The Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts
237 Bell Road
New Berlin, NY 13411
Fastest month ever but last week it was time to travel to New Berlin NY for another open studios event at the Golden Foundation's Artist In Residence barn. Lots to see as always and this journey was a special field trip for myself and two of the artist-veterans I've had the pleasure to get to know via volunteering at the CNY Veteran's Outreach Center in downtown Utica NY. On the right is painter/printmaker Lisa Allen, on the right painter/graphics designer Mia Simiele, and at center Mark Golden with a painting Mia had made thanking Goldens Artist Colors for their generous donation from the company's Seconds program to the arts studio at the V.O.C.
The Golden family also traveled up to Utica for our shows in September during the Utica Music & Arts Fest including the "Gallery of Valor" exhibit at the Center featuring Mia and Lisa's artwork. So what comes around goes around! proud of these ladies and it was important for me to bring them along to see what there was to see.
Optimal travel conditions on the road down from Utica. Which clocked at just under 45 minutes or roughly half of the time it takes to drive down Route 20 from the Syracuse area. My brain calculates it would take just as long to drive from Syracuse to Utica to New Berlin and be somewhat less stress-inducing though I am in no hurry to try.
First stop was the Golden plant and another look at the incredible show of humongous, immense, theater-screen sized paintings by Friedel Dzubas in the SAG Gallery. And indeed I'd missed this morsel out in the hallway last time, so agog over the epic sized works in the gallery. The following image describes what it is, and why it was included.
Yeah!
Foreshortening of perspective demonstration: Their heads are at exactly the same height.
Like, you'd have a pretty badass painting just with that much right there. Each of those swatches is about five feet high and the blend of color worth a closer look at. In this case it's about 1/8th of the whole thing.
Ogling the lights.
I call these "Light Porn" shots where I'm drooling over how safe, functional and effective the lighting is (or, not) in a given gallery space. And looking for ideas to consider for the ongoing Macartovin Building project, in this case that fascinating looking bit connecting the track light's conduit to the ceiling. A self-sealing stenbolt, perhaps?
And as usual, a special look with Christopher Farrell inside the Golden Foundation's specially constructed vault to protect the holdings of their collection for future generations to grow with & learn from. Resistant to both blast and heat effects, gamma radiation, chemical agents, eBola zombies, killer bees and Syracuse University sports fans, its contents will survive whatever catastrophe may befall our precious sphere due to the impertinent folly of mortal men.
I want those in my closet too.
I like it!
Taking a look inside the plant's outlet store.
Mediums, grounds, and sizing compounds. I haven't been using much paint lately but live on acrylic Gel Medium, Clear Gel Tar and now the Polymer Medium (Gloss) that I like using with my Neo Color II caran d'ache water soluble crayons.
There we go! The ladies had seen blog posts of my previous Golden's visits and were not shy about letting it be known they wanted to come along for one. We got permission from the center & everything. This was work! and as agreeable a field trip as I'd ever want to lead.
;]
But I never got a picture of the painting! Will have to hit one of my cronies from the Golden's design team up to take care of that.
Artist Paul Behnke with one of his marvelous canvases. This trip was kind of refreshing in the sense that the studio group consisted of painters interested in making paintings -- All spring/summer it was peelers drying assorted acrylic substances to fashion works from in a downright sculptural manner. All of it superb stuff beyond anything a knucklehead like myself would ever dream up even with the might of the plant at beck & call. I'd likely just paint, so it was nice to see that other artists still share my dopey perspective and were there to sort of show off a little.
Paul Behnke. and I owe him a pint or three for not getting more shots of the individual works, but finding the time to shoot this view twice. It's a long drive.
Paul Behnke
Paul Behnke, and that arrangement with the computer was appealing.
HEY! Been listening to my Gary Numan and Tubeway Army all month after needing to pull the wires from the walls & switch off for a while following the music fest. We all need help disconnecting sometime and Paul was dressed accordingly ... I used to have that same shirt except it was black print on white, and Numan even had a blue hair era. How can we send this to him?
The multi-talented Lori Swartz sporting the Thomas Jefferson on Acid look I tried to work during the last couple years at college, no kidding. Except it was bicycle mid-lengths over the tights with combat boots and no stockings, but still. Takes one to know one perhaps! and Lori's definitely got the rock star artist charisma needed to get away with it. Further similarity in that we both make paintings with text which isn't there for its literary content so much as a variation on visual vocabularies, and we had a laugh over people insisting finding legible word-ideas in spite of our best efforts to deter it. People look for order, I guess, but to ourselves it's another form of abstraction. E's and A's instead of blue and green.
Lori Swartz, and we had a good laugh after I asked if the white patch was upside down chairs. Everyone else had asked the same question just like they'd asked what the words mean. Touchdown!
Lori Swartz
Lori Swartz, and I think this was my favorite of her works, all done on hardboard or masonite.
Lori Swartz
Lori Swartz
OGLING THE LIGHTS LOOK
Ohh baby, look at them ... probably controlled from a grounded professionally installed switch on the wall too. No need for a ladder or painter's hook to turn them on and off ...
And finally Enda O'Donoghue, pronounced close to "Andy" and imagine my confusion when first meeting someone I thought was an Edna. "Oh wait until you see Enda's paintings" someone said and I was baffled ... Andy? Andy who? Enda had actually sought me out via social media over the spring after being directed to my blog to see what the other residency crews had been up to and ... well, I never looked to see whom it was. So basically I owe both of these gents a trip to a local brewpub for pints and tall tales.
Enda is actually an Irishman living & working in Berlin, one of my favorite places in the world and suggested hitting him up for a place to flop when the winds blow me back that way ... Was just talking about doing a performance tour of Germany with ArtCat Wright ... Such things have a way of happening these days.
Enda O'Donoghue, and I pegged that from across the room as Russian cosmonaut Alexy Leonov reaching out for the famous handshake with America astronaut Deke Slayton during the Apollo/Soyuz test mission. Space nerd here through the age of 12 when I realized claustrophobia sucks hard, and indeed it's adapted from a video still of the late Apollo era Skylab missions. But the guy is making paintings celebrating rocket ships, space capsules and guys in foil suits. I am a fan.
Enda O'Donoghue
Enda O'Donoghue
Enda O'Donoghue
Enda talking materials & process with Mia and Lisa. They liked this guy! and we all shared stories about Berlin, the Wall, and how cool it is to go to Europe, how much we'd like to go, and that I knew ArtCat wants to, and that it'd rule ... OK I will stop now.
Enda O'Donoghue
HEY MR. FRIPP!
Downstairs touring the dormitory level and stopped for another look at the matrix of piping used to connect all of the sinks in the studio spaces to a water reclamation device for scrubbing at the plant and keep the chemicals in the paints being used from being introduced to the local water table.
A Eugenia Pardue! Now part of the Foundation's collection and yes, that's a painting, made with paint. Trust me, and click here for the post on the October open studios to see more of her work!
With Lori from the Golden Foundation office! Knew me on sight. Everyone does now, it's always a trip to have folks approach me at Golden functions and say they're someone I've been emailing or FBing with for months.
With Mark Golden! and I know he will get a laugh out of this. But it took me a while to realize who Mark is relative to Golden Artist Colors ... See, I thought Barb & Emma ran the whole show out of their office at the Foundation as they were the one's I'd interacted with when both doing my work there and later attending events ... Someone eventually set me straight on the matter (I think at The Art Store in Syracuse when I wandered in during a business meeting, d'oh) ... I figured Mark was the artist of the family after seeing him at numerous Hamilton Center for the Arts receptions and, well, was just off fishing or something those days I'd been around. Imagine my surprise! and Mark is now one of the loudest voices in the choir urging me on. Can't wait to have them at another show and get that handshake. The guy's mixed paint for 40 years, it's like a vice.
Projecting blue onto Emma Golden! And that's a hot picture. I could see her with a strand or two of purple or turquoise, will bring a jar of Punky Color temporary cream next time to leave behind ;D
And laying one on Barb Golden. Life is good! and I'm delighted to be a welcome member of this scene. It's family & that's all there is to it. Hope to see you all soon and looking forward to Made In Paint at SAG.
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