Costa Rica with My Sister

Toucan on our balcony Hotel Parador, Manuel Antonio

It been a long time since I visited Costa Rica, over 25 years. It's beauty still enchants me and I rediscovered it's gifts with my sister who lived there for a time...

Annie & Amos at Manuel Antonio Nat'l Park

On our balcony Manuel Antonio

Some of the highlights were discovering Arenal Volcano with it's cascading hot springs with waterfalls and tropical surroundings. Also we rediscovered the beauty of Manuel Antonio and the beach in the National Park with it's jungle down to the water.The founders of Costa Rica in their infinite wisdom, made a rule that you could not develop within 150 meters of the beach, so the jungle comes right down to the water, as well as the wildlife. One of our favorite places to visit was the "Doctor's Beach" in Manuel Antonio National Park, where white headed capucin monkeys visited at our blanket and on our balcony. There was a blue rope over the road to our AirBnb for the breakfast and dinner run. The howler monkeys also scampered across our roof to the fruit trees in the back yard. How's that for nature at your doorstep?

My sister and our dear friend Amos Bien, started the oldest and purest Rain Forest Preserve Rara Avis over 30 years ago in northern Costa Rica which has a spectacular waterfall. This is a tour for the adventurous spirit with over 300 different varieties of birds in this virgin rain forest.



http://www.rara-avis.com/

Annie at Manuel Antonio

Amos & Me

Footprints on the beach, Doctor's Beach Manuel Antonio

Artscope Coverage of Pioneer Women

ANNE BURTON, Collograph Monotype

Artscope Magazine gave us top billing in their e-blast for PIONEER WOMEN  art exhibit in Easthampton, MA. They have been a wonderful resource of outstanding exhibits in New England.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=1f1509b7-da4a-4dca-bada-d9398e56d1f1&c=b6b73350-07b6-11e5-b68e-d4ae527b6fcc&ch=b6c3b670-07b6-11e5-b691-d4ae527b6fcc

Pioneer Women at Eastworks, Easthampton MA

Sandy Litchfield, Turn Around Town, Oil on Canvas

I'm producing a new edition of Pioneer Women which has traveled from Tabla Rasa Gallery, Brooklyn http://www.tablarasagallery.com/html/pioneer_women.htmll to Western Massachusetts. These artists  blaze new frontiers in art and here is a taste of some of the beautiful and evocative work of these talented local artists. 

Rosalyn Driscoll drives home the point that art is more than just a visual experience by using tactile sculptures in her work. Susan Montgomery delves into the dark history of 17^th century Mary Bliss Parson, the accused witch of Northampton and Springfield, with provocative drawings. Sandy Litchfield combines digital imagery and paint to create cityscapes that evoke a latter-day cubism. Several artists—especially, Rachel Folsom, Elizabeth Pols and Terry Rooney—push the boundaries of painting on shaped canvases and wood contraptions. Pols re purposes antique writing desks into contemporary assemblages. Lourdes Morales evokes spiritual spaces with intersecting classical figures. Karen Dolmanisth will transform the installation space using natural materials and quote from Persian poet Rumi, evoking different kinds of love: “The lover’s cause is separate from all causes.”

This travelling exhibition premiered in Brooklyn, New York to rave reviews:

“Her (Karen Dolmanisth) work, along with that of several other innovative artists, is the thrilling new exhibit at the pioneering Tabla Rasa Gallery…” and

“A Riveting Exhibit of Astonishing Works.”—Brooklyn Daily Eagle

PIONEER WOMEN

MAP Gallery at Eastworks, 116 Pleasant St, Easthampton, MA

June 6 – June 28

Artists’ Reception: Sat., June 13 @ 5 – 8 PM

Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat 1 – 4 PM

Lourdes Morales

           PIONEER WOMEN

MAP Gallery at Eastworks

116 Pleasant St.

Easthampton, MA

Gallery Talk- June 18, 7 PM

June 6 - June 28

Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat. 1 - 4 PM

                                                     

                                                   

Lisa Griffith, Gown on Gown, paper & mixed media

Blue Liberty

The Statue of Liberty has the Blues. This beautiful statue, a gift from  the people of France, is the only historic figure of a woman that is known worldwide. She represents what's good about America, This art exhibition is an exploration on what this statue means to America, and how the values she stands for have been challenged. Artist, Terry Rooney explores her muse in many settings, in a multi-media exhibit in Westfield this Spring.

Liberty once was celebrated with a poem  by Emma Lazarus, "Give me your tired, your poor." But those idealistic goals of our forefathers, were trampled on by a succession conservative presidents who made it difficult for immigrants to come to America.

Liberty has  shown her torches light during 9/11 but began vanishing during the Bush presidential years, as our rights to privacy disappeared and survelliance on ordinary citizens is gathered. Vanishing Liberty, earsed charcoal drawings of the statue brings home this point.  The Statue of Liberty and the snake is a metaphor of our times, when evil creeps into our country, our society suffers as a whole. 

Ferguson, Collograph & colored pencil

LIBERTY BLUES,  opens this week at Arno Maris Gallery at Westfield State University, 577 Western Ave., Westfield  March 5 - April 18. This exhibit is a retrospective with over 30 years of artwork of this heroic statue which shined in the harbor of her hometown, New York City. 

Recent addition to this exhibition is a Liberty holding a brush, to honor the French people recovering from their recent terror attack. Also another recent addition is  collograph and drawing entitled, "Ferguson." 

Artist Reception, Thursday, March 19, 5:30-7:30 PM, (Snow Date March 26) 

www.westield.ma.edu/galleries

Liberty's Blues

Next year is shaping up to be a very exciting year for me, starting with a multi-media art exhibit of  Liberty's Blues at Westfield University, Arno Maris Gallery in the Ely Campus Center, March 5 - April 19.  The Statue of Liberty has been my muse for over 20 years, This series is a reflection of the challenges that America faces presently. The monoprint drawing to the left, will be part of this exhibit is entitled Ferguson. 

In April, I'll be moving further west to Berkshire Community College exhibiting some recent work and working with students.

This June, I'll be putting on my curator's hat and producing a new edition of Pioneer Women to be shown at the MAP space in Eastworks  highlighting the trail blazing talent from the Pioneer Valley.This traveling exhibit started in New York City ('09)
 http://www.tablarasagallery.com/html/pioneer_women.html  than travelled the following year to Paper City Studios, Holyoke http://papercitystudios.wordpress.com/pioneer-women/  The last time I crated this exhibit was in Westfield in 2011 at the Jasper Rand Museum in Westfield, along with a storefront exhibition all over downtown.

This will be an updated version of  the talented woman artists that make this Pioneer Valley such a creative and vital art destination.

Reaching the Masses

Ring of Fire,  Mixed Media on Wood, 3D construct

My exhibition Home Away From Home at Berkshire Community college Gallery, 1 Columbus Ave., Pittsfield features my 3D constructions on wood of houses (as an extension of the woman's body.) This gallery, which is in the transportation center in Pittsfield has a long glass wall in front of the bus stop. The following day after the installation a group of bus drivers were waiting outside the gallery, asked the staff to let them into the gallery before it opened, the bus drivers wanted a closer look at the artwork to see how I constructed them. They declared after getting a closer look at these pieces, that they were "Paintings". I was so tickled to hear this story, as one of my goals in creating this work, is to reach they everyday man, woman, child; to make the artwork accessible to someone who may not have an arts education, to enjoy this work. This story warms my heart.

Home Away From Home is on view until August 30 and can be seen from the street. Gallery Hours by chance.

Home Away From Home

Chip Off the Old Block, Mixed Media on 3D Wood Construction

One of the formative experiences in my life was renovating a "Handyman Special" with my husband in the Berkshires. Through this process, I realized, how affected I was by renovations around me and my connection to our house/home. When it was in disarray, so was I: when it came together so did I. It made me reflect how women through the ages are connected to house and home - raising families, cooking, cleaning.  A wonderful Yankee carpenter who patiently renovated our Berkshire home, built these 3D constructions of houses, which I designed with the leftover wood from renovations.(thus bringing it closer to home for me). In promoting my vision, I superimpose the shapes of woman's (breasts, pregnant bellies) on these iconic houses so these houses become an extension of a woman's body.

A Piece of Heaven, Oil on wood construction

Of late, I've revisited a "body" of work that I had set aside for the last few years while I focused my attention to printmaking and producing art exhibitions.As I was reworking this piece, an old friend re-entered my life briefly, polishing tarnished memories and helping me name this piece, Moon & Sun.  All these experiences,
building a home, revisiting past experiences enrich my life and my work. Art imitating life.

This Summer I will be exhibiting this "body" of work at the Berkshire Community College Intermodal Gallery, One Columbus Ave, (Corner on North St.) Pittsfield. The artist reception will be Friday, August 1 during the Pittfield Arts Walk

http://www.berkshirecc.edu/IntermodalCenter

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