A Piece of Heaven

A question I'm asked frequently is "What is my artwork about?" Many things, though my main focus for years has been house/home as an extension of the woman's body. One of my 3-D constructions that caught the attention of viewers years ago was a house construction with the earth superimposed on it, with a slice of heaven (clouds) and another house on the top of it. Having a stable home is my piece of heaven. I wanted to find out what other people's heaven on earth was, so for two years I asked everyone I met what was their heaven on earth. The responses ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, from having a baby to an empty bladder, from chocolate to a long organism. Their answers opened a window into their souls, and let me live vicariously. I would like to invite viewers of this blog to tell me what their heavens are, as recent events are leading me back to this work and could use some inspiration. The last time I exhibited this work was back in 1999 at Hampshire College and it's time to revisit this body of work and see what the new millennium brings forth.

Times They Are A Changing

Anita Licis Ribak photograph opening night  Shedding Light

As I've been transitioning back to the studio while juggling care-giving, my time seems limited to pursue large productions like the Amherst Biennial.  So I'm stepping aside as Chair of the Amherst Public Arts Commission after almost 9 years at the helm of this town's commission. It's time to pass the baton onto new talent.

It has been a great ride and one that has helped me grow as an organizer, producer and artist. It all started with Shedding Light. Erika Zekos's created this huge ephemeral public art installation by lighting up a tobacco shed for Amherst's 250th anniversary. This site-specific installation on the Swartz Family Farm in 2009, opened the door for bigger public arts installations and exhibits. In 2009, http://sheddinglightamherst.blogspot.com/  I produced & curated Pioneer Women which travelled from the Pioneer Valley to Tabla Rasa Gallery in New York City. City. http://www.tablarasagallery.com/html/pioneer_women.html
The following year looking to include the talented men in the valley and New York City artists I created Pioneer Women & Wonderland taking over a former warehouse at Paper City Studios in Holyoke, MA.

Mo Gareau Ringey, Detail from Mosaic  Frig

http://papercitystudios.wordpress.com/pioneer-women/

This was a warm-up for the Fall's big event, the first Amherst Biennial: Art in Expected and Unexpected Places.  <www.amherstbiennial.com>  in 2010 which had fourteen sites ranging from storefronts, a decommissioned school, galleries and art in expected and unexpected places. This first Biennial brought "Art in the Park", Matt Johnson's welded sculpture The Portal to Kendrick Park, Amherst. This has been a dream of mine for years, to bring public art in Amherst's parks. (more on this later)

My goals for the second Amherst Biennial was to have all three colleges in Amherst participate, assemble more prestigious sites and continue promoting the quality of artwork created in the Pioneer Valley. This time around, we indeed had all three colleges (Amherst College, Hampshire College & UMASS) participating as well as the Directors/ Curators of the Mead Art Museum, Elizabeth Barker & Loretta Yarlow, University Museum of Contemporary Art as my co-curators. We also had five museums and four galleries for more than 20 sites this time around. This was done on a shoes-string budget and a small crew of volunteers. As some of you may know, who have produced huge productions such as this, it takes over your life and can take a toll on many areas of our lives. So I'm stepping back from these huge art productions for the time being to reassess my work and life and see how I can move forward.

Terry Rooney, Liberty with Snake Tatoo, 2013 (detail)

Presently, I'm looking a various options for future exhibitions for my work as well as possibly expanding this Biennial to include all of Western MA. especially the Berkshires. You can check for updates at this site in the future for further developments. <www.wemabiennial.com> . Also I will continue to list the accomplishments of the Amherst Biennial artists as time allows on this site. www.amherstbiennial.com  So stay tuned to see what's the next chapter is... in my brilliant career!

Chesterwood - Contemporary Sculpture

The Housatonic, Rick Brown & Laura Brown at Chesterwood

While exploring the local arts scene in the Berkshires this Summer, I was pleasantly surprised to see two wonderful site specific sculptures at Chesterwood, summer estate of sculptor, Daniel Chester French who created the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.. Besides providing tours of this lovely estate and studio of French's, it also hosts contemporary sculptures all over the landscape and woodland trails. The first sculpture which caught my attention was created by a husband and wife team, Rick & Laura Brown. This dynamic duo ask Chesterwood to take down a dead pine tree, which they created this impressive sculpture on site within a week. They utilized the remains of the trunk and top of this tree as bookends to this "fanned" slices in the middle of the tree. Wow, this blew this away.

There were some other interesting sculptures down the woodland path at this sculpture park and the one that caught my eye was this parade of small painted flags by two artists, whose name escapes me at this moment that were like the flags that mark where utilities wires are but to me they were a miniature parade of munchkins in the woods. It was a delightful splash of color in the earth-tones of the forest floor.


These artworks gives me ideas for future Biennials.......WEMA Biennial  '15

Save Art in the Park = Celebration Event Portal, Kendrick Park, Amherst 6/30/13 @2PM

Matt Evald Johnson's Portal sculpture forged from worn-down snow plow blades in Kendrick Park, Amherst

Thought I could exit quietly as Chair of the Amherst Public Arts Commission, but it seems my committee had other ideas. Public Arts Commission would like to bring attention to the work I've done over the last 9 years and invite everyone to join us in June,to Kendrick Park at the sculpture, which was installed the first Amherst Biennial '10. So come join us, rain or shine (tents will be provided). Bring your frisbee's (Ultimate Frisbee started here didn't it?), we will provide lemonade and cookies. Come celebrate the Art in the Park, my work and this wonderful diverse community. Help us reach our goal and support the arts programs of the Public Arts Commission. Meet you at Matt's sculpture in Kendrick Park, Amherst (across from Bertucci's -  Sunday, June 30 @ 2PM.  See you there.                                                                                                         

All my best,
Terry Rooney 

                                                                                                                 

OZ Totem - Not TOTO this time

In my first exhibit of OZ, I wanted to present this wonderland of OZ from a different perspective. The original artworks were from paintings from the knees down! I then realized, that this perspective was from Toto's point of view!!!

Presently revisiting this body of work, I've been experimenting with the different elements of this series, playing with them as if they were building blocks. The most successful of this experimentation is this new OZ totem, which combines a child's mannequin with the yellow brick road leading to OZ painted on it, sitting on a cube showing different parts of Dorothy's life. Tthis makes external our journey through life onto a body and on a building block.

Below is link to an article on the first OZ exhibit at Nash Gallery, Easthampton, MA

  http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=7772

OZ & The Ruby Slippers

As I journey down the yellow brick road, exploring the tales of Frank Baum's OZ, I discovered that in fact the "ruby slippers" were silver in his original tale. When MGM released their film version of this story in Technicolor, they changed Dorothy's slippers to ruby for greater visual impact. In the studio, I've been moving the various components of my OZ pieces around and coming up with some surprising pieces. To the right I've combined a small section of Dorothy at the crossroads,  which is the small painting with the X with the mannequin piece with the yellow brick road, which used to have the ruby slippers pictured above. Journey Down the Yellow Brick Road, the hands beckoned viewers to journey down the road with me.

Liberty & The Snake

For over 10 years the Statue of Liberty has been confronted by the Snake in my artwork. Liberty is my muse and the snake represents many things, evil or transformation.. This is a detail of a 3D painting I've been reworking this week in the studio. A friend commented after viewing this piece "She (the Statue of Liberty) looks protective and almost most hopeful, or pleading for hope." Hmm, I like that and also the fluidity in this piece. After focusing on printmaking for 3 years and running two Biennials, I'm enjoying the solitude of working in my own studio and doing what I love best... painting.