LEAVETAKING

by Robert

As a founding member of the Catskill Artists Gallery, I have many wonderful memories of more than ten years of accomplishment and forging friendships.  We are colleagues who have created a successful group of exhibiting artists.  Members specialize in their own medium and explore it to the fullest extent, artistically and expressively.  The work gets more beautiful each year.

But best of all we support and encourage each other.

I am very sad to leave but will closely follow the gallery's progress.  Thanks Buff, Nada, Cate, Kathy, Tom and Hank.

Many thanks to you, Robert, for your art, your comradeship, your good humor and your support.  We will miss you. Buff

The Water God

By Robert Friedman

 

 

Recently, the members of the Catskill Artists Gallery were discussing how important the concept of “water” is in life, the earth and in the visual arts. We decided to try and use the idea of water as an element in our work.

 

Having visited Mexico and especially Yucatan, I was familiar with the Mayan god of rain and water, Chaac, always represented with his fantastically elongated nose.  He appears often in temple stone sculptures, but also in painted pottery designs.  What a great image to work with -- but how to translate it?

 

I found pictures of Chaac on the internet and decided to adapt them into a two-dimensional piece that would suggest a carved relief.  It was an exciting task to create a really striking image that would be true to its original form.  Here is a photo of the work in progress.

 

To get back to our theme: social and political problems involving water are major topics of concern these days. Flooding, droughts, rising seas and the decreasing supply of drinkable water have become urgent international problems.  

 

We hope that there will be unified actions to help solve at least some of these matters.  So let’s all sometimes pray to Chaac to intercede for us and a more positive global future.

 

 

 

 

 

NATURE'S BOUNTY

by Robert

Artists work with many elements that are derived from nature.  Minerals, wood, earths, oils, water, metals, and natural fibers are some of the sources for our creations.

Paintings and ceramics utilize oils, pigments from earths and minerals. Chemicals are used in ceramics, watercolors, and oil and acrylic paintings.  Wood, stone, metals, plastic mixtures, and pigments are the basis for a wide spectrum of traditional and modern sculptures.

Sand, natural materials, clays, and pigments are used in firing glass objects.  Fibers are used with papers, textiles, threads to create fiber art pieces.  Glass, chemicals, and sunlight were the ingredients of photography from its beginnings.  A wide range of woods have been made into aesthetic as well as functional works.

We members of Catskill Artists Gallery each use specific favorite elements in our works, many of which derive from natural sources.

I use a wide variety of materials in my own mixed-media sculptures and collages: metals, pigments, plastics derived from natural ingredients, wood, photographs, and fibers.

Objects Lost and Found by Robert

Just about one hundred years ago, Picasso began to incorporate unexpected new materials into his drawings, pasting them directly onto the paper.  Columns of type and newspaper headlines became abstract elements in his compositions. Capital letters in headlines were used for their shapes rather than for their original meaning.  The technique became known as Collage, from the French word “coller,” to paste.

Picasso also added areas of wallpaper, veneers, and other materials for texture and color.  Later, in his very original sculptures, pieces of wood, metals, even a toy car which could stand in for an animal’s head. Such preexisting elements came to be known as Found Objects.

Since then, it has become accepted practice to incorporate found materials into art works. Pieces of driftwood have been used in sculpture for their curved forms; fabric pieces for their colors and textures, various papers, plastics and many more. 

I find it exciting to use a wide range of found objects in my own works (sculptures and collages).  Recently discovering some old corrugated cardboard, I used it for its interesting grooves and textures.  Tiny wooden balls, ropes, seashells and parts of old clamps have found their way into some of my three-dimensional works.

This freedom to include found objects is so general that it has been used in school art classes from early grades to adult levels.  Hobbyists also choose materials from a wide variety of sources. 

Hooray for found objects!

Art and the Garden

By Robert

For the last week, I have been working on two contrasting projects -- finishing sculptures for the Catskill Artists Gallery opening next Saturday and planting in our raised beds. Although they seem to be unrelated, they have much in common.

My material for sculpture is sheet aluminum, cut into flat shapes. Since the metal is light enough, it can be shaped by hand. Gradually the parts organize into organic compositions with tension and movement. Colors will be chosen later for the final surfaces.

In the square beds, some of last year’s perennials are sprouting. The new plants are placed according to future height and color and most important, whether they are attractive to our enemies, the deer, which seem to think they own the place.

Herbs are good choices because with their strong taste they do not appeal to deer and are placed on the edges of the beds to protect the more attractive edible plants.        

So we have three-dimensional compositions to create in both projects. Visual movement, color and space are common elements.  How exciting it is to go from one to the other and see satisfying results in the studio and in the garden.

Artists and Their Materials

By Robert

"Flower"-- mixed media wall sculpture

As a contemporary artist, I am faced with a large and exciting choice of materials with which to express my ideas and concepts. As stimulating as that currently is, it has not always been the case.

For centuries, artists had narrower choices. Oil and watercolors, ink, and crayon for picture makers. Sculptors used clay, plaster, carved stone and cast bronze. Wood was the province of humbler folk carvers, not professional sculptors.

At the beginning of the twentieth century all began to change, for which I and many others are grateful. Picasso and other artists in Paris began to utilize elements from ordinary life. Collage, which literally means “pasting” in French, became the new cut-and-paste technique for creating a wide range of compositions on paper. Parts of newspapers, wallpaper

elements and popular illustrations were incorporated.

Later in the twentieth century, three-dimensional constructions followed, using wood, metal, glass, plaster and other everyday materials. The industrial technique of welding was adopted by sculptors, to build spatial constructions, using both linear and solid forms.

Today, artists can freely choose substances ranging from ropes and fibers to plastics, china plates, preserved animals and fabrics—you name it. Possibilities are wide and stimulating. This is a major reason why art today is so exciting—for viewers, collectors and not least of all, for us artists ourselves.

A New Year for Art and Crafts

Catskill Artists Gallery is gearing up for a new season of art and craft fairs and gallery exhibitions in 2013.
by Robert

As a member of the gallery, I am working on new wall sculptures in metal and other materials and lots of color.  Each new art season is exciting for us as we explore fresh exhibiting venues and meet new collectors and art and craft enthusiasts. 

The seven members of CAG each bring recent explorations of their specialized medium: glass, ceramics, wood, jewelry, fiber, photography and sculpture.  It is always thrilling for us to deepen and expand our use of materials, using already finished work as a starting point for new possibilities.

A highlight of 2013 will be a major group exhibition  June 14 to June 29 at the Liberty Museum and Arts Center at 46 South Main Street in Liberty NY.

As a group of peers, we members respect, stimulate, encourage and support each others' work.  We believe that we have created an ideal community of artists.

Robert

An Artist's Ideas and Materials

A message from Robert

When I lived in Lower Manhattan, I haunted certain stores on Canal Streeet that offered materials of all kinds: aluminum, acrylic plastics, mystery metals

and wood. Out front there were bins and barrels containing odd shapes,

forms and scraps. Some were sheets with interestingly shaped openings,

odd forms that had been parts of mysterious mechanisms. They beckoned

to me to take them away.




"Shiva"

I hungrily bought these things, knowing that I would use them in the future. Carefully stored in my workshop, they would linger and tantalize

me for years before I used them in new works. Colors and forms suggested by these random acquisitions were often the catalysts for new sculptures, assemblages and wall sculptures.

The range of colors and tones in these materials could also be altered with paints, pigments and sprays. I found myself creating free-standing constructions and collage-like sculptural wall reliefs. Some aluminum pieces were welded and others had elements joined with epoxy adhesives and rivets.

Drawings and paintings from nature- landscapes, plants and flowers, became the basis for prints that expressed colors in a different way. It is exciting to go from these two-dimensional works to contrasting three-dimensional sculptural forms.

My major influences have always been based on the concepts and forms of twentieth century art such as Abstraction, Collage and Surrealism. Picasso, Henry Moore and other seminal Modern artists have been my inspirations and heroes. I feel that with my contemporaries I am helping to build on the achievements of earlier generations.

Spring

A message from Robert:

It’s spring in the Catskill Mountains of New York State.  Birds are arriving and the daffodils are poking out of the ground. Brooks and streams are flowing rapidly.  The area, once lively with hotels large and small, has become a creative center for artists, crafts people and musicians.  Local farmers markets feature seasonal produce, cheeses and baked goods.  Many of them travel with their products to markets in New York City.

Creative energies are running as well. We eight members of the Catskill Artists Gallery are gearing up for a busy year of art activities, showing our work in June and August at major local Catskill Artists Gallery exhibitions. In addition, we will be participating in important art and craft fairs in New York and New Jersey.

The recent launch of our website has already been discovered by people in New York and other states in addition to web users abroad. They are responding to our wide range of works for sale including ceramics, jewelry, glass objects, fiber art, sculpture and photographs.                              

We are proud of having created the website ourselves to help stress the individuality of our members and their unique approach to materials and techniques. Kathy Jeffers' ceramics and Cate Gundlah’s works in glass, for example, are as original and unique as any in the world.

As a member of the gallery, I feel a sense of accomplishment, having helped my friends and colleagues to make the transition from a traditional physical gallery to this exciting new entity which can reach so many art lovers everywhere.  It is good to think about this degree of potential exposure and personal feedback.

This is a culmination of my own artistic development.  I always felt like an artist, even in childhood. This was reinforced during school, college and university years, when I specialized in fine arts and art history. Professionally, this led to teaching college courses in studio art and history of art. Many exhibitions resulted in work in public and private collections. And now, I am part of this group of like spirits, all working toward a common goal.

Photo by Ken Howard