Brian Nguyen taking inspiration from one a book cover.
Amateur artists hoping for a turf war Sunday as two DIY art groups scheduled their meetups at the same time — and almost the same spot — in East Rock would be sorely disappointed. What happened instead was a fun, accidental crossover full of traitorous excursions to the other side.
“Want some pens?” Brian Nguyen asked around at the biweekly arts meetup Sunday afternoon at DIY venue and free bookstore Volume Two, aka Never Ending Books, on State Street.
He’d brought two Ziploc bags full of pens, markers, pencils, and a Crayola watercolor set as his offerings for an arts swap happening with the New Haven Sketchers over on Orange Street. Figuring both groups would have similar needs, Nguyen gave the Volume Two crew first dibs.
Both of the afternoon’s events were casual, walk-in setups, so people floated from one to the other with ease. Many of the artists I met Sunday were part of both communities.
“Were you at the other thing? Get out,” Ryan Licwinko from Volume Two declared as artist Loren Wilson waltzed in with the “best find” from the Sketchers’ art swap: an orange Wallingford firefighters pencil. It was all jokes; Licwinko is a New Haven Sketcher himself. He was a gracious host, offering coffee as a group of about ten artists worked peacefully on their projects.
Comic artist John Shields’ Sunday project was a detailed, beautifully drawn zine. Together with friend Travis Dalhke, Shields slowly brought to life the comic series, called Realms, about “the weird normalness of the world.” Shields drew and inked the outlines with pen and pencil, adding the colors digitally — “It’s just like a coloring book.” Shields hopes to have the zine ready for whenever the next zine fair pops up, noting that the season seems ripe for one.
Loren Wilson with a nice find.
An imagined deleted scene in 1995 cult classic Clueless, from upcoming comic series Realms by John Shields and Travis Dalhke.
Over at the New Haven Sketchers’ outdoor swap table of secondhand supplies, Rahul Ganesh said, “This table looks completely different than it did before” as people emptied it of goodies throughout the afternoon. He had taken a little field trip of his own, hopping over to the Peabody Museum to draw a dinosaur while most of his Sketcher peers made art of their Orange Street surroundings.
Celia Poirier used Crayola markers for her sketch, saying she “just wanted to draw with pink,” echoing the branding of nearby G Café and toy store Pebbles. Poirier has been setting up the weekly sketch outings for the past year and a half with co-organizer Alex Krofta, announcing times and locations through email (send a message to [email protected] to sign up) and Instagram.
In a city with a more competitive environment, the Sketchers and the arts meetup-ers might have had something to tussle about as their event times coincided Sunday. But in New Haven’s friendly DIY art community, the overlap just meant more pens to share and more art to see.
Yair Minsky's G Café rendition, and Celia Poirier's neighborhood sketch.
What was left at the art supplies table near the end of the swap.