timeforfrida

Helen Frankenthaler, 1928 - 2011

2011-12-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

The art world mourns the loss of Helen Frankenthaler who died at her home in Darien, Ct. on December 27, 2011.

Frankenthaler, a second generation abstract expressionist and is perhaps the best know female artist of her generation. She pioneered a technique that became know as the stain technique. She would later be considered a color field painter.

Her early influences included Hans Hoffman and Jackson Pollock. She attended Bennington College and after graduation made her way to New York. There she met art critic Clement Greenberg. Her relationship with Greenberg gave a boost to her career and introduced her to heavy hitters of the abstract movement and the New York art scene. She counted David Smith, Franz Kline and Willem and Elaine DeKooning among her friends. In 1958 she married Robert Motherwell.

Helen Frankenthaler has long been one of my favorite artists. We are all blessed to have had her share her talent with the rest of us.

"Peel" Acrylic on canvas $600

2011-12-19T09:08:00.000-08:00

Acrylic on canvas. 19" X 21"

"Pretty Bird" KV Abbott

2011-12-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

Acrylic on canvas. 12" X 12"

"A Friend of the Devil is a Friend of Mine"

2011-11-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Late Dennis Hopper On Art

2011-11-15T06:33:00.000-08:00

"Splash" - $2,500 SOLD KV Abbott

2011-10-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Acrylic on Canvas 48" X 90"

Return of the Cardiff Giant

2011-10-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

Margie Hughto at the Everson

2011-10-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

Margie Hughto: A Fired Landscape

Through January 12, 2012

This fall, Margie Hughto presents a ceramic installation entitled A Fired Landscape at the Everson. Hughto's new work, which was created specifically for the museum, consists of brilliantly colored wall reliefs that continuously wrap around the gallery allowing viewers to enter into a ceramic landscape.
Margie Hughto, A Fired Lansdscape, 2011. Photo by Revette Photography.

Margie Hughto is currently a professor at Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her works have been included in numerous exhibitions since the 1970s and she has completed permanent public artworks across the country including a monumental ceramic painting located in a subway stop in Buffalo, NY, and ceramic tile murals for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of NYC

"Splitalia" KV Abbott $350.00 SOLD

2011-08-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

I posted this figurative collage a while back as I prepared to exhibit it in a show at "The Gear Factory" in Syracuse, New York. This is the last one of the series of twelve that I finished, framed and exhibited. The series has been successful, winning several awards in juried shows and all have sold.

I have a half dozen pieces or so that I have never finished, framed, exhibited. I suspect this winter I will work on them for our new galleries in Florida and North Carolina.

"Into The Light" KV Abbott SOLD

2011-07-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

"Into The Light", Encaustic on rag board, KV Abbott, 1993.

This painting has recently sold and I wanted to get a digital image of it before it goes out the door. I did this painting before I entered the digital world so I wanted to get an image for my archives.

CY Twombly Dies at 83

2011-07-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

Cy Twombly, one of the most prominent figures in the world of modern art, died Tuesday at age 83. The American artist died in Rome after a battle with cancer, according to reports.

Twombly is known for his abstract paintings and other works that use repetitive lines and calligraphy-like writing. His often challenging style made him a favorite among other artists, but it kept him at arm's length from the general public. Critics were often divided on the merit of this work, but he eventually became regarded as a key figure of 20th century modern art.

Born in Virginia, Twombly became associated with the New York School early in his career. During the late 1950s, Twombly moved to Italy, where he spent much of the rest of his life. The artist never fit neatly into artistic categories, flirting with various movements including abstract expressionism and minimalism. His unclassifiable nature is partly what kept him from achieving the same level of fame as contemporaries such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Notably shy of the media, Twombly rarely gave interviews and kept a low public profile. Nonetheless, his art was exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. In 2010, he was invited to paint a ceiling in Paris' Louvre Museum, a rare honor in the art world.

Re-posted from the LA Times Blog

Dream State Series "Judy"

2011-07-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

I am ready to embark on a new series of collage work that has been kicking around in my head for a while. Images like this one above will be central to the overall nostalic, dream like quality that I hope to achieve. Stay tuned.

Larry Poons at SAGG

2011-06-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

THE SAM & ADELE GOLDEN GALLERY
August 19, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm : VELOCITY : LARRY POONS
In the Sam & Adele Golden Gallery (the SAGG) inside Golden Artist Colors, a selection of works by the artist from 1975 to 2009.

August 20, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm : Golden Residency Preview
The Sam & Adele Golden Foundation proudly opens its doors to the public for a preview of the new artists' residence. Just across the road from the GOLDEN factory; tours will be provided and live music from the band "Caravan of Thieves."

Events hosted by Golden Artist Colors, Inc.
And the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts
188 Bell Rd., New Berlin, NY 13411

Monterey Museum to Host Weston Exhibit

2011-06-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Monterey Museum of Art Presents Edward Weston: American Photographer

Edward Weston, Nude, 1927, gelatin silver print, ©1981 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents.

MONTEREY, CA.- The Monterey Museum of Art presents Edward weston: American Photographer, June 17-October 2, 2011. This exhibition is organized from major museum and private collections and features vintage prints of weston’s most famous and admired photographs along with rare images not widely exhibited. The exhibition is on view at the Monterey Museum of Art.

Edward weston was among the most significant American artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition will span the most prolific decades of his career. Born in Highland Park, Illinois, weston came to California in 1926, where he began the work for which he is justly famous: sharply-focused black and white photographs of seashells, vegetables, landscapes, portraits and nudes. In 1929, weston moved to Carmel and created the first of many photographs of the dramatic rocks and trees at Point Lobos. Soon thereafter, he became one of the founding members of Group f/64—a pioneering circle of photographers that included Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. Widely renowned during his lifetime, weston became the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship for experimental work in 1936.

Edward Henry weston was born March 24, 1886, in Highland Park, Illinois. He spent the majority of his childhood in Chicago where he attended Oakland Grammar School. He began photographing at the age of sixteen after receiving a Bull’s Eye #2 camera from his father. weston’s first photographs captured the parks of Chicago and his aunt’s farm. In 1906, following the publication of his first photograph in Camera and Darkroom, weston moved to California. After working briefly as a surveyor for San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, he began working as an itinerant photographer. He peddled his wares door to door photographing children, pets and funerals. Realizing the need for formal training, in 1908 weston returned east and attended the Illinois College of Photography in Effingham, Illinois. He completed the 12-month course in six months and returned to California. In Los Angeles, he was employed as a retoucher at the George Steckel Portrait Studio. In 1909, weston moved on to the Louis A. Mojoiner Portrait Studio as a photographer and demonstrated outstanding abilities with lighting and posing.) weston married his first wife, Flora Chandler in 1909. He had four children with Flora; Edward Chandler (1910), Theodore Brett (1911), Laurence Neil (1916) and Cole (1919). In 1911, weston opened his own portrait studio in Tropico, California. This would be his base of operation for the next two decades. weston became successful working in soft-focus, pictorial style; winning many salons and professional awards. weston gained an international reputation for his high key portraits and modern dance studies. Articles about his work were published in magazines such as American Photography, Photo Era and Photo Miniature. weston also authored many articles himself for many of these publications. In 1912, weston met photographer Margrethe Mather in his Tropico studio. Mather becomes his studio assistant and most frequent model for the next decade. Mather had a very strong influence on weston. He would later call her, “the first important woman in my life.” weston began keeping journals in 1915 that came to be known as his "Daybooks." They would chronicle his life and photographic development into the 1930’s.

In 1922 weston visited the ARMCO Steel Plant in Middletown, Ohio. The photographs taken here marked a turning point in Weston’s career. During this period, Weston renounced his Pictorialism style with a new emphasis on abstract form and sharper resolution of detail. The industrial photographs were true straight images: unpretentious, and true to reality. Weston later wrote, “The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh.” Weston also traveled to New York City this same year, where he met Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler and Georgia O’Keeffe.

In 1923 Weston moved to Mexico City where he opened a photographic studio with his apprentice and lover Tina Modotti. Many important portraits and nudes were taken during his time in Mexico. It was also here that famous artists; Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Orozco hailed Weston as the master of 20th century art.

After moving back to California in 1926, Weston began his work for which he is most deservedly famous: natural forms, close-ups, nudes, and landscapes. Between 1927 and 1930, Weston made a series of monumental close-ups of seashells, peppers, and halved cabbages, bringing out the rich textures of their sculpture-like forms. Weston moved to Carmel, California in 1929 and shot the first of many photographs of rocks and trees at Point Lobos, California. Weston became one of the founding members of Group f/64 in 1932 with Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham and Sonya Noskowiak. The group chose this optical term because they habitually set their lenses to that aperture to secure maximum image sharpness of both foreground and distance. 1936 marked the start of Weston’s series of nudes and sand dunes in Oceano, California, which are often considered some of his finest work. Weston became the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship for experimental work in 1936. Following the receipt of this fellowship Weston spent the next two years taking photographs in the West and Southwest United States with assistant and future wife Charis Wilson. Later, in 1941 using photographs of the East and South Weston provided illustrations for a new edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Weston began experiencing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in 1946 and in 1948 shot his last photograph of Point Lobos. In 1946 the Museum of Modern Art, New York featured a major retrospective of 300 prints of Weston’s work. Over the next 10 years of progressively incapacitating illness, Weston supervised the printing of his prints by his sons, Brett and Cole. His 50th Anniversary Portfolio was published in 1952 with photographs printed by Brett. An even larger printing project took place between1952 and 1955. Brett printed what was known as the Project Prints. A series of 8 -10 prints from 832 negatives considered Edward's lifetime best. The Smithsonian Institution held the show, “The World of Edward Weston” in 1956 paying tribute to his remarkable accomplishments in American photography. Edward Weston died on January 1, 1958 at his home, Wildcat Hill, in Carmel, California. Weston's ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean at Pebbly Beach at Point Lobos.

*Reposted from artdaily.org

2011-06-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

2011-06-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Chris Spuglio & Leah Grimaldi

2011-05-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

"INN3R"

New Work By Chris Spuglio & Leah Grimaldi

Atlantic Works Gallery, 80 Border St, East Boston MA

June 10 - July 9 2011

Opening Reception Saturday June 11th 7-10 PM

www.spugliostudios.com

Arlene Abend - Stretching Boundries

2010-12-08T05:20:00.000-08:00

Four X Four at Syracuse University Art Galleries

2010-10-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/#!/SUArtGalleries

Carl Plansky at SAGG

2010-09-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

September 25, 2010-November 20, 2010

Celebrate the legacy of Carl Plansky, founder of Williamsburg Handmade Oil Colors, as both artist and paintmaker. Carl's work will be displayed along with some of his artist friends: Milton Resnick, Pat Passlof, Jake Berthot, Susanna Coffey, Cora Cohen, Bill Jensen, Margrit Lewczuk, Judith Linhares and Mary Jo Vath.

There will be an opening reception Saturday, September 25, from 3-6pm. Please RSVP if you plan to attend the reception.

Complete directions and gallery hours can be found online at theSAGG.org

Good Design - Everson Museum

2010-09-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

2000 Marshmallow Sofa, Herman Miller for the Home/Nelson Office

Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller
August 14 - October 17, 2010

2000 Marshmallow Sofa, Herman Miller for the Home/Nelson Office
This exhibition explores the collaborative design process employed at Herman Miller, the world-renowned furniture company that has used design to solve problems for the home and workplace for almost ninety years. Good Design showcases archival holdings of concept models, drawings, supplementary photographs and completed masterworks of design in furniture and decorative art produced by Herman Miller, Inc. Works by Gilbert Rohde, Ray and Charles Eames, George Nelson, Alexander Girard, Robert Probst, Bill Stumpf, Don Chadwick, Ayse Birdsel, and other well known designers are featured.

Public tours are available on Saturdays at 2.00pm. These tours are complimentary with exhibition admission, and no reservation is required.

The exhibition was organized and is circulated by the Muskegon Museum of Art in association with The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan.

This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the Syracuse Center of Excellence and is made possible in part by Sedgwick Business Interiors. Media Sponsorship provided by Sunny 102 FM and CBS 5 WTVH

Admission: Everson Members and children under 5 are admitted free. $10 non-members, $8 children under 18, students (w/ college ID), Military (w/ ID), and seniors (65+). A special family rate is available for $30 (including 2 adults and 4 dependent children). Group tours are available at a special rate of $8 per person, must be booked in advance. K-12 school tours will be offered at no charge, must be booked in advance through the Education Department. Tickets may be purchased in advance at everson.org, or during the exhibition at the Everson Ticket Desk

Changes -Review in Stars by Katherine Rushworth

2010-08-19T04:46:00.000-07:00

Central Square couple displays similar, different works at Edgewood Gallery
Published: Sunday, July 18, 2010, 5:10 AM
Katherine Rushworth

*Show Runs through September 10.

Husband and wife artists K.V. and Debe Abbott share a visual aesthetic like some couples share life. Their mixed-media works share a common energy and expressiveness that, at times, make it difficult to discern one artist's pieces from the other. While Debe's palette leans to the brighter tones, Kevin's exudes a more subdued tonality, but even that isn't a constant.

Through Sept 10, visitors to the Edgewood Gallery on Tecumseh Road can take in a 25-year survey of works by this enterprising couple. The Abbotts are the owners of Abbott's Lake Country Studio, a custom framing workshop and art studio located in the heart of Central Square, but they are also actively creating their own work, as this show demonstrates. (In addition to works by the Abbotts, there's also a small assortment of high-fired stoneware vessels by Brian Brickley on view.)

Besides color, another distinguishing feature between the couple's styles is their sense of gesture, or the weight of the marks they make. Generally, Debe's pieces are more detailed, employing smaller strokes of color while Kevin typically works in broader visual phrases. Both artists work with collage elements, although Debe has a far lighter hand in what she uses and how she applies it.

You see Kevin's use of collage most clearly in a set of works incorporating old photographs into thickly textured mixed-media surfaces. These pieces -- "Party Girls," "Brothers," "October's Children," "Sister," -- have dark, richly toned and layered surfaces into which Kevin situates an old portrait photograph. This is not a new idea and unfortunately, this execution does little to further it.

The photos sit atop these textured surfaces like postage stamps stuck to an envelope -- obvious and too deliberate in their placement. The idea would have been far more effective had Kevin prepared or treated the photos in some way. A soft white wash, a piece of finely meshed painted fabric or metal placed atop the photographs would have softened the effect of these images.

They would emerge from the piece like the faded memories he suggests they are, with a whisper instead of a shout. There are other pieces, however, which demonstrate a solid ability to move paint around a surface, create lush textures and engage a diverse palette of colors.

Debe is best known as a traditional landscape painter, but the pieces in this show are decidedly non-representational. Having said that, it's easy to find elements of the landscape in many of her works. "Desert Dawn" and "Back to Huachuca," while restrained in detail, capture the softly lilting nature of the desert's terrain.

Her palette is a rich coppery brown to which she adds collaged pieces of corrugated paper or metal, energizing the picture plane.

Texture is also a critical element in Debe's work, which she achieves through the application of thick daubs and swathes of paint, or collaging meshed fabrics or other textured materials on to her base surface. Sometimes she works back into the painted surface, as in "Festival," cutting geometric patterns into the paint revealing substrata of colors.

Seeing this show of the Abbotts' works makes me wonder if they share a common studio space. Their pieces seem to flow from one to another, with varying differences in color and texture, like slightly different inflections in two well-acquainted voices.

Katherine Rushworth, of Cazenovia, is a former director of the Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center (State University College at Fredonia) and of the Central New York Institute for the Arts in Education. Reach her at features@syracuse.com.

"Intervals" Chris Spuglio

2010-07-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

Chris is a past "Guest Artist" here at Timeforfrida. He is having a show in August and sent the following.

Good Luck Chris!

You are invited to attend the "Intervals" art show featuring the new work of Chris Spuglio. This exhibition is a continuation of Chris's texture series shown last year. The series has streamlined itself into one cohesive body of work. It has been critiqued by New York art professionals as a wonderful mix of realism and impressionism on the subject of surface versus time.

Hosting the show is the Beebe Estate Mansion in Melrose. The Beebe Estate is the finest Greek Revival-style mansion in Melrose. Its elegant cupola and elaborate balustrade have graced West Foster Street for more than one hundred and seventy years. A true gem to the community that hosts visual and music performances each month.

"Intervals" Opening Reception
August 6th 7P.M.-9P.M.
The Beebe Estate Mansion
235 West Foster Street, Melrose, MA

spugliostudios.com
www.beebeestate.org

"Changes" - Edgewood Gallery

2010-06-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

A selection of work by KV and Debe Abbott 1985 - 2010 with sculptural and functional ceramics by Brian Brickley.

Artist's Reception - Friday June 25, 6:00 - 8:00pm.
Exhibition - June 25 - Sept. 10

Edgewood Gallery, 216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse, NY

315-445-8111

Ben Stubbington - Holding Hands with Strangers

2010-05-06T05:18:00.000-07:00

Rainer Lagemann Shows at Florida Invitational

2010-04-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

New York State Artist's Series - Fit To Be Bound

2010-04-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

Fit to Be Bound - The Edge of Art: New York State Artists Series
April 17 - July 11, 2010

In 2010, the Everson Museum of Art introduced The Edge of Art: New York State Artists Series as an alternative to the traditional Biennial Exhibition. Fit to Be Bound, the second exhibition in a series of four showcases a broad range of artist books created by artists currently living in New York State-the first survey of its kind at the Everson. The exhibition is an exploration of the various means by which contemporary artists have expanded the notion of the book form, from the traditional to the sculptural, from paper to mixed-media, small-scale and oversized. Thirty-four artists from 12 counties are included in the exhibition.

Four artists whose work broadens the definition of artist book were invited to participate in the exhibition. Miriam Schaer is a multimedia book artist. Tatana Kellner is a photographer, printmaker and artists' book maker. Claire Maziarczyk creates decorative papers known as pastepaper patterns. Drew Goerlitz is a sculptor currently teaching at the State University at Plattsburgh.

Thirty additional artists were selected by three jurors: Everson Senior Curator Debora Ryan, Peter Verheyen, Head of Preservation and Conservation at Syracuse University Library; Hannah Frieser, director of Light Work at Syracuse University. The books are intelligent, creative, whimsical, and unique. The artists have employed a diverse range of paper and mixed-media to present books of all forms and sizes that pose intriguing questions for viewers to consider, such as, what is a book?

Fit to Be Bound is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Image: Miriam Schaer, Of The Errors of My Heart Too Numerous to Count, 2008, Girdle, silk, acrylic, pins, silk, found objects, 28 x 15 x 10 in. Photo: Miriam Schaer.

"Fault Line" by KV Abbott

2010-02-28T07:58:00.001-08:00

The great thing about all the snow and cold we have had this winter is that we have spent more time in the studio. This is my most recent painting. A mixed media on rag board titled "Fault Line". The painting measures 16" X 20" (image) and is available for purchase. $500.00 contact me for more information kabbott765@netzero.com

Lynette Stephensen

2010-02-16T07:31:00.000-08:00

ARTIST TALK: 18 February, 2010, 6:00 P.M. (Th3), The Warehouse Gallery
Lynette Stephenson will give a talk about her installation at The Warehouse Gallery. All events at The Warehouse Gallery are free and open to the public.

Location: The Warehouse Gallery, Ground Floor

350 West Fayette Street, Syracuse, N.Y. 13202

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
This exhibition is inspired by John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) set in New Orleans, where Stephenson's family home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and based on her previous body of paintings, TheRed Cross Series, which led to the idea for this site-specific project. In this work Stephenson engages in a dialogue about present-day social issues referring to New Orleans, the tragedy of the Hurricane and the universal symbol of the Red Cross.

Historically seen as an iconic symbol of safety and comfort, the Red Cross emblem has morphed into ambiguous uncertainty after the corruption and inadequate care provided by the organization in regard to events following Hurricane Katrina. It now teeters between positive connotations of its distant past and negative emotions entwined in the organization's more recent actions. The placement of such a universal symbol on numerous dunce caps could be construed as an attempt to criticize the recent exploits of the Red Cross through this slightly satirical display.

For more information, visit http://thewarehousegallery.syr.edu.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Born in Seymour, IN, painter and sculptor, Stephenson lives and works in Hamilton, N.Y., where she is an associate professor of painting at Colgate University. Stephenson has exhibited numerous times in Central New York at institutions such as, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, and Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute in Utica. Stephenson's work is included in such collections as the Smith Robertson Museum in Jackson, Miss., and the Southwestern Bell Corporate Collection in San Antonio, Texas. Stephenson holds a M.F.A. from Georgia State University.

The Sixties: When Colour was Sculpture - Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York

2010-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

Tim Scott - The Sixties: When Colour was Sculpture
Through April 11, 2010
The Everson presents the monumental steel sculptures of British artist Tim Scott along with recent ceramic sculptures from his House of Clay series. The large-scale sculptures made of painted steel and acrylic sheeting were created in the late 1960s, a time when painters and sculptors alike celebrated color as form and subject.

Because of their dramatic scale, which require large spaces to be viewed properly, these pieces have not been displayed for decades. The Everson is proud to host this exhibition in the I.M. Pei galleries, which provide a stunning space to view Scott's work. This experience is rare, and cannot be duplicated!

Angels and Such

2010-01-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

The show/exhibtion calender for 2010 is filling up fast. Deb and I have a full slate for spring already so I am going through and cataloging some of my older work that I have never digitally captured.

This very expressionistic painting "Angels and Such" is just such a piece. I have always liked this painting. I did this back in the 90's and have only shown it outside our own gallery a couple of times. I expect to bring it out for one of the upcomming shows and thought now is the time to take the glass off and clean it up. Might as well digitally record while the glass is off.

Colleen Blackard

2010-01-03T05:16:00.001-08:00

Although these images are more representational than most of the work we post here, there is an expressive quality to them. The viewer can sense the manner that she moves the pen on the paper. A physical act. An expressive act.

In her words - Colleeen Blackard

"My art is meant to share my experience of the infinite nature of the universe. I use the unique language of intertwining ballpoint pen circles and infinity signs to shape light with darkness. My hand moves intuitively when applying marks, but I keep my eyes open to forms I wish to convey. Through this process, I create an active relationship between the infinitely small world of intimate details, the infinitely large world of distant forms, and you, the viewer."

To learn more about Colleen visit her website or follow the link on her image in the sidebar.

http://colleenblackard.carbonmade.com/
http://colleenblackard.blogspot.com/

"Caldera" by KV Abbott

2009-12-31T11:55:00.000-08:00

This mixed media painting has been in the studio for more than a year now. I have finally decided it's done. Caldera measures 16.5" X 18". The painting is encaustic collage with acrylic. This painting is available at $500.

Emily Van Cleve

2009-11-29T05:14:00.000-08:00

Emily Van Cleve

Artist Statement

In my series Familiar, Yet Elusive I explore different ways in which vibrant and undulating forms interrelate as they float, weave and twist through their environment.

Line is used to separate forms, contain energy and establish particular characteristics. While I paint in saturated and bold colors, I temper their intensity to keep them in a balanced relationship with one another.

The forms seem recognizable, but are they animal, mineral or vegetable? Although I am deliberate in my considerations, this group of acrylic paintings on canvas is open to multiple unpredictable interpretations.

www.emilyvancleve.com

Alyson Shotz - "Drawing Through Space"

2009-11-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

SYRACUSE, NY-On Nov. 19, THE WAREHOUSE GALLERY at Syracuse University presents Alyson Shotz: Drawing Through Space, an exhibition including three wall drawings Untitled (3 views of an object), and the wire sculpture Line and Shadow.
Public Reception: Nov. 19, 5-8 p.m. (Th3) Douglas Kinney Frost (music director, Syracuse Opera) and Zach Martin (singer, Syracuse Opera) will perform selections by Johann Sebastian Bach at 6 p.m.
Artist Lecture: Feb. 4, 2010, 7 p.m., the Warehouse Auditorium
Alyson Shotz will give a lecture on the role of light in her works. In partnership with the Everson Museum of Art
Exhibition on view Nov. 19-Feb. 20, 2010 Location: 350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse, N.Y. 13202
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. / Third Thursdays noon-8 p.m. Closed for the holidays (Nov. 25-30; Dec. 24-Jan. 5, 2010).

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
With the assistance of Syracuse University students, Brooklyn-based Shotz created her works on site, thus turning The Warehouse Gallery into a form of laboratory. Shotz is one of today's ground-breaking artists transforming contemporary art through a fusion of technology and handcrafted steel wire and yarn artworks.

Alyson Shotz: Drawing Through Space is made possible with generous support from Francis H. Williams. Additional support for the lecture is provided by the Syracuse University Sculpture Program.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Shotz lives and works in Brooklyn. A recipient of many awards, including the 2007 Saint-Gaudens Memorial Fellowship, Shotz was the 2005-06 Happy and Bob Doran Artist-in-Residence at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is included in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She is currently exhibited at All Visual Arts, London.

OTHER EXHIBITIONS: THE WAREHOUSE GALLERY WINDOW PROJECTS at Syracuse University opens this Confederacy of Dunces by Lynette K Stephenson,on view Nov. 19-Feb. 20, 2010. Hamilton-based Stephenson created an installation about New Orleans consisting of sixty hand-felted wool dunce caps. This exhibition is inspired by John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) set in New Orleans, where Stephenson's family home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and based on her previous body of paintings, The Red Cross Series, which led to the idea for this site-specific project. In this work Stephenson engages in a dialogue about present-day social issues referring to New Orleans, the tragedy of the Hurricane and the universal symbol of the Red Cross.

Artist talk on Feb. 18, 2010, (Th3) at 6 p.m. (The Warehouse Gallery). For more information visit http://thewarehousegallery.syr.edu under WINDOW PROJECTS.

ABOUT THE WAREHOUSE GALLERY:
THE WAREHOUSE GALLERY is an international contemporary art venue of SUArt Galleries at Syracuse University. The gallery's mission is to present exhibitions and programs by artists whose work engages the community in a dialogue regarding the role the arts can play in illuminating critical issues of our life and times.

For guided tours, large group visits and/or interviews with the artist and curator, please contact the gallery via info@thewarehousegallery.org.

The Warehouse Gallery is accessible to wheelchair users via a street-level power-assist door adjacent to The Window Projects Gallery on W. Fayette St. For more information or groups with special needs please contact the gallery staff at (315) 443-6450.

EVENT PARKING: Free parking for main event nights is provided in the WHSE Lot adjacent to the building. The lot is accessible via Washington St. Check in with the guard at the booth; you will be directed where to park. On all other dates please use area parking lots or street parking. The Connective Corridor Free Shuttle (Centro #543) stops in front of the building on W. Fayette St, on a 40 min.loop. Visit http://connectivecorridor.syr.edu for more information. The Warehouse Shuttle/Centro #443 (between campus and the Warehouse Bld.) arrives in 10-20 min. intervals.

YounHee Yang

2009-10-19T13:15:00.001-07:00

Art exhibition Opening: “Reflections, 2004-08”, from YounHee Yang

(openPR) - We cordially invite you to our inaugural exhibition opening on the 31st of October 2009 at 3 pm at the Villa K5, Berlin Lichterfelde Ost.
The exhibition will be opened from Saturday, October 31st until Sunday, November 29th in our exhibition space at the Villa K5.
The public inaugural opening will be held at Saturday, October 31st at 3 pm.
From the exhibition opening onwards the official exhibition catalogue will be available for purchase at the exhibition and online.

YounHee Yang is a passionated artist, who is exploring Humanity itself from the beginnings. Her artistic work includes besides painting also installation, sculpture and video-art. In her new art projects, Miss Yang speaks for the socially weak marginal groups of our societies and points out preconceptions and nuisances in a playful manner. The artist herself: "My goal always was to make people wonder, to remind them, and to have them ask themselves questions.” In the exhibition "Reflections, 2004-09", the artist is presenting a selected overview of her work within the past years and their development between 2004 and 2009.

YounHee Yang, born 1977 in Seoul, Republic of Korea received her art instruction at the Dan-Kook University (Seoul) and Parsons School of Design (New York) and finished with the Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005. In 2005 she relocated to Germany and currently lives and works in Berlin as a freelance artist. She exhibited her artwork in numerous countries.
Exhibitions (Selection):
- Threaded, Foundation BFA exhibition, NY, USA, 2005, Genesis
- Open Video, Gasteig Munich, Germany, 2008/09, One Korea
- World of Imagination Vol. II, APW Gallery, NY, USA, 2009, Meditation
- Personally political – Contemporary Sensation, Kunsthaus Tacheles,
Berlin, Germany, 2009, Hope – Hoffnung

Press photographs and exclusive interviews with the artist Miss Yang and the owner of Villa K5 can be arranged upon request on Friday, October 30th from 5 pm.
Everyone not being able to personally attend the opening will have the opportunity to view impressions from the opening and the artworks exhibited from Tuesday, November 3rd at the homepage of the Antiquariat K5 found at http://www.buchklassik.de

These are the flyers and press release for YounHee's upcoming show in Berlin. This exciting international artist will be featured as a "Guest Artist" here on TIMEFORFRIDA in the near future. Look for her post.

"Shattered Opulence" by KV Abbott

2009-10-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

"A Song For Adelaide" by Debe Abbott

2009-10-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

This mixed media collage will be included in the upcoming invitational show at the Art Association in Oswego, New York.

Oswego Civic Arts Center

Sponsored by The Art Association of Oswego

Reception on October 10th from 7-9 pm

The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Opening in the Timothy McHenry Gallery on the Art Center’s second floor will be Willful Eclecticism, an invitational exhibition of CNY artists whose work embodies a Postmodern approach. Selected area artists have been asked to submit artwork along with an explanation of its relationship to Postmodern themes such as conscious borrowing of ideas or imagery, skepticism toward universal beliefs, and reaction against modernist strategies of image-making.

Opening concurrently in the Jo Hyse Gallery on the first floor of the Arts Center will be a new exhibition of artwork by the members of Hat Factory, a local art collective of emerging artists whose work is diverse and cutting-edge.

The Oswego Civic Arts Center is located at the northernmost end of East 4th Street in Oswego, directly across from Fort Ontario.

Regular gallery hours are from 2-5 pm on weekends or by appointment. For more info call 315 343-5675.

Art Show Opening Sat. October 10 5pm - Midnight

2009-09-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

This is it. The big fall show at the (R) Evolution studios at the Gear Factory, downtown, Syracuse. Lots of Art, Music, Short Films. These are great events BE THERE!

"Splitalia" KV Abbott SOLD

2009-09-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

"Splitalia",(detail) mixed media collage by KV Abbott. This is one of several figurative pieces that I will be including in an exhibtion at the "Gear Factory" fall show in Syracuse. The show opens Saturday October 10 with an artists reception/party from 5pm -???.

Barbara McLean

2009-09-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

Barbara is another fabulous artist from Nova Scotia that I discovered by accident and immediately fell in love with. Her expressive canvases have an energy and mystery that speak to my aesthetic.

Barbara lives and works in Chester on the south shore of Nova Scotia. Barbara's current exhibition, Passages: Chance & Circumstance is on view at the Craig Gallery in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Artist's Statement
Passages: Chance & Circumstance

Arshile Gorky (1904 - 1948) says:

Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes. Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is the explosion into unknown areas.

In this body of work I have applied oils thickly and energetically expressing a personal sense of freedom and exuberance in literal passages of paint - large swaths of colour guide the viewer at varying tempos through the canvases. "Passages I" serves a dual purpose, firstly the quiet, subtle tones link it to many of my earlier paintings and secondly the initial visual statement of my theme provides the take off point for the evolution of the other works. In "Passages I", the rocky bluffs and watery channels are presented in a fairly representative manner, while in other works to follow, these same elements become increasingly abstracted.

Looking beyond the immediacy of paint and brushwork, I invite the viewer to pause and investigate the works on a different level, to consider them as allegorical navigations.

On maps and charts of the sea, the word passage occurs frequently, indicating the way through a channel. Contemporary navigation aids allow us to locate, with amazing precision, all dangers and obstacles within these channels. They guarantee our safe passage. However, it is the "uncertain before" that most interests me; the first time through when the way is still unknown; when a push in any direction reveals new things; a time when one places markers for those who might choose a similar course. While I have created a series of small markers paintings the majority of my works focus on the unknown. Within these paintings are mysterious entrances partially hidden or darkened. It is this mystery and feeling of imminent discovery that intrigues me. I imagine the first explorers desire to see and learn was as motivating as the potential of discovery itself. Chance and circumstance played as important a role as skill and knowledge.

This navigation allegory naturally expands to encompass life itself. Which one of us does not feel "at sea" by times, or find we are facing the unexpected challenges for which there is no obvious resolution? To return to Gorky, to engage the finite in search of a possible infinite, "to see with the mind" and to "explode into unknown areas" are lofty goals, but for me they define both abstract art and the act of living. That is what this exhibition is about!

Barbara McLean

To learn more about this artist visit her web site by clicking on the image in the side bar.

Howard McAvoy

2009-08-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

BORN: 1949, New York

Lives and works in Stillwater, New York, with Anni, Sid and Gilly

U.S. Armed Forces (unarmed medic): 1968-1972

EDUCATION: Schenectady Community College, Empire State College

JOBS: Bus Driver, Ironworker, Oil Refinery Worker, Captain of Oil Barge, NY Harbor, 1990- started selling work on the street.

Are you self-taught? Yes. I went to college, but my degree is not in art.

Do you like cheesecake? Yes. With red cherries on top.

What is your medium? I use scavenged materials mostly. Driftwood, rocks, plastic, and metal. I think an artist should use the stuff most readily available to him or her. Dumpster diving is an art all by itself. Tip: make sure there's enough junk inside the dumpster before you jump in. You'll need to pile it up to use as a ladder to get out. Also, make sure nobody else is in the dumpster. You could land on top of them.

Where do you get your ideas? I get asked this question a lot. The antenna is up and the engine is always running.

Where do you live? I live in the town of Stillwater, New York which is on the Hudson River, located 25 miles north of Albany. It's not the middle of nowhere, but it's close.

Do you have any pets? Yes. 2 dogs. Sid and Gilly. They are small and don't know it.

Will my satisfaction be guaranteed? Ah.......no.

Deb and I first became acquainted with Howard on-line. We have a mutual interest in Nova Scotia where Howard spends time in the summer. We exchanged several e-mails and then last year when Howard came to Syracuse to do the Plow Shares show, we went down to meet him.

We ended up buying a wall sculpture that is a fabulous addition to our collection. I encourage you to visit Howard's web site by clicking on the image in the side bar.

Howard injects a lot of satire and political commentary into his art. I really appreciate the humor and honesty in his work.

"Naked in a Yellow Room" KV Abbott $600.00

2009-08-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

Original encaustic on rag board. This piece is presented in an off white rag mat and gold frame. The painting measures 25.5" X 25.5" framed.

"Blue Horse" KV Abbott $900.00 SOLD

2009-08-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

An orginal mixed media on paper by KV Abbott. This expressionist painting is suggestive of a stallion running through high desert.

Archivally matted and framed, 30" X 30".

"To Frida, With Love" by KV Abbott

2009-07-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

Mixed Media on Canvas. Digitally manipulated photograph and encaustic. 20" X 30" $600.00

Jan Wurm

2009-07-23T04:07:00.001-07:00

TIMEFORFRIDA is pleased to introduce Jan Wurm.

Jan Wurm graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and received a Master's degree from the Royal College of Art in London. Wurm's work has been exhibited in many galleries, including the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the Mandeville Art Gallery of the University of California, San Diego, the Newport Harbor Art Museum Art Rental Gallery, and Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco. She has taught for the University of California Extension, and the Art Studio of the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC). Wurm divides her time between Berkeley, California, and Los Angeles.

No Naked Nudes

Two divergent trends have led to these musings. The first is a public dictum to eradicate the nude from art. It is neither an open public debate nor the topic of art forums. Yet it exists as a curatorial directive whispered between institution and artist. The experience that public funding can be withdrawn from an individual artist or an art institution presenting work of a nature not approved by a general public has created a self-censoring climate. This censorship has become thoroughly internalized. Several years ago it seemed particularly ironic to me when, having been told, quite matter-of-factly, by the curator of the San Francisco Art Commission Art in City Hall exhibition program, that I should not include any nudes in my exhibition, I walked around the building to find an exhibition of photography. The photographer had accompanied the police to crime scenes. There, laid before the viewer, were images of women who had been abused, raped, and murdered. These horrific scenes, presented without the consent of the subjects, were fine to grace the walls of City Hall. The notion of a carefree line drawing of a playful, cartoon-y nude frolicking under a palm tree was forbidden. The brutalization of a woman could be shown, the personal freedom of nudity could not. The quietly intoned: "Of course, no nudes" came to mind again as I recently entered one of the galleries at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. The sign warned of the nature of the artwork. The art museum, home to centuries of painting, drawing, and sculpture rendering the nude, required a warning worthy of the surgeon general.

In contrast to this public disavowal of the propriety of the nude in art there emerged a new trend: the phenomenal popularity of life drawing. The die-hard groups meeting weekly for decades on the campuses of the University of California Berkeley and the San Francisco Art Institute were now surrounded by mushrooming groups in every corner studio. Artists of the most abstract, rigorously non-mimetic conviction confessed to years of secret life drawing. The doctor, lawyer, tinker, and tailor now gather round the model stand. The naturalist who keeps his binoculars trained on birds writes gushingly about the experience of drawing from the model. There appears a semblance of sport, an impulse to entertain.

From the perspective of an artist committed to the figure and the humanistic social content of art, this engagement has held a visual search for form and expression in the nude. Hopefully these drawings add to a tradition in a meaningful way. The opportunity to publish these drawings is certainly one to be seized; the opportunity to exhibit them may not present itself within the current climate. These drawings were made within a studio tradition of a drawing practice; yet, I have hoped, with each turn of the page, to discover something new and wondrous beyond.

Learn more about Jan Wurm by clicking on the linked image in the side bar.

Ambera Wellmann

2009-07-17T04:57:00.000-07:00

Deb and I have traveled all over North America and of all the places we have been, Nova Scotia may be our favorite. The natural beauty of the landscape and the genuineness of the people make this Province in the Canadian Maritimes a very special place indeed.

We have come across many talented artists in Nova Scotia and the latest discovery is an amazing young lady, who in my humble opinion has a very bright career ahead of her. I am breaking slightly from the theme of this blog, as Ambera is more representational than most artists posted here. I feel her ephemeral landscapes do have a certain abstract quality to them. I encourage you to visit her web site and blog to get a more complete appreciation of her work.

TIMEFORFRIDA is pleased to introduce,

AMBERA WELLMANN

Born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Ambera Wellmann grew up in a remote forested region on the South Shore. She moved to Halifax in 2001, and despite a childhood love for fine art, it wasn't until 2004 at age 22 that she began experimenting with oil painting. Ambera embarked on a three-year journey of self-education, creating moody and emotional paintings of the Nova Scotian landscape.

Ambera's inspirations include John Constable, JMW Turner, and French Impressionism. Her works are often characterized by their magnetic colours and stormy skies.

“I love the way the sky can completely change the face of a landscape. It has a great effect on the atmosphere of a painting, and it's really interesting to me to play with the relationship between land, colour and sky.”

In 2007, Ambera decided to compliment her self-education with formal training. She now attends the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design to earn her degree in paint and printmaking.

“I have one foot firmly planted in the things I've taught myself so far, but I hope to expand on my ideas and technical skill while I'm at NSCAD. It's a wonderful environment to be in!”

"The first virtue of a painting is that it be a feast for the eyes. "
-Eugene Delacroix

Visit Ambera's web site http://www.amberas.com/index.html or click on the link in the side bar.

Patrick Farrow , 1942 - 2009

2009-07-16T07:34:00.001-07:00

I was saddened to learn of the recent death of one of my favorite artists, Mr. Patrick Farrow.

I was first introduced to Mr. Farrow at the Peale Gallery in Vermont in the early 1980's. His whimsical sculpture had a life of it's own. I often returned to the gallery to see his work.

Brother of actress Mia Farrow, Patrick and his wife Susan ran a studio and gallery in an old church in Castleton, Vermont.

Mr. Farrow was a fabulous artist and an inspiration to myself and no doubt many others. He will be missed.

Sean O'Neill

2009-07-09T07:48:00.001-07:00

Well we are finally back at it here at TIMEFORFRIDA, after a couple of months of limited posts. Spring arrived and my time and energy moved to outside activities. I also inadvertently dumped a file with a number of submissions that I had planned to post. I apologize to those artists who have been looking for their work. Please feel free to re-submit.

In any case, I am pleased to introduce an exciting young artist
, Mr. Sean O'Neill. Sean is a recent graduate of the University of Delaware's Fine Art program. He also does some interesting sculpture and I especially like his photography. Check out his web site by clicking on the image in the side bar. Enjoy!!

Sean O'Neill

When creating a painting, I use a combination of minimal, expressive, and realistic techniques to craft pieces that create excitement, while simultaneously tell a story. Some topics I grace are comical, while others are more serious and dark.
Through the use of scale and shape, I can use minimal rendering to produce a high contrast between dark and light, thus making a photo-realistic painting, only painting in the darkest areas. I try to bring in this style, with a painterly style of both realistic (portraits) and expressionistic (landscapes). All elements come together to form a new world, a world that explores what is real and what is just finished with your eye and the viewers’ imagination. In every painting I try to create a sense of fantastical encounters and unhinged events by using imaginary situations and realistic characters. I investigate a new style of painting often. I maintain curiosities involving my own capabilities with paint, this mindset provides each one of my paintings with a distinctive style, that is at sometimes graphic and painterly. Inevitably I hope to unify these two elements of my painting style.
I started my graphic painting style with using just black and white. Using high contrast in these paintings progressed to incorporating such contrast with my instinctive painterly style. When I am painting, I have to become two painters; one who wants flat, highly contrasted black and white imagery, and the other who is interested in bright colorful images that can be made with the brush strokes. Each one is painted differently, the black and white is a very slow process of great detail and precision, and the more painterly technique is faster and more about movement and mark, than precision. I also attempt investigate the gloriousness of life and how everything around us is artistically crafted and seamlessly engaging in every way to everyone and the world around us.
I paint because I enjoy it, because if I didn’t paint I would not be able to fully engage the world around me and be able to create a sense of understanding for the relationships that all living and non-living things have with another. My art reflects my feelings about everything I hold inside myself until I paint it, whether it is to laugh a little more, or to cry a little more, it doesn’t really matter because I am just trying to evoke great feeling. I work to enhance the world one still, visual moment at a time. In each painting, whether I plan it out or just paint with no plan in mind, comes to life, and grasps the viewers’ attention. I hope to achieve this intensely and for as long as possible. I make my decisions as an artist based on my own experiences and feelings, rather than previously used techniques derived from any one artist. I find inspiration not from the work created by other artists, but from the subjects I choose to paint, and how I would like to see them

Seeking Guest Artists

2009-07-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Send us a few samples of your work and you might be our next "Guest Artist". We had several artists lined up and somehow lost the files. If you sent us work you may have been among those lost, please feel free to re-send.

China Town - Revisited by KV Abbott SOLD

2009-06-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

This original encaustic painting is available at $600.00. Call or e-mail for detailed information. 315-668-9459 or kabbott765@netzero.com

Brooke McGowen

2009-05-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

The Selling Out Of America

We have been living it up for quite a while now without bothering to pay the bill. China, Japan and other countries were nice enough to put up the money for our spending spree. We sure hope they won´t want it back very soon. Our total national debt is 15 trillion, more than it has ever been before. Who is going to pay this bill?

Before 1980, the U.S. exported more than it imported. How did we change from the American Producer to the American Consumer? How did we become so dependant on other nations and incapable of taking care of ourselves in this land of plenty?

For decades we have stuffed the economy like a goose. Everything had to be packaged and marketed. People got used to seeing shopping as the only means of self-affirmation. I buy, therefore I am. It even became a patriotic duty to spend money and buy more new things. The old things had to be thrown away, leaving a gigantic garbage problem.

We became spoiled, demanding consumers, clamoring louder for bread and games and allowing ourselves to be stupefied with an entertainment program at least as brutal as the gladiator games. We became passive slaves of the American dream of luxury. We didn´t care what was going on in Washington, as long as we had our flatscreens and new SUVs.

It has long been apparent that the American standard of living is unsustainable. But above that, it is undesirable. When you look around, you see many people so obese they need two seats on the bus. How did we get so fat? Advertising and the constant proffering of snacks, soda and processed food is ruining the nation´s health. Who is profiting?

These questions and more are being asked in the wake of the economic catastrophe. Art can make us aware of situations we might otherwise ignore.

It can help us find a new way to face the economic and social problems that are urgently demanding our attention.

RW Ruehlen

2009-05-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

ARTIST STATEMENT:

My works are manifestations, or Mindscapes, that express spirituality,
psychological trauma, bliss, disassociation, humor, fear, duality, oneness and isolation.
It is a concentration of the feminine and masculine energy, the need to uncover and
nurture, the meticulousness of line and flow and the desire to see not only holistically
but from lost or broken standpoints. I believe our society has become bright, colorful,
dynamic and overloaded with information only to disguise the ugly, the fragmented, the
oppressed and the void in our modern lives. I use bright, bold colors to captivate the
viewer, as modern technology has, but I do not use it to veil the strange, painful, or
forgotten: I use it to call it out; to exercise it; to exorcise it.
Modern society has stripped its people of spirituality, and its psychological
construction of reality. Humans have been cast out into a homeless world where we have
chosen instead to reconstruct an imitation of life through technological material.
Through the advancements of science, which continues the legacy of masculine domination
over feminine nature, technology has not only dismantled our gods of the past but has
itself become a god “a technogod“ and turned us into machines to fit its paradigm
shift. A god unlike all other gods, one that gives us everything we desire, or are told
to desire, to feed our own selfishness or insecurities. Science has allowed us to see
into the crevasses of reality, as well as create new realities; and this has created
cognitive dissonance in the mystical mind of our primitive selves. I have begun to call
my art technomysticism, which conjures up my deep connection with the old world, my
current entanglement with 21st century isolation, and the unknown environment of the
future. The imagery I create is not my own but is given to me in times of silence, in
meditation, in thoughtful awareness, through the spirits of the past. I tend to use dark,
crisp lines and saturated hues to create a balance of fragmentation and
interconnectedness, which I feel encapsulates our zeitgeist.
My content is a response to sexual oppression, religious oppression, racial oppression,
class oppression, gender oppression and most importantly; self oppression: or the act of
those in power to eliminate self-awareness, to blanket our true, personal nature, as well
as the act of individuals to repress their oneness with the cellular organism we call
Earth, our home. My characters take on androgynous forms and my landscapes littered with
humor; like flying penises and robotic babies. I capture transcendental experiences like
the awakening of myriads of hidden people in this shell I call a body, or dream
experiences where I spend moments in flight or in strange carnivals of lust and disorder,
violence and stillness where people morph into other animals and vice versa. For me,
creating art is my spirituality in practice; it is a moment of taking disorder and
confusion and bringing it into harmony, bringing it to the surface. We are spiritual
nomads wandering a desolate landscape we call existence; we are spiritual beings living
in a beautifully infinite landscape we call the mind.

ANTHEM

2009-05-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Anthem - by KV Abbott. This painting is mixed media on paper and is part of an on-going series of paintings and sculptures inspired by the writing of Ayn Rand. This painting is available at $400.00. call or e-mail for details. kabbott765@netzero.com 315-668-9459

Submissions

2009-05-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

TIMEFORFRIDA is currently accepting submissions. Please send several jpeg images, an artist's statement and or resume to kabbott765@netzero.com.

There is no charge.

Submissions poured in over the winter months and we had the next several artists lined up but the images and contact information was inadvertently lost.

I look forward to posting new artists in the coming weeks!

Eliza Fry

2009-04-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am working in mixed media assemblage. This has been my preferred medium for several years now since it brings together all the differing types of making art that I have explored over the years. I love the freedom mixed media gives me to put together colour and texture and varying surfaces. I am lucky enough to have my own studio and therefore have the space to collect all manner of objects, papers, paints and inks. Since I never know what a piece of art may require, I hang on to all sorts of things that other people might consider “garbage”. In fact, I find a lot of my resources at the local dump! I am also lucky in that I make part of my living in the art world, as a curator of a small public gallery. I get to connect often with other artists and in that interaction I find more of my inspiration.

The motivation behind my art is hard to define. I have an almost constant need or drive to create. I pile together rocks and driftwood on the beach, organize ornaments in my home, design flower beds in my garden and put together mixed media pieces in my studio. To me, all of that is art and I've always been inspired by it. Creating art is my meditation, spirituality and means of communicating with the rest of humanity. I use art to make statements about both personal and social issues and often a combination of both.

Paul Goldman

2009-04-06T11:53:00.001-07:00

Paul Goldman

Statement
My art is a product of my experiments with process, color, form and composition. I have always considered what I do to be “messing around with paint.” I never plan my paintings; I let what happens during the process determine the final outcome. Someone once described my art as being “dark, but whimsical,” and that sounds accurate to me. I prefer art that is expressive, dynamic, colorful, un-self conscious, and somewhat raw (Diebenkorn, DeKooning, Guston, Scully, Bazelitz, Basquait, etc.). I mostly work abstract these days, though I occasionally let in recognizable imagery (see TVs painting). Ultimately, the reason I paint is because I occasionally like the results.

Biography
I was born in Schenectady, New York in 1956. I grew up there and in Cleveland, Ohio and attended higher education at Boston University. Though I did art when I was young, I didn’t get serious about it until after graduating from College. I’ve taken painting courses at UMass and the Fine Arts School in Boston and the San Francisco Art Institute. I use a room in my apartment in San Francisco as a studio. I generally create about one painting a month.

Website
http://www.paulgoldman.com/

Jacob Pongratz

2009-03-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

Jacob Pongratz
Artist’s Statement

The major goal in producing my art is to apply a primal energy that solidifies my experience as a human to canvas. A fluid approach of spontaneity and confusion is essential to my finished product. The subject matter is one of universal understanding; it is the reflection of one’s self that matters most, using abstract forms to unbalance any preconceived notions of rationale. What little representations that do exist are merely adaptations of the primary idea into more fully developed forms. My willingness to let go of the customary subjects and examine the idea of belief and ideas existing beyond the plane of paint on canvas has given me opportunities to exploit my enthusiasm. My own methods of art making are straightforward, in that they truly have no convention only habits may define them and impulsiveness frees them. That process in itself is key in the outcome I deem necessary. A true palette is conceived with minimum contemplation and with total finality knowing that it will be utterly consumed by the conclusion of each project. It is my aim to teach myself to see in a very specific manner that allows the undeniable image an opportunity to spawn until the vision is complete. An innate surveillance of the initiative that hemorrhages forth the specific and general information defines the boundaries between a hypothesis and fruition. An understanding of the spectator’s position is intended to give the witness all the introspection they desire, without a severe definition of purpose. The autobiographical nature is rooted so deep that one may have no knowledge of it at all. In finding the solution to each work the initial concept must be purged several times to embalm the overall purity of the piece. The use of triggers to make connections is critical to unleashing the more imminent information while obscuring the inferior backdrop. My questioning and hunt for an image becomes the genesis and path along which my work travels. This excursion must be open and broad, and not focused on termination. I draw the heart of the action from images of remembrance, past and present, recollections of objects used, populations destroyed, manifestation of moments, or extensive passages of time. I must include everything, and yet, all may be removed in order for me to feel the tension and presence of recalled emotion. With each painting, I undertake a search for an engaging image with no pre-existing plan. The human essentials of space, time, place, landscape, and light are the perceptual cues that I use (however ambiguous or diffuse they may appear). I am motivated by the inherent contradictions in painting: its physicality, its misleading potential. I use the medium –the process itself-sometimes spontaneously, sometimes progressively, to generate the finished work. As much as each work is a result of a number of processes, the sum of canvas and paint, each is also an image that is conjured and visualized through the medium, spurred by the qualities of paint. The work automatically exists through the evidence of its incarnation, but also can imply a fiction that belies its resources.

Mary Abbott

2009-03-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

In addition to the weekly "Guest Artist" feature, I enjoy introducing readers to some of my favorite artists. To date I have featured stories on, or at least introductions to, artists such as Frida Khalo, Berenice Abbott and Norman Bluhm.

This week for those not familiar with Mary Abbott, here is a brief introduction to one of the few pre-feminist movement female artists to achieve success in modern art.

Mary Abbott

Born in Boston in 1921 and raised in New York and Washington, DC high society, Mary Abbott is one of a very small group of female artists who achieved both critical and public success among the first generation of American Abstract Expressionists.

In the 1930's Abbott began studying at the Art Students League and the Corcoran School and later would count among her friends many of the top painters of the era. Mentored by Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, Abbott began to exhibit at important New York galleries in the 1950's.

Abbott’s work was featured in surveys of contemporary drawing, organized by the Museum of Modern Art in 1950 and 1956. She taught painting at the University of Minnesota in the 1970's and was the first artist of her generation to set up a studio in Manhattan’s revitalized SOHO.

Like many artists of the period, Abbott has many colorful stories surrounding her life. It is believed that she was introduced to peyote, a hallucinogen by sculptor David Hare which had a great influence on her understanding and use of color. She was a regular at the Artist’s Club and Cedar Tavern in New York. In the 1940's she began an affair with Willem deKooning and proclaimed him,” the love of my life”.

In 2007 the McCormick Gallery in Chicago organized a major retrospective exhibition of her work.

Mary Abbott lives on the east end of Long Island.

Rainer Lagemann

2009-03-14T06:18:00.001-07:00

Rainer Lagemann is an emerging artist who was born in Duesseldorf, Germany in 1959.

He received a formal education in Germany at the FH Lippe, Detmold in Interior Design and Architecture. In 1988 he moved to the San Francisco Bay area to open his first retail store specializing in the import and retail of modern European furniture. In 2007 he sold his share of the business so he could concentrate on his passion; sculpture.

Rainer uses metal to sculpt the human form, creating works that elicit both the strength and delicacy of the body.

Cathie Joy Young

2009-03-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

Cathie Joy Young utilizes a masterful command of color and composition with acrylic on wood panels to create modern, urban paintings with an oftentimes devotional quality to them. Although unmistakably current in appearance, the imagery often evokes a feeling of having come from long ago and far away. Figures, boats, structures, and animals recur in her paintings which at first appear whimsical, but look closer and the viewer may discover the depth and tension within these spectral images. The multiplicity of meanings implied in these works is reflected by the alternating techniques of glazing and scraping through the paint to reveal the layers below, adding to the surface texture and at times revealing what at some point in the process was hidden. These sensitive, complex works do not scream with narrative and emotion, rather they suggest by a whisper up close, inviting the viewer to come to a visual understanding.

WM. Vesneski

Cathie Joy Young creates tapestries of beautifully layered rich colors in which creatures, known and unknown, gather together. Some of them look out at you, others are sleepy or forlorn or joyful. Her original work is very fresh in its take on primitivism. The beautiful palette of rust and muted greens is intoxicating. The paintings seem always playful, but also seem to be alluding to a sort of mysterious antiquity or mythology, either real or of Cathie's creation. ***Charmagne Coe

Primal, atmospheric dreamscapes... Cathie Joy's paintings feel like directly transmitted dreams, almost like fairy tales or nursery rhymes, peaceful but discordant enough to be curious, to feel like inquiries or investigations of mystery. These paintings take me to the depths of some place where I want to stay...but a place which challenges me in some intangible way; they are worlds full of beauty, of change, of wonderment.
Erica Steiner

Cathie Joy Young

Statement www.cathiejoyyoung.com

I am a painter living and working in Portland, Oregon. My paintings are acrylic on wood panel. I also do drawing/paintings with acrylic and ball point pen on wood panels. My work is figurative with an abstract sensibility. It is process oriented but not for the sake of process; rather this is how I get to the imagery. When it all comes together I tend to figure out where I was heading. The outcome is a visual story.

Painting is inspiring me to paint. It is my one and only favorite mystery. I follow where it goes and sometimes it is troublesome. Sometimes it is bliss with back pain. It is something I can do which has relevance in and of itself but it is unexplainable. Words interrupt the long conversation. Images are so forgiving. If I can make a painting to be looked at and seen again and again, if I can make a painting that means something at different times and in different places, then I have made some impact in time and space.

I use the cross (+) a lot, symbolizing the intersection of time and space, but as with all symbols, it represents many other things as well.

This is why I paint.

Ted Mikulski

2009-03-02T04:03:00.000-08:00

Statement-
My work is reflective of classic abstract expressionist style. I have always been an admirer of abstract art and began to paint sporadically in architecture school. As time went on I knew that art was the only form of design I wanted to pursue. I began teaching art and really diving into the art world to find my personal creative niche. There I found the major players in the abstract expressionism world and was hooked by its raw beauty and creativity. I prefer large canvases and I like to blend the paint in order to take away from the 'brush-to-canvas' effect. I still consider my work to be in its infancy, but it is ever-evolving. I try not to be too morose or negative in my paintings and I tend to stray away from the depressed feel that much of the original abstract expressionism possessed. I am just starting to work with others, collaborating ideas and theories. Collaborating is helping me to evolve as an artist and see things I previously had not My inspirational artists are Dale Chihuly, William Ronald and Helen Frankenthaler. I believe abstract expressionism to be the most pure of any art form and find it to be tremendously liberating.

Website: TedMikulski.com
Studied architecture at Norwich University (MArch)
Studio is in central CT

"Mojave Passage" by KVAbbott $500.00

2009-02-28T12:32:00.001-08:00

Original abstract encaustic painting on rag board by KV Abbott. Earth tones with metallic shimmer from underneath the surface. Framed in a clear maple frame with an off white rag mat w/v-groove. 19" X 22"

To purchase work on line by KV Abbott and other artists visit http://abbottsstudio.com/ click on web store.

Jim Edwards

2009-02-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

Born in Bangor, Wales (UK). Studied at (BA HONS) Norwich School of Art and Design, UK.
Paints full time in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the city which is the main focus of his paintings.

Jim Edwards' work falls into two genres, contemporary cityscapes and abstract paintings inspired by manmade forms and buildings. Both styles follow a theme of architecturally inspired structures and dominating linear form.
Edwards' cityscape paintings are not studies from life, nor is he trying to capture a particular viewpoint or moment in time. His paintings have their origin in memory, how he remembers the workings and landmarks of the city, rather than a strightforward representation. The compositions evolve from a combination of imagination and selective memory, which are then altered and exaggerated. Certain buildings are forgotten, or simplified, creating a personal view of the city.
This personal impression of cityscapes often runs into his more abstract work, where the block shapes he paints represent manmade forms, rooms and human spaces. These combine with connecting lines, suggesting marks within a landscape, pathways linking seperate constructs.

Peter Smolenski

2009-02-17T03:57:00.000-08:00

I am a 46 year old artist, photographer and musician from Northampton,MA. I have had way too many shows to remember, some national exhibits, many one person and group shows. I never list them as I prefer to think about what's going on now, instead of some long list of shows from the past.I believe the art should be judged on itself, not some crazy resume which I could give you after much rememberence. I have several shows coming up this summer, the details which will be posted on the website when the info is all in place. I will probably play live music of some sorts at the openings as usual.
Current projects include more painting of course, and a series of holo/sculptures and holo/paintings in collaberation with holographer Tony Coleman of California. Also making models to be made into holograms, something I would like to bring to the fine art level (fine art holography). There is more stuff written about my work at www.artstudio54.com "favorite artists" page, at the bottom of each page.

"Homage # 12" 1994 KV Abbott $400 - SOLD

2009-02-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

This is from a body of work that I did beginning in the 1980's and ran through the mid 1990's. This painting is mixed media, encaustic and enamel on rag board. I have always really like this painting. The only thing I would change is the size. I would love to see a large canvas. At the time I was working in a small space that really limited how big I could work. The piece measures 12.5" X 15.5" framed.

To purchase work by KV Abbott and other artists visit http://abbottsstudio.com/ and click on web store.

Ben Stubbington

2009-02-12T03:29:00.000-08:00

Ben Stubbington

Born in Portsmouth, UK. Studied Art and Design. Moved onto BA Hons in Fashion and Print at Brighton University, UK.

Now residing in Brooklyn, New York for the past 8 years. Working in Design full-time and painting in free-time in a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Painting and Sketches
Influenced by caught moments in time, a struggle, a fight, a relief, a movement, survival, sensation, an impulse, a battle.

A non-permanent marking being made permanent. A freeze frame.

Studies of refractions of light and their movements over time influence the work. Re-occurring symbols and shapes that move from one painting to the next, but in very different application.

A color struggle of good and evil or just that of survival, a feeling of repetition. Layers of texture built up and the juxtaposition of resin encapsulating the finished work, encouraging unevenness on one painting and smooth clean surface on the next.

Materials
Paintings: Canvas and wood block. Acrylic, spray paint, pencil, markers, resin.

Norman Bluhm 1921 - 1999

2009-02-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

I never met Norman Bluhm but feel connected to this far too under appreciated abstract expressionist painter. My father knew Norman. In fact he built his Vermont studio and Dad has some great Norman stories. He even had a pair of sun glasses given to him by Norman.

Like a lot of other American painters of that era, Norman spent a number of years living in Paris and later New York. He had associations with such ab-ex luminaries as Leo Castelli and Willem DeKooning and a long standing feud with Clement Greenberg.

The more I learn about Norman Bluhm the more I find him fascinating. I encourage anyone interested in this period of American Art to include Norman in their studies. You are missing out if you do not include Norman Bluhm.

To learn more about Norman Bluhm, visit http://www.normanbluhm.com/

"China Town - Revisited" by KV Abbott $600.00 SOLD

2009-02-02T12:22:00.000-08:00

An original encaustic abstraction. You can almost feel the molten energy in this piece. 23.5" X 27.5" framed.

Avaiable on-line at http://abbottsstudio.com/

Caitlin Karolczak

2009-01-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

BIO

Caitlin Karolczak was born 1984 in northern Minnesota. She received a BFA in Fine Arts and BA in Art History at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in May of 2005. She currently resides in Minneapolis Minnesota working as a self employed artist and co-gallery owner. Her art studio and gallery are in the historic Grain Belt Brewery complex in NE Minneapolis. Besides painting, her interests include vintage medical and post-mortem photography, mid-century modern furnishings and art, fine design, fashion, snowboarding, digital photography, and travel.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I explore a number of themes in my work, mainly the fragility of the human body and mind; disease and injury. My source imagery often comes from vintage photos I collect, early medical and memorial imagery. I am attracted to the way early photographers blur the line between artistic portraiture and medical illustration. Modern medical images tend to simply show a condition, devoid of the individual. Contrarily, vintage medical photographs portray debilitating physical conditions in a notably artistic way. Often times they are not anonymous, resembling artfully done portraits. If they do attempt anonymity, it has an entirely different effect, giving a leper the appearance of a classically draped nude or giving the subject a fetish-like appearance by awkwardly covering the individual’s features with bands of fabric. My attraction to these images reflects a desire for my work to mirror these sentiments of beauty and distress, but at the same time take them a step further in a way that photography cannot.
I embrace accidental results in my work, as well as the spontaneity and lack of control of some mediums. My experimentation is not always obvious, but I think numerous layers and textures add distinction to a finished painting. I like the effect of these traditionally “abstract” methods of painting alongside classically “accomplished” techniques and I want my work to be a successful blending of the two.

I often use vintage and recycled materials. I collect everything from textiles and paper to antique vials of powdered pigments and oils. I also use antique paper from books that are in disrepair, some as early as the 17th Century. The handmade quality of these items, discoloration from age and well worn textures are welcome deviations from the standard artistic materials. The history and past life aura of these materials offer additional inspiration to my artistic process.

Wow! What a pleasure to feature Caitlin. This young artist from Minneapolis is a star in the making. Her work has a style and sophistication that cannot be taught. She has an innate gift for aesthetic that in my estimation will take this twenty something artist a long way. These are a taste of what you will find on her web site, a very well done web site I might add. http://studiosilenti.com/

Caitlin is also co-owner of Spinario, a gallery that specializes in mid century
modern design in Minneapolis. See the link in the side bar.

Bravo Caitlin! I'm a fan!

KV Abbott

Mick Mather

2009-01-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

Long Over Due! I am most happy to feature Mick as a "Guest Artist" on TIMEFORFRIDA. Mick and I have known each other for years. I think I first met Mick way back when he was managing Art Mart, 15 years ago or more I think. We later reacquainted when we both served as judges at a high school art competition. I have subsequently dealt with Mick in his capacity at the Cultural Resources Council on shows at the Warehouse Gallery, the Syracuse Totem project and grant issues. It was at a CRC program that I attended and took a blogging workshop from Mick. Little did he know then the monster he unleashed. Yes Mick taught me about blogging. I literally didn't know what a blog was when I walked into that class in the summer of 2007. I went home that evening and began KV Abbott's Art Blog modeled in many respects after MICKMATHERTSARTBLOG.

TIMEFORFRIDA is of course now one of my favorite projects. I really enjoy working with artists from all over. To date we have posted "Guest Artists" from Boston, Baltimore,Brooklyn, NY, Cincinnati, Denver and the UK with submissions coming in from all over the world. Now of course we can add Syracuse, NY to the list.

Mick Mather
- Short Bio -

Mick Mather is a local artist, printmaker, land art sculptor, writer, editor and publisher. He has exhibited his block-relief prints, monoprints & monotypes and digital prints locally, regionally and internationally. From 1989 to 1999 he was the editor & publisher of a quarterly arts digest for printmakers and rubber stampers. Current daily output finds the artist creating digital prints from digitally manipulated drawings, paintings, ‘found’ images and his own photographs. Mick is always hard at work with text, prose and written works that are wedded to his artistic images for the purpose of documenting “walking art projects” and site-specific land art sculpture. Creative writing projects are always in development. Examples of three such projects can be found at Mick Mather’s flickr set: The Vignettes, The Inventor’s Diary and Chronicles of a Lonesome Princess. More writing can be found online posted at MickMathersARTblog, Espresso Stories, Silk Creek Review and BloodrootZ.

In addition to his work as a fine artist, Mick works in arts management and currently holds the position of Special Projects Coordinator at the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse & Onondaga County, Inc. in Central New York State.

I had a hard time deciding which images to post. Mick is a very prolific artist and there is an awful lot of good stuff to choose from. Here are some I especially like, but I assure you these are just a tease. Visit Mick's Blog. Click the hyper liked image in the side bar to be redirected to MICKMATHERSARTBLOG. You'll be glad you did! Good Luck Mick and Thanks for everything!

Berenice Abbott 1898 - 1991

2009-01-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

Just another one of my artist heroes. We just happen to share the same last name. A distant relative? I don't know, but I'd like to think so.

Berenice Abbott was born in Springford, Ohio, in 1898. After graduating from Ohio State University she moved to New York to study journalism, but eventually decided on sculpture and painting.

In 1921 she moved to Paris to study with sculptor Emile Bourdelle. Abbott also worked with the surrealist photographer, Man Ray (1923-25), before opening her own studio in Paris. She photographed the leading artists in France and had her first exhibition at the Au Sacre du Printemps Gallery in 1926.

Abbott returned to the United States in 1929 and embarked on a project to photograph New York. In 1935 she managed to obtain funding for this venture from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its Federal Art Project.

In 1936 Abbott joined with Paul Strand to establish the Photo League. Its initial purpose was to provide the radical press with photographs of trade union activities and political protests. Later the group decided to organize local projects where members concentrated on photographing working class communities.

Abbott's photographs of New York appeared in the exhibition, Changing New York, at the Museum of the City in 1937. A book, Changing New York, was published in 1939. She also published a Guide to Better Photography (1941). In the late 1950s Abbott began to take photographs that illustrated the laws of physics. Berenice Abbott died in Monson, Maine, in 1991.

Natalie Steinebrunner

2009-01-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

Artist Statement

Currently, Natalie creates multi-media paintings that tackle the roles of femininity in the modern world. Her inspiration comes from observations and personal experiences of how women are portrayed, stereotyped and exploited throughout the media such as fashion magazines, advertisements and "reality" television shows. Her paintings combine symbolism and literalism to instigate and challenge the viewer, contemplating the expectations of what the "ideal" woman is.
While each piece boasts in vivid color and bold outlines, there also lies sadness in them. The women she paints are beautiful, but most seem lost with blank stares and stiff body language. Everyday women are faced with obstacles of being judged by men, but even more by women. Women have become their own worst enemies. Some of Natalie's work shows the moment of judgment, the harsh vulnerability but also the eagerness to please. They depict the "final presentation" of women. It is about the moment (that some women live for) when they finally reveal how good they look in a new outfit or that fifty-dollar lipstick. Some of these paintings are from the subject's perspective, her fantasy of unveiling her beauty. At the same time, the artist has painted her own judgments about the subject. Natalie's artwork is not a protest of fashion, lipstick and everything feminine. On the contrary she aims to celebrate the beauty of women and fashion with bright colors and symmetric compositions, mocking shrines, and religious iconography.

http://www.nataliesteinebrunner.blogspot.com/

Chris Spuglio

2009-01-07T05:11:00.001-08:00

Chris Spuglio

I was born and raised in Boston, MA and have been a resident of Greater Boston all of my life. I attended Mass Art College before graduating from Salem State College with a B.A. in Fine Art. After leaving school, I pursued a professional painting career yielding exhibitions in professional galleries in the United States and Europe over a nine year period. My Artist bio was recently published in the Art Is Spectrum Magazine out of New York which was very motivating.
I am currently represented by the Agora Gallery and The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York City as well as other International venues in Italy and Mongolia.
My most recent work centers around mood, texture and color. I try to impose a sense of dismality to show that all people, places and things will eventually expire and be returned to the nature that presented them to the world. Realization that everyday should reflect the courage to take chances as well as conforming to the frailty of our bodies and minds.

“I haven’t given my life to Art, Art has given me a life” Arman

www.spugliostudios.com
http://home.comcast.net/~cspuglio/

"Party Girls" SOLD

2009-01-06T13:15:00.000-08:00

Somewhere over the years I began to blur the lines between photography and painting. Everything I did during the 1970's and early 80's was pretty much straight photography. Sometime during the mid 1980's I began working in collage, combining my photographs with paint and mixed media.

Later I ventured away from my own photographs and started to incorporate photographs I found in antique shops, flea markets and the like. During the early and mid 1990's I enjoyed quite a lot of gallery success with this body of work. I had two primary groups of work. Nudes and "old people". They were not always old, just old photographs. I even did several commissions.

Every now and then I revisit this work. Here is a piece I did last winter. "Party Girls", mixed media collage on birch panel. The piece measures 12" X 12" and is framed in a museum float frame. currently recession priced at $300.00.

lauri lynnxe murphy

2009-01-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

:
My work has long been engaged with the ability to connect disparate, sometimes random elements to create meaning and narrative. Since I deploy a wide range of mediums and methodologies in creating my work – juxtaposing realism and abstraction, found objects and tightly painted elements – I gravitated naturally towards the grid as a superimposed organizational structure. However, the grid has it’s own art historical baggage, and I found that over time it became restrictive – rather than freeing me to explore as many directions as my short attention span could take me in, it locked me into an uncomfortable modus operandi whose formal demands superseded the content, narrative, and materials that my work was primarily concerned with.
My attempt to escape from the self-imposed straight-jacket that the grid had unwittingly fashioned took me in two directions: scatter-shot compositions of square panels and circles. However, neither solved my quandary. The scattered compositions, while interesting, were still painted on squares and rectangles, and thus inherently suggested the grid; while the circles were disappointingly flat and dimensionless. The solution lay somewhere in the middle, by using a scattered composition comprised of rounded, 3-dimensional organic forms. This approach has taken my work into a direction that is difficult, if not impossible, to categorize. No longer strictly painting, and yet not sculpture either, it exists in a hybrid form that continues to evolve without any rigidly overlaid organizational formations. Each “painting” is formed from a pre-determined cluster of individual parts that can combine in unending variable formats and arrangements.
The formal concerns in my work remain the same, but are freed by using a clustered, free-floating format. As before, I am creating artwork that mimics both language forms and societies – each element representing a word or phrase that, combined in concert with others, evokes a more complex or meaningful idea through it’s interaction while still able to stand on it’s own. As the arrangement of the parts is not meant to be permanent, but to change with each successive installation, the work is highly dependent on a careful balance of compositional components. When the work is installed by someone other than myself, it is as if we are engaging in a collaboration, and the installer is free to make their own sequential and aesthetic decisions, entering into a conversation that can re-occur indefinitely.

http://www.lynnxe.com/home.html

Happy Holidays Frida!

2008-12-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

Frida Kahlo is the inspiration for this blog. Merry Christmas Frida!

Things are crazy busy here at the gallery. We do a ton of custom picture framing at Christmas time and we are deep into the rush. Playing Santa's helper is all I have time for over the next few days.

I plan to resume posting guest artists as soon as we get past the holidays.

Cheers!

Joel Blazer

2008-12-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

Joel Blazer says -

"my name is joel blazer. i have been painting for a little over a decade now. in 1998 i saw an egon schiele book and was amazed at his style. i never new you could make the human figure look the way he made it look. so i started studying the human figure. that is pretty much all i did from 1998 till 2001. then i met some graffiti artists and was amazed off of their crazy lines and bright colors. in 2003 i was blessed with meeting and working for one of my favorite artists phil frost. he was living here in cincinnati at the time making a painting for a traveling art show called "beautiful losers" that was kick started at the cincinnati contemporary art center. i recieved an associates degree in graphic design for print a couple of years ago. i have exhibited my work in ohio, kentucky, indiana and new york. i dont have a formal website yet but you can see more work at myspace.com/rawflar. just look under my pics section on my myspace page."

joel blazer

Joel, I really like the work! Keep it going and best of luck!
KV Abbott

"Visitation" KV Abbott $600 SOLD

2008-12-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

In this economy any time we sell a painting is cause for celebration. This painting is my most recent sale. The piece measures 26" X 26" including frame. I have always really liked this painting. I'm happy to see it go to a good home and what is becoming a very solid local art collection.

Derek Jones

2008-11-28T14:29:00.000-08:00

"I am best known as a figure painter and printmaker - hand pulled "original" prints not the dreaded reproductions that are flooding the market. I tend to be technique driven so here you will find experiments in different media. Work is for sale - if you have any questions, want to know prices or where to see the work please email me!"

Derek Jones

I recently became aquainted with Derek's artwork through Blog Village where we both have highly ranked web sites. When I first visited his site I recognized right away that he is an extremely talented artist.

Derek lives and works in the Scottish Borders, United Kingdom. He is a prolific talent whose is able to work in a variety of mediums, (Oil, Pastel, Print Making, Charcoal, etc.) with a high degree of skill. His subject matter ranges from the human figure, to landscapes and wonderful abstracts. I had a hard time deciding which images to use as there are so many excellent choices. These images here are just a few examples and I strongly encourage everyone to visit Derek's web site to see more of his fantastic work. These images are excellent but are only a tease and don't even scratch the surface of his strong portfolio.

KV Abbott

To see more art by Derek Jones visit: http://derekjonesart.blogspot.com/

Coco Lopez

2008-11-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

"Currently I'm an Undergraduate Studio Art student at Hunter College. This image is from a series of photographs that deals with the idea of subconscious color relationships and form. Graffiti art is an obsession of mine and here I examine it very close, so close that the exact tags or words that are written cannot be read. Although the action of writing one's tag on a wall is chosen, the way it plays with other tags on a space or the exact place it was written is often purely coincidental. This image also examines time, both absolute and relative."

Coco Lopez

I picked Coco out of the first dozen or so submissions because I am impressed with the simple visual strength of the work. I also identify with it because it reminds me of some work I did in the 1980's while living in Monterey, Ca. . I did a series of Cibachrome prints, close-ups of shipping containers, graffiti, rust, shadows and all. The works won several awards and were selected for some prestigious exhibitions.

I like what you are doing Coco! Keep up the great work and good luck out there!

KV Abbott

To see more work by Coco Lopez visit. http://portfolio.akacocolopez.com/drips11.html Also at http://akacocolopez.com/

Guest Artist - Debe Abbott

2008-11-21T14:59:00.000-08:00

"Movement in Black and Red" by Debe Abbott. This painting has long been a favorite of mine. An acrylic on canvas, the piece measures 24" X 36" and is framed in a beautiful black frame with a gold leaf lip. The painting is stunning and classic abstract expressionism.

Debe is perhaps best known for her pastel landscapes but she is a versatile artist and spent most of the late 1980's and the 1990's painting contemporary abstract works. She had considerable success at first with Elhoff Gallery in Syracuse where she sold fifty three paintings over a three year period. Later at Roselawn Galleries in Pittsford, NY she sold well over one hundred paintings during a thirteen year relationship with the gallery. Many of these paintings were abstract paintings although more decorative in style than the classic look of this bold piece.

Debe's work is currently available at Fingerlakes Gallery, Canadaigua, NY, Margie's Muse, Jamaica, VT., Vintage Art Seneca, SC and at her studio gallery in Central Square and on-line at abbottsstudio.com or at her blog http://debeabbottsartblog.blogspot.com/.

I suppose it's only right that I give Debe my first Guest Artist spot on this blog. Afterall she is exceptionally talented and has put up with me for 27 years and counting.

Call for Artists

2008-11-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Are you a contemporary artist who finds inspiration from the modernists, post modernists or absrtact expressionists? Do you appreciate figurative abstraction as well as non representational abstraction?

Send me an example of your work and a little bit about the piece and about your self. I will select works to post and hopefully generate a dialog with like minded artists and art lovers about the posts.

This is for fun and exposure only, but you never know when you may tap into a new collector. I'm doing more and more business on line. In fact I had to stop in the middle of writing this to answer the phone and talk with a customer in another city who had a question about a print she saw in our web store.

In the event that someone should want to purchase a published piece we will put the customer in direct contact with you the artist but only under the terms you wish.

All forms of visual media will be considered.

Send me jpeg files to kabbott765@netzero.com. Please resize them to a reasonable range to work with if they are huge files.

"Organica" - NYSCA Grant project nears completion

2008-11-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

The actual piece is complete and in storage as I write this. I am very pleased with the fabrication and even more excited by the enthusiastic response by the few who have been privy to a sneak peak.

I had to wait on the Central Square Library Board of Directors to give me their approval for the installation. They did so two days ago and with today's good weather I dug the foundation and poured the concrete for the foundation. The concrete needs to cure for several days before I can pour the concrete for the pedestal and then likewise that will have to cure a week before I can install the sculpture.

I will document the entire process and post here and on KV Abbott's Art Blog for those interested.

The folks at the Parish Library are now talking about the possibility of starting a fund for one of my pieces also.

TIMEFORFRIDA

2008-11-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

The idea came to me to create a new blog for some of my work that may not be appropriate to post on KV Abbott' Art Blog. I often do a lot of very experimental work and some figurative work that I will post here. Stuff that is a little more removed from the main stream if you will.

The image used on the header is a detail from an unfinished painting from a series of black and white paitnings that I have been working on off and on for over a year now. Most of the work here is available for purchase. Contact me for prices, sizes, framing, etc.

Unlike some other artists out there today, all of the manipulated images are my own. I do not pull images off the internet. They are my own own original images, be they photographs, paintings, collage, whatever.

One of my artist heroes is the legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, hence the name, as I pay homage to her bravery and willingness to take chances as an artist. I would not even suggest to be in her league, but do draw considerable inspiration from her and others of the "Avant-Garde" of the last century.

I will gradually add content as time permits. I am currently entering into what is typically our busy season here at the gallery. We'll see with the economic slow down just how busy this holiday season turns out to be.

I am also in the final stages of completing a public sculpture project that has been a year in the works. My sculpture "Organica" will be installed in front of our public library as soon as the foundation has cured. This project was funded by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the Syracuse Cultural Resources Council.

Pop in here now and then or subscribe if you feel inclined to see what I add as I build this site.

Cheers!

KV Abbott