FluBu
by Eliot Markell
First of all, thanks to Larry for putting my wife Jeanne’s art on the masthead of “eye on Brooklyn”. We met at the last 4th of July party on Larry and Nathalie’s roof.
We have set up Jeanne’s tiny studio niche in our apartment in Ditmas Park, the Victorian Flatbush neighborhood far from the madding crowds of Hipsterville, at least for now.
I, on the other hand have been ensconced in Bushwick for the last year. After 20 plus years painting in a 1600 sq ft live/work space in a leaky, ramshackle building in Boerum Hill (there was a boxing gym upstairs for the last few years of my tenure), I was chased out right after 9/11. I spent a few years in a Greenpoint studio space under the thumb of a control freak of a landlord who made us take our garbage home or tried to charge $20 per bag.
Bailing on the landlord lunatic fringe that I seemed forever destined to abide by, I stumbled onto a Craigslisting for a space in the outer reaches of Bushwick. Burr Dodd the enterprising founder of Brooklyn Fireproof , a gallery/performance space over by the BQE, had taken a net lease on a couple of floors over on Johnson Ave. Burr was doing some nice renovations and renting space for around a $1.70 per sq ft. I took a 470 sq ft space and a one year lease, so far I haven’t bounced any rent checks.
Geographically Bushwick is shunted off at a funny angle from the surrounding neighborhoods, with Flushing Ave all torn up, the grid of one-way streets leading into Bushwick are confusing and hard to navigate, its as though you have to plan a strategy to get in and out. The L train is all fucked up and doesn’t even run on weekends. The resulting feeling is of an isolated village populated by big trucks, industrial real estate, and yes ARTISTS!!
And it seems like more and more are arriving on the artistboat everyday. The main drag is Bogart Ave & Seigal St. After grabbing a bite to eat at Brooklyn’s Natural, the hipster food store on this corner, I always marvel at the influx of artistic fashion, nature hates a vacuum. Brooklyn’s Natural is really a hub, over priced groceries but the hot food is pretty good and reasonably priced. At any particular time of day or night the myspacer crowd of beautiful young art grads are there for the ogling.
On the weekend of the 10/25 there was a Bushwick open studio event that had been promoted by a shadowy entity called Gemini Artist Productions, the web site featured a myspace profile that I found amusing:
"Bushwick Open Studios 2006"
Female
99 years old
Brooklyn, New York
United States
Last login 10/25/2006
The consortium running the one day event did not lack a kind of youthful enthusiasm, after- parties, bands and booze seemed to lend momentum to the buzz. Trying to get into the swing of things Jeanne brought some of her recent art over to my studio. I got jug of Carlo Rossi red ($11.95 and really a pretty drinkable wine), and some green plastic cups suitable for random drug testing, we plunked ourselves down with a crossword and some New Yorkers not expecting to have much to do.
Naughty post grads at work during the after-party.
To our pleasant surprise the day went well, there was a pretty steady stream of pilgrims, and even a few inquires as to prices. We did get a chance to see some of the other studios in my building, but never really had a chance to peruse the rest of the action in the neighborhood. However my impression of the event was that Bushwick is on the map.
We did make our way over to the 3rd Ward the week after the open studios. Although the 3rd Ward is not really a gallery per se, they seem to personify the grass roots ethos that permeates the FluBu (FLUshing Ave @ BUshwick Ave) region.
The 3W seems to blur the line between exhibition space, community center, and performance oriented activities. The huge 20,000 sq ft space contains an eclectic mix of programs. I would guess the most popular is their life drawing group called “Drink ‘n Draw; warm model, cold beer”, BYOC (bring your own charcoal). They also have a full woodworking shop. An intriguing program in the shop is called “loft building basics”. Run by the founders of 3W the 4 session course amounts to an introduction to life in the post industrial landscape of unimproved studio space in . This do-it-yourself attitude is an exemplary approach, I’m tempted to take the course myself just to make sure I don’t get too complacent. You never know when knowledge of “the physics of wall assembly” will come in handy, especially in the raw environs of Bushwick.
Office Ops is another multi-use facility, art studios, a weather permitting roof-top film program (with incredible views that must distract from the movie), and a large thrift store to keep up the wardrobes of all the low income artists.
As far as I know Ad Hoc Art is the only bonafide street level exhibition space in FluBu. During a recent opening there we found some really cheap art. Bill Fick’s E. Coli skull & cross bone linocuts on tissue draped around the gallery lent a festive air to the place. At $20 a pop how can you go wrong? The opening featured warm, chocolate filled homemade donuts with sugar sprinkled on top. Talk about convivial! However at this particular exhibit you should wash your hands before eating.
Sauntering into the Life Café for dinner (we’d already had dessert) we were greeted by John Sunderland a distinguished sounding British gentleman with an irreverent attitude. Would we mind sitting at a wobbly table he inquired? Bloody right!
The Life Café on Flushing Ave is run by John’s new wife who has cloned her legendary east village eatery with the DNA of Bushwick and has come up with a hybrid of local poets, comedians, and performers that have taken root in the fertile soil of FluBu.
John also runs an exhibition program of sorts on a large wall with decent lighting. Work should be “priced in the hundreds, not thousands”. A time honored tradition. The food’s not bad either.
Theres also an art supply store in the area. Soho Art Materials on Gardiner St. near Johnson is an artist run operation. They have a good inventory of professional grade products and feature hand made paint and stretcher bars. Ask for Walter.
Although Bushwick is still a relatively wide open space its not hard to imagine Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and even The Gap (YIKES!) moving in eventually. Perhaps the youthful, dedicated activists of FluBu, uncorrupted by success, can establish a chain-free enclave uncluttered by the plague of hi-rize mania currently afflicting Williamsburg.
I remember helping move an old classmate’s studio into Bushwick about 6 years ago. She had been living in a tiny one bedroom in the village since the early 80’s. Seduced by the prospect of a large, cheap live/work space she ended up in a building that was being used at night has a rave hangout for the gansta’ hip hop scene. I’m not sure how long she lasted there, but I do know she survived. I saw her recently, a proud Bushwick veteran.
The Bushwick artist homesteaders like my old friend braved a desolate urban frontier with outlaw landlords and hostile natives not unlike the early days of Williamsburg. Burr recently showed me another building he’s started work on further down Johnson that housed a number of former illegal live/work spaces. Touring the mortal remains of these pioneer era ateliers was kind of spooky. Remnants of makeshift electrical, carpentry and plumbing evoked the spirits of artist’s past. Thanks to entrepreneurial endeavors like “loft building basics” the new Bushwick is up to code more or less. But can the current influx of artist types maintain the illicit live/work life style of the previous inhabitants? I doubt it. The era of multi-year leases without increases is gone. The chances of an individual artist finding a 500 to 600 sq ft space that isn’t being net-leased is slim to none, and Slim just left town. The building owners realize that managing a bunch of small artist leases is like herding cats, not worth the trouble.
The large industrial properties containing space vacated by the former needle trade are being given new life by entrepreneurial liberal arts types bent on the creative fervor. The mostly white Baby Boomers and post BB are pouring the hard won money from their parents post-war suburban real estate boom into the current renascence of creative self indulgence. This is not say I’m completely cynical, just that the generations after the 1960’s have had all the advantages of money, education, and leisure to pursue unorthodox professional ambitions. I know my father never would have had the opportunity (or inclination) to live his life the way I’ve lived mine.
So have we ended up reinventing the defunct industrial infrastructure of our parents and grand parents generations into something worthwhile? If urban development is inevitable perhaps the artistic vanguard can contribute something that will endure; a tribal legacy of renewal, they came, they saw, they made art. Maybe a bit of it was even good.
Will FluBu be the next migration/evolution of an alternative to the mainstream art market?
Being an old school painter in New York since 1974, and running my small art moving business for over 20 years has given me some perspective on the art market. Its obvious to me that the art world always will have a left bank; as the East Village was to Soho, and WillyB was to Chelsea, Bushwick will be to Williamsburg. A thriving community of rockers, performers, cultural politicos, anarchists, and artists, have established themselves in Bushwick.
Does this mean I will soon be looking for studio space in either Bridgeport CT or Philadelphia PA?
Man, I hate commuting.
Eliot Markell 11/06
http://geminiartist.com/openstudioindex.html
http://adhocart.org/
http://www.officeops.org/
http://www.sohoartmaterials.com/home/contact.htm
