Fruma Markowitz - 2020 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
About 18 months ago I pivoted from my traditional, representational photography practice to experiment with Cyanotype, a process where UV-sensitive emulsion turns an intoxicating Prussian blue when exposed to the sun. The three works I am sharing have all been created in this medium, in the months since COVID-19 struck. I was left unemployed by my “day job” in advertising and notified that my pending Artist Residency at Weir Farm would be indefinitely postponed.
Drowning in our collective anxiety, I set about creating a healing antidote for myself by taking walks to gather materials from nature for making these pieces. I harnessed this sudden gift of time to explore extending the medium’s visual vocabulary, to make it my own. By engaging in an intentional, hands-on process almost daily I transformed despair into hope, finding my voice for telling my personal story of these times. These works are the result.
Drowning in our collective anxiety, I set about creating a healing antidote for myself by taking walks to gather materials from nature for making these pieces. I harnessed this sudden gift of time to explore extending the medium’s visual vocabulary, to make it my own. By engaging in an intentional, hands-on process almost daily I transformed despair into hope, finding my voice for telling my personal story of these times. These works are the result.
Susan Miiller - 2001 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
In my oil on canvas paintings, I have the unique opportunity to share the expression of my thoughts and feelings about current times through the transformative aspect of visual art. I have always believed that my paintings support positive change and can have healing power. Rather than documenting a particular place, I seek to distill emotion, expression and essence on the canvas.
My paintings: Spirit Rising, Transcending Spirit and Rising Light were created in response to our turbulent times. I have always loved Maya Angelou’s poetry and her poem, “Still I Rise”, resonates with me on a very personal level. As a tribute to this poem and its importance in these difficult times, I created Spirit Rising, Transcending Spirit, and Rising Light. I see these paintings as an expression of rising hope for humanity, hope for the future and hope for positive change.
My paintings: Spirit Rising, Transcending Spirit and Rising Light were created in response to our turbulent times. I have always loved Maya Angelou’s poetry and her poem, “Still I Rise”, resonates with me on a very personal level. As a tribute to this poem and its importance in these difficult times, I created Spirit Rising, Transcending Spirit, and Rising Light. I see these paintings as an expression of rising hope for humanity, hope for the future and hope for positive change.
Roy Money - 2019 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
The social isolation of the pandemic has opened up additional time in my schedule for creative research and activity. It has also added impetus to the existential urgency of how I spend my time. Ambulance sirens and public health alerts continue daily and underscore the fragility of life and uncertainty of the future.
After many years of color landscapes, I am again using grayscale for a more elemental photographic palette. I have also been experimenting with camera movement during exposure. Though this effect may appear distorted, conventional perception is often limited awareness of what is before us. This result resonates for me because it serves to express an implicit density of perception with the ambiguity of seeing something for the first time with new eyes. I am resolved to continue to push my exploration of seeing the world with new eyes every day.
After many years of color landscapes, I am again using grayscale for a more elemental photographic palette. I have also been experimenting with camera movement during exposure. Though this effect may appear distorted, conventional perception is often limited awareness of what is before us. This result resonates for me because it serves to express an implicit density of perception with the ambiguity of seeing something for the first time with new eyes. I am resolved to continue to push my exploration of seeing the world with new eyes every day.
Janet Morgan - 2001 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I live near the Barclay Center in Brooklyn which was a hub for protests, some nights with helicopters overhead for hours. I joined in safely, and was encouraged by the intelligence and energy of young people of all colors. The sorrow and anger all around produced “Don’t Shoot” and “The Sweep of History” during the early months of quarantine. My work is rarely overtly political, but the forces around me pushed me to react.
I did many pastels on black paper; easy to carry with the other supplies needed for walking in a closed city. My refuges during this time were Prospect Park, Greenwood Cemetery and tiny neighborhood gardens. A trip by car service (while riding the subway was still too scary) to visit with friends outside in “Escape to Long Island City” was like a vacation. Somehow, we kept creating and making art still keeps us mostly sane.
I did many pastels on black paper; easy to carry with the other supplies needed for walking in a closed city. My refuges during this time were Prospect Park, Greenwood Cemetery and tiny neighborhood gardens. A trip by car service (while riding the subway was still too scary) to visit with friends outside in “Escape to Long Island City” was like a vacation. Somehow, we kept creating and making art still keeps us mostly sane.
Lenny Moskowitz - 2012 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
During the pandemic, the question of solitude came up to me during my working process and in the final pieces. In the future, I think that my choice of color and palette will change as my interaction with people returns to normal.
Lorna Nakell - 2008 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I've been transitioning back into building my fine art practice. The pandemic has given me a lot of info to process. Aside from the daily life changes I’ve faced with my family, I’ve been confronted with social justice, politics and environmental issues on a daily basis. Painting has become my renewed outlet for processing thoughts and emotions. One thing that keeps coming back has been the impact we humans have on our environment, and how the decisions that we make about what we buy and eat and toss away have immense consequences related to the sustainability of the lives of humans and animals. I work in the nonprofit sector with organizations that support youth communities and the environment. I’m also a runner. These paintings speak to the litter that I see on my runs and how I imagine the transformation of our lands from nurturing to toxic.
Frank Parga - 2004 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I have used the pandemic as a way to reevaluate my creative process. It has helped me to feel as though I have nothing to lose. We can be brave in the face of uncertainty and appreciate the things that truly matter to us. My work was always meant to reimagine and question the often pervasive narratives around themes such as human interaction, cultural sensitivity, ancestral connection, and environmental preservation. Though these ideas have been a constant in my work for some time I find them to be more important than ever before.
Marietta Patricia Leis - 2000 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
My art begins with something observed, dreamt or remembered, a sensation, emotion, or ‘what if.’ The idea never leaves my consciousness very long as I excavate, unearth, examine, incubate and assimilate my impressions. Concept and materials come together and the work evolves. Final discoveries are found within making the piece. This work, Reveal, started at the beginning of the pandemic and has moved slowly yielding each day to the news and isolation. Hope and despair wrestled with the resolution of each piece. The shapes are painted on both sides. The unique shapes extend from the wall to meet the viewer and the viewer can drop into its concave well. They began with a planetary idea but became Covid-19 influenced. How? – that’s up to you to decide. I expect these pieces to exhibit as we climb back to ‘live’ events but the yielding I practiced making these will persist going forward.
Jay Petrow - 2019 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
The last few years I’ve gone to artist residencies during the winter downtime from my Landscape Design business. But this year Covid changed my plans. Instead of going away for the concentrated painting I’ve done in the past, I’ve rented a studio in an old manufacturing building and I’ve been working at finding direction after such a long layoff.
The isolation I’ve experienced during this year led me to explore the relationship between colors in more depth, seeing which ones repel each other and which ones co-exist well in the same abstract ecosphere. I work intuitively without preconceived direction in each piece but will work towards a series of paintings that represent my emotional reaction to the pandemic. Working consistently over a longer period of time should help my work evolve in ways that are hard to predict, but I am thankful for the time and space to carry on.
The isolation I’ve experienced during this year led me to explore the relationship between colors in more depth, seeing which ones repel each other and which ones co-exist well in the same abstract ecosphere. I work intuitively without preconceived direction in each piece but will work towards a series of paintings that represent my emotional reaction to the pandemic. Working consistently over a longer period of time should help my work evolve in ways that are hard to predict, but I am thankful for the time and space to carry on.
Meg Pierce - 2012 & 2017 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
Separation
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
- W. S.Merwin
Feelings of loss during the pandemic are bewildering and pervasive. Although I have not lost someone close, waves of sorrow come and yes, fear is always with me. My recent work is in hand stitching. For a while I thought to stitch a “Victorian” memorial type work- with willow trees and gravestones. I settled on an abstract response and I think the more universal image of tears. I included bits of flowers cut from vintage lace to represent the individual souls. Unconsciously I assembled them in a handkerchief. I had time to devote to “Acquainted with Grief: 2020” and I found could express my feelings in this medium. I feel a kinship with those Victorian women who also expressed their pain through stitchery.
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
- W. S.Merwin
Feelings of loss during the pandemic are bewildering and pervasive. Although I have not lost someone close, waves of sorrow come and yes, fear is always with me. My recent work is in hand stitching. For a while I thought to stitch a “Victorian” memorial type work- with willow trees and gravestones. I settled on an abstract response and I think the more universal image of tears. I included bits of flowers cut from vintage lace to represent the individual souls. Unconsciously I assembled them in a handkerchief. I had time to devote to “Acquainted with Grief: 2020” and I found could express my feelings in this medium. I feel a kinship with those Victorian women who also expressed their pain through stitchery.
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