This weekend was a great opportunity to share the installation as well as to partake in the BU graduate open studios at the 808 campus. So many friends came out to show their support and interest in the work! It's overwhelming.
Allison Martinez places a 'red dot' next to "The angel of progress (after Walter Benjamin)."
SOLD
Tarun D and his piece which he dubbed "the heart, as it gets rid of 💩..." I like the title.
Lina, Lorenzo and Lucas enjoy my painting books during open studios. Brilliant minds, smiling faces and artists-to-be!
Lorenzo, Lina, Dr. Ana Maria Reyes and Lucas holding their original watercolor drawings. I called them "thresholds" but Ana-Maria has dubbed them "portals to their imagination."
"We framed and hung each piece over their beds," she shares.
Apparently they were taken by the notion of painting in books because as Ana-Maria told me, "They begged me to go straight to art supply store and buy them sketchbooks. They drew in them all afternoon." I can't think of better news or of a better tribute!
Artist Josué Rojas (me) and Dr. Ana Maria Reyes
Dr. Kelly Wise, founder of the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers (IRT), Phillips Academy at Andover, came and graced the show with his presence. It's a real honor and kind of a homecoming.
Dr. Wise committed his career to diversifying the nation's teaching faculty by recruiting outstanding students of color, counseling them through the graduate school application process, and advocating for sufficient funding for advanced study. IRT has helped hundreds of people of access institutions of higher learning over the years.
Dr. Wise was an advocate for me and really pushed for me to come to BU. I could say without exaggeration that he's one of the key reasons why I am here. I can also say that as a former art critic for the Boston Globe, I take his words of wisdom and creative advice seriously.
Thank you Dr. Wise!
To learn more about the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) see this link
And like all things, even good things, magical things, must come to an end.
But, as artist Franklin Williams once told me: "you will never fear death as long as you have to promise of a new birth."
I'm not sure what the next season holds for us, but I know that I will use all of my life force for it to be centered around color and love. What we have conventionally try to make fit in the word "art."
Onward!... Adelante!...