Category Archives: art

Stampede

I managed to avoid being trampled by the masses during the jam-packed with visitors art opening last Friday at Edgewood Gallery. These pictures represent the tightness of it all.

We were all there to see “Drawing on Nature”, the latest exhibit featuring Donalee Peden Wesley, Faith Flesher, Candace Rhea and Carmel Nicoletti.

This animal showcase continues through June 21, 2024.

Edgewood Gallery is located at 216 Tecumseh Rd. • Syracuse, NY 13224 • Call (315) 445-8111 for more information

Hours of operation: Tuesday – Friday: 9:30 am – 6 pm     Saturday: 10 am – 2 pm     Sunday & Monday: closed

Mugs & More Reasons to Love Gandee

The Gandee Gallery is jam-packed with ceramics created by over thirty local, regional and national artists including the spectacular David McDonald. It is an incredible collection of work for sale, curated by owner Jen Gandee.

The Gandee Gallery is located at 7846 Main Street, Fabius, New York 13063. They are open 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM Thursday-Saturday and 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM on Sundays. Call (315) 416-6339 for more information.

Nature & Nurture

Anne Clarke, The Heart of the Matter, needlepoint, oil pastel, colored pencil, graphite, 28″ x 23″, $1,500
Anne Clarke, Interior Landscape, 2023, 87″ x 81″, fulled knit wool, cotton, silk, metallic, $6,000

Into the Woods is Anne Clarke’s latest art exhibit. It is currently on display at the Gandee Gallery, 7845 Main Street, Fabius, New York 13063.

This collection reflects her artistic journey – from student to professor and beyond (she will retire next month from her job at Syracuse University). The line quality in her drawings is exquisite. It was her first art love before she ventured into textile territory. Fiber Arts is Clarke’s current jam, incorporating crochet, tatting, felting and needlepoint into delicate creations in wool, silk and cotton. She is also a milliner, having made thousands of hats over the decades.

Anne Clarke, Deer in the Garden, 2014, 44″ x 34″, pieced textiles, $3,000

The energy that travels through her decorative and functional work infuses it with an incandescent spirituality and seems to unite us all in its path. She breathes love into each piece and it’s this positive feeling that allows the viewer to really inhale her depth of character.

This show acts as a retrospective, allowing Clarke to reminisce and re-evaluate her trailblazing path in order to prepare for its next turn.

Into the Woods will be on display through June 23, 2024. Click here for more information.

Anne Clarke, Net Series: 90 Lunches, 2010, 20″ x 20″, fruit stickers, cotton thread, $400
Anne Clarke, Daily Drawings: Peaked Hill Trust Arts and Science Residency, 2019, 10″ x 10″, $100
Anne Clarke, Hats, mixed fibers, all handmade textiles, $90

Go Big & Go Home

Today was the prep for five dozen new paintings. I added wax to the boards then etched in the designs for the last three dozen 8″ x 8″ fan paintings, and I created the chalkboard bases for the 4″ x 4″ heart paintings. Oh, and I started them. Encaustic is incredibly intoxicating.

I prefer to work in series and it’s always a dozen in a series no matter the size of the paintings. I’m currently working on smaller art pieces due to the size and space of my art studio.

I’ve been making lists of places to contact for art exhibitions and basically trying to get a jump start on living my authentic life.

I’m retiring from teaching in June.

I’m reading Barbra Streisand’s autobiography. She likes to say, “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to assist you.”

My Name Is Barbra

What say you universe? You know what I want.

One Hundred Valentines

I created one hundred cards. They will be distributed today to the local Meals on Wheels recipients. If you receive one, I hope it brightens your St. Valentine’s Day! 

I am in the process of uploading the images to my Redbubble.com site. They will be available on a variety of merchandise including stickers, T-shirts, phone cases and coffee mugs, as well as posters and notecards.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/karentashkovski/shop?artistUserName=KarenTashkovski&collections=3902456&iaCode=all-departments&sortOrder=relevant

Upside-down, You’re Turning Me

This is not the first time that I’ve seen an art show devoted to the visual representation of the emotional journey facing an artist with a parent in declining health (see this). But it is still a good show.

David Edward Johnson’s art exhibition is currently on view in the Member’s Gallery at the Everson Museum of Art. He has created large scale collage works incorporating street signs, rubber tires, old family photographs, and stencils that create disjointed memories.

The photographs I took are details from these pieces, which I think further enhances the whole upside-down and backwards, past-present-future mash-up that depicts a failing mind slide into dementia.

I really love how my compositions have become new compositions. I gravitated to the stencils and noticed that letters had been repeated. A western theme dominates, a kind of masculine Americana. In this way, I feel like I’m piecing together a puzzle that, when put back together, will satisfy my sense of who Johnson’s father is. Is that cheating?

Finding meaning in art is the ultimate existential quest. The question is always: do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? Or do you want to luxuriate in that space between the two, the space that contains dreams and altered realities, etc.

David Edward Johnson: No Roses in December continues through March 31, 2024. Click here for more information or call (315) 474-6064.

New Winter Hours through March 31:

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 11:00am – 4:00pm (Pay-What-You-Wish)
Thursday: 11:00am – 8:00pm (Third Thursdays are Pay-What-You-Wish)
Friday: 11:00am – 4:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday: 11:00am – 4:00pm

David Edward Johnson: No Roses in December is part of the Everson CNY Artist Initiative, an exhibition program that celebrates the multi-faceted talents of regional artists. The CNY Artist Initiative is made possible with support from Terry and Bill Delavan.

Generations

Central New York artists are currently exhibiting artwork at Munson (formerly known as the Munson-Williams-Proctor) Museum of Art, 310 Genesee Street, Utica, New York 13502.

Anita Welych (b. 1958) – The former Cazenovia College art professor has created an installation with a focus on printmaking – a study of birds/migration/nature.

Carlie Miller Sherry (b. 1990) – The artist is a visiting professor of art at Pratt Munson. She uses an indigo palette to express a futurism concept – movement that conveys a sense of agitation/unrest.

Lynette Stephenson (b. 1959) – She teaches studio art at Colgate University. Stephenson’s paintings are large scale florals that speak of vibrant color and textural intensity.

Mary Gaylord Loy (b. 1930) – An established painter with seventy years of expertise under her belt, this artist allows herself to unravel the mysteries of mark making. These immense pieces are all new and I am truly inspired – to contemplate such longevity as an artist for myself; to continue to create art and go big – that is the dream of dreams.

Gregory Lawler (b. 1963) – Pratt Munson students can learn from their master – their professor has created puzzles of wisdom juxtaposed as allegory in these visual college oil paintings.

John Loy (b. 1930) – The retired professor is fascinated by the visual language of the elements of art creating tangled paths of line, shape and color to create exciting visual textures.

Ken Marchione (b. 1962) – This Yale graduate and Pratt Munson drawing professor has recently created combines that reflect a sabbatical journey to European cities/museums. There he was exposed to figurative statues and incorporated nameless faces of people he encountered (other tourists and locals) into his assemblages. They are in-progress works as he continues to reflect and digest his time out of the classroom.

Me (b. 1963) – I contributed a work of art to the museum. Bobbi and I had so much fun investigating the nooks and crannies of this amazing place! I drew her portrait in an art activity room.

We stumbled upon a private room with an on-loan from somewhere else Mark Rothko painting. There were also works by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollack and so much more!

Thank you, Munson, for inviting us to your Art Educators night out. We loved it.

Generations – Artists of Central New York continues through January 7, 2024. View hours of operation on their web-site and other information such as art classes, museum memberships and other opportunities.

Fanning

During the summer, I added two dozen paintings to the series called Sensu, fan paintings I’d created in 2019. They are encaustic & collage.

Last week, I bought new frames for the Sensu paintings and re-worked some of them, and I spent the past few days adding collage items to the new pieces and placing them all in frames.

Next up is to give them titles and upload the individual images here. And figure out where I can exhibit them all. There are thirty-six paintings, all 8″ x 8″.

In my head I heard “make sixty of them” – which would require me to buy twenty-four more canvases and twenty-four more frames, pull out the encaustic supplies and find the time to do it (Chrtistmas break?) – postpone exhibiting them until next summer or whenever.

Do I need to make more though? When I feel like I have to do something rather than wanting to do it, it is not fun.

What is fun though – creation. So fun.

Sharon Frost

I am in love with these “decorative” paintings by Sharon Frost. They are currently on view at the Manlius Library (1 Arkie Albanese Drive, Manlius, NY 13104).

The titles of the work indicate the beauty of this artist’s soul and I truly feel that owning one of these gems will infuse your home with positivity. For more information on Frost, check out her website – www.frostdecorativepainting.com.

The exhibition concludes at the end of August.

Library hours –

Monday10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Tuesday10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Wednesday10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Thursday10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Friday10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday10:00 am – 5:00 pm
SundayClosed (Summer Hours)