The Artful Mind artzine | November 2022 Edition

THE ARTFUL MIND

ANDREAS ENGEL PHOTOGRAPH BY BOBBY MILLER

CHRISTIAN ECKART

Artwork

For

www.christianeckart.com Inquiries - McClain Gallery, Houston, TX, 713.520.9988 Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 213.553.9190 Trépanier Baer Gallery, Calgary, Canada, 403.244.2066 General Hardware Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 416.821.3060

THE

AND

NOVEMBER

INTERVIEW BY H CANDEE

ANDREAS

BY H CANDEE

OF ARTIST BY BOBBY MILLER

ANDREA

INTERVIEW BY H CANDEE

POETRY BY

ASTROLOGY

RICHARD

ARTS CALENDAR

Promenades on Paper

Eighteenth-Century French Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France December 17, 2022–March 12, 2023

The Clark Art Institute 225 South St, Williamstown, MA • 413-458-2303

ART

510 WARREN STREET GALLERY

510 WARREN ST, HUDSON NY

• 518-822-0510

CHANGING EXHIBITIONS EVERY MONTH

A.P.E. LTD. GALLERY

126 MAIN ST, NORTHAMPTON, MA

Nov 11 - Dec 10: visual works by Ligia Bouton + poetry by Matt Donovan

CARRIE HADDAD GALLERY

622 WARREN ST, HUDSON, NY

• 518-828-1915

Landscapes and Cityscapes:

Nov 30 - Jan 22, 2023: Paul Chojnowski, Robert Goldstrom, Eileen Murphy, Harry Orlyk, Leigh Palmer, Tony Thompson

CLARK ART INSTITUTE

225 SOUTH ST, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA

• 413-458-2303

Thru Jan 15 2023: Rodin in the United States Confronting the Modern at the High Museum of Art

DAVIS ORTON GALLERY

114 WARREN ST, HUDSON, NY

• 617-645-1616

info@DavisOrtonGallery.com

Oct 8 - Nov 13, Reception Oct 8, 5-8:30

Women Photographers Collective of The Hudson Valley; Nov 19 – December 18, 2022, Reception: Saturday, December 3, 3-5pm

FERRIN GALLERY

1315 MASS MOCA WAY IN NORTH ADAMS, MA.

Nov 17 - Jan 28, 2023: Kadri Pärnaments: CHOREOGRAPHY OF WATER

HUDSON HALL

327 WARREN ST, HUDSON,NY

WWW HUDSONHALL ORG

Through Nov 20: Enigmatic Artists of the Hudson Valley: Lois Guarino, Stan Lichens, Pete Mauney; Feb 16-April 9, 2023: Marine Penvern: Body & Soul 2023 Hudson Jazz Festival Exhibition

BERKSHIRE ART ASSOCIATION

LICHTENSTEIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS PITTSFIELD, MA

Oct 7 - Nov 26: RE*Fresh Exhibit Ilene RIchard is in this show among others we love

MASSMoCA

1040 MASS MOCA WAY NORTH ADAMS, MA

• 413-622-2111 / INFO@MASSMOCA ORG

Thru Jan 1, 2023: Amy Hauft: 700,000:1 | + Luna+ Sol; Thru Jan 1, 2023: Marc Swanson: A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco

NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM

9 RTE 183, STOCKBRIDGE, MA / NRM ORG

NOV12 - MARCH 12, 2023: ELOISE AND MORE: THE LIFE AND ART OF HILARY KNIGHT; NORA KRUG: BELONGING & ON TYRANNY

PAMELA SALISBURY GALLERY

362 1/2 WARREN ST, HUDSON, NY

• 518-828-5907

info@pamelasalisburygallery.com

Oct 29-Nov 27: Rebecca Purdum, New Paintings

PUCKER GALLERY

240 NEWBURY ST, 3RD FL, BOSTON, MA

• 617-267-9473

Oct 15 - Nov 27: The Eternal Source: New Work by Jim Schantz

SCHANTZ GALLERIES

CONTEMPORARY GLASS ART

3 ELM ST, STOCKBRIDGE, STOCKBRIDGE, MA

• 413-298-3044 / SCHANTZGALLERIES.COM Open by Appointment

SOHN FINE ART

69 CHURCH ST, LENOX, MA

• 413-551-7353 / INFO@SOHNFINEART COM

Thru Feb 8, 2023: OCEANS & ODYSSEYS Rachael Talibart

SOUTHERN VERMONT ARTS CENTER

860 SVAC DRIVE / WEST RD., MANCHESTER, VT

• 802-362-1405

Through Nov 27: Many Americas: Art Meets His tory; Member Artist Exhibition: Reception Nov 19, 2pm; Through Nov 6: Solo Exhibitions: Bar bara Ackerman, Justin Kenney, Evan McGlinn, Arnela Mahmutović, Julie Merwin, Heather Pale cek, Robert Ressler, Ron Vallario, Katrin Waite, and Ann Young

SUSAN ELEY FINE ART 433 WARREN ST, HUDSON, NY

• 917-952-7641

Through Nov 13: “Ingrained”, a two-person ex

Anne-Louis Girodet

Taylor Mac & Matt Ray

In Conversation & Song Saturday, November 19, 8pm

The inimitable theater artist Taylor Mac and his longtime musical partner Matt Ray re turn to MASS MoCA for a conversation and preview of his new project, The Bark of Mil lions, original music celebrating queer lumi naries throughout history, following a two-week residency.

MASSMoCA

1040 MASS MOCA WAYNORTH ADAMS, MA 413-622-2111 / INFO@MASSMOCA ORG

2022 BAA Biennial RE:FRESH • October 7 - November 26, 2022

By appointment: (413) 499-9348 Lichtenstein Center for the Arts 28 Renne Avenue, Pittsfield, MA

Joan Burkhard Caffeinated Acrylic on Canvas / One of many artists featured in this exhbit.

hibition featuring recent work by Jared Abner and Rachel Burgess.

TIVOLI ARTISTS GALLERY

60 BROADWAY, TIVOLI, NY

• 845-757-2667 / Ongoing exhibit.

TURLEY GALLERY

98 GREEN STREET, HUDSON, NY • 518-212-7883

Dec 3 - 31: Opening reception Saturday, De cember 3, 3–5pm: Adam Milner, Curtis Welteroth Limb Around Limb

WILLIAM BACZEK FINE ARTS

36 Main St.,Northampton MA

• 413-587-9880 / info@wbfinearts.com

Winter 2022-23: Winter Group Exhibition

WILLIAMS COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART

15 LAWRENCE HALL DRIVE, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA

• 413-597-2429

Ongoing: Frantz Zéphirin: Selected Works Zéphirin’s paintings document scenes of Haitian spiritual life both materially and metaphysically, a pictorial practice that has a long tradition in Hai tian art.

EVENTS / OPEN STUDIO

VIRGINIA BRADLEY AND CHRIS MALCOMSON

FALL OPEN STUDIO EVENT

234 LONG POND RD, GREAT BARRINGTON, MA November 25 -26, 11am - 5 pm

Virginia Bradley and Chris Malcomson Studio

SANDISFIELD ARTS CENTER

5 HAMMERTOWN RD., SANDISFIELD, MA

• 258-4100 sandisfieldartscenter.org

Nov 19, 3pm: Afternoon Tea w/ Simon Winchester

MUSIC

BERKSHIRE MUSEUM

39 SOUTH ST., PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS

• 413-443-7171 www.berkshiremuseum.org

Nov 12, 5:30-9pm:Winter Festival Opening Cele bration! Paul Winter

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC

MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

14 CASTLE ST, GT BARRINGTON, MA

• CEWM ORG

Nov 6, 4pm-6pm: Grand Opening: Otherworldly Schubert and “One Earth”; December 11, 4 pm6pm: Grand Piano Trios—Beethoven’s “Ghost” and “Archduke”

DOTTIE’S CAFE

444 NORTH ST, PITTSFIELD, MA

Dottie's Coffee Lounge with Marji Zintz and Bruce Milner

HUDSON HALL

327 WARREN ST, HUDSON,NY

WWW HUDSONHALL ORG

Oct 13, 7pm: Painted Skin: A Chamber Opera The US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music

BARD COLLEGE AT SIMON’S ROCK

84 ALFORD RD, GREAT BARRINGTON, MA KELLOGG MUSIC CENTER

Nov 11, 12:30pm: Ronald Barron: A Demonstra tion, Retired Boston Symphony Orchestra Prinic pal Trombonist Ronald Barron will present "Saint-Saens

MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

14 CASTLE ST., GREAT BARRINGTON, MA

• 413-528-0100 / WWW MAHAIWE ORG/ Nov 19, 7pm: London’s National Theatre in HD: The Seagull

MVP ARENA

51 S PEARL ST, ALBANY, NY

Nov 30, 7pm: Trans-Siberian Orchestra - The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve

PS21

CHATHAM, NY • INFO@PS21CHATHAM ORG

Film: Nov 12, 7pm: This is National Wake by Mi rissa Neff; Nov 18, 7pm: Resonant Mechanisms: The Experimental Tradition in Upstate New York

THE STATIONARY FACTORY

63 FLANSBURG AVENUE, DALTON, MA

• 413-659-6299 / STATIONERY FACTORY COM Nov 12, 8pm: Blues Master Eric Gales rolls through The Stationery Factory

Please send your upcoming events with images to ARTFULMIND@YAHOO.COM

FRONT ST. GALLERY

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 be fore…. join us and experience something different.

Painting classes continue on Monday and Wed nesday 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. Private critiques available.

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.

Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. 413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell) www.kateknappartist.com

CHRISTIAN ECKART

TEXAS 2022

For almost 40 years I’ve been producing hybrid painting/sculpture objects either mechanically or, more recently, digitally. My goal has been to articulate a hyper-object relative to the arthistorical notion of The Sublime. Through the deployment of multiple series, I’ve attempted to approach and illuminate the contours of the ineffable while re-framing Western artistic praxis in general as proceeding from a Judeo-Christian heritage predicated upon the manufacture of sacred and ritual artifacts.

As much as possible I’ve attempted to prioritize the “presentational” over the “representational” to objectify and enhance the present and presence. It’s my belief that “art” is the product of an interaction between a viewer and some kind of construct, most often in a specified and/or rarefied context, that demands deeper than normal engagement and attention.

My practice is conceptual insofar as it is located at a point where “painting” intersects with the concept “art” although it’s based, ultimately, upon generating objects/experiences that project properties such as beauty, pleasure, grace, reverie, rigor, and solemnity.

Christian Eckart, www.christianeckart.com 713-373-1240, eckart.christian@gmail.com Instagram:@christian_eckart

SUSAN ELEY FINE ART INGRAINED

Susan Eley Fine Art is pleased to present Ingrained, a two-person exhibition featuring recent work by Jared Abner and Rachel Burgess. The exhibition is on view from September 22 to November 13, 2022, at the Gallery’s Upstate location in downtown Hudson, NY.

The exhibition title Ingrained references the materials and the processes of both artists. Abner works in wood, carving and combining the unique natural material to create sculptures that are intuitive and expressive. Burgess produces monotypes on paper—a substance also generated from trees. Her prints of landscapes literally ingrain the ink, thus the images, into the paper via the pressure of the printing press. Both artists rely on the tree—the trunk, the bark, the pulp—and activate its particular formal and textural properties.

Currently based near Boston, MA, Abner is a recent graduate and has embraced the tactile potentials of woodworking since his childhood with saw and chisel in hand. Ingrained will feature two large-scale floor sculptures, one at seven feet tall, standing as the focal point for visitors upon entering SEFA. Additionally, the exhibition will highlight intimately scaled works that are posed on ledges and shelves throughout the Gallery. They twist and morph into shapes that can be read as organic and fantastical; as prehistoric and modern.

Rachel Burgess is a master of the monotype medium—her preferred method of translating landscapes to paper. Ingrained will feature largescale monotypes including diptychs and triptychs. Her vivid and pastel palettes employ the medium to record fleeting natural scenes—sunsets, tides, coastal plains. Burgess seeks to capture memory, nostalgia and environmental change through gestural, abstracted marks. To create her monotypes, she paints with oil-based pigments on plexiglass; once pulled through the press, the image can never be repeated or replicated, endowing them with a poignant singularity.

Next up at SEFA Hudson: Rachelle Krieger & Sarah Lutz, opening on November 17, with artist reception on Saturday, November 19.

Susan Eley Fine Art - 433 Warren Street, Hudson, New York. Gallery Hours: Thursday— Monday, 11AM-5PM.

KATE

LIMBUS

JARED

RACHEL

IMAGES

MATT CHINIAN PROSAIC REALISM

I am a prosaic realist. That means I paint what I see and depict places and objects without sen timent or romance. My subjects are taken from daily life, things I see in passing, things I’m drawn to; they are mundane and often overlooked. I un lock patterns and relationships and do not judge. I practice ruthless honesty, and let the paint be paint.

Matt Chinianmattchinian.com / https://www.instagram.com/mattchinian/

BRUCE PANOCK

The core of my work is landscape. But it is only the beginning. I use the landscape to help me share how I see what is around me. My work in corporates my dreams, how I see the social con flict that is part of our lives today, how I see what we are doing to our earth.

Though due to my health I am relegated to the digital darkroom, I refer to the photographers and methods used in the past, whether film photogra phy, wet plate methods, or such other methods as were used. Among the photographers who have inspired me are Anne Brigman, John Gossage, Jerry Uelsmann, Dorothea Lange, and Sally Mann. I also refer heavily to Japanese Brush Painting, and the Abstract Expressionists. Bruce Panock917-287-8589 www.panockphotography.com bruce@panockphotography.com

MARK MELLINGER

Practicing art for 60 years and psychoanalysis for 40, Dr. Mellinger’s careers concern language, spoken and unspoken and what transcends lan guage. In painting, collage and constructions of wood and iron he is drawn to the physicality of materials.

Eschewing predictability, Mellinger explores the possibilities of materials and media. Our lives and our world are dissolving. We must cherish our experiences for all they're worth.

I’ve moved my studio into an exciting new art ist’s collective in the Berkshire Eagle Build ing, 75 South Church St, 3rd floor, Pittsfield.

Mark Mellinger914-260-7413

markmellinger680@gmail.com

Schantz

Erika Larskaya

LISA HOKE

VISUAL ARTIST

Interview by Harryet Candee Photographs Courtesy of the Artist

Lisa is known for colorful, immersive installations and abstract sculptures characterized by labor-intensive working processes and inventive use of re purposed consumer detritus as raw materials. Her work has often challenged notions of mastery, permanence and fixed meaning, embracing qualities such as contingency and transience.

Harryet Candee: The freedom to create and doc ument life, seems to be something you have taken full advantage of is the feeling I am getting when viewing your installations and sculptures. The space it takes up, the materials, and colors are overflowing, yet very organized at the same time. It feels limitless to the space. I understand you work within the parameters while giving respect to the space allowed. You must feel unleashed yet restrained to certain principles of your own mak ing. I wonder, how much of your personality is truly revealed within each piece you produce? And, if so, where do we look to find it? Or are we not supposed to know you at all, I wonder, for ex ample, in your installation, Come on Down, that was at The Oklahoma Museum of Art in 2013. Lisa Hoke: Well, that is a big question that is best answered with a little background as to who I am and what may have shaped my life and ideas. My childhood was nomadic. My father was a Navy Pilot, and my family was enlisted into a life

of constant change, a different state every 12 to 18 months. We moved from airbase to airbase, Texas prairies to eastern seaboard. Our compact family of four were always moving, packing, and unpacking. I adapted, I was the adapter with each new place, seven elementary schools, four high schools.

My work has always reflected my life in a very direct way and is drawn from my experience of living and working in a loft in New York City. Early in my art making life, I realized I could use what I know and how I live as source material. For many decades now, my work has operated in the area between discrete object and installation.

My materials have always been the overlooked ephemera of our daily lives. The earliest sculp tures, in the 1980’s, consisted of wire and castiron fruit and vegetables, addressing issues of gravity, tension, and balance. Thereafter, seeking means of combining light, color, and scale, I used a myriad of multiples, such as: napkins, zippers,

buttons, thread, clothes, shower curtains, drinking straws, cups, rubber bands and paper. Since 2004, my focus has been on large-scale mural installa tions, intentionally highlighting the indigenous color and nature of all manner of disposable ma terials.

It was during 2008 to 2014 that I first began to use disposable and recycled colored cardboard pack aging. I realized that every week I was throwing out bags of packaging. I was initially intrigued by its inherent possibilities as a color building block and its sad abundance. An amazing amount of ma terial I had just from my household. The colors are boldly and richly printed and irresistible in their color saturation and sophistication via global marketing. I have commented that the contents, sadly, usually cost far less than what has been spent on the packaging.

I cut up the elements into chromatic piles, like a Bower Bird. I was able to break down and re-pur pose the modules of these exhibitions into new

forms, the history of the materials becoming part of the history of each work. My studio then was a way to build smaller components that could be ad ditive in an Installation. As the site-specific mod ules become part of the ongoing creation, the small and iterative processes inform the larger arc of my work. And this is how a work like Come on Down comes into being, it is the result of every thing that came before it and will become raw ma terial afterwards.

I built site-specific installations in those years using this small module methodogy that I could expand onsite, in institutions such as the Brattle boro Museum, VT; The New Britain Museum, CT; Mass MoCA, MA; the Montclair Museum of Art, NJ; the D’Amour Museum of Art, Spring field, MA; the McNay Museum of Art, San Anto nio, TX; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, OK; the Sarasota Museum of Art, FL, and the Brooks Museum, Memphis, TN.

Pieces of a puzzle! You dress the walls like a cos tume designer dresses an actor. Have you had a previous career, or past interest that has led you to use your ingenuity to create these empowering

works of art? All from recycled packaging?

LH: Not always recycled packaging but I have al ways been engaged with using the wall as support for my sculptures as well as the relief murals. The immediacy of attaching work directly to the wall is more architectural than anything else and has made it possible for me to build small modules, attach and add to build them into very large proj ects. I have loved the spontaneous nature of build ing on the wall, no drawings, no rehearsal, failure a big possibility. The 2004 installation, The Grav ity of Color, featured 10,000 plastic and paper cups screwed and glued to the wall at Elizabeth Harris Gallery. This was my first foray into a mural format. My next was a switch in materials but even bigger scale. Working with modules of construction paper in a profusion of color, I created Light My Fire, in 2006 for Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, TX and then a version in the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT, that time using a wall of glass as support. The recycled packaging and disposable materials followed this work and has been an avenue I’ve been exploring for many years, recently adding felt and wire to my wall constructions.

You must have a wonderful studio! Every piece of art is first created in the mind, then off to a func tioning workspace. Tell us about yours.

LH: I have lived, worked, and raised a family in the same loft in Manhattan for 42 years. It is a wonderful studio and it has made my art life pos sible. I think staying put in one spot and the sta bility of a studio has allowed me the freedom to move from idea to idea. Recently, I also have a studio upstate in Red Hook, NY and I love being able to go back and forth. It’s such a pleasure to work in a beautiful location full of trees, it is in spiring and peaceful.

What gets the wheels turning in your head to keep producing new pieces of art?

LH: I’m not sure I have any strategy; I always try to move each piece forward so that it is a chal lenge. I begin pieces in my studio, most often by experimenting with parts, not fully realizing a work until much later.

When I’m invited to build a work, then there are a whole new set of parameters that require me to consider the new space, how tall is it, how wide, how much can be built in the studio or on site, will Continued on next page...

Lisa Hoke Come On Down

150 x 16 x 2 Feet Cardboard Packing, Glue and Hardware Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma

I have assistants or a lift or scaffolding, how much time to build? These questions usually shape the work in ways I can never predict.

The Gravity of Color, New Britain at the New Bri tain Museum of Art in 2008 gave me my first ex perience with being the contractor within a museum, unique for me. I obtained insurance and workman’s comp for my crew, I contracted three stories of scaffolding, installed and de-installed for the project and learned how to create contracts.

The Gravity of Color, New Britain would remain on site for six years and for the first time gave me a large work to revisit. It was a model I would use with many future projects. Many works are hy brids of each other, they changed, parts are de stroyed, cut up or reformatted into something else. I think of everything as raw material so many pieces only exist now in photographs.

When I return to my studio from doing an instal lation, everything has changed, I have a different set of experiences, not unlike my early days of constant moving. New information has been gleaned and I move forward with what I have dis covered. This creates a flow of new ideas. I didn’t realize how much the outside experiences melded

with my studio life until Covid caused it all to stop. My studio life was very hermetic for those 2 years. Happily, I’m back to a balance of building on site and working in the studio.

Tell us about your most recent work?

LH: A wonderful highlight was my 2018 commis sion to build a permanent relief mural at Nuvola Lavazza Headquarters in Torino, Italy, culminat ing in a 55-foot wide artwork, Dolce Croma. It was incredible to arrive in Torino, Italy with scis sors and a few ideas. For two months, with help from two assistants, we cut up packaging, that dated to the company’s origins. I then slowly lay ered piece by piece directly on the wall, gluing and stapling the patterns and color. For the first time building on site without a deadline, it was like going to the studio every day but with great coffee! Following Covid, in the spring of 2021, I built an installation, Bird by Bird in Hudson, NY at the Pamela Salisbury Gallery. I was given the ground floor of the Carriage House and it was so fantastic to pull work from my studios, my storage and elsewhere, cut things up and create 8 free standing sculptures. I titled the work for a book

by Anne Lamott about the process of moving one step at a time. That is for me the crux of what I do. I move one tiny piece at a time to be able to create work that then can expand and expand.

Can you tell us about the varieties of materials you use, and how you find, collect, and use them?

LH: Much of what I’m inspired by comes right through the front door. As I mentioned earlier, my first body of work with cast iron came from a de sire to cast vegetables, rocks, coconuts, and all lowly items I found locally or bought at the food stands in Chinatown. These iron works were the basis of weighted work that I made and showed in the 1980’s. Soon after, I began to add domestic items to the sculptures and that opened a door to building with large batches of items, mostly, from single items originally found in my home.

In the 90’s, I might look at a bag of clothing in the closet and realize I could use that in a work, or no ticing a button caused me to get thousands of them and cast them with wax in jars. Just the normal sewing of garments inspired me to walk down Broadway and buy hundreds of pounds of Industrial spools of thread that I unfurled and

Lisa Hoke Light My fire

2006 16 x 40 x ½ Feet Paper and Glue Rice Gallery, Rice University, Houston, TX

Lisa Hoke Dolce Croma

2018 55 x 14 x 2 Feet Nuvola Lavazza, Turin, Italy Packaging, metal, glue, foil, hardware

sprayed with glue to make clouds of color. A rug on my floor made its way to the wall and became part of a work. I pulled a drawer out of a bureau and filled it with household flotsam, that became a wall sculpture in a show. I was emboldened to look at everything. Car windshields and iron pipes hung as a large chain to make a 20-foot necklace, Lucky Charms. Some items were one offs but I revisit objects often. An early piece with home made sandbags inspired me use tripod saddlebags filled with sand as weights in my recent standing sculptures. I let my eye follow a path till it veers to the next shiny object.

What is the connection between your large-scale art and your small-scale work?

LH: I must work extremely small or extremely big. One is a relief from the other and is in the world so differently. They are the same but vastly different. One ceases to exist and the other lives on.

What is the life expectancy of one of your sculp tures that is made of cardboard and paper, and how does it endure for galleries who expect to sell

your work?

LH: It is very long lasting and very stubborn in its determination to endure. Galleries can sell any thing they want to sell.

What do you enjoy the most about showing your large-scale installations? What reactions do you often get that surprise you?

LH: I enjoy everything about it, the sweat, the worry, the fear, the excitement, the sheer joy, and thrill of completely something that I couldn’t see until the end.

What has been amazing with all my projects are the people, some who help me by inviting me to build a work that doesn’t exist, even in drawings, or support my ideas, or build with me, or collect objects for me, or write about it or just visit the work. I had no idea I was embarking on making work that required other people to help me com plete it. I am always surprised and humbled by how much my installations have come to fruition because of others.

Of all the techniques and materials you have used in your work, which of those have been most chal

lenging, and why?

LH: There are materials and techniques that I have used that I move away from. One example is arc welding. I set up a welding section in my studio, but it is a process that requires extreme and careful concentration, also wearing a lot of pro tective clothing. This was not me; I couldn’t al ways be 100% present and there is no room for mistakes. This is a very skilled occupation, so I leave it to others better suited. I must be able to make mistakes. I also used to melt wax in a dou ble boiler in my studio, vast amounts. I made works using 5 foot in diameter cake pans that I had fabricated out of ductwork. I poured endless vats of hot wax into these. I loved the results and cherished those works, but it was too dangerous to do in my studio in my loft. So, I moved to other materials, kind of naturally changing, looking for the next body of work. These are techniques and materials I won’t revisit, somehow climbing 3 stories of scaffolding seems safer!

Where did you study?

LH: I got my degree in English Literature at the Continued on next page...

Lisa Hoke Gravity of Color

New Britain 2008 35 x 30 x 3 feet Plastic/Paper Cups, glue/hardware New Britain Museum of American Art, CT

Lisa Hoke Bird by Bird

2022 Dimensions Variable (approx. 9 x 37 x 3 feet) Cardboard packaging, wood, glue, felt, wire, hardware, sand Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY

University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1974. I then wanted a re-do and went back to col lege at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA where I got a BFA in Studio Art in 1978, nothing prepared me for how exciting a dis covery art has been. After a year of graduate studies in Sculpture at Florida State University in Tallahassee, I moved to New York City in 1980. That is where my education began. And most im portantly I discovered the comradery of artists, building our studios, the great sharing of ideas, looking and talking about art. This has been the fabric of my life in New York.

How do you explain to people who ask you, how and why you created the piece, “Equilibrium”?

Is it just not easier, you think, to be a realist painter? Demystifying art is an art unto itself.

Thoughts?

LH: Firstly, there would be nothing easy about being a realist painter for me. If I could, maybe I would. I can’t paint, never could, never would. Life is simple sometimes. You do what you are drawn to. I make what moves me to take a closer look and what I find compelling. Color knocks me out!! No idea why. I don’t set out to make choices about my medium. I’m attracted to something and want to know more about it, what can this object do? What makes it have meaning to me? Where is that meaning?

Equilibrium, was exciting because it was such a logical piece. I had a pile of discarded metal parts in my studio that was blocking my way. So, I

wrapped wire around the pile and hoisted it up into my ceiling. Then, I wondered what it weighed so I ran a wire from it, across the ceiling and down the wall and added cast iron weights till the weight was equal. Then, I built it at Germans van Eck Gallery in Soho.

What direction are you presently taking with your art, now in the aftermath of Covid?

LH: During the Covid time in my studio I felt like I had to stop being the artist I was and be some how different. I’m not sure why I came to that. I felt like I need to have better skills, maybe sur vival skills, but I bought a jig saw and cut wood, and tried to teach myself how to build work. It seemed important to not engage in the ephemer ality that has always driven me, as though, I had been irresponsible. Now, I can do both and I feel like myself again, but I have better skills!!!!!

Have you contemplated the overall scheme, and thought of how to allow your early works of art to resurface and maybe join in with new ideas for future projects? Is it a difficult or easy process, you think to rework art that has been put aside?

LH: Re working, re purposing and re discovering is the way I work, and although some works have a permanent status in Institutions and homes, I consider that any of my pieces that I have in my possession are raw material for anything I want to make. My past and present mingle.

What time period in art for you is most exciting

and why? The start of Modern art?

LH: Everything. I can honestly say that I am so inspired daily by artists, writers, architects, builders, designers, furniture makers, journalists, in an ever-changing theatre of visuals.

With much recognition that you have received over the years, what piece of art stands out to be your most important and endearing? Why?

LH: I have a special fondness for Manifold Des tiny, a work I made 32 years ago, in 1990. I had moved forward from the wire and cast-iron work and had just begun to explore the suburban detri tus. Midas Mufflers in Staten Island gave me a huge pile of filthy, disused mufflers. They stayed in a heap in my studio. I circled that heap for many months thinking I’d just have it disposed of. Then I thought the only way to save it was to counter the ugly brutality of these eroding arms and legs was to weave them together with pink and yellow chair webbing. I showed this piece several times in some wonderful shows in the early 1990’s. although, this one no longer exists, it is a keystone for me to remember to trust the small voice with crazy ideas.

Can you give us a peek into how you live your daily life? What goes on? Family? Pets, loves, in terests, travels, etc.

LH: After breakfast, a walk with my husband, David, then emails, I work in the studio every day, sometimes I get started late and then I work late. When I say work, I mean, I’m in my room and

Lisa Hoke Equilibrium

1989Dimensions Variable Cast iron, steel, wire Germans Van Eck Gallery, NYC

Lisa Hoke Manifold Destiny 1990 9 x 5 x 2 Feet Pipe, mufflers, plastic webbing, wire Thread Waxing Space, NYC

sometimes things happen and other time is spent thinking, reading, chatting, just being in the stu dio. Since both my studios are in my home I come and go. There is a casualness because it is how my life is defined.

Before Covid, many nights a week I went to open ings/gatherings with friends. Seems that is coming back. No pets right now. My son lives in LA. I now go back and forth to Upstate New York, and I am glad to be in each spot once I get there.

What are some aspirations and dreams do you have that you wish to fulfill?

LH: I’m looking forward to seeing Antonio Gaudi’s work in Barcelona and I want to see the Aurora Borealis. Iceland is also on my list. My aspirations for my work are met every day that I get work in my studio.

Describe some of the ways you celebrate life?

LH: I take a walk along the river in the city every morning or in the country, I love to swim, read, see films, look at trees, take road trips, time with my friends, other artists, my husband, my son.

What is important to remember and to do when you have artists’ block, yet have the need to

create?

LH: Almost anything…take a walk, go to a gal lery or museum, read a book. Not to worry, there really is always something to work on, it’s a prac tice, I do it every day. For me, it’s not about being inspired, you go to the studio, you work, it is a daily practice, like anything, you teach yourself every day, it is a way of thinking and a way of life. It’s not an extra, it is the core.

You recently built a large installation, PresipICE at the ICEHOUSE Project Space, in Sharon, CT., organized by KK Kozik. The exterior of the ICE house that your artwork was in, is painted grey and from the windows, one can peer into and see sections of the installation, an overflowing color ful mix of assorted, recycled commercial packag ing: Menorah candle box, Mister Clean, Kleenex boxes, all in hues and shades of blues, yellows, oranges, reds, greens… and other mixes of recy cled packaging. This can be viewed on KK Kozik’s website: www.icehouseporjectspace.com. What was this work about?

LH: KK Kozik has a gem of an icehouse on her property in Sharon, CT. She invited me to build a work in the icehouse and to consider an aspect of the history in Sharon. I was very captivated by the

building itself and my intention for PrecipICE was to occupy the icehouse with a present-day volume of boulders and chunks, composed of the disposable packaging. The title refers to the cycli cal idea that we face an uncertain future as our conveniences are leading to the melting of the ice.

It is hard to imagine a denser material than ice when the house was filled to the rafters. That something as mercurial and ephemeral as water could transform so dramatically is almost magi cal. My project focuses on how that delivery sys tem from rivers, ponds and lakes to homes began what, I believe, is the modern consumer lifestyle, enabled by the ability to gather and store goods for future use. The packaging that I have been col lecting daily is a result of a century that has moved us away from nature to a packaged, branded culture. It’s been interesting to look further back at this history.

www.lisahoke.com lisahoke2@gmail.com IG: Lisahoke2

Thank you Lisa!

Lisa Hoke PrecipICE

2022 Dimensions vaariable Cardboard packaging, string, glue, plastic IceHouseProjectSpace, Sharon CT

NANCIE

RAGS FROM BRITCHES

Nancie Shelhamer, a traditional quilter for many years and multiple, “Best of Show” award winner….. found something in the fabric and technique she was using that needed new life.

The wonderful vintage fabrics she now finds, in denim, WW2 Naval uniforms, and various other interesting, textural clothing and fabrics. She uses these fabrics like paints to embellish, create and design her improvisational quilts, jacket, pillows and throws.

“Rags From Britches” jackets are popping up all over the U.S.A, also worn on The Real House wives of New York, and now seen in Paris.

Nancie works out of her charming, “fairy tale cottage” studio, in Lenox, Massachusetts. Nancie Shelhamerragsfrombritches@gmail.com, Instagram @ragsfrombritches

ILENE RICHARD

ILLUSTRATOR / PAINTER

Ilene is an established fine art figurative painter. She is known for her expressive and colorful paintings, as well as her use of line which has be come a signature style of her work. Ilene’s work is highly consistent and recognizable. Having worked as a published children’s book illustrator for many years has helped Ilene create a narrative with her work, which often features people in whimsical and fantastical situations.

Ilene is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Women Artists and artist member of Rockport Artist Association and Museum.

Ilene Richard – 978-621-4986, www.ilenerichard.com, ilene.richard@gmail.com, http://www.face book.com/pages/Ilene-Richard-Illustrator Painter/109216825770985

GHETTA HIRSCH

An incredible array of tones has been surround ing us in the Berkshires this fall and the lovely weather has been encouraging us to explore the hills and forests. When you read this, all the leaves will have left their branches and the soil will go to brown and neutral colors, all ready for the first snow.

In the pages of this issue, you will find another of my paintings: “Everlasting” done in winter weather. When I offered a painting demonstration in October, I wanted to highlight the preparation of a canvas in the fall. I add an orange background before I block my colors to make sure I encourage the warmth of the season. For a cooler season, I would prepare my surface with a blue so that the composition would rest on a cool background. The substrate color will also put me in a certain mood in accord with the landscape or the season I wish to represent. “Everlasting” was painted on a blue canvas. “Rock Pile” was done on brilliant cadmium orange.

September and October have been busy months for artists around the Berkshires and some of my pieces will come home from the galleries for you to view in my studio. Let me know if you wish a private viewing. Mondays and Thursdays are my best days for studio visits.

I will be exhibiting at The Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, Vermont in November and December. Also, I would like to recommend a new Art Gallery in North Adams, MA where I also show my work. It is called FutureLabs Gal lery and is found on historic Eagle Street.

Apart from The Artful Mind magazine, I am also featured in Art in New England this Fall and in Artscope, 10/22 100th Issue in an article by Marjorie Kaye titled: Putting Down Roots.

You can see that I am still busy and enjoying landscape oil painting in the Berkshires.

I am always happy to have visits or feedback and wish you a Happy November.

Ghetta Hirsch - at 413-597 1716, ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com

THE BATH

DEMONSTRATION BY GHETTA HIRSCH WITH PAINTING, ROCK PILE

FRONT

Painting

in Housatonic and

- 1pm out in the

available for private critiques. Open to all.

Gallery hours:

come

274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell)

528. 9546 (home) www.kateknappartist.com

Street, Housatonic,

KATE KNAPP, SUMMER GARDEN IN HILLSDALE OIL ON CANVAS, 30

ANDREAS ENGEL

Artist | Designer | Creative Director

Interview by Harryet Candee Photography of Artist by Bobby Miller

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

Harryet Candee: Hi Andreas. It was really nice spending time talking with you in your new space in Housatonic. I know you are already starting this new venture with zest, energy, and insightful ness with your own art and others that are in volved. Tell us how you were drawn in to this beautiful and historical building and the contrib uting factors that lead you to take over the space. Is it now officially all yours?

Andreas Engel: So nice to spend time with you as well, Harryet! The building was formerly the studio of the late artist Deb Koffman, and this summer the Koffman family donated the building to the Center for Peace Through Culture (CPC), of which I am the Executive Director. My prede cessor, Dr. Susan Lord, knew and worked with Deb and she introduced me to the family right

when I started with the organization. When they learned about my background in the arts and work with mindfulness-based organizations they de cided that CPC, under my creative leadership, was a perfect match to continue the spirit of Deb’s leg acy. CPC has never operated out of its own, phys ical building, so the generous gift has provided an opportunity to accelerate the organization’s im pact through exhibitions, workshops, talks, per formances, and other events that we will be hosting in the space. That is essentially the “new venture” that you speak of.

While the building now officially belongs to CPC, I hope that it has the feeling of belonging to an expanding, diverse, and inclusive com munity—a place to inspire and platform possibil ities, grow them and take them to flight in ways

that positively impact others.

Please tell us about yourself; your roots and the many paths that brought you to where you are today.

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

me at times, and I’ve most often been an outsider because I’ve rarely been in a place for a long enough time to assimilate. But art has been the common thread for me, both in environmental and cultural influence and through my own driven im pulse.

Ultimately, with hardly a dollar in my pocket, art pulled me to New York City to go to Parsons School of Design, and from there I built a success ful career as a fine art printmaker and Creative Di rector, launching some big, innovative ideas—one of those was a high-end tattoo clothing line called Yellowman that incorporated original art from in ternational tattoo masters. I single that one out be cause the thrust of that effort was to bring awareness to cultural diversity through art—spe cifically, the idea of skin color (painted or not) as a canvas to highlight diverse cultural identities.

The brainchild of that project was Peter Mui, Chi nese but raised in Oklahoma, over six feet tall, a Country musician, a collector of international art…a real mold-breaker, and a pioneer on the cul tural awareness front. I learned a lot working with him, and together he and I took his idea and shaped it into an international brand that made its way to Sax Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and partnerships with Athleta, Harley-Davidson, Mar vel, Disney, and others. It was fun and meaningful

work. It might have been the most significant de velopment of my career because I got a real-time work education on social issues, branding, com munication, web design, marketing, product de sign and development, and so much more. I did it all from the ground level, and it was such a boost to see the hard work reach the success that it did. Sadly, the Yellowman brand folded shortly after Peter Mui died in 2009.

During that time my wife and two kids and I moved up to Peekskill, New York to become part of a revitalization-through-the-arts initiative. There, I helped launch a community-based Chil dren’s theatre program, and an organization called New Era Creative Space whose mission is to in spire stronger communities through creative pro grams. I haven’t been involved with that organization for years, but I’m proud to say I was part of getting it off the ground, and it’s going strong.

Health issues with my father-in-law prompted me and my family to move up to the Berkshires and I was hired as Creative Director at MASS MoCA in North Adams. Among many other things, I worked on presentation materials to raise funds for the museum’s expansion. Seeing that ex pansion come to fruition is one of my proudest ca reer contributions. For anyone that hasn’t been

there yet, stop everything and go there now. It’s a special place.

I left MASS MoCA to help Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health with a major rebrand effort. There, I also helped launch RISE, a stress management program using mindfulness-based practices. I later continued similar work as Creative Director at Yoga Alliance, a member-based nonprofit serv ing international yoga communities. There, I helped with an organization restructure, a com prehensive, two-year international survey project, and creative initiatives to support members during the pandemic.

There is so much more, but those are the key highlights that have brought me to today. I’m now bringing all that rich experience and distilling it into my current organization’s small space in Housatonic. We’ll see where it goes.

What was it like growing up in Guatemala? What experiences have you encountered by living in dif ferent parts of the world?

AE: First, I think everyone should live in a place foreign to them for a good chunk of time. In many cases, you don’t have to go far. But certainly, in a third-world country, you are going to discover a perspective or context you couldn’t have imag ined. Continued on next page...

Andreas Engel

Housatonic Flats 2020 Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12”

Andreas Engel

The Raven 1997 Oil on canvas 4 x 6’

Priorities are different. Needs are different. Cir cumstances are different. Most everything is dif ferent when you go somewhere else. My childhood experience in Guatemala was filled with wonder. My parents were doing translation work, literally putting a Mayan dialect down in written form for the first time. We lived in a re mote part of the Guatemalan highlands—at times in places with no electricity— where we were im mersed in deep, traditional culture. I couldn’t get enough of the colorful beetles, caterpillars, lizards, birds, orchids, and wildness of it all. But there were also some deep cultural rituals and things, caves with candles and chicken feet, the smell of allspice and coffee roasting on mats in the sun, smoke filtering through thatched roofs, and such. There were scary moments too—pockets of vio lence, young kids with machine guns, and terrible earthquakes. I witnessed deep poverty but also in credible warmth and close-knit families and com munities. My best friend as a young kid was a Mayan Poqomchi boy my age, and we couldn’t speak each other’s language, so our play was mostly non-verbal. Somehow, we made it work. Several times, my family drove from Guatemala to Canada and back. My dad always chose off-thegrid routes, so we saw a lot. During my early teens, my family was driving back home to Guate mala from a trip to Canada when political activity got volatile in our area, so we stayed in Texas for a while to let things cool down. It was a huge cul ture shock for me. At my school, kids would get ostracized for wearing the same shirt two days in a row. With Guatemala life as my reference point

that was hard for me to resolve. Don’t get me wrong, there were wonderful people too, but what I learned is that perspectives can be vastly differ ent from community to community, and it can take a lot of work to find a new cultural grounding while sustaining a self-identity based on different experiences.

Guatemala itself is wrangled with cultural ten sion due to complicated historical, political, and spiritual outside influences. For example, Spanish conquistadors occupied Antigua, Guatemala in the 1500s and built spectacular Baroque-style churches and convents that were later claimed by volcanic activity in 1773 and ultimately aban doned. There’s something beautiful, haunting, and poetic about the remaining edifices. One of my oil paintings, “Convento de Santa Teresa” is meant to capture all of that. I painted it thickly with a palette knife to give a physical sense of plaster and degrading structure. Part of me hopes that the paint itself will crack over time.

Here in Housatonic, the former owner of your building, Deb Koffman, was a strong force and leader in the arts community. Do you have plans to pick up where she left off?

AE: I didn’t know Deb, personally, which is my loss… but what I’ve learned is that she used art and creativity as a means to effectively manage her own psychological and emotional battles. The community loved her because she found a way to inspire others to do the same, and she provided a safe space for them to do it. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m picking things up where she left off

because that trajectory has never stopped. People Deb influenced, and even some newcomers, are still discovering her work and words of wisdom and doing something with it. That train is moving. What I will be doing though, is presenting a con stant rotation of immersive experiences created by a wide range of artists, styles, and perspectives, to help attract and inspire new ideas and audiences.

Do you share, or have you reflected upon any of Deb’s sayings and quotes, maybe, in a way that you can see incorporated into your own artmak ing?

AE: Right now, I’m surrounded by Deb’s work every day, and honestly, all of it speaks to me. There is a bin across from the front desk with a few painted wooden thought bubbles she made, and the one in the front simply says, “I CAN.” It’s a good, simple reminder. The opposite thought creeps up a lot and it’s good to keep it in check.

Housatonic has a wealth of artistic people thriv ing in all venues. It is actually a very artistic com munity, what is your take on this town?

AE: I once heard someone describe Housy as “poetic”. That’s about right. There are some am bling, narrative twists and turns, beautiful gar dens, secrets to discover, the beautiful river… When the Brick House Pub was open, I always felt like there was an eclectic, diverse group of ar tistic people there, more so than most other places I’ve seen in the Berkshires. It’s part of what at tracted me to Housy in the first place. With Brick House closed that melting pot seems a little lost,

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

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

Are you ready to show your art to the public?

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

What sort of feedback have you been receiving so far from the community? When did you open? Did you do anything in particular to get people to come in off the street?

AE: I’ve been in soft launch mode with the or ganization for a couple of months now. I’ve held about six or seven events in the space but no real official public launch yet. There has been a lot to sort out and I just haven’t felt the right moment. I’m trusting my instincts. This interview might be it. For those that have come, the feedback has been absolutely amazing. Everyone says the place feels great and they want to be involved in some way. All I’m getting are good signals. Managing capacity is going to be an issue soon. I’ve gone right to the edge a few times already. You must have been up night and day for days,

months, planning out what you see feasible and purposeful for this space and in what manner you can go about generating an income. Was this a challenging process for you? What did you go through mentally that lead you to coming up with brainstorm ideas for the space?

AE: I don’t stop working, pretty much ever. And lots of sleepless nights. I have no doubts at all about the vision and plan—I’ve done aspects of all of this before and have a good track record. The biggest problem I have is securing enough seed money to hire the specialized staff positions I need to fully get things running. Until then, our current, very, very small staff is both wearing a lot of hats and pulling rabbits out of them. We are doing everything we can with what we’ve got.

You have worked in a successful career as a graphic designer and commercial artist. Tell us about that.

AE: As far back as I can remember I was always advanced at art for my age. In my high school years in Texas, where the arts were all extremely competitive, I won top awards for everything I en tered. I was the school newspaper illustrator, and our paper won major regional and state awards, including for its illustrations. One time, I was even disqualified from an art contest for being “too professional”– accused of commercially ex ecuting my piece even though I did the whole thing myself, by hand. It feels weird and awkward for me to say all that about myself, but it’s what ultimately prompted me to think big and pursue going to a prestigious art school. I was accepted

to a program at Otis Parson’s School of Design in Los Angeles and soon after I transferred to Par son’s School of Design in New York, and things took off from there.

Perhaps the start of my professional career was Books Of Wonder in NYC around 1991. They dealt in old and rare books through a mail-order catalog and sold original, hand-signed illustra tions from popular printed children’s books. I de signed flyers and posters to advertise marquis events, where well-known authors and illustrators would come for readings, talks, and signings. In those days, things like that weren’t done by com puter, so I made cut-and-paste layouts and illus trations by hand. Lots of photocopies, X-Acto knives, rubber-cement, and more photocopies. Reproducing things by hand was my game, and that led to me producing fine art serigraphy— hand-separated limited-edition prints—for inter national artists and art publishers. The quality of my prints gained a reputation, so artists and pub lishers soon wanted my exclusivity, and so the printing company, seeing my value, made me a partner. Soon after, I recognized that the demand was high enough for my hand that I didn’t need the partnership, so I successfully worked as an in dependent contractor for many years.

The advent of “giclée” digital print technology adversely changed the fine art serigraphy market.

Digital print production offered artists and pub lishers on-demand capabilities and speedier turn around times at a fraction of the cost of serigraphs. I saw the writing on the wall, so I left Continued on next page...

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

From the Storybook Series ...

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

the fine art serigraphy business to pursue some thing new.

I got a computer and started my own graphic de sign business, branding, web design, and other de sign projects. Web design was a niche market then, and I discovered I was good at pushing code and doing innovative things online. I made illus trated and animated websites that got a lot of at tention. One of my designs featured interactive 3D models that the user could spin around to see the products on all sides, which at the time was a novelty. It was an insane amount of work, and even crazier for me to attempt it. But the payoff was great, and once again I built a strong rep utation for my work. I should note that all those old sites are lost in the dustbin of time and can’t be viewed anymore because the code and appli cations I used are now obsolete.

In a nutshell, my innovative approach to graphic design is what ultimately became the anchor and success of my graphic design career. I have so much more I could say about all of this… I’m giv ing you the Cliff notes.

What is it that you search for that gives you inspi ration to create art, be it fine or commercial art?

AE: First and foremost, it has to be fresh and

unique, and it has to make people feel something. In my process, I go to an emotional place first and try to build off that. I trust my instincts. Things cycle through my head for a while before I start putting ideas down. Sometimes when it looks from the outside that I’m doing nothing I’m ac tually doing the heaviest part of the lift.

In what ways do you see that your fine art think ing process varies from your commercial art thinking process?

AE: Some people say you can’t be both a com mercial artist and a fine artist. I don’t think that’s true at all, but it can be challenging. For me, the process of creating commercial vs fine art is to tally opposite. With commercial art, I generally start with a solid understanding of what the “thing” is, what needs to be sold, and to what au dience… and the work involves looking for a clever device to say it all succinctly and mem orably. Putting it all down is a process of style, precision, and refinement. With fine art, the start ing point is more abstract and exploratory, with room for infinite possibilities and interpretations. I like to keep things loose to make creative room for some unforeseen element or device to present itself and then use that as the vehicle for more dis

covery and creation. I always hope to be surprised by what emerges.

What are you now working on that you can tell us about?

AE: My “Storybook Series” is a series of black & white landscape photographs—all taken in the Berkshires—that have an intentional, graphic, and illustrative appearance—not by applying any kind of filter or effect to the images, but rather by se lectively finding locations that hold magical en vironments and rich textural details. My intention with this series is to spark imagination by suggest ing that each individual print is an illustration on the page of a fictional storybook. I’ve worked hard to research and select excerpts of fictional stories to accompany each image. These aren’t meant to be literal connections, but rather a device to spark possibility. In many ways, the images and text are simply vehicles to paint images within the viewer’s imagination. In that sense, I think of the works as being abstract even though the images themselves are identifiable.

For some of the works, I’ve printed panels to ar range into tiled pieces that fit together into large images, some as big as 4x6 feet. This allows the viewer to better absorb into the setting and get lost

The Pond

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

The Roc

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

in the details of each part of the overall image. I find it interesting how the scale, the black-andwhite property, and the broken-up images break the viewing experience down to shapes, textures, lines, and values as a default rather than simply being a picture of a place and time.

Included in the series are what I’m calling “foot note images”—small, square, color images that are either photographs or paintings that provide another imaginary influence on the larger work. These are meant to be “discovered” and suggest deeper insight or background into the work. Again, these are not meant to be literal place and time connections.

My hope is that viewers of this work are inspired to go out into the world and look at things a little differently and let their imagination wander. So many great things rise out of exercising the imag ination.

Can your early artwork still be detected in your present-day artwork? In what ways?

AE: In this Storybook Series, absolutely. My early illustrations involved creating imaginary creatures. I created an entire world and intended to make an illustrated field guide of my world and try to get it published. But then one day I saw Ar

thur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, Illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, which did exactly the same thing. Even the illus tration style and writing were similar. Seeing that crushed me and I stopped my project altogether for fear of looking like a copy, even though my work was entirely original, and likely done before any of that published work. But now, in many ways, I see elements of that imaginary world I created long ago within my current Storybook series.

What pace do you see yourself working at these days?

AE: I’m always working on something. At any given moment I have some kind of hair-brained idea, and it circles in my head until I have to put it down. It’s hard to identify a “pace” though be cause often the work is simply putting ideas down and not necessarily seeing them through to com pleted work. It takes a while for me to bring an idea to a fully conceived thing. I’m a contem plator, and I like to let things organically shape themselves. Some of my projects are never going to be finished.

A new space often opens up new insights and

ideas, and the lighting in a space as well, can make enormous amounts of difference in the way we see things. Thoughts?

AE: Sure. Every space provides a mental canvas. Sometimes, spaces and lighting can be totally wrong for creativity to flourish. I habitually move work in progress around to different rooms, set tings, and lighting to get to know the work better. Sometimes it feels ridiculous that I take a painting or whatever from one side of a room and place it on the other side, and then keep doing it as if the art will somehow magically morph into some thing else. It’s hard to explain, but work can com pletely change when set in a different environment.

How as an artist, have you resolved the issue of possibly having ‘artist block’—and, always arises at the wrong time? Can you recall any artistic successes we can learn from?

AE: Artist block is a real thing. It can be torture. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that no move ment is happening. Artist block often happens in an active state—lines are drawn, paint is painted, and shapes are sculpted, but when those things have no soul or spark it’s dead. It’s a horrible Continued on next page...

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

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

What piece of art has put a feather in your cap? AE: I have a large 4x6’oil painting called “The Pier” that I’m proud of. I’ve had people try to buy it, but I can’t seem to part with it. When I first came to NYC in the late 80s the Lower West Side was lined with abandoned piers along the Hudson River. Close to the Wall Street area, some had huge homeless encampments. As years passed, those abandoned piers started to disappear. I was working on a series of paintings with the theme of relics from the recent past, and so I recognized those piers as something that would soon be gone forever. I scoured both the Hudson and East Rivers to find a good, abandoned pier to use as a starting point, but what I was looking for was al ready gone! So, I made the painting from my head, and it’s meant to have the impression of looking from the West Side across the river to New Jersey. Back then my large oil paintings typi cally took me years to complete, but for some rea

son, this one came together in just a few days. It was meant as an underpainting for more detailed work, but I was so taken with the rawness of it that I called it done. I’ve rarely had that happen since, so it’s a reminder to me that it can happen. That might be one reason why I can’t part with it.

In 2005 I had an experimental, sculptural piece featured in the Westchester Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times for an article on the Peekskill revitalization through the arts initiative that I was part of. My piece, entitled “Life Formed”—a body form strung with a latticework of intricately braided jute twine from a halo-like antique wheelchair wheel on the top, was part of a series of sculptural works using organic materi als and found objects. Another piece from that series was “Inverse Kinematics,” a sculptural piece that essentially illustrates negative space and imagines the bends of a branch as being in fluenced by strands of twine tightened from pegs within a frame. I had imagined doing an entire tree installation that way in a big room. It would have taken a MASS MoCA-sized space to do that kind of piece. It almost feels like some exotic mu sical instrument. I also made sculptural paintings integrating carved wood and pressed leaves, flowers, and insects embedded in oil paint. On one, entitled “Bee” I embellished the stripes of a bee’s abdomen with gold leaf. A similar one enti tled “Nymph” incorporated the molted carcass of a dragonfly nymph. The idea behind all of these was to encourage viewers to explore details of common things that they might otherwise pass by without notice.

What artist out in the world today do you see as being formidably daring and at the same time, im portant for history’s sake?

AE: In terms of living artists, the first person that comes to mind is Banksy. I’m not sure his work registers at the level of a Picasso or a Rembrandt, but his work is full of surprises, context, and new ways of seeing, and always has attached social commentary. How awesome it is that he can do his work and remain anonymous. In many ways that would appeal to me. He also seems like an example of an illustrator that has crossed over into the realm of fine art expression. In the upper strat osphere, Anselm Keifer would be one of my top picks. What he does with scale, composition, tex ture, infusion of organic elements, and deep sub ject matter make him a bold and important artist of our time. J.M.W Turner is my favorite artist, and Keifer’s work has some similarities.

In what ways with your art do you go beyond the norm and become daring?

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

Andreas Engel The Pier 2002 Oil on canvas 4x6’

This painting is an imaginary depiction of an abandoned pier on NYC’s west side, looking over the Hudson River towards Hoboken, New Jersey

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

What was it like working at MASS MoCA? Tell us about your experiences and what you did there.

AE: The Director then, Joe Thompson, often re ferred to the museum as a “petri dish for artists” to experiment with ideas, in a way and at a scale that couldn’t be done anywhere else. I loved that so much. Artists took big risks and sometimes failed. My first big project there was designing the wall text for Darren Waterson’s “Filthy Lucre” installation which went on to be exhibited at the Smithsonian. I was able to get really creative with the wall text and Darren and Joe were really happy with it.

I also worked with Joe on presentation materials in the appeal for enormous funds to expand the museum, including pitches to the governor of the state. The appeal came to fruition and the museum is now stunningly huge and beautiful—one of my personal top contributions in my career. I still re call working with Joe on adjusting the timing of animated effects in the PowerPoint presentation

by tenths of a second to get the flow just right. Those kinds of details can make a big difference.

What impressions do you have on the town of North Adams, and do you feel like you have com pared Housatonic to those northern parts of the Berkshires?

AE: What’s interesting is that I believe MASS MoCA explored making a satellite museum in the mill buildings here. There are some similarities between the locations, particularly the lost indus tries, vacant buildings by water, and lost jobs that affected the local economies. That said, the two places have a completely different vibe to me. North Adams has more possibilities than Housa tonic for an active downtown. Even a bustling Housatonic would feel smaller and more intimate. Less concrete, I would say.

Now, in Housatonic, you have three key areas you are bringing to the table with your organization. Tell us about those.

AE: We are applying a holistic approach to our work through three key areas: in-house events, workshops, and performances; community en gagement designed to remove barriers and im prove access and a broader cultural reflection between underrepresented communities and arts organizations; and coaching services to help indi viduals develop mental and emotional resilience

to develop more mindful, purposeful, and creative lives. All three of those things are rooted in crea tivity and the arts. Art has the power to attract, in spire, educate, heal, offer new possibilities, and so much more. Who doesn’t want all those things?

What challenges do you see in the forefront as far as your mission is concerned?

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

Continued on next page...

Andreas Engel Bee

Oli, canvas, organic matter, gold leaf 5 x 6’

Andreas Engel Inverse Kinematics

1998 Milled wood, natural wood, eye screws, twine 4x5’

The “branch” is actually a root, which provides a flat depth, and yet still provides bends and angles in a single plane. This piece provides a visualization of negative space forces that influence the bends and angles of the subject.

Andreas Engel Nymph Oli, canvas, organic matter ( Bee & Nymph From the Organica Series )

I should note that Elizabeth Heller is independ ently pursuing that effort, and CPC will help ho wever we can.

On a lighter note, what inspired you the most as a child?

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

What literature did you fancy, and still do take a strong liking to?

AE: As a kid, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings was by far the biggest influence. My dad read all the books out loud at least twice and gave unique voices to all the characters. He did the same with the Narnia series, Watership Down, and many others. There’s obviously a deep fan

tasy element to all those examples, which clearly influenced my imagination.

Are you a museum and gallery goer? Any shows that have remained as an influence to you?

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

Where have you exhibited?

AE: I exhibited in several places in NYC in the 90s, all places that don’t exist anymore. I was part of a group called 14th Street Painters and through them, I exhibited at the Earl Gallery and Art Tank in Chelsea. I also had an exhibition in the big NYC nightclub, Tunnel. That was wild. There were some other places too, like the YWCA in Brooklyn. I later exhibited at the Casola Gallery and Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill, NY.

Do you have a favorite spot to visit in the Berk

shires you can reveal to us?

AE: Housatonic. Honest. I love it here. It’s stun ningly beautiful. I go to a small park called Hou satonic Flats all the time. It’s always beautiful there, any time of year. The short trail follows a nice windy part of the Housatonic River. I’ve seen a lot of interesting wildlife there. Flag Rock is also a special place. It has a spectacular view that looks over Housatonic. It feels much higher than it actually is. Even walking closer by, along the river and old mill buildings is inspiring.

When you want your imagination to be let loose, where is it that you adventure off to?

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

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

What can you say, so far, was an experience you encountered that taught you a life-long lesson?

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

When we fall, we get up. When and how did this happen to you, and what was the outcome?

AE: That’s a hard thing for me to answer. I’m sure I’ve fallen many times, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it as falling so it’s hard to think of an ex ample. I did reach a low period when I first came to NYC and ran out of money. At one point, I ate paper from my art class to quell my stomach pains because I didn’t have enough money to buy proper food. Close friends helped me out in big ways, and I didn’t adequately show appreciation. I was too far in my own head to realize that, in es sence, by not showing appreciation I was biting the hands that were feeding me. A lot of that still hangs over my head. I’ve grown a lot as a person since then and have learned the value of express ing gratitude. I’m still not as good about it as I should be, but I work at it.

What are some of your core principles you use

every day as an artist?

AE: Always look for something new and differ ent, and always strive to do things in a different way. Also, I see myself as a vehicle for art to emerge. I know I have a lot of facility to draw, paint, and create…but if I have too much control over what I am doing—only my skills doing the work—then it doesn’t feel like art to me. I look for that extra, unexpected thing to happen and look to make that be the thing, the art. I want to be surprised by what I make. It doesn’t always happen.

If you were able to have a conversation with anyone that has lived, who would that be, and given the chance to initiate that conversation, what would that topic be on?

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

Any last words you would like to share with us? Anything we can reach out to you with as a re sponse?

AE: In many ways, I feel I am at a pivotal place, both with my ambitious plans for the Center For Peace Through Culture and as an artist myself. To be successful I have to stop being anonymous and allow myself to step into the light and be vulner able, to put everything on the line. That’s really hard for me, especially because I don’t seek atten tion for myself—it’s the work, the art, and ampli fying the rich perspectives of others that I care most about. But I also recognize that because of my unusual cultural background, artistic sensitiv ities, and depth of professional experience, I have something to bring to the table. I’m also not good at asking people for help, but it’s going to take a lot of asking to make CPC a success. This inter view is a start. You are an angel. I’m surrounded by angels. I feel lucky, and I thank you so much for this opportunity.

Thank you Andreas! F

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

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

BOBBY MILLER

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

My teacher, master photographer Lisette Model, taught me that the secret behind a great portrait is the relationship between the photogra pher and his subject and the artistic capture of the moment. In my studio in Great Barrington, I do hair, make-up, styling, lighting and photography, thereby creating a finished portrait that tells a story even in its simplicity. I believe in incorpo rating both the classic tools of the camera and newer technologies like Photoshop. In that way my portraits correct the small flaws that nature has bestowed on us. I create images that show us not only as who we are but who we can be as well. So, if you feel daring and inspired to have a portrait that defines you at your very best, I en courage you to come sit before my camera.

Bobby Miller Studio, 22 Elm St, Gt Barrington 508-237-9585. By Appointment Only.

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

-Chogyam Trungpa

MARY DAVIDSON

Mary Davidson has been painting on a regular basis for the last 16 years. Davidson’s paintings are a two-dimensional decorative visualization of line, color, design, shape, patterns, and stamping. As you begin to study the paintings, you will find the foreground and background tend to merge, with overlaid patterns. “I love the intense com plexity and ambiguity of space and dimension.”. The effect can be startling: the longer you look at the piece, the more you see.

Davidson’s New Hat series consist of 70 paint ings. “I start with a basic drawing, building with color and shape, coming to life with gesture and flow. As the title suggests, the hats are important, and the millinery designs emerge. There is much joy in their creation and my passion for playful designs is reinforced by their bright colors, linear rhythms and patterns leading our eyes around and through the painting. My newest series is even more abstract, with an even stronger emphasis on design. I do like to use stamping, along with painting, because I love the result. When I finish with a painting, I adhere the canvas with mat gel to gator board, creating a nice tight surface. My paintings are always framed.”

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

ELLEN KAIDEN

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

My favorite subjects are flowers, sunflowers and roses especially, oh well maybe poppies and peonies too. I love the architecture, geometry, and innate sensuality of my chosen subjects. To me, watercolor is vastly underestimated as a medium because of its unforgiving nature.

Flowers like sunflowers and roses, I believe, can show every emotion possible. When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, the painting “Feminine Fury” came pouring out of me. Each petal represents 100,000 underserved women.

I don’t just paint pretty flowers. My paintings are metaphors. I hope they touch you the way they were intended to. For the last two pandemic years, and the death of a husband, painting is truly my meditation. If you want to learn more about me as an artist, please go to my website visit my stu dio in Lee, Massachusetts.

In her work the “final flower”, Patti Smith the Rocker, wrote about Robert Mapplethorpe’s pho tos…. “He came in time, to embrace the flower as the embodiment of all the contradictions rev eling within. Their sleekness. Humble Narcissus. Passionate Zen”.

Ellen Kaiden - www.Ellenkaiden.com Please check out The Wit Gallery / https:/www.thewitgallery.com

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

MARY ANN YARMOSKY

From the moment we are born we long for a way to be heard. For some words suffice, for others there needs to be a deeper form of expres sion.

That is how artists are born. Where one might send their message through an instrument in the form of music, another might write poetry or prose. Still others speak in something more tan gible through painting, photography, pottery, or sculpting. Words only bring us so far…art is the language of longing…a longing that is never ful filled.

I have always found expression through art. At the age of five I began speaking through the piano that sat waiting expectantly in our den, an instru ment that brought me peace throughout the years. Later I took to creating through fashion design, dreaming up and constructing costumes for the Boston Opera Company and outfits for the fash ionable elite of Newport, Rhode Island. From there my path took many twists and turns as I lived a life as a wife, mother, caretaker and pur suant of a professional career.

It was when my youngest son passed away un expectedly several years ago that my longing to be heard returned with a vengeance. Words did not suffice. There are no words to express that kind of grief and longing for what is lost. On that journey of anguish, I met other women who had or were experiencing their own kind of pain. I marveled at their resilience and ability to go on despite different kinds of loss or simply dealing with the uphill complexities of life’s challenges. Through paint and a bit of canvas I began to re cover my voice, but it’s not just my voice. The women I create in paint are a composite of the many amazing women I have met and continue to meet. I paint their humor, their joy and their hid den heartbreak and longing. These women do not exist except on canvas and their stories are yours to imagine. Hear them.

Mary Ann Yarmoskymaryannyarmoskyart.com

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC GRAND PIANO TRIOS

Close Encounters presents “Grand Piano, an all-Beethoven program performed live at the Ma haiwe Performing Arts in Great Barrington, Mas sachusetts on Sunday, December 11 at 4 PM.

A virtual symphony for three musicians, ex pansive and noble—like the Austrian Archduke who was the dedicatee—the great “Archduke” is more than a trio. It offered Beethoven the perfect vehicle for the development of his compositional techniques and the exploration of instrumental brilliance and virtuosity with three independent, powerful voices. In the “Ghost” Trio, channeling images from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Beethoven plays with strangeness and eeriness. Both works are among his most Olympian and are in the best possible hands as Close Encounters With Music presents its second concert of the season: Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute has been described as “an artist of commanding technique, refined temperament and persuasive insight” by the New York Times. Violinist Hye-Jin Kim won First Prize at the Ye hudi Menuhin International Violin Competition at the age of nineteen and has been guest soloist with major orchestras in the U. S., Europe and Asia since. They join internationally acclaimed music director Yehuda Hanani in compositions of tre mendous scope, drama and wit.

For Hanani, “Beethoven’s music is an affirma tion of life, of vitality, of a life given over entirely to art. He is to be found alive and vibrant in the architectural marvels of his work—in the dramatic chiaroscuro of roughness and tenderness, majesty and playfulness, the rage and the humor, at times Promethean, at others mischievous and childlike, covering the spectrum of human experience and aspiration. And he’s already heralding the arrival of Romanticism….the powerful appeal is that there’s incredible modernity to his music, which is unbound to any school, or period or trend.”

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

BERKSHIRE DIGITAL

Since opening in 2005, Berkshire Digital has done fine art printing for artists and photographers. Giclée prints can be made in many different sizes from 5”x7” to 42”x 80” on a variety of archival paper choices. Berkshire Digital was featured in PDN magazine in an article about fine art printing. See the entire article on the BerkshireDigital.com website.

Berkshire Digital does accurate hi-res photo-re productions of paintings and illustrations that can be used for Giclée prints, books, magazines, bro chures, cards and websites.

“Fred Collins couldn’t have been more profes sional or more enjoyable to work with. He did a beautiful job in photographing paintings carefully, efficiently, and so accurately. It’s such a great feel ing to know I have these beautiful, useful files on hand anytime I need them. I wish I’d called Fred years ago.” - Ann Getsinger

We also offer restoration and repair of damaged or faded photographs. A complete overview of services offered, along with pricing, can be seen on the web at BerkshireDigital.com

The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial and fine art photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston, Stamford and the Berk shires. He offers over 25 years of experience with Photoshop, enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement to prints and digital files. The studio is located in Mt. Washington, but drop-off and pick-up is available through Frames On Wheels, 84 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA (413) 528-0997 and Gilded Moon Framing, 17 John Street in Millerton, NY (518) 789-3428.

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

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive.

Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.”

– August

GIRL COMBING HER HAIR

Andrea Joyce Feldman

Visual Artist / Writer

Interview by Harryet Candee

“For me, each painting is a place. An alternate universe. Peaceful and calming. Mindful and mindless. Where I can take my time. Where from a clean, white empty space, using colors and marks, an entire picture story may emerge. It’s very satisfying to create something that brings me great pleasure. I can revisit and experience the same contentment as I felt when painting it.”

—Andrea Joyce Feldman

Harryet Candee: Tell us how life has been for you in Florida. Have you been artistically busy as you were when living in the Berkshires? (We miss you.)

Andrea Joyce Feldman: We had lived in the Berkshires for over 20 years. We moved to Flor ida in the summer of 2018. Like Lemony Snicket, we then proceeded to slog through a series of un fortunate events: health issues with family members followed by Covid, disrupted the set tling in process. In addition, I felt like a stranger in a strange land. From landscapes to landscaping, everything was new and different and difficult to grok. My sense of inner peace was in pieces.

And what do you find is grounding you these days?

AJF: During Covid, we isolated ourselves. I had been attending a weekly watercolor group right here in our development that fell apart. I gathered some of the members and a few others and started a Zoom group. At first, I filled the time with med itation, visualization and drawing exercises I’d learned over the years from Deb Koffman’s Mind fulness Drawing Class. After a while, I experi mented with a more relaxed format that I still use. The group has stayed together all this time. I look forward to seeing everyone each week. It’s what has helped me get through the tough times.

What are some activities you enjoy aside from being in art-making mode?

AJF: I never thought I would be saying this, be cause I feel like I’ve turned into my parents, but I like to play games. We have a weekly gathering to play Mexican Train, a dominoes game. We also play Rummikub and computer games.

Where do you derive some of your positive energy sources?

AJF: First of all, my partner of 37 years, Millie Calesky, is my rock. If it weren’t for her, I’d feel like I’d be flying around like an untethered bal loon. I like a good conversation. I like to think. I try to always look for the joy.

Creating art gives you a sense of joy as well as a feeling of confidence when a painting is well done. I wonder if it is because you have fallen in love with watercolor and have learned the secrets to using them as a medium for your landscape paintings?

AJF: I can hardly claim to know any secrets. I am primarily self-taught.

I didn’t paint regularly before I turned sixty. I was in the midst of chemotherapy at the time. I was told that my white blood cell count was low and that if it didn’t improve, they would have to stop treatment. I tried many things from vitamins to vi sualizing, to no avail. Finally, I decided to draw the white blood cells. From there I brought in color via an old tin of watercolors I unearthed. I painted white blood cells, then colorful cells from my imagination. I found the process so soothing

that I’ve continued to paint ever since.

What do you find most gratifying when you create a landscape scene? What does it mentally connect you to when in the zone?

AJF: In the zone or flow in any area is an amaz ing gift. Recognizing when it’s happening allows for tapping into infinite energy. That’s when you should keep your hands inside the boat and enjoy the ride.

Connecting with nature in all her glory is the re ward of painting landscape. In my pictures I strive to convey the quiet, the beauty and the power of trees and plants. I hope they will serve as an invi tation to climb into this little alternate universe, stay for a while and have a look around.

I know your cartooning, line drawings are very mindfully expressed. (Your monthly “NYUKNYUK” in The Artful Mind each month, says it all) It is where I see a marriage between literary and visual art fuse for you. Is that correct?

AJF: Literary sounds very sophisticated. I cer tainly do love words and pictures together. I find cartooning challenging but enjoyable. I see the process for designing a cartoon as similar to com posing a Haiku. You start big with a concept, then distill it down to its essence within the confines of a structure.

When did the knack for writing come about?

AJF: I’m not sure when I started, but I remember

Follow Me

Purple Mountains

Path for Today

when I was 11 or 12 years old, I was writing song parodies, poetry, kept a journal and sent long letters to friends away at summer camp. I had a blog for a number of years, with friends and I had my own for a while. I also enjoy writing cartoons.

You have an uncanny sense of humor and use it as a life-line tool which comes out in your art. Whether unintentional, or an afterthought you have discovered – humor is always somewhere to be found within your art. So, I am curious, if we go back in time, was there a mentor who showed you how to find a sense of humor in order to get through life experiences easier?

AJF: I come from a funny family. As for men tors, mine were all on TV. I grew up watching Phil Silvers, Steve Allen and Ernie Kovacs. I also loved the few women comics who were so great including Carol Burnett, Lucy, Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller.

Can you share a memory in time with us that you consider to be one of the most important awaken ing experiences for you?

AJF: I was asleep and having a dream. In the dream there was a photo of my deceased mother.

She told me that I had a lump in my breast. I reached down and felt it. That’s when I woke up screaming. That was the beginning of a journey through 3 breast cancers and uterine cancer. I do believe it was the protective forces that spoke to me in that dream. They are the reason I am alive today. I have other stories about how angels have helped me through, but we’ll discuss that over drinks sometime.

Have you ever depicted memories in your art for therapeutic means and understanding the inner self? Do you keep a journal for all practical pur poses?

AJF: I have journaled on and off for years. I have

been in memoir writing groups and cancer support writing groups. I have drawn and painted many self-portraits. I feel that it’s a useful way for me to see how I am. At the end of each class, Deb Koffman always left 5 minutes for us to write down any thoughts or feelings we were having. She encouraged us to make notes during our pro cess and to share our experience.

If you were asked, what is important in life that everyone needs to know, what would answer?

AJF: The bottom line is all we have ultimately is ourselves. No one can do it for us.

AndreaJoyceFeldmanArt.com

Thank you Andrea!

Andrea Joyce Feldman

LONNY JARRETT

My initial memory of awakening to the cre ative impulse was hearing the first chord of the Beatle’s, Hard Day’s Night when I was six years old. At that moment I knew something big was happening and I had to get on board! I began stu dying at the Guitar Workshop, the first guitar school in America. I’ve performed music most of my life and currently play jazz fusion with my band Redshift.

My interest in photography blossomed as an electron-microscopist publishing neuro- and mo lecular- biological research out of UMASS/Am herst and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx in my early 20s.

As a life-long meditator, martial artist, mu sician, and photographer everything I engage with comes from the same unified intention toward en gendering the true, the good, and the beautiful. In my landscape and nature photography I endeavor to capture the light that seeps through everything.

Lonny Jarrett -

Community: Nourishingdestiny.com

Books: Spiritpathpress.com

Art: Berkshirescenicphotography.com

Teaching: Lonnyjarrett.com

CAROLYN NEWBERGER

Watercolor painting, mixed media, and a prac tice of drawing from life form the body of Caro lyn Newberger’s work, with an emphasis on human connections and experience.

Whether working in the performance hall, the studio, or a café table, Carolyn captures personal character and the spark, rhythm and flow of our human endeavors.

An avid and award-winning artist in her youth, Carolyn returned to art after an academic career in psychology at Harvard Medical School. Her work has received many awards, including from the Danforth Museum of Art, the Cambridge Art Association, Watercolor Magazine, and the New England Watercolor Society, of which she is a signature member.

Many of Carolyn’s performance drawings and plein air paintings accompany reviews and essays she writes, often in collaboration with her hus band, Eli, for “The Berkshire Edge,” a publica tion of news, arts and ideas in Western Massachusetts.

Carolyn Newbergerwww.carolynnewberger.com cnewberger@me.com / 617-877-5672.

MARGUERITE BRIDE

COMMISSIONED PAINTINGS

It’s a lot easier than you think to commission a house or business portrait (or any type of scene). The artist will visit the site and take photos (if local) and come up with some sketches that de picts the view you are looking for. Once agree ment is met on the view and season, what is to be included and not included, and the size of the painting, then the painting process begins. It sel dom takes more than 3 weeks from start to finish.

A custom house portrait is a personal and cher ished gift for any occasion. Most often adult chil dren commission a piece for their parents, other times it’s an anniversary, retirement, or holiday surprise gift, and sometimes it’s a gift for yourself because you love your home.

Whatever the occasion, it is always a happy process for everyone. Marge Bride would love to paint your home for you!

“Visit my website to see many of the homes I have painted. You will find plenty of ideas to in spire you, and answers to all your questions. It is such a pleasurable journey for the gift recipients and for me as well.”

Also, Marguerite Bride is exhibiting 2 pieces in the Berkshire Art Association’s RE*Fresh Ex hibit to be held October 7 - November 26 at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield. Marguerite Bride – Home Studio at 46 Glory Drive, Pittsfield, Massachusetts by appointment only. Call/text 413-841-1659; margebride-paint ings.com; margebride@aol.com; Facebook: Mar guerite Bride Watercolors.

I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind.

- Richard Price

nyuk-nyuk

Andrea Joyce Feldman

TURKEY TAILS, WATERCOLOR AND PASTEL, 5 1/2 X 8”

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPH BY LONNY JARRETT

VINTAGE GREAT BARRINGTON, WATERCOLOR

SALLY TISKA RICE

Sally Tiska Rice was born and raised in the beautiful Berkshires. She is the youngest of four children. Sally lives in a rural town with her hus band, and pets, where she is inspired by her sur roundings.

As a young girl she would sit with her father as he designed and drew many blueprints. This was the start of her love for art in all its forms. While painting and drawing she feels spiritually gratified and relaxed. She is a spine injury survi vor that finds her creative nature healing.

Sally focuses on blending and layering to achieve depth and dimension. She also experi ments with light and color to create a piece that will be enjoyed. Sally employs many different techniques into her paintings, using acrylic, wa tercolors, oil paints, pastels, as well as mixed media.

Her love to travel has given Sally opportuni ties to further her understanding of art in all its forms. She has been able to visit many areas in the Northeast, ranging from the majestic moun tains to the scenic shores. Sally has enjoyed art abroad while in Italy, Greece, Spain and the Ca ribbean as well. These experiences have encour aged her knowledge and appreciation of the history of art throughout the world.

Sally uses spontaneity to compose artwork. She also creates many beautiful commission art pieces for customers internationally. Her commis sion pieces are usually created from one or more images that the customer has chosen to blend to gether to form a one of a kind piece of art. Sally also has many customers that have purchased fine art prints.

Call to set up a studio appointment at the Clock Tower Business Center, 75 South Church Street, 3rd floor, studio 302, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Sally Tiska Rice - 413-446-8469http://www.sallytiskarice.com, http://sallytiskarice.com/STR/The_Artist.html, https://www.facebook.com/sally.t.rice, https://mobile.twitter.com/RiceTiska, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-tiska-rice-cpo5230777a/, https://www.instagram.com/sallytiskarice/ https://pixels.com/profiles/sally-rice

ANDREA JOYCE FELDMAN

I had the idea of painting a small landscape, (5”x7”) as a gift. I made a loosey-goosey sketch then proceeded to paint. I made four pictures in attempts to capture tthe little scene. None of them moved me. I tossed the pics into my storage bin. I would paint on the back of the paper.

When I was rummaging through the bin several days later, I was surprised to find the picttures. I had completely forgotten about them. What was interesting to me was reassessing the lot as I had previously rejected them all. Did I still feel the same way about them now? Yes. I had made the right decision. That’s why I call what I do a prac tice

Andrea Joyce FeldmanAndreajoycefeldmanart.com / 413-655-7766.

SHARON GUY LAND, SEA, AND SKY

While I quietly observe and paint the land, water, and skies, the ordinary world around me is transformed by light and shadow into the sublime. My goal is to share my deep connection with na ture with those who take the time to stop and look.

I enjoy painting birds, animals, and scenes from the Gulf Coast to New England. My work is in private collections in the United States and Ca nada.

Sharon Guy - sharonguyart@gmail.com, 941-321-1218, https://www.sharonguyart.com

THE WATCHER

I CAN DREAM, CAN’T I? 11” X 14” WATERCOLOR

Tiska

KEITH DAVIDSON

and Mary

South

MIND

CAROLYN

MARY ANN YARMOSKY

“It’s up to you to decide who my ladies are and what they are think ing. They only came to me with the first stroke of a brush and a little paint. I don’t know their stories or where they hale from. I only know that they now exist, and some will love them, and some will not. Such is the life of a woman.”

Mary Ann Yarmosky: 413-441-6963 myarmosky@comcast.net • Face Book Instagram maryannyarmoskyart.com

-Mary Ann Yarmosky

The Cocktail Party

Cocktails in Paris

Its a Grey Day

Fantasy Branches and Leaves Photograph

With Reference to Life Photograph

Floating Leaves Photograph

Math Lesson

Rose Oliver

Findthesquare rootofmisery

Dividebydespair’sknownratio. Arrangeincolumns.

Equatetheknownwiththeunknown, Assume there’saproportion. Show all work.

Letxequaltheunsolvable Anddon’taskwhy.

Meanwhile a Word Child believeshypotenuse asortofhippopotamus, calculations foreignas that beast.

No nuance in numbers

And that’s that.

Numeralsgloweronthepage, Sharp,angular,menacing.

Thesumalwaysexceeds it’sparts.

YANA VAN DYKE

Playing at the intersection of art & science, van Dyke creates works of art on paper and parchment with a deep-rooted understanding of traditional materials and techniques from the microscopic to the macroscopic. For more than thirty years she has been studying and practicing the art of inta glio printmaking, with copper as the matrix. Her experimental printmaking & painting techniques weave imagery born out of a naturalist, symbolist, alchemist; charged and characterized by their ani mistic atmospheres.

Yana van Dyke holds a MS from the Winter thur/University of DE Program in Art Conserva tion, is a recognized Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation of His toric and Artistic Works, a member of the Inter national Council of Museums Committee for Conservation, the Society of Winterthur Fel lows, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Institute of Paper Historians. Yana van Dyke –https://www.linkedin.com/in/yana-van-dyke76639828/; https://metmuseum.academia.edu/yanavandyke; https://www.instagram.com/yanavandyke/?hl=en

KATE KNAPP

I have been studying painting seriously for over fifty years. Provincetown Massachusetts was where I began painting full time at the Impres sionist Cape School of Art with Henry Hensche.

The world of color and light was opened to me at that point and continues to be at the heart of my work. Over the years I have become more inter ested in the Expressionist outlook and try to com municate through my work how I feel about the subject I am painting. I try to paint from my heart, as it were, not so much from my head.

I am very inspired by the work of Soutine and Charles Burchfield, to name a few. Both artists are well known for their personal interpretations of the world around them. Robert Henri is also an ongoing inspiration. His ideas set forth in his book “The Art Spirit” ever remind me how important it is to have an honest relationship with whatever it is I am trying to paint.

By that I mean, be true to myself and stay as connected to my heart-felt feelings about the sub ject before me as is possible. Landscapes, portrait or still lifes are all of interest to me. Wherever I go, my eye is in love, and I am very grateful to have this life of painting to share with you.

Kate Knapp - frontststudio@aol.com, 413-274-6607. More info also available at www.jessieedwardsgallery.com

ROSARIUM PHILOSOPHORUM

SUMMER BOUQUET, OIL ON CANVAS, 30” X 30”

Astrology for Creatives with Deanna Musgrave

(November 2022)

I am expecting the entrance into November to be intense given it will be right in the middle of the fall eclipse sea son. At the beginning of the month, we will still be in the effects of the Partial New Moon Solar Eclipse on Oc tober 24-25th in Scorpio and starting to feel the build-up to the Total Lunar Eclipse on November 7-8th in Taurus With these series of eclipses, we should expect a time of transformational change, unveiling of secrets or shock ing revelations, as well as changes in shared resources with Scorpio’s influence. The Taurus energy will bring forward issues around food, security, money, land, and the environment.

As a creative who always works with the moons to goal set and magnetize what resonates towards me, let me first say that I don’t advise rituals on Eclipse Moons. I do feel very positive about the New Moon in Sagittarius on November 23rd, 2022 for creators and manifesting. On that day, Jupiter, the planet associated with abun dance, will also be going direct in Pisces after many months of Retrograde. Venus will have also just moved into Sagittarius on September 16th and followed by Mer cury on the 17th. I feel Mercury conjunct Venus on Sep tember 21st to be a very beneficial conjunction for the arts as it will blend communications, intellect and logic with beauty, wealth, and love.

Given that Sagittarius is a fire sign, I would recommend a fire ritual, like blowing out a candle with visualization. Make sure when you blow out that candle that you are in the experience of what you wish to manifest by seeing, smelling, feeling, and experiencing it. Don’t blow out the candle with a wish but, instead be that energy while you extinguish the flame. Make sure you say “in the highest good of all and with respect to the free will of others” to protect yourself. In my experience the ritual will be more potent if you align it with the house Sagittarius is in for you. If you know your Rising Sign, I will outline it for you below.

Rising Sign Forecast

So now I would like to get a bit more specific as to how November’s astrological aspects may affect you based on your RISING SIGN, as well as what area of your life might be best focused on for your New Moon ritual. Please DO NOT read your Sun Sign for this forecast! When someone says “I’m an Aries” most people are talking about their Sun Sign. This is not what you want and you should always look at your Rising Sign for fore casting. To find out your Rising Sign you need your exact time and location of birth. There are many free on line Rising Sign calculators that can give this informa tion to you.

Aries Rising

Be aware that the Eclipses will be affecting your 2nd house of values and money, as well as your 8th house of shared resources, secrets, sexuality, intimacy, death/re

births and transformations. With the Sagittarius New Moon, it would be good to focus your manifesting ritual on life purpose/philosophy, higher learning or long-dis tance travel. Be aware that there is a lot of energy around the unseen/spiritual, intense emotions or mental health.

Taurus Rising

The universe is calling you to explore yourself deeply since the new year and these eclipses will be bringing you a lot of examinations of self-versus-relationships. Be aware that the Taurus Eclipse on November 7-8th could also impact the physical body. With the Sagittarius New Moon happening in your 8th house there is power behind manifesting for transformation, shared resources, intimacy, sex, secrets, death/rebirths, transformations, and anything occult. Be aware that there is a lot of energy focused on community and future goals that may be expansive or illusionary/fanciful.

Gemini Rising

Gemini Risings are likely going deep within to examine the unseen parts of themselves and mental health in re lations to work, routines, jobs, health, and pets. You may also be exploring your spirituality at this time and incor porating it into your routine. For the Sagittarius New Moon, I recommend focusing your manifesting magic towards relationships and partnerships. Around this time there is a lot of energy that is both expansive, but also illusionary or fantastical, when it comes to career, public life, or legacy.

Cancer Rising

Cancer Risings are likely dealing with a lot of change when it comes to community or future goals. You may be trying to integrate this with your joys, romance, children, or creativity. This Sagittarius New Moon will be great for manifesting rituals that are focused on rou tines, physical health, your job, or pets. Be aware that there is a lot of expansion and fanciful illusion around this time when it comes to exploring your life purpose/philosophy, higher learning, long distance travel or anything foreign.

Leo Rising

You’ve likely been dealing with a lot to do with your public image, career, authorities, or legacy throughout this year, as well as, how that all balances with family, private life, or your mother. Be ready for that to get high lighted during this eclipse season. For this Sagittarius New Moon, I advise using your manifesting magic to wards your joys, play, children, creations, or romance. Be aware you have a lot going on that is expansive and illusionary when it comes to shared resources, intimacy, sexuality, transformation, death/rebirth, or the occult.

Virgo Rising

This year you may be examining your life purpose at a deeper level while also considering more higher learning or long-distance travel. You also might be experiencing a lot of revelations and transformations when it comes to your relationships with siblings, local community, or the way you communicate. For you, this Sagittarius New Moon energy is best used towards manifestations having to do with your home and private life. Be aware that re lationships and partnerships are expanding while also bringing fantasies, deception, illusion, or even unex pected revelations.

Libra Rising

The Eclipse season is going to bring you a lot of energy around shared resources, intimacy, sex, transformation, death/rebirth, or the occult. This may also be affecting your values and money. For this Sagittarius New Moon, I advise focusing your energy on manifesting things around siblings, local community or how you communi cate. With Pisces ruling your 6th house, be aware that there is expanding but, also fantastic/illusionary energy around your routines, job, pets, and physical health.

Scorpio Rising

You’ve likely had a lot of revelations and shocking de velopments when it comes to relationships lately. You may feel like relationships are taking up a lot of space and you have less time to explore yourself. Be aware this will get more intense during eclipse season. For this Sag ittarius New Moon focus your manifesting energy on your values and money. With Pisces in your 5th house, you have likely had a lot more expansion in the areas of joy, romance, creativity, and children but, be aware there could be an illusory or fantastical energy at play there too. It might be very useful to play in the fantasies but, just be careful not to be deceived.

Sagittarius Rising

This eclipse season will bring highlights to areas around routine, job, pets, or physical health, as well as, mental health, spirituality, and the unseen parts of you. You may be trying to integrate things like your job into your needs around mental health and/or spirituality. With the Sagit tarius New Moon, I advise focusing your manifesting energy on the self (both who you are but, also your physical body). With Pisces in the 4th be aware of expan sions and illusions/fantasies when it comes to the home, family, private life, or maternal figures.

Capricorn Rising

For Capricorn, the energy is supporting a journey with your 5th house of play, romance, children, and creativity. You may be trying to balance this with community or future dreams. With Sagittarius ruling your 12th house, I recommend exploring your spirituality, retreats, subcon scious, or mental health in your manifestations. With Pisces ruling your 3rd house, be aware you have a lot going on with your local neighbourhood, siblings and how you communicate that is both expansive with a touch of illusion or fantasy. As an example, maybe you have had new neighbors move in next door and they seem to fit perfectly into your fantasy life but, there may be something deceptive about it.

Aquarius Rising

The Eclipses are going to bring a focus to your home, private life, family or maybe even your mother. You may be trying to balance this with your career and public life. With Sagittarius in your 11th house, your energy is best used towards large public communities and future dreams for manifestations. With Pisces in your 2nd house be aware there is a lot going on for you around money and values that will feel expansive but, has a touch of illusion or fantasy. As an example, be very careful and skeptical of any financial schemes that seem too good to be true.

Pisces Rising

This eclipse is going to bring forth a lot of energy to wards your siblings, neighborhood, or the way you com municate. It might also highlight new awareness with your life purpose/philosophy, higher learning, long dis tance travel or anything foreign. For this Sagittarius New Moon, I recommend using your manifesting energy to wards your career, public life, or legacy. With Pisces in your 1st house, be aware that you are likely experiencing an expansion of the self but, there could be an element of illusion or fantasy. As an example, you may be spend ing a lot of time with self-improvement lately but maybe missing something very important that is just underneath the surface of awareness. Sometimes involvement in the wellness community can be a distraction from examin ing the piece of you that really needs your attention.

Deanna Musgrave is an artist, astrologer, hypnotist, energy worker and intuitive guide.

You can contact her through her websites at: www.deannamusgrave.com www.artisthehealer.com

Something For Over The Couch

16

“A Resurrection”

Now that the truth about my father’s murder was known, how was I to deal with what might transpire on Saturday, at my teachers house? There was never any list of chores for me to do, which was the os tensible reason for my being at the house on Sat urday afternoon, but oddly, the good doctor seemed to remember to leave an envelope with money in it for me, my name written on it in his ineligible pre scription script.

I feared running into him at the house, and was al ways relieved to find his car gone when I arrived. I wanted to avoid him because of what he knew about me, and what I feared his attitude toward me might be.

I see in my account that I have often called him, “The Good Doctor.” I used it at first as a kind of comical moniker, as if he was some cartoon figure of the doctor with the vest, mustache, pocket watch, and leather bag. I was dismissive of him at first, and only appreciative that he allowed me so much time in his house with his wife. But two things had hap pened to drastically alter our relationship. His ad monition to quit my job at the car wash because of the fumes, and now the fact that he had overseen the death of my Dad on his operating table. Because of these things his nickname in my mind became a re ality. To me he was “The Good Doctor,” whom I sought to avoid because of some conversation I feared to have with him.

Would he dare tell me of my father’s wounds, was he stabbed once or twenty times? Was it a murder of hatred and revenge, or a surgical stab by a pro fessional. The Good Doctor knew the answers to those questions, not because he read any description in a report, but because he was there, the open body of my dad, laid out before his very eyes.

There were times when I secretly wondered if I might not be in my right mind. ‘In your right mind,’ is simply a figure of speech, but in my situation my fears about my mental condition had a specific source. I wondered if it was possible that my father had been killed by what is called ‘organized crime,’ or the Mafia. I had never expressed this idea to anyone, not even Ruth, in our most personal con versations, and I had no intention of talking about the subject with my art teacher, and besides, she lived in New Hartford, and there was no Mafia in that town. But where I lived it was a different matter. It was the doctor who might know about it because of the nature of the wounds, but how could I ask him

such a question?

These questions might have been completely an swered by an autopsy, but my Mom refused to allow it, and so the explanation that it had been a heart at tack was never even questioned. The cause of death would have been obvious, but she refused because of her religious convictions. If he was dead, ob viously it was God’s will, and it could not be other wise, and so what was the point of any inquiry. Things like this were pretty simple for her, if Dad was dead it was God's will, and if you stubbed your toe it was God's will. How was one to argue with that kind of reasoning? It is absolute, it brooks no argument.

But now I am going to tell you an extremely rid iculous thing. I did argue with her about God's will and this is what I said to her.

“Mom, Jesus died, and he was raised from the dead after a few days, so it was just a kind of dem onstration. And so this is obviously the same situ ation. Why don’t we just raise him up from the dead, and then that will be God's will.”

I am going to spare you the details of that conver sation, how she argued that Jesus, being the Son Of God, was a special case, and how I pointed out that Larazus was not a special case and I even used the phrase “Oh ye of little faith.” on her. But I was thir teen at the time, and bore no similarity to my sixteen year old self that you are hopefully familiar with at this point in my story. . But that thirteen year old self was just a few days away from a metamorphosis into what I know very well is my present cynical atheistic self. A transformation from a child like you might see in a Renaissance painting, on his knees in prayer, on a mountain top, seeking a miracle, into one of those etched figures in Goya’s disasters of war.

My mother might have been religious, but I was yet more religious. I suppose there might be some phase that young boys go through, perhaps some un documented phenomon of an intense religious rap ture, and if there is, I would have been a prime example of it. So I set to work to raise my father from the dead. This did not strike me as an espe cially difficult thing to do, it simply being a matter of faith, and not allowing oneself to be distracted by any doubts. It was a form of mental discipline, easy to accomplish in a situation where every single as sumption about life, the world, and oneself has been obliterated.

My only anxiety about what I was about to accom plish was the effect this occurrence might have on the other mourners at the wake, of which there were many. Somehow I expected this return to life, so to speak, was going to happen during the wake, in front of a room full of spectators, as if God had a kind of theatrical bent, a desire to stage a happening.

It did not cross my childish mind that it might happen in the early morning, or God forbid, in the middle of the night. And really, what would Dad have thought if he came back to life in the middle of the night, in a funeral parlor? Practical considera tions I am certain, do not confuse individuals em broiled in religious and mystical events. When the Red Sea was parted, I do not think anyone asked any questions about the effect of gravity on a vertical column of liquid. And take for example that time Jesus made the crazy man's demons go into the pigs, and the pigs ran into some lake and drowned. Abso lutely no person has ever questioned whose pigs they might have been, and if there was any compen sation paid for them. People, then and now did not

care about the farmer who owned the pigs. There was even less concern for the pigs themselves, minding their own business and suddenly they all thought they were soldiers in Caesar's army, com manded to attack some Gauls in a lake.

No, miracles transcend time and space, and any kinds of physical laws. It is the transcendence above physical laws, especially things like chemistry, and physics, that is the trademark of miracles. The open ing of the Red Sea involved the defiance of physics, a contempt for physics actually, and so gravity be comes a plaything in the mind of the mystic. But, God forbid, and I use that figure of speech inten tionally, twice already, God forbid there are some skeptics in the area when great spiritual events are being staged, especially anyone with an interest in chemistry, chemistry with a capital C.

And there was such a chemistry skeptic in the au dience when I set to work to bring my Dad back to life, and it was my brother, who at all times, and as far back as I could remember, was the source of an swers to all and any questions that troubled my childish mind. I never questioned my brother's ex planations of anything.

If you have ever stood outside a bedroom belong ing to a five year old and a three year old, then you know exactly what I am referring to. The five year old knows all, and the three year old knows nothing, from questions of politics, to why Mommy went to the store.

I was distressed by only one consideration, the ef fect my miracle would have on the room full of mourners at the wake, the setting I was certain where this event was going to take place. I was un able to shake the notion that it might cause some kind of pandemonium. It was difficult to suppress the images of my aunts, uncles, and family friends leaping up in terror, and rushing to the door, tipping over tables and chairs in the process. I myself, ob viously would be unaffected by it all, but would I be able to explain what was happening in the startled confusion the moment was bound to produce?

It was because of this concern that, out of an abun dance of caution, I sought the advice of my older brother. I found him at the back of the parking lot behind the funeral parlor. He was in his best and only suit, as was I. He stood with his back to me, surreptitiously smoking a cigarette, and looking out over a low cement wall. Below the wall were three gigantic rusted oil drums, relics of the memories of our childhood, a time a few years previous when we lived in an apartment downtown. The oil drums were part of our downtown playground, and often, just a few years before, we sat on top of them and banged our heels on them to produce a profound mythologically ominous booming sound. Those oil drums were the only ones to hear this conversation that took place there that afternoon.

Myself, “Don’t be upset Jimmy, I am going to raise Dad from the dead this afternoon.”

My Brother, “You can’t do that.”

Myself, “Why not?”

My brother, “Because they drained all the blood out of him, and replaced it with embalming fluid.”

To this scientifically brutal remark, I could make no reply.

RICHARD BRITELL

1 THROUGH 15, AT SPAZIFINEART.COM (SHORT STORIES)