I just completed photographing the new collection of heart paintings. They are encaustic and collage, 5″ x 7″ on hardboard mounted on 9″ x 12″ chalkboard and framed.
Photographs do not do them justice. They are really vibrant in person and so full of texture.
This happened today: the art reception/art opening for Soulscapes at Art Haus Syracuse, 120 Walton Street, Syracuse, NY (in Armory Square).
It was such a lovely experience. There was food and drink, great conversation and each artist spoke briefly about our respective artworks.
My ten butterfly paintings look amazing flanking the Marc Safran photograph. I sold two of them during the party. Art can be puchased on-line here.
Visit the gallery Tuesdays and Wednesdays noon – 7:00 PM, Thursdays and Fridays noon – 8:00 PM, and Saturdays noon – 6:00 PM. Check the gallery’s Facebook page for any changes to these hours.
from the Art Haus web-site –
⭐️art haus SYR is proud to announce the opening of SOULSCAPES, a dynamic group exhibition featuring four local artists whose work explores the diverse textures of identity and the environment. The exhibition will run from 2/28 through 4/11, with a public opening reception Saturday 2/28, 2-4pm.
Soulscapes brings together an eclectic mix of mediums—from global photography to surrealist painting—to create a dialogue between the internal psyche and the external world.
The Featured Artists
* CJ Hodge lll: Presents a collection of surreal mixed-media portraits and bold abstract paintings that challenge traditional boundaries of form and color.
* Marc Safran: Showcases global portrait photography that highlights the profound beauty of human rituals, cultural traditions, and the dignity of everyday individual life.
* Karen Tashkovski: Offers a delicate and textured series of mixed-media butterfly paintings, symbolizing transformation and fragile beauty.
* Meghan Murphy: Explores the extremes of scale and subject matter, featuring a series of tiny landscape watercolors paired with a collection of outlandish looking portraits.
„This exhibition is a celebration of the unconventional,“ says Marianna Ranieri-Schwarzer Curator at art haus SYR. „By pairing the grounded, global reality of Marc Safran’s photography with the surreal and outlandish visions of Hodge and Murphy, we invite the viewer to see the ‚soul‘ in all its forms—the beautiful, the traditional, and the delightfully strange.“
Penny came by today to collect my painting, CAMARADERIE. She’s going to deliver it for me. The new art exhibition at Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts, Women. Art. Voices., begins next week with a reception on March 6th, 2026 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM. The show runs through March 28th.
On Friday, I dropped off my butterfly paintings for the exhibition at Art Haus Syracuse. The show starts on Saturday, February 28th, 2026, which is also the date of the art reception – February 28, 2026 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. That show ends on April 4th.
So, I have two art shows in March. I will have a solo show at East Syracuse Free Library during May and June 2026. I’ll be displaying my new encaustic trees series at that show.
Today I started working on another set of encaustic heart paintings. I created a new heart stencil. They are 5″ x 7″ and I am planning to mount them onto 8″ x 10″ chalkboard.
What you are seeing here – not done! No – this is just first passes of color plus the colorful rice papers and origami papers.
What I’m loving right now is how they are both familiar and fresh/new. I have enough colors to fill five pancake griddles. When I first started with encaustics, I only had one griddle! The devices I add to my paintings has also expanded so this series is different, challenging and so fun! I love making them and I love love. <3
It was three below zero in Syracuse today. I did not visit my favorite trees on a hike – I draw the line at eleven degrees, thanks.
I spent the day completing my encaustic trees collection. These paintings are 6″ x 8″ encaustic & collage mounted on 11″ x 14″ chalkboard, and framed.
I added oil pastels, vintage stamps, keys, embroidery floss, checkers, cedar chips, ribbon, 1963 pennies and French bobbins – from France!
I am so in love with them. It is such a weird feeling – so happy to have completed them, proud of myself and the choices I made, but also sad that it is over.
I feel like I should expand the series. I created twenty-four of them, twenty-four different tree shapes. Do I make twenty-four more with twenty-four different shapes? Do I reuse the shapes and change the colors, as I did with the lotus collection? I don’t know yet.
I don’t even have a plan for where I will exhibit them. I am scheduled to show at the East Syracuse Free Library this May through June, so, maybe there.
I am actually still waiting for a back order of frames (four are technically not framed – I just set them in a broken frame in order to photograph them). Once they get delivered, all the paintings will be stored away and I will vacuum and reclaim my living room floor, and my dining room table – until the next project presents itself. <3
Camaraderie, one of the paintings in my “Futura” series from 2017 and newly framed, will be on display in the upcoming exhibition at Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts, 410 Canal Place, Little Falls, New York 13365.
The exhibition is titled Women. Art. Voices.
It is scheduled for March 6, 2026 – March 27, 2026 with an opening reception on March 6, 2026 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM.
Thursday – Saturday: 12 pm – 4 pm
Sunday – Wednesday: Closed
Holidays: Closed
It started snowing at 9:00 AM and now, at 5:00 PM we have already had what I think is eighteen inches of snow. It has been relentless, but, no biggie, because we all knew it was coming.
So happy that my art studio is in my house because I’ve been working all day. I added to the crown paintings – they are almost done.
Before I did that, I heated up the beeswax-filled crockpot then placed three coats of wax on 6″ x 8″ Ampersand hardboards and then traced the tree stencils onto them.
There are twenty-four boards and each will have a different tree design. They are fresh and modern, and fun! I’m excited. I am an avid hiker. I finally realized that trees should be an important part of my encaustic iconography. Today was the day!
In fact, I had a realization about my artwork that I will share with you soon. My series of crowns, horses, fans, bungalows, hearts, targets and now trees are all connected and I hope that they can all be shared together in one (or more) large gallery in the near future.
The overlap is a bit out of control focus-wise because, let’s face it, we are all attracted to the new thing, the latest thing. I don’t want to rush the conclusion of these crowns. I may have rushed adding collage materials today – I will allow the experience to digest and look at the work again with a fresh perspective later tonight or tomorrow.
I am loving my productivity though. I think I am an Existentialist and this is my purpose. A vocation rather than a business. I trust that the business and financial element will follow because I have already secured so many shows for 2026.
In that realm, next up is the Art Haus group show with a drop off in late February and the reception scheduled for Saturday, March 7, 2026 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. I will be at the East Syracuse Free Library during May and June 2026, the Fayetteville Free Library in July 2026, the Hazard Branch Library in August 2026 and the drop off for another group exhibition in mid August at the Edgewood Gallery. That show will be up through October 3, 2026.
Penny Santy, Michelle Keib, John Paul Gardner, Robin Cortese and Karmin Schafer are the artists exhibiting in the new show at Art Haus (120 Walton Street, Syracuse, New York 13202). Marianna Raineri-Schwarzer has put together a lovely show for us to ponder – the exhibit is called Ponderance.
Penny Santy has been represented by Art Haus for the past year. If you want to buy something of hers, you must act fast. She sold two paintings at the reception yesterday and possibly more – I left before it was over. Penny is also a graphic artist.
Michelle Keib comes from a family of artists. Although she is self taught, she is quite proficient in her renderings and her line quality is exceptional.
John Paul Gardner is a trained artist/scupltor and art teacher from Utica, New York. His artwork here – paper collages that he plans to use as paper maquettes for future sculptures.
This is Robin Cortese’s first foray into sharing her paintings. She brought a slew of collectors (from her charitable fund raising volunteering) to the reception (and cookies!). I think she sold everything in her collection.
Texture is a big component in Karmin Shafer’s artwork. I did not see her at the reception so no photo. Hers were the curled birchwood pieces and some abstract text paintings.
The show and sale runs through February 21, 2026.
Michael Sickler and Carmel Nicoletti are the participants in “On the Edge,” the latest art exhibition at Edgewood Gallery, (216 Tecumseh Road, Syracuse, New York 13224).
Sickler’s mixed media collage pieces dominate the walls. Nicoletti is doing double duty as jeweler with hand made copper items – necklaces, earrings and rings in the jewelry case – and glass sculptures on the shelves.
Nicoletti is an art professor at Syracuse University. Sickler is a former art professor. They worked together in the ’90s.
The show will continue through February 27, 2026.
