Open Studio 2016: Photos
Here is a little update with some pictures of my Open Studio one week ago. This year, as well as an exhibition of my work, we had an experimental music piece by Ricardo Landim; live music (the theremin!) by Jen Rondeau; Fridgibition, a guest exhibition by Daniela Micali (which I curated); a showcase by guest exhibitors Miki Schoenfeld, Chandra Sakajani and Alyson Monaghan Levy (my former photography students); fiction, poetry and essays by Hadas Almagor, Jonathan bloom, Jennifer Dudek, Mark Ferguson, Giovanna Fernandes, Daniel Brian Jones, Kate Larsen, Apry Lee, Alyson Monaghan Levy, Ananda Lima, Kimberly King Parsons, Joseph Rathgeber, Miriam Reimer, Camila Santos, Kathryne Squilla, and Kem Joy Ukwu (see bios below).
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all these amazing artists who participated, and our visitors and audience for making this wonderful day happen (you made it ***magical*** :-).
<3
A.
P.s.: As usual for my events, I didn’t manage to take any pictures during the event. Here are some pictures of the exhibition, with some instagrams of the event posted below.
P.p.s.: If you want more great readings to attend, don’t miss Halfway There’s reading tomorrow (June 13th). Halfway There is co-run by one of the Open Studio readers, Apryl Lee.
Promo Materials:
Instragrams:
#somaartistsstudios open studio earlier today #somaartistsstudiotour #somaopenstudios
A photo posted by Ananda Lima (@anandalima) on
Jen plays the theremin at my open studio <3
A photo posted by Ananda Lima (@anandalima) on
Some phone pics (thank you Alyson, Miki and Kathryne!):
Artist Bios:
Musicians
Ricardo Landim has been making music only recently – since 2015 – under the banner of Beyond Words Never Spoken. His first album in planned to be released in December 2016. Originally from Brasília, Brazil, he has a background in art direction and design, and has worked in a broad range of projects, from interactive design through film, animation and product design.
Jen Rondeau has been playing the theremin for fourteen years. She has been playing the theremin well for about eight years. Theremin theatre credits include Radio Play with Reggie Watts (PS 122, Ars Nova, Redhouse Theatre Syracuse), Pidgeon (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Discount Cruise to Hell(Highways Performance Space, LA), Rusted Ruse Carnivale (RedWall Dance Theatre). Jen used to play in all sorts of bands but most importantly the all-female experimental cover band, Stickerbook. Jen studied at Mannes College of Music as the first person in the world to major in theremin performance.
Photographers
Always curious about the lives of others, Alyson Levy started asking her parents for a camera at five years old so she could start documenting what she was seeing around her. She received her first camera, a Polaroid, a year later and started shooting anything she could. Preferring documentary photography where she can really study the subject and surroundings, Alyson prefers to shoot with a wide angle lens to capture as much detail as she can in each of her photos. Her current subjects are her two young daughters who provide constant fodder; their expressions are ever-changing and extreme.
Ananda Lima’s photographs have been published in The Huffington Post, Little Maison, Brooklyntheborough.com, Pomp and Circumstance, Cultpolitan Magazine, Photodrifting.com, Boro Magazine, Mingle Magazine, and The Queens Chronicle. Her work has been exhibited at the Eye Level Gallery, A Number of Names Gallery, Gallery 103, the Brooklyn Artillery at Castle Braid Art Fest, Art at Malu, the LIC Arts Open, at the 1978 Arts Center, the Zufall Health building, Montclair Public Library, Maplewood Memorial Library and at Montclair State University.
Chandra Sakajani is a photographer who uses natural light and shadow, forced perspective, and geometrical shapes and scenery juxtaposed with children playing to convey a story. She is interested in the theme of positives and negatives of nostalgia. Playing the role as more of a photojournalist, she does not pose her subjects. She allows them to play and interact with other people and their environment and captures images without disrupting them or intervening.
Miki Schoenfeld‘s inspiration in photography came from capturing happy memories of her two sons and her travels around the world. Her proficiency blossomed under Ananda Lima’s tutelage, and now Miki is enjoys taking her amateur photography to the next level. Miki grew up in Japan, and has been living in the US for the last 10 years with her husband and two young children. Miki has recently been promoted from her previous career in corporate finance to a full time Mother; however, may be returning to office life as the boys grow up.
Writers
When Hadas Almagor was a little girl, she dreamed of becoming a writer. A full-time stay-at-home mom, her current aspirations include showering every day, going to the bathroom in private, and writing whenever she can. In a previous life, Hadas wrote grants and raised funds for non-profit institutions in New York City and Washington, DC. She has a Master’s in International Public Policy from Georgetown University. Hadas resides in South Orange, NJ with her husband and two sons.
Jonathan Bloom got his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology in 1999. His dissertation focused on the Psychology of Language. Since then, Jon has spent the past fifteen years writing the kind of dialogue no writer would ever wish to compose: The dialogue between you and one of those automated systems that answers the phone when you call a company. That’s right: He designs phone menus for a living. Writing fiction is Jon’s escape plan. He also dabbles in stand-up comedy, playing in a rock band, and Karate. Most importantly, Jon is a husband and father of two. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Claudia Cortese’s first full-length book, Wasp Queen, will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2016. Cortese is also the author of two chapbooks: Blood Medals (Thrush Poetry Press, 2015), a collection of prose poems, and The Red Essay and Other Histories (Horse Less Press, 2015), a book of lyric essays. Her work has appeared in Best New Poets 2011, Blackbird, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, Online, and Sixth Finch, among others. The daughter of Neapolitan immigrants, Cortese grew up in Ohio and lives in New Jersey, where she teaches at Montclair State University.
Jennifer Dudek has a BFA in theater from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and an advanced yoga teacher certification from the Himalayan Institute in Allahabad, India. When not teaching or practicing yoga and Pilates, she enjoys cooking, writing, traveling, and taking care of her two little boys.
Giovanna Fernandes, born and raised in Brazil, lives in South Orange with her husband and two children. When she is not tending to the house, children, preschool board and her two businesses, she likes to venture herself into writing.
Mark Andrew Ferguson, a Bergen County native, is a writer, graphic designer, and sometimes publishing professional who now lives in Lincoln Park. His first book, The Lost Boys Symphony was a Spring 2015 selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. His second novel, The Empathy Machine will be published by Little, Brown & Co. in the Spring of 2018.
Daniel Brian Jones edits FOLDER (www.foldermagazine.com). Poems have appeared or are forthcoming in PANK, Prelude, Vector, Spilled Milk, Modern Poetry Review and elsewhere. Music: Harmonium Songs (settings of Stevens poems). He is an instructor at the Atlantic Acting School in Chelsea. Upcoming: the theatrical world premiere of John Ashbery’s Litany, in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Sarah Haarmann. www.danielbrianjones.com.
Kate Larsen is an international media law attorney who, until recently, cabined the audience of her writing and storytelling to courts and the kids in her house. As part of the Maplewood writers group, she realized she had it in her to do more, and she continues to explore what that more might be.
Apryl Lee is a fiction writer and screenwriter and the co-founder of Halfway There: a reading series in Montclair, NJ. Her short stories and essays have been published at Keyhole Press, Necessary Fiction and Word Riot among other places. Her screenplays and films have been selected for festivals including the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner, New Filmmakers at Anthology Film Archives, and as a finalist for the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab. She teaches sceenwriting at Seton Hall University where she earned her BA, and is an MFA graduate of the fiction writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently working on a short story collection and a novel. She lives with her husband and son in New Jersey.
Alyson Levy spent her childhood years writing stories and performing in the plays she wrote in her basement with her sister and best friends. Hoping to instill her love of writing in others, Alyson taught high school English, creative writing, and then history to students in schools all over the country. She holds a Master’s of Arts in Liberal Studies from SUNY Plattsburgh and lives in Maplewood with her husband and two young girls. She is currently at work on her first young adult novel set in a rural, rundown town in the Adirondack mountains.
Ananda Lima has an MA in Linguistics from UCLA and she has taught at UCLA and Montclair State University. Her work has been published on The American Poetry Review and she was selected for the AWP Writer to Writer mentorship in spring 2016. Ananda is currently working on a novel in stories set in Brasilia, the city where she grew up as the daughter of migrants from northeastern Brazil. Her novel in progress was a finalist for the Tin House Workshop Novel Prize. She lives in Maplewood, NJ with her husband and son.
Writing by Kimberly King Parsons has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, New South, Bookforum, Fanzine, Fiction Southeast, and elsewhere. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art.
Joseph Rathgeber is an author, poet, high school English teacher, and adjunct professor from New Jersey. He is a recipient of a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and a 2014 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship. His story collection is The Abridged Autobiography of Yousef R. and Other Stories (ELJ Publications, 2014). His work of hybrid poetry is MJ (Another New Calligraphy, 2015).
Miriam Reimer is a full-time mother of two young girls, wife, journalist, class mom, foodie and undercover hippie. In her former life she traveled the world, came distressingly close to death on at least one notable occasion, held valid passports from three different countries, followed Phish and The Disco Biscuits, taught special ed and danced like no one was watching. Follow her at athousandsmallheartattacks.com and @miriamsmarket.
Camila Santos was born in Recife, Brazil. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation from Queens College, where she currently teaches in the English Department. She is working on a collection of stories about Brazilian immigrants living in the United States. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Podium, Three Percent, and Words Without Borders. She lives in Long Island City, Queens.
Kathryne Squilla is a freelance writer and book editor. She holds an MFA in creative writing from The New School in NY, NY. She lives in Maplewood with her husband and two children and is currently at work on a novel. Her writing has been published in Drive magazine.
Kem Joy Ukwu’s fiction has appeared in BLACKBERRY: a magazine, Carve Magazine, TINGE, Blue Lake Review, PANK and Jabberwock Review. In April 2016, she will serve as an Institute Scholar in the Writing from the Margins Institute at Bloomfield College. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and her master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband. More of her work can be found at kemjoyukwu.com.
1 comments
Pingback: Open Studio 2017 | Ananda Lima