Art at the Howland

Opening next Saturday with a brief artist talk...

I have to, I have to, I have to...

I have to go down to Florida and attend a trust meeting where we vote on suspending the gift giving for at least a year. So sad, but we are out of money. And where I will run into my ex-husband and that always seems to make me sick. In fact, I feel quiet nauseous today. And I will see my mother and that carries some baggage too. I feel like Persephone traveling between worlds. Which is hell and which is heaven? It's not so easily labeled. I will also get a chance to catch up with my 15 year old son, and meet his school advisor. It could be heavy. I also have to attend an art opening that my Bed Song painting is in! Isn't it crazy how the timing worked out? I am in a juried group show in my mom's hometown that opens while I am visiting! So... its all about riches. But even riches are part of our luggage.
This collage painting is called- like the text in it says- A Cry For Help. When I made it it really helped me get through what I was in the midst of... (which ironically, to put it simply, was too much family). It's just under 6 x 9 inches and I've priced it at $75.
Though instead of buying it, if you should find yourself of similar mind, you should make your own and see what happens.
I have to go paint now!

Ever since my marriage started failing and good friends started dying

I have made a commitment to do things differently. I paint every single day. I love my chickens. Through these two realms I have found a voice for my sadness, my courage, and my faith. Within my daily practice I recall memories and visualize evocative tones that distill symbols into paintable vignettes. My work blends text and image in humorous, dissonant, and melding ways to explore security, panic, and the mortal experience. Because I feel transient as a species, the perpetual conflict between leaving and being is evident everywhere in my work. This duplicity is also captured in the whimsical palette, the playful brushwork and lightness of imagery that lay bare the anxieties of our time. Brushstrokes, text, and nature are strategies I explore in transforming the material to be spiritual and harvesting the spiritual to material.

Here is an installation of work at the MountainCow Cafe in pine Plains, NY, up until March.

I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from college with a BFA and a BA in painting, printmaking and art history from Colorado University in 1984. Born into a family of artists, curators, and spiritualists, I spent the first 20 years as a world traveler. I am the mother of two sons. The last two decades of my life I have lived in rural Dutchess county and been blessed with a network of artists that inspire my great love for roots with wings.

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.

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...?

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

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.

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.