Blog

I was asked to donate a piece of work to the Artspace New Haven Gala, an annual fundraiser for Artspace. I brought both large and small versions of these rock surface works on paper. Betty Jarvis, an art historian and curator, was choosing art and I really enjoyed meeting her. Her appreciation of my work meant a lot to me and if she is reading my blog, here is an official thank you to her. I look forward to meeting her again at the gala.

The image above is a detail of six 12″ x 10″ drawings of rock surfaces that have been marked or have had small pieces of paper attached. I have recently finished large versions of flat rock surfaces, larger than those above. The new ones are 30″ x 22.”

To achieve the effect, I work with wet paper.  I soak the paper in a water bath tinted by ink and I manipulate the paper to create an uneven, rocky surface. 

These works are available through the Flatfile project at Artspace New Haven.

New piece being developed. Dyed newspaper, gesso, yarn with small elements that represent the hidden messages, thoughts traumas beneath the protective surface to come.

Today I was honored to be part of a panel discussion at Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, CT.  The panel was paying tribute to the Institute for Visual Artists (IVA). The IVA began ran from  1985 through 2002 and was the brainchild of Bonnie Woit. 

The IVA was started as a way for artists to gather together once a month to listen and learn from speakers who were established artists, art critics, curators and other art professionals.

Here is a partial list of speakers: Robert Altman, Gregory Amenoff, Will Barnet, Antonio Frasconi, Suzi Gablik, Cleve Gray, Lester Johnson, Michael Mazur. George McNeil, Jed Perl, Gabor Peterdi, Joan Semmel, Joan Snyder, William Zimmer, David Levinthal, and more.

 

Opening day at the Whitney Biennial and my first visit to the new location. All that I heard was true. The building is perfect for looking at art. The location is amazing and the restaurants are fab fab fab. Ate two meals there because we stayed all day. But I miss the old building. Even with the amazing vistas and the huge windows etc, the new location lacks the character of the Breuer building. But enough on that and no more looking back.

The show itself was accessible and easy to view. I never felt put off by anything, even the violent virtual reality that did make me dizzy as they said it would. Warning… Hold On!!! 

So I had a great time, loved the work but now that I am back home, I am having trouble recalling a lot of the show.  So I went back to the Whitney site, which is very robust,  where I saw the work again and read about the artists and even listened to some interviews with the artists.  

The one thing that did stick with me was the DebtFair installation. It really brought home the fact that so many get rich off of art (real estate being the other way to become a billionaire) and there is nothing set up financially to help artists support themselves as they work towards success. And then if they do make it, will they ever make enough money to pay off all their debt? 

With Trump spending almost $3 million on each visit to Mar-A-Lago, does any of this make sense? How do we accept the relationship of debt to artist income when the government is spending so much just moving the President back and forth for 2-3 day visits to Florida?

I don’t know whether to fight or give up.

 

This week I de-installed my solo show at the Cultural Alliance of Western CT (CAWCT), taking it all back to my studio at West River Arts in New Haven. It was a great space with a long hallway where I was able to install my Paper Wall. I also installed paper coats in the gallery and in the window, along with rocks and boulders that I made out of paper mache. Along with my installations, I exhibited ten photos from my ‘Security Lights’ project and eight from ‘Clues,’ a photo essay about the Quinnipiac River State Park. The accompanying monographs are available in my shop.

I want to thank Lisa Scails, CAWCT Executive Director and Ted Kilmer for their encouragement and the wonderful opening reception they hosted. It was a privilege to exhibit my work at CAWCT. If you find yourself on Main Street in Danbury CT, be sure to visit CAWCT.

Having my work in the Flatfile Collection at Artspace New Haven is an honor. I feel that my work lives among other from many truly talented artists, making my work look even better. I have eight pieces in the Flatfile collection ranging from 22″ x 30″ to 12″ x 16.” Each piece is two sided and a number of them have been folded and treated in water repeatedly to attain a texture that interests me.

The subject of these double-sided pieces are either vessels that hold what is dear or the obsessive walking of a historic itinerant.