Nicole's Art Club Visit & Artist Zine
Read about our recent visit to our local high school art club and about the artist zine we made for the students
When I was in high school I was very uninterested in academics. At some point I fell behind and I was not able to advocate or speak up for myself and my needs. So I leaned into the things I was good at - art. I would ditch my other classes to hide away in the art room. If I couldn’t get out of class I brought my art supplies to them, which was some times enjoyed but mostly seen as a distraction. I grew up in a small town (my class size was less than 90) and luckily, eventually I graduated. For me art has always been safety - a way to express myself and escape. It has been years since I was in high school but I can still recall how I felt during those years.
Over the summer of 2024 I acquired lots of old plaster slip casting molds, which I decided to give away. While we live in a capitalistic society and some of these molds have value I find it much more exciting to find other ways of distributing them like trading or donating. During that time I met a few of our local art teachers and started chatting about their classes. I was eventually asked to meet with our high school’s after school art club. The opportunity to speak with young artists was such an honor especially as I remembered my high school years. Knowing that are time was limited I put together a handout or zine to hopefully provide some inspiration or at least share some thoughts. I hope that regardless of if these students pursue an art career they will at least find something helpful along the way and know that I am rooting for them.
Since we’re sharing, below you can check out some of the pages I included in the zine. Feel free to leave a comment with something that has inspired or helped you along your creative path.
~ No Ai was used in the making of this. Please be conscious of the energy and environmental impacts that Ai has ~
A day at Dia Beacon!
Maybe you’ve been or maybe you’ve never even heard about Dia let alone their location in Beacon so let me introduce you. Dia Beacon occupies the former Nabisco box-printing factory on the Hudson River. According to its Wiki page Dia Beaon is one of the largest exhibition spaces in the country for modern and contemporary art - wow! That makes sense because the work exhibited takes up a lot of space like this Richard Serra piece below…
Richard Serra
There are individual galleries fashioned specifically for the creations from individual artists like Richard Serra (scroll down), Michael Heizer, Dan Flavin, Louise Bourgeois and more!
When the Land Art artists began they wanted to remove the white wall gallery space from their work, which is why they went outside. Folks like Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Agnes Denes, Walter Di Maria, James Turrell explored art in relation to nature and the ephemerality of it all.
A part of me always giggles when I see their work indoors but I’m happy to be walking around it out of the rain.
Dan Flavin (this photo does not do his work justice. A real must see in person)
Robert Smithson Gravel Mirrors with Cracks and Dust, 1968
Mario Merz
Robert Smithson
Dan Flavin
Joan Jonas
My Birthday @ Mass MOCA
Ever try to plan a birthday for a winter baby? I think we can all agree that winter birthdays are really limited in where we can celebrate. Typically it’s too cold to go outside or it’s snowing and most people in the winter just want to stay home and snuggle. While I’m pretty fine doing just that, this year I needed something a bit different. I’ve felt so far removed from seeing art in person so my partner and I decided to take a road trip to Mass MOCA to see James Turrell’s exhibition, Into The Light!
In most areas of the museum we were not allowed to take photos so we snuck what we could and all the rest of our photos are of Mass Moca’s walls… weird, I know but stay with me. Mass Moca is located in downtown North Adams, MA. The building was converted from an old electric factory into the museum in 1986 (the year of my birth!), which as you can imagine has some really beautiful old paint markings. I highly suggest reading about the history of their building here.
I absolutely love old buildings. They hold so much energy and history. And what’s fun about this space is that you can see where old walls and windows used to be - they don’t try to hide it. The building itself is a work of art.
At The Table: A Fundraiser and Community Dinner
At the Table was created to raise funds for the Ellenville NAACP.
On August 26th, 2020, a wonderful group of humans gathered together to present At The Table: A Fundraiser and Community Dinner, which raised $3700 for our local NAACP chapter in Ellenville.
When community gathers to support one another magical things happen. We are so honored to have been able to organize this event for the community and floored to have had such an amazing turn out. Thank you to all of our organizers, donors, ticket purchasers both in person and out of town, and to special thanks to the Ellenville NAACP for doing such incredible work.
For updates & to stay in touch please follow Ellenville NAACP’s Facebook page.
For direct donations please mail a check to:
Ellenville NAACP
PO Box 229
Ellenville, NY 12428
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States. Learn more about the NAACP
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ORGANIZERS:
Katy Porte
Jay Merritt
Collaborators:
Food by: Baba Truck NY
Venue: The Glen Wilde
Live Music: Mark G Meadows
Live Music: Nicole Saphos
DJ: Z.H.O.N.E
Potters:
Raffle items provided by:
Adventures in Narrowsburg, NY
Like every Saturday date day, we set out towards adventure! This weekend we decided on Narrowsburg, NY. Roughly 50 mins from Mountain Dale, it’s not a quick trip but it sure takes us through some beautiful turns like the historic town of Bethel (Where Woodstock really happened). During our drive we read and look up terms, ideas, history, etc that we’re curious about. This trip we spoke of the differences between falcons, hawks and eagles. We quickly stopped to forage a little bit of Chaga mushroom that we found during our foraging trip earlier this month.
We’re pretty familiar with this little big town located steps away from Pennsylvania but today we decided to explore it even more. Our focus for this trip was Captain Bludde’s Collectible’s, a toy & gaming store around the corner from main street. Filled with trains, miniatures, wooden ships and doll house parts, this store was super fun. It reminded me of a train store that was located in my hometown , Ridgefield Hobby. I was smitten.
Captain Bludde’s Collectible’s, Narrowsburg, NY
Across the street a beautiful rustic building layered in texture called to us - Maison Bergogne. How did I not visit this beautiful location before? I couldn’t quite figure out what it was - time capsule, antique store, photographer’s dream, art studio, home? There are so many beautiful oddities collected and displayed that I wanted to touch and take home.
After stopping by all of the main street shopping staples (Sunny’s Pop, Madame Fortuna, Narrowsburg Proper) we sat down at The Heron for a delicious brunch. My eggs prepared with cream cheese and scallions were amazing!
Art: Unison Arts Center
Saturday’s are our sacred days. As our weeks are filled with work, winter prep, and other important household things we leave Saturday open to adventures. On my way to purchase clay & supplies over the last few weeks I’ve noticed this red sign along the highway with the name: Unison Arts Center. It stuck in my mind and became part of our last Saturday journey.
After brunch at Hoot Owl in Pine Bush we set off to the Unison Arts Center and Sculpture Garden. Unison is described as a “5-acre park-like sculpture garden in a country setting laced with paths that weave their way through the woods, opening up to a large wildflower field sited with contemporary works.”
Their current exhibition is titled Composed to Decompose, which is their Annual Curated (Curated by members of the SUNY New Paltz sculpture program) Eco-Materialism Exhibit. As a person who really loves the Land Art movement it was quite exciting to stumble into this exhibition after several months of it being on view (opened July 2019). Some of the pieces made of wood, twine, and other natural fibers are already returning to the earth. On the Unison website, Co-curators Michael Asbill and Linda Weintraub explain “They demonstrate that it is through decomposition that fertility is replenished, ecosystems are revitalized, and life is renewed.” I’m very much looking forward to returning in a few months to see where each piece is in it’s decomposition.