Plein Air Appropriation - Revised artist statement

I have updated my artist statement:

Howard Skrill’s drawings of figurative public statuary in NYC and sometimes their absences, the Anna Pierrepont Series, explores the inconstancy of memory.

Howard rolls Whole Foods cart jammed with art supplies, a folding chair and a Bristol pad throughout NYC to document extant public monuments.

In 2014, the drawings were augmented with text that extends the project beyond the drawings themselves. Howard’s latest work, a pictorial monograph, Damnatio Memoriae, (the Damning of Memory), is a survey of the destruction or relocation of public monuments for political purposes that left their debris in the cemeteries, public plazas and museums of NYC.

The Anna Pierrepont Series, my drawings of public statuary in NYC, is plein air appropriation. Plein air drawings come into being through visual encounters with the constant changes of light and color in things ideally encountered out of doors. I roll a blue whole foods cart behind me jammed with a folding chair, pencils, oil and chalk pastels, oil sticks and a pad of paper through NYC. When I encounter a statue I wish to draw, I pull my chair out of the cart, unfold it, lay out my materials on the ground around me and struggle to represent the object emerging from the light and shadows of its surroundings onto a sheet of paper.

The drawings are appropriation because the subjects I invariably select are public monuments created by other artists. In 2014, I began to augment the drawings with pictorial essays that enable me extend the Anna Pierrepont Series beyond the plein air limitations of sight. The essays explore how the monuments come into being, their connection with their surroundings and their fate after installation. Links to some of these essays can be found on my blog howardskrill.blogspot.com.

I have named the entire project after Anna Marie Pierrepont, a grand dame of 19th century Brooklyn interred in one of the most magnificent tombs in Greenwood Cemetery. I named the series after Anna, because I recognized in her strident efforts to maintain her memory, something of the hapless Ozymandias and his trunkless legs of stone in the vast desert of Shelley’s poem.

Catalyzed by the 2015 placement by renegade artists of a bust of Edward Snowdon in a park near my home and its subsequent removal by authorities and by the Charlie Hebdo murders, I started a book length pictorial monograph, Damnatio Memoriae (the Damning of Memory). Damnatio Memoriae is a survey of the deliberate destruction of public monuments for political reasons that has left its debris in the cemeteries, public plazas and museums of NYC.

I have also entered my work in the following slide registries, I commend these sites for their support of artists unfiltered by the demands of the market. They provide a great community service. As you look at my work in the registries, please explore the efforts of thousands of my colleagues

Localartists.org [http://local-artists.org/user/12295]

Nutureart [http://nurtureart.org/registry/index.php?option=com_nurturedetails&tab=portfolios&friend=4763&details=8112&art=44583&order=1#1]

Bric [http://registry.bricartsmedia.org/profile.php?aid=8041]

White Columns [http://registry.whitecolumns.org/view_artist.php?artist=24495]

I teach art lecture and studio practice at St, Francis College in Brooklyn Heights and Essex County College in Newark, NJ and live with my wife and one of my two adult sons.

Howard Skrill's essay HMS Jersey recited by Revolutionary War reenactor Mike Grillo on Youtube

Thanks to Richard Relkin and his crew at Media Relations at St. Francis College, Mike Grillo's recitation of my essay 'HMS Jersey' was videotaped at the reception for my show, 'HMS Jersey' in St. Francis College's Callahan center on April 6th, 2015. The video has been posted on Youtube. In addition to the my introduction of Mike's presentation, Holly Fuchs from the Society of Old Brooklynites and Professor Emeritus of St. Francis College, Alfred Kohler, discussed the fate of the Jersey and assisted in introducing Mike to the eighty people who attended the event. To view the youtube video, please click on the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TsThl0aC5I

Exhibition of Howard Skrill's 'HMS Jersey' at St. Francis College's Callahan Center, March, 2015, Brooklyn Heights, NY

Please join us at an exhibition of my drawings from the Anna Pierrepont Series, on display at St. Francis College's Callahan Center, March 2015, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY.

Mike Grillo, who performs Revolutionary War Reenactments, will recite my essay 'HMS Jersey' at 6pm on Friday, March 6th, 2015.

Plying its deadly trade in Brooklyn Navy Yard's Wallabout Bay, the Jersey was a British Revolutionary War prison ship where American POWs were interred in miserable and deadly conditions during the extent of the Revolutionary War's seven years. Its pestilence ridden hulk, burned and gutted, remained in view for decades after the war's conclusion. Please pass the word around. The Jersey's tale should be told and Mike will tell it, as my drawings will survey its memory or lack thereof, in the public monuments that followed.

To read the companion essay, please cut and paste the following link in your browser: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6b5C3siPMtWYzBIenI1OW1UTk0/view?usp=sharing

I attach the ecard.

Erasure, a new essay for the Anna Pierrepont Series, has been published in Newfound: An Inquiry of Place

A graphic essay that I authored in the Fall of 2014 has been published in the literary ejournal, Newfound: An Inquiry of Place in their Winter 2014 issue, http://newfoundjournal.org/current-issue/. The editors at Newfound were extraordinarily committed to integrating my vision for Erasure into the format of this beautiful publication. I fulling enjoyed the collaboration with Newfound's principals and believe that the product of the effort is visually exciting and evocative. Please join me in support and appreciation for this wonderful publication and their support of experimental writers and artists.

"Calatrava's Transit Hub at Ground Zero, Oil stick, oil pastel, chalk pastel, colored and graphite pencils on paper, 2014"

Two works, Doughboy from Prospect Park and Woman and Child from Brooklyn War Memorial, were published in 3 Elements Review

Two works from the Anna Pierrepont Series were published in the Fall edition of 2 Elements Review. The works, "Woman and Child from the Brooklyn War Memorial" and "Prospect Park Doughboy" were featured in a two page spread and "Prospect Park Doughboy" was used as the backplate. Three Elements' issues are organized around writers and artists creating works around three words per issue. The words for the Fall issue were Doppelgänger, Bludgeon and Dirge. The works in the Fall 2014 Fifth issue were included under the title "Brooklyn Dirge". The images can be viewed, along with the other works in the issue, by clicking this link http://www.3elementsreview.com/current-journal. Please consider supporting literary journals such as '3 Elements' to encourage their mission to feature literary works and works of art.

"Doughboy and Spectral Figure with Veil, 14" x 17", Oil stick, oil pastel, color and graphite pencils, chalk pastel on paper, 2014

Postscript for the Out of Order show

I Brought an Ikea bag to the Red Hook waterfront to pick up the three pieces that were on display from the Anna Pierrepont Series at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition.

I went to the wall that the works were displayed upon and found it empty.

BWAC volunteers searched the floor for the works, as a new show was being installed.

Ultimately, a volunteer, Judith, holding a electric screw driver, told me that the works had been 'sold'.

A woman, Paulina V., had been coming each day that the show was open right before closing for the night, and that on August 9th, she had claimed all three!

Judith haggled with Paulina for an amount for the three works and the proceeds were donated to BWAC.

Will keep you updated.

Anna Pierrepont Series works exhibited at Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition exhibition - Out of Order, weekends July 26th-August 17th, 2014

These three works from the Anna Pierrepont Series are currently on display in the Summer Group Exhibition at BWAC, please check out the BWAC site for additional information, http://bwac.org/. Will be present this Saturday, July 26th from 2-6 pm. All of these works are 14" x 17" framed works on paper:

Brooklyn War Memorial

America from the Customs House, Battery in Manhattan

Allegorical Figure from the Mahattan Bridge Entrance, Chinatown

All these drawings were created in the Summer 2014.

This is my first exhibition with the completely cooperative BWAC community. I worked there Wednesday, July 23rd and surveyed the artists that I am showing with and a companion jury show opening the same day, entitled 'Color'. Both shows have a large number of quite strong works and few places in Brooklyn are as beautiful as the Red Hook shoreline. Red Hook is a community devastated by Hurricane Sandy, including BWAC and others sharing space with it. The recovery has been painstaking, but the exhibition space is in fine shape.