“Friend Request,” an artistic and very personal form of social media, will be on view at Winifred Weiss’ studio window, 17 Church St., Lambertville, N.J., Oct. 22 through Nov. 30, any time (you can look in from the street), with a reception on Nov. 5.
Gwenn Seemel, full-time artist for nearly 20 years, TEDx speaker, and recipient of a Puffin Foundation grant, whose her career is featured as an example in “How To Sell Your Art Online,” a comprehensive guide published by Harper Collins in 2016, decided in 2020 to quit social media.
She still sells her art online, but without the distraction: Seemel made the unusual choice of making her own book of faces, an analog reboot of “the Zuckerverse” where, instead of following accounts, she sat down with the real-life people behind them in her new hometown of Lambertville. She chatted with these humans, and sometimes their pets, photographing them and then making paintings from those photos.
“Friend Request” is the title of these 44 portraits of the people and pets of Lambertville who’ve made Seemel feel the most welcome, including an image of Carolyn Gadbois, the owner of Union Coffee, featured on Seemel’s blog.
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