she is finally coming to woodstock!!!

Elinor Carucci is going to be lecturing at CPW Saturday June 27th at 8pm. This is not to be missed. All my NYC friends- come up for this!!! You can stay at mi casa!!!

Carucci's poetic voice shines through these intimate yet relatable images of herself and her family. I look at her photographs and get wrapped up in their emotionally charged visuals. Following the undeniably intense expressions and postures which fill the frame I find myself in a trance. The images permeate through me and unleash my own memories, dramas and histories. I can look at these as if they were traces of my own experiences, relatives, friends, moments....

...ahhhh. Can you tell i am excited that she will be in Woodstock?

see you there.

Ahoy mateey!

The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild kicks off a season-long series of events celebrating the 400th anniversary of the exploration of the Hudson River with an opening reception for “Ahoy! Where Lies Henry Hudson?” a major outdoor exhibition of Henry Hudson memorials designed by area architects, on Saturday, June 13, 4-7 pm at The Villetta Inn, 3 Upper Byrdcliffe Way. Curated by Linda Weintraub, the exhibition is an original and thought-provoking contribution to the state-wide Quadricentennial of Hudson’s explorations of the river that bears his name. The site-specific memorials have been installed outdoors on the grounds of the historic Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock, NY and will be on view from June 13 – October 12, 2009.

The exhibition continues through October 12, during which time, the WBG will feature a monthly events to commemorate the Quadricentennial.

Byron Bell and Les Walker, "The Magnificent Adventure of Henry Hudson"

Exhibition curator, Linda Weintraub is a writer, curator, educator and artist. She is the author of a series of college textbooks entitled: Avant-Guardians: Textlets in Art and Ecology. She has curated over fifty-five exhibitions nationally and internationally. She received her Masters of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University. Weintraub comments that the project is unique, imaginative and local, “…never before have regional architects been featured in a major exhibition. The installations take their inspiration from the site and the historic occasion. The results utilize unusual materials, original designs, and unconventional construction methods. As residents of the Hudson Valley, the participants are responding to this historic occasion in manners that are personal as well as accomplished and informed.”

Henry Hudson is celebrated as a hero, but his life ended in failure. His crew mutinied and set him adrift to die in the icy waters of Hudson Bay. As a result, he never received a formal burial. The memorials in this exhibition are designed and constructed by distinguished regional architects. They interpret the significance of Hudson’s historic journey within the context of 400 years of European occupation.

Matt Bua, "The Henry Hudson Mutiny Memorial Drive–thru Kiosk"

Woodstock Guild Director: Carla Smith. Architectural coordinator: Alan Baer.

Text taken from press release.

First workshop completed.

I have been slacking on the blog entries. I need to be more disciplined!

So...we opened the workshop season with The Art & Craft of Portraiture taught by Platon. This workshop was taught in 2007, during my first few months with CPW, so it was really nice to see it through a second time around (second for me that is, not for Platon or CPW).

Great start to the season. Platon is energetic, intelligent and incredibly passionate for what he does...which is infectious. He carefully nursed every workshop participant through somewhat grueling exercises in "relating and connecting to your subject"--- which in the end brought every single person to a place of better understanding of who they are as artists. It was extremely enjoyable to watch from my end. People really came out of their shells and did an amazing job.

I have blogged about portraiture before and discussed the complicated discussions that exist around it. how much of a portrait is made with genuine "connection" and how much is a projection that we impose onto it? how telling can a photographic portrait really be on its own without other representation? what level of responsibility do we have as artists to properly represent a person? what is the definition of representation!? How does the gaze of the viewer change over time alter the portrait?

lots of questions...lots of different viewpoints...all interesting for another time...

And...the fabulous interns!!! They did a great job and I can tell that they will blossom from the experiences of the next 4 months. I am relieved...I now am confident that my summer will go smoothly.

Linda Connor lecture this Saturday. not to be missed people.

my local artist ramble: Paul McMahon

image by Paul McMahon

Paul McMahon strolled into CPW this week to use our digital facilities to prepare a presentation he will be giving at the Metropolitan Museum today. He is one of the artists in the exhibition The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984 at the museum and his live musical slide show is a special event in conjunction with it. I showed him the little bits and pieces I know about Microsoft Powerpoint so he could construct his orgy of images which would synchronize with a live performance of guitar playing and vocals.

In the two years I have lived here I can honestly say that all Woodstockians are immensly unique characters. Paul is no different, and may even rise above the norm. He was so much fun to be around and was very inspiring to say the least. After all the hard work was over, he sang through his performance for Megan and I. It was seriously wonderful. We were laughing hysterically. makes me wonder why i take art so seriously all the time...

The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984 is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art till August 2nd.
Read the Art in America review here.

A few sentences from Douglas Eklund's essay which gives some valuable background info:

"...The famous last line of Barthes' essay, that "the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author," was a call to arms for the loosely knit group of artists working in photography, film, video, and performance that would become known as the "Pictures" generation, named for an important exhibition of their work held at Artist's Space in New York in 1977.

The show featured 45-rpm records and projected short films by the California artist Jack Goldstein, who sampled and looped canned sound effects or film snippets that triggered Pavlovian responses of fear and dread in the imagination of the viewer. Slightly later, Richard Prince zoomed in on what he termed "social science fiction," the hyperreal space depicted in countless advertisements featuring gleaming luxury goods and robotic models. Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons worked at the intersection of personal and collective memory, rummaging through the throwaway products of their youth—from B-movies to dollhouses that served as training manuals for who and how to be—in search of moments that both never existed yet were indelibly stamped in the mind.

The image-scavengering of these artists was not restricted to the child's play of popular culture: Louise Lawler stalked the corridors of power in search of hidden treasure, while Sherrie Levine shot over the shoulders of photography's founding fathers not as a dry Duchampian gesture, but in order to create something akin to musical overtones—a buzzing in the space between their "original" and her "copy" that effaced the distance between objective document and subjective desire."

DVD highlight: PBS Craft in America

I started watching a wonderful mini-series PBS made called Craft in America. It is organized like Art21 in that the craft artists are categorized by inspirational topic (ie. Memory, Landscape etc.) The footage is beautiful and the commentary offers a historic overview of the particular craft and the way it has been transformed and modernized by the contemporary craft artists using them.

The handmade revolution is in full swing.
Check out the website here.

is that the ocean in the hudson valley?

The sun is shining, warm weather is on the horizon and I could not be more excited to go to Storm King Sculpture Park this coming May to see the new work by Maya Lin. I have been waiting all winter for this!

Storm King Wavefield, is the largest site-specific earthwork created to date by acclaimed artist and environmentalist Maya Lin. Occupying an eleven-acre site that was a gravel pit until Ms. Lin
reclaimed it for the work, the ambitious Storm King Wavefield comprises seven rows—each over 300 feet long—of carefully scaled, undulating hills that give the appearance of ocean waves. The four acre work culminates a series of three wavefields by Ms. Lin. It is the newest addition to the
sculpture park’s distinguished permanent collection.

From Storm King's website:
The opening of Storm King Wavefield is accompanied by a special exhibition, Maya Lin: Bodies of Water, on view in Storm King’s museum building May 9 through November 15, 2009. The exhibition features several works that reflect the artist’s interest in water in its various states. The works include installation, sculpture, photographs, models, and drawings, among them examples related to the development of Storm King Wavefield. Several works also draw attention to the plight of sites around the world that suffer from human encroachment and industrial pollution.

Highlights of the works on view include a new piece, fabricated in recycled wood, that evokes a single wave; a work titled Pin River, comprising tens of thousands of straight pins set into the gallery wall, creating the illusion of a shadow image of the Hudson River system; and Dew Point, a series of cast-glass drops of water.

The exhibition also includes a video and photographs of Ms. Lin at work.

You may recognize Maya Lin's name as the designer of Washington D.C.'s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. While still a student at Yale University, Maya Lin's design was chosen for this project which launched her career. Since then she has taken on one ambitious project after another- welding together the lines between design, architecture & sculpture. Amazing woman!

You can also visit Maya Lin's website for more info on her.

my literary ramble

my literary ramble today highlights an old favorite of mine, mr. dylan thomas. thomas' work is a brilliantly choreographed montage of the english language. ochestrated so deliciously it resembles a verbal dessert. an apple pie a la mode for your nerve endings. i have included my "all time drop to my knees and worship these words" favorite poem. it was first read to me by a professor in college and it stuck and never let go.

Light breaks where no sun shines; Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart Push in their tides; And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads, The things of light File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones. A candle in the thighs Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age; Where no seed stirs, The fruit of man unwrinkles in the stars, Bright as a fig; Where no wax is, the candle shows its hairs. Dawn breaks behind the eyes; From poles of skull and toe the windy blood Slides like a sea; Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky Spout to the rod Divining in a smile the oil of tears. Night in the sockets rounds, Like some pitch moon, the limit of the globes; Day lights the bone; Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin The winter's robes; The film of spring is hanging from the lids. Light breaks on secret lots, On tips of thought where thoughts smell in the rain; When logics dies, The secret of the soil grows through the eye, And blood jumps in the sun; Above the waste allotments the dawn halts.

2009 workshops are announced

It has arrived! The Center for Photography at Woodstock's 2009 workshop schedule is posted on the website for all to see. this is a stellar year for our program...we expanded on our offerings and introduced new instructors and class topics.

Today I am at New York Press and Graphics in Albany where the catalog is being printed...which means it will be in your hands next week (fingers crossed).

But for now, check out the schedule and workshop details here. registration begins next week.

wanted: inspiration

image by Andrea Modica from series Treadwell, NY

i wish i can put an ad on craigs list that goes something like this:

wanted: artist seeking a jolt of inspirational fire. find me. zap me. and let me be.

what is my problem? have i gone numb to the psychotropic effects of art? i am in a work environment where we pray to the creative gods and yet i find myself in a rut of some kind. not only am i not really making any, but i am not loving any either. maybe this over saturation has weighed me down.

i believe it might be time to simply start making and seize all this thinking. keep it simple. more than one person in my life in the last few months has recommended this approach to me. keep it simple. focus on what i love and not what i think i need to do (or am expected to do).

image by Andrea Modica from series Treadwell, NY

as i search for this mind-bending fire I find that i come one step closer to a total zen-like state when viewing work by Andrea Modica. her photographs stop me in my tracks in the most profound way. they illuminate such a warmth that i cannot help but to gravitate toward them and ponder, imagine, relate, focus & feel all in one gasp. she is so in touch with every inch of the photographic frame- and transforms it into a poetic masterpiece. i respond. i respond again. i keep responding because it is deep and alive. ahhh.... that wonderful feeling.

guess what is even more amazing about andrea modica? she is coming to CPW this summer for our workshop program. keep an eye on our website for more info. all workshops will be posted by tomorrow. you think i am excited?

Check out more of her work here.

dreaming of ebony...

I have been day dreaming about the Ebony large format cameras for a very very long time. Every now and then I get really determined and almost charge one to my credit card (though I think there is a bit of a waitlist for certain models and I am not even sure I have that much credit anyway). Then I talk myself off the ledge because they are so out of my price range (my range, at this moment, is close to $0).

The time is coming that I have to make this investment and if it is not an Ebony it will be some other kind because I need a 4x5 in my life. Everything of value that I have learned about picture making comes from this format. Other tools are equally wonderful as well, but the reason I fell in love with photography was because of the lessons I learned from the 4x5" view camera. For someone like myself who is often moving fast and furiously through life it is a tool like this that literally forces me to slow down and patiently observe. sounds so idealistic, doesn't it?

are there any cameras you can suggest I look at? are there any tools missing from your artistic arsenal that you are thinking about acquiring?