"Bird Food"
Alan Singer, July 2018
Transfer monotype on paper
From Rochester, New York, to Ithaca, to Poughkeepsie, to Brooklyn and back...what I do for my living is an art - and it takes a lot of work! I just left Rochester on this hot day in July feeling good about a new print that I pulled in my studio that I call "Bird Food". The really funny thing about the print is not the subject matter, but the fact that the image is derived from a mathematical function. I have been working on developing my prints for years now based on forms of geometry and so I feel excited about going in this new direction especially since the genesis of these images is so unique in art. This month's Scientific American has an article about art and mathematics and is worth reading. I think eventually people are going to want to know more about this endeavor.
In a park outside of Rochester Contemporary Art Center
July, 2018
We go on the road for a few days, and before that I visit the Rochester Contemporary Art Center to see the Kalpa Tree being built in the park next to the Art Center building. The Kalpa Tree is the brainchild of artist Alexander Green and a San Francisco design studio called Symmetry Labs. The Kalpa Tree is actually a sculpture that will illuminate based on an interactive interface that will result in a broadcast of colors and patterns in the park the likes of which we have never seen before, so this is truly a wonder to behold as it is now being built from the ground up.
Nancy Ridenour at CAP Artspace on the Ithaca Commons
I have to deliver some of my artwork downstate, so we stop for a while in Ithaca, and I hop over to see two exhibits going on right now. "Wing Beats" is a two person show at CAP Artspace on the Commons and I have been going over there to see shows for a while now. This particular show is all about birds and I knew the photos of one of the artists ( seen above ), Nancy Ridenour - having just spotted her work in the State of the Art Gallery down State Street. Paula Bensadoun is the other artist in this show and her works are mainly drawings including one below of Roseatte Spoonbills that you see below. The photos are often printed on canvas or stretched around a frame, while the drawings are often in pastel, and are a bit more romantic.
Paula Bensadoun at CAP Artspace
Only a few steps away is the Ink Shop, and this month they have a new show of a variety of printmaking artists all associated with a press in France. I was told that this is an exchange show, and so the French artists were new to me and I enjoyed seeing their prints for the first time. Fabienne Veverka is staying here in the U.S. and was the Director of the Atelier de Gravure de la Villedieu. She brought with her a selection of fine prints for this present exhibition. Fabienne also has her own work on view and I found a wonderful print she made that is all about color and gradations from one to the next - and it is very enigmatic. Other images presented are more traditional, and I gather that the Atelier offers a wide variety of printmaking methods including those that are experimental.
Fabienne Veverka
at Ink Shop
Ithaca, New York
Michelle Urbany
Atelier de Gravure de la Villedieu
Ithaca is undergoing a building spree, especially in the downtown area around the commons. New hotels, and new stores, when you walk downtown you can't help but notice - Ithaca is booming. I wonder how this is going to shape the visual arts scene going forward...?
Sculpture on the Ithaca Commons
Buildings going up in Ithaca, New York
