Introducing "OUR NATURE" to the Rochester community.
A wonderful show with art & design from the Singer family:
Arthur and Judy, Paul & Alan
This winter I have been working on the presentation and curation of a major exhibition and if you are in the area, please come out to see what we have done. In the Mascioli Gallery at The Rundel Library located on 115 South Avenue in downtown Rochester, New York, we have a far ranging show filled with art and design that I think is unique.
My father and mother were both working artists, and they also had their artwork published in books over many years. In this exhibition my brother Paul, who is a graphic designer, contributes a timeline that will help orient the viewer to the chronology of when important steps in their careers occurred.
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Timeline helps orient the gallery-goer in the Mascioli Gallery
We call this show "OUR NATURE" because it says something about the family dynamic and also about our interests in portraying many aspects of our natural surroundings. My father, born in 1917 got started early, because he loved to draw the birds and animals that he saw when he visited The Bronx Zoo. My father grew up in Washington Heights - on Audubon Avenue in Manhattan! Later he met my mom in college at The Cooper Union and they married before the war years in the early 1940s.
The Ghost Army was a battalion dedicated to deception in World War ll
Of my father, Arthur Singer, it could be said that because of his creative abilities as an artist, it saved his life! During World War ll my father was drafted and served his country in Europe as part of the now famous "Ghost Army". This battalion was top secret during the war, and they practiced deception on the battlefields.
At the opening of our show in the Mascioli Gallery, our guest speaker, Rick Beyer, spoke about what the Ghost Army did, and how they performed their magic.
Rick Beyer, author and documentary film maker
for "the Ghost Army" of World War ll
Once the war had ended, my father and mother got down to raising a family, and we grew up on Long Island. My father and mother embarked on their careers - my father was in advertising during the day and worked on his paintings and illustrations at night. My mom was a painter, and textile artist, and she was the one to make the meals and do the gardening - which later became her passion.
In the exhibition "OUR NATURE". we focus in on the books that the family has produced. Early on in the 1950s, my dad had a contract with Golden Books, and he produced over many years a dozen guide books and big picture books like his "Birds of the World".
Arthur Singer's early published work included his "Birds of the World"
My brother Paul Singer, and I watched our parents work and we tried doing art ourselves, learning to be patient and seeing the results. The medium matters, as we found that color pencils could do a lot, and that paints and brushes needed discipline!
My mom worked with anthropologist Sonia Bleeker on her books about native peoples and below is a cover of a book published in the mid-1960s.
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My mom's given name was Edith, but the family called her Judy!
My brother and I also produced books after we graduated from college. My brother is the graphic design person who worked on our poster for this show, and also the great timeline which you will see, leads a viewer through the family history from early in the 20th century to the present. My brother, Paul, also as a designer worked on numerous guide books and also wrote about my father in his biography of Arthur Singer, a Master of Wildlife Art, published by RIT Press.
So, we invite you to come and see our show in Rochester, and you will learn much more about the artwork we made, and the impact we have had on our community, and I may even plan to do a guided tour through the show! Here is a link to my website where we have a video that takes you through part of the show, so enjoy!If you would like to get a better idea of what our exhibition is about, I attach a link for a short video walk-through, and also the talk that Rick Beyer gave at our opening.
