Upcoming Exhibition: GRRRLS Like Us (Nov 7 - Dec 3)

I'm excited to announce that I will be part of "GRRRLS Like Us" - an art exhibition at the Village Theater in Canton, Michigan from Tuesday, November 7 - Sunday, December 3, 2017. This is a two-person show I'm sharing with Mariel Collins, a fellow colored pencil artist (and someone I went to high school with), and we both will have several large-format colored pencil drawings on display.

The opening reception is November 7 from 7 - 9 pm. There will be free wine, cheese/crackers, and homemade cookies to enjoy while you look at our kick-ass colored pencil drawings, so if you are in the metro-Detroit area, please come check it out! (Click here to see the Facebook event.)

The drawings that I will be contributing to the exhibition include:

• 30 Days - Size 22"x30"
• 28 Years - Size 22"x30"
• Race Bouquet (Stronger Together) - Size 19"x25"
• Gender Bouquet (Stronger Together) - Size 19"x25"
• Sexuality Bouquet (Stronger Together) - Size 19"x25"
• Religion Bouquet (Stronger Together) - Size 19"x25"
• Class Bouquet (Stronger Together) - Size 19"x25"
• Ability Bouquet (Stronger Together) - Size 19"x25"
• White Poinsettia - Size 8"x10" (on tan paper)
• Hydrangea Hues - Size 8"x10"
• Endurance - Size 8"x10"
• Anticipation - Size 8"x10" (on tan paper)
• Shame - Size 8"x10" (on tan paper)
• Dying Roses - Size 5"x7"
• Norfolk Rose - Size 5"x7"
• Radiant Dahlia - Size 5"x7"
• Flowering Herb - Size 5"x7"
• Pink Impatiens - Size 5"x7"
• Purple Rose Trio - Size 5"x7"
• White Rose - Size 5"x7"
• Tulip Bouquet on Purple Ground - Size 5"x7"
• Rose with a Hint of Purple - Size 5"x7" (on tan paper)
• Rose with a Hint of Aqua - Size 5"x7" (on tan paper)

(Unless otherwise noted, the drawing is on black paper.)

All of these drawings will be matted and framed and available for purchase during the length of the exhibition. Anything that doesn't sell at the Village Theater I will be listing on Etsy in December.

In the meantime, you can purchase notecard prints of many of these drawings in my Etsy shop now.

"28 Years" Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit - Size 22"x30"

Below are my bio and artist statement for these drawings that I submitted to the Village Theater.

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ARTIST BIO

Andrea Arbit graduated with a BFA in watercolor and graphic design from Eastern Michigan University in 2010. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Scarab Club in Detroit, in EMU galleries, in the pop-up Downtown Rochester Gallery Art Stroll, and at the Paint Creek Center of the Arts. Her award-winning senior honors thesis, "Flower Symbolism as Female Sexual Metaphor" - which infused historic and cultural symbolism into a series of watercolor paintings of radiant, concealed, wilting, and injured roses - was featured on ARTV's "L'Art Erotique" television program in Quebec in 2016. 

Andrea grew up in Canton and has loved drawing with colored pencils on dark backgrounds for more than a decade - ever since taking Intro to Art, Drawing/Sketching, and AP Art at Salem High School. She currently resides in Rochester Hills.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

I use symbolism in my artwork to add layers of meaning to traditionally beautiful floral scenes. These symbols come from art and literature created by different cultures throughout history, and from the explicit code the Victorian Era left us, which assigned plants to specific emotions, characteristics, or messages. On top of this foundation, I also build new metaphors, where I bring in my own interpretations, feelings, and aspirations by carefully considering a flower's color, appearance, age, or placement within a composition.

Some of these drawings tell personal stories, made more accessible through the use of flower symbolism. My drawing titled "30 Days" depicts my emotional and physical health over a thirty-day period. By contrast, "28 Years" attempts to chronicle my entire life to date, summarizing each year with a mini-drawing of two plant species.

Other drawings make political statements. My six-piece "Stronger Together" series uses an assortment of flower species to represent differences in race, gender, sexuality, religion, social class, and ability. Each drawing demonstrates the beauty found in diversity by grouping two dozen different plants into a single arrangement, and asserts that our society would be better off if we recognized, respected, and celebrated everyone - not in spite of their differences, but because of them. 

Though I put a lot of effort into infusing meaning into my works, I'm also open to other's unexpected interpretations. I'm a firm believer that art is about connection. Once art is released into the world, it does not live in a vacuum; it can change and grow with exposure, and becomes, at least in part, what other people make it. However, if you would like to read more about the symbolism I intended, and the process of creating these drawings - from conception to sketching to final product - please visit my blog at untilthewaterfalls.blogspot.com.

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I'm very excited to be a part of this exhibition alongside the talented Mariel Collins! Please come out to the Village Theater to check out our drawings - we'd love to see you there! :)

"Endurance" - 8x10 Colored Pencil Drawing

Another 8"x10" colored pencil drawing I completed recently is "Endurance." I gave it this name because it depicts a wide variety of succulent plants, all of which can endure and survive even in typically unforgiving climates.

I used Prismacolor brand pencils and Strathmore black paper for this drawing, as well, and used a picture from Google as inspiration.

First, I drew outlines with graphite pencil to mark where each succulent would go.

Then I lightly colored in the succulents to decide which colors should go where.

Once that first layer was done (and the graphite lines erased), I started going through one by one and building up layers of color. Here's the first pink succulent:

Followed closely by a purplish-blue succulent:

And a light blue succulent:

I continued to work my way through the green and blue-green succulents, filling up the space.

I'm at about the halfway point here, finishing up the succulents at the top before tackling the ones on the bottom.

These are the succulents in the bottom right corner of the drawing:

Nearly done!

Here is the finished drawing. The source photo I worked from is on the top, my drawing on black paper on the bottom. I used 21 colored pencils.

This drawing will also be for sale at my upcoming exhibition in Canton, Michigan. (More information on that exhibition coming soon!)

"Hydrangea Hues" - 8x10 Colored Pencil Drawing

After finishing my series of large colored pencil drawings, I wanted to do a few smaller, quicker drawings - things I could finish in a week, instead of a month. I also have had several people tell me in the last few years that they'd love me to do a drawing of hydrangeas - it seems to be a lot of people's favorite flower!

These two goals led me to creating this 8"x10" drawing, titled "Hydrangea Hues" for the many different colors of hydrangea flowers represented. What I had hoped to take only a week ended up taking about two weeks, given the amount of detail in such a big bunch of tiny flowers - but I love how the end result turned out.

For this drawing, I used Prismacolor brand pencils and Strathmore black paper.

First I made a general plan for where the hydrangea would go, lightly sketching circles for each clump.

Then I lightly sketched in the petals for each clump, using one color for each, just to get a general sense of where the different colors would go.

Once this first layer was complete, I added a few important white highlights.

Then I started going through color by color. I did the blue hydrangea flowers first.

Then I started in on the light green and pink sections.

I finished off with the three purple clumps, and added more white highlights throughout the drawing.

Altogether, I used 21 colored pencils.

This drawing isn't for sale on my Etsy shop yet because I'll be showing it at an exhibition in Canton, Michigan soon! It will be for sale at the exhibition, and I will list it on Etsy if it doesn't sell there.

Getting Ready for an Exhibition

All of these large colored pencils I've been working on this year have been in preparation for an upcoming exhibition - a two-person show I'm installing in a community theater building with a friend from high school, which will be on display in their hallways for a month. (More information on the show specifics coming soon!)

It's a lot of work to prepare for an exhibition. There's completing the artwork, obviously (if it's not artwork that's already done) - but that's only a very small part of it. Once the drawings are finished, they need to be protected with spray fixative and matted and framed (which can get very expensive, especially for large or custom sized pieces).

Because I want to make notecards and art prints of my work, I also wanted to get my drawings scanned first before I had them framed. This involved calling around to local printing shops to see who had a large format scanner at least 22"x30" in size so I could digitally scan my largest pieces.

I also had to decide the retail price to assign each of my drawings, since they'll be for sale at the exhibition (and afterward, if they don't sell there). I compared the size of my drawings to watercolor paintings I'd completed in the past, and tried to price them similarly, but I also had to take into consideration the amount of time each piece takes, the cost of materials, and the cost of those expensive large frames. At the very least I need to recoup my costs; ideally, I'd maybe make a bit of profit. (A goal made even harder when you consider that every gallery skims a commission off the top if your piece sells at their venue - about 30-60% on average.)

This particular location also requires me to bring my own gallery tags, to be displayed next to each piece. Each tag needs to list my name, the title of the artwork, and the price. Most of the marketing is also up to the artist - meaning that it's my responsibility to drum up people's interest in coming to see the show. If the exhibition has an opening/reception to go along with it, that involves more planning. Deciding who is bringing the snacks and how much wine to provide, and making sure I have enough business cards to pass out at the reception.

Not to mention the act of actually getting all your artwork to the venue, and seeing it properly installed - and not damaging it in the process. I'll be taking a day off work to install my artwork the Monday before the exhibition begins, and another day off work to pick up whatever of my artwork doesn't sell, and transporting it back home.

All of this cost and time and effort is worth it, of course. It's a fun experience, it'll get my artwork greater exposure, it builds up my art CV, and it gives me an opportunity to maybe sell some of my drawings. I am grateful and excited to do this show.

But man, is it a lot of work. :)

Letting Marginalized Groups Speak for Themselves

I have a lot of privilege. I recognize this about myself.

I am white - very white, actually, with blonde hair and blue eyes. In high school, other people sometimes described me as Aryan. (I assumed they meant to imply that if I had lived in Nazi Germany, I would have so perfectly fit the description Hitler wanted for his new master race that not only would I have been spared, but possibly celebrated and married off to some prominent Nazi official in need of a respectable looking wife or something. The way they said it made it seem like a compliment, but it was a very strange compliment, and made me a little uncomfortable.) My point is - I could never pass for anything but white. I am so white that even among white people my whiteness is "fascinating" (or possibly intimidating). I have no way to fathom what it actually feels like to be a person of color in this country, because so much of my life experience has been that of white privilege. I can try to empathize, but there is no way I will actually ever understand.

I am female. And while this means I lack male privilege, I do still have cisgender privilege. My body and gender identity match. I also conform to many female appearance stereotypes - my hair is long, my fingernails are long and sometimes painted, and I often wear dresses and skirts, earrings and necklaces. I've never been misgendered. I can't truly understand how it would feel to have a disconnect between who I wanted to be and who I looked like on the outside.

I am straight. I am married to a white man. I never had to come out to my family or friends, or felt ostracized from my religion because of my sexual preferences, or had a stranger make incorrect assumptions about my sexual orientation, or felt that my relationship with my husband was somehow unacceptable or morally wrong. I'll never really know what it's like to be gay, bi/pansexual, or asexual.

I was raised Christian in a Christian-majority nation. My religion's holidays matched the school calendar. I was exposed to the traditions and cultural practices that remain entrenched in American society - and it was never required of me to learn any others. Though I chose to step away from Christian beliefs as I grew up, I still have that outward Christian privilege to fall back on if I chose to - unless I specifically admit that I don't believe in God and would rather identify as atheist, no one would know or assume that about me. I don't really know what it's like to belong to a different religion, a religion without privilege (though I've seen some glimpses, working as a graphic designer at a large Reform Jewish synagogue).

I grew up in a middle class family. I have never known real poverty. Even when my dad was unemployed for 15 months during the recession, I never really wanted for material things. Throughout my life, educational resources were readily available to me if I wanted them. I went to a local state school, was lucky enough to get scholarships and have a lot of my expenses paid for by family members and my (very) part-time jobs, and graduated with virtually no student loans. I'm 28 years old and my husband and I became homeowners five years ago. I don't know what it's like to lack class privilege. Even when it felt like maybe I didn't have it growing up, I really did. I've always had it, and still do.

I'm also healthy (relatively so). I look healthy from the outside. I have poor eyesight, so I wear corrective glasses - but there is no real stigma attached to wearing glasses, so that's irrelevant. And no one could guess any other chronic ailments I might have - unless I told them - because they are not noticeable, nor significant enough to impact my day to day life. I do a lot of preventive behaviors to keep the threat of LADA at bay (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults), because my glucose is slightly elevated. But it's never really been bad enough to be even officially labeled "diabetes," let alone impact my life much. And any mental health/emotional issues I'm working through also don't outwardly influence my daily functionality. I have ability privilege, and have no idea what it's really like to be discriminated against based on my ability (or appearance of my ability).

My point is that I'm not exactly an ideal candidate to talk about a lot of these issues - race, gender, sexuality, religion, class and ability - which I just spent several months addressing with colored pencil drawings and blog posts. I want to use my privilege to draw attention to these topics that warrant discussion, if I can. But I also want to be careful not to speak for these oppressed groups. I don't want my voice to drown out theirs, and I don't want to presume to know their experiences or what the best steps would be to help them moving forward.

This is perhaps the most difficult thing privileged people like myself face in trying to help the unprivileged. We want to help - but often don't quite know how to help. We spend so much time patting ourselves on the back for taking on liberal causes or doing good in the world that we neglect to recognize that we've painted ourselves as "savior" figures. Marginalized groups don't need us to "save" them - they just need us to shut up and listen. It shouldn't be up to us to give them more rights; it is instead our job to support them and help draw attention to their cause from the sidelines while they take the rights they deserve. We are meant to be allies, not leaders.

Marginalized means they have been relegated to the margins. It's our turn to stand in the margins instead, and allow oppressed groups an opportunity to assert their own voice.

I feel a bit like a fraud when I start talking about politics or social issues too much. I'm not an expert. I barely even follow details of what is going on in the world. (To be honest, there's just been too much bad news lately that it's been overwhelming. And I'm lucky enough that I have the privilege to tune all that shit out when it overwhelms me. But that is another discussion for another time.)

It is precisely this reason that my message in this "Stronger Together" series is so vague. My drawings celebrate the differences found in humanity and show a symbolic floral arrangement in which all flowers (all people) have equal weight in filling out a bouquet - regardless of race, gender, sexuality, religion, social class, or ability. It is a hopeful idea that could have just as easily been drawn a hundred years ago or a hundred years in the future as drawn today. It doesn't reference specific topical events, and it doesn't try to speak for marginalized groups. It just showcases a utopia in which all people have their own equal voices with which to speak.

It tells people where I stand - on the side of tolerance and love and acceptance, on the side of allies, on the side of hope for a better tomorrow - without presuming that I have any real answers, without taking a clear leadership role, and without even referencing many specifics. Maybe this isn't enough; maybe as an ally I could have done more. But this is where I'm at in my journey right now. I am erring on the side of Not Doing Enough out of concern for overstepping. This is the extent that I feel capable of.

I do feel more qualified to talk about gender and religion, because these are areas that I feel I have more personal experience in. I don't have male privilege and never have, and I gave up Christianity to label myself an Atheist (an Atheist who married into a Jewish family, an Atheist who works at a Reform Jewish synagogue), so I don't have as much religious privilege anymore either. I can more comfortably talk about these issues and state where the problems lie - because I've witnessed them myself and because I am one of the marginalized who deserve to have their voices heard.

But even here, I often want to step aside to let those with intersectional oppression speak. I can only speak to my experience as a white, cisgendered, straight woman; women who are black or gay or transgendered (or all of the above) face much greater oppression than anything I've lived through.

All humans suffer sometimes. But not all suffering is created equally.

I hope that my "Stronger Together" drawings are adequate at straddling that line - the line between speaking up but not shouting over those less privileged than me; the line between wanting to do something, or say something, but not knowing exactly what to do or say. I hope that their vagueness allow more people to find resonance in them. Often, the more we get into specifics, the more we start to disagree. I am hoping that despite where we are on the political spectrum, or what life experiences we've had, or what privilege we've been granted or oppression we've endured, we can all agree in this very basic premise:

Humans - ALL humans - deserve respect, love, acceptance, acknowledgement, tolerance, and to have their voices heard.

Especially those who have traditionally been denied such things, who have a lack that needs to be filled.

Finished "Stronger Together" Series

My "Stronger Together" series consists of six 19"x25" colored pencil drawings, each created with Prismacolor pencils on black Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

The general concept behind the drawings is this: We humans can be labeled, divided, segregated, and categorized in a myriad of different ways, including (but not limited to) race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, and ability. Often, with these six categories in particular, certain subgroups have been historically/traditionally thought of as "lesser," while other subgroups are thought of as inherently better, stronger, or smarter - and are therefore given more opportunities, more privilege, and more power. This is, to use a profound phrase, absolute bullshit. People don't have more or less inherent worth than others just because of the families they were born into, their genetic code, their preferences, their life experiences, or the choices they make. We are ALL human, and we ALL matter and deserve respect. In fact, we matter not despite our differences, but because of them.

Floral arrangements are not melting pots. They do not blend all varieties together into a muddy brown soup. They are made greater by the sum of their parts, while still showcasing each beautiful part that makes up the whole. And so I chose to use drawings of floral bouquets, each made up of two dozen different flowers, to demonstrate the rich variety of the human experience, as it relates to those six categories.

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RACE BOUQUET (STRONGER TOGETHER)

I worked on this drawing way back in April, utilizing 31 different colored pencils. The bouquet consists of a wide range of flowers available in "skin tone shades" to demonstrate different races of people living and working side by side, in harmony, to create a beautiful, multicultural community.

• Click here for the list of flowers used in this bouquet.
• Click here for more images of the final drawing (and links to pictures of the step-by-step process and detail shots).

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GENDER BOUQUET (STRONGER TOGETHER)

This tri-tonal drawing was created in May using 30 different colored pencils. Here, I used "traditional" color stereotypes (pink for girls, blue for boys) and color theory (which recognizes that purple is the color created by mixing pink and blue together) to represent the spectrum of all genders in a symbolic floral bouquet.

• Click here for the list of flowers used in this bouquet.
• Click here for more images of the final drawing (and links to pictures of the step-by-step process and detail shots).

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SEXUALITY BOUQUET (STRONGER TOGETHER)

In the month of June (Pride Month), I finished this colorful drawing, which required a total of 39 different colored pencils. This "color wheel" bouquet includes all the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) to symbolize the beautiful arrangement made when all people identifying as/experiencing different aspects of human sexuality are included equally. This includes people with little or no sexual desire, as well as those who crave it all the time; people who yearn for only physical intimacy and those who find fulfillment in emotional intimacy and long-term relationships, people experienced and not experienced in a wide variety of sexual behaviors, and of course people at all places of the LGBTQIA spectrum.

• Click here for the list of flowers used in this bouquet.
• Click here for more images of the final drawing (and links to pictures of the step-by-step process and detail shots).

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RELIGION BOUQUET (STRONGER TOGETHER)

This completed piece, drawn with 28 different colored pencils in July, combines flowers that are symbolically associated with modern or ancient religions (including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Wicca, various Native American religions, and/or Greek/Roman mythology), with flowers that symbolize Atheism, Humanism, or Science, to present a utopian arrangement of religious tolerance and togetherness.

• Click here for the list of flowers used in this bouquet.
• Click here for more images of the final drawing (and links to pictures of the step-by-step process and detail shots).

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CLASS BOUQUET (STRONGER TOGETHER)

In August, I employed 26 different colored pencils to complete this drawing, which symbolizes different social classes through art of two dozen flowers. America is made up of very poor people, very rich people, and everyone in between. It is important that we acknowledge and give equal respect to all of these people, helping those who need assistance and remembering that we're all human.

• Click here for the list of flowers used in this bouquet.
• Click here for more images of the final drawing (and links to pictures of the step-by-step process and detail shots).

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ABILITY BOUQUET (STRONGER TOGETHER)

The sixth and final drawing in this series used 29 colored pencils and was completed in September/October. Employing flower symbolism and visual cues (such as browning, aging, wilting, discoloration, or minor imperfections), I compiled two dozen flowers that would symbolize differences in physical, emotional, and mental ability. We all have different limitations, skills, and talents (not all of which are immediately or outwardly apparent) and we should work to respect and accommodate everyone so that we can better work and live together.

• Click here for the list of flowers used in this bouquet.
• Click here for more images of the final drawing (and links to pictures of the step-by-step process and detail shots).

"Ability Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - Finished

And so my "Stronger Together" series is complete! Six 19"x25" colored pencil drawings on black paper, each symbolizing a system of privilege/oppression. You can check out the first five completed drawings here:

• Race Bouquet (this post)
• Gender Bouquet (this post)
• Sexuality Bouquet (this post)
• Religion Bouquet (this post)
• Class Bouquet (this post)

This final drawing is called "Ability Bouquet" and it uses two dozen flowers to symbolize differences in physical, emotional, and mental ability. We all have different limitations, skills, and talents, and should work to respect and accommodate everyone so that we can better work together.

Here is the finished drawing:

I used a total of 29 colored pencils for this drawing, in shades of green, yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, and blue. I also used neutrals like brown, black, tan, and white.

This is not yet available for sale, but I will probably list it (and the others in this series) in my Etsy shop at the end of the year.

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To read about the "ability umbrella" - the aspects of ability I was looking to include in this symbolic bouquet - please read this blog post. To read about the relatedly interesting correlation between creativity and mental health, visit this one.

To read about the idea behind this colored pencil drawing and an explanation for the symbolism of the specific flowers used, check out this post.

To see "the making of" photos of this drawing, please visit these:

• Preliminary sketches ("In Progress 1")
• Drawing and lightly coloring in the first 12 flowers ("In Progress 2")
• Drawing and lightly coloring in the last 12 flowers ("In Progress 3")
• Adding detail and dimension to the tulips, anemone, flannel flowers, acanthus, crocus, and succulents ("In Progress 4")
• Adding detail and dimension to the dahlia, tansy, hellebore, roses, aloe, and cherry blossoms ("In Progress 5")
• Adding detail and dimension to the geraniums, lady's mantle, yarrow, heliotrope, mullein, and lupine ("In Progress 6")
• Adding detail and dimension to the marigold, daffodils, white lilac, orchids, chamomile, and dandelions ("In Progress 7")