Spotlight on Nick Golebiewski
/BY CARA SCHAEFER
It’s hard to keep a resolution for even a few months, but visual artist Nick Golbiewski has kept his for nearly seven years.
The resolution involves daily drawings, outdoors. We spoke with Nick about how this project came about and about connecting with nature in even the most urban of environments.
PHOTO COURTESY NICK GOLEBIEWSKI
OUT THERE: What made you start the Nick’s Lunchbox Service Art Project?
NICK GOLEBIEWSKI: It started on New Year’s Day as a sort of New Year’s resolution: “I’m going to make a drawing every day.” So that’s one aspect of it, this desire to make something every single day. And also at that time in my studio I was working on these large, intricate paintings of city scenes in New York City that would take me three or four months to finish. So there were these long-term projects and also I can finish something in one minute if I need to, and it’s done for the day. That was the genesis of the project.
OT: How has this project made you appreciate nature more, especially in urban settings?
NG: My rules for the project are it has to be made on site and then photographed that day and then posted, eventually, that day. Looking through New York City and going through the seasons, it’s a call to find the magnolia blossoms blooming in the spring and chasing those. Looking back over the years, I can see this magnolia bloomed two weeks earlier than last year; it’s like these sparks of beauty. And also a way of connecting to the outside even if you’re in New York City. I live in Greenwich Village, and there’s lots of buildings but also little gardens around all the trees and the little square of dirt that’s cut out of the sidewalk. And I’m right next to the Hudson River. It’s great being able to be out there and stare at the water in the Hudson River and make a drawing of it for ten minutes.There’s always finding something happening and appreciating what’s there.
OT: Is there any one drawing in particular that has a fun story behind it?
NG: There’s a fun one just a few days ago where we were walking along the creek in Highbanks Park and my kids started talking to some other kids, at distance, because we’ve been starved socially.When drawings bring up conversations with people, I think that’s when I feel the most successful or interesting. As an artist I’m always really psyched when one day I’ll make a drawing of the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum and they’ll retweet that drawing. It makes me feel like, “Wow people are listening”.
PHOTO COURTESY NICK GOLEBIEWSKI
OT: Have you ever had to do one in just absolutely terrible weather?
NG: Yes! I remember this crazy snowstorm, walking out to the Hudson River. You could hardly even see the horizon of New Jersey. I think my drawing was one line across a paper: okay here’s the separation between sky and earth. Even that line stopped working halfway through with the pen and all the snow falling on it. That’s one of the most weather adverse ones, but since then I’ve learned that pencil works a lot better in the rain or snow.
OT: What are some tips you have for people who want to draw and paint on the go?
NG: Just make it very portable and small scale. I always carry a small sketchbook with me and recently a couple of pencils and a small sharpener. That’s all you need. I’ve added in watercolor lately and so that means a small watercolor set and an old, single-serving yogurt cup I’ve been reusing for a year now that I just fill up with a little water from a water bottle. And for me, the other thing is a phone to take a picture of it on site afterwards. For example, I would draw and paint the left half of the bridge at Highbanks Park in Columbus and then let the photograph show the right half so that the different sides could talk to each other.
OT: I really like those tips. You can start with the basics.
NG: Yeah I’ve been leading a couple Zoom drawing workshops this pandemic, and usually I start with doing a blind contour drawing in these workshops. It’s a sketch where you’re just looking at an object, and you put your mark making tool down to the paper, and you’re not allowed to look down at your paper nor pick up the pencil. It’s one continuous line, so if you’re drawing somebody’s face it will end up having this beautiful line quality where you are really looking at someone’s glasses and their nose but when you look down at the paper afterwards it’s like this face slanting across the page. Usually you get somebody to laugh once they look at that, but it also loosens up the drawing technique. Draw every day. It kind of works, you get better.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
PHOTO COURTESY NICK GOLEBIEWSKI
To see more of Nick’s work, visit his website, follow him on Instagram, or support him on Patreon.
