Father's Day 2015

Arthur Singer

a 25 year old artist

in the "Ghost Army" during WWll

Let's all get together to think about Father's Day, even if your father is away - or maybe like me, he passed away 25 years ago.  Of course every person is unique and we celebrate them for their individuality, but we also look for relationships.  In regard to my father, Arthur Singer - this means that I look a bit like him, and my relationship was complex and we also worked together as I got older.

Paul and Alan Singer circa 1953

I always admired the artwork my father made, since he had a studio at home - when I was little I would watch him work on his art - how did he do all that!  Now in 2015, my brother Paul, and I are working on a book about my father, and this calls up all sorts of memories.  Then we both have an archive of materials, including letters and reviews to consider, as well as hundreds of pieces of art that still remain in the family.

My mother and father were both artists who met when they went to college in New York City at The Cooper Union.  They were able to go to college in the 1930's because Cooper charged no tuition then and only a few students were admitted each year.  They graduated in a class of men and women who went on to become influential artists and designers.  These folks were like our extended family.  Then World War ll intervened and my father joined with other artists like Bill Blass and Ellsworth Kelly, as part of the "Ghost Army", a secret operation of deception along the German front.

Sports Illustrated cover art from 1955

by Arthur Singer

After the War, one of the designers my father graduated with was Jerome Snyder ( who later wrote "The Underground Gourmet" with Milton Glaser ) - and Jerome worked for Sports Illustrated as an art director.  Jerome gave my father a plum assignment - the cover art for an issue of SI that would celebrate the birds of the United States, and this would acknowledge a new interest in bird identification and also be of interest to the hunters who bought the magazine.

So, as a youngster I watched my dad create the art that then graced the cover of this magazine and then so much changed after that experience in 1955.  My father began to earn his living as a working artist and developed his lifelong interest in wildlife illustration.  I was also able to learn a lot watching his method of working and witness the progress he made in his career.  And he was instrumental in helping me establish my direction.  Some children rebel and do exactly the opposite of what their parents do but in my case I loved what my parents did, and I wanted to do that ( art ) too....

State Birds and State Flowers stamps from 1982

by Arthur and Alan Singer

Fast Forward thirty years and I struggled as a young artist in New York City, with some years being good financially and others sort of blah.  What saved me was working on jobs with my father - he put me to work painting backgrounds for many of his images.  In the 1980's we went to work for the U.S.Postal Service designing and illustrating a best selling series of stamps that made many millions of dollars for the government.

Our last major project was a book published by Lodestar called "State Birds" and we put a lifetime of love and dedication to nature as a subject into the pages of that book.  It was one of those very rewarding experiences that can change a life.  It certainly did for me.  Thanks, Dad!

Painting for "State Birds" Lodestar Books, 1986

by 

Arthur and Alan Singer

Namaste

Namaste at Ock Hee's Gallery, Honeoye Falls, New York

Flower portraits by Mary Buchan

I went over to see the art on view at Ock Hee's Gallery in Honeoye Falls the other day.  This was the last day that the show "Namaste" hung on the walls and this group show had a bit of melancholy to it - this gallery will soon be history.  Ock Hee has decided that she wants to devote all of her time to her passion which is gardening.

Elyse Capell

In the meantime there are a few more shows slated for this year, and later this summer I will show a few new things there as well.  This present show ( "Namaste" ) has a group of ten women, many of them involved in the visual arts for years.  I paid attention to the flower portraits by Mary Buchan, and since I try to do this myself from time to time, I enjoyed seeing how Mary rose to the challenge!

There are some interesting paintings by Elyse Capell that have real resonance, especially if you like visiting some of the quiet ( but substantial ) streams and rocky places on your nature walks.  The rise in interest in plein air painting is just incredible.  There must be clubs that have formed all over the country - for the sole purpose of going outdoors to paint on any given weekend.  It has become a social sport.  I like working outdoors myself, but I like the solitude of finding the right time and place for my painting affairs..

Kurt Feuerherm at Warren Phillips Frame and Fine Art

at the Hungerford Building, Rochester, NY

1115 East Main Street

Back in Rochester, there is a new exhibition of paintings and prints by Kurt and Judy Feuerherm at Warren Phillips place.  My studio is just upstairs, so I don't have far to go to see this new work.  I had the opportunity to show something alongside Kurt in last year's show "Bird is the Word" at Ock Hee's Gallery, but in this present venue Kurt has only one of his little bird sculptures, but it is charming.

Surprisingly, this new exhibition is all about the city, and more to the point it is about space and architecture.

Judy Feuerherm in the new "Two For The Show"

There are prints and paintings and collage from both of these artists that engage you and get you to see things from a new perspective.  Judy Feuerherm has strength in her abstractions which are very tactile and they feature minimal descriptive elements that are mostly linear, but create tensions due to their angular disposition on the surface of her paintings.

Kurt Feuerherm

Summertime,Summertime, Some Sun, Summertime

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York

Ithaca, New York is more than just Cornell University, the gorges and Lake Cayuga; in fact, it is the people I have met there which mean the most to me.  Yes, I met my wife, Anna there, and so many good friends over the years.  I still see teachers I have had, and this time I also found a small retrospective of the art of Hans Peter Kahn installed on the hallway walls on my way up to the Ink Shop at 330 East MLK / State Street.

Relief print by H. Peter Kahn ( 1921-1997 )

In New York City, at The Cooper Union, I had studied with Wolf Kahn, so when I was accepted at Cornell University for graduate school, I sought out H. Peter Kahn - Wolf's brother.  Peter Kahn became my advisor, and we spent hours in conversation, and I learned how he had studied with Hans Hofmann, and I also got a chance to see his artwork underway.  Now you can see some of it including relief prints, paintings, and drawings, many of which are based on landscape imagery that Peter favored.  Peter was not just an able art historian, but a practitioner too.  He was on the faculty at Cornell for almost thirty years.

The Ink Shop Annual Member Exhibition

"Cloud Dance, Red" print by Kumi Korf

Up the stairs at the Ink Shop, they were holding their annual Member Exhibition so we took some time to look over the prints from Kumi Korf, Christa Wolf and Pamela Drix.  Jenny Pope has a marvelous manic image called: "Plan B, Mirrors in space" featuring penguins and spinning geometry which seems to evoke cosmic storms and sheer energy.  Christa Wolf has delicate water-based monotypes that shimmer and hint of dreams in a land that she titles: "Night Shade".  Kumi Korf has a brash red print that reminds me of a cross between Matisse and Hans Arp, because it's so design oriented and self-confident.

Cornell University campus from the upper floors of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum

Take in the view of Cornell University from The Herbert F.Johnson Museum and then work your way around their Asian collections and on down into Western art on the lower floors.  Looking at Asian art, I came across wonderful sculpture from Pakistan and decorated ceramics from China.  Every time I visit I like to come up here and challenge my knowledge of the Far East - and there are always some surprises and much to learn.

Triple Gourd Shape Vase

18th century Chinese

There was a fine six fold screen of the Rimpa School that features painted fans, and very recent Japanese ceramics that stretch the definition of what ceramics can do.  

On lower floors I found some familiar names in sculpture like Lee Bontecou and Sol Lewitt

( see the photo at the top of this post ) and a very powerful painting by Milton Avery.

Milton Avery

Also there is a mini-retrospective of Jack Squier who was teaching in the Sculpture area when I was a student at Cornell.  The main show on the bottom floor is devoted to protest artwork in a show that I feel could be expanded.  The exhibition is called "Aesthetics of Dissent and Disgust" and it has strong images like the one below - that has blood on its hands.

"Aesthetics of Dissent and Disgust"

In this exhibition there was one of the paintings of "Big Daddy" by May Stevens who also was one of the teachers at Cornell while I studied there.  May Stevens was involved with anti-war protests, and also developed her imagery at a time when feminism was finding its footing in Ithaca, and elsewhere.

May Stevens "Big Daddy" 1973

We were witness to the protests against the war in Vietnam; there were still struggles for equal rights, and the era of Richard M. Nixon was coming to a close.  America as well as other countries had issues to deal with, to come to terms with, and people were upset and were not going to take it anymore.  And during this summer of 2015, there are loud echoes of the past that bring out the protesters and set up the dramas to be acted out.  Power to the People!  

Different Degrees of Life

Rochester Contemporary Art Center

137 East Avenue

Rochester, New York

6x6x2015

I was looking at a six inch by six inch assemblage that included two burnt out candles on top of a thermostat in this most recent edition of RoCo's famous fundraiser: 6x6x2015.  I said to a visitor standing next to me, " I thought these pieces of art all had to be anonymous - but this one is signed and it says Honeywell".  And he said to me, " I just like this show, there are different degrees of life and they are all here".  So, you could almost feel the gap between what I said, and what the visitor said, and in between that somehow is the work of art, and the intent of the artist.  Honeywell isn't an artist - it is a brand, and my comment was meant to be funny, and in fact for some reason, I picked up on the artworks in this show that have a sense of humor, or at the very least get you to look at the piece because it is oddly curious in some fashion.

Buy your lottery tickets: the winner gets to take George Condo home!

This year, someone painted a half eaten sandwich.  Another person painted a row boat with the middle section missing.  Some of the images are a bit risque, and some are unusual for other reasons, including the large work by George Condo ( he didn't get the memo about the six inch measurement on all sides) which will be won by lottery ticket.  In this specific case we already know the name of the artist, and we get a sense of how much this work would normally sell for ( buy those $40. lottery tickets now! ) and win the prize.

Something for everyone at RoCo's 6x6

In this new exhibition which opened June 6th ( the sixth day of the sixth month ) you can walk in and find a work of art to purchase and take with you when the show closes - and not spend more than a nice dinner might cost ( $ 20. )  RoCo sold a lot of these bargains last year, and this year is full of promise.  Some of my students made little prints for this show in my Digital Art / Printmaking class, as I wanted to give them a project which would allow them to show their artwork and support the local art scene.

Some artists submitted a series.  for example you can find portraits of all four singers in the band ( The Beatles ), you can find four sets of eyes looking out from green knitting, you can find lots of birds, and a variety of printed, sculpted and drawn forms - all at 6 inches by 6 inches.  In this show there are wonderful photos, many geometric shapes, and little dimensional tableaux.  Go online to view the works if you can't get to Rochester, and starting June 9th, 2015 you can go online to purchase your art. Here is the link: http://www.roco6x6.org/6x6x2015_intro.php

This writer paints a watercolor

It is around this time of year that I usually want to be outdoors; the temperature has warmed up, and I like the freedom of being able to work on a painting, now that my classes are done for this session.  Here I am in my yard working on a portrait of a poppy.  These are the deepest red poppies I have ever seen, and there is just no color on my palette to match these flowers!  So, I took a break to do this watercolor, and try to get back into practice.  That old draw and paint routine is still a challenge, you have to slow it down, so I just sit there and work at it.

Given Over To Abstraction

"Given To Abstraction"

at

The Mill Art Center

61 North Main Street, Honeoye Falls, NY 14472

If you have not gone over to The Mill Art Center in Honeoye Falls, the building has a smart new outdoor patio and upstairs a new show has opened including fourteen artists whose work is anchored in abstraction.  Among the artists at the opening, I had a chance to talk with Paul Garland ( see image above ), who has had many shows and taught art - and we exchanged views about the use of digital tools in the creation of abstract art.  Abstract art has been with us way before the digital age, but the computer has opened up new avenues for the generation of all forms of abstraction.

Zerbe Sodervick

at the Mill Art Center

Abstraction can be a gesture or mood as expressed very engagingly by Zerbe Sodervick, and she will have a chance to dig deeply into this vein of art now that she has decided to retire from teaching at R.I.T.  Her work has landscape color and atmosphere but there are other traits that link her work to colorfield abstraction ( I think of a dark mood in Morris Louis ).  Hard to define, but abstraction can be more formal and hard edged.  We can see that in the paintings by Bill Keyser at the Mill Art Center - and here another factor in abstraction can be seen and felt - and that is reduction.  Pare down painting to its common denominator of color and form, then simplify it further to one or two colors and one or two shapes and then see what happens when they interact.

Karen Sardisco 

"Given To Abstraction"

When you come up the stairs at The Mill Art Center, you are taken right away by the big examples from Paula Crawford and Karen Sardisco.  Karen and Paula have been working with a large format from time to time and they provide a real challenge to hang big works on the stone walls at The Mill.

Karen's work plumbs the depths of a molecular jungle - full of primeval stuff in a mix that reminds me of early paintings by Terry Winters.  The whole area of biomorphic abstraction is present in this show in the paintings of Paula Crawford,  Belinda Bryce, and James Thomas - whose shapes look like fields of boulders.

Alan Singer and Bill Keyser

"Given To Abstraction"

In my works in this show I strike out into new territory by creating the basis of my recent art on the use of mathematical visualization tools.  My prints in this show are a hybrid, part watercolor and part pigment based ink layered on films and transferred onto paper under the pressure of my etching press.

My imagery is achieved through the use of computer programs designed to teach students geometry. Had I only known about this in my high school classes I might have done better in math.  I am making up for that now.

St. Monci  at Axom Gallery

"Universal Magnetic"

In Rochester, at the Axom Gallery, Margot Muto has welcomed the artwork of St. Monci for a stay.

Here, they have mounted a show of layered geometrical compositions along with vectors on the walls that extend the energy of the painted images.

When you look at some of the smaller paintings you see a love of design and a respect for the forms of letters.  St. Monci has studied graphic design and employs this sensibility in his compositions which can also look like architectural plans seen from a bird's-eye view.  He was recently interviewed on TV and St. Monci explained that you don't need to know what these works are supposed to mean, you can just be engaged by the colors and the implied movement.  St. Monci is a brand new dad, and he had his baby boy with him at the opening.  A charming youngster, and what a nice way to spend some time at the opening of a show, relaxed, and family friendly.

St. Monci at Axom Gallery, Rochester, New York

You Complete Me

Coming to Rochester Institute of Technology

a lecture by art critic Carol Diehl

this

Tuesday, May 12th at 5 pm

in Webb auditorium, Booth Building ( 7a )

You are all welcome to come over and hear Carol Diehl speak about Banksy, his life and his work.

Carol is coming to spend the day at Rochester Institute of Technology, to speak with students about their artwork, and to give critiques on student artwork.  Later in the day she will focus our attention on the elusive figure of Banksy, and I can't wait till that 5 p.m. when she fills me in.

Banksy Completed
After Banksy’s self-styled month-long New York “residency” in October, 2013, where he produced a work of art in one of the five boroughs each day, Carol Diehl spent several months making a serious investigation into his work. Her inquiry resulted in an as-yet-unpublished essay that she has given as a lecture at California State University/Fullerton, where a residency supported her research, as well as the Berkshire Museum (MA) and the University for the Creative Arts (U.K.). She is also featured in the HBO documentary, “Banksy Does New York” (2013).

“Arguably the world’s most famous living artist and a hero to many young people, the anonymous British street artist known as Banksy is regarded with suspicion, if not outright derision, by the established American art world,” says Diehl. Following the clues embedded in his work and writings as well as his 2011 Academy-Award nominated film, “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, Diehl continues, “I discovered that Banksy’s seemingly flippant interventions are driven by profound philosophical principles—and concluded that Banksy is one of the most important artists of our time who, among other things, challenges the culture to reconsider what art is, as well as its value and purpose.”

A Spring Trio, Then A Solo

Kristine Bouyoucos

"Interplay"

at the Geisel Gallery, Rochester, NY

The warmer weather will bring out the greenery this spring and the flowers that were planted last fall.  It will also bring out new artwork from the studios of some seasoned artists and we are all graced with their presence.  The Geisel Gallery in the old Bausch & Lomb headquarters building in downtown Rochester, N.Y. - never looked better.  The trio I speak of are the artists Kristine Bouyoucos, Barbara Fox, and Sue Huggins Leopard and each one of them has a specialty highlighted in this show.  For Sue Leopard that would be book arts, for Kristine Bouyoucos that would be printmaking, and Barbara Fox is the painter.

Barbara Fox, the Peresephone Series

at the Geisel Gallery

Barbara Fox, not to be confused with the Barbara Fox now showing at the Oxford Gallery ( see my previous post ) seems to enjoy a more improvised painting style here, in these paintings called "The Peresephone Series".  It is appropriate that the paintings reflect some of the characteristics attributed to the mythical Peresephone including some Vegetation, and elements of which shoot forth in the spring.  Barbara also repeats her name in one of the paintings, tempting the viewer to sound out the syllables. 

Sue Huggins Leopard 

at the Geisel Gallery

Book arts as practiced by Sue Huggins Leopard is as full of literary amplitude as it is of visual and tactile signs.  There are some interesting light effects ( like the white single story house with its bluish tones lit from inside ).    The folded pages of her books offer tantalizing clues as to the content of these artfully produced editions - the direction of this intimate artform is within.

Book Arts at The Geisel Gallery, Rochester, NY

Kristine Bouyoucos has been making prints based on a music theme for almost ten years, and she sometimes reproduces passages of a score and sometimes pairs it with images of the instruments for which the music was intended.  Often the composer is celebrated and the prints are a kind of visual collage or texture that weaves color and meaning in a delightful yet formal manner.

Tarrant Clements at Warren Phillips Fine Art & Frame

in the Hungerford Building, Rochester, NY

A few blocks away, I attended a solo performance for visual art by a friend whose work I have collected for a number of years.  I first came across Tarrant Clements when I attended a Monday night workshop in printmaking lead by Elizabeth K. Durand.  Tarrant was a regular at the workshop and I was attracted to her solidly colorful forms, and the witty, often unusual compositions she made which were always abstract yet seemingly full of meaning.

Paintings by Tarrant Clements

at Warren Phillips

The  compositions are often like a physical slapstick, that is- there seems to be a cause and affect happening in a painting or a sculpture by Tarrant Clements.  She has an unusual voice in her work that I relate to Alexander Calder.  She takes formal elements and gives them a specific character - you could say these are abstracts with personality.  Another artist comes to mind when I think of Tarrant's work, and that is the Expressionist painter William Baziotes.  I think Tarrant and Baziotes share an interest in a surreal manifestation of color, form and individualism as evidence by this show called "You Can't Pin Me Down"

Tarrant Clements' sculpture

in

"You Can't Pin Me Down"

If you want to have a fine art experience take yourself out for the trio and stay for the solo,

you won't regret it!