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March 14-17: Coney Island Sideshow Banner Painting School with Marie Roberts

Posted in art, sideshow, tagged art workshop, banner painting, Coney Island USA, Marie Roberts, sideshow banner, sideshow school on January 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Banner painter Marie Roberts in her Studio at Coney Island USA Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Beginning on March 14, Coney Island USA’s artist-in-residence Marie Roberts will teach a four-day, hands-on workshop on the art, technique and history of banner painting. For more than a decade, Marie has painted the banners advertising the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. You can view her work 365 days a year on the CIUSA Building at Surf Ave and 12th Street.

According to the course description “Each student will be furnished with one 5 x 4 inch blank, and the use of materials to execute it. Traditional banners will be discussed, sideshow banners from the collection will be on view for reference, instructor will be present at all sessions. Emphasis will be to help the student achieve his/her own large format composition, using the instructor’s years of painting experience. Professor Roberts will paint along with students to demonstrate method.” For more information on “Banner Painting 102” and other sideshow school classes– including fire eating, sword swallowing and glass walking!—visit CIUSA’s website.

The pix that appear in this post were taken on New Year’s Day when we visited Marie Roberts studio. The works-in-progress in the first photo are for a banner Marie is working on for Ringling Circus commemorating last year’s performance of the Coney Island Boom-A-Ring. If you look closely, you’ll see Justin Case riding through the miniature ring of fire on his tiny bicycle! The mermaid banner shown below will be up for auction at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s upcoming silent auction.

Mermaids of Coney Island Banner Painted by Marie Roberts for the BAM Silent Auction, March 18-28, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Dec 12-13: Open Studio with Coney Island Artist & Banner Painter Marie Roberts

Posted in art, sideshow, tagged Brooklyn, Coney Island, Coney Island USA, free event, Marie Roberts, Open Studio, sideshow banner, tondo on December 2, 2009| 3 Comments »

Marie Roberts banners on facade of Coney Island USA Building, May 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

This is the post we were working on yesterday when we found out “TLC’s Cake Boss Sweet on Marie Roberts’ Coney Island Sideshow Banners.” We dropped everything to cover the cake artistry, but now it’s back to business…

Coney Island USA’s artist-in-residence Marie Roberts is an accomplished painter who is best known for her banners for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. Her canvas advertisements for Donny Vomit, human blockhead; Heather Holliday, the youngest female sword swallower; Serpentina, the snake charmer; and guest freaks like the Lizard Man adorn the CIUSA building 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Coney Island banner line is a year-round tourist attraction and fave subject of photographers. During the off-season, the artist continues to produce banners for private clients as well as other genres of paintings. On the weekend of December 12-13, you’re invited to Marie Roberts’ Open Studio to meet the third generation Coney Islander and view her watercolor “tondos” of the old amusement district.

Astro Tower from Studio Window by Marie Roberts. Watercolor/gouache, 8 x 8" 2009

Astro Tower from Studio Window by Marie Roberts. Watercolor/gouache, 8 x 8 inches, 2009

“I received a faculty research grant from Fairleigh Dickinson University last summer,” says Roberts, who is a professor of art at FDU as well as at CIUSA’s Sideshow School. “The project was to compose in round, or “tondo” format. I intended to do invented figure compositions, but became enthralled with the views from the studio window.”

The artist’s studio on the second floor of Coney Island USA’s Building has a view of the Wonder Wheel, Astrotower, Old Bank of Coney Island and Luna Park … the furniture store! The studio location is 1208 Surf Avenue at West 12th Street in Coney Island. Open Studio hours are from 1- 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday, December 12-13.

The artist also paints banner portraits for folks who do not perform in the sideshow, but enjoy having their own banner at home or to promote their work. How does the Coney Island banner painter decide what kind of banner to paint for someone? “It depends on the client,” Roberts says. “Some know they want to be ‘The Feejee Merman’ and know the exact pose and what will be included in the painting. Some have no clue and I try to see what they want from their words. ‘Anything you want,’ said one client. It’s usually a collaboration of what they want and I can do.”

Banner Art by Marie Roberts. Photo © Norman Blake. All Rights Reserved.

Tommy Couteau, pictured above with Marie Roberts, won the “have yourself painted any way you want” package at Coney Island USA’s gala auction. He decided he wanted both a mermaid banner and a “Guy from Coney Island” banner.

Says Roberts,“I have had to make banners where I don’t know what people look like. In one for a photographer, I covered her face with a camera. In another, for a group of people, they wore masks painted to look like the cast of a sideshow they had seen.”

Roberts recently completed banner for artist and “photo reader” Stephanie Diamond is on display in Miami at the Scope Art Show’s Covet Garden marketplace through December 6th. Diamond’s art project is “Snap Sharing, which uses psychometry, an intuitive technique that involves holding or touching objects or photographs to gather information.”

You can visit with Marie Roberts and her Coney Island banners via Sideshow Picasso, a documentary by Marilyn Agrelo filmed earlier this year and viewable on YouTube…

Marie Roberts Open Studio, Coney Island USA, 1208 Surf Avenue at W 12th St, Coney Island. December 12-13, Saturday-Sunday, 1-4 pm. The Coney Island Museum, which is on the same floor as Roberts studio, is open weekends year round and will be open from 12 – 5 pm.

TLC’s Cake Boss Sweet on Marie Roberts’ Coney Island Sideshow Banners

Posted in sideshow, tagged cake, Cake Boss, Coney Island Sideshow, Coney Island USA, Marie Roberts, sideshow banner on December 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Freak Bar at Coney Island USA: Cake by the Cake Boss. Photo via Bruce Handy/Pablo 57’s flickr

The Freak Bar at Coney Island USA: Cake by the Cake Boss. Decorated with Sweet Replicas of Marie Roberts Sideshow Banners. Photo via Bruce Handy/Pablo 57’s flickr

Last night we were gathering info for an upcoming post about Coney Island Circus Sideshow banner painter Marie Roberts when we got some scrumptious news: A new episode of Cake Boss featuring a cake decorated with sweet little replicas of Marie’s giant-size banners premiered last night on the Learning Channel. If you missed seeing it, as we did, tune in on Wednesday, December 2 at 8 pm or 11 pm or watch the episode on the Cake Boss’s website or here. In the meantime, enjoy the photos by Bruce Handy/Pablo 57, Norman Blake and Marie Roberts. That’s Marie snapping some photos above. We recognize her bangles! Stay tuned for ATZ’s post ~~later today~~ tomorrow on Marie Roberts’ banner art.

Detail from Cake Boss Cake: Replica of Marie Roberts' Serpentina Banner. Photo © Marie Roberts

Detail from Cake Boss Cake for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow: Replica of Marie Roberts' Banner of Serpentina aka Stephanie Torres. Photo © Marie Roberts

The Cake Boss is a reality show about Buddy Vlastro of Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop and his family. We remember when they filmed this episode on a busy summer day in Coney Island. Now we’re sorry we didn’t stop by the sideshow for a piece of cake afterwards! The episode is titled “Freaks, Fast Food and Frankie.” According to the program guide: “The bakery heavyweights are challenged to an eating contest after they create a buffet-style cake for Major League Eating. Then one of Frankie’s biggest fears is exposed while making a cake for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow.”