Catskills | Summer Sanctuary

The flowing Esopus Creek with Queen Anne's Lace in the Catskills Mountains

August is typically the quiet month. The one when folks either decide to go off-grid or when wanderlust travelers opt to share the beauty and nuances of every exquisite detail of their findings on the road.

I have been fortunate to spend the first portion of my August in the Catskill Park of New York State, not far from the farmland where I grew up and became sensitive to the atmospheric details of local seasons and the terrain of rural landscapes.

The porch at Cedar Grove | Thomas Cole Site in Catskill, New York,

a viewing portal to the mountains and Hudson River

Both the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley have a shared tradition of regional landscape painting, seasonal travel, as well as serene moments for deep reflection in nature. Every time I visit, I learn more about how attuned painters of the Hudson River School were to the specifics of botanical species as well as geological formations. It is always so inspirational to decode their layered drawings and paintings. 

Early morning at Scribner's Lodge, like gentle fog rolling through the mountains

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Please enjoy more photos and discoveries from the Catskills, here.

Also of note, the arts/events programming at the Thomas Cole Site in Catskill, New York.

Follow my new Instagram as well for upcoming news and future travel.

In The Steps of Folly Cove | Exhibition Catalogue

Detail of a my 96" x 48" block print on linen panel | on view In The Steps of Folly Cove

I am pleased to announce that Russell Janis Gallery has recently published an exquisite catalogue featuring exhibition and working photos as well as an essay by Elena Sarni on the critical context of the project, In The Steps of Folly Cove – Artist Print Invitational. 

Installation of printed artist panels at Russell Janis in Brooklyn

Artist, printmaker, and project curator, Janis Stemmermann, did a remarkable job of reviving the Folly Cove collaborative design spirit with her outreach to contemporary artists who may or may not have extensive printmaking experience. The range of linoleum block print design and hand-carving approaches was quite diverse, and reflective of both craft, pattern, and personal investigations.

Alignment and Shepherding | Summer 2017

Traditional Bulgarian Shepherd's Bell suspended on linen fiber | 2017

Summer is often viewed as the slow time, a time when the elements remind us to reframe our daily movements, let go of ingrained patterns, and possibly examine how one might realign objects and materials in one's immediate environs. My own summer has thus far been focused on identifying new ways to create improved flow between my art practice and my home life, with specific emphasis on generating work that makes more sense in relation to the complexity and choreography of daily activity.

The Artist Residency in Motherhood (ARIM) project that I participated in from May 1 to July 1, 2017 was instrumental in helping me to think more holistically about life as an artist who does not always adhere to conventional studio methods or platforms for sharing.

Walking Libraries 2017 | materials on my home work table

I do not report to a studio every day; I do not (by parental choice) have the predictability of a set schedule; I often do not have the free time or perhaps the professional discipline to create what I feel is most essential to advancing my current body of work. Alternatively, I use walking as a way to connect self with space. I study the atmosphere and also feel motivated to action by environmental concerns. I am a surveyor and administrator of relative, mothering phenomena.

Because of this, I recently became pre-occupied with the word alignment, as I feel that it is the most helpful term for me when it seems as if my actions or intentions are simply not falling in place. When researching the word's meaning, I came across several definitions that made perfect sense to me. 

• arrangement in a straight line, or in correct or appropriate relative positions
• a position of agreement or alliance

Which brought me back to ideas and imagery that I have formerly created regarding the shepherding of bodies and/or materials across space. I honestly feel that I have become more of a shepherd than an artist these days, both conceptually and practically. I am guiding my own children, myself and others each day, while also searching for better ways to move ideas and materials over increasingly fragile or unpredictable terrain. 

We are all on the move it seems, no matter how much we try to slow down or adhere to a sensible program. Is there a way, though, where we might better shepherd each other or tend to shared terrain in ways that do not restrict movement or create limitations on how we creatively forage, if we even have that luxury to begin with?

Folly Cove Artist Print Invitational | Russell Janis

test print panel on the studio wall at Russell Janis in Brooklyn

I am thrilled to announce news of the upcoming exhibition and invitational print project, In The Steps of Folly Cove, organized by Russell Janis gallery and studio in Brooklyn, NY. My repeat print botanical design is based on an early scientific drawing by Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist, naturalist, and philosopher. I had not done any carving on linoleum block since junior high school, so my goal was to reintroduce myself to this process but in the spirit of a contemporary sketch and not a precise illustration of the plant form.

Block printing on Belgian linen double panel at Russell Janis studio

Janis Stemmermann of Russell Janis: "The Folly Cove Designers were an art and design collective that operated from 1939 to 1968 in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. I came across their archive when visiting the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts. As a collaborative printmaker, I was intrigued by how their simple format of carving and printing single color linoleum block prints brought together a community of artists and craftspeople that sustained them for so many years. I was very excited by this discovery and decided to invite a diverse group of creative practitioners from my own community to use the same approach at Russell Janis studio."

Block printed panels coming off the press at Russell Janis studio

To learn more about the unique prints created by participating artists – using the same approach as the historic Folly Cove Collective, follow this link to the project's campaign. 

Participating artists/printmakers include Peter Bregoli, Jean-Jacques Du Plessis, Louise Eastman, Jonathan Fabricant, Elise Ferguson, Susan Martin, Joe Peppe, Mylene Pionilla, Wendy Small, Barb Smith, Russell Steinert, Janis Stemmermann, Andy Yoder, and Abigail Doan.

In the Steps of Folly Cove

Print and Pattern Artist Invitational

June 17 - July 30, 2017
opening from 6 to 9pm

Russell Janis Gallery

292 Manhattan Avenue

Brooklyn, NY

(Graham Avenue, L Stop)

Russell Janis | Instagram

#CorrespondenceCourse | Tremaine Gallery

detail of #CorrespondenceCourse vitrine installation at the Tremaine Gallery

I am pleased to share news that #Correspondence Course (2015 - 2017) is currently on view in Becoming: 30 Hotchkiss Artists at the Tremaine Gallery in Lakeville, Connecticut.

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#CorrespondenceCourse (#CC) is a collaborative, materials exchange project between artist Brece Honeycutt and myself. Our artistic correspondence has featured mailings back and forth between our homes in the Berkshires and New York City (as well as to and from Sofia, Bulgaria, during the summer of 2016). 

#CC materials have included handmade postcards, stitched stationary, gathered finds from rural and urban walks, historic sewing patterns, hand-drawn charts, botanically dyed and pleated paper, as well as other modern ephemera.

This collaboration between Brece and I is continuous and ongoing and serves as an examination of modern and historic connections in our daily lives. 

Continue after the page break, for exhibition details and more photos.

A Day of Activism + Movement | MoMA PS1

Sustainable Bodies | workshop materials at MoMA PS1

(contributors: Abigail Doan, Atelier de Geste, and XCRT Lab)

It was an honor to recently present work in 'A Day of Movement' at MoMA PS1 as a visiting artist/guest of Atelier de Geste. AdG's director and choreographer, Beau Rhee, created the event's Sustainable Bodies workshop as a way to examine ecological solutions and activist steps – with movement as a basis for environmental connection and sensory awareness. I presented materials and notes from my Walking Libraries project as well as participating in an interactive performance that evolved in the gallery space.

The Day of Movement line up was in conjunction with For Freedoms' month-long residency in the museum's designated gallery space and sharing lab zone.

Ideas that circulated during the Sustainable Bodies workshop included the following:

– waste reduction as a local act, with ripple effects from the home to the ecological fabric and soil of the community.

– materials and research that examines bioremediation, water conservation and recycling via the implementation of low-tech solutions that are both affordable and impactful.

– visual tools that serve as ecological aids on a daily basis. this includes personal kits (as demonstrated by Walking Libraries), where gathered finds are archived and referenced as atmospheric awareness prompts. think also, environmental immersion and drifting as a way of surveying for solutions.

– movement (first) as a connection to place, old/new terrain, and inner/outer reactions; objects (second) as documentation or manifestation of the former.

Learn more about Atelier de Geste's studio practice here. Also not to be missed, XCRT Lab by Nancy Kim. Here's to even more synergy between (ecological) design, the movement arts, and time for closer (deeper) observation.