Thanks Heather!!
Write Up by Heather Vandenengel
26 June 2009
Profile
Paint
Pens in Purses: An All-Encompassing Collective
Allston residents may have noticed a new kind of art gallery that has
recently surfaced. Its spacious windows
display works ranging from stunning photographs to portrait-painted
skateboards. This is not a typical
display of artwork found in a gallery; there are wonderfully wacky drawings
of three-eyed monsters and playful yet creepy acrylic and pen depictions
of evil unicorns. This is not a typical
gallery, however. It is a closed up
liquor store, and these artworks are inhabiting the store front displays
where advertisements for thirty racks of bud light once hung.
This inventive
display of art is the collaborative effort of the all-female urban art
collective, Paint Pens in Purses. Founded in 2008 by
the Boston-based illustration artist, Shayna Yasuhara, aka Shayna Shenanigans,
the group functions as a non-competitive, but audacious, outlet in which
up-and-coming urban female artists can showcase their work.
The unique style in which they do so results in a more accessible, interactive
and just plain fun experience for the general public, challenging the
traditional boundaries between the art world and everyone else.
Collectives
like Paint Pens in Purses are inviting people who wouldn’t ordinarily
be interested in art to take a look and get involved. “I think the general
population of people who aren’t artists always think that it’s something
so far away and unreachable and what I want my art to bring to them
is that sense of inclusion,” says 21-year-old skateboard artist, Mykim
Dang.
Paint
Pens in Purses has more than accomplished this with both their location
choice and interactive shows. Their show last December
was held at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge, a popular restaurant
and nightclub. Although the art show
began before the hordes of party-goers filed in, the paintings and drawings
decorated the club walls as the DJ spun her records until well into
the night. It was “more like
a party,” says Paint Pens intern Ryan Piercy.
The
intimate, party-like setting of a Paint Pens show is a far cry from
the vast, moderately tame expanses of established museums and galleries.
Boston University junior, Caroline Stewart, describes the quintessential
idea of a gallery opening as an event where “you have to drink your
champagne while gazing at a big piece of art that you have no idea what
it means.” Paint Pens is transforming
this stereotype by making art an interactive experience to be shared
by all.
Their October show was held in the Allston-based streetwear store LAB
(Limited Apparel Boston), which calls itself a “blended space of art,
lifestyle and community.” These elements
certainly fused together that evening; there was a live-art portion
in which three Paint Pens artists painted the 25 foot window storefront
and attendees were encouraged to decorate miniature clay Scion cars
with Sharpies, both sponsors of the collective.
The
number of sponsors has increased with every show, as companies such
as Scion, Sharpies, Adidas Originals and more recently, Pabst Blue Ribbon,
are eager to tap into the diverse crowd that Paint Pens attracts. Locations
such as Via Mattia, LAB, and the White Horse tavern are also happy to
provide a hip, enjoyable space in which Paint Pens can exhibit their
work.
Without
sponsors supporting the group’s exhibitions, it would be difficult
to maintain the no cover charge policy that is standard at their shows,
thanks to founder Shayna Yasuhara. “We don't want anyone
to feel alienated by expensive art/ ticket prices or elitism, which
I think discourages people from attending a lot of museum/gallery events,”
Yasuhara explains in an email. This is a refreshing
perspective in the often pricey art world, where it is 20 dollars for
admission at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and 17 at Boston’s
Museum of Fine Arts. Conversely, everyone
is free to enjoy Paint Pens latest exhibit at Marty’s Liquors, from
diners at the McDonald’s across the street to a kid walking home from
school.
The
underlining emphasis in the Paint Pens’ philosophy is just that:
giving anyone and everyone the chance to interact with their work, however
they may choose to do so. Dang expresses her hope for viewers of her
art “to understand that art is a collaborative process, that it doesn’t
have to be stagnant.”
Paint
Pens in Purses is anything but stagnant. There are not many female art
collectives in the country, and Paint Pens is assuredly the only one
to be found in Boston. As a result, they are always exploring new territory.
Yasuhara came up with the idea of the “pop-up gallery” at Marty’s
Liquors because she began to notice the increasing number of empty lots
in Allston and thought it would be “a positive response to the bad
economy to temporarily fill these
spaces with artwork,” she comments in an email.
The
women behind Paint Pens in Purses are also representative of the inclusive
philosophy that they promote. Although they are
an all female artist collective, they do not think of themselves as
excluding the boys, but rather as giving more women a place to display
their work in a mostly male-dominated urban art scene. They have become familiar
with the stereotypes that are frequently placed on female work, but
are ready to combat them. “People will write
it off as chick art. They think if it’s
feminine, it’s automatically less edgy or it’s always going to be
about the same subject matter,” artist Mykim Dang laments.
Unfortunately,
the atmosphere among many artists in Boston is not much more favorable.
“In terms of visual arts, I feel like a lot of people around here
are out for themselves," says Dang. There is limited paying
work and fewer opportunities for artists to make it big in Boston, compared
to larger cities such as New York or Los Angeles, resulting in greater
competition. Paint Pens in Purses
offers a welcome relief in this not always encouraging environment.
The collective encourages each artist to follow her own creative pursuits
while providing a space where women can grow and develop together artistically.
The
group also works to give this experience to the most women possible,
as they often rotate artists for each seasonal show. Yasuhara discovers
many artists through websites such as Myspace or Deviant Art, and although
it is a Boston-based collective they have members in Texas, New York
and New Jersey. They vary in their
mediums as well, ranging from film to pen and ink to photographs.
The group finds strength in this diversity, as it helps to expand their
constantly growing group of supporters. “Everyone comes
from a different group or niche or culture, so there is always a whole
mix of different people at the shows,” Dang explains.
Three
shows and one massive takeover of a liquor store later, Paint Pens in
Purses has proven that they are a female force to be reckoned with,
as their unique shows continue to draw in crowds that would not normally
be found at a museum or gallery. In the last few years,
however, street and urban art has gained more respect and has surfaced
in the mainstream. Iconic Obama poster designer and famed street artist,
Shepard Fairey, currently has an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary
Art in Boston, the same city in which he was arrested for graffiti writing.
With
the wave of urban art on the rise right now, the question arises of
what lays in store for Paint Pens in the future. Currently they are
working on a self-published book that will feature the art and profiles
of all the artists who have contributed to Paint Pens thus far. They
have an upcoming show, themed Paint Pens and Pet Monsters in August
at the White Horse Tavern in Allston as well as an exhibition in New
Jersey. As far as doing a show at a larger gallery or museum, Yasuhara
said in an email that she would be interested but would not want to
“endanger the integrity of the shows.”
After
all, it is the integrity of the group that sets them apart.
It lies in their heartfelt belief that art should not be pretentious,
that it should not be a distant, unreachable world dominated by the
gifted few who are able to make sense of cryptic paintings and sculptures.
This philosophy is beautifully illustrated through the canvas of Mykim
Dang’s skateboards, where function, interaction and art collide.
After receiving each blank board, Dang sands it down and carefully silk
screens or paints on captivating portraits of stranger’s faces that
she finds inspiring. While it might take
weeks to create a finished board, it could be partially destroyed after
a couple of good shredding sessions. Or, some might choose
to never let it touch pavement. Passionate skateboarder,
Ryan Piercy, who owns several of Mykim’s skateboards, chooses to let
them decorate his bedroom wall. “They’re beautiful,”
he remarks, “I wouldn’t want to mess anything like that up.”
Therein
lies the beauty of the Paint Pens in Purses’ doctrine. They invite
anyone and everyone to enjoy art in a way they never have before. These
artists are not cliquish or discriminatory and they do not impose lofty
and unreachable ideas on their viewers. Instead, they simply and unassumingly
give them an opportunity to enjoy art for what it is, to take what they
want away from it and to maybe even to inspire others to continue on
with the exhilarating movement that Paint Pens in Purses has started.
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