Tag Archives: Echolalia

Road Trip

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I drove to New Jersey on Monday.  Visited with friends in Jersey City and Morristown, and stopped in to see my art exhibition at Summit Medical Group in Berkeley Heights.  I love how easy-peasy it is to find your way around the country via Google maps/GPS, by the way. It is clearly the greatest invention to eliminate fear of travel.  It was an effortless, fun-filled journey!

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This place is so beautiful!  Space Planner Elizabeth Wiech did a magnificent job installing this show.  I feel lucky to be a part of it.  It turns out that my work is the most abstract of the bunch.  I picked up the artwork I had delivered that wasn’t used – actually my friend Anne had delivered it for me originally, and so this was my first time there.  Everyone was so nice and helpful from the valet parking attendants and security people to the reception desk ladies and maintenance.  Thank you, everyone!  I am just so incredibly grateful for the experience.

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The art exhibition is in the basement floor of the Lawrence Pavilion building in the complex at 1 Diamond Hill (Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922).  Each artist is represented with an artist statement and information on how to contact them in order to make a purchase.  A portion of sales will go to a pet charity – this is an animal-themed art show.

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Eight of my paintings are there – from my 18″ x 18″ oil & collage Echolalia series.

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The exhibition will continue through November 2016.

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Contact Elizabeth Wiech at (908) 277-8806 for more information.  This is a medical office building – she will know the building hours.  The show is open to the public and can be accessed through a separate entrance with stairs leading to the basement floor or through the main entrance using the elevator.

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Adopt An Echo

Rune 1, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 1, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Rune 7, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 7, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

Bet you didn’t think you’d see me here again so soon.  I’m sure my Facebook friends will all end up blocking me because I’m posting so much.

Echo 6, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 6, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Rune 6, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 6, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

But it is summer and I am in full-on art marketing mode!

Echo 1, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 1, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Echo 11, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 11, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

The Natur-Tyme show has only been up for a week. No sales yet.  My thought is it is something for customers and the area to need to warm up to.  Art seems to be not in the forefront of the average Syracusan’s mindset these days.

Echo 10, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 10, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

Since they are small (18″ x 18″) and they are paintings of cats, and they are ten years old, I decided to go the way of the SPCA and other animal rescue shelters and price them the way they would an older cat who needs adopting.

Echo 9, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 9, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Rune 11, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 11, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

This morning I changed my prices to reflect that.  Each painting is only $75!  A steal by any standards.  It’s dangerous to price paintings so low.  In the eyes of anyone, it may appear that I don’t believe in myself or that I may think my art is not of high quality and therefore not valuable.

Echo 7, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 7, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Echo 8, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 8, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

The opposite is true.  You must know that about me by now.  But making a living off my art is a dream, not necessarily the only reason I do it.  It’s really about sharing myself – sharing my hopes and dreams, and all that emotional stuff with an audience.  Artists are formalists and create their own versions of the world with detail but above all else, we are emotional creatures filled with this unquenchable desire to be loved in some way.  Our personalities, our quirks, our talent.  We are pretty  needy people.

Echo 2, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 2, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Echo 4, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 4, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Rune 5, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 5, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

And so, I am trying to compromise.  I want people to enjoy my paintings.  I want them to take them home at a price point that makes them feel like they didn’t overspend – I certainly don’t want anyone to experience cognitive dissonance after purchasing a final sale item.

Rune 12, 18" x 18", oil  & collage, 2005
Rune 12, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Rune 4, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 4, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

The Echolalia series is a piece of me.  At its core, it’s really about how the past shaped me into who I am.  I cannot run away from it.  I can only move on from the dark stuff, own up to it and say – wow, you have really come a long way.

Rune 3, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 3, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

You assume these frolicking cats are about happy thoughts and in reality they were created out of despair.  They are all about me looking for ways to find happiness in a time when nothing at all was going my way.  Now things are so different and I see how I found and still find solace in these works.  How now, they represent a lifeline to the future world I’ve found myself in and everything is okay.

Rune 10, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2015
Rune 10, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2015
Rune 2, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 2, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

Is that too heavy?  Sorry – for me, as you know, art is about exposing myself.   But in a way that works, like the game board in Concentration.  It’s not spelled out for you but sometimes you can still decipher it.

Rune 9, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 9, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

The goal is to sell all of the Echolalia paintings so that I can start moving this massive inventory of work.  Either that or start looking for a bigger house.  I will put both out into the universe and see what sticks.

Rune 8, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Rune 8, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005
Echo 3, 18" x 18", oil & collage, 2005
Echo 3, 18″ x 18″, oil & collage, 2005

Here is the link to Maria Rizzo’s article about the venue.

The Big Reveal

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And now, the big reveal:  Starting today through September 2015, I will be showing and selling artwork at Natur-Tyme, Erie Blvd. East, Dewitt, NY.

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Maria Rizzo, Tom Huff and I are the premiere artists for this amazing experience.  Maria is the curator.  The store owner invested in the window space, purchasing a hanging system, partitions and hooks that make the art look fantastic.  The space is off to the side of the customer service desk and you can also see the art from the front window overlooking Erie Blvd.

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For those of you in the Nostalgic Syracuse group on Facebook (shout out!), it’s the old Goldberg’s Furniture store.  Natur-Tyme has been there for five years.  It’s not just a vitamin shop; it’s more of a healthy lifestyle kinda place.  They have food, a juice bar, cosmetic and hair care, a salon, fresh vegetables, vitamins and all sorts of things.  Even if you’re not in the market for art, I urge you to discover its many contents for yourself.  It’s like an oasis of bliss in there.

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Maria told me that she picked me because, aside from liking my artwork, she was impressed with the way I used social media.  She said she liked that this blog was not just to promote myself but other local artisans and cultural things.

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Isn’t that such a nice compliment?  You really never know when helping someone can lead to someone helping you.  I am very impressed with Maria as well.  She’s very young, but has this unwavering self-confidence and drive to succeed as an artist.  She uses social media wisely and has recently won grant money for a show of tree paintings.

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Framed prints of those paintings are available for sale at this venue too, in addition to other landscape paintings.  They are located on the left side facing the gallery area in the cubbies.

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I was meticulously measuring – doing that OCD Monk thing until I was satisfied.  It took me like 2 1/2 hours to completely install twenty-two paintings.  I have two that didn’t fit, which I will add once I sell two!!!!!

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And if I sell more, I will go over there and replace them with another series.

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These paintings of cats frolicking in geometric fields are from my series called Echolalia.  I just love the way they look when they are on display together.  I created them in 2005.  The last time they were exhibited was at the Rome Art Center in Rome, New York – in their library room – back in September 2008!  Since then they’ve been in my closet or on display somewhere in my house.

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It’s such a refreshing and exciting feeling to bring them out again. To see the light of day, as I mentioned about the paintings in my Sullivan Library show.

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As I was working to get everything up, a woman approached me and said, “Oh, are you the artist?  These are wonderful.  Very industrial!”  Said she’d be back to look at them again.  Whether she buys or not really doesn’t matter at this moment, because that feeling that she gave me – that thing where I realize that I am an artist.  I have a body of work that I don’t really go on ruminating about – you know what I mean?  It felt amazing.  I’ve been so busy with teaching and in my free time I’m basically doing mundane chores or exercising, or writing these blog posts.

I haven’t had time to sit down and make art.  I have this idea for a new series but stuff gets in the way or I don’t feel the passion.  I spent all day yesterday re-staining my 20 square foot deck.  Let me tell you, the idea of picking up another paintbrush anytime soon does not sit well with my sore shoulders, lol.

But put forth a compliment and I come to life like gangbusters.  I can’t wait for you to see the show. Please go to Natur-Tyme if you are in town and let me know what you think.  And if you want to buy something, I guess you just take it off the wall (get a sales associate to help) and take it to the register.  My paintings are only $200 each.

 

 

Hello…hello…hello…(hello)….

I spent part of the day photographing my Echolalia series – twenty-four 18″ x 18″ paintings I created in 2005.

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I began these oil and collage paintings by gluing rough textured canvas to the stretched canvas then applying gesso to the surface.  I used pencil to draw the composition – I used two different stencils (I drew) of cats as well as a ruler to create the geometric field.

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I always draw thumbnail sketches before I begin the actual paintings to map out the direction of the series.  I used chalkboard paint in both black and green, and oil paint.  Then I added the collage items, which included text, coins, starfish, ribbon and wooden toys.

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A rune is a mystery and echo alludes to the repetition of the devices.

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You can see more of these works – I uploaded the entire series – in the portfolio section of my website.  They are for sale for $200 each.

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