The Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts
237 Bell Rd. New Berlin NY 13411
For more information on the residency program and how to apply, visit
So, where were we ...
Artist Martin Dull, who is a painter, sculptor, musician, and vocalist of great repute, works as a painting technician at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. We talked about how freaking awesome it is to be in the nature surrounding the AiR Barn and the daily routine of a resident. You get up, make breakfast, and paint for eleven hours using the might of the Golden's paint factory behind you.
Previous blog I kind of coughed about how reassuring it had been to see artists painting pictures for a change, as that's what I do. Driving home I realized why the hell would someone go there just to do what you do anyway back in your studio? And that's what Martin discovered, going so far as to put down his brushes and start pouring the paint and gunking it around with his (gloved) hands to make things with it. So yeah. Go there to paint but also go there to learn what you can do with the materials that you might not have even thought of before.
For more of Martin's art visit his website here: http://www.martindullart.com/
Martin Dull
Martin Dull
Martin Dull
Martin Dull, and yeah. That rules, looks like one of those 3d relief globes we used to run our hands all over when we were kids. And that's cool.
Martin Dull
Martin Dull, and more pouring.
Martin Dull
Martin Dull, and that one's painted on a window.
Martin Dull
Martin Dull
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WE DON'T HAVE TO USE BRUSHES?
Artist Nicole Tijoux, all the way from Chile for I guess what would have been a winter in South America? And like Martin she came to the residency to paint in her established way & quickly found herself trying new methods just by being exposed to the endless possibilities of new materials. She also poured, dried, peeled and glued patches of acrylics onto her surfaces as much or more than using a brush and harvested a new visual language for herself. English was pretty good too!
And thank goodness as part of my current relaxation routine has been watching whatever Ancient Aliens or Chariots of the Gods? type garbage I can numb my brain cells with. Had to talk South America ancient astronaut visitations with a native ... Gotta see Machu Pichu someday. And my beloved Atacama Giant plus entire carved hillsides of geoglyphs have made the hair stand up on the back of my neck since I was eleven or so are right there in Chile. Which I asked her about, expecting to hear she hires a helicopter to go fly over it every once in a while, which is exactly what I'd do with my lunch money. But it's about as far away from Santiago as it is from here to Oklahoma, and Machu Pichu is in Peru. D'oh.
Nicole Tijoux, came all the way from Chile to discover fluorescent orange and sharp angular forms suggesting ... swimming pools? I think!
Nicole Tijoux, and more window painting, plus her drying plates for the poured acrylics used for her aqueous surfaces.
Nicole Tijoux, and I believe this is an example of her pre-residency style. Swimming and water themes everywhere.
Nicole Tijoux
Nicole Tijoux
Nicole Tijoux
Nicole Tijoux, and these made me think of looking out of an airplane window.
Nicole Tijoux
Nicole Tijoux, and I want to dive into that.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SPACE ALIENS DIDN'T CARVE THE ATACAMA GIANT?
My boy!
See, it's a giant robot with multiple antennae, holding a boomerang while a monkey is climbing up his arm. Which is interesting, since there are no monkeys in the deserts of Chile, boomerangs were invented in Australia, and giant robots are somewhat hard to come by now or then.
Could it be ... aliens?
Artist Celia Johnson, who was familiar with my antics via her husband Don Martiny, who had been a resident in the spring of 2015. Runs in the family. Celia came to the program as an encaustics painter looking to expand beyond the size limitations that the technical use of encaustics requires. So she spent her month spreading acrylics around on wood surfaces with various scraping tools, the results looking very sculptural to my eyes. Like encaustic paintings they have an emphasis on texturing, layering and pigment overbleed.
Plus they made me think of toys, and science fiction forms especially spread out on the table as above. I love toy sets and populations of neato little cool looking things. Though those were just their drying positions, they are meant to be shown on walls & I know which two I want.
For more of her work & ideas, visit http://www.celiajohnson.net/
Celia Johnson
Celia Johnson
Excellent.
Celia Johnson
Celia Johnson
Celia Johnson, and I want this. Makes me think of the Battle of Yavin from that first Star Wars movie.
Switch to targeting computer.
Celia Johnson, and I want this too. Makes me think of the giant happy Pac Man in the sky from Heavy Metal.
Heyyy, who's the chick?
My big technical tip for the day: Celia applies her materials to the surface using what she called Venetian Blades, which made me think of Italian made B movie crime thrillers from the 1970s. What the are is the flat handled bladed forms one manipulates plaster with to get that Venetian stucco look, or whatever its called, and amongst other outcomes they result in the burnished looking patches on the paintings above. Or the razor sharp non-brushed appearance of the one below.
Idea snitched, and that's why I go to these things every month. Stuff I wouldn't think of sitting there with my crayons & gel medium, happily zombie-ing away.
Ceila Johnson
Yep. We are allowed to use rulers, templates, protractors, straight edges, and all the other things our elementary school art teacher Mrs. (name redacted) used to literally scream at us for even daring to consider using when creating edges on forms we wanted to be precise. She would rip the paper up in front of the whole class, verbally humiliate the offender and make them start over again. No wonder I quit taking art until college.
Well sorry lady but there they are and look at how this artist employed them in her paintings. Matter resolved, forty years later.
... Looking for the barn's Studio Bat, whom I'm told is a male. And should meet up with my Matilda the Studio Bat at the Macartovin Building so they can flap away happily together and eat mosquitoes someplace else.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WE CAN USE A PROTRACTOR??
It's Bill from the Plant! Once again diligently handing out Cow Tails and Smarties to the open studios attendees. Those Smarties saved my bacon once too, always put them in the glove box and had been without a beverage for a drive to Syracuse the other month. Smarties work too.
Shelves of toys for the grown up kids who get to come over to play.
Another look at Jane James' marvelous Great Barrow painting, now on display in the Foundation's front hall. Wanted to make sure those objects weren't real pulltabs & screws ...
Nope. Castings. All of it is acrylics.
With artists Mia Simiele and Lisa Allen from the Central New York Veteran's Outreach Art Program, now regulars at these open studio events. They have been in every call show I have done at The Tech Garden in Syracuse and are gearing up to paint me some David Bowie works for the fall tribute show. We need at least a hundred!
And what the heck, here's the call sheet below, final deadline 6pm on Monday September 19th, public reception Thursday September 22nd. Open to all artists regardless of global location! It's called UPS Ground in North America, FedEx overseas, we can send payments for sales electronically & send unsold works back after the show ends. Download, save and share!
Alladin Sane by Jason Antaya.
With artist Amy Vensel! who traveled all the way from the NYC area to visit the Foundation & learn about the residency program. That's what it takes, and something tells me we'll be covering her time at the barn as well. We'll rock scissors paper for the upstairs loft studio with the bat.
Amy's website with examples of her work & exhibitions: http://www.amyvensel.com
Artist & educator Deda Purdy! who put up with more of my crap during the Flowerfest than anyone else from the artist contingent, stuck through it and put us all to shame with a phenomenal pile of painted flower creations. Brought along a squad of art fans who were quite taken by Nicole's painting here up front. Deda has also now been in two of my Tech Garden shows, is onboard for David Bowie and I'm promised a Let's Dance, Putting Out Fire, a China Girl, and the guy in the white shorts has a Starman in the works. Hot.
YES.
... I want this too. From the stairwell gallery of works donated to the Foundation.
They fed me! And someone asked if I was a journalist. Well, yeah I guess so, now that I think about it. The way we consume information or news is coming more and more from "immediate sources" rather than established entities. Bloggers and self-published online hubs for specialty interest get as much traffic as major news sites, or art websites in this case.
I'm so busy these days that I only have time to cover my own interests to have the nerve to call myself an arts journalist, which implies going out and seeking the latest ongoing art functions beyond my own calendar. It's been impossible to keep up just with my own activities -- Got blog posts of primo content awaiting attention backed up as far back as November, and have yet to write about my new ongoing gig curating The Dev in Utica.
The term vacation actually comes to mind.
"I swear Officer, I never even saw the cow ..."
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