BOUNTY: A Show by the Hudson Valley 7

About once a month, I get together with 6 other artists to talk about art, motivate each other and enjoy each other's home cooking. We call ourselves the Hudson Valley 7 and we're about to have a group show at the G.A.S. gallery at 196 Main Street in Poughkeepsie. I'm going to be showing work from my new collection, Truth, Lies and Legends. The opening reception is sure to be as lively as the art. Join us June 20 from 6-9 pm.

Jennifer Axinn-Weiss is a mixed media artist who has exhibited for over 25 years. Jennifer creates textured, often figurative works, at times blurring the boundary between painting and collage. She currently employs vintage imagery of Geisha and Victorian women evoking both romance and contemplation.

Susan Hoffman, a pioneering contemporary quilt maker for over 35 years, thinks like a painter. Fabric is her palette and stitches are her pencil. Using traditional piecework and quilting techniques, she is inspired by the environment we share and the warmth quilts generate— both literally and metaphorically.

Joanne Klein creates minimalist color field paintings in which color relationships and linear planes are fundamental to the articulation of emotive content. Her work is both controlled and exuberant.

E. Elizabeth Peters is a multidisciplinary artist whose recent work explores the history of 17th century Dutch still life painting and the continuing impact of global trade and post colonialism in contemporary art and culture.

Helen Suter incorporates diverse, reused materials in her large-scale steel constructions, small objects and works on paper. Her current body of work reflects her opposition to all wars, an idea to use fabric and her confidence in communicating perceptions, feelings and concepts through purely visual means.

Elizabeth Watt is a photographer whose lush 20x24 polaroid Botanical studies are reminiscent of Dutch still life paintings. Elizabeth draws her inspiration from painting, collage, sculpture and nature. Her photographs are characterized by a painterly sensibility, classical composition and exquisite light.

Seaside in San Sebastian and Cathedral-side in Santiago de Compostela

One cool thing about traveling with a tour group is the local guide who introduces you to their city and its history. Cristina, our guide to San Sebastian was a chatty, lively woman who shared (perhaps too much) its history. Napoleon conquered the city in 1858. When the Spanish forces came to liberate them from his reign in 1863, they trashed the place and burned it to the ground. As a result, there are very few old buildings.

San Sebastian became a popular seaside resort when Queen Elizabeth visited as part of a cure for a herpes (!) condition. Her treatment included medication and a daily dip in salt water. An oxen-drawn carriage was pulled through the sea enabling the water to rise up through her skirts. At the end of her stay, the herpes was gone, she spoke of its beauty and its cure, and the place has been a hot spot for the rich and famous ever since.

Life in the Mountains of Northern Spain

Beautiful Barcelona

Thirty years ago, I went to the University of Barcelona for my junior year of college. A brief four years after Franco’s death, people were trying to rebuild the Catalan heritage that he’d tried hard to extinguish. Forbidden to speak their native language (a completely different tongue than Spanish) throughout his 40+ years in power, scholars were trying to piece together a dictionary from old-timers who could still remember it. Fancy my surprise upon landing to discover that no one wanted to speak the Spanish I’d come to learn!

Cell phones and computers didn’t exist and phone calls were prohibitively expensive so it was the first time I was really all on my own. Perhaps the best year of my life, I met all kinds of new people from all over Europe, ate (and loved) exotic food like octopus and artichokes and paella and ugly-looking mushrooms, learned to conserve water and heat and electricity and gas, and so much more.

A highlight of the year was my family’s trip to visit at Christmas. I was thrilled to show them the splendor of ancient and beautiful Barcelona. My mom was so excited to go to Spain, she’d booked their airline tickets before I’d even been accepted into the program. Thirty years later, she treated me to a three-week visit back to Spain. THANKS MOM!!!

Swimming Fish in Bilbao

Frank Gehry (nee Goldberg) blasted into international stardom with his design for the Guggenheim in Bilbao. The curved titanium shapes were inspired by memories of fish swimming in his grandmother’s bathtub at Passover. I’d heard that the building was more of an attraction than the art inside, but that was not the case when I visited. The best was a powerful collection of work by Cai Guo-Qiang. A room full of broken statues of workers and exploited Chinese during the of Mao Tse Tung's Reconstruction smacks you in the face. I’ll never forget the look on the mother’s face as she reaches for her baby that’s being taken from her by a soldier. Another piece called The Age of Disbelieving consisted of several wooden sculptures hanging at different heights. Each sculpture depicts a different religion, Christ at the top on his cross, Buddha, angels and other characters I didn’t recognize; all shot through with hundreds of arrows. Check out his work on the Guggenheim site.

Couldn't resist taking a shot of Jeff Koons' pansy-covered puppy.

A Feast for the Eyes

Miss me? Just back from three weeks touring Spain and Portugal with my Mom. What a treat! Here are some photos from the Boquería in Barcelona, a truly delicious place.