Syracuse Ceramic Guild exhibition

A collective display of members’ works at Delavan Art Gallery by the Syracuse Ceramic Guild is part of the organization’s mission to promote awareness and understanding of the ceramic medium, and also ties in with the gallery’s goal to feature and celebrate local artists.

The Syracuse Ceramic Guild installation, featuring pieces by nine of its member artists, opened in the gallery’s Wild Card space on Thursday, December 3 and remains up through Thursday, December 19. Please visit the City Eagle online for an article about the exhibition:
City Eagle Article

Brief introductions to each of the member artists celebrated in this show follow:

Carol Adamec, recently retired art teacher at Westhill High School, Syracuse, NY, is a native of Long Island who “fell in love with clay” when she was 10 years old and ever since, has ‘found clay and metal sculpture to be significant means’ of expression in her life. She says, “I work to express the reality of positive emotions we feel in our daily lives, translating them into a physical state and bringing them to peoples’ attention with beauty and elegance.” Indeed, Adamec’s works are described as “graceful, elegant and sensual.”

Lory Black also tells of her early “love affair with clay” and how it becomes “expressions of emotion,” pieces of inner feelings of “love, happiness, joy, sadness or beauties of nature.” Black’s experience in teaching kindergarten in the inner city instilled in her the wonderment and magic of the medium, referring to students’ creations as filled with the freedom and imagination of their uninhibited expression.

Walt Black, Lory’s husband, says he ‘came rather late to the art form,’ and describes his works as ‘strong,’ influenced by his years of physical activities and professional career as teacher, coach and administrator of Physical Education and Athletics. He adds, however, that he has always been interested in the relationship between ‘art and sport.’ Black enjoys the stimulation of creating a functional piece of pottery. He and his wife now have a studio in their home and one at their camp in the foothills of the Adirondacks where, he says, “we can produce ceramics inspired by the woods and Kayuta Lake.”

Sue Canizares likens her surface decorating on stoneware and porcelain to ‘embroidery’ saying the technique called “Sgraffito” design is finished using clay as thread and fire as loom. Having lived for a time in the rich historical region of Burgundy, France, Canizares says she draws inspiration from the culture of the medieval period, viewing ancient tapestries both as a window to the past and as a resource for creation of the stylized flowers, vines, leaves and animals that adorn her three-dimensional pieces.

Megan Conner, ceramics teacher at Jamesville-DeWitt High School, says her work is strongly influenced by the colors, patterns and textures she sees in the natural world. To her, the veins of a leaf or the texture of eroded stone represent growth and the passage of time and she refers to those ideas for expression in the carved and stamped surfaces of her pottery and textural compositions of her tiles. Conner’s current theme of work focuses on landscape and its connection “between our physical and emotional landscapes.” She describes her works as “hand built textural wall tiles using slips and stains on layered slabs of clay.”

Miyo Hirano says her wheel-thrown and altered stoneware reflects her Japanese heritage and adds that she is grateful to all those who helped in her journey from when, as a child in Japan, she first experienced the joy of rolling a small clay ball in her cupped palms, to venturing down a potter’s path and ultimately opening her own shop called, “Pleasing Pottery.” Hirano says that “working in clay is a continuum of mystery” and understands that her joy arises in connecting with elements of earth, water, fire and cosmic presences beyond ideas and forming techniques. Compelled to work through her inner self, Hirano says that she applies the concept of “sitting with a beginner’s mind.”

Amy Komar, having worked in a variety of expressive arts mediums from visual arts to performance, finds that the single uniting focus has always been ‘story’ and says her work evolves from a fascination with the personal narrative. She adds, “I draw heavily upon cross-cultural stories, favoring ‘trickster’ tales that explore, teach, cross and push boundaries to walk one’s own path. My visual representation of the trickster has become my personal signature.” Komar loves the direct contact with clay and the freedom of expression that it provides. She says, “As well as incorporating poetry, I can invent a language not limited by words that expands to include form, texture and color.”

Sabrina Nedell, who grew up in the Adirondack region, calls her hand built work ‘whimsical at times’ and says she is influenced by nature. Having been awarded three NYSCA grants, Nedell adds, “I have been seriously playing with and teaching clay for the past 13 years.” Before moving here and teaching classes in her home, she taught at the Old forge Art Center and did all after school art programming for the Camden NY school district. Of her Creamer and Sugar pieces, Nedell says the swirls remind her of seashells or gusts of wind, and the ‘squiggly’ atop the bowl, a whimsical hat..or maybe a croissant.

Wes Weiss, newly retired from the US Postal Service, is forging ahead with his art that first captured his interest much earlier when a student both at SUNY Oswego and later at Syracuse University. He currently works out of a studio at Clayscapes Pottery in Syracuse and hand builds pieces using slab construction methods. Weiss says he enjoys creating curved pieces from leather-hard clay and is currently working with heavy doses of colorants wedged into different clay bodies.

Critique of "Drawing in Air" by Bonnie Rosenberg

“Drawing in Air” heightens viewer understanding

Bonnie Rosenberg

December 2009

All too often surveyors of art are left to their own devices to decipher the meaning behind paintings, sculptures, installations, or posters. The task can seem insurmountable. But, on rare occasions, artists will take the viewers by the proverbial hand and guide them through their artistic creations

The Delavan Art Gallery’s latest Wild Card exhibit, “Drawing in Air,” explores the work of local artist Andy Schuster. Running concurrently with an exhibition of his sculptures at Lipe Art Park, the show displays the sketches and models that led up to this latest installation as well as some of his ceramic pieces.

For each sculptural model on display there is a bevy of accompanying sketches that flesh out the effects of changing sunlight and the impact of applied color on each monument. With his “Ellipse” series, the projected light of day lends each sketch different weight. Casting shadows change with the moving sun.

In “Red Square,” strategically placed sections of red paint come together to reveal a somewhat hidden, yet cohesive crimson geometric shape.

Each drawing includes flicks of colored ink and pen that suggest the intended color palette. The wisps of ink are hurried and brief, but lend an overall understanding of what the artist envisions in the end.

Text also aids the viewer in grasping Schuster’s grander artistic schema. In “Flapping Wings,” his script reads:

Flight

-birds wings flapping

-allow grass to grow and become part of sculpture

-contrast w/ bldg. windows

These sculptures, and the studies leading up to them, are experiments in shape, perception, and the effects of environment on art. With time, the saplings that constitute these works will blend into their surroundings. Snow and grass will become integral elements in all of the works.

Material is the chief difference between these pieces and that of other sculptors. “Spiral galaxy with grid” takes a page from Richard Serra’s book with its winding design. Though unlike Serra’s large, imposing sheets of manipulated metal, Schuster’s work is fragile and impermanent.

Next to the art itself is a video display of the sculptures as they appear in Lipe Art Park. This display adds to the exhibit’s emphasis on multi-media art production.

Interspersed throughout the studies and models are samplings of Schuster’s ceramics. Fired from the same series, these plates feature primal geometric shapes that float on top of an undulating, rippled surface.

A patina-tinted line cuts through the center of the plate in “Drawing, 9 Triangles.” This disruption adds visual interest and a welcome break from the rigidity of the many painted shapes.

“Drawing in Air” guides you to a certain point. It reveals everything up until the moment of artistic actualization. The next logical step for the viewer is to go out to the Lipe Art Park itself and see the installations in their literal natural habitat. Go, walk under the saplings, watch the shifting shadows, and bring along your newfound understanding of the artist’s intent.

Drawing in Air

Delavan Art Gallery's newest Wild Card exhibition, Drawing in Air featuring work by Andy Schuster, opened this week with a reception on Thursday, November 19.  For this exhibition, Lipe Art Park’s large scale outdoor installation is moving indoors as its designer, Andy Schuster presents renderings of his drawings and planning models for a special exhibit across the way in Delavan Art Gallery. The show remains up through November 28.

Central to his work, Schuster says, is drawing. “I draw on paper, on ceramic surfaces using fire and glaze or in space with steel.” The exhibit at the Delavan will consist of drawings and planning models for the concurrent installation at the park, along with recent ceramic works.

Schuster says, “The drawings, visualizations of the stick sculptures at Lipe, are executed on white ground suggesting snow-covered landscapes, and indicating how the finished installation evolves with seasonal environmental changes throughout the year.” Of his ceramic pieces, Schuster says, “The ceramic work is drawn on clay using glaze and controlled flame patterns produced by a high temperature wood fired kiln, producing loose geometric interventions on the clay’s surface.”

In a recent artist’s statement, Schuster offers insight into a new series of large-scale sculptures he is currently working on that incorporate natural elements, creating pieces that are both interactive with viewer and their surroundings. “The creation of this series of work,” he says, “combines my interests both in sculpture and in natural cycles, and will entail more of an imposing scale than anything I’ve previously attempted.”

Currently On View: Elements

Just a reminder to stop by Delavan Art Gallery before December 19 to see our feature exhibition, Elements, with work by Lynette Blake, Amy Haven, and Jim Van Hoven. While the three artists each enjoy dual art careers and endeavors, all of them offer strong, insightful statements about their work as painters and potter.

Lynette Blake, well-recognized in the Rochester, NY region where she has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, has this to say of her richly colored pieces: “In my paintings, I strive to convey a sense of the infinite which exists in the everyday, but is veiled to our conventional senses. I believe that everything within the universe is comprised of the same elements, of the same energy, and if we are open to it, we can perceive and experience the universe through every object, every form of life and equally through every landscape and every event.” She continues, “My current work is an effort to integrate three facets which jointly help us to experience this sense of the infinite: first, that which we call real, the world experienced through our senses, captured by the depiction of objects; secondly, that which is commonly included in the concept of intellectual, expressed by the use of geometric shapes and patterns; and finally, connecting and embracing the first two, the cosmic, expressing that which we can intuit as though things were unbounded by space and time.”

Painter Jim Van Hoven also references the senses and touches on the infinite when describing his approach to his work, saying that in doing a pure landscape piece, “I strive to capture the experience of being immersed in the primeval environment,” adding, “this not only includes the visual experience, but also the sounds, smells and even the temperature of my surroundings. Sometimes there are signs of civilization that are subservient to the landscape. These are usually vestiges of a time gone by that reinforce the transient nature of human existence.” Van Hoven says that his work “is an extension of his personal connection to nature, a combination of observation and memory,” and that he “hopes that the viewer can relate their own experience to my art and gain access to a place they may never have been.” The artist feels that the use of various media, such as oils, watercolors, etchings and pastels, provides him with more “languages to speak in,” and he says that the rural backdrop and areas surrounding his West Monroe, NY “Settlement Studio” provide much of his inspirations for his art.

Amy Haven uses her art to “understand the world through making and using functional objects.” She says, “Clay gives me a connection to cultural pasts and provides me an affinity with my contemporaries. I believe that beauty can be found in the simplest forms, and to me, there is no simpler form than a pot.’ Haven applies the term ‘infinite’ to its possibilities of surface, form and function. She compares the action of opening a kiln to “opening presents under the tree on Christmas morning –You never know what to expect and if you’re lucky you will unwrap a treasure.” In her more recent work, Haven has been exploring the use of text on the surfaces of her pieces, because she explains, “I have been discovering how words can be both functional and decorative, much like any artwork. It is amazing how what we say often defines us and yet the use of intelligent verse is becoming more and more obsolete these days.” Haven, a studio potter and tile maker in Central New York for ten years, was formerly an artist in residence at the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, CA and the Watershed Art Center in Edgecomb, MA.

Keep reading the blog for a review of Elements by Bonnie Rosenberg!

In Case You Missed It: TLS Exhibition

Delavan Art Gallery’s Wild Card Exhibit The Art of Transitional Living Services, which was on view through November 14, celebrated 35 years of services to the Central New York community by TLS, a long-time active organization that provides a broad range of supports and services to individuals living with a developmental disability, mental health issues or brain injury.

The celebratory purpose of the exhibit extended the organization’s focus in helping people live in the community with dignity, responsibility and hope. David Barber, TLS Program and Service Coordinator, says, “An important part of TLS’s philosophy has always been to provide individuals with opportunities to explore their creativity and potential, and we believe that the creative process of art making enriches, heals and enlightens the life of the artist and the viewer as well.”

Transitional Living Services began in 1974 with twenty staff members committed to helping individuals who were being de-institutionalized from state facilities to live in the community. Today, a staff of professionals offer many hundreds of people not only residential services, but also support for employment, education, medical and substance abuse issues, community involvement, habilitation activities and service coordination. The organization’s vision of service encompasses the needs of veterans, immigrants who do not speak English, those with hearing impairments, and other individuals challenged in different ways.

Independent Review: Elements and Transitional Living Services exhibitions

Delavan looks to the elements for its November Show
-Bonnie Rosenberg

Earth, wind, fire, and water are the substances of life and the soul of the Delavan Art Gallery’s latest exhibition aptly entitled “Elements.” Though vastly different aesthetically, three artists – Lynette Blake, Jim Van Hoven, and Amy Haven – come together in this show to communicate their views of nature. The paintings, ceramics, and woodcuts on display reveal the indelible mark nature leaves on each artist and their work.

Lynette Blake explores the infinite through her oil paintings in an effort to connect herself to the viewer, the viewers to one another, and the in the end, everything in the atmosphere.

Blake’s approach to still lifes and landscapes is double-edged, as she melds organic and geometric shapes on the canvas. In Zigzag, tree branches are superimposed with transparent, kaleidoscopic shapes. The paintings appear to have a distorting piece of glass sitting in between the foundational natural image and the viewer’s gaze.

Each painting is covered in hues of blue and copper. When dominated by shades of copper, the canvases nearly glow with warmth, while the bluer canvases are cooler and more somber.

Positive/Negative looks like an over-exposed photograph. Branches and still life elements dissolve into one another. The radiance of suggested sunlight at the heart of the work abstracts and transforms it. Blake’s highly stylized technique is an exploration in unreality and the duality of the image.

Fellow nature enthusiast Jim Van Hoven’s many incantations of landscapes run the gamut in terms of style, technique, and medium. In all of his works, Van Hoven endeavors to relate an experience rather than a likeness. His aim is to truly capture every aspect of the scenes he paints/etches, etc.

His oil works provide placid vistas of the outdoors. In Rainbow Falls a cascading waterfall rushes to the waiting rocks below. Grays, blues, and forest greens constitute this innocuous painting. Beyond paintings, the exhibit also displays Van Hoven’s woodcuts, which sit on a plane above his other works. In Northern Nocturne, intricately cut treetops weave together in front of an invented moonlit night. Less literal and more editorial, these woodcuts alter nature and defy expectation.

Peppered throughout the exhibit are Amy Haven’s ceramic pieces. Not strictly sculpture-in-the-round, and certainly not paintings (although some are fastened to the walls), these works admittedly teeter on the precipice of decoration and function. While the precise setting for them is unclear, the appeal of them is not.

Haven’s ceramic pillows affix to the wall and are ornamented much like a turn of the century travel trunk. Post cards, stickers, stamps, and text are printed on every rotund rectangle as if chronicling a trip abroad. An avian theme flutters throughout the works as does adage-bearing script. Text is applied with a heavier hand in Font Vase, where disassembled letters float on a neutral ceramic background.


Transitional Living Services exhibition

Exterior of the main Elements exhibit is the gallery’s ever-changing Wild Card show. Running until November 14th is the celebratory The Art of the Traditional Living Services. Traditional Living Services (TLS) is an organization that provides services and support to people with developmental disabilities, mental health issues, and brain injuries. It encourages its clients’ creativity while acclimating them to everyday life. The fruit of their artistic labor is what is currently on view.

With some items up for sale and others not, the exhibit offers a diverse collection of works in various forms of media. Graphite drawings, stained glass panels, watercolor paintings, and photographs are just some of the artworks produced not only by residents of TLS, but also by employees and others connected with the organization (which happens to be celebrating its 35 year anniversary).

Elizabeth Edinger’s Family Portrait appears as though it’s been ripped from the cover of a cherished childhood book. The illustration is bright, whimsical, and reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.

This show recognizes the artistic capabilities of those who would not otherwise have the opportunity to showcase their art. It highlights the greater philanthropic project of TLS, while at the same time challenging preconceived notions of what constitutes art and who is an artist.

Delavan Art Gallery's Favorite Trickster

Last weekend's Halloween Party at Delavan Art Gallery embodied all the treats promised, but one sole trickster managed to get his 'licks' in at the end of the evening.

Monty, Caroline's black lab/golden retriever mix and stalwart member of the office staff, chewed his way through two foil-wrapped packages, one containing a large piece of Halloween decorated cake and the other, several deliciously baked Italian cookies...all 'carefully put away' to give to the garage attendant on duty in a DAG staffer's condo complex. Moreover, the 'carefully put away' description and Monty's access to these treats defies logical thinking: Those two wrapped items were stored in the hollow of a collapsible witch's hat that was then placed in a plastic shopping bag, resting in the middle of the staffer's office desk. When Monty's deed was discovered, the plastic bag was found partially under the desk alongside the hat, and the shredded foil wrap scattered about. The upshot of the whole incident is twofold: Monty has wonderfully hygienic eating habits, for there was no trace of gooey cake frosting in the hat nor crumbs on the floor. Secondly, when returning home and into her parking garage, this staffer was able to expand on that old adage: "the dog ate my homework" saying instead to the person intended for the treats: "The dog ate your cake and cookies!"

**This shall remain anonymous so as not to alert the reader to the identity of the staffer whose practice it is to carry away refreshment left-overs with which to ply the parking attendent to get her a good space in the garage.