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.
As I'm slowly getting back to a rhythm of working in the studio again, I'm amazed how taking a break for almost a year while producing the Amherst Biennial has cleared my eyes. Recently I pulled out some older paintings from the racks which had stymied me years ago. But now I'm looking at them with fresh eyes, They are speaking more clearly to me. Here's a detail of one of the series of the Statue of Liberty, which I started in 2004. The title for this painting is Newtown.
It has been so gratifying the response to the latest Amherst Biennial and that the Town of Amherst is making Matt Evald Johnson's sculpture a permanent installation in Kendrick Park More good news, the Amherst Cultural council just awarded the Amherst Public Arts Commission a $1,000 grant towards the purchase of this sculpture. This brings the grand total raised to $7,000 with only $3,000 left to raise to make Portal a permanent installation for our community park.We will be launching a fundraising campaign on Valentine's Day. Check out Amherst Biennial webpage for details and gifts.:.jpg)
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.
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.