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.
Yesterday, we held our final Chittenango Art department faculty meeting for the year (my final ever meeting) at Yards Grille (at Green Lakes State Park, Fayetteville, New York). I was the only one in search of fish fry. There’s a variety of sandwiches, salads and other entrees on the menu. We all chose different meals.
Presentation: This is their fish sandwich. It comes with french fries or potato chips but no coleslaw. Instead the fish is served tartared and laden with pickles on a brioche bun.
Taste: It was delish! I loved every bite. The fries had an air fryer look to them – very seasoned, which made me covet them. I don’t eat like this every day – it probably seems like it, lol, but I mainly eat a very bland plant based diet – so when I have something salty I think it tricks my mind into wanting more times infinity. And that it not to say that I regret eating them. Because I don’t regret a thing.
Restaurant Experience: The restaurant overlooks the golf course and the lake at Green Lakes State Park. If you’ve never been there, you must make a plan to go because the view is spectacular!
We had planned this excursion a week in advance. On Thursday night when I checked the weather report, it declared Friday a rainy day. I thought we were going to end up eating inside – well…it turned out to be a magnificent weather day. Perfect, in fact. Seventy-eight degrees and sunny. We were able to dine on the outdoor deck. We sat in the shade and enjoyed the view while reminiscing, evaluating the school year and sharing plans for summer vacation and beyond.
Katy and I arrived together. We approached the hostess and she brought us to our table. Madison had already arrived. Allison and Gina appeared quickly after. The waitress and the manager asked us how everything was – they really pampered us.
If you have never been to this restaurant, I highly recommend you head there on a beautiful day to enjoy the ambiance. Yards Grille is only open from Memorial Day through Labor Day, I believe, and is open from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM every day during that period.
Location:
Green Lakes State Park 5648 Green Lakes Park Dr Fayetteville, NY 13066
Parking: There is a huge parking lot in front of the restaurant. When we arrived at noon yesterday, the parking lot was full of cars but the restaurant was not filled to capacity because the parking lot doubles as parking for golfers. There is plenty of space.
If you drive into Green Lakes from Route 5, you do not have to pay to go through the park – the entrance gate to the park does not include the restaurant.
Yes, Dad, believe it or not. I am pretending to be a waitress today. You can call me Rachel.
I’m actually kind of loving this apron. It is so handy. Today it’s filled with Central Perk straws, napkins and an order pad, but I could easily shove art supplies into it.
I love when an accessory can turn clothes I already own into a Halloween costume for work. (Banana Republic T-shirt, Trina Turk skirt, Rebecca Minkoff boots, Via Spiga tights)
I also love sharing the experience with my colleague, Mrs. C. So fun!
My Studio in Art students spent three days drawing lions in anticipation of the annual Lions Club peace poster contest. They will be incorporating lions in their posters, which they will begin working on next week.
These lions are pencil only on 8″ x 8″ white tagboard. Students are 8th graders at Chittenango Middle School, Chittenango, New York.
My Art-8 students viewed the paintings of Canadian artist Daniel Bergeron, specifically, his installation in Regent Park in Toronto.
Then they painted the teachers and staff at our school! The steps were as follows:
Create an Abstract Expressionist base coat on the canvas.
Trace a contour line version of the face photograph onto the canvas via graphite paper then paint the lines with black paint.
Add paint – Abstract Expressionism, solid areas, and patterned areas.
Using Mod Podge, adhere parts of the photograph onto the painting, as well as some patterned paper.
Touch ups plus add bits of fluorescent and metallic paints.
This is my sample (above). We used acrylic paint.
Here are the results. They are on display in the school library. I’ve got one more class finishing up tomorrow for a total of fifty-five paintings. So fun! <3
My friend Joyce introduced me to Ithaca brand hummus. I also take various vitamins and eat cottage cheese on occasion. The recycling began to accumulate and I thought, if we add styrofoam balls, we could make humanoid sculptures.
It is so fun to create something new. A derivative of a contemporary artist based on found object materials that reflects cohesive themes. My sample was an angel (not pictured). I added the Ithaca hummus container lids for wings. It, sort of, resembled a Golden Globe award, so I added that concept. It would be the Angel on Earth award.
Students assembled their armature, used paper towels and Mod Podge for papier mache then used at least three different materials for texture and design. They considered themes based on personal interests and/or were inspired by classroom materials.
I had patterned papers with animal motifs and packages of fabric papers, Origami paper, African designs and Navajo-inspired designs. I also had actual fabric donated by the Home Ec. teacher last year and wallpaper sample books that someone recently shared with me.
In addition, I have a backroom stocked with old Barbie dolls that we harvested for parts. I brought a few things in from my personal art supplies (antique flag toothpicks, an extra lion head cat costume, assorted buttons, twine, peacock feathers).
Students were graded on construction, use of materials, theme and quality of papier mache application. Can you guess what award each sculpture represents?
First I shared information about Franz Kline. He created large scale black and white paintings. These paintings resembled Chinese Calligraphy.
My students looked at Chinese Calligraphy resource pictures. They used black oil pastels to draw lines on a 12′ x 12″ canvas that were influenced by the Chinese characters.
Next, they added white acrylic paint using sweeping brushstrokes with a 1″ flat brush. They were encouraged to occasionally crash into the oil pastel to create some gray areas.
In the following class, they placed black acrylic paint over the black lines allowing some of the texture of the oil pastel to remain on the surface.
Jim Dine was next. We looked at his heart paintings. I gave them another canvas – a 4″ x 4″ one. They created heart stencils, traced them onto this smaller canvas then painted the canvas – either white heart with black background or black heart on white background.
Students then used colorful oil pastels on the heart and its background.
I had them choose a wood block, glue it to the back of the smaller canvas then adhere it to the center of the larger one.
I call it a Tash Mash because it is a mash-up of Kline and Dine but I use the heart motif in many of my own paintings as well, and I utilize the wood riser technique when mounting my encaustic paintings onto chalkboard painted masonite boards. And I invented the lesson.
I’m thinking about doing a series of encaustics in this style. Thank you, Franz Kline and Jim Dine for your contributions to Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, respectively, and for having names that rhyme.
This is a house turned into a store full of treasures both inside and outside. It is Sweet Salvage Gift Shoppe, 6483 E. Seneca Turnpike, Jamesville, NY 13078. Proprietor Kathy Hastings certainly has the gift of merchandising. She’s created a series of vignettes in each room of the house, combining old and new products for that rustic charm that speaks of nostalgia, as though you could take something home and claim it as your own personal heirloom.
Outside, you can find a multitude of objects for your yard – tables, birdhouses, birdbaths and objects d’arte for the garden.
Her eye for placement is impeccable! I love this store!
This is the perfect place to photograph a grouping to use in a still life assignment at school (and maybe it will be!). It’s all about the layering, the texture and the repetition of elements, I think.
There are several of these affirmation blocks (above). This place is filled with positivity!
And you can even find a bathroom sink! Yes, it is for sale!
They are open Monday-Friday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM and Saturday-Sunday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. For inquiries call (315) 492-1266 or email info@ssalvage.com.
They are also on Facebook. I’ve been following them for years and I finally stopped in for a visit! So fun! <3
Our last Studio in Art project – watercolors. I gave each student a sheet of 300# watercolor paper. They created drawings of barn landscapes from resource photos. I graded this portion on rendering/detail and composition.
Next, I gave them smaller sheets of watercolor paper and taught four techniques –
*saving the white of the paper
*wet-in-wet
*glazing
*dry brush
I graded the rest of the project based on how well they utilized these four techniques in the final product.
They spent several days practicing and when they were ready, they began painting the barn. Students sat in groups of two sharing a set of Koi watercolors and a large mixing tray.
The results are these incredible paintings. Remember, they are 8th graders and for the most part, had never used such quality materials. The hardest part, I think, was getting them to stray from conventional ideas – like, just putting brown in the brown spot, you know. I shared some Wolf Kahn paintings and explained how his brown trees had flecks of violet and orange in them because he used a secondary color palette. This style embraces rhythm.
I am really pleased with what my students accomplished.
Our last class together was a bit of silly mayhem. I played a game with these buzzers I have that are fun to use. They had to buzz in answers to questions about what we learned this year during class – about art and about me as a teacher as well as about specific things that happened during class that made it memorable.
The funny thing is that students who were the silliest in terms of behavior remembered the most stuff. When my 8th period kids started singing my India Ink song (memorized, lol – I don’t even have it memorized), that was just over-the-top.
What happens when I am living in the present moment is that I forget that I won’t be teaching them any longer. They are headed to the high school. So, here it is two days later and I am feeling incredibly sentimental.
At the end of every school year I do always tell my students that I will always be there for them. I am an email away or a bus ride from the high school to the middle school to visit me during 10th period. But in a couple of years, I may retire from teaching so that I can devote myself to my own dreams. I will still be here in the social media realm though and I will never stop wanting to know how they are doing with regard to the arts.
Relationships are a strange thing. You never know who you have affected in a way that will catapult people to the place they truly want to be in their lives. And they really don’t know how much their presence has made a difference in my life.
I am working on a watercolor poem/song. I will try to finish it this weekend and maybe I will put myself back up on TikTok. Last week, a 7th grader was listening to something with his secret ear bud. It turned out that he was listening to me recite my Gamer rap song – like really? Of all things, you want to hear my voice in your ear? Sometimes it is hard to wrap my head around stuff like that.
Yes, there will always be some students who express dissatisfaction and negativity. The trick there is to be the ear bud that voices positivity back, to not get caught in the debris field of that negative energy but instead push forward and allow the universe to embrace the magic of dreams. And a lot of the time, that magic is harnessed via the arts.
Studio in Art students, it has been a privilege working with you this year. Best to you always. Have a great experience at the high school and beyond. And keep making art. <3
We just completed these cow drawings on black Strathmore 500 paper. Cows are fun to draw because they are essentially made of two trapezoids. The pencil lines were painted out with black acrylic paint.
Then students colored the drawings with Cray-Pas oil pastels. They are beautiful! The artwork is on display on the wall outside of my classroom. This is an 8th grade project.
