GOWANUS OPEN STUDIO TOUR Oct.20&21

I will make this brief because its late and I’m tired and I have miles to go before I sleep. The Gowanus Open Studio Tour is this weekend and I will be at the Shapeshifter Lab with a group of other great ceramic artist, followed by BWAC’s closing weekend Oct. 27/28, followed by a small weekend break, followed by a return to BWAC for the Red Hook Open Studio Tour with a group of BWAC artist and I will have my ceramic work and paper relief sculptures. Here’s a directory. for the Gowanus open Studio. I look forward to seeing you there.

My teapots await you.

Advertisements

ART & a PARTY plus more art

Join us this Tuesday, October 2nd for an opening from the Park Slope Windsor Terrace Arts Group at the new J Crew in Brooklyn Bridge Park at 55 Water Street! Over twenty artists from the Brooklyn area will be showcasing their paintings, drawings, photographs and more. J Crew is offering 25% off for all who spend over $125 on clothes and other merchandise! If you’re unable to attend, feel free to stop by through October 16th to see the exhibition of small works.

While you are still on your art high BWAC opens this weekend October 6th from 1 to 6. you can see my newest work plus there is food, two bands and about 300 other artist.

Not done yet. I’ve been a very busy girl preparing for this fall season. I will once again be with a great group of ceramic artists at the Shapeshifter Lab during the Gowanus Open Studio Tour. I’m very impressed with how talented and diverse a group it is this year. I’m proud to be counted as one of them and so glad to have been invited back.

 

 

Now back to the embarrassing photos of my work. Too many times in the past year as I’ve struggled to keep up with myself I have said to my dinner guest “you can have a spotless clean house or you can have the company of one another and food – you just can’t have both.” So now I say to myself “I can have the pleasure of creating my art or the endless time it takes me to take an great photo”. So here are more crummy, but hopefully motivating enough to want to see the work, photos of my panels.

Sorry the paper relief sculptures require glass and so you get the reflections of either me or whatever else in in the room. Here is one better picture. Still not my beat but better.

Finally a purpose for all the earrings for which I have lost its partner. Better than the just light pulls I was using them for in the past. And last ,but not in the bit least, The first piece for this whole series of paper relief sculptures.

 

 

FALL

Its my favorite time of year based on childhood memories of walking under a canopy of autumn leaves hearing their russell beneath my feet as other leaves scurried behind me in the wake of passing cars. However, in spite of the fact fall is the gateway to winter I enjoy its crispness in contrast to summers unrelenting heat. I love the rainbow of colors fall produces and like a child I still walk the streets looking for leaves boasting of the colors they can produce that I can carry home.

And yet one of the things I decided to do this fall is a series of paper relief sculptures playing with textures and shades of white. Originally I meant to save the thought for another time, but thoughts have a habit of choosing their own timing so its a thought that has begun but will still be explored further.

But now, before I actually show you pictures, I need to apologize for my inability to understand my camera. I thought digital was my salvation after struggling with every type of camera that proceeded it, however the constant is me and time. I’m a night owl. I love the quietness and solitude of the night where I can just focus with no distractions of chores or people just work. The downside of this is taking pictures without the assistance of daylight. I think that’s enough of an apology before posting a photo. Anyway on the left is Summer Whites followed by A Winter’s Tale Winter’s Tale.

  

Please forgive my reflection holding the ipad to take the photo. Come see the real thing at BWAC to get a much better look at the two of them. they were fun to make and have inspired me to do more so stay posted! show runs every weekend in October 1 to 6 pm.

Now its 4 am and my bath awaits ….. more tomorrow.

THANK YOU + GOS

For those of you who filled this past dreary and rainy stay in bed weekend by coming out to BWAC for the Brooklyn Clay Tour thank you very much, it was great to meet you. BUT if you didn’t come out or happen to get what you wanted then and want to know when or where your next opportunity will be then please read on. Your first option is contact me directly or in October I will once again be part of the Gowanus Open Studio Tour and you can find me there with about fifteen other great ceramic artists.

But that’s just my ceramic work. If you hunger for more, then for every weekend in October you can find my ceramic cityscapes and paper collage relief sculptures at BWAC. Look for me at the main desk on the second floor and say hello. That is with the exception of the one weekend, October 20/21, my work will be there in BWAC’s 24,000 feet gallery with the artwork of about 300 other artist, but I will be at the Shapeshifter Lab in Gowanus for the studio tour at 18 Whitwell Place. See you and thanks again.

BROOKLYN CLAY TOUR

So the dilemma begins do I eat the peach, pear, apple pie with the toasted almond crust now or do I wait till and share it with the other artist as we set up for the Brooklyn Clay Tour this coming weekend Friday September 7th until Sunday the 9th.

I will be exhibiting my landscapes, city-scapes and my functional ceramic work along with Susan Handwerker, Janet Rothholz, Alicia Degener, Lidia Brodsky, Barbara Cahn, Sandra Guinta and Kasia Zuret-Doule. I hope you will be able to stop by and see the scope of what can be done with clay by looking at the diversity of what we all create.

THE HOPE BOWL PROJECT

On the 3rd Sunday of every month there is a dinner called The Hope Dinner held in Park Slope and when I have been lucky enough not to be working I make my lemon squares  and help serve and have a meal with people living with HIV. The timing happen to be when one of my brothers was beginning his battle with cancer and I had begun my ride

on what felt like the roller coaster of hope. I realized I was in the presence of men and women whose battle had taught the medical profession new things about the workings of the immune system. I realized that the knowledge from their fight was helping my brother win his battle with a very aggressive cancer and to thank them I wanted to give back the gift of hope. I had the idea of making bowls with their symbol of hope embossed inside so they could begin and /or end each day consuming hope that they had created.  i now want to be able to go to other places where people are in a battle for lifeand do the same.

If you would like to support my HOPE BOWL PROJECT for just $25 you can design your symbol of hope and I will create a bowl with it embossed inside. You can then pick it up from me at the main desk during the BWAC fall show. To the left is one of the examples of one of the bowls they created. I loved the expression on their faces when they saw and then held what they had designed themselves. I was taken by all the different images …. hope was God or a dove, an anchor, their cat. Something that made them smile and feel alive when they looked at hope.

But speaking of creation, back to my pie. I had intended to put oatmeal flakes on the crust, an early tribute to fall in spite of yet another possible heat wave on the way, but discovered I only had the Irish steel cut oats. So I used sliced almonds instead after brushing the crust with soy creamery and sprinkling a little ginger sugar on top. A slice of pie and envision having it with with a cup of tea maybe from one of my teapots like the Pink Lady teapot below.

 

And then there is the pie itself. I’ll let you know how it was when I see you.

 

SUMMER-SCAPES

That’s the theme of BWAC’s summer show, SUMMERSCAPES, and that worked out well for me. I had been working on a series of city-scape rooftops because I have  lived on the top floor during my last 45 years in Brooklyn and like its people I love the diversity of the architectural landscape in Brooklyn’s skyline.

My ceramic pieces are primarily embossed slab work and there is often a tiny section of clay left after I do a piece. Making several takes on one idea: embossing, cutting and/or glazing them differently helps me end up with variations on a theme. Here are the minis.The other good thing about them is they start at just $45 for some of the really small ones and then there are the larger framed city-scapes, In all of them you can see my affection for the sky and clouds above. No matter how big and tall this city gets the sky will always be bigger with its own dramatic impact.

I must admit the lower left is really a rooftop from Amherst, Massachusetts. All along the canal there are these beautiful old red brick buildings like in Red Hook as in other areas on Brooklyn’s waterfront.

But there is more. If you scroll down through this blog you will see some of the Jazz themed paper shall I call them collages or I may switch to calling them paper sculptures. I don’t do the traditional collage with cut out from magazines but instead use paper and give it depth and texture.

So during one of these hot summer days take a trip out to BWAC and enjoy our summer shows including the first floor national juried exhibit COLOR which has some incredible pieces. I’ll see if I have time to photograph some of it tomorrow and post the pictures. But don’t stop there because while your on the first floor go into the community room and see the exhibit of photography from some of Brooklyn’s own seniors. Then head upstairs and see my work with BWAC’s other members and there are also several installations. you’ve got the next four weekends ….. they can’t all be beach days!

 

 

 

 

Green Market Saturday

Hello. So you don’t have to wait until the Gowanus Open Studio in the fall to see some of my new things. I will be with friends this Saturday, July 14h at the Metro Flea on 5th Avenue and 5th Streets in Park Slope Brooklyn. In honor of being there with the Green Market here is my tribute to green in celebration of all the spring rain and the endless summer heat.

My friends will add some great bargains in vintage clothing and ingenious handmade knit and quilt goods by Denise.

But get ready . . . that will not be the last you see of me this month. BWAC reopens with its summer show in just three weeks. I’m all jazzed up for that with more new works.

Come In From Out Of The Rain

You still have the chance to get out to BWAC. There is nothing like the blue sky erased by clouds competing with the water’s shades of grey, interrupted by colorful ferry boats and all the while the Statue of Liberty looks on. Then after your coffee to wake up come inside and see two floors and three bays of a diversity of art.

I’ve been struggling over what to do about this a piece and decided to make it two. First

I did this one and I hope the background tells you a little something about him – you decide what that is by how you interrupt the background material. And the I did this

Sorry for the quality of the photo but its late at night and not enough light …. but if I wait till morning stuff just won’t get done.

But do come to BWAC and immerse yourself in art and the world outside will await you.

ARTISTS TALK & work in progress

This Sunday at BWAC will be the second of three artists talks at BWAC

BWAC – ARTIST_TALK_ART presents artists talking informally about their work, on display, during the Spring exhibition. The group will move from work to work as the artist reveals the inner dialogue of their art. Meet BWAC Stage @ 12:30, and join the pre-talk conversations. Then on May 26, Sat @ 1PM listen to these artist speak:           Anna Hagan, Judith Eloise Hooper, Razi Mizrahi, Eric Pesso, Duane Stapp

Now onto new work in progress and my deciding what the background should be for these two characters and also what the name of the piece should be. Simply because of the expression on the face of the character on the left I thought Vladimir and Estragon from Waiting for Godot but my brother thought “Sacco and Vanzetti!” and then I thought to name it “On the Waterfront” which by the way was filmed in Red Hook. So you see I create the characters and then they tell me their story. So with that last thought in mind here is where I stand with the background

I may put a Red Hook sunset in the sky and reflect it in some of the Fairway windows. Or

this version is a different format and i may just call it Blue.  So hope to see you on Sunday and hear your thoughts on this piece which won’t be there.

Trying To Staying On Top of It!

Let’s see if doing this at 7 pm is better than 3 am in the morning where I tell myself my mind is more fluid, but that’s probably because its melting from yet another long night in my studio. I find great joy and solace in the solitude of the night but the next day when I have to move in sync with the world, being up all night seems like not such a good idea until that next night when I am once again alone with the sounds of the night, the blue light from my tv and the inspiring chaos of my studio.

It may be why I love these new pieces that speak of the same feelings of solace and inspiration I feel when I’m at a music performance. You are alone with the darkness, the vibrations of the instruments and the emotions they inspire. At the moment this piece is called The Grey Wall but this may change once its framed.

There is nothing like the sound of a mournful sax in a duet with a bass to make you think about choices made, to be made or undone. For years I have been attempting in these paper collages to make something that rises up out of the paper resembling the free form unfinished lines of the sketches that inspired them but I was always trying to do it from a sheet of white paper. Now finally the shades of black spoke loud enough for me to hear!

I totally digress from what I really wanted to write about,  this Sunday, May 20th at BWAC. Aside from several really interesting shows – the national juried show Wide Open #9 in our ground floor gallery, members exhibit in bays 1 & 2 on the second floor and the juried Recycled show in bay 2’s center aisle. Time your visit so you end up in the cafe/stage area first for two or three docu-films about making art from found objects or trash followed by a discussion with several artists. That will be followed by John Istel’s Word Cabaret for an afternoon of persona performance poetry at 4pm until 5:30 with “I’m Talking To You …” .

But don’t forget to first look at my piece in the juried show downstairs and then stop by and say hello to me at the second floor desk on your way to view my works on panel #152 in bay 1.