Welcoming Week: Artists on the Meaning of "Home"
Welcoming Week, an initiative led and organized by Welcoming America, is a time when a chorus of thousands—in communities large and small, rural and urban—celebrate the benefits of an inclusive society and deepen their commitment to creating spaces that are welcoming to everyone, including immigrants, refugees, and other people who have been systematically excluded.
This year, the celebration will take place from September 12 - 20 and the theme is "Creating Home Together." I asked some local artists for their thoughts on what "home" means to them. I wanted to choose artists who I have felt a special connection with. People who have helped make NYPL feel like home to me. These are the artists whose work has resonated with me over my many years working with the New York Public Library.
Sam Orlandi
My home is an island, an island within an island. My island floats upon a sea of possibility. To fulfill my dreams, hopes, and aspirations, I simply go fishing, with my imagination, for the blank keys that open any lock. And although frustratingly elusive at times, it is this quiet and uncomplicated freedom, the effortless unlocking of potentiality, that brings me the most joy. I Am Home.
Peter Salwen
First off, "home" means safety and security, and comfort. And companionship, since I'm lucky enough to share my home with the companion of my heart. Beyond that, home is a work of art and craft, a constantly evolving nest with its own personality, reflecting back whatever you happen to bring to it. After 42 years, our Upper West Side apartment is still a work-in-progress, an endless collaborative project shared with my wife (who actually gets credits for the best bits).
But today the word "home" also stirs up feelings of sorrow and anger, and sometimes despair, for the millions around the world—and increasingly so in our own deeply flawed country—who have little or nothing in the way of secure shelter, thanks to "the vast right-wing conspiracy." (And yes, it is real. Just because it isn't secret, that doesn't mean it's not a conspiracy.) So it's complicated.
A small word, "home," but one that conjures up the best and the worst of the human condition.
Bobbi Beck
I remember back when I was a child and was always considered to be the quiet one in my family home. Being happy to spend hours on end drawing and painting created a special place for me. I always thought no one else was interested in what I had to say with the personal messages woven into each piece of my art. Then when others started saying that my work expressed their same feelings and emotions that they felt, I realized that my world was their world too. Later with my new family of all artists, home became my special place to create tapestries, paintings, drawings and sculpture as my visual voice.
Separated from others and being limited in my love of traveling, my art became the vehicle to unlock my confinement and become mentally mobile again.
Back in the day when family members were free to be physically close to each other, I spent every Friday with my granddaughters. This drawing was created on a sleepover when they were young and naps were the norm. Now I long for the days when we can hug again for real, instead of 6-foot air hugs.
Isolated from other family members during this pandemic has been difficult for everyone, and I especially miss being close to my grown daughter. Holidays were always a big part of our home life and now it’s all about Skyping or communicating with half-covered faces. I cannot wait for family life to be back to where it was, so we can all express our love face to face.
Susan Lerner
NYC is home to over 8 million diverse residents. People from all walks of life immigrated to the US through Ellis Island, including my grandparents and great-grandparents. The collages in this series represent NYC as home and community and are a metaphor for connection. Streets, like arteries that connect our circulatory system, connect our boroughs and neighborhoods together and are literally the lifeline of our city. These surreal vintage images are grounded in our connection to each other, past and present. I am privileged to call NYC my home.
Rossella BLUE Mocerino
Home is the place I cannot reach now: Venice. Although I do not live or work there, Venice is the place where I feel safe to take the greatest risks. Through these last six months of isolation and travel bans, this magical and mysterious place has been with me. I am working on a series of paintings I refer to as ‘my number paintings’. The number refers to the house number of a Venetian residence. At that address, you will also find the architectural relief that ends up in the painting and of course, since these are my paintings, a masked figure from the Venice Carnival finds its way into the work. So you see, I can’t get to Venice but I am in Venice.
The arrow in this painting refers to a plaque found on the pavement in front of this address. It reads: " Here lived Bartolomeo Meloni Born in 1900 Arrested as a political prisoner 4.10.1943 Deported Dachau Dead 9.7.1944
Since 1993, I have attended the Venice Carnival every year to get renewed inspiration but also because one can never take for granted that what is today, will be the same tomorrow. Well, this year the last two days of Carnevale were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. The last masked figure I saw in Piazza San Marco was holding a skull. Little did I know how relentlessnessly appropriate that image would be.
Ner Beck
Being creative at home is the only way I have ever worked during my career as an artist and art director. After graduating from art college in 1966, I have always felt comfortable working endless hours from daybreak to the wee hours of the night meeting deadlines in my home office. When I retired 10 years ago, I could not stop capturing and creating images, continuing to do artwork and photography to this day still at home. My wife Bobbi Beck and daughter Melinda Beck, are also artists and this made the perfect family unit for endlessly spinning creativity together, while feeding off of each other’s imagination and energy. Now my granddaughters are carrying on the family art torch, each in her own unique way.
Many students do not know if school will be at home alone or in a classroom with others, ready to be armed with extra PPE and anxious to get back to learning once again.
Two old loved and well worn stuffed animals together that our daughter had as a child in the 1960s now dealing with life in the year 2020.
Getting up early every morning at sunrise, and snapping on my protective gloves, before leaving home each day to venture out safely beyond my front door.
Jordan Allen
Home means so many things to me. But when I think about home, the first word that comes to mind is change. When I returned from at Ohio University, I came back to a version of Brooklyn that was drastically different from the one that I grew up in. There was a multibillion dollar sports complex on the corner where I used to get my Christmas trees. Williamsburg went from a crack infested neighborhood to one of the hotbeds of New York City. All of the places that I was told not to go as a child became hubs of art and entertainment. Needless to say, home for me means growth, change and living in the tension of changing times.
Jordan Allen is a NYC-based content creator. After pursuing his B.S in Integrated Media, Jordan went back home, to Brooklyn, where he began his career as a video editor and photographer. Specializing in lifestyle and concert photography, Jordan uses NYC's diverse landscapes, people, and venues as a platform to show the city's beauty, struggle, and undeniable humanity.
Explore more ways the Library creates home through virtual programming, multicultural blogs, multilingual resources, and more.
Read E-Books with SimplyE
With your library card, it's easier than ever to choose from more than 300,000 e-books on SimplyE, The New York Public Library's free e-reader app. Gain access to digital resources for all ages, including e-books, audiobooks, databases, and more.
If you don’t have an NYPL library card, New York State residents can apply for a digital card online or through SimplyE (available on the App Store or Google Play).
Need more help? Read our guide to using SimplyE.