Process, artwork, and current inspirations from the artists of MAKE STUDIO. We save our faves.
by Tyrone Weedon
As a 90s kid, I was introduced to the stand-up comedian Louie Anderson when he has a Showtime Comedy Special on cable television that I watched years ago. He was very funny and talks about his childhood, his dysfunctional families including his mom and dad in Cedar Knoll, Wisconsin.
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by Kemonte Hale
Although Kemonte, one of our newest artists, isn’t featured in our upcoming Storytellers show, much of his artwork is narrative in nature. He enjoys the process of character and world building, often based on the inspiration of a special interest in the extended Sonic the Hedgehog universe, bringing characters to life in a future Baltimore.
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by Alex Albert
Here’s what needed cleaning at Make Studio: the windows and the doors! I sprayed the windows with Windex. I even wiped the windows with a rag. Cathy, Roni, and I did the spraying part together. Windows were sprayed 6 or 10 times and then I wiped the spray off. After I wiped, they looked clean. I had gotten the smudges off and the pieces of tape.
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After *the first* COVID Christmas physically separated our artists last year, our resident holiday hype man Iragi wanted to bring the holiday spirit back into the studio with a vengeance. Each Wednesday this December, he counted down the weeks til Christmas with photo shoots and performances.
Unfortunately we ended up back on Zoom for this last studio week of the year, but Iragi did not let that discourage him and completed his performance series in virtual studio!
I played 3 special Christmas songs of: Dick Van Dyke & Jane Lynch’s “We’re Going Caroling”,”Seasons Of Giving” (From “Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving”)
And Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (From “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964 Christmas Special)). 🎅🏻🤶🏻🦌⛄🎄❄🌨🎶🎤
I’ll return another month of December with my Yamaha Keyboard & my Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas Maskimal to the Make Studio In-Person. I 💔loathe losing things.
We hope you enjoy these magical holiday moments from Iragi as much as we do!
P.S. Looking for even more spirit? Iragi suggests this song for you to enjoy…
Now that it’s been a minute and we really feel like we’re back in our art center, we’re happy to be resuming our periodic spotlights on 1-2 artists in our showroom gallery.
Currently in the gallery: “My Morphinominal Life in Art” featuring Iragi Nkere, on view through the end the September. Stop by to see the work in-person if you can, or follow along on social media as we share artwork details and thoughts from Iragi.
Make Studio Artist Iragi Nkere brings keen social insight, encyclopedic pop culture knowledge, passions for justice and music, love of family, and boundless enthusiasm into his art.
Midway through 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging and the Movement for Black Lives belatedly entering many people’s consciousnesses, Iragi began in earnest to make art that focused on his experiences as a young, Black man in America. Reflective of his multitude of concerns AND the interests that bring him joy, Iragi has continued to weave art about social justice into his practice. For Iragi, this includes bringing elements of the big budget cinematic universe directly into works about BLM as well as alternating tributes for beloved celebrities and voice actors with cartoon and TV logo mashups with pieces featuring African wildlife (“it’s what my grandma likes”).
The important thing for the people is to UnWelcome to the Tyrannical world. Last year’s Memorial Day was a Lost Cause, Damnation & Doomungous in Minneapolis Minnesota. It turned my stomach, messed up the kidney, claustrophobic, gassy, frostbite & got inside my head. . .I just can’t take all that Tyrant, Self-Destructive & Endangering me no more. I am elude tyranny & those Prosecute Jail Killer Law Authorities.
NO JUSTICE & PEACE & NEVER BE SILENT.
I’ve made a tribute of Samuel E. Wright Because he’s done it all completed Disney’s The Little Mermaid as the voice of Sebastian the Crab & So I played Just Dance 2016 to sing & dance to “Under The Sea” to pay a tribute to him. I’ve made a tribute to Eddie Van Halen including “Dreams” , the rock & roll song that I just heard it at the end of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.
My grandma, Nyanya & My mom love the sound of African music & My grandma, Nyanya & [my brother] Amani love to do their prayers & watching EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network), Even, She taught my mom how to do their prayers because I know my mom ❤loves christian Music & not to mention: Don Moen.
Amani ❤loves SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tom & Jerry, Teen Titans & Toy Story. I ❤love Looney Tunes, Hot Wheels, Scooby-Doo & Power Rangers. I made them all what’s for Holidays & Special Occasions.
Everyone knows that unstoppable, talented & stylish to make what’s for everyone, my family & myself.
Make Studio artist Louis Middleton is a big fan of beautiful scenery. He often makes artwork about faraway places, idyllic landscapes and seascapes, as well as capturing the essence of iconic locales that make a destination stand out from the rest! His landscapes cover a variety of scenes from tropical beaches to Baltimore City to snowy mountain ranges. We asked him about his favorite vacation spots and what makes these places special to him.
Louis says that he likes to visit Florida, even though it is hot. Jacksonville is a particular favorite of his, where he goes to visit his relatives. He enjoys seeing them and playing card games.
He also thinks Orlando, FL is beautiful. He likes all the palm trees, flowers and being near the water. He also likes seeing all the buildings, the fish and the crocodiles. He likes the plane rides, too!
While in Florida he enjoys going to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, where he likes to ride on all the rides. He says the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party tea cup ride is his favorite. The ride doesn’t make him dizzy, and he enjoys the spinning (unfortunately some others at Make Studio cannot say the same).
In recognition of our artists returning to the studio this summer, we are having a large sale – our biggest one ever – anchored by a lighthearted gallery show entitled Make it Back!. The show celebrates the artists’ activities, aspirations, and preoccupations while they worked from home and looked forward to being back together. Inspired by Louis’ passion for travel, we’ve created a special promotion – all landscapes and cityscapes are 50% off the original price! This Make It Back promotion is live through Saturday August 21st. Check out our social media for updates and other promotions through Labor Day!
Besides being a devotee of all things retro and 1950s, Louis often gravitates towards epic landscape and portraiture, or a combination of the two, in his art. He often starts his work with a sketch, which he then transfers to canvas and paints with acrylics. Besides painting, Louis has long enjoyed taking his own digital photographs and at Make Studio has worked to advance his computer skills by digitally manipulating photographs and original imagery. Outside of Make Studio and with the support of his family, Louis operates his own photo restoration business and has logged a number of satisfied customers in this work. Louis is a graduate of the St. Elizabeth School. To view more of Louis’ work, please visit our online store.
The first piece Tyrone worked on when he returned to in-person studio attendance last month was this one, his response of solidarity to the alarming rise in hate crimes directed against Asian and AAPI community members. He also wrote the following essay to share with the Make Studio community and beyond with the hope of projecting this message of support and unity.
Since the Covid-19 (began) last year, there’s been incidents of Covid Hate Crime, harassment (verbally & physically), bullying and xenophobia attacks on the Asian communities in America and also around the world. This year, things have gone too far… First racist people attacking and shoving Asian elderly people, and now there’s an Atlanta shooting that kills eight people, including six Asian women in three different spa parlors on March 16th.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
As a human being, it hurts me and I feel sorry for the victims’ friends and families and also the Asian communities around the world. I’ve been thinking about Asian friends that I worked with from the Studio to my job, I want to make this artwork to give a positive message and spread love to my Asian brothers and sisters.
My artwork has 11 Asian American people (who) are wearing face masks that have powerful messages on (them). There are 2 real people who are in my artwork: the woman with the gray pixie hair is Xiao Zhen Xie, an elderly woman who fought back against her attacker by using her wooden board in San Francisco. And the second: the little girl with the bucket hat is 13 year old fashion designer turned activist Ashlyn So. She’s along(side) her Asian community (members) protesting against Anti-Asian racism in New York City.
My message to the people is this: this ignorance, racism, and blaming on China needs to stop! If you love Asian culture with different genres in movies, T.V., music, art, tattoos, books, fitness, sports, cosplaying, famous people, and many more, then you must support the Asian and AAPI communities. They’re the inspiration for you. No more staying silent, no more stereotyping, no more scapegoating, and more importantly…
STOP ASIAN HATE!!!
One last thing, I want to thank President Biden and Vice-president Harris to sign the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act Bill, (that) not only protects Asian Americans, but different races.
(as a P.S. There’s one more history lesson for celebrating AAPI month!)
For more information, please visit @asianmentalhealthcollective, @naapimha, and @asiansformentalhealth for resources and to learn more about how to support theirs and others’ anti-asian racism and community healing efforts.
Tyrone joined Make Studio in 2012. His current artwork is strongly influenced by television, cartoons, movies and comic books. Tyrone likes to keep things topical, often creating celebrity “tributes” and statements with a political or public message included. He particularly likes to make art about superheroes, and about people that he sees in Baltimore and/or “thinks up in my head”. To view more of Tyrone’s work, please visit our online store.
compiled by Erin Barach
Everyone can agree that working from home has advantages and disadvantages, and the same can certainly be said about at-home art practices.
Zach has mostly been able to find the advantages! Like all of our artists, since the pandemic began, Zach Manuel has been working diligently on his artwork at home, but he has perhaps been making more art than most and in a wider variety of styles and with an expanded range of methods.
Last year at this time, having recently gone into lockdown, as part of Autism Acceptance Month Zach wrote a post about a series he was making at the time. Flash forward, and he has continued work on that series and many more.
During the pandemic he has kept us up-to-date on his many artistic explorations and breakthroughs, zooming into virtual studio sessions, corresponding with staff about his progress by email, and keeping all lines of communication open!
I first discovered trying my hand at abstract art in 2015, when my regular art started hitting a dry spell, and I wanted to try something new to catch visitors’ attention. At first, I was figuratively throwing crap to the wall and hoping that something stacked, but after a while I began enjoying combining colors in various shapes, especially if the colors came together in an elegant way.
My reason for looking to nature for inspiration is because I’ve always been fascinated by it, especially the fantastic colors that exist in it.
Sometimes the line between abstraction and landscape is blurred completely in Zach’s work.
A major source of inspiration for Zach is artist and celebrity Bob Ross.
I began watching old episodes of the “Bob Ross” painting show on Netflix and Hulu in 2018 (ish), because I thought it would help hone my painting skills. I learned many new things by watching him paint, such as use of color, mostly soft colors. I also bought a book of Bob Ross’s paintings from the Giant, which I have been using as a reference ever since.
You can check out more of Zach’s nature-inspired works in the Landscapes and Abstraction sections of our online shop, all of which are for sale!
In the next, and final, installment of this of blog series from Zach, we’ll share how some of his artwork explores portraiture and character studies.
compiled by Erin Barach
Everyone can agree that working from home has advantages and disadvantages, and the same can certainly be said about at-home art practices.
Zach has mostly been able to find the advantages! Like all of our artists, since the pandemic began, Zach Manuel has been working diligently on his artwork at home, but he has perhaps been making more art than most and in a wider variety of styles and with an expanded range of methods.
Last year at this time, having recently gone into lockdown, as part of Autism Acceptance Month Zach wrote a post about a series he was making at the time. Flash forward, and he has continued work on that series and many more.
During the pandemic he has kept us up-to-date on his many artistic explorations and breakthroughs, zooming into virtual studio sessions, corresponding with staff about his progress by email, and keeping all lines of communication open!
This was originally to show Lucy Tanaka and Jack Brighton cleaning the Chesapeake Bay with their Cosmonia power, but I was talked into changing it to a Pittsburgh lake by our guests.
Zach created “Lucy and Jack Cleaning Up the Allegheny” during on an online workshop with fellow progressive art studio Creative Citizens Studio from Pittsburgh. It features two of Zach’s many recurring characters, Lucy Tanaka and Jack Brighton, from his sci-fi inspired universes created with Marvel-like intricacy.
One of the great things, per Zach, about working from home is the way he can document his creative process along the way, which he thinks to do now more so when he was just creating in the studio environment.
For example, here is a completed piece of Lucy, Jack and their “Team Pet” Zyx:
And here is a series about Zyx and Lucy on their many adventures in various stages, originally started in 2019 (then updated and shared with Make Studio staff in 2020):
These were drawings I did for Lucy and Zyx back in 2019. I had shared these with a friend that year. In the year 1998, 21-year old Lucy Tanaka was an art student from Earth who was chosen to be a guardian of galactic peace by an omnipotent race called the Zenith. She lives life on earth and captures wrongdoers with her Cosmo emerald.
The main assistant to the Zenith is a furry Zizzle named “Zyx” (pronounced “zixx”) who is kind of like the Team Pet to Lucy and her superiors. He has been alive for 20,000 years and has fathered 900 offspring with his mate, Luv-y. He visited Earth 15,000 years ago when it was covered in mammoths and fossils of dead dinosaurs. Zyx’s mental abilities grant him the power to travel instantly through space and create protective domes around him and his passengers. In spite of his high IQ, he still enjoys being petted and likes Lucy like a sister.
Keep an eye out for the next installment of this series, in which Zach shares how he looks to abstraction for inspiration! And in the meantime, check out Zach’s work in this year’s Autism Acceptance Month digital exhibition.
compiled by Erin Barach
Everyone can agree that working from home has advantages and disadvantages, and the same can certainly be said about at-home art practices.
Zach has mostly been able to find the advantages! Like all of our artists, since the pandemic began, Zach Manuel has been working diligently on his artwork at home, but he has perhaps been making more art than most and in a wider variety of styles and with an expanded range of methods.
Last year at this time, having recently gone into lockdown, as part of Autism Acceptance Month Zach wrote a post about a series he was making at the time. Flash forward, and he has continued work on that series and many more.
During the pandemic he has kept us up-to-date on his many artistic explorations and breakthroughs, zooming into virtual studio sessions, corresponding with staff about his progress by email, and keeping all lines of communication open!
Along with the other styles we’ve discussed this month, Zach’s work also falls into the category of portraiture. Usually centered on fictional characters, these singular scenes depict individuals and small groups at specific moments in their lives, experiencing self-realization and reflection.
Many of these character studies involve artists pursuing their dreams and honing their crafts in different genres including dance, visual art, and set design.
Here is a work-in-progress called “Art Student Bella Belissima”. Bella Bellissima is a New Yorker of Italian descent. She is an art student and model studying at the Podunk School of Art in Podunk, NY, alongside Lucy Tanaka, Jack Brighton and another (student) named Priya Krishna. She also designs her own clothes and often poses so her colleagues can sketch her. In this piece she’s posing for a sketch on her lounge. The wall tiles are multicolored, because Bella painted them that way.
Here is my piece of a ballerina on a psychedelic background. I’ve decided to name this character “Gretel von Zeppelin “.
This piece shows art students Gretchen and her older sister, Hilda, stretching and practicing their dual dance routine along with set pieces they both designed. The sisters’ stage is outside where pine trees are visible
Zach taps a wide variety of sources that inspire his creative process. As of late, he says he’s been “trying to replicate the art of animator Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Land Before Time, etc.)” He also uses “photos of real actors as reference while designing human characters.”
As always, you can check out all of Zach’s available framed and unframed works in our online shop.
Thanks for delving into Zach’s creative process with him and us this #AustismAcceptanceMonth!
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