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Why does one become an artist? What is the fascination with light and shadow and form? Why do we seek new answers to old questions? Why are some of us born with an unquenchable need to create?
On July 10, 1830, Camille Pissarro was born on the island of St. Thomas in the town with the charming name of "Charlotte Amalie." On December 29, 2009, I found myself there having fled the blizzards of New England enroute to a teaching assignment on St. John.
Lucky me!
I'm quite sure the city of Pissarro's childhood was vastly different from contemporary Charlotte Amalie. Today shops glitter with elegant gold, jewelry and trinkets, enticing tourists on the same narrow streets where he grew up in what was a bustling trade town. Cruise ships have replaced merchants ships which used to ply the waters with goods for the new world.
We searched (and searched, and searched) for his house which is (briefly) mentioned in guide books. It was hard to find. No one seemed to have a clue where this artist had lived and worked. Finally, after being drenched in a tropical deluge, we found it, though there wasn't much to see, and the gallery which is now housed upstairs was closed.
At least I was able to walk on the steps where his tiny toddler and adolescent feet had trod, where I'm sure his frustrated father berated him for spending so much time drawing when he should have been doing his duties in the store...

"I am treading more and more into leaves and silence.

Ironically, I, who profess no religion,

find the whole of my life a religious pilgrimage.
The origins of this hunger are as mysterious as why we, who are last year's dust and rain, have risen from that dust to to look about

with the devised crystal of a raindrop

before we subside once more

into snow and whirling vapor."

All the Strange Hours--The Excavation of a Life
by Loren Eiseley

The above is a quote from Joseph Raffael's website.  Yesterday I took a whirlwind trip to NYC to see an exhibition of recent works by Raffael  at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery which, after 35 years in Soho,  has relocated in Chelsea. 

I've loved Raffael's work since I first saw it in 1974 in New Mexico, when I was an undergrad at the University of New Mexico. He came to UNM to speak, and afterwards we were able to meet with him. Not only was his work radiant, but he was as well.

A calmness and almost zen peacefulness radiated from his presence.

It was exhilarating to walk into a space that pulsed with the energy of his art!

It just made me want to get to work.

So I guess I wil!!

I'm still waiting for the success part, but as each step is completed, I choose to mark it as a step on the way.
It's been yet another long haul getting the work done and delivered to the exhibition. Teaching five classes, designing new curricula, arranging new courses for spring summer and fall has been very demanding. I am grateful for the support of friends, family and Castleton College in making this exhibit possible.

Gliding across the heartland of America, a LONG ride across country 938 miles each way to deliver work to Gopalan Contemporary in Terre Haute, Indiana has been a reward. The show was very well received with much positive response at the opening.
Terre Haute is full of art! Museums, galleries, public art in surprising and wonderful places. Visiting the college of St. Mary of the Woods was illuminating. Founded by Saint Mother Theodore Guerin an Catholic American saint who educated young women in the early 19th century. So astonishing to imagine the difficulties she and her sister nuns overcame to bring education to girls in the wilderness.
At one point she was called back to France, a journey which involved stage coaches, ferries, and a perilous journey across the Atlantic. When a storm threatened to sink the ship she prayed to St. Anne and promised to build a chapel for  her in Terre Haute if she lived to return. The resulting chapel is encrusted with shells that form images, and decorative colors. It is dear, artful, original and unique.
What fun to go there!

It was so lovely to have a visit with Ernest Pittman, who was driving up to Vermont for a workshop in Waterbury. We met at my show in Castleton, at his request and had a fine dinner at the Blue Cat Bistro. Good conversation, catching up on the last 20 years of our lives: what we're doing, where the kids are and what they're doing. So interesting!.
It's remarkable how circles of influence and connection intersect and separate over time. To reconnect is such a nice validation.

The show is about to come down. Walking into the gallery for the last six weeks had been so pleasant. I was just handed a copy of the movie that film students shot of my gallery talk. Haven't had a chance to look at it yet. If there's anything worth posting, I'll try to figure out how.

A disappointment was that there was no review of the show. Two articles, but no review. You'd think I'd know at this point in my career that the artist needs to do follow up on press releases. Dogged perseverance. It is by no means enough to just make the art, even though it seems it should be. Reading In Full Bloom, it's obvious that  O'Keefe and Stieglitz were persistant and broad reaching in their PR outreach.

Self-expression must pass

into communication for its fulfillment.

A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere -Frank Stella

Moonlight is sculpture. -Nathanial Hawthorne.

It's already been several weeks since our wild ride down the back bone of the Taconic Mountains to Williamstown MA, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to see: Circles of Influence, O'Keeffe and Dove.

It was wonderful to see old friends by O'Keeffe such as
The Lawrence Tree painted in 1929. 
When the Wadsworth Atheneum acquired the painting in 1981, O’Keeffe commented that, “The painting was done so it could be hung with any end up.” The painting is presently hung in keeping with the artist’s strong early preference, which she stated on numerous occasions, instructing that the tree should “stand on its head.”
The painting is in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum

At the Clark they had hung it with the trunk on top. Very fun.
The show addressed the interaction between the two artists. Very interesting to see how their work was correlated and how they respectfully fed off of each other's imagery. Initially O'Keeffe, the younger of the two, responded to Dove's development of abstraction, but as her work rapidly matured Dove's imagery obviously begins to respond to hers.
All very interesting.