sampling of some of the mandalas that were made during our one-week workshop.

Glenn and Deborah are now back in New York City, preparing for their work as art teachers and administrators at The Beekman School. They are also preparing to open a solo exhibition, titled "Seeds in the City: Celebrating Growth Potential" at Metro Baptist Church, 410 W. 40th Street, NYC, 10018. DOEprojekts received a grant from the New York City Artists Corps that will fund the "Seeds in the City" installation of our new works.

The exhibition/installation opens on Saturday, Sept 18th and runs until Sunday, October 23, 2021. Watch for another blog post with more details in the near future!

As always, we thank you for your support and keeping in touch with us -- we enjoy hearing from you, and finding out what is happening in your life and work. Please follow us and "Like Us" on social media:

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New 2021 Flag Project exhibits “NYC Garden” by DOEprojekts at Rockefeller Center

DOEprojekts -- Deborah Adams Doering and Glenn N. Doering -- are delighted th have their "NYC Garden" photo selected to fly over Rockefeller Center Plaza, Manhattan, from March 29-April 30, 2021. Their 8' x 5' one-of-a-kind flag is part of "The Flag Project 2021," a public art installation juried by the internationally renowned Aperture Foundation, and supported by New York's Tishman Speyer Company.

Above left: One of two displays that show a portion of the 83 flags that fly over Rockefeller Center Plaza as part of “The Flag Project 2021.” Above right: Details of the display at left.

Rockefeller Center’s notification-of-acceptance email to DOEprojekts states: 

“We asked you to submit your photographs for a temporary art installation in partnership with Aperture Foundation, the world-renowned New York-based nonprofit and publisher. We invited everyone from professional to smartphone photographers to submit images showcasing the diverse life, energy, endurance, and imagination of New York City. Over the past few weeks, Chris Boot, Executive Director of Aperture, has been busy reviewing all submissions and we are excited to inform you that your photo has been selected!” 

"The Flag Project generated over 1200 incredible responses, garnering creative and inspiring submissions, not just from New York and the U.S., but from across the world. The photos reflected the spirit of the City, its resilience and demonstrated a sense of community that is at the core of all Rockefeller Center [and NYC] does and believes in. The exhibition is open to the public [at no cost]; no tickets are required." More information at:

https://www.rockefellercenter.com/events/the-flag-project/

Above: A selection of the 83 flags that fly over Rockefeller Center Plaza as part of “The Flag Project 2021”

DOEprojekts submitted a total of seven photographs to be juried, including two photograms. A photogram is a photographic print made by laying objects onto photographic paper and exposing it to light. 

Below are our photograms, both with silhouettes of pigeons, who are sometimes referred to as the “Official City Bird of Manhattan.” The top photogram shows outlines of the Chrysler Building, NYC, and the one below displays outlines of Bethesda Fountain and Terrace in NYC’s Central Park:

Additionally, we submitted 4 photos that were not selected. The two photos on top were taken at the new Moynihan-Penn Train Station. The lower left was taken at MoMA, and the lower right was shot at a Citibike station in Harlem.

DOEprojekts wrote the following when submitting the "NYC Garden" photo (below):

"Farmer's Markets were deemed 'essential' in the summer of 2020, during the COVID pandemic. We loved going to many fruit, vegetable, bread, and baked goods outdoor markets. A bright produce display with 'NYC Garden' chalked below caught our eye -- and will surely catch the eye of visitors to the Flag Project in Rockefeller Center!" 

We thank Chris Boot, Director of the Aperture Foundation, for including our work in this public art installation. We invite our DOEprojekt's blog readers, family and friends, to go see "The Flag Project 2021." 

Whether you are able to see the exhibition or not, please go to our Instagram and see more photos (and maybe some short videos) of all the flags.

https://www.instagram.com/doeprojekts/

As always, we appreciate your support of DOEprojekts – keep in touch!

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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.

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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!