About
These are pages of an illustrated journal--a creative diary, some visual brainstorming, and evidence of pleasure with the act of intuitive creation. All one-of-a-kind paintings, drawings, and sculptures seen here are a record of memories, where each artwork grows under my hand in an exploratory process. Buried beneath the surface are hints of landscape or moments from my extensive travel and experiences around the world and in various environments, providing a structure of depth and atmosphere. Careful to slide between definition and ambiguity, the majority of these works never go too far in nailing down images or intentions but rather hopefully leaving things for the viewer to discover or interpret.
Layering both materials and time, these works capture a sense of an energy that comes from spontaneous responses to the process, materials, shapes, and structures themselves. Many of the works engage each other and the viewer through the use of color and texture while others are subtler. Often driven by calligraphic brushwork—a connection to my work as a hand-letterer of multiple languages—and accented with lines of luminous colored pencil or more precise graphite details, images and forms in the paintings reflect and repeat from work to work often influencing each other and creating small series. My ceramic work is approached similarly in terms of drawing with and on the clay in an almost painterly way and including both a natural palette or more saturated surface treatment. All works aspire to capture a lyrical essence and to strike a responsive or emotional chord.
I have been working in arts and education in various capacities for over 20 years. After graduating with a degree in Fine Arts from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, I managed and fabricated community-based public art projects, taught at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, and worked as an art teacher at both elementary and high school levels in the Los Angeles area. I came to New York in 1999 to pursue a Master's Degree in Art Education at New York University, during which time I directed a children's hospital outreach program through The Newark Museum. I then became the manager of school, youth, intergenerational, artists-in-residence, and professional development programs at the Museum of Arts and Design. After 9 years at MAD, I had the opportunity to live abroad in South Africa where I developed educational materials and programming for art exhibitions and public artworks around Johannesburg. Upon returning to New York, I held a teaching artist position for a special public art project through the Anne Frank Center, then began working at Lincoln Center Education teaching and managing aesthetic education for students K-12 and professional development seminars, with a special focus on programming for underserved middle school students. I was offered a position as the Director of Education at the Salvadori Center, leading a team of teaching artists and professional development for school administrators and teachers in STEM/STEAM-based education, and then moved to develop educational programming for all ages for the Society of Illustrators/Museum of Illustration, including a program for young men incarcerated at Rikers Island. Throughout the years working for these various arts and educational non-profit organizations, I have continued to cultivate an international design business and work as a mixed media artist in my Brooklyn studio.
Connect with me at aboyer6@gmail.com or on social media and visit my other website, ketubahgraphia.com.