“I want the seat with the view,” said my granddaughter visiting me last week.
The seat, far from the seat in a helicopter bobbing up and down over the Rocky Mountains or the New York City skyscrapers, was located in one of the least exotic places I know of – right here in Princeton in Starbucks on Nassau Street.
The seat with the “awesome” view was at the table next to the window overlooking Dohm Alley, Princeton’s only living and evolving piece of public art. Created in the once desolate and ‘negative’ alleyway space between Starbucks and Landau’s on Nassau Street. The seat gives the viewer the perfect perspective to study the Alley’s newest installation – a “modern expressionist” work, titled “A Case for Impromptus.” It’s an acrylic painting by local artist Erika Rachel, who must be famous, according to my granddaughter, because she has one of those “two first-name names.”
A few weeks earlier, I had spoken with Erika at Starbucks and learned how she became the artist with two first names and the creator of the Alley’s seat-with-the-view artwork.
The concept of the Alley, described by those who conceived and implemented the project as a “portal” for art and poetry and music in Princeton, “inspired me – actually grabbed me in a way that I could not let go,” said the 32-year-old Erika.
“I was asked to join the Alley’s team of over 20 artists last year, when I was serving as a docent for Hopewell’s Tour des Arts. With that invitation, came the daunting challenge to create a piece of art that captured the spirit and current theme of the Alley,” she said.
The spirit of the Alley is the celebration of academic and aesthetic creativity that appeals to the mind and senses without proselytizing for a social or political cause. The current academic theme is understanding the Romantic poets, French philosophers and their relationship to the Industrial Age and the Age of Enlightenment.
The painting is meant to transition not only the front of the Alley (the beginning of the Industrial Age) to the back of the Alley (the end of Age of Enlightenment), but also to reflect a broader timeline that includes the influence of the Romantic poets and French philosophers.
Erika, acknowledging that she is not good with boundaries, added a contemporary a reference to her work – the Law of Attraction, a present day belief that positive thoughts are magnets for positive life experiences and negative thoughts are the magnets for negative life experiences.
“I was thrilled to participate in this project, since I have always wanted to have my work in a public installation,” said Erika. “Also, I am particularly enamored with turning negative space into something extraordinary.”
Although she has been painting most of her life, she found the years she lived in New York City (2007-2012), to be the most influential on her art and her love of negative space transformation.
“But there was a very intimidating factor in the invitation to participate in the Alley,” she said. “The Alley arts project is located in one of the world’s most renowned academic centers and has a very academic theme – and I am a high school drop out.”
The date Oct. 3, 2001 was her last day at Delaware Valley Regional High School. Erika immediately enrolled in a GED class and actually got her degree earlier than she would have gotten it if she had “gone the traditional route.”
“But I was untraditional. I always did well in my classes, generally was placed in honors classes, but could not handle the confinement of school and the boundaries. I hated the curriculum. I was restless and eager to pursue all sorts of creative endeavors. Mydrive to experience and learn about the human race and its psychology trumped all else,” she said.
Her parents, supportive of her artistic edge, knew she was destined for a career in the arts and actually were the ones to suggest that a great stage name would be a shortened version of her full name: Erika Rachel Bianconi.
Two personal and simultaneous transitions in her life – her divorce and the death of her father – had the effect of making her determined to devote her life completely to painting.
“I felt as though I could not sink much lower, so I dug my heels in and said to myself that no matter what, I was going to survive by my painting, rely on no one other than myself to define how I should lead my life,” she said.
When Erika took on the challenge of creating the Alley’s transition artwork, she approached it as though she were writing the PhD thesis that “probably is not in my future.”
“I prepared for the job by watching hours of documentaries on the Romantic Poets, scanning the internet for days learning about what day to day life was like in the 17th and 18th and 19th centuries and even made a timeline of butterfly effect moments that I felt really portrayed evidence of a globally shifting mindset,” she said. “I know the world as it is today… but I had no idea how truly different the thinking and day to day life was in the age of dogma and absolute monarchy…(prior to the time when) the Age of Enlightenment broke open the door to the field of intuition and self governing.
“Nothing in my personal history says Ivy League, but my art is meant to offer my own experience, share another point of view, and bridge those gaps in understanding to make the world a little more peaceful, enjoyable and relatable. So I couldn’t be more pleased with …connecting to this city of scholars…(and perhaps) helping to bridge the gap between the high school drop outs and the high brow academics,” said Erika whose view of art goes way beyond the view from a seat in the coffee shop.
The cooperative creative space of the Alley will be adding sculptures and performances over the course of the next few weeks. Coming up is a “moving exhibit” from dancer ‘Carrie’ on Friday, July 20, and Saturday, July 21, at 6 pm, rain or shine.
Dohm Alley, currently sponsored by Princeton Future, is the third installment in an award-winning series of Princeton public art projects that began with Quark Park and Writer’s Block. The exhibitions of Quark Park and Writers’ Block were transitory.
The Dohn Alley team, however, is looking to make the Alley project an on-going viable feature of Princeton’s landscape. For those who would like to contribute to the Alley with talent and/or fiscal support, please email: [email protected]
Anyone interested in the Erika Rachel’s artwork, which is for sale with a portion of the proceeds going towards the Alley project, please email [email protected].