Reaching the Top of the Mountain

Meditation Mountain, Monoprint, collage & drawing

As I reflect on my journey with the production of the Amherst Biennial, it does feel that I've reached the top of the mountain and it has a times been a rocky journey. Juggling so many different sites and artists is no small challenge. The reward, of course is bringing it to fruition and painting the town with art. Also the public's response has been gratifying, as well as the media coverage. One reporter commented, "Are all these artists from the Valley? I had no idea there was so much talent here." This is one of the reasons I created the Biennial, to bring attention to the incredible amount of talent in this fertile valley and offer the artists a special platform to present the work in. I feel so fortunate to have 5 museums and all three colleges as hosts this time around.

Life after opening Amherst Biennial '12

As I'm slowly reclaiming my life from the production of the Amherst Biennial, I'm turning my focus back to my own artwork, my home and family. So I'm off to check out the art scene in Boston and then learn Pronto Printing at Zea Mays Print studio next weekend.

Dorothy at the Crossroads

Here is a closeup of a piece from OZ from Toto's Point of View series.I've been recently reworking of 3 D construction of late. This is one of my interactive pieces from body of work (no pun intended), which invites the audience participate. When this was installed at Nash Gallery in Easthampton, I invited the audience to  bring their ruby slippers and place them in the house (taped on the floor). The participants could leave their shoes for any length of time, the opening, the whole exhibit. When I show this piece again, if a people  leave them ruby slippers, I'll donate them to the Survival Center.

I like when viewers of art, can interact and become a part of the work and share this space with me.

Latest & Greatest

With the Amherst Biennial production in full swing, I've neglected my personal blog so here's the latest with in my life. I recently took a wonderful monoprint workshop at Zea Mays with Catherine Kernan with her innovative technique of combining woodcuts, plexi with offset printing. It is the most exciting and painterly method I have experienced. Which I hope to get back to the press to explore this method further.

My studio time has been quite limited as I've been doing studio visits for the Biennial, but the pay back is discovering so much exciting artwork in the studios of local artists.We will have some really exciting new events for this upcoming Biennial (Oct. 6 - Nov. 30) including this underground phenomenon called "Yarn Bombing" which I first discovered in New York City on Montague St., Brooklyn (where I used to live). While visiting the DeCordova Museum's Biennial this Spring, I also spotted it there, so as they say imitation is the highest form of flattery, we are bringing this contemporary graffiti to our Biennial but we are kicking it up a notch. The Amherst Biennial will have Yarn Bombing throughout the Biennial all over town, continuously over the two month installation. Since I'm having technical problems downloading images from my smart phone (which is smarter than me!) you'll just have to google yarnbombing to see what it looks like or checkout my Facebook Page.

There are 3 special art installation in the Valley this week. The first one is the White House Project at the Emily Dickinson Museum, Zea Mays Biennial at APE and an exhibit in Holyoke at Paper City Studios. Two summer ago, I traveled Pioneer Women from Tabla Rasa Gallery, NYC to Holyoke at Paper City and seeing this wonderful installation last night reminded me of this exhibit.

http://www.gazettenet.com/2010/07/22/finding-wonderland

Terry's Women

As I was working in the studio this week, taking a break from production of the White House Project and the Amherst Biennial. I noticed there were a lot of women hanging out in my studio. Dorothy from OZ was visiting, as well as several  Lady Liberty's. Well, I guess I live through their worlds, Dorothy is at the Crossroads, and yes there are times I don't know which way to go, the road less travelled?. And the Statue of Liberty, well she represents all that's good in America. So in these volatile times it's no wonder, I'm drawn to her (no pun intended)

This installation shot at OZ: from Toto's Point of View was taken by John Polak at the Nash Gallery, Easthampton in '08. I had just moved my father into assisted living with Alzheimer's. I never really finished this body of work since I was suffering from pneumonia in the run up to this show. Only now am I able to come back to this work with new eyes. This piece has changed greatly this Spring. Dorothy is more grounded in my reworked piece; she's older and wiser now. If my co-curators agree, I'd like to install this piece in the Biennial and invite the public to bring their ruby slippers to celebrate "There's no place like home." It seems the White House project encourage my return to this work. Thanks Peter. <www.actionartinc.com>

White House & Pioneer Women

As I'm cranking up promotion for the Little White House Project and facing the challenges of doing a public art installation in a college town, my thoughts wander to the Pioneer Women exhibit last summer which also had challenges. As we were installing the exhibit at the Jasper Rand Museum and  the Storefront installations in Westfield, the city started tearing up the sidewalks.. There are always challenges when working in the public realm, it's learning to roll with the punches. One of the stars for Pioneer Women is Rosalyn Driscoll (image of What is meant to be) whose tactile sculptures engage the viewers, visually and with touch.

http://pioneerwomenart.wordpress.com/susan-mikula/

New Beginnings

Welcome to my new webpage. This is a long overdue revamp of my site, which had not been updated for years. Thank you for your patience. Well much has happened since I launched my webpage years ago. My work has travelled from OZ, to Turtles and now back to the Statue of Liberty. Presently, I'm working at both monoprinting and oil painting on wood. It feels so good to be back in my Berkshire studio reworking older work from OZ from Toto's Point of View Series and just exploring the Statue of Liberty confronting a snake, which is a wonderful metaphor the state our country is in.

Aside from my studio work, I'm cranking up production on the next Amherst Biennial '12: Art in Expected and Unexpected Places. This time around we will have sites on college campuses and museums in Amherst, MA  The Amherst Public Arts Commission just added the Frost Library Gallery to the list of new sites for our next Biennial. The deadline has been extended to May 7th. Applications can be downloaded from our new webpage <www.amherstbiennial.com>

Latest & Greatest

It seems of late, I'm drawn to images of women/girls. The Statue of Liberty represents all that's good about America. My country, which I love dearly seems to be fading from view and thus Liberty is sinking beyond the horizon. See banner image, Disappearing Liberties.