I have scheduled an art exhibition at Hazard Branch Library (1620 W. Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY 13204) for August 2026. Today I dropped by to view the space.
Sylvia Steen is the current artist of the month. The library is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Tuesday & Thursday 9:00 AM – 7:30 PM. Closed on Sunday.
Under Open Sky is the title of the latest exhibition at Edgewood Gallery, 216 Tecumseh Road, Syracuse, New York 13224. The artwork will be available for sale through April 11, 2025.
I last saw Peter Valenti’s bird-infused ceramic vessels at Hafner’s. I told him he should contact Cheryl Chappell to get a show at Edgewood and he said he had already scheduled a show there! I am in love with these pieces, some of which are wood-fired.
Nikolay Mikushkin’s landscape paintings are breathtakingly beautiful, He paints plein air, which means that he sets up his canvases outside and paints what he sees. He captures light like an Impressionist but the clarity of the brush stroke in the branches of the trees is laser sharp. These paintings are highly collectable! Both his and Valenti’s work had several red stickers on their tags, which means they’ve been sold. You better head over to the gallery asap before they sell out of these magnificent pieces.
In the jewelry department, Judi Witkin and others who form the Bead Society of Central New York are displaying intricately detailed seed beaded necklaces, bracelets and trompe l’oeil items, many of which display the flora-fauna motifs to complete the outdoorsy theme of the exhibition.
The Edgewood Gallery is small but it is so well-curated and the show is a harmonious blend of color, texture and a tease of springtime to come (please, god, soon!) to Syracuse.
The gallery is open Tuesday – Friday 9:30 AM – 6:00 PM and Saturday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM.
I used to deliver newspapers – The Syracuse Herald Journal and the Sunday Post Standard. I started as an eight-year-old, making $20 a week. Back in the ’70s, that was a lot of money. I was able to buy a car when it was time for that, and other stuff, like a TV and stereo for my bedroom….
I always thought I’d be a writer, an artist too, but – I don’t know, I mean, I used to read the paper every day back then. Was I going to be a Lois Lane? Now the paper is a relic and maybe I am partly to blame because I write for fun, not for money. And you can read it for free.
Years ago, Tim Atseff was hired as an artist for the Syracuse Herald Journal. That job segued into political cartoonist and later upper management. He was more recently instrumental in creating the Central New York Magazine and other publications that focus on local interests.
He’s still very much an artist and this exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art is a powerful homage to his career. Atseff paints on bifold insulation boards in his basement studio. The artwork is enormous and yet easily transportable, which I find genius.
The work focuses on the current political climate and incorporates assemblage, collage, text and a vibrant color scheme.
The paintings succeed in joining technical proficiency with abstract and graphic devices, which manifests into a Robert Indiana/Larry Rivers-type vibe, something akin to a powerful Americana symbolism juxtaposed with a feeling of unfinished business.
As well, I recognized that the artists’ own political views are not unclear yet, like the propaganda of politics, the work can justly be claimed by the opinionated based on perspective alone, if that makes any sense.
I loved the scale of it all, the large headline texts and the humor (calling the paper in one painting “The Daily WTF”), the giant -30- indicating the end of a news story…. The installation elements are full of smaller items, like the sand on the floor in the Final Edition piece had pennies sprinkled in – this was not lost on my eagle eye. There is perfection in that rhythm.
There is such a strong message here about the loss of a media that at one time was our main source of information, given to us by just-the-facts-journalists. Now who are we supposed to rely on for that info? Lois Lane is out of a job and I am assuming there’s no pension. Thank goodness I went the teaching route so that my art and writing stuff can remain in the realm of for-fun.
This show is about the end of an era, an American institution in rags, in shambles. The newspaper thrown out like yesterdecade’s garbage. It’s bittersweet and beautiful, and larger than life. So SO GOOD!
Tim Atseff – Final Edition will be on view through December 29, 2024. The Everson Museum of Art is located at 401 Harrison Street, Syracuse, New York, 13202. See their web-site for further details including hours of operation and how to become a member in order to support the museum and keep up-to-date on future events..
For the last two years, Natasha Smoke Santiago, who goes by Smoke, has been involved in a residency with the Everson Museum of Art (401 Harrison Street, Syracuse, New York). This situation has culminated in an art exhibition in the Robineau Gallery.
The clay pottery is paired with artifacts that coordinate with her Haudenosaunee heritage. She is Mohawk.
The pottery is functional, meant to be used in food preparation, as well as ceremonially.
The exhibit continues through August 18th, 2024.
Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 11:00am – 5:00pm (Pay-What-You-Wish all day)
Thursday: 11:00am – 8:00pm (Thursdays from 5:00-8:00pm are Pay-What-You-Wish)
Friday: 11:00am – 5:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Fish Cove was voted Best in Syracuse by The Syracuse New Times. In addition, if you Google search best fish fry in Syracuse, New York, this restaurant is at the top of the Yelp list.
This is a takeout place with a small seating area – if you prefer to eat there (I ate at home). What a beautiful place!
Presentation – There is a queue. Then you order at the register and wait for your food. You can also select drinks and salad sides from a cooler. Everything is wrapped and placed into a plastic bag.
I saw the piece of fish before it was fried. It had been skinned, which I love, and it was made fresh, not pre-breaded. Once fried, the fish was weighed. It was priced by weight. Then the chef placed it in the bun and added the tartar sauce. He asked me what condiments I desired.
There was no line when I was there and I received my order in less than fifteen minutes.
Taste – It WAS the best! No offense to any other restaurant I’ve covered in this ISO Fish Fry series.
It was so good! Juicy, I guess? Is that the right word? The fries were beautiful. And the coleslaw was so finely chopped – the tiniest little bits. Fantastic! The PERFECT meal.
Restaurant Experience. – The restaurant was incredibly clean. Not a lot of customers when I was there at the tail end of a Saturday afternoon. There was a chef and a cashier. They were both very friendly.
OMG, the whole meal was under $9.00. The same order at all of the other places cost over $20.00.
I am in love with this place!!! <3
Location – Fish Cove is located at 158 Swansea Drive, Syracuse, New York 13206. It is in the Shop City plaza. There are two other locations – one in Liverpool and one in North Syracuse.
Hours:
Mon 2-7pm
Tuesday-Thursday 11-7 pm
Fri:9am – 8:30pm
Sat: 10am – 6pm
Phone: 315-463-6990
Parking – Plenty of parking in the shopping center and the spaces directly in front of the restaurant are reserved for Fish Cove patrons.
I’ve been reminiscing about Dawn Dolls. They were manufactured for only three years in the early ’70s by Topper. Dawn, Angie, Gary, and company. they were only six-and-a-half inches tall, so they were incompatible with Barbies because they were so small. But they were so pretty with silky long hair and “real” eyelashes, and of course, with very awesome 1970s fashions. I loved them and I love them still.
I’ve been stalking them on the Internet – Ebay, Etsy and Mercari mainly. I don’t really want to buy them, do I? I want to be the Dawn doll. Haven’t I always? So funny that my hair resembles hers now. All I need is an Alice & Olivia dress and I am good to go.
What struck me as I viewed Sharif Bey’s art exhibit at the Everson Museum of Art is that he too seems to be enamored with doll collections albeit his are quite large scale especially the necklaces!
Like Vanessa German’s work and Vanessa Johnson’s too, Bey has added his take on the African experience by way of the doll.
This show is housed in two of the four upstairs galleries and spans the artist’s thirty-year career. I mean, he’s only forty-eight, which indicates that some of the pieces in this collection of works were created when he was only eighteen. It is a lot of work – from functional ceramics to these large figurative pieces and finally the accessory wall. It is incredibly impressive for sure.
These necklaces in particular are really something. In the accompanying pamphlet prepared for a Junteenth visitation, it is revealed that he used toilet paper over glaze in the kiln to manifest the charred pattern on the “beadwork”. It is genius.
The scale speaks volumes about who this man is as an artist and as a human. It is a combo of continued visual exploration and ethnic pride coupled with a desire to both learn and teach.
Bey is a professor at Syracuse University in the Art Education department. The brochure professes to take children on a journey to discover themselves as he serves to explore ideas to carry him on his own path.
The exhibition is titled “Facets”. It works so well here because the Everson has always been first and foremost a ceramics museum. Knowing that these massive pieces are also fragile lends itself well to that idea that we are all fragile beings in a way, always seeking that strength of character in our true identities while harboring thoughts of doubt, worry and stupid fears that can easily break our spirits.
I wonder if that thought crossed his mind? No matter what doll one identifies with – big or small, black or white, etc., etc., we are all that creative spirit looking for a way to connect and feel that blessed feeling of validation as we develop our crafts/psyches in order to continue the ascent through life.
The Everson Museum of Art is located at 401 Harrison Street, Syracuse, NY, 13202. Call (315) 474-6064 for more information or find them at www.everson.org.
Sharif Bey: Facets continues through August 14, 2022.
I drove to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, New York (205 Genesee Street) to view the Quilt=Art=Quilts show (blog post to follow). This fabulous show of textiles (or as she calls them – rugs) is by Ann Clarke and is located in the upstairs gallery through January 19, 2021.
It was only my second time up there due to the fact that previously, I did not know there was more than met the eye to the museum – there is a second floor accessed via stairs or elevator hidden behind the gallery shoppe and a basement room as well, where the museum hosts art classes and activities.
Clarke’s show is more than meets the eye too. It is full of eyes – the hooked wool rug variety. Although this technique was introduced to me in the 1970s as craft, Clarke’s deft handling of the media allows for nuances of color that create a feeling of light flickering throughout, which reminds one of time passing. She has elevated this former stitch-by-numbers-style craft into legitimate art.
The show is titled Lessons of Empathy in Wonderland. Clarke shares a journey of self as artist, and care-giver to her elderly mother. It reads as catharsis. She is literally and figuratively weaving the fragility of life and its complex relationships with love-infused yarn. This journey into an alternate universe (where the family narratives have changed) seems to have inspired empathy for her relationship with family in addition to finding personal solace, strength and depth of character within each intricately detailed piece in this collection.
It is a breathtaking exhibition. All of this large-scale work has been completed in the last two years. It is all so uniquely personal and yet, so compelling as one feels the resonance.
I love how life shows you what to do, what to create based on where you are on the emotional scale. And wherever you are, there will be others who totally see you. <3
There is no better way to celebrate my birthday than spending time with wonderful friends viewing art.
The Everson Museum of Art is host to two exhibitions of Darryl Hughto’s paintings. From Diamonds to Sailboats will be on display until August 26, 2018. According to the Everson Bulletin, this show “examines the artist’s tireless interest in the power and possibility of a single shape: the diamond”.
These diamond and sailboat paintings are ethereal, immediately transporting the viewer to the blue skies and sunshine of summer. I loved how the unprimed canvases allowed the paint to seep into the cloth. There is an underlying structure of softness that builds into a textural landscape of ocean waves by the commanding use of gel mediums. The paintings are shimmery and soft while also entirely rhythmic. Beautiful work!
Also on view are portraits of friends and acquaintances in his world. These are energetic gestural works. A must see!
Hughto will do a gallery walk to discuss his work on June 14, 2018 at 6:30 pm. It is free for Everson members, otherwise $8.00.
Last night I caught the tail end of a three-hour art reception at Clayscapes Pottery in Syracuse, New York. The IPA (Independent Potters’ Association) displayed their wares in the wonderful gallery in this basement establishment located at 1003 West Fayette Street.
Clayscapes is where I get the clay I use in my classroom. It is a retail business with walk-ins welcome; it is a gallery and it is home to studio space for ceramic artists, as well as a venue for ceramics classes for all ages.
I can’t spend a lot of time in there, however – big secret revealed – I am allergic to clay! When I do clay projects with students, I limit them to a four-class affair. I do it, of course, because it is really an important media for sculpture and functional art.
This gallery is really cool because many of the works are functional and so, when art lovers and customers see them, they want to use them immediately. And they can because it is a cash and carry show.
The glass shelves were formerly in the Everson Museum of Art before the museum went through renovations. Everything looks amazing. Every artist’s work is unique – there is really something for everyone.
I spoke with Wes Weiss, a local guy and Nottingham High School grad who spoke of his process in such an interesting way, which totally resonated with me. He said he took negative feelings of the political climate in this country and infused his feelings with positive text creating the message of melting his painful thoughts and keeping the good ones. He said an idea grips him and it is almost painful until he purges it via creation. He is “a slab guy”, using said technique to create tiles, lanterns and other pieces scattered throughout the show.
You can claim a free tile from his bowl of positive words located at the entrance to the gallery. I loved the sentiment of walking away with a piece of his goodness. It really blends with my belief that we all work together to create our experiences. Loved that so much.
Also in this show are the following: Casey Cleary-Hammarstedt, Jen Gandee, Matt Hill, Michael Hughes, Sookie Kayne, Bobbi Lamb, Tom Krahe, David MacDonald, Jamie Noce, Tina Parker, Jessica Pilowa, Margery Rose, Millie St. John, Tim See, Don Seymour, Karen Jean Smith, John Smolenski, Alan Stankiewicz, Peter Valenti, Sarah VanDerVoort, Michele Walters and Rebecca Wind.
This exhibition continues through May 5, 2018. Visit IPA at www.ipa.org for more information about this group. Clayscapes Gallery is open Tuesday – Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and Saturday 9:00 am – 1:00 pm.
