These are the first eleven pages of American Colon, a graphic memoir of the period in my life when I was dealing with colon cancer. I hope this work is entertaining and educational! It’s certainly been good for me to make it. This is just the beginning of this ongoing project.
Artist Talk for Jonny Goldstein’s American Colon: A Graphic Memoir of Cancer, Survival, and Hope + Adam Nadel’s Collodion Photography
Hi there! You are invited to a live reading and slideshow of my comic-in-progress, American Colon. In it, I explore my raw experience of coping with my recent diagnosis of colon cancer. Afterward, I will take questions and comments from you and the rest of the audience. Our local neighborhood art/performance/and culinary space Espresso 77 is graciously hosting the event.
This should be a lot of fun. My story, despite the painful moments (or maybe because of them) is punctuated by humor and acts of kindness. And in case you were wondering, I’m doing OK now!
Where: Espresso 77 35-57 77th St, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 (Google Maps Link)
When: 7:30-9PM, Weds, Oct 13
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Another local artist, Adam Nadel will also be sharing his photography work (remotely as he is currently in Costa Rica). Here is the description:
“Since the start of the pandemic I have been experimenting with the collodion process, a 150 year old photographic technique. I am using this process to document children's toys as a form of personal expression and cultural exploration.
I make my own 20” x 20” photo-sensitive plates using a bath of silver nitrate. Then I contact print a transparent positive print on the still wet plate. While holding the 20” x 20” plate like a fancy waiter holds a tray, I then pour developer onto the exposed plate, and slowly move the chemistry back-and-forth until processed.”
This program is made possible by the New York City Artist Corps. CAC generously supported both of these projects.
American Colon Wins CAC Grant! Here's a Sample.
Hi People! I’m pleased to report that my graphic cancer-memoir-in-progress, American Colon, won a City Artist Corps grant. Hurray! I will be doing a public event TBA to share the project in-progress. Here is an excerpt which deals with my initial misdiagnosis and arrival to my first hospital visit.
Exploring Colon Cancer Through Comics
I was diagnosed with colon cancer in April. I’ve been documenting my experience through making a comic. Here is a sample.
Animated Video About Materials & Methods Class at CCNY Art Ed
I was recently honored to be commissioned to create a series of animated shorts for the CCNY Art Education Department explaining a little bit about a few of their core courses. I’m currently in my last semester in their Advanced Certification program, after which I hope to be teaching kids art at a school somewhere in NYC. In this animated short, Natalia Nakazawa, instructor of the Materials and Methods in Art Education course at the City College of New York, talks about how this studio based class is a place to learn to dig deep to find answers and to give and receive feedback on teaching to make each other the best teachers we can be. Animation and music by me, Jonny Goldstein, with support from the Therese McCabe Ralston Connor Awards.
Etch A Sketch Eye
One thing I love about Hanukah is that I get to play with my kid’s toys! Her uncle got her an Etch A Sketch and when she was not using it, I decided to take it for a spin. It’s been awhile, but it was like riding a bike. This is image was my first drawing on it.
Helping young artists grow
I love helping young people express their feelings and thoughts through visual art. Right now I’m working 1-on-1 with a 9 year old boy who is especially interested in drawing. We explore lots of things, from imaginative collaborative drawing activities, to anatomy, to perspective, to facial expressions, to visual storytelling and animation. One thing I like to get him to do regularly is to draw directly from observation. This image was drawn from looking at a deer skull which he found on a hike and brought home. He was really looking at the contours as well as the areas of light and shadow and that shows up here.
Juneteenth Chalk Drawing
BLM Banner in Travers Park
Some folks commissioned me to make a painted banner on canvas to hang in a neighborhood park in Queens New York. I loved going big! It stayed up for about two weeks whereupon it and all the written testimonies in memory of various victims of police violence which hung around it were disappeared by, I guess the park authorities. I wish I had some pics with people in them. It was neat to see it as a backdrop for all the park activity.
Cover That Snout!
People who don’t cover their noses with their masks drive me nuts, so I decided to channel my frustration into this educational graphic. You can purchase it on a t-shirt, a face mask, coffee mug, throw pillow, etc, right here.
Arise and rebuild
The progressive Jewish community, Malkhut, (which I am part of) commissioned me to make this graphic for their virtual high holidays observances. The Hebrew words “nakoom uvaneenu” mean “arise and build.” While this was uttered by the prophet Nehemiah when the Jews returned from exile to Jerusalem over 2400 years ago to start rebuilding the city, they apply equally to everybody all around the world today as we strive to build a better society. Rabbi Goldenberg was open to whatever visual interpretation of the words that moved me. I love the forms of Hebrew letters, so I suggested using the words themselves in the image. At one point in my life I lived on top of one of the big hills in Jerusalem where the spectacular sunsets imprinted themselves onto my memory, so I tried to reflect some of that energy in this image. Finally, nobody rises up and builds alone. Building is a community effort. I endeavored to show that in this work which is part of our communal effort to rise up and rebuild our lives, our society, and our future.
Buy My Art Here!
Hi Folks! You can buy art prints of my work by going here. The link will take you to Redbubble.com which gives you the option to order everything from posters to pants with prints of my art on them! I’ll add more works soon, but for now the above options are available. And if you are interested in staying up to date with my art thoughts, tips, and new work, email me at JonnyGoldstein(AT)gmail.com and I”ll put you on my newsletter list! Enjoy!—-Jonny
Celebrating my way to learning to ride the unicycle
Jogging was killing my knees, so I decided to find a lower impact (and more fun) way to exercise. To that end, I decided to learn to ride the unicycle. To make sure I associated positive feelings to the inevitable slog of learning a new skill, I made sure to work in little celebrations to my practice process. Every time I mounted the unicycle, I gave myself a little silent cheer. I repeated the cheer when I got my feet and pedals in the right position. Then at the end, when I dismounted (or bailed out), I celebrated, sometimes silently, or sometimes out loud as I did in this video. Why the celebration? BJ Fogg, the celebrated psychologist maintains that celebration is key to accelerating the formation of new habits. In my case, adding these celebration moments made me crave getting on my unicycle, and made me feel good whether I went three feet, or three hundred!
New York State of Mind
This city is enough to perplex the most worldly residents and visitors. I love this city, but sometimes it leaves me scratching my head, as I tried to convey in this illustrated collage. If you want a print, contact me and we'll make it happen!
Subway Series Exhibit
Thanks for everybody who came out to the opening for Subway Series! It was so fun. These are cropped versions of what was on display. The first three canvases shown at top left are for sale, the subway rider/map collages were all sold out, but I can make more should you want one. Please get in touch if you are interested in taking one of these to your home or office.
Subway Series-Art Opening Featuring Work by Jonny Goldstein and John Kitses
John Kitses and I are going to have a two person show based on our subway sketches at E77 in Jackson Heights, Queens. The opening is 6-9PM on March 16. Come celebrate art and the NYC subway system with us! E77 is a creative space in Jackson Heights which combines art gallery, music venue, and restaurant/cafe. The owners are architects, and one of them is a painter, so it's set up to display visual art.
We're calling the show Subway Series. In this case, it's not a series of baseball games between the Mets and the Yankees, it's a series of artworks based on drawings of people on the New York Subway. That's John's head down at the end of the train as he sketches while standing.
Yesterday, we rode the 7 train starting in Jackson Heights to the end of the line at Hudson Yards, then back into Queens to Flushing, and ending up back in Jackson Heights. The whole way we drew people we saw. The subway is a natural subject for us. It's the circulatory system of this metropolis, the place all of us come together, and it's a place we spend significant chunks of our lives. Might was well turn it into art, both to celebrate it, and to give us something interesting to do while we ride, right?
John and I use different approaches. He starts sketching in pencil, and then lays ink down over the graphite. I work directly with ink, using whatever marker I've got with me. Above is a sample of John's pencil sketching.
Here's an example of one of his inked drawings (this one of me, as I sketch him!).
I'm going to collage my drawings (or prints of them) onto painted textures like the above canvas. John is still figuring out how he's going to show his work.
People are often so lost in their own worlds on the subway, it's usually easy to find someone to draw. This one is one of mine. You may wonder why John and I are doing the show together. When the co-owner of E77 offered me show awhile back, I asked him if I could include John---I love his work, and I like collaborating with people. See you on the subway! And I hope at E77
Zzzzzzz...This show guaranteed to keep you awake. This guy could use a little wakeup in his life! Don't be like him! Come to the opening!
Reboot Talk: Cultivating Friendships on Emergent Platforms in an Age of Disconnection
In this video, I show my personal response a widespread phenomenon in the USA, the shrinking number of close friendships for adults. In our diverse, geographically mobile, individualistic, technologically mediated society, people are becoming more socially isolated, with an average of two close friends per adult. If two is the average, that means a lot of people have less. Whatever the national reality, a few years ago, after having moved around the country multiple times in a short time period, I found my network of close friends had shrunk, and I decide to take matters into my own hands to see if I could improve my situation. Watch the video to see what happened in this illustrated talk.
Notes; I gave this talk at the Reboot Workshop, an adult career exploration workshop produced by Nate Cooper at qLabs in NYC.
What a Visual Sensemaking Workshop Looks Like--Rocked Out Edition
It's one thing to describe what a visual sensemaking workshop looks like,it's another to see it. In this time lapse video, you can see what happens once you put markers into peoples' hands and visual frameworks into their minds and let people start interacting to help them communicate, understand and plan complex projects.
Notes: Absurdly rocked out music by John Sully, timelapse photography by Scott Stead, video editing by Jonny Goldstein. Workshop was hosted at Independents Hall, Philly's premiere coworking community. The URL at the end of the video no longer exists, but that's life on the Internets.
Visual Listening at the ITP Obamathon
This is a video features footage of me creating large scale visual notes to capturethe background information and ideas for creative projects at the NYU-ITP site of the Obamathon. The Obamathon was a hackathon to create interactive art projects using social media datasets derived from the use of social media by the Obamas and the Obama White House during the "First social media presidency." The Obamathon was one of series of official efforts for organizations to make use of these datasets. Here is the official White House Statement.
Viva la mess!
A polished creative project often starts with a big mess. In my experience, I have to get a lot of ideas out there, and only after I've done that, edit, select, and sequence to make the final product. In this case, this is a whiteboard where I'm working out how to present my past work and proposed future work for an artist fellowship at an NYC based organization which looks at how the explosion of data and technology to exploit that data is influencing our society. The final product will be a new portfolio page, a summary of a project proposal , a full length project proposal, a cover letter, and a resume. If I am accepted to the fellowship, this will fund several polished pieces (which of course will be prefaced by a lot of messiness). Pardon my French when I say, "Viva la mess!"