Saturday, August 23, 2014

otherwise metropolitan catskill




A painting or sculpture not modelled on any real object is every bit as concrete and sensuous as a leaf or a stone... but it is an incomplete art which privileges the intellect to the detriment of the senses. (Hans Jean Arp)

Hmmm, not so sure I completely agree with Mr. Arp there but at least I'm not repeating my quotees!  We've spent the morning out climbing cobblestoned hills and oogling (as opposed to Googling) stuff in windows.  TY is NOT a shopper so we don't cross any thresholds, thus saving us a lot of money which we drop in Museum entry fees.  And true to form we spent 2 hours learning Canadian history in the Museum of Culture.  The main exhibit is a 2 story hole where they display a longboat from the 1700's that was excavated when they were expanding the museum.  Apparently a guy who made these boats on the banks of the river left them when he moved his company.  Well, what the display consisted of was the actual remains of the boat, blackened from being in the mud for 3 centuries and reconstructed, and surrounding it were the iceberg sized white plaster casts of the excavation-  stunning!  
 These plastic assemblages are on several buildings around the hotel- huge things attached to the roof and corners having to do with permanence and the fact that we have this stuff forever and ever.  Bright an colorful until you realize it probably will outlast the 200 year old buildings!

Plantings on every balcony overlooking the St. Lawrence. So pretty!

Of note here-  I have seen very little excess use of smartphones-  they aren't on the tables in front of every diner, nobody carries them in front of their face walking around, and there aren't seven folks jockeying for position to take pictures with anything other then real (YEH, REAL) cameras.  I even saw one kid walking around with his mini camera mounted on a tripod-  talk about odd!  Of course I see some people chatting but they are sitting down on benches or out of the traffic of walking tourists-  just as phones should be used, not as an ear accessory.  Oh well, the luddite in me comes out.  Now to get MY pictures off MY iPhone and get them posted...





It’s simply incredible that artist Maude White creates the illustrations you see here with just a sheet of white paper. Using just a craft knife, she makes images that would be difficult for most of us to draw – from delicately feathered birds to a woman’s wind-blown hair. Her works make exceptional use of negative space – a secret best revealed when they cast a shadow on the wall.  I had saved these pictures the other day because I was so impressed by them, then saw Pat Pauly posted them and also said the artist is from Buffalo-  I didn't know that, gives the work that much more gravitas doesn't it?  I hope some day somebody post my pictures and says I was from Buffalo...



Valerie Hammond is the creator of these beautiful mixed media pieces. She's a painter, printmaker, sculptor, and photographer, Hammond captures in her work the fluidity and transformationality of the mysterious and metaphysical realms of the human condition.  I love that she uses hands as her subject matter as it's one of my motifs also.



(from Deb) ‘I’m not worried about the damn squirrel!’



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