Resolution in the works

Along with things like exercise and consuming less salt, there is the practice of keeping a daily journal. My history in all three has been a complete failure. I used to have to hide my words. No convincing, through arguments or begging, kept them private. So I snuck pages in the backs of books, in random hidden notebooks, in letters written and never sent. It's pretty insane. Recently, as I start to organize my life, I come across excerpts of pain and risk scattered in the oddest places. Safely hid under barely worn gym gear, or even in the basement freezer. I have started to gather these loose missives and sew them all together so that I can dispose them in one final shape. Everything is out of cyclical order, but there is a spiral repetition to the theme of time and question. So
Now... should I start a real journal? I could do it with a new freedom to be authentic and open.

the elf thing

I always get inspired to make something for the holidays- and I work like mad on prototypes, mix media, and then, as I hand out the gifts just days before the holidays, I am struck by how meager the offering actually is. Is it cheap of the soul to make chachkis for your friends?
I don't know, but, as always there is a pattern here, and I'm heading to the mall!


(making missile toe for gifts)

Area shows....

In the flurry of holiday preparations you may, like I did, need to make the time to attend two art shows in the area. A theme of both exhibitions focuses on conceptualizing nature. The Millbrook School galleries have opened with work by Scot Wittman. This solo show explores cloning technology. Based in the New York / Philadelphia metro area, Wittman chairs a department at Rutgers Prep school in New Jersey and is president of ISAIA, (Independent School Art Instructors Association). Wittman’s map silhouette series blends the humorous, the charming, and the grotesque in aesthetically pleasing combinations of crisp glossy surface isolated on buff pristine sheets of paper. A small sampling of isolated images of state birds cut from city maps provides commentary on the nation’s varying cloning laws, with audio elements included. Viewers are invited to hear the birdcalls and fruitless phone calls from each location. The exhibition included varied installations such as a hanging sculpture, chocolate covered skeleton, large-scale photography, live video-feed, and Houdini memorabilia. According to the statement, Wittman visited stem cell institutes in the United States and Europe to collect stories and rare documentation. Available were business type cards with his Twitter name, where you can search or follow his tweets of breaking stem cell news… like the oldest living tree, and the immortality of Henrietta Lack. Really, a glut of information fuels the imagery and promises the viewer interest in trivial, significant and, because it is art: aesthetic merit. Whether Wittman is an advocate or a critic of cloning remains unclear. The presentation straddles art and science and is held in both the Warner Gallery and the MASC (Math and Science Center) Gallery. The galleries are open: 8AM - 4PM, Monday through Friday and 8AM - 1PM on Saturdays.

Another art show of interest is at the Eckert Gallery, across the border in Kent, CT. When I arrived the gallery was crowded with smiling viewers, and the streets seemed full of people on their way there. In the center of the space Gabrielle Vallarino of Millbrook displayed her assembled natural stone jewelry. Vallarino, creator of Circa Designs, goes south to collect her semi-precious stones and exotic pearls. She finds the unusual, such as white egg-shaped Turquoise and Picture Jasper with miniature landscape-like inclusions. She embraces the overlooked by collecting sticks and then casting them in bronze. These casts as well as cast stones are combined in unique and fairly musical strands, adding another meaning to her name for the jeweled series- Brass Fusion.

On the back wall hang exquisite botanical watercolors by Jessica Tcherpine, also of Millbrook. Her wreaths of flowers and delicate nest are beautifully rendered and composed. She is well published and has served as founding member of the American Society of Botanical artists and is a director of the Horticultural Society of New York. Her work is renowned on both sides of the Atlantic. She is a master. Tcherpine does not have a website and to see her work you have this great opportunity to go to the gallery.

The show will run through December 31, 2010. Eckert Fine Art–Connecticut is located in the Kent Town Center at 27 North Main Street in Kent, CT. The gallery is open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from Noon – 5:00 p.m.

Gift ideas for the teenager and even your ex

Mill Street Loft's Junior art institute has fun classes after school February through March for the 11-14 year old on your list. I'm hoping to teach a mixed media class where we will play in assorted new experimental art media, such as Golden gel skin transfers and Derwent inktents.

Also, as Nora Ephron says, "Marriage comes and goes, but divorce is forever"- how about my 20 page art book with 40 paintings saying goodbye? It's $30 plus shipping. As a bonus I will throw in one of my "You've ruined my life" postcards with the purchase.

And if you are in the region please check out my small paintings at the Mill Street Loft (45 Pershing Ave) and at the Twisted Soul (47 Raymond Ave) in Poughkeepsie through January 19.
And several interesting (if I may say so) new works at the Hanbeck Gallery (South Center Street) in Millerton on weekends.

Thank you.

Cookies

for Santa. I am inspired to bake today!

Money Obsession and current woes

The peasant woman in Breugal's harvest painting

Oh a tree? Or not?

Should I put one up this year?

Another Reason to go to Poughkeepsie

The Mill Street Loft @ 45Pershing Avenue is holding reception for a Small Works Holiday Show this Sunday December 5th from 4-6pm. I will have several paintings there... among pieces by Carol Pepper-Cooper, Claudia Gorman, "the" Todd Poteet and others!
Keep in mind- It's right (sort of) around the corner from the Twisted Soul where my other works are hanging through January 19th. I have replaced the sold paintings with others so you may need to get back there and check it out!

Cutting paintings in half

It's easier than you think. This evening the county legislators will hold a public hearing on their budget cuts. As of this moment there is no money allocated to the arts. No money for artists to work with school children, no money for 40% of the local theaters' operating budgets, no money for the hospital's healing arts programs, no money for the stadiums music concerts... As a board member of the county arts council and a working artist and teacher I have a passionate interest in things being resolved differently. It would cost each taxpayer 67 cents a year to keep the arts funding level to what it was this year (which was hugely cut from previous years). Imagine if people spoke up and said they thought they could afford to spend that 67 cents!
Lack of imagination may be a poverty of society, but soon we may have a whole generation lacking exposure to anything other than their TV and their cell phone.
Imagine what we would be missing. Is anyone interested in a show of paintings only half there, a concert of music only 1/3 played, a film without editing or ending...?

Three french hens

and the countdown to Xmas begins!

Thanksgiving

Divorce Series Book for sale

It started at the lawyers office...

Faced with the 40-page document that defines the end of my 24-year marriage I was both skeptical and shocked that it took so many and so little words to cover it. For me there was only one way to process it.

In the days that followed I created 40 small paintings, one each day, to mirror the pages of the document in poetic narratives. Using found headlines (text) and an encyclopedia of personal images, I painted and blogged about the process of loss, grief, anger, denial, and acceptance. The commentary I received, both privately and publicly, took me by surprise. I can't thank my viewers enough. The insights shared sustained me through out the process of acceptance.

I am now offering my 8 x 8 inch hardcover book with 40 paintings in it for an art lover's collection. I have a very limited quantity right now. I plan to ship the books the first week of December.

Cost is $30 dollars plus shipping. Shipping is $7.99 US and Canada, and $13.99 international.

2011 calendars

The dailypainters.com national group have created several beautiful themed calendars for next year. A painting of mine is featured in three of them! I have my Nest Hair lady in the Figurative calendar, a chicken crossing the road in the Bird paintings calendar, and Shaker bed painting in the Still Life Painting calendar. Some of the money goes to charity. Most goes to spreading the word about daily painters. So your purchase helps a lot of people. Please consider it. Thanks.

Divorce series in a book

It looks so good! 20 pages- 40 paintings!
On the path to accepting change, this nice little package arrived today...

ARTEAST OPEN STUDIOS THIS WEEKEND

The 4^th annual ArtEast open studio tour starts this WEEKEND. Artists from Dover Plains, Amenia, Pine Plains and Millerton will open their creative spaces and the following weekend, the 23 and 24^th, studios to the south, from Wingdale to Holmes, will follow suit.

What’s especially thrilling for me about this year’s tour is the new studios included. And I mean NEW studios, like, “delivered this Monday” new. Dianne Englekee, photographer and cartoonist in Millerton, expects her studio, which was built at Bayhorse in Milan, to be arriving this week! Her husband, the sculptor and painter Mark Liebergall, had his studio arrive in two parts a few weeks ago. It took several Amish men to put it together. Both studios will sit apart and reflect the individual character of the artists. As Liebergall says, “ her studio is like a French atelier, and mine is more like a Manhatten loft”. Camillo Rojas and Virginia Lavado, also from Millerton, have designed and been building their combined studio for years. This open studio tour will essentially be a studio warming for them as well. Another new studio on the tour is Peter Cascone’s place in Amenia, which is full of decades of work in a plethora of vintage styles. He is known for his stories and I am sure a visit there will be fascinating. In addition, My Dog Miles Art Projects and Installations and the 14^th Colony show in Millerton will bring me a quick group snapshot of what is happening in the current local scene. The one artist from previous years on the tour is Sue Hennelly in Dover Plains. She is well known for her warm hospitality and the quality of her watercolors. Maps for the tour are available at www.arteastdutchess.org

I am not opening my studio this year... it's too much a part of my kitchen! But i will be out and about checking on what these artists are up to. Hope to see you there!

Tilly

Stepping forward, maybe back

How to continue

This painting has been sitting in the studio for at least a month. I can't decide if I should touch it, cover it up and start over, or burn it. The 14th colony art group is discussing the therapeutic benefits of burning art... and so the idea of a mass burning- everyone bringing one work of art to burn- and then taking the ashes home to make another work of art... Does that stimulate my brain? Is that something I should do? I've a few works in the burn pile in my own yard... The purpose isn't to manefest another work, just clear the debris.

I think I have been spending too much time sleeping. I go to work and come home and sleep. Unless there are people here. The last few days are the only days the last month or so that there hasn't been anyone here! So I guess I haven't been sleeping too much. I think I have been spending too much time thinking about sleeping!

weekend flurries

My niece from Wellesley College was staying with me and celebrating her 21st birthday. this photo is of us at the Boathouse restaurant in Lakeville.
Still feeling hi from the weekend of culture (and food)- the NOW concert presented by 3Corners Contemporary Music Project with Sophie Shao and also the Kalmia String Quartet. It's rare you get to listen to contemporary compositions on classical instruments... fabulous! Also we went to the Millbrook Winery to see the works of three friends- Victoria Hayes, one of the artists is also in my monthly women artists@work group. And then Henry Klimowicz hosted the last show of the season at the Re-Institute. I wrote the following for the Millbrook Independent:

There are many hidden lofty places in our midst.

One is right in Millerton. The Re--Institute, a brainchild of artist Henry Klimowicz, is a, in his words, “response to the nearby Wassaic Project’s energy and exuberance”. Klimowicz has transformed the second floor of one of his barns on his 40-acre farm into reverent space for exhibiting art.

Klimowicz works in recycled materials and so the re-use of the barn, as well as his mode of working, inspired the name of Re- Institute. The first show, which opened last April, featured 66 artists, 100 works and had an attendance of 240 people. If you don’t show up for the opening event you will have to call Klimowicz for an appointment. Between events the location of his loft gallery is hard to detect. He puts a small sign by the road for the openings. Every five weeks through September he plans for the shows to change.

September 19^th opens the last show of the initial season. It promises to be an event not to be missed. The Fourth Estate Print collaborative is from Brooklyn and it is a place where master printers work with artists collaboratively. They use innovative materials such as plastic paper and metallic inks. The one week long show will feature a cross section of their output.

Klimowicz’ concept for the Re-Institute is to promote collaboration between people both in-sync and in opposition. The hope is to provide a place for dialogue between artists of all media. Though geographically limited to a short season in a rural location, the website has proved to have an international following. Mid-career artists are offered validity and an extensive global viewership. The Re-Institute provides Klimowicz, the exhibiting artists, and the viewers a connection to a larger world. The re-Institute is located at 1395 Boston Corner's Road. If you miss the opening and want to see the show, just call Klimowicz for an appointment at 518-567-5359. For more information visit www.TheReInstitute.com

I didn't want to get out of bed

In the fiction of my painted stories, I create lurid and exploitative tales featuring myself as heroic character.

In that vein, the bed is a place to safely destroy the past, mourn it with the salt of tears, nest until blue and broody, and then create new relationships...
How fantastic is that?

I think she is finished...

having conquered the stag. No idea what to call this painting. Taking suggestions.

wallowing brings forth bodies of work

40 paintings to mimic the 40 pages of the divorce document and a bed book containing 24 pages from my 24 hours of wallowing over the demise of my 24 years of marriage.

Hah! Now that my real work is done... can I go hold down a regular job?
Yes!

Henry Klimowicz review

Amid the half dozen local artists included in this years Wassaic project roster, artist Henry Klimowicz of Millerton NY with his installation at the peak of the seven story Maxon Mill created an inspiring experience for viewers out of the simplest material. Klimowicz uses torn, cut, and reassembled cardboard fragments to create floating walls, textured surfaces and ornate screens. One material, articulate, site specific and temporary echoed the Mill as a tactile experience.

Visitors, young and old, who climbed the stairs, entered with jaws falling open, into an interior unfamiliar environment. The all-encompassing use of cardboard allowed for a humorous and fanciful experience. Many preferred to linger on the cardboard bench and enjoy the diffused light.

A giant hanging circular screen in the middle of the room moved the viewers as an architectural, rather than ornamental element. Suspended like the spirit of the viewers, the sculpture worked as a painterly piece with rhythmic and morphing details such as spirals and orb like constructions.

This was not a sensation of being in a cardboard box… more like being in a beehive. Klimowicz has used cardboard as his primary medium since 1986. Klimowicz on his website, http://henryklimowicz.com, says, “The structures remind me of the insides of bee hives. The process of building my work is reminiscent of the work of insects, bees, ants, and termites.” The Wassaic installation took him six weeks and sixteen hours a day to create and after the weekend it will be dismantled.

some words...

There is this wonderful Los Angeles times newspaper headline: "And who is she this time?"

Happy for the rain

We have been in a drought.
Seems there may be some relief now.
I am giving this piece to the rainman.

Writing for the Millbrook Independent newspaper

Josh Atlas will make you smile at the Wassaic Project just down route 22 from Amenia.

Wandering through the old Luther’s Livestock barn in Wassaic this weekend I ran into a 27-year old artist from Teaneck New Jersey who now lives in Los Angeles and works with donuts as both his medium and his message. Sitting among pallets of acetate dipped stacks of donuts, Josh Atlas smiles a winning smile and notes that his 4 month residency with the Wassaic Project is an opportunity to experiment and study the techniques available behind preserving donuts and realizing his illustrated fantasies. In “Donut Day-Spa”, a figure “soaks” in a bathtub full of donuts replete with facemask of pink icing. Josh is interested in the donuts for the way they affect our eyes and our bodies, as symbol of desire and also for their formal element, their stackable shapes and high key colors.

The art is about appetite. Josh admits to an enormous sweet tooth and at least one chipmunk groupie in the studio. He says that, “comedy is the impulse behind my practice”. He cites the influence of comic books and cartoons behind his inclination to stretch the absurd. So came the impetus for Josh to create disco balls of donuts.

Josh attended Carnegie Mellon originally intending to study computer animation. The BFA program required interdisciplinary study and, as a result, his love of drawing and sculpture grew. His last major project was a long illustration turned graphic novel.

For the August Wassaic Project Summer Festival in the Maxon Mill, August 13-15, Josh plans a real icing splash on the wall. Visit www.joshatlas.com or the www.wassaicproject.org for more info.

Before words...

Because the internet was down I didn't get sucked into my emails and I was able to paint first thing in the morning... painted from 7 a.m. to 1:30 pm!

14th Colony show in Millerton

The dialogue continues with a third group showing of “14^th Colony Artists” in Millerton, NY this month. I hung two paintings from my empty nest series over last weekend with about 43 other artists in the building that used to be a hair salon on Railroad Avenue. Next to me on the wall is an abstract work by Karin Wexler painted with a searching pallet knife called “Marshland”. It echoes and intensifies the warm oranges and cool blues of my own work. Below my painting, sits an abstract wood sculpture by Peter Cascone. The playful relationship between Cascone’s sculpture, “Macdonaldwood and Preserved Dutch Elm”, was created after a gift exchange with artist Kevin Macdonald. Nearby in the same room, Macdonald’s, “Two Paint Cans” are positioned near Cascone’s “Taxi Ride” and they echo the shapes and colors of the blue, yellow, red, and white abstraction. Not sure they were supposed to do that, but together they make me laugh. Between them Dorothy Fox’s “Red Hot Jazz”, large acrylic on canvas singer at microphone, sets up a lively atmosphere.

What’s interesting about the show and the 14^th Colony is what I see when the works hang close to each other, and what I hear when the artists talk about how they work. There are paintings and photographs and sculptures. There is a dialogue with personal histories, a past heritage, and common culture.

Diane Shapira’s “Morandi Project #3”, an installation of ceramics, investigates the oeuvre of George Morandi by re creating vessels with variable silhouettes in muted hues and arranging them in elegant clusters. It is made by and for the contemplative spirit. Many of the artists cite past masters as inspiration. Rosemary Barrett responds to a George Ohr vase with a romantic oil painting. Virginia Lavado makes large ink drawings of the darker side of nursery rhymes. Michael Gallatly’s abstract renderings on paper and Pietter lefferts’ April Moon oil are samples of artists challenging themselves and pushing their handling of media into a new contest. .Lefferts paints at night, outside, in the dark, on location, hence the immediacy and abstract quality. Gellatly’s CRDRWG #4 and #5 marry a delicately odd surreal rendered form with random sharpie ink lines drawn while driving his car. Not everything should be tried at home! It’s open weekends though out the month of July.

Deer Diary

Still confused... the idea for this painting is so illusive now... when I try to pin it down it moves away from me. Constantly I have to ask myself , "what am I trying to share?" It's intensely personal...A recurrent yet fleeting dream. Mostly when I see the stag he is behind me, in the corner of my eye. So to look at him head on is a bit strange. Not sure I want it so visible... is that better? Turning the stag into a couch?

a new painting

is in the works. You can see the stumbling and the inspiration. Still have layers of maps to add. After all she looks a little lost.

Marching Through

New Blog for painters of NY

http://dailypaintersofnewyork.blogspot.com/

pain

12 months ago I thought it was a competition!

Bad TV

Been married now 24 years! My husband moved out 11 months ago but is not agreeing to the separation. It's what my friend calls, "bad tv". Script goes something like this:
A:How much will you pay me to never see me again?
B:(Sigh)How much do you need?
A:What?
B:What is it you truly want?
A:How about everything you've got?

Flowers in memory

After making it through the winter I was surprised by the sadness that spring brought when I smelled the flowers I had planted for my husband. This is a large painting with maps and layers... acrylic on wood, 24 x 32 inches