Crazy Stable

For those of you who thought that you could find refuge from Brooklyn's plague of artists in the leafy precincts of Victorian Flatbush, think again! Just because our neighborhood is  more porch-swing-and-gingerbread  than post-industrial gritty doesn't mean that we're not crawling with creative types, too.  And this weekend, you can visit them in their lairs for free on our first Artists Studio Tour! (It's conveniently the same weekend as the Victorian Flatbush House Tour, which happens this Sunday; the Studio Tour runs from noon to five both Saturday and Sunday.)

No, the CrazyStable is not on the tour; the studio where I engage in desultory flings with the book arts is tucked away on our top floor, and the logistical and housekeeping hurdles were just too daunting. (The whole scruffy-but-hip thing works a lot better in a loft.) But I will be showing some stuff in the lusciously appointed home of dear friend and studio tour founder/rabble-rouser Karen Friedland, who conjured this event out of the same fertile imagination that produces her vibrant paintings.

We had an opening reception for a group show tonight spread across two  local coffee shops, Connecticut Muffin and Vox Pop (above), on Cortelyou Road (both good places to start the tour this weekend, they'll have maps). I converted an accordion book from my Transformation Psalter to a sort of vertical triptych for the show;  it was the first time I've seen my work hung in a public place since high school, and it was ridiculously gratifying.

As was the proclamation issued to our fledgling project by Borough Prez Marty Markowitz (and presented by his stand-in, a lovely and self-possessed young lady named Jamilah Joseph, on the right next to impresario Karen). Everyone acts bemused by these proclamations, but they are big and beautifully lettered and secretly, we love them when they're all about us.

 Some day, maybe the tour will include my book-art atelier right here in the Stable. Until then, hope I see you in elegant borrowed digs this weekend.