Location #ootd part II: with friends and family
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Tag Archives: Syracuse artist
I See Deb Walsh
“Eye Studio Arts, LLC is featuring the work of artist Deborah Walsh during the month of April. Walsh is known for her acrylic paintings of reflections on shiny surfaces, most often cars, motorcycles, chrome, and glass. Her work is about how light and color is diffused and reflected on various surfaces creating repetition, variation, pattern and rhythm.
Walsh graduated with a BFA in Painting and MS in Art Education from SU. As a retired Liverpool art teacher, she says her students she taught inspired her for more than 30 years. Her work has been included in Central New York Regional and National juried shows as well as many one-woman and group exhibitions. Private collectors throughout the United States own and commission work.
The Artist Reception, April 12th, will feature an acoustic performance by Caleb Liber, food and beverages and an opportunity to meet the artist.” (from the art exhibition Facebook page)
I stopped into Eye Studio this evening – once again I missed the art reception by about twenty-four hours and ten minutes. But, yes, I was there. The art studio is a place for ceramics, glassware, and drawing and painting classes for all ages and ability levels. There is a gift shoppe in the front room and two adjacent gallery spaces with the classrooms in the roomy back space.
My encaustic angel show was up at this time last year. It is a wonderful gallery space and Walsh’s work is spectacular. This art is highly collectible! I can see how the car motif resonates with so many people – from color to model and make. It is the kind of thing tailor-made for home décor. Walsh’s prices are quite reasonable for her originals and there are also Giclée prints available that are of incredible quality.
Deb Walsh has been painting shiny, reflective-surfaced items for almost thirty years. She gravitates to vehicles, but is currently also finding that this style works well with silver tea-sets and glassware.
Here is her artist statement from the Saatchi art website:
About Deborah Walsh
The work will be on display until April 30, 2019.
See the website for more information including hours of operation and pricing (here).
The Beauty Within
The year was 1996: the bartenders at Empire Brewing Company on Walton Street in Armory Square/downtown Syracuse, New York used to slip me handfuls of coasters all the time. I used them as collage material in my oil & collage paintings. I’m not a beer (or any alcoholic beverage) drinker but still – I was a bit of a barfly back in the day. I really love that place!
Well, they opened a farm brewery on Route 13 in Cazenovia, New York a while back. It is a magnificent venue in every way – you must make your pilgrimage if you haven’t done so already. It is the power of Empire times infinity! I was there this evening for Kara Daviau’s art reception.
Delicious food and drink specials, of course, and – who knew? a spectacular basement tasting/barrel room with brick walls and the most splendid ambiance for an art exhibition. Kara’s work is a perfect match for this space.
Her new series is titled Keep Me Where the Light Is. Kara is continuing her journey of discovering abandoned places and summoning them to life with music. She captures the essences of the forgotten beauty while listening to specific tunes, adding sheet music as collage before tackling the canvases with vibrant acrylic hues.
Her new mantra is expand. She is voraciously seeking new places to show and sell her artwork, (which includes merchandise – magnets, notecards, T-shirts and other accessories – you can find these and more at Wildflowers Armory in Armory Square).
As of very recently, her paintings have been accepted in juried exhibitions at galleries in New York City and in Connecticut and Maryland with the opportunity for solo exhibitions in all locations on the horizon. I asked her if she would seek abandoned spaces in these areas to create new work that resonates with people who live there. Not yet was her response.
She is at a crossroads, both personally and professionally. Her focus is on healing and with that a strong urge to self reflect via self-portraiture may be the next leg in her journey. She’d added a mini self-portrait to the lower corner of one of these paintings then wiped it out, as if to say she wasn’t quite ready for that leap…yet.
I trust that Kara will visualize the success she deserves with any step she takes on her path to get there. She is a beautiful person both inside and out. I love the trailblazing spirit that guides her choices – such an incredibly talented artist and a wonderful role model for both her own children and her students. <3
Kara Daviau’s art studio is located at the Delavan Center (Studio 249), 509 W. Fayette Street, Syracuse, New York. For more information about this work and more, contact her at KLDAV@HOTMAIL.COM.
Encaustic American Pastime
Last month I created these baseball paintings. I finally got around to mounting them onto the chalkboard painted masonite today.
They are very experimental. I did not set out to do a baseball theme – in fact, I bought the hardboards with the intent to do more horseshoes paintings. So, these just happened. They kind of came out of nowhere.
I love the texture of encaustic. The smooth areas juxtaposed with thick globby drips, the creamy wax and the gorgeous smell… It is an intoxicating medium. I added paper money to these, both real and imaginary. I also had this wonderful feather-infused rice paper that I loved incorporating. So cool!
No plans yet regarding what to do with them. I guess find a place to store them until an opportunity presents itself. The serendipitous approach.
#fashionintherealworld
If you search Instagram for the hashtag #fashionintherealworld, you will find all of my posts. I invented it and #fashioninrealtime, and #fashioninreallife. I just checked them; I think there are only two or three posts on them from random fashionistas. The rest is all me.
Here are my outfits of the day from the last two weeks. The landscape of my background keeps changing as I shift student work around the room. All of my clay projects are complete. The last batch went into the kiln today. The 5th graders are currently working on a three-dimensional wood sculpture, my Studio in Art students are learning watercolor techniques and the rest of the 8th graders are immersed in the various SLO test projects: Statue of Liberty paintings, “under the sea” landscapes with fish (mixed-media lesson), Japanese fan project (also mixed-media) and abstract paintings with realistic horses thrown in. So four additional different lessons for the six classes.
There is a lot going on, which will culminate in the School Fair set for May 12, 2017. I will have my hands full preparing for that exhibition and hopefully even with the upcoming state math tests looming, we will get everything accomplished.
But first – Spring Break!!! I will be working on the business of making art as soon as tomorrow. Can’t wait. Watching students make art is clearly a fun job, but nothing beats the guilty pleasure of creating my own artwork – even though it is super messy and therefore cannot be done in designer clothes. So…I will be sacrificing fashion for my art. I did buy a new dress for Easter though. It is Halston Heritage. <3 OMG, I love it!
The World
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
Rage of Love
The artwork presented by storyteller artist and quilter Vanessa Johnson is an extension of her being. The outstretched arms of this humanoid fabric art are inviting, welcoming and loving, connecting the women they represent, the artist and the viewer in a heart-warming embrace. She is honoring women as she visually interprets their struggle while contemplating her own life journey as an African American with roots in Ghana.
Vanessa begins with the bodies – sewing cloth to cloth, much of it found in West Africa. This becomes her canvas and from it sprouts limbs, heads and the detailed decoration of meaning that produces emotionally-charged and animated floor-to-ceiling quilts.
Last night was the opening reception for Unwrapping Vanessa at ArtRage, 505 Hawley Avenue, Syracuse, New York. The art exhibition continues through March 25, 2017. ArtRage is a gallery that focuses on social issues. They hold several exhibitions a season and coordinate them with other events – lecture/discussions, musical performances and poetry readings, film screenings and theatrical plays. There is a pancake breakfast on Sunday, March 5, 2017 beginning at 9:00 am. On Wednesday, March 8, 2017, Vanessa Johnson will give an artist talk at 7:00 pm.
Vanessa has been creating art quilts for over twenty years and has exhibited her work all over Central New York. She displayed work at the Chittenango Middle School library a few years ago! Since then her work has evolved considerably.
There is so much raw emotion to be discovered. Of the love of identity, of the power of friendship and of the joy of knowing a world where so many women of color are respected in their achievements. She is certainly inspired by these women and by the strength of the community in which she lives.
The artwork is combined with stories, text in quilted books and woven into the tapestry. In addition, pouches of soil from her homes here and in Ghana are lovingly added as a type of talisman. She calls them “gris gris”. It is this narrative that blurs the lines between artist and artwork, iconography, environment and inspired action. So much beauty in the richness and flavor of her life! <3
ArtRage is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 2:00 – 7:00 pm and Saturday noon – 4:00 pm. They are available for school tours as well, and are always seeking submissions from artists for future exhibitions. For more information, contact info@artragegallery.org. Their website is www.artragegallery.org.
Cows & Bulls
Penny Santy’s bull paintings are currently hanging on the walls of the Chittenango Middle School library. She will be visiting us on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 for an artist talk during 10th period! In honor of her visit, four of my Art-8 classes created cows and bulls in both acrylic paint and oil pastels.
I have them hanging on the walls of the hallway outside of my art classroom.
The oil pastels are done on black Strathmore paper. Students created the drawings on white paper, transferred them onto the black using graphite paper (which introduces a bit of magic, and you all know I love magic!). Then they painted out the lines in black acrylic and went to town with the pastels – creating rhythm and texture via their own individual styles.
The acrylic paintings went through the same initial process – drawn on white paper, transferred with magic . Students were also encouraged to create their own styles, although I did have a handout to give what I call Ms. Tash Pearls of Wisdom. These are pointers to mixing colors so that one color ends up permeating throughout the canvas. Raw Sienna is that color.
Black outlining was an option. Penny Santy utilizes complimentary color schemes. Most of the pieces she is exhibiting have an orange/blue color scheme. I was pleased to see so many colorful animals, purple cows and red bulls, lol, as well as the rest of the rainbow.
I wonder which ones I should enter into the Scholastic Art Awards competition? I like them all! Thank you, Penny Santy, for being such a marvelous inspiration to my kids!
Fashion Queen
Just got a new pair of BCBG sandals. If you have never worn four inch heels, I suggest you buy this brand. They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. No pinching and the interior is fully padded so they are of the work-all-day-dance-all-night variety.
Not sure if they come in a men’s size, one required for the posers of Karen Bakke’s fashion illustrations. The show, entitled Queens of New York, at the Sue and Leon Genet Gallery at The Nancy Cantor Warehouse School of Design (the Syracuse University Building located in Armory Square) will be up until May 30, 2015, if you were not at last night’s reception.
Karen Bakke was one of my professors at SU circa the ’80s when I was a fashion design major. She taught me how to use a knitting machine among other things. She’s retiring this year and going out with a fashion bang.
Her artwork is really exquisite. She uses charcoal to begin the drawings on Rives BFK paper. Her lines are gestural yet confident. Deliberate, which I love. Then she adds mixed media – acrylic, some paper collage and even actual makeup to add that whimsical touch of glitter.
My favorite is the one above. It is a gorgeous face combined with the unexpected man hand. They are all illustrations of men dressed as women, so it’s kind of a casualty of the experience. Karen told me that she’s had people criticize the proportions because the faces are so beautiful, but it’s clear that she is a master technician and the sizes are accurate.
You really have to see this show. There is a fun interactive feature where you too can become a queen by sliding on a wig or two and maybe a boa and look at yourself in a faux-gilded mirror. The pieces are really perfect when witnessed as a group and it is a testimony to a fashion artist who transcends the boundaries of time. They are timeless gorgeous-sos, which is the highest gorgeous I can give. It goes gorge then gorgy then gorgeous-so.
The gallery is located at 350 West Fayette Street, Syracuse, NY, 13202.
Oh, and P.S. – Mary Schalk of Mary Schalk Design did the flowers and I got to take one home. OMG they are perfection in a shoe too!
