INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEE PHOTOGRAPHY OF ARTIST BY BOBBY MILLER

ANDREAS ENGEL

Artist | Designer | Creative Director

Interview by Harryet Candee Photography of Artist by Bobby Miller

For over 20 years Andreas Engel has worked as an artist, graphic designer, innovator, and Creative Director in a wide professional field: including fine art printmaking, launching international brands and nonprofit programs, theatrical set design, fine art exhibition design, web and video production—and most recently working for major nonprofit arts and wellness-based organizations. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the Center For Peace Through Culture and is actively launching a new cultural arts center in Housatonic, with the mission of using the arts as a vehicle to cultivate inquiry, well-being, and innovation for positive social impact. Andreas is also a passionate visual artist, painter, and photographer.

Harryet Candee: Hi Andreas. It was really nice spending time talking with you in your new space in Housatonic. I know you are already starting this new venture with zest, energy, and insightfulness with your own art and others that are involved. Tell us how you were drawn in to this beautiful and historical building and the contributing factors that lead you to take over the space. Is it now officially all yours? Andreas Engel: So nice to spend time with you as well, Harryet! The building was formerly the studio of the late artist Deb Koffman, and this summer the Koffman family donated the building to the Center for Peace Through Culture (CPC), of which I am the Executive Director. My predecessor, Dr. Susan Lord, knew and worked with Deb and she introduced me to the family right when I started with the organization. When they learned about my background in the arts and work with mindfulness-based organizations they decided that CPC, under my creative leadership, was a perfect match to continue the spirit of Deb’s legacy. CPC has never operated out of its own, physical building, so the generous gift has provided an opportunity to accelerate the organization’s impact through exhibitions, workshops, talks, performances, and other events that we will be hosting in the space. That is essentially the “new venture” that you speak of. While the building now officially belongs to CPC, I hope that it has the feeling of belonging to an expanding, diverse, and inclusive community—a place to inspire and platform possibilities, grow them and take them to flight in ways that positively impact others.

Please tell us about yourself; your roots and the many paths that brought you to where you are today. AE: I’ve had a rich cultural upbringing that is hard to encapsulate because it has many different layers. One simple way I like to say it is that growing up my peers and I played soccer barefoot with oranges on overgrown lakes in Guatemala, skated with sticks and pucks on frozen ponds in Canada, played in a 400-person marching band on Astroturf in 60-million-dollar high school football stadiums in Texas, and played street hockey with electric tape for pucks and overturned garbage cans for goals in the heart of New York City. Transitions between those extremes were difficult for

Andreas Engel Housatonic Flats 2020 Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12”

Andreas Engel The Raven 1997 Oil on canvas 4 x 6’

me at times, and I’ve most often been an outsider because I’ve rarely been in a place for a long enough time to assimilate. But art has been the common thread for me, both in environmental and cultural influence and through my own driven impulse. Ultimately, with hardly a dollar in my pocket, art pulled me to New York City to go to Parsons School of Design, and from there I built a successful career as a fine art printmaker and Creative Director, launching some big, innovative ideas—one of those was a high-end tattoo clothing line called Yellowman that incorporated original art from international tattoo masters. I single that one out because the thrust of that effort was to bring awareness to cultural diversity through art—specifically, the idea of skin color (painted or not) as a canvas to highlight diverse cultural identities. The brainchild of that project was Peter Mui, Chinese but raised in Oklahoma, over six feet tall, a Country musician, a collector of international art…a real mold-breaker, and a pioneer on the cultural awareness front. I learned a lot working with him, and together he and I took his idea and shaped it into an international brand that made its way to Sax Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and partnerships with Athleta, Harley-Davidson, Marvel, Disney, and others. It was fun and meaningful work. It might have been the most significant development of my career because I got a real-time work education on social issues, branding, communication, web design, marketing, product design and development, and so much more. I did it all from the ground level, and it was such a boost to see the hard work reach the success that it did. Sadly, the Yellowman brand folded shortly after Peter Mui died in 2009. During that time my wife and two kids and I moved up to Peekskill, New York to become part of a revitalization-through-the-arts initiative. There, I helped launch a community-based Children’s theatre program, and an organization called New Era Creative Space whose mission is to inspire stronger communities through creative programs. I haven’t been involved with that organization for years, but I’m proud to say I was part of getting it off the ground, and it’s going strong. Health issues with my father-in-law prompted me and my family to move up to the Berkshires and I was hired as Creative Director at MASS MoCA in North Adams. Among many other things, I worked on presentation materials to raise funds for the museum’s expansion. Seeing that expansion come to fruition is one of my proudest career contributions. For anyone that hasn’t been there yet, stop everything and go there now. It’s a special place. I left MASS MoCA to help Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health with a major rebrand effort. There, I also helped launch RISE, a stress management program using mindfulness-based practices. I later continued similar work as Creative Director at Yoga Alliance, a member-based nonprofit serving international yoga communities. There, I helped with an organization restructure, a comprehensive, two-year international survey project, and creative initiatives to support members during the pandemic. There is so much more, but those are the key highlights that have brought me to today. I’m now bringing all that rich experience and distilling it into my current organization’s small space in Housatonic. We’ll see where it goes.

What was it like growing up in Guatemala? What experiences have you encountered by living in different parts of the world? AE: First, I think everyone should live in a place foreign to them for a good chunk of time. In many cases, you don’t have to go far. But certainly, in a third-world country, you are going to discover a perspective or context you couldn’t have imagined. Continued on next page...

Andreas Engel Sunset on Harlem River 2018 Oil on canvas 12 x 12”

Priorities are different. Needs are different. Circumstances are different. Most everything is different when you go somewhere else. My childhood experience in Guatemala was filled with wonder. My parents were doing translation work, literally putting a Mayan dialect down in written form for the first time. We lived in a remote part of the Guatemalan highlands—at times in places with no electricity— where we were immersed in deep, traditional culture. I couldn’t get enough of the colorful beetles, caterpillars, lizards, birds, orchids, and wildness of it all. But there were also some deep cultural rituals and things, caves with candles and chicken feet, the smell of allspice and coffee roasting on mats in the sun, smoke filtering through thatched roofs, and such. There were scary moments too—pockets of violence, young kids with machine guns, and terrible earthquakes. I witnessed deep poverty but also incredible warmth and close-knit families and communities. My best friend as a young kid was a Mayan Poqomchi boy my age, and we couldn’t speak each other’s language, so our play was mostly non-verbal. Somehow, we made it work. Several times, my family drove from Guatemala to Canada and back. My dad always chose off-thegrid routes, so we saw a lot. During my early teens, my family was driving back home to Guatemala from a trip to Canada when political activity got volatile in our area, so we stayed in Texas for a while to let things cool down. It was a huge culture shock for me. At my school, kids would get ostracized for wearing the same shirt two days in a row. With Guatemala life as my reference point that was hard for me to resolve. Don’t get me wrong, there were wonderful people too, but what I learned is that perspectives can be vastly different from community to community, and it can take a lot of work to find a new cultural grounding while sustaining a self-identity based on different experiences. Guatemala itself is wrangled with cultural tension due to complicated historical, political, and spiritual outside influences. For example, Spanish conquistadors occupied Antigua, Guatemala in the 1500s and built spectacular Baroque-style churches and convents that were later claimed by volcanic activity in 1773 and ultimately abandoned. There’s something beautiful, haunting, and poetic about the remaining edifices. One of my oil paintings, “Convento de Santa Teresa” is meant to capture all of that. I painted it thickly with a palette knife to give a physical sense of plaster and degrading structure. Part of me hopes that the paint itself will crack over time.

Here in Housatonic, the former owner of your building, Deb Koffman, was a strong force and leader in the arts community. Do you have plans to pick up where she left off? AE: I didn’t know Deb, personally, which is my loss… but what I’ve learned is that she used art and creativity as a means to effectively manage her own psychological and emotional battles. The community loved her because she found a way to inspire others to do the same, and she provided a safe space for them to do it. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m picking things up where she left off because that trajectory has never stopped. People Deb influenced, and even some newcomers, are still discovering her work and words of wisdom and doing something with it. That train is moving. What I will be doing though, is presenting a constant rotation of immersive experiences created by a wide range of artists, styles, and perspectives, to help attract and inspire new ideas and audiences.

Do you share, or have you reflected upon any of Deb’s sayings and quotes, maybe, in a way that you can see incorporated into your own artmaking? AE: Right now, I’m surrounded by Deb’s work every day, and honestly, all of it speaks to me. There is a bin across from the front desk with a few painted wooden thought bubbles she made, and the one in the front simply says, “I CAN.” It’s a good, simple reminder. The opposite thought creeps up a lot and it’s good to keep it in check.

Housatonic has a wealth of artistic people thriving in all venues. It is actually a very artistic community, what is your take on this town? AE: I once heard someone describe Housy as “poetic”. That’s about right. There are some ambling, narrative twists and turns, beautiful gardens, secrets to discover, the beautiful river… When the Brick House Pub was open, I always felt like there was an eclectic, diverse group of artistic people there, more so than most other places I’ve seen in the Berkshires. It’s part of what attracted me to Housy in the first place. With Brick House closed that melting pot seems a little lost,

Andreas Engel Fountain Pond 2020 Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12”

and so the creative types seem to be either retreating to their corners or hanging out elsewhere. My sense is that dam is about to burst.

Are you ready to show your art to the public? AE: It’s been a long time since I’ve shown my work. I’ve had a lot of false starts for lots of different reasons. The pandemic was one of them. My work is also very exploratory and impulsive by nature, and I play around with a lot of styles and mediums, and I prefer not to get distracted by thinking in terms of a “show” or “series” which makes putting a cohesive exhibition together challenging. But yes, I’m ready. In fact, I can’t stop it now. That dam is going to burst too. It’s been too long.

What sort of feedback have you been receiving so far from the community? When did you open? Did you do anything in particular to get people to come in off the street? AE: I’ve been in soft launch mode with the organization for a couple of months now. I’ve held about six or seven events in the space but no real official public launch yet. There has been a lot to sort out and I just haven’t felt the right moment. I’m trusting my instincts. This interview might be it. For those that have come, the feedback has been absolutely amazing. Everyone says the place feels great and they want to be involved in some way. All I’m getting are good signals. Managing capacity is going to be an issue soon. I’ve gone right to the edge a few times already. You must have been up night and day for days, months, planning out what you see feasible and purposeful for this space and in what manner you can go about generating an income. Was this a challenging process for you? What did you go through mentally that lead you to coming up with brainstorm ideas for the space? AE: I don’t stop working, pretty much ever. And lots of sleepless nights. I have no doubts at all about the vision and plan—I’ve done aspects of all of this before and have a good track record. The biggest problem I have is securing enough seed money to hire the specialized staff positions I need to fully get things running. Until then, our current, very, very small staff is both wearing a lot of hats and pulling rabbits out of them. We are doing everything we can with what we’ve got.

You have worked in a successful career as a graphic designer and commercial artist. Tell us about that. AE: As far back as I can remember I was always advanced at art for my age. In my high school years in Texas, where the arts were all extremely competitive, I won top awards for everything I entered. I was the school newspaper illustrator, and our paper won major regional and state awards, including for its illustrations. One time, I was even disqualified from an art contest for being “too professional”– accused of commercially executing my piece even though I did the whole thing myself, by hand. It feels weird and awkward for me to say all that about myself, but it’s what ultimately prompted me to think big and pursue going to a prestigious art school. I was accepted to a program at Otis Parson’s School of Design in Los Angeles and soon after I transferred to Parson’s School of Design in New York, and things took off from there. Perhaps the start of my professional career was Books Of Wonder in NYC around 1991. They dealt in old and rare books through a mail-order catalog and sold original, hand-signed illustrations from popular printed children’s books. I designed flyers and posters to advertise marquis events, where well-known authors and illustrators would come for readings, talks, and signings. In those days, things like that weren’t done by computer, so I made cut-and-paste layouts and illustrations by hand. Lots of photocopies, X-Acto knives, rubber-cement, and more photocopies. Reproducing things by hand was my game, and that led to me producing fine art serigraphy— hand-separated limited-edition prints—for international artists and art publishers. The quality of my prints gained a reputation, so artists and publishers soon wanted my exclusivity, and so the printing company, seeing my value, made me a partner. Soon after, I recognized that the demand was high enough for my hand that I didn’t need the partnership, so I successfully worked as an independent contractor for many years. The advent of “giclée” digital print technology adversely changed the fine art serigraphy market. Digital print production offered artists and publishers on-demand capabilities and speedier turnaround times at a fraction of the cost of serigraphs. I saw the writing on the wall, so I left Continued on next page...

The Pond 2021 Archival inkjet print on Epson Velvet Fine Art paper 17 x 22”

From the Storybook Series ... This series is a collection of photographs I took in the Berkshires that are imagined illustrations for fictional stories. Each piece has an accompanying excerpt of fictional literature to suggest imaginary possibilities. My intent is for the work to be “listened to” in the viewer’s eye—to inspire imagination, discovery, and shape a sense of wonder. -Andreas Engel

The Roc 2021 Archival inkjet print on Epson Velvet Fine Art paper 17 x 22”

the fine art serigraphy business to pursue something new. I got a computer and started my own graphic design business, branding, web design, and other design projects. Web design was a niche market then, and I discovered I was good at pushing code and doing innovative things online. I made illustrated and animated websites that got a lot of attention. One of my designs featured interactive 3D models that the user could spin around to see the products on all sides, which at the time was a novelty. It was an insane amount of work, and even crazier for me to attempt it. But the payoff was great, and once again I built a strong reputation for my work. I should note that all those old sites are lost in the dustbin of time and can’t be viewed anymore because the code and applications I used are now obsolete. In a nutshell, my innovative approach to graphic design is what ultimately became the anchor and success of my graphic design career. I have so much more I could say about all of this… I’m giving you the Cliff notes.

What is it that you search for that gives you inspiration to create art, be it fine or commercial art? AE: First and foremost, it has to be fresh and unique, and it has to make people feel something. In my process, I go to an emotional place first and try to build off that. I trust my instincts. Things cycle through my head for a while before I start putting ideas down. Sometimes when it looks from the outside that I’m doing nothing I’m actually doing the heaviest part of the lift.

In what ways do you see that your fine art thinking process varies from your commercial art thinking process? AE: Some people say you can’t be both a commercial artist and a fine artist. I don’t think that’s true at all, but it can be challenging. For me, the process of creating commercial vs fine art is totally opposite. With commercial art, I generally start with a solid understanding of what the “thing” is, what needs to be sold, and to what audience… and the work involves looking for a clever device to say it all succinctly and memorably. Putting it all down is a process of style, precision, and refinement. With fine art, the starting point is more abstract and exploratory, with room for infinite possibilities and interpretations. I like to keep things loose to make creative room for some unforeseen element or device to present itself and then use that as the vehicle for more discovery and creation. I always hope to be surprised by what emerges.

What are you now working on that you can tell us about? AE: My “Storybook Series” is a series of black & white landscape photographs—all taken in the Berkshires—that have an intentional, graphic, and illustrative appearance—not by applying any kind of filter or effect to the images, but rather by selectively finding locations that hold magical environments and rich textural details. My intention with this series is to spark imagination by suggesting that each individual print is an illustration on the page of a fictional storybook. I’ve worked hard to research and select excerpts of fictional stories to accompany each image. These aren’t meant to be literal connections, but rather a device to spark possibility. In many ways, the images and text are simply vehicles to paint images within the viewer’s imagination. In that sense, I think of the works as being abstract even though the images themselves are identifiable. For some of the works, I’ve printed panels to arrange into tiled pieces that fit together into large images, some as big as 4x6 feet. This allows the viewer to better absorb into the setting and get lost

Andreas Engel Ice Valley Photograph by Bobby Miller 2022 Archival inkjet print on Epson Velvet Fine Art paper 9 panels, total size 4 x 6’

in the details of each part of the overall image. I find it interesting how the scale, the black-andwhite property, and the broken-up images break the viewing experience down to shapes, textures, lines, and values as a default rather than simply being a picture of a place and time. Included in the series are what I’m calling “footnote images”—small, square, color images that are either photographs or paintings that provide another imaginary influence on the larger work. These are meant to be “discovered” and suggest deeper insight or background into the work. Again, these are not meant to be literal place and time connections. My hope is that viewers of this work are inspired to go out into the world and look at things a little differently and let their imagination wander. So many great things rise out of exercising the imagination.

Can your early artwork still be detected in your present-day artwork? In what ways? AE: In this Storybook Series, absolutely. My early illustrations involved creating imaginary creatures. I created an entire world and intended to make an illustrated field guide of my world and try to get it published. But then one day I saw Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, Illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, which did exactly the same thing. Even the illustration style and writing were similar. Seeing that crushed me and I stopped my project altogether for fear of looking like a copy, even though my work was entirely original, and likely done before any of that published work. But now, in many ways, I see elements of that imaginary world I created long ago within my current Storybook series.

What pace do you see yourself working at these days? AE: I’m always working on something. At any given moment I have some kind of hair-brained idea, and it circles in my head until I have to put it down. It’s hard to identify a “pace” though because often the work is simply putting ideas down and not necessarily seeing them through to completed work. It takes a while for me to bring an idea to a fully conceived thing. I’m a contemplator, and I like to let things organically shape themselves. Some of my projects are never going to be finished. ideas, and the lighting in a space as well, can make enormous amounts of difference in the way we see things. Thoughts? AE: Sure. Every space provides a mental canvas. Sometimes, spaces and lighting can be totally wrong for creativity to flourish. I habitually move work in progress around to different rooms, settings, and lighting to get to know the work better. Sometimes it feels ridiculous that I take a painting or whatever from one side of a room and place it on the other side, and then keep doing it as if the art will somehow magically morph into something else. It’s hard to explain, but work can completely change when set in a different environment.

How as an artist, have you resolved the issue of possibly having ‘artist block’—and, always arises at the wrong time? Can you recall any artistic successes we can learn from? AE: Artist block is a real thing. It can be torture. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that no movement is happening. Artist block often happens in an active state—lines are drawn, paint is painted, and shapes are sculpted, but when those things have no soul or spark it’s dead. It’s a horrible Continued on next page...

Andreas Engel The Pier 2002 Oil on canvas 4x6’ This painting is an imaginary depiction of an abandoned pier on NYC’s west side, looking over the Hudson River towards Hoboken, New Jersey

thing for an artist and it can trigger deep emotional pits of doubt and depression. I often tell people that for me, the process of creating art is not therapeutic at all. It’s a willful flogging of emotion. It’s hard for me to explain. The funny thing is that I doubt anyone sees that struggle in my work. My art isn’t overtly that. How do I resolve moments of artist’s block? Either I abandon the lifeless thing, or I put it away for a while and come back to it when I’m in a different state of mind. Sometimes, moving the thing around in a room, or a different room, as I previously described, will present something that gives it life.

What piece of art has put a feather in your cap? AE: I have a large 4x6’oil painting called “The Pier” that I’m proud of. I’ve had people try to buy it, but I can’t seem to part with it. When I first came to NYC in the late 80s the Lower West Side was lined with abandoned piers along the Hudson River. Close to the Wall Street area, some had huge homeless encampments. As years passed, those abandoned piers started to disappear. I was working on a series of paintings with the theme of relics from the recent past, and so I recognized those piers as something that would soon be gone forever. I scoured both the Hudson and East Rivers to find a good, abandoned pier to use as a starting point, but what I was looking for was already gone! So, I made the painting from my head, and it’s meant to have the impression of looking from the West Side across the river to New Jersey. Back then my large oil paintings typically took me years to complete, but for some reason, this one came together in just a few days. It was meant as an underpainting for more detailed work, but I was so taken with the rawness of it that I called it done. I’ve rarely had that happen since, so it’s a reminder to me that it can happen. That might be one reason why I can’t part with it. In 2005 I had an experimental, sculptural piece featured in the Westchester Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times for an article on the Peekskill revitalization through the arts initiative that I was part of. My piece, entitled “Life Formed”—a body form strung with a latticework of intricately braided jute twine from a halo-like antique wheelchair wheel on the top, was part of a series of sculptural works using organic materials and found objects. Another piece from that series was “Inverse Kinematics,” a sculptural piece that essentially illustrates negative space and imagines the bends of a branch as being influenced by strands of twine tightened from pegs within a frame. I had imagined doing an entire tree installation that way in a big room. It would have taken a MASS MoCA-sized space to do that kind of piece. It almost feels like some exotic musical instrument. I also made sculptural paintings integrating carved wood and pressed leaves, flowers, and insects embedded in oil paint. On one, entitled “Bee” I embellished the stripes of a bee’s abdomen with gold leaf. A similar one entitled “Nymph” incorporated the molted carcass of a dragonfly nymph. The idea behind all of these was to encourage viewers to explore details of common things that they might otherwise pass by without notice. What artist out in the world today do you see as being formidably daring and at the same time, important for history’s sake? AE: In terms of living artists, the first person that comes to mind is Banksy. I’m not sure his work registers at the level of a Picasso or a Rembrandt, but his work is full of surprises, context, and new ways of seeing, and always has attached social commentary. How awesome it is that he can do his work and remain anonymous. In many ways that would appeal to me. He also seems like an example of an illustrator that has crossed over into the realm of fine art expression. In the upper stratosphere, Anselm Keifer would be one of my top picks. What he does with scale, composition, texture, infusion of organic elements, and deep subject matter make him a bold and important artist of our time. J.M.W Turner is my favorite artist, and Keifer’s work has some similarities.

In what ways with your art do you go beyond the norm and become daring? AE: I always want my work to have some unusual element to it, and I never want that thing to be obvious or gratuitous. So, I often try things that I’ll never point out or explain, and if it does something, great. If not, oh well, it’s my secret. One secret I can tell you now is that in my printmaking days when I made fine art prints for other artists, I often put hidden messages in the prints. Few people ever knew about it, but I guess it was a way to put my stamp on the work since it was, after all, my hand. I suppose I have a little bit of a rebellious streak in me, but I’m quiet about it. In a way, I don’t really want my work to be rec-

Andreas Engel Bee Oli, canvas, organic matter, gold leaf 5 x 6’

Andreas Engel Nymph Oli, canvas, organic matter ( Bee & Nymph From the Organica Series ) Andreas Engel Inverse Kinematics 1998 Milled wood, natural wood, eye screws, twine 4x5’ The “branch” is actually a root, which provides a flat depth, and yet still provides bends and angles in a single plane. This piece provides a visualization of negative space forces that influence the bends and angles of the subject.

ognizable to me—boxed in to a particular look or style. If I feel that starts to happen, then I look to change things up dramatically. As I said earlier, that’s part of what makes exhibiting my work difficult, because the first thing people typically look for is a signature style, something that can easily be packaged or understood. I prefer to push boundaries and keep people guessing.

What was it like working at MASS MoCA? Tell us about your experiences and what you did there. AE: The Director then, Joe Thompson, often referred to the museum as a “petri dish for artists” to experiment with ideas, in a way and at a scale that couldn’t be done anywhere else. I loved that so much. Artists took big risks and sometimes failed. My first big project there was designing the wall text for Darren Waterson’s “Filthy Lucre” installation which went on to be exhibited at the Smithsonian. I was able to get really creative with the wall text and Darren and Joe were really happy with it. I also worked with Joe on presentation materials in the appeal for enormous funds to expand the museum, including pitches to the governor of the state. The appeal came to fruition and the museum is now stunningly huge and beautiful—one of my personal top contributions in my career. I still recall working with Joe on adjusting the timing of animated effects in the PowerPoint presentation by tenths of a second to get the flow just right. Those kinds of details can make a big difference.

What impressions do you have on the town of North Adams, and do you feel like you have compared Housatonic to those northern parts of the Berkshires? AE: What’s interesting is that I believe MASS MoCA explored making a satellite museum in the mill buildings here. There are some similarities between the locations, particularly the lost industries, vacant buildings by water, and lost jobs that affected the local economies. That said, the two places have a completely different vibe to me. North Adams has more possibilities than Housatonic for an active downtown. Even a bustling Housatonic would feel smaller and more intimate. Less concrete, I would say.

Now, in Housatonic, you have three key areas you are bringing to the table with your organization. Tell us about those. AE: We are applying a holistic approach to our work through three key areas: in-house events, workshops, and performances; community engagement designed to remove barriers and improve access and a broader cultural reflection between underrepresented communities and arts organizations; and coaching services to help individuals develop mental and emotional resilience to develop more mindful, purposeful, and creative lives. All three of those things are rooted in creativity and the arts. Art has the power to attract, inspire, educate, heal, offer new possibilities, and so much more. Who doesn’t want all those things?

What challenges do you see in the forefront as far as your mission is concerned? AE: Our mission is “to use the arts as a vehicle to cultivate inquiry, well-being, and innovation for positive social impact—to affect more peaceful selves and communities.” Providing inspiration, information, and tools is the easy part, but following through and activating those things into a bigger impact is more difficult. That requires additional resources to provide sustained efforts. Here’s a good example: we recently hosted a book launch for Elizabeth Heller’s Kids Super Journal book—helping empower kids to self-manage challenges, embrace joy, and generate well-being. One of the attendees at the event was a Latinx woman who was inspired by what took place. She suggested there would be great value in translating the book into Spanish, as people in her community would greatly benefit from it. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to help see that effort through. But that requires additional funding and staffing resources that we don’t currently have. Continued on next page...

Andreas Engel Spring Oil, canvas, copper, wood, organic matter 14x16”

I should note that Elizabeth Heller is independently pursuing that effort, and CPC will help however we can.

On a lighter note, what inspired you the most as a child? AE: That’s hard for me to answer. My mind as a kid was a lot like Calvin from the comic Calvin & Hobbes. My imagination was always going off to other places. My mom saved teacher reports from all my early years, and it’s fun to see how all of them say things like “Andreas has trouble paying attention” or “Andreas spends his time looking out the window…” that sort of thing. Bugs and nature were big inspirations. My dad reading stories while my brothers and I worked on art projects was big… My three older brothers, all incredibly talented in different ways, also influenced me a lot. I was always chasing the things they could do. And, of course, my mom was always a fierce advocate for creativity. So, I might say that my family was the biggest influence.

What literature did you fancy, and still do take a strong liking to? AE: As a kid, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings was by far the biggest influence. My dad read all the books out loud at least twice and gave unique voices to all the characters. He did the same with the Narnia series, Watership Down, and many others. There’s obviously a deep fantasy element to all those examples, which clearly influenced my imagination.

Are you a museum and gallery goer? Any shows that have remained as an influence to you? AE: I love visiting museums and galleries, big and small. Every time I go to downtown Great Barrington, which is close by, I always drop into Bernay Fine Art and the Carrie Chen Gallery to see what they have there. But I also make a point to see major exhibitions at bigger places like The Clark, MASS MoCA, Norman Rockwell Museum, and others in the Berkshires. The Frick Collection in NYC is to die for. I can never get enough. The J.M.W. Turner paintings there are so stunning I almost can’t look at them because they fill me with so much emotion.

Where have you exhibited? AE: I exhibited in several places in NYC in the 90s, all places that don’t exist anymore. I was part of a group called 14th Street Painters and through them, I exhibited at the Earl Gallery and Art Tank in Chelsea. I also had an exhibition in the big NYC nightclub, Tunnel. That was wild. There were some other places too, like the YWCA in Brooklyn. I later exhibited at the Casola Gallery and Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill, NY. shires you can reveal to us? AE: Housatonic. Honest. I love it here. It’s stunningly beautiful. I go to a small park called Housatonic Flats all the time. It’s always beautiful there, any time of year. The short trail follows a nice windy part of the Housatonic River. I’ve seen a lot of interesting wildlife there. Flag Rock is also a special place. It has a spectacular view that looks over Housatonic. It feels much higher than it actually is. Even walking closer by, along the river and old mill buildings is inspiring.

When you want your imagination to be let loose, where is it that you adventure off to? AE: I don’t think I can answer that. My imagination goes to lots of places, and probably different every time. That’s the thing about imagination. It’s unlimited and undefined. I did a gouache and ink piece called “Conscious/Subconscious” that explores that notion a little. It depicts a woman’s head with impressionistic figures both inside and outside her head. The figures are intentionally ambiguous and are intended to spark narratives in the viewer’s head based on their own experiences and psychology, similar in concept to the Rorschach Inkblot test. Sometimes I see myself in one part of the painting and other times I see myself somewhere else or not at all. I guess it’s representative of the psychological part of imagination, which changes.

Andreas Engel Conscious/Subconscious 2014 Gouache, ink, pencil on paper 17x20”

What can you say, so far, was an experience you encountered that taught you a life-long lesson? AE: My wife tragically died of cancer in 2019. In her last year, she talked about how she was given a gift of “truth goggles” where she could clearly see everything that really matters. I can’t tell you all the things she saw, but I can say that I have learned more from what she expressed than from anything else. There is so much to be grateful for in the present.

When we fall, we get up. When and how did this happen to you, and what was the outcome? AE: That’s a hard thing for me to answer. I’m sure I’ve fallen many times, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it as falling so it’s hard to think of an example. I did reach a low period when I first came to NYC and ran out of money. At one point, I ate paper from my art class to quell my stomach pains because I didn’t have enough money to buy proper food. Close friends helped me out in big ways, and I didn’t adequately show appreciation. I was too far in my own head to realize that, in essence, by not showing appreciation I was biting the hands that were feeding me. A lot of that still hangs over my head. I’ve grown a lot as a person since then and have learned the value of expressing gratitude. I’m still not as good about it as I should be, but I work at it. every day as an artist? AE: Always look for something new and different, and always strive to do things in a different way. Also, I see myself as a vehicle for art to emerge. I know I have a lot of facility to draw, paint, and create…but if I have too much control over what I am doing—only my skills doing the work—then it doesn’t feel like art to me. I look for that extra, unexpected thing to happen and look to make that be the thing, the art. I want to be surprised by what I make. It doesn’t always happen.

If you were able to have a conversation with anyone that has lived, who would that be, and given the chance to initiate that conversation, what would that topic be on? AE: There are lots of great, historical people I admire, but having a conversation with them? That’s something else. I would be most interested to talk to some random, unknown person from another time and place… just to get a flavor of things… hear their story. Mark Twain would probably be a fun one, but I’m not sure what I would ask him. Maybe I would ask him the same question you asked me here. I’m sure he would give a much better answer.

Any last words you would like to share with us? Anything we can reach out to you with as a response? AE: In many ways, I feel I am at a pivotal place, both with my ambitious plans for the Center For Peace Through Culture and as an artist myself. To be successful I have to stop being anonymous and allow myself to step into the light and be vulnerable, to put everything on the line. That’s really hard for me, especially because I don’t seek attention for myself—it’s the work, the art, and amplifying the rich perspectives of others that I care most about. But I also recognize that because of my unusual cultural background, artistic sensitivities, and depth of professional experience, I have something to bring to the table. I’m also not good at asking people for help, but it’s going to take a lot of asking to make CPC a success. This interview is a start. You are an angel. I’m surrounded by angels. I feel lucky, and I thank you so much for this opportunity.

Thank you Andreas! F

The Center for Peace Through Culture is located at 137 Front Street, Housatonic. For more information go to cpccommunity.org To learn more about Andreas Engel’s Storybook Series go to aengelart.com

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. In my studio in Great Barrington, I do hair, make-up, styling, lighting and photography, thereby creating a finished portrait that tells a story even in its simplicity. 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 Studio, 22 Elm St, Gt Barrington 508-237-9585. By Appointment Only.

Our path is sometimes rough and sometimes smooth; nonetheless, life is a constant journey... whatever we do is regarded as our journey, our path. That path consists of opening oneself to the road, opening oneself to the steps we are about to take.

-Chogyam Trungpa

MY NEW HAT SERIES #5 MARY DAVIDSON

Mary Davidson has been painting on a regular basis for the last 16 years. Davidson’s paintings are a two-dimensional decorative visualization of line, color, design, shape, patterns, and stamping. As you begin to study the paintings, you will find the foreground and background tend to merge, with overlaid patterns. “I love the intense complexity and ambiguity of space and dimension.”. The effect can be startling: the longer you look at the piece, the more you see. Davidson’s New Hat series consist of 70 paintings. “I start with a basic drawing, building with color and shape, coming to life with gesture and flow. As the title suggests, the hats are important, and the millinery designs emerge. There is much joy in their creation and my passion for playful designs is reinforced by their bright colors, linear rhythms and patterns leading our eyes around and through the painting. My newest series is even more abstract, with an even stronger emphasis on design. I do like to use stamping, along with painting, because I love the result. When I finish with a painting, I adhere the canvas with mat gel to gator board, creating a nice tight surface. My paintings are always framed.”

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

Join us ! Promote your art here! ARTFULMIND@YAHOO.COM

LISTEN TO THE WIND, WATERCOLOR, 23 X 29” PART OF KAIDEN’S ENVIRONMENTAL SERIES ELLEN KAIDEN

I often hear “Oh Flowers”….sometimes in a naive and condescending way. I choose to paint flowers because they are a perfect vehicle for me to convey my emotions and tell a story. I was trained in all mediums of painting I chose watercolor because of its uncontrollable vitreous nature. I love being able to capture movement in water and am able to get extraordinary depth and color saturation. I work in a technique called “wet on wet” in a style that I call “Idealized Realism”. Katharine Bernhardt, from CAS in Chicago said, “Ellen Kaiden is to watercolor what Chihuly is to blown glass.”

My favorite subjects are flowers, sunflowers and roses especially, oh well maybe poppies and peonies too. I love the architecture, geometry, and innate sensuality of my chosen subjects. To me, watercolor is vastly underestimated as a medium because of its unforgiving nature. Flowers like sunflowers and roses, I believe, can show every emotion possible. When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, the painting “Feminine Fury” came pouring out of me. Each petal represents 100,000 underserved women. I don’t just paint pretty flowers. My paintings are metaphors. I hope they touch you the way they were intended to. For the last two pandemic years, and the death of a husband, painting is truly my meditation. If you want to learn more about me as an artist, please go to my website visit my studio in Lee, Massachusetts. In her work the “final flower”, Patti Smith the Rocker, wrote about Robert Mapplethorpe’s photos…. “He came in time, to embrace the flower as the embodiment of all the contradictions reveling within. Their sleekness. Humble Narcissus. Passionate Zen”. Ellen Kaiden - www.Ellenkaiden.com Please check out The Wit Gallery / https:/www.thewitgallery.com

GIRL COMBING HER HAIR

MARY ANN YARMOSKY

From the moment we are born we long for a way to be heard. 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 that is never fulfilled. I have always found expression through art. At the age of 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 a life as a wife, mother, caretaker and pursuant of a professional career. It was when my youngest son passed away unexpectedly several years ago that my longing to be heard returned with a vengeance. Words did not suffice. There are no words to express that kind of grief and longing for what is lost. On that journey of anguish, I met other women who had or were experiencing their own kind of pain. I marveled at their resilience and ability to go on despite different kinds of loss or simply dealing with the uphill complexities of life’s challenges. Through paint and a bit of canvas I began to recover my voice, but it’s 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, their joy and their hidden heartbreak and longing. These women do not exist except on canvas and their stories are yours to imagine. Hear them. Mary Ann Yarmoskymaryannyarmoskyart.com

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC

GRAND PIANO TRIOS

Close Encounters presents “Grand Piano, an all-Beethoven program performed live at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on Sunday, December 11 at 4 PM. A virtual symphony for three musicians, expansive and noble—like the Austrian Archduke who was the dedicatee—the great “Archduke” is more than a trio. It offered Beethoven the perfect vehicle for the development of his compositional techniques and the exploration of instrumental brilliance and virtuosity with three independent, powerful voices. In the “Ghost” Trio, channeling images from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Beethoven plays with strangeness and eeriness. Both works are among his most Olympian and are in the best possible hands as Close Encounters With Music presents its second concert of the season: Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute has been described as “an artist of commanding technique, refined temperament and persuasive insight” by the New York Times. Violinist Hye-Jin Kim won First Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition at the age of nineteen and has been guest soloist with major orchestras in the U. S., Europe and Asia since. They join internationally acclaimed music director Yehuda Hanani in compositions of tremendous scope, drama and wit. For Hanani, “Beethoven’s music is an affirmation of life, of vitality, of a life given over entirely to art. He is to be found alive and vibrant in the architectural marvels of his work—in the dramatic chiaroscuro of roughness and tenderness, majesty and playfulness, the rage and the humor, at times Promethean, at others mischievous and childlike, covering the spectrum of human experience and aspiration. And he’s already heralding the arrival of Romanticism….the powerful appeal is that there’s incredible modernity to his music, which is unbound to any school, or period or trend.”

Close Encounters With Music - Tickets, $52 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $28 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through cewm.org or the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100. Subscriptions are available at cewm.org Virtual subscriptions and individual tickets are also available.

BERKSHIRE DIGITAL

Since opening in 2005, Berkshire Digital has done fine art printing for artists and photographers. Giclée prints can be made in many different sizes from 5”x7” to 42”x 80” on a variety of archival paper choices. Berkshire Digital was featured in PDN magazine in an article about fine art printing. See the entire article on the BerkshireDigital.com website. Berkshire Digital does accurate hi-res photo-reproductions of paintings and illustrations that can be used for Giclée prints, books, magazines, brochures, cards and websites. “Fred Collins couldn’t have been more professional or more enjoyable to work with. He did a beautiful job in photographing paintings carefully, efficiently, and so accurately. It’s such a great feeling to know I have these beautiful, useful files on hand anytime I need them. I wish I’d called Fred years ago.” - Ann Getsinger We also offer restoration and repair of damaged or faded photographs. A complete overview of services offered, along with pricing, can be seen on the web at BerkshireDigital.com The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial and fine art photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston, Stamford and the Berkshires. He offers over 25 years of experience with Photoshop, enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement to prints and digital files. The studio is located in Mt. Washington, but drop-off and pick-up is available through Frames On Wheels, 84 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA (413) 528-0997 and Gilded Moon Framing, 17 John Street in Millerton, NY (518) 789-3428.

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

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.” – August