May’s 1stfans artist for the Twitter Art Feed is Odessa Begay, who has probably merged “twitter” and “art” in the most literal way by illustrating celebrity tweets. Begay, who’s a Brooklynite, has done a tremendous job taking single tweets and making them into something larger and, often, more hilarious. If you scroll through the “Museum of Modern Tweets” website, you’ll see what I mean (I cannot stop laughing at the Michael Moore one). Odessa has received a fair amount of notoriety for this project, but her reasons for doing these illustrations make sense. As she says in this interview, “Celebrities are supposed to be larger than life, but a lot of what they reveal about their lives on Twitter makes them seem pretty normal and boring,” Begay tells Asylum. “I just think it’s funny to imagine it differently.”
For the Twitter Art Feed, Odessa will take solicit suggestions of celebrities or specific tweets that 1stfans find interesting, and then she’ll illustrate the ones she likes best. Keeping with her schedule, that should work out to be four illustrations for the month. In between the illustrations, Odessa will talk about her process for doing these, explain what she likes best about celebrities on twitter, and field questions from 1stfans. Not a 1stfan member? You can sign up on our website. It’s only $20…
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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.
Will Cary was the Brooklyn Museum's Membership Manager from January 2008 to May 2010. In addition to making sure all Brooklyn Museum Members got the most out of their Membership, he also developed the 1stfans Membership program in order to grow the Museum’s community of supporters. Before joining the Brooklyn Museum in January 2008, Will worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Will graduated from Williams College with a degree in Art History and Economics. Will now works in Membership at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine.