artist

A New View

A New View

I was invited to exhibit work in the Moira Fitzsimmons Arons Art Gallery at the Hamden Country Day School (Hamden, CT). It's curator, Caryn Azoff, has had an integral part in creating a rich and wide-ranging art program, as well as a vibrant exhibition schedule rooted in both traditional and contemporary art. It is an unusual space in that its main wall is a large, curved surface facing a bank of glass windows and doors.

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Community, Conversation and Camaraderie

Community, Conversation and Camaraderie

As an artist working alone in my studio, being part of a larger art community is essential. I have been actively involved as a member of several cooperative art galleries, and supported other artists by attending openings, offering resources, trading and buying art. However, when I first learned about the International Encaustic Conference in 2011, I had never been away for multiple days solely for my art practice.

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Holding On

Holding On

Giving my artist talk for the Marking Time exhibition at Palmer Art, I was endeavoring to explain my lifelong habit, dare I say need, to collect objects. From a young age I have sought out secondhand stores, flea markets, and garage sales, searched for sea glass by the shore. I imagine all the hands that touched the object, wonder about the lives led; sense the history contained within. 

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Creating A Solo Exhibition

Creating A Solo Exhibition

As the date looms…

After the holiday rush, family visits and winter digging out, it was suddenly time to get ready for my solo exhibition. Marking Time opens on April 1st. and that date rushed towards me with unexpected urgency. The creation of work, though vital and essential, is only one part of preparing for a solo exhibition.

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A New Process

A New Process

My introduction to printmaking was a monotype class over 20 years ago, at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP) in Norwalk, CT. From the moment I stepped into the upstairs, light filled printing studio with its exposed wood beams, wide plank pine floors, and scent of inks, and waiting presses, I felt at home.

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Welding It All Together

Welding It All Together

After watching a colleague piece together a steel structure for my glass and wood sculptures, I wanted to learn to weld. I wanted to create structures for my bird nest and paper sculptures, ones intrinsic to the work itself. I saw Judy Pfaff was teaching a week-long class at Truro Center for the Arts. Having taken an installation class with her previously, I knew it was the class for me.

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Escape into Art - part 2

Escape into Art - part 2

A deep sigh

It is hard to describe the deep peace and inner quiet upon arriving at the Rural Residency for Contemporary Art (RUC) in Cividate Comuno, Italy. After the never ending art to see at the Venice Biennale along with all the other things to see in Venice, it was a gift to step into the fresh country air and just be. No schedule. No list of things to see or do.

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Escape into Art - part 1

Escape into Art - part 1

Escape

I gaze longingly at the images. I imagine a whirlwind of art in Venice followed by a week at a rural residency… sitting outside, summer sun shining on me, facing the Alps, drawing, stitching my teabag pieces, and wandering the hills and medieval towns nearby.

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Letting the Work Lead

Letting the Work Lead

Studio interuptous

After a holiday season overflowing with family, joy and chaos, I was anticipating a long quiet stretch of winter in which to slowly clean up the studio, re-organize, and get back to work. Instead, in early January my daughter moved in with her five-month-old baby and her dog, to stay with us while her husband is deployed on a nuclear sub.

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Risky Business

Risky Business

I spoke last month about slowing down and taking a pause. I was beginning to dig out of my studio and fully intended this month to write about that process. However, as with all things in life, life happens, plans shift and one must pivot. I decided that rather than skip a blogpost this month, I would invite another artist to talk about her own studio practice.

Avery Syrig is an artist, friend, art installer, artist advisor and fellow conceptual and material-based artist…

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A Return to the Studio

A Return to the Studio

Out of the holidays

My children and grandchildren have returned to their lives, the holiday decorations are tucked away, laundry done, the house cleaned. I sit here with a mug of tea, savoring the quiet, outside sounds muffled by the first snowfall, the antique clock ticking behind me. Though I am grateful for the busting-out-at-the-seams couple of weeks in our tiny house, the shared laughter and meals and happy chaos that is always part of a family gathering, in the midst of it there is little room for contemplation or deep work in the studio.

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