6 minute read
CATSKILL KIDS Wild Catskill Artists
By E. Merwin
This month Bobcub has been on the prowl, stalking another wild beast—the Catskill artist. From the foothills of the Catskills to the heart of Hudson Valley, they’re out there: in their studios, on the stage, in schools and workshops creating art. Potters, dancers, painters, musicians, weavers, theater folk—their endless ways of self-expression can make a bobcat dizzy and certainly raise our spirits.
Wild Catskill Artist: Robert Ressler, Sculptor
Here’s one Catskill artist who began making artwork when he was, well, a tadpole. This summer in Delaware County the Hancock Partners kicked off an outdoor exhibit with this giant, joyful sculpture, entitled Catskill Serenade.
Hand carved and painted by sculptor Robert Ressler, this *whimsical amphibian is on exhibit in front of the Deposit library where it has been drawing quite an admiring audience. Library Director Deb Stevers reports that the frog, “has been a wonderful addition to our library because he’s just fun! I love to see the kids’ reactions. It’s that moment when they look at him, they step up to touch him, and their smiles say it all. I think the frog makes them feel that the library is a fun place that includes and welcomes them.” According to Deb, the frog has also been charming the travelers who are stopping by to snap a selfie during the Four County Library Road Trip. “All of them have told us, We love your frog!”
*Whimsical= fantastic in a playful way
Ressler has made public artwork from wood, steel and bronze that has been exhibited in museums and public spaces from New York to California. But his love of tools and material goes back to when he was five years old and became fascinated by the construction of a building in a Brooklyn park. Every morning, back at a time when kids could safely roam the neighborhood, he’d walk across the street to watch each stage of the project: the trucks excavating of the earth, pouring of the concrete and then the *masons laying each row of red bricks.
*masons= people who work with stone and brick
Then the five-year-old Rob would get to work on his own project. Heading over to the fruit and vegetable market, he’d pick up two crates donated by Sam the owner to bring back to work in front of his father’s butcher shop. There, using a set of kid-sized tools he’d gotten as gift, he’d pry apart the slats of wood to remake into miniature tables and chairs.
Just as Rob still vividly recalls his first encounters with construction, he can describe the butcher shop where he watched his father work—chopping, cutting and carving with a cleaver on the huge wooden block. In honor of his father, he recreated this memory into the hand-made sculpture called *Cleave that is now on exhibit in Hancock. If you’d like to view more images of Rob’s larger-than-life sculptures, visit www.Resslersculpture.com
*Cleave= cut or split apart, but it also means to stick together. In this sculpture although the butcher block is being split— perhaps it suggests that we can also cleave to our memories of our loved ones and the past.
Wild Catskill Artist: Wendy Klemperer, Naturalist & Sculptor
Another artist who has exhibited her work in galleries and museums throughout the country, Wendy Klemperer has generously shared two of her sculptures through the Rail to Trail project in Delaware County.
Working with steel that she often scavenges from scrap yards and construction sites, Wendy brings animal imagery to life: rearing horses, snarling hounds, a raptor with wings widespread about to take flight. In her hands, even trashed and rusted material comes to life, and in each sculpture, she captures a gesture, a flexed muscle, a moment in nature.
As Wendy expresses it: “Animals mainly communicate with their bodies through movement. Using bent, twisted metal, the curves and shapes become the animals that contain energy and new life.” (Chestney, 2014)
And Wendy has been listening to and learning from animals her whole life. Ever since her childhood when she began riding, she has always had what she calls “a horse life.” As a kid, she would spend hours pretending to be a horse. And even today as she welds the bent and twisted rods of steel that she has *salvaged from “massive piles of scribbles” of metal, she will for a moment imitate an animal to feel its movement before shaping the pieces into her artwork.
*salvaged= recycled
Growing up, Wendy often drew and read about animals. They fascinated her, but so did science and the processes of evolution. So, when she enrolled in college, she studied biochemistry—until an art class changed the direction of her life.
Taking a sculpture course, she discovered the answer to a question that she had often wondered about—how does someone become an artist? In that workshop, carving a block of wood, she felt a connection to working with tools and material. She also learned the simple process of moving from concept into form and has been an artist ever since.
However, Wendy is quick to point out that that these really are parallel paths. On one hand, the scientist enters the lab to run an experiment and possibly make a discovery. Similarly, when an artist enters the studio, they too are experimenting and are also open, and sometimes delighted by, a new idea or image that emerges.
Even as a kid, Wendy balanced these two parts of herself. Reading *“voraciously” books about animals, their behaviors and environment, she became an amateur naturalist. She also fed her imagination with fiction, books that, of course, starred animals and other fantastic creatures, such as Five Children and It by E. Nesbit.
*voraciously= devouring like a hungry animal.
Considering that Wendy still spends days poking around scrap yards, it’s no surprise that she was swept into this story. In this book, the first of a popular series, five brothers and sisters are digging in a gravel pit where they make an amazing discovery—an ancient sand fairy! Being of course magical, this creature called Psammead, can grant wishes, but with every wish there can be trouble.
Similarly, in the arts. We as viewers see only the amazing work of art that seems to have magically appeared before us. But for every work of art, there are risks, days of trial and error, and all sorts of trouble. But like the kids in Five Children & It, for artists like Rob and Wendy, the adventure is worth it!
E. Merwin is an award-winning author of fantasy, fables and verifiable ghost stories—with Northman’s Daughter winning the Next Generation Book Award, 1st prize for regional fiction. As of 2023, Nightmarish New York is her most recent of ten spooky titles written for Bearport Publishing and its popular series for young readers. To preview her most recent wild literary adventure visit: www.doginbrooklyn.com
