Virtual Art talk May 5th 7pm

 

Hey friends!

Mark your calendars and drop in next Thursday evening to a zoom gathering of my latest workshop, “Producing an Art Series with an Accountability Coach”,  participant’s culminating show. For six weeks this winter, through the sponsorship of Arts-Midhudson,  I worked as an accountability coach for artists seeking to develop a series of work. Every Tuesday evening we would check in with each other, give feedback and celebrate the progress. 

See link below to RSVP:

https://www.artsmidhudson.org/artist-talk

The artists who participated are from NY to NM. One artist had just moved and created a series of 30 collages constrained by the size of her cardboard boxes. Another created a series of expressive works intended for a large exhibition in New Jersey. Another artist used the six weeks to paint and mourn the recent loss of her siblings. A couple artists are new to the art world and allowed themselves to experiment, produce, and plan exposure. The collaborative support and wisdom of the group was so exciting. Two artists used the time to create illustrations following a specific screen play or children’s tale. They experimented and created in new media, combining the processes innovatively. Subjects range from Goddesses to grids. 

Drop in next Thursday to see what happened. 

I have been an artist long enough to grow two babies to young men! With all the distractions of motherhood and farm life, I have found the parameters of working in series to be the best way to show up for myself. It’s about discipline and curiosity. the most exciting thing is to look back at the end to the beginning. There are so many lessons to gather along the way! My next workshop is already full. We max out at 7-9, so everyone gets time to share and the attention they deserve. Perhaps this is something you or a friend of yours might be interested in participating in someday? Feel free to shoot me an email and i will put you on a waiting list.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Hope to see you at the show!

Tilly

To RSVP:

https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?id=291&name=E231621

Is Summer Over?

 

I’m only just recovering from the NECC summer enrichment program. Imagine spending every day making art with kids ages 5-11 and teen interns. It was awesome. One highlight was the week we spent on day hikes with Sachem HawkStorm, the chief of the Schaghticoke First Nations. He challenged a lot of our assumptions about the woods and how we approach our food and our history.  

 

My other joy this summer was the opportunity to spend a week in Iowa with my mother, just the two of us, traveling back to her childhood in Des Moines. We traveled even further back in time- visiting the town of Algona, that our family founded in 1847. I am working on an illustrated family tree text about my great grandmother, and we were able to meet with passionate members of the Kossuth County Historical Society who had tons of archives to share and were very helpful. The history of the founders is very much alive in the town today. Imagine my surprise to see a fresh colorful mural with my great great grandpa’s name in it?

Asa and Ambrose Call Founders of Algona

Less delightful was the awareness of the role our family had in the displacement of indigenous tribes. Mother and I traveled southeast of Algona to Tama, where the Meskwakie Nation have lands and a nice Tribal Cultural Center and Museum. It helped me get a better understanding of their culture and the impact of the homesteaders who stole their lands. I also identified the helpers who petitioned to let the Meskwakie return to their land, sold them acres, and advocated for their status as human beings under US law. Many of the helpers, like my great great grandparents, were horrified descendants or veterans of the Black Hawk wars.

 

When I am not writing or researching, I am painting a series of fairly silly wolf paintings. It is still too early for me to know what they mean. But I hope to have a few large unframed paintings for sale at my open studio in October. At that point I will make sure some of the proceeds goes to an organization that helps the wolves. They are in dire straits. If you have a suggestion which organization I should pair with, please let me know. I appreciate guidance here. A lot needs to be done.

 

I continue to do accountability art coaching via zoom. It’s been more fun than I expected. Now in my second 6-week session, I’ve found each group of artists to be inspiring, kind, and honorable. Every time I talk with them, I get so happy I just float! If you need help with your artistic practice, if you can’t get to the studio, let me help you show up. It’s all run through the MidHudson Arts Council in Poughkeepsie, though the participants are as far away as Colorado and South Carolina! Stay tuned for the virtual show of the participants work this winter.

 

Group shows on the calendar and places where you can see my work:

Opening on the 23^rd at ArtsMidHudson “Wish You Were Here” 5 x 7in. postcard show in Poughkeepsie NY. Through the 18^th the Reinstitute Millerton NY, see “Together in Isolation” outside underground installation. I just made the deadline! My work is called the Lost Keys of Covid. Closing the 24^th, my sketchbooks at the DM Hunt Library in Falls Village CT “Book Marks” show. My 6 large paintings at the Hammond Museum “Voices I Remember” show will be hanging through October, in North Salem, NY.  And through the 30^th, the Live4Art Gallery in Pawling NY features the Arteastdutchess studio tour preview show.

 

Thank you for reading through this. I hope you are well and finding creative outlets for your days.  Stay curious- Tilly

Call me your "summer accountability art coach"

There is still two weeks before this virtual opportunity starts.  

Called "a workshop"- it technically is just an online check-in, so you can do it from anywhere that you have access to Zoom. You only need to take notes the first meeting, June 15 at 7pmEST. You get your own materials and make your own hours.

How it works:

I will start you off with tips and tricks to setting up a studio practice that will help you complete a series of work. By walking you through handy steps and thought process, I will set you on the course with a weekly mantra. 

Once a week, Tuesday's at 7pm you will check in with me and we will discuss issues like time management, frustrations and any other blockages you may be suffering. If you miss a session, it will be recorded and available to check out when you can. You will work on your own during the week towards your individual goal. I just keep you on track by being there, to check in and ask how we, as a group, can support you.

 

In the end we have an opportunity to celebrate our successes with an exhibit of our work together through the MidHudson Arts Council in Poughkeepsie NY. 

This is a great opportunity if you want to get some art done, but know that a summer calendar can be like a run-away train. Together we will carve out time to focus, decide on a realistic scope for your series and you will create works that you will be proud of. 

Signing up soon at www.artsmidhudson.org/workshops  Registration ends in about a week.

Cost $100 -$115 for ages 16+

Printshow assignment and call for art

Ian Strauss' print bed

This years Home Farm Artist Association is sponsoring a future print show (for next summer) for all members and interested guests. The assignment is to create and submit a print of any type for next summer's Horse Barn Loft Lounge exhibition. So far, everyone who has visited the farm between June and July has created one... it is mostly linoleum, but photographs or etchings can also be included.

Suzannah Strauss Blake, DVM at work

Sophie Strauss Jenkins

Ian printing

Dr. Alan Long's plates and print

So far participating artists have been: Sophie Strauss Jenkins, and her partner Joe, Ian Strauss, and his sister Natalie, Kate Long and her husband Alan, Suzannah Strauss Blake and her husband Michael, Tilly Strauss and her partner Michael Gellatly.

Kate Strauss Long's Objet d'art

Joe's prints in many colors

My metal type set with my linoleum plate

Consider this call:
Dear Home Farm Artist Associates and special guest,

It is with pleasure to note that the summer of 2018 has been one of multiple overlapping art residencies. There has been feverish activities in the fields and barns, including a creative upgrading of the gates, major uplifting and installation of posts in the cow barn, with a day’s workshop for Millerton youth in the sugar shack and a night photography attempt at capturing the elusive firefly dance. All overnight guest artists who visited the farm participated by creating a multiple print in the loft by carving linoleum plates and using water-based inks. At certain times in the months of June and July we had at least 3 artists working at once in the Horse Barn loft lounge. The studio space was even extended to a cabana post on the south east corner near the Pond d’Eva.
If you plan on stopping by the farm this fall you will find recycled linoleum plates, carvers, inks and brayers for your use. There is also an assortment of papers, but you might want to bring your own if you prefer your paper without mouse "signatures".
Your participation in this event will truly lift the quality of our planned exhibition to a new level.
The HFAA plans with high anticipation to share these works of art by mounting a 2019 summer/fall exhibition, (the opening and closing parties TBA).
The parameters of the submissions are that the work needs to be a multiple of at least 2, though artists proofs, mono prints, and photography are allowed.
The deadline for submitting a print would be by the end of the year.  Please let me know if we can expect to receive a submission from you.
We aspire to promote creative collaborations now and in the future seasons.
Thank you-
Tilly Strauss, humble associate curator
Fence Post Productions
If you are interested in participating please contact me at tillystudio@aol.com 

Bibiana Matheis at Hammond Museum

A beautiful show up through August in North Salem CT. Bibi curated it, and has included three other Chinese artists. She has included photographs from her fantastic birdcage series in it as well. On the day we toured the show she had just heard the news that she has been awarded this years Individual Artist Executive arts award (from the county legislators of Dutchess County)!!!! The ceremony is in October. I am so proud of her as she has been a long time sweet friend, source of inspiration, and sustaining spirit. Her eye is impeccable, her heart is generous, and her mind is wealthy! I own two of her photographs and they continue to give me joy over the years every time I see them.
Bibiana joins these other artists as past recipients: INDIVIDUAL ARTIST
Blanca Uribe, 1986, Lewis Rubenstein, 1987, Martin & Alice Provensen, 1988, Richard Wilson, 1989, Todd Crow, 1990, Meyer Kupferman, 1991, Nancy Willard, 1992, Elayne Seaman, 1993
Randall Craig Fleischer, 1995, C. Gina Peluse, 1996, Vivian Gaines Tanner Paxton, 1997
Katharine Ryan Aldrich, 1998, Bill Keith, 1999, Nancy Sans, 2000, Father Charlie Coen, 2001, Rodney K. Douglas, 2002, Kantham Chatlapalli, 2003, James Ransome, 2004, Betsy Jacaruso, 2005, Madeleine Segall-Marx, 2006, Natalie Merchant, 2007, Wilfredo Morel, 2008, Joseph Bertolozzi, 2009, Liza Donnelly & Michael Maslin, 2010, Margaret Crenson (posthumously)2011, Billy Name, 2012, and Kathleen Beckmann, 2013  Hurrah for Dutchess County!!!!

Obsession over the money

Last night at the Badavon the public was invited to speak up about the proposed budget...
it was a long long night.

Imagine no money for the arts

It's easier than you think. This evening the county legislators will hold a public hearing on their budget cuts. As of this moment there is no money allocated to the arts. No money for artists to work with school children, no money for 40% of the local theaters' operating budgets, no money for the hospital's healing arts programs, no money for the stadiums music concerts... As a board member of the county arts council and a working artist and teacher I have a passionate interest in things being resolved differently. It would cost each taxpayer 67 cents a year to keep the arts funding level to what it was this year (which was hugely cut from previous years). Imagine if people spoke up and said they thought they could afford to spend that 67 cents!
Lack of imagination may be a poverty of society, but soon we may have a whole generation lacking exposure to anything other than their TV and their cell phone.
Imagine what we would be missing. Is anyone interested in a show of paintings only half there, a concert of music only 1/3 played, a film without editing or ending...? (ndp)

Bed laid bare

This is how the painting I posted a few days ago started... What would have happened if it had stayed that way? If the effort I put to it was cut by 75%?
We can only imagine. Without the arts, artists, composers, dreamers, we would be left with bleak, confusing, and barren worlds.
Here is the point: The arts in Dutchess county NY are facing a budget with draconian cuts. A year ago the funding cost each tax payer .67 cents. With that low figure artists were able to partner with school teachers, performers were able to mount shows and screen films, artists were able to work with the under-served and the hopeless, to give voice and hope in the inner cities and bring music to the far reaches of the country. The current cuts proposed are 75% less than last year. The funded arts in education will be eliminated for the county and more programs, as well as the small staff at the county arts council, will be reduced. It is terribly sad. If you are a taxpayer in Dutchess county I urge you to contact your legislator and express your concern, as there may be time to restore some of the funding... lets make our beds, and color our worlds by supporting the arts at home!

Arts Awards Celebrations

Tonight the Dutchess County Arts Council celebrates the 24th annual County Executive Arts Awards!Liza Donnelly and Michael Maslin, two cartoonists living in Rhinebeck win the Individual artist award. We will toast the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck as the arts organization leader of the year, and the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater for their art in Public Places.
Patrons Wayne and Brigid Nussbickel are to be feted for their arts patronage and Hudson Beach Glass as a successful artist-led business anchoring cultural development in Beacon. Anthony Scarrone is the arts in education winner and Elysia Roman is the youth with exceptional promise...
And last but never least- Lisa Fiorese at the arts council- the backbone and sweetie who does everything- for her 18 years of service at the arts council is to be cited for special exemplary service!

Using some of the smaller painting to inform the larger

I did what I could in the few hours left to myself this weekend. Moved the paint around, and the challenge was layering the shapes in such a way as to sing with joy and imply intimacy without being overly explicit. I don't have a message to hammer out... just... a song, of sorts, to hum.
Spent the morning hours delivering signs to artists involved in next weeks ArtEast Open studio tour. It should be really great- almost all are new artists to the tour and several studio's are brand spanking new! The fiscal sponsor of ArtEast is the Dutchess County Arts Council. I will be going on the tour next Saturday and Sunday. Hope there is a good turn out... so much incredible inspiration is usually inaccessible. This opportunity is a rare one. www.arteastdutchess.com.

Lick for the third time

With incredibly perfect ice cream flavors... lime, vanilla, lavender... you should hurry to Hudson's Ice cream store on Warren. Christopher and Michael have about a week or two left of being open. It's such an awesome place. And I am not just saying this because 8 of my paintings are hanging there. This is the third year in a row they have invited me to hang my work in their windows over the annual Columbus weekend's Artwalk. I put in one rooster because they love chickens, and one cow (Udderly Delish) because it's an homage to the source of ice cream, and the other paintings follow the course of designing a sundae, from the cones at rest to the toppings to the empty dish (After Glow).
Posters of my Month of Sundaes are available for $20 and the individual 8 x 10 x 2 inch paintings for $200

LAST few hours of art auction

Do yourself (and me) a favor and check out the arts council's sponsored fairgrounds paint -shoot-out.

https://www.aarbids.com/display.cgi?optional_search=1&search=1&EVENT_ID=78


My studio has been dry all weekend... guests and the community picnic have been mixed with chores and paperwork, at the very least.

Oh- well... Panels 11 and 12 await!

Capture the summer

through art. The 33 artists (including me) who painted over 48 hours at the Dutchess County fairgrounds have work placed at auction. It took me 8 minutes to figure out how to register and bid on a work today- and many of the works- by wonderful artists- have starting bids of $50! What a way to capture some of the essence of summer in the country! Even better, you will be supporting the Dutchess County Arts Council as well as the artists. The council does a ton of work advocating for the arts, educating the communities, supplimenting the schools and providing services to art related-businesses.
Hurry- the auction ends on the 27th of this month!

ARTists at the DCAC Paint out yesterday!

I was painting chickens at the Dutchess County Fair and ran into these other artists. it was a great day- not too hot, and plenty to see. Work will be on display this weekend in Building D, and then to on-line auction soon... look up the works of:
Joan levitt, Tarryl Gabel, Tracy Leavitt, Michael Gellatly, and Nancy Yu. And me!

To the County Fair

to paint in public...
http://www.tillystudio.com/sketchbook-countyfair.php There is a paint out happening with about 26 of my art friends tomorrow! Sponsored by the Dutchess County arts Council. Stop by and see us!

Sketchbook from the Luberon Valley

Flying over with my son and mother, (it looks as though we are flying backwards because I was seated at the window seat, drawing to the right and to the left of me). Once in Bonnieux we spent the day and evening relieving jet-lag in my sister's courtyard.
All watercolor and pencil on sketchbook paper.

M.I.A.

Last Mill Street class...Great arts council event and tourism conference and then heavy divorce papers. I am moving out of the studio- hanging work in Millerton and Cornwall and shipping work to Denver... moving too fast to paint.
(nodp)

Thank you

Thank you to the artists who responded to my question of why they make art... there is tons of stuff, a lot of variation, and yet a common thread...

I am so thrilled to be part of the Dutchess County Arts Council...Thursday night was the annual meeting and election. Everyone was so fascinating. It's a wonderful and artist-empowering organization. Every artist in the county should join. For the basic membership of $50 there are so many opportunities and skills strengthening sessions available, not to mention a calendar of events, a regional magazine subscription, and a network of professionals. If you have questins feel free to ask me- there are no stupid questions....