Trenton Artists Alliance Eyes 'ANEW' Start at ACP

The ANEW Artists Alliance is a cooperative of self-taught, Trenton-based visual artists who met nearly 25 years ago as patrons of the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Since its inception in 2001, the group has evolved from being based at TASK, a social service organization at 72 1/2 Escher Street in Trenton, to a project exhibiting at the Arts Council of Princeton from Saturday, April 20, through Friday, May 24, at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, 102 Witherspoon Street, in Princeton.

The ACP will also host a public opening on Friday, May 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. For more information, see the event page on the ACP website, artscouncilofprinceton.org/event/anew-artists-alliance.

Five local creatives — siblings Herman “Shorty” and Annabelle Rose, Brook Beatty, Frankie Mack, and Carla Coleman — met with TASK volunteer and Princeton resident Susan Darley to form the “A-TEAM Artists of Trenton,” which later spun off into an independent nonprofit entity called the Trenton Community A-TEAM, or TCAT, in 2014.

The TCAT artists moved into a new dedicated studio and exhibition space at 51 North Stockton Street, “Studio 51,” provided by the community development organization Isles. Isles had converted the two-story, historic carriage house as part of a grant they received to establish the Creek to Canal (C2C) Creative District, planned for downtown Trenton, and rented the building to TCAT.

In 2021, the artists launched a new project, the ANEW Artists Alliance, which soon found a home in the ArtSpace Gallery at the headquarters of HomeFront, a Lawrence nonprofit dedicated to eliminating poverty in central New Jersey. In March the following year, they exhibited their first group show at the Artists of Yardley Art Center in Yardley, Pennsylvania. At the invitation of Ruthann Traylor, director of HomeFront’s ArtSpace and SewingSpace initiatives, the group now meets every other Monday at 11 a.m.

The ArtSpace and SewingSpace programs are designed to serve clients who “are impacted by homelessness, living on the poverty line, or have experienced trauma from abuse,” giving them a creative outlet in a designated “safe space for therapeutic arts,” according to the former’s page on the HomeFront website, homefrontnj.org/artspace. Clients can learn how to wield a paintbrush or sew a bag — both of which can be sold to support the entrepreneurial and economic growth of HomeFront clients — in an atmosphere of mutual learning.

The other ArtSpace studio is located at HomeFront’s Family Campus in Ewing, the site of the nonprofit’s Family Preservation Center, which actively houses, serves, and supports people experiencing homelessness in Central New Jersey.

Many of the ANEW members still participate in the Tuesday creative arts programming at TASK and/or sell their work through TCAT, overlapping between the three entities. According to the TCAT website, 70 percent of art purchased through Studio 51 goes directly to the artists, while the rest covers supplies, rent, maintenance, and staff expenses for the nonprofit.

The group, in all its iterations, has exhibited at venues such as West Windsor Arts, Trenton Artworks, Grounds For Sculpture, Capital Health Medical Center in Hopewell, the New Jersey State Museum, the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, McCarter Theater, and more, as well as various government, nonprofit, and religious organizations throughout the state. They also coordinated outreach, volunteered, and led workshops with local groups like the Trenton Rescue Mission and The Arc Mercer.

With about 19 current members, the group functions much like an extended family, with artists who are unable to attend meetings, moved out of Trenton, or passed away still considered as part of the collective. Others on the website include Dolores Frails, Sharon Jackson, Warcheerah Kilima, Lisa Lewis, Ethel and Frankie Mack, Walter Roberts, Jr., Charles Smith, and Demond Williams.

For more information, questions, or to donate art supplies, visit the ANEW Artists Alliance website at anewartists.com or email anewartistsinfo@gmail.com.

Born and raised in South Trenton, Rose grew up with other artists in his family, including his late sister, Annabelle, who later died of throat cancer. Rose had abandoned the idea of pursuing art until he ended up in Rahway State Prison, now known as East Jersey State Prison, in his 20s, according to a June 2019 U.S. 1 profile by Dan Aubrey.

There, a death row inmate taught him how to make picture frames and other handcrafted items out of cigarette packs. Determined to turn his life around, Rose became enamored with the colors of the outside world upon his release and stayed out of prison.

It was at Annabelle’s suggestion that Rose, now 70, first came to TASK in 1998. He began working as a dishwasher in the kitchen and eventually earned his GED, but Rose also started meeting informally with other artists once a week to create together and help frame their work. As the finished pieces began to adorn the walls of TASK’s dining room, the artists had people asking if they were available for purchase, and the A-TEAM was born.

But ANEW’s principles go back to the origins of what Rose founded at TASK — an artist-run initiative where members make decisions and grow together to gain both recognition and income from their talents.

At the ArtSpace Gallery, Rose explains that the group’s original name came from a drawing between him, Beatty, and Mack in which each artist wrote a name on slips of paper and picked one out of a hat. He pulls out a healthy stack of paintings — all completed in the past week — and demonstrates how he mixes acrylic paint with sand, having even created one that glows in the dark.

He continues to produce new pieces at a prolific rate, with subjects ranging from birds to a boy in a hammock to a hamburger. Many of them incorporate pointillism, a technique that uses a series of small, colorful dots, as a stylistic homage to the work of his late friend and A-TEAM artist Patrick Bowen.

“It just makes me feel good when I do art. I do all my art at home; I don’t do it here. I do it at home, so I gotta make myself feel good at home. But if I’m down, I pick up some paper and start doing my art, make me bring all that out, so I keep myself going,” Rose says.

Since Rose refers to himself as the “father” of the group, Beatty playfully adds that she must be the maternal equivalent.

Beatty, who has been with the soup kitchen since the 1990s, says that her creative journey began with writing poetry and making rag dolls at a young age.

“I started making dolls because people call them voodoo dolls, but they’re not,” she says, referring to the handmade creations as “like [her] children” in her ANEW website biography.

Beatty sold a majority of the older dolls, but she flips through pictures of ones made from shoe string and even her favorite, “Blue,” built using a mop head of the same color. Another, named “Cady,” has a porcelain head and limbs that make her stand around three feet in height.

In her 30s, Beatty explains, she began to paint more, recalling the way her mother taught her to draw as a child. She also now makes model houses from an eclectic mix of materials, such as wooden blocks, a jewelry box, a speaker, and even a birdhouse.

Paul Norris, originally from Indiana, mainly works in oil and watercolor. He’s currently working on a four-part series of landscapes, called “Mercer Magic,” that depict locations around or close to Mercer County.

As a collective, the group tends to “feed off” each other, Norris explains, referring to how Rose’s use of pointillism became a visual tribute to Bowen after his death.

“We encourage one another; we help one another,” he says. “Instead of people looking at us as, ‘Oh, you’re from the soup kitchen, so I gotta help you,’ we wanted to be recognized for the artists that we were and who we are, and it’s been a dream come true.”

For Emery Williams, painting is a way to work through his feelings and sustain himself in times of turmoil.

“Art is an expression of what we feel,” Williams says. “It’s emotion and progress.”

“But if I didn’t love art, I wouldn’t be in art, and I enjoy doing it because it gets me away from myself. I feel emotional sometimes, and sometimes I just [have] to go to my art just to get away from it, get away from the pain and agony of life,” he explains.

Williams says that art helps him get out of his head and escape that pressure. He points to a piece called “Lonely Man” that evokes this universal feeling, and although Williams cannot remember if or how the process differed from his other works, this one “stuck” with him.

He adds that he loves art because it, as well as the community-centered nature of the collective, kept him going during the worst depression he ever lived through.

“I came to group one time, and I started feeling better. That’s because I enjoy painting. I didn’t even know I could paint, but I did. I already knew I was an artist, but expression is the idea. It’s not always about what other people see,” Williams says.

Pervis Upshur joined the group last year after being introduced to the arts program at TASK through his friendship with ANEW artist Derrick Branch.

He says that the group inspires him to become “stronger and better.” With a keen sense of visualization, Upshur approaches a piece by drawing directly from his memories, picturing a location he visited or colors he saw, then painting until the canvas in front of him resembles that imagery.

“Sometimes I go places and I pick up my ideas from there, or I think of a place that I was at, and I pick it up, and I draw it,” Upshur adds, motioning to a work of his depicting a rainbow, automobiles, and the ocean, tentatively titled “Cars Going Around the Earth and Fishes in the Sea.”

Upshur, who is also a poet and rapper, notes that he especially loves to draw animals. Like Rose, he prefers to work on his art at home, as evidenced by his piece “Pictures All Around Me in My Little Room.”

John Hendryx, who has been with the group for 14 years, admits that he does not really have a style, but instead tries to take elements from artists he admires and mix them with his own vision. He embraces a multitude of mediums, including pastels, acrylics, and watercolors, but while he tries to incorporate all of them into each piece, Hendryx prefers pastels for their ability to blend.

“I do watercolor for my background — my base — and then I’ll go over that with pastels,” he explains, having just started on the nose section of a new portrait.

“I was eight years old, and my father was an artist, and he drew a picture. I got a hold of the picture, and I drew it, and my picture look[ed] better than his, and he recognized that I was an artist,” Hendryx says, adding that his parents then sent him to after-school classes to hone his skills. Although he once dreamed of becoming an art teacher, Hendryx did not pursue his talents after graduation until a friend praised his work and set him on the path to the A-TEAM.

But now, Hendryx is “hooked” on the role of his dreams, fulfilling his long-held goal of giving back and combining his favorite activities with “The Art of Fishing,” a developing nonprofit organization that will provide instruction in both areas to children in Mercer County.

In his biography on the ANEW website, Hendryx says that fishing and art share similarities in that they allow him to focus on “being one with nature,” which he expresses through still life paintings.

“I fish all the time. Matter of fact, I was fishing before I got here,” he adds with a laugh. “I grew up in the mountains and fish up there.”

Hendryx recalls that over the years he has been fishing, young people, especially those who come from single-family homes, have often had an emotional response and a desire to join him that he wants to help nurture.

“I feel sorry for them because my father was there to teach me, so I said, ‘Well, you know what? I need to step in, bridge that gap between them — and the father and the mother — and teach them to fish,” he notes, with Hendryx hoping to have the program up and running by the end of the year or early 2025.

The newest member of the group is Mark Robinson, ANEW’s self-described “rookie” who dabbles in mediums such as oil, acrylic, charcoal, pencil, and “a touch of clay.” Hendryx encouraged him to join the collective, which he did under a month ago, so he takes the time to pass around a series of works that “pay homage to dead artists” like Marvin Gaye and Tupac.

Robinson’s “diversified” approach to art differs depending on the day, and he cites equally unique inspirations from Bob Ross to Michelangelo.

“Whatever mood I’m in, I go for it,” he says, explaining that on a rainy day, for example, he might be in more of a “jazz mood,” or he draws from “life experiences.”

Derrick Branch is a true Trenton “renaissance man,” having spent 13 years with the group while also exploring music and creative writing, all of which began when he met Darley at the soup kitchen. Branch shares that he always loved to sketch, but through the programming at TASK, he brought those visions to life by learning to paint from the other creatives there.

“I sat down and learned how to paint by being there. It really helped my art career, because I wasn’t thinking about an art career before I started painting at the soup kitchen,” he says, noting that most of his art was either personal or for close friends.

“I came from a large family. I’m the last out of 10, and I was basically in art ever since I was born, because they [were] already doing art before I was born, so I fell into it. Eventually, I started appreciating that I was an artist more and more,” Branch says, noting that he thought he would not be able to carve out a niche as an artist because of a lack of appreciation or too many others trying to make it. “I still loved to draw. I wasn’t really focused on making it [a] career move, but it stuck with me, and I can’t get away from it, so now I’m an ‘Art Absolute.’”

Branch defines “Art Absolute” as “the business I made to promote myself and my art,” a comprehensive name for his musical compositions, original songs, spoken word poems, and ceramic pieces. He also plays bass guitar and has a band, building on what he established with the FunkTASKtiks, a group of musicians who met at TASK.

Branch adds that with other artists helping him with supplies and ANEW’s own Walter Roberts, Jr. printing T-shirts for him to design, his mission to be “Art Absolute” has given him a clear vision.

Four years ago, he started painting live at Mill Hill Park in Trenton on Tuesdays and Thursdays from around 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with his latest season having just started. He plans on bringing completed pieces to sell, including CDs for people interested in his music, but aims to paint about five Trenton cityscapes from spots around town by the end of the summer.

“I really hope that this year, it’ll be even better, and I can get more artists, because I’m hoping that more artists [will] join me, and we have a little artist spot right there in the park that people can come and check out our artwork,” Branch says.

Branch also plans to walk to Detroit, Michigan, for his 62nd birthday next year and aims to document the journey as he camps and paints with others along the way.

“I already looked at how long it would take,” he says. “I’m looking for people. I need somebody to film and everything, because I think it would be great, camping out and just walking up there and seeing what’s out there and painting along the way. Hopefully, it can happen. I’m planning on doing it next year for my birthday. I’ll be 62, so I want to do that.”

If he has a productive season, Branch adds, he will spend the rest of the year figuring out the best routes and supplies to facilitate the estimated 216-hour, or nine-day, trek.

Before Branch reads one of his poems, “The Hands of the Clock,” he prefaces it with the background that as a child he always knew the time without a watch or clock, so people nicknamed him “The Clock” as a testament to his abilities:

Regardless of where Branch channels that energy, his art is expressive.

“All of it comes from the same spot in my heart. All that is all art to me. I love doing it, and I think I’m going to be doing that for the rest of my life regardless [of] whatever else I do. Going to be painting and drawing and trying to make music, and I think my best days are still ahead of me,” Branch continues.

“I have a great appreciation for all the people I met through trying to be involved in art. No matter what age you get, if you want to do art, go ahead and do it, because it can open up your life. It helps me with any stress and mental situations I might get in. Doing art really helps me out, and I love it so much that I’m probably going to have a paintbrush or a guitar in my hands when they bury me,” he adds.

John Hayes notes that since both of his parents were artists, he must have “inherited” the same sensibilities. With a lifelong hobby of sketching and painting, including 15 years with the group, he adds that although he’s been away from the artist meetings for a while, he’s happy to get back into the rhythm of creating together.

“I enjoy art because it’s relaxing, and I get a lot out of it because it frees my soul, so I just take my time — when I have time — and just do some of the things that [are] creative,” he says while carefully adding details to a work in progress. “But this is my passion. This is what I love, and it keeps me going in life. I mean, if I didn’t have art, I don’t know where I’d be at. It just soothes my mind. It’s very relaxing. It’s fun.”

“We’re like a big family. We learn to respect each other and be around each other and just do our artwork and have fun, because that’s what it’s about,” Hayes says.

Speaking of those strong bonds, Rose makes sure to mention people like Lisa Lewis, an artist from Philadelphia who now lives in Trenton but was unable to attend the meeting. According to her ANEW bio, Lewis came to TASK for help preparing for her GED test when she met Rose — who walked in similar shoes years earlier — and pursued her artistic inclinations with support from him and the others.

As the “heart” of the Trenton-based group, Rose remains a living example that the members of the ANEW Artists Alliance have no intention of putting down their brushes.

“We gotta keep doing what we’re doing. I’m going to keep doing it until I drop dead,” he says at the end of a recent April meeting.

For close to a quarter of a century, this group of self-taught creatives has found kinship in shared experience and expression, keeping the “soul” of outsider art alive by painting the way forward together.

ANEW Artists Alliance. anewartists.com or anewartistsinfo@gmail.com.

HomeFront ArtSpace, 1880 Princeton Avenue, Lawrence Township. 609-989-9417 or artspace@homefrontnj.org.

Arts Council of Princeton, 102 Witherspoon Street, Princeton. 609-924-8777 or artscouncilofprinceton.org.

Many of the ANEW artists also on the roster of the TCAT nonprofit are currently exhibiting at Slammin’ Brew, a new coffee shop in downtown Trenton, and the College of New Jersey, with plans for future shows at Artworks Trenton’s “Art All Night” in June and the Tulpehaking Nature Center at the Abbott Marshlands in Hamilton Township. Studio 51, 51 North Stockton Street, Trenton. 609-421-0793 or tcateam.org.