Gwyneth's Full Brew

Spots Before My Eyes: An Open Ended Encounter with Damien Hirst

2012-01-26T17:17:00.007-05:00

A visitor to Hypergraphia at the Flatiron observed, "there is the infinite variety of things, then there is an infinite variation of one thing. Your installation is the latter". I like that a lot! Infinite is out of my reach, but it is true that each time I draw or paint on a paper coffee cup - always the one shape and surface texture - a new image emerges.

Cup of the Day #99 by Gwyneth Leech

Homage to Damien Dot Cup - state 1

Colored India ink on upcycled white paper cup

This came back to me shortly after I entered Gagosian Gallery on 24th Street to look at the Damien Hirst Spotravaganza on view. At first it was just acres of spots, but as I wandered the huge galleries I noted with appreciation that no two canvases are alike. He too is engaged in the infinite variation of one thing, in this case grids of multicolored spots on pristine white canvas. Principally the colors and sizes of the spots vary, as do the sizes and shapes of the canvases, but within each group of shapes and sizes are further variations. I especially appreciated the different meta-patterns emerging from whites spaces between spots in a set of circular canvases in the rear gallery.

The edges of paintings caught my eye also. Where the spots are huge and sit right at the edges, the canvases seem to bulge and contract. In another room a very long canvas contained the spots on three sides, but cut through all of them on the vertical - spots by the yard!

Cup of the Day #99 by Gwyneth Leech

Homage to Damien Dot Cup - state 2

Colored India ink on upcycled white paper cup

All of this was interesting enough to take me to the second Gagosian gallery on 21st street. When I walked in the door and saw the same display of large and small canvases, with the same tonal effects of highly pigmented spots on pristine white canvases I was suddenly filled with a feeling of exhaustion. But plunging in I enjoyed the extremes of scale - in some paintings the spots so tiny that I could barely make them out hanging next to one the length of a football field. I also made the fun discovery that when you stand close to the wall the spots turn into rows.

Overall I have to say, I like the spot paintings to the extent that they remind me of those strips of candy dots on white paper that we used to buy as kids! Funny then that some of the spot studies shown in an accompanying book are actually arrays of venoms. Some candy strip that!

Cup of the Day #99 by Gwyneth Leech

Homage to Damien Dot Cup - state 3

Colored India ink on upcycled white paper cup

At this point, I would love to show you some photos of the spot painting shows, but the security guards said no cameras. I was tempted to photograph the Hirst gift shop through the window on 24th street, where a pile of Hirst coffee mugs was plainly to be seen on a plinth (a colored dot in the bottom of each), but respecting his intellectual property, I returned to the Flatiron window and drew a Damien Hirst homage spot cup and hung it up.

The color swatches on the white background looked all wrong hanging there. So I took it down again and considered. Would I leave all that negative space? Let Damien have it; I would follow the call of the fractal! Before long, a positive lace of smaller and smaller dots encased the cup, knitting it up until it found its proper place amongst the Hypergraphia cup drawings.

Cup of the Day #99 by Gwyneth Leech

Homage to Damien Dot Cup - finished state

Colored India ink on upcycled white paper cup

This is what I learned form the experience - painting free hand circles of color is hard! If my project of infinite variation involved that kind of pristine execution I would hire a stable of workers too. As it is, my approach has a lot to do with impulse, error and chance - of which there is an infinite amount in the world. It really is an open-ended proposition.

"And for that matter", said my husband, "so is a cup."

Good photos of Damien's spots at Gagosian can be seen on Blake Gopnik's Daily Pic.

And here is a posting of 10 spot reviews over on GalleristNY.

Alice through the Plate Glass: Observers Observed

2012-01-23T14:59:00.001-05:00

Saturday January 21st was a significant day - it marked the start of the final month of Hypergraphia in the Prow. This really is it - the home stretch. No more extensions. In four weeks time, on Saturday February 18starting at 2PM the cups will come down.

Cup of the Day #98

Down Jackets by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on upcycled white paper cup

In the meantime, Winter is finally here in earnest; down jackets, fur coats and hats abound outside the windows. Wicked winds whip around the Prow, blowing hair to crazy tangled heights.

Cup of the Day #98

Down Jackets by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on upcycled white paper cup

Even in this bitter weather, people stop to study the installation. I enjoy drawing the viewers on cups as they linger, staring in. Then I hang up the cup drawings right away. Now the observers are intently staring out at other people staring in. Something very Alice-like about that.

Snow day in the Prow, January 21, 2012

On Fifth Avenue looking north towards 23rd Street

The heat differential between inside and outside has grown more extreme. The Flatiron's steam radiators lining the Prow hiss and bang, coming on and going off in no discernible pattern. The cups positively dance in swirling drafts and my daily take-out cup of tea cools too quickly after I arrive in the morning.

View of Hypergraphia

From Fifth Avenue, looking east

It finally snowed over the weekend, enough to cover the sidewalks, creating a white frame for the Prow. All of a sudden the white patterns and negative spaces on the cups pop out and look fragile and lacey against the new backdrop. The installation is chameleon-like in that way, responding to the color and light framing it. I wandered back and forth on the platform, re-arranging the middle section. The composition is three dimensional and infinitely variable.

View from the inside, looking north west, towards 23rd and Fifth

So, in just four more weeks, my five month residency in the Sprint Flatiron Prow Artspace will be done and it will be time to dismantle and move on. Until then, in fair weather or foul, in shirt sleeves or wrapped in wool (depending on the heating situation) I will be in the Prow drawing, hanging and rearranging cups, receiving guests and watching people watch me as I watch the world go by.

Inside view, looking north east

Towards Madison Square Park

Coffee with Cattelan and Kandinsky

2012-01-21T10:13:00.000-05:00

As an artist currently suspending my artworks, I have a strong professional curiosity about the Cattelan installation, "All", still showing at the Guggenheim Museum through this weekend. I made it there on a bitterly cold afternoon and was pleased that the much vaunted lines were not in evidence.

Cup of the Dy #97

Kandinsky cup by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on light ochre printed paper cup

Inside, I ambled up the ramp, taking photos along with the other viewers and studying the awesome array of white ropes and heavy slings, metal brackets, platforms and hanging frames. The overall effect is monumental and unforgettable. I peered over the walls of the spiral again and again, taking in the vertiginous views, wondering at the weight of the hanging objects and at my feeling of unease for the visitors standing below them on the ground floor of the rotunda.

Cattelan, "All"

Guggenheim Museum, New York

As for the objects themselves, it is a cacophonous jumble at first, but the eye does take in individual pieces surprisingly well as one's viewing position constantly shifts while walking up and then down the spiral.

Spoiled as I am by my hanging cups dancing in the convection inside the Flatiron Prow, I found the Cattelan installation lacking in animation. Nothing moves, except a wax boy who drums intermittently from his seat on a hanging farm cart. But then, the lack of animation seems to be the point. I felt almost overwhelmed by taxidermied animals, skeletons and wax figures in various death poses. Interspersed is cheerier fare - an elongated shopping cart, the Hollywood sign seen from behind, an impossibly elongated fussball table, an occasional kooky photograph - but the ensemble speaks of mortality and feels like a giant, unwieldy commemorative collage.

I came across an encyclopedic exhibition catalogue on a shelf, which shows each of the artworks in its original setting. In museums and galleries, with space and context they operate quite differently. Did I read somewhere that Cattelan has said he is not going to make any more art? Perhaps then, this giant installation is deliberately a funereal monument.

Seeking something lighter to contemplate, I detoured into "Kandinsky at the Bauhaus", a small exhibit of his paintings from 1923-33, on view in a side gallery. What a pleasure! The Bauhaus period lent a geometric formality to the compositions that is absent from his later work, but the lovely colors and dancing forms look as if they were painted just yesterday. I was especially taken with Komposition #8, a lively painting of straight lines, geometric shapes and bright colors. If the Cattelan installation were transposed into an abstract painting, it might look something like this.

Vasily Kandinsky , “Komposition 8″ (Composition 8), July, 1923. Oil on canvas, (140 x 201 cm) 55 1/8 x 79 1/8 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift.

As if this encounter with Kandinsky were not enough pleasure, I realized that the gallery backed on to Cafe #3, itself a study in lines and shapes against the bare winter trees of Central Park. Who could resist a quick Illy espresso macchiato sipped at a bright white table before a final spin down the Spiral and out again into the freezing afternoon.

Cafe 3, Guggenheim Museum, New York

Catalan runs only through Sunday January 22nd, but the Kandinsky is ongoing, and of course the cafe never goes away. All info. on the Guggenheim website, here.

As a postscript, giving the lie to Cattelan's declaration of artistic cessation, he opens a new art venture in Chelsea in February under the wing of Anna Kustera Gallery. Read all about in this article by Jerry Saltz in New York Magazine by clicking here.

The Hypergraphia Cup Installation by Night

2012-01-18T09:58:00.014-05:00

I have been told that 350,000 to 500,000 people view the Flatiron Building in New York City... every week!

And it seems that a lot of them are taking photographs of the Hypergraphia cups installation in the Flatiron Prow Artspace.

Couple and Cups

Photo by Marc Dalio

Flickr

Out of curiosity, I began to collect photos of Hypergraphia that I came across online - on Flickr, Tumblr, Tweetpics, Facebook, Google+ as well as Statigram and other photo sharing sites for Instagram and cell phone photos.
I was astonished at the resulting collection. So many outstanding images! I love seeing the installation through the eyes of so many different people!

Coffee Cup Bokeh

Photo by Christopher William

Flickr

I am especially intrigued by the night life of Hypergraphia. I have experienced for myself the jewel-like effect of the windows lit on a dark winter evening, but unlike the habits revealed in the time stamps of cell-phone wielding pedestrians, I have never lingered there between midnight and 6am.

Photo by Mark Abramsom

Wall Street Journal

Photo by Osten Zen Design

Google+

In this post are just a few of my favorite night shots.

Coming up in 2012: a museum show of the best photographs of Hypergraphia in the Prow. More details to come, but if you took some photos of the installation in New York City, or know someone who did, be sure to send me a link: gwynethl(at)earthlink(dot)net.
Spread the word!

In the meantime, I continue to draw in the window during daylight hours, Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 2pm through February 18th.

Photo by Richard Kranzler

Photo by Boy Culure

Petra-McKenzie, Statigram

Photo by Danielle

Facebook

Photo by Shoko

Flickr

Experience This! Taking a Spin through the Carsten Höller Exhibit

2012-01-14T23:29:00.002-05:00

Experience at the New Museum finally closes this weekend, but I haven't stopped thinking about it. In fact, some of it popped up on a cup just today.

I saw the exhibition twice, the first time a race through on a Saturday afternoon. I was able to appreciate the whole thing from about five different perspectives and art historical viewpoints without reading a single word. Because I am a genius - not! I had prior help in the form of three distinguished art historians and critics who spoke engagingly and showed slides for an hour in the basement lecture hall at the museum, in a panel talk called "The Wondrous Worlds of Dr. Höller". I listened while covertly drinking a cup of tea and then taking notes on the empty.

Cup of the Day #96 by Gwyneth Leech

Twists and Turns and Notes from Experience

India ink on upcycled white paper take-out cup

Having considered Experience as imminent vs. transcendental art, as a hall of wonders, a clinic for the inducement of elevated states without the use of mind-altering drugs, an embodiment of animal and vegetal architecture, a game of seeing and shifting perspectives, and having explored the idea that the long lines are all part of the show (patterns of procession and unusual social engagement) I now had a firm foundation for threading the crowds upstairs. Thank you Ken Johnson, Spyridon Papapetros and Jesse Prinz!

I delighted in the ascending scale of the magic mushrooms on the ground floor, appreciating their monumentality (Papapetros). When a woman staggered over in strange goggles and asked me to take her photo, Papapetros' words came back again - the unusual social interaction is all part of the show. I happily snapped with her iphone and asked to peek through the goggles that turn everything upside down - altered perspectives without psychotropic drugs (Johnson).

Mushroom Monuments

Carsten Höller Experience

At the New Museum

Upstairs in the galleries - which I visited 2nd, 3rd, 4th to get the overall picture - the famous silver slide burrowed straight through the cement floors! How fabulous. Here was Papapetros' animal architecture of "burrowing, netting and nesting". In the middle gallery I gathered with strangers to exclaim as shrieking figures hurtled past inside the tube. Yes, it was a piece of animated sculpture.

The top gallery housed the entrance to the slide, a hanging sculpture of metal bird cages containing live canaries and a mirrored carousel which inches along in slow motion - altered perceptions again. Bemused viewers dangled their feet and watched the changing reflections, calm and casual in contrast to the anxiety mounting in the line of people nearest the mouth of the slide. Relieved that I had no time to wait for the slide, I just took in the spectacle as an observer. Then I trotted down to the 2nd floor to watch people stagger out into a blinking gallery full of brightly colored animal casts.

Cup of the Day #96 by Gwyneth Leech

Twists and Turns and Notes from Experience

India ink on upcycled white paper take-out cup

Jesse Prinz opined that the feeling of fear produced by the slide changes perception, heightening a feeling of the sublime. Certainly the riders seemed rather changed as they staggered through the gallery after completing their turns, but I am not sure they knew what they were looking at. I did not try the flotation tank, because the line was several hours long, but I certainly did enjoy waving my arms in front of the infrared camera in a side room with other New Yorkers as our regulation black attire was turned to white on the screen.

Mirrored Carousel

Carsten Höller Experience

At the New Museum

In a strange and unusual turn of events, when I got home my 15 year old daughter begged me to take her to see the Höller show. What, she really wants to go to a museum!? Yes, everyone was talking about it at school! So we went together one late afternoon the week before it closed. This time the line for the slide was only 45 minutes long. We joined the end and found it oddly enjoyable to pass the time watching the slowly rotating carousel and listening to the canaries singing in response to the intermittent screaming of people in descent.

Tunnel slide

Carsten Höller Experience

At the New Museum

When it came our turn, as the museum guards gave us helmets and instructions, we were exhorted to be good sports and vocalize on the way down. So we did, gustily, during the 5 second twisting plunge to the 2nd floor. There I got unsteadily to my feet and I have to say, I did find the blinking lights of terra firma to be quite sublime.

We continued on through the exhibit and after exploring every nook and cranny and interactive activity, with and without upside down goggles, I asked my daughter:
"So what is your final word on the Carsten Höller show?"

"Queasy," she replied. "Can we go home now?

Design for apartment building with slides

Carsten Höller Experience

At the New Museum

Where Do Ideas Come From? Finding the Bottomless Cup

2012-01-11T09:17:00.017-05:00

Where do ideas come from? Every time I sit down to write about this I draw a blank.

So I went for a walk, a swim and a hot shower. As usual, these activities of motion unleashed a torrent of wordy narratives in my head, even a concept or two, possibly valuable.

Cup of the Day #95

Raining Words, by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on upcycled white paper coffee cup

For me there are two distinct kinds of ideas - the wordy ones, and the visual ones.

Apparently the visual ideas reside in a completely separate part of the brain from the words and since production of visual ideas generally relies on sitting or standing still, bringing them forth can be a trickier proposition.

When I am painting a large canvas in the studio, it is all about executing an idea already conceived. Discoveries and new directions certainly happen as I go along, but for me the struggle is about how to get the painting to more closely match the images in my head. Having said that, the first brush marks reveal limitless possibilities. Then as a painting progresses and decisions are made these options diminish, until at last only one brush mark will fit. I often feel a sense of loss as I paint. Each state could be the starting point for innumerable new artworks, but unlike in the digital realm, going back to an exact prior state is never possible.

But where does the initial idea spring from, the vision bright enough to launch a painting?

Listening for the muse in the Flatiron Prow

Yes, I think about those cup and string phones all the time!

Photo by Theresa DeSalvio

I was having lunch at Eisenberg's Coffee Shop with composer and singing colleague, Martha Sullivan after finishing up in the Flatiron window and we were discussing the topic. (As a quick aside, there are a number of things I like about Eisenberg's, an unreconstructed lunch counter on Fifth Avenue at 22nd Street: their hot pastrami sandwiches, the owner's flamboyant shirts and the sign outside which says "Either you get it or you don't.")

Drawing with composer, Martha Sullivan

and sculptor, Hu Bing in the Prow

Photo by Theresa DeSalvio

Over my pastrami sandwich, I had a sudden insight. (Yes, ideas also come from conversation + food!) I have been making art since I was a kid and there have been only a few periods in my life when I made no art at all: during my first year at the University of Pennsylvania (no Fine Art major back then), right after I had both my children and after 9-11. I did plenty of writing in those periods, but my visual muse fled and was nowhere to be found. And how did I get back into art-making? By drawing on things that had no apparent value - envelopes, programs, photocopies, music. No one saw these, they weren't meant to exhibited. I did them while I was busy with other things - like taking notes in anthropology classes, feeding children or sitting on the subway. But eventually, these drawings led me back to my sketchbooks and from there to the painting studio. The ideas came pouring out as very small drawings - brain to hand to paper - which I then labored to turn into larger compositions.

Drawing in the Prow

December 2011

Photo by Theresa DeSalvio

The coffee cup story is similar. While my narrative brain was otherwise engaged at school meetings, artist meetings and at my part-time job as a choral singer, my art brain just took care of itself and made friends with the surface of handy paper coffee cups. It crept up on me while I wasn't paying attention. Now each time I sit down with art materials and a cup, the shape, the surface, the curve, the variety of colors and prints, all continue to act as catalysts and set my hand on a new journey. This time, the artwork is finished directly on the cup - no digging things out of notebooks later, no copying and scaling up from sketches which can be a deadening exercise.

Passing Christmas Tree

Cups in the Flatiron Prow

December 2011

Making art on cups is currently the core of my studio practice and for three year now the ideas just keep coming, each one different. Talk about a bottomless cup!

Readily available and of no value to anyone else but me in their used state, paper cups allow me to risk everything. Nothing lost, everything gained. In short, they are a very useful form.

I like to say, Bach had inventions, Shakespeare had sonnets - and I have coffee cups.

Cups in the Flatiron Prow

December 2011

My Date with De Kooning

2012-01-06T16:34:00.024-05:00

I always forget that MOMA is open on Mondays! How many Tuesday have found me there, surprised that the galleries are closed!?

Seated Woman 1, by Stephen Roxborough

Gwyneth Leech's Hypergraphia Installation

in the Flatiron Prow, 2011

But on a recent Monday, my day off from the Hypergraphia exhibit at the Flatiron, I remembered and made it in time for a member's morning with Willem de Kooning. Vigorous stuff before the first coffee of the day! I was lucky to land on a docent-led tour and learned a lot.

Channeling De Kooning

Photo by Stephen Roxborough

Gwyneth Leech's Hypergraphia installation

in the Flatiron Prow, 2011

In the early rooms, a lot of influences are on view: the paintings conjure up Matisse, De Chirico, Picasso, even Hans Holbein in an exquisite pencil drawing of his wife, Elaine de Kooning from 1947.

From there he starts to splinter and jive, the work going in all directions at once, mixing and matching it with figuration and angular abstractions. The black and white paintings knocked my socks off. He could have stayed right there to the end of his days, but not de Kooning.

Willem De Kooning

Untitled, Oil on Board, 1937

Every time he got comfortable with a way of working, he moved on. He never tired of mixing it up between figuration and abstraction, but the how of it kept changing. The history of the female nude in the landscape is joyously reworked in all sorts of ways, for decades.

Willem de Kooning

Painting, 1948, Oil and enamel on canvas

The docent talked at length about the painting "Woman 1", about the two years he struggled with it, how it was abandoned, rolled up in the studio until Myer Shapiro told him how important it was, and how it should be exhibited with the other versions of the "Woman" series. In fact, it was shown at the Sidney Janis gallery in 1953 and made everyone mad. Good times. That's when artists know they are onto something.

Willem de Kooning

Seated Woman, 1940

Oil and charcoal on Masonite

I was especially fascinated by the description of de Kooning's painting process: the sheets of newspaper adhered at the end of a work day to keep the paint wet overnight, the scraping back, the painting wet into wet, the constant reworking of the same canvas, the collage elements pinned on as reference, then removed at the end, of cut out shapes pasted here and there to try things out. All add up to deliberation disguised as insouciant aggression. I know how very difficult this immediacy is to achieve, having killed many a promising start to a painting. Once that initial gesture is put down, how hard it is to change it, how hard to keep the painting open and fresh.

Willem de Kooning

Woman 1, 1950-52

Oil on canvas, 6' 3 7/8" x 58"

On the wall at the entrance to the exhibit are six enlarged photos of the different states of "Woman 1". Fascinating! Each is a complete statement in itself, a painting then scraped away and gone forever. I hurried back and forth between these photos and the finished version. In the final painting hanging on the museum wall he breaks through at last from angularity and Picassoesque cubism to something different - raw, fluid, organic, ugly and irresistible.

Willem de Kooning

Untitled, oil on canvas, 1987

I left the de Kooning show with an overwhelming urge to paint. Seven decades of unbridled art making! I want that too.

Raising a Cup to a Full Year

2011-12-31T23:35:00.004-05:00

What an extraordinary twelve months it has been!

A year ago, an exhibition of my artwork on upcycled paper coffee cups was just an idea. This almost accidental art form had become my principal means of expression and stacks of cups covered in drawings and paintings were mounting up in the studio. But the how, where, when and why of an exhibit called "Hypergraphia" were all question marks.

Hypergraphia cup drawings in the studio, January 2011

Early in January 2011, the details of a window exhibition in the Garment District fell into place. Cheryl McGinnis curated a first show which opened in the Fashion Center Window Space for Public Art in February. Then in the summer, we went on to another pop-up exhibit, this time at Buck House on the Upper East Side, as well as a drawing group show in Cheryl's 8th Avenue Gallery.

Hypergraphia, Fashion Center Space for Public Art,

March 2011

Hypergraphia at Buck House, July 2011

On Your Mark,

Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, July/August 2011

Now, over three months has flown by in the Sprint Prow Artspace at the Flatiron Building, with fifty more days to go in 2012. Five hundred thousand people see the cup drawing exhibition from the sidewalks and surrounding streets - every week.

Views of, and from the Flatiron Prow, October 2011

Articles and reviews have appeared in a dozen languages on over a hundred web-publications and blogs. Videos and innumerable photos have been posted on every conceivable photo sharing site. Cheryl and I have hosted impromptu salons in the Prow almost every day with New Yorkers of all professions, visitors from around the world, and eager young people from neighborhood schools and colleges who talk, draw with us and get a brief taste of the unearthly serenity inside the prow, of what it feels like to make art in the midst of this installation as the world swirls by outside.

Cheryl McGinnis teaching visual thinking

in a late afternoon drawing session in the Prow

December, 2011

An artist friend sent me an e-mail recently which she has allowed me to share:

"Though at a regrettable distance, I'm closely following the Saga of the Coffee Cups with awe and admiration. It's really a story of what happens when one is obsessed with a marvelous, preposterous idea and, despite all logic and reason, doggedly follows it through to its impossible, unattainable conclusion. If someone had said, several years ago when I sat across from you at the NYAC meeting, watching you cover a cup with beautiful lines and shapes, that you would be exhibiting such things in NYC and have write-ups and videos made of the resulting artwork, I would have wondered what hallucinating drug they were on."

Marjorie, I know exactly what you mean. Whoever would have thunk it?!

Hanging more cups, December 2011. Photo by Fran Beallor

A short rest in the studio corner, December 2011.

Photo by Fran Beallor

So with a nod to the improbable possible, the Full Brew wishes everyone a happy and prosperous 2012, and no end of unexpected wonders around every corner.

ROTC lined up to march, Veterans Day, November 2011

Unexpected smiles and a secret coffee cup, Veterans Day, 2011

Season's Greetings from DVF and the Full Brew

2011-12-24T09:54:00.001-05:00

"Where on earth did you get that dress??" I exclaimed the minute Rachel walked through the door for rehearsal a few weeks ago. She was wearing an exquisitely cut, sleeveless cocktail dress in Sienna brown, patterned with bright white brushmarks, each with a dropped shadow beneath. If one of my painted cups had walked through the door, this is how it would look.

Rachel Farrar in the Flatiron window, December 2011

Photos by Gwyneth Leech

"Diane Von Furstenberg, 2010," she replied with a smile. "Great dress, right?"

Absolutely perfect!

Rachel Farrar is one of my all time favorite people; a collegial choral singer, wonderful soloist, fun person with a terrific eye for fashion. She is making her way in New York City as an extra for film and television and has great tales to tell of location shoots, actors and directors. She is a self-proclaimed "proud member of the Screen Actors' Guild". Beyond all that, she has successfully helped me shop for clothes, which makes her a very special person. I am a famously poor shopper; I just have no stamina.

"You have to come to the Flatiron and wander through the cup installation wearing that!" I told her. She agreed to stop by.

In a pleasing turn of the circle, I was in Soho recently on my way to see my friend, Yvette Cohen's exhibition of shaped paintings at Cassina on Wooster Street. Right next door I was stopped in my tracks by a window full of inverted coffee cups, arranged into a Chrismas tree. A nice effect. DVF? Diane Von Furstenberg again! Art, coffee cups, fashion. It's official - paper coffee cups are cool!

DVF window, Wooster Street, December 2011

DVF finally "met" my hand painted coffee cups a few days ago when Rachel did make it to the Flatiron Prow on her way to a Christmas party, wearing That Dress. She threaded her way happily in and out of the cup strands while I took photos from every conceivable angle, from both inside and out, having a high fashion New York moment which was shared by at least a dozen photographers who clustered round the windows. I wonder where those shots will turn up?

When I got home there was an e-mail from another friend attaching a photo of Diane Von Furstenberg's 57th Street window. The coffee cup Christmas tree again.

"DVF meets coffee", she wrote. "Have you seen this?"

"Yes," I replied. "And better yet, I've lived it."

The Full Brew wishes everyone a Merry Christmas. I will be back drawing in the window Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 am - 2 pm, from December 27th until February 18th, 2012.

Sailing Past the Median in the Flatiron Prow

2011-12-16T17:09:00.002-05:00

Cups of the Day #94

Fire Escapes by Gwyneth Leech

Colored India Ink on white, upcycled coffee cups.

I am surprised that it has passed already - the halfway point on my journey in Sprint's Prow Artspace at the Flatiron Building! Favorable winds of goodwill have buoyed us along since September 20th, and the exhibit has been extended until February 18th, 2012.

I must admit, my first day drawing inside a sweltering triangle of glass seemed endless. I paced and peered out the windows in all directions. How was I going to manage this? But a routine took shape and my temporary studio has become an enjoyable and productive place to be five days a week. When I am not there, I think of drawings I would like to do, gestures and patterns to explore.

The artist at work

Photo by Trish Mayo

View from Fifth Avenue, December 2011

I top up the cup stacks daily with my own beverages from the many coffee bars and delis nearby. In addition, friends have donated stacks of their own used cups, each one with name and date on the bottom, and the place they drank the coffee, expanding the record of social moments. I love to take lucky dip and see what color or text comes up from a coffee bar in deepest Brooklyn or Queens that I haven't yet had the good fortune to visit!

Rainy Day window

November 2011

Orchids from Eve and orchid cup

Colored India ink on white paper coffee cup

October 2011

Looking back over the first half of the journey, there are so many highlights: cups reflected in umbrellas during torrential rains, twins in brilliantly patterned rain coats smiling in at me, my hot dog cart so hard to draw, the tricky fire escapes on the buildings across 5th Avenue. Then there was the Bicycle Barber who came to call and gave me and the exhibit's curator, Cheryl McGinnis haircuts, the freakish blizzard that engulfed the Prow before the end of October, and Eve Suter who brightened a dark afternoon with a bouquet of coffee colored orchids in a tall white cup. Not to mention the many great conversations with old friends, and new ones from around the world.

Hot Dog Cart Cup

White-out pen and colored ink on

Maroon printed paper cup

September 2011

Summer styles have given way to winter coats. I spy Santa hats, Christmas trees and giant bags of shopping these days. The trees in Madison Square Park changed to gold and are now a tracery of black branches against the pale stone buildings beyond. The sweltering heat of late summer sun turned to chill breezes inside the Prow. For awhile I sat bundled in coat and sweaters. Finally, the heat kicked on in the ancient radiators, sending the cups spinning in waves of convection.

Freak blizzard at the Prow

October 2011

Nights come early now and more and more photos are posted online, documenting the windows in all weathers and times of day.

Fortified by stacks of coffee cups, ample art pens from Faber Castell, the never ending flow of visual stimuli on the streets outside and the promise of many interesting social moments yet to come, I am looking forward to the rest of the crossing. February 18th will be here before we know it!

Night Photographers, November 2011

to view a Flickr album of other people's photos

of Hypergraphia at the Flatiron click here.

Drawn to Coffee Cups: the Complexities of Keeping it Simple

2011-12-07T17:19:00.001-05:00

Cup of the Day #93

by Gwyneth Leech

White ink and colored India ink

on green upcycled paper coffee cup

Numerous people have remarked at how simple the idea of Hypergraphia is - drawing on paper cups and hanging them up. My reply is, "it has taken me 30 years to get this simple!"

Hypergraphia is not my first go round with upcycling - I was doing it as a young artist living in Scotland. Then it involved collecting truck loads of plastic detritus from beaches and making them into sculpture. (That was in the days before digital photos. Where the heck did I store those slides?)

Now the paper coffee cup says it all. But how did I get there?

Aerial salt marsh views painted on

paper coffee cups

Stacked in the studio, October 2010

In 1999 I moved to New York City. Let's face it, New York can be a tough town for artists. There is so much stimulation, so many museums and art exhibts to see, so many other artists working here, not to mention the roiling sea of the art market that can buffet a person every which way. In the midst of all that it is easy to lose your sense of self and your visual compass.

To counter these currents I decided years ago to keep it local and keep it simple. I would paint portraits of my friends and their families. I did this happily until the complexities of commissions and the fraught politics of representation began to wear. Family portraits were not straightforward after all!

Wall of painted coffee cups

6 feet by 6 feet

In the studio, January 2011

I became interested in a local landscape, of tidal salt marshes along the coast of New Jersey, utterly familar to me from years of summers at the shore. It is the aerial view that intrigues me, first seen via Google Earth. The meandering streams and waterways look elemental, like the circulatory system of the body. Google Earth wasn't enough. I had to see it up close - first from boats, then planes. But it is not so easy to cage a lift on a small plane. Then back in the studio I struggled to get it down on large canvases, my ideas outstripping my time, my resources and my storage space.

Cup Collection

in museum display box with mirrored back

July 2011

Finally, I started to pay close attention to my coffee cups which, in a casual way, had become the locus of an ever expanding lexicon of drawing and painting ideas, including abstractions based on those salt marshes. Started at meetings some four years ago, when paper replaced styrofoam, my image-making-on-cups habit had grown and grown, from stacks in my studio to a small window exhibit on 38th Street, and now to the Prow of the Flatiron Building where I will be drawing and adding new cups to the installation through February 18th, 2012.

I may even have 1000 drawn cups by then!

Hypergraphia Cup Installation

Sprint Artspace, Flatiron Prow

Interior view, December 2011

The exhibiting of the cups has presented its own complexities. I recently found pages of notes brainstorming the installation. I imagined elaborate ways of weighting the cups involving collections of personal items, household objects and even playground sand. Display ideas discussed were shelves, racks, pedestals. Finally the exhibit's curator, Cheryl McGinnis said she saw the cups "hanging every which way" which led to the breakthrough solution - loops on a line. Many different kinds of materials later, I alighted on the perfect weight of mono-filament and just the right kind of loop, reliably knotted yet imprecise enough to orient the cups pleasingly in all directions.

Thus, after many meanders and through a process of trial and error, the seemingly uncomplicated and organic Hypergraphia installation came into being.

Hypergraphia Cup Installation

Sprint Artspace, Flatiron Prow

View from 23rd and Broadway

December 2011

Recently I calculated that Hypergraphia, the Cup Installation has been featured on over 75 web publications and blogs, including articles in Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Turkish, French, Arabic and Macedonian!

All this from the simple paper coffee cup held in the palm of my hand!

Bathed in Gold: Madison Square Park Goes Autumnal

2011-11-22T09:57:00.002-05:00

Cup of the Day #92

Golden Network by Gwyneth Leech, November 2011

White-out pen and India ink on blue coffee cup

From my studio corner of the Flatiron Prow I have been watching for days as the trees in Madison Square Park turn color and spread a back drop of shimmering gold behind my suspended cups.

View from the Prow Artspace

Flatiron Building, November 2011

Photo by Gwyneth leech

I draw the trees every few days and hang the cups so that inside and outside play against each other kaleidoscopically. Add in yellow traffic light boxes and the constant parade of yellow cabs until I feel enveloped in gold.

View from the Prow Artspace

Flatiron Building, November 2011

Photo by Gwyneth leech

Now the leaves are falling and I can see further into Madison Square. From my chair I can just make out one of Alison Saar's sculptures perched in the high fork of a London Plane tree, a glimpse that draws me into the park at the end of my drawing session.

Alison Saar Sculpture, Madison Square Park,

through December 31st, 2011

There balances the black figure, head bowed, hair falling forward, covered with gun-metal butterflies. In an adjacent tree, an arborist on ropes is checking the canopy after a brutal, early snow storm damaged thousands of trees across the city. All seems safe and sound in the high branches and leaves drift down peacefully on Saar's totemic sculptures scattered through the park.

Checking the tree canopy

Arborist in Madison Square Park

Photo by Gwyneth Leech

Circling back towards the Flatiron Prow I bump into my friend Minouche Waring, a painter and glass designer, who lives on 6th Avenue at 26th Street. We go up to her loft to look at her latest glass pieces and drink Pu-erh tea with hot soy milk and Cardamom. My husband and I sublet her loft in 1993 while she traveled in India, our first experience living in New York City. Back then we recall, Madison Square was rat-infested and neglected. Concerted efforts by the Madison Square Conservancy have turned the park around and made it a brilliant showcase for public art presented by Mad. Sq. Art. It is my pleasure that Alison Saar's sculptures will be keeping me company until the end of the year, and that I will see more of them from my perch in the Prow Artspace as the trees go bare.

Alison Saar Sculpture, Madison Square Park,

through December 31st, 2011

Photo by Gwyneth Leech

Art, Cups, NYC

2011-11-10T10:23:00.003-05:00

In the press release for Hypergraphia at the Flatiron, the art dealer Cheryl McGinnis talks about the nonstop pace of 21 Century life, a life where we are "untethered from homes and offices due to rapid advancements in wireless and computer technology". Initially, I thought about this as it applied to me and my fractured time, resulting in art made on the go and the idea of the mobile art studio.

evagolightly, Statigram, 9.31 pm, 10/23/11

It also applies to the Cheryl McGinnis - a mobile and flexible art dealer. She stays connected to her bricks and mortar gallery via iphone and ipad (she has just opened a gorgeous new space in Tribeca) but she is frequently on the move, curating museum shows and pop-up spaces and taking artwork into the homes of clients (where she doesn't just help place it on the walls; she vacuums and rearranges the furniture too. I have seen her do it!) She also created and teaches a "visual thinking" program for kids called Art E.

que_serasera, 14PC, 8.39 am, 9/24/1

However, I hadn't really thought about how this applies to the multi-tasking, mobile, art viewing public. Sure, I knew that a lot of people would see an exhibition in the Flatiron Prow, situated as it is on a major intersection at the very heart of New York City, but I hadn't reckoned on the way that happens.

petra_mckenzie, Statigram, 11/11

Typical encounters with Hypergraphia go like this: Pedestrians are striding purposefully by, cuppa in hand, ear buds in, talking on their cell phones. They are brought to a halt in surprise by the hundreds of suspended cup drawings scintillating and turning in the windows of the Prow Artspace. They promptly get off their calls, take photos with their phones, apply some filters and load them to the internet right away.

Rula, Statigram, 10/11

A few keywords - #cups #flatiron #nyc- and the photos join a growing online archive on Statigram, Flickr, Tumblr, Tweetpics, Google+, Facebook and other photo blogs of the way each individual sees the installation.

They are consuming their art and making some of their own on the fly!

Selen, 14PC, 10/11

In an essay called Lessons from Social Media, Nick Martin writes:

"Here’s a description of the process Leech goes through with each cup and why:
“Leech saves cups from her drinks — and occasionally from other artists she meets for tea or coffee — washes, dries them and records on the bottom the date, place, occasion, and drink it held, thus documenting the social moment.”

Catch that last part? Each cup documents a “social moment”. Every single cup suspended so delicately in midair symbolizes a personal interaction, an exchange of stories or ideas, a connection with another human being. All of these social moments are then made into art, and displayed to hundreds of onlookers sparking new social moments, ideas, stories, and connections."

Danielle_B, Facebook, 11/7/1

It is exactly as he says! And just as each cup is different, each viewer's photos are unique, sparking their own text-based responses and conversations.

"I love how simple yet magnificent and intricate this is all at once!"

chrysanthacakes, Statigram, 11.49 am, 10/21/11

Where will it all end up? Where will all this connectedness take us? I have no idea. I am excited by the possibilities.

"Contemplating Modern Art in New York City",
chacoan, Statigram, 2.44 pm, 11/1/2011

As I watch it all unfold, there are many cups of tea and coffee to drink and many more drawings to do between now and the beginning of 2012.

See you at the Flatiron. And don't forget to bring your camera - or at the very least, your cellphone.

cattie, 12.37 am, 10/31/11

rmar, Statigram, 5.58 pm, 11/4/2011

Matthew Huie, Flickr, 11/7/11

The Naked Studio

2011-11-04T16:36:00.007-04:00

See the lengths to which we artists will go to make our art?

Ready to work in the Flatiron, Studio in the Prow
Photo courtesy of Cecilia De Boucort

I am an active procrastinator. When my apartment is as neat as a pin, the cutlery drawers sorted, the filing cabinet in perfect order, that is usually when I have a pressing art deadline. When my painting studio was in my home, I became adept at Final Cut Pro video editing, Photoshop, Excel spreadsheets, and writing.

Eventually, I started renting a painting studio in the Garment District in Manhattan with no internet access and no computer on site. My children are in school all day, I had the time to paint seriously and so I did, regularly and productively.

But I grew lonely.

Cup of the Day #91

Twining Vines by Gwyneth Leech

Colored India ink pen on upcycled white paper coffee cup

It seemed like a few committees would balance things out. But my active procrastinator took over and before I knew it two schools, various art groups and a lengthy turn on the co-op board of my building were keeping me from my brushes and glued to my computer again.

Then came the cups. Sitting still and listening at meetings, my hands needed to move constantly and without really being aware of it, my paper coffee cups were covered with drawings. These drawing intrigued me and I followed the thread. The cup form is the same each time, so I gave myself complete permission to draw anything I liked. This way, with pens at the ready, and an inexhaustible supply of something to draw on, I have managed to stay in a highly generative place.

Early morning, Flatiron

The Naked Studio before the artist arrives

September, 2011

Now all that was needed was a way to put art-making firmly center stage, the inviolable fulcrum of my day. My current exhibition at the Flatiron Building, Hypergraphia: Studio in the Prow is the perfect answer. Here I am, in a naked, glass-walled studio right in the center of the city, in the middle of my best and most productive time of day and days of the week. Everyone passing by is making me keep my commitment to my art-form, and the flow of visitors who come inside to talk livens the solo work of making my art.

Visitors to the Prow Artspace from

Saint John's University, NY and from

England, Scotland and California

Several artist friends have said they couldn't do this, they couldn't draw in public, couldn't commit to all these weeks. But it doesn't feel like a burden to me. The prow is quiet, the faces - especially those of the children - full of delight. What a privileged position to be in, to see how viewers react to our artwork!

And when January comes and I have to leave the Prow Studio? I am going to remember the lessons I have learned about pacing myself, about ring-fencing time for work, about being unplugged, about making art with others.

And my cutlery drawer is going to be very, very neat once again.

Hypergraphia at the Flatiron: 4 Weeks Down and 10 to Go

2011-10-17T13:28:00.001-04:00

So what is the hardest thing about being in the window of the Flatiron adding to Hypergraphia five days a week? That coffee cart right outside on 5th Avenue. It is just so dang hard to draw! I have now tackled it a half dozen times. Three of the resulting cups passed my keeper test and are hanging in the window. Have a hunt for them.

Cups of the Day #90 by Gwyneth Leech.

Recent cups in the Flatiron window.
India ink on upcycled white paper cups.

After that, it is the perspective of the buildings on all these converging and diverging streets. No, I don't have to tackle them, but it is an irresistible challenge. I peer up Broadway and 5th Avenue to the north and try to figure out that crazy skyline. Am I really seeing buildings as far away as 42nd Street? What a vista!

The view from the inside

Hypergraphia by Gwyneth Leech,

in the Sprint Prow Artspace, Flatiron Building,
where 5th Avenue and Broadway Meet.

Visitors outside the plate glass, and those who find their way in through the Sprint Store are always welcome, as long as they don't mind that I usually won't be looking them in the eye - I have to keep drawing, it is nothing personal. Lots of kids come in on Saturdays especially, and don't want to leave. Thanks to Faber Castell and my now enormous stash of empty take-out cups from all over the five boroughs, there is plenty for everyone who wants to try cup drawing.

Hypergraphia from Broadway.

Everyone knows about cups!

Uusually mom and dad are too shy to draw, and while little Johnny tries his hand on one, two, three cups they cruise the Sprint store checking out the latest merchandise (which is the new I-phone, by the way).

Impromptu drawing workshop inside Hyerpgraphia.

A steady flow of kids on a Saturday afternoon.

I am getting to know the rhythm of the Sprint store by now. I arrive each morning a few minutes before 11am with my takeout cup from one of a selection of nearby places (Eisenberg's, Deli Marché, Argo) and catch the eye of the manager(ess) on duty - Rob, Ashley, Precious, Yanelli, sometimes Matt. Then I go and sit in mental Zen space by the glass door leading to the Prow until the key is fetched from a secret location down a sprial staircase and deep in the bowels of the offices below street level. The key arrives, the manager(ess) unlocks with a smile, there is a whoosh of air as the door opens, I am invariably wished a good day, and finally, I have reached the inner sanctum.

The door is left ajar and will be locked again once I leave. I get myself situated: cell phone and camera out, coffee at hand, pull up the chair, take a seat and bam.... I am in the zone for the next three hours, drawing and looking and dreaming and seeming to float on the current of humanity outside the glass. The buzz and music from the Sprint store recede, people and traffic are a distant hum, there is the occasional low rumble of a passing subway train. None of it distracts me. I have to say, it really is a sweet spot for a studio, right in the heart of the city, and four weeks have flown by! I feel fortunate indeed to have another ten stretching leisurely before me.

Hyerpgraphia from the very point of the Prow.

The installation is changing and growing

as I add new cup drawings five days a week.

Coffee Cups and Supernovae: A Tribute to Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Laureate

2011-10-12T15:37:00.000-04:00

I am sitting in the midst of my personal ever-expanding universe of cups and thinking about my high school friend, Saul Perlmutter, who just won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Yep, I am going to say it; I knew him when...

Cup of the Day #89

Cosmological Cup by Gwyneth Leech

Colored India Ink on upcycled white paper coffee cup

It was 11th grade physics at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia. I was terrified of word problems. Saul Perlmutter was a friendly kid in the class who happened to be super bright, generous and willing to help me. He had a way of explaining physics so that it all made perfect sense. I passed that class with flying colors and I owe it to him!

My favorite part of physics was undoubtedly all the space stuff - white dwarfs, red dwarfs, supernovae, black holes. Saul's too, I guess, since he went on to study astrophysics and become the supernova guy.

Hypergraphia cup galaxy by Gwyneth Leech

at the Flatiron Building, NYC

October 2011

Saul was (and still is) gregarious and funny. In our senior year we were a couple, which essentially involved going everywhere with a whole passel of his friends and mine - to the movies or piling into someone's living room to hang out and talk on a Saturday night. We went our separate ways in college - he to Harvard, then to Berkeley, I to the University of Pennsylvania, then on to Scotland to study art. But we kept in touch.

In 1988, with his freshly minted PhD in astrophysics and a job as a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, supernovae took his fancy. He wondered if he could devise a computer program to scan the heavens for this rare kind of astronomical event - a task hitherto done only by certain human sky watchers around the globe with extraordinary visual memory. There was great skepticism amongst the sky watchers and astronomers about a computer's ability to match their skill.

Saul Perlmutter,

Nobel Laureate in Physics 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/science/space/05nobel.html

The goal was to use the light of supernovae to measure the speed of the theoretical slowing down of the expansion of the Universe.

The computer program worked; automated searches began to find more supernovae than the human eye. But his team needed a lot of these events. In Saul's hallmark spirit of openness and collaboration, he made the supernova search software public on the premise that the more teams working on the project the better the results would be and the quicker they would get them. He then embarked on many years of traveling to telescopes in far flung parts of the globe and coordinating scientists.

More and more supernova data was gathered but it took ten years to get what they needed. Then it came time to plot the data and see if it confirmed Hubble's theory about the decelerating expansion of the universe. In what Saul calls "the long aha" - a realization made over months - they could only conclude that this classic theory was wrong:
The expansion of the universe is not slowing, but speeding up! And this is a discovery which turns on its head everything scientists thought they knew about the nature of the universe!!

Tycho's Supernova Remnant:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO,

Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical:

MPIA, Calar Alto, O.Krause et al.

His wasn't the only team to make the discovery. Several teams of astronomers, using his supernova software and doing the same research, had come to the same conclusion. But they had cast themselves as his rivals and the race was on to publication. In 1998 they all published their results within weeks of each other - one group the first to present the findings at a conference, the other the first into a peer-reviewed journal. Last week three teams were honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics. Saul got one half, the other two teams split the rest.

Over the last ten years Saul has been on an elusive quest to fund the construction and launch of a space telescope devoted to supernova research. In tough economic times the Government funding keeps getting deferred, the telescope gets shelved again and again.

We had the rarest of opportunities to sit down together for coffee this summer when Saul and his wife, Laura, a professor of anthropology, were on sabbatical leave in Princeton and came into the City to visit art galleries in Chelsea. We met at Buongiorno Espresso Bar on 9th Avenue. To be precise, Laura and I had the espressos; Saul had orange juice. Nary a caffeinated beverage has ever passed his lips. Hmm, if I give up caffeine would I have a hope of thinking more like a Nobel Prize winner?

Talking about the telescope, Saul said that technological advances had lowered the price tag considerably. No longer a billion or so, but mere millions.

"Heck," said a mutual friend later when I shared this, "we should just pass the hat and buy the guy his telescope!" I'm game. I am more than willing to do a cup-drawing fund-raiser if it will help.
Saul, just let me know.

Ready to draw at the Flatiron

Hypergraphia by Gwyneth Leech, October 201

And as for his ability to help ordinary mortals understand physics, he still has it as can be seen from this recent video interview where he explains the science which made him a Nobel Laureate. Moreover, it is apparent that his enthusiasm for science remains undimmed; That is worthy of a prize all by itself.

Saul Perlmutter, Press conference, October 2011

Hypergraphia at the Flatiron: the View from the Street

2011-10-03T16:49:00.000-04:00

23rd Street, where 5th Avenue and Broadway meet. I knew it would be a high traffic location; indeed people visit the Flatiron Building in New York City 24 hours a day. But for some reason, I hadn't reckoned on the photography. From giant SLRs to I-phones to videos, the cameras click around the clock, and then the images flow out onto the web.

Hypergraphia in the Flatiron Artspace

5PM on a rainy afternoon.

Photo by Bernard Klevickas

I am loving seeing the installation through everyone's eyes and enjoy daily e-mails and postings that bring new views of Hypergraphia at different times of the day. I mean, I just haven't made it down there at 6AM yet, but how gorgeous the photo is of the windows before dawn!

6 AM, photo by Richard Kranzler

Cheryl McGinnis puts it well: "The idea of Hypergraphia was conceived by a desire to really make art accessible to everyone in order to facilitate a conversation about art in earnest. To see these photos posted by strangers who were just passing by and unexpectedly came upon the exhibit and are moved to photograph it, is just so gratifying."

Cup details. Photo by Rhoma Mostel

I did try my hand at a little night time photography. Oh dear! I got a few lucky shots, just enough to know that it is not as easy as it looks, even with a tripod. So here is a big shout-out to artists and photographers who have sent images my way. Thank you, and keep them coming!

Gwyneth drawing in the window
High noon. Photo by Julann Gebbie

Cups and street reflections.

Photo by Judy Sidonie Tillinger

2 PM, photo by Susan Baker

Passersby shooting at night with a cellphone.

Hypergraphia at the Flatiron, 8PM.

Photo: Gwyneth Leech

A Week of Tea and Cup Art in the Prow

2011-09-28T07:50:00.001-04:00

I embarked on Week One of Hypergraphia at the Flatiron on a sun-filled Tuesday morning. The weather is still hot and muggy for September. Coffee cups floated by outside the windows as the foot traffic eddied around the Prow, many people passing from Argo Café just next door.

Cups of the Day #88

Morning at the Flatiron

Wednesday and Thursday were filled with visitors. I was delighted when Scott Kahn, painter, and Dilys Winegrad, curator, both University of Pennsylvania connections, stopped in and lightened my drawing hours.

The street views in every direction intrigue me - up and down Fifth and Broadway, across into Madison Square Park, both ways on 23rd Street. I can see everywhere, the grid exploded in crazy cubist angles. What a vantage point!

I am getting the measure of the space as a studio, enjoying the light-filled circles of the display platform. I spread out my pens - a welcome donation from Faber-Castell. I discovered their Pitt brush pens with their saturated light-fast colored India Ink several years ago and have used them ever since. They give just the right balance of line and brush mark.

Thursday it poured cats and dogs and cups. Rain lashed the Prow and I felt indeed as if I were abroad ship, riding on waves of umbrellas.

Saturday the sun broke through in time for our reception in the Prow Art Space. I shared my art pens with visitors who tried their hand at upcycling their own coffee cups.

Heat built up inside, but we were kept afloat by a vat of iced Hibiscus tea with lemonade courtesy of Argo Tea. Argo Tea has certainly fueled all of Week One. I have thoroughly enjoyed each perfectly brewed cup - no tea bags there.

Week Two is upon me and I am heading out the door for another drawing session in the window studio. You will see me there Tuesdays - Saturdays 11 am - 2 pm, pen in one hand, cup in the other.

Hypergraphia Opens in the Flatiron Prow

2011-09-21T15:26:00.000-04:00

It was a grueling couple of days, but Hypergraphia has taken flight at the Flatiron!

Cup of the Day #88

Flying Cups at the Flatiron

We got in Monday morning and lost no time sorting, untangling, stringing and hanging. I was deeply grateful for the help of Sprint staff, Cheryl McGinnis and friends who stopped in with coffees and stayed for hours. The cups expanded and took their suspended places. Who knew I had so many? The hundred cups I did over the summer make a bright and breezy contrast to the ones I drew last Spring on the rainy side streets of the Garment District.

About noon on Monday the black drapes came down and the public began to gather on the sidewalks outside. The space is filled with beautiful light and the city spreads out beyond the glass. A veritable river of humanity flows by and around the Prow. As I set out my art materials and prepared to use the space as a studio I was filled with joy and anticpation. What an extraordinary place to be drawing daily for the next three months!!

Hanging with the help of Cheryl McGinnis

Stringing cups all day Monday

The view from the ladder Monday afternoon - the installation taking shape

The curtains are down and the space is filled with light.

The finished installation as seen from the front

View from the East side of the Prow.

Just goes to show that if you build it, they will come and take photos.

Getting down to work in a new window studio.

I will add to the exhibition as the drawings are finished.

See you through the plate glass Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 2PM, from now until December 31, where Broadway and Fifth Avenue meet at 23rd Street!

Hypergraphia Goes to the Flatiron

2011-09-19T06:57:00.003-04:00

Cups of the Day #87 by Gwyneth Leech

Colored India ink on white paper cup

In the Flatiron

Be careful what you wish for - it's just one of those sayings, right?

But I understood it as I surveyed with excitement and trepidation the large windows of the Prow Art Space at the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street where Fifth Avenue and Broadway meet.

"Hypergraphia" by Gwyneth Leech

500 drawings on upcyled paper coffee cups

More added daily

My art dealer, Cheryl McGinnis called me a few months ago and said - "go see this space. This is where Hyerpgraphia needs to go next!" I went the very next day and I was filled with desire. What a set of windows! What a location! How great would it be to sit in these windows and draw on cups every day - at the heart of New York City, surrounded by life and the most incredible buildings. There is no telling the directions it would take my art.

And here I was, looking at my name in the window, both thrilled and terrified, and contemplating the soaring interior. Thanks to the curatorial skills of Cheryl McGinnis and the vision of Sprint, a wish is reality and it all starts now.

Surveying the curtained exhibition space before hanging, full of ideas.

A Glimpse through the curtains. These came down as soon as the cups went up.

Hypergraphia - Studio in the Prow

was unveiled Tuesday, September 20th.
It will be on view 24 hours a day until December 31st.

Sprint and Cheryl McGinnis Projects Presents:

Gwyneth Leech, The Cup Drawings - Studio in the Prow
(Prow is a public art space, exhibit viewed 24 hours a day)

Gwyneth Leech will be in the space working
Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 2pm
September 19 – December 31, 2011

Reception with the Artist: Saturday, September 24 - 11-2 pm

For the Full press release click here

Water Towers and Ice Coffee

2011-09-15T11:43:00.001-04:00

Summer sweltered and rain drenched us repeatedly, but cooler breezes are blowing in now. The kids are back in school and I am drawing plants and bees in the community garden and remembering a summer camp trip up the Empire State Building.

Cup of the day #87

Garden cup by Gwyneth Leech

Colored India ink on white paper cup

What is it with groups of kids and high places? I also escorted Grace's second grade up the Rockefeller building in June on a 98 degree day. The views were hazy and we were like eggs frying in a pan on those shadeless terraces.

On both trips I longed to high dive into the water towers that be-deck so many rooftops - the quintessential New York view. Or to find my way to a scintillating roof top pool or secret garden. Surprising things to see from above. At least the Art Deco interiors of both buildings are lined with cool marble, delightful to lean against while waiting in endless lines to ride up and down in tiny elevators.

Dropping the kids back at air conditioned buildings after each trip, I rushed for the nearest ice coffee and then retreated to the community garden where I could recover in the shade of twining grape vines and spreading trees to draw plants and bees in blissful silence.

The city is full of contrasts!

Nice to Know We are Not Alone: On Your Mark at Cheryl McGinnis Gallery

2011-07-28T12:06:00.003-04:00

Cup of the Day #86

Obsessive Cup by Gwyneth Leech

India Ink and Sumi Ink on white paper coffee cup

It can be a lonely business, drawing obsessively, eyes fixed on a surface, absorbed in mark making. It is nice to know there are other artists engaged in the same kind of practice. So it gives me great pleasure to be included in "On Your Mark", a group drawing show at Cheryl McGinnis Gallery that explores "the Inner Necessity of Unrestrained and Methodical Drawing".

Installation view, "On Your Mark"

at Cheryl McGinnis Gallery

Through August 12th, 2011

I was delighted to meet such wonderful proponents of this type of drawing at a gallery reception last week. Modest and reserved when you speak to them, Annysa Ng, Marlene Vine and Rebecca Riley make drawings that explode off the wall or suck you in with compressed intensity.

Marlene Vine at the "On Your Mark" reception

Taking a different route, Wei Jia and Lin Yan obsessively and methodically tear and layer to create balanced and fragile paperworks that give a whole different idea of drawing as arrangement of shape and displacement of space.

Annysa Ng talking to Wei Jia and Lin Yan

at the "On Your Mark" reception

And of course, I love that idea of unrestrained drawing: letting it rip, letting the hand go where it will, finding the pattern and system in the drawing as it evolves. The coffee cups are such a useful form for me when it comes to generating unrestrained but methodical imagery. I don't know why. Shakespeare wrote sonnets, Bach composed fugues, I draw on empty paper coffee cups. Simple as that.

"On your Mark" continues through August 12th, Tuesday - Saturday from 10AM - 6PM.
Don't miss it if you are in the City!

Wei Jia at the "On Your Mark" reception

On Your Mark:
The Inner Necessity of Both Methodical and Unrestrained Drawing
July 11-August 12, 2011
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10-6
555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 710
New York City
212 594 4066

The Bean and the Méchanique Fantastique

2011-06-27T22:27:00.001-04:00

Cup of the Day #85

by Gwyneth Leech

India Ink on white printed cup

I was down in the East Village with Elisa Jimenez on a wander. Our destination was a very enjoyable show of women abstract expressionists at Dorian Gray Gallery on East 9th, including Joan Mitchell prints, Judy Pfaff drawings and some lovely paintings by my studio-mate Cecile Brunswick.

After the gallery, Elisa and I were in The Bean at 49 1/2 1st Avenue enjoying a sumptuous and decadent fruit tart with coffee to celebrate mid-summer, recent projects and the beginning of new things.

Fruit tarts at The Bean Café

Elisa had been at Buck House for the day of my hit and run Hyeprgraphia installation and was making some observations about the differences from the six week Garment District showing back in the Spring. "On 38th Street it was about working," she remarked, "the artist inconspicuously tucked away at the back of the window, dressed in gray, laboring in the cold, filling the window with more and more drawings every day. Very Garment District sweatshop."

Hypergrphia, June 9th, 2011

Drawing in the window at Buck House, view from the street

"Buck House felt entirely different, with you dressed in silk and lace in the very middle of the installation, looking like a cup drawing or one of the fine objet d'art in the shop. Your striped skirt matched the wall paper, even the same blue. Made me think Méchanique Fantastique or the nightingale in a gilded cage."

Hypergrphia, June 9th, 2011

Drawing in the window at Buck House, view from inside

I love the way Elisa saw it. The skirt was actually a delightful coincidence. Who knew that this purchase made from Anthropologie months ago would match so well? For my part, I was channeling the 1785 self portrait by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (French, 1749–1803) which hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I often pay a dollar and pop to see it.

Self Portrait by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (French, 1749–1803)

Oil on canvas, 1785

Metropolitain Museum, New York City

There she is, painting at her easel in full court attire: voluminous gray silk dress, lace, fantastic hat, students leaning over her shoulder. My finery in the window of Buck House bears no resemblance to the way I make art in the privacy of my studio, from whence I always emerge covered in paint and in complete disarray. But it was fascinating to paint that way for a day.

As for Elisa, mistress of the magical and the fantastique, I can't wait to see what she does next!

Marionette Dance, by Elisa Jimenez

Video by Gwyneth Leech

Hypergraphia at the Buck House

2011-06-20T20:44:00.008-04:00

Cup of the Day #84

Buck House cup by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on white paper cup, June 9th 2011

Thursday, June 9th. It was a sweltering day. By 8:30 AM sweat ran down my back as I stood on 8th Avenue at 39th street laden with bags and hailing a cab. I tried to cool off with an ice coffee on the trip uptown and across Central Park to Madison Avenue, where we crawled in traffic to 93rd and the front door of Buck House.

I have got this down to an art now. The current version of the Hypergraphia exhibition travels in a couple of Ikea bags. With quite a number of hands on deck to untangle, arrange, hang and rearrange, it was a two hour proposition to install. Buck House assistant Jean Guy, a few inches taller than I am, made short work of hammering tacks into the ceiling and then we unfurled the cups strings.

Cheryl McGinnis was on hand to curate and artist Linda Stillman came by to assist. The morning light was gorgeous and added a new dimension of vivid shadows on the floor of the window space, giving me ideas for new artwork.

By lunch time the installation was almost set, a striking effect against the white wrought iron doors of Buck House. But there was one thing left to make it perfect: Yes, that is Cheryl sweeping the sidewalk! She can't help herself - she loves to clean.

Buck House laid on a beautiful coffee party in their rear garden featuring Stumptown's finest brew, or some champagne if preferred. And Miguel came up with a lethally innocent cocktail - ice coffee, Bailey's, vodka and a hint of mint. Not to be trifled with. Only regular ice coffee for me, please. I have to draw!

Deborah Buck, owner of Buck house, steps out front to cast a discerning eye over the finished window.

Finally, in the window and hard at work drawing.

I have to say, it was nice to be amongst the cups again.

Inside meets outside - summer dresses strolled in from Madison Avenue. Just a little different from West 38th Street in March where everyone was still bundled up in their winter coats! There, the effect of the window was a surprising contrast of color against the hard gray street. Here, there was a pleasing continuity from the street, through the ornamented cups to the inside of the treasure-filled shop.

The view from the inside. And on this day the window space was a sauna, not a refrigerator.

An impromptu drawing workshop sprang up. "Excuse me Miss, can I draw on that empty cup?" "Can I use that pen?" Good thing I had extra everything, though I wouldn't give up my one bright blue pen. "But I need it!" exclaimed a child. "Not as much as I do", replied my selfish artist.

This time, we hung the cups without lids and let them fill with light.

And then it was over. A last glimpse inside the Buck House after the doors closed and everyone prepared to go home.

But wait, here come friends delayed by a sudden evening thunderstorm. What is it about Hyerpgrahia and the rain? (It rained almost every day while the show was up on 38th Street.) So we lingered outside in the suddenly cool air, under umbrellas once again. I returned the next morning to take the cups down; A Hypergraphia hit and run.

Lunch Break at Lazzara's

2011-06-06T12:22:00.001-04:00

Cup of the Day #82: Man with coffee cup

India ink on white paper cup by Gwyneth Leech

I just came across these notes from a day in my life during the window exhibition in March. It was a blur!

E-mail
PTA meeting
IEP meeting
Blog
Run to window exhibition - drawing
Home to process photos
Pick up groceries on the way
Blog
Wrangle Teen to homework and piano lesson
Rush to collect younger daughter from school
An hour playing freeze tag in the playground
Home to make dinner
Homework, bath time, bed for kids
Conversation with David
Internet and e-mail
Bed for mom

Magic hour: 1-2 PM lunch at Lazzara's on 38th Street.
Up a tall stoop stair from the street to the parlor floor.
Pressed tin ceiling, garment district workers on their lunch hour.
Paper table cloths over linen.
The wait staff run with big salads and thin crust pizzas up and down the crowded room.
Speakeasy hideaway - yes.
Espresso in a china cup -Yes!
Midtown is changing. Pleased to find Lazzara's still there.

View of 38th Street from 10th Avenue, looking East

Time for A Refill: the Cups Go to Buck House

2011-06-02T15:48:00.002-04:00

"Are you OK? wrote a friend this week. "Are your blogging days over? Of course there's always the possibility that they locked the storefront, turned off the lights and didn't realize you had fallen asleep under a comforting pile of pristine cups-in-waiting."

Locked away with my drawing materials! A lovely thought. But no, I have just been buried beneath all those domestic and mundane things long neglected for the sake of art. And in truth, by the end of six weeks in the window I felt as empty as a used paper coffee cup.

Raining cups in the Hypergraphia window

March, 2011

Photo: Marianne Barcellona

In early April, I packed up cup drawings for collectors, exhibitions and the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery and felt bereft to see the installation dispersed. After that, I continued to pack: for the Trans Art Conference in Boston, to clear space so I could repaint my apartment and for trips to visit family.

Then a few weeks ago, I found myself on the Upper East side drinking Arnold Palmer's (half lemonade, half ice tea) with Cheryl McGinnis and Deborah Buck at Buck House on Madison Avenue at 94th Street, to plan a second Hypergraphia Cup Drawing Window Installation.

This time it will be a one-day-only event. On June 9th I will be drawing in the window and from 3 - 7 PM they will be serving coffees, cocktails and chocolates. So if you missed it on 38th Street, here is a chance to experience Hypergraphia for yourself. Or if you loved it, please bring or send friends. Summer is here and I am refilled with fresh ideas and the energy to tackle that pile of pristine cups-in-waiting!
See you at Buck House.

Life in the window 3: Drawing to a Close

2011-04-04T10:50:00.003-04:00

Cups of the Day #81

Blue Umbrella Cups by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on upcycled white paper coffee cup

Drawn in the studio window, March 2011

Monday morning. I am about to go to the Hypergraphia window at 215 West 38th Street for a final three days of drawing from 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM. Early Thursday morning I head to Boston for the 2011Transcultural Exchange Conference. The cups will still be on view until 5:30 PM Friday, April 8th, but my chair will be empty.

Cups drawn in the Hypergraphia window.

I am sipping my morning tea and considering the last five weeks. One of the most frequently asked questions has been "did you drink all that coffee yourself?"
Well, I drank from all the cups, but the truth is most of it was decaf. I love my morning cup of strong Scottish tea, and another cup in the afternoon. Otherwise, it is Barry's decaf tea or Celestial Seasonings herbal teas. When it comes to coffee, a decaf latte from a high end bistro at any time of day does the trick. If I deviate, I feel it in my hands and see it in my drawings.

Where does the city stop and the cups begin?

Another question has been "how has it changed your artwork?"I had to think about that.

The drawings did change considerably during my weeks in the window. At first, I could onlydraw and paint spiral patterns. I felt like I was at the center ofa maelstrom of coffee cups, people, traffic, and bright lights. Then, conversations with my art dealer Cheryl McGinnis and with visitors crept onto the cups. A daily salon shaped up in the shop space behind the window and I joined in through the door. A discussion abouthandwriting led to a set of calligraphic cups.

After a conversation about pets, I covered a cup with greyhounds. Then a set of turtles appeared, climbing on each others' backs, as they do in the turtletank in the window of Lucoral, a gem store down 38th.

Turning heads on 38th Street

Eventually, my focus shifted out to the sidewalk and awhole week of rain led to a parade of drawings of people carrying umbrellas.Simple and gestural, these were very satisfying to do and connected me to theway it feels to draw while traveling. The greatest achievement is to retain theeyes of the traveler while in your own back yard!

Coffee break, surrounded by umbrella cups drawn in the window.

WasI performing in the window? No, I was just drawing and using the window spaceas my art studio for the run of the exhibition. Unlike performance artists whoexplore the limits of human endurance, my self-assigned task was to be ascomfortable and productive as possible. I therefore felt free to engage withviewers through the plate glass window, or not, as the depth of myconcentration dictated.

Ultimately,the window has been a haven - a protective bubble of glass surrounded by theweather and the ever changing, ever fascinating streetscape. Social, inspiringand surprisingly peaceful, I can't believe how much drawing I have done.

Now I have a question of my own; how will I go back to making art all bymyself?

Cellphone photos and videos appeared regularly

on social media platforms, spreading the word.

Hope they were all flattering!

Who Has Time to Stop and Look at Art?

2011-03-29T17:20:00.000-04:00

I start each day in my window studio by sitting, drinking a hot drink and watching life flow like a river on the other side of the plate glass. I know if I sit here looking out or lift my camera, people won't stop. Still, I study them. Who will even turn their head? I perceive patterns and keep a lookout from the corner of my eye once I start to draw.

Cup of the day #80, by Gwyneth Leech

India in on upcycled white paper coffee cup

Drawn in the window studio at 215 West 38th Street

By the end of my drawing session today I have it nailed. First there is my posse - the street sweepers, security guards, postal workers and office workers who I see every day. They stop to see what is new, or wave to me as they go by. Then there are delivery and messenger folk, walking purposefully. Pushing a cart, they look ahead for obstructions, no time for me, but if they carry envelopes they turn and engage. Cigarette smokers are furtive and preoccupied, seeking doorways to smoke in. They jump if the haven't seen see me at first and move quickly away from the window.

Cup of the day #80, view #2, by Gwyneth Leech

India in on upcycled white paper coffee cup

Drawn in the window studio at 215 West 38th Street

Tourists pulling wheeled luggage are intent and anxious, walking quickly up the street. Later, strolling with heads up, they are happy and excited to see the window, stopping for group photos, sometimes with their backs to me. Successful shoppers carrying their purchases stop and study the window, as do pairs or small groups walking and conversing. They exclaim to each other and to me, interact and linger. Young people, students I would guess, usually walk with their heads up looking at the city. They invariably take time to examine the cup drawings.

View of the Hypergraphia window, March 23, 2011

The happiest viewers are office workers carrying their lunches. They have their food, they are looking forward to eating it, but they are not in a big rush to get back to their desks. They stroll by daily and we wave.

But the strangest of all are the cellphone zombies - they walk as if possessed, moving their mouths, completely unaware of their surroundings. A man stood with his back to the window today talking on his cellphone for a good 10 minutes before finally wandering off. He never noticed I was there.

View from the Hypergraphia window, March 29, 2011

Truly, the best thing about the window studio is that I am disconnected. My phone is off, I have no laptop or I-Pad. I sit, think, look and draw. I try to stay like that as I walk through the streets of the city, eyes and ears open, finding stories everywhere. Once while talking on my cellphone, I walked the length of Central Park without noticing or remembering anything I saw. I too was a cellphone zombie!
Now I know what it looks like.

View of the Hypergraphia window, March 23, 2011

Today I draw the people walking by, a frieze around my cup, some with heads turned looking in at me. Before I leave I put the cups in the window and go outside to consider the effect.
Now they are looking out at me as I look in. A pleasantly circular touch.

Cups in progress in the window studio

India ink on white cups, March 29, 2011

The exhibition has been extended until April 8th and I will continue to draw in the window Monday - Friday 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM through Wednesday, April 6th.

How to Make a Perfect Cup of Tea: Testing the Water

2011-03-24T17:00:00.006-04:00

Cup of the Day #79

Fountain Cup by Gwyneth Leech

India Ink on white cup

Drawn in the window studio, March 2011

After my recent experiences trying to reuse paper cups in coffee bars, I decided to make my cuppa at home, pour it in a paper cup and carry it with me to the window studio. I held the kettle under the faucet and turned the tap. It filled with clean, clear H2O. This is a daily miracle which I never take for granted. In this crowded, impossible metropolis, over 8 million people have access to the finest tap water in the USA. It comes straight from scintillating mountain reservoirs in the Upper Delaware Valley watershed and the Croton Highlands, carried by gravity through cavernous water pipes which are a marvel of engineering. My favorite tea is Scottish Blend which, in Glasgow, we brewed with excellent water flowing from pristine Loch Katrine in the Scottish Highlands. Here on West 47th Street, that tea tastes just as good made with New York City's plain old tap.

Food Plan/ Food Plain

by Christy Rupp

Art and Activism Against the Drill

So knowing this about our water supply, I expected a lot of excitement over at Exit Art on 10th Avenue and 36th Street where the exhibition "Art and Activism Against the Drill" has been running since December with an extension through this Saturday, March 26th. The group show organized by Lauren Rosati, Exit Art Assistant Curator, with Peggy Cyphers, Ruth Hardinger, and Alice Zinnes, comprises paintings, drawings, installation, videos and printed materials alerting us that our drinking water supply is under imminent threat from hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas extraction process which has spread right across they United States in a frenzy of energy exploration dating back to just 2005. A clutch of documentaries and articles has been letting us know the dangers to air, ground water, watersheds, our health and our safety from this unregulated industry. And yes, fracking, as the process is called, has reached a watershed very near you. Thousands of sites have already been leased for fracking all through the Upper Delaware Valley watershed, which sits atop the gas-rich Marcellus Shale and a moratorium on the process in New York State is set to expire this summer.

Postcard Wall

Art and Activism Against the Drill

There is much to know and much to be concerned about. The artists have made thought-provoking artworks underscoring the risks in, as Mike Newton says, "an honest and insistent voice of concern".

And yet every time I went to see the exhibition (apart from the mass of people who came to the opening reception and to a panel talk in January) the gallery has been empty.

Fracked Venus

By Chris Twomey, 2010

Art and Activism Against the Drill

Having studied the show, seen the documentaries and read a bunch of articles, here is what I still don't know. If they extract this gas in the Delaware watershed, where will it go? Who uses it? How long will it really last? I have read that the whole Marcellus Shale has enough natural to last 10 years. 10 years? That's it? All this impact and long range damage to the landscape and threat to human health for 10 years worth of gas? Couldn't we just make some changes, conserve a little, turn off the lights at night and leave the Marcellus Shale alone? I do not want the quality of my drinking water, not to mention my coffee or tea compromised in any way!

My kettle is full. I turn from the sink, put it on the stove, and after a moment of hesitation...I turn on the gas.

Lois Carlo

Drinking Water Test Kit, 2010

Art and Activism Against the Drill

Resources:

http://www.DamascusCitizens.org
Educating about gas drillingissues and seeking solutions including legal, regulatory and governmentreforms

http://www.NYH2O.org

The NYC sister group toDamascus Citizens

http://www.riverkeeper.org/

Advocate of clean water in NewYork State and New York City

http://dontfrackwithny.com/

Affiliated with Riverkeeper

http://delawareriverkeeper.org

A 22-year-old environmentaladvocacy, stream restoration and education organization that operates throughoutthe Delaware River Watershed
http://www.un-naturalgas.org
Active in NYState; focused in Chenango, Delaware and Otsego counties
http://www.fractracker.org
Centralizedsource tracking and visualizing data related to gas extraction in theMarcellus Shale region

http://shaleshock.org/

Active in the Upstate NY andFinger Lakes region
http://www.earthworksaction.org
A national organization forthe education, organization and protection of communities from thedevastating impacts of oil and gas development
http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/
Active in the Catskillsregion

http://gaslandthemovie.com

About the movie and aboutgetting involved in the issues

http://www.splitestate.com/

This compelling Emmy Award winning documentary shows the dirty side of hydraulic fracturing and natural gas, an energy source the industry touts as a clean alternative to fossil fuels.

"Everyday Tablecloth Pre-stained

to Match Tainted Well Water"

By Pat Bellant Gillen

Art and Activism Against the Drill

Raining Coffee Cups: Time for a Refill

2011-03-22T10:23:00.004-04:00

I gave a talk about my artwork over the weekend. After seeing a photograph of my drawings on cups, a man said to me, "Does this project have an environmental message? I hope not."
I was surprised, given that he is a science teacher.
"Only in the nicest possible way," I replied.

Cup of the Day #78

Umbrella cup by Gwyneth Leech

India ink an Bic pen on upcyled paper coffee cup
Drawn in the window, March 21, 2011

Umbrella set by Gwyneth

India ink an Bic pen on upcyled paper coffee cups
Drawn in the window, March 21, 2011

It is hard not to think about issues of over-consumption and consumer waste when surrounded by the results of my own small, daily act of buying hot drinks to go for over a year. Nearly 400 single use paper coffee cups is a lot to look at. I am now hyper-aware of the coffee cups I see everywhere in the city and know they aren't heading to recyling, but to landfills where they don't decompose because of their pesky polyethelene lining, the lining which allows them to hold hot drinks.

View from the Hypergraphia window

March 21, 2011

Yet I have grown fond of the sturdy paper cup. It has a history. Someone invented it in 1907, in my home state of Pennsylvania no less. And it even intersects with my family story, having first been used commercially on the Lackawanna and Western Railway. My great grandfather Alfred Fowler McCollum worked for Lackawanna at that very time, and since he was an inventor, I can imagine him being instrumental in the switch from communal water dippers to the newfangled but hygienic paper cup.

View from the Hypergraphia window

March 21, 2011

I decide that the least I can do is reuse some of my unadorned empties. One cup should last a few dozen times (not a patch on the travel mug which can be reused thousands of times, but I am not tempted to draw on those, yet). On the first attempt, at the deli, they take my proffered paper cup, throw it away and fill a new one. The second time, at Empire Coffee and Tea Company on 9th Avenue I specify reuse. They fill without comment, but give me a new plastic lid and coffee sleeve. All I need is another plastic lid! The third time I am at Guy and Gaillard on 38th. I ask for a cup of tea and hold out my empty paper cup. The man reaches under the counter and pulls out a new one.
"Please reuse my empty one," I say, still holding out my cup.
"Oh no," he says, "That's a cheap cup. No good. We have better cups, expensive - good plastic lining!"
He fills it and hands it over.
What can I do? I take yet another cup, pay and head out the door.

View from the Hypergraphia window

March 19, 2011

Life in the Window 2: Hiding in Plain Sight

2011-03-17T09:57:00.001-04:00

Cup of the day #77, by Gwyneth Leech
India ink on upcycled white paper coffee cup
Drawn in the window, March 11, 2011

Outside, it seems like the world is a maelstrom of bad news. But inside the window studio there is only a maelstrom of drawings, and all they do is hover, rattling gently with the vibrations of idling vehicles in the street. I sit drawing longer every day, wanting to hide here and watch the world through plate glass, everything softened and slightly removed.

New cup drawings in the window

March 14, 2011

Now I recognize people: the Chinese designer who works on the block, the sock manufacturer who sent us a box of brightly colored peds, the mail-lady, the staff at Ben's Diner on break, and the many men with the trash cans who are based in the Fashion Center. They all stop by regularly to see how it is going, and they are not disappointed as the new cups accumulate and stack up around my drawing chair.

Family photos in front of the Hypergraphia window

March 14th, 2011

The installation has become a bit of a phenomenon on West 38th Street. More people come every day. Little crowds gather and out come the digital cameras, SLRs and iphones. Families and tourists take turns posing against the glass, their backs to me as I draw. Some snap and keep walking, most smile and give me signs of appreciation - usually the thumbs up, but some blow kisses or applaud. One day a man bowed. A person could get used to this.

View from the Hypergraphia window

March 15th, 2011

I do wonder where the photos will end up - e-mailed to friends, shown to fellow workers at lunch, posted on Facebook and Twitter?

"Look at that!" exclaimed a young woman to a co-worker as they walked by. "That window is amazing."

"I know," said her friend. "Don't you remember I told you about it? We already took photos and posted them on our Tumblr."

Cool, I thought as they disappeared from view. "How remote and yet how connected we are!"

If your blog is Faux Real, thank you, the pictures are great. If not, here's a shout-out to the photographer, whoever you are.

View from the Hypergraphia window

March 16th, 2011

Some more posts from visitors to the Hypergraphia installation:

Nearsay

Reclinerart's Posterous

Vivian Swift

Racked

Who Wants to Live in New York?

If You Can Make That You Can Make this

Craftfoxes

Joanne Mattera

Life in the Window: Inside the Hypergraphia Exhibition

2011-03-10T17:43:00.010-05:00

Cup of the Day #76

Mobius Cup by Gwyneth Leech

March 10, 2011

India ink on pale yellow paper coffee cup

Forget the ladies of Amsterdam. In my chaste gray work clothes, people say I look more like Whistler's Mother. How about the fortune tellers scattered all around Hell's Kitchen? Those women sit in gilt chairs in their shallow window spaces waiting for people to come to them seeking the meaning of life. My grandmother taught me to read tea leaves and I have all these cups, so it is not a stretch.

The artist in the window

March 3rd, 2011

Then there is Marina Abramovic, sitting completely still, her hands idle, silently communicating with the public until she is exhausted beyond human endurance. Not me. I can leave my chair any time. With art materials around me and a cuppa at hand, I am completely comfortable and content. I am just here to draw, the way I do in the studio, and see what people make of that. I wave politely when there is a knock on the glass and a thumbs up.

The window at 215 West 38th Street

draws a diverse crowd, March 10, 2011

Photo by Cheryl McGinnis

Actually, people don't even notice me at first, so I get to see in their faces what they really think of my artwork. Generally, they register delight and surprise when they see the hundreds of cups filling the window, each one a unique drawing. On this gray Midtown side street the effect is surprising and it brings many to a standstill, clutching their brief cases and coffee cups. It is a privileged view the artist doesn't often get. "Did she draw all that shit?" Exclaimed a young man. Then seeing me, "wait, I mean that in a good way!"

The artist's view from inside the window

There is an empty shop space behind the window gallery, through which I access the cup installation via a door. On this week day, during my 90 minutes of drawing the shop became very full. First came five art bloggers in a group, then Nancy Nikkal, an artist friend who blogs too. Cheryl McGinnis arrived with an art collector and a few minutes later, a drama student hurried in from NYU to interview me for an art essay between classes. At one point two random women from the Czech Republic wandered in off the street when the shop door was open and said, "We want you to learn to us". To top it off, as all of them gathered by the interior door to chat and take photos of me at work, John Haber, the esteemed art critic appeared outside on the sidewalk! It almost felt like a Sunday afternoon salon at Louise Bourgeois' house - but I am much, much nicer.

Informal Salon in the shop space

behind the window gallery

March 3, 2011

Photo by Katherine Bourbeau

I continue drawing in the window at 215 West 38th Street every Monday to Friday, 11:30 to 1:00 pm through Friday, April 1st.

I see you seeing me seeing you.

The artist in the window March 3, 2011

Special Reception with the Artist, March 11th

2011-03-09T18:00:00.002-05:00

Please join Cheryl McGinnis Projects and the New York Fashion Center

for a special reception this Friday evening

March 11 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM

at the Fashion Center's Window Space for Public Art,

215 West 38th Street, NYC, as part of

HYPERGRAPHIA: Gwyneth Leech, the Cup Drawings.

The exhibition continues through April 1st

Monday - Friday, 7:00 AM - 5:30 PM.

The artist is drawing in the window and adding to the installation

every Monday - Friday from 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM.

For more information go to Cheryl McGinnis Gallery.

To view photos of the exhibition on Gwyneth's Full Brew blog click here.

To read recent press click here.

We look forward to seeing you!

Doing the Rounds: Tea at the Armory Art Fair

2011-03-05T13:54:00.001-05:00

Arriving late afternoon at the Armory Art Fair at Pier 94, I thought, let's cut to the chase. So I walked briskly all the way back to the cafe. Within just a few minutes and a few yards of this essential hub, I ran into four artists I know in New York City and a fifth I was supposed to meet up with elsewhere: Linda Stillman, Marianne Barcelona, Cecile Brunswick, Judith Page and Joanne Mattera. It has to be said that Joanne was in a booth looking at art, and doesn't even caffeinate, but it seemed there was a magnetism drawing them towards the vortex of the refreshments at that one moment.Was it the lure of afternoon tea?

Cup of the Day #75

Curvilinear cup by Gwyneth Leech

India Ink on white paper coffee cup

Without stopping to read anything further into these chance meetings (let's face it, all the artists in New York City are at the art fairs this weekend), I plunged on from there into the full brew of art and galleries and people which make up the fair, surfing from art object to art object trying to focus. Perhaps it is my current immersion in my Hypergraphia cup drawing show, but I had only eyes for the round and for the intense. Ramirez at Ricco Maresca totally fit the bill for intense, as did Burchfield at DC Moore, both over in the modern fair on Pier 92.

For the round, here is a smattering of things that caught my eye. In my excitement I didn't get all the details. Tell me the artists names and/or the gallery they were showing with and I will buy you a cup of tea when you come by the Hypergraphia exhibition at 215 West 38th Street (on a week day between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM through April 1st.)

Cakes, from Thiebaud Series, 2004
A baking and photo artwork by

Sharon Core

No tea?

Unknown artist
at the Modern Institute/ Toby Webster (NYC)

Lighthouse Keeper with Lighthouse Model, 2010

A photo artwork by Rodney Graham

303 Gallery (NYC)

Teapot composite #1

by Barro

at Galeria Laura Marsiaj (Rio)

Natural Fashion #77
Photo by Hans Silvester
at Marlborough Gallery (NYC)

Teapot composite #2

by Dewar and Giquel
at Loevenbruck Gallery (Paris)

Satisying circularity!

I know this one - an Altered Bicycle

by sculptor Bernard Klevickas

appeared at at 52nd Street and the Hudson River
on March 3rd.

Will it still be there now?

Bobbing on the Gyre: Afloat in Plastic Cup Lids

2011-03-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

Cup of the Day #74

"Plastics all at Sea" by Gwyneth Leech

India ink and encaustic on

upcycled white paper coffee cup

"What's with the cup lids? Explain that to me." His tone was not reassuring.

"They are because the installation is about drinking drinks on the go," I explained. "The people outside the window are carrying their coffee breaks, drinking with the lids on. Imagine you are in Times Square. Erase all the people and you would see something like this - the cups all tipped up every which way.

Passerby Day #3

"Also, the cup lid acts as a frame, setting off the drawing."

He still looked unconvinced. "I just see a lump of white plastic."

"Look closer. Every lid is different: flat top, sip top, flip top tabs, resealable tabs, sliding tabs."I picked up a Solo Traveler Deluxe lid with a high profile that has an intricate sliding mechanism to close off the sip opening while walking. "This is a feat of engineering. If mankind can do this, we can do anything!"

View form the window Day #4

"And here is something else to consider. My cup drawings are treated with encaustic - immersed in molten beeswax and Damar resin, then fused with a heat gun. It's an ancient process of preservation, and encaustic paintings have survived intact from Roman Times - that's several thousand years. But the plastic lid that tops your cup drawing - talk about archival! It's non-biodegradable and will be in your family for a hundred thousand years or so, if not a million."

"OK," he said. "you've convinced me."

Drawing in the window Day #4

The Artist is in the Window: Drawing Days 1 and 2

2011-03-02T08:13:00.000-05:00

Cup of the Day #73

By Gwyneth Leech

White and colored ink on upcycled

White paper coffee cup

I am thinking of the Coney Island dunk tank, or a fish in an aquarium at the pet store, not to mention an animal in the window of that pet store. Yes, people knock on the glass, then they give me a thumbs up.

Drawing in the window Day #1

I haven't felt the need to pace, unlike the snow leopard at Central Park Zoo, but then this is only the first few days. Besides, the space is so full of suspended cups that no large gestures are possible. So I sit, and draw. The cups turn gently in the draft and all is peace.

Drawing in the window Day #1

Outside, people stop and look at the cups, then startle when they see me. Generally, they laugh and smile. Some take photos with their cellphones and walk away quickly. Through the glass, I can hear what they are saying. A young man wheeling a trash can works at the Fashion Center and gets what I am up to. He explains it to his co-workers.

View from the window Day #2

A mother and daughter stop.
"Coffee cups." Mom says. "An artist drew on every single cup."
"And look," says the daughter, "there's a real live artist in the window right now!"
I smile and give a little wave, then draw a rabbit on the cup and show it to the child. She smiles too and they walk on.

Drawing in the window Day #2

"Hm, that rabbit has possibilities," I think, examining the cup. By one O'clock rabbits are bouncing all around the surface and it is done. I put the cup on an upturned stack of empties, grab the chai my artist friend Elisa Jimenez brought by and head for the exit. I am getting into the groove of the window studio.

View from the window Day #2

Hypergraphia: Gwyneth Leech, the Cup Drawings is on view in the Fashion Center Window Space for Public Art at 215 West 38th Street, at 7th Avenue, in New York City February 28 - April 1st.
For full details click here.

Raising the Cups: the Hypergraphia Exhibition Takes Off

2011-02-27T18:35:00.001-05:00

Cups of the day #72

Hyperghraphia: Gwyneth Leech, the Cup Drawings

goes up in the Fashion Center Space for Public Art

215 West 38th Street, NYC, off 7th Avenue

February 28 - April 1st.

Shouldering my Ikea bags full of cup drawings at the end of last week, I wove my way from my art studio on 39th Street, through the trolleys, dollies and racks of clothes that are still trundled across the sidewalks in the Garment District. At #215 West 38th Street, men in boiler suits on a morning break let me into the back door of the Fashion Center building. I unpacked my stuff onto a table in the unused shop space behind the window gallery and rolled my sleeves up.

Arriving at #215 West 38th Street

The exhibition packs up small but this is only part of it.

The giant Ikea bags are inside already.

I then spent hours looping, tying and stringing cups together on clear fishing line before anything appeared in the window.

A few trial cup sets go up.

By the end of the first of my two hanging days, I had a lot of cups suspended and the window was beginning to have the explosive quality I was looking for. Cheryl McGinnis came by from the gallery. "More, more!" She declared as she headed home for the day. I dreamed of tangled lines that night.

End of Day One.

Day two was a race against the clock - looping, tying, stringing, up and down on the step ladder, in and out to the street to check the hang and to document the process.
People were beginning to stop and take photos with their cell phones.
A mother and son came by.
"Mom, Look at all the coffee cups!"
"Yes," said mom. "See, there's Starbucks and Lenny's and Bread Factory and deli cups. She drew on every cup".
She turns to her son. "You could do that!"

The side view into the window from the stoop.

I continued to string cups in the space behind the window. The street door was closed and the boiler-suit men stopped there on breaks for a smoke, as did security guards and also staff from Ben's deli next door. They had a close up view of the cups through the side window and I overheard an exchange:
#1 "I never understand what they show in this space."
#2 "Well, read the description in the window."
#1 "I never understand the stuff they write there".
#2 reads the panel out loud.
#1 "But it's just coffee cups."
#2 "No, they aren't regular coffee cups. Look, each one is different."
#1. "Did she design them?"
#2. "She must have, like fabric.
#1 Oh, OK. That's a lot of cups of coffee.

#2. Understand now. Capisce?

#1. Yeah, yeah.

The view from the Hypergraphic's seat.

At 5:00 PM I was out of cups - they were all hung every which way, filling the space delightfully - and my time was just about up. I placed my chair - a small armchair with a wooden fan back which came from husband's grandfather's house in Scotland - then set out all my saved-up empties and my drawing materials. Monday I will start five weeks of sitting in the window every week day from 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM drinking my coffee or tea, drawing on empties and adding to the installation. Everyone is welcome to come and have a coffee break with me through the plate glass. But please don't smoke, I beg of you!

The view of the window from the street at the end of hanging.

A year's worth of cups. I drank and drew all that!?

Just before it was time for the security gate to come down at 5:30 PM, I took a last look at the window from the sidewalk, nearly staggering with exhaustion. A man carrying messenger envelopes stopped. "I saw you working on the window all day," he said. "The way the cups hang at all those different angles is so cool. This window is great. It's like art, or something."

Cheryl McGinnisProjects Presents:

HYPERGRAPHIA

Gwyneth Leech, the CupDrawings

February 28 - April 1

Fashion Center WindowSpace at 215 West 38th Street

Monday - Friday 9:00AM- 5:00PM

The artist will on site drawing andadding to the installation

Monday - Friday, 11:30AM - 1:00PM

For more information and enquiries about the cup drawings go to

CherylMcGinnis Gallery

Waking Up to Christian Marclay's Clock: 5:00 AM - 8:00 AM

2011-02-24T08:10:00.002-05:00

New Yorkers are always in a rush, on a schedule,trying to fit in too many things in a city where everything is too far apart.So how to explain the attraction here of Christian Marclay's the Clock, a video projection made up of time-marking moments from thousands of films and TV shows... with arunning time of 24 hours!?

Cups of the Day #71

Wall of coffee cup drawings

by Gwyneth Leech
10:00 AM in the studio

It played at Paul Cooper Gallery for five weeks. Two days before it closed an article appeared in the New York Times and suddenly the lines were hours longto get in. I decided I couldn't bear to spend more time in the line than I did watching the film, so,since I had left it to the last 24 hour screening, I went in the middle of the night. When I woke at 4:30AM last Saturday in the grip of my usual anxieties I thought,"what the heck, I'll go to Chelsea". I dressed in the dark,sneaked out of the apartment without waking the family and hopped a cab to 21stStreet.

I joined a short line, made up of some people ending their night, others beginning their day. We talked about the movie and its meaning, swapped stories of why we had left it so late to come and generally built a bond of camaraderie in the cold night air. I enjoyed the chat and was almost sorry when 20 minutes later I was ushered inside to take the place of someone who had baled.

Wall of Cups

by Gwyneth Leech

10:25 AM in the studio

There, along with hundreds of other viewers, I found myself quickly drawn into a weird world of sleepers, waking dreamers, lovers, workers, families, all hermetically sealed inside their endless movie. The conventions of time compression are turned upside down as the banal, dramatic, suspenseful or funny time marking devices expand into a huge, seamless, kaleidoscopic almost-narrative. The whole is a clock marking real time. The video is a triumph of vision and sound editing, a hyper-tribute to the beauty of the movies, and a time collage of beloved actors aging, growing young and aging again.

In the three hour segment I watched, hundreds of screen people woke up to clocks and alarms of all descriptions (who knew there was so many ways to wake up - some funny, some amorous, some murderous?). Between 6:30 and 8:00 AM, at first intermittently, then with ever increasing frequency, breakfasts flickered across the screen - toast popping, bacon sizzling, coffee brewing, coffee pouring, coffee being drunk. Finally, I could stand it no more - I fled to find my own.

Outside, I was surprised that it was broad daylight, and was struck by the long vistas of the empty streets after so many close ups. Climbing the stairs to my apartment, I felt disoriented by the smell of bacon - my husband was making a movie breakfast, and greeted we with a kiss on the cheek. Life mirrors art mirrors life. The time was 8:15AM.

Wall of Cups

by Gwyneth Leech

11:00 AM in the studio

Snow on Snow on Snow in NYC

2011-02-22T13:21:00.001-05:00

I can't remember a winter like this. It has just been snow on snow on snow since the end of December. They say global warming is at fault: more moisture in the Arctic from melting ice, greater snowfall on Siberia with colder air above changing the patterns of the Jet Stream which in turn is dumping snow more frequently in weird places. There is only one thing to do - buy sleds.

Cup of the Day #70

by Gwyneth Leech

India Ink and white-out

on red and white upcycled coffee cup

On a trip to Philadelphia in the post-Christmas blizzard we did that, picking up a couple of the plastic disk variety from a local hardware store. We used them for a day and then, although they cost just $7 each, I brought them back to New York City on the train. At the time it seemed annoying and absurd as I maneuvered them onto the overhead rack, but try buying a sled in New York City when you want one!

Days and days of snow have fully justified the effort and we have been up to Central Park numerous times to spin down the slopes. I noticed that other people are equipping themselves too and we see fewer impromptu sledders using cardboard boxes or trash bags.

Sledding in January

Central Park, NYC

The problem with sledding is the wipe-outs and that moment when suddenly you are wet and cold. My youngest suddenly stopped having fun on Monday and we had to exit the Park quickly looking for lunch.

Cafe Frida is just one block from the park on Columbus opposite the Museum of Natural History. We sat in the window, staving off the gray and white exterior with a welter of red walls, pink cushions and orange curtains. The food was fresh and brightly-colored and the coffee a real treat.
My daughter was delighted with the warmth, the colors and the food. Settling back against the cushions, she declared, "this is where I live!" And when it was time to gather up our sleds and leave we had to carry her, protesting, out the door.

A surprise snow day

Monday February 21, 2011
Central Park, NYC

Getting Things All Lined Up

2011-02-19T09:22:00.005-05:00

I was cruising the notions stores in the Garment District in search of invisible thread, sipping a large cup of ginger and lemon tea as I walked. The question has been - will the cup drawings be stacked, lined up on shelves or suspended? I already have some clear fishing line from the hardware store and the suspended idea has been shaping up nicely. But, I thought, perhaps the line should be finer? Hence my quest.

Cityscape Cups, by Gwyneth Leech

India Ink on upcycled paper coffee cups

In just the second shop I tried on 38th Street, the Chinese sales assistant had what I wanted - a full spool, designed for sewing machine use. I handed over $6.99 and hurried back to the studio.

Standing by the window with a set of cups all lined up, I unwrapped my large spool and tried the thread. I could not break it. Good. Then I began to measure it out - very fine, very hard to see. Should be good.

I started the process of measuring, looping, tying that I have developed this week. In no time flat, I was in a terrible muddle. The thread trailed down to the floor and as I tried to pull the length through the loops it caught somewhere, invisibly, on one of my shoes. As I tried to free it, it caught on the other. I pulled harder, it sprang loose, wound itself into a big knot and I could not see the line to find the end of it. Enough - there is clearly such a thing as too invisible! Into the trash went the spool and I turned once again to my 50 pound fishing line. This, I decided, is the perfect material to suspend 300 cups. Decision made.

Just over a week until the exhibition opens. Load-in is Thursday. Yes, I am ready to go.

Cheryl McGinnisProjects Presents:

HYPERGRAPHIA

Gwyneth Leech, the CupDrawings

February 28 - April 1

Fashion Center WindowSpace at 215 West 38th Street

Monday - Friday 9:00AM- 5:00PM

The artist will on site drawing andadding to the installation

Monday - Friday, 11:30AM - 1:00PM

For information and purchase of cupdrawings go to

CherylMcGinnis Gallery

Set of Black and White Cups

by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on white paper coffee cups

An Installation of Drawings on Upcycled Paper coffee Cups
With Leech's diverse background in painting, video, ceramics, calligraphy, wood engraving and other printmaking techniques, the cup series began as a casual outgrowth of her compelling urge to draw wherever she is. One day, without a sketchbook handy, Leech used what was available in the moment. The curved form, challenge of working with existing shapes, colors, and text, and the infinite possibilities of expressive variation became as addictive as the caffeinated beverage the cup once contained. In addition to raising issues of consumerism, post-consumer waste and environmental concerns the cups are essentially about what drawing is: a conversation between mark making and surface. Building, layering and obliterating through memory, observation and working from within, this meditative process begins with an initial response to each cup and takes on a life of its own.

Leech's range of subject has no boundaries. Her interest in fractal patterning and the fragmenting and meandering of memory and life itself offers an expansive, flowing, bottomless well of imagery, from figurative cityscapes, flora, fauna, mythological winged creatures, and dance performance to abstracted aerial marsh views, biomorphic forms and purely non-objective design. The list is endless because the work is infinite and ongoing. Unlike working on a flat plane, drawing in the round also affords a connectivity of shapes and continuous movement.

Before any drawing begins, Leech records the date, location and related circumstances on the bottom of each cup after it has been rinsed. Combining traditional and non-traditional materials including Faber Castell brush pens, gel pens, white-out pens, Sumi ink, oil or acrylic paint with encaustic and/or polymer varnish with ultra-violet protection, Leech transforms the ubiquitous paper coffee cup into a chance to hold her imagination and her New York City in the palm of your hand.

Inspired by the nearly extinct art of letter writing, an integral extension of this project is Leech's blog, Gwyneth's Full Brew, featuring cup drawings along with "vivid New York slice of life stories about the vagaries and incidental pleasures of being an artist in this crowded, expensive, crazy and inspiring city."

Artist's Bio

Gwyneth Leech earned her BA at the University of Pennsylvania and a BFA and Post Graduate DA at Edinburgh College of Art, UK. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Glasgow District Council's European Capital of Culture Project Grant, Scottish Arts Council Time Based Media Award, University of Colorado's President's Fund Grant and Elizabeth Greenshields Memorial Award, Leech's work resides in important private and public collections such as the American Museum, Bath, UK; British Broadcasting Corporation; Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council, UK; Edinburgh City Art Galleries; Royal Bank of Scotland; Strathclyde University, UK and the Theater Royal, Glasgow. Museum shows and gallery exhibitions include the Southwest Minnesota State University Art Museum, Marshall, MN; La MaMa La Galleria, NYC; Ayr Art Gallery and Museum, UK; Kilmarnock Art Gallery and Museum, UK; Dundee Museum of Natural History, UK; and the Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, CO

About Cheryl McGinnis Projects

Throughout the life of Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, our primary interest has been to engage collectors and patrons with a deeper look at the artist's process by hosting interactive gallery talks, artist studio tours, and Art-E, an educational program for children and adults. As one of the first contemporary art dealers to offer this dialogue, our mission is to expand this conversation. We will open our 2011 season by launching Cheryl McGinnis Projects, a new series of process-oriented installations with related experiential events and workshops that take the artist and viewer outside of the traditional gallery space and into the space and mind of the artist.

To introduce our first pop-up space, we are delighted to partner with Manhattan's Fashion Center Business Improvement District and Fashion Center Space for Public Arts Program with Hypergraphia: Gwyneth Leech, The Cup Drawings, an installation of 300 plus drawings on upcycled take-out paper coffee cups in the Fashion Center window space at 215 W. 38th Street. With our history of representing work about domestic environment, it seems fitting to begin here. Since people are no longer tethered to homes and offices due to the rapid advancements in wireless and computer technology and the nonstop pace of 21st century life, this exhibit explores how, instead of giving up that domestic sensibility, women create a new one wherever they find themselves. Art integrates with life on the go as passers-by, many with their own take-out beverage in hand, will experience the installation of cups growing and changing each day.

Continuing our commitment to arts education, we will host seminars for adults at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and provide drawing workshops for children with Gwyneth Leech at our gallery space on Saturdays. We feel strongly that the more we expose children to art, not just the making of art in school, but to visual thinking in museums and galleries, and working with professional artists during existing exhibits, the better chance we have of creating future generations of cultured, critical thinking adults, which is desperately needed in a time when young people are spending hours surfing the net , texting and watching reality television. Workshop and seminar schedules will be available at Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, Art-E and on the Cheryl McGinnis and Art E Facebook pages.

For information and purchase of cup drawings

go to Cheryl McGinnis Gallery

White on White: Art and Hypergraphia

2011-02-15T10:17:00.001-05:00

I was having lunch with the art dealer, Cheryl McGinnis and another artist, Tina Seligman to finalize details for my upcoming exhibition of cup drawings. We were at Cheryl's apartment on the Upper West Side and sun streamed in through the white curtains of the dining room, illuminating a large wall mounted artwork by Lin Yan constructed from white paper layers.

Cup of the Day #69

Graphito Cup by Gwyneth Leech

White-out on white and red

paper coffee cup

Cheryl spread a pale patterned tablecloth and then brought through a white soup tureen from the kitchen. Setting it down in the middle of the table, she removed the lid with a flourish. Chicken noodle soup from Murray's "Sturgeon King" deli around that corner. Perfect! I love that she serves deli soup in a beautiful tureen. Tuna fish, white fish, rye bread and bright green dill pickles completed the meal.

So what is this show called? "Art is Everywhere" and "Infinite Variations" have been my working titles. Cheryl asked me to talk about what these cup drawings mean for me, and I rambled on about the action of drawing, the habit of using cups as a surface, the feeling of dipping into a bottomless well of imagery, the compulsion to draw in meetings and other situations where I become anxious and need to focus. As we talked, I reached for the paper takeout coffee cup Tina had brought me earlier. It was empty and before I knew it I was well on my way with a series of loops and geometric patterns.

I have always had this lurking fear of being one of those people who can't stop drawing. I can imagine covering every surface of my apartment with paintings - not just the walls but the doors, the chairs, the windows. My mother painted a lot of furniture and it seems like a natural thing to do, but I am afraid I wouldn't be able to stop. These cup drawings have given me a way to fully let go to that impulse. Each cup is a fresh start, a new journey of invention, but it is finite and can be easily stored - a safe outlet for that compulsion to draw.

What is the word for that irresistible compulsion to draw or write? We puzzled until we found it:
Hypergraphia! That instantly became the name of the show.

Hypergraphia: Gwyneth Leech, the Cup drawings

I may say I have a fear of Hyperghraphia, but there is one thing that fills me - and most artists - with a deeper dread: its opposite, Hypographia or writer's and artist's block. Truly, the inability to express oneself is the black void. A blank white page or canvas is a terror in itself.
Thus the scribbling or movement of the hand rescues me again and again. Make a mark, any mark and the rest will come.

My patterns were shaping up nicely and the details of the exhibition all came into focus. Cheryl offered Earl Grey or Chinese Flower tea. I opted for the latter and she served it up in white Hermes cups. To finish came coffee cake, topped with a light dusting of white powdered sugar.

Lin Yan

Monument 3

Photo: Cheryl McGinnis Gallery