by Bill Batson
On June 16, 2012, over 100 artists came together in Nyack to create a composite landscape portrait of the village. The often solitary act of making visual art was transformed into a public performance as part of ART WALK, an annual arts festival. Professionals and amateurs, adults and children stood 12 paces apart along a half-mile stretch of Broadway to capture every inch of this busy river village thoroughfare. This experiment in collective craftsmanship created an extraordinary work of collaborative art. The combined effort of almost 200 hands produced feelings of unity and wonder in their wake.
The work of the Flash Sketch Mob is presented here in a slide show curated by Kris Burns with a sound track provided by Nyack resident and professional composer John Gromada. There is also an alphabetical index by name and image in my column on NyackNewsandViews.com
Gromada, a composer who recently won a Drama Desk Award for outstanding sound design for Gore Vidal’s Best Man, joined the Flash Sketch Mob with wife Barbara Cohig and their daughters. The sound track for the Flash Mob Gallery includes four works: The Old Masters, Bow Music, Prelude to a Kiss Act II and Toby and Andrew.
The Flash Sketch Mob will now be transformed into a Flash Sketch Map. The artworks will be combined to create a digital street-view map of Nyack.
The Flash Sketch Gallery contains the work of over 90 artists (and one poet), but none of this would have been possible without the efforts of 44 volunteers who shared their time and unique talents to accomplish this goal. Without these volunteers and generous support from the Village of Nyack and several not-for-profit organizations and local businesses, this community art event would not have been possible.
Thank you for making last year’s dream a June 16, 2012 reality.
Bill Batson,
Organizer, Flash Sketch Mob
Untitled Poem submitted to the Flash Sketch Mob by local poet and activist Diana Wilkins
Remember the brick/ red/ dusty/ a story that has too many/ words not/ enough time/ this is what/ we/ think we remember/ before pavement/ and bell towers/ cobblestone like sin/ tells time/ poems not spoken/ we are/ the spoken/ the un-written verse of yesterday’s punctuation/ this is untold/ told over again/ again, over/ over/ like erected building/ handmade plaster/ too many semi-colons later/ I sit here/ looking for that 4-leaf clover/ the wish in between the sedimentary/ rock/ and top of sky/ sprouted with tree branches/ this reminds me of/ us/ her/ them/ the un-told story/ a love/ lost/ forgiven and re-found/ there is a love letter below the brick/ stamped/ waiting for/ you/ I/ go ahead/ open your eyes/ tell me/ what it speaks/ re-tell this/ differently
Special thanks to some of the people who helped turn a good idea into a great event.
| Nyack Mayor Jen Laird White | Valerie Nivar | |
| Orangetown Supervisor Andy Stewart | John Papas | |
| Kim Cross, Executive Director, Nyack Center | Hal Parker, The Corner Frame Shop | |
| Paulette Ross, P.Ross Boutique | Ivan Pazlamatchev | |
| Barbara Atwell | Carlo Pelligrini, Amazing Grace Circus | |
| Sue Barrasi | Sylvia Petersen | |
| Kris Burns | Ann Pierre-Jean | |
| Barbara Caress | Wendy Pierre-Jean | |
| Giveler Durandisse | Jim Politi, Nyack Village Administrator | |
| Annie Edwards | Richard Quinn, Nyack Village Theatre | |
| Joseph Giannella | Ryan Robert Richardson | |
| Jan Haber, The Nyack Villager | Angie Sampath, Nyack’s Little Schoolhouse | |
| Ellen Hilburg | Matthew Seig, Rivertown Films | |
| Nicole Hines | Shantel Sellers | |
| Andrew Hurst | Betty Smith, CustomShirtPlace.com | |
| Tracy Kachtick-Anders, Vincent’s Ear | James Vital | |
| Glen Keene, Esq. | Shameeka Webb | |
| Brooke Malloy-Ortiz | Andrew Wellington | |
| Loraine Machlin | Jack White | |
| Poku Mensah | Mary White, Nyack Village Clerk | |
| Pam Moskowitz, Nyack Farmer’s Market | Ray Wright | |
| Jane Newman | Dave Zornow, NyackNewsAndViews.com |