ART Talk

As I may have mentioned before on this blog, I was an Art teacher in public school and at the University of the Arts in the Graduate Education Dept.  My major in college (Rutgers) was Printmaking and let me here remember three fabulous teachers that I had a privilege of studying with:  John Giannotti who taught some of the most challenging an engaging courses I have ever attended - an truly innovative, warm and brilliant man, Jo Spohn (who has re-married and has a different name now and I can't remember it but she was playful, inventive, and wonderful with people, and last but NOT LEAST the erudite, scholarly and brilliant writer and educator, Wendy Slatkin.

I have loved Art since I was a small child mesmerized by the Norman Rockwell illustrated covers of the Saturday Evening Post, my introduction to illustration, along with the illustrations in the children's classics of literature which my thoughtful and generous mother always provided for me.

So, whenever I can, I go to Art shows, which isn't as often now that I have trouble with a chronic cornea disease which limits my driving, and with faltering knees, which limit my use of steps (as in the speedily and subway).  However, fortunately sometimes the wonderful small towns in the midst of which I live, provide me with great shows such as the Stedman Gallery show last summer.  This Saturday I will go the Haddonfield "Fortnightly" for a show called "Through a Woman's Eyes" with my friend, Barb Solem.  I posted about it in the list printed here.  The Haddon Fortnightly is at 301 Kings Hwy and a $10 donation is suggested, though the event is free.

On Facebook, a friend of mine from the University of the Arts has been posting 365 collages, Colleen Hammond.  And every three weeks I have been attending and informal gathering of a small group of artists called Art Club, at Main Street Art, Main Street, Maple Shade, NJ.  The Gallery/Studio proprietor is Diane Paul, a friend from our college days at Rutgers, and a fine and unique painter.  If you are interesting in joining us, you are welcome.  We meet at 12:30 every three weeks and our next meeting will be March 13.  We talk about recent articles, recent shows, our own work, and we paint.  Last month, we also did collage, and one of our temporary attendees worked on a tile piece she had begun and couldn't get finished.  Art Club provided the forum and support she needed to finish her work.  

March is Women's History Month.  There is a GREAT Women's Art Museum in Washington D.C.  The last great show I saw there was Georgia O'Keeffe, Emily Carr, and Frida Kahlo - Canada, USA, and Mexico represented by three of my favorite artists, and while on the subject of favorite women artists, I love the work of April Gornik, and Judy Chicago (featured in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine).  My daughter and I saw the permanent installation of The Dinner Party when it was presented at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  

I am still painting and this year I finished two dozen small paintings of local landscapes such as the Pine Barrens, and local parks and some local historic buildings.  I was also recently engaged in recreating a series of Time Pieces that were lost in a fire.  It all came to feel to me as though it were an autobiography in painting, and I may prepare for an Art Show on an upcoming birthday with that theme!