Writing With Hopper

Designed by our Chief Storyteller Juliana Roth: Writing With Hopper debuted in 2021. From January - May, each month held four sessions (every Wednesday from 7-8:30pm EST) dove into topics that broadened not only Edward Hopper's legacy, but also the skills of participating Writers. 

JANUARY
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THE MODEL AS STORYTELLER

Models are not passive objects, they are essential to the lives of artists across disciplines yet their perspectives are rarely considered. This workshop will enliven the agency of art models with studies of Edward Hopper’s paintings of lone women, a talk  with a painter to discuss their process, and a conversation with a professional artist’s model. This workshop complicates the idea of models simply as subjects and asks writers to discuss these themes more deeply to develop a symbiotic relationship with characters of their own. 

Edward Hopper, Eleven A.M. 1926. Oil on canvas, 28 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (71.3 x 91.6 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1966

Emma Shapiro is an artist, feminist activist, and professional art model. After she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, she moved to NYC and entered the world of traditional art - as a professional art model. While modeling for artists provided her a means for income close to art-making, Shapiro's art modeling soon became an inspiration for her own body of work. Now in Valencia, Spain, Emma practices as a contemporary artist using her own body as her primary artistic tool and inspiration. She continues to model for artists in the US and Europe, and she runs figure drawing groups and drawing workshops to share her passion for art modeling with others. 

Charis J Carmichael Braun is a painter whose work is rooted in tension as she focuses on the human form and its relationship to the environment. ​Like Edward's employment of his wife (Jo Nivison), Charis' model is her spouse. Though their relationship conveniently provides a platform for Charis to use her husband in her work, he initially resisted being objectified even in the name of art. Pursuing his continued permission, Charis' imagery began to pull toward the intimacy of Degas, the mystery of Bonnard, and the oblique adoration seen in Caillebotte. Placing the male nude in situations of instability, or vulnerability, Charis' paintings broaden definitions of contemporary masculinity, the relationship between artist and muse, and the environments through which virility is described.

FEBRUARY
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​Examining the White Male Gaze Through Hopper's Frame

Contextualizing Edward Hopper within his generation and the privilege he enjoyed as an artist during his lifetime, this series will consider Hopper’s lens as a white man during periods of enormous civil rights transformation. This course will encourage writers to examine their own power and privilege, inviting us to think deeply about the stories and narratives we want to tell, and how we can engage productively with historical artifacts. We will look at some of Hopper’s artistic inspirations, including Mathew Brady’s Civil War photographs. We will be joined by a poet and a professional storyteller to discuss ideas of representation. 

Edward Hopper, Self-Portrait. 1925-1930. Oil on canvas, 25 3/8 × 20 3/8in. (64.5 × 51.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, 70.1165 © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Katie Willingham is a poet and the author of Unlikely Designs (University of Chicago Press). She earned her MFA from the Helen Zell Writers Program where she was the recipient of a Hopwood Award in Poetry. a Theodore Roethke Prize, and a Nicholas Delbanco Thesis Prize. You can find her poems in such journals as Kenyon Review. Bennington Review. Poem-A-Day. Third Coast, West Branch. Grist, and others. Her work also appears in the anthology The Mind Has Cliffs of Fall: Poems at the Extremes of Feeling edited by Robert Pinsky. She has taught both composition and creative writing at the University of Michigan. She serves as the Poetry Editor for Michigan Quarterly Review and lives in Brooklyn. NY.

Emily Couch is a Producer for Special Projects and Radio at The Moth, a storytelling nonprofit. Emily enjoys a well-spun yarn, both figuratively and literally. An avid listener, amateur writer, and occasional motormouth, she has always been drawn to stories. As her last name suggests, you may most often find her on a couch tangled in knitting and surrounded by cats.

March

​aTTENDING TO THE ENVIRONMENT, IMAGINING THE FUTURE

Knowing where to look is essential for not just the artist, but those who wish to preserve and heal our environment. How and when we pay attention to the land helps us develop an understanding of our place in the ecosystem. We will study Hopper’s paintings of nature and speak with environmental advocates and creators as we dig into a deeper relationship with the earth around us. 

Edward Hopper, Hook Mountain, Nyack, c. 1899, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest 70.1558.55 © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art

Sonia Cairo, photograph courtesy of George Pejoves

Sonia Cairo is the Executive Director / Director of Environmental Education at Keep Rockland Beautiful, a not-for-profit organization that leads efforts to clean up, beautify and protect Rockland County's environment by implementing programs that educate and empower people to share in the care and stewardship of our communities. Ms. Cairo is a NYS licensed high school social studies teacher and has an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University.​

David Pettibone is a figurative painter. He regularly exhibits and has taught painting and drawing at various schools and institutions in both New York City and Alaska. 

​Nature is the thread that sews David's paintings together. His work explores the complexities of our relationship with nature  - running the gamut from peaceful to the sublime, and from pleasant to the horrifying - and seeks to convey the visceral emotions that come about when we are reminded of just how connected to our environment we truly are.

Vera Aronow is an experienced filmmaker with a track record of award-winning work. 
She recently co-produced and edited BACKPACK FULL OF CASH, a feature documentary narrated by Matt Damon that explores the real cost of privatizing America’s public schools.   BACKPACK was screened at the Seattle, Nashville, Philadelphia and DC Film Festivals, as well in more than 400 community and educational events across the US and in 9 foreign countries, thanks to an ongoing self-distribution campaign.
 
She co-directed and edited MEGAMALL: Money, Power and Politics in the Age of Sprawl which profiles the origins of the massive Palisades Center mall. MEGAMALL screened at the Santa Barbara Film Festival as well as in environmental film festivals in Seattle, Washington DC and Kairouan, Tunisia; AFC’s Stranger than Fiction series and Jacob Burns’ Global Watch Film Series. Early in her career she was Associate Producer for Bill Moyers PBS series, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth which won a National Emmy as well as a duPont Columbia Journalism Award and remains one of the most popular series ever broadcast on public television.
 
In 1996 she founded Turnstone Productions with her husband, cinematographer Roger Grange. Turnstone creates short films and feature documentaries while also doing freelance work for other producers which appears regularly in theaters, on national television and the web.
 
Aronow also currently serves as Board Chair of Rivertown Film, the Rockland County non-profit which celebrates the art of motion pictures through screenings and educational programs.

Melanie Vote is a painter / multimedia artist originating from Iowa. Her work has been exhibited nation-wide and internationally. She was a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2006 and has been awarded numerous artist residencies including Jentel in Banner, Wyoming, KHNC for the Arts in Nebraska and the Vermont Studio Center with a full fellowship from the Dodge Foundation in 2003.  In 2017 she was an artist in residence in The Grand Canyon and is looking forward to the A.I.R. at the Weir Farm later this year.
​Melanie has taught at Parsons The New School, The New York Academy, NJCU, and Pratt Institute. Additionally, Vote has been a visiting artist at numerous schools including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

Lisa Lebofsky is a nomadic plein air painter, originally from Rockland and based in New York, who collaborates with nature and people. Lebofsky paints the susceptibility of nature, correlating its restlessness with our own human vulnerabilities. Her direct participation with the landscape, often using local materials to create her artworks, vitally imbues her work with the energy of a specific place. Lebofsky travels extensively, often to remote parts of the globe that are particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and meets with local residents to discuss how their community is impacted. To a great extent, these personal interactions inform what areas and what subject matter is ultimately painted. Recent regions visited include Antarctica, Newfoundland and Labrador, Greenland, and The Maldives. 

APRIL

​THE ARTIST AT PLAY: FOLLOWING JOY AS A CREATIVE PATHWAY

It’s okay to laugh. Sometimes artistic practices become all too serious and we forget to allow ourselves to play. This generative workshop begins with a study of several Hopper paintings and their comedic re-interpretations. We will be joined by a local poet to discuss the idea of celebration in writing and do an improvisation exercise with a comedic actress. Ultimately, this course asks students to follow their delights and welcome joy into their creative process. 

Azure Rouet McBride is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker working in directing, cinematography, writing and editing. Azure currently lives in Los Angeles and travels internationally to do her work.

She spent half a year in the south of France studying Cinema at Le Collège International de Cannes and interning at the Cannes Film Festival before moving to Brooklyn, New York to study Film at Pratt Institute. Prior to earning her degree, she studied under directors Spike Lee (Red Hook Summer,) Jonathan Demme (Marley) and worked alongside Prince as his videographer. After earning her B.F.A, Azure moved to Los Angeles to co-found The PNQ Collective (pronounced “pink,”) a women-identifying artist collective producing original films, performance art and music.  Her two films, Cleanse and Run Brother, both PNQ Collective initiatives, traveled across America in various film festivals, art galleries and showcases. In August 2019, Azure was recognized as a Featured Director at the Hip-Hop Film Festival in Harlem, NY, where her film A Star in Brooklyn was screened.

​​Caroline Cummings was raised in Nyack, New York and is now an actor and writer based in Los Angeles, California. She aims to help audiences look at themselves and others with kindness and understanding through her films and comedy. She has studied at Pace Performing Arts, The Groundlings School, and Upright Citizens Brigade. Currently she is either decorating a cake, or rewriting a script for the millionth time.

MaY

​RESTORATIVE STORYTELLING PRACTICES: RE-SEEING JO NIVISON HOPPER & MARION HOPPER

When a historical figure is minimized or erased, there is always an opportunity to re-examine their place in our memories. This course focuses on using the recently restored archives of Jo Nivison and Marion Hopper to generate creative work of our own. We will be visited by a local photographer who focuses on telling empowering stories of women and a member of our curatorial team to discuss the process of restoring these archives. This course is not only for women-identifying writers, but invites us all to think of how we can tell more complex and inclusive stories through our artistic practices. A photographer and our archival team will join us to discuss restoration and the power of images.

Edward Hopper, Jo Painting 1936. Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 45.7 cm. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Lisa Levart is an artist/activist based in the Lower Hudson Valley, NY, operating in the intersection between fine arts and social engagement. Her work has been exhibited widely and is represented in the permanent collection of the 9/11 Memorial Museum in NYC. My projects have generously been supported by funds from; the Decentralization Program of NY State Council of the Arts, the Arts Council of Rockland County and by the Eileen Fisher Community Partnership Grant. she was recognized as a finalist in the Julia Margret Cameron Awards for Women Photographers in 2015 and 2018. Her process is highly collaborative. The participating women are partners, rather than merely subjects to be captured in photographs or on video.