The Artful Mind - June 2023

THE ARTFUL MIND

Ready for great art?

JOAN DAMIANI

Photograph By Bobby Miller

English Tourist by J.Damiani

June 2023

The Fine Art of Printing Fine Art.

Playa Santa 22 — Virginia Bradley

THE ARTFUL MIND

JUNE 2023

The whole world is an art gallery when you’re mindful.

- Charles Tart

JOAN DAMIANI

Visual Artist

INTERVIEW BY H CANDEE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOBBY MILLER 14

BINNEY MEIGS

Stone Carver

INTERVIEW BY H CANDEE 22

TRUTH OR DARE

The Three-Dimensional Art Works of Yura Adams and Stuart Farmery BY JEANETTE FINTZ ...30

THE ARTFUL MIND VIRTUAL GALLERY / JUNE ...34

ASTROLOGY FOR CREATIVES

With Deanna Musgrave - June 2023 47

RICHARD BRITELL | FICTION

THE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE PT. 1 ...48

Publisher Harryet Candee

Copy Editor Marguerite Bride

Third Eye Jeff Bynack

Contributing Writers

Richard Britell

Jeanette FIntz

Deanna Musgrave

Contributing 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

Erika Larskaya

"As an abstract artist, I search for ways to represent the invisible, subtle, and unexpressed. I am driven to lay out fleeting and intangible experiences on physical surfaces". —Erika Larskaya

Erika Larskaya Studio at 79 Main St. Torrington, CT www.erikalarskaya.art

“Brooklyn 89” mixed media on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

ELEANOR LORD

To see more of the Artist’s Landscapes, Still-life, Portraiture and more, please visit— www.eleanorlord.com

FRONT ST. GALLERY

MARK MELLINGER

Paintings - Collage - Construction

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

KATE KNAPP, ST. CROIX, WATERCOLOR / GOUACHE, 11 X 14”

Psilocybin Picnic. Acrylic on canvas. 48" x 48". 2023

Ruby Aver

Sharon Guy Luminous Landscapes

rdaver2@gmail.com

Instagram: rdaver2. Housatonic Studio open by appointment: 413-854-7007

www.sharonguy.com

sharonguyart@gmail.com

Ghetta Hirsch

“Maine Rocks” can be viewed in my Williamstown Home Studio

Please call to make an appointment: 413. 597. 1716

ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com

Ghettagh@gmail.com

The City Series no. 7 Leaving Lisbon Acrylic on canvas 16” x 20”

Bash Bish Acrylic on cradled panel, 6” x 6”

Maine Rocks oil on canvas 15” x 20”

MARY DAVIDSON

www.davidsondesigncompany.net

Studio appointments, please call 413-528-6945

Keith and Mary original artwork for sale

Studio/gallery, South Egremont, MA

KEITH DAVIDSON

www.davidsondesigncompany.net

Studio appointments, please call 413-528-6945

Keith and Mary original artwork for sale

Studio/gallery, South Egremont, MA

Beaver Pond, watercolor, 6” x 9”

My New Hat Series #45

Autumn Brown

BRUCE PANOCK

The core of my work is landscape. But it is only the beginning. I use the landscape to help me share how I see what is around me. My work incorporates my dreams, how I see the social conflict that is part of our lives today, how I see what we are doing to our earth.

Though due to my health I am relegated to the digital darkroom, I refer to the photographers and methods used in the past, whether film photography, wet plate methods, or such other methods as were used. Among the photographers who have inspired me are Anne Brigman, John Gossage, Jerry Uelsmann, Dorothea Lange, and Sally Mann. I also refer heavily to Japanese Brush Painting, and the Abstract Expressionists.

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

ERIKA LARSKAYA

Confinement and Breakaway examine the mental state of struggle to make sense of our environment, both physical and psychological. I incorporate childlike drawing to represent nonconformity; the unadulterated state before we get confined by rules, commitment, insecurities, and other “add-ons.”

“I distress and repair parts of the painting, as we do within ourselves. The drawings of floor plans and elevations, which I use as a starting point, create a sense of enclosure, which I expand by continuing the lines outward, breaking the structural pattern. This alters the sense of confinement, breaking away from the [rigid, static] norm”.

Erika Larskaya - https://www.erikalarskaya.art

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

RUBY AVER Street Zen

Growing up on the Southside of Chicago in the ‘60s was a history rich and troubled time. As a youth playing in the streets demanded grit.

Teaching Tai Chi for the last 30 years requires a Zen state of mind. My paintings come from this quiet place yet exhibit the rich grit from my youth. Movement, shape, and color dominate.

My recent series, The City Series, is inspired by the happily haunting memories of the atmospheres, rather than maps or architecture of cities. So, although location specific, these are not literal depictions. The abstract memory of the mood evoked by each city is revealed.

Ruby Aver - Housatonic Studio open by appointment: 413-854-7007 rdaver2@gmail.com, Instagram: rdaver2

Marion Grant

MASON LIBRARY, GREAT BARRINGTON, MA

UP TO A NEW DAY, FROM BREAKAWAY SERIES 36" X 48" MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS

Garden Party, Mixed media on linen, diptych, 24”x24”

An Invitation from the Faerie Queen

A timeless traveler from a magical realm

I am happy to announce that I shall return To the Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival On June 17th, from 10 am - 9 pm At Bowe Field in Adams, MA.

Please come in costume if you wish To celebrate the arts and creativity

The admission is $12 for adults

Ages 6 - 12 $5

Children Five and Under Free

There will be storytelling

A Faerie Village Music and puppets

Merchants and artisans

Enchanting Delectables And so much more!

Come to my Queen's pavilion

And I shall send you on a quest For faerie wings and other things

And tell you ancient stories

From our faerie lore.

Portrait of the Faerie Queen by Deirdre Flynn Sullivan

ILENE RICHARD ILLUSTRATOR / PAINTER

Ilene is an established fine art figurative painter. She is known for her expressive and colorful paintings and her use of lines, which has become a signature style of her work. Ilene’s work is highly consistent and recognizable. Working as a published children’s book illustrator for many years has helped Ilene create a narrative with her work, which often features people in whimsical and fantastical situations.

Ilene is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Women Artists and an artist member of the Rockport Artist Association and Museum.

Ilene Richard – 978-621-4986, www.ilenerichard.com, ilene.richard@gmail.com, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ilene-Richard-IllustratorPainter/109216825770985

ELLEN KAIDEN PAINTER OF METAPHORS

This year was the year to go all in as an artist and invest in myself. It is difficult to put yourself out there, but I have reaped the benefits.

It's been a productive winter, and hopefully, it will be a successful summer. I am proud to announce that I was awarded BEST water media artist nationally for 2023 by ADC, Art Design Consultants, a Juried show, "Art Comes Alive".

My two-month show at Woodfield Fine Art in St Petersburg, Florida, opened a whole new world for me by putting me face-to-face with other artists and potential clients that knew nothing about me. I had good sales and was well received by a vibrant and young arts community, and I am happy to say I have a Florida gallery home.

In the Berkshires, I am represented by the Wit Gallery in Lenox and will participate in the June Art Walk June 10th and 11th.

My paintings are more than just pretty flowers. They tell stories about the world, politics, and women.

Last year I changed the way I approached my paintings. I started to work in series and better communicate my work's Metaphorical nature. To date, my series include "Lady Paints the Blues," the war in Ukraine, “Women's Voices”, and “The secret life of Sun”. "Flowers and just plain Happiness." This has proved to be successful for me.

My husband and I will be traveling to Asia this spring, and I anticipate being inspired by this experience; perhaps a Zen series will follow. I welcome visitors to my Lee, Massachusetts studio and enjoy painting commissions.

You can view my work virtually @www.Ellenkaiden.com, www.thewitgallery.com

RICHARD ALAN COHEN FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

I create landscape images to highlight my reverential relationship with the environment through which I walk daily. My process begins with the discovery and exploration of a subject, and then moves on to imagining what the image could become. I see landscape as an invitation to the viewer to enter imaginary worlds, ones which may suggest past or future visions, offshoots of the moment that the shutter clicked. I take natural details of streams, waterfalls, moss rocks, and decaying tree trunks and put them in new contexts building imagined landscapes and new worlds. These provide a larger perspective that emphasizes the importance of climate change to even the smallest niches within nature. I give my images an otherworldly appearance to impart distance from the ordinary reality in which these spaces are threatened by global warming and to pay them respect as places of beauty.

I use perspective and scale to magnify tree stumps into craggy cliffs and small waterfalls and streams into mountain cascades. I pause at natural wonders to make images of them to preserve their existence and enlarge their importance as records of what natural beauty can be. I wish to set apart their beauty from threats of climate change by keeping their settings pristine, their surroundings otherworldly, their scale majestic.

As I have unbound myself from representing reality, I have freely expanded the time of the image far beyond the duration of one shutter click, compositing pieces of the landscape with satellite views, stars, and galaxies. A great advantage of making art is the ability to recapitulate reality. A photograph is an opportunity not to copy nature, but to allow the imagination to take one to new places.

I print my own images using archival methods to last, with technical excellence, and in limited editions to increase its value.

My work is exhibited in national and international galleries and has been acquired by noted collectors.

Richard Alan CohenRichard@richardalancohen.com

www.richardalancohen.com

Instagram: @richardalancohen

KRAZY KALE 40” X 50”

EXPLOSION OF HAPPINESS- WATERCOLOR 40” X 50” THIS BEAUTY SOLD!

CLIMATE FALLS #13

FIVE ROSES

“Since I was seventeen I thought I might be a star. I'd think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix... I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous.”

— Jean-Michel Basquiat

BERKSHIRE DIGITAL

This is a celebration of pastel and watercolor art at the Good Purpose Gallery. The exhibition will be on display from May 16 - July 11, with a reception to meet the artists on Friday, June 16, from 5-7:30 pm at 40 Main St Lee, Massachusetts.

This exhibition features the work of Sally Lebwohl, a pastel artist, and Sally Tiska Rice, displaying her watercolor works—music accompaniment by Mary Ann Palermo with Rich Hommel & Ryan Hommel.

Sally Lebwohl is a pastel artist from Summerville and Berkshire County. She earned a BA in studio art and worked in publications for art galleries in New York City. She has worked with photography, drawing, and painting with watercolor but discovered her strengths working with the rich pigment of soft pastels. Sally has had many gallery shows in the northeast and has won several awards for her portrayal in pastels. She is also a member of various art associations, including the Pastel Society of New Jersey, Connecticut Pastel Society, Pastel Society of Cape Cod, Cambridge Art Association, Berkshire Artist’s Guild, and Housatonic Valley Art Association. Please find more information about Sally Lebwohl and her work on her website.

Sally Tiska Rice was born and raised in the Berkshires. She is a multi-media artist who employs many techniques in her paintings, using acrylic, watercolors, oil paints, pastels, and mixed media pieces. Sally’s work for this particular show is in watercolor media, and her surroundings inspire her in the rural town where she lives with her husband and pets. Sally uses spontaneity to compose artwork but also creates personal commission paintings, including people, pets, homes, and churches. Sally hand-painted stationery for Crane Co., where she was employed for 25 years. Sally’s work has won awards nationally and internationally; she is a member of the Clock Tower Artists of Pittsfield, MA, The Guild of Berkshire Artists, Berkshire Art Association, and Becket Arts Center. Find more about the artist on her website.

Mary Ann Palermo is a singer/songwriter who has performed widely across the Berkshires for many years as a multi-genre solo performer and

with some of the best jazz musicians who call the region their home seven years leading Mary Ann Palermo & First Take Band. She has published many original songs, and her work is available through major streaming platforms. Her latest album, Jazz on the Rocks, released in November of 2022, is a collaboration with producer and musician Tom Teeley that transforms a captivating blend of iconic songs into Latin Jazz, Jazz Ballad, Jazz Rock, Jazz Pop, and Jazz Soul.

Rich Hommel is a guitarist, bassist, and longtime studio artist who has performed in the Berkshires for many years. He has been the lead guitarist in Mary Ann Palermo & First Take Band for the last three years.

Grammy nominee Ryan Hommel has produced or co-produced more than one hundred songs. He is a guitarist, songwriter, and studio musician who has worked extensively with singer/songwriter Amos Lee.

The Good Purpose Gallery on Main Street in Lee has a sweet coffee shop, “The Starving Artist Creperie & Cafe.” The exhibition will be open on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Sally Lebwohlhttps://www.sallylebwohl.com/artist-cv.

Sally Tiska Ricehttps://sallytiskarice.com, https://pixels.com/profiles/sally-rice.

Call to schedule a studio appointment at the Clocktower Business Center, 75 South Church St., third floor, studio #302, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 413–446–8469. Follow on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

A TALE OF TWO SALLYS ARTFULMIND

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 photoreproductions 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

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. Neil Gaiman

SALLY LEBWOHL,“ORCHID ON PEDESTAL TABLE” PASTEL ON PAPER 29” X 21"

SALLY TISKA RICE THE TED SHAWN THEATER “AT JACOBS PILLOW” WATERCOLOR ON 300LB COLD PRESS SHEET MATTED AND FRAMED IN A 16"X20"

JOAN DAMIANI VISUAL ARTIST

“I love to re-imagine the rich, rural landscape of our area and scenes of everyday activities of ordinary people. I look for how shadows and light interact with their environment and capture the fleeting moments people forget to remember.”

Harryet Candee: Artist studios have often been described as a place of isolation from the outside world. Please give us an insider’s description that captures your studio; it is often inaccessible to the public, but how might it differ for you?

Joan Damiani: My art studio faces northwest, so the light is perfect for me. The space has large glass that frames each season. We will invite the public to the studio at some point, perhaps as part of a Hillsdale Studio Tour event.

I know you had a gallery in Hudson, NY, for many years. Now, you have relocated to a gallery space in Hillsdale, NY. Can you tell us your feelings about the move, the decisions involved, and how you see your new space?

JD: We wanted to recreate that gallery in Hillsdale. I have lived in Hillsdale since the mid-60s and considered the Town my home. I see what I

saw in Hudson in Hillsdale when our first gallery opened in 2004. An emerging business hamlet with fine shops and restaurants is an opportunity to be again a part of an evolution. When the space became available, we knew that it would be perfect.

What initially set you on a path to becoming a painter? What was your life all about when you began your artistic journey?

JD: There was always music, a piano, and art in my childhood home. It was there from the beginning. I majored in art in college, yet I quickly learned that earning a living in fine art would be difficult. So back to school I went for an administrative degree in education. Every morning on the way to the school in the City of Hudson. I painted the Catskill Mountains, and on my way home, I painted the foothills of the Berkshires, al-

ways allowing the seasons to drape the light for me. But in all those years, I had not picked up a paintbrush.I retired in 1996 to return to “maybe I can now embrace my dream of painting.” But I was unsure. So back to school, I went. I enrolled in Bard for landscape painting and Italian language and at CGCC for life drawing, women’s literature, and darkroom photography. Then I was certain!

Where do you look for ideas for a painting, and can you talk a little about your love for painting?

JD: My inspiration comes from light and shadow, people in everyday life, and the seasons. Oil painting is one of many focuses. Media is a choice. It is a choice that I make each time I determine which media will produce the best result for the image in my mind.

Interview by Harryet Candee Cover Photograph of Artist by Bobby Miller

-J.Damiani

Back Door, 16” x 20”

I love the mood in your painting, available as a print, “Back Door”. Do those two chairs have any symbolic meaning for you? They are in a relationship and have human personalities to me.

JD: The worn pillows and chairs near the back door revealed countless conversations, joys, sorrows, and friends. Hours and years created the character of the scene. I was inspired to capture that moment in time as I felt it. I am sure that other people saw and thought the same thing. They just forgot to remember it.

Is there anything you look closer and longer at in our world today? What have you realized about your connection with what you see and what you paint?

JD: I look closely at how shadows wrap around the windows and buildings and how light is diffused. I look closely at empty chairs, people at work, and people enjoying their time alone or with others.

Your portfolio of figures and landscapes is rich in color, and strength is seen in your angles of building and people you capture, minding their own business. Is there a subject you find more fluid and more straightforward to paint than another?

JD: Not necessarily. The inspiration comes from the image, whatever it may be.

When does it get tough and most challenging?

JD: When it gets tough for me, it means it is not working. I either put it away for another day, set

it aside, or stoke up the burn barrel. For me, creating should never be a struggle.

The painting, “Coastal”, is very moody, and the buildings have so much personality, with a feeling of solitude and loneliness. Tell us about this one, Joan.

JD: “Coastal” is set on the Merrimac River, the night before a torrential storm flooded the area. By morning, the River receded, and calm was restored. The sky cleared, and the fishermen who built their houses on posts were grateful.

Do you have other areas of interest that overlap with your artistic painting process and the theories you apply?

JD: I read novels and historical accounts written in Italian. I appreciate understanding and being understood when in another country. I struggle with the piano because it is a discipline that insists you follow the rules and symbols. I allow 2-3 miles of walking per day. It is always refreshing and stimulating. (My iWatch helps me keep track of my endeavors.)

What theories in art do you abide by that bring you to a place of mental satisfaction?

JD: I am guided by the fact that I do not paint the wall behind your couch or the empty wall in your boardroom. My art is never noncommittal or vague. I paint because something I saw or felt resonated within me and may also resonate within you.

Whether you have been self-taught as an artist or had formal education, what can you say you have learned the most through all your years as an artist?

JD: To be brave. To go forward, use the proverbial burn barrel, as the world does not need another painting.

The painting, “Finagle”, also has a sense of solitude, but not loneliness as much as engagement with one’s life. You have worked on the Finagle Sign, not just having it be a vague descriptive element. What was the intentional idea that was brought into this painting?.

JD: A woman enjoying time to herself is always a refreshing sight for me. “Finagle” was located in the financial district of Boston.

Tell us about your connection to Italy. “On The Grand Canal” is a beautiful painting.

JD: My parents immigrated to America from Italy. My maternal grandmother lived with us. It was a bilingual home filled with stories of Italy. In 1995, I was the administrator of a student exchange program in Veneto, Italy. The school district hosted those students and families in our homes the following year. For many years after that, we visited our Italian friends in Italy. We returned to Venice and Tuscany countless times to be with our friends and experience their beautiful country.

Continued on next page...

Coastal, Oil on linen, 24” x 14”

On the Grand Canal, 16” x 28”

The English Tourist, Oil on linen, 20” x 26”

La Mallorquina, printed on canvas

What encouraged you to do the painting, The English Tourist? The color is solid and brilliant, as are the features of this woman.

JD: The English Tourist, a pleasant yet dignified woman, sat opposite me on a motorboat on the Mediterranean Sea. She was dressed to the 9’s. She was exquisite against the clear blue sea, camera in hand, with jewels glowing in the sun. It took all of 5 years for me to assemble the composition, the colors, and her unforgettable attitude.

Growing up in Brooklyn must conjure memories and visions of those “tough being a kid” times. Looking back, how would you describe these years for you?

JD: Growing up in Brooklyn was certainly lifeshaping, but it was not tough for me to be a kid. We lived in a Sicilian neighborhood with family and friends all around us. Our 3-family house was filled with family. My grandmother spoke no Eng-

lish, so the home remained bilingual.

Tell us how you have worked with different mediums and techniques.

JD: I work primarily with oil, although ink, digital, and composite photography are also in the repertoire, as determined by the composition.

Do you have a favorite painting?

JD: do not have a favorite painting. Either I love it, or it hits the burn barrel.

What inspires you when you look out the windows of your Hillsdale studio?

JD: The seasons, the light, wildlife, plants, and how the weather changes our sky.

Do you have any upcoming travel plans, or are you staying nearby to welcome the summer crowd?

JD: I will travel to the east coast in the coming months to find light, shadow, and Hopper’s motivation.

Now, what thought comes to mind when you have added your signature and put down your brush?

JD: Picasso, when asked, said, “It is finished when you put your foot through it.”

Thank you Joan!

Finagle, 22” x 28”

"Creating abstract art is so very cathartic to me. It allows me freedom to choose the colors, textures, and design format from my intuition and see what develops. Sometimes it takes days of layering, and other times it comes out in a few hours. The more intricate the layers, the more interesting I find the final composition."

www.donlongoart.com

Sean Hutcheon

Elevated digital photography and media services for the visual arts

Specializing in meeting the imaging needs of visual artists,artisans,and galleries in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, jewelry and furnishings.

GOLDEN AURA Acrylics and mixed media, 36" x 36" TRANSITION

Acrylics on hard press water color paper, 21" x 15"

RICHARD ALAN COHEN

Fine Art Photography in Limited Editions

“Elements of the landscape used in unique ways to highlight my reverential relationship with the environment”

www.RichardAlanCohen.com

Richard@RichardAlanCohen.com

Instagram: @richardalancohen

Planet Falls - 3

Planet Falls -16

MARION GRANT

Artist, teacher, and art historian Marion Grant is a member of Clock Tower Artists in Pittsfield, MA. Her work can be seen at the group’s Open Studios held every first Friday of the month from 5-8 and every first Saturday from 11-4.

Grant says, “Working at the Clock Tower has brought me together with a dozen other amazing artists. We share and critique, and love our professional studios in this historic mill building close to downtown Pittsfield. I encourage readers to visit my studio and see the work in person. Call or email for private viewings, or come to our Open Studio events.

I’m continuing on my mixed media journey, as I don’t think I’m quite ready to give up the variety afforded me by the inclusion of hand-painted papers, thread, fabric, wood, and cloth combined with acrylic paint. I hope you enjoy seeing my work as much as I enjoy creating it.”

Marion Grant -75 So. Church St., Pittsfield, MA 413-446-7979; www.mariongrantart.com www.clocktowerartists.com

SHARON GUY LUMINOUS LANDSCAPES

I am inspired by scenic areas with beautiful light, especially early morning and later in the evening before dark. Once I find a place that inspires me, I visit often and make small plein air studies, sketches, and reference photos. Some of my outdoor paintings are finished works, and some will be used as studies for my studio paintings. My technique involves using a personal, expressive style with vibrant colors and some abstraction. I look for big shapes and patterns in nature and try not to cover them up with too many small details.

My nature art helps me feel more balanced and less stressed. There is something very healing about going out into the woods or walking barefoot on the beach. The paintings from these experiences give my collectors a sense of serenity and help them remember their favorite outdoor places. I like to use my art to bring the beaches, mountains, and forests into people’s homes and offices.

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

Scents by Skanda creates fragrances using only the rarest and finest ingredients.

We offer private olfactory consultations in order to find a fragrance that best suits you.

Perfumes

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Essential Oils and much more!

DON LONGO

When I begin a new painting, my end result would be one where there is texture, atmosphere, and feeling. Many are based on my background of growing up in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts where the natural beauty of the land and the serenity of quiet places gave me the daily energy I loved.

My first paintings started with a more realistic design. I wanted to capture the light and the quietness of the environments, such as walking to the lake through pastureland, dreaming of my future, or driving the backroads by myself, looking for that solitary area to listen to the sounds of the wind, the leaves, birds and babbling streams.

Today, I concentrate more on semi-abstract versions of those places with some similarity of realism. I use colors of the season I want to represent with smooth and rough textures. I sometimes use close-up images to bring you into the painting, then make you travel around the scenery just like I did as a young man being there. Other times I like the viewer to be far away, looking at the solitude of the distant landscape.

Once I decide my viewpoint, I begin manipulating the canvas with textural pastes, acrylic paint, oil stains, water, mineral spirits, and spray paint until I get the final desired result.

Reach us at (413) 717‐2498 Shop at scentsbyskanda.com and etsy.com/shop/scentsbyskanda

I loved to explore as a kid, and I now continue to explore as an adult. But now I do it on my canvases.

Don Longo - www.donlongoart.com

SPRING IS HERE, OIL ON PANEL, 12” X 12”

SPIRIT DANCE, 30” X 36”

IMAGES, 24” X 24”

LOVE LETTERS, MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS, 24”X 24”

BINNEY MEIGS STONE CARVER

Harryet Candee: Surface, texture, shape, color. How are these relevant to your creative process when working in stone? Show and tell with some of your sculptures, please.

Binney Meigs: Stone possesses a kind of breath energy because its sculpted form is generated by defining mass. At first, this may be hard to understand; think about body muscles under load bulging out as the tissue within contracts. Dynamics of form develop by offering weight and prominence in opposition to vacuum. This flow of energy can deeply impact us through our feelings. The stone can suggest roughness or broken passages in strict contrast to fine line or polish. A stippled texture may feel softly calming while a glassy polished space may speed up the eye’s discovery. Rain or wetting the stone will temporarily darken it and obscure the differences of polish and texture manifesting a completely alternate form. The total experience, if it’s really successful, appears to present an energy coming from an interior nucleus inside the stone. It is at this point, that the old Spanish proverb “every stone contains a spirit” becomes a reality.

Do you consider your sculptures an all-encompassing experience for viewers that include encouraging and permitting them to touch the surface? Though other sculptors may prohibit it, depending on the material used in creating the work, yours seem inviting to physically experience the surface, enabling all the senses to get involved.

BM: Most of my stone pieces are quite large and exhibited in outdoor settings. The rules of public, outdoor displays are a bit more relaxed compared to museum and gallery experiences. Physical experience can easily overtake a viewer in the presence of dynamic form. The urge to touch can become overwhelming. Often, the exhibition signage and didactics discourage this behavior but frequently, visitors touch the pieces anyway. After years of witnessing this, I have concluded that something very necessary is going on and it should be permitted. Humans desperately need to resonate with form in a visceral way as we exist flooded with abstract stimulae. People need to touch a form as they would a tree or grass. They can barely contain themselves around it and

maybe that’s healthy. My smaller stone pieces create the same reaction and I don’t discourage that either. The bronze pieces may be a different story as the patina can get rubbed off. But granite is fairly resistant to most things.

How important are the surroundings upon which the sculpture is set? What goes on when a site has been chosen?

BM: To be clear, sites are never random but they are rarely chosen before a sculpture has been commissioned or purchased. It can happen, but that requires a lot of planning and forethought rarely accessible to most clients. Also, most architects find challenges maintaining their own budget without inclusion of an extra cost such as a sculpture, that can easily be rejected as too pricey or too difficult or too overwhelming for the space. The overall budget for a project usually eliminates any sculpture at the outset. But sometimes, the opposite happens and a client embraces a sculpture so passionately that they surmount all obstacles. This requires courage and confidence, trust and commitment. Not everyone is prepared

“The creative act and play link us in timeless synchrony with our very beginnings.” BM

Interview by Harryet Candee Photographs Courtesy of the Artist / Katie Woodhouse

Ocean Swimmer carving and the Stone Carver

for this. A gestation time may have to pass before placement of a certain energy is deemed worthy. Needless to say, the commitment of a client’s inclusion of an artwork within their environment may very well be equal to the energy it took to make it in the first place. A piece is going to demand presence and will change everything around it. Considerations about background, approach, elevation (how high something should be) form and subject matter; all become serious issues.

What principles and theories do you work with that reinforce your mission as a sculptor? Where were their origins?

BM: Within the arts, the chance to be rejoined with creation exists. The artwork must resonate with the origin vibrations that have existed since the beginning of time. The form has to deliver, at least hint, of this in order to elicit a corresponding resonance with the viewer. The word “religion” is derived from the Latin “relegare” translated “to be rejoined.” The etymology does not define to what, exactly, one should be rejoined. But perhaps, it is sufficient to find oneself rejoined into a completeness and oneness that a fine artwork can induce. The fact that these words and definitions are so entwined in their intent and meaning is intensely profound.

I am curious about the sculpture Narcissus; I know this character you depicted has a fascinating story.

BM: The mythological character Narcissus has a long aesthetic history. He was the one for whom

daffodils and jonquils are named. The flowers’ genus is called narcissus perhaps because of the flowers’ downward facing orientation. The story goes that Narcissus, discovering his youthful reflection in a grotto pool, peered too closely and managed to drown himself. The extended morality tail suggests self centered admiration has little to gain and much to lose. Further, within the grotto, resided young nymphs who were enamored with Narcissus and how handsome he was. The nymph Echo was most in love with Narcissus. Her despair over Narcissus’ lack of attention is discussed below as I have carved versions of both of these famous characters. They are depicted with their personal bird baths as an association with the grotto in the story. Narcissus is in a private collection here in the Berkshires. My wife and I have Echo for company in our own garden. Because both these forms contain historic narratives surrounding unrequited longings in the vicinity of water, they are of natural garden interest.

Is there anything you wish the viewer to understand about your work that would give them greater appreciation and understanding?

BM: Not everyone comes to appreciate these things with immediacy. It can take time and one may need to give themselves a chance. I remember being completely mystified by several painter’s and sculptors’ works. Musicians too, can be challenging. New sounds can throw one off the trail. But, with patience, we may find a pathway. Let it sink in and see if some vibration of

the new doesn’t resonate.

The material you have chosen for most of your sculptures is granite. Please tell us why this material and how you find and select the blocks of rock you may or may not already know ahead of time what it will be transformed into.

BM: The word granite derives from the Latin granum or grain; an apt etymology as granites contain crystal particulate formed of connected, seed like bits. Due to the presence of silicas, essentially glass, and an abundance of colorful minerals, granite offers infinitely attractive textural variations, brilliant polish and weather resistance. In contrast, lime infused marble, lacking silica, cannot reach the same brilliance and remains vulnerable to atmospheric acids. Years ago my teacher informed his students that granite was easier carving than marble because, “You get more bang for your buck.” He insisted modest effort produced bolder, more dynamic form in the harder material. “Granite is better for lazy people,” he would argue. His doubtful students found this very amusing at the time but he then took us to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and proved his point. With minimal tools, but passionate energy, ancient craftsmen had extracted masterful form out of very demanding material. Somehow, though our artistic education leaned toward Greek and Roman marble romanticism, the Egyptians had produced a vigorous aesthetic with a timeless intensity. Most of the stone I carve is locally available Berkshire Granite. In truth, it is actually Continued on next page...

Demeter, 2005, Berkshire Granite, 24” x 24” x 65”

Narcissus,1998, Berkshire Granite, 30” x 30” x 36”, 1998, Private Collection

gneiss or, one could say, a well developed granite having been under heat and pressure for longer than regular granite. Some would call it “granite gneiss.” The stone is what the Berkshires are made of. You can see it in the surrounding hills. You’re walking on it. The tops of the mountains do have white quartz running through it. Stone quarried deeper down contains less figure and is almost a pure grey, creamy grain. If a rougher, more expressive, natural stone is required, I may choose rock from the surface of the quarry with a lot of “White Horses” in it. This refers to white quartz layers running through the grain. If it’s to be without “figure” or intense grain, it comes from deeper within the quarry. Other granites abound from other regions. I carve stone from coastal Maine too. Maine used to be a producer of very famous stone deployed all over the east coast for architectural purposes.

How can you describe the feeling that overcomes you when a piece is completed and ready to go to its forever home?

BM: I think you can tell a piece is finished because it stands on its own without any excuses, explanations nor outside persuasions. It breaths without my support and has taken on a life of its own. It doesn’t need me anymore. At this point, it’s ok to let it out into the world.

Do you critique your completed work to deter-

mine whether you aced in the hole or must return to adjust something? What do you check for?

BM: I recall the anecdote that Matisse, who sculpted as well as painted, when asked if some correction was called for in one of his works, agreed an action would be taken but only on the next painting. Mostly, I prefer to move on to new territory in the belief that one grows that way. Occasionally, I have made a change on a completed work. It’s hard to define an adjustment as a fix or a clarification. Honest critique reveals whether or not a complete totality of form has been achieved. Does the sculpture stand on its own as a singular, radiant energy that appears to have life from within itself? If it does, it’s time to let it out into the world.

Have you ever destroyed a creation in the works due to frustration with the material, tools, or something else? How do you redeem yourself? Frustration and art can often go hand in hand for artists, along with the passion to fulfill a vision. BM: I’m pretty stubborn. But I have backed away from a few things. Retreat from a clay piece before plaster casting is less annoying than an abandoned carving. My clay supply has been recycled repeatedly for years; testament to its loyal consistency. Stone has a way of insisting on success. I try to fulfill my responsibility and stone has a way of revealing itself with gentle persuasion.

Sculpting in stone is no lightweight venue. Much of it is very intensive physical work. What part of the physical labor involved do you find challenging? Might it be chiseling the granite's hard surface? I know there is more to tell than meets the eye.

BM: I worked with a landscaper once. His clients inevitably inquired about his favorite phase of the laborious and messy process. He always replied, “When it’s finished.” I’ve never forgotten this and find myself realizing the same feeling. There’s a lot of labor involved with flying, sharp stone particles stinging into your face. The heat of summer is particularly trying as the dust clings uncomfortably everywhere. In winter, the necessity to vent the work space causes the temperature to drop drastically. Before my new studio was built, the concrete floor wasn’t heated so I wore boot heaters, designed for ski boots, to keep my feet warm. This helped but didn’t prevent the water that lubricates the polishing process from freezing before it reached the floor which rapidly became a skating rink. The stone and work pedestal developed stalactites of ice as the grey polish water approached the cold floor. The tip of my nose frostbit as it touched the cold, rubber respirator into which, even my breath, froze. Under those conditions, the work became a series of efforts to thaw the floor, the work and myself with various gas torches and space heaters. Today, it’s not as bad. The studio floor is heated. But the

Heads and Tails, 2014,Vinalhaven Island Black Gabro Granite 17” x 12” x 25” Berkshire Granite pedestal

physical nature of carving can remain daunting. Meanwhile, each step can be viewed as a road of progress toward greater revelation of a dynamic form. The process reveals advancement of a totality never experienced in advance, only in the present. Difficulties along the way become irrelevancies as the pieces inner energy becomes gradually revealed.

Briefly describe, as if you were a teacher, how one should look at a piece of granite, hold a chisel, and manage to best work a surface that needs a particular texture? What age group would your students be, and why?

BM: Sculpture demands its three dimensions. With patience and practice, the issues of weight, dirt, dust and tool handling can be surmounted. I’ve taught children who were very young in clay, plaster and stone. And wood too. Children need steps and expectations of modest proportions to gain facility toward success. If they’re young enough, just the activity with their hands is usually appealing enough to engage them. Adults require more encouragement because their self critical observations need to be addressed. We are all humans and creativity is our birthright and our inborn ability. Young children know this inherently but become self critical swiftly. With encouragement, they can experience the feeling of creation. For students able to hold a hammer and a chisel, they just go at it. If the polishing ma-

chine is within their ability, they love the gradual emerging smoothing and glassiness. If the machine is too big, they like using old broken grindstone grit and water to grind a stone down. Older, more physically capable students might progress to heavier power tools but frequently, they are more comfortable with the basics. Stone has grain and rhythmic characteristics running through it that can be exploited to ease the work. Geometry comes into effect too. A block of stone is quite fragile along its crisp edges. A light tap in the right place can knock off quite a large piece. Stone can be split too. Very large blocks can be cracked into two by placing steel wedges into predrilled holes. Within minutes, a block can be brought to a smaller dimension. Modern tools include diamond embedded saws that can fit onto light household grinders and pneumatic tools that percussively chisel and chip. The sawing and percussive actions require significant dust control when working granite, so that is a consideration.

Before sculpting stone, you mentioned you were a painter. Tell us your thought process leading you from one venue to another?

BM: There wasn’t a transition. Everything happened simultaneously though, for certain periods, while living in New York City for example, sculpture was dormant while I studied painting. My artistic spark started with clay. Even as a child, I preferred working in clay to drawing and painting

but the art programs in school discouraged use of the clay during times when it wasn’t in “condition” or because the lesson was headed elsewhere. Then suddenly, In high school, I became my school’s first ceramics teacher as no one else would do it. The teacher and I began a kind of collaboration to relieve her from the crowds of students clamoring to mess with the old, abused and almost dysfunctional potter’s wheel. There was no kiln but nobody cared. If children’s feet could reach the kick wheel, I would teach them one at a time. Anyone could have a turn. The teacher was Barbara Crawford, a passionate painter, draftsperson and trained illustrator from the Philadelphia area. I had known her since kindergarten and knew she cared more about drawing and painting. Soon, she pressed that I should once again, attempt painting more seriously. I resisted at first but rapidly became very absorbed in it and our friendship grew. Eventually, Barbara asked me if I would be interested coming to a night painting class held by her ex husband, Sam Feinstein. Feinstein had studied with Hans Hoffmann and was a dedicated colorist painter of significant influence in Philadelphia, New York and Cape Cod artistic circles. It was an honor to be asked to attend his class and an exciting opportunity. The classes were held at Barbara’s house and studio in downtown Philadelphia on Monday nights. As I had a driver’s license and access to my parContinued on next page...

Embrace, 2015, Berkshire Granite, 35” x 16” x 50” Black Walnut pedestal with Bahia Red base plate

Binney carving Child’s Pose

ents’ car, I could drive in town from the suburbs with other classmates as a sort of car pool. I was about 17. For me, these classes changed every perception about art and creative activity forever. After seeing and hearing Sam’s always positive critique of each student’s work, reinforced with references to masters of the past, it was obvious that we were in the presence of a great teacher and master painter. I wanted to study with him from the night we met but college obligations and the fates interfered. I ended up studying sculpture before painting after all. But, eventually, after getting some college under my belt, I was able to return to New York and take classes with Sam for several years. Sam was uncompromising in his dedication to his art and generously encouraging with his students. Occasionally, he would demonstrate. An entire canvas could shift its focus and energy with just a minute dab of paint, carefully mixed to a specific hue, placed exactly so. It was as if a new planetary body had entered a universe and every orbit had to adjust accordingly. The canvas would become larger and breathe deeper with just this tiny adjustment. Memorably, Sam stressed that realism and nonobjective work operated under the same graphic principles of spacial integrity and were therefore the same. A painting’s power came from its abstract principles not accuracy of depiction. This aesthetic training was unequaled anywhere. I have tried to carry these lessons with me even though I am not con-

sistently involved with the practice of painting.

I am interested in hearing more about the sculpture Echo. Its location looks over a body of water. What is the relationship between this sculpture and its chosen location?

BM: Echo, as mentioned earlier, will be forever linked to her mythological counterpart, Narcissus. When Echo sought Narcissus’ attentions, he was too obsessed with himself and he ignored her. In sorrow, she pined away within her grotto and died. Only the echo of her plaintive call remains within any cave, grotto or hollowed space where sound resonates. After exhibiting Echo for a while, my wife and I decided she would fit well within a curved, stone retaining space in our garden. She features her birdbath but the positioning happens to be above a curtain drain area that intentionally floods during rain. She is near a lot of water where the birds visit her daily.

Was there a person who might have inspired you to explore the world of stone carving?

BM: I was very fortunate to find someone dedicated to teaching about sculpture within a classical, fundamental framework. His name is Reno Pisano and he taught at what is now The Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, on the North Shore of Cape Anne. This was in the mid 70’s and most art schools leaned toward conceptual approaches. I attempted to study at several such

schools but found the exploration without inspiration or passion and soon left. Montserrat offered a different, more traditional approach but no degree at the time. I went anyway. Pisanno, known to his students as Ray, carved marble and granite and made exquisite castings in resins, frequently of large dimensions. Insisting no student should be denied a sculptural experience due to costs, he taught students to make their own carving tools, build armatures and learn to temper raw carbon steel in a homemade forge. In addition to lavishing time and attention on his students, Ray made a living as an industrial designer and could show product development and model building to interested students. Under his guidance, figure modeling and drawing classes from life were offered. Leery of the drawing classes at the time, I have never forgotten the lessons I struggled with and certainly don’t regret them. The portrait and figure modeling classes were executed in clay followed by casting in plaster. To top it all off, students could attend an evening tour of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ Egyptian and Classical Greek and Roman wings under Ray’s guidance in pursuit of just how relevant and present masterful workmanship remains centuries later. This instruction left an indelible impression and a lifetime of skills from which to draw upon.

I am fascinated by the three sculptural pieces, Buoyancy. Is there a balance between the square

Echo, Binney Meigs,1999, Berkshire Granite, 40” x 30” x 30”, Artist’s Collection

BINNEY MEIGS STONE CARVER

and round shapes?

BM: Buoyancy is a construct of contrasts. A bubble infers floatation within a fluid. It’s a marine theme inspired by fluid dynamics that are a constant among sea farers and boat design. Though we always assume floatation is caused by something being lighter, the forces of our earthly atmosphere against the mass of water can cause a mass to float and move, seemingly weightlessly. The smooth, white, seemingly water worn stone is elevated by a black rectangle. The opposites have an uplifting effect.

What was the most monumental-sized stone carved sculpture you created? In what ways did the early stages after the sketches, the Maquette (the mini model in 3-D), serve to assist you in the process?

BM: I think the word “monumental” carries significant relevance to sculpture, not because a work may gain immense size but because monumentality may exude out of modest dimensions. Jewelers know this and concentrate on design brimming with energy though the piece may be tiny. Granite weighs about two hundred pounds per cubic foot so it does take a certain heft to make a statement within a landscape. Conversely, granite’s energy is powerful and dynamic where even a small mark upon a surface carries significance as can be viewed in ancient Egyptian works. Some years ago, I completed a commis-

sioned garden work that included a massive, three ton torso; about as big as my equipment could manage. As the inspirational plaster maquette was much smaller, and the hefty stone figure required a sizable foot pad to stand, the two designs are quite different. I think both carry quite an impact each in their own way.

How exact must you be when you do your preliminary drawings? What is the wiggle room, and what needs to be precise? Do you use pencils or washes to achieve tonals?

BM: I try not to obsess about drafting accuracy. I’ll admit to great admiration for others’ capabilities but simultaneously, I believe that all humans possess explorative, creative energies and so, I certainly shouldn’t doubt my own even if it doesn’t measure up to others’ standards or my own criticism. I draw a lot intending to grope for an ever wider universe of form that may or may not actually become a sculpture. Often, just the form itself, just the human body bending and twisting, crudely depicted yet graphically present is better than no drawing at all. So, I don’t attend to niceties or rules of anatomy, perspective or other tenants of realism. If there is a sense that the form is growing from inside itself, that’s positive. While previously, my drawings were more spatially focused toward graphic possibilities related to painting, they are now almost exclusively figurative because of the human figure’s relationship

to sculptural form in space. There are no models. Everything is imaginative and kind of an explosion, lending infinite possibility and potential for three dimensional concepts. Sometimes, the drawing leads to an orderly transition to a carving. But sometimes, the carving comes first and gets reinvigorated by plunging through drawings related to the subject. The drawing can be instantaneous or studied, languorous or flip. But, no matter what its circumstances, the execution is casual without physical exertion in contrast to carving stone.There are materials of every description: charcoal, conte, graphite of numerous description, inks and washes. I deploy them all depending on mood and opportunity. I have several erasers too.

How do you go about creating a Maquette that follows the preliminary drawings?

BM: I just plunge in. A decision evolves about scale. How big should it be? If it’s full size or three quarter size, it will probably get formed in clay. But if it’s miniature, easy to carry around and work, it could get done in wax. Modeling in wax has advantages as it’s very light, portable and can easily be translated into bronze. I make an armature of steel and or wood stripping and go at it. Copying from the drawing isn’t as important to me as gaining a sense of fullness of form.

Continued on next page...

Buoyancy, Binney Meigs, 2012, Vinalhaven Granite Canadian Black Base, 28” x 14” x 24”, Private Collection

What was the most beautiful sculpture you have ever seen face to face? Why would it seem beneficial to people to experience actual art rather than from a second or third-generation copy?

BM: It isn’t easy to pick just one sculpture because there are so many. The best tend to cluster in certain places and museums around the world. When in their vicinity, I always try to plan a visit. One can get a general idea from photographs in books or on line but an actual personal view is a far greater experience and more memorable. Even obscure, small and seemingly inconsequential pieces can become powerful and will draw you in. There is an Egyptian carving fragment of lips in the Metropolitan Museum. Just the lips broken off of a portrait head. Those lips carry immense energy and prove Michelangelo’s adage that good sculpture can be thrown off a mountain top and still be sculpture at the bottom. As much energy comes out of that set of lips as out of an entire head. Modernist works too, can carry great beauty. I have great regard for Isamu Noguchi’s works, Brancusi’s carvings and Degas’ maquettes which he executed but never exhibited. There are

many others. They exude a life that seems to come from inside themselves and are mesmerizing.

Logocycle is an exciting piece you have created. What is the meaning you convey?

BM: I invented the word “logocycle” as extrapolated from the word Logos. Of Greek derivation meaning “word,” the inference is combined with “reason” and the controlling forces within the universe. In its more complex definitions, Logos also refers to the “breath” surrounding words and used to create them by voice. It’s an expression inferring meaning, proportion and ratio that could be apparent and present without further explanation. It is manifest as if given the breath of life. The Logocycle sculpture is an exploration of forms and textures in size ratio taken from within the granite stone in which it’s carved. The polished disks’ diameters, the arch of their trajectory and their comparative polish grit, follow the ratio of convergence of the two colliding quartzite lines you see within the upper part of the stone. My “chop” with which I sign all my stone pieces is

seen at the bottom. It too is derived from a mathematical formulation involving a geometry of two converging lines that never touch each other into infinity though they are also not in parallel. The concept that all things are in a perfect relation and exquisite balance in spite of all our observations to the contrary seems apt. I don’t sign my name nor put a date. There’s just the chop. The Logocycle sculpture serves as a sign though there is no writing.

That is why those who can find a place to sit and admire what you have done can share in an overall beautiful experience, as with the sounds of music at a Tanglewood concert right down the road. One must be a bit of a Romantic to create sculptures with themes of love, as yours are, so I wonder, alongside being such an artist, what of all the arts is a good combination for you?

BM: I’m dedicated to my practice in sculpture but I’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a pianist. One picks one’s battles and gravitates toward what works best.

Logocycle, 2004, Berkshire Granite, 28” x 4” x 60”, Artist’s Collection

Child’s Pose, plaster with acrylic patina

Child’s Pose, White plaster

Do you fill the air with music while you work when the sounds of the cutting machinery do not interfere?

BM: I have to wear ear protection while carving as there is so much noise. But carving isn’t the only activity. There are days, even weeks, when there is no carving. During quieter explorations the radio can be on. Also, I have an extensive collection of cd’s; mostly rock and roll, blues, jazz and folk music. I find popular musicians to be very inspiring as they are comparatively unaffected by modernist academia and critical scrutiny. They soldier on producing an honesty we can all aspire to.

When folks take a little road trip to Kimble Farms in Lenox, Massachusetts, they can experience your indoor and outdoor carved granite sculptures and landscapes. Why has this been a good opportunity for you so far?

BM: The Kimball show has been a serendipitous experience that’s gratifying, encouraging and just plain fun. Few venues have the chutzpah to put heavy stone pieces indoors. The outside ones are

challenging enough but Sharon Lazerson, Kimball’s Activities Director, is indefatigable. The residents are enthusiastic too as an experienced and discerning audience. So I think it’s a great opportunity for everyone.

Moving these heavy pieces from one place to another must be challenging. What further work do you see taking place regarding your installations at Kimble Farms?

BM: Three outdoor pieces remain to be installed as of this writing. Once you get used to the process and what is required, the job becomes fairly routine. I will load the disassembled pieces into one of two trailers; one can carry a bit over one ton. The bigger one can carry a bit over two tons. I have a forklift to lift the pieces and a pickup truck to pull the trailers. Kimball is blessed with a very professional and talented grounds crew equipped with loading equipment that will assist in the installation. With a little site prep, we’ll be all set.

Describe what one day of work in your studio is like. We might be then enticed to make an appointment to see you there.

BM: I work every day but the actual studio part is only one aspect. It’s usually in the afternoon and evening when the other obligations and chores have been attended to and phone calls and correspondence can be back burnered until the next day. I’ll try to get in there for a few hours. The work could be anything from messing with a drawing, building a new armature, casting something in plaster or tackling a carving. It’s kind of messy with several things going on at once. Tools and machinery need repair and maintenance. All these things can be going on. While the action is interesting in and of itself, the work won’t become aware of itself nor we of it “until it’s done.”

Thank you, Binney!

Child’s Pose, Granite, Now on view at Kimball Farms, Lenox, MA

TRUTH OR DARE THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL ART WORKS OF YURA ADAMS AND STUART FARMERY

By Jeanette Fintz

The coincidence of International Sculpture Day, April 29th, with viewing the work of Yura Adams and Stuart Farmery raised questions of motive and approach to making a three - dimensional artwork now.

Yura Adams whose multi-faceted, beautifully articulated two-person show at Turley Gallery, Hudson has recently closed, is known primarily as a painter, though her current foray into 3 dimensions isn’t completely new territory for her. She’s previously explored painting on round lantern-like paper supports, exhibited notably at the John Davis Gallery, Hudson.

Farmery, a sculptor and prolific draughtman, mentioned his background as being steeped in the “truth to material” doctrine by his art school mentors both near and far, via the heroes of the day, Anthony Caro, David Smith, and Donald Judd. His bold often totemic assemblages in combinations of roughly chiseled wood, steel, and concrete display that inculcation though they playfully contradict and bend perceptions of

weight and balance through his application of bold color and often pattern as well. Post-minimalist though that he is, these forms won’t keep still. They are comically animated both individually and in pairs or groups conversing and jabbing one another in the proverbial ribs.

Adams’ smorgasbord of tempting table-top works installed at Turley Gallery, and one enormous plaster and caste fabric piece which I’ll return to later, conform to none such ballast, but came out of her painting practice. Many skillfully painted works lay upon contrasting or matching “place mats” in colorful patterns, checks, or stripes. So how to look at these became a challenge, since a formalist approach was out of the question. Judy Chicago’s iconic feminist work “The Dinner Party” presents itself obliquely as the mother of Adams’ table sculptures, in contrast with Farmery’s materialist fathers.

Clued in by Adams to one guiding motive, her unifying theme of communication, enabled me to see these pieces as shapes that needed to be better

heard and therefore had jumped out of their picture plane. Some have appropriately taken the shape of a megaphone or are reminiscent of an old - fashioned phonograph speaker. Others have yoni like openings or archways. Several of the pieces have been caste from blocks of marble that were found on her property, others from balloons. The process of casting in plaster, then wrapping in fabric and painting, and often waxing too, purposefully distances the sculptures from material truth. “Mute” and “Unmute “are decked out in patterned camouflage, a distraction from their inert and solemn self - containment. The translucency of waxed fabric in many of the pieces seems eerily like the surface of skin. A delightful contradiction in perception of material truth as well as modes of communication appears in the form of a gravity - defying wood and marble “Spy Balloon”, a thought - bubble covered in graffiti, hovering in the air aloft a thin stick.

The largest caste marble piece “Sisy” totally convinces as marble at first glance. The caste plaster

Yura Adams, Unmute Ink, acrylic, fabric 8.5” x 13” x 8.5” 2023

Yura Adams, Spy Balloon Ink, acrylic, fabric, wood, marble 35.5” x 16” x 8” 2023

is fabric-wrapped, waxed, and then demarcated with black dashed lines and decorated with patterns within those sections. Its map-like, milkywhite surface indicates districts or zones, but of what? Sections of real estate or a piece of meat, areas of the brain? Printed words in each zone are written backwards as though seen from within the stone, from a consciousness beneath the surface. Adams’ illusionist techniques distance that rock from its original nature and imbue it with an interior life. The witty title twigs the viewer to the myth of Sisyphus, pushing the fabled boulder uphill.

The sources for Farmery’s forms are often functional objects that are demanding to be SOMETHING other than what they humbly resemble: plumbing pipes and electrical tubing, carpentry tools, barbells, exercise machinery and furnaces. His lively drawings in charcoal and oil stick, develop antic relationships among shapes that will inspire the creation of one or more individual new sculptures. Farmery transforms them with humor

and directness also often rearranging parts, Frankenstein–like, attaching plaid tops to crunchy striped bottoms and “appendages” from one piece to a newer one.

Both artists’ work has palpable relationship to the human body, but they are quite opposed as to how that is expressed. Farmery’s “Blue Cloud” in brilliantly hued and chiseled wood, is torso–like, torqued, tactile and weighty. Its positioning aloft a slim cigarette-like cylinder toys with one’s perception of scale and matter, as its title does for metaphor. In this it shares contractions with Adam’s “Spy Balloon”. Farmery’s pieces are typically gesturing, reaching, leaning - in, and invite you to take ahold, projecting athleticism even when in a reclining position. Adams’ ovoids and blocks transmit immanence and self – reflexiveness bristling within.

Farmery’s recent pieces, “Bellinger” and “Dream Pipe” play with our expectation of the sculptor’s traditional casting material such as bronze or steel. He employs cardboard to “caste” the stove-like

object that would paradoxically incinerate if required to function as a heat sheath. Color, typically a painter’s province, in these instances deeply saturated pthalo blue, and a pastel tintedout version of it, kissing a pale violet puff of smoke change our perception of the very similar objects’ weight and contour. “Dream Pipe” is loaded with innuendo and humor.

Farmery’s work joins Pop-Art sensibility to formalist principles. He has utmost respect for the strength and usefulness of cardboard. In this case it’s literally being caste (as in roleplay) as a caste and confounds our expectations as Adams’ translucent rock has done.

The strong correspondence between his drawing method of choreographing several shapes on a page to heighten the negative space, indicates that he’s thinking of their outlines in relationship to one another in the viewer’s visual field, not just to the page’s perimeter.

Adams’ caste marble pieces inscribed with words Continued on next page...

Stuart Farmery, Blue Cloud 53” x 14” x 18” & Bunny 62” x 10” x 9" Wood & paint 2023

Stuart Farmery, Untitled Charcoal,glitter,oilsstick on paper 26” x 40” 2023

Stuart Farmery, Blue Thunder Oil stick, charcoal on paper 48” x 18” 2023

Stuart Farmery, Dream Pipe Cardboard, paint, hot glue 53” x 24” X 9” 2023

or drawings reference petroglyphs, and reinforce her stated theme of communication, though not between those in the exhibited group per se. Her most intriguing pieces are essentially paintings with drawn or written messages /images, wrapped around a closed volume. These works imply a psychological narrative, even a biographical thread linking them, albeit loosely. As exemplified in “Pony Express” a womb-on-wheels with an explosion or embryo painted upon it, the sculptures have no appendages to reach out, relying on words or cryptic symbols inscribed on their “skins”. Exceptions to this are the arched pieces, as in “Fleshy Arch”, emblematic of the feminine as entry way, as well as the characteristics of the geographical terrain of south western US.

Both Adams and Farmery draw us in by presenting what appears to be familiar, though that which is immediately perceived is gradually revealed to be somewhat tricky, requiring more thorough examination. Insinuated with a whisper or with grab

- you-by-the-collar enthusiasm, both artists bend material truth into the shape of art.

Yura Adams, a multi-media artist, has recently exhibited her paintings, sculpture, and installations in a solo show at Olympia Gallery NYC, at the NADA Art Fair, and in group shows at the Opalka Gallery, and LABspace, Hillsdale NY. She is the recipient of the Peter S. Reed Foundation Award (2022), as well as the Pollock - Krasner Grant (2019), the NYFA Individual Artist Grant (2010), and the NEA for New Genres (1985). Adams received her BFA & MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She resides and works in Great Barrington MA.

Stuart Farmery was born in a British Army base in Germany and grew up in England, Singapore, and India. He received his BFA 1st class honors, at Central School of Art, London. His recent exhibitions have been solo shows at Joyce Goldstein Gallery, Chatham NY, Byrdcliff, Woodstock NY

and Hofstra University. Group shows include Collarworks, Troy NY, the Mount, Lenox MA, The RE Institute, Millerton NY, Kaatsbaan, Tivoli NY, LABspace Hillsdale NY, and Ryan Turley Gallery, Austerlitz NY. He resides in Ghent, NY

Stuart Farmery’s new work can be seen in a two-person show at Joyce Goldstein Gallery19 Central Square Chatham, NY, May 21 - June 24, 2023. 518-764-8989. Gallery hours: Thurs - Sat 1 - 5, Sunday 1- 3pm.

For information about Yura Adams’ new work contact Turley Gallery 19 Greene St Hudson, NY. 518-212-7888. Gallery hours:Fri– Sun 12 - 5 pm.

Yura Adams, Pony Express Ink, acrylic, fabric and plaster 12” x 8.5” x 4” 2023

Yura Adams, Sisy Ink, acrylic, fabric, glue 40” x 50” x 28” 2023

THE ARTFUL MIND VIRTUAL GALLERY 6.2023

RUBY AVER

Ruby Aver 413 854 7007

Housatonic Studio open by appointment rdaver2@gmail.com Instagram and Facebook

The City Series no.6: Takadanobaba Neighborhood ,Tokyo Acrylic on canvas 16x20”

Mark Mellinger : 914-260-7413

The

markmellinger680@gmail.com

Clock Tower Business Center, 3rd floor, 75 South Church St, Pittsfield, MA

Stellar Nebula. Acrylic on canvas. 48" x 60". 2023

The Curvature of Space/Time. Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 20". 2023

CAROLYN NEWBERGER

Carolyn Newberger: 617-877-5672

cnewberger@me.com www.carolynnewberger.com

Mother Tree, Watercolor and pastel, 8” x 6”

The Mount in Springtime, Watercolor, 12” x 16”

Incandescence of Mushrooms, Watercolor, 6” x16”

BRUCE PANOCK

Bruce Panock: 917-287-8589

www.panockphotography.com

bruce@panockphotography.com

Listen to Women Femine Empowerment Series, 40” x 50”

Silent Spring, Watercolor, 40” x 30”

Wine Bar 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

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

THE CONNECTOR GALLERY AT KIMBALL FARMS

The Sky’s The Limit openes on Saturday, May 27, 2pm. This show will run until July 6, 2023.

For Rick Costello, Berkshire astronomer, the sky is limitless. Rick is enthusiastic and generous about sharing his life-long passion for learning about the universe. All year round, on clear nights, he sets up his telescope at various locations throughout the county and invites anyone interested to stargaze with him.

With loving attention to detail and accuracy, Rick also paints celestial images. The Connector Gallery at Kimball Farms is honored to offer twelve of his paintings in its upcoming show; The Sky’s the Limit, opening on May 20 from 2-4 pm.

The Connector Gallery, literally connecting two wings of Kimball Farms, hopes with this show to connect viewers with the heavens.

As well as Rick’s paintings, there will be sweeping vistas in the lush paintings of Ghetta Hirsch, heavenly moments captured in Lonny Jarrett’s photography, and the beautifully uplifting, thought-provoking World Views of Richard Alan Cohen.

Joel Hotchkiss’s original mobiles delight, and the elusive and popular, sometimes Berkshire artist Jill Johnson, flies in with spectacularly colorful birds!

Sean McCusker will be sharing his multilayered luminous iconic paintings.

Grounding us in granite are six lovely sculptures by Binney Meigs, three of them newly installed on the grounds of Kimball Farms.

Be prepared to be enthralled, uplifted, and delighted.

Kimball Farms Life Care Continuing Care Retirement Community is the only Life Care community in Western Massachusetts. Based in Lenox, Kimball Farms includes Independent Living, Assisted Living, the Life Enrichment Memory Care Program, and the Kimball Farms Nursing Care Center. Kimball Farms is owned by Integritus Healthcare, a leader among not-forprofit, post-acute care organizations in Massachusetts.

Integritus Healthcare (IHC) (www.integritushealthcare.org) is a national leader among notfor-profit, post-acute care organizations in

Massachusetts. IHC operates 14 skilled nursing facilities in Berkshire County, the Pioneer Valley, the North Shore, South Shore and Cape Cod; Kimball Farms Life Care in Lenox; Linda Manor Assisted Living in Northampton; Day Brook Village Senior Living in Holyoke; East Longmeadow

Memory Care Assisted Living and HospiceCare in The Berkshires as well as Pioneer Valley Hospice & Palliative Care (Greenfield) for those with life-limiting illnesses. For more information, visit www.kimballfarms.org

The Connector Gallery at Kimball Farms235 Walker St, Lenox, Massachusetts. Come by to see the art! Close to downtown Lenox; easy parking; lovely grounds, inspirational art perfect for our Berkshires springtime!

HOTCHKISS MOBILES

BINNEY MEIGS

RICK COSTELLO

SEAN MCCUSKER

GHETTA HIRSCH

JILL JOHNSON

BECKET ARTS CENTER SUMMER SCHEDULE

The Becket Arts Center (BAC) has announced its 2023 summer schedule filled with art exhibits, lectures and workshops, music, theater, storytelling, and so much more for art enthusiasts of all kinds, young and old, near and far.

The highlights include: five juried art shows, four special exhibits, and a BAC member show (all free and open to the public); Music Brings Communities Together - free, live, outdoor music on select Saturdays through September ; Monthly Speaker Series lectures (free for BAC members; $5 for non-members); Live Art Demonstrations every Monday (in-person and livestreamed on Facebook); Art classes, storytelling, theater, yoga, and dance workshops (discounts available to members). For full schedule, dates, and complete details, the website.

The Becket Arts Center gallery and gift shop are open to the public Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, 12:00-4:00 pm. The BAC gift shop, featuring carefully crafted items by local artisans, can be accessed online - www.becketartscenter.org/shop or in person during open hours.

Programs are supported by grants from the following: Mass Cultural, Berkshire Bank; Central Berkshire Fund, a fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation; Feigenbaum Foundation, towns of Becket, Blandford, Chester, Hinsdale-Peru, Lee, Otis, Sandisfield, Tolland, Tyringham, and Washington, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Many thanks to our BAC members and business sponsors for their enthusiastic support of arts in our communities.

For more than 50 years, the Becket Arts Center (BAC) has been a mainstay of culture and art in the Berkshires. The Becket Arts Center’s mission is to ensure that creative expression is a vital and vibrant part of the everyday lives of the regional community. As a membership organization that supports the cultural and artistic needs of the Hilltowns, the Center offers diverse experiences that serve the full spectrum of artists, from the professional to the avocational, and arts appreciators, to inspire, educate, and enrich their lives.

Becket Arts Center –

7 Brooker Hill Road, Becket; email: office@becketartscenter.org 413-623-6635.

To become a BAC member and support community arts visitwww.becketartscenter.org/membership

CLOCK TOWER ARTISTS

Starting in May, the Clock Tower Artists have expanded open hours with more artists to see. From May through December thirteen artists will welcome the public the first Friday of each month from 5-8 pm and the first Saturday from 11 am4 pm. The studios are located on the third floor of the Clock Tower Business Park at 75 South Church Street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The public is invited to explore the studios, see original artworks, learn about the processes, and observe artists’ tools and techniques. There is ample parking, an elevator, and handicap accessibility.

The artists represent a wide variety of styles, genres, and mediums. You will see paintings in acrylic, oil, watercolor, mixed media, painters, sculptors, encaustics, drawings, collage, dance, and more. For more information on the events and artists, link to the group’s website.

The Clock Tower Artists include Deborah Carter, Joanie Ciolfi, Marion H. Grant, Stacey Healy, Caroline Kelley, Bruce Laird, Mark Mellinger, Linda Petrocine, Shany Porras, Sally Tiska Rice, Ilene Richard, Audrey Shachnow, Stefanie Weber.

Clock Tower Artistsww.clocktowerartists.com; instagram @theclocktowerartists

GHETTA HIRSCH

It is so nice to see reeds, grass, and Berkshires wild flora welcoming spring. I saw these grasses growing “above the line” of water at the Williams College pond and I knew the ochre and burnt sienna of the soil was finally releasing the grey and white of our long snowing season. This mix of wild plants will grow to form a field of green cattails that will nourish our birds and insects.

I love to see the red-winged blackbird fly from one place to another on this same pond, calling loudly in flight in a very distinctive chat. I am looking forward to more typical Berkshires sighting as these regular happenings in nature around me direct my artistic exploration.

Most of my work will show landscapes and take a closer look at nature. The variety is guided by the seasonal changes and the medium is always oil. Sometimes I work on wood or paper, but most of the time I am excited to spread my colors on canvas.

I invite you to visit my home studio by appointment or look at my website.

In June some of my work will be exhibited at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, Vermont and in Lenox, MA at Kimball Farms Connector Gallery, 235 Walker Street. The exhibit at Kimball Farms is called “The Sky’s the Limit” and opens daily from 8am to 8pm.

I do hope to see some of you at one of the opening receptions or you can contact me for a more private visit and a leisurely time in my studio.

Ghetta Hirsch - 413-597-1716, ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com

Marion H. Grant Mark Mellinger

Joanie Ciolfi Sally Tiska Rice

Ilene Richard

...Plus 8 more great artists!

ABOVE THE LINE, OIL ON ARCHES PAPER FRAMED UNDER GLASS, 9” X 12”

BOBBY MILLER PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

My teacher, master photographer Lisette Model, taught me that the secret behind a great portrait is the relationship between the photographer and his subject and the artistic capture of the moment.

I believe in incorporating both the classic tools of the camera and newer technologies like Photoshop. In that way my portraits correct the small flaws that nature has bestowed on us. I create images that show us not only as who we are but who we can be as well. So, if you feel daring and inspired to have a portrait that defines you at your very best, I encourage you to come sit before my camera.

Bobby Miller- 508-237-9585. By Appointment Only.

CAROLYN NEWBERGER

Come see Carolyn’s images of music in the Berkshires during June at the Stockbridge library and at the Colonial theater in Pittsfield. And throughout the summer, read Carolyn and Eli Newberger’s Jacob’s Pillow dance reviews in the Berkshire Edge. And while you’re at it, catch her work during July at the Becket Arts Center, and throughout the summer at the FutureLab(s) Gallery in North Adams.

Carolyn Newberger- 617-877-5672 www.carolynnewberger.com cnewberger@me.com

ilene Richard

MARK MELLINGER

Practicing art for 60 years and psychoanalysis for 40, Dr. Mark Mellinger’s careers concern what can be spoken of and what transcends language. In painting, collage and constructions of wood and iron he is drawn to the physicality of materials.

Avoiding predictability of style, Mellinger explores the possibilities of matter and media. Our lives and our world are transient. We must seek meaning in truth, creativity and connectedness.

Mark V. Mellinger, Ph.D.- 914-260-7413, 71 S Church St, Pittsfield MA

GANSEVOORT STREET. ACRYLIC AND COLLAGE ON CANVAS 36" X 36". 2021

JOSHUA MCLEAN AND CALEB TEICHER, SWING OUT, JACOB’S PILLOW, 12” X 17”

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

Fabulous Double Dip

MOLLIE KELLOGG

Incognito Witch Project examines hidden magick suppressed by society, ourselves, physical or mental illness, fear, relationships, etc. – universal, emotional triggers. Early on, folks found participation an empowering, fulfilling, quality experience.

Kellogg conjures a magickal world through more than just canvas -- the project has included film, music, and dance over the years.

Mollie presented her inner magick message at ArtRage Gallery in NY, CA, and AZ. Mollie’s fine art has sold internationally, and her film screenings include Heal One World’s Awareness Festival in Los Angeles; awards include Nine Worlds London LGBTQAI Track Award. Meet-the-Artist: (Starts at 6:00) https://tinyurl.com/Kellogg-talk.

Shows: June 22 - July 10, Reception: June 24, Becket Arts Center, Becket, Massachusetts; and July 14 – 24, Reception: July 15, Art on Main Gallery, West Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Mollie Kellogg - www.molliekellogg.com artist@molliekellogg.com

FRONT ST. GALLERY

Pastels, oils, acrylics, and watercolors…abstract and representational…..landscapes, still lifes and portraits….a unique variety of painting techniques 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 10-1:30 pm 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 are welcome. Personal critiques are available.

Classes at Front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and those with some experience.

Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. 413-5289546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell) www.kateknappartist.com

LONNY JARRETT

My initial memory of awakening to the creative impulse was hearing the first chord of the Beatles, Hard Day’s Night, when I was six years old. I knew something big was happening at that moment, and I had to get on board! I began studying at the Guitar Workshop, the first guitar school in America. I’ve performed music most of my life and play jazz fusion with my band Redshift.

My interest in photography blossomed as an electron-microscopist publishing neuro- and molecular-biological research out of UMASS/Amherst and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx in my early 20s.

As a lifelong meditator, martial artist, musician, and photographer, everything I engage with comes from the same unified intention toward engendering the true, the good, and the beautiful. I endeavor to capture the light that seeps through everything in landscape and nature photography.

Lonny Jarrett -

Community: Nourishingdestiny.com

Books: Spiritpathpress.com

Art: Berkshirescenicphotography.com

Teaching: Lonnyjarrett.com

CROW QUANG BRIDGE

MOLLIE’S PRESENTATION STILL LIFE BY KATE KNAPP

MARY ANN YARMOSKY

We long for a way to be heard from the moment we are born. For some, words suffice; for others, there needs to be a deeper form of expression.

That is how artists are born. Where one might send their message through an instrument in the form of music, another might write poetry or prose. Still, others speak in something more tangible through painting, photography, pottery, or sculpting. Words only bring us so far…art is the language of longing…a longing never fulfilled.

I have always found expression through art. At age five, I began speaking through the piano that sat waiting expectantly in our den, an instrument that brought me peace throughout the years. Later I took to creating through fashion design, dreaming up and constructing costumes for the Boston Opera Company and outfits for the fashionable elite of Newport, Rhode Island. From there, my path took many twists and turns as I lived as a wife, mother, caretaker, and professional career.

When my youngest son passed away unexpectedly several years ago, my longing to be heard returned with a vengeance. Words did not suffice. There are no words to express grief and hope for what is lost. On that journey of anguish, I met other women who had or were experiencing their style of pain. I marveled at their resilience and ability to go on despite different types of loss or simply dealing with the uphill complexities of life’s challenges. I began to recover my voice through paint and a bit of canvas, but it was not just my voice. The women I create in paint are a composite of the many amazing women I have met and continue to meet. I paint their humor, joy, hidden heartbreak, and longing. These women do not exist except on canvas, and their stories are yours to imagine. Hear them.

Mary Ann Yarmosky-maryannyarmoskyart.com

MARY DAVIDSON

Mary Davidson has been painting regularly for the last 16 years. Davidson’s paintings are a twodimensional decorative visualization of line, color, design, shape, patterns, and stamping. As you begin to study the paintings, you will find that 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 consists 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

MARGUERITE BRIDE WATERCOLORS

Is there is a significant occasion in your future….a family wedding, a special anniversary, graduation, retirement? A commissioned painting of that memorable setting is a treasured gift….one that will bring back cherished memories and last a lifetime. I am now accepting commissions to paint your special scene.

Here in the Berkshires, we have so many stunning sites for weddings and other memorable events, from rustic farm settings to glorious mansions and everything in between. An unusual guest book idea is to have the painting of the scene done ahead of time and have it on display at the reception for guests to sign the mat surrounding the painting. I have also painted scenes of college campuses for new graduates and a very special painting of “where he proposed”.

Visit the page on my website (under “Commissions”) to see many examples. I love painting cherished memories. A custom watercolor painting of a wedding venue, a home or other special location is always a thoughtful gift for any occasion.

Or, are you interested in a Berkshire original or reproduction? My website has my full portfolio of images available. Visit and be in touch.

Marguerite Bride – Home Studio in Pittsfield, Massachusetts by appointment only. Call 413841-1659 or 413-442-7718; margebride-paintings.com; margebride@aol.com; Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors.

Conversational Spanish

Instructor: Esteban Valdés

Author of the acclaimed book: Con Permisito Dijo Monchito (Amazon.com)

References available • 15 dollars per hour.

MY NEW HAT SERIES #5

THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 16” X 20”

WATERCOLOR CUSTOM HOUSE PORTRAIT

ASTROLOGY FOR CREATORS

June 2023

What Fire Will You Breathe?

Western Tropical Astrology. Time Zone EST/EDT

Deanna Musgrave

June is a transitionary month where an anger or passion will be brewing. You get to decide how to nurture it but, make no mistake, you won’t be able to escape it. It is time for us all to get to know our passion or anger, make friends with it and find a way to form it into a tool of choice. For some it will be a banner to lead in social justice movements and for others it will be a flower to passionately inspire.

June 2023 is a transitionary month where we will likely still be processing the events initiated around the May 5-6th Scorpio Eclipse while also starting to feel the shift of the North Node pointing from Taurus to Aries for mid-July 2023, which is going to be building up anger and passion. I am writing this on April 27th, 2023, and predicting that likely there will be a transformative revelation around May 5-6th that is going to feed a lot of brewing frustration. This fury is going to be exacerbated by the Taurus North Node finishing up its transit which will bring intensity around the cost of housing and food, as well as concerns around the environment, land, security, and analog art. It is likely that people will be hitting a breaking point with the rising costs of these Taurus things which is going to ignite the fire of Aries towards more protests from mid-July to the beginning of 2025. We already saw the preview of what was coming for a North Node Aries on April 1920th with the Solar Eclipse in Aries that showcased a lot of protests. There were also a lot of issues around social media and news communications, such as CBC refusing to use Twitter or Tucker Carlson leaving Fox News, which was influenced by a Mercury Retrograde so close to that Aries Solar Eclipse. I have been wondering if that was a heralding for coming passion focused within the realm of social media and journalism. When I look at June 2023, I also see a lot of activity for Mercury which is the planet of communications so, that is further evidence that a lot will be in motion in the realm of social media and journalism. Other areas of anger could have to do with Aries

themes of sovereignty, boundaries, entrepreneurship, the body, sports, the military, or war.

In my opinion, the most significant day of June with be the 11th when Pluto retrogrades back into Capricorn. This will be an ending of our threemonth preview between March 23rd – June 11th, 2023, of Pluto in Aquarius which will highlight what is coming for the 20-year transit that will begin in January 2024. It might be a good idea to journal what significant happenings occurred that were about power and transformation between those dates as, we will be coming back to that in 2024. In the meantime, having Pluto come back into Capricorn for the remaining 7 months of 2023 is going to intensify the lessons around government and institutions which we have been experiencing since 2008. I’ve written about Pluto in Capricorn and Aquarius in the January 2023 column. To quickly review, Pluto coming back into Capricorn is going to finish up lessons around power (both good and bad) in areas of government and institution for the collective. With Pluto’s association with Scorpio, don’t be surprised if secrets start coming out left and right about institutions and governments that starts to break down their power as, when Pluto moves into Aquarius in January 2024, the power is likely going to start shifting to those in control of technology and/or humanitarian efforts. There will also be more personalized lessons based on your own natal chart depending on what area Capricorn and Aquarius are in.

To add more intensity to this, we have two major planets beginning their retrogrades in Pisces including the Saturn Retrograde (June 17-18th until November 3rd-4th, 2023), and Neptune Retrograde (June 30th-July 1st until December 5th-6th, 2023). When planets retrograde, they are closer in orbit to the earth and astrologers observe that these planets express differently. A common interpretation of a retrograde is that it represents a review, an inner examination, or a unique expression. Saturn in Pisces is bringing karmic lessons in the areas of pharmacy, the arts, spirituality, illusions, fluids, and water. Something may shift around June 17th – 18th to cause us to review and re-examine these areas. As one example, new information could come out at this time with these retrogrades about a drug’s side effects causing a series of reexaminations of the role of pharmaceuticals in our lives. With Neptune being a ruler of Pisces, it intensifies everything that it represents so, don’t be surprised if aspects of life become especially confusing during this time and in such a way to push inner examination. One positive is that the Neptune Retrograde is happening in sequence with Mercury trining Saturn, which might bring a positive commination as to how to build positive structures around Pisces themes.

The moons of June are on the axis of Sagittarius to Gemini which deal with the balance of knowledge, education, and communications. We start off with a Full Moon in Sagittarius on June 3rd–4th which will bring closures and revelations in the

areas of institutionalized knowledge and belief systems. Knowing the full picture of what is happening in the coming weeks with anger, I wonder if this Sagittarius Full Moon might bring forth rigid thinking in the collective and ignite polarized debate. This is mirrored at the end of the Month with a Gemini New Moon on June 17-18th, which celebrates ways of knowing through conversation and exploring more than one way of thinking. Don’t be surprized if there are a lot of “your truth / my truth” battles three days before and after these moon dates. Best practice for creators is to either be flexible with truths or to honour your truth in such ways that allows others to think differently with respect.

One astrological motion that I hope will assist with this anger is the motion of the Sun moving into nurturing Cancer on June 21st. Mercury soon follows the Sun into Cancer on June 26th. My hope is that this might bring on compassion in people’s hearts to be communicated in the public sphere however, it could go the other way and instead ignite a parental-like rage. Cancer is very protective and is often referred to as the “mother of the zodiac.” In sequence with the start of Cancer season, Mars in Leo will also be squaring Uranus in Taurus so, there could be tension to be worked out between creative leadership and innovative ideas around food, money, land, security, and resources.

The planetary energies I’ve outlined for the month of June invites us to get to know the fire within. One way to get to know our anger and passion is to look to where Mars is placed in our natal chart. As an example, if you have Mars in Gemini you might fight with the wit of your words whereas, if you have Mars in Libra, you might fight aggression in a neighborhood by planting a beautiful garden. How will you use this anger and passion energy that we are transitioning into this month and onward until 2025? Will you create beautiful art/music/dance/poetry that addresses anger, or will you make social justice works that educate and create empathy? While some people foster ideas that we must all join the battle in the same way (a “if you aren’t with us, you are against us” attitude), I would argue that we all need to get to know the unique way we work with passion and anger. We are different types of warriors and our skills are best utilized with what aligns. Get to know what fire you breathe. Honour it and don’t feel guilty if it is different than someone else’s. This is a fire that will be ignited until 2025.

Deanna Musgrave is an artist, energy worker, channel, and hypnotherapist. You can contact her through her websites at:

www.deannamusgrave.com

www.artisthehealer.com

The Chocolate Cupcake

Part 1

Albert was already pretty old when he started working as a guard in the queen’s museum. He would have preferred to spend his days smoking his pipe and looking out his window. He had a notebook in which he marked down every time he saw a bluejay land in his cherry tree. He would write down the date and time of every sighting.

One day, some women were walking by his house and, seeing a bluejay, one said to the other, “Those are terrible birds. They chase all the pretty songbirds away.”

After that, Albert liked the bluejays even more, because he was a sort of gruff old man, the type of man about whom you might say, “He frightens the children.”

He didn’t want to work in the art museum, but his wife insisted, saying, “Then where is the money to come from for your tobacco?” So, seeing that it was a question of the art museum or his pipe, he applied for the job, and the queen hired him. The king said to the queen, “Isn’t he sort of a gruff old man? Don’t you think he might frighten the visitors away?”

“No,'' said the queen, “and besides, guards should always be rough, and even frighten people. That is their job.” The queen and king argued like this a lot, but it was just “good-natured banter,” as some said. When the queen spoke to Albert about the job of being the museum guard, he still tried to get out of having to work, by saying, “Really, Your Majesty, I am just a humble tradesman, and I know not a thing about paintings.”

And the queen answered him, saying, “I don’t want someone who knows anything about paintings. Any simpleton will do. An ignoramus will do just fine. Now go and pick out your uniform and start work.”

“Simpleton? Ignoramus?” Albert said to himself in anger as he walked down the hall to the uniform room. It is interesting to note that people generally do not like people to agree when they are criticizing themselves.

So the next Monday morning, Albert began to work in the museum, sitting in a corner in a comfortable chair, in the room of the Paintings of Famous Men. It was a boring job just sitting there, because sometimes nobody came in for hours at a time, and even if they did he had been told that guards were not encouraged to talk to guests.

After a few hours, a young girl with pigtails, wearing overalls with brown spots at the knees and walking a

small dog on a leash came, all by herself, into the room of the Most Famous Men. Seeing her, Albert said to her in his gruff way, “What do you want, little girl?” Turning to him, she replied, “I am here to look at the paintings, old man.” And with that she took out of a small bag a magnifying glass, and began to examine the painting in front of her, just as she had seen the queen do on a previous visit. Because, as you remember, this was Sarah, who now had the title of “Friend of the Queen and Walker of Rex,” who had been coming to the museum for a few weeks now.

Albert, seeing that this new visitor was examining the name tag and reading its information with the magnifying glass, asked her, “And what is that painting about, young lady?” After having asked this question, he took a big bite of a cupcake that he had taken out of his lunch pail, because the clock just then struck ten. Sarah, using her most serious voice, began to read the tag, saying, “Portrait of Modest Mussorgsky, who died six days after this portrait was painted, after he won a contest to see who could smell dirty socks for the longest time.”

Albert was not expecting this answer, and it took him exactly three seconds to understand what his visitor had said. Then he began to roar with laughter, but unfortunately he was in the middle of swallowing a big bite of cupcake, so he began coughing and choking, and Sarah had to run over and pound him on his back to get his breathing straightened out. Then, after he got his breathing sorted out, Sarah pounded him on his back a few more times for good measure.

After that, he was silent for a long time, thinking. But periodically he would say to himself, “Dirty socks,” and start laughing again. And so, with the affair of the dirty socks began a friendship between Sarah and Albert, or the young lady and the old man, if you prefer.

That night after dinner, Albert pushed his chair away from the table, began smoking his pipe, and started telling his wife about his day at work, while his wife, with her back to him, set to washing the dishes in the sink. He told his wife about Sarah and the painting of Mussorgsky, and the dirty socks. Then he said, “Now, what I want to do is to make up my own description of one of those paintings, but I can’t think of anything.” Albert’s wife just shook her head, and said, “You are going to get yourself fired, you ignoramus.”

“Ignoramus,” Albert said to himself, as he sucked on his pipe.

Although Albert was unable to think of anything to say about any of the paintings in the room of the Paintings of the Most Famous Men, he loved to listen to Sarah’s descriptions of the various paintings in the gallery. As a matter of fact, Sarah’s made-up descriptions were much more interesting than anything anyone had ever written down at the bottom of any of the masterpieces. There was a copy of the Mona Lisa in the collection, which Sarah said was “A picture of a person trying not to sneeze.” Also, there was a large painting of one of the most famous popes of Rome sitting on a golden throne. Sarah began to read the description, saying, “Portrait of Pope Antonio the Fat sitting on the Toi… ” but Albert shouted out and waved his pipe at her saying “No no, not about the pope,” because Albert was a devout Catholic and was afraid to hear anything he thought might be sacrilegious.

Often, when the clock struck ten, Albert would open his lunch pail and take out a snack. His wife always prepared his lunch in a metal box with a lid. One day when Albert opened his lunch box for his snack, there

were two cupcakes and not just the usual one. Sarah, who was standing just behind his chair, noticed the extra cupcake but said nothing, because she had perfect manners, and she pretended not to notice it. Nevertheless, she loved to tease Albert, and as he was eating the two cupcakes she started to give him some advice. She said, “You know Albert, you don’t have to be bald. You can grow your hair back by pressing your pate against a birch tree for one hour each day.” Author's note: ‘Pate’ is an old word for the top of the head, no longer in use, but Sarah found it in a book of folktales, and wanted to use it. Just to say ‘pate’ was the entire reason she told Albert about the birch tree baldness cure.

“That’s stupid and its not true,” said Albert.

“How do you know? Have you ever tried it?”

“You don’t have to try stupid things to know they are stupid, and what would people say if they saw me standing with my head against a tree?”

“A birch tree.”

“Why does it have to be a birch tree then?”

“Although Sarah was quick, she was unable to think of an answer to this question, so she made something up. “Because the ancients said it in their holy book.” But in order to not have to answer Albert’s questions about some holy book that did not exist, Sarah ran off, taking Rex with her, and went to look for a while at the room with the stuffed crocodiles that were displayed next to the Egyptian mummies.

Now Albert was a very superstitious man, and so he said to himself, “First of all, Albert, (Albert always addressed himself as Albert, as if he was some other person, not himself, giving himself some good advice.) “First of all, Albert, that rascal Sarah is just making fun of you and your bald head, and that is the only reason she was saying those things about birch trees. But the problem is that she did say it, and isn’t it pretty obvious that everything happens for a reason?” At that point in his thoughts he stopped, and took a look at a stone lying in his path, and he thought, “The stone can’t move by itself, but it will move if I give it a kick. Like everything in this world, nothing happens without a reason. Therefore, if Sarah told me to press my head against a birch tree, there must be some reason, some unknown reason, why she decided to say that, because a person can say any number of crazy things.”

“Also,” he said, unconsciously raising one finger in the air, “if birch trees do grow your hair back, it could never happen all of a sudden, but it would happen bit by bit, as you stood there, and so, one could perform a simple scientific experiment. One could find a birch tree, off the road, where nobody could see, and put one’s head on it for a moment, and if it was going to work, one would probably feel something stirring on the top of their pate.”

So Albert walked off the road, and found a birch tree, and put his head against it. And then something strange, miraculous and magical occurred, and you will find out what it was next month when you read Part 2.

—Richard Britell