Volunteer opportunity for Procession!

Volunteer Opportunities


Walking On Air: The Grand Opening of the Walkway Over the Hudson
October 2, 3 and 4, 2009

For the past many months we have been asking folks to volunteer for this event and thousands of you have responded! Some positions have already been filled, but for others we still need folks. So, look at the listing below carefully and see where you can fit in.

NEW POSITIONS

Walking on Air Parade
www.walkway.org
We need 500 folks to animate the Giant Puppets and Procession elements in the Grand Opening Parade that flows in two directions! This is a VERY fun position. Must be 10 years old and up. Fill out our online form.

Pageant Puppetry Workshop
Starting on August 5, world renowned Pageant Puppeteers Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles will be working FOODWORKS at 372 Main Street in the heart of downtown Poughkeepsie. This wonderful space is great for everyone and is a hotbed of creativity. Come learn new skills, have fun and make the Giat Puppet elements for the Walking on Air Parade. You can check that you would like to do this on the online form and we will send you a special invitation and schedule of the workdays so you can join us. There are projects for all skill levels. Learn more here.

Marshalls and Guards
We need folks who can help to Marshall the Grand Parade and assist with other technical aspects of the event - parking guards, attendants, stage managers and others. If this is your talent - WE NEED YOU!

To register, please fill out our online form, or call or email Jeanne Fleming at 845 758 5519 or openingcelebration@walkway.org

For other volunteer opportunities not related to the grand openingcelebration,contact walkway@walkway.org.

Sunday painting

I had a FULL day of painting yesterday... seven hours. So I got the emblems done, photographed, and even played on the backsides. It was a wonderful day. I am trying not to be critical of the art today, as I really did my best with what I had this summer. Some of the other emblems coming out across the county, representing the 47 other towns of the county, are truly unbelievably fantastic.

Courage: Heart in hand

Courage, also known as bravery, will, intrepidity, and fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk/danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Courage c.1300, from O.Fr. corage, from V.L. *coraticum, from L. cor "heart," which remains a common metaphor for inner strength.
This is a painting I started in Florida, the first morning of my arrival last week, while watching my husband and my son participate in an extreme swimming lesson.
It's about 7 x 12 inches (must double check)- all orange acrylic paint.

Emblems in progress

Yikes- only one more day to get these done!

Painting walkway emblems

I turned the phone off and spent a long inspired night painting the front sides of two of the three emblems commissioned for the Walkway.org performance in October. These will go at the front of each town that promenades across the Hudson river on the opening day of the railroad bridge. The organizers want to make buttons with the images for each group of 50 delegates and so I must simplify the design to read well both 6 feet up in the air and reproduced down to 2 inches on a lapel!
Though I am less than thrilled with the furnace image for Northeast, it is the image that the town historian and the town supervisor prefer me to use. The furnace no longer exists, but represents a major historical industry for the area. The iron product was sent to the Hudson River for transport to market.
I have not spoken to the mayor of Millerton yet about their emblem and plan on keeping the idea to myself (and my blog viewers). I feel strongly that Millerton should be represented by an image of the train station as they took their name from a train engineer who created the route through the area. If anyone in the community feels strongly about any other image I encourage them to come forward and make a flag. I still need a dozen more Millerton and a dozen more Northeast flags to be made! That deadline is September 27th.

Stormy weather

6 x 6 inches acrylic on panel
I did this last Saturday out at Fort Desoto. There were spectacular clouds- almost- "your gonna die' clouds. Florida is so flat it's the sky you have to look towards. Unfortunately, I am still in my orange phase- this was painted about 2pm.
Even though I painted with my feet in the water, I was very uncomfortable with it, and loved the idea of a bridge out of there...

Last night's Flag workshop, boy flies away

Still need help with the flags- newspaper, cable Tv announcement, town board presenting, email reminders, and website listing did not get me more than 6 people last night. I have 40 of the 75 flags needed. We have a month left. Anybody interested? Anybody able to fill me in on when is a perfect time to hold a workshop? I have held them, four of them so far, in various locations and in the mornings, afternoon, evening, and on a weekend and on weekdays.... when is the magical moment?

The giant painted emblems are due in five days. Finally the papie mache has dried enough for me to prime them.

On another note- I sent my first born son to college yesterday... here is a sketch of him in the boarding area. He is a restless young man and I feel he is on the verge of many great adventures.

Wassaic Project

Still recovering from a great time this past weekend at the 2nd annual art festival put on by Eve, Elan and Bowie. It was such a rich treat to be connecting with other artists and like minded folks. There was great energy, interesting work and wonderful sense of community. I should have taken more pictures.

Several works of mine have been selling so I am feeling upbeat about the market this fall.
Thank you to everyone who came and saw and stayed and talked and then those who bought!

I am off tomorrow to Florida to see my youngest son and hope to have some painting time while down there.

Wassaic Project

http://www.ruralintelligence.com/index.php/parties_section/results/the_wassaic_project_is_a_must-see_art_world_happening/

No painting- only selling!

#4 Still Life with Life String

5.5 x 6.25 inches
I am working in orange for no reason except a craving for the hot reddish color. I think a lot of art therapist’s use color as a way to look into the soul. Color can balance one out. Orange is a grounding color- as compared to blue being a more cerebral, celestial color. I need to be grounded. I feel lost in a vast cloud of emptiness. Can’t even see my footing…
Uncle freddy died last night. Seriously, it is something that can’t escape my daily painting, even when I do a still life. It wasn’t until I was half way through painting this that I thought of those three mythological ladies, the Fates, who wove and measured and cut the thread of life.

#3 still Life with lobster in orange

6 x 6 inches
acrylic on wood panel

Have house guests and need to get my son's wardrobe ready for school, present the flag project to the Northeast Town board, and make dinner. Thank God for Sophie- my 12 year old niece. She can cook! And it's lobster for dinner...

Still Life in Orange: Water can and plant

this is #2 in a week long series of Orange paintings.
6 x 6 inches with painted edges, acrylic on wood
$100 plus $5/shipping.
Thank you

In case you missed it

The wassaic show preview in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/arts/design/29wassaic.html?_r=1&th&emc=th


and the new NEA chairman, Rocco Landesman, sees art as economic engine. His new slogan: "ART WORKS" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/arts/08rocco.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Flag workshop open to Amenia, Millerton and Northeast communities

Flag Making Workshop: On Wednesday, August 26th from 5 pm to 8 pm, local artist Tilly Strauss will be holding a flag making workshop at NECC. This free workshop is open to all ages and the flags created will be used in the Walkway Over the Hudson celebration in October. The workshop is being held on a drop-in basis (no need to register) and all materials will be provided. For more information, e-mail Tilly at tillystudio@ aol.com. For more information about the Walkway Over the Hudson, visit their website.

Something about procrastination

I think, after being married for decades, the sight of a closet stripped half-bare can rob the beat of  the hardest of hearts'. That said- I have started placing my shoes on some of the empty shelves. I even uncovered from the jumble crammed behind the door (my side of the closet) a pair of silver gray heels that I completely forgot I owned.

I should be cleaning. Tomorrow my mother and two nieces arrive. As well as my "collaborator" at Wassaic- Emmy. They all need places to sleep. Then in two days two additional kids- my nephew and his friend and my cousin arrive to sleep over. I should be cleaning... but instead I am organizing the basement.

DAILY PAINTING in orange: still life with grapes

I am back to my paints for the first time in a month! It is thrilling. For some unclear, even to me, reason I feel as though I should limit my palette to orange paintings for a while. Maybe it's because it's so green outside, or because i am so blue inside. Whatever- I decided to figure out just how many different tones I can get from my Pyrolle Orange if I only use white and it's complement (blue) as part of the mixture. In this next few experiments I will mix in Prussian blue for the darker areas. This is 6 x 6 inches- painted 1/4 inch luan panel. The side edges are painted Prussian Blue. $100 +ship

My kids take a seat

Large 32 x 20 inches acrylic paint applied both opaque and transparent with medium and collage.

Installing @Wassaic Project

I am thrilled to be part of a giant group show and art festival filling the historic Maxon Mills granary down the road in Wassaic. This summer's festival will be open from August 13-16th... and there are performance artists, bands, poetry slams, interactive installations, dancers, campers, and 40-something visual artists with work on display. I am thrilled to have my paintings hanging in a cool annex of the mill- the old hotel. I am hanging with my studio mate Emmy Bright. Emmy moves to Providence, Rhode Island on the 17th so this is our "swan song".
The work I have chosen to display (with Emmy's paper. bone and wire lamps) are a handful of the daily paintings documenting my relationship during the last days with two close friends who died the spring of 2008. I have not hung them on display before this. The peeling walls and soft light lend an intense complimentary aura to the work. Stop by and let me know what you think.

Still life lesson

We worked on perspective and then pastel form rendering.
here are a sample of some of the 11- 13 year old student works.
What a week!

color theory lesson plan

Some of the student work. They spent a lot of time on the composition and then had to limit the watercolor hues to a harmonic range.

paper bags lesson plan

This was an assignment where each kid got a bag of tricks and had to follow instructions...
Lots of fun.
Here are a few of the results after a days work.