Every year librarian Karen Trainer at the Sullivan Library in Chittenango, NY, offers me an art exhibit in the library’s community room for the month of July.  And every year when the time comes, I forget if I had asked her. I called last night and, yes, she was expecting me.  Said I could come in any time to install the show and also said I could have the space through August!

I love this small space.  I’ve shown my own work so many times – all sizes – and I’ve shown student work many times as well.  There are only eight of those long hook things that connect to a chair rail in the wall and additional S pegs if you want to display a lot more pieces.

I chose to do an exhibit of eight works from one of my Pompano series.  I created them in ’97-’98.  Eight 18″ x 24″ canvases depicting Pompano Beach, Florida and my subsequent life back in Syracuse, NY after graduate school.

My work is autobiographical and this time of my life was sort of a see-saw of comedy vs. drama.  It was about change, really, insofar as who I truly was as a person and what I presented to the public.  I wasn’t sure who I was and what I wanted, to tell you the truth.  I would have to say that I had misaligned convictions.

I was almost fighting the idea of traditional me and trying to be super artsy.  I’ve come to find out that I am somewhere in between.  Or maybe not.  😉

These paintings are like old friends.  Seeing them again makes me reflect on my progress in this crazy world.  It seems like art gallery dealers only want to see an artist’s latest work.  But I am comfortable sharing this retrospective.  I’m not like Madonna who once said she didn’t want to sing any of her old ’80s songs in concert because she was bored with them (I’m paraphrasing).  I saw her in concert (on TV) and I absolutely loved the way she retro-fitted her old songs with new melodies – taking dance tunes and turning them into ballads, for example, going guitar only or remixing old melodies with new and noticing commonalities in the lyrics.  So I guess it turns out that her comment had been a flippant in the moment thing and she found a way to welcome those old songs back into her life, lol.

I welcome you to see my exhibition.  These paintings are all framed in gallery style maple hardwood and are priced at $200 each.  I would love to sell them so they don’t end up back where I stored them in the little closet of my second bedroom.

Whatever is old can be new again and these oldies look fresh to me again.  I’m glad they will see the light of day for the summer and I hope, if you are in the area, you will stop into this wonderful library right off the main “strip” in Chittenango, NY.  The Sullivan Library is located at 101 Falls Blvd., and is open at 10am most days in the summer.  Show’s up through August 2015 but if you want to buy one (or all) I can always switch it up.  I don’t mind a cash and carry art display.  And more about that coming soon.