Marie is an artist in residence at Coney Island USA, a non-profit artist group operating on the fabled Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn, NY. Marie creates the eye-grabbing banners that adorn the exterior walls of the Coney Island Sideshow below, pulling passers-by in off of the boardwalk to see the latest and greatest attractions! Marie has an incredibly demanding scheduling, spending half of her time in the art studio and the other half teaching art across the river at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. Aspiring artists should listen carefully to Marie’s time-tested advice for personal success!
Transcript
>> That's right guys come on over here right over here to the front of the stage so you can see it my friends. You're going to see them all, the Greeks, the wonders and the human curiosities. Come on up my friends. She's not going to bite. >> My name is Marie A. Roberts. I am Artist in Residence at Coney Island USA, the non for profit art center located right here in Coney Island. I'm also a full professor of art at [inaudible] University in Teaneck New Jersey. My week is usually split into studio days or school days, so if it's a studio day I try to get down here to my studio, which is located in a historic Child's building. What I do here as artist in residence: We are home to the world famous Coney Island Circus Side Show and a side show traditionally means flash or paintings on the outside. So I'm in charge of making the paintings that travel with the show that adorn our building to drag people in to see the show and these paintings are traditionally called banners. They're painted on a canvas and we use the twenty first century acrylic paint so they can be rolled and they can stay out in the weather and be weather tight. This is the first studio I've had where people actually come in to see me. I'm very private. I think it's because you're in a conversation with your work. You know we're always asking yourself how do I make this better? How do I adjust it? So think if you're not somebody who can't [inaudible] the solitude it's probably not the profession for you and in a way I like the solitude because I teach seven days a week so I'm really on and I'm trying to figure out how to take visual terms and translate them not only into English but into language that somebody whose never picked up a pencil can understand.
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