Jonathan Griffin

Criticism and essays on art and culture

Tag: Creative Growth

Marlon Mullen

Marlon Mullen. Untitled. 2017. Acrylic on canvas, 36 × 36″ (91.4 × 91.4 cm). Collection Brad and Clare Hajzak © 2024 Marlon Mullen

Before Marlon Mullen begins a painting, he likes to tidy his work space. He’ll pre-mix his paints — Golden acrylics in recycled pots — and lay out his brushes and canvas on his table. Often, he’ll empty the studio’s trash cans. Sometimes he’ll even sweep the yard outside, or rearrange objects on the studio shelves according to their relation to colors he plans to use in his painting. As I learned when I visited him in Richmond, Calif., one recent rainy morning, this ritual process can take days.

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Creative Growth

Dan Miller, “Untitled” (2021) Courtesy: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

In 1974, Florence Ludins-Katz and Elias Katz — she an artist, he a psychologist — turned the garage of their Berkeley home into an art studio for adults with developmental disabilities. Across California at that time, people with a range of disabilities were being deinstitutionalized, with little provision made for them after their release. The Katzes viewed art-making as a pathway not only to personal fulfillment for disabled people, but also to their integration into a society that valued their work.

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