The Artful Mind | AUGUST 2022

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THE SOURCE AND SOUL FOR PROMOTING THE ARTS SINCE 1994

AUGUST

2022

THE ARTFUL MIND

ARTIST MARK DYLAN HYDE

Photograph by Tasja Keetman

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THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022

HOLD TO THE NOW, THE HERE, THROUGH WHICH ALL FUTURE PLUNGES TO THE PAST.”—JAMES JOYCE HOLLIS KING IMPRINTED WITH GRATITUDE

INTERVIEW BY JODI JOSPEH / H. CANDEE ...14

MARK DYLAN HYDE VISUAL ARTIST INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TASJA KEETMAN..20

ELLEN KAIDEN WATERCOLORIST INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEE ...30

THE VIRTUAL GALLERY

Gail Gelburd

SHOWCASE OF ARTISTS WORK FOR SALE

8.2022 ... 38

Don Tien in the Tsunami at the Berkshire Museum until September 11, 2022

RICHARD BRITELL | FICTION

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SOMETHING FOR OVER THE COUCH— IS COMPLETE IGNORANCE AN ASSET? CHAPTER 13 ... 48

Website: www.gailgelburd.com

Email: gelburd4g@gmail.com

Publisher Harryet Candee Copy Editor Marguerite Bride Third Eye Jeff Bynack Advertising and Graphic Design Harryet Candee Contributing Writers Richard Britell Liz Lorenz Photographers Edward Acker Tasja Keetman Bobby Miller ADVERTISING RATES 413 ‐ 645 ‐ 4114 artfulmind@yahoo.com issuu.com | Instagram FB Open Group: ART GALLERY for artful minds Box 985

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The Artful Mind Great Barrington, MA 01230

YFI: ©Copyright laws in effect throughout The Artful Mind for logo & all graphics including text material. Copyright laws for photographers and writers throughout The Artful Mind. Permission to reprint is required in all instances. In any case the issue does not appear on the stands as planned due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, advertisers will be compensated on a one to one basis. All commentaries by writers are not necessarily the opinion of the publisher and take no responsibility for their facts and opinions. All photographs submitted for advertisers are the responsibility for advertiser to grant release permission before running image or photograph.

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Ghetta Hirsch Home Studio Visits by appointment: 413. 597. 1716

ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com

“Seaweed Divide” Oil on Canvas, 18 x 21 inches

Open Studio — September 18, 2022

the art of

mary ann yarmosky

Visit and enjoy— maryannyarmoskyeclecticart.com 4 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

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Artist

ELEANOR LORD

Front Street Gallery in the Berkshires where ongoing classes and Independent work study time take place for Eleanor.

See more art by Eleanor— www.eleanorlord.com THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 5

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FRONT ST. GALLERY

JOHN HOUSEMAN

HOLY MACKERAL AND MUSCLES, OIL, 24 X 30” KATE KNAPP Painting classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1pm at the studio in Housatonic and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field.

Also available for private critiques. Open to all.

Please come paint with us!

Gallery hours: Open by chance and by appointment anytime 413. 274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell) 413. 528. 9546 (home) www.kateknappartist.com

Front Street, Housatonic, MA

“Shipping and Handling”

Please Visit Website — john-houseman.artistwebsites.com A world of art coming your way!

CAROLYN NEWBERGER at Jacob’s Pillow

cnewberger@me.com / www.carolynnewberger.com / 617. 877.5672 8 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

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Bruce Panock

Water Barrel

www.panockphotography.com bruce@panockphotography.com 917-287-8589

Aurora 16" x 20" Collage on board

Mark Mellinger Paintings - Collage - Construction

Eagle Building 3rd floor 75 South Church St Pittsfield MA 914. 260. 7413 markmellinger680@gmail.com THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 9

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SUSAN SABINO

Sally Tiska Rice

Photography

Mount Greylock WHERE THE LIGHT SHINES LIMITED EDITION ARCHIVAL FINE ART PIGMENT PRINTS

Studio 6, 6 Elm Street, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Hours Thurs – Sunday 1-5 pm or by appointment. www.sabinofineartphotography.net • 413-770-1936

Ellen Kaiden Painter of Metaphors Watercolor Artist

Webpage- www.Ellenkaiden.com EllenKaiden@gmail.com 941-685-9900 Artist excepts commissions

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View the art work of Berkshire Artist Sally Tiska Rice!

Berkshire Rolling Hills Art Clock Tower • Studio 302, 3rd floor 75 South Church Street, Pittsfield, MA

(413)-446-8469 sallytiskarice@verizon.net • www.sallytiskarice.com

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AMBER GEORGE, POSTCARD I (2014), MIXED MEDIA AND ENCAUSTIC ON BOARD, 10 X 10”

VIRGINIA BRADLEY

SASHA HALLOCK, UNTITLED, SMALL VESSELS NO. 1 (2021), MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER MOUNTED ON WOOD PANEL, 7 X 5”

SUSAN ELEY FINE ART Susan Eley Fine Art presents a two-person exhibition featuring recent work by Amber George and Sasha Hallock, on view August 4–September 18 in Hudson. There will be an opening reception with the artists present on Saturday, August 6 from 6-8PM. Both George and Hallock harness the power and possibility of abstraction to craft thoughtful, detailed images. Their melding of shapes and patterns is a means to render their personal and imagined universes—marked by their idiosyncratic approaches to media and materials.

Amber George favors encaustic, a pigmented wax inlay technique. Embracing line and color, she conjures the aesthetic and the feel of interior scenes—manipulating forms with her layers of hot wax. George sometimes incorporates physical objects, such as paper roadmaps or fabric bed sheets, into her assemblages. Her intricate patternations record visual memories and lived experiences. George writes: “My work is a visual and increasingly literal patchwork quilt containing little and big pieces of myself and the archetypal imagery developed over the course of my practice.”

The artist lives in CA and is represented by SEFA. Sasha Hallock creates small-scaled drawings with watercolor, graphite and colored pencil. Each piece is populated by geometric forms, vibrant hues and unexpected textures. By mounting the paper on wood panel, Hallock’s work straddles two-dimensional art and sculptural objects. With an Iranian father and American mother, Hallock’s paintings speak to a “bringing together,” of disparate pieces to create an object of beauty. Each painting is the result of meticulous building: one line, shape and color in relationship to the next— an abstract language expressing themes of play, joy and faith. The artist lives in NY and is represented by SEFA. Susan Eley Fine Art - 433 Warren Street, Hudson, NY. Gallery hours: Thursday—Monday, 11AM-5PM; susaneleyfineart.com

Virginia Bradley and Chris Malcomson cordially invite you to their “Open Studio”, on Saturday and Sunday August 20 and 21, from 11am – 5pm, at 234 Long Pond Road, Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Virginia is an abstract contemporary painter. The alchemical and physical processes of painting are the foundation of her creative practice. The Open Studio will feature her newest Corallium Series. The Corallium Series is a celebration of the rejuvenated coral reefs in the Playa Santa Bay, in southwest Puerto Rico, where her Winter studio is located.

Fifteen years ago, the reefs were almost completely dead due to pollution from raw sewage and boat traffic. In 2011 the Obama administration undertook a federal project to build a pumping station and a 5-mile sewer line from Ensenada to Playa Santa. Today the coral reefs are thriving.

Chris Malcolmson’s painting practice now takes three forms. He always carries a small notebook, which he uses to catch the Muse. It is a place to jot poems, ideas and drawings to which he might add watercolours. The second are small more formal watercolours, these are pleasing to do in Puerto Rico as they dry so quickly. Lastly are larger abstracts on canvas which go up to about five-foot square. For many of these he has used a fixed form, which allows concentration on colour. Currently he is developing a new series, which considers symbols.

Chris states, “One always needs something to start a painting off. Sometimes, it is wanting to use a particular colour. It may be a shape or a phrase. In a way my paintings have two main reasons for their creation. The first is to try to communicate to the viewer the feelings that I had which stimulated me to do the painting. The second is to create something that will bringing some peace and tranquility into our busy lives.”

Virginia and Chris look forward to welcoming visitors to the Open Studio. Their studios are also available by appointment for a private studio visit in person or virtually. Please contact Virginia to set up your visit.

Virginia Bradley - cell 302-540-3565 www.virginiabradley.com, virginiabradleyart@gmail.com

DALE CHIHULY, PURPLE WHITE CYLINDER WITH DRAWING 2012, 17 X 9 X 9" © 2022 CHIHULY STUDIO

SCHANTZ GALLERIES CHIHULY IN STOCKBRIDGE A new exhibition by Dale Chihuly opens at Schantz Galleries in Stockbridge on August 6 runs through September 18, 2022. Chihuly is an American artist who revolutionized the studio glass movement and elevated perceptions of the glass medium. Schantz Galleries provides visitors with a uniquely intimate setting in which to experience Chihuly’s work. Guided by his background in interior design and architecture and interest in light, space, and form, Chihuly and his team designed a site-specific exhibition that works within the architecture of Schantz Galleries and showcases well-known series and large-scale installations.

“CHIHULY” is the artist’s third exhibition with the gallery, and the show features new architectural installations, pedestal sculptures, and two-dimensional work which will give visitors insight into the artist’s range of exploration over the last five decades. The stunning blown-glass sculptures on view will include a Chandelier, a Persian Wall, Ikebana, Baskets, Persians, and a grouping of his Cylinder sculptures. Since 1975, Chihuly has created an ever-evolving body of Cylinders with glass thread drawings fused onto molten bubbles. This revolutionary “pickup drawing” technique has allowed Chihuly to integrate myriad motifs, particularly patterns inspired by Native American textiles.

Chihuly’s blown-glass sculptures are joined by energetic Drawings, and Light Drawings that reference the development of his work in glass series. The artist has always used drawing to convey his concepts to his glassblowing team, and the drawings themselves are a unique body of two-dimensional work. The expressive forms featured in Chihuly’s Ikebana Light Drawings invigorate and illuminate night and day with luminous colors which impart a dynamic dimensionality that is further enhanced by the passage of light from behind the painting.

Schantz Galleries is a destination for those seeking contemporary art by premier artists working in the medium of glass.

The gallery has established itself as one of the leading contemporary art glass galleries.

Schantz Galleries - 3 Elm St., Stockbridge, Mass., www.schantzgalleries.com THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 11

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CROSSINGS 3, 2022, MIXED MEDIA, 26X30”

ENRAGED, OIL ON PANEL, 8X8”

BROOKY AND ANGIE

PEGGY REEVES

GHETTA HIRSCH

Most photography is done with a camera but, in the case of experimental or alternative photography, a camera is not included in the mix.

The works of Peggy Reeves are created with both analog and digital photo processes which rely on the sensitivity of traditional darkroom materials, i.e., silver gelatin paper, developer and fixer as the first tier and work in Photoshop as the second. A third tier often follows adding color by drawing and painting with acrylic gouache and inks.

“After years at “straight” photography, I felt the need to get messy and recapture the excitement and serendipity of the darkroom experience in combination with my love of resist as I had many years ago making batiks with wax and dyes.

A show titled “Shadow Catchers” at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2010 included the work of Pierre Cordier, the inventor of the chemigram. Working in his darkroom with nail polish and photo paper, he discovered the traces of lines left behind as the nail polish (resist) was broken down by the chemicals. Peggy Reeves found this process irresistible, and the seed was sown for compositions that trace the history of their own making by the lines and shapes embedded in the paper.

Summer shows include “As the Crow Flies” and “Simply, The Berkshires” both at the New Marlborough Meeting House Gallery, “Art of the Hills: Visual Evidence” at the Berkshire Museum and the July show at 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, NY. Peggy Reeves - https://www.linktr.ee/peggyreeves

“Enraged” is really about feminine rage in front of the battles we have to fight once more.

The strong contrast of colors expresses the prison that is built around women, forcing us to return to barbaric methods, lies or concealing stratagems in order to retain our freedom to choose. Blood, pain and tears are part of the last century.

How dare men or laws take away what women and girls decide to do about their own body?

Please allow me to give you today my rage on a panel board. Maybe some of you will relate to it!

Meanwhile, it’s vacation time for me, and I am trying to put aside these feelings and relax. I am painting ocean views this month, not the Berkshires, and it feels very different. The light around me is expansive and flattens the beach landscapes.

It is good practice to explore a new palette and I am playing with ochres and yellows against the blues of the sky. I am missing my greens a little and had to find it in seaweeds as you will find in the other painting shown in this magazine.

My home studio will welcome you by the end of July. Please call to view my new paintings in person. I usually have an ongoing Open Studio Day on Thursdays but will have a formal Open Studio on September 18. Please check my website for more information, I look forward to seeing you there.

Ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com - Instagram @ghettahirschpaintings, text or call 413-597-1716

NATALIA BYSTRIANYK

Learn Conversational Spanish Learn the fundamentals and conversational Spanish the fun way!

All levels.

Via: Zoom, Skype, Whatsapp video call, & Facebook Messenger: Esteban Valdés Experienced Mexican Teacher. References available.

15 dollars per hour.

Contact Esteban for information on how you can begin!

estedelfin@yahoo.com.mx 12 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

While I was born and bred in New England, my parents emigrated to the US from Ukraine.

Partial proceeds from all Ukrainian related art in my Etsy shop is being donated help the incredibly resilient and courageous people of Ukraine. As a child, I played with crayons and paper rather than dolls and teacups. I leaned toward the arts in any form; visual, theatrical, musical. I have been center stage and behind the scenes in many capacities and commonly had visual contributions to anything I have been involved in.

Although I work in many different mediums and styles, I am best known for deeply layered intuitive paintings. I try to allow any ideas to develop freely rather than be concerned with the end result. This grants a sense of freedom, possibility, and wonder. I mostly use acrylic inks & paint and at times, mix them with other mediums - colored pencil & crayon to paper & spray paint.

I have recently taken this stylistic approach to painting pets. My nontraditional creations are imbued with a regular practice of mindfulness, yoga, and meditation. I am a firm believer in following the path that brings you the most joy and am striving daily to accomplish this. I invite you to join me.

Please follow me on TikTok, Instagram & Facebook.NataliaBystrianyk@talby.art, natalia@talby.art, www.talby.art, www.etsy.com/shop/nataliabystrianyk.

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Pet Portraits by Sharon Guy

Visit my website to order a colorful portrait of your beloved pet 17 HOUSATONIC STREET, LENOX, MA (413) 637-2777

WWW.JANETPUMPHREY.COM

www.sharonguyart.com

ilene Richard A strong design, playful interplay of color and pattern and a narrative quality are what makes my work truly my own

LADY BUGS

Shows for 2022 Studio Tour - The Clock Tower-Pittsfield, MA Studio 316 - July 23-24 Becket Art Center-Becket, MA - July 15-August 1 All Purpose Gallery-Lee, MA - August 3-October 3 BAA Biennial RE: FRESH-Lichtenstein Center - October7-November 26 Illuminations Gallery-Massachusetts General Hospital-Boston, MA - September-October South Coast Artist Open Studio Tour-South Dartmouth MA - August 20-21 UNFINISHED AT 94

Commissions Available by Artist

The Clock Tower, Studio 316

http://facebook.com/ilene.richard | www.ilenerichard.com | ilene.richard@gmail.com | 978-621-4986 THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 13

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HOLLIS KING IMPRINTED WITH GRATITUDE Interview by Jodi Joseph and H. Candee

Photographs Courtesy of Norman Rockwell Museum

Hollis King is former vice-president and creative director at the Verve Music Group, the largest jazz record label in the world, where he was responsible for art direction of all music packaging, logos, advertising, point-of-purchase displays, and signage at the company. He studied advertising and design at New York City Community College and later transferred to School of Visual Art where he studied with legendary artist Milton Glaser. He is currently on the National Scholars’ Advisory at the present Norman Rockwell Museum exhibit, Imprinted: Illustrating Race Tell me, Hollis, what are your immediate thoughts about the exhibit, Imprinted: Illustrating Race.

Hollis King: I’ve seen it once so far. Even having a lot of knowledge about it before that, my first impression was – I wish I had this type of thing when I was in art school, to see these types of possibilities.

worked on creating the visual communication for all kinds of artists, from Linda Rondstadt to Burt Bacharach. I made art for all the sub-labels, including Verve of course, a part of Universal Music. I also did the visual language for movie soundtracks.

Illustrating this story, this exhibition, turned out to be quite similar.

How are you participating in this exhibit? I understand that in addition to having your art on view, you are also listed under the National Scholars’ Advisory: what does that involve?

HK: I got a call from Robyn Phillips-Pendleton, who is one of the organizers of this exhibition.

She asked me to be part of the Advisory Council, and I immediately said no.

You also designed this exhibition catalog. And it’s a glory.

HK: At first, I think they tricked me! They came to me and said we would be honored if you would design the catalog.

Right away I thought to myself, “I’m in LA, I’m really busy…” Again, I said no.

I went to bed that night and kept thinking. I realized I was crazy! I called back the next day and said, “Yes, I will do it.” But I had ideas for how it should go. I didn’t want to put together a collection of short artist bios, I wanted the process and the catalog to be very open. I proposed a QR code to be included with the catalog that allowed a gateway into the exhibition, the project with all

Then what happened?

HK: Then she convinced me. We had our first meeting and I thought, “Oh – I do know a lot about this story.” I worked for 20 years as VP at Universal Music Group. I’ve hired many illustrators, I have a deep love for illustration. I 14 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

kinds of collateral material – videos and other material. The Museum was open to that vision.

Within the exhibition itself, how was your own work within the show selected? Were you surprised that those particular pieces were chosen, or did you have any say in what was going to be shown?

HK: What happened was – and again this evolved – they would come to my office and get fascinated with some of the stuff I’d been working on. My office is filled with things I’m working on and thinking about, including my Brown Paper Bag series. And I know many people who’ve been involved in illustration, so I brought them into the exhibition.

I got fully into it – but it was always much bigger than me or my work. We brought in people from New York and LA, many artists you haven’t heard of yet.

In your opinion, in what ways do you see your own art fitting into this exhibition?

HK: I think that the arc of American illustration

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Hollis King , Couple in Harlem, a 2019 collage piece.

Says the artist, "I saw a young lady near the corner of 125th and 8th Avenue looking at her watch. A young man with his shirt off approached from behind in a very familiar way, and as it turned out, she was waiting for him. I was shocked by the incongruity— she looked so elegant in contrast to him, which really struck me.

I made the collage as a way of memorializing the moment."

Album cover art for Buck Meets Ruby by Charles White, from the collection of Hollis King

is so wide and long. I knew even from working with illustrators myself – some names rise to the top, some toil for years and never get mentioned.

Beyond my work, I think my contribution was to be able to make the exhibition more expansive, including bringing in some of those artists who hadn’t been recognized yet.

Tell us more about the exhibit, please.

HK: I think the courage shown by the Museum was to explore the topic of race relations in such a magnificent and balanced way – to show the past, but also to show how bright and possible the future can be. It pays homage to a lot of people.

When this show comes down at the Norman Rockwell Museum, do you think this show will travel?

HK: It should travel, because this is not like any other show out there. To see this arc of American history and illustration, and to see the arc of the show – the affirmation of a future that is really bright. And I hope that we can have conversations about it.

The response to the artworks in different areas will be interesting. It’s a doorway to a conversation. Personally we talk about… if I knew Charles Lilly’s work – or Jerry Pinkney’s work – he was one of my mentors. It would be wonderful to bring these artists’ works, and many of those who are not household names, to the rest of the country. There is great social work in this exhibition, as well as the art.

Other than being associated with the Museum, are you familiar with the Berkshires?

HK: I’d always heard about the Berkshires, in a very abstract way. When I first took the drive from New York – the most bucolic, beautiful drive – it’s not hard to see why the Berkshires looms for so many. That drive reminded me of traveling from Vienna to Innsbruck – you see that kind of green, that foliage… that’s what it reminded me of. And then you arrive on Main Street – Norman Rockwell’s Main Street. It was a beautiful drive to a beautiful town… with good pastry!

The Berkshires is world class.

Being a city dweller, you are probably aware of the way art is changing at a fast rate. Your thoughts on what you see going on around you in New York in terms of art-making and artists? Who do you feel to you is groundbreaking and why?

HK: I live in New York, and I work in Los Angeles. I just curated an exhibition in New York called Our Black Genius: We Rise…Still at the Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn where I’ve been the creative director for years. It’s about the indomitable spirit of the artists – 21 artists, from all across the country and the world. We have artists from Zimbabwe. I selected the artists. The work had to be excellent – sculpture, collage, paintings, beadwork… I just really wanted people to see, after the major part of the pandemic, what artists have been working on.

I asked artists to show us what they’ve been doing during the pandemic. It’s been a reset for artists.

They’ve been working, but couldn’t show the work. They’ve been in the deep space of producing art, but have not been able to share it.

Continued on next page...

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HOLLIS KING IMPRINTED WITH GRATITUDE

Hollis King notes of his multi-hyphenate role for the exhibition, "Beyond my work, I think my contribution was to be able to make the exhibition more expansive, including bringing in some of those artists who hadn’t been recognized yet." This portrait of Jazz great John Coltrane by R. Gregory Christie is from King's personal collection.

Artists have had to learn new things and new modes of operations, some of those things they now need to move into their practice. It was a gift for some – it was time to do the experiments you never had time to do.

In my case in the first days of the pandemic, I was asking, “Is this it? Is this how we end the experiment?” No one was on the streets of New York. Everyone was watching from windows.

The churches were closed, they didn’t work. You could hear all the sirens, because the city had been silenced, and you just wondered who they were coming for. The only way you could find people and find spirit was in the liquor stores.

Everything shifted. The green leaves fell before the yellow ones. I finally said, “Okay Hollis, make art. Find your truth and your purpose in life. Re-center on what’s important.” The pandemic gave me some time to think about all those deep things.

What were you doing during the Pandemic?

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HK: So I have been making many things – I had done a show called the Brown Paper Bag Project, which got a lot of amazing reviews. During the pandemic, I started to rethink this project, to see how I can change the form. Some of them are in Imprinted. Now I’m incorporating parts of the logo on the bags into the form. I’m excited to see how far I can take this.

Originally I bought 44 bags for $1.00. I painted them with positive affirmations to change the narrative, and people responded so well – positive coverage. Then I provided 1600 bags for people to respond to the exhibition. When people see them at Norman Rockwell Museum, they should know there’s a large family of Brown Paper Bag artworks that these are part of.

A lot of great artists emerged from the School of Visual Arts in New York, such as Keith Haring, and Milton Glaser (who was your teacher). What experiences at the school did you have that encouraged and helped to

develop the direction you wanted to take as an artist / illustration?

HK: Milton Glaser… I was the one black student in his class.

He had been teaching for 40-50 years. Everyone in the class is trying to impress him. The first assignment he gave us was, “Describe the perfect day in your life, 10 years hence.” It never got less difficult than that. And he promised on the first day of class, “Most of you will not be here at the end of the semester.” Right then I knew: I was not going to walk off. I was one of the original survivors of the island!

What a man. What a mensch. That class was the hardest thing I’d ever done. He looked out for me, he’d check in. “Are you doing okay?”

He had figured out how to test every student to their max capability teaching lots of lessons not just about art, but about life. The meaning of the first assignment was to be clear about your vision – so you can achieve it.

How did you decide to go into commercial arts rather than fine arts, or do they overlap?

What was it like working at the Verve Music Group, the largest Jazz record label in the world?

HK: I worked with Verve for a very long time. I was unemployed from some other job and a friend worked at a label that was part of the Verve family, under the Universal Music Group. He said, “Come by the record label and I will give you some free CDs.” Back then, I made t-shirts and all types of stuff for my designs. I thought to myself that I’ll take a bag of my stuff. I walked into this building with long, long hallways. All the guys in the art department were around. Everyone was going through my bag, loving all my designs. There was a tall guy who walked by, wondering what’s going on here. That was Larry Rosen, the president of GRP Records. They called me the next day to work with them. After 10 or 11 months I’m still there, working as a freelancer.

One day Larry came down the hall and said, “Congratulations Hollis – you have to come on staff.” I thought – but I’m freelancing and making boatloads of money. Eventually I came on staff.

And as of today, describe to us what you are working on? Tell us about your present day life? Do you frequent theater in NYC? The opera? What music and entertainment do you enjoy seeing?

HK: I am curious about EVERYTHING. Food, music, art, theater. I have seen and eaten in the best places. I have done some scenic design.

Ruben Santiago Hudson asked me to make pieces for the stage. I have worked in Italy and New York and experienced all the good stuff. I went to the opera last month. I just went to see the costumes and setting and lights, it was so brilliantly done. I saw the Lion King again a few weeks ago. So beautiful. I worked on the Juneteenth celebration, at Park Ave Armory. I am a little guy from a small place, but I rub shoulders

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From Hollis King's Brown Paper Bag series. "Painting of African Americans with Inspirational Quotes."

On view in IMPRINTED: Illustrating Race this summer at the Norman Rockwell Museum

with everybody. I AM BLESSED. I have nothing to complain about. I am blessed.

Tell us about your family life? Who is in the picture?

HK: All my family is here now. My two daughters finished grad school. My kids were raised in New York on Long Island, a typical suburban kind of lifestyle. They went to private school, went to Europe in summer and that’s where we’d celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I wanted my kids to have a diverse experience. It worked! Now they call me and say, “Daddy we’re going to Spain. “ They just pick up and go.

What do you remember that you can share of your life there in the Caribbean? Why did you leave?

HK: Our family is from Trinidad and Tobago, the furthest southern part of the Caribbean, near Venezuela. It’s either rain or sun. I came to the U.S. as a teenager, after living with my grandparents.

My parents came first, saved money to buy a house. The earliest people in my family who came here, picked apples and saved enough money to buy a house. When my mother came up, she did the same thing – worked until they saved enough to buy a house. My parents wanted to go to school and get degrees. My last brother was born in the U.S..

I came here from a very strict British style of school. I did work on art there, and my old teacher there was happy to know that I had done some things in art. People from the Caribbean are dissuaded from going into art. I’m one of the lucky ones who persisted. I have to tell you the first day I came to school here – I was shocked, the way people were talking back to teachers.

In what ways, in your life, have there been cultural issues that directly affected you, and what have you come to understand and learn from what you experienced?

HK: I’m an immigrant from the Caribbean. My parents hated the idea that I would be an artist.

They wanted me to be a lawyer. For me, it was about going your own way and getting accepted later.

My first girlfriend encouraged me. She said, “You can make a living at this.” She was observant and loved me, “Wow, you are doing this every night. You should do this.” I thought… but my mother will kill me!

When I got nominated for a Grammy for the first time, I took my brother. He turned to me and said, “Mom is really happy for you.” I got several more nominations after that and that’s when she started saying it openly. In some ways, you don’t blame your parents, right? They can only talk from what they know. They cannot encourage something that they have no idea about.

I encourage young students who are facing that

same resistance, go fully in. Your parents just want to know that you’ll be okay. Go fully in.

And are you satisfied with the way your life unfolded, or should you have had more?

HK: The head of an ad agency gave me my first break. I have paid that back in every job since then. I think it’s important to model for the next generation, to help show them what’s important.

I always have interns and assistants. I do master classes at FIT and SVA. I know that I should share, like someone else shared with me. So if I go down the road and there’s a big hole – I call out the hole in the road to make it easy on the next person going down the road. People make the mistake of thinking paying something forward is like work. It’s the greatest feeling I have. It’s how I can say thank you.

I’m a guy that’s really blessed. I get up every morning and I say to people, “I AM WONDERFUL.” If they ask, “What?” I say, “I AM WONDERFUL.” People ask, “REALLY?” I tell them, “It’s a choice.”

Z Thank you, Hollis!

THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 17

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FOOD AS MEDICINE Lakshmi’s Garden In these stressful and confusing times, gaining clarity of the mind can seem like an insurmountable hurdle. Even though meditation is one surefire way to reduce the distractions of the mind, the act of doing it can seem impossible or stress inducing. One reason being is that when one’s eyes are closed, the mind (which we’ve already established may be busy or stressed) can take over, rendering the meditation attempt moot. In this case, I typically suggest that one practice candle-gazing, which is a form of meditation. It’s a great introduction to meditation because it gives the eyes something to focus on while we begin the practice of programming the mind into one-pointed attention, or put another way, candle-gazing takes one of the distractions of the mind (sight) out of the equation because it occupies the eyes.

The mind is shaped by the five senses. At this point in our meditation scenario, our eyes are oc-

cupied. Make sure the meditation environment is as quiet and scent-free as possible. Now, the eyes are focused, the space is quiet, there are no distractions of smell, and you’ve come to stillness, hopefully, with a satiated appetite. Quieting the activity of the eyes, ears, nose and tongue sets the stage for meditation. Yet even though the sense organs are inactive, they could still contain memory of one form or another. This month I will expand on the idea of cleansing the sense organs to help make meditation more accessible.

The nose is a great place to start. While the nostrils may seem like a simple passageway to the lungs, nothing could be further from the truth. In addition to being lined with hair to help catch particles, these openings lead to the nasal cavity, which is fed mucus from multiple sinus cavities lined up on either side of the nose, leading to the final sinus cavity which is in indirect contact to the cavity housing the brain. The accumulation of mucus and particles in route to the lungs can be of great distraction to our physical and mental health. Flushing out the nasal cavity and sinus cavities are a great way to prepare the body for meditation.

The same can be said for the ears, eyes, mouth and skin (referring to the sense of touch). Mucus can accumulate in these organs causing congestion, changes in blood flow, insensitivities, etc.

Attempting to meditate while these conditions are occurring is like swimming upstream. Meditation is difficult enough without distractions from the sense organs.

There are multiple ways of cleansing the sense organs. Next month I will continue to discuss these processes and will leave you with this thought…the eyes serve us by allowing us to see.

Sight is more than simply the function of the eye.

Our sight, combined with its impression on the mind, gives us our perception. If we want to perceive truth, our purest attempt can happen by cleansing the eyes, and using a steady, calm mind to discern what is being seen.

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TAKE THE BERKSHIRES HOME WITH YOU

Lonny Jarrett Fine Art Photography Berkshirescenicphotography.com 413‐298‐4221 Lonny@berkshirescenicphotography.com

THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 19

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MARK DYLAN HYDE VISUAL ARTIST

Interview by Harryet Candee

Photography of Artist by Tasja Keetman

Mark Dylan Hyde has exhibited in galleries in Belfast, Dublin, Toronto, Calgary, Atlanta and New York. His work can be found in numerous private collections in the USA, Canada, England, and Ireland, as well in several corporate collections. He is also an accomplished portrait painter. Mr. Hyde lives with his wife Sarah in the Berkshires, Massachusetts.

Harryet Candee: Mark, although our meeting today ended, I am still filled with images in my mind of your world of art that you have created. Skillful, playful, imaginative, deep, dream like works of art that are not easy to forget. You must have one great imagination to put forth these dreamscape drawings that haunt and chill and are thoroughly enjoyable.

And you have a wide variety of mixed media that are made of found objects, all telling stories, opening up hidden doors, containing alluring, dark passages of life and death as one —secrets. Sacred and private. Can you tell us, 20 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

what truly do you want the viewer to know?

Mark Dylan Hyde: I grew up across the street from a graveyard and this might explain everything. When I was quite young my grandfather would take me through the graves at night and tell me ghost stories. I suspect drink was involved. I certainly grew up with a Gothic leaning. No surprise that since childhood the ponderance of mortality has weighed on me like a dark blanket of bog. Ah, but I don’t think my imagination is any more vivid than the next chronic daydreaming by day, and whisky-drinking by night, Irishman.

I am a poet who paints and I paint what haunts

me. I’m a well-haunted man. In fact, I pretty much know what my next 20-30 works could be. Most of my visual work originates in some poetic form, maybe something I had read or maybe something I myself had written. Usually the latter. The literary source is then translated through a turbulent and unruly process into a visual language of paint and sculpture. But we’re not talking illustration. I have no interest in that. I want to tell a story, but I want the artwork itself to be the story, not a representation of something. It’s Magritte reversed; this is not a representation of a pipe, it is a pipe.

The idea for a work of art can be very ephemeral,

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The Horsedreamer 2018 Charcoal, pastel, oil, cedar, cloth, branch, wire, on paper, 36” x 24”

incorporeal, hard to grab ahold of, which is why we invented sketching. We sketch it out of us, to make visual sense of it, to give it form. We have to have that. I’m just the messenger yet I seldom understand the message. Besides, in my case, this language of art and sculpture also happens to be the language of dreams, or maybe more so than dreams, the language of memory. I can’t explain the process my work goes through, nor would I want to. I never cared for explanations of the technical in art. As W.B. Yeats once said; “what can be explained is not poetry”.

Themes that recur in my work often have to do with redemption and the taking of a journey.

Preparations for a journey, the arduous ordeal of a journey, and then, the prodigal return home.

Which explains the abundance of boats in my work. We have traveled. Maybe while sleepwalking. Like in dreams, the landscape is somewhat familiar but always mysterious and difficult to place. Things are collected along the way.

Strangely familiar yet not quite right things, which I later try to figure out and arrange in a manner I consider poetic. The beginning of artwork. It could be my work is an attempt at mapping this somnambulistic travel. It’s a long, boring, tedious process.

Tell us about your most haunting experience you ever encountered?

MDH: For many years I lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in an eighth floor loft on the East River, facing lower Manhattan. It was, at that time, eleven floors of artists, filmmakers, actors, creative people, an incredible place. My space still had the original warehouse windows, each one probably 12 feet high that were cranked open by hand. Birds frequently flew in. I often sat in an old chair with my feet dangling out the window, overlooking Kent Avenue below. I was sitting in that chair at 8:46am the morning of September 11th, 2001. I was having my morning coffee, admiring the incredibly clear sky, like I did every morning at that time. No one remembers this but we had a violent storm pummel the area on the evening of Monday, September 10th. All three airports were closed. When the first lightning strike crackled over the city I dropped my brushes and loaded my camera with a roll of 36 film to try and photograph the storm. I got a spectacular shot of a fist-shaped cloud punching one of the towers.

Then I went back to painting. I took that one picture and forgot about it. So the next morning I had a camera sitting there waiting, loaded with 35 available pictures. From when the first plane

struck the tower I sat there watching the horror unfold from my window and I used up that entire roll of film. I captured on film the collapse of both towers, and the immense nothingness that followed. That photo of the storm I took the night before is portentous, given the context. I have to be very careful when I bring those photos out.

They’ll knock the soul right out of you. Worse than the camera, I also had a pair of binoculars and an unimpeded view of Lower Manhattan, clear to the Hudson. I saw everything. I saw people jumping to their deaths from the upper floors of the North Tower. I watched a couple try to hold hands as they spiraled and plummeted downward. At some point they were obscured by other buildings and just disappeared. And on it went, all day long like that. I had no escape. My entire west-facing wall was windows. I stared out at that gaping smoldering hole in the sky for days.

Then came the nightmares. I couldn’t paint for months, even though I had a show coming up in Atlanta. There seemed to be no point in ever creating something as trivial as art again. Scary old houses in Ireland had haunted the hell out of me, as did the death of my father, but nothing compared to what that day did to me. I had nightmares for years. Continued on next page...

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MARK DYLAN HYDE VISUAL ARTIST

Channel Crossing 2013 Charcoal, pastel, stone, wire, on paper, 28” x 20”

As a creative person, that day affected me profoundly, but in the end, not permanently. I’m not really interested in discussing any of the work I produced during that period, save for one piece; Fallen. When I finally did return to painting that was what I came up with. I couldn’t find a way to deal with 9-11 directly or personally, so I suppose I turned once more to Ireland in order to create a healing piece. I have no idea what the piece is saying. I exhibited it in Atlanta that winter.

One thing I try to avoid in my work is any association with fantasy. Mythology perhaps, but not fantasy. I explore the spirit world, preferably a pagan one (but not always), the sacred and profane, holy things, lost things, magical things, things ravaged and desecrated by man, weather, and time. . . and sure, there might be a fantastical element to a lot of it, but I have no use for fantasy.

It is important not to misconstrue dreaming with fantasy. I often appropriate primitive imagery in a futile attempt at depicting the ineffable. Faiths and cultures clash and merge. Strange hybrids are created. Ancient standing stones have crosses and the faces of saints gouged into them. It’s all about memory, all about remembering, a dreaming back through time and history. And somehow making it poignant to the present. I would love to have been a shaman.

What is Channel Crossing about? I asked you 22 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

this on purpose, becuase I know it will bug you!

MDH: I don’t know, you tell me? Your interpretation is as valid as any I might give you. I’ve always been wary of saying what a piece is ‘about’.

To do so would greatly limit the possible interpretations or the deciphering of it that I might get from the viewer. George Braque said that “in art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that cannot be explained”. But for the sake of speculation, I suppose it could have something to do with ghosts from a ship lost at sea? It could be a play on words perhaps, channel as in spiritual communication? Wire infers communication and nothing spooks me more than the sea at night. The smooth black stones seem watery and not benign.

Has the crossing taken place or are they preparing for it? The fact that there are three figures could mean something; are they a version of the Fates?

The women seem to be controlling or summoning or manipulating something. Manually or magically? One thing for sure, there’s danger in that crossing.

How do you work with metaphors in your art?

MDH: A friend just sent me this quote by Aristotle: “The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor”. When I choose an item to work with I try to select an object based on its ambiguity. An animal bone that might resemble an iceberg, for example. Anything can look like any-

thing once the imagination is activated. I’m trying to employ metaphoric devices as you would in a poem. It’s just much less certain in art. Instead of a word I try to use an object. Sometimes they work and other times they fall flat. And there are always objects which, no matter what you do to them, will only come across one way. Like barbed-wire for example. You can never hide its true nature.

Early years as an artist, did you have a mentor that changed your way of seeing? You know I want you to tell us the Tar and the Teacher story.

MDH: Looking back on it now I realize that I had some amazing teachers in art school. Most of them were deeply flawed, borderline insane individuals. Like the British sculptor Peter Hide, who studied under Anthony Caro. I drove him nuts constantly dragging rusted mufflers and dead animals into the studio. I had some very good art history professors as well which really helped.

Maybe even more so than the instructors. The professors were showing me what was out there in the art world and the instructors were letting me act on it. I had a sidekick named Ed Aoki and he was in the same boat. Ed was the descendant of a Samurai warrior. He kept a sword in the studio which was used to ‘critique’ other students’ work.

We had decided at some point that heavy texture

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Knell 2020 Charcoal, pastel, oil, wood, and metal, on paper, 48” x 26”

was the way to go and we were applying loads of paint to our canvases but it didn’t take long for us to realize that we were spending way too much money on paint. We tried other materials but nothing worked. One afternoon our instructor, Doug Haynes, whom I loved, walked by and tossed a massive art book onto the table in front of us. It landed with a thud. I had never heard of Anselm Kiefer but he was about to change my fortunes. We devoured his work, spent hours with that book. Then, the next morning, we were seen hauling three or four cans of tar into the studio.

The painting studio at our school was in an old gymnasium, and it was meant to be one large open space so all students could interact. Overnight we walled-in our area so no one could see what we were up to. The smell and fumes gave us away. Behind our walls we were shoveling tar onto sheets of plywood. Someone painted ‘welcome to hell’ on the door. Doug Haynes soon found himself in neverending staff meetings trying to figure out what to do with us since we posed both a fire and health hazard. I still use tar today. Of course tar turned out to be a gateway drug; it wasn’t long until I was blowtorching railroad ties and experimenting with all kinds of toxic material. Then, animal bones. Yes, I would have to say that Anselm Kiefer has been far and away the greatest influence on my work. He remains so today.

I noticed in your work that you have mastered the technique of rendering. Is this something you can say came from your formal art education?

MDH: Yes, I believe it did. Those teachers I had in art school were serious technicians when it came to the fundamentals. You had to be able to draw. And before you learned how to draw you had to learn how to see, how to look at things.

They drilled this into me early on. We later had our differences because most of them were hardedge abstractionists and I wasn’t interested in working that way. But no matter what, you had to be able to draw.

It’s something, that you can take a painting, or drawing that is spot on in technique, a perfect 2-dimensional canvas, or paper, then, go ahead and add to it real objects like boats, bird skulls… Isn’t it somewhere a taboo rule to never add 3-d to a 2-d piece of art? I love it.

Your art becomes to me, like a stage set. By the way, are you working on a project something similar that is coming to fruition? We did talk about this, if its not a secret, can you reveal a bit about your plans?

MDH: More often than not the boat or bird skull I have in mind doesn’t work. The composition, for any number of reasons, rejects it and I have to try a different sized or shaped or colored boat, or

bird skull. Or I have to abandon boats and bird skulls altogether and try something else. It’s actually rare that an object does work as I envisioned it. I usually know exactly where on a painting an object should go, but finding the right object is pure trial and error.

I’ve never heeded those kinds of taboos about what you should or should not do to a painting.

Thirty some years ago Kiefer showed me you can stick 3D things onto 2D artwork. So I didn’t care what the academic thinking was and did it anyway.

I have always had a difficult time keeping creative disciplines apart. Sometimes I write poetry directly onto a canvas. Sometimes sculpture gets onto a painting and paint gets onto a sculpture.

I’ve made assemblage-boxes and filled them with painted images, found objects, sculpted material, water, even hidden sound devices. I love when different art forms come together. I have been working on a project for some time now titled; Winds of the Mediterranean. It’s still in the conceptual stage and has a long way to go but I feel I have a very coherent vision in mind. I’m actually expanding on a series of paintings I did years ago. I see it eventually becoming a theatrical work performed on stage in front of an audience. I hope to incorporate music, dance, and performance art, set against a backdrop composed Continued on next page...

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MARK DYLAN HYDE VISUAL ARTIST

Fallen 2001 Oil on canvas, 78” x 30”

of my artwork and filmed projection. The music will be from all around the mediterranean but I would like Sarah’s gongs to be a main aural component, interpreting certain winds through her gongs and other instruments. There is a vast array of different winds blowing all over the Mediterranean, each with its own name, particular direction, and distinct characteristics. Often they are associated with different cultures and mythologies. I envision the show being somewhere between twelve and twenty individual set-pieces.

The overall body of work is to be a meditation on migration. Fish, bird, animal, spirit, human, migration. Yeah, it’s rather ambitious.

I really am curious why you moved to Ireland, and how you ended up living now in the Berkshires. And, why you left Brooklyn, and I guess, etcetera.

MDH: Blame it on James Joyce. I had read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in college. Joyce informs the reader that in order to be a real artist 24 • AUGUST THE ARTFUL MIND

The God Ships 2022 Mixed media on canvas, 48” x 30”

one must leave your home and go from your father’s house out into the world. A self-imposed exile. Which is what Joyce himself did. I took his advice to heart. I finished my fine arts degree and set off for Ireland. I knew I could work legally there. I also knew that Ireland at the time wasn’t a highly sought after destination, not like it is now.

It was not a sensible place to spend the winter and that seemed perfect to me. It’s all a little ironic since I chose to go where Joyce himself had left.

I actually went there to write, not paint. But I couldn’t avoid the powerful imagery I was seeing all around me. Everywhere I went there seemed to be a Celtic Cross looming over my head. And in Ireland the dead would not lie still. The dead haunted the land and the dead haunted the present.

There was no getting away from them. So I drank with them. I listened to them. And I began to draw them. I did a sketch of a cross, in a churchyard that I used to take a shortcut through, on the way home from the pub I worked in. I sat down drunk against a grave, with a rolled-up newspaper full

of greasy chips, pulled out pencil and paper, and sketched it. I threw the sketch away in the morning because it was terrible but I went back a few days later and did a proper drawing. Eventually I went on to do a painting of that cross in tar, on canvas. One thing led to another and before long I had work exhibited in a group show in Dublin; the Royal Hibernian New Irish Artists Exhibition.

A year later I was in a two-artist show in the Tom Caldwell Gallery in Belfast. And that’s where my career really began.

As for leaving Brooklyn, financial calamity forced us out. Simply put, we realized we couldn’t afford the city anymore. But my wife Sarah was sort of done with it anyway. She wanted to grow things. On a serious scale. We first had a farm in Columbia County. Then we sold that farm and moved over here to another farm, in West Stockbridge. We came over for the growable land and health coverage.

They say to every good man, there is a smart

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The Last Voyage of St. Brendan 2019 Mixed medium on canvas48” x 36”

woman behind the scenes. Something like that. I had the privilege of meeting Sarah, today. How does she fulfill your life? Tell us about her, a little about her Gong work.

MDH: Sarah is a tough cookie when it comes to my work. She can be either my most severe critic or my most approving supporter. She is an artist herself and has her own ideas and style. She has an architecture degree and worked as an architect for a while but she abhorred the oldboy network and indentured servitude that went with the profession. So she got out and spent many years as a textile designer, working in midtown Manhattan.

She probably could have been a better artist than me but wasn’t willing to live in abject poverty (as I was). She needed the security and stability of a real job. Now she’s a serious gardener, a phenomenal cook, a healer, visionary, and musician. She plays the gongs and an array of other unusual percussion instruments such as sruti boxes, chimes, singing bowls, and her voice. Her work with the gongs is a balance of sound therapy and perform-

ance. To experience it is to experience something otherworldly. I will fail utterly and miserably if I try to describe it. I have felt the power of the gongs first-hand. Many times I’ve had arthritic pain disappear in a matter of minutes when she played. And I would often come away from a performance with great creative energy. She has magic in her, that’s for sure. Once, on our old farm, we were strolling the property at dusk when we encountered a fox blocking our path, yapping incessantly at us. Sarah began to sing an Australian Aboriginal hymn to the fox. The fox stopped barking and sat still, listening. Sarah finished the song and the fox trotted off in silence. I saw this with my own eyes. And did I mention she’s a great cook? Yeah, I may have been a poor artist at times but never a starving one.

There is not one piece of art of yours that I do not deeply love. Partly because I love mystery, history, the deep, the dark, and good art. I wanted to ask you about your passion for using

found objects, in art, like in the piece, ‘Knell’. …But, more so, can you put it into perspective by giving us the connection to some of your beliefs you have about Earth, Universe, the living and the dead?

MDH: I don’t really have any beliefs along those lines. I am pretty much the faithless trying to render faith. I tend more to wonder than to believe. A sense of wonder is one of the most beautiful things we have. But as Tom Waits said; “we have a deficit of wonder now”. I wonder if the dead aren’t always still around us. I don’t know how anything is. It’s all a mystery to me and I like it that way. I don’t need to believe anything and I don’t always want to have everything explained.

If you were to choose one piece of art you made to tell us about, or to just show us, which one would that be, and why this one?

MDH: I feel this piece embodies what I’m trying to accomplish in my current body of work. I don’t Continued on next page...

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MARK DYLAN HYDE VISUAL ARTIST

Close to Prayer 2013 Charcoal, pastel, stone, wire, tile and photography on paper, 28"x 20"

Vendaval (Winds of the Mediterranean) 2008, 36"x 24"

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Mark Dylan Hyde Photograph by Tasja Keetman

often succeed with bold color in these mixed media pieces. It also touches on a quintessentially Irish story; St. Brendan’s epic journey to the new world in the 6th century. He made the journey, probably to the new world, in a curragh of wattle.

I have collected an assortment of items that I think Brendan might like to take on his voyage. Like a wee bottle of Guinness. I attempted to connect his journey to trips taken by the Irish across the sea in more recent times. I scribbled a line from a Pogues song on the bone hanging at the bottom of the picture. It reads; ‘and I never even got so far that they could change my name’ Hinting at Ellis Island.

Returning to the core of why one creates art, and not just to make art to sell, what thoughts do you have on creating art from your present surroundings? You live in a very beautiful area of the Berkshires. Have you worked with what is around you?

MDH: Nope. Although I do find a lot of my materials on the farm where we live. Broken scythes, animal bones, antique medicine bottles. Truth is, I’m irredeemably urban at heart. I still have to sleep with a night light because it gets too dark.

But I’m very comfortable here and I do admire the natural beauty. The land just hasn’t spoken to me creatively. Maybe it will some day.

There’s another venue of art you have been doing, which is portrait painting. Is this from the business side of art for you?

MDH: Yeah, there was a time when I did a lot of portraiture to pay the bills. It was never my favorite thing to do. One thing that made it worthwhile was that clients seldom wanted a straight-forward traditional portrait from me. Usually they were already familiar with my work and knew that wouldn’t be a good idea anyway. So I was often given a lot of freedom as to how I did them. And I’m a really slow painter so I had to work from photographs because sittings weren’t practical.

Essentially a portrait would be a portrait of a photograph.

What keeps you busy other than art these days? Does it help feed and inspire you to be in your studio and make art?

MDH: After earning a living exclusively from my art for two decades I had a couple of bad years, financially. One day my wife Sarah informed me that I would have to find a job. Which was a humbling experience when you’re a certain age and hadn’t had a job before. So now I work at Naumkeag, a gilded age museum in Stockbridge. I give tours of the house and gardens. It has nothing to do with my art but it is a lovely place to spend a few hours. And during the school year I supervise the arts center at Bard College at Simons Rock. I also live on a farm and maintain the grounds and

help with Sarah’s extensive gardens. Watering crops is my field of expertise. I’m also quite a Michelangelo with a lawnmower. Otherwise I play Scrabble with Sarah, who I routinely lose to by 100 points a game, and chess once a week with my friend Joe, although I haven’t actually beaten him in 6 or 7 years now. None of this does anything more than keep me out of the studio.

If you were to time travel. You might have, already. Where would you go, when in history would you like to be dropped into, and, why?

MDH: It’s the morning of Thursday, June 16th, 1904. The Martello Tower, Sandycove, Ireland.

I’d be finishing breakfast with Stephen Daedelus and Buck Milligan, getting ready to set out for an odyssey through Dublin where we’d eventually meet Leopold and Molly Bloom. And have a gorgonzola cheese sandwich and glass of burgundy in Davy Byrne’s pub. Because wherever I timetraveled to would have to involve an Irish pub, or two. And maybe Joyce would make me a character in Ulysses . . .

Thank you, Mark!

Z

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MARY DAVIDSON ANDREA JOYCE FELDMAN WATERCOLOR

My New Hat Series # 9, Acrylic, 40x32 inches

Burchin’, Watercolor / Ink on Paper, 11 x 14 inches

My New Hat Series #9 will be on display June 4 - Sept. 11, 2022 ART OF THE HILLS Berkshire Museum, 39 South Street, Pittsfield, MA. __________ www.davidsondesigncompany.net

Visit: andreajoycefeldmanart.com

28 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

Studio appointments, please call 413-528-6945 Keith and Mary Original Artwork for Sale Studio/gallery, South Egremont, MA

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Deirdre Flynn Sullivan My Soul Weeps Not In a red straw hat And childhood gems My eyes are closed windows Hidden from your view.

Told to stand down I slipped underground In pomegranate scarlet, A fallen Persephone.

There are no tears To rain beneath your sunlight No shame upon my soul Only a mouth silenced with a kiss. ~ Deirdre Flynn Sullivan 6/23/20 Woman in Red with Jewels ~ Deirdre Flynn Sullivan 2015

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ELLEN KAIDEN

Photography by Harryet Candee

WATERCOLORIST Interview by Harryet Candee

“I am drawn to watercolor as a medium because it is spontaneous and uncontrollable. The thought that you can capture motion and color in water adds to the medium’s excitement. My paintings are metaphors and are full of life and movement.”

—Ellen Kaiden Harryet Candee: Watercolor is your passion.

Tell us, what thrills you about this medium?

Ellen Kaiden: I came to watercolor quite by accident. After being trained in all mediums of painting at college I took a long break from making art to earn a living and have a family. My late husband, was befuddled that I wasn’t painting and signed us both up for a watercolor class at a local community school. The teacher explained the basics of working with watercolor and the unforgiving, under appreciated nature of the medium, and I immediately fell in love with it.

Watercolor is in many ways uncontrollable and so am I. I love the vitreous nature of the medium and have for over 30 years working with it exclusively. The medium requires patience, which is not my long suit but I have learned working with water is humbling. Watercolor has a mind of its own, there are times you must let areas dry before revisiting them and then there are times you have 30 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

to work quickly before the paint and paper starts to dry. I love the way I can start a painting and think its going to go one way, and it says “ oh no!”

I am going to do this. I love that I can work in light washes and then with totally saturated color.

I quickly left any painting class and went on to discover the medium on my own terms in my own style. I was surprised.

What techniques do you use to get a flower to come to life? If you were teaching one of your techniques, how would you explain achieving the “pop”?

EK: First of all, I am not a great teacher. I work in a technique called “wet on wet”. I wet up an area and throw color in. I go slowly, because watercolor requires enormous patience. I am a controlled studio painter. Some times with this technique there are a thousand little paintings in one large painting.

Trying to find a balance of values by keeping the lights are one of the most difficult things about watercolor or any other medium. With watercolor this is exceptionally difficult, because if you lose the light areas, you can’t get them back. When I paint, I usually start with the background first.

This gives my painting depth and makes what I am focusing on “pop”. The difficulty and unforgiving nature of watercolor is not valued or understood by most people, this frustrates and disappoints me.I have learned over the years that you cannot have a good painting unless you have darks to compliment the light areas of your piece.

I never start a painting unless I have a story to tell.

I believe you won’t have a good painting unless you have a good drawing and composition to begin with.

Tell us about one of the main challenges you ever set yourself to accomplish in art?

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Ellen Kaiden, Feminine Fury. In stages using wet on wet technique

EK: My greatest challenge is still on going. My paintings are metaphors. I never start a painting without my subject telling me a story. I want to communicate a certain feeling or emotion through my work. The goal of every piece I paint is for you to feel and see the story my painting is communicating. The biggest challenge is getting my work out there so others can see it and appreciate it. Also, to teach the public about works under glass and works on paper.

How does your life parallel with what you choose to paint?

EK: I have a great love of nature and we are always taking walks and hikes. Everywhere I go I am always looking for subjects to paint. My focus is always close up and personal. I am not a good person to take a walk with because I am always stopping and taking photos. I always find there is so much to see. Sometimes I will be staring at an

object wondering if that special conversation is going to begin.

How is your artistic focus influenced by living in Florida and the Berkshires?

EK: Both FL and MA are incredible natural environments that offer a lot of “eye candy”. When I started to split my time between the two places I swore I would never become a “FL painter”…..no Palm trees or coconuts for me. Having recently moved to the east coast of FL from Sarasota, I feel like a fish out of water. At my age, reinventing yourself and becoming part of the east coast of FL arts community is no easy thing. Sometimes I don’t feel like I have the energy to reinvent myself, I just want to paint at this point. Word of mouth spread in our new community that I was an artist. I was surprise by the interest in my work.

Many times last winter the door bell would ring and people who have heard of my work asked to

come to see it.

I love it when my paintings find new homes, especially when I can come to visit them. In the Berkshires I have been known as a local artist for thirty plus years. The Berkshires is my soul place, the place I can be the real me.

Do you think viewers grasp the concept and meaning of idealized realism when viewing your work?

EK: To me idealized realism is my way of guiding my viewers through my painting. I am striving for defining the essential elements of what I am painting with extraordinary detail. With color, I lead you though the painting and have you focus on what I want you to focus on. I achieve incredible depth by bringing things in and out of focus. The result is you are looking at my art the way I want you to see it and feel it.

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ELLEN KAIDEN WATERCOLOR

Ellen Kaiden, Many Voices, Watercolor 40 x 50”

Before moving onto a new watercolor, would you examine any of your previously completed paintings to find a fresh perspective?

EK: Sometimes I look at an older completed painting and say to myself that I love the idea of that painting, but I could do it better. You can never paint the same painting twice anyway, especially with watercolor.

What are some core principles you adhere to that revolve around being an artist?

EK: I have painted exclusively in watercolor for over thirty years now, and have learned certain things I never deviate from. Number one, I never start a painting unless it tells me a story, I never start a painting unless I have a good drawing and composition; always use the best materials: paper, paint and brushes.

Always know which light areas you want to keep before you start, and if you don’t like your painting and want to tear it up, keep going, you might be surprised!

Is there any Ellen Kaiden we can see peeking through one of her finished paintings?

EK: Some people wear their heart on their sleeve, 32 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

I paint my heart out on my paper. My paintings are bold and colorful, they are sensual and life affirming. I am always searching for the honest nature and architecture of my subjects. Right now the three themes that I am working out my feelings with are the war in the Ukraine, the state and future of the world, and my lifetime fight for women’s rights. These are strong stories and will be powerful pieces.

Other than flowers and food, what would you consider painting that could be challenging and enjoyable for you?

EK: Portraiture is one of the hardest things to paint in watercolor because large areas of skin need to be painted quickly. It is so easy to ruin what you are working on by leaving watermarks.

Whenever I attempt to do someone’s portrait I try to create the feeling of the person, and that is a very hard to bring out. Lastly, many people see themselves differently than I see them, flowers are more forgiving.

What is it you wish viewers to have as a lasting impression of your work?

EK: I want to leave my viewers with a feeling.

Whether it is joy, sadness, hunger or strength.

Which painting of yours stands up to the description of having architectural but vitreous qualities?

EK: Many Voices, was painted after the death of George Floyd and are the Naumkeag Tulips from the year the public didn’t get to see them because the gardens were closed due to Covid. I came across them during an early morning walk. I felt their colorful blooms made me drunk with color.

They screamed at me—We can be better. We must be hopeful.

The light and shadows danced on the tulips that morning. They were both architecturally strong, but fragile, like glass. I had to paint them. The result was everything I felt and needed to say.

One of my favorite paintings is Memories. Is there a story behind this painting?

EK: You might be sorry you asked. “Memories” is a portrait of my late husband’s brain with Alzheimer’s. The background is clouded with the twisted synapses of his brain. The poppies are sweet memories of our life together and my future without him. I don’t think the person who bought

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Ellen Kaiden, Memories, 23 x 29” Watercolor

the painting had any idea about the personal nature of the painting, but her husband has dementia as well. Maybe she instinctively understood.

Are there any artists out there that you can relate to for their art?

EK: I have never tried to emulate any other artist.

Developing my own style of painting was paramount to me, that is why I only took one class in watercolor.

My favorite American artist is John Singer Sargent. I have always been fascinated with his use of whites and light. From his work, I learned that there is actually no real white, that white is the way light is absorbed by certain surfaces and defined by light.

Many people compare my work to Georgia O’Keeffe. I have never tried to emulate her work but we both do love watercolor as a medium, our work is very sensual and at times erotic, and both of us are fascinated by the language of flowers.

I am often asked why do you mostly paint flowers? One visual artist I have come to adore recently is Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer. “The Final Flower” Patti Smith, the rocker wrote, “He came in time, to embrace the flower

as the embodiment of all contradictions reveling within. Their sleekness. Humble Narcissus. Passionate Zen”.

Flowers to me have always been the perfect vehicles to tell my stories and share my feelings.

At what point have you found your art to be a life saver or a true outlet in bettering yourself?

EK: When I was fifty years old, I was in a car accident and broke my neck and back. My late husband and I took an early retirement and moved to Sarasota. We built a new home around a studio so I could pursue my passion for painting. I was not anticipating becoming active in sports, like tennis, my other life affirming activity. I started a juried art show in the community in order to meet other artists where I lived. Our first ‘Art In The Park” featured forty-four artists and over 3,500 people attended. This endeavor rekindled my creative juices and gave me a home with the Sarasota Art Community along with my continued physical healing. “Art In The Park” continues today twenty plus years later. Other communities on the west coast of Florida have reached out over the years for my advice and help creating their individual art shows.

Life changed when my husband Richard was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. His illness affected the emotions and direction of my painting. My home studio became an escape and a place of solace for me. My art work became a form of meditation, a part of my “ self care”, and my studio, became my sanctuary. When I am painting I feel like I am a conduit for good karma, it often feels like an out of body experience.

Aside from painting, what other interests do you have?

EK: I love my gardens. Every morning it is exciting to see of what changes take place in my garden overnight. My gardens are always inspirations for my work, they also just make me happy. Our love of cooking is also an area of creativity for me. We pour love into our cooking and then the presentation of the food as well as the table and platter arrangements are works of art.

Many people move from one medium to another, but in order to learn and grow with a focus, do you think it’s worthwhile to explore other mediums at the same time?

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ELLEN KAIDEN WATERCOLOR

Feast, Watercolor, 50 x 40”

Krazy Kale, Watercolor, 52 x 42”

I am a purist, I love my watercolors and am always learning from them. By taking a new risks, which I have recently done with my “Lady Paints the Blues Series”, I have grown as an artist.

I see no reason to switch mediums because I am still growing and learning from the process.

Tell us about the watercolor series, Lady Paints the Blues?

EK: “Lady Paints the Blues” for me was a big risk. I am an artist who is known for her bright and saturated pallet. The blues paintings are quite different, with a monochromatic pallet.

Bob and I went to MOCA last year…I was really quite upset with the themes of all the exhibits— extinction, and the fragility of the planet. The next day at an art show at the Wit Gallery in Lenox, a couple who I had sold two paintings to and became friends had stopped by the tent. Once vibrant and enthusiastic, the wife, a once brilliant MD, was not herself. Her husband came back to speak to Bob and I, and he explained she had Alzheimer’s. This really hit me hard. These two 34 •AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

things inspired me to start my blues project.

‘Glorious Food’ paintings are beautiful. Are you still painting those mouth-watering edible spreads, or have floral still-lifes mainly taken up the forefront of your present day work?

EK: My first major project as a professional artist was to paint fifteen paintings for the restaurant Castle Street Cafe in Great Barrington over one summer. I was going to have my first solo show on September 11, 2001. We ate there often and the beautiful brick walls were calling to me. The owner, Michael Ballon, wanted paintings that had to do with my love of food and the beautiful fresh produce that we enjoy every summer in the Berkshires. Today I sneak in a food painting every now and then for fun to work out my food issues.

Now, as in the past, elaborate feasts and pastries remain some of my favorite subjects.

When you want something sweet—eat something salty. When you want something salty—eat something sweet. That’s what I remember you

Communication, Watercolor, 40 x 30”

telling me a few years ago. Do you have a belief like this for art?

EK: This little trick with the food has helped me with not eating the wrong things. Maybe I should try it again right now.

Presently I am trying a Keto diet. Since I met Bob I am so happy I have gained some ‘happiness’ weight. I guess you could relate the food paradox to my art by saying “always put your nose where it is the most uncomfortable” or paint what you are frightened to paint, and that way you will grow.

Tell us about the one of most spontaneous experiences you have taken on in your life?

EK: Marrying my present husband Bob was incredibly spontaneous. Sometimes you just need to trust your instincts and make a commitment. Life is short and precious and much better if you can share it and have a loving life.

I believe Bob’s love and support of my painting made me feel safe enough to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone.

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Afternoon at Candy’s, Watercolor, 30 x 40”

Midnight Poppies, Watercolor, 40 x 50”

Was there a mentor in your life that played a direct role in your art studies?

EK: That’s a tough one to answer! My family, especially my dad encouraged me to make art. My father had a major heart attack when I was about eight-years-old. Part of his recovery was to build a studio in our home and hire a teacher to learn how to paint. I fondly remember sharing his studio with him. I have a photo from that time showing me with a very serious face, painting our poodle, Martini. As a teenager my father also let me join him going to classes at the Art Students League in NYC. My grandfather was also a painter and a sculptor and my two sisters are both artists. Mom on the other hand provided us with appreciation and art history. Art was always valued in our home.

As an adult I had to make a living. I am grateful that I have a strong business background from being in Real estate for twenty plus years, many of them in management. This has helped me in the promotion and development of the business part of my art career.

From the series, Lady Paints the Blues, Hope, Watercolor, 30 x 40”

When we moved to the Berkshires I met Lynda Strauch of the Wit Gallery in Lenox. To me, her gallery is a magical place, and I felt the art she displayed talked to me. Whether I am showing in her gallery or not, she has always been a great supporter, mentor and friend and she is the consummate professional. Sometimes I think she sees things in my work that I don’t even see. I am grateful for her guidance.

Tell us about your grand children. How do you inspire them to be little artists?

EK: We have twelve grandchildren from many lives combined. For many years, when my late husband Richard was ill, It was impossible for me to travel often and to be “Red Grandma”. I find now that I am married to Bob, we are both able to share in the joy of being better grandparents and participate in their lives more fully.

We have an incredibly talented seven-year-old granddaughter named Rose. I would like to say she got it from me, but her imagination, focus and vision blows me away. When she picks up a brush

or markers, she goes into her own world. Knowing there is another little artist on the way makes me very happy.

When you need a boost of hope what is your secret for getting back your groove?

EK: Those are the times when I need to paint.

Sometimes being a snowbird, it is quite hard to settle down and start a painting. Before I leave FL, I started a painting so I have no excuses about working when I get back. Painting is my refuge. It calms and grounds me. It’s something I have to do.

Thank you, Ellen!

Www.Ellen kaiden.com F

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COLORADO

JOHN HOUSEMAN I am a dedicated surrealist, though have done automotive, architectural and people portraits on commission. This image displays a blending of the surreal and automotive showing a rendered, made-up hot rod in a most unusual setting.

I’ve been drawing and painting since I was 5. I did study at The School of Visual Arts which helped but I was well on my way as far as technique and my love for the surreal were concerned.

I mostly work in gouache for brilliancy of color and ease of fixing mistakes. Please check out my website.

John Houseman john-houseman.artistwebsites.com

FAVORITE TOY

SARGASSO, 2022, STEEL AND CAST IRON, 33” X 16” X 8”

SHARON GUY

MARK MELLENGER

FUR AND FEATHERS

I recently watched the film “Kurara: Hokusai’s Daughter”. It framed a credo for me; “Please let me be a better artist”. It’s forever just beyond our grasp. My current effort has led to welding with discarded, rusted iron and steel. If it accomplishes nothing else, at least it makes me feel 21 again.

I’m moving my studio into an exciting new artist’s collective in the Berkshire Eagle Building, 75 South Church St, 3rd floor, Pittsfield.

Mark Mellinger markmellinger680@gmail.com, 914-260-7413

I am currently accepting custom, pet portrait commissions. You deserve a unique, one-of-akind painting of your beloved pet. A pet portrait celebrates the years of joy and unconditional love that you receive from your pet. I enjoy painting and drawing dogs, cats, birds, and many other animals. Visit my website or send me an email for more information.

Sharon Guy sharonguyart@gmail.com / 941-321-1218 https://www.sharonguyart.com

Susan MacVeety’s Children’s Book

Helper Cow Helper Cow is a delightful story of Jazmine, or Jazz, a cow whose curiosity and delight in things around her manages to put her in the middle of all situations around the farm.

Beautiful illustrations throughout the book by Anne Douglass

Now available on Amazon.com / KINDLE and now in Paperback!

Buy on Amazon ~ 1571973079 36 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

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LEAF ABSTRACT / YELLOW DAHLIAS

SUSAN SABINO I am a fine art photographer living in Richmond, Massachusetts in the Berkshires. I enjoy environmental portraiture, landscape and botanical photography. Over the past several years I have been exploring various macro photography techniques to capture intimate expressions of botanicals. In my work, I like my photographs to have a very abstract luminous painterly quality to

draw the viewer in to the inner hidden beauty of flowers.

As a child we moved frequently. This had a strong impact on me. I learned to develop an appreciation of time and place in the absence of consistency. Images became my life’s mile markers while the road ahead offered new opportunities to discover and appreciate the moment. The camera was my voice.

My photography comes from a very emotional place and is more instinctual than technical. I prefer natural lighting with lenses that bring me in very close and let me connect with my subject.

My desire as a photographer is to create images that have a painterly and luminous quality. I am drawn to flora and fauna in natural light. When light, texture, and movement converge it brings a special energy to the subject. This is when I feel I can capture the true essence of the subject. The images I create are products of such moments, timeless and placeless with their own unique combination of grace and simplicity. My photographs invite viewers to immerse themselves in the often unseen ethereal beauty of nature.

Opening celebration of Studio 6 on July 17, 4-6 pm.

Susan Sabino – Studio 6, 6 Elm Street, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Hours Thurs – Sunday 15 pm or by appointment. www.sabinofineartphotography.net 413-770-1936

CAROLYN NEWBERGER Throughout the summer, look for dance reviews by Carolyn and Eli Newberger in The Berkshire Edge at Theberkshireedge.com. With Carolyn drawing in the dark auditorium during Jacob’s Pillow performances, they capture in images and words the gesture, spark and spirit of dance.

Carolyn Newberger www.carolynnewberger.com

Books by Roselle Kline Chartock

About the Author: Roselle Kline Chartock is a Professor Emerita of Education and a full-time artist and writer, having previously taught on all levels for forty-five years.

Her earlier work includes four books and several scholarly articles on topics related to education, American history and Jewish history, among them an anthology on the Nazi Holocaust.

The Jewish World of Elvis Presley (2020, Great Barrington, MA: McKinstry Place Publishers) -Foreword by Hal Lansky, owner of Lansky Brothers, “Clothier to the King”

Available from Amazon

Windsor Mountain School A Beloved Institution

Both books are also available directly from the Author —

roselle.chartock@gmail.com

(2014, Charleston, SC: The History Press) -Foreword by Governor Deval Patrick

Available in local bookstores and from Amazon

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THE VIRTUAL GALLERY

8.2022

Artists’ work easily accessable to Everyone. All art is available for purchase.

ILENE RICHARD

Boston Terrier

Beautiful Day

Cat’s Meow

Ants

Ilene RIchard: 978-621-4986 Versatile subject matter / distinct style • COMMISSIONS • STUDIO VISITS http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ilene-Richard-IllustratorPainter/109216825770985

www.ilenerichard.com • ilene.richard@gmail.com

38 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

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CAROLYN NEWBERGER From the Sketchbook | Summerstock. Berkshires 2022

Tanglewood Music Center, fellows in rehearsal at Ozawa Hall

Ronald K. Brown, Upside Down, Ink and pastel, 12 x 8 1/2

Berkshire Landscapes

Lenox Train Station, Watercolor, approx 12 x 16”

By the Road, graphite, 12 x 16”

Carolyn Newberger: 617-877-5672 cnewberger@me.com

www.carolynnewberger.com

THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 39

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MARK MELLINGER

Gansevoort street, Acrylic and collage, 24" x 24"

Hamilton Ontario, Acrylic, 48" x 24"

Icelandic Geothermal , Acrylic,12" x 12"

Mark Mellinger : 914-260-7413 Eagle Building, 3rd floor, 75 South Church St, Pittsfield, MA markmellinger680@gmail.com

40 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

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MARY ANN YARMOSKY

My Body My CHOICE series

“It’s up to you to decide who my ladies are and what they are thinking. They only came to me with the first stroke of a brush and a little paint. I don’t know their stories or where they hale from. I only know that they now exist, and some will love them, and some will not. Such is the life of a woman.”

-Mary Ann Yarmosky

Mary Ann Yarmosky: 413-441-6963 myarmosky@comcast.net • Face Book Instagram maryannyarmoskyeclecticart.com

THE ARTFUL MIND AUGUST 2022 • 41

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THE VIRTUAL GALLERY 8.2022 BRUCE PANOCK

Birch Tree

Despair Abstract Dead Tree Portrait

Abstract Dead Tree Portrait

Bruce Panock: 917-287-8589 www.panockphotography.com bruce@panockphotography.com

42 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

Each image is part of a limited edition.

There are several sizes available. Each piece is priced according to size.

Images are unframed and printed on Hahnemuhle archival papers.

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THE ARTFUL MIND •

OPEN STUDIOS • AUGUST 2022

• 43

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JON AND JAZZ, FROM CHILDREN’S BOOK, HELPER COW

BURCHIN’, WATERCOLOR / INK ON PAPER, 11 X 14”

HELPER COW

WATERCOLOR

MARGUERITE BRIDE

NOW IN PAPERBACK

Helper Cow, by Sue MacVeety, is a delightful story of Jazmine, or Jazz, a cow whose curiosity and delight in things around her manages to put her in the middle of all situations around the farm.

Beautiful illustrations throughout the book by Anne Douglass.

Sue MacVeety, also known as Sumac or Suey, has been painting, creating collage, and getting messy with clay with children in her classroom for years. Sue has published 2 children’s picture books “Helper Cow” and “Singing Sea”.

“Helper Cow” is also available on Kindle app and paperback on Amazon. “Singing Sea” and “Breakfast with Lola” are two more books in the process of publication through Bunkhouse studios.

Sue resides in the Berkshires with her musically inclined husband, horses, dog, cats, guinea hens and chickens. When she is not painting and writing, she enjoys visiting her children and granddaughter out west, gardening, swimming, horse back riding and of course having fun with colorful, whimsical art and literature.

In paperback and available on Amazon ~ 1571973079

CUSTOM HOUSE PORTRAITS

ANDREA FELDMAN It was a long walk from our summer house to the beach. Our neighbor, Marie, sold beach passes and raffle tickets from the office that was really a little shed. She kindly stashed my mother’s chair so we didn’t have to carry it down each time.

Mom would put her chair in the water at the edge of the lake so she could watch us. She never went in further. We knew she couldn’t swim but if someone asked, she said that she couldn’t get her swimsuit wet. She never elaborated on why it was so.

We sat on the blanket to eat our lunch. It had been sitting in a paper bag under a beach towel to protect it from the sun. By the time we ate our sandwiches the white bread was nice and gummy.

Andrea Joyce Feldman Andreajoycefeldmanart.com, 413-655-7766.

It seems a bit strange to be thinking about holiday gift-giving, however, NOW is the time to make plans if you would like to commission a house portrait. And for those who commit before October 1, 2022, you will be able to take advantage of lower prices which sadly but necessary, will be increased on October 1.

It’s a lot easier than you think to commission a house portrait. The artist will visit the home and take photos (if local) and come up with some sketches that depicts the view you are looking for.

Once agreement is met on the view and season, what is to be included and not included, and the size of the painting, then the painting process begins. It seldom takes more than three weeks from start to finish.

A custom house portrait is a personal and cherished gift for any occasion. Most often adult children commission a piece for their parents, other times it’s an anniversary, retirement, or holiday surprise gift, and sometimes it’s a gift for yourself because you love your home.

Whatever the occasion, it is always a happy process for everyone. Marge Bride would love to paint your home for you!

“Visit my website to see many of the homes I have painted, find plenty of ideas to inspire you, and answers to all your questions. It is such a pleasurable journey for the gift recipients and for me as well.”

Marguerite Bride – Home Studio at 46 Glory Drive, Pittsfield, Massachusetts by appointment only. Call/text 413-841-1659; margebride-paintings.com; margebride@aol.com; Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors.

CALL FOR ARTISTS: If you are an artist or arts organization and have not yet registered for ArtWeek Berkshires, there is still time, although organizers have set a preliminary deadline of August 9th for optimal publicity of your offering. Go to the ArtWeek Berkshires landing page today to learn more and register:

https://berkshires.org/artweek-berkshires/ For companies and establishments interested in becoming sponsors, email Laura Brennan at lbrennan@berkshireplanning.org 44 •AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

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DON TIEN IN THE TSUNAMI

MY NEW HAT SERIES #59

GAIL GELBURD

MARY DAVIDSON

Gail Gelburd presents an art installation for our times at the Berkshire Museum, in Pittsfield Massachusetts. A part of the exhibition Art of the Hills: Visual Evidence, it will be on view until September 11, 2022.

Gelburd’s 3-part art installation, entitled Don Tien in the Tsunami, is a life size female figure in a meditation pose. She emerges from a Tsunami seeking to find her balance. She is covered by a waterfall that plunges down her body to pool in her spiritual center; a place on the body referred to as her Don Tien or her Hara. In one hand she holds the water, and in the other it pours out into the pond below her. She is trying to emerge from the Tsunami that is our life these days, seeking to find a balance.

Gail Gelburd begins with photographs printed on matte paper or fabric. The fabric is then molded to create a three-dimensional form. She then paints on the paper or fabric with Encaustics.

Her works are photography, painting and sculpture, using traditional materials as well as contemporary formats.

Her two-dimensional photography and three dimensional works can also be seen at her web site.

Gail Gelburd - www.gailgelburd.com

Mary Davidson has been painting on a regular basis for the last 16 years. Davidson’s paintings are a two-dimensional decorative visualization of line, color, design, shape, patterns, and stamping.

As you begin to study the paintings, you will find the foreground and background tend to merge, with overlaid patterns. “I love the intense complexity and ambiguity of space and dimension.”.

The effect can be startling: the longer you look at the piece, the more you see.

Davidson’s New Hat series consist of 70 paintings. “I start with a basic drawing, building with color and shape, coming to life with gesture and flow. As the title suggests, the hats are important, and the millinery designs emerge. There is much joy in their creation and my passion for playful designs is reinforced by their bright colors, linear rhythms and patterns leading our eyes around and through the painting. My newest series is even more abstract, with an even stronger emphasis on design. I do like to use stamping, along with painting, because I love the result. When I finish with a painting, I adhere the canvas with mat gel to gator board, creating a nice tight surface. My paintings are always framed.”

Mary Davidson - PO Box 697, South Egremont, Massachusetts; 413-528-6945 / 413-717-2332; mdavidsongio@aol.com, marydavidson83155@gmail.com, www.davidsondesigncompany.net

MARY ANN YARMOSKY

When I first started painting, I was asked why I usually painted women. This simple question helped me to clarify. Why did I feel the need to paint at all and why did my subjects most often involve women?

I have been blessed both professionally and personally to know many incredible women.

Some have climbed the corporate ranks through hard work and tenacity, some have struggled as single parents barely making ends meet. Some have lost parents, spouses and even children and somehow, they keep moving forward with grace and dignity. The stories vary, but the inspiration remains. My paintings represent my curiosity about what makes each of us tick. What gives us the courage to move forward with faith and determination and yes, with love and compassion.

I have always had an artist’s heart and insights.

I studied fashion design in Boston, worked for the Boston Opera Company designing costumes and later for Sardella of Newport in Newport, Rhode Island, where we designed and made clothes for Newport’s elite, outfits that were photographed for Vogue and National Geographic and were worn to events held at the cliff walk mansions and beyond. My artistic ability then was confined to fashion sketches, imagining how fabric could be transformed into something beautiful and intriguing and then sewing what I visualized into something wearable.

MaryAnn Yarmosky - 413-441-6963 ,myarmosky@comcast.net, maryannyarmoskyeclecticart.com

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BERKSHIRE DIGITAL

WEST SIDE II

JANET PUMPHREY While photography is a representational medium, Janet Pumphrey moves beyond the inherent realism in traditional photography to see the world in a new and more creative way. She appreciates the ability to manipulate photographs through the artistic imagery available both in-camera and in post-processing, turning what was a realistic photograph into a creative work of art. Her work is painterly, sometimes abstract, sometimes impressionistic. Each piece is a unique, creative interpretation of a realistic image.

In addition to her non-representational photography, Pumphrey takes realistic photographs. Her favorite subjects are people and street photography. She also enjoys travel photography, and she strives to capture a depth of feeling about a location through its cityscapes, landscapes, and people.

In 2019, she opened a photography gallery at 17 Housatonic Street in Lenox, the Janet Pumphrey Gallery.

Janet Pumphrey - www.JanetPumphrey.com.

RED HAIR GIRL

ILENE RICHARD

STUDIO OPEN TO PUBLIC Ilene Richard is an amazing artist who has been living in the Berkshires for the past 5 years. The artist has exhibited her work in various galleries from Florida to Vermont and is a member of Rockport Artist Association and the National Association of women artists.

Recently, she has decided to move her studio to the Clock Tower in Pittsfield, MA. This new studio will offer her more space and better lighting, which will allow her to create even more beautiful artwork. Ilene is looking forward to having a place where she can work undisturbed and share her art with others. She is also excited about being part of the Clock Tower community and getting to know the other artists who are working there. If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by and check out her studio.

Ilene Richard - www.ilenerichard.com, ilene.richard@gmail.com, 978-621-4986.

75 South Church St, Pittsfield, MA

Andrea Joyce Feldman

nyuk-nyuk

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Since opening in 2005, Berkshire Digital has done fine art printing for artists and photographers.

Giclée prints can be made in many different sizes from 5”x7” to 42”x 80” on a variety of archival paper choices. Berkshire Digital was featured in PDN magazine in an article about fine art printing.

See the entire article on the BerkshireDigital.com website.

Berkshire Digital does accurate hi-res photo-reproductions of paintings and illustrations that can be used for Giclée prints, books, magazines, brochures, cards and websites.

“Fred Collins couldn’t have been more professional or more enjoyable to work with. He did a beautiful job in photographing paintings carefully, efficiently, and so accurately. It’s such a great feeling to know I have these beautiful, useful files on hand anytime I need them. I wish I’d called Fred years ago.” - Ann Getsinger We also offer restoration and repair of damaged or faded photographs. A complete overview of services offered, along with pricing, can be seen on the web at BerkshireDigital.com The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial and fine art photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston, Stamford and the Berkshires. He offers over 25 years of experience with Photoshop, enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement to prints and digital files. The studio is located in Mt. Washington, but drop-off and pick-up is available through Frames On Wheels, 84 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA (413) 528-0997 and Gilded Moon Framing, 17 John Street in Millerton, NY (518) 789-3428.

Berkshire Digital - 413 644-9663, www.BerkshireDigital.com.

Join us for September. 2022 Supporting Artists everywhere!

Be seen on these pages....

ARTFULMIND@YAHOO.COM

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A WALK HINTERLANDS

SALLY TISKA RICE Sally Tiska Rice was born and raised in the beautiful Berkshires. She is the youngest of four children. Sally lives in a rural town with her husband, and pets, where she is inspired by her surroundings.

As a young girl she would sit with her father as he designed and drew many blueprints. This was the start of her love for art in all its forms.

While painting and drawing she feels spiritually gratified and relaxed. She is a spine injury survivor that finds her creative nature healing.

Sally focuses on blending and layering to achieve depth and dimension. She also experiments with light and color to create a piece that will be enjoyed. Sally employs many different techniques into her paintings, using acrylic, watercolors, oil paints, pastels, as well as mixed media.

Her love to travel has given Sally opportunities to further her understanding of art in all its forms. She has been able to visit many areas in the Northeast, ranging from the majestic mountains to the scenic shores. Sally has enjoyed art abroad while in Italy, Greece, Spain and the Caribbean as well. These experiences have encouraged her knowledge and appreciation of the history of art throughout the world.

Sally uses spontaneity to compose artwork.

She also creates many beautiful commission art pieces for customers internationally. Her commission pieces are usually created from one or more images that the customer has chosen to blend together to form a one of a kind piece of art. Sally also has many customers that have purchased fine art prints.

Call to set up a studio appointment at the Clock Tower Business Center, 75 South Church Street, 3rd floor, studio 302, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Sally Tiska Rice - 413-446-8469 http://www.sallytiskarice.com, http://sallytiskarice.com/STR/The_Artist.html, https://www.facebook.com/sally.t.rice, https://mobile.twitter.com/RiceTiska, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-tiska-rice-cpo5230777a/, https://www.instagram.com/sallytiskarice/ https://pixels.com/profiles/sally-rice.

KATE KNAPP OLD NARRAGANSET HOUSE PORCH VIEW, OIL, 30X30”

BRUCE PANOCK

FRONT ST. GALLERY

PHOTOGRAPHY

Pastels, oils, acrylics and watercolors…abstract and representational…..landscapes, still lifes and portraits….a unique variety of painting technique and styles….you will be transported to another world and see things in a way you never have before…. join us and experience something different.

Painting classes continue on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1:30pm at the studio and Thursday mornings out in the field. These classes are open to all...come to one or come again if it works for you. All levels and materials welcome.

Private critiques available.

Classes at Front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who just want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and/or those who have some experience under their belt.

Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. 413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell) www.kateknappartist.com

I have been a student of photography for more than 20 years, though most intently for the last five years. I am primarily a landscape photographer.

Recently my photographic voice has migrated to the creation of work with reference to other art forms, notably encaustic painting and ancient Chinese and Japanese brush painting and woodblock art. My intention is to create with viewer a moment of pause and reflection; a moment to digest the image and find their own story in the art.

Each image is part of a limited edition. There are several sizes available. Each piece is priced according to size. Images are unframed and printed on Hahnemuhle archival papers.

Bruce Panock bruce@panockphotography.com

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Something For Over The Couch Part 13

“Is Complete Ignorance an Asset?”

The next Saturday I journeyed up to my art teacher’s house fully expecting to find a list of household chores for me to do, and for which I would be paid. I imagined that my pay would be the same as for mowing the lawn, and would be left on the kitchen counter in an envelope. I was very comfortable with this arrangement because it was so similar to how my Mother would make lists for me to do on Saturdays.

But I was amazed to find that Hanna did not expect me that morning, and knew nothing about her husband’s conversation with me at the car wash, or his insistence that I quit my poisonous job, and do chores for him instead.

What possible explanation was there for this development? I could not think of any. The doctor, Hanna explained, had gone to Cincinnati, or perhaps it was Chicago, to do an emergency procedure for which he was internationally famous. Hanna told me this in the kitchen in a bored and exaggerated way, dragging out the words ‘internationally famous,’ in a sarcastic way. This put me in a strange predicament, even a moral dilemma, actually a personal crisis, but all I said was, “I like your husband.”

This comment did not elicit any reaction from my teacher, but she was silent for a moment and then completely changed the subject.

“Well then let’s get down to business,” she said, and sat down at the kitchen table, pushing the ashtray over to my accustomed chair, as if this was a procedure established long ago. A few weeks had passed, a time when I thought the business of our conversations had come to an end, but even so, we fell to talking in our usual way, as if no time had elapsed.

“Tell me about Judith,” I said. Then a long moment passed while she tried to fathom who I could possibly be asking about. Seeing that she could not remember what Judith I was referring to, I prompted her by saying, “Tell me how your marriage to Max ended, and about the insulting waitress named Judith, who was to do some paintings. The girl who killed her father.”

“Supposed to have killed; rumored to have killed…”

“Yes, did she do the paintings, and did she become famous as a result?”

“Well, where did I leave off?” and with that she began telling me this story. “ Judith did the 12 paintings with the help of Francisco, an artist my husband was friendly with at the time. He was an Italian immigrant house painter about 32 years old who began doing abstract paintings by a strange accident. He just happened to see some large abstract paintings in an apartment he was painting on the Upper West Side, and he took it into his head to do one himself with some leftover paint from

48 • AUGUST 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND

the job he was doing.

I believe it was a Franz Kline painting that fascinated him, and he simply could not get over the idea that, not only would a person pay money for a thing like that, but actually put it in the living room over a couch. He did his painting on a hollow core door that he found in the trash in front of his apartment.

I never saw that painting, but it was done with seven shades of house paint, the very colors that had been used in the apartment he had been working on, simply the leftover paint. The colors were all pastel tints. In a way it was a radical departure, by accident, from the art being done right then, because it was so bland and innocent looking. In short, it was a kind of interior decoration, and not anything serious.

The painting was hung up in a space over a cooler in the convenience store under his apartment in the Bronx. He put a price of fifty dollars on his painting and it was gone the very next day.

It was not long before Francisco discovered that this bizarre occurrence could be repeated, but with specific limitations.He found that his paintings would sell if they were 250 dollars, even 280, but there was an upper limit of 300 beyond which he was unable to go. He also discovered that the hollow core door was the perfect size for his paintings. But 300 dollar paintings became part of the permanent collection of the convenience store, along with all the small paintings he created on various cabinet doors he retrieved whenever kitchens in his neighborhood were being remodeled.

Now this Francisco never took any of his paintings seriously. He had never been to any museum or art gallery, and as a matter of fact did not even know about things like the Guggenheim, or the Modern. But in the fine arts there are forms of ignorance that are a positive asset for an artist. It is sort of like the jazz musician, you never would find a jazz musician embarrassed about not being able to read music.

I mean, if some old bass player did not know who Beethoven was, do you think it might hurt his reputation as a musician? So this Francisco had never been to the Met, did not know where it was, or even what it was.”

It was at this point that I interrupted my art teacher to ask this question. “Is my complete ignorance an asset for me then, considering that I want to go to art school some day?”

“You, you consider yourself an ignorant artist?”

“Yes, obviously, because I do not know what the Guggenheim is, and I have never been to the Met, and I don’t know where, or what it is, and…”

At this point she raised her hand to silence me, and said, “Let me finish my story about Francisco, and we will have to talk about this matter on another day.”

“One day an art dealer’s car broke down in the Bronx, and he went into Francisco’s convenience store gallery, called for a tow truck, and came out with all of Francisco’s smaller paintings under his arm and threw them into his trunk. He left his card, and asked, “Whatever nitwit is doing this stuff, tell him to come see me.”

Francisco”s paintings now began to sell in the Corelli Gallery, a tiny storefront in the village. The hollow core door paintings now sold for five hundred dollars, and since Francisco got half, he had no advantage from his new situation. Corelli introduced his new artist to the use of canvas and stretchers, and after about a year Francisco settled into his new identity, quit his house painting job and embarked on the life of an artist, a life consisting of spending the entire day in cafes talking about art, and about an hour in the

evening brushing some house paint onto a canvas.”

“You think those people are stupid, and their paintings are insincere don’t you.”

To this belligerent remark of mine, Hanna did not reply, but just looked at me quizzically.

“And you think your husband , who is a great doctor, is just some nobody that you can mock and be sarcastic about.”

“Like a knight , you throw down a gauntlet, and come to the defense of my doctor husband,” she said half questioningly.

Not knowing why I interrupted her I apologized, and after a minute she continued.

“Francisco’s art dealer, this Corelli fellow was Italian, and so was Francisco, but although they were both from the same country, they could not have been more different. Corelli was a short, fat, older man with a dry and colorless manor, a typical northern Italian, practically a German you might say. Francisco was just the opposite, your typical southerner, a Calabrian, tall, well built like a narrow waisted bull, like a minator, and with a fiery colorful temperament, given to extremes of expression, violent even.”

For some reason Hanna’s story about Francisco was more and more upsetting to me. Hanna chattered along unaware of how upset I was becoming and finally I couldn’t control myself any longer and talking almost to myself and looking down at the table top I said.

“I am Italian you know, and all my four grandparents were from Calabria, and I am ignorant as well, just like Francisco. I know nothing about art either for that matter, but am I…am I violent, do you think me a violent person,” I said, and I felt tears fill my eyes.

“Do you think I could put a person up against a wall and put a knife in them while looking them in the eyes? Could I do that?”

This final outburst, so irrational and out of character, frightened her so much she reached to grasp my hand, thought better of it, but then seized my wrist firmly and shook me. Then she let go of me, pushed herself away from the table and said.

“Alright now, out with it, what is going on with you.”

“I don’t know, really I don’t.”

“Well Richard, I know and I have known for a while now, because my husband told me all about it.”

“About what” “About the death of your father.”

“He died of a heart attack at work.”

“Your father died of stab wounds he received in a second floor apartment, over a bar down on Elizabeth Street, and he was still alive when he was brought into St. Lukes.”

“How would you know that, nobody knows about that.”

“One person does know, my husband the Good Doctor himself knows, because he closed your father’s eyes for him.”

“A metamorphosis, inadvertently beautiful.” I said.

“And what is that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“I have no idea.” I replied.

—RICHARD BRITELL PARTS 1 THROUGH 12, AT SPAZIFINEART.COM (SHORT STORIES)

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EDWARD ACKER PHOTOGRAPHER

Time Flies • Get Pictures EdwardAckerPhotographer.com 413-446-8348

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