How to Experience Art and Culture in NYC without Breaking the Bank

 Blog contributor, Laura Pearson is passionate about teaching the younger generation. Edutude was built to share resources on how to keep children engaged and in love with learning. 

photo from Pixabay.com

 

New York City offers some of the best experiences in the world for visitors and is full of art and culture, but for travelers who aren’t familiar with the city – and for those on a budget – it can be difficult to get to everything on their must-see list during their stay. There are a few hacks, however, for making sure you’re able to see the sights without breaking the bank. Here are some of the best ways to see the best NYC has to offer on the cheap, courtesy of Tilly Studio.

 

Plan Ahead

 

One of the first things you’ll want to do is consult a map and mark all the places you want to see. You’ll also want to double check whether these locations have special COVID protocols. Divide up your destinations by the number of days you’ll be staying and start with one or two sections per day; this way, you won’t be spending extra money on taxi or subway fare to shuttle all over the place.

 

It’s also a good idea to consider touring historic neighborhoods – think Greenwich and Tribeca – rather than sticking to more touristy spots. This will give you a good dose of New York culture without making you reach too deep into your pockets. Check out free options for transportation and sightseeing, as well, such as the Staten Island Ferry and Central Park, where there are usually street performers or art installations to view.

 

All that being said, there are certain things you should leave behind – like your credit worries, your calendar, and your sense of conformity. After all, you’re on vacation!

 

Groupon

 

Definitely explore Groupon before your trip to see if there are any good deals relating to places you’ll want to visit. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to have your itinerary beside you when you’re looking for deals, because you only have 24 hours to purchase a Groupon (although you have more time than that to use it).

 

Check Hours of Operation

 

You can save yourself time and the money it costs to get to certain attractions by checking hours or operation before you go. Many destinations are still operating on reduced or different schedules because of COVID. So, be sure to plan your visits around the most up-to-date information.

 

Go Last-Minute

 

For some, it pays to wait until the last minute. If you’re looking to do a Broadway show, check out the TKTS booth – located in Times Square – just before the show starts for heavily discounted tickets on shows that haven’t sold out. That way, you can save as much as 50%!

 

Take Advantage of the Park

 

Fall in New York City can be beautiful. If you’re headed there on vacation, take advantage of all Central Park has to offer – such as getting picnics to go, snapping pics of the fall foliage, and/or visiting the Central Park Zoo.

 

With New York being one of the most expensive and picturesque places to visit in the U.S., it’s important to budget wisely and do a little research before you arrive so you won’t be trying to plan on the fly. But once you’re there, give yourself some flexibility in terms of your schedule -- and have fun!

 

Tilly Strauss of Tilly Studio is an award winning artist who works in Northeast NY. You can view her work here. If you have questions or you’d like to collaborate, feel free to contact her at artist@tillystudio.com.

Signs and Numbers

 Just like we have Thanksgiving day to be thankful, we have New Year's day to reflect on the shadow of our footsteps, and muse upon our future strides. It falls on a calendar juncture, at the peak of winter, after the solstice shifts us minutely towards the sun. "Winter," as Paul Theraux said, "is a season of recovery and preparation".

This is the 16th year I have been blogging. Some years I am more consistent than others- but last year was the worst with the lowest amount of (25) postings. It looks like I logged in as more of a book reader than a writer! The number of books read is 27. 

In order to navigate the economics of my age and culture, I have become an example of a successful artist having multiple diverse income streams. For the last nine months I have been helping catalogue, archive and exhibit a collection of art by the late Carl T Linden of Chicago. Starting last summer I ran two very inspiring 6-week art coaching workshops for artists across the country. I have, since October of 2021, taken a job at the Town Hall as the Town Clerk. All of this is fascinating and leaves less time for personal practices.  

For several years...5 or 6 now...I have been writing and illustrating an art history text, based upon my family tree and inspired by ancestors who were influencers in the art world, going back beyond the fifteenth century. The project is huge and each year the research ebbs and flows. What keeps me going are the odd signs and messages that I seem to find just when I need a push to keep going.  

Here are two very recent examples. 

1. While cataloguing Carl T Linden's portrait paintings, most of which are unsigned, undated, and untitled, I came upon one that was a double portrait with the names of the sitters written on the back! Imagine my surprise to find one was Frances Cowles, and the other was Betty Groves of Bensenville, IL. This discovery was early summer, when I was debating a late summer trip to DesMoines ,Iowa with my mother to research the Cowles side of my family. Frances turns out to be a distant relative- our great, great, great, great, grandfathers were brothers. She is also the mother-in-law of the artist I am archiving! I took that as a sign to make the trip to Iowa in the path of my great grandmother Florence Cowles. 

Frances Cowles and Betty Graves by Carl T Linden, oil on canvas

2. While researching the Meskwaki Tribe, because of my great great grandfather's direct hand in taking land to establish the incorporated city of Algona, I have been slowed by the dread of my ancestors homesteading settler mentality of "Manifest Destiny" and their hands in the outright stealing of lands of First Peoples. My great great grandfathers and their brothers fought in the Black Hawk Wars, which not only massacred the indigenous peoples, but led to our government embracing policies of extermination. I read the story of the last great Comanche leader, Quanah Parker. I am lining up images as reference sources for some illustrations. This photo from the Ft Sill Museum shows Parker with guests at his Star House dining room. The art on the walls are advertising posters. The one behind his head is for the Strauss Brothers of Chicago! It feels like a sign from my ancestors to get my studio, and set up the process for painting again!

Quanah Parker entertaining in his home near the Wichita Mountains and cache Oklahoma c. 1885/ photo from Ft Sills Museum

I conclude, that I will keep doing many things; keep painting and writing; keep trying to stay healthy with walking and yoga practices; keep in community even in times of isolation and keep showing up for the Muse. 

In that vein: Can I ask you: What would you like to hear more about on this blog? 

                                            What interests you and is pertinent to this space? 

If you write me an answer, I will mail you a work of art in gratitude. 

                                            Leave comments below.

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

Life on Pause, Work is Virtual

(continuing the Daily Drawing During a Quarantine)

 

Another Password/ March 19

By the end of March, the mortal predictions were horrendous and our national leaders acted like buffoons. The overwhelming message was to avoid going out, being within 6 feet of another person, touching your face, or touching anything. 

New protocols for work were straining my brain bank of passwords and the ancient computer software systems that I had in place. In order to keep up with scheduled events and meetings, I uploaded, up graded, downloaded and installed until I just had to surrender. Life was on pause and work became virtual, and it was bound to take a toll.

Handwashing/ May 4

Face Touching/May 5

 

Art Made of Matchbooks to Ignite Awareness

This article was published in the Millerton News, Compass, February 20, 2020,  page A8.

In the cool crisp air of the cavernous Wassaic Project grain elevator stand or drape 7 large quilts in a show titled, Heirloom: Quilts from Another Country Quilt Cycle.

DARNstudio, "Amplify"

Walking through at first glance they can seem silent and even severe. It takes further reading, and peaking closely, to decipher the conceptual layers and emotional heat behind the works. The labels inform of title, ingredients, dimension, and date completed, but there is so much more to share.

Quilts are the quintessential heirlooms passed down through generations. They map our stories and stitch together family and community. A friend of mine in college had a quilt on her bed sewn by her mother commemorating the send off to school with an aerial view of her ancestral home. Quilts such as that one have warmed us, aided with healing, and silently comforted us in our beliefs. Historical lore has quilts serving most famously as poetic signposts pointing black slaves to promises of freedom along the Underground Railroad. 

This show does not point to freedom.

These DARNstudio quilts have a more sinister air. The patterns and colors are comprised of units made out of souvenir matchbooks lashed together and backed by thick grey felt. The places commemorated on the books of matches are of mundane sites: a train station platform, a convenience store, a sheriff’s jail cell, a traffic-stop intersection.

Put together by the collaborative duo of DARNStudio, based in Roxbury, CT, these quilts are part of a larger series-in-process making a statement about the killing of unarmed black American men.

David Anthone and Ron Norsworthy, the DARNstudio artists, design logos for each new place where such a killing has occurred and they then print thousands of custom-designed matchbooks. 

Flipped back to front for the sake of variety and rhythm, the matchbook fronts bear letters and numbers, codifying the names and most recent dates of a death of a victim by the hands of police,  stand-your-ground policy and other traumatic events. 

Vaguely resembling the patterns of coded quilt signage, these are contemporary pictographs where crows in the sky replace flying geese. In the quilt titled Amplify, the volume symbol of our cell phones is replicated over and over. 

Pattern titles such as "Snake in the Garden", "Go High", and "Double Cross" are an update for a vehicle that explores inherited trauma, and policy bias. 

 

This is the new story quilt that we, as a culture, are creating as heirlooms to pass down through generations. Each quilt of 2800 matchbooks appears colorful and comforting, but in actuality they are flashpoints. Each matchbook is a spark and a part of an overall blaze of conversation that needs to be shared. 

"Heirloom: Quilts from Another Country Quilt Cycle" is at the Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY until March 28th. The Maxon Mills Gallery is open from noon to 5pm every Saturday and Sunday; admission is free. To learn more go to www.wassaicproject.org/events/2020-heirlooms

Are you using the latest Stamp on your Love Letters?

My series of drawings and history of the USPS love stamps was printed in the February 6th, 2020  edition of the Lakeville Journal, page A3.

Because it is the week for mailing out Valentines, we can look forward to the unveiling of the new 2020 Love stamp. Every year, on and off since 1973, the US Postal service has issued a new love stamp for the purpose of sending out your cards of intimate sentiment!

Sue at the Amenia Post Office shows me the new stamps

The first official love stamp featured the iconic stacked LOVE design by Robert Indiana. It cost eight cents!

By Robert Indiana

It was created for the Museum of Modern art's Christmas card and never copyrighted, so it has popped up everywhere. Poor Robert Indiana doesn't get a penny from it. Another design, a few years later, was created by the the nun/artist/activist, Corita Kent.

Corita Kent

There used to be a water tower in Boston that featured her rainbow slashes.Wonder if it is still up?

This year's love stamp design is by Alberto Alcala. He also designed last years. He is one of 4 art directors with the post office. You have probably used his stamps many times. Last spring he made the stamp of the waving flag. It is from a photograph he took while walking along the shores of Lake Michigan. Another Forever stamp series he designed last fall was of holiday wreaths against doors.

Alcala's stamps

More about it on page A3, under "The Season for Romance"!

Lakeville Journal

Craven's New Nude show really is New

This article appeared in the Lakeville Journal's compass magazine December 12, 2019

painting by Bruno Leydet

Andrew Craven’s show is not your Grandmother’s nude show. It is smartly curated to include a dozen diverse artists who work with an evolving range of nude subjects spanning across the spectrum of skin tones and gender. The word “New” is important for the show’s title, the “New Nude”. For here, the antique fantasy of the passive odalisque in stuffy mausoleums is nowhere in sight. Different perspectives, new materials, shadows, and models that have a tendency to hide challenge the gaze of the viewer. In an era of selfies and “sell me” social postings, these subjects are not craving to be seen, instead they are caught passing through, and in self-reflection and it is the viewer’s unconscious input that haunts the work. There can be no complacency walking through the show.

In cropped environments of textures, the artist’s hand skillfully deconstructs the nude subject. She/He doesn’t lie down. There is a generous supply of chaos with fragments of clothing, skin and thoughtful composition. Each piece of artwork in the room teases.

In Mickalene Thomas’ “Left Behind 2 Again”, a de-saturated naked woman with only one spike-heeled mule showing is surrounded with animal, botanical, and geometric pattern swatches. Her shaded eyes, hidden feet and hands lend a guarded feel, as if she could quickly retreat into the setting of abundant fabrics and drapery. She is claiming her space. Diamonds and stripes form a flag behind her. A gold brocade fragment frames the left side of the image. It is a powerful piece that gives the model agency in the setting that redefines the art historical trope.

Who is looking at whom? In some works there is a definite peering through a peephole effect, yet most of the work seems to relate a feeling of internal privacy.

The subjects can seem lost in thought. Their gaze is internal and our gaze is drawn into their puzzling world. Erwin Olaf, a Dutch photographer of worldwide acclaim, orchestrates scenes of emptiness and longing inspired by the masters. In his “Keyhole #2” a European styled woman, seemingly spied on, clutches her deco baubles and turns away from the viewer. There is emotion under her skin.

Troy Michie, young American collage artist hailing from Texas and Yale grad school, investigates identity and power in his life-size work, “La Bicicleta”. His cornered image of a man with three eyes on a bike is portrayed so intriguingly complex, that the collage keeps you looking. It is a mischievous puzzle of design.

Jeremy Kost’s “Adam Upstate” is a collage of Polaroids that fragment the small exposed figure and lends significant weight to the details of the landscape.

It feels as though the nudes in Craven’s show must deal with the sensitivity of being searched for.

One of the two 2019 Whitney Biennial artists in the show, Paul Mpagi Sepuya presents an image, called “Mirror study”, that negates the nude, the artist and the viewer. Using mirror shards, drapery and taped collage, he teases us to piece the scene together. It is a symphony of whites, warm to cool, with the artist’s black elbow and hand running like a snake in the background. We are given just enough, and then some.

Bruno Leydet, a Canadian painter, juxtaposes patterns, textures, tamely cropped nude males and florals. Even ensconced in their tight settings, the expressions in both of his portrait paintings show the nude model to be miles away.

Local Washington CT author and artist John Frederick Walker is given a table laden with one-of-a-kind altered books. Most have the pages ripped out and collaged nude photos of females, heavily cropped, interact discreetly and audaciously with the spine and gutters of the book. They are sculptural statements of handy transactions of porn through the ages.

There is another table of fabulous art books not to be missed. The monographs on each of the artists in the show will teach you more about them and put them in context. If you ask really nicely Craven might show you the hidden extra drawing among the show.

The show will be up till mid January.

 
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Cleve Gray at Hotchkiss

This article of mine appeared in the Compass Art section of the Lakeville Journal on Thursday December 5, 2019

One does not make friends, one recognizes them, so the saying goes, and it seems Joan Baldwin has taken it to heart. She has intelligently curated and installed an exhibition that honors Cleve Gray, the artist scholar, by bringing us into his work and studio through her selections from the Cleve Gray Flat Files. The installation at the Hotchkiss School’sTremain Gallery covers six decades, from his work in high school to the Interplay series created just two years before his death in 2004.

An opportunity to see the contemplative life of Cleve Gray, the show feels half library and half studio. Work is pinned to slanted pedestal shelves. Watercolors, prints and drawings are mounted with bull clips, loose and unframed, so you can practically rub your nose on them. On thick deckle-edged paper, the work feels like a remnant of an event with each gesture of mark-making and color response that, either horizontal or vertical, contains it and converses with the next piece. His ink figures and watercolor landscapes all bear similar signatures with blocked tones, infused color transitions, repeated fractures of light, and screens of geometric patterning created with the long edge of his charcoal sticks.

His brushes are displayed under glass. Scumbled, frayed, split, thickly coated and caked, their disintegrating handles are evidence of Work. Large chunks of pastels, blocks of dried red and orange pigments and wax crayons are presented as relics of a life of physical commitment. A large photograph is displayed of his paint splattered studio sink. His materials look impulsive and untidy. There is a physicality emphasized, with inclusions of worn studio ephemera and text panels describing Gray’s physical breath work that preceded the painted marks. He was a striving, curious, hardworking artist.

The installation is intentionally thematic rather than chronological because of so many returns in his practice to investigations of color, line, pattern, and the open and closed compositions. Included in the show is an early portrait he drew as a teenager at Phillips Academy that heralds his interest in cubism with angular form and emotive use of color. This lens is returned to in his Paris years, his southwestern landscapes of the 50’s and his vertical abstracts of the 60’s.

His college thesis was on Yuan Chinese landscape painting and the theory and process became a lifelong influence. The Yuan Dynasty Chinese painters responded with their spirit to the subject and then relished the marks of the material as spontaneous and transcendent. Gray’s brushwork shows in layers of transparency built up and in the combination of dry and wet marks. In all the work you can see an interest in the calligraphic line and in experimenting with media. A long scroll landscape of the Southwest has multi-vanishing points and details lightened and darkened for emphasis, with field notations woven through out.

After serving in WWII, young and curious, Cleve Gray stayed in Paris making art and joined other artists working in Jacques Villon’s studio. A pastel portrait of Claude McKay, a Harlem renaissance poet who was both a friend and a model at the studio, is an example of this time.

A large wall-sized diagram connects Cleve Gray, “artist, writer, farmer, friend”, to his influences in the educational, literary, musical, and artistic worlds.

There is space for students and visitors to sit and peer through monographs and books on painting, while listening in ear pods to the music of the studio. Music is part of the experiential event and the gallery is filled with the music from Shostakovich to Tchaikovsky that Cleve Gray listened to as he worked.

At the entrance to the show, Joan Baldwin has chosen a quote about the vast array of artistic concerns and the repetitive use of media that keep surfacing in the works over the decades. Cleve Gray was about movement and practice and referred to the pendulum as a way to find his own center, as reflected in Untitled, with it’s two mirroring brushstrokes that are black and white, transparent and opaque.

When swinging on a pendulum between black and white, one always returns to Gray.

Cleve Gray lived in Warren CT. This is his third exhibition at Hotchkiss. He was a parent and grandparent to Hotchkiss students. The Cleve GrayFoundation has been generous in offering us access to this work.

Sharon Town Hall ART show

Radiant transfer by Glen Cunningham

Sharon Town Hall Exhibition

By Tilly Strauss

This was printed in the Lakeville Journal's Compass on 10/31/19

Zelina Blagden is weaving cultural relationships all over the town of Sharon. Installing eight artists in a group show at the Town hall and helping instigate the now annual Art Walk, Ms. Blagden has set up a tapestry of connections that is bringing to light the shape of Sharon’s art scene. Whether nose to canvas in the Standard Space Gallery, standing reflective at the Ice House, sipping wine at the Edward, or dropping into Smitty’s Barbershop, artists are leaving their trace all around the green. The art show at the Town Hall exemplifies Blagden’s all encompassing approach to curating.

Wander down the first floor hall and you will see how Blagden has brought together an eclectic collection of works that can initially seem more diverse than unified. The strength lies in their individual contributions to the whole of the community. All the artists are from the hills around the village. They are all strong in their field and relatively new to the area. This is a welcome introduction.

Interested in “a summer into fall vibe”, Blagden points out that the works, though varied, all convey an exploration of texture and pattern. Her own piece in the show, an assemblage called “Maine Sparkplug”, holds an essence of spiritual revelation in the juxtaposition of peeling frame, weathered wood, rusty nails, sea shell and the eponymous sparkplug. This is an alchemy that makes us believe that an artist can reveal to us the poetics of life through objects discarded. Scavenging for the found image as well, Millerton based photographer Susan Parker, has a series of black and white pictures, many of which are of shapes within shapes, feather and bone, and nature inspired. Amanda Horton-Jones, an artist hailing from both Salisbury and worldwide residences, emphasizes surface texture in her large paintings of luscious layered silhouetted women. Victoria Selbach’s “Mielikki”, a realistic oil painting, celebrates the artist’s friend who, as an environmentalist, wellness advocate and teacher, embodies the characteristics of the heroic Finnish goddess. According to Ms. Selbach, Mielikki, here naked and crouching in a lush forest with her bare toes at the water’s edge, “protects the vast life sustaining ecosystems of the forests and all who dwell there”. The romantic possibility of advocacy through paint is significant to the artist. More of Ms. Selbach’s large paintings of contemporary women can be seen hanging at Smitty's Barbershop, 16 W Main St. If you were on the Sharon Art Walk you would have seen her husband Mike Selbach’s prints hanging next door to Smitty’s. His limited editions at the Town Hall are complex multi-colored woodcuts depicting archaic details such as the tiled walls of a Turkish bath. Visual vibrations result from a kaleidoscope of mosaic shapes that shift and strike in living colors. The architectural framework protects the totality of appearance. Another artist in the show bringing an abstract shake up is Glenn Seelenbrant who creates visual vibrations with his photo cutouts that layer transitions of complementary colors in miniature screen formats of circles, lines and squares. Arriving to Sharon through Brooklyn, the artist Glen Cunningham explores geometry and the relationship of lines and ovals in designs breaking out of the rectilinear framework. Points overlap, contract and expand. The selection of five works span the last 10 years and yet feel fresh and audacious. His shaped canvases and crisp edges contrast with painterly brush strokes and a soft application of graphite. His color schemes range from subdued earth tones in “Ellipse Aligned” to vibrant hues reminiscent of a garden in bloom in “Inflowing Ignition”. Near by, the printed collages of JodiLuby of Salisbury offer a lyrical respite for the challenged eyes. She is a well-known graphic designer with a passion for printmaking. Her printed collages embody the sensation of botanicals with layers of transparent organic forms in a soft repetitive palette of rose and peach.

The show will be up through November, possibly longer.

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Baranova at Standard Space

This article appeared in print in the Lakeville Journal's Compass 11/14/19

Brutal Flowers

Baranova's Brutal World

Do you crane your neck to see the car crash by the side of the road? Do you wonder at the story behind the anemic mug shot? Does your phone ping for every notification of a catastrophic headline? Tragedy and death may be among us, but a vicarious front row seat to it is an experience that is only infrequently offered.

For those of us in the Northwest corner, there is some quiet melodrama going on at the Standard Space gallery on the green in Sharon. It’s all drama, from the title of the exhibition to the stark display of medium-format color photographs. Florals march along the walls in single file.

Marina Baranova has titled the show, “This Brutal World” and, when asked about it, only says, “its beautiful too”. Baranova is Russian and was raised in Finland. She moved to New York seven years ago and specializes in portraits of performance artists. The fading flower series began between her photographic portrait shoots when she noticed flowers left in the studio bathroom by the neighboring floral designer. Baranova started bringing the limp bouquets into the portrait setting and through the lens of her Hasselblad camera, and with the natural studio light, she choreographed dark punctuations of a floral swan song.

Having just turned forty, Baranova admires the visual traces of age and comments philosophically on the rapid transformation of celebratory flowers to the tissue-like delicacy of the dying bouquet. Her photos capture a moment and thereby Baranova does her part to arrest time and halt the oblivion of death. She is memorializing life at its sensitive and vulnerable last gasp. You can hear the flowers moan and imagine the offering of forgiveness that can only happen at a deathbed of secrets.

The artist’s focus on the delicacy of dead flowers set against a backdrop of blackest black is far from dreary. The work summons up our collective memory of fresh blooms and hints at a feeling reminiscent of better times and richer moments. Perhaps they remind one of the slip-covered sitting room of an aristocratic auntie. Developed with a richness that is mesmerizing in its soft sheen, the photographs within their simple black frames, create an almost funereal procession.

There is something pure to the course of Baranova’s process. She shoots using real film and only under conditions of available natural light. The velvety black hand-printed square format type C-prints have a focus that is intensely shallow, literally forcing a bloom into focus and leaving the vase in a blur. Having recently moved to a new studio, Baranova commented that the light is no longer the same and the series is probably over. Though this may be a one-act play, don’t discount Baranova’s future. Her prowess with film displays an artist’s masterful control of the lens and our imaginations.

This Brutal World will be up through December 8^th.

Standard Space is at 147 Main Street, Sharon CT

Open Friday to Sunday, noon to 6pm, or by appointment.

Go see the Icons Salisbury, CT

On a grassy knoll, down the Twin Lakes road in Salisbury, sits a simple white clapboard chapel that promises an experience both dramatic and inspiring. A delightful sensorial surprise is had upon entering the All Saints of AmericanOrthodox Christian Church. Picture a space with angels and the heavens sparkling down and around you. Saints and martyrs look out, with eyes of resilience and wisdom, and catch the gaze of all who enter. Brilliant colored Icons and relics line walls and a large mural of Christ as Triumphant King encapsulates the spectator from overhead.

Icons are a distinct art form of the Orthodox Church. They serve as an art-based path to direct revelation, giving the viewer access to the spirits. The holy images may be on wood, canvas, mosaic or fresco. An iconographer creates an icon, “written with light”; to be a transparent window and, using an inverted perspective, the church installation manifests a great cloud of witnesses, reminding the assembled that they never worship alone. The interior warm white plaster walls reflect the abundant gold leaf, and bounce the light which combined with the pungent smell of burning wax candles and smoking incense, transports you to another place

The enthusiasm of past visitors has prodded the church into initiating free Saturday afternoon tours before Vespers. Rev. John J. Kreta and the abundance of available literature at the door, reassure the secular visitor of the gregarious hospitality of the church. My tour guide on this third Saturday of touring was Evelyn Kreta. She was bubbling with enthusiasm. She is choir director as well as an experienced icon painter. The first thing she explained to me is that icons are not painted, instead they are “written”, because they serve as a way to transcribe the scriptures just as any words might do.

The artist, Reverend Andrew Tregubov, is an award winning iconographer and historian. Commissioned by All Saints of American Orthodox Christian Church, Tregubov has written the majority of the icons in the style of Father GregoryKroug. Father Kroug was born in Russia in 1909, but left after the revolution to study at the Art Academy in Paris. When he became a monk he was given the name “St Gregory the Iconographer”. He died in 1969 in a small hermitage outside of Paris after he had written 550 different icons and wall paintings. Tregubov has received grants to study and archive the work of Kroug and other master iconographers.

The iconostasis, or icon stand, divides the nave and alter. Hung with icons of angels and saints and portrayals of events from scriptures, the structure has three doorways and is meant to serve as a bridge between heaven and earth. Written dark to light, the figures have gentle delicate features that seem lit from within. Garments are brushed with all shades of colors and the folds are highlighted with bright streaks of lines. Red outlines surround much of each figure and frame. The contrast of the frenetic lines to the simple expanses of background gives the figures a feeling of active presence. Brilliant details attract my eye and standing in the space I sense the feeling of collective inspiration.

Eleven relics of American saints with expressive eyes and symbolic gesturing hands are assembled in the prayer niche to the right of the alter. Each follows a prescribed pattern with minor variations between them. Small shards of bones are encased in circular cavities below each portrait. Layers of transparent brushwork enrich the robes. The large searching eyes are the most striking. Young and old, the American martyrs engage us in their story of faith. This is an encounter that must be seen!

Tours every Saturday from 3:30 to 4:30 before Vespers at 5.  

All Saints of American Orthodox Christian Church on 313 Twin Lakes road

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE LAKEVILLE JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT, "DISCOVER SALISBURY", OCT 2019

www.allsaintsofamerica.us

Freelance writing

I have been slogging away at my own book idea, and have found a good way to practice my word crafting. By writing reviews of art shows or about local fun places to explore I both get out and get working. It is fun to have a deadline and try to distill an experience down to 500 words. In the process, which takes me HOURS, I have started reading more and collecting favorite lines and phrases. I hope to do lots more, but it isn't so easy. It is a lot of work.
This week two of my articles under the editorship of Alexander Wilburn were published in the "Discover Salisbury" (ct) special supplement to the Lakeville Journal!

Ohara's Landing, still the place to be

Still time to catch the fall foliage from the water's vantage point. This week the Lakeville Journal printed my article about Ohara's Landing in their #discoverSalisbury special edition.

Even though you might be shivering and wearing turtle necks, its not too late to be on the water, by any means. Nestled in the NW corner of the state, at the edge of Salisbury, Twin Lakes O’Hara’s Landing is still bustling with marina activity. Since it is after Labor Day it is easier to maneuver through the grassy lot and nab a parking space between trailers of sport fishermen and water skiers.

In it’s 45^th season under the Haab family, not much has changed at the Landing except that there are a lot more boats, and the floating dock has expanded it’s coverage. The marina is a casual spot, idyllic in setting, with a family atmosphere. A sense of timelessness like the weeping willows at the water’s edge, greets the visitor whether it is your first visit or if you recognize the faces of Dave, Mary, Barry, Fred, and Collin who have been working at the landing for years and probably decades.

Just off the parking lot, the restaurant is decorated in 1940’s décor, complete with enamel folding tables, riveted vinyl chairs, and vintage dining accessories. Mary’s Cafe has been serving up hot dogs, burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches and fries for exactly 40 years. My son, who worked in the bait and rental shop when he was a teenager, swears by her breakfast sandwiches. Every morning, he said, groups of local fishermen would file through the screen door and congregate at her counter. Grab a seat to enjoy the view outside on the porch or inside by a windows, which are lined with unique pitchers, plates and even a collection of flour sifters.  Sitting at a table you can watch the boat ramp activity as well as peer into the Mercury Marine, Starcraft Marine and Ebbtide showroom.

Watch out as you may start dreaming over your lunch and find yourself under the spell of David Haab who has been selling Mercury Marine boats for 56 years, since his days on the dairy farm back in 1963. It is obvious he loves what he does. Haab has been running the marina for 45 years, and yet, when he thinks of retirement, he just thinks how there is no other place he would rather be. Make sure to check out his small mini museum at the edge of the showroom with an array of working motors on pedestals that attest to the technological and design metamorphosis of the industry. Each motor comes with a story.

The bait shop sells minnows scooped up in nets by teenage summer employees. Kokanee salmon, brown and rainbow trout, large and small mouth bass are all lurking in the clear cool waters of the lakes. Fishing tournaments of fewer than 20 boats are allowed each weekend. Those looking to relax and enjoy time on the water can rent a boat for the day. Choose from the 14 foot rowboat with a 5 HP motor or one of the six available pontoon party boats. They are perfect for families wanting an easily controlled, stable and safe platform for recreation on the lake.

The lake view from the marina includes barely a rooftop among the surrounding forested hills of the Tristate area. Summer’s passage may have slowed down the action seekers, but some weekend skiers are still pulled out on the water. This is the perfect time to experience the beauty of the area and enjoy the transition of the lush green and blue landscape into the fall colors. Certainly the fall foliage is an upcoming attraction. “Every year”, Haab says, “its different, but always stunning”. He recommends you take a boat out on the water and then turn back to look at the marina and the maple filled hill behind it. “It just makes you gasp”.

Though the season is winding down, and there are more boats than ever in the marina, O’Hara’s Landing will stay open as long as the weather is decent.  The Cafe will close after Columbus weekend.