Text and Photos by Katarina Hybenova

“She will be beautiful and become a super model,” said Pink Fairy floating around a baby cradle. “No! She will be way better off as a smart, computer savvy girl!” Blue Fairy pinched the Pink one. Baby Ashley sleeping in the cradle grunted, perhaps because of the fairies quarrelling, but kept on wandering in her baby dreams. “Awww…,” the fairies sat on the side of the cradle. They were looking at the sleeping baby, and in order to make a well-informed decision about the baby Ashley’s future, they proceeded to get high…. Nobody remembers how the night ended, nor what the Pink and the Blue Fairy agreed on, but when Ashley Zelinskie grew up, she was pretty as a top model, and html fluent. She decided to become an artist.

Nowadays, you can meet Ashley, most likely wearing heels, walking between the warehouses in Bushwick, to her studio and her second home The Active Space, the art space she runs. To  my question “How does the stay in industrial Bushwick influences your life?” she answers that she’s back on being a vegetarian, pointing her finger to the stinky meat-packing factory across the street, but otherwise she’s doing great. She likes being away from people, having some quiet time to think about her art projects.

When I met Ashley for the first time, she pulled out a plastic bag with 2 frozen birds from a freezer in her studio. “Aren’t they beautiful?” she smiled with sparks in her eyes. Ashley used to make glass coffins for dead birds that she laboriously collected from befriended zoos. She would hermetically seal the glass, and as the birds started to decompose, the chemical process consumed all the oxygen, result of which was a preserved beautiful corps of a colorful bird. Looking just like alive.

“But why?” I made a peep, demanding an explanation. “It’s inspired by Buddhism. They make little children meditate on dead birds, so that they realize that this life is temporary. And as the children grow, they meditate on bigger dead animals. God, how I wish I had a flamingo. ” Ashley said dreamily. “But at the zoo, they thought I was a creep….” she pressed her lips bitterly just like someone who had to found out on her own that it takes time for the world to catch up.

Lately, Ashley has been converged back to the great Virtual Reality, and has been using Internet as a creative tool browsing popular forums and collecting interesting stuff.

Another of her planned artistic ventures is called Reversed Abstraction Sculpture. Ashley plans to construct an object out of hexadecimal in 3D using a build-at-home makerbot kit to construct a 3d printer and print her sculpture.

Ashley and I are took a walk through industrial Bushwick, admiring heavy machinery, while workers didn’t even try to hide their excitement about a tall blond girl. Aerial cranes, trucks, mechanical carts, boxes full of Chinese plastic toys, a notice not to park your car there, because HBO will be filming some rape scenes in the area….

Check out Ashley’s Kickstarter for Reversed Abstraction Sculpture, her blog and her website.

Warm feelings of fondness, love, joy and good times in Bushwick! That’s what I’m feeling looking at photos from the closing party of Tuesday People exhibition at Curbs and Stoops (July 8, 2011). Look at these vintage photos taken with a prototype LOMO camera from the 70s on a black and white 35mm film….

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PS: No! It’s not the same as the filter on your phone!

Tuesday People X Curbs and Stoops is an art exhibition compiled for Bushwick Open Studios ’11. All of the 14 participating artists were previously featured in the Tuesday People series here on Bushwick Daily. Each of the artists was assigned a creative partner and a task to create work inspired by the encounter with the other person in their own media.  The assignment lead to a surprising, interactive and community-driven art show. You should definitely come to the Closing Party on July 8, 7-11pm at Curbs and Stoops, 566 Johnson.

One of very few creative pairs who actually knew each other before they were assigned to work together are James Marshall and Frank Rathbone. They’ve been buddies for couple of years. For the show they decided to make portraits of each other, and caused many brains to overheat. This is why:

This is Frank Rathbone painted by James Marshall.

And this is James Marshall drawn by Frank Rathbone.

Who has been to Little Skips knows James Marshall for sure. Not only he works as a barista there, he also made the most distinctive art that has been hanging there. Let’s mention a girl with four arms, portraits of Bushwick locals, or  a girl with multiple eyes. James Marshall is also the author of the super-awesome Bushwick Daily logo. This one:

Frank Rathbone is a musician, the frontman of the cult Bushwick band Photon Dynamo and The Shiny Pieces, and if you haven’t met him or haven’t seen his band yet, you seriously don’t go out in Bushwick enough. Here is one of the most popular songs by Photon Dynamo and The Shiny Pieces, Five Dimensions.

Tuesday People X Curbs and Stoops is an art exhibition compiled for Bushwick Open Studios ’11. All of the 14 participating artists were previously featured in the Tuesday People series here on Bushwick Daily. Each of the artists was assigned a creative partner and a task to create work inspired by the encounter with the other person in their own media.  The assignment lead to a surprising, interactive and community-driven art show. You should definitely come to the Closing Party on July 8, 7-11pm at Curbs and Stoops, 566 Johnson.

About a month ago, shortly before we hung the works of Tuesday People at Curb and Stoops, I accepted the invitation to visit the studio of Rafael Fuchs, cult photographer, Bushwick celebrity, and one of the 14 artists participating in this show. He told us how he met painter Alicia Papanek, his creative buddie in this project; how he attempted to scare her to death with his crazy email; and how eventually this encounter made him think about his artistic expression as a photographer. I recorded our discussion, and you can watch it right here:

At the time of our interview, Rafael hadn’t seen the work of Alicia Papanek for the show yet, and suggested that the first email he sent to her in order to see if it scares her, becomes a part of the show… What he didn’t know was that Alicia experimenting with topography at the time, already made this happen… She had the email carved with a laser into wood, making the email part of the exhibition.

"Meeting Rafi" by Alicia Papanek

*At this point I can imagine you’re dying to read the text of the email And because you are awesome readers, here goes the transcript of the Alicia typography on wood.

Hey Alicia,

Tuesday People X Curbs and Stoops is an art exhibition compiled for Bushwick Open Studios ’11. All of the 14 participating artists were previously featured in the Tuesday People series here on Bushwick Daily. Each artist was assigned a pair and given an assignment to create work inspired by the encounter with the other person in their own media.  The assignment lead to a surprising, interactive and community-driven art show, which is on view through July 3 at Curbs and Stoops, 566 Johnson 1-7pm or per appointment.

Truly intersting creative pair was formed by a Veng RWK and Katelan Foisy.

Veng RWK is a street artist, proud member of the Robots Will Kill collective, whose square faces became inseparable part of Bushwick walls, doors and galleries. I like how Katelyn Foisy, when painting Veng’s portrait, pointed out Veng’s split between the world of street and fine art. And Veng is rocking them both….

Painting by Katelan Foisy

It’s really hard to find a suitable label for Katelan Foisy , because she is a woman of multiple talents. She is a painter, illustrator, but also a writer. She gladly accepts the role of muse to many artists, and is frequetly being painted or photographed. Furthermore, Kat, as an offspring of European gipsies, posses certain psychic abilities, and is known for her tarot card readings. That’s what seemed the most fascinating to Veng, who decided to portray 3 tarot cards, one for past, one for present, and one for future. When I asked if Katelan read tarot for Veng,  he said no, because he was too scared. That’s probably why Veng made up his own version of tarot… I mean… Insect Fool? Bird Woman?

Painting by Veng RWK

Tuesday People X Curbs and Stoops is an art exhibition compiled for Bushwick Open Studios ’11. All of the 14 participating artists were previously featured in the Tuesday People series here on Bushwick Daily. Each artist was assigned a pair and given an assignment to create work inspired by the encounter with the other person in their own media.  The assignment lead to a surprising, interactive and community-driven art show, which is on view through July 3 at Curbs and Stoops, 566 Johnson 1-7pm or per appointment.

Richard Haines is a fashion illustrator, who 3 years ago, started a blog called What I Saw Today. He has been making sketches of mainly fashionably looking guys on the street, in cafés, or basically wherever, and uploading these sketches on his blog. His sketches became so popular that nowadays Richard sketches from the first row of Fashion Week for New York Times… Richard lives in Bushwick, goes frequently to Little Skips, bikes around, and is super-inspired by living in Brooklyn.

“I like how in New York everybody is an extreme version of their personality”

- Richard

Jason Zucker is a prodigy kid, basically. Together with his friends, he started a collective of musicians, producers and filmmakers Paper Swan. They have been organizing numerous concerts of acoustic music since 2008 and lately scored a great opportunity to host a series of events at Union Hall. By day Jason works at VH1 and shoots and edits short films about musicians, interviews, and red carpet events. He is friends with Yoko Ono or Shakira.

“Richard and I had a very enjoyable experience together and I can only hope for more collaborations like it…”

- Jason

So what happens when these 2 awesome and talented individuals meet up? Well, Jason makes an amazing, inspirational 15-minute long film about Richard, while Richard sketches and talks about his philosophy of drawing and living in Brooklyn.

Check out Richard sketches and watch Jason’s film called “Haines”.

HAINES from Paper Swan on Vimeo.

The collaboration of Tescia Seufferlein and Allison Somers turned out as extremely succesful. The girls came out with an emotionally alarming film "Madchen Mit Plan"

Our own Ms Marquise, Wednesday columnist, never ceases to be charming. Right at this moment, she's hanging a photo of her by Axel Dupeux.

Ryan Ford between his piece about Andrew Birk and Andrew Birk's piece about him.

Tescia Seufferlein and her gang mounting a TV onto a wall. (Awesome new works of Rafael Fuchs in the background.)

One of the sketches Richard Haines made while Jason Zucker was filming him.

So this is just a fragment of what you will see in Tuesday People, exhibition by Bushwick Daily this weekend at Curbs & Stoops. We paired up 14 of Tuesday People and have them created something about the encounter with each other. The result is sweet

Andrew Birk, Axel Dupeux, Kate­lan Foisy, Ryan Ford, Rafael Fuchs, Richard Haines, James Mar­shall, Lena Mar­quise, Ali­cia Papanek, Frank Rath­bone, Tes­cia Seuf­fer­lein, Alli­son Somers, Jackie Sum­mers, Veng RWK, and Jason Zucker

During Bushwick Open Studios ’11 June 3-5

Pre-Opening Party Friday June 3, 7pm-10pm
OPENING NIGHT SATURDAY JUNE 4th 7pm-10pm
Curbs & Stoops Active Space (www.curbsandstoops.com)
566 Johnson Ave.
Brooklyn, NY

If you’re an artists looking for a studio in Bushwick, we might have something really great for you. Art accessibility think tank Curbs & Stoops have just started to accept applications to rent out individual studios in their active space at 566 Johnson Ave, which open 2 months ago on Beat Nite.

If you’re lucky and get a studio with Curbs & Stoops, it’s not only a lease agreement you’re becoming a part of; you will become a part of a progressive cultural center and a dynamic network of young artists. The founders of Curbs & Stoops, Ashley Zelinskie and Jeffrey Peña curate shows of works of people in the building, throw events, host residencies and invite international artists for visits.  To learn more about Curbs & Stoops, the idea behind and its history, read our interview with Ashley Zelinskie here.

Curbs & Stoops is accepting applications for about a month. Learn more and apply by emailing a single PDF document (lastname.first.pdf) with 10 work samples, artist statement and a CV to studios@curbsandstoops.com

View from Curbs & Stoops roof

Ashley runs Curbs & Stoops with her partner Jeffrey Peña. She's showing me the dead frozen birds she uses in her artwork.

Art accessibility think tank Curbs & Stoops just opened its Active Space at 566 Johnson Avenue in Bushwick. The plans Ashley Zelinskie and Jeffrey Peña have sound really great. Bushwick Daily chatted with Ashley about the mission of Curbs & Stoops, its current show, its artists in residency and the wall project.

When was Curbs & Stoops started?

My partner Jeffrey started Curbs & Stoops about 3 years ago in San Francisco. I joined about a year ago. Jeffrey started mostly showing street art because that work in it’s nature was accessible.  For his first public project, he took photographs of people on the street and provided high resolution portraits immediately online.

What’s the idea behind Curbs & Stoops?

The basic idea is to make fine art accessible to everyone. Sometimes the fine art world can be really pretentious, exclusive or really expensive.  We are trying to make art accessible. If you can’t be there, we’ll help you to be there. I often go to art shows in Manhattan and other places, and I take pictures, blog about the shows or stream them with my phone.  I streamed Art Basel Miami, for example. I am trying to write in a really simple way, describing only facts, avoiding judgments, so it’s easy for everyone to understand.

You opened an art space in a Bushwick industrial building at 566 Johnson Ave recently. Tell us about your plans.

Yes, the space in Bushwick is our physical space. Right now, only the second floor is open, but we’re renovating the gallery space on the ground floor around the corner and the first floor. Part of the building will serve as studios and will also experimental exhibitions, shows and music. The third floor will be renovated next year. And then there is a roof with an amazing view of the city; we would like to make it viable to  host events up there.

Can you tell us about your current exhibitions?

We opened on Beat Nite, with five exhibitions. The first comprises of two artists who are in residency: Rachel Labine and Jonathan Chapline.  As a part of our residency, artists have several opportunities to show in venues in New York including our own. Noah Becker from White Hot Magazine will come next month to review their work. The idea is to provide them with space, exposure, community, and positive competition. The other featured show was a duo exhibition with Brian Maller and Sebastian Vallejo, who have their studios here. The “Island Hoppers” show was curated in response to the rise of artists migrating from the Carribbean Islands to New York. And the final show is called “Suspended Animation… or Animated Suspension”.

What about your upcoming projects?

In April we will be building a curated mural wall wrapping around the corner. It will be curated as a gesture towards our neighborhood. Our conversation with the city. We will invite street artists or any other artists who are interested in exploring this venue. The first participating artist is our friend Chor Boogie, who did the murals for the Beijing Olympic Games and whose piece on the Berlin wall sold for half a million euro. He’s donating prints to the first 50 people who donate $ 500 or more to our Kickstarter campaign. You can check out our Kickstarter video and donate. After that, Jorge Rodriguez Gerada will be doing a large scale charcoal drawing exploring Bushwick’s identity on our facade. That project is still in the works.