Join us to celebrate Pinney Library's art installation “Color Play – Making the World a Little More Rainbow” created by 2023 Pinney Studio Artist-in-Residence bernie & zuzu! There will be a creative art activity inspired by Bernie's installation, light refreshments, and showcase of the color-filled installation created by bernie & zuzu. Bernie will be present to talk about her vision for this installation and how it was created with much help from community members from February-November 2023.
From February – November 2023, Bernie Witzack of bernie & zuzu was the Pinney Library Artist In Residence. Her residency was titled “Color Play – Making the World a Little More Rainbow.” Over the ten months, Bernie held weekly drop-in art making sessions, taught evening workshops in drawing and printmaking, and led participants on an art installation journey – transforming the Pinney art studio into a room of color – a Rainbow Room! The residency was an exploration of color, shape, mark-making, and abstraction through Bernie’s own improvisational process with an emphasis on creativity and flow. During the residency, Bernie focused on the mediums of drawing, mixed media, collage, printmaking, painting, and installation art.
Along with the amazing Rainbow Room, this Celebration will unveil Adventures in Color Play, an exhibit grown out of Bernie’s experience as the Pinney Artist in Residence. Adventures in Color Play aims to be several things at once: a documentation of Bernie’s residency, a continuation of the themes of the residency, and a distillation of moments and memories from the residency into a small intimate scale. After the installation/Rainbow Room was completed, Berne took some time to process and reflect on her experience at Pinney. The drawings you see here are both an expression of Bernie’s experience and were inspired by artwork in the Rainbow Room - made by community members (you!).
Bernie would like to thank the Pinney Library staff, the Bubbler staff of Madison Public Libraries, and YOU, the community who welcomed her to Pinney and spent time with her making art in the Pinney Art Studio.
bernie & zuzu
***Facebook event linked here: https://www.facebook.com/events/290828537205131
Artist Bio:
bernie & zuzu is named for Bernie Witzack and her cat Zuzu. At bernie & zuzu, we create handmade, hand-painted, and screen-printed goods in small batches. We specialize in unique, one-of-a-kind art, home goods, accessories and prints with a special emphasis on bright, bold color and playful shapes. We hope our artwork and goods inspire tiny moments of beauty, wonder and joy. We work out of our eastside Madison studio and at Madison’s Printmaking Collective, Polka Press.
Bernie studied Studio Art at Beloit College and has been making and exhibiting her art ever since. She earned an MFA in Fine Art from the University of Michigan, focusing on improvisational drawing and painting. She also studied graphic design at Madison College and was working as a graphic designer before leaving the field to focus on her art full time. She launched bernie & zuzu in 2021.
You can find bernie & zuzu online at www.bernieandzuzu.com.
Follow bernie & zuzu on social media, @bernieandzuzu.
This project was made possible by generous funding from the Friends of the Pinney Library and Madison Public Library Foundation's continuing support.