Accurate Photo-Reproductions of Artwork
. Photoshop Repairs - Paintings & Photographs
. Archival / Giclée Prints Up To 42"x 90"
. Artbook Design and Production
. Restoration of Damaged Photos
Drop-off & Pick-up Available in Great Barrington, MA and Millerton, NY Studio located in Mount Washington, MA l berkshiredigital.com l 413 644 9663
...And
Wendy Ellertson
Visual Story-Teller 16
Matt Bernson Figurative Artist
Portraits of the Artist by Bobby Miller ... 22
Tabitha Vevers Visual Artist ... 30
Richard Britell | FICTION “Sir Isaac Newton’s Cat” From the Series Stories for Children ... 47
Mining My Life
Diaries of Jane Gennaro ... 48
Publisher Harryet Candee
Copy Editor Marguerite Bride
Third Eye Jeff Bynack
Distribution Ruby Aver
Contributing Photographers Edward Acker
Tasja Keetman Bobby Miller
Contributing Writers
Richard Britell Jane Gennaro
Advertising / Editorial inquiries and Subscriptions by mail: 413 - 645 - 4114 artfulmind@yahoo.com
Read the online version: ISSUU.COM
FB: ARTFUL MIND GALLERY for Artful Minds 23
Follow the Yellow Brick Acrylic on canvas 16” x 18”
rdaver2@gmail.com Instagram: rdaver2. Housatonic Studio open by appointment: 413-854-7007
2024 THE ARTFUL MIND
Some of my work will be shown in the 9th Annual Members Show at Spencertown Academy - Spencertown, NY
OCTOBER 5 — NOVEMBER 3
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 5, 4-6 pm
New Work: “Watercolor Explorations”
Inner Vision Studio, West Stockbridge, MA
Please call ahead to visit 413-212-1394
www.lcarsewellart.com n @carzeart n lcarsewellart@icloud.com
"As an abstract artist, I search for ways to represent the invisible, subtle, and unexpressed. I am driven to lay out fleeting and intangible experiences on physical surfaces". —Erika Larskaya
Erika Larskaya Studio at 79 Main St. Torrington, CT www.erikalarskaya.art
ABSTRACTED MEMORIES I, ACRYLIC, LATEX AND GRAPHITE ON BOARD, 12” X 16” 2022 (CROPPED)
Jaye Alison Moscariello harnesses water-based mediums like acrylic and watercolor, influenced by a creative upbringing and artistic journey. Through abstraction and intuitive color selection, she captures the interplay between forms, with lines that articulate deep-seated emotions. Her art resonates with joy and upliftment, transforming personal and worldly complexities into visual harmony.
The artist is passionate about creating art, painting on flat, smooth surfaces, and using materials that are environmentally friendly.
Moscariello’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and has appeared in print, film, television, the web and Off Off Broadway.
Jaye Alison Moscariello310-970-4517 / jayealison.com
What is sacred to me about painting is my intention of recording deep, special moments of authentic feeling. Painting is always an intimate exploration of what is in front of me, and in a way that involves freshness and experimentation.
My imagination is working at all times, in that I am making up stories about what these objects, figures or scenes elicit, while feeling deeply connected from hand to eye to heart to mind
My approach to art reflects other aspects of my life: freedom & spontaneity vs. having a set plan to arrive at a specific outcome. Although it can be challenging, I don’t have a set formula for how I begin a painting. Not knowing what’s going to happen can offer incredible surprises that could never have been created deliberately. I am constantly stretching myself, trying new things, and keeping myself on an edge.
Karen AndrewsStudio can be open most days: phone call/text: 413-212-1394, West Stockbridge, Mass.
@DEBORAH H CARTER
UPCYCLED WEARABLE ART
SHARPEST TULLE IN THE SHED
PHOTO: KORENMAN COM
MODEL: EDEN HOOD
Finalist World of Wearable Art 2024
Deborah H. Carter is a multi-media artist from Lenox, MA, who creates upcycled sustainable wearable art. Her couture pieces are constructed from post-consumer waste such as food packaging, wine corks, cardboard, books, wire, plastic, and other discarded items and thrifted wares. She manipulates the color, shape, and texture of her materials to compel us to question our assumptions of beauty and worth and ultimately reconsider our habits and attitudes about waste and consumerism.
A sewing enthusiast since the age of 8, Deborah first learned her craft by creating clothing with her mother and grandmothers. Her passion took hold as she began to design and sew apparel and accessories. After graduating with a degree in fashion design from Parsons School of Design in New York City, she worked as a women’s sportswear designer on Seventh Avenue.
Deborah’s art has been exhibited in galleries and art spaces around the US. She was one of 30 designers selected to showcase her work at the FS2020 Fashion Show annually at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland. She has featured in the Spring 2023 What Women Create magazine.
Deborah H Carter has been featured in the Berkshire Magazine, What Women Create magazine and was a finalist in the World of WearableArt competition in Wellington, New Zealand 2023.
Deborah H Carter413-441-3220, Clock Tower Artists
75 S. Church St., Studio 315, 3rd floor. Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Instagram: @deborah_h_carter
Debhcarter@yahoo.com
Paintings - Collage - Constructions
CLOCK TOWER ARTISTS
3rd Floor 75 South Church St Pittsfield MA 914. 260. 7413 instagram@mellinger3301 markmellinger680@gmail.com
Exhibiting from October 1 to October 30 at Gallery North
9 Eagle Street, North Adams Tuesday to Friday 3-7, Saturday 3-8, Sunday 10-2 www.gallerynorthadams.com
To visit my studio call or text 413-597-1716 Ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com @ghettahirschpaintings
“I am a visual storyteller who creates in the interstices between media. My visual language is largely expressed through mixed media sculpture with various leathers as a mainstay. I wet-form, dye, and hand-stitch over wire armatures, bringing the forms to life with intricate beading, patina, and additional materials chosen for the stories they hold.”
—WENDY
Interview by Harryet Candee Photography Courtesy of the Artist
Harryet Candee: Wendy, you say that your art urges viewers to listen to each other, the world, and their creative spirit and to regard life as an adventure to savor. Seeing your sculptures, such as the one with the blue tent-like, creaturelike winged entity, I am sure there is a story to tell here because underneath this winged creature is someone making a very cozy camp for himself. So, put them both together, and, well, I need a story.
Wendy Ellertson: “The Ocean of Possibility" is the title of the piece you are talking about. And yes, there is a story. Due to family medical issues, the summer before last, I could not travel to California to see family and dip my toes in the Pacific Ocean. I had to figure out a way to transport myself there. This welcoming space that sounds like the ocean and feels like home came to life. Zebrale, the affable and wise host of the scene, is reading (or perhaps listening to) a winged book (which may have flown in from the flying book li-
brary from my story, Sophia's Quest.) He welcomes visitors for relaxed discussions that could last well into the night. (Each of my pieces has an elaborate legend, but the one for this is a little too long to include here.)
The next piece that catches my eye is a bird-like creature with a long black spine resting on a red, bladder-shaped platform surrounded by marbles. I notice a book and a small creature hanging from the roller coaster-shaped spine of this bird. Could you tell us about this sculpture?
This story sculpture is called "Tribal Intersection" and is accompanied by this legend: "As we pass through life, many are the cultural intersections we encounter. Some are related to our families, some to our travels, some to our places of residence, and some to our personal beliefs. All contribute to the complex and textured individuals we become." Each piece incorporated has a special meaning for
ELLERTSON
me: a tagua nut picked up when visiting family in Ecuador, the wrought iron swirl gifted me by a friend, Ashanti brass bird head beads, Mexican fish beads from one of my mother's necklaces, and always a book to record stories. Seeing a possible bridge or spine is wonderful. It confirms my intent to create art pieces that can be interpreted by the viewer in their way and stir up the story.
What does your studio look like?
You know those beautiful open, uncluttered spaces where everything is put neatly away. That is not my studio. On one shelf, I have a photo of the sea crashing on the northern shore of Kauai by Rick Canham. The title is: "The Aesthetics of Chaos". That's my studio: creative chaos. I work in a space divided between 1/13 - and 2/3 - formerly the bedroom for three of our children when they were small. (My kiln is in our basement.) On the walls hang quotes, photos, masks, and textiles. Shelves hold supplies, books, beads, and art pieces.
Tribal Intersection, 2023
Leather and bead scene incorporating metal, ceramic, and glass beads from various cultures, hand-wrought iron swirl, Tagua nut, miniature book, and a red leather beaded underlayment.
15" x 8.5" x 9.5"
You have given birth to these intelligent creatures, Wendy. They seem to be innovative to me. I am interested in reality; I want each to be made of natural skin, blood, nails, bone, and teeth! But I know they are not. What are they made of, and where do you get the material for each unique creature?
They are made of natural skin and bone (at least in part). It is essential to honor the materials one uses and to think about the stories they hold. The leathers I use began as the skin of animals whose meat was eaten. I'm giving the skins new lives. I acquire my leather and other materials from suppliers, but occasionally, friends gift me items such as antler tips, crystals, etc. And, importantly, everywhere I travel, I pick up a few stones reflecting on the stories that rock has heard and where it has traveled to end up where I find it. Frequently, a creature can begin with a stone - a snout that calls out to become a creature. I'm always on the lookout for intriguing items that call to me. They can be in the studio for years, but suddenly, I find just the right place for them.
I know that you, Linda and Geoff Post from Paradise City Arts Festival have had a great working relationship and friendship for many years. Your work is seen at this event annually, and this October, Paradise City Arts Festival
returns and ready to welcome the world! How did you meet them, and what made the relationship endure and grow strong over time?
Linda, Geoff, and I exhibited at the American Craft Council shows in Rhinebeck, NY, in the 1970's. I'm pretty sure that was when we first met. Linda and Geoff collaborated on Trapunto handbags, pillows, and wall pieces with freehand embroidered line drawings. I was exhibiting production pottery and dolls with porcelain heads, hands, and feet, as well as the roads we have journeyed down and memories shared. Our paths continued to cross over the years and have grown stronger out of respect for the energy and commitment we have demonstrated to our art and way of life.
I bet your art has evolved and changed. What were your initial art concepts when you first started showing at Paradise?
At the first Paradise City Arts Festival (could it have been 30 years now!!!), I exhibited a line of pierced leather clothing, storyteller, and riding figures. I cut thousands of tiny slits in the leather. When the wearer moved, the slits opened, revealing flowing patterns. My strong dance background led me to create clothing that encouraged positive feelings about movement. That's also why most of my figures, past and present, are flexible. I want them to have freedom of movement.
Please tell us about some of the venues where your work has been exhibited.
As far as venues, I've participated in the American Craft Council shows from 1974 to today and many other national fine craft shows. Recently, I expanded to participate in a couple of Sci-Fi-Fantasy conventions. My work has also been seen nationwide in many one-person and group gallery shows.
Walt Disney would have wanted you in his life!
Have you ever been approached by any sci-fi, imaginary-based organization in the entertainment industry asking you to draw some characters for perhaps a movie or even for an author of children's books?
I've always worked in three-dimensions. Although I'm working on developing my drawing skills, that has never been my strength. I'm in awe of folks who can create in two dimensions. The magic of manipulating materials (clay, wire, leather) and seeing a creature emerge fascinates me. A while back, I heard that one of my flying creatures was caught in a children's room in a movie.
Myth and story are central to my work. Thanks to attending Mythic Journeys in 2004, organized by the Mythic Imagination Institute, I came to know a wealth of artists, dancers, musicians, and writers in the field. I then continued connecting through Continued on next page..
Hoodwink, the Double Crested Basilisk Double-crested green basilisk-inspired leather sculpture. Textured leather with green/gold/blue patina, wet-formed leather "crests",extensive beading (including 22" tail completely covered with peyote beading), flexible limbs. 14" x 41" x 14"
an 18-month course with the MII in New York City. Every other month, we would gather for an intense long weekend. Soon after, I was asked by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman to be on the Board of the Interstitial Arts Organization, which connected me with even more artists who dance in the in-between. Through IAF, I met Ingrid Kallick, who became the illustrator for my mythic/folk tale, Sophia's Quest.
Your leather book jacket covers with images of dragons and symbols are fascinating. This craftsmanship has a rich history. How do you use this material to make your book jackets? Yes, the leather book tradition goes back to early writing. I enjoy tapping into that tradition but with my spin. I used to make bound leather journals but discovered that if you provide a cover that a good quality blank journal can slip in and out of, it frees the creative writing and drawing spirit. So now mine are replaceable in format. I create a folder, then put glue on the folder, place the leather on top, and start playing. You must work with it and let it move the way it wants rather than try to control it. To sculpt the dragons and other designs, I find pieces of bark and twigs, cook them in the oven (to eliminate any creatures I don't want to emerge), choose pieces that have potential as parts of a dragon head, neck, etc., glue them down, add a glass eye, lay and glue the leather down and start
pressing and manipulating. I will know what the cover will look like once that final step is done. Each has its personality. For some of the designs, some foam is used instead of bark. Occasionally, customers challenge me to develop a specific design for a journal or cover for a favorite book. Often, that is how new designs appear.
What is the best story you can share with us about your lifetime? You are a storyteller and a great craftsperson, so give us one of your best. Sometimes, a rainstorm can influence the trajectory of your life.
In June of 1967, my husband, Jon, and I were graduate students living on the North Slope of Beacon Hill in Boston. Jon was working on a PhD at MIT in Political Science, focusing on developing nations. I was studying for an MA in French at Boston College. We had come to Boston as newlyweds in 1965, just after graduating from Stanford and driving across the country (or trying to—it broke down a lot) in a 1947 school bus. We found an apartment in an 1840 brick row house for $135/mo. Jon planned on doing his field research in West Africa (hence my MA in French ). We attended Arlington Street Church, by the Public Garden, and were inspired by the dynamic minister and activist Unitarian Universalist community. Malcolm and Betty Fitzpatrick, a grad couple we met at ASC, mentioned they were trying to buy a
house in a neighborhood in Roxbury where houses were available at very low cost. The area was red lined by banks, resulting in severe disinvestment. Older residents were leaving, mainly white ones. We had just found out our rent would be raised to $150 and weren't sure we could afford that. We were intrigued when the Fitzpatrick’s offered a "walking tour" of their "new" neighborhood. So, one sunny Sunday after church, a group of us took the subway to "walk" and explore Highland Park. It was a beautiful day. Roses were in bloom everywhere. We heard chickens behind houses at the top of the hill (where the Mel Lyman's Fort Hill commune had just taken residence.) Although just 15 minutes from downtown, it felt like we were out in the country. My Oregon farm-raised hubby was having trouble with the idea of having to walk more than a block from our apartment to see a tree. We walked, talked, and ended up at the house of long-time residents Mark and Marguerite Cronin. Mark worked as a Harvard custodian and told Malcolm about the houses. Another graduate student, Dean, and Alma, who lived across the street, came over. The sky clouded over, and the rain began. What was supposed to be a quick hello and thank you became a lengthy discussion of graduate studies and how to get perspective on life. Dean explained he was behind in his PhD work thanks to working on rehabbing their house, but felt his Continued on next page...
life was more in balance. I could see Jon's eyes brightening.
The rain finally ended, and we walked back to the subway. However, the kernel of an idea had popped! The following Sunday, we returned to check out a house that intrigued us—one where I could set up a pottery studio. My kiln and potter's wheel were in the basement of our apartment. The neighbors saw us looking at the house and told us it was owned by their cousins - three brothers who had moved to New Hampshire, leaving the house empty but with utilities on. Another neighbor across the street had the keys. Would we like to see inside?
Within two months, we became the owners of two 1840-ish frame houses, one with ten rooms and one behind with 12 (they insisted we take both or none), for $3100, scraped together from a car insurance settlement and a little wedding money. Both needed major work. We had no idea what we were getting into. Fortunately, our neighbors were eager to help out young folks crazy enough to take on such houses. Empty houses were a dangerous fire hazard.
Our life path diverted. Jon gave up academia and turned to more hands-on endeavors, and I became the artist I had always really been. Thanks to meager housing costs, we could follow our passions and have a house to raise our children, have studio space, plant vegetables, and raise chickens. We have been blessed to "grow up" and" become elders" in this fascinating, historic, diverse, primarily minority neighborhood where folks watch out for each other, walk, protest, mourn, and celebrate together.....and share life's stories. (I'm saddened
today that such opportunities are scarce if nonexistent.)
How has this story influenced your artistic expression?
My art is imbued with the energy and spirit of our community.
What do you find the best part about being a participant in the Paradise City Arts Festival? They connect with the community, watch artists evolve, and discover new artists. Over the years, Linda and Geoff have supported and encouraged artists to experiment, grow, and let their dreams fly. They are also very helpful in booth design, etc. They help the artists themselves and their creativity rather than focusing narrowly on the images presented in applications and do a beautiful job of fostering community.
Would you make any adjustments to better position your art in today's overwhelming artist market?
At this point in my life, I don't worry about "fitting into" any specific market. I feel fortunate to have lived as a working artist for many decades. Although I engage in new ways of promoting work via social media, etc., I'm content in the world of the in-between. Who knows what might appear there?
I'm curious if you come from a colorful, heartfelt family. Was there someone influential who gifted you with imagination and storytelling? I was raised in a family that valued creativity, art,
and story. When we were young, my Dad loved creating stories with memorable characters. A favorite memory is my Dad reading us Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories. My parents loved art and introduced us to various art and artists. My brother became known for the fantastic costumes and clothing he created for theater and advertising. Sadly, like many of his generation of creatives, he died of AIDS in 1990. I still feel his energy.
From just seeing your art, I can sense your positiveness, which can uplift and create a ripple effect of good vibes wherever you go. In what ways do you feel your personality and mindset contribute to improving the world?
My art helps people take a moment to breathe and see the wonders the world offers. It stirs their creativity and ability to have perspective on big and small problems. In those moments, we can begin to see solutions and re-energize ourselves to do the necessary work to create a more understanding and just world. ellertson.com
Painting classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1pm at the studio in Housatonic and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field. Also available for private critiques. Open to all. Please come paint with us!
Gallery hours: Open by chance and by appointment anytime 413. 274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell) 413. 528. 9546 (home) www.kateknappartist.com
Front Street, Housatonic, MA
I am incredibly pleased to announce that I will be one of the featured artists in...
LICHTENSTEIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS 28 Renne Avenue, Pittsfield, MA
OCTOBER 4 — NOVEMBER 23
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 5, 3-5 pm
elizabeth cassidy studio works
Artist, Illustrator, Writer, Peace Lover, and Creativity Coach elizabethcassidystudioworks.com elizabethcassidyart@gmail.com
BERKSHIRE ROLLING HILLS ART CLOCK TOWER ARTISTS Studio 302, 3rd floor 75 South Church St, Pittsfield, MA (413)-446-8469 www.sallytiskarice.com sallytiskarice@gmail.com
“As I did more figure drawing, I developed an innate sense of human proportions, which fed into my imagination and made the proportions more realistic. However, they still had a cartoony bend to them.” MATT BERNSON
Harryet Candee: "Loving the Human Bod." Is that a good way to describe your art?
Matt Bernson: Hmm, yeah. I’m a figurative artist, and that's always been my interest in subject matter. Before focusing on figurative drawing, I used to draw creatures, monsters, and comic book characters. Then, I learned traditional drawing techniques, such as drawing from a model and drawing people from observation. I developed an appreciation for the diversity (of bodies) and creature-ness (of the human figure). Over time, these two methodologies of art-making fed into each other.
Your first class in drawing from the model must have been enlightening for you in many ways.
Yeah. I had just graduated from high school before going to college in Colorado. I tried figure drawing for the first time, which involved drawing a live nude model. I was unsure how I would feel about it, but it turned out to be less overwhelming and awkward than expected. Eventually, it became natural for me to work with a live model. I believe that nudity does not always have to be
sexual. I find it interesting that someone who is partially clothed can be more erotic than a fully nude figure, as a lot of it depends on the context, poses, or subtext.
How did you merge the imaginary creatures with observatory subjects into one drawing? It was more about finding out as I went along, using live models and getting into more live model drawing, seeing what the overlap was, and realizing, with 20/20 hindsight, what the commonalities and common denominator were. As I did more figure drawing, I developed an innate sense of human proportions, which fed into my imagination and made the proportions more realistic. However, they still had a cartoony bend to them.
I studied animation and fine art painting when I went to MassArt. Before then, much inspiration,
as I mentioned, came from comic books and cartoons. Also, having worked as a caricaturist and tattoo artist, I could draw quickly, simplifying and exaggerating. Emphasizing old Looney Tunes cartoons would highlight contrasting figures, such as short, fat guys versus tall, skinny guys, emphasizing the difference between them. Having experience with drawing from imagination and from doing traditional kinds of drawing and painting from observation--I'm trying to pull from both imaginative, illustrative, and painterly observational methodologies to have something-to make art that has a strong foundation in draftsmanship but also something that is not trying to do the job of the camera-- because we have photographs that have that job taken care of. Much of the work the old masters did was illustrative paintings-- they were the illustrators of their day. But oil paintings were the vehicle for that. However, the role, opportunity, or focus of visual artists has changed since the invention of the camera. Since a camera can do the job faster and cheaper, what's the point of drawing or painting it? To show what a camera cannot see, and through the Continued on next page...
artist's vision, eye, and hand, they interpret the world and help you see things in a new way a camera will not capture because it is an objective robot.
What did you let go of along the way of your discoveries? Methodologies?
Working from imagination, without the influence of needing or wanting reference, gives a certain amount of creative freedom. However, I want things to look more like they exist or are alive so that I might change my focus to representation, observation, and reference-based works. A certain amount of freedom is lost compared to starting with nothing, letting marks appear on the page, and going with whatever comes out.
My goal is to draw from both methods and create something imaginative. There are different approaches: making something from nothing, working from a reference to make it look like a natural object, and incorporating elements like lighting and form to make it appear three-dimensional and alive in space.
So you create artwork in your car. How does this work for you?
It is a matter of when I have time to make art. Some of the time I have is when I am in my car. It's a mobile studio; I made a makeshift easel from corrugated plastic to put over my steering wheel.
I can sometimes bring sketchbooks and markers or have a bag with a portable palette and work on smaller paintings because it's a struggle to find a time when I have a full-time job.
So, do you sneak out of work?
haahha. It's more like during my lunch break when I am free to spend time in my car.
Are you a people person or a solitary person? I am more of an introvert. I am okay with being solitary. When I have my alone time, it's like a recharge. However, I act like a people-person for my art and the sake of the people in my life, whether it's my family, friends, co-workers, or girlfriend. I am more of an introvert pretending to be an extrovert.
So, what do people pick up on that gives them the impression that you are an extrovert?
Hahaha. I guess I am good at faking that because I generally try to be a pleasant vibe, like an empath who tries to embody the change I want to see in the world. So, I am trying to be a delightful presence, be patient with people, and give space for people to be heard.
I met your girlfriend at the opening of our TSL Warehouse Art Exhibit last April. How has that been going for you? How has she added to
your artistic venue?
It's been an interesting journey. It has been over two years since our first date. I did a lot of drawings of her when we first started dating. It's been an interesting experience to have her encourage me to draw her, potentially draw other models or myself, and for her to be comfortable and happy with me having paintings of her on my wall or the gallery wall. She has encouraged me to express myself in other ways, like how I dress sometimes. She just produced her first burlesque show.
Gypsy lane?
She has performed with that group. But she is also starting a new production with her best friend, called Trash Sisters, so they have an Instagram for that. They had their first show in Williamstown and planned to do more shows. The focus is more on the low-brow end, focusing on having fun and being free and accessible with that expression. She said that she wants amateur nights to create space for those who want to be in that scene, especially when it takes work to get their foot in the door with burlesque.
We collaborate, and both are creative types. I am a visual artist, and her focus is more on music and theatre. She sings, plays guitar, and has been in a couple of bands. She likes to go out to karaoke and perform solo singing gigs. Next Friday, it's Continued on next page...
First Friday in North Adams, and she'll sing for that.
How does sensuality and eroticism influence your artistic perspective and expressiveness?
I have been thinking about pushing the envelope for more of that! At Future Labs, there will be a two-person show: myself and another artist, Trish. Then, one of the co-op members suggested a partial theme of doing an erotic show in January. But that will be half of the show, in the back, closed behind a curtain. The other half would be the invitational, which is still being planned. I want to push it more in that direction. The nudes I do, I don't think they are erotic.
"To be sensual is natural for me. An essential element of my character." Well said, Matt. How do you view the human body?
I guess a naked human body is not erotic on its own, as I said. The figure in underwear is not erotic work to me but is tip-toeing near the fence, as it comes close to the blue blob of lingerie on the floor, and that speaks another story.
Do you often play with the masculine and feminine theory in your work? I see a lot of
fem/masculine in your artwork. Not consciously, but maybe subconsciously. One of the things that I deal with within myself is being a male who is not just macho-man masculine, but masculine and feminine, and having that Ying Yang, expressing both of them. Toxic masculinity is the kind of culture where there is an atmosphere in which men are scared of expressing any degree of femininity because they are concerned about being punished for that kind of expression. Verbally and emotionally bullied by fellow males who are maybe trying to keep an act, keep themselves also protected from being ostracized for having sympathy for any femininity presented by a male. That's why most men don't want to be seen in pink. I don't like that vibe. I wear pink and blue and even have nail polish on. I know that regardless of any of that, those self-expressions are perceived as something feminine. But I want to make it clear that I still love women, especially curvy women, and that won't change just because I wear those colors. I am confidently embracing this and allowing myself to embody that. I want to demonstrate and be an example to others that they can also be that way and have the freedom of self-expression. They can express whatever levels of femininity they want, knowing
it's okay to like what they like. Other kinds of selfexpression do not change their preferences.
You were born in 1985. If you felt this way in your early teens, did you believe you would be allowed to be the way you are now?
This kind of self-acceptance and confidence is something I've recently embraced. Eight years ago, I was okay with nail polish on my toes but not my fingers. Then, about two years ago, I decided to let go of others' opinions and embrace more self-expression. I didn't have this kind of confidence when I was younger. When I wanted to grow out my hair, my grandma disapproved, saying it was something only girls did. Despite this, I grew my hair in high school and kept it long until after college.
If I needed to go to a conservative event, I would try to wear a suit that worked but still had more of my colors, textures, and patterns—an embodiment of how colorful I am, bringing what is inside to the outside.
I have a pink and blue tie that would work with pink pants. It's still dressy but also colorful. I can dress up fancy, but it does not mean I have to limit my self-expression to conform.
“Photographing Matt Bernson was fun and interesting His work and his palette are inspiring to me as a photographer. He seems to focus on people and I almost only photograph people. His sense of color led us in the direction of fun colors like pink and turquoise which I rarely get to use in my own work. The photos captured his sense of fun and exotica This young artist shows great promise and I look forward to what he does next.” —Bobby Miller, Photographer
What questions do you find yourself asking?
When will I be able to do art full-time, and when will I not need a full-time job to supplement my bills? That was why I signed up for my website with print-on-demand options at www.artbymattbernson.com. If I get more traffic, I could make more money through my art. If I get enough through that venue, I will be fine without a day job. Then, I would be making art full-time.
Making art full-time is your present goal. Tell us more.
Before I moved out of the Berkshires from the north of Boston, I considered moving to Vegas to do caricatures. I had a plane ticket, but friends talked me out of it because of Covid and told me I should wait. Could I not need a day job if I did that full-time? It would not be like only in the summer if it were in the Berkshires. But then, I thought it was not the number one choice of work I would be doing. Suppose I could do anything and not worry about money. Also, how do I fake it until I make it work and get traction? My goal, My challenge. I want to do something similar to figure drawing full-time, based on curvy women and BBW pin-ups. I want to move toward BBW as my focus, which is to carve out a niche. There's
a difference between liking and loving it, so I am figuring out how to make this my full-time job.
What is BBW?
That acronym stands for Big Beautiful Woman; it came out of a magazine whose title was that acronym standing for. It has become a well-known nickname that is used now. I also thought of looking into bringing my art to erotic festivals because there are those around the country. Or maybe a comic book convention.
Have you ever thought of combining those venues with tattooing? Do you like tattooing? Yes. I have thought of getting back into tattoo work, but it's hard to find time because it's been a while since I've been in a shop. But if I could get back into tattooing, that would also be a focus I would like to have—on plus-size pin-ups.
Are there any artists whose work has influenced your artistic vision?
Certain artists have inspired me. Edgar Degas always comes to mind. It is not so much his early academic works but the nudes he did late in life when he was losing his eyesight and working with pastels. They are a lot more expressive and color-
ful. Those are my favorite works by him; they have a few at the MET in NYC. I can spend alot of time looking at those drawings in the little Expressionist room and appreciating the mark making, textures, and line work and how it is attributed to expressing the human form at the moment and also relating to a certain beauty in the human figure in a moment where some of those drawings of women bathing, brushing their hair, doing things that are everyday things, got its own sort of calm beauty to it. It's kind of like a snapshot of daily life.
Another artist who inspires me is Frank Frazetta, often referred to as the godfather of fantasy painting. Frazetta's distinct style, characterized by heavy Chiaroscuro and dark imagery, is iconic. He is known for tight and loose expressions that vividly tell stories. Frazetta's commitment to keeping his original works is evident in his museum in Pennsylvania. His art has left a significant mark on the fantasy genre and the art world. I like his thinking: It's not what you put in but what you leave out.
www.artbymattbernson.com Z
GOLKA, PIANO (PHOTO); ITAMAR
ON OCTOBER 20 AT 4PM AT THE MAHAIWE
On Sunday, October 20, at 4 pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Close Encounters With Music will present Drama and MelodramaThe Schumanns, with Adam Golka, piano; Itamar Zorman, violin; Helena Baille, viola, Yehuda Hanani, cello; Michael Wise, narrator.
The ever-fascinating and intimate triangle — Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms — will be brought to new light with seldom-heard works that highlight the musical crossreferences and spiritual bond that united them. Predating accompaniment to silent film by decades, Robert’s melodrama, Schön Hedwig is a forerunner to soap-opera sentimentality with a happy ending. His Piano Quartet in E-flat Major (premiered with Clara as pianist), marries Romantic lyricism with baroque counterpoint and sonic flamboyance in one of the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Also featured are Clara Schumann’s piano concerto composed with a daring slow movement, a love duet between the piano and a single cello, as well as her Three Romances for Violin and Piano. Brahms’ greatest set of piano variations Op. 9, written after Schumann was committed to an asylum, spells out the name CLARA in its theme, in a work tender, boisterous and touched with heartfelt brilliance.
When October comes around New England becomes a tourist heaven especially in the Berkshires and Vermont. Our changing foliage in the fall is a visual and pastoral attraction, and roads will always lead you to one of these historical covered bridges.
Why do we find covered bridges in New England, people ask. They protect the bridge’s wooden structure from the weather condition and the snow in winter. Wooden trusses would quickly deteriorate otherwise.
Some of the covered bridges have lasted 100 years or more and painted regularly, they are quietly noticeable in the landscape.
This one is in Arlington, Vermont. When you cross the bridge you find yourself in a small village with its own church, surrounded by lovely country houses and farmland. One of the houses was Norman Rockwell’s former residence when he lived in Vermont.
I love the intricate framework just below the covering and in late afternoons, I often notice that the water below absorbs the red color of the bridge like a mirror image. I go there very often to sketch and when the leaves start falling, I will be there again.
If you cannot go to Gallery North in North Adams, you can visit my studio by appointment. Also if you go to Williamstown you will see one of my fall paintings at the Spring Street Cafe. That same painting is also represented in a banner in the streets of our town.
If you live close to Pittsfield, visit Becket Arts Center in Becket, Mass to see another of my fall paintings.
Ghetta Hirsch -.
Ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com, call or text 413-597-1716, @ghettahirschpaintings wwwbecketartscenter.org
Featured in this issue is one of my favorite paintings, American Sphinx. In this personal column, I’d rather be posting only American Eve, but - yet again - another recent school shooting prompts me to show American Schoolgirl.
American Eve is from my Icon and Archetype Series where I strive to capture the reality of duality often existing in the whole person, asking the viewer to accept the sometimes opposing complexities that make up the whole. My main page expresses this dual nature in American Sphinx which is in the online show Nuditas, through Exhibizone from September 11th through November 11th, 2024.
Linocut from a series of national bank-notes from before the introduction of the Euro. Linocut, Ondine de Kroon
The unexpected move fulltime to the Berkshires has caused a pause in my painting. However, it also has inspired me to return to my very earliest experiences as a young artist who sketched and painted the Catskill landscape just outside my grandparent’s rural country home. Having produced my work from interior thoughts and from spontaneous expressionistic bursts, this external world around me is starting to inspire me to engage in painting this Berkshire Area countryside like many artists here. It’ll be a return to my earliest roots to interact with the beautiful world outside my front door…
Candace Eaton631-413-5057
candaceeatonstudio@gmail.com www.candaceeaton.com
Interview by Harryet Candee Photographs Courtesy of the Artist
“Painting is an act of devotion. Whether I’m wresting the female nude back from art history or engaging with the pressing issues of our times, the greatest luxury is to be able to paint slowly and meditatively, giving each painting time to emerge and evolve.”
Harryet Candee: Congratulations on your art show at Artsee in Hudson, New York. Artsee is an eyewear boutique/gallery featuring exclusive eyewear designs from around the world, making it the perfect venue to showcase your artwork in the show Eye to Eye. Your art is now on display and can be viewed by all who stroll down Warren Street, peek inside the windows, and then go inside and feel their way through the gallery space.
Tabitha, you live and work on the Cape (and in Cambridge) in Massachusetts. I was wondering how you and Artsee initially hooked up. Many people are allured inside the store off the street because the window displays are so eyecatching. Gallery Director Julio Santiago and his staff are friendly and can quickly draw you into looking at a new pair of eyeglasses that fit your face and lifestyle. I have found that there
–TABITHA VEVERS
is always a good story about how people find their way to great art, like yours.
Tabitha Vevers: Well, Lori Bookstein did a couple of solo shows of my Lover’s Eyes when her gallery was in Chelsea, and she’s the one who thought of doing a show of them in Julio’s gallery. She gave him a catalogue from my show at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, South Carolina and he loved them.
I stopped by the gallery on my way back from Tucson—it was the last day of a long drive across the country to Cape Cod with my husband, Daniel Ranalli, and dog, Sadie, and we were all pretty exhausted. But when I stepped inside, Julio was there with his husband, James, and their enthusiasm was contagious. Of course, the first thing I said when I walked into the gallery space was, “It’s very yellow!” which is an understatement. It’s shiny taxicab yellow! Julio said, “Yes, and
that’s not negotiable.” We looked at each other for a moment, and then we both just burst out laughing. “Well, okay,” I thought to myself, “this is exactly why I frame my eyes mounted on large white panels.” The generous space around each painting creates breathing room and a sanctuary. It’s also more contemporary than the locket-style frames I used early on, emulating traditional lover’s eye paintings.
When you met with Julio, how did you envision your artwork complementing Artsee and its space? What were some of the ideas that you and Julio collaborated on?
First, we discussed how we might hang the Lover’s Eyes in the gallery space. There are five different series, and I’ve often hung them in a grid. But here, we would be hanging all five groups in one show, some represented by just a
few pieces and others by nine or ten. We decided to hang them in a horizontal row, except for Picasso + Man Ray, which juxtaposes pairs of eyes done by each artist in their overlapping circle of friends and lovers. I figured that for the most part, we’d be able to hang each group by itself. Julio also mentioned the display windows out front where he displays eyewear. I thought of The Monk’s Vision pieces, which are actually painted on plastered and gold-leafed eyeglasses, and Julio basically said, “Bring it on!”
How did you first become interested in art? What initially attracted you and held your attention?
I was born in New York, but my earliest years were spent in Provincetown, MA, where my parents, Tony Vevers and Elspeth Halvorsen, were both working artists. So, I was pretty much weaned on art—literally, all their friends were artists or writers; I can hardly recall an adult from that time who wasn’t. My Dad gave me books of Hieronymus Bosch paintings instead of children’s books, and when I was sick, home from school, my Mum would leave a stack of Dylan albums by my bed. Absorbing that as a child, when it became something like the norm, left me with a pretty intuitive, surreal, and poetic sense of the world. I wouldn’t say I always knew I’d be an artist—I think if I could sing, I might have become a singer-songwriter! My parents always brought my sister Stephanie and me along to museums—with-
out religion, museums were basically our temples of meditation and meaning, a way of understanding the world. When I went to college, I studied poetry and double majored in studio art and art history. It was a journey, but visually expressing myself felt increasingly natural and important.
You have a strong interest in history and artists throughout time. How have some of them inspired and influenced you?
While studying art history at Yale, two things left a lasting impression on me. One was that the art history tomes, like Janson and Gardner, celebrated countless female nudes but almost no female artists. This fact is old news today and has been progressively remedied edition by edition—I’m not saying they’re there yet, but it’s so much better! I felt it was necessary to counter that history with nudes done from a female feminist perspective. The other was coming across Giotto’s frescoes. I studied them in black and white with a professor who didn’t believe in color slides—he didn’t think they were accurate enough. So, visiting the Arena Chapel in Padua just blew my mind. The vibrant blue of the sky! The beautiful, awkward intensity of emotion! Being raised by two atheists, this was the closest I’d ever come to a religious experience. The work moved me in a secular way—love, life, loss, and some stories are universal and timeless—so that my eyes ejaculated tears, splatting on the marble floor without ever touching my face. That’s how I became a figurative, narrative
painter and how the gold leaf of pre-Renaissance icons eventually crept into my work. After college, I came across a book of Tantric paintings, which pulled at me very differently. I began doing yoga when I was thirteen and continued to practice it for decades. The abstract, spiritual nature of the Tantric work reminded me of the emotional depth of Rothko’s paintings. My parents bought their Ptown house directly from Rothko in the ‘60s, and I remember him walking around town. He was an intense, somber presence for a child to encounter. So, for a period, as a young artist, I was pulled in two directions. The figurative work won out, but years later, when the Guggenheim did the Hilma af Klint show in 2019, the Tantric pull came back. It’s a recent shift in my work, and though it feels very much like coming full circle, I’m still finding my way into it.
How have you created art that pays homage to past artists without overshadowing your unique ideas?
The appropriation work, done over a twenty-year period, has always been set apart a bit from my other work, almost like a breather. I’d plunge back into it with a new series every few years. The way in which the eyes are recontextualized, celebrating the gaze of the model over that of the artist, is really an homage to the models themselves. I enjoy the meditative process of painting the eyes in my own style in oil on Ivorine, an ivory substiContinued on next page...
tute invented over a hundred years ago, which reflects light, giving the paintings a flesh-like radiance. Whether the original is sharply focused like Man Ray’s Dora Maar or looser, like Warhol’s Basquiat—the paintings come together from a choreography of many, many brushstrokes, built up one translucent layer at a time. The deliberateness of the cropping, with a small border of bare Ivorine exposed around each eye, is also important to me.
The Lover’s Eye series is based on the Georgian convention of eye portraiture that originated in the 18th century. The paintings were created on ivory and often commissioned as gifts for secret lovers, which was quite ingenious for that time period.
“The series began with images of women’s eyes excerpted from paintings by men such as Victorine Meurent in Manet’s Olympia. Wherever possible, the paintings are titled with the model’s name, and other than with the self-portraits, the paintings reverse the gaze, prioritizing the gaze of the model looking out, rather than the gaze of the original artist’s eye.” - T.V.
Which painting from the series “Salt-WaterTears” best expresses a personal, deep emotion from an experience that you have had? Each painting takes me on its journey. While working on these eyes, I felt empathy, which was
unsurprising with Frida Kahlo, Dora Maar, or the Madonna in mourning. Most of the tears I came across fell from women’s eyes. Other times, I was startled by the level of emotion I felt. While working on one of Margaret Keane’s kitschy “Big Eye” paintings—she was a painter whose husband took credit for all of her work—I felt a genuine sense of her sadness. That’s the power of tears! Crying eyes are rare in the history of art. I had to search far and wide. They are perhaps one of the last taboos—which seemed like a good reason to start a new series of paintings. The piece that first inspired the series still resonates for me. When my “Lover’s Eyes” were in a show at the Zimmerli Art Museum, I wandered into an alcove and watched Andy Warhol’s 1964 “Screen Test” of Ann Buchanan. While sitting for her 3-minute film portrait, tears fell from her eyes in slow motion. I imagined her struggle to maintain a stoic façade, and while working on her eye, I totally lost myself in her gaze—I mean, it felt like I was looking in the mirror. Later, I was stunned to learn that her dry, unblinking eyes, not sorrow, caused her tears. And so, sometimes, when we say, “I feel your pain,” maybe we’re saying, “I feel my pain.” The whole series became a meditation on the nature of empathy.
Looking into your 3-D work, you have created
art using metronomes plus other found objects. How did you come across the metronome as an object that aligns with your interests and engages all the senses?
Dan, who is also an artist, has always seen Duchamp as one of the most important artists of the 20th century, which led me to look at Man Ray as well. When I came across a metronome at a flea market years ago, thinking of Man Ray, I decided to buy it—beware of what you bring into your studio! It sat around for a long time, but when I began doing the Picasso + Man Ray eyes, it jumped out at me. So I did a painted version of Man Ray’s piece, where he had attached a photo of Lee’s eye to the metronome’s pendulum with instructions something like:
Attach a photo of your lover’s eye to a metronome. Watch it, and when you can stand it no more. Smash it with a single blow.
In “CHECKMATE: Lee + Man,” I painted his eye on the head of a hammer so that if one were to smash Lee’s eye, his would be destroyed as well. That piece is in the Yale University Art Gallery’s permanent collection along with the film “DUÆL: Lee + Man” I made with filmmaker Anthony Sherin to show a related piece in motion. And that led to the Breakfast in Fur, Variable Tempo—creating an encounter between Meret Oppenheim and Man Ray in the 21st century.
LINK to DUÆL: Lee + Man, a five-minute film: https://vimeo.com/84533145/db411f7df2?share=c opy
The Monks’ Vision series (2017), also a 3-D work, came out of inspiration when visiting Southeast Asia. “I sometimes noticed commemorative sculptures of individual monks. In many sculptures, the monks wore glasses, often all but obscured by countless layers of gold leaf applied in offerings of prayer.” - T.V. What was most moving to you about this experience, and can you tell us how it spiritually left a mark on you and artworks to follow?
Dan and I have traveled quite a bit throughout Southeast Asia. In Myanmar, I saw portrait sculptures of monks amidst rows of golden Buddhas inside temples. Older monks I came across also wore glasses—which almost no one else did. I saw some young children leading an old man with a long pole and thought they were playing a game until I realized the man was blind and was deeply moved. The Monk’s Vision was meant to draw attention to the many people who can’t afford or access the eye care we take for granted. Ten percent of the proceeds from this project will be donated to research into AMD.
Do you practice spiritual meditation or holistic
studies in healing and the arts? It seems like the Corona paintings came to you at an inspirational moment while gazing at the sun above the grey clouds. Can you tell us about these paintings and how they may have benefited your well-being?
Yes, I’ve done yoga, meditation, and Qigong, at various points over the years—they’ve been woven into my life in a way that’s been very helpful to me. I think of the Corona paintings, done during the pandemic, as mandala-like images for quiet reflection and reminders that even in hard times, the sun always shines above those gray clouds. The paintings’ titles, referencing wellknown songs about the sun, become mantras. The glowing yellow circle uses a visual phenomenon called the Troxler Effect. I was missing all the casual, interpersonal interactions of daily life, so the paintings are a conjuring of one-to-one eye contact. The eye at the center of Sun’s Gonna Shine is Toni Morrison’s—I studied with her at Yale and loved her toughness and warmth. She died in 2019, as did my mother, and I realize now that maybe I was trying to bring them both back! When you stare into the central eye, the corona and hazy fog around it fade away.
Your work, Lover’s Eyes, has included figurative narrative elements. It has recently shifted
away from the figure and towards the environment. I’d like to understand more about how and why this transition happened. Can you also share which of your artworks about the environment, with or without figurative elements, best represents your new direction? Well, I don’t consider the Lover’s Eyes to be figurative, although they are appropriated from figurative paintings. And, actually, my figurative work was often about the environment. For example, the Eden series was about trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic Garden of Eden after we had destroyed the environment. Those earlier paintings contain some of the same elements as my recent work, foreshadowing what I’m doing now without the figure.
When my mother was terminally ill with mesothelioma, I had this idea of channeling her work as a way of celebrating her and her art while she was still around. It was also around the time of the Hilma af Klint show I mentioned. My Mum did these somewhat abstract box constructions, but they had a sometimes earthy and sometimes cosmic, lunar quality. She enjoyed our visual dialogue, and I think it was healing for us. Until she entered my studio one day and said in a long, slow drawl, “Can you say pla-gia-rism?” I loved that she still had some spunk, but I realized I would have to let go. Continued on next page...
Petrichor by the Sea is one of my pieces from a group of recent works. A friend of mine from California had just lost her house to a catastrophic wildfire. We were chiming—chatting and swimming, a word I invented years ago—across a Wellfleet Pond when she asked if I knew the word “petrichor.” I didn’t, but the scent of the earth, released when it rains after a long dry period, is something I’ve always loved. The stones with the single white bands are sometimes called “luck rocks.” I think of the paintings as offerings.
How would you describe what artistic success is for you?
Finding meaning and excitement in the work I’m doing and having it seen. I’ve always felt a responsibility to get the work out there. Focusing primarily on my work is a mark of success in my mind. Selling work is also an affirmation and makes room for new work. I’m fortunate to have some wonderful collectors who have followed and supported my work for many years. A painting professor at Yale told us, “No one but you and your mother are ever going to look at one of your paintings for more than three minutes.” I’m still hoping that’s not true.
There are some fine galleries in and around the Cape and Provincetown. Are you affiliated
with any of them for your art?
Yes, there are fine galleries! But like any art colony turned tourist town, it’s a mix. I’ve exhibited my work in Provincetown since the beginning of my career and appreciate the early and ongoing support. I’ve also tried to balance that with representation in Boston and New York and shows nationally and occasionally internationally. I had been with DNA Gallery in Ptown since its inception. It was founded by Nick Lawrence, who now has Freight & Volume in NYC and READYMADE in Orleans. Later, a group of us who were friends and veterans of the Ptown scene started artStrand as a cooperative, following in the footsteps of the same building as the renowned Long Point Gallery where Motherwell showed. Then I was with Albert Merola Gallery for over a decade, a wonderful, jewel-box of a gallery with thoughtful curation by Albert Merola and Jim Balla, and a great group of artists, including well-known ones such as John Waters and Jack Pierson. Unfortunately, they closed just over a year ago. The dealer/artist relationship is like a marriage, and having been signed on to galleries in Provincetown continuously over the past four decades, I’m just taking a little breather.
When a museum selects your work for display, what significance does it have to you? Does it
matter if it’s a museum or a gallery; or its location? What would be a significant achievement for you, either one you’ve already had or hope to have soon?
Well, it’s always an honor to have work included in a museum exhibition. When Rachel Lafo, the curator at the deCordova, did a mid-career retrospective of my work in 2009, it was a turning point for me. It was a validation but also a realization that I’d been on the scene long enough that there was a meaningful body of work to look back on. It was a powerful experience, exhilarating, but not for the faint of heart! I’ve been included in a few shows in Europe, including one in Amsterdam in 2025, but the one at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria, really stands out. They hung four or five of my paintings in a show titled “Gold,” which included works by Gustav Klimt and Baselitz, Richter, and Warhol, among others. Dan had been teaching in Barcelona, so we could jet over, enjoy the pomp and circumstance of its grand opening, and see my work in a truly resplendent context, juxtaposing historic and contemporary artwork.
And, of course, the Lover’s Eyes have been included in several terrific museum exhibitions, including the deCordova retrospective, “Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture” at the Zimmerli, which I mentioned, and “On the
Basis of Art: 150 years of Women at Yale.” It’s always interesting to see how curators will contextualize your work. The large solo show of my Lover’s Eyes at the Gibbes Museum in 2019-20, like this show at Artsee, was instigated by Lori Bookstein of Bookstein Projects. An added perk of museum shows is that they have catalogues, creating a lasting record of the exhibition. And some collect the work, ensuring that it will live on. I’ll confess, my fantasy is to see one of my Meret Oppenheim metronomes on display between Man Ray’s Object to be Destroyed and Oppenheim’s Breakfast in Fur at MoMA.
Through your experience, what is the best way for an artist to build their way up, and what do you think it takes to be a top star artist these days?
I always recommend starting by showing with a cooperative gallery. Not only are they usually more open to new, young artists, but you’ll also learn a lot with hands-on experience. When I was starting, there wasn’t this expectation that you’d rocket to the top just out of grad school. I have absolutely no idea what it takes to be a top-star artist these days.
I understand you come from a family filled with artists. The dynamics of living with a family of artists could hinder, yet benefit your
insightfulness as an artist as you develop your path. How did you see this?
Well, besides my parents, I have a great-grandmother and two grandparents who were artists. When I was a kid, my Mum used to have my friends over to make art, experiment with new materials, found objects, and that sort of thing. She was also fearless at introducing them to power tools—I’m not sure the parents always knew what was going on! So, I’ve had a playful sense of materials over the years and was not intimidated by power tools. My Dad was more private about his studio practice—it was off-limits unless we were invited in, but he was that way with everyone.
Just having so much exposure to their fellow artist friends was a great education. Jack Tworkov and Myron Stout were some of my parents’ closest friends in Provincetown. I observed my parents’ studio practice, with lunch on the beach for midday breaks and wild cocktail and dinner parties, witnessing life, artmaking, and play all—more or less!—in balance. And then, there were also all those trips to museums. But after I graduated from Yale, when I asked my Dad to stop by for a studio crit, he just said, “What do you think this is, art by consensus?
Art in your life from an early age is a true gift. Have you ever diverted from visual art and
pursued something completely different?
I did carpentry for a number of years to support my art habit. I also built a seventeen-foot dory when I was in my twenties. I was astounded that it could float and take me places! I enjoyed carpentry for a while and learned a lot about using tools and just making things, not to mention house repair, so it wasn’t all for naught. And, believe me, everything you do in life finds its way into your art.
Selected Permanent collections:
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA La Salle University Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, MA Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA
Tabithavevers.com tabvevers@gmail.com
Instagram @tabithaveversstudio
Pastels, oils, acrylics and watercolors…abstract and representational…..landscapes, still lifes and portraits….a unique variety of painting technique and styles….you will be transported to another world and see things in a way you never have before…. join us and experience something different.
Painting classes continue on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1:30pm at the studio and Thursday mornings out in the field. These classes are open to all...come to one or come again if it works for you. All levels and materials welcome. 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.
Kate Knapp413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell) Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. www.kateknappartist.com
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
Van Gogh
“Cervus”, a multimedia piece by Serra Hirsch will be exhibited at Gallery North the whole month of October to celebrate fall and Halloween season. Many of her masks and wall sculptures will bring color and fun to this new gallery, Opening Reception will be on October 1 from 4-7 and to First Friday event on October 4 from 5-8.
Serra Hirsch has a passion for creating found, everyday objects, repurposing shapes and materials to create whimsical three-dimensional art pieces - frequently in the form of a mask or a puppet. Her favorite medium is “papier mâché”, in particular with brown craft paper, as it can be reinvented, reshaped and manipulated, transforming from a flat piece into its own 3D personality that engages the viewers to project their vision onto the sculpture. From an ecological standpoint, recycling objects or material that would be normally discarded and elevating their status into work of art encourages us to be less materialistic and to find beauty in our own backyards.
Serra Hirsch is a multimedia artist who works primarily as a voice-actor, puppet/mask builder, puppeteer and theater artist. She is a graduate of Emerson College’s Theater Arts (BFA), with a Masters in Educational Theater from NYU. Serra is an award-winning Halloween costume enthusiast, known for her giant creations frequently highlighted in TV and print media around the holiday. In addition to creative pursuits, Serra leads workshops in all these respective mediums and has taught at LaGuardia High School of Music, Arts & Performing Arts in NY among others. Contact Serra Hirschalexuma@gmail.com
Gallery North9 Eagle Street in North Adams, Mass. www.gallerynorthadams.com
My artwork, be it photography, painting or collage embraces a very simple notion: how best to break up space to achieve more serendipity and greater intuition on the page. Though simple in theory, this is not so easy to achieve. I work to make use of both positive and negative space to create interest, lyricism, elegance, and ambiguity. Each element informs the whole. This whole, with luck, is filled with an air of intrigue. Breaking up space to me has a direct correlation to music. Rhythm, texture, points of emphasis and silence all play their parts. Music that inspires me includes solo piano work by Debussy, Ravel, Mompou and of course, Schubert and Beethoven. Working with limited and unadorned materials, I enhance the initial compositions with color, subtle but emphatic line work and texture. For me, painting abstractly removes restraints. I find the simplicity of line and subsequent forming of shapes quietly liberating.
Lastly, I want my work to feel crafted, the artist’s hand in every endeavor.
Leslee Carsewell413-229-0155 / 413.854.5757 lcarsewellart@icloud.com
Fabrics, anatomy, stitches, colors and bricologue are words, imbued with intense emotionality for me, a maker, collector and lover of objects and places.
My first love was clay, so basic, earthy and obsessively compelling, I adored making pottery shapes and objects, resembling torsos. A period of fascination with vintage tin cans, bottle caps and junky metal discards followed. Metal was sheared, punched, riveted and assembled into figurative shapes. I began to use fabrics with these works and eventually abandoned metal for hand stitching doll sculptures, totems and collages, all with second hand or recycled fabrics.
Lately I have introduced paint and waxes into my work. I also am using animal bones, those armatures of mammal form. I am recycling old works into the new, a kind of synthesis of who I have been with whom I am now.
I am also returning to jewelry or ornament making. as well as fashioning a collection of garden and street wear art aprons.
Janet Cooperjanetcoop@gmail.com www.janetcooperdesigns.com
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God's gift, that's why we call it the present.
-Joan Rivers
Jane Gennaro is an artist, writer, and performer based in New York City and Claverack. Solo exhibitions include the Fashion Institute of Technology, World Monuments Fund Gallery, The Claverack Free Library, and Time and Space Ltd. Gennaro’s solo plays have been produced by The American Place Theatre, Culture Project's Impact Festival, and The Toyota Comedy Festival. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, her commentaries have aired on NPR’s All Things Considered, and her illustrated column "Mining My Life, Diaries of Jane Gennaro" is published monthly in The Artful Mind magazine.
Hey there, Everybody— Guess what? My online boutique just dropped! I’d love you to stop by to take a look at my "scissor drawings"and let me know WHAT YOU SEE in them. Thanks!
—Jane
Jane Gennarowww.janegennaro.com shop.janegennaro.com
Born and raised in the captivating Berkshires, Sally Tiska Rice possesses artistic prowess that breathes life into her canvases. As a versatile multi-media artist, Sally seamlessly employs a tapestry of techniques, working in acrylics, watercolors, oil paints, pastels, collages containing botanicals and mixed media elements. Her creative spirit draws inspiration from the idyllic surroundings of her rural hometown, where she resides with her husband Mark and cherished pets.
Sally's artistic process is a dance of spontaneity and intention. With each stroke of her brush, she composes artwork that reflects her unique perspective. Beyond her personal creations, Sally also welcomes commissioned projects, turning heartfelt visions into tangible realities. Whether it's capturing the essence of individuals, beloved pets, cherished homes, or sacred churches, she pours her soul into each personalized masterpiece.
Sally's talent has garnered recognition both nationally and internationally. Her career includes a remarkable 25-year tenure at Crane Co., where she lent her hand-painted finesse to crafting exquisite stationery. Sally is a member of the Clock Tower Artists of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Guild of Berkshire Artists, the Berkshire Art Association, and the Becket Arts Center. Follow on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Sally’s work is on the gallery walls of the Clock Tower, Open Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00 pm for self-guided tours.
SallyTiskaRice@gmail.com www.sallytiskarice.com https://www.facebook.com/artistsallytiskarice Fine Art Prints (Pixels), Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok
I am inviting photographers to post their works depicting the beauty of scenery and wildlife in the Berkshires and surrounding areas. Berkshire photographers are also invited to post any other photographic art—
Berkshire Scenic, Wildlife & Art photography | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/ 402188306309027
413-298-4221
Berkshirescenicphotography.com
Lonny@berkshirescenicphotography.com
With the holidays coming up, What Is In Your Name? just might be the best gift of the season. I can create your child’s name (or even yours – I won’t tell) by finding out a little about the person’s likes and favorite colors. I then create an illustration of their name, and it will be mailed to you matted and already for hanging.
“A happy customer: Elizabeth is an amazing talent, and she comes up with a whimsical creation that fits them perfectly! “ - Carolyn
To order your What Is In Your Name? masterpiece, please email me at: elizbaethcassidyart@gmail.com
To see more names, please visit, www.elizabethcassidystudioworks.com
elizabeth cassidy studio works
Confinement and Breakaway examine the mental state of struggle to make sense of our environment, both physical and psychological. I incorporate childlike drawing to represent nonconformity; the unadulterated state before we get confined by rules, commitment, insecurities, and other “add-ons.”
“I distress and repair parts of the painting, as we do within ourselves. The drawings of floor plans and elevations, which I use as a starting point, create a sense of enclosure, which I expand by continuing the lines outward, breaking the structural pattern. This alters the sense of confinement, breaking away from the [rigid, static] norm”.
Erika Larskayahttps://www.erikalarskaya.art
I can create your child’s name (or even yours –I won’t tell) by finding out a little about the person’s likes and favorite colors. I then create an illustration of their name, and it will be mailed to you matted and already for hanging.
From a happy customer: “Elizabeth is an amazing talent, and she comes up with a whimsical creation that fits them perfectly!” - Carolyn
To order your What Is In Your Name? masterpiece, please email me at: elizabethcassidyart@gmail.com
To see more names, please visit, www.elizabethcassidystudioworks.com elizabeth cassidy studio works
The artistic process is random and at times a little out of control. To say my mind is chaotic is an understatement in the grandest sense. I wake up in the morning get myself feeling decent, pick up my iPad and work on a piece of music in Garage Band, or work on a drawing or pick up a guitar. I sleep, for health reasons on our living room couch/recliner. My nest. I have the attention span of a gnat, so I will flit (probably the best term for it) back and forth. The chronic numbness in my left hand curtails the guitar, sometimes. Then I will work on a drawing. With a non-stop flow of horror movies on the television and a gallon of black coffee. If I still smoked, a pack of Camels, easy!
THE ALPHABET IN SO MANY WORDS
I always like to have projects, some more ambitious than others. This particular project was to provide a context for the illustrations for some odd words. I like the words Zax and Zarf and wanted to illustrate them. But without illustrating the rest of the alphabet, it didn’t make sense. The first four or five were abstract, but that really didn’t make sense, so I opted to illustrate. I think, collectively these would work great in a book format. See what happens!
Richard Nelson@nojrevned@hotmail.com / On FB: Rick Nelson
Paradise City Arts in North Hampton will celebrate their 30th year on Indigenous People’s Day Weekend. We have assembled 220 expertly curated artists + makers from across the country, featuring handmade home decor, sculpture, fashion, jewelry, and more. Don’t miss the special show “Fables & Folklore: Reframing the Classics”, a themed exhibit where age-old stories meet modern creativity.
In the Festival Dining Tent, we offer a fresh music lineup each day and a variety of dining options from Northampton’s vibrant restaurant scene and original music, jazz, Blues, and Rock by three of the region’s favorite bands, from noon – 4pm Saturday & Sunday and 11:30 – 3:30 on Monday.
Our latest addition to the Festival, The Paradise Pavilion, features lively demonstrations and hands-on creative activity stations for the whole family to enjoy. This season, Caravan Puppets hosts crafters of all ages to learn the art of puppet making. Renowned artist & esteemed professor, Rick Freed, leads an inspiring three-day community event, inviting the public to participate in painting a collaborative mural. Additionally, Bill Muller of Big Wheel Press helps us create our own coasters and note cards on recycled paper, using antique blocks to combine words and pictures, on a 100-year-old letterpress!
Our Silent Auction benefits The Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce. Come support the nonprofit organization that’s always giving back to Northampton. Each day you can bid on a different selection of original items donated by Paradise City Arts exhibitors. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the GNCC. The Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce Auction Tables are in Building 3.
Paradise City Arts Festival, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, October 12, 13 & 14 at Northampton’s 3 County Fairgrounds, on Old Ferry Road off Rt. 9. For complete show and travel information, advance online tickets and discount admission coupons, visit -www.paradisecityarts.com
My initial memory of awakening to the creative impulse was hearing the first chord of the Beatles, Hard Day’s Night, when I was six years old. I knew something big was happening at that moment, and I had to get on board! I began studying at the Guitar Workshop, the first guitar school in America. I’ve performed music most of my life and play jazz fusion with my band Redshift.
My interest in photography blossomed as an electron-microscopist publishing neuro- and molecular-biological research out of UMASS/Amherst and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx in my early 20s.
As a lifelong meditator, martial artist, musician, and photographer, everything I engage with comes from the same unified intention toward engendering the true, the good, and the beautiful. I endeavor to capture the light that seeps through everything in landscape and nature photography.
Lonny Jarrett -
Community: Nourishingdestiny.com
Books: Spiritpathpress.com
Art: Berkshirescenicphotography.com
Teaching: Lonnyjarrett.com
For the past few years my professional painting career has led me to more commission work. While I still paint and love doing house/inn/business portraits, other scenes have become part of my portfolio as well….retirement paintings including special buildings and people, scenes where a proposal happened (and he said YES), nature scenes that capture the peace and spirit of the Berkshires, landscape views from windows, lots of wedding venues, college paintings for new graduates…the list goes on. Each painting is special, personal and meaningful.
The process is easy. If you are local to the Berkshires, I will visit the home/site, take many photos and do a few sketches on site. If now I will work from your photos. Drawing is the next phase and where your input is valuable…what to include, what to leave out or move, season, time of day, pets in or out? So many fun things to consider when creating and personalizing your treasure and future heirloom.
Once the drawing is approved, I paint. The painting process will take about a week….most of the time is spent in the preparation phase before the painting begins.
Is this a surprise gift for someone? I love surprises and do it all the time! I can be very stealth at taking photos. Or are you nervous that the scene might not be exactly what the recipient wants? A gift certificate is perfect, then I will work directly with the recipient.
Be in touch and I will answer all your questions. And check out the “House Portrait” pages of my website….lots of information and details.
Marguerite Bride –413-841-1659; margebride-paintings.com margebride@aol.com Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors. Instagram: margebride
Some photographers take reality... and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.
-Ansel Adams
Growing up on the South Side of Chicago in the ‘60s was a history, rich and troubled time. As a youth, playing in the streets demanded grit.
Teaching Tai Chi for the last 30 years requires a Zen state of mind. My paintings come from this quiet place that exhibits the rich grit of my youth. Movement, shape, and color dominate spontaneously combining raw as well as delicate impulses.
My recent series, Strike a Pose, is inspired by the dance genre Voguing. Colorful feminine images with amplified characters grace the canvas with their mystery.
Mauritshuis Museum has chosen my abstract painting, Girl With a Pearl , for the Vermeer show in Amsterdam now showing through December. Ruby AverHousatonic Studio open by appointment: 413-854-7007, rdaver2@gmail.com Instagram: rdaver2
Since opening in 2005, Berkshire Digital has done Giclée prints/fine art printing and accurate photo-reproductions of paintings, illustrations and photographs.
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 Photo District News magazine in an article about fine art printing. See the entire article on the BerkshireDigital.com website.
Berkshire Digital does accurate photo-reproductions of paintings and illustrations that can be used for Giclée prints, books, magazines, brochures, cards and websites.
“Fred Collins couldn’t have been more professional or more enjoyable to work with. He did a beautiful job in photographing paintings carefully, efficiently, and so accurately. It’s such a great feeling 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 Berkshires. 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 Digital413-644-9663, or go online to www.BerkshireDigital.com
An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.
-Man Ray
I am a visual artist using photography as the platform to begin a journey of exploration. My journey began in earnest almost 14 years ago when I retired due to health issues and began devoting myself to the informal study of art, artists and particularly photography. Before retiring I had begun studying photography as a hobby. After my retirement, the effort took on a greater intensity.
My world had changed for reasons outside of my control and I looked for something different in my work. I wanted to do more than document what was around me. I wanted to create something that the viewers might join with me and experience. Due to my health issues, I found myself confined with my activities generally restricted. For the first time I began looking inward, to the world that I experienced, though not always through physical interaction. It is a world where I spend more time trying to understand what I previously took for granted and did not think about enough. The ideas ranged from pleasure and beauty to pain and loss; from isolation to abandonment; to walking past what is uncomfortable to see. During this period of isolation, I began thinking about what is isolation, how it can transition to abandonment and then into being forgotten. The simplest display of this idea is abandoned buildings. They were once beautiful, then allowed to run down and abandoned, soon to be forgotten. After a while they disappear. Either mankind knocks down these forgotten once beautiful structures, or remediates them, or Nature reclaims the space. Doesn’t mankind do the same with its own?
My work employs references to other photographers, painters, as well as sculptors. The brushwork of Chinese and Japanese artists is appealing for both its simplicity and beauty. Abstract art has its own ways of sharing ideas which are jarring and beautiful at the same time. Black and white and color works each add their own dynamic. My work is influenced by these art forms, often using many of them in a single composited image.
My studies have been informal, often on my own, though I am fortunate to have had several teachers and mentors who have guided me. Bruce PanockPanockphotography.com bruce@panockphotography.com Instagram @brucepanock
My two careers, art and psychoanalysis, concern what can be said and what remains mute. In painting, collage and constructions of wood and iron I’m interested in the eloquence of the materials.
Avoiding a recognizable style in favor of experimentation, I explore the possibilities of the media. Our world and culture are dissolving. Art can create precious islands of meaning and joy.
Mark will be showing his work at Hotel on North, February 2 - March 31, 2024, 297 North St., Pittsfield, MA 01201
Mark V. Mellinger, Ph.D.914-260-7413, 75 S Church St, Pittsfield MA, instagram@mellinger3301
I am an abstract artist whose two- and threedimensional works in mixed media reveal a fascination with geometry, color and juxtapositions. For me it is all about the work which provides surprising results, both playful and thought provoking.
From BCC to UMASS and later to Vermont College to earn my MFA Degree. I have taken many workshops through Art New England, at Bennington College, Hamilton College and an experimental workshop on cyanotypes recently at MCLA. Two international workshops in France and Italy also.
I am pleased to have a studio space with an exciting group of artists at the Clocktower Building in Pittsfield.
Bruce LairdClock Tower Business Center, Studio #307 75 South Church Street, Pittsfield, MA
If your heart/mind yearns for Jewelry that speaks of bodacious originality, that will suit your casual lifestyle +, then get yourselves over to Chatham New York, Where Joane Cornell Fine Jewelry resides. All hand forged. “Never the expected. Joane Cornell Fine Jewelry9 Main St, Chatham, NY JoaneCornellFineJewelry.com / Instagram
“Sir Isaac Newton’s Cat” FROM THE SERIES
After a long while the mouse came to the surface of the water. The mouse was Clara, that Rowena, the chicken had thrown into the lake. She didn’t want to harm the mouse but being thrown into the lake was the direct result of Clara jumping onto the chicken’s face. Clara squeaked desperately for help, not being able to swim. She was begging what she imagined was her enemy for help, but what choice did the poor thing have?
Rowena reached down with her beak and took hold of Clara’s ear and plucked the mouse out of the water and placed her on the raft. Rowena placed her foot on the mouse’s tail so she would not be able to repeat the face attack. The mouse face attack, it should be noted, is involuntary, and only used when there is no possibility of escape. Even so, it has very often happened that a terrified mouse has launched himself directly into the open mouth of an enemy. Even when this has happened, the mouse usually will survive because they are most often spit out. I mean, think, wouldn’t you spit one out?!
A mouse’s preferred behavior is the art of running away in zig zag patterns. The mouse will run in a way that is entirely unpredictable, and even a scientist who studies chaos theory, and the determination of accidental outcomes, will tell you that no formula can explain mouse movements.
A mouse can run nowhere near as fast as a cat; and if mice are so slow why are there even any mice left in the world? Why have they not been all consumed long ago? The answer to this question can be found in the works of Sir Isaac Newton. I have heard that Newton was a great lover of cats, and it is a well known fact that he discovered the laws of inertia one day watching his cat named Galieo, trying to catch a mouse named Copernicus.
The mouse Copernicus, running full speed, was just about to reach the outer edge of the oriental carpet in Newton's drawing room. He realized that as soon as his little feet struck the inlaid floor he would lose his traction and so, at the very extreme edge of the carpet he made a sharp right hand turn, stopped suddenly, and then ran directly toward the cat, disappeared between the cat's legs, and then ran across the carpet in the opposite direction.
Now just consider for a moment, the path of the sun across the sky. The sun inches along very slowly but no power in heaven or earth can change its direction, but a mouse can begin running in the opposite direction in any instant. The cat, which weighs 210 times more than a mouse, can indeed change direction, but it takes altogether longer than the mouse. And so, this is what Newton saw. Galieo tried to stop himself at the edge of the oriental carpet, just as the mouse had, but he was unable to come to a full stop. Instead of stopping, he went head over heels a full three feet beyond the carpet and then
managed to ricochet himself off the credenza on which was the bust of Martin Luther. It took Galaeo a full two seconds to come to a complete stop, and another half a second to begin running after Copernicus. During that short time Copernicus had climbed a sectional bookcase and disappeared between the second and third volumes of Plutarch’s, “Lives of Illustrious Men.”
When Newton was done laughing about the mouse, he picked up his cat and while stroking him he realized the significance of what he had witnessed. Galaeo could not ‘stop on a dime,’ as the expression goes because of his weight. The heavier the animal the longer it takes them to change direction. This he formulated thus: ‘Inertia was created so that small animals can escape from the clutches of large animals, and therefore the balance of nature can be maintained.’
Later that very day Sir Issaic went for a walk in the park and sat on a bench just a few feet from a statue of one of the famous generals of the hundred years war, I am not sure which one because the inscription had been effaced. Pigeons were roosting on the general’s head and in some bushes nearby were fourteen sparrows who began to chirp and hop around when they saw Newton approaching.
The birds, seeing their benevolent benefactor arrive, all came down and assembled in expectation of their daily treats; but on this occasion the predictable event became a scientific experiment. Newton fed only the sparrows, and the pigeons went away empty handed. Isaac accomplished this by throwing the bird seed a little distance from the assembled birds, and as he correctly surmised, the sparrows always got to the bird seed first, and gobbled up all the seeds before the pigeons could even get themselves off the ground. Since a pigeon weighs 16.5 times more than a sparrow, it takes them exactly 4.5 times longer to get themselves into the air, but the sparrows are so fast that even if you blink, you might not see them take off.
A simple experiment can be conducted by anyone, quite easily. Go to the airport and watch a passenger jet taking off. The airplane is like the pigeon, in that its take off is extraordinarily time consuming. As you watch the plane take off, compare it to how easy and quickly you are able to launch a paper airplane into flight. The difference is because the passenger jet weighs 5.6 billion times more than the paper airplane.
But the forging explanation of the science of mouse movement is of absolutely no use to any mouse stranded on a raft out in a lake. A mouse possesses almost no knowledge of lakes and rafts and so when Rowena relaxed her grip on Clara’s tail, Clara began to run with all her strength, and ran right off the raft and into the water and began to drown again where she had left off before. As soon as Clara’s head became visible above the water’s surface, she was again dragged out of the water and set down on the raft.
While Clara sat there shivering, Rowena gave her a good talking to. Her lecture to the mouse took the form of a long series of clucks, interrupted by somber silences. It is certainly true that mice do not understand the clucking of chickens, but even so, it is not necessary to understand the actual clucks when the content of what is being clucked is so often conveyed by gestures and the inflections, and so Clara began the understand that the chicken meant her no harm, and even more that that, was sympathetic to her situation. With that she summoned all her children to come out from under the straw and
present themselves. They all came out and stood in a line frightened and confused. Now the chicken looked at the crow with an expression that seemed to say, “What on earth are we going to do with them.” The crow had an idea, which was to fetch the leaf of a rhubarb plant and use it as a little raft, to float the mouse family to the shore. With this in mind he flew off and was able to procure a suitable leaf, but no amount of encouragement would suffice to get even the mother to set foot on the leaf, to say nothing of the children, and the idea had to be given up. At long last the crow decided on the most obvious solution, he would take them each, one at a time, by the ear, and fly them to shore.
There was a distinct disadvantage to this plan, because the mouse children were unable to understand what was happening, and so they had to witness a most terrible occurrence, their mother carried off into the distance to God knows where. I am not going to try to describe to you the terror and anguish of the mouse children as, one at a time they were taken away by the crow. The last of them, who was the smallest, was reduced to such a state of shock that he almost never was able to recover, and when he was older he became very introverted, and even when asked some simple question would say nothing and simply shake his head and mumble. Meanwhile, the crow considered where to deposit the mice. He thought that to just leave them on the shore would put them at risk of being found by the foxes, but he found a suitable hiding place for them. There just happened to be a fisherman, sound asleep on the shore with his fishing rod in his hands, and next to him his tackle box. The mother mouse he deposited in the box, shoving her into a dark corner and he pecked at her head a few times to make her understand that she must stay still and quiet. The idea was simple, simply deposit the entire family into the fisherman's box, and then, reunited they could go on their way into their bright future, whatever it might be, but it was not to work out that way. Once the last and smallest mouse was deposited in the corner of the fisherman's tackle box, the old man woke up, gathered up his things, shut the box and headed for home.
Later that evening the wind began to blow, and the raft made its way to the shore and the chicken and the crow found themselves on land, with no foxes in sight, and Rowena began to hop along in the direction she hoped would bring her to her home. It grew dark and her path brought her into the vicinity of the fisherman’s humble cottage. In the dark a light could be seen in the kitchen. From the kitchen came the sound of terrible screams and shouting. Looking in at the kitchen window Rowena beheld the fisherman and his wife. On the counter next to the sink could be seen the tackle box with the lid open. The fisherman had two mice attached to his face, and the wife had three mice trying to find their way out from under her blouse; the five of them doing their best to keep off the dull times,* for the fisherman and his wife.
*Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, “and the rats were doing what they could to keep off the dull times for her.”
—RICHARD
BRITELL September, 2024
Diaries of Jane Gennaro
Historically, a deadline was a line drawn around a prison beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot. What deadline meant to me in 1991 was, "How will I ever get what I'm doing done on time?" I procrastinate until the last minute, leave no time to second guess, and bite the bullet. Done. Just in the nick of time. Phew! In 2024 when I see the word deadline, "dead" jumps out. Jeez, death. It's like the latest fad among people my age! Not just people I know but famous people I don't know, but mourn anyway because they were from my time. My mother had this Irish saying; "I knew you'd die, but I never thought you would." It's surreal, this Now you're flesh and blood—Now you're not a thing. You'd think I'd get how natural death is. I mean, I make art out of dead stuff! (animal remains, bones, insects, etc.) It's a giant, ever-evolving body of work. Alas, nobody I know has returned in their body. We can only hold hands in memory. Mary Oliver wrote, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Does this mean it's time to stop procrastinating?
Panockphotography.com
bruce@panockphotography.com
917-287-8589
Instagram @brucepanock
