My work colleague, Sherry Spann Allen, is the lead artist in a group exhibition at the Tech Garden.  It is an office building across from the Hotel Syracuse in downtown Syracuse, New York. This city is all about alternative venues for artwork where a captive audience is forced to make visible what is ordinarily invisible.

Sherry’s work is all about texture, playing with it to the degree that her canvases literally pop off the wall with geometric, amorphic and combination shapes that emit a feeling of the sea.  Gorgeous turquoise encaustic and oil pastel mix with pinks and creams to produce the feeling of being on vacation in the Mediterranean.  I will be surprised if she doesn’t sell every one of those paintings in the next three months.

I know that at least one artist made a sale last night at the reception, which is great news for our talented community.  Steve Nyland curated the show from a list of emerging and already out there localites who’d been queued for a coveted spot at a local Armory Square bistro.  When the place changed hands, the art space was nixed in favor of god-knows-what.  Kind of a blow, but we artists are like cockroaches, emerging from the disappointment and ready to infest the world with our aesthetics.  Beware – we are not going anywhere!

Joan Applebaum was the only other artist I knew who exhibited – landscapes of familiar landmarks that resonate with local audiences because of their emotionally charged nostalgic-inducing vibe.

I took a few pictures of some other work as well, and I couldn’t help but take a few snaps of the food.  They had quite a spread.  In their defense, it was an excellent turn out for a night that started out fine and quickly turned into a blizzardly drive-from-hell-frozen-over drive home.

The show, entitled Winter Recipe, continues through March 27th, 2015.  The Tech Garden is located at 235 Harrison Street and features in addition to Sherry and Joan, the artwork of the following: Holly K. Austin, Theresa Barry, Emily Bender, Willson Cummer, Christophe Ennis, Cat Gibbons, Arianna Lynch, Ashley Marie, Yegor Mikushkin, Kathryn Petrillo, Gail Reynolds, Doreen Simmons, Ray Trudell, and Missy Zawacki,