Tam june 2014

THE ARTFUL MIND JUNE 2014 MONTHLY BERKSHIRE ARTZINE

THE SOURCE FOR PROMOTING ART SINCE 1994

ARTIST

MATTHEW BIALER

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JANE

FELDMAN

CASEY KRAWCZYK, OIL

Through June 15...

The Eyes and Soul of an Artist selected visions and multiple creations

June 20 - July 27...

The Complexity of Experience Engaging Reality Reception June 28, 3-6pm

Saint Francis Gallery

1370 Pleasant street. route 102

LEE. MA

(next to fire dept.)

complete schedule: www.saintfrancisgallery.com 413.717. 5199 open fri-mon 11-5:30pm

Vault Gallery 413.644.0221

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Marilyn Kalish

marilynkalish.com

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INNER VISION STUDIO furnace rd, corner of Cone hill,West Stockbridge, MA 413-232-4027 / innerVision-Studio.com "A magical place for art" Watercolor, photography, drawing Open Sat & Sun 12-4 pm, June 21 thru Aug 31 Sunday Paint-ins at the Studio & West Stockbridge Village Call for details LAUREN CLARK FINE ART 25 railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA • 413-528-0432 / www.laurenClarkfineArt.com; lauren@laurenClarkfineArt.com Ongoing exhibit and many artists on display

LAWRENCE FINE ART 37 Newtown lane (in the passageway) East hampton, NY / lawrence-fine-arts.com leon dabo, Jolie fleurs, Opens: June 12, Gallery Talk: June 14; Marjorie Strider, Second international Girlie Show, Opens: June 26 MARGUERITE BRIDE NUarts Studios, Studio #9 311 North St., Pittsfield, MA margebride-paintings.com • 413-841-1659 Original Watercolors, house portraits, commissions, lessons

MEETING HOUSE GALLERY New Marlborough on rt. 57, close to the inn on the Green The gallery will inaugurate the 2014 season with Wood-MetalStone on Saturday, June 14. The opening reception is friday, June 13, 5-7 pm. it will showcase eleven artists working on a large and small scale who will combine their exper-tise to create an exciting exhibition using wood, metal and stone NO. SIX DEPOT ROASTERY AND CAFÉ 6 depot Street in West Stockbridge, MA Sirarpi heghinian Walzer, exhibit will run May 16 -June 30.

An artists’ reception will be held on June 13, 5 -6:30pm

NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM rte 183, Stockbridge, MA .8 413-298-4100 highlights from "Norman rockwell: Behind the Camera" Thru May 31; Baseball, rodeos, and Automobiles: The Art of Murray Tinkelman Thru June 15; Wendell Minor's America; Thru May 26; Norman rockwell's 323 "Saturday Evening Post" Covers.Open year-round.

POULTRY HOUSE GALLERY HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGE 1843 West housatonic Street, Pittsfield MA Eric Korenman"Ye Are God's Building" New Portraits at hancock Shaker Village

THE OXBOW GALLERY 273 Pleasant St., Northampton, MA • 413-586-630 front room: ‘Town & Country’ painters

WILLIAM BACZEK FINE ARTS 36 Main St., Northampton MA • wmbaczek@wbfinearts.com Became heroes Or Villains, thru June 29

music/theatre

ASTON MAGNA MUSIC FESTIVAL Aston Magna Music festival announces its 2014 season of familiar and rarely-heard early music from the 16th-19th centuries, on five Saturdays in Great Barrington, June 21-July 19.

The programs are also presented Thursdays at Slosberg Auditorium, Brandeis University, and friday nights at Bard College, Annandale-on-hudson.Saturdays at 6 p.m. in Great Barrington at the daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s rock, and on July 12 at 8 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

BARRINGTON STAGE CO. Box Office: 58 Union Street, Pittsfield • 413-236-8888 / barringtonstageco.org The Other Place by Sharr White, directed by Christopher innvar May 21 – June 14. Performances: Tues-Sat 7:30pm; Sat 4pm (excluding May 24); Sun 3pm; Additional matinee Thurs, June 12 at 4pm St. Germain Stage, Sydelle and lee Blatt Performing Arts Center 36 linden St, Pittsfield, MA BERKSHIRE THEATRE GROUP BerkshireTheatreGroup.org The Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA Suessical, The Musical, Aug 7-17; Aug 21, 8pm: iriSh rOVErS, The farewell Tour

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center www.cewm.org • 800-843-0778 ThE MANY fACES Of ANTONiN dVOrAK Sunday, June 15, 2 PM at Ozawa hall, Tanglewood (lenox, MA).

HELSINKI CAFE 405 Columbia Street, hudson, New York 12534 518.828.4800 / info@helsinkihudson.com Check out their awesome schedule for summer music!

JACOB’S PILLOW 358 George Carter rd, Becket, MA • 413-243-0745 The Trey Mcintyer Project: Mercury half Time” set to the music of QUEEN! June 25-29 MAHAIWE THEATRE 14 Castle St., Gt. Barrington, MA • 413-528-0100 July 5, 8pm: NATAliE MErChANT and her band

TANNERY POND CONCERTS darrow School, New lebanon, NY • 888-820-1696 June 21: Axel Strauss, violin, ilya Poletaev, piano; July 12: Jasper String Quartet; Aug 2: Gleb ivanov; Sept 6: Ji, piano. Concerts start at 8pm.

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FRONT STREET GALLERY front St., housatonic, MA • 413-274-6607 / 413-528-9546, or cell at 413-429-7141 housatonic Gallery for students and artists. featuring watercolors by Kate Knapp (Saturday and Sunday 12-5pm or by appointment)

ST. FRANCIS GALLERY rt 102, South lee, MA 2 miles east from the red lion inn Through June 15...The Eyes and Soul of an Artist Selected visions and multiple creations; June 20 - July 27...

The Complexity of Experience Engaging reality reception June 28, 3-6pm

SHAKESPEARE & CO. 70 Kemble St, lenox, MA • 413-637-3353 June 27, 5:30: The Servant of Two Masters, italian classic and contemporary performance of the outrageous servant Truffaldino.

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LITTLE GALLERY IN HOUSATONIC http://www.debkoffman.com/events/ Michele Beck is showing her drawings at the May 24-June 30th

SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY ARTS CENTER 790 route 203 in Spencertown, N.Y 518-392-3693 / www.spencertownacademy.org “Off the Beaten Path: Prints by J. Ann Eldridge and Photographs by Bill duffy”, through June 22 Kris Gali, one woman show: dreams and digressions, June 28 - Aug 10; reception Sat June 28, 4-7pm.

ar

CARRIE HADDAD GALLERY 622 Warren Street, hudson, NY • 518-828 1915 / www.carriehaddadgallery.com Photographer Jerry freedner

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510 WARREN STREET GALLERY hudson, NY • 518-822-0510 may 30 - June 30: Guest invitational: Ann-Marie light, Ellen Murtagh, Margo Trout and Ken Young

SCHANTZ GALLERIES 3 Elm St, Stockbridge, MA • 413-298-3044 www.schantzgalleries.com A destination for those seeking premier artists working in glass. (11 - 5 daily)

MASS MoCA 87 Marshall Street, North Adams, MA To order tickets: 413.662.2111 or www.massmoca.org; BECK in concert, Tuesday, June 24.

413.662.2111 x1 or massmoca.org/Beck

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A.P.E. LTD. GALLERY 126 Main Street, Northampton, MA reconfigurations: Cynthia Consentino: A Solo Exhibition June 5-29, 2014. Artists reception, June 13, 5-8pm

SANFORD SMITH FINE ART 13 railroad Street, Great Barrington MA • 413-528-6777 Exhibit of new paintings by Karen leSage, August 8 - September 14. A reception will be held on Saturday, August 9 from 4:00-6:00. (11 – 6, fri.& Sat. until 7)

ca

museums & galleries

THE EGG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS 1 Empire Plaza, Albany, NY • www.theegg.org Sat. Aug 16, 7:30-9pm: lA fillE MAl GArdÉE, Comedy Ballet

events

BERKSHIRE ARTS FESTIVAL Ski Butternut, rte. 23, Gt. Barrington, MA • 843-355-2400 / BerkshiresArtsfestival.com July 4, 5 and 6 . 175+ juried artists, 13th year - a knock out of a festival!

NORFOLK ARTISTS & FRIENDS Battell Stoeckel Gallery, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, rtes. 44 and 272 • 860-542-5095 / www.norfolkart.org August Arts Weekend group show sponsored by the Norfolk Chamber Music festival featuring 26 area artists who will be available to discuss their work. August 8, 5-7:30 p.m. (opening reception); August 9, 12-5 p.m.; August 10, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. free.

25% of sales to go to the Music Shed restoration fund THE OTIS CULTURAL COUNCIL The Seventh Annual Otis Arts festival, on Saturday, July 26, 9am-3pm. frEE admission, indoors, at farmington river Elementary School, 555 No. Main road (rte. 8), Otis. Over 50 artisans and craftspeople of pottery, leather, fiber, water and oil paintings, photography, quilts, jewelry, wood crafts, much more. Musical entertainment by Moonshine holler, traditional American music, 12-2pm. info, call 413 269-4674.

TRiARTS SHARON PLAYHOUSE 49 Amenia rd, route 343, Sharon, CT • 860-364-7469 June 18-29: Les Miserables; July 3-6: Tuesdays with Morrie; July 24-27: Nine Wives; Aug 1-3: Spring Awakening; Aug 1324: disney’s The Little Mermaid

workshops

SABINE VOLLMER VON FALKEN PhOTOGrAPhiC WOrKShOPS • 413-298-4933 www.sabinephotoart.com, info@sabinephotoart.com View light with a Critical Eye - explore the beautiful light of the Berkshires by taking a weekend photography workshop. dates: June 28 and 29.

Send in your calendar submissions by 10th of the month prior to publication ... We feature ISSUU.COM where all calendar listings are accessible with a click on the website address.

Try it now, read page by page!: Cut and paste in your url address box:

http://issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/do cs/artfulmind_may_issue2014 If you’re not here, you aught to be! artfulmind@yahoo.com

THE ARTFUL MIND JUNE 2014 •3

The Gossips

The Gossips ©1948, SEPS. Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections.

are back in town!

nrm.org • 413.298.4100 open year-round 9 Rt. 183, Stockbridge, MA

FRONT STREET GALLERY

Kate Knapp

RECENT STUDENT WORK May 30 through June 29

Opening reception June 7, 3-6pm

Painting Classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10 - 1pm at the Studio and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field.

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Open to all.

413-274-6607 413-429-7141 (cell) 413-528-9546 Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday 12-5 or by appointment FRONT STREET, downtown HOUSATONIC, MA

KRIS GALLI “The Painter’s Dream, Oil on canvas, 36x36

WWW.ANNSCOTTPAINTING.COM

Ann Marie Scott, Wellfleet Moonrise #2, 18 x 24, acrylic

I will be offering one and two day plein air painting and drawing workshops starting May 1st into Autumn.

For more information and to sign up contact annmscott@roadrunner.com These workshops are for everyone beginner and advanced alike.

Let’s get outside and paint!

Dreams & Digressions New Paintings by Kris Galli

Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY June 28 - August 10 Opening Reception June 28, 4-7 p.m.

krisgallifineart.com

Karen

LeSage

new work

August 8 - September 14 Reception: Saturday, August 9 4:00-6:00 Sanford Smith Fine Art 13 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA 413.528.6777 Open 7 Days ThE ArTfUl MiNd JUNE 2014 •5

THE ARTFUL MIND ARTZINE JUNE 2014

“A Mind Full of Art�

MUSIC STORE

Artist Matthew Bialer Up in the Berkshires & Down in the City Photography by Jane Feldman Interview by Harryet ...10

Richard Britell: Otis the Wolf Part I.....17 Planet Waves for JUNE Eric Francis.....18 Housatonic Valley Art League Talking with harvey Kimmelman Harryet Candee ...20

in the era of superstores, internet and catalog shopping, an old fashioned, boutique-style music store nonetheless nestles in the heart of the Berkshires. located at the end of Great Barrington, Massachusetts’ railroad Street, The Music Store welcomes the delights of making music in the SPriNG! Specializing in fine handmade guitars and one of the widest selections of ukuleles in the Northeast, The Music Store offers fine, folk, orchestral and unusual instruments, both new and used, along with a wide array of music motif gifts and musical accessories including possibly the widest range of professional level strings, and reeds in the Berkshires.

A large assortment of traditional and international percussion, including African djembes, is available. And unusual instruments including locally made walking stick bamboo flutes and dr. Easy’s Sonic Boxes (extraordinary acoustic electric Cigar Box Guitars), the amazing and almost inde-

"I do not want ART for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few."

Simply Sasha Sasha Seymour......23

Contributing Writers and Monthly Columnists Eunice Agar Richard Britell Stephen Gerard Dietemann Eric Francis Sasha Seymour

-William Morris

Photographers Jane Feldman Sabine Vollmer von Falken Publisher Harryet Candee

Copy Editor Marguerite Bride

Advertising and Graphic Design Harryet Candee

Box 985, Great Barrington, MA 01230 artfulmind@yahoo.com http://issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/docs

http://issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/docs/ artfulmind_may_issue2014

413 854 4400 ALL MATERIAL due the 10th of the month prior to publication

FYI: ŠCopyright laws in effect throughout The Artful Mind for logo & all graphics including text material. Copyright laws for photographers and writers throughout The Artful Mind. Permission to reprint is required in all instances.

In any case the issue does not appear on the stands as planned due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, advertisers will be compensated on a one to one basis. Disclaimer rights available upon request. Serving the Art community with the intention of enhancing communication and sharing positive creativity in all aspects of our lives.

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structible Composite Acoustic Cargo Guitars (made entirely from Carbon Graphite), Catania Cat’s Paws and Kalimbas, Serenity Bamboo and high Spirit hardwood flutes, and the new Steel Singing drums nestle happily next to their more traditional cousins.

Student violins from $179 to $2800 share the stage with guitars for all ages and abilities including locally and internationally luthier handmade guitars. Best of all, The Music Store also offers lifetime service - set-ups, adjustment, stringing and maintenance on all new stringed instruments we sell! in addition, our workshop provides expert set-up, maintenance, repair and restoration on Guitars, Mandolins, Banjos and much, much more.

While many of our prices meet or beat Musician’s friend or Guitar Center and our other super-seller competitors, the personal service, expertise, kindness and availability of our fine family of staff offers priceless service to the already magical musical experience waiting for everyone at The Music Store. for musicians and music lovers seeking gift ideas, our array of clothing, housewares, stationary, jewelry, mouse pads, clocks, key chains and knick-knacks will interest and amuse, as will a full line of harmonicas, tuners, stands, sticks and even an odd Washboard Tie!. Visit our wickedly wonderful ClOSEOUT COrNEr for the best bargains. Experience our 2 for $5.00 guitar strings and name brand guitars.

Add some sheet music and the marvelous, magical, musical experience of The Music Store awaits.

The Music Store, 87 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA, 413-528-2460. Open Wednesday through Sunday.

Closed Monday and Tuesday.

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MEETING HOUSE GALLERY NEW MARLBOROUGH NATAliE MANziNO, MirrOr-MirrOr

The Meeting house Gallery’s summer exhibition schedule includes three vibrant shows featuring work of local artists.

The gallery will inaugurate the 2014 season with WoodMetal-Stone on Saturday, June 14. The opening reception is friday, June 13, 5-7 pm. it will showcase eleven artists working on a large and small scale who will combine their exper-tise to create an exciting exhibition using wood, metal and stone. The exhibiting artists include: Patrick Stolfo, Peter Murkett, Peter G. Thorne, Jonathan Cooper, Maria Gay, lucinda Schmulsky, Ellen Murtaugh, Sophie Eisner, Michael Thomas, and robin Tost. Peter Barrett’s doorway of wood and steel bridges this show and the next. Most pieces will be inside the gallery but some will be shown in their most congenial setting outside.

Portals, July 26-August 24, is a mixed media theme show moving between literal images of fascinating doorways and the depiction of more psychological passages. Works by the 29 included artists will showcase a variety of media ranging from painting and photography to fabric and even the use of shrapnel as a sculptural medium. included in this show are: Cynthia Atwood, Teresa Bills, Margaret Buchte, diana felber, Shawn fields, robert forte, Nancy Goldberger, Joan Griswold, Pamela reed hardcastle, Pat hogan, rubin Kier, richard Kimball, Cheryl Ann luft, Natalie Manzino, holly McNeely, Brian Mikesell, Elaine radiss, Peggy reeves, Julie Shapiro, honey Sharp, larry Silk, Walter Simons, Abbe Stall Steinglass, lucinda Tavernise, Elizabeth Torsay Wilson, Joe Wheaton, Barbara Winters, Terry Wise, and Andrew zdzierski.

The closing exhibition, New Marlborough Artists, will be on view from August 30-September 28. The perennial favor-ite, it will feature works of 8 artists who live in New Marlborough. The participating artists include lee Backer, Eugene Cleary, Cookie Coyne, Ann Getsinger, and Elizabeth l. lombardi. Karina fasset and Nikki hayes join the New Marlbor-ough Artists for the first time this year.

The Meeting house Gallery occupies the lower floor of a handsome, 1840 church now known as the New Marlborough Meeting house. The well-lit, handsome exhibition space is open weekends Mid June through September. Administered by a voluntary group of local artists, the shows feature work of Berkshire artists some of whom also hail from Boston and New York City.

Meeting House Gallery - New Marlborough on Rt. 57, close to the Inn on the Green. Gallery hours: Fri, Sat and Sun, 11-4 through the end of August and Sat and Sun, 11-4 during the month of September.

KRIS GALLI DREAMS AND DIGRESSIONS

With only a few breaks now and then to reassess her life, Kris Galli has been painting since she was a teenager. “it was my way of making sense of the world,” she says. “for years i would wonder what to do with my life, and then i’d go paint for a while, then get back to wondering what to do with my life. it took years for me to figure out i was already doing it!”

Now a woman fully committed to her vocation, Kris paints all day, nearly every day. her work has sold to collectors across the country and as far off as london, Australia and Panama. And if you’re ever having dinner at Alta restaurant in lenox, you’ll find yourself surrounded by her quirky paintings of women - women balancing watermelons on their fingertips, women holding onto their pigtails in what looks to be a dream-like trance. her work consists largely of these women, but there are also landscapes and still lifes, all with that same slightly off-beat feel of her figures.

Kris lives with her husband, the photographer Edward Acker, in lenox. in June, she will open her one-woman show, dreams and digressions, at Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, NY. The show will be up from June 28 through August 10th, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 28th from four to seven p.m. Wine and snacks will be served, along with chocolate provided by Chocolate Springs, of lenox. it promises to be a wonderful show!

Kris Galli – krisgallifineart.com

ANN SCOTT

ANN SCOTT, iriS GArdEN, 34 x 30”, ACrYliC

Ann Scott just moved to the Berkshires after many years in Boston. her passion for nature and all the beauty of the Berkshires made for a very easy transition.

Scott has exhibited and has traveled extensively throughout the US and Europe. She is currently represented by the lyman Eyer Gallery in Provincetown and is an exhibiting artist at the Southern Vermont Art Center, Salmagundi in NYC and the Provincetown Art Association Museum. if you are interested in taking plein air painting workshops please contact the artist for more information. Also see more of her work and on her website read about her adventures on her blog.

Ann Scott – email: annmscott@roadrunner.com; www.annscottpainting.com and read up on her adventures at http://annscottpainting.blogspot.com

ADVERTISE IN THE ARTFUL MIND! CALL FOR DETAILS! WANT ATTENTION? THIS WILL DO IT.

413 854 4400 ARTFULMIND@YAHOO.COM

20 YEARS! ANNIVERSARY ISSuE! ThE ArTfUl MiNd JUNE 2014 • 7

KAREN LESAGE SANFORD SMITH FINE ART

Sanford Smith fine Art will host an exhibit of new paintings by Karen leSage, August 8 through September 14. A reception will be held on Saturday, August 9 from 4:006:00. her show in 2013 sold out.

Gallery director laura reid comments on the wide appeal of leSage’s work: “her glowing canvases reflect the terrain of our region but offer something universal as well.

They are wildly well-received. We are excited to be part of that. She has been our number-one selling artist for the last four years.”

The new exhibit continues leSage’s tradition of large, atmospheric, minimal landscapes in vivid, luminous colors.

Of them she says, “This work explores the territory between landscape painting and minimalist color-field painting. The Berkshire Mountains continually inspire. They provide color displays that change by the season, the day, the hour.” leSage was born in eastern Connecticut and studied at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She lived and worked in New York for over a decade then moved to the hills of litchfield, CT to raise her son. She has since become a noted artist with a growing national following.

When asked about the success of her Sanford Smith shows, leSage said: “Their clientele loves the same region that i do.” Then adds with a smile, “it doesn’t hurt that the gallery is open 7 days a week.”

Some preview paintings are currently at the gallery to view on request.

Sanford Smith Fine Art, 13 Railroad Street, Great Barrington MA, 413-528-6777; open daily 11 – 6, Fri.& Sat. until 7.

SirArPi hEGhiNiAN WAlzEr

NO. SIX DEPOT GALLERY

Siri SMEdViG

MAY 16 – JUNE 30

Sirarpi heghinian Walzer’s work is in many collections nationally and internationally and has received awards and exhibited in galleries throughout Europe and the US. She attended the Academy for fine Arts “die Etage” and hochschule der Kunste in Berlin, Germany and has worked with artists Andrej Woron, Timothy harney and Ati Gropius.

“My poetic abstractions spring from meditations on nature and from memories that are distilled into single dramatic moments. The energetic surfaces imply an ongoing tension between freedom and containment, edging the viewer closer to that place where chaos can erupt into clarity.”

Siri Smedvig is an award-winning professional violinist and fine artist. Graduating from harvard University, Siri won the McCord Prize for Artistic Excellence and “Artist of the Year” by the Cambridge Art Association this year. As a violinist, Siri has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Boston Pops, Boston Ballet Orchestra, harvard Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (NYC) and many more. “i love the magical world created by the abstracted form of music. My inner source found a new means of expression by making pictures with paint and collage. When i work giving form to the formless and visibility to the invisible i feel an alchemist’s joy.”

The exhibit will run May 16 through June 30. An artists’ reception will be held on June 13, 5 -6:30pm @ Join us for an artists’ reception.

No. Six Depot Gallery is located in historic train station in West Stockbridge, adjoining No. Six Depot Roastery & Café, serving house-roasted coffee, breakfast, lunch and Friday dinners. www.sixdepot.com

The Otis Cultural Council presents

Otis Arts Festival The Seventh Annual

Saturday, July 26, 9am-3pm.

FREE admission. Indoors.

Farmington River Elementar y School, 555 No. Main Road (Rte. 8), Otis.

Over 50 artisans and craftspeople of pottery, leather, fiber, water and oil paintings, photography, quilts, jewelry, wood crafts, much more.

Musical entertainment by Moonshine Holler, traditional American music, 12-2pm.

For more information: 413-269-4674.

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"There is no must in art because art is free."

-Wassily Kandinsky

COLLINS/EDITIONS formerly BERKSHIRE DIGITAL

After seven years of working for artists and photographers as Berkshire digital, we have changed our name to collins|editions. We are a fine art reproduction service that offers the highest quality digital photography & reproduction of paintings as well as Giclée printing on archival papers and canvas with sizes up to 42” x 90”. Artists & photographers use us to create limited editions of their images. Private collectors and galleries use us to document their collections.

Whether the reproduction needs are for archiving, printing, books, magazines, postcards or internet use, Bd adheres to very strict color controls along with delivering stunning detail by using either a large format camera with a Better light™ digital scanning back for making giclee prints as well as the best dSlr cameras for publication & internet uses. in addition to the photography and printing services, collins|editions also offers graphic design, enabling clients to create show announcements, post cards and brochures. The website, www.CollinsEditions.com has a complete overview, lots of information and pricing.

The owner, fred Collins, has been a commercial photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston and Stamford. he offers 20 years of experience with Photoshop™ enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement. The studio is located in Mt Washington but dropoff and PU can be arranged at other locations.

Collins|editions studio, 220 East St, Mt Washington, Massachusetts; 413-644-9663, www.CollinsEditions.com

SABINE PHOTO ART

ASTON MAGNA MUSIC FESTIVAL dAN STEPNEr, ArTiSTi C dirECTOr

The music of Bach and his most illustrious son, Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, opens Aston Magna’s 42nd season in Great Barrington, on Saturday, June 21 at daniel Arts Center at Simon’s rock College of Bard, at 6 p.m.

The younger Bach worked for years in Berlin as musician at the court of King frederick the Great. On a much-storied visit to this most musical monarch, the father Bach impressed the court with his impromptu improvisations on a thorny fugue subject designed by the King (though some say

by Bach’s son!). returning to leipzig, J.S. elaborated on the “royal Theme” and produced his astonishing Musical Offering, a tour de force of contrapuntal skill, but blended with the new gallant style that characterized his son’s music.

On June 28, Aston Magna features masterworks for 19thcentury wind instruments: Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet (Eric hoeprich on a 19th century clarinet), Crusell’s divertimento for oboe and strings (Stephen hammer on a classical oboe), and Mendelssohn’s Quartet in A Minor.

Aston Magna festival’s five Saturdays of music – through July 19 – seek to illuminate the historical and cultural context of music from 17th through early 19th century Europe.

Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, handel and Bach were composing their immortal works as political, scientific, humanistic and artistic ideas were flowering into the Age of Enlightenment. Aston Magna’s performances on period instruments are accompanied by pre-concert talks and informative program notes, which transport our audiences through time.

Aston Magna - information: astonmagna.org

The Artful Mind has showcased sabine’s work since 1994, the very beginning of the monthly Berkshire Artzine. Still young at 20 something, sabine’s studio has become a brand for contemporary, unobtrusive, relaxed photography in the European style. it might be just the time for you to book your first sitting.

A master of the subtleties of lighting and the nuance of background, sabine’s eye for detail provides imagery to be treasured for a lifetime.

Assignments are tailored to meet her client’s needs- a remembrance for a special occasion or a logo image, which creates an authentic professional online presence. it is to no surprise that she is a sought-after documentary and editorial photographer with the talent of both: interviewer, provoker and image-maker.

Photographic workshops are scheduled for this summer: View light with a Critical Eye - explore the beautiful light of the Berkshires by taking a weekend photography workshop. in this workshop participants learn how natural light can create drama and fine distinction. designed for serious learners who are interested in improving their artistic eye. All participants are asked to bring a digital Slr camera. dates: June 28 and 29.

Photo Art and signed books “WOOdlANd STYlE” and “ ShEll ChiC “, published by Storey Publishing, author Marlene h. Marshall, all photography by sabine can be purchased from your nearby book stores. Signed fine art prints are directly available through sabine’s studio.

Sabine is a member of The American Society of Media Photographers asmp. The international Center of Photography iCP and the Wedding Photojournalist Association, WPJA. Sabine Vollmer von Falken Photography Studio www.sabinephotoart.com; info@sabinephotoart.com / 413-298-4933

FRONT STREET GALLERY KATE KNAPP

KATE KNAPP

Student exhibit May 30 - June 29. Recent works by students of Kate Knapp, opening reception June 7, 3 - 6pm.

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

Classes at front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who just want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and/or those who have some experience under their belt.

A teacher for many years, Kate Knapp has a keen sense of each student’s artistic needs to take a step beyond. Perfect setting for setting up still lifes; lighting and space are excellent.

Kate Knapp’s paintings are also on display at 510 Warren St. Gallery in hudson, NY. Please stop by to see all the many works of art by exceptional artists.

Front Street Gallery – Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance. 413-528-9546 or 413-429-7141 (cell).

JANE fEldMAN

PhOTOGrAPhY WWW.JANEfEldMAN.COM

JANEfEldMANPhOTO@GMAil.COM

ThE ArTfUl MiNd JUNE 2014 • 9

ARTIST MATTHEW

BIALER

UP iN ThE BErKShirES & dOWN iN ThE CiTY Interview by Harryet Candee

Harryet Candee: You live in Brooklyn and also in the Berkshires. How does the diversity of these two locales assist you in your creative process?

Matthew Bialer: They are very separate and yet they feed off of each other. The confidence and energy i feel in one gets picked up by the other. Being a photographer definitely prepared me to be a painter. i already knew the notion of composition and contrast and tone. i had a lot of self-confidence (tempered by humility) going into painting.

I really enjoy your photos of everyday street scenes in Manhattan. The city is a very busy place and it’s often a great challenge to make it across the street. The shots you take are wonderful because you capture people in the midst of getting somewhere— physically and mentally. How did you decide that you were going to focus on shooting this so much? What fascinates you about this work, and what direction is possibly leading you to? Any ideas?

Matthew: Thank you so much. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

As a photographer, i feel like i am looking for that soap bubble. i am combing through potential. i see a cool person who strikes me and then i look for someone else or i look for a backdrop. it is not just about taking that one person or it can be if i can place the person in a context. Of course, i am not “placing” i am “waiting” for that right magic to occur. it comes from instinct and experience. it is editing on the spot. Editing people. There is still always plenty of failure. One has to love the process even if you fail and you will fail more often than not. And yes, it is also about contrasts. That is why it is like jazz. it is people and things, lights and darks riffing off of each other to create that magic.

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Photography of Artist by Jane Feldman

What are you communicating with this ongoing documentary photo series?

Matthew: how great and expressive people are even in their moments of weakness and uncertainty. i try to always look for the humanity. i feel like i always respect those i photograph. i don’t usually go for the easy shots of, say, sleeping homeless people.

The rule of thumb for my self is that one of my photographs can be used as a short story assignment in a class. Write a story about these people. And i would hope that each story by each student about each person would be very different from the other. That would be when i know i have succeeded. i also like to show how the simple “moment” of the everyday that no one else sees is, in a sense, a miracle. A novelist friend of mine named Kris Saknussemm likens it to catching a soap bubble in your hand. i love that metaphor about capturing the disappearing moment.

Do you ever venture to unsafe places with your work? I mean literally dangerous locations… I also mean do you play it safe with your art or at times do you want to mix it all up?

Matthew: i don’t venture to really, really dangerous places. i don’t. i have a rule with myself about not risking my life or personal safety. i am not macho about this. it is also because i am a husband and father and i want to come home for them in one piece. But certain places i shoot in can become a little rough for sure. i try not to photograph people who i think can become a problem. Of course, i have had my moments but that goes with the territory. People get angry or think you are a spy or a pervert.

Sometimes someone gets angry and i wasn’t really even aiming at the camera at him. he was in the background. i am amazed that people will take the time to tell you that they are pissed that you took their picture. i even had a cop in New York tell me in a threatening way to stop shooting which was quite bizarre. he

told me it was illegal. i told him it wasn’t but i wasn’t going to argue with a man with a club and a gun. i just went to somewhere else and shot. i never let these bumps in the road deter me or force me to stop for the day. it is legal to photograph people on the streets of New York, at least for now. i had a woman who sells bus tours on the corner of 42nd Street and 7th Avenue ask me why i took her picture. i told her that she was in the background and she is standing on the wrong corner if she doesn’t want to appear in any photographs. in Austria, it is not legal to photograph people on the street. That makes me angry. On the other hand, so many people now carry cameras that it is a lot less unusual to people, especially in such a tourist heavy place like New York. But even New Yorkers themselves are always taking pictures with their phones and posting them somewhere. So many photographs everywhere. When i used to go to london decades ago, i found it a very difficult place to photograph. People would notice. People would frown. People would say something. i was back there twice in 2013 and it is like night and day. london is camera heavy like everywhere else now. in italy i can practically shove the camera in people’s faces and they could care less.

Who have been your strongest influences keeping you inspired to shoot?

Matthew: A bunch of key photographers have always inspired me. Any street photographer knows these names: Garry Winogrand, robert frank, William Klein, early lee friedlander, Josef Koudelka and many others. i love the classics like diane Arbus and Cartier Bresson but i don’t think i am influenced much by them. i love lisette Model who was the teacher of Arbus and many others. i love helen levitt. Nobody photographed children on the street the way she did. Another photographer i like

Do you find you have a sense of humor when shooting? I often react to a shot of yours with an out-loud burst of giggles.

Matthew: Yes, i definitely have a sense of humor when i shoot.

Most of my photos have some sort of humor in them. i don’t like to hit people over the head with it though. i like the photographer Elliott Erwitt but too many of his followers go for the “visual pun”. i like to go for humor as an undercurrent but not necessarily as a pun.

As your art work matures, do you find that you have gracefully developed your artistic skills and met your artistic goals?

Matthew: Street photography is really hard. i think of it as trying to hit a baseball which Ted Williams once said is the hardest thing to do in sports. Street photography is about moving targets that you can’t control. i can go out with my camera and i just don’t see anything that day. Or i was too late to get the shot i wanted. Or somebody else stepped in front of the scene i wanted to take and ruined the shot. Or the shot is too blurry. Or the people look great but the sign behind them is too abrasive.

There is so much technical failure of all sorts. i have learned that failure is just a part of the game and i just keep going. But i have learned to get more what we street photographers call “Keepers”. it has to do with experience and it has to do with the fact that i switched to a smaller camera and that it also happens to be digital. i just do a lot better with this camera and i save a lot of money on film and paper and time in the darkroom. i still love film but i am done with it.

MATThEW BiAlEr, PhOTO SEriES, NYC

is Saul leiter who just passed away a few months ago. his work is quiet and poetic. he was one of the first really great color street photographers. i had a teacher at the School of Visual Arts named Mike levins who was a big influence on my work. We became very close friends. in fact, he photographed our wedding at the Seven hills inn in lenox in 1993. it meant a lot that he photographed it especially since he passed away in 2001. That was not a good year for many. i hope Mike’s work gets discovered. Nobody photographed stray dogs on the street like Mike.

They were like self-portraits. i guess i personally always go back to Winogrand. he really was an amazing street photographer. i admire how he could juxtapose so many elements. for instance, he would use animals not native to the streets of New York such as monkeys and chimps to elucidate how very much like animals New Yorkers can be. And he was not manipulating the image. he really did see these animals on the streets. And he could not stay away from zoos. To Winogrand, the animals in a zoo were a reflection of us.

Matthew: i just said to my wife that i wish i could have a month in Europe alone with my camera. i would have a ball. i can’t even think about it at this point in my life. The other thing i wish for is to be invisible for, say, a week. i would love to photograph as an invisible person. i would love to see the results i get. i would not have to worry about getting my head taken off.

Matt, what compells you to do photography work in New York City and watercolor paintings in the Berkshires?

Matthew: i can’t see it any other way. i was already a street photographer when my wife lenora lapidus and i started to spend a lot of time in the Berkshires. i needed something to do there but i didn’t want to do photography. i love landscape photography but i did not want to pursue that in the Berkshires because i respect the genre so much and the equipment daunts me. i just love the landscape of the Berkshires. Who doesn’t? i love how the seasons change and how i can hear the geese honking or ice cracking in the night. i wanted to do something different, something quieter and more meditative. And i give the photography a break when i am up there. i recharge the batteries…literally and figuratively. (Continued on next page)

I think you are very interested in documenting people in the “now”. Curiously, it triggers me to wonder, what time period would you live in if you had a choice?

Matthew: Well, there is really no other time period i would rather live as a person. But there are two answers i will give to this question. i would love to have been a photographer in New York in the 1960s. first of all, i would have been out there with my heroes like Garry Winogrand and diane Arbus and i might have even known them. The backdrops would have been much better than Starbucks signs. We would have had Chock full of Nuts and Nedicks hot dogs. And leo’s franks by herald Square. it would have been great fun. i would also have like to have had a camera and photographed in a place like 17th century holland.

Can you imagine if Vermeer, rembrandt and the hundreds of artists who thrived in the Netherlands at the time had cameras? it would have been amazing to take pictures in a world like that.

And i believe they certainly would have if they had the technology.

If you were to be anywhere on this planet, and you were able to be there anytime you desired, where would that be? Any fantasy-like places?

MATThEW BiAlEr, PhOTO SEriES, NYC

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I can see how your photography work and watercolor paintings can work on opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s like salt and pepper, in a way. What is in your life that separates and balances these two art mediums?

Matthew: i think they both are complex compositions and have an energy. i don’t think my photos are quiet and neither are my paintings. There is an energy in them and i hope a soul. i think in a funny way, my trees are like people standing at the corner. No tree is the same. Some are lighter, some are darker. i do know that i love to do both and would never want to give up either.

ArTiST MATTHEW BIALER CONTINUED

What camera(s) are you mostly using and liking?

Matthew: for years i used a Canon AE1. i must have gone through like 15 of them. i would use them until they literally just don’t work anymore and then buy another one used at the late, great Olden or at B and h. i used to bring them in to get fixed but once they start jamming it is over. But two years ago, my life changed. i have a wonderful photographer friend named Jerry Arcieri. he made the leap to digital. i had been thinking about it. But i am not very technical and i was afraid to switch. i felt like i had to though because the prize of the film i often used (Kodak T-Max 3200) was going up and up and it was getting harder to find. Jerry told me i would love digital. he knew i did not want to carry around some huge cannon of a camera. he sent me all of the links to the camera and equipment i should buy. he, in a sense, made the leap for me. i loved it. i used a Panasonic lumix Gx1. it is very small and is my secret weapon. To continue a baseball metaphor, using the lumix is like juicing. i shoot a lot more and i get more hits. i think that is because it just rejuvenated me about my passion for street photographers. it has never gone away. i have been doing it for 29 years without stopping.

But it lit me on fire.

MATThEW BiAlEr, PhOTO SEriES, NYC

MATThEW BiAlEr, PhOTO SEriES, NYC

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When did you first take a liking to photography?

Matthew: i first started to appreciate photography when i was a student at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Vassar has a great art history department and therefore a great art history library. i used to roam around the basement stacks procrastinating from my student work and i would discover photographers like Andre Kertesz. i did not know photography could be so sweet and lyrical like poetry. i already knew the work of Ansel Adams, harry Callahan and Cartier –Bresson.

But something clicked for me about Kertesz and got filed away. flash forward. i was depressed after i graduated college. i had been a poet (my first creative love) but i was blocked. i was kind of a head case. i was seeing a shrink and she happened to have on her walls of these photographs of boulders by the great photographer Aaron Siskind. They were photographic abstractions. it was ironic that the key to my future was right in the front of my face, the key to finding some sort of equilibrium. The photographs behind the shrink helped me a lot more than the shrink! i started doing street photography but had no idea what i was doing. i was using telephoto lenses. The photos sucked. i would look at photographs i liked but feel baffled as to how these photographers put a real image together. i learned that just because you see an interesting person doesn’t mean the photograph of such person will be interesting. The person needs a context. A background. An angle. Maybe other people, etc. i took a weekend workshop with a fellow named harvey Stein. We photographed out at Coney island in November. We took pictures of the Polar Bear Club. They would swim every Sunday at 1 pm 52 weeks a year. i took my first “Keepers” right there. it was a revelation and a game changer for me. i also learned to use wide angles lenses so a person 10 feet away from me was too far away. i had to be in their face. i couldn’t hide behind a telephoto. Telephoto shots look like they were taken from far away. That is not for me. And no great street photographers do that.

Do you find photographing animals interesting? I thought it would be great to compare groups of people together, and compare the shot to groups of, say, penguins together, or monkeys…. The humaness of it all would be very interesting – as well as entertaining.

Matthew: i have not photographed animals much. Winogrand used to photograph at the zoo a lot. he would photograph a young couple looking forlorn standing in front of a wolf cage.

And there in the background would be this scary looking wolf

MATThEW BiAlEr WATErCOlOr, SCENES frOM ThE

BErKShirES

was so exciting for me. And she continues to support my work . My original goal in writing again was to just get a few poems published in journals. i never for a second thought i would have books published. it is all gravy. And it is really a lot of fun. i am not trying to conquer the world of poetry but i feel like i am doing it now on my own terms and in my own way.

It’s hard for many people to get poetry. It is getting more popular these days I think. Why is it often considered a harder form of art to partake in?

Matthew: i think a lot of poetry is indeed inaccessible and was also hijacked by professors who either write about the same poets from the past (great as they were) or they write about some contemporary poet who is very difficult to read and is full of what i would call verbal gymnastics and seemingly not much else. it is off putting to people. People feel like they have to “smarten” up to read poetry. in my view, that should not be. A poet like Carl Sandburg was read by many. But the academics never liked him because he was of the people. it is so ridiculous. i think the same thing happened to classical music. The composers have been professors writing for other professors. That is changing now and i am glad. Maybe it will get more young people to the concert halls. People don’t like to feel like they are not sophisticated enough for something.

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trotting towards them. it was as if the wolf was the subtext of what was going on between the two people. And as i mentioned earlier, Mike levins took these wonderful photos of a stray dogs.

Mike was a lean, kind of wired man who was very gentle and loved animals, particularly dogs. That certainly was revealed in his work. i take pictures of our pet parakeets for fun.

You are also a literary agent, Matt. What interests you most about this profession?

Matthew: By far, it is working with other creative people. i read a ton because of my job and i know it helps me with my own creative processes. i just also love to be around creative people. i thrive on it. it inspires me. And i am not a literary snob. i love all kinds of books for varying reasons.

What subject area particularly interests you, and can you please give me a specific book, it’s title, and a description.

Matthew: i was at the then William Morris Agency in New York for almost 14 years. i started there as an assistant. i had been an assistant for another agency called Curtis Brown limited before that. i was at a crossroads. i had a job offer from the photography book publisher Aperture but something inside me told me that working there might ruin my passion for photography and that was a sacred love. i went to William Morris because they were good at promoting from within and i decided to not go in the photography book direction which seemed limiting from a career point of view. When they finally did promote me it was under the condition that i handle science fiction and fantasy novels (among other areas). i currently work at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates in New York. i have been there since 2003. i am known as an agent for New York bestselling fantasy authors Tad Williams and Patrick rothfuss. Patrick’s second novel in his Kingkiller Chronicles series entitled ThE WiSEMAN’S fEAr hit number 1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. That was very special. i also represent Eric idle of Monty Python fame for his books and other writers such as critically acclaimed novelists Kris Saknussemm, Seb doubinsky and Jim Nisbet. i represent a Pittsfield novelist named Gabriel Squailia. he has a fantastical and hilarious novel entitled dEAd BOYS coming out from Talos Books next year. i represent a new fiction writer named d. foy. his novel MAdE TO BrEAK is just going like gang busters. That makes me feel good because it is a dark, literary work.

Matthew, what was it like for you when you wrote your first poem that you really thought was outstanding and crazygood?

Matthew: My poetry career comes in two parts with a 25 year hiatus in between. i started writing poetry in late middle school and wrote through my junior year of college. Then i got blocked and stopped. i will just say that it was a very hard time for me

and i learned a valuable lesson from the whole experience. don’t write or pursue any art to please others. Trust your own instincts and find others to trust. The world is full of so-called teachers who just want to tear people down. i got caught up in all of that.

When i picked up the camera, i had a very different attitude. i decided i had to learn to trust myself and avoid people (teacher types) with bad karma and attitudes. And so i started to write again almost 5 years ago, seemingly out of nowhere. The first time i stopped i was pretty young and formative and had no professional publications to my credit. in this second round, i have had many poems published in journals and six actual books published. Even though i did not write, i never stopped reading poetry.

My best moment was when a journal that i loved to read called Green Mountains review accepted my work for publication. i have to thank liz Powell there for that. That

MATThEW iN STUdiO

PhOTO CrEdiT:

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MATThEW BiAlEr

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ArTiST MATTHEW BIALER CONTINUED

When i did not write, i often thought about how i would write if i started again. i decided that i would not refer much to other poetry (Blake, dante, etc.) simply because it is done to death and i would write not about the myths spun by homer (who people can’t relate much to much anymore) but the myths spun on the history Channel at 3 am. Stuff like conspiracies and surveillance, Big foot reality shows, and Alien Astronauts. That is what interests me as a poet and curious person. As in photography, i try to keep the curiosity of a child. And i try to lay off the heavy metaphor and deploy my visual skills. .

From a ‘human condition’ point of view, what situations or things that exist or have existed in history, and can be repeated, are you particularly drawn towards?

Matthew: As a creative person, i am always interested in special events. As a poet and human being i am interested in fantastic events that may or may not have happened. for instance, in the early 1960’s many people in this small town in West Virginia claimed they saw this so called Mothman. (By the way, the movie about this is terrible.) Supposedly, this large flying humanoid creature came from an old, abandoned munitions plant and was appearing on people’s lawns or flying after cars. it created so much mass hysteria that everyone started seeing this creature everywhere. People went real crazy coincidentally culminating with the then largest bridge collapse in US history right in the same town. it was as if the collapse was some sort of manifestation of the emotional state of the town. it is a strange and fascinating story and i certainly did write about it. it is hard to know if anyone did in fact see this creature at all. After reading a lot of books on the matter, i think some people saw something weird. i am pretty sure about that. There were dogs that were disappearing and the original witnesses were reputable. i am fascinated by the collision between the fantastic, the unbelievable and things far greater than ourselves with just ordinary people, with just us. i am intrigued by how uncertain everything ultimately is except our humanity. To put it another spin on it, people often think our government is hiding information from us whether it is about UfOs or terrorism or health risks or secret space missions. Are governments that great at pulling the strings on us? Or do we project all of our paranoia and fantasies on to them? When i am on the street with my camera, i am looking for an event. That is what it is all about: Microcosmic human events.

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MATThEW BiAlEr, PhOTO SEriES, NYC

Documenting people, nature and the existence of all things living, what conclusions can you make and what are your thoughts on the way our world is today? Is it something you put a lot of thinking towards? Guessing by your art work, you may do a lot of pondering.

Matthew: i am amazed at how many of us walk by each other and don’t realize how much we all have in common. in a sense, i am trying to connect people in my photographs, connect those who are seemingly disconnected. i am trying to express my love for New York. i have photographed in many other cities but New York is the place i like to be with my camera. New York exudes so much disorder and disharmony and what i am trying to do – like any artist – is to express the order and harmony while remaining true to the place. ironically, i do that in a world where Big Brother watches us more and more. for instance, i am aware of all of the surveillance cameras around Times Square and herald Square and many other places all over the City. i often wonder if anyone manning these cameras ever notices this guy out there all of the time with his camera! When the cop told me to stop photographing and what did i think i was doing. i replied i am a street photographer. he said “ A street what?”. he saw it as some kind of threat. it was kind of funny but it was also sad. i felt like saying don’t you go to a museum and see photographs? i thought it was depressing if he did not.

We were going through customs to get back into the States from denmark and they were taking thumb and palm prints of some people and even retina scans. There is so much imagery and documenting of all sorts going on. And yet there is a sign that said we the people could not use thier cell phones or cameras.

The camera is still and always is some sort of a threat. it is almost as if the government reaction to so many people having cameras now is to have even more cameras. We can look at you more than you can look at us. But it is all so clinical and for cynical reasons. i love the idea of still making pictures to confirm our own humanity. i love being a threat.

Tell me about your family life. What are the dynamics that go on in your family?

Matthew: My wife lenora lapidus is the director of the Women’s rights Project of the AClU. She has even appeared before the Supreme Court. She fights the good fight for women: inequality in pay, inequality in domestic disputes. i was watching homeland Security scanning people and i was saying this

has just gotten out of hand. The terrorists won. look what this has done. And how many would be terrorists do they really catch? They were taking thumb and palm prints of a woman traveling alone with her baby. lenora said we made the choice to leave the country to go on this trip. Yeah, i guess. lenora and i love the arts together. We’re parents of an 11 year old girl so we don’t get out as much. But we love museums and concerts and all of the cultural stuff of the Berkshires. Our house is a mile from Tanglewood. Our daughter was 11 days old and already on the lawn of Tanglewood. We live a few blocks away from all of these outdoor concerts in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

We can never get enough of it. i would like to think izzy will have the same love of the arts that we have. But if she doesn’t that is ok. But i think she will. lenora is also the author of a volume of poetry herself.

How do you divide and separate family time and your art work, or, do they get combined at times?

Matthew: They overlap. i try not to do the photography on weekends. That is family time. But they are very much a part of my creative process. i know i am thinking of izzy every time i photograph a child. They see my paintings as i do them and izzy never holds back her feelings good or bad. She is very into photography herself these days. having a family enhances creativity for sure, at least for me. it gives my life a whole other dimension and point of view. it makes me look outside of myself.

I’m wondering if you can give us a description of what it was like for you as a boy spending time in the Berkshires?

Matthew: i never spent full summers in the Berkshires (as a boy). My family had land there so we would come up to spend time and look at the land. “here is the land!” it took years before there was ever a house on such land. i also went on a bike trip that passed through the Berkshires. i attended two Julys at Bennington for poetry programs when i was in high school.

Bernard Malamud would walk around. he was such a nice, approachable man. This poet named Stephen Sandy would tell you that poetry is something that should be recited to you in a bar. i kind of agree with that. he meant it should be of the everyday like having a beer with a friend. We would come down and go to Tanglewood, go to the Clark, go to Jacob’s Pillow. That was when i really, really caught the Berkshires and the arts bug. i

As a watercolor painting teacher, Pat hogan was great. She is a fabulous and inspiring teacher as well as artist. i don’t know what would have happened to me as a painter if i had not found her. She has a nice loose sensibility both as an artist and person that so agrees with me. for anyone starting out painting watercolors or acrylics, take a class with Pat. She has been a friend for many years. Other local artists i like to be around are Nancy Soudant, Monika Sosnowski and Gabrielle Senza.

What is the most sanest or INsanest advise you have gotten from anybody in the past year that you can share with us?

Matthew: Sanest is keep doing what you are doing. Keep going. And i agree. i am not out there trying to win contests and awards and being the flavor of the month.

Why do you think people need to see ART? Why do you love creating art?

Matthew: i love to create art because it keeps me alive and happy. it is as important to me as breathing. i don’t know anything else. if i could not do it anymore for whatever reason, i don’t know what i would do. i think people need art to understand the world, the universe, our existence. i know there are many who don’t need art or at least need it that much. And i don’t understand that. it is truly alien to me. But different strokes for different folks. At the end of the day, it is whatever makes an individual happy.

love the place and find it to be a source of strength and inspiration. it is so special. i don’t know what i would do if i didn’t have it my life. i mean i can’t imagine my life without the Berkshires. i didn’t grow up in New York City. i grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. i had a healthy suburban upbringing. Now my life is either rustic or urban.

When you’re at home up in the ‘country” now, are you actively involved in the art scene?

Matthew: i am not that active. i used to be a lot more active. As a painter, i was in the Sheffield Art league (now called the housatonic Valley Art league) and go to a lot more art openings.

We still go to openings but it is not exactly what our daughter wants to do. When i am in the Berkshires, i paint in the mornings or before dinner. i don’t even own a brush in Brooklyn where i live.

MATThEW BiAlEr, PhOTO SEriES, NYC

As far as your mentors or affiliates in the Berkshires that have supported your watercolor paintings, your photography, and all the rest, who would you give credit to?

Matthew: The first person to show my photographs in the Berkshires is the now locally known painter Scott Taylor. he used to have a gallery in lenox called Art Works. he really liked my photos and he sold a whole bunch of them. But he closed the gallery long ago and has since gone on to some exciting stuff.

Cassandra Sohn had one of my photos in a juried group show last year and she is just wonderful and a great force for photography in the area. She is also a wonderful photographer herself.

Jeff risley at Park row Art Gallery in Chatham has shown my watercolors in the past. And so has Stephanie hoadley of the hoadley Gallery in lenox. i am grateful to them all. right now a bunch of my paintings are hanging in the restaurant rouge in West Stockbridge. it is our favorite restaurant in the Berkshires.

What so far has been the greatest thing you have discovered?

Matthew: how making art is one of the greatest ways to feel fulfilled and happy. how it is the best defense against trying circumstances. it truly is a great escape and i view it as a gift every day. if i didn’t have it to step into, i do not know what i would do.

Where can we see more of your art work, Matthew?

Matthew: My poetry books can be found on Amazon. flickr.com/photos/87604431@N05/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/99845620@N03/ www.mattbialer.com Thank you Matthew!!

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BERKSHIRE ARTS FESTIVAL

if you have never been to the Berkshires Arts festival, you can win free tickets. it is now BAf’s 13th year and the founder of the arts festival, richard rothbard, is anxious to have more families come to the show.

Kids love to meet the artists. Your children will have a unique experience that will have long lasting and positive effects for years to come. This year The renaissance Art Center will provide guests with a hands-on opportunity to try various forms of making art. There is nothing more fun than making things out of clay or trying the potters wheel.

All day every day you & your children can experience all kinds of creative opportunities. Great food, smoothies by Jungle Juicy, puppet shows and the most beautiful art and craft works hand made by 175 artists from all over the country.

Enter our contest! in 25 words or more tell why you have never been to The Berkshires Arts festival. 15 free weekend passes, a $14.00 value, will be emailed to those with the most inventive reasons for not coming. All respondents will receive an email with copies of the winners’ responses and free admission to the show Sunday afternoon at 3pm.

Visit our web site BerkshiresArtsfestival.com. No matter what! Come see for yourself. We promise you will have a great time.

Berkshires Arts Festival – BerkshiresArtsFestival.com for dates, time, details. .

Artist

Eleanor Lord One of many at...

510 Warren Street, Hudson, NY www.510warrenstreetgallery.com 518-822-0510

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MARGUERITE BRIDE PlOWShArES BY MArGUEriTE BridE, WATErCOlOr

WATERCOLORS

Marguerite Bride will be exhibiting in a number of venues during the summer months.

As part of a group exhibit entitled “BiG Works: Garden Treasures” at Celebrations Gallery in Pomfret, CT, Bride will exhibit three new floral pieces. This exhibit runs May 31 – July 13. in addition, the gallery also has 18 of Bride’s seasonal watercolors on display. Visit www.CelebrationsShoppes.com for more information about the show and the gallery.

The weekend of July 12 – 13, Bride will be exhibiting at New England’s longest running, outdoor, juried fine arts festival, the Wickford Art festival, in picturesque Wickford, rhode island. Bride grew up in ri so this is like “going home” for a visit. for more details visit www.wickfordart.org.

And, more local to the Berkshires, Bride will be exhibiting at the annual juried Church on the hill Art Show at lilac Park in lenox, MA the weekend of July 26 – 27.

Bride is now represented by Arnould’s Gallery in Marblehead, MA who has a number of her seacoast and Marblehead paintings on display.

Can’t make it to the exhibits? Not a problem…you can catch Bride’s paintings and reproductions at the following venues: Phdesigns at 141 North Street in Pittsfield; lenox Print and Merchantile, 11 housatonic Street in lenox; St. francis Gallery on rt 102 in lee, plus the red lion inn Gift Shop. And always directly from the artist.

Bride is always happy to consider commission work. A subject she particularly enjoys is painting house portraits, and has now done nearly 150 homes locally, nationally and some in Europe. Commissioning a piece is much easier than most people imagine. Check out Bride’s website for more information, or contact the artist directly.

Bride invites visitors to her studio during “open studios” on each first friday of the month, held in conjunction with Pittsfield’s first fridays Artswalk from 5-8 pm. At the NU Arts Studios you will see up to 18 different artists who welcome the public to see their working spaces and meet with the artists.

Marguerite Bride, Nuarts Studios, 311 North Street, Pittsfield, Studio #9, by appointment only. Call 413-4427718, or 413-841-1659 (cell); website: margebride-paintings.com, email: margebride@aol.com. Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors.

INDIA

MARIGOLDS, MYSTICS AND MOUNTAINS

imagine standing at the foothills of the himalayas and gazing up at a full moon in October. Or, stepping into a world where mystics, mountains and marigolds greet you, where sunset chants touch the sky and temple bells fill the air. A world where you will light a thousand and one butter lamps to the sacred Goddess, sip tea with village women in remote mountain villages, shop in exuberant marketplaces, meander on cobbled pathways leading to the abode of his holiness, the dalai lama, enjoy yoga and ayurvedic massages, and reside in a lovely eco-retreat nestled in Kangra Valley, the Valley of the Goddesses.

Marigolds, Mystics and Mountains, 2014 is a guided journey for women led by Amber Chand in close partnership with Jagori Grameen (Women Awaken!) a non-profit organization in india dedicated to the empowerment of women and girls. in its fourth year, this journey offers travelers a unique and safe way to experience the evocative spirit of Mother india and to engage in a deeper, more meaningful way with all her myriad manifestations.

We will arrive in the cosmopolitan city of New delhi and then fly to our himalayan destination. An optional and supplementary 4 day trip to the Taj Mahal and the deserts of rajasthan is also available. dates: October 12-25, 2014. Cost: $3150 (double occupancy and does not include direct air fare to india) “Not a day goes by that I haven’t thought about some aspect o the trip. It truly was a remarkable adventure, a once in a lifetime experience” R.L. Concord, Mass Mother India Awaits!

To learn more about this incredible journey, visit www.amberchand.com or email: achand108@yahoo.com

Otis The Wolf PArT 1

richard Britell

My story begins in the far North in the town of x, in the Province of Y, in the land of z. Now that you have the coordinates it makes it easier for you to picture what i am about to tell you. it is a story about Otis the wolf; his story should convince you of the superiority of animal intelligence, compared to that of people. Otis, however, was not very superior; on the contrary he was considered a reject by his wolf pack. it was not that he was a runt of a litter; it was just that he was not a good-looking wolf by wolf standards.

To put it simply, Otis looked like a dog rather than a wolf, something very unacceptable in wolf communities. if you considered Otis as a dog rather than a wolf it was another thing completely. As a dog he was very acceptable looking. he was entirely black, long legged and narrow in the hips. if you did not know he was a wolf you would have mistaken him for a Belgian Shepherd.

The Belgian Shepherd is similar to the German Shepherd except that it is all black, better proportioned, and more intelligent. in short, the Belgian is the best, but an inferior wolf.

The Belgian face lacks that Asiatic turn of the eye, the slanted eye that seems to give the wolf his sinister look at least to a westerner’s perception. The Belgian has instead the knowing, sympathetic, wise look of the intelligent dog.

Otis’ childhood was one of constant fighting. he was always on his guard against ambush by his various brothers and sisters and over time he became a formidable fighter. Otis was never rejected outright by his wolf family for two reasons, first because of his strength, and secondly because of his ability to pass for a dog.

Although their families generally reject wolves that look like dogs, they do have a very important role to play in the life of the pack. They are often assigned the role of spies, and it is their duty to infiltrate human settlements. They have to pass as dogs. This makes them even more hated by wolves and yet, though they are despised, they are indispensable. Otis was given such assignment.

A wolf that looked like a dog could not simply wander into a medieval village and hope to be accepted. it was a difficult time; superstition and fear ruled the land, the orderly, predictable despotism and savage illogical justice of the romans was long forgotten. A stray dog showing up in a village would most likely suffer a cruel fate. The first thing Otis had to do was spend many days observing village life with an eye for the behavior of the local dogs. from a safe distance he marveled at their antics. Why did they shake their tails in such an obscene way, what was the purpose of sitting up on the hind legs and pawing the air before eating some morsel of food?

in time Otis connected dog behavior to attendant human actions. Tail wagging was related to being petted, sitting on the haunches was a preliminary to sometimes being fed, but not always. All of these activities had to be practiced and perfected in front of an audience of his peers. They stood in judgment of his acting skills, which convulsed them with laughter.

There is nothing so shameful for a wolf than to be caught, acting in a dog-like way. One can imagine Otis’ feelings at that time. he had no place in the wolf community to speak of, and now he had to humiliate himself just to fulfill the one task that would give his wolfish existence some purpose. That was not the worst of it, however. Otis had seen other wolves before him learn dog-like behaviors, and then go out into the villages to spy. Often they were found out instantly and done away with.

Once Otis’ apprenticeship was complete the right time had to be found for him to assume his duties in the nearest village. he had to be on the lookout for a wandering theatre troupe to pass through the town and then on the following morning he would simply show up, as if lost or abandoned by his owners.

Once established in the village, Otis assumed the role of everybody’s dog. his day was spent roaming from cottage to cottage greeting everyone, ignoring no one. it is customary for community dogs, then as now, to disappear for many days at a time, and then appear early in the morning as if they were never away. his job was to spy out every location where nocturnal wolf raids would prove successful.

Otis’ existence was the most precarious possible. he was beset by dangers on all sides. he ran the risk of being discovered to be a wolf by the town’s people and constantly suspected of turning into a dog by his wolf family. it was not enough to never “wolf down,” a meal. Very slight things could give him away to his new friends. his training could not cover everything he needed to know; he was almost found out because he had no idea what “fetch” was and only figured it out by accident.

Although there are dogs that seem to belong to an entire community, that situation never persists for very long. in every town or village there always resides some thirteen-yearold-boy whose one wish in life is to own a dog, especially a black wolf-like dog, and often those boys have mothers who are utterly against dog acquisition. Those boys will sometimes discover a stray dog and adopt it as much as their circumstances will allow. They can never actually own the dog, but over time a bond is created that is even stronger than ownership. Those boys are fond of day dreaming of situations in which they are waylaid by robbers or murderers on dark lonely roads, and suddenly, out of the darkness of some trees emerges a terrifying black wolf, and woe-be-tied to any murderous kidnappers of young boys who do not flee in terror. it was not long before Otis was discovered by a boy like

that, whom, for the sake of simplicity in this story we will call simply “the Boy.” The boy in question did not befriend Otis right away; actually it took almost a month. his first reaction to Otis was fear. As friendly as the new dog was with everyone, there was something about him that the Boy could not trust. he was not alone in has suspicion and apprehension of the wolf; the village dogs were in a quandary about him. There was something about his movements that were inexplicable.

Why, for example, would a big well-proportioned dog be so willing to flop down on his back at the sight of any poodle that came into sight? like an overly friendly stranger in a bar, one suspected some ulterior motive.

The Boy's anxiety about Otis grew steadily until he found himself altering his usual path through town to avoid coming across the dog that gradually assumed for him the features of a frightening evil omen. fear got the better of him completely. his father was a blacksmith, and his job was to pick up and deliver various small mended items at farms in the vicinity. he was constantly coming and going, a sack over his shoulder full of things like mended harnesses or repaired pad-locks. finally he was unable to do his job, developed a fever and took to his bed. The doctor was called and he could find nothing wrong with the Boy. he suspected that it was his first encounter with “puppy love” and its attendant fever, and he was very nearly correct in his assumption.

But finally the Boy overcame his fear suddenly one afternoon and, seeing the wolf in the distance he stood still, bent his legs and slapped his knees twice with his hands; the wolf hearing the sound bounded across the field but stopped short just three feet away. Then he lunged at the Boy with the same motion he would have used to bring down a doe by the neck. he rested his forepaws on the Boy’s shoulders and began licking his face all over. The Boy took the wolf’s head by the ears and held his face down a little and then preceded to bang his forehead against the wolf’s head three times, three hard knocks. After that they were best friends.

To be continued...

by Richard Britell

"They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my reality."

- Frida Kahlo

ThE ArTfUl MiNd JUNE 2014 • 17

Planet Waves

For most of 2014 so far, we’ve been under the influence of inner-planet retrogrades, a distinctive feature of this year. First was Venus, then Mercury, then Mars. Now Mercury begins an interesting retrograde on June 7, which ends July 1. I say interesting because it begins in the water sign Cancer, and treks back into its own sign Gemini. That will provide contrast between instinct and intellect, which modern humans could use more of. Said another way, that contrast highlights the difference between emotional reflex and mental reflection, which you could say is the basis of a peaceful life. Mars for its part remains in Libra until July 25. The Sun enters Cancer June 21, at which time the Northern Hemisphere days begin to get shorter.

ARIES (March 20-April 19)

if history has a tendency to repeat, that’s because so few people learn from their mistakes or pay attention. You have the ability to do both. There’s been plenty to pay attention to, and plenty you would do differently if you could — and now you can. When you encounter challenges similar to what you’ve already encountered, remember to review how you handled them. in particular, note how you handled the feelings of others, and how you perceived the role of others in your life. Now you can reassign those roles. if you’re paying attention, you will make choices that lead you to be a more autonomous and independent person, but one no less committed to who and what you love. it’s just that you cannot have a relationship without a Self.

TAURUS

(April 19-May 20) Venus will be in your sign for most of the month, which is of course good news for you. This hint of stability comes at a time when plenty will be vibrating on the inner levels of your life. i know it always is — there are few signs that have as complicated of an inner life as does yours, though the message of the planets now is focused on seeing both sides of yourself, whatever that concept means to you. This is a fine time to analyze where your values conflict, and it’s also time to overhaul your ideas about money and the way you organize it. There is a valuable method of income that you may not have seriously considered yet, and i suggest you give it some thought the next few weeks, and take action soon.

GEMINI (May 20-June 21)

Mercury is now making a long visit to your sign, interrupted by a spell between May 29 and June 17. during that time Mercury, associated with your sign, will be moving very slowly in early Cancer. The image is of you getting to experiment with being another person, perhaps the person you’ve always wanted to be but could never quite make contact with. While you are there, this may seem natural, and it may even seem extremely familiar, like you’ve done it before. Once Mercury goes back into Gemini midmonth, however, you’re likely to forget everything you just remembered. The way to avoid that will be to anchor your new reality while you are there, in particular on the emotional level,

Eric Francis

through contact with others, and with acting on your deepest desires. That will give you some reference points so that you can find your way back when you want to.

CANCER

(June 21-July 22) One theme of this time in your life is sorting out your emotional sphere, questions around your sense of safety and belonging on the planet, and whether you feel confident in your home. Now the emphasis shifts to an inquiry into what you might be inclined to deny the existence of, including influences that touch your life originating before your birth. if your therapy, healing or personal growth process handles this territory, i suggest you go there. Even if not, you can help yourself by maintaining a discipline of looking at both sides of every issue, particularly any anxiety, guilt or other shadowy emotions you feel. There is indeed another side, and it’s there if you’re curious and willing to see it. The good news is that doing so will likely provide significant psychic and emotional relief.

LEO (July 22-Aug. 23)

Part of how you’ll shine in your career this month is by being a master of psychology. You’re loved and trusted enough for people to reveal themselves to you. Then you’ll need to be a careful observer of what is not said, and a devoted analyst of any information you acquire. Everything is not what it seems. There are more than two sides to every story, then there are the emotional motives, which change when someone is in the context of a group.

Be mindful of the two identities that a person can have, one when they’re acting on their own, and one when pressure, image and conformity come into the picture. Notice these things in yourself and you will be that much better equipped to notice them in others, though everyone will express this differently.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)

in professional matters, i suggest you work with Plans A, B and C. You’re likely to get where you want to go, however, it’ll probably be by a different route than the one you planned. Therefore, on any matter of real significance to you, work out a few contingencies, then be open to things happening by serendipity. in other words, don’t worry about the plans once you make them; actually respond to what’s happening in real-time. Above all, be aware of the tone, content and clarity of your communications with people in authority. You’re likely to experience direct benefits and rewards associated with that clarity, and experience one bungle after the next if it’s lacking. Therefore, edit your emails carefully before sending. Consider what requires a phone call or in-person visit. Think carefully; don’t miss the obvious.

LIBRA (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)

Mars has stationed direct in your sign, and it’s now time to evaluate whether a particular relationship is right for you. You’ve gained considerable experience, and you have likely had many moments of revelation. All the facts in the world, however, don’t add up to what your intuition is telling you about whether someone belongs in your life.

There is more, however. You have learned plenty about what kind of relationship and what kind of partner is right for you, and going forward it will be vital to apply this information to your choices. You’ve experienced a pattern of astrology that you will never experience again, though you will have a few last reminders of what you learned between now and the end of July. New worlds are opening up, and i suggest you open yourself up and be ready for them.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)

18 • JUNE 2014 ThE ArTfUl MiNd

June 2014

We live in a world where fear seems to stalk us even from before we were born. Over the past six months, your relationship to fear has changed, and that process is now gathering momentum. Notice how what might have

caused deep anxiety is now something you take in stride. The question is, what has really changed? That question has an answer. What has changed is your relationship to yourself. You have deepened your inner contact to a degree that you may have only guessed was possible, and that has resulted in your finding a place of greater confidence in yourself and faith in the flow of events.

You are also smarter than you used to be — there are rewards for putting your well-earned knowledge of life to actual use.

SAGITTARIUS

(Nov. 22-Dec. 22) People may seem to make less sense to you than ever, but that doesn’t matter so much because you need them less than ever. if the adventure of Mars retrograde has taught you anything, it’s that you need to emphasize your independent streak, and leave the codependent thing to others. in fact you’ve yet to see the real benefit of not being so entangled in the lives of others, which will emerge when Jupiter enters fire-sign leo in July. Until then, i suggest you keep your long-term commitments to a minimum, because within a matter of six or eight weeks you will have a whole new perspective on time and planning. indeed you will have a whole new perspective on your existence as your vision for your life gradually comes into focus.

CAPRICORN

(Dec. 22-Jan. 20) You are about to discover how much devotion true leadership takes. it’s even fair to say that leadership and devotion are the same concept for you now, as you put your heart and soul into a deeply held personal goal. remember that though this is a point of commencement, you’re not starting from the beginning.

You’ve learned a lot the past six months, gone through several revisions of your plan and learned to state your goal in a way that you can accomplish. And you may have learned to let go of the folly of ‘things just happen’ and replaced that with ‘things happen more easily in the correct time, with sincere preparation’. That is what you have going for you now. One last thought — in the digital age, proper work flow is second only in value to the idea itself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)

Getting clear on your yes and your no is a top-level personal growth project. if you prefer the spiritual paradigm, it rates right at the top there as well. These are the two main commands that control the flow of your life. Without clear yes and no, it’s like having a car where none of the interior controls are connected to the moving parts on the vehicle. i believe that much of what people struggle with, especially here in Western culture, could be avoided or resolved were people to be in full possession of yes and no. for you, there is a wrinkle, which is making up your mind and asserting yourself in the face of conflicting information. What you seemed to agree with a month ago you may now have questions about. What seemed unlikely or impossible six months ago now seems plausible. i suggest you give any important decision at least one more month consideration, if you can.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

The recent Mars retrograde raised many questions of sex and gender, most of which were expressed in a public or political way.

These are in truth deeply introspective themes, and over the coming weeks a question comes home for you. That question is: if everyone contains all gender and sexual potential within themselves, why do we need one another? if you can relate to yourself and to others from the polarity of male or female, submissive or dominant, giver or receiver, then what is the use of relating to others? The obvious answer is that it’s interesting, and when done well, nourishing. The more aware of your inner potential you are, the more fully you will be able to relate to others. ~Read Eric Francis daily at PlanetWaves.net

MARY CAMPBELL WEDDINGS

WHOLEPERSON MOVEMENT

FLOOR OF THE CORE PILATES

Sharon True, a certified Pilates and Pfilates™ (Pelvic floor Pilates) instructor and owner of WholePerson Movement in Great Barrington, is now offering personal and group training in pelvic floor muscle conditioning called floor of the Core Pilates. The pelvic floor muscles are among the core muscles that support the spine and are key to good posture, body ease, and confident movement. While pelvic floor muscles are typically recruited naturally when doing regular Pilates workouts, when there has been trauma to the pelvic floor due to pregnancy, childbirth, surgery, or other sources, studies have shown that training the pelvic floor muscles in a targeted way is even more beneficial.

The pelvic floor is actually shaped more like a bowl or a hammock than a flat floor. The muscles connect the tailbone, pubic bone and the two “sitbones,” and they provide support for the pelvic organs. Pelvic floor muscles have a big impact on quality of life. When they are functioning well, life is good! When they are damaged, weak, or not well-coordinated there can be embarrassing problems with incontinence, unsatisfying sex, and a feeling that one’s insides are falling out (organ prolapse). These in turn negatively impact important aspects of life such as work, travel, intimate relationships, the ability to lead an active lifestyle – and creating art!

Sharon True’s floor of the Core Pilates can help to get deconditioned pelvic floor muscles back on track. Based on Pfilates™ (pronounced fih-lah-tees), an approach to pelvic floor muscle conditioning developed by a urogynocologist in conjunction with Pilates, yoga, and fitness professionals, her floor of the Core Pilates is a three-part program. first, she offers an introductory workshop that provides an orientation to the pelvic floor and the Pfilates™ exercises. This is followed by home practice with internet support along with a few private sessions to discover an individual’s “best three” exercises. finally, there is another workshop on strategies for incorporating pelvic floor exercise into daily life. The entire program can be learned privately if preferred.

True wants to see an end to suffering in silence with respect to pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. She believes that targeted pelvic floor exercise is self-empowering and should be the firST thing to try when problems appear. She stands ready to serve as a partner and guide on the journey back to a healthy “floor of the core.”

Act now to find “floor of the core” support for the activities you love, and to start making the most of the body you have through Pilates and PFilates™. For a free consultation via email, contact Sharon True at sharontrue@roadrunner.com, or phone 413-528-2465, 9am - 9pm

DISCOVERING YOUR LEGACY rUTh hENdErSON

ThE lAST Will ANd TESTAMENT AS A CrEATiVE WriTiNG ExPEriENCE

This creative workshop supports people in reflecting on what they care about in their lives, how they want to live their lives going forward, and from this context, consider what they want to do with their resources after they're gone. We will use freewriting exercises to get to the heart of what we hold dear in our lives, so that we may make plans from an inner place of selfcare. (No writing experience necessary.) Caring for ourselves and our loved ones can be a fulfilling experience that releases energy and re-invigorates our lives in the here and now. ruth henderson, Ph.d. is a writer and educator. She facilitates groups and works with individuals focusing on transformation through compassionate reflection. her doctorate in narrative studies informs her approach, which focuses on helping people value their experience through storytelling and the written word. ruth has also done extensive research on forgiveness, and has given workshops on the subject, internationally. her work has been supported by Archbishop desmond Tutu and harvard law School dean Martha Minow. her decade-plus years of helping people forgive provides the backdrop for this reflective workshop on envisioning our legacies.

Two Workshops Will Take Place: Sat. June 7th in Lenox (for women) at Church on the Hill's Chapel (55 Main St.) 10am-4pm --Sat. June 14th in Great Barrington at the South Berkshire Friends Meeting 280 State Rd (mixed gendered). Couples welcome. for more info: rhh@bu.edu

A wedding is one of the most sacred and important days of anyone’s life. The ceremony is the heart of the wedding, and when well crafted, holds the potential to truly reflect a couple’s distinctive personality and love. rev. Mary Campbell takes special delight in helping couples celebrate their unique love as they create a wedding ceremony that honors the people and things that are most important to them and their families. Mary is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister and couples counselor. She has lived in the Berkshires for over 20 years, leading transformational workshops for women and creating ceremonies celebrating love and connection.

As a couple explores the myriad choices involved in crafting a truly beautiful and meaningful wedding ceremony, whether traditional or more contemporary, Mary is able to offer passages and rituals from ceremonies practiced in a wealth of traditions as well as share her extensive collection of poetry and prose.

And as couples naturally deepen their commitment to one another during the planning of their wedding, they often look toward the future and are enriched by guidance.

Mary’s compassion and skill, shared through her Exceptional Marriage Mentoring counseling, can provide them with a strengthened foundation upon which to build a life of joy and ever-deepening intimacy.

Create the wedding of your dreams and the love that can last a lifetime.

Rev. Mary Campbell – 413-528-6633; Mary@diviningBeauty.com / diviningWeddings.com

"The best reason to paint is that there is no reason to paint... I'd like to pretend that I've never seen anything, never read anything, never heard anything... and then make something...

Every time I make something I think about the people who are going to see it and every time I see something, I think about the person who made it...

Nothing is important... so everything is important."

-Keith Haring

ThE ArTfUl MiNd JUNE 2014 • 19

hOUSATONiC VAllEY ArT lEAGUE

Talking with Harvey Kimmelman

Harryet Candee: How many years has the Housatonic Valley Art League been active? I heard it’s going on its 25th year!

Well, it’s more like the 40th year. it was founded in 1974 as the Sheffield Art league and, somewhere along the way, i believe around 2005, it evolved into the housatonic Valley Art league as a non-profit artists organization. Currently, we have around 150 members.

And what about you, Harvey? What role do you play amongst these talented Berkshire artists?

Actually, i’ve only been a member, of the league, for a couple of years, now, but last year they conned…., i’m sorry, i mean “asked” me if i would like to be chairman of the Summer Shows and i accepted, and this year, as if they haven’t learned their lesson, voted me on to the Board of directors. Now, a lot of the members help with these Summer Shows, but, still, there’s a lot of organizing, planning and materials needed. And this past year, disaster struck when dewey hall, in Sheffield, severed its long-standing relation with us to hold our shows there. Well, it really had me panicked. here i am, in my 2nd year as Chairman, with no place to hold the shows, and if there are no Summer Shows, there could be no future for the hVAl, because most members join specifically for these shows. i don’t know if you’ve ever tried renting a large empty space for the summer months in the Berkshires, but, i’ll bet that going to the moon might be easier. We tried every building from Sheffield to lenox, and after nothing but frustration after frustration, Jed & Jill lipsky came through at the 11th hour by letting us rent their building at Jenifer house Commons for June & July. Now, we’re even hoping that we might be able to hold a 3rd show there in August.

rUTh drYSdAlE, NUdE COllAGE, MixEd MEdiA

last November, there was a fresco Painting Workshop, where the instructor was a well-known fresco conservator in italy and she flew over, especially, just to give it. The league also is a great supporter of visual arts. during these shows and other events, money is raised to donate to a school, or art school for a specific art’s program.

It’s a perfect space for a large group show. Harvey, please share with us your background, I know it’s an interesting one. i was born and raised in New York City, loved art from an early age and was fortunate enough to attend the high School of Art & design, a specialized art high school in NYC. i continued studying art, while working in Advertising, at the Art Students league and National Academy of design. i married in 1974, yes it’s 40 years this month, and around 1999 or 2000, my wife, Vivian, went into the antique business. She opened her first store in hudson, then moved to Great Barrington. during this time, we bought a home in Ashley falls and i was coming up from the city from Thursday night to Monday morning, finally we were able to get a high speed internet connection, which allowed me to move up here full-time and work from home. Soon after, i discovered a few life drawing groups in the area which i religiously attended, and eventually it led to me to running one, here in Sheffield, every Wednesday evening at the library.

What are some of the goals for the Housatonic Valley Art League?

Well, hVAl is all about its’ members. The league gives its’ members the opportunity to show in art exhibits throughout the year. Besides the Members Show, which will be held in June, and the prestigious Juried Show, in July, there’s usually a Small Works Show, held in the fall, sometimes there’s a Christmas Show, and often a special exhibition, like the one for the Sheffield land Trust, that was held a few years ago. They also put on workshops for the artists throughout the year with some very prestigious instructors. There was just one held for Monoprints, and 20 • JUNE 2014 ThE ArTfUl MiNd

What do you look for when looking into artists work in order for them to join? Is it a difficult criteria?

Actually, the main criteria, is that you have a passion for art. The league accepts all levels of artists, and even some non-artists who support the arts. Some of our members are professional artists while others are hobbyists. They run the gamut in age, from teenage to several members who are in their 90’s.

KEiTh dAVidSON, TrEES, ACrYliC

Tell me about this summer’s great annual shows!

What are the highlights?

Our Members’ Show will be held first and opens on June 5 at Jenifer house Commons. Only hVAl members can participate, although you can join on the day paintings are submitted. Each member may submit up to 2 pieces of art and all will be accepted, providing there is space enough to hang them all.

This show gives our members the opportunity to show their work in public, which, as i’m sure you know, is not that easy for an artist. We’ve had as many as 140 paintings hanging in this show. The show is judged with awards given out for the best artwork. The Members’ Show runs through June and is immediately followed by the Juried Show, which opens on July 3 and runs through July. The Juried Show differs from the Members’ Show in that it is

hANS hEUBErGEr, WOrKiNG GrEAT BArriNGTON, WATErCOlOr hArVEY KiMMElMAN, lA CAMEriErA, WATErCOlOr

fund, The year before, the Mt. Everest school received a donation for it’s art program.

Has visual art ever been combined with music for the Art League when it comes to events and shows?

Actually, no. it is something for us to think about, though. Music has a lot of support, much more, i believe, than the visual arts. So, right now, we are just focused on the visual arts.

NiNA riTSON, CONNECTiCUT SCENE 3, WATErCOlOr

open to members and non-members and the work submitted has to pass the scrutiny of two judges in order to be accepted. Artists usually save their best efforts for this show and the work is generally of a higher standard. like the Members’ Show, Awards are given out for the best artwork. i do have to say that even though the Juried Show is supposed to be of a higher standard, the quality of the work in the Members’ Show is surprisingly good. But, to me, the bigger surprise is how many really good artists there are living in this area.

We are also keeping our fingers crossed that the Jenifer house Commons space will be available to us in August, and if it is, we’ll put on a third show where the artists have their own space to show as many of their works as will fit. But we won’t know about this until the end of June.

The people responsible for keeping this Art League going, I have to say, are very dedicated individuals. Who are the head hanchos? What makes them special and gives them the enthusiasm and inspiration for bringing artists together?

Oh boy, where do you start? Well, the league’s Board of directors have been mostly the same people for quite a while, now. Wayne Jenkins has been our Chairman for about 5 years, and when there’s a problem or something needs to be done, you can always count on him to jump in first to solve it. Tina Chandler has been in charge of membership and her wisdom and insight, as well as getting any bit of news out to the members, is priceless. Alice Gage, was treasurer for the longest time, but had to relinquish that job for personal reasons, this past year, so Penny Pitts jumped in and took this job, which nobody else wanted. And though she’s not an intuitive treasurer, what artist is, she’s doing an incredible job. She also chairs

our Small Works Show. fran heany takes care of our newsletters and publicity and handles it, so seriously, with a great sense of humor. Pat ryan is our dedicated Secretary, who also greatly helps the league to keep moving forward. hans heuberger, was my predecessor as Summer Show Chairman, who, i can honestly say, without his counsel and advice, there would be no Summer Shows.

Barbara fletcher takes care of our scholarship and grants. Teresa Bellizzi has probably attended every board meeting since the beginning. Joe Baker does a wonderful job handling our website. leo Mazzeo is Vice Chairman and keeps us informed about what’s happening in the north county. ruth drysdale is responsible for publicity in Massachusetts, and does her job as if she were working for donald Trump. Karen linden does the same in CT. Ann-Marie light is the newest member of the board, but, already, her input has been invaluable. And Norma Kimmel, is in charge of hospitality, and creates the wonderful food for our show receptions. You’ve got to come on June 6th just to taste it. There are many other people, too many to name, who consistently volunteer to help set up and organize these shows, that without their help, it would be difficult to impossible to put on these exhibitions.

How does the league help out schools?

At our shows, an artist will donate a piece of artwork that will be raffled off and all the proceeds from the raffle goes to our Scholarship/Grant fund. There have also been events held, like most recently, an Art Swap, at the Sheffield library where artists donated art supplies that were sold. At the end of the year, the board accepts suggestions and decides who will get our donation. CATA just received a grant, iS183 was the beneficiary of last years Scholarship

What is your take on the next five years, and what can the HVAL do to grow and achieve some real challenges in todays crazy world?

Because we are local, i think the task is a lot easier for us. The world has gotten to be so complex that anything you do, seems to tick off half the people. We want to continue focusing on the artists in this area and if we can get the word out about the league and what we do for our members, i think we can sustain our membership and maybe even grow a bit.

IF you had a wish list, do you think one of the wishes would be to have a permanent home base for HVAL? Where would it be?

What would it look like? Lets do some visualizing techniques here, if you were to speak for the group as a whole, what would be the ideal HVAL home? With your words, paint us a picture.

Oh, boy! A permanent home base does sound like a dream, but the reality is that if you own it you also get to fix it. And for an organization without too much funds, that dream could turn into a nightmare. i think the best thing that could happen to us is that we find another long-term relationship, like the one we had with dewey hall, where someone would let us put on our shows in their building year after year. Somewhere along route 7, from Sheffield up to Stockbridge, or even lenox, would be our ideal location. i don’t know if you’re familiar with the Grange Antiques building, in Sheffield, which we came very close to renting. That building is absolutely beautiful and would have been perfect for us. And Michael Buchanan, who owns it, was more than happy to let us use it, except, it was filled with valuable antiques and would have been our responsibility to move and store them during the shows. The Stockbridge Train Station is another building we’d drool over, but that too was rented. i guess our ideal home base would simply be “on the beaten track” with plenty of open space and light…is anybody listening?

Just keep visualizing it, Harvey, and it will happen.

Exhibit at Jenifer House Commons, 420 Stockbridge Rd, Great G Barrington, MA. www.hvart.org ThE ArTfUl MiNd JUNE 2014 • 21

BERKSHIRE FRINGE FESTIVAL

This August, the Berkshire fringe moves north to the Upstreet Cultural district to kick off its 10th anniversary season at Shire City Sanctuary. From August 2-August 18, the fringe will celebrate its decade milestone with over 30 performances, special events, pick your own price nights and free concerts by beloved Berkshire fringe artists and ensembles from around the world.

2014 ‘best of the fest’ highlights include: Retrospectacle, the 2014 fringe kickoff party on Saturday, August 2 features live performances, auction, dj, dancing and special musical guest, May V. Oskan; Brooklyn’s beloved Under The Table Theater Ensemble present two hilarious and poignant physical comedies, The Hunchbacks of Notre Dame and Solo: A Two Person Show; The Wardrobe Ensemble from Bristol, UK return with their award winning show RIOT and the US premiere of 33; fringe favorite The Pi Clowns from San francisco, CA inspire audiences of all ages and award winning monologist Dan Bernitt from lexington, KY delivers an encore performance of his touchingly poetic hit, Thanks for the Scabies, Jerkface! Plus, a British themed pub quiz, Community Performance lab, new work showcases, free concerts and more!

All performances take place at Shire City Sanctuary located at 40 Melville Street in Pittsfield, MA. For Season’s Passes, tickets, information and a full schedule of events and free programs, visit www.berkshirefringe.org, email info@berkshirefringe.org or call 413.320.4175

413.528.2465

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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC rOMAN rABiNOViCh

With representative works from many of the genres in which he wrote—piano quintet, piano trio, song cycles, and opera, and always with his trademark captivating melodiousness and soulfulness—audiences at the Close Encounters With Music all-dvořák gala concert, Sunday, June 15 at 2 PM will take away a composite portrait of the composer as an original and independent force in classical music. The program will also illustrate how the irresistible charm and mastery of dvořák’s compositions helped bridge the world of popular musical culture with that of the 19th century concert hall.

The gallery of scheduled works includes two of his greatest and most dazzling chamber pieces—the “dumky” Trio and the Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, both incorporating pensive Slavonic music (dumka), Czech folk dances, and glowing with dvořák’s optimism, rhythmic vitality and intoxicating beauty. The “dumky” was so well received at its premiere that it was presented on a forty-concert tour, just before dvořák left Bohemia to head the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. it was published while dvořák was in America and proofread by none other than his friend, Johannes Brahms. The Piano Quintet is acknowledged as one of the masterpieces in the form, along with those of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Shostakovich.

“The Many faces of Antonin dvořák” is scheduled for Sunday, June 15, 2 PM at Ozawa hall, Tanglewood (lenox, MA). Tickets for this extraordinary concert are $40 and $50.

A limited number of Preferred Patron Seating and Gala reception Packages are available at $125 per person.

Close Encounters with Music - For more information or to order tickets, visit www.cewm.org or call (800) 843-0778.

"When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work.

I told her I worked at the college- that my job was to teach people how to draw.

She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"

- Howard Ikemoto

SAINT FRANCIS GALLERY KArEN dOMANiSTh

At the St. francis Gallery, each show brings forth exciting new additions. Sue Powers, Karen domanisth, Casey Krawczyk, and robert rosegarten are exhibiting their works at St. francis for the first time. Each of them possesses a distinct skill and an ability to impact the visual senses.

The mesmerizing and meditative oils of Casey Krawczyk are astounding in both their size and beauty. They are soothing, and beautifully contemplative. The detail and execution of Sue Powers still life oil paintings will leave you amazed.

You will find yourself pulled into their content, admiring her skill as a painter and entertained by her sense of humor and creativity.

The use of line and color in the nature inspired paintings and drawings of Karen domanisth will enrich your sense of mindful exploration easily becoming lost in their simplicity and complexity simultaneously. finally robert rosegartens creations need to be seen. To describe them as assemblages does not do justice to the amount of creative juices that went into the selection of materials he combines to the delight of our imagination and his own.

Several artists who have previously exhibited in the gallery have returned with new directions and visions Jurek, known for his superbly realistic paintings of wild animal portraits has moved into “windows on the world”, exploring imagined environments full of light, depth and color, as only he can render in his unique medium.

Paul Solovay whose photography is a moving kaleidoscope of people and color, has captured the Junkanoo festival in the Bahamas as no one else could. his creative and dramatic portrayal of this “celebration of freedom” captures the life, joy and spirit of this event and is beautifully mounted and presented.

Two other photographers Maureen Sutter and robert houghton also bring newer dimensions of their work to enjoy. Then we have Jean Germain who has just been honored at the Paris Book awards for her celebrated jazz photos and Sharon Vidal recently chosen by Sohn Gallery in Stockbridge to be in their juried show of exceptional photographs.

Sculptural work and unique creations are tucked into various places throughout the gallery that beg to be discovered. linda Baker Cimini and Beverly Bourassa contribute as usual works that people who come to the gallery looking for a surprise always seem to choose as needed gift for themselves or others.

Our expanded “Africa shop” has a rich display of cloth, craft and beautiful bead work brought back by dedicated volunteers doing community work in Kenya, supported by the gallery profits. Please come and enjoy our unique environment of artistic exploration.

St. Francis Gallery - Rt 102, South Lee just 2 miles east from the Red Lion Inn, open from 11am to 5pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Simply Sasha

by Sasha Seymour

Loving’ Those Leftovers!

Summer is the season of fruit! Sometimes we get so excited about all of the beautiful and colorful fruit for sale at the Farmer’s Markets that we buy too much, and the fruit begins to look less than youthful. However, don’t give up on these bruised beauties! They aren’t any less awesome just because they’ve got a brown spot or two on them. Throw them in a blender and make a smoothie! here’s how:

Gather together: ~ 2 over ripe peaches, chopped (soft bits removed) ~ 1 speckled banana, peeled and sliced ~ 1pint of strawberries, hulled and leaves removed ~ 125ml of orange juice Put all ingredients in a blender and whiz until smooth!

Pour in glasses and serve!

How easy was that?

Enjoy!

Advertise this summer in The Artful Mind!

Full of wonderful artists! Be seen, be supported, be inspired!

413 854 4400 artfulmind@Yahoo.com

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