Photographer Laura Thorne is new in town. The former Tampa, Florida resident is having her first art exhibition at Dolce Vita World Bistro, 907 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, New York. The show will be up until May 19, 2018.
Dolce Vita presents… PerspectiVe Changes Everything, a showcase of some of Laura Thorne’s most unique and compelling photography from around the world and in Syracuse.
The art reception for Honor Thy Master at Dolce Vita World Bistro was last night. This was the perfect opportunity to break in my blue BCBG Max Azria dress. I bought it a year ago to wear to a wedding in Florida. I decided to wear something else that day instead – you must know me by now to know that I had three possibilities at the ready (I went with the Jill JIll Stuart black jersey gown). In addition to the never worn dress, my new BR cardigan was freshly delivered from www.bananarepublic.com, and so, coupled with sandals and gold hoop earrings, I was ready to be ready to have a great time at my party.
It was magnificent! I am soooooo grateful to have support from wonderful friends and family. We filled the restaurant. It was an incredible thing – surreal might be a better word – to see people from work, fellow artists, students, my parents and my besties all dining together, all coming together to view my art and to enjoy a three-course meal, which included some amazing cheesecakes for dessert – OMG!
I didn’t actually eat – I table-hopped, chatted and laughed, and took all of these fun pics! It was definitely one of the best art parties I have ever had, really and truly. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you for coming and sharing your Tuesday evening with me. <3
This was a successful experiment. Magical, more like. Bringing people together and offering them a special menu created for the event. Making an art show more of a happening in a way that benefits the venue and its patrons, as well as the artist. There was actually interest in my work – potential sales. Yes! My dream of finding homes for these paintings is coming true.
So it was and is a win-win. I loved sharing my art message with those who asked. It is a funny thing to verbalize one’s visual language. Mine is a personal vision and it requires a certain amount of vulnerability for me to do so. As I reflect on this series of paintings, its meaning has shifted. It happened gradually at first, with the changes I made two weeks ago and now I discover something new every time I look at them, as if they are still in flux, changing and growing emotionally as I am. It’s almost as if I can feel myself moving even while sitting here writing this. I can feel the momentum of the planet and it is like when you watch those films that fast forward the life-cycle of a tulip in bloom. Evolving exponentially.
I heard that an artist’s energy resides in their work and people of like energy are the ones who are attracted to it. Therefore, an artist in despair will find their patron in someone of a similar disposition. My paintings speak of the need to seek solace in love, and are in the spirit of taking that leap of faith in order to find it.
That used to feel sad to me, but it doesn’t anymore. There is no fear of despair in that journey. Only a sense that the best is yet to come.
Last night was very special. I will treasure that feeling of friendship and camaraderie for a very long time.
Honor Thy Master will remain on display until the end of April 2017.
It means the world to me to share my artwork with all of you. To find the perfect venue, Dolce Vita World Bistro, for the Honor Thy Master series. To take a group of paintings that had been stored under my bed, re-work them to give them new life, and get them out into this world. And to just see them again, breathing new life on the walls of this wonderful restaurant – it just feels magnificent. This is an artist’s bliss.
Today I installed my art exhibition at Dolce Vita World Bistro. It took two-and-a-half hours to figure out the placement and hang them all. I brought the paintings into the space and began by just leaning them against the wall where I thought I wanted them to go – the way I do when assisting the artists who show at the school library gallery. I rearranged a little bit but it pretty much looked like my vision very quickly. Then it was only a matter of climbing on a barstool, measuring with my favorite yardstick borrowed from school, and figuring out how to operate the clasps on the plastic cords that make up the display system on the walls. That, and finding the right bit for my power screwdriver, lol (I brought flat head rather than phillips head screws – how weird).
I love the way the artwork looks in the space. The colors work well with the terracotta walls, and I love the contrast of abstract work in this old-world classic style bistro. It just works.
Here is the menu for the special one-night only art reception on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm.
There may be a wine special – proprietor Antonietta Vigliotti is working on that, as well as selecting some great music via the sound system. I requested ’70s rock, preferably 1977 stuff, which is my definitive moment musically. I think you pick the music of your life when you are fourteen, am I right?
All are welcome. Make your reservations early if you care to join. Antonietta said she has already received a few reservations! Yessss! I am sooooo excited. It will be a fun party.
The paintings are only $200. The larger one – 24″ x 48″ is only $500 (regularly $800) and the three 11″ x 14″ paintings are only $75. They are priced low to sell. I want them to find good homes. That would mean everything.
Honor Thy Master will be on display through the month of April 2017, so if you cannot make the reception I trust that you will find the time in your world to visit the restaurant some time during the month! <3
I took a lesson out of my friend Penny’s playbook and re-worked eight paintings for my exhibition at Dolce Vita World Bistro that starts next week. Spent the last two days in intense artist mode, which I haven’t done in quite a while. It was a long time coming…and now I get it. I get what Penny feels. I get the lecture Anne gave me the last time we spoke – about making a commitment to painting because that is who you are. A painter. An artist. Much of what I told her about who and what I wanted to be seems inauthentic now.
Angel, 24″ x 30″, 1998, mixed-media, $200
Nobody knows the real me. Some of you know some of my secrets – but not all of them. It is strange to re-visit these paintings because I know what they are about, what they are still about and seeing them now as my future self, it is like I already knew the journey. I’m still on it, but, OMG, I am so much closer, if that makes any sense at all. It doesn’t have to. I know what I am talking about, lol, and so, I feel a profound sense of love for my old self. It’s weird and exhilarating, and just overwhelmingly emotional. I finally know where I am going and, of course, now that I know that, I can finally just enjoy the inspired action I will take to get there.
Me & Bob R., 24″ x 30″, 1998, mixed-media, $200
I added varnish to these paintings and chalkboard paint to the borders. Some were tweaked with twine knots and other mixed-media, a visual language insert to augment the journey, so to speak. These improvements are like the bridge that hurdles the gap between who I was and who I am now. Maybe I am not much different to the naked eye, but to me I’m vastly better, new and improved in mind and spirit. I am exposed and yet, still within the confines of my dreams where reality is soooo amazing. I love life as an artist. There’s truly no better way to live.
Flag, 24″ x 30″, 1998, mixed-media, $200
The series – did it have a name before? Because I don’t remember it. Regardless, I’m calling it Honor Thy Master. The original concept was the idea of the mandala as the first mark-making a human being creates. The circle and cross or X iconography on a white field is juxtaposed with torn postcards/notecards of artwork by Modigliani, Johns, Rauschenberg, Van Gogh, Michaelangelo…. I am honoring those master artists by adding their work to mine in combination with authentic mark-making. The addition of the chalkboard element, as always, is for the purpose of a third artist – the future owner of the work. My chalk marks will eventually erase and so, that person could add or subtract marks to the border with chalk themselves. In this way, we all join hands and make art together.
Footprint, 24″ x 30″, 1998, mixed-media, $200
I am so proud of the way it all connects. The twine is the rope that binds us in both love and angst; we are free to choose. It is powerful and yet so simple, so perfectly cast that it gives me such a thrill to put these puzzle pieces together – like, literally…really!?! So much joy in the perfection of it.
Blood, 24″ x 30″, 1998, mixed-media, $200
I will install the show next weekend. There will be a reception on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 at 6:00pm at Dolce Vita World Bistro. A unique dining experience! Antonietta Vigliotti has prepared a special menu for the evening. I will create a public Facebook event page for it and invite all of my friends and acquaintences, and they will be able to invite friends too – the more the merrier, although it is not a huge space. I think the dining room serves up to forty people at a time. Reservations are in order for the dinner, but you can come and hang out at the bar too! It will be amazing to see everyone! I can’t wait! <3
Dolce Vita World Bistro is located at 907 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, New York (13210). You can either call for reservations (315) 475-4700 or fill out the form on their web-site.
Landscape, 24″ x 30″, 1998, mixed-media, $200Dream, 24″ x 30″, 1998, mixed-media, $200
So, here’s something crazy weird and great – I will be exhibiting artwork in three locations during the month of April 2017. Showing watercolors – the ones with the baseball themed titles – at the Half Moon Bakery and Bistro in Jamesville, New York. No date as of yet for the reception, but I am hoping they will do a baseball cake or cupcakes for it. That will be fun for spring, right?
I’m installing an exhibit at Dolce Vita World Bistro in Syracuse, New York on April 2, 2017. It would be nice to keep them up longer than a month, but no deets on this yet. I would love to have a gathering one evening, maybe fill the dining room with friends and have music too, but I haven’t planned that far ahead. Art shows are a great excuse for a party! I will either exhibit the encaustic crown series from 2012 or something more retro – oil & collage paintings from 1998. I don’t remember what I called this series. I made them in the 2nd bedroom of my apartment on Woodbine Ave. during winter break that year. Does anyone remember anything pre-new millennium?
Crowning Glory, 18″ x 15″, 2012, encaustic, $125Karen Tashkovski, Life. Liberty. Happiness., 1997, oil & collage, $675
And finally, my 1997 oil & collage series of paintings Messages (From the Other Voice) isup in the Chittenango Middle School library, Chittenango, New York, for the next two months!
So happy to be able to share my artwork in public spaces (you know, to captive audiences). New work is actually coming soon. My sister is opening a yoga studio around the corner from my house. I will be making encaustic paintings to exhibit and sell there. I’m going to be turning my kitchen into an art studio during spring break next month to get those (horseshoe paintings and maybe hearts too) ready for Syracuse Yoga’s opening in May 2017.
Dolce Vita World Bistro is across the street from Syracuse Stage – at 907 E. Genesee Street, Syracuse, New York. The restaurant serves international cuisine, hosts musical and theatrical events in collaboration with Syracuse University and promotes local visual artists via monthly art exhibitions on the walls of its dining room.
Friday night I attended the opening reception for What’s Left, an art show combining the talents of Le Moyne College colleagues Erin Davies and Penny Santy. The title is derived from a Robin Williams quote –
What’s right is what’s left if you do everything else wrong.
The show features wood collage pieces by Erin and oil paintings by Penny.
Meredith Cuddihy on violin provided the musical entertainment. There was wine and cake, and other yummy fare, as well as friendship, camaraderie, and lots of fun! It is always very special to support my friends in all of their endeavors and of course, any excuse for a party is a good one, especially now – we are weathering a severe cold spell in Syracuse, New York and no one really wants to hunker down in their respective shelters to wait it out.
According to their web-site, Dolce Vita is open Monday – Thursday 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Wednesday – Friday 11:00 am – midnight, and Saturday 4:00 pm – 11:00 pm. They schedule private events on Sundays. If you are interested in scheduling one, making a reservation or checking out the wonderful art, call (315) 475-4700 for the deets.
