Sol LeWitt still gives -- The Shul print

December immediately brings to mind giving.

The late Sol LeWitt was an active member of the Chester community. He was extremely generous to so many people. When I visited the Chester Gallery recently (one day they will have a website) owner Sosse Baker showed me the "Shul print." The Chester Gallery is selling a limited edition (175) print framed or un-framed. Proceeds will benefit Congregation Beth Shalom the synagogue in Chester that Sol was instrument in designing. Please note that the photograph doesn't quite do it justice.

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Dalton Ghetti -- Graphite Guy

On a recent visit to the New Britain Museum of American Art I came upon three framed pieces of Dalton Ghetti's amazing carved pencils.

The focus of the visit was to see the Escher exhibit (which was fascinating) after which we decided to look at the contemporary art galleries. Poking around, I was surprised to see Ghetti's work. I ran to my friend all most yelling. "He's here, the pencil guy!" Fortunately good friends usually understand my distinctly ridiculous stringing together of words when I am excited. My friend Sosse Baker of the Chester Gallery loves all things pencil and in August she sent me a bunch of his images. They are literally mind-bending. You'll see what I mean when you get to the final image.

Brazilian born Dalton Ghetti is a Bridgeport (CT) artist who has spent years carving magnificent miniature masterpieces on graphite pencils. His tools consist of a razor blade, sewing needle and a sculpting knife. The process is extremely slow; pieces can take years to complete, but they can also break while being worked. In the event a piece must be scrapped Ghetti keeps it and places it in a sort of broken object cemetery. What struck me when viewing the life-size framed pieces -- having only seen images on the computer -- was that they are really small. The "Alphabet" below gives you a hint of the actual size.

They are not for sale. But . . .

He would love to do a gallery show in London if his travel expenses were included.

Love it.

This last one demands serious consideration.

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Paper Artist -- Anna-Wili Highfield

For the past few days I've been making repeat visits to the website of artist Anna-Wili Highfield.

Anna is a young Australian artist who, while pregnant with her first child, took paper, watercolors and thread and began making decorations for the nursery. She paints archival cotton paper, tears it and gets to work sewing. The piece above is "Budgerigar in a Bell Jar".


Love the shadow of the "Magpie" above. If you visit her website you can expand the images. When you do, you'll be able to see the actual stitching. "Turtle" really shows some large basting sort of stitches.


I wonder if the (presumably heavy) watercolor paper moves when there is a draft? It could be very dramatic if the owl's wings began to move!

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The Rambles -- Patrick Dougherty's Stick Art

I recently had the privilege of working on a Patrick Dougherty installation at the Florence Griswold Museum.

"The Rambles" is site specific installation that was so much fun to participate in. There were two shifts per day led by Patrick a self-described "stick artist" from North Carolina and his assistant Mike. Mike had been a volunteer last summer on a piece Pat did in Virginia. I volunteered three days, once at the beginning of the project, in the middle and at the end. I figured that I would get the most out of knowing all of the steps. His website is beautiful and has breathtaking photographs from all over the world. Scotland is a must see.

The photo above is from Day 4, I think. The first day that I was worked, we stripped leaves and made piles while the holes were being dug for the heavier saplings. It was very team oriented at the beginning.

I was quite surprised that they had gotten this far one I worked the second time. Note how the columns are coming together nicely (above). Each day Pat reminds the teams to throw out ideas for a name. This morning googling around, I found a video, produced by the museum, where Pat announces the name of the piece.

I like this little fenestration detail. Toward the end, there is a great deal of neatening-up required.

With one day left, things were definitely coming together. I dropped by afterward and little kids
were running through it gleefully. Grownups react favorably, but sometimes have to ask "what it is". Toward the end of the building the museum was smart enough to ask Patrick to deliver a whoppingly super lecture, but they didn't make a video. I would have loved to have such a remembrance. He showed photographs of not only his art, but the home he built and his garden, where he has benches filled with stick people. Very funny. I'm hoping to obtain some photos of them and will post them. Speaking of photography, I'll be posting some better ones later. These are just Iphone shots.


I cannot wait to see it in snow. Actually I can, I lied. The work above is at the University of Southern Indiana New Harmony Gallery in 2003. (photo by Doyle Dean)

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Christian Faur -- Just Paper

I wrote about artist Christian Faur recently alluding to the fact that I was saving the best for another post.

I was blown away by his series titled "Just Paper". He has taken an iconic photograph of Guantanamo Bay and made a powerful piece of art. As Christian describes on his website:

"made from 12,000 strips of shredded paper. The strips are glued onto a light weight foam backing and assembled in such a way as to make an image that is know in the media to represent the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The entire work is made from shredded versions of the United States Constitution rendered in different font sizes and “kernings” to appear darker or lighter."

Wonderfully powerful. The image below illustrates the scale of the work. Faur is Director of Collaborative Technologies in the Arts at Denison in Granville, OH. His website can be found here and he is represented by the Sherrie Gallerie.

I would love to see an exhibit of his work at, perhaps, Wesleyan or a gallery in NYC. Here's a close up of the project.

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Christian Faur -- Crayon Series -- Encaustic Crayons

My friend John Simoudis (who designed my blog) recently told me about the artist Christian Faur.

I'm featuring the Crayon Series here, but his other work is quite -- if not more -- amazing. Certainly worth of another post. Stay tuned. He makes thousands of encaustic crayons and arrangers these pixels in wooden frames. Because the wax would otherwise render the pieces too heavy, his fbricated crayons are about half size. They are amazing. I would love to see one up close. Take a look at his Crayonettes. Faur is Director of Collaborative Technologies in the Arts at Denison in Granville, OH. His website can be found here and he is represented by the Sherrie Gallerie. You can see a close up below.

Umbilical Sky


The Dance 1

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Wes on Wednesday -- "Of All the People in All the World"

There is a performance art/exhibit opening this week at Wesleyan University in Middletown CT that uses piles of rice to depict human climate statistics.

As part of its Feet to the Fire program (which explores Global Climate Change from Science to Art) Wesleyan commissioned the Stan's Cafe team (UK) to produce a version of the work which will help humanize the issues of climate change. At the conclusion of the installation, the rice will be donated to local food banks. The photo above shows the number of people who purchased the Beatles "Can't Buy Me Love" on April 4, 1964 (its release date in the USA). The photos below are the amount of people who heard JFK (on the left) and Barack Obama (right) speak in Berlin. The The exhibit opens Friday, February 20 and only runs to Tuesday, March 3 at the Zilkha Gallery and Olin Library Lobby. The photos are from flickr. Confused? It's Wesleyan, don't fret.

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Currency Commentary -- the Art of Mark Wagner

I stumbled upon the work of Brooklyn based artist Mark Wagner this afternoon. He makes these wonderful Currency Collages.

Wagner takes the everyday -- in this case the dollar bill -- and makes art. The pieces are really quite beautiful. He is represented by the Pavel Zoubok Gallery in Brooklyn. I found his artist statement on their website:

The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers-striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable... the foreign in the familiar.

On his website, Smoke in My Dreams click on the thumbnail and you find larger images 'd suspect. His work both fun and decent commentary on the world we live in.

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SONG -- Not Your Everyday Calendar

Actually SONG is precisely an every day calendar. What was I thinking.

.I was having lunch in a very crowded RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT yesterday when a woman sat down and pulled out her calendar. Its distinct shape reminded me that it was time to give Jan a nudge and get some images for my blog. My friends Jan & Peter have come out with their 16th (?) annual Calendar in a Can(nister). This year the theme is SONG. They are the talent behind Cummings & Good a graphic design firm. Each month of this limited edition calendar has art, often by Jan or Peter, that is thematically related to SONG. There are quotes -- on topic of course. A full sized image from the month of April can be seen here, but I'm not willing to anger the blogspot demons by trying to post it. The unusual format of the calendar takes a bit of getting used to (more on that later), but its distinct shape means it's really easy to find a place to hang it. Back to the format. The weekends are always a different color than the weekdays, so once you get accustomed to that little tidbit, you'll be much closer to knowing where to look. I pass this on, because it took me years to figure that out. It's available on the C&G website, at the aforementioned RJ Julia and at Landis Gifts and Stationery in Los Angeles. Note: The introduction to the calendar, is a charming poem by their son Justin, and quite the departure from past years.

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Sol LeWitt at Mass MoCA

I am looking forward to the (pre) opening of the Sol LeWitt retrospective on November 15.

Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective, is a collaboration of Mass MoCA, the Yale University Art Gallery and Williams College Museum of Art. It is going to be huge. The aforementioned websites have tons of information on the exhibit. In fact there is a video timeline of the process of an installation at Andover on the Mass MoCA website that is very cool (see images below). The installation will remain on view for twenty-five years, occupying a 27,000-square-foot historic mill building in the heart of MASS MoCA’s campus. so there's no hurry to get there.
If you want to stay nearby, I would suggest the Porches Inn across the street. It's a hoot.

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‘recollection’ New Works by Lori Warner

My friend Lori Warner has a show at the Soprafina Gallery in Boston. I am soory to have missed the opening, but will be sure to visit.

The exhibit, which runs through September 27th, is at the gallery's new address: 55 Thayer Street. Lori graduated from RISD (with highest honors I might add, but she will pshaw about). The show consists of monotypes (shown here) and several encaustics. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 11:00 to 5:30 or by appointment.

This is one of the pieces in my collection. It is called 'Cranberry Fog'.

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ICA in Boston

The purpose of the visit to Boston was to see the new ICA.
It was a dreary day, but worth it. One artist I found thrilling
was Ranjani Shettar a young artist from Bangalore. She makes what she calls Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles. In her description of the work she speaks of the fact that some people react to the sun by sneezing.At first glance, they looked like gold bangles, but upon inspection they were made of more humble media. Muslin and tamarind power.I looked like masking tape up close. It made me think of my favorite Eva Hesse works, which were made, unfortunately, of much more dangerous constituent parts.

The Media Center was both amazing and, somewhat frightening. Amazing in that it was what appeared to be a lecture hall with an Apple computer at each station, but it is cantilevered over the Harbor. I walked down, as far as I could and suddenly felt the cold air. Is this always the case? Are there holes in this building? I did not get my nose to the glass wall. I held on to the railing for dear life. But, hey, that's just me.

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