The October Blur

I was here. I am here. But much of it feels a blur. We had open studios over two weekends, and family. With 20 other #arteastdutchess creatives we opened our spaces and invited people to explore and see the world a bit like we do. We invited my brother's daughter Natalie to exhibit, Michael's daughter Kylie to read her published poetry (the Fever Poems), and my sister Gwen arrived from France to read from her book.

wolf paintings in the barn

Pa (julian), Michael and Me- with art clinic barn in the background

Invite to the Author reading Saturday the 16th

My wall art calendars for 2022 printed: For the Birds

Wolf painting painted during the open studios: Sneak

Author reading: Kyle Gellatly, Gwen Strauss, Julian Strauss

For a while the barn showed what was inside

Natalie Strauss with studio visitor, artist Alexis Rockman

We had over 77 people visit each weekend. The interaction was so valuable. It is hard to produce art in isolation and then open wide the doors to anybody. But I found it strengthening and invigorating. I also got a lot of tips and recommendations from people. I am full of gratitude.

Alyssa Kogan article on our Amenia portion of the tour in the 10.5.21 Hudson Valley News

 

Crafty tip for the month

Just in time for the Winter Solstice! Here is how to make your own Holiday tree at the last minute
you will need:
    Cardboard...from a large box
    pencil and or marker
    some paint- white of black -with round bristle brush
    a string of Xmas lights
    a blade, like an Xacto knife or box cutter
    an electrical outlet
Steps:
1. Draw in pencil the largest shapes you can, and once you are satisfied with it, go over with marker or black and white paint.
2. Cut out the negativity, I mean the empty spaces.
3. Poke holes in the back where you want the lights to shine through with your knife. Don't make them too big, or the lights wont have that snug fit. A slit is enough.
4. Poke the lights through each slit.
5. Plug into outlet and shine on!!

The ex-kennel room is now a warm room

Krisse and I got the insulation up, so at least one room upstairs is insulated. It was a messy job because we taught ourselves and should have gotten tips ahead of time. Also not a single beam or post is straight, the floor slants, and we were reminded over and over that we were in a barn. But we forged ahead, did it and I feel quite proud of that. It will be a perfect place for storing out art supplies over the winter, and running art workshops next spring and fall. There is running water to the tub, so it has a ready prep and clean up station.

Of course, being an architect's wife, Krisse had to place a window through the wall about hip high to allow light on the sculpture at the top of the stairs on the other side. It is all theater and it makes a nice surprise.

I went to the Miami art fairs and all I brought home was some snake oil

All I brought home was some snake oil, a stack of cards, sore feet and aching eyes. But, boy, we had fun!!!

There were so many fairs going on at once, outside the BIG ONE at the convention center, that I had to make some decisions regarding my finances, my tolerance level, and Miami traffic.
Untitled is by far my favorite fair. The tent on the beach glows with diffused light and the art work is smart.

Carl D'Alvia work (its a drawing of one of our sculptures!)

house flipping- a common sight in my neighborhood

burned out rubble of a neighborhood, spelling...

more commentary on Florida real estate?

In addition to clever drawings and sculptures, there was an abundance of good painting. I was intrigued by the works in umber and browns on top of neon yellows and oranges by Karine Hoffman of Galerie DIX9 in Paris. Very beautiful. Yet my favorite works were these crazy clever tight photographs of painted elements arranged with attention to the juxtopositions of shapes, the very edges of shapes forming new shapes, by Erin O'keefe. She calls herself an architect and a photographer and was represented by Denny Dimin of NYC. The work almost took off where de Chirico left off.
Next door in SMAC, gallery from South Africa, were some thickly painted largely smeared portraits by Georgina Gratix of Mexico city. Enjoying her work was all about the viscosity of paint.

There was such an array of materials on display! Miami artist Michelle Weinberg had a rack of bleached jean jackets for sale and for use in a daily collaborative dance performance. She was in the midst of sewing her tattoo designs onto one of them when we stopped by. We had enjoyed her open studio at Fountainhead studios last weekend and it was great to see another side of her art practice.

a series of words cut through almanac pages give new meaning to the map

these porcelain models are absorbed on their cell phones

 Topics such as immigration and technology pervaded much of the works on display. I love the use of different materials... especially the variety of the woven materials. There were woven photographs, woven furniture, recycled toothbrush heads, the plastic bags turned into dresses, and embroidery patches sewn to walls.

A good warning for some of us- but I avoided putting on the ear buds.

After Untitled we lunched with a view of the ocean, and then went into Scope. That fair was full of riffs and humor. My camera started to die, but I did get a few images... I had to wrestle past all the people striking selfie poses with the works.

I had a few "aha" moments... as an artist, as a teacher, and as a human being. I got to see in real life the paintings of Emilio Villalba from San Fransisco who I enjoy on Instagram. I saw art that gave me lesson plan ideas, such as the guy using packing tape on light boxes, Max Zorn in Stick together Gallery. And art that should have been what I was doing like the guy painting portraits out of his ice cream shoppe in BGArt Gallery from Santa Monica! For $80 John Kilduff would "serve up" a custom small 8x 10 portrait of you as an ice ream cone. Apparently he is the host of a TV series called Let's Paint TV. In other acts he paints while running on a treadmill or answering live calls on air. Basically it was a performance and a fun spot for creating a carnival atmosphere in truth.

There was serious stuff to think about such as a lot of art addressing gun control and school shootings. This exhibit gave me pause.

We left the fair in the late afternoon and then found our way, by a few clubs, to my favorite little hotel fair: Aqua. It was dark and the music was pounding. Our feet were starting to really ache. If we didn't laugh we would have cried. At one point we seriously contemplated how we could purchase a $4600 painting by John Sanchez for my son for Christmas. That's when I knew we should go home.
Somewhere along the way we picked up the bottle of snake oil.

Miami, love in three attempts

My favorite thing, hands down, about living in Florida is actually the city of Miami. It holds a unique place in geography, at the tip of this peninsula, with a vibrant cross section of diverse ethnic citizens creating the fabric of each community. We have Persian restaurants, Little Haiti, Little Havana, and multiple places where you can enjoy the arts of South America or dance to the Latin beat. I would not want to live in any other Florida city- To me, they all pale in comparison, literally- from the skin tones to the food flavors!

 Downtown Miami is like a wall of tall buildings cupping and reflecting the waters edge. The highways, especially I95 (route 1) straps against the architecture high on pillars along the backside. There is the latest (and her last) Zaha Hadid Condo , almost finished overlooking the lovely Perez Art Museum next to the Patricia and Phillip Frost Science museum. I actually live 88 blocks south of downtown, where, in the picture, you see a few tall buildings now going up. That is about 10 miles. But I can get to the museums between about 45 minutes and an hour on the Metrorail. Same time as  to drive, but without gritting my teeth as hard or the need to park.

The bridges to the left lead to South Beach, the Cruise ship port and Crandon Park (lighthouse) beach on Key Biscayne.

In the final drawing, I tried to capture the vibrant energy, with the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts anchoring the picture, but my ink got away from me. It is #Inktober
#100favfloridathings  #Miamiliving

The Brief History of Art Fairs

Mark Jenkins, Kicked Painting, ed. 2 of 5, 2017

Besides the medieval tourist traps that sold art replicas along trade routes as novelty items, most of the art sold and bought in the years since the stranglehold of the Academies of Europe, was transacted in the isolated realms of galleries. The galleries were created under the influence of the personality of the dealer who controlled your access to works by artists. They were the gatekeepers influencing who got bought and grooming prominent collections to eventually make it into museums. These were quiet studies affairs until a shift in the art world in the late 1970's. In 1978 Thomas Hoving director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art created the first "blockbuster", an exhibition of the Treasures of King Tut. He sparked the imagination of the public and hundreds of thousands of people started queuing up to enjoy art viewing as a form of entertainment. That same year an observant entrepreneur and a NYC police officer created the first trade fair venue where chain galleries and movie stars, publishers and art lovers could mingle together under one roof. Called Art Expo, and originally located near Central Park, it completely changed the way art business was handled. Thousands of dollars and hundreds of artworks transacted without much of a sales pitch. People were hungry for art and shopped like they were at the mall before Christmas. It was a significant move away from the brick and mortar gallery. Art Fairs around the world enticed dealers with their crowds and soon became launching pads for print publishers and a place for an artist (with significant financial investment) to make a career. Art shown at the fairs ranges from blue chips with stratospheric prices, to ephemeral immaterial concepts to boutique items such as artist sneakers and handbags. This year there was a distinct move to bring back the intimacy of the creation of art. More and more artists, like myself, were adding a performative element to the fairs. Sarah Hanson in the Art Newspaper writes that "This is the first time that artists have worked on the spot" and quoting a gallerist from Mexico city, " a commercial art fair seemed an interesting place to acknowledge and make visible the many systems in which we are all operating". Is it just the addition of a bit more theater?

Me at work in the Fair

Exposed @ Miami Art Basel Week

The business of art is really funny. It seems as though the more successful you are at selling, the less you are seen as a serious artist.

It's an old paradigm that the true artist is in it for the process, for the connection to the more spiritual message, and would never stoop to the crassness of market transactions. But I digress... I am still digesting Miami Basel Art Week. It was lovely to experience the fairs and see all the artworks and catch up with old friends. I did this year a little different though. This year I went for exposure. #Lifeisart #Miamiartcommunity #Spectrumartfair #Miamiartist #paintingperformance #workinprogress

I set up an easel in a crowded corner of a crowded art tent. Paintings and sculptures hung and spun around me as I attempted to paint a night-highway scene from a photograph I had taken the night before. Working in the middle of crowds, I often lost track of the time, and "surfaced" feeling as if suddenly caught in my nightgown in someones living room, during a raucous party. Making conversation seemed an effort, so I mostly laughed and asked questions. Adults seemed to have glazed over eyes. The children were the ones who stayed focused the longest.

They had good questions and I became a teacher (again).

Here are some shots of the progression of the painting:

Tumultuous Times of April

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Spring-Taxi-text-collage-Eye-Words-NYC-Cab-Original-Movement-/322477366418?hash=item4b15261c92:g:WEYAAOSwpP9Y6OxR

There seems to be a stirring and awakening of humanity all around us in this season. Is it the sounds of spring? We just dropped 50 Raytheon-made Tomahawk missiles (what a nice Indian war game name for them) on Syria in the middle of the night, and now the media are commenting on how "presidential" our president has become. The call of "real" government seems to be war and oppression. The call of humanity in response is to personalize the drama. RISE UP ARTISTS.
April is called the "intense" month. Poe wrote about it being the "cruelest month". It takes us to our edge outside the comfort zones. Many give their lives up. It happened this month in 1526 with the first slave revolt in the USA. Can you imagine the drama of that historical moment? This is the month of recorded hyper anti-immigration laws (Arizona 2010), the One Million March on DC for LGBT rights (1993), the acquittal of the police for beating Rodney King (1992), the launch of the Bay of Pigs (1961) and Martin Luther King assassination in 1968. The calendar is full, and this is not unique to our country or our own time. This is the month Jesus was tortured and put to death.

Small theatrical paintings starting at $10 on sale on eBay this month. Satisfaction guaranteed.  Check it out here

The planets have lined up with my feet

Today is the first day of Spring... I felt it was a good time to do a moving meditation. There is a Labyrinth at the Congregational Church down the road. The intricate passageways lead you both toward and away from the center. Walking it as a ritual, you are supposed to feel the symbolic relationship of the pathways of the labyrinth to the pathways of your life. I felt as though I was peeling back years like an onion...sometimes I had a clear vision of the goal and at other times I was way out on the edges facing the opposite direction. I could see my ages from the childhood years of self absorption and glee in details of nature, living in the wide arc of unending summers, through the knotted teenage years of reversals and more reversals, to the wisdom of motherhood, a time erect and purposeful. To the present where I tread carefully wondering at the age of my limbs and the invisibility of grey haired women. In America we no longer even pretended to prioritize any care of the elderly or the infirm. They are being rapidly cut from social services. Better for business to put them out of sight.
If the history of other man-made cultures repeats itself, the artists and writers are next. I shudder.
The name Labyrinth has ties to the Greek Minoan royalty. There is a story that the king of Crete had a large labyrinth built to hold in the dangerous Minotaur. (We have been studying Picasso's art all week in class and I can see the half beast, half man in his etchings.)All I know is that when I got to the center of the Labyrinth I felt a swelling glee. I spun with arms outstretched embracing the planets above and dancing across the earth at my feet. I was half woman and half beast, for just a moment of spring.

#NowBeHere 3 Miami

There is a lot of movement in the visual arts fields these days. We are gathering, talking, "sharing our truths" and staring bravely into the culture. There is work to do!
Today at the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), in collaboration with Jane Hart, the Girls Club, and almost 400 artists we gathered together in front of the lens of Los Angeles-based artist Kim Schoenstadt. It was a sweet balm after the showy art events last weekend, with all of the attention on Art Basel and the 20-something satellite art fairs in town. Today was about the makers, visionaries, alchemists and dreamers. We saw a museum filled with such artists. We were the museum!

Ms Schoenstadt had an idea to call out the women who create and document the diversity of us for posterity. She has been traveling, meeting and arranging portraits of the urban communities. The first #NowBeHere was in Los Angeles, and then Brooklyn. The New York Times wrote about it here.http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/arts/design/now-be-here-takes-a-portrait-and-makes-a-statement.html?_r=0 Jane Hart, collaborated with Schoenstadt as artist. Known as a brilliant independent curator, Hart seemed truly touched by the strength of numbers and growing crowd and the warmth of PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans.
Today was Miami's turn to be shine!

The weather was atypical and too drizzly for us to pose outside. Artists lined up under the eaves of the Herzog and de Meuron Museum to file into the auditorium space where we had coffee and saw faces familiar and new. I met some amazing women starting on the Metro train there, then in the line, and either side of me in our positions. Of course, I forgot my contact cards- made do with a pad and pen for notes. Lots of us exchanged Instagram names. Truly I can't wait to set aside more time to connect again soon. Meg Wallace, an artist who works with the post traumatic stress of child victims of child trafficking (a huge local Miami problem) and Haitian artist and author Alexandra Barbot sat on one side of me, (who graduated high school with a sweet mutual friend!), and I could go on, but my girlfriend Krisse couldn't make it, and not my studio mates either. So it wasn't a complete scene for me. But Today was wonderful. Today I saw, felt and heard the intensity of great ideas and from a range of diverse thinkers. I was so uplifted I should be floating around right now.

I am number 104!!!

Luther the movie

A biopic of Martin Luther made in 2003 , directed by Eric Till, and starring Joseph Fiennes, makes a good Hurricane Matthew diversion.

Thespian drama

fabulous drama people

my trophy and flowers

I've always loved being around theater people- they are so dramatic! Tonight a new slate of officers were inducted into office and trophies were given to everyone. Michael is beside himself that he was mentioned, even called onto the stage, and then crestfallen not to have his own name be on the brass plaque. He truly is behind me, supporting me, coming up with solutions and not to mention always helping on the weekends. I could not have painted all those stage floors without him. I am sure if we peeled back the name plate you would see his name carved into the plastic stone base... I think he's going to use the Dremel tonight to add his name in the gold plastic swag above. (I should do it for him!)