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2002-05 2006-7 2008

                                                                                                          News from the high paint production daze of New York!   Organizing creative teams,   

painting  in new mediums, setting up music nights, making films, biking into the 

abyss, designing for skateboards, posters and t-shirts, putting together artist books, 

writing both critical essays and fiction, reviving architectural designs newly informed 

by painting processes, hanging with all the artists that are here because they are at 

the top of their disciplines -- balancing on this Coney Island coaster learning curve, 

although, I did find myself flat out doored by a car with broken ribs on Houston one 

beautiful night a couple of Junes ago (everyone here's been hit by a car, join the club)  

Having Sofia and Charles visit here was really the most fun.  A 60x40in painting  

"ImagineDaysLikeThese" is about the revelatory songs Imagine and Nobody Told 

Me, because Lennon and Ono understood: Strange days indeed mama!  

 

Humanus --  the NYU Journal of Human Rights just published a feature interview with 

me by Arianna Koudounas, "The Process and Perspective of an Artist," which talks 

about my work in the context of public outreach.  

 

There was also an article in the WHS Press, by Staci R. George, "Honoring Those Who

Serve."  Still on exhibit, since February 2010, is the solo project made in New York now 

showing in Washington at the Pentagon:  IndividualInUniform began as 15 portraits for 

KDLatA.I.R.FellowshipPresentation(c)2007RodneyZagury                                                 the  U.S.Navy at Fleet Week 2009 for the National Arts Club and became 75 paintings 

including all the U.S. Armed Forces branches -- servicemen and women of the Navy,  Army, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard -- now a different selection of 15 

of these portraits are enlarged to life size in the visitor reception area of the Pentagon in DC, welcoming the group about whom the project was made, as well as 

those that are on tours of the community working there, in a building that is almost like a city in itself.  The exhibit is the perfect realization of the body of work I do 

portraying people who share a uniform but can be seen in their portraits as individuals strong in their diversity.   Here is some press about the origins of the project:    

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/michele_mandel/2009/05/31/9628296-sun.html

 

Back on the block in Brooklyn (!), but 2009 was busy, making work in New York, London and on Toronto Island.  Now in 2010, I was chosen by curator Phong Bui along

with artists Andrew Baron, Michael Greathouse, Jane Fox Hipple, Diana Heise, Kahori Kamiya, Linda LaBella, Emily Lindskoog, Judith Rushin, Louise Wallace, Nicole 

White and Tara Zabor to show in the Soho20 Gallery 15th Annual Juried Exhibit.  Phong Bui is currently a curatorial advisor at P.S.1 of the MOMA, has won many awards,

and is the editor and publisher of The Brooklyn Rail.  The show runs July 20-Aug 14, 2010.  The Opening Reception is Thursday July 22, 6-8pm, 547 West 27th St., Suite 301

In April the Mayor's Office for the third time chose my project for public participation during Immigrant Heritage Week.  LibertyNeighborhoodStory is a series of watercolor 

paintings of the Statue of Liberty as seen from New York neighborhoods.  The Statue is one of the most recognizable icons of the world, often the first glimpse of the United 

States for millions of immigrants.  While I painted, the public were invited to record their stories.  This is a continuation of my work influenced by American themes, in my large 

word paintings inspired by music and graffiti in Brooklyn, as well as my portraits and landscapes made throughout New York.  Every day I was painting in a new location, feeling 

like the first time I saw her: April 15 -- Highline, 17th Street and 10th Avenue, Chelsea; April 16 -- Ferry Dock, Staten Island; April 17 -- Van Brunt Street, Redhook, 

Brooklyn; April 18 -- Battery Park, Lower Manhattan; April 19 -- Park Grounds, Liberty Island; April 20 -- Park Grounds, Ellis Island; April 21 -- Shore, Ellis Island.  

Sponsored by A.I.R. Gallery DUMBO, www.airgallery.org, with more information at the Mayor's Office website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/imm/html/imm_heritage/imm_heritage.shtml

including a pdf of all the event locations: http://www.nyc.gov/html/imm/downloads/pdf/calendar_of_events_v4_2010_web.pdf  

My paintings were featured in articles in the New York Times, by Alison Bowen and photography by Ruth Fremson:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/miss-liberty-from-every-angle/#more-159751

The Staten Island Advance, by Arianna Imperato and photography by Jann Somma-Hammel:

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/artist_enjoys_painting_skyline.html

And the Brooklyn Eagle, by Caitlin MacNamara:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=12&id=34810

September 2009: In LightBridgeStory at the Dumbo Arts Center's 13th Under the Bridge Festival, I painted 18 views of the Brooklyn Bridge in the changing light,  sun up 

to sun down, while people shared their stories with me: so many things happen to people on that iconic, mythical, meaningful bridge, you get kissed, you get punched, you 

fall off the bike and get up again, and for those three days I was in a rhythm of painting and listening.  Again, a perfect realization of my painting goals of working in the public

context, painting as people tell me their very different stories about who they are and what we are seeing together means to them personally.  

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KDLmorning_LightBridgeStory(c)2009MariusBohnen/KDLafternoon&JoeSirola_LightBridgeStory(c)2009DavisakRangsirat/KDLnight_LightBridgeStory(c)2009MariluRamirez

 

August 2009:  Flowers flowers always painting, showing, flowers.  Respect4Flowers was new paintings at the beautiful historic Sunnyside Pavilion on the Toronto shore.

 

May 2009:  IndividualInUniform -- after six months painting with the five branches of the US Armed Forces, with 75 portraits complete -- the Navy had the first showing at 

the National Arts Club.  I am hoping to place the full set on exhibit together, in both Washington and New York where they were made,  where all the families can see them.  

It was a great honor to paint these fine people.

 

April 2009:  NewYorkLoveNotes -- I do love it here, and all the paintings have taken their lead from the places I've lived, people I've made friends with, the words they said to me, 

and the music they shared.  These are inspired by 20 songs we all know about loving this city.  For Immigrant Heritage Week last year, showing at A.I.R. which moved the Gallery 

to DUMBO Brooklyn!  As an Alumnae member of A.I.R., after being awarded their Fellowship, I have been assisted in everything I've done in New York by this incredible group of 

feminist artists who set the finest example.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

2009 Began with two months in the Financial District after the crash (not the bike the bank), and I painted 60x40's to surround myself with the words and feelings on the news and in the streets.

and I'll find the right place for these works to show  -- you have to protect the work and be its cheerleader -- I went to London with Sofia to paint the lovely intelligent children in Hampstead of 

Christ Church.  Amen!  

 

The videos of OneGRRLGal, SPLASH!, and AIRplay are both edited and showing  -- 

 

New York:  2007 - 08: What a year -- Brooklyn, and a bit of London and Toronto, for a brief time living right up in the sparkling night of a corner of The Glass Farm House, strange but couldn't pass it up: 

outside my 8th storey window in Hell's Kitchen facing north from west 37th I could see the scrapers and hear the music of this city constantly lit-up electric, thick with a twisting sound jungle -- paint the

BOOGIE WOOGIE  RIGHT NOW.  I'll have this work in group exhibits, but the main focus for me in the first few months of 2008 was getting ready three solo shows of shows of different focus.  Usually 

paintings are seen first at the reception, but due to the social nature of my work I am posting them online, so that each subject can see the community of the whole the whole exhibit ongoing: at A.I.R. 

Gallery Chelsea Sacred Spaces: FaithPainting in BrooklynJustAmericanWords,  and  Places of Welcome: EveryOneWhoHelpedMeGetMy01Visa .    

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

New York: in 2008, this watercolor painting Liberty&ManhattanSkyline1, from the series of six paintings made at 

different times of day from the Staten Island dock, was chosen by Mayor Bloomberg to represent Immigrant 

Heritage Week at Gracie Mansion -- the first view many immigrants see of New York.  There was a lot of great 

press.I very often give my subjects jpg presents: I am inviting New Yorkers to have this free download screensaver. 

(Right click on the image, and choose 'Set as Background')  

 

New York:  April 17 2008 at A.I.R. Gallery Chelsea my show SacredSpaces: FaithPainting in Brooklyn was a project of portraits of Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic communities.  

At the exhibit reception everyone met and the work was on exhibit for three weeks after May 1.  I like to paint stereotyped or misunderstood groups that others believe are 

unwelcoming.  Each of these groups in fact generously welcomed me -- just as I am, bare armed in a bicycle helmet, my artist self, because shows like this are not about 

difference but instead declare our shared humanity. 
                                            

Office Worker at Synagogue, watercolor, 10.25x7in, Brookyn, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                         Now That I've Found 1000 Beautiful Things I Still Believe That You Exist, watercolor, 40x60in, Brooklyn (c)2008 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig  

 

New York, London, and Toronto: April 17, 2008, the Reception also included Places of Welcome: EveryOneWhoHelpedMeGetMy01Visa.  The New York Minister of 

Culture and Immigration, Guillermo Linares, stopped by and gave a wonderful speech.  Biagi Fortunato and his brothers, from the best bakery in Brooklyn just down 

the street from me, baked and iced and delivered as a gift to the show three magnificent five foot by three and a half foot cakes in the shape of my paintings decorated 

like three flags: the Betsy Ross in honor of A.I.R. the oldest gallery supporting women in the U.S.,  the flag of the U.S.A., and the flag of New York City.  I am one of 

the many who entering New York as a stranger felt immediately At Home.  The New York Times, The New York Daily News, amNewYork all covered the story.

                                                                        

Mike Pope, watercolor, 10.25x7in, London, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig              Randy Szuch, watercolor, 10.25x7in, London, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig           Wendy Szuch, watercolor, 10.25x7in, London, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

New York:  In May 2008 JustAmericanWords: five foot word paintings 2007-2008, and portraits in communities that inspired the text watercolors, and doc videos, 

were on show May 1 for a Reception at A.I.R. Chelsea, and then had a continuous showing for three weeks. There was very insightful press in a long article in 

Saatchi Editorial.  Sofia did all the tech support, Sam hung the show, Eric did the video doc, and I painted a new five foot text inspired by Quincy Jones and his 

friends rapping together in Back On The Block!  Anthony Haden-Guest of the Chelsea Arts Club, Jerry Saltz of New York Magazine, Ken Johnson of the New York

Times, Phong Bui of The Brooklyn Rail, Carolee Shneeman, the Flomenhafts, Jack the Pelican Gallery, Everton Sylvester, Ornette Coleman, and many musicians,

friends from Toronto as well as New York came in for a surprise, and it was a great beautiful scene there together with Sofia and Neeley every day. Kat Griefen 

Gallery Director, Emily Harris Fellowship Coordinator, Susan Bee my mentor, and all the gallery artists were especially wonderful all the time every day.

                                                                                    

  Kevin, watercolor,10.25x7in, Soho (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                                                            I Won't Back Down, watercolor, 60x40in, Brooklyn (c)2008 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig  

 

New York: May 8, 2008, Tevin Thomas and I produced AIRplay08, a Biennial of innovative music by women performing with painting live.  My friend Luis catered a wonderful 

reception and Eric Weinthal filmed.  We featured Mari Okubo, Lily Maase, and Tessa Souter -- and here's a clip on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afa_x4R-Tj4

               

Till There Was You Across The Universe, watercolor, 60x40in, Chelsea (c)2008 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                           

 

NEW YORK - The Feminist Art Project of My Own:  I am continuously making paintings here to think it through for myself, to reflect back to me what I mean being a GRRL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afa_x4R-Tj4

   

Cityscape Views: The Feminist Art Project, watercolor on acidfree paper, 22x30in, NYC, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                           BrklnAnglz,                                             and, Kally & Kavita in Williamsburg, both watercolor on acidfree paper, 10.25x7in, Brooklyn (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

NEW YORK - CENSORSHIP:
Reception: November 8 - December 6, 2007, 8pm, freeDimensional at Brecht Forum, 451 West Street, between Bank and Bethune, NYC 10014 -- Press Photos
Painting “Brooklyn Funk Universe” (40x60inch, Watercolor, 2007) in Group Show with dancers, speakers, and my Painting Performance with a Marching Band!


 
Brooklyn Funk Universe, watercolor on acidfree board, 40x60in, (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig  

 

LONDON:  JAZZ FESTIVAL -- PERFORMANCE PAINTING: Friday, November 16,  2007, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre  Performance Paintings of 

Canadian dance artist Heather Cornell (Manhattan Tap), and jazz pianist and composer Andy Milne, with Bandwidth.  Pushing the boundaries of art 

forms, blurring lines between live painting, live music performance, composition and dance.  Click here for more live paintings!

                        

Heather Cornell (tap) & Andy Milne (piano), Rufus Cappadocia (cello), Malika Zarra (vocalist),  at London Jazz Festival 2007, Southbank Centre,  15/11/07, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

NEW YORK - TOGETHER AGAIN:  Reception: Friday, October 26, 2007, TRIBES Gallery, Alphabet City

Katherine Dolgy Ludwig TogetherAgain! Performance/Painting with SEARCH

 SEARCH at TRIBES,  RJ Avallone (Trumpet), Matt Maley (Saxophone & Clarinet), Bryson Kern (Drums), & David Moss (Bass), watercolors, 10/8/07, art.les.nyc studios (Lower East side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

NEW YORK - GOLD, HORSES, SKY, FIRE: A HARLEM ART EVENING: Reception: Saturday, October 13, 2007, at 264 West 136th Street                                             

Katherine Dolgy Ludwig PaintingMyWay with The NY Soundpainting Orchestra, and Troostite, in Group Show

Painting My Way Out of Chutes Too Narrow, watercolor on acidfree board, 40x60in, Brooklyn, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

NEW YORK - RARE & RADIANT:

Reception: Tuesday, October 2-14, 2007, at The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park, 10003

Painting, “Fireworks Flowers” (22x30inch, Watercolor, 2006) in Group Show

Fireworks Flowers, watercolor on acidfree paper, 22x30in, Toronto Island, (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

TORONTO - SPLASH!:

Reception: Sunday, September 23, 2007, at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, Toronto Island

Painting Performance and Co-Curating LTT Biennial

Sometimes I'm in Toronto, and in September 2007 was the Biennial I co-curate at Toronto Island, bringing together Artscape

mult-disciplinary arts tenants of Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, showcasing their work and their projects made with other artists, which

are island inspired. SPLASH! was my own painting/performance piece in collaboration with Rough Idea Jazz Presenter and Huge Radio Host

of CKLN's AM/FM Ron Gaskin.   Timed to coincide with Rogue Wave, the long running installation event on these islands, Ron invited Island

and mainland musicians to play together while I painted them, in what Ron calls an "offshore" mindset.  Sofia A-1 assistant got 70 video releases

from guests, and on the Gas Station Recording Studio's Dale Morningstar''s equipment, this was the h-awesome music lineup:

the three R's are ROUGHIDEA... Robin Easton: sound and mixes; Rebecca Campbell: dj take-a-memo supreme team; Ron Gaskin: mc + taxi/DJ robin easton  played: white fish bay singers; jacob jones; david bowie; kode9/spaceape; eye contact; nori tanaka and jason adjemian; stars like fleas; hubbub; tall firs; marcel aucoin trio; peter brotzman tentet; dave burrell; fiery furnaces/LIVE: Grahame Beakhust piano; Jerry Englar blue pocket trumpet; Brad Harley clarinet /DJ robin easton played: freedom jones; thurston moore; roots manuva; slow loris/LIVE: David Sait guzheng/DJ robin easton played: metric pre-show selections; sea of song trio/LIVE: Wende Bartley laptop as composer/DJ wende bartley/LIVE: Anne Bourne cello; Jacquey Malcolm cello; Christine Duncan voice; DB Boyko voice/LIVE: Chantale piano/DJ robin easton played: kode9/spaceape; lime quantum/LIVE: Alastair Dickson guitar; Anne Bourne cello; Aaron Lumley double bass /LIVE: Aaron Lumley double bass; DJ robin easton played; sonic youth; besnard lakes; and more la route du rock selections/filmmaker Eric Weinthal shot the performance/painting doc video footage and photographer Gordon Hertzman did the performance/painting doc stills for my April A.I.R. Chelsea show, and special gratitude as always to Artscape and Ray Stedman for catering plus multi-favors, and St. Andrew by the Lake for the Ward's Island transportation assistance -- SPLASH!ANDAHALF!  The invite:

   

ImagineDaysLikeThese, Invitation, watercolor on acidfree board, 40x60in, Bushwick Brooklyn, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                                                      Collaborators in SPLASH! Katherine painting Ron Gaskin on-air CKLN 88.1 jazz AM/FM radio

 

NEW YORK - OneGRRLGal:

Reception: Friday, August 10, 2007, art.les.nyc studios, 202 Rivington Street


                                            
   (photo (c)2007 Sofia Celeste Ludwig)  

 

This was a Painting Performance event August 2007, based on music, making music, and what being an artist means to me-- what else is that

Wainright song about?!  -- in the midst of a good crowd filmed by Rodney Zagury at Aaron Thompson's art.les.nyc studios,  on the Lower East 

Side, the footage  was to be shown in Tokyo in March 2008 but did show at my April 2008 solo show at A.I.R. Gallery on West 25th at 10th, NYC.   

Singing with Lily Maase on electric guitar around the HOWL tree, after painting three  10x12 foot canvases in acrylic, and a series of  10x7in 

watercolors of the guest band SEARCH with RJ Avallone, Matt Maley, David Moss, and  Bryson Kern, whose first album "Today is Tomorrow" 

has been released in 2008. The painting featured on this card is I Do What I Want in America (c) 2007 (60x40in)  -- inspired by the Isely Brothers 

funk 70's Feminist classic, "It's Your Thing"!  My thing is social painting: "People Will Know When They See This Show The Kind of A Girl I Am"  

-- Special thanks to Da Vinci's Marcello Dworzak:      

 

    SEARCH at OneGRRLGal,  RJ Avallone, Matt Maley, Bryson Kern, David Moss, and guest guitarist Lily Maase, watercolors, 10/8/07, art.les.nyc studios (Lower East side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

                             

These past three years I've had wonderful days with Mr. Ornette Coleman, who in 2008 received the Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and the Pulitzer Prize -- it's about time! -- and 

with his cousin, and his son, Denardo Coleman (drums), and friends, Soon Kim (sax), Tevin Thomas (keyboards), Chris Walker (bass), and Bruce Eisenbeil (guitar) , we were paint 

jamming from the first night we met while they all played in a circle around me, toes to the little boards on the floor -- true surround sound!  I first heard Mr. Coleman's music when I 

was about 12, playing albums from the library, and I never heard any sound after that in the same way.  To understand music as a relationship between all sound, and translate this 

also into a way of conceiving visual art is a shift for the visual paradigm encompassing all the disciplines -- lateral thought weaving -- I think the 11 hours I first spent listening and 

talking with this complete artist-musician was one of the best art theory discussions I've ever had.  What a conceptual ride -- and what music!  The terrific bass guitarist, Chris 

Walker, looked over at the fast likeness and said, "Kathy, how do you do that?"  I couldn't believe it, I said, "Chris, how do you do that?!!!"  Here are the paintings from that first 

day, and more paintings made together with Ornette, and his friends, Charlie Haden (double bass) and Ruth Cameron, Charnette Moffett (double bass), and RJ Avallone (trumpet), 

other evenings in March, July, November, and December 07, and with Mari Okubo and Tevin Thomas in 2008 while Ornette wrote her some music Just Like That:

 

(photo by Soon Kim) , Katherine and Ornette, 21/9/06, 12am,  (Lower West Side)

Katherine, Soon Kim, Chris, Tevin, Denardo, Bruce, and Ornette, watercolor, 21/9/06, 9pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

Soon Kim (1 of 2), watercolor, 21/9/06, 1pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Soon Kim (2 of 2), watercolor, 21/9/06, 1:30pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Ornette (1 of 2), watercolor, 21/9/06, 3pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Ornette (2of 2), watercolor, 21/9/06, 5pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Soon Kim, Tevin, Bruce, and Ornette, watercolor, 21/9/06, 7pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Chris, watercolor, 21/9/06, 9:30pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Denardo with a bit of Bruce, watercolor, 21/9/06, 10pm, (Lower West Side) (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Charlie Haden, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Charnett, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

RJAvallone, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Ornette, RJ, Charnette, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Ornette 1, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Ornette 2, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Ornette's Black Leather Hat, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

Ornette's Sax, watercolor, (West Side) (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

 

NEW YORK - freedom2BRselves:
Reception: June 7, 2007, The National Arts Club, Gramercy Park 
 

While waiting to sort out my entry status into America because of the Fellowship, I made 25 portraits of a grade 5/6 class, including the teacher and degu, at Forest Hill Public School,

again interested in making paintings of strangers in perceived groups that are distinct individuals, in this case Pre-Teens.  It was a good idea to choose children to paint all day long in the two

cities as I squeaked through the border after many turnaways, and it kept me positive in such uncertain days.  These were exhibited altogether in June 2007 at the New York National Arts Club,

along with the portraits of the grade 5/6 gifted class I made in NYC at PS145M.  In November 2007, a class of preteens will be added in London.  The show is ongoing, to be exhibited in different cities

where a class of 11 and 12 year olds will be added each time.  The children and I talk individually together about how I make the work while they watch the process, and the families are each given

a print of the painting.  The children  are invited to write each other and send their own artwork, and later at the shows they can meet.  Here's some of the local press., and the invite: 

 

  

                         Invitation to freedom2BRselves, , including the 41 portraits, National Arts Club, June 2007, Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                                                                            

 

While waiting what seemed like forever to find out my 01Visa status, I was prevented from bringing any of my work over from Canada to show the A.I.R. gallery, so I got busy making new work

--- I felt like nothing was going to stop me.. So many things were happening to me, it was freezing in Brooklyn, I was between places, and then in the new place there was no internet -- so I

plugged into my walkman on a loop, playing over and over the music that made me feel the shudder of it all.  Since I hadn't been allowed to come over with my truckload of usual working

materials, to achieve the large scale I wanted to render the size of my experience, I made triptychs, coming up with paintings that made me so happy and made me cry.  Although the color

sensibilities are the same, something new was happening to me in my way of perceiving spatial relationships over the 2-D plane.  These three in sets of 3's, the first from Jeff Buckley's cover

of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, the second from Rufus Wainwright's Tower of Learning, and the third from Beck's Mixin' Business, are the images of the magical music I heard first in Brooklyn:

 

    

Installation HOMElandHALLELUJAH, watercolors, 3 30x22in so 30x66in, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                                                                                                             Detail (3of3), 30x22in, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

    

Installation I'm Looking for the Tower of Learning in Williamsburg, watercolors, 3 30x22in so 30x66in, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                                                                 Detail (3of3), 30x22in, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

    

Installation MxnBznzonthBrklnBridgz, watercolors, 3 30x22in so 30x66in, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                                                                                                              Detail (1of3), 30x22in, (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

Painting Performance and Populist Painting:

In September and October of 2006 I was working in New York on two shows for my specific proposal on Michele Gambetta's RIDER Project (click here to see some of the 111 paintings!),  bringing art in a traveling truck

throughout the communities of NYC to foster positive social change.  As much a guerilla process as a collaboration of working artists, the RIDER Project has been an effective cultural and educational forum since 2003 with 7

exhibitions in 3 New York City boroughs, 26 neighborhoods, engaging 150 artists from 6 states and 4 countries, and tens of thousands of visitors.  I admire Michele's ingenuity and social commitment to contemporary art on

wheels.  I was doing on-street Painting Performance with the public, giving out digital gifts.  I was making many friends, the artists on the show working together, the strangers I met who gave me their stories, their words, their music:

 

(photo by Rodney Zagury) Katherine painting with Mud Flap Girl Kate Barry, 14/9/06, Chelsea

                                                                                                                                                                 

I also spent time during the RIDER in 2006 at Dizzy's jazz club in Lincoln Centre making paintings for a present of digitals for Freddie Cole's birthday -- thank you Todd Barkan for making it possible!  I stayed to paint every

 musician on the stage those nights.  In public places, it is important to me as a painter to fit in, like musicians jamming, so to work as small, cleanly, and inconspicuously as possible  -- here the darkness and glitter

of the club makes the work beautiful for me to feel part of and get onto the paper. 

 

     

Freddie, watercolor, 7/10/06, 12:30am, Dizzy's (Columbus Circle) - (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig        Abraham, watercolor, 6/10/06, 1am, Dizzy's (Columbus Circle) - (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig     

 

I posted all the 111 little paintings I made in NYC on the RIDER Project and looked for connections.  It was a wall of sound!  While it's true that I worked with many musicians this time, it was more than that. 

The color of the music I heard every day on my travels in the streets led to the big loud paintings shown here, and the words of funk (jazz with stank on it!) took over my work at the island studio something fierce --

 Installation of 111 Paintings in 31 Days NYC RIDER, watercolors,  Toronto Island Studio, Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts - (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig     

 

I went back to NYC to live in Brooklyn, and applied for Fellowships.  I was called in to do both SOHO20 and A.I.R., both in the same Chelsea Gallery building by chance, and now I am one of the six A.I.R. Gallery

in Manhattan's 2007-08 18-month Fellowship Recipients, at the first artist-run, not-for-profit contemporary art gallery for women artists in the country, along with artists Lauren Simkin Berke, Barbara Hatfield,

Kharis Kennedy, Anita Ragusa and Hanna Sandin.  Thank you to the Jurors  and everyone who is helping to make this happen  -- I'll be flying back and forth now between three cities, without much dough, but it's going

to be incredible to work with this community of artists, and the panelists who will visit our studios in preparation for our Solo shows.  Fellowship Recipients will also participate in Group shows, and plan and implement

a public program or special project for the gallery -- my event is called AIRPlay, a big Open Call for innovative female musicians performing live in the gallery and on the street (with Jamal Joseph, head of film at Columbia

doing the camera work, Tevin Thomas as our soundman, and Rodney Zagury doing photography and archiving of the material for the gallery).  Here are some of the paintings shown for the A.I.R. Fellowship, based on

music I heard while painting in Brooklyn, including Brooklyn Funk Universe from I Got Cash by Everton Sylvester of the The Brooklyn Funk Essentials,  I Do What I Want in America from It's Your Thing by the Isley

Brothers, NYC is a Brick House! from Brick House by The Commodores (all displayed earlier on this Home Page of the website), and shown here Marry Popins Does Manhattan from a poem Marry Popins by my daughter,

We'll Go To Coney and Eat Baloney from Sea-Fever by John Masefield, Jungle Boogie Creation Story from Jungle Boogie by Kool and the Gang,, and Crazy Love for This Town from Crazy Love by Van Morrison performed

with Ray Charles:

 

Marry Popins Does Manhattan, watercolor on acidfree board, 40x60in, (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig  

                

We'll Go To Coney and Eat Baloney, watercolor on acidfree board, 60x40in, (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig   Jungle Boogie Creation Story, watercolor on acidfree board, 60x40in,(c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig                                                      

                     

      

Crazy Love for This Town, watercolor on acidfree board, 40x60in, (c)2006 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig  

 

I believe that all the work is an evolution from an earlier inclination.  I am glad to make work that is enjoyed, and when people generously buy my paintings they make it possible for me to continue. 

The flights, the rents, the materials, the kids, it all adds up no matter how little I eat, but it's been beautiful so far, and we are seeing it all to its endgame.  I also know though that the reason I've

lasted for the long haul is because I've, as Roger Greenwald the poet encouraged me, become myself more and more.  So, there is the final painted piece, it is from a strong skill set -- I've worked

hard through four degrees and so many shows and enjoyed the awards and rewards -- but this is not the well of vitality that brings my work forward.  The light source in my work is from within, that is

it is the subject who makes the colors shine so bright, and I know that.  As in medieval painting, I REALLY BELIEVE, and I size the subjects and produce the coloration not based on what I see

perspectivally, but through strong feeling, adoration, of the subject.  When I paint, I am giving to the subject, looking at them intensely, with unconditional love and acceptance, and in no other way

can this kind of work be achieved.  It's two-way, and I thank them with a digital gift and make an event called 'the show' in which we can all meet.  I believe that this is what I have to give, so this is

the Social or Populist way in which I am choosing to work.  I see this thread operating in all my subject choices over the years of painting behind me, and it as a pattern that I value for which give thanks.

The work is shown in Galleries, but the work is sourced in the Street.

 

 Contact me for show invitations by email. 

 


Howl For the Alphabet City (Moloch, Howl, Rockland), watercolor, 60x120inches  - (c)2007 Katherine Dolgy Ludwig

 

Contact Information (day or night):

Postal Address       Katherine Dolgy Ludwig, c/o Kelly Wilson Harvey, Artscape, 171 East Liberty, Suite 224, Toronto ON M6K 3P6, Canada 

Telephone                New York  347 204 2294

E mail                         katherine.dolgy@utoronto.ca

 
Web                            www.katherinedolgyludwig.com

 

Copyright © 2000-2010  Katherine Dolgy Ludwig   All Rights Reserved
Last modified: 05/23/10