True Colors

Allison Maletz shares her favorite pieces and what inspires her daily.

Watercolor maven Allison Maletz is the brush behind a plethora of classes at Brooklyn Art Space & Trestle. We sat down with her to learn a bit more about what inspires her, what makes her classes unique, and where to find her favorite barbecue in the Big Apple.

Can you remember the first moment you felt inspired to make art?

I’ve been an artist since I entered kindergarten. Honestly, it’s the only thing I’ve ever felt that I’m truly good at, or that I’ve devoted myself to unconditionally. The older I got in school, the more that fact became obvious to my teachers, my parents, and myself.

The moment I got my acceptance letter to the Rhode Island School of Design, I dropped my high school chemistry class! I struggled so much in other subjects, but I always felt happy and compelled to push myself further and harder when it came to making art.

What piece are you most proud of, and why? What challenges did you face making it?

I’d say that 70% of the watercolor paintings that I create are the hardest thing I’ve ever made. I’d be bored to death if I just knocked out easy stuff (or stuff that’s “easy to sell”), so I go bigger, or more detailed—or do something different each time.

In the last three years, I’ve been making watercolor paintings that challenge the “rules” that most people (including myself) teach about how to make watercolors. Good examples of this are my 5’x4.5’ “Albino Peacock” painting and 7’x9’ “White Horse” diptych. These challenged me because we don’t traditionally use white paint in watercolor—it’s opaque, and watercolor is a transparent medium, so it’s particularly challenging to paint white subject matter.

Paintings by Allison Maletz

The other challenge about those works is the scale, which is unusual for this medium (it’s usually thought of as a sketch medium or craft). A several-foot-long paper roll can be quite unruly when you’re working with literal pools of water that always fight gravity or dry at different rates!

And lastly, I create one more challenge for myself, which are the detailed self-referential patterns that decorate each of these paintings. These patterns are often more laborious to execute than the main subject of the painting, but I feel they’re an important juxtaposition to the loose pooling or dripping watercolor in the bodies of the animals.

How did you come to teach at Brooklyn Art Space & Trestle?

I’ve had the pleasure of working at Trestle for over five years. It all started with a one-time Professional Practices for Artists lecture that I ran, and then I started doing one-time watercolor workshops. For the last three years, we’ve run five-week workshops.

Trestle has grown into a wonderful workplace, with consistently high-quality classes and wonderful students. I can honestly say that I love my job. I adore the subject matter that I teach, which is endlessly interesting for me. My students are amazing, intelligent people from all walks of life that challenge and inspire me every day.

I’m thrilled to be a part of this quality non-profit run by hardworking people. They treat me with so much respect, and I feel exactly the same way about them.

Can you tell us more about your mixed media work? How do you draw parallels between sound, photography, and watercolor? How do you relate different media to one another to create a cohesive idea?

At its core, all of my work is about communication between two or more parties. Sometimes this communication is broken, and sometimes it’s a dialogue between different species. At the end of the day, that’s the conceptual link between all of the work.

It’s really important for me to be able to jump between mediums, because I occasionally fall into ruts, kind of like writer’s block. When this happens, it’s really important and rejuvenating to be able to switch things up entirely. It’s an alternative to giving up, taking a break, or being frustrated!

Sometimes I come up an idea that just won’t work as a painting, or I take a photograph that’s better as a photograph—or I want to manipulate that photograph to the point where it needs to be a painting, because it’s just not good enough as a photograph!

The interesting thing about sound installation is that the audience reacts in a completely different way than they react when they’re looking at paintings or photos. It’s really easy to walk past a painting and just glance at it, but people react much more emotionally when they’re listening to sound, especially if they think it’s “real.”

Media or time-based artwork demands a different kind of response from the audience, and I find it really refreshing to be able to bounce between mediums for that reason.

Do you have any advice for people first setting out to learn watercolor or drawing?

My advice is to always start with a drawing class (even though watercolor is my favorite non-toxic medium!) No matter whether you want to become a sculptor, graphic designer, woodworker, jewelry designer, architect, or painter—I think that having a foundation in drawing is absolutely imperative. It will give you confidence and a leg up when it comes to making your dreams happen in virtually any art medium.

So much of what we do today is on the computer, so it feels really good to use your hands and make something in the same way that people have been making things for thousands of years.

The other thing I like about these classes, be it watercolor or drawing, is that if you make a mistake, nothing bad is going to happen! There are no negative repercussions. Many of my students are in careers that are entirely different from the art-making world, and it feels really good to just do something creative, fun, and social while learning a valuable skill.

What makes your classes unique?

I love that classes are five weeks, because I really enjoy getting to know my students as we work together week after week. My subject matter is open enough that students can be creative in their own right, and it’s nothing like those “copy the teacher copying someone else’s famous painting” classes. It’s really important to me that students leave the class genuinely knowing legitimate techniques so they can draw or paint any subject matter of their choosing.

There’s also an awesome barbecue place and the best pie in Brooklyn around the corner. Art, smoked food, and dessert all within one block. Need I say more?

Ready to wield a brush? Browse and book a watercolor class with Allison at Brooklyn Art Space & Trestle.