my sunday local artist ramble

Happy Sunday! It is sunny and beautiful here in Woodstock. I am back and forth between the computer and the backyard where I am making silk cyanotypes for the store at the Green Country Council of the Arts gallery (opening Feb. 20th).
I may be busy today, but I am still excited about my sunday local artists ramble...

This ramble highlights the artist George Quasha who lives and works in Barrytown, NY. He is one of those rare and versatile artists who has mastered several creative mediums in order to express his point of view. His sculpture, video, 2D and written word all share a common language throughout Quasha's life work. It is the language of the uncertain- the spontaneous moment- the balance between control and chaos.

Along with his wife, Susan, he founded Station Hill Press, which has specialized in publishing art, poetry, and philosophy, with titles ranging from presentations of work by performance artist Gary Hill to novels by French thinker Maurice Blanchot.

View his website here for more info.

I discovered Quasha's sculptural rocks at the Samuel Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz around the time i returned tot he valley in 2007 (see sculpture image above). I was taken back by the balance he was able to construct. He had pushed these elements to the absolute farthest they could be pushed before collapse. What a beautiful metaphor for so many things in our world.

I then heard about this video piece:

From his website:
art is develops an open-ended video art work in portraiture that registers artists in the act of saying what art is. It is presented as a continuous series of speaking faces viewed up close, one at a time, with no overlaps or special effects, filmed “on site” under many circumstances. One unadorned face at a time fills the image area, and the image frame is contained within the face, thus reversing conventional portraiture. The framing effectively removes most social indicators (hair style, clothing, context, etc.). While many famous artists are included, they are mixed with lesser known ones. Identification of the artist is indicated only at the end of each "speaking portrait" in o rder to keep the viewer's attention focused on the act of saying what art is rather thank on the identity of the speaker.

A preview of his video piece "Art is: speaking portraits" can be seen here.

Quasha's work challenges his viewers to trust what we see and hear and feel-
he is a lovely representation of our valley.

all images are of work by George Quasha.

Blog that inspires...

Imagine having a locally made farm fresh 5-course meal out in open, fresh air?
That is the mission of the wonderful group of chefs, community activists and foodies involved in the group: Outstanding in the Field.

Their wonderful blog, which can be viewed here, follows their travels and has great photographic documentation of the varied seating arrangements and meals prepared specially for each location.

Yes, I did say travels. Outstanding in the Field is nothing short of a rock band of foodies traveling the country and staging these elaborate local meals at different farms. When you sign up for a dinner (which is not cheap and is priced from $180-$200) you get a 5-course "family-style" meal with wine pairings, all gratuities, and a tour of the farm that the dinner is presented at. And, you cant forget the atmosphere. Included in your dinner is the rare and unique experience of eating out in the open, on the land where it all begins, where the seed is planted and life emerges...
...ahh....so romantic.

It is mentioned on their website that this may not be suitable for people with food allergies.

Keep in mind-the dinners sell out. Their website indicates that sign-up begins on the first day of spring (so cute). If you need more direct info you can view their website here. And guess what kids...they even have a few NYC locations!!! Yumm!

delicious words

From a 6th grade classroom...

the return of my sunday local artist ramble

dear facebook, the social networking epicenter of the universe. I do enjoy your accessibility and easy connection to my friends, family and peers-but all the time you absorb is taking me away from my precious blog! Love, me

No more I tell ya! I am back to being a blogging regular. And with that statement I bring back the "my sunday local artist ramble". In the name of Woodstock's Levon Helm (yes, from the Band), who produces his own ramble aka the Midnight Ramble, I will highlight on my blog Carbon Copy a local artist that I admire every Sunday- hence the name "my sunday local artist ramble". There are so many incredible artists residing in the Hudson Valley region and beyond- some of my past rambles have included the work by Craig Barber, Judy Pfaff, Tatana Kellner, and Laura Moriarty to name a few.

Now that the logistics and excuses have been ironed out, this sunday I would like to present the work of Albany-area artist Jeri Eisenberg.

I first saw Jeri's work in Woodstock at BMG Galerie. These out of focus views of corners and crevices of the landscape on large panels of Japanese paper and thinly coated in encaustic had immediately grabbed my attention. Their majestic quality and delicate nature made them easy on the eyes- yet the disrupted view made from the lens and the use of several panels to create one image forced something deeper and more emotional. They are dream-like and visually unclear- but they make sense and are reconstructed in my mind into a familiar view.
These fractions of a "view" equate to something more than themselves....

from Jeri's beautiful Artist Statement:

I feel no need to seek out grand vistas or exotic locales, majestic mountain ranges or rushing rivers. It's the common wooded landscape of my day to day life that captures my attention. Many of the images in my current work are from areas close to my home; others are from farther flung places, but places that I just happen to be for one prosaic reason or another. They are places that are generally more ordinary than spectacular.

By photographing the treed landscape with a purposefully oversized pinhole or a radically defocused lens, however, I capture it as it is not often seen. The images are firmly grounded in the natural world, a particular place, a particular season, a particular time. But by obscuring detail, only the strongest brush strokes emerge: the images become sketches with light, literally and figuratively. They tend to float between there and not there, to dissolve into abstraction and reconfigure themselves back into recognizable form.

I began this series when my father, then 83, started loosing both his sight and his memory. Strangely, the work has been comforting. Beauty, though fleeting and fragmentary, seems to console me.

all images by Jeri Eisenberg.

You can also see Jeri's beautiful work at the Albany Center Gallery on view until Feb. 27 with 2 other artists. If you cannot make it out there, check out the Carrie Haddad Gallery or Galerie BMG website.

oh WiNtEr

image taken in mohonk preserve, ny

So bitterly cold today...
...it is just what you have to deal with when you live in the northeast.
working at CPW and then an evening at home by the fireplace. ahhhh, sounds nice, no?

Keep an eye on my blog tomorrow- I will be bringing back a classic- the sunday local artist ramble. yeeehaaa.

Have a wonderful saturday...I hope you are up to something great and grand.

i really need to visit...

...the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. It has been years since I have made a pilgrimage to the photographic epicenter of the united states- and it is about time. It is a beautiful location and Roger Ballen has a show opening the end of February. Sounds perfect to me.

image by Roger Ballen

If you never heard of GE House, this may help. Their mission is:

The George Eastman House, an independent nonprofit museum, is an educational institution that tells the story of photography and motion pictures—media that have changed and continue to change our perception of the world. We:

1. Collect and preserve objects that are of significance to photography, motion pictures, and the life of George Eastman.
2. Build information resources to provide the means for both scholarly research and recreational inquiry.
3. Keep and care for images, literature, and technology to tell the story of photography and the motion picture in history and in culture.
4. Care for George Eastman’s house, gardens, and archives, maintaining them for public enjoyment and as a memorial to his contribution to our lives and our times.

We do these things to inspire discovery and learning—supporting the education of a regional, national, and international audience.

life with geordi

I realized today, while sick in bed, that I have not shared a picture of our new dog. He was adopted in Newburgh, NY by my boyfriend J just before new years. His name is Geordi (yes, like Lieutenant Commander of the star ship Enterprise) and he is estimated at about 10 years old. He is our big black senior citizen. He is such a wonderful spirit to have around. I love him and highly recommend that if you are thinking of adopting a dog a senior is a great choice!

Back to being sick. Hoping this flu thingy does not last another day. Bla to illness!!!

Say cheeze.....blog highlight

Oh, the photobooth. Documentation at its finest.
Who didn't love the movie Amelie, whose narrative centered around the photobooths of Paris...

Visit Photobooth.net if you share an obsession with the old school version (not Apple's!!!)
Did you know there is an annual photobooth conference? Something you will learn by going to this site.

Happy Friday!

a kids eye-view of the landscape

I was really happy with this spread in the Woodstock Times last week which highlights a project I have been a part of for the last few months. As a collaboration with the Woodstock Land Conservancy and Bill Miles, an artist in the current exhibition at CPW "Landscape Forever" and CPW- we visited 50 6th graders at Woodstock Elementary and talked with them about landscape photography, gave them Canon digital SLRs to shoot with, and curated an on-line and in person exhibition of their work.

To be honest, I am not normally comfortable working with that age group. (It is lame, but true.) But, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this project was simply because of the talented group of students I got to work with. Give them a tool to be expressive and they will not only use it, but will often go beyond your expectations. Great lesson for me. I hope thie kids learned something too.

Check out CPW's Flickr site here to see more student work. (go to on-line exhibitions)

lovely interview

My friend Joetta Maue has been interviewed and featured on the blog Making the Art Seen. Her work is so refreshing, honest and beautiful and I could not be happier to see this wonderful piece on her.

She has a lot going on right now- solo show in MA, group show in Brooklyn and more- so check this interview out to learn where to see her work.