Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow

More New Paintings - OffSeason

2012-03-03T16:27:00.000-05:00

So, as we talk about the off season, there is a film being filmed in Provincetown called "OFF SEASON" and I'm suppose to drive by and yell out the window to a fake board of selectman. I was kind of excited as I liked the idea of being an extra....I just that the call that the drive by is not needed, but Carla agreed to have a star role (forgot what that's called) oh yes, a cameo appearance - I won't spoil it.

Anyway, I do love the off season and one of the reasons being is that I paint for 3 days straight. Friday's, Saturdays and Sundays.....so that is feeling really good.

So this is a very new series that began last fall in a Staurt Shils Workshop. It was about the moment in time. The class was called the Perpetual Moment. I loved it. It was very intense and painting outside (which I have never done) with oil paints and an easel. By the end of the 2nd day, I started enjoying it. It has taken this long to absorb some of what the class was about. 8 hours a day for 3 days. He is an incredible teacher and coming back next fall. His painting is also on the cover of the Castle Hill Spring & Summer Catalog!

Looking at something and only seeing the important parts. No details...think dark and light, think if you stare at a quarter on the ground everything around it is somewhat blurry....paint that. This is not an easy thing to do, mind you. Well no painting is easy, but for me, this was a stretch. I made some interesting paintings (none of which I have ever shown anyone) and in the last month started to paint somethings with building in them. Not a subject matter that I usually paint. An occasional building might pop up, but this is something a little different.

I would like some feedback....

This last image is bigger, it's 16" x 16" all the rest are small, 5" x 7". I like them as a group.

The fog is rolling in and I hear the foghorn in the distance. I may go look out the window to see if the movie has gone by my house yet.... anything than going to the grocery store!

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Painting A lot

2012-02-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Painting A lot: I have been very busy painting and need to figure out a vent system. My studio is upstairs in my house, which is a loft, and in the summer t...

Painting A lot

2012-02-05T22:51:00.000-05:00

I have been very busy painting and need to figure out a vent system. My studio is upstairs in my house, which is a loft, and in the summer things are very open and blowing through, but in the winter, all closed up. Big high ceilings are good in the rest of the room and I usually have a fan blowing so the fumes are moving by me.

I am very aware of this as safety is important and would hate to wake up one day slurring my words or some crazy tick like those girls in Le Roy, New York. I love that they call it the Conversational Disorder - where emotional distress is converted to bodily symptoms. It this some disorder that people can just feel comfortable having conversations about? The people have no idea at this point as to what is causing it. Anyway, hopefully they are not melting wax in their lofts!

Anyway, I will post some of my VERY new paintings. Some on paper, some on panels. I've been interested into muted colors and marble dust, being loose with the flow and just seeing what happens. There are many things that can be controlled in wax and there are many things that can be led to chance - I am trying to hang out somewhere in the middle. Lots of layers.

So here are some landscapes on Panels.

All of the above are small - 6" x 6", they are encaustic, pigment stick and marble dust.

This series are all done on 9" x 12" handmade paper, encaustic, pigment stick and marble dust.

There is something I'm really liking about the marble dust, you can mix it with paint to give it texture (with the pigment sticks) or you can rub it on the painting after, you can also rub it on during and then put a layer of medium on. If you fuse it it looses the flatness that the dust provides. I'm liking the flatness.

That's all for now. It's been a busy 3 days! Super Bowl is now over and I can come out from below the wax! :-)

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: The Off Season

2012-01-12T21:10:00.000-05:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: The Off Season: Well it's January 12th (Cyndi Wish's Birthday) and I am thinking about the off season, here in Provincetown. This is a time when people can ...

The Off Season

2012-01-12T21:09:00.000-05:00

Well it's January 12th (Cyndi Wish's Birthday) and I am thinking about the off season, here in Provincetown. This is a time when people can S L O W down and do the things that they want to do all year but can't get to, because Summer is so busy. I haven't been able to take advantage of that S L O W-ness as of yet. But VERY close. I have been able to carve out time to make art and that part is good.

Partly of it is my own fault. Got a new puppy while I could have been laying around relaxing. The other part is plotting out next summer (for work) which is always a bunch and somewhat exhilarating. Planning new workshops, events, readings. Keeping it fresh and exciting and as soon as that goes to designer and then printer Off Season can begin. I'm looking forward to it! AND champagn will get poured.

Most people live in a place that is year-round. The community doesn't go from 60,000 to 4,000 in the winter. Most people don't know what it's like to drive to work 9 miles and not see one car coming or going in either direction. Or to go from many choices of restaurants to 4 restaurants open. A grocery store that sometimes has that same head of lettuce starring up at you day after day, week after week.

Though it is a really wonderful thing. The light on the beach, the empty giant sand box, the crisp sky, the starry skies, the ease of getting a parking spot, the quiet! Speaking of quiet, the Library across the street is FINISHED with Construction! This has been a 10 year project! Loud, beeps, front loaders, ladders, you name it, it went up and down, it banged, it beeped, it started at 7:30 am. No more!
And I think it came out great!

Not sure the off season is for everyone. Some people don't like the quiet and the ease of parking. People like the less clothing and very fit tan bodies, drag queens and every breed of dog.

Which I'm not against, mind you.

This would be a few photos of not the off season but the ON - Season! Something for everyone?

I think so....

Here is my office of dogs, Harpo, Lily & Waffles, all is going well! So far!

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: January

2012-01-08T21:04:00.000-05:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: January: Is it me, or is time just flying by? Things are going well in my world. I am going to try and make a new years resolution that I write in...

January

2012-01-08T20:15:00.004-05:00

Is it me, or is time just flying by?

Things are going well in my world. I am going to try and make a new years resolution that I write in my blog (at least) once a month. I really don't like new years resolutions, because you are bound to fail over time. But today I thought I would like to try and make it happen.

Harpo only looks like he is ripping her head off! But really he is very gentle.

So three weeks ago, Lily came to live with us. She and Harpo are very happy together! It took 5 days to begin to know that fun can be had. She knows how to sit, lay down, Come only to me (not good), and almost know to go to the back door when she needs out. Pretty good! I think....12 weeks old!

Then they cozy up!

I've been painting a bunch and that is feeling good. I'm liking this new series. A little more abstract. A few crows have flown back onto the panel. I was invited to be in the Pollination Show that is traveling to Provincetown in June. This is a show that Gregory Wright has curated and it was at the Brush Gallery in Lowell during November and December. It received wonderful reviews. I'm happy to be part of if - with other great artists.

The work needed to be something that didn't have any bees in it. That was hard for me, as I've been into bees lately.

Thinking I may not post that new dyptich for the show, but some new works done in the last 2 weeks.

Crow on the Sea, 16" x 20" Encaustic on Panel

Crow with Horizon Line, Encuastic 16: x 20"

White Crow, Encuastic Marble dust, 16" x 20"

Two Crows with Boat, Encaustic, 12" x 24"

Two Crows with Pier, Encaustic, 12" x 24"

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: New Bambino

2011-12-27T14:58:00.001-05:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: New Bambino: Well, it's been almost a whole month since I wrote about World AIDS and now it's almost 2012! I can't believe how the time has gone so fast!...

New Bambino

2011-12-27T14:58:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been almost a whole month since I wrote about World AIDS and now it's almost 2012! I can't believe how the time has gone so fast!! I am on vacation this week and also celebrating a new puppy who came home a week ago yesterday. She is quite the bundle of fur!

This is a wonderful time to be able to spend some quality home time with Lily. She is smart, knows what she wants and has those razor blade teeth that are just popping though her little gums. I flew down to Maryland and picked her up. She sat on my lap the whole flight and was a quiet little thing. When I met Tracy (the breeder) in the airport, I opened the little bag and couldn't believe how SMALL she was. I don't remember getting Maude or Harpo that small. She was a day over 8 weeks. She had a good first 8 weeks with a new brother and sister. She was the only one that was "blue" in her litter - that is her coloring. She is born black but they lighten up as they get older and she will be a nice metallic gray color with a black button nose - like Maude. Harpo is "liver" with a perfect brown nose.

I am spending my week painting, drinking coffee, playing with Lily, trying to teach her about going out and peeing outside. All good stuff, maybe even a nap.

I am very happy to be taking this week off from work even though I am still plotting out next summer. It is looking pretty good though! I'm excited about it! So, here are a few pictures of the new sister, the puppy, the center of the universe, the cute thing.

Here she is in her little bed

She does sleep a lot! Thank god!

Frolicking on the beach, sadly I had to buy her a pink jacket, the only color they had and she was cold.

Did I mention she has a polka dotted paw?

Carla getting in some love time!

Looking really CUTE.

Playing in the garden.

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: World AIDS Day - 30 years later + Thinking of Vict...

2011-12-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: World AIDS Day - 30 years later + Thinking of Vict...: There are now 33.4 million people living with HIV and AIDS. Each year, two million die from AIDS-related illnesses. 30 years ago the di...

World AIDS Day - 30 years later + Thinking of Victor

2011-12-01T22:58:00.001-05:00

There are now 33.4 million people living with HIV and AIDS.

Each year, two million die from AIDS-related illnesses.

30 years ago the disease wasn't even named. The country was in fear. Friends were sick and dying. We marched, we fought back, we acted up.

In 1990, I and a few friends started Artists Against AIDS in Hartford, we raised over $100,000 in 5 years, 100% of the money was donated to People living with AIDS & organizations making a difference, we tried to fund things that didn't get funded, like fun activities getting people out of the house, paying for massages and acupuncture. Art supplies for artists that couldn't afford them anymore, rides and medications. Everyone came together to support it. Artists, Poets, Musicians, Dancers & Activists. It was a great thing.

Today here in Provincetown local Artist & Activist Pasquale Natale organized a show called getting to Zero - a Drive by Show at Art Current in Provincetown.

I made the following 2 for this exhibit. I'm very glad to be part of this show.

Getting to Zero, 12" x 12", Encaustic on Panel

Llama with Zero, 8" x 10", Encaustic on Panel

This was taken on the deck in Truro, the summer my partner at the time & 6 gay men rented a house

I miss Victor D'Lugin who taught me that debating, arguing, living the non-status quo was the way to go. To follow your dreams. He had a close support group of friends and we all learned from him all the time. I was very happy to be one of those friends. He was brilliant in many ways.

I googled him to try and find a good picture, since I lost many photos of him on my dead computer. And I found this great bio of him, I want to share it. He ended his life in Provincetown. He moved to a place that was welcoming and had support.

Here is his bio.

Biography

Victor D'Lugin was a prominent activist in both Connecticut and Provincetown, a sharp-tongued political radical whose tenacity and brilliance helped shape gay and AIDS politics for a decade (1986-1996).

Victor was never afraid of a good fight: in fact, he picked quite a few. He took on Archbishop John Whealon when Connecticut's Catholic bishops tried to cut gays and lesbians from the state's hate crimes bill. He stared down Health Commissioner Susan Addiss, whose policy on the collection of names of HIV-positive individuals he opposed. He led the consumer takeover of Provincetown's AIDS Support Group, ousting a regime that had become numb to the true needs of those it intended to serve. And few can ever forget his one-two knockout sparring match with Rep. William Wollenberg on the State Judiciary Committee, which convinced many lawmakers to support Connecticut's landmark gay civil rights bill in 1991.

Born in the Bronx in 1945, Victor never lost his working-class, New York, Jewish chutzpah. Graduating from New York University with a Ph.D. in political philosophy, he became a champion of the rights of women, minorities and eventually, after coming out in the early 1980s, gay men and lesbians. As a professor at the University of Hartford, he inspired hundreds of students, many of whom credit Victor with shaping their political and social consciences.

Victor wasn't afraid to criticize even members of his own community, calling gay men and lesbians on our own sexism, racism, neglect of AIDS and sexphobia. Railing against the mainstream drift of the gay movement, he said, "My view is not about convincing society that we share their values, but rather, it's about transforming what those values are." In short, he made a lot of noise. He provoked. He prodded. He challenged. He helped articulate the activist goals of a movement in change. For many young gay and lesbian activists in the 1980s and 1990s, Victor was a mentor -- the moral, uncompromising absolute. Whether it was putting in context for us our rage over the gay-bashing murder of Richard Reihl in 1988 or spearheading a more militant response to Reagan-Bush inaction on AIDS, Victor left his inimitable mark on Connecticut and Provincetown politics.

Yet to those of us who broke through his reserve, his brittle arrogance, the legacy of Victor D'Lugin goes much deeper than legislative or electoral gains. We discovered a man of great insight, a superlative listener, an unconditional- if demanding- friend. Yet the demands made upon us were nothing more than the demands he made upon himself.

Victor was- first and foremost- a teacher, and not only in the classrooms of the University of Hartford, where he served as an professor of political philosophy until his retirement in 1995. Teaching was his great passion- even greater than the passion he had out in the dunes of Provincetown with a dozen other men on a starry night, and that's saying a lot. Teaching was in his blood, in his soul, in the very essence of his being, for that is the way Victor led, how he changed policy, how he ultimately made a difference.

"What I demand most in my life," he said in 1991, on the steps of the State Capitol on Gay Pride Day, the day he came out publicly as HIV-positive for the first time, "is a fundamental respect for who I am. Yet I have no right to demand respect from others unless I am prepared to give respect to others based on who they are."

The lessons were abundent, and the most important ones were about compassion and challenge. Over his desk, he kept many quotes. James Baldwin, Audre Lord, Jung and Plato. But this one, from Agnes de Mille, carried perhaps the most telling resonance: "Life is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."

At the beginning of 1995, Victor moved to Provincetown. He loved Provincetown: there he felt more at home than anywhere else. The wind on the breakwater, the red sunsets over the dunes. For the first time, his health was being seriously affected by the virus he'd carried around in his body for ten years.
Yet his retirement was hardly an ending. "It's not enough," he told us, again and again, "not enough to change laws. It's not even enough to change minds. We need to touch hearts and souls."
And so, he leapt into the dark- as he always had. In Provincetown, he took long walks along the beach. "There's so much to be learned from the stillness," he told us. In those final months, the old rage transformed into something else. He was no longer only a teacher. He was once again a student, listening to the wind and thanking the waves.

Victor died in Provincetown on August 13, 1996, just as a whole new series of AIDS drugs appeared on the scene. Many of his longtime friends were distressed that he did not reap the benefits his activism had sown. But there was no distress for Victor. While the old warrior never wavered in his conviction that his death was the result of America's collaboration with indifference, his spirit proved mightier than even his incredible mind. He knew, finally, there was one more leap to be taken into the dark. In his last months, he had one final lesson to teach us: that all of us will die, that death is simply one part of the ingenious cycle of creation, and that, in between, comes love.

"The moment we cease to hold each other," Victor had said, quoting James Baldwin that scorchingly hot day on the steps of the state Capitol five years earlier, "the moment we lose faith in one another, the darkness engulfs us and the light goes out." Then he added: "The moment I let a friend hold my hand, the light engulfed me."

Yes, Victor D'Lugin changed gay politics in Connecticut. But more importantly, he changed all of us who knew him. -- William J. Mann and Timothy Huber

To read more about Victor click here

Tonight on FACEBOOK a quote by Harvey Fierstein that really said it all.

It's WORLD AIDS DAY. 30 years. Innumerable losses. Unbearable grief. Anger untamed. Billions in research. Countless benefits and outreaches. Education, dramas, movies, songs, books, quilts... Free rubbers and counseling. An almost completely avoidable virus. And still new cases every day. I am speechless with regret.

And so am I.

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Lasagna Noodle Paintings

2011-11-13T17:11:00.000-05:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Lasagna Noodle Paintings: Flying Cormorant over Sea Have you ever drawn on a shell or piece of Mylar? Well drawing on a lasagna noodle has a similarly good feeling...

Lasagna Noodle Paintings

2011-11-13T16:22:00.002-05:00

Flying Cormorant over Sea

Have you ever drawn on a shell or piece of Mylar? Well drawing on a lasagna noodle has a similarly good feeling. That mat surface where the pencil drags a bit and the surface becomes alive. Well a few years ago, I moved to the top of a dune in Truro, with a great view of the Pamet River and had a lot of time on my hands. I invited some friends for dinner and made lasagna, and I thought I would try out that pre-cooked variety. I bought 2 boxes and only used one and a few extras from box number 2. I did not like the pre-cooked lasagna at all (to eat), and thought of what to do with them.

So there I was with all of these extra noodles, a big lovely studio and poof out these paintings came.

Here are a few from my Cormorant Series.

One Cormorant

3 Cormorants and 6 Legs

Three Cormorants Singing

Big Cormorant

I have had them put away, and while cleaning a little bit in my studio, I decided to pull them out and take a look and see about the way they held up. This is from Winter 2009. To my surprise they held up VERY WELL.

There is a big risk factor in both painting them as well as storing them. They can break. I was thinking of them archivally (not sure that is a word), though not really knowing the archival factor in a lasagna noodle, but I thought well, mummies held up for 2,000 years maybe these will too. So, I waxed both sides of them so there was no chance that a bug or something hungry might not eat through to the noodle.

I have enjoyed looking at them and I think I may just start painting on them again. Framing is also a bit of an issue.

Harpo on Sheep

You Looking at Me?

Sheep on Harpo

Two Sheep

Baby Lamb

Goat

Pig with Pail

This was a fun series. I may have started a new trend here with Encaustic on Lasagna Noodles! Whooda thunk.

Maude

2011-11-05T22:18:00.002-04:00

Maude really was the perfect dog there ever was. My ex-partner had always taken credit for her perfectness since she was unemployed during the formative years. Whatever the reason, she was really perfect in every way. She didn't shed. She walked with a little prance. She slept on top of the pillows to get a better view from above. She slept in the bed, but when she got too hot, she went under. She cuddled hard whenever she wanted cuddles. She loved her brother Harpo. She listened to everything you said. She had a perfect black shiny nose and big black eyes. She loved things that moved; her obsession with bees, bugs, and especially the oysters beds that spit little bits of water during low-tide. She would just stare and stare at them waiting for the moving sand and water. She could spend the entire day playing on the flats, especially at low tide.

She loved to lay on Harpo's ball so Harpo would stare at her. She loved to lick your face. She loved to look out the window. She was a happy dog.

She lived for eleven years and four months. She got diagnosed in July with Kidney disease. She had lost a bunch of weight. The only remedy was a change in diet. No dogs likes the KD formula or the Royal Canine so she kept losing weight. From sub-q fluids, to IV drip, to chicken rotisserie to tuna steaks, lots of acupuncture - nothing really helped her bum kidneys. One day she would like something, the next day she wouldn't. We tried every kind of treats out there. Her favorite til the end were greenies.

It is hard to imagine her not laying next to Harpo on the bed next to my desk. She came to work everyday. It is hard to imagine my days without her. Neither can Harpo. He looks around for her and perhaps has gotten a little more obsessed with the yellow ball if that is even possible. He is getting lot of treats, lots of walks, lots of extra love.

Thanks to Hope Finn for believing that we could make her a great home.

Thanks Maude for enriching my life! For making me laugh and for stealing my heart!

Patron Saints of Various Things

2011-10-31T23:30:00.000-04:00

This is an on-going series. These are from this year. I decided that I would find Patron Saints of things that I liked - Animals, Rabbits, Beekeepers and other miscellaneous things. It's really a never ending series. I started this series in 2007, it's interesting to see the evolution.

Patron Saint of Birds is Milburga

Patron Saint of Animals is Saint Francis

Patron Saint of Postal Workers is Archangel Saint Gabriel

This Patron Saint of Beekeepers was selected for the R & F 2011 Encaustic Book!

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Patron Saints of Various Things

2011-10-30T12:22:00.000-04:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Patron Saints of Various Things: This is an on-going series. These are from this year. I decided that I would find Patron Saints of things that I liked - Animals, Rabb...

New Works

2011-10-24T20:40:00.001-04:00

I've been working on a new series of abstract landscapes. Here are a few.

These are all 6" x 6" - Encaustic on Panel

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Vacation

2011-10-10T23:55:00.000-04:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Vacation: Well, I can't be more excited to have 3 days of 80 degree weather on my week-long vacation in mid October. Things are suppose to change to ...

Vacation

2011-10-10T23:47:00.003-04:00

Well, I can't be more excited to have 3 days of 80 degree weather on my week-long vacation in mid October. Things are suppose to change to be a little cooler tomorrow, but I am just happy to have some time to BE and have the sun smash against my face and to be in shorts again!

So far my days have consisted of going out to the Dune Shack Thalassa. I didn't win it this year, but Carla did, so I was going to go with her. But since Maude is a bit under the weather, I am here on this side of Route 6, doing what I would have done over there....well with the commodities like heating wax and charging my iphone. It is amazing how much we do take for granted when we can choose to just not turn things on. Or walk up a big hill (the dune) after pumping the water. (I haven't had to do that yet). Anyway, I am spending time with me making art, I am spending time cooking for Maude and touching more meat than I have probably my entire life. I cooked a tuna steak, ripped a precooked chicken from Stop & Shop, and happy to say she ate today for the first time in 3 days. So I am happy.

This is Thalassa - probably 6' x 12', part of the Peaked Hill Trust

This is Ray Wells Shack, she died a few months ago at 101

We took 3 good walks on the beach and I managed to not talk to anyone until close to 2:45! Then I went to Lands End and bought some denatured alcohol and shellac for a few thoughts I want to persu tomorrow. I also sewed up a few little books that are on my mind. Wax filled the air for a good part of the day.

I thought I would show some nice photos of Thalassa and the beauty of the dunes. Only 2 miles away from the center of town, it is an amazing thing.


Had a delicious salad that Carla made

Carla relaxing and her hair is flowing like the seagrass

The first toaster!

Nice door

Flower holder for the door -that says Thalassa (spelled wrong)

The Well

The end

I realized I haven't put up any art, or drawings. I need to to take some photos of my drawing that I did while over there. I will do that tomorrow. Oh maybe AFTER I get a massage!

Maude on the Right, Harpo on the left - do you feel the love?

Indian Summer

2011-10-08T19:59:00.002-04:00

I don't think it is officially Indian Summer as we have not had a frost yet. Today it was 79 degrees in Provincetown and maybe 83 tomorrow! That is most exciting. I am on vacation this week. I have to say, that I am very, very, very happy to be on vacation. My plans.....to wake up. Take the dogs out. Try to get Maude to eat something, even if it's only treats. Sit on the back deck and read the paper and drink coffee.

Then finally spend some time making art. I was suppose to go out to the Dune Shack this week BUT.....Maude is sick..... I will go out and visit Thalassa. I DO look forward to spending a few days this week out there and I will practice seeing, feeling and being in the quiet of the sand. It is an amazing place out there! I have spoken of of it in past posts....long ago. But mostly I will be with myself and my studio and melt some wax, spread some paint and just be. That is already making me happy. This picture of Maude is right before she had her hair cut. She is about half of this size now.

Anyway, the skies have been amazing from September through today October 8th.

I am going to post some skies that have made me pull off the side of the road in astonishment.

This is just the tip of the sky iceberg - if you know what I mean. It is a good thing I have a convertible, I can be seen (regularly) with my camera on my head while driving.

This is just one foggy morning and the sun popped out in perfect synchronicity.

Labor DAY or is that LABOR Day

2011-09-04T18:18:00.000-04:00

Well this summer did fly by. I am happy to say. Though I would be happy with a few more months of warm weather, I am happy about Labor Day being upon us. I have exuded a bunch of labor this summer and now I am tired.

Here I am working very hard holding up this sign! It was a good sign.

I wish all the workers a good day off tomorrow.

Wall at Kobalt Gallery in Provincetown

So the Provincetown Banner did a story on me this week. It was a pretty good article. It spoke about about me as an artist as well as an administrator. It's also nice to be noticed as an artists because most know me more as an administrator of a lovely art school in Truro. Though I'm not sure why I think that, since I have been represented in Provincetown for the past 18 years, 8 years at Julie Heller and before that at East End Gallery with Bunny Pearlman for maybe 7 years. Then for the past 3 years with Kobalt Gallery. Before that I was involved in 2 galleries in CT. Artworks Gallery and Gallery on the Green in Canton CT. Both were co-op like galleries. I had a lovely studio in Hartford a 56 Arbor Street I loved it. Now my studio which is much smaller is in my house on the upper floor of my house, though it has a great view of the harbor. So is smaller better?

The funny thing is the first sentence which goes like this: Known wherever she parks her sporty red convertible for a warm smile and can-do attitude, the outgoing, curly-haired Cherie Mittenthal has been on overdrive since daffodil season. [which is very true about the overdrive and the curly hair!]

~note: the article is written by Susan Rand Brown who is from Hartford who I have know for many years. She is involved in the Hartford Community College and has a house in Provincetown in the Summer. She does freelance writing for the Banner. She came to me, mid summer and said I want to write a story on you and I already got it approved from the Banner. Which one unusually begs to get press in the summer!!

Well, I don't have a red sports car, though I do have a silver Mini Cooper Convertible. A few people have mentioned since reading the article that I do have a red car vibe, or a red car personality. Which for me is all about being pulled over. Statistics show those in red cars get pulled over more often.

Here I am in my car, well you can't really tell it's not red. Maybe I'm color blind?

To Read the Article click on here >>>: Mittenthal Makes Art to Feed the Soul - -

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Summer & Water Buffalo

2011-08-20T22:49:00.000-04:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Summer & Water Buffalo: It's Saturday August 20th. I can't believe that summer is almost over. I just can't believe that and I do have to say a big part of me is ha...

Summer & Water Buffalo

2011-08-20T22:47:00.000-04:00

Went to the Farmer's Market this morning and got some corn, tomatoes, blueberries, onions and a few other delicious things. Oh the main reason for going was the baratta. Which is mozzarella cheese filled with a soft cheese with figs and almonds inside. It is the most decadent thing I ever had. I could eat the whole ball. Best when left out for a short time to get the inner cheese to soften. The woman who makes it comes all the way from Falmouth. She make the cheese everyday. Though the market is only once a week. When she doesn't show up, things are just not the same. Wonder if she has water buffalo over there in Falmouth. Have I ever mentioned the water buffalo farm I visited in Italy? It was an amazing place. There were hundreds of GIANT ANIMALS, water buffalo, have you ever seen them? The are twice the size of a cow, and they move in very gentle ways, they love the mud and they only eat organic straw, some of them have horns. I was obsessed with them while in Italy, the group toured the whole place, wondered around the places where they smoked the cheese under fire, and I was still feeding, photographing, drawing and painting them. Loved them. They rolled in the mud and sometimes rubbed their muddy horns on the neighboring beast. They were never aggressive and never mean spirited. At that farm they also had a restaurant where you can eat the cheese and drink wine and eat bread. My kind of lunch.

Here are a few drawing out of my sketchbook from Italy trip.

Lovely Day

2011-08-20T17:07:00.001-04:00

It's Saturday August 20th. I can't believe that summer is almost over. I just can't believe that and I do have to say a big part of me is happy about it. I don't want to become one of those year-rounders that throw parties when the tourists leave, though there is a part of me, that rejoices in the thought of not having to work at least 3 nights a week and at least one weekend day.

I do love warm water and sun smashing on my face. A LOT. I do love going kayaking at high tide and I like it even during low tide. Though I don't love having to drag the kayak too far, so high tide it is.

Last night there was a group show opened at Kobalt Gallery and many people were liking my new paintings. I realized I hadn't photographed some of them. So I should swing by and do that.

It's 5:15 and I went to the Farmer's Market this morning and got some corn, tomatoes, blueberries, onions and a few other delicious things. Oh the main reason for going was the baratta. Which is mozzarella cheese filled with a soft cheese with figs and almonds inside. It is the most decadent thing I ever had. I could eat the whole ball. Best when left out for a short time to get the inner cheese to soften. The woman who makes it comes all the way from Falmouth. She make the cheese everyday.
When she doesn't show up, things are just not the same. Wonder if she has water buffalo over there in Falmouth. Have I ever mentioned the water buffalo farm I visited in Italy? It was an amazing place. There were hundreds of GIANT ANIMALS, water buffalo, have you ever seen them? The are twice the size of a cow, and they move in very gentle ways, they love the mud and they only eat organic straw, some of them have horns. I was obsessed with them while in Italy, the group toured the whole place, wondered around the places where they smoked the cheese under fire, and I was still feeding, photographing and painting them. Loved them. They rolled in the mud and sometimes rubbed their muddy horns on the neighboring beast. They were never aggressive and never mean spirited.

So these Water Buffalo are from Paestum, and some of the best on the world of mozzarella.

I decided to google water buffalo paestum and I got lots of facts, some I think I will share. This came from Wikipedia.

Production stages

"The richness of buffalo milk makes it highly suitable for processing. To produce 1 kg of cheese, a cheese maker requires 8 kg of cow milk but only 5 kg of buffalo milk. Producing 1 kg of butter requires 14 kg of cow milk but only 10 kg of buffalo milk. Because of these high yields, processors appreciate the value of buffalo milk.".^[8]
The steps required to produce buffalo mozzarella are the following:^[21]^[22]

Milk storage (raw buffalo milk stored in big steel containers).
Milk heating (thermic treatment to the liquid, then poured into a cream separator).
Curdling (by induction of natural whey).
Curd maturation (the curd lies in tubs in order to reduce the acidification processes and reach a pH value of about 4.95).
Spinning (hot water is poured out on the curd in order to soften it, obtaining pasta filata).
Shaping (with special rotating shaper machines).
Cooling (by immersion in cold water).
Pickling (by immersion in pickling tubs containing the original whey).
Packaging (in special films cut as bags or in small basins and plastic).

Nutrition

The digestive system of water buffaloes permits them to turn low grade vegetation into rich milk which, due to its higher percentage of solids, provides higher levels of protein, fat and minerals than cow milk.^[23]

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Been So Long - Happy Full Moon!

2011-08-13T18:50:00.000-04:00

Cherie's Art Blog: Muse, Process & Flow: Been So Long - Happy Full Moon!: "Last night's almost full moon rising over the Harbor
I can't believe how long since I blogged. Geesh, I guess that means I've been b..."

Been So Long - Happy Full Moon!

2011-08-13T18:48:00.000-04:00

Last night's almost full moon rising over the Harbor

I can't believe how long since I blogged. Geesh, I guess that means I've been busy. I have been really, really busy. Well, the Castle Hill Auction is behind me, the very busiest week of the summer is coming up, except that I'm feeling really good about it. Next week: Ruth Reichl - "Dinner with Ruth" at the Truro Vineyards is Monday night and it is completely sold out. Tuesday is the lecture with a cocktail party before is 5 people to being sold out to the cocktail party but plenty of seats still available to the lecture. Then on Wednesday is the OuterMost Poetry Festival with Marge Piercy, Martin Espada, Franz Wright. This is a collaboration with local radio station WOMR & Castle Hill at the Wellfleet Congregational Church. If anyone is interested it's $20, $25 at the door.
Martin Espada is teaching next week at Castle Hill, Marge Piercy has taught in the past, and though we never have had Franz Wright teach he is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. So for creativity, I have been too tired and too hot to make art. I usually do the majority of my art making during the winter, fall and spring anyway. BUT this past week, I took a Mixed Media Encaustic Class with Gregory Wright at Castle Hill. It was a great class and I learned new things, and was able to get my wax going and my shellac / denatured alcohol chops on. Even if I learned nothing....it was great to just "be" with myself and 5 other people for at least 3 hours a day. Ok, let's call it survival. I am always crazy busy in the summer. I know that, but for some reason, with the 40th year, no associate director, it just feels like a bunch to me.

So today, big full moon of August 13th, I went kayaking during high tide. There was no wind, the water was like mercury. It was perfect. The sun was shining but a little overcast. We sat next to a boat that had around 50 seabirds on the bow, flying around, singing loudly. I got home and looked it up and what it looked to me like was a Sooty Tern. I didn't take this picture, as (I took it off of Wikepedia). I decided not to bring my camera / iphone on the water and just be in it, with it. It was GREAT! So happy full moon. High Tide is at Midnight. Carla and I are thinking of taking a late night kayak under the full moon. (if it is clear out) and if the water is glowing (which it always is!) Happy Summer, which is almost over. I'm ok with that. A tiny bit more time to just be and not work 60+ hours a week. Here are a few new pieces I did this past week.

Celebrating 40 Years at Castle Hill

2011-07-17T19:08:00.000-04:00

Things have been quite busy as Summer is really here on Cape Cod. The temperatures today were low in the 80's will a nice gust of steady wind. Which feels great, though out on the kayak a bit much. Too much work, but so beautiful.

Threw a big 40th Birthday Party last night for Castle Hill's 40th Anniversary. It was a really nice event. Not a big fundraiser, but a fun birthday party. To thank all of those you have made Castle Hill a wonderful community Arts Center. Joyce was there. The founder. Chris Kelly make a beautiful delicious cake in the shape of the tower that she donated. Ben & Jerry's from Eastham donated the ice cream.

Dana adding the candles!

Detail of the 2nd floor

All the flowers and the 40 is made of chocolate

Here is the whole thing! Thanks Chris of Sweet Baking in Wellfleet


A good crowd watching the very fun band!


This is Andrea Eisenberg and Shirley Glasser having some fun. Shirley who uses a walker was seen dancing a bit with walker!	Both of them went to SUNY Purchase (where I went to Grad School, and both have beautiful Sculptures in the Gardens at Castle Hill

Here is the Chandler Travis Philharmonic - fun band

I thought this was a chocolate rooster off the top of the cake, and I ate it and it was NOT Chocolate and I don't know what it was. Very gross.


We had a Installation that got built as the night went on. The birthday cake and the tiger-woman popping out if it was by Zahra Kahn and Tim Winn. It grew and grew. Lot's of people & kids made art in there and left their mark!

Got better as the night went on.


I felt sorry for the blank canvas and then a pig popped out! Kind of fun to paint with acrylics.


Here is Zahra & Tim now!

So all went well. People drank Margarita's we had wine labels make with a new 40th Anniversary Label of Truro Vineyards of Cape Cod Wine. 2 box set & 2 wine glasses were $40 bucks, such a deal.
Also Ptown Parties threw together some great Mexican food. I made the fab salsa! I think people had a good time. Brian took on the squeezing of the limes and making some great margaritas, Erin took on the door with Katie, Dan floated and took care of the little details which were many. I shmoozed, danced, had a few drinks and had some needed fun!

Now I need to go make some art!

Summer Is Here

2011-07-09T11:04:00.001-04:00

Well July 4th is over and the warm sun has just broken out. I am happy to say that I am tired and happy it's summer. My days are full of working with interesting artists from all over. My nights are full of visitors and friends (sometimes old friends) who want to get together who are only here for a week or a few days.

That is summer on Cape Cod. I think this summer will be even more busy than usual, as my associate director just quit. The 40th Anniversary is here. A capital campaign is quietly underway. Classes are happening. Auction is less than a month away, actually a month from today.

I want to be making art. I am too tired by the time I get home from work. I had a dream the other night that I dormer-ed out my upstairs and my studio got gigantic. Damn wouldn't that have been nice.

So this week a friend of mine came over to visit that I was best friends with in Elementary - through high school. We played music together. We walked to school together. It was great to spend some time with her. She and her partner of 15 years had a week at Harbor Hill in Ptown. Great to catch up.

Then the next morning I got in my car and the radio was playing a piece that we played together as a duo. Me on the Oboe and her on Piano. It was kind of wild as I hadn't heard this piece of music in many years (maybe 20!) and to be perfectly honest I had forgotten it until it came on and I remembered every bar. Oboe Concerto in D minor by Allessandro Marcello. I just down loaded in on itunes.

I did want to run and clean up my oboe. It's sadly not in great shape. Probably my ambusher (muscles in my face) isn't so good either after all these years.

A Very Waxy Night in the Galleries in Provincetown + Castle Hill

2011-06-14T14:04:00.000-04:00

The National Encaustic Juried Show took place at Kobalt Gallery this year and was juried by Francine D' Olimpio. There were over 120 entries and 35 artists were selected. Hard decisions were made and everyone thought it was a wonderful show! This was free and open to anyone who attended the conference.

There was also great Encaustic shows at Bowerstock, Ernden Gallery, Rice Pollack and don't forget the fabulous Sculpture in Wax Invitational at Castle Hill. Many galleries want to be part of the excitement next year. So next year it will be even bigger!

Thanks to all those who came and entered and all those galleries who participated.

Bottom straight ahead winner of the Castle Hill Award

Nice room shot - straight ahead Elena De La Ville & Susan Lasch Krevitt (top)

Christina Kyle - winner of the Director's Award

Top left is Marybeth Rothman - winner of the Jurors Award

David A. Clark

Jeff Shaller

This is my work, it wasn't part of the juried show, but I show at Kobalt and it made it to the wall. :)


Catherine Nash and Gregory Wright (on wall behind) at Bowerstock - Catherine won best in Show and was given a solo show in 2012.

Mark St. Piere

Gregory Wright

Crowds arriving at Kobalt

Dorothy Cochran, trying to see the art amid the wild crowds

Millisa Galazzi at Ernden Gallery

Wall at Rice Pollack where Joanne Matera and Marla Rice co Curated a show called "Surfaces"


Joanne Mattera in front of her painting at Rice Pollack

This is from the Sculpture in Wax invitational at Castle Hill

Nancy Natale at Castle Hill

Miles Conrad with Laura Moriarty in the forground

Catherine Nash

Catherine Nash also at Castle Hill

Kim Bernard

Miles Conrad

This was a really beautiful show at Castle Hill, I curated it, and you just never know until you see the works. Though all so different, the show held together with a common thread...WAX, each of the artists in the show taught a workshop during the post conference at Castle Hill, all were sold out and exceptional workshops. Well mostly all.

I was lucky enough to take Advanced Encaustic with Unconventional Materials with Nancy Natale. I had a blast with my mystery box. This is my piece (which is not totally done) to the left. It was a fun class and also Joanne Mattera, Lynette Haggard, Sherry Posternak, Binnie Birstein and many other fun people too. The class forced all of us to do things we don't usually do. I had a tennis ball that soon became a bee!

I also had a barbie doll, which ended up her own thing: Our Lady of Barbie-loop - photo to come. She was waxed and wrapped in pattern making paper. She looked good. Much better that her naked self. I had joked this was the most I ever played with a Barbie Doll!

More about the Post Conference Workshop in another post.

Palettes & Play

2011-06-12T21:48:00.000-04:00

Sunset with a fire for the Encaustic Crowd - Thanks to Greg!

So I thought I would do a little juxtaposition of Drumming & Palettes. Wednesday night (of the Post week) Lynette Haggard's husband Greg wanted to offer a drumming circle to the wax folks....didn't take much to bring 20 + artists together to try and find rhythm. The weather was perfect, the sunset at 8:30 or so, the pink sky and the fire brought it all together. Everyone shared drums and other percussion like instruments. The best was Sherry Posternak with her one hand strumming the gourd and the other hand drinking wine out of a little Dixie cup.

Then after our little in service on rhythm everyone felt good to flow into the groove.

Elena with Fire and Dune

This was a beautiful griddle of color!

You can tell this was early in the day of waxing!

More drumming, more fire. Here is a great photo (below) of Joanne. She took her drumming very seriously AND she had her own drum! A nice one too.

Joanne Mattera drumming with sunset

Color.


Here is me and Kimberly Kent trying to follow directions

Another Drumming Moment.

I love this photo - Elena De La Ville and Catherine Nash and Fire and Pink Sky

Medium.

This was a palette of Medium from Miles Conrad's Off The Wall Class

Drumming is fun. Just follow the leader and hope this (wax) crowd has some rhythm. He didn't mind if we didn't.

Greg watching the sun while drumming

And the beat continues....

Tightening her drum heat by the heat of the fire

Just another lovely palette of colors

Here I am with my marshmallow on fire or was it a small comet with Kimberly Kent?

This was a really lovely night. Fire on the beach is something I want all the time. Not sure why I don't do it more often. Last year, I organized a fun fire on the beach and the wind picked up and they wouldn't give me a permit..... so thank you to Lynette and to Greg for offering this to everyone who was still around and bringing all those chairs and drums!

I like the circles of the drums with the colors of the palettes, who knew that color and drumming worked so well together!!

All the drum photos were taken by Carla Anderson & all the palette photos were taken by me.

Encaustic Invasion

2011-06-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm just about recovering from a very exciting past few weeks in Provincetown and at Castle Hill.
The streets were a buzz, the weather was perfect and the 250 people who came from 35 states and 5 countries were so welcomed by town and to land of wax that I was "faklempt" a lot of the time. (yiddish for all choked up)

I wasn't really able to just sit and watch any full demo or talks. I moved in and out of every room, taking photos, listening, watching and feeling the people of the rooms. Joanne and I made a great team. My relaxed being and her slightly worriedness came together in perfect harmony.

The last 2 conferences I went to in Beverly, Joanne Mattera (founder and director) had said to me (on more than one occasion) I don't know how you do this..... (meaning run programs all summer long). She was stressed out in a big way. This time.....she admitted she was kind of relaxed. She was beaming with relaxedness. (my word).

First of all the Castle Hill staff was pretty incredible. We all worked way over 40 hours both getting ready, during and after! The professionalism that they shared, the ease they made it look, and the constant questions being asked was a wonderful thing to watch. We never did anything this big. We all worked as a team that created a seamless and wonderful conference together. None of us could have done it alone and all of us made it happen. So thank you to Erin Woodbrey, Chris More, Dana Dunham, David Ellis and Brian Taylor ! You really do rock!! Also thanks to Ari, who worked on the tech side of things.

So...lets talk about the conference. I am going to do this in a bunch of separate posts, since each moment felt like it could be discussed a bunch.

Thursday night, 28 people showed up at El Mundo (brand new Mexican place in town) to eat mexican food and begin to catch up. Lots of new friends came together for the first time. People who only knew each others work from Facebook, had names now attached. Lots of old friends joined together like a family reunion + the Margaritas were great too!

Dorothy Furlong Gardner - Monoprint Marathon - kicked off the Conference

David A. Clark - showing a stencil approach during the Monoprint Marathon

Kimberly Kent - Demo on the basics of Encaustic

Joanne Mattera & Maura taking in Toby Sisson - who spoke on the Art of Critique

This was day one....it was a nice opening, the Monoprint Marathon brought 3 people who approach Monoprint with Wax in totally different ways. We projected on a big screen and had a live feed though out the conference - this made a huge difference. A large room, that people could walk in and out of and be able to see in the back!! Thanks PTV for loaning us equipment.

The vendor room was extremely popular. A colored candy store of encaustic paint to gather up....7 vendors 6 paint makers (R & F, KAMA Pigments, Encausticos, Evans Pigments, Mile Conrad Fine Art and CUNI water based encaustic from Spain. Then we had Jane's Frames who made very beautiful panels from Canada.

Cuni from Spain

Miles Conrad - lovely special colors


Encausticos - Katherine & Mike playin' around before the crowds arrive

Vincent talking about his new products from Kama Pigments

Hylla Evans made special Provincetown Colors!

Jane's Frames panels were very beautiful! Now I need a bigger studio!

Hylla doing a little check out while gazing at the sea.

R & F Handmade Paints all look SO GOOD while being all lined up like that.

I think I spent over $1,000 in the Vendor room....I would buy something and then need a little more of something else, each vendor had something different and unique to offer. I'm afraid to add up my receipts. This was also a good room with tables in the middle to just relax and hang out, check your mail and make contacts with.

And then there was the light of Provincetown out the window. 70+ degrees and sun each day. A little crisp at night, perfect melting wax weather.

Here is a link to the Article in Provincetown.com
Here is a link to the Article in Provincetown Magazine
Here is a link to the Article in the Provincetown Banner
Here is a link to an Interview with me in Artscope Magazine

We got great press! Thanks to the media.

This is a little note I received today from Dorothy Furlong Gardner:

Joanne and Cherie,

I'm full. Circuit overload. Still in a daze,

but it's slowly being absorbed.

I was welcomed, engaged, nurtured, nourished, inspired,

inflamed and 20 of my 82 years melted away like winter's ice.

Thank you!

Dottie

5 More Days

2011-05-29T20:32:00.001-04:00

Today is 5 days before the 5th International Encaustic Conference. At 5:00 on May (the fifth month) 29th. Memorial Day Weekend.

I spent the last 2 days working the Raku Extravaganza and Print Spectacular at Castle Hill. It was a great turn out both days, a great print show in the gallery by the Printmakers of Cape Cod, and a big ceramic sale by the Cape Cod Potters and the Castle Hill faculty. We are sharing the love in clay and ink this weekend.

It was really good energy, even though by feet are killing me and my back is sore.

The crowds are excited about The Encaustic Conference. When I went over to Pamet, where demos were happening all weekend, Carol Odell was doing a demo on encaustic and printmaking. She had poured encaustic medium onto a zinc place and scraping into it with a scribe. Then inking it like an intaglio print and running it through the press. A very interesting technique.

In the next room Cyndi Wish was presenting a Piano Stitch Binding - she likes the rusty long nails the best!

I will also post her print which is in the show and I love it very much!

Ellen - reduction woodcut by Cyndi Wish

Bar Mitzvah of Benjamin

2011-05-22T17:32:00.000-04:00

The Bar Mitzvah Boy! Benjamin Upadhyaya

Last weekend was my 13 year old nephews Bar Mitzvah. He did great. Sang a very long haftora, led almost the whole service and was sweet and innocent and practically grown up! From the picture above, you might think it was a Mexican Bar Mitvah, but it was the after party with a dress up photo booth. The kids and adults had fun.

It was nice to see my cousins, my aunt Kippy (who I haven't seen for 11 years) my mom's sister, friends of Linda's, uncles, cousins I never met and my own sisters for that matter.

Mom & Aunt Kippy (from Virginia)

The Sisters

Debbie the middle child getting some kisses

Sarah & Daniel

My cute parents, spinning on the dance floor

The Gister Sisters & the Mittenthal Sisters

We got in trouble for climbing the tree at the golf course

Sarah and her cousin Alley - looking fab.

Sarah and Alley still hugging.

Then my parents and I got an iphone all within a week!

My new favorite Ocarina App!


How many iphones does it take to change a light bulb?

So, my sister Debbie got extremely bored while I showed my parents a few things (and my father showing me a few things) played around before I headed back to Cape Cod.

The end.

For more photos check out the link.

Time & Horseshoe Crabs

2011-05-06T23:10:00.000-04:00

The Horseshoe Crab Mating Dance

I have no idea where the month of April went. Is this a good thing? I don't know. There is a bunch going on at work, there are paintings that are wanting to be painted. There are flowers that need to be planted. The deck needs attention, I want to be sitting on it and do the ritual of walking the dogs and then staring out....looking at the boats through the breakwater. Looking at the light. Watching the ducks sing. I need to find something to wear for my nephew's bar mitzvah next weekend.

Yesterday, I flipped a giant horseshoe crab over to it's feet side and the thing, it did a bow, I thought it was dead. It lifted half of its body, like a big middle fold. Stood like that for a half a minute and then flattened back out. It was about 9" wide. It was so old it had barnacles on it.

I love horseshoe crabs.They are so archaic. They make these spirals on the beach when they are mating. Some days the beach is filled with the pentimento of the mating spirals, though there is no sign of them. Maybe they are buried deep into the sand. Or maybe the tide takes them out and they are swimming around....who knows?

I found this image of a man with Giant Horseshoe Crab

Spring Now (hopefully)

2011-04-10T18:07:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I wrote in my Blog? Not good. I thought I would write all the time. I had fear that I would run out of things to say. And maybe I did for a month or two but now I'm back. Well it has been a very busy few months. I did manage to get away for 10 days and that was good and really needed. I snorkeled for the first time in my life.

I swam under the water with a Spotted Eagle Ray(see above) and a few clown fish and lots of blues iridescent and yellow ones too. Also swam with big Leather back Turtles named Tina and Ike and sea urchins. Culebra is a very beautiful Island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Quiet. Not much night life. Amazing beaches, a national preserve of the reefs in that region with some of the best off-the-beach snorkeling in the world. (ok, I might have made that up)

Click Here to see a little video of the vacation in Culebra!

I have been painting some new paintings, and just delivered about 8 pieces to Kobalt Gallery for an opening next week, as part of the APPEARANCES: A Green Arts Festival in Provincetown for the next few weeks (mid April 15 - 23 or so) - lot of great things going on.

I also painted a Beehive for Rebecca Matarazzi who asked I think 4 or 5 artists were invited to paint - the will live at the community garden. So, I just finished that. I think Marian Roth, Connie Hatch, Sally Brophy, Joan Pereira and maybe someone else painted them.

The other thing that I have been working on is some clay bees. I made a bunch of them and was thinking of painting them in wax and embed them in some paintings, but I love them as an object. Right now they are just scattered on my dining room table and they look fab. Not sure what will become of them but I enjoy making them.

The one below is better. That flash went off by mistake.

It's about 10" long and 11" wide. Stoneware in Cone 10. I'm really glad those wings didn't fall off.

Had a good day today, painted and did some cleaning in my studio. Preparing for John Bonelli to arrive.

Happy Spring.

Cherie

Painting Day on Presidents Day

2011-02-21T18:27:00.000-05:00

Spent the last 2 days painting, which was/is a lovely thing. Working on some new works as well as working on some old ones too. Old meaning in the last month, but keep going back to them. Painting, repainting, layers and more layers. Really good. I didn't paint any presidents - just so you know.

I realized I haven't been writing much in my new blog. Partly when I write I like to update with photos and my canon camera broke is at the canon factory being fixed. Another lens error issue. I can try and blame it on that. Even though I do have a thousand pictures that I can upload that have nothing to do with this post.

Maybe I'll try that. Here is an image for no reason. This is cozy pigs with yellow pail.

Rainbow from my deck.

Here is a random Avitar on the street in Provincetown

Another view from my deck.

The famous pink topped cupcake. Well to update the people. The cupcake man, got off. Didn't need to pay the fine for selling cupcake for the past 2 years on the street, even though he received a permit, from the town (for 2 years). They realized they (the town) made a mistake and started fining him. With $800 worth of tickets he fought it and won. Well, won not having to pay the fine, but sadly can't sell them on the street anymore. Best pink topped cupcakes anywhere!

The end.

Yellow

2011-02-09T20:09:00.000-05:00

Harpo with Yellow Ball

So today, I received 5 yellow balls UPS. I have a dog [Harpo] that is totally obsessed with the Yellow ball and it really needs to be yellow. He puts his snout up to other colors, but under desperate situations, he will play with the purple one, but only in the house. He leaves it behind, like its a dirty purple toy while on the beach. The place I purchased them from 5 years ago no longer carries them and I was running dangerously low.

After many years and many google searches with crappy yellow balls with nubs that were not the same, too hard and with names like porcupine ball and such. THEN.... I saw a name on the end of the ball in a miniscule type-face. I again googled it. TOGU TOUCH - poof there they were. A German company. Great for kids. Didn't mention Bedlington Terriers. But I finally found a company that had them in stock!

So in case they go out of business I bought 5. He is very cute. I gave him all of them so he can see how excited things can get and show him all the love. He played with everyone. Dragged all of them up on the couch one at a time and is now fast asleep.

Maude, Harpo's sister is just laying on the upper cushion, needs not know the love, but feels the love.

Harpo & Maude at Highland Center

Yellow Ball [not the new one]

Harpo - you looking at me, where's my yellow ball?

Maude with geranium and pillow

Encaustic Conference

2011-01-27T12:08:00.001-05:00

New Venue/New Excitement/Sign Up Now

So in case anyone is reading my blog, the 5th International Encaustic Conference will be quite an event.

New Postcard, coming out soon, if you would like a stack to pass around, let me know.

So far there are 193 people registered, from 29 states and 2 countries. I know there are a lot of people out there that love to procrastinate (as I am one of them). But the conference is full at 250 and we are over 75% full, so don't wait too much longer. Also Cape Air is offering a 10% discount if you fly from Boston. When you make reservations, you need to call Cape Air directly. They are affiliated with Jet Blue [same terminal] just so you know.

New: A special deal for Conferees on Cape Air from Boston/Logan:

$189.79 round trip

It's available June1-12. When you call for reservations, use this reference code:

PVC CONF

Lots of excitement, lots of new blood, lots of wax, lots still to learn, lots of snow.

It's a really good time! No one has ever left The Encaustic Conference disappointed with its format or events. "Three days of waxy goodness" is how conferee Jhina Alvarado has described it.

The Encaustic Conference has never been affiliated with any other encaustic group or organization, though we welcome the participation of members so aligned. Membership is not a prerequisite for registration. Everyone who works in encaustic is welcome to register.

Joanne has put together some good stats for your review:

Stats at a Glance
Conferees registered to date: 193 Percentage of max: 76
U.S. States represented: 29 Canadian provinces 3 New Zealand: 1
Length of conference: 3 days Events in three days: 28 Commercial galleries in P-town that will show work in encaustic during the conference: 3 (so far)
Encaustic exhibitions at Castle Hill: 1 Opportunities to show and talk about your work in addition to the four gallery exhibitions: 2 International conferences besides this one: 0
Places as quirky and wonderful as Provincetown: 0 Post-con workshops: 20
Number filled so far: 7
Workshops almost full enough to close: 4
Post-con evening events: 2
Estimated degree of satisfaction: 100%

So don't procrastinate! call 508-349-7511 or go to castlehill.org to register.

Bees

2011-01-19T17:28:00.002-05:00

New Clay Bee Series. More to come.

SAVE THE BEES:

Ban the pesticide that's killing honey bees

Some New Paintings

2011-01-15T16:39:00.003-05:00

Drawing with graphite on Panel - first step

So, For the past 3 weeks, I've been working on some new Amaryllis paintings. I have done a few new things. I started out with a drawing with graphite and then I did a watercolor over it. Let that dry for a few days and then painted with encaustic paint. An interesting surface and the watercolor bled through. There is a part of me that just likes knowing I still know how to draw. I really like painting and this somehow captures both.

Second step - watercolor

Third Step - Painting -

Paintings with Shadow

Amarrylis with Clay Pig

Amaryllis with Blue Table and Clay Pig

Amaryllis of 2011

2011-01-03T18:39:00.001-05:00

My yearly ritual of drawing and painting Amaryllis. I love the process. From box to bulb to planting and then poof, a stalk. An inch a day sometimes more. Then a big bud. In no time at all a giant flower head pops out. A top heavy bulbous red flower, head, face with delicate stamens dangling down that are yellow and powdery.

Happy 1.1.11

2011-01-01T18:42:00.000-05:00

Today is One, One, Two thousand and eleven - 1.1.11 adds up to 4 my favorite number.
And I got my haircut at 1:00.

I am amazed that it's already January! Not sure where November and December went. I'm winding down my week-long vacation. Which I didn't do too much. Made some art, did some drawings, threw a New Year's Eve Party, took a bunch of long walks on the beach and did a bunch of cooking.

Blacked eyed peas / or as they call it Jumpin' Johns - though I make them with an Indian twist. Spicy and tomato-y and I have to say very yummy. I do make them every year, but this batch seemed better than usual. I've been thinking about cooking a lot lately. I have always liked to cook, though my past partner really loved to cook. So, I didn't do that much. Though I was known as the one who could make things without a cookbook or recipes and the one who cooked the cultural foods, like Indian, Thai, Mexican and other spicy foods. I did get some credit for that.

So, in the last week or two, I have dug up some old but new recipes, like the Blueberry Upside Down Cake, and the Nick Malgeiri - Orange scented Olive Oil Cake. I always loved them, but never made them, and I decided to change that. And make some of the things that I missed that Laura always made.

The other fabulous thing of 1.1.11 is that my thermometer said 70 degrees on my deck. It really wasn't. But it was over 50 and felt so beautiful. Read the newspaper outside and ate breakfast outside too!

The other very exciting thing of the day is a giant Peregrine Falcon has taken up residency across the street a the Provincetown Library. He is very big and beautiful.

So Happy New Year to all. Below is the first step of a new series of paintings. My amaryllis are going wild right now. Unlike the drawing below.

Snow & New Year Coming

2010-12-27T14:13:00.000-05:00

Snowy Pier with Wind and Snow

Well it's Monday December 27 and I'm happy to say I'm on vacation. The snow is falling now, though the BIG storm of yesterday came early with 3 or 4 inches of snow which soon was ice and then slush all melted away by morning. We had 60 mile an hour of gusts and a steady 35 mile an hour of winds. We lost power at around 7:15 and came back on by 2:00 am. Not too bad. Dogs cuddled in. An extra blanket and total hunkering down. Nothings like a good storm.

Sheep on my deck with a little snow

Duck standing on his hind legs posing for me

Snowy Boat facing North

Now I'm drawing some Amaryllis that are soon to be opened.

Encaustic Conference 2011

2010-12-17T22:51:00.001-05:00

For the past 3 months, I have been planning and plotting along with Conference Director Joanne Mattera to host the next Encaustic Conference in Provincetown.

This conference really is going to be most interesting & very inspiring. Joanne's contacts and connections, her professionalism & organization skills and her blog-abilty combined with my skills make us a pretty damn good duo. [If I say so myself]

Some of the highlights are listed here but go to the ENCAUSTIC BLOG link to see the depth of what will be happening that first weekend in June. The following week at Castle Hill [Post conference] will reinforce the conference learning and moves one into hands-on learning - with some of the best presenters across the country.

The following are some of the highlights - that are posted on the blog.

Conference Events: Descriptions and Info

Andrea Bird- doing a demo on working with an Iron

Posted 12.17.10

Presenter Jhina Alvarado

This annotated list of Conference events is now complete. With the implementation of one more step--the hour-by-hour schedule (coming soon)--you will be able to select the events of your choice and register for post-conference workshops as well. We expect this to take place just after the first of the year.

Friday Afternoon Monotype Marathon
Three hours, three presenters, each with their unique take on the technique. The Marathon will run for three hours straight, but you will be able to come and go as you wish. The event will take place in a large room, and entering/exiting will not disrupt the activities.

Demonstrators: Dorothy Furlong Gardner, Kathleen Lemoine and Paula Roland

Friday Evening
Opening in town of Beeline, juried by Francine D'Olimpio at her Kobalt Gallery. I'll post the prospectus after the first of the year. (More galleries will be showing encaustic; we'll post as we get that info, too)

Saturday Morning Panel: Mastering Media
While the demos and talks help conferees master their medium, this panel will focus on the various media we have available to promote ourselves and our work. I've gathered a group whose collective experience should help you think about how you wish to proceed with your own self-promotion. And, of course, we look to you to be part of the discussion.

Panelists: Kandy Lozano, Cherie Mittenthal, Nancy Natale, Jeff Schaller, Linda Womack; Joanne Mattera, moderator

Saturday Evening Keynote: Jackie Battenfield
The Author of the best-selling The Artist's Guide: How To Make a Living Doing What You Love, gathers her experience as a working artist, gallery director, author, and educator into a down-to-earth talk that will challenge and inspire.

Sunday Afternoon Panel: Submitting Your Work? What the Juror Sees
How it is that your work can win first prize at one event and not even get accepted into another? What's the logic behind acceptance and its dreaded counterpart, the rejection? Three decision makers--two commercial gallerists and the director of a not-for-profit museum, artists all--talk about the selection process from their side of the submission.

Panelists: Miles Conrad, owner/director of the Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson; Laura Moriarty, director of the Gallery at R&F, Kingston, New York; Sandi Miot, founding member, past president, and current director/curator of the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, California

Miles Conrad, presenter

_________________________________________________________
To see the demos being offered, the inspiring and interesting talks being held and in depth conversations about wax, art, being in a gallery, working on paper, working with a torch and much much more click here. This is a very comprehensive weekend for artists attending. I have to say I'm excited to be part of it.

Think about giving this conference as a gift to someone you love.

Or if you are on the fence and you never came before, consider this conference as the "one".

Cold

2010-12-14T23:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it's 20 degrees outside. That is cold. I was driving home from work and the sun had set and the sky had remnant of pinks. There was a beautiful sliver of moon. I pulled over and took a picture.

The Mouse

2010-12-14T22:55:00.000-05:00

Well about a month ago I began paintings mice. Not sure why but they just popped up. So I went with it. They are both 8" x 8" and done in Encaustic.

Then last Friday I was at work having a lovely conversation with a board member and I looked up and there was a mouse sitting on the ledge next to the window, basking in the sun. [see above & below], not quite knowing what to do....I called a friend. She came over and totally took care of the situation. She said "take this box and hold it close to the mouse, so there is only one place it can go, in the box." Then (this was the part I had a hard time with), when the mouse walks into the box, close the top. OK, "I say"....everything was going swimmingly, the mouse walked into the box, and before I could close the top I paniced, and threw the box in the air, and the mouse flew out and landed in the dog's water bowl below......(kind of thank god, because if it just fell in the room on the floor, we never would have gotten it!) - she took the bowl out and set the boy free. That was my Friday.

So that is the end of my story. Goodnight.

boots

2010-12-03T20:35:00.000-05:00

So FINALLY the boots arrived.....though they are about 4 sizes too small! How could that be?? The English are that much smaller than us giant Americans.... Alright that was a bit of an exaggeration but still, a size 6 Euro = a 8.5 in American. And my foot doesn't even fit in the hole!

Some people have made me aware that I have a thing for shoes.....I use to blame my sister Linda for getting the shoe gene, but I think I have it too now.... Well partly I have screwed up feet. Flat feet, not a lot of arch...When I was one, and just walking, I had to wear 2 shoes that were the same on both feet.So they need extra special shoes!! Yes, that's it.

I think I will go paint now.

World AIDS Day

2010-12-01T08:09:00.001-05:00

Well it's 2010, how many World AIDS Days have there been? How many people have died in the USA? In Africa, in Asia? In the world? Is this day to remember those that died? Is it for the government to be able decide to focus on a cure, or a vaccine? Is it to bring awareness to those who say they don't know anyone with AIDS, or anyone who have died of AIDS or is living with HIV.

I guess I do still have anger. I remember in 1989, I dressed in black and stood on top of the Carl Andre rocks in Hartford across from the Wadsworth Atheneum in a below zero day. I staged actions. I lit candles. I watched many friends die. I was in Act Up.

I remember all of us sitting around a circle talking about what we all were going to do when Victor got sick. What he wanted and what he didn't want. How he wanted to die, and what pills he planned on taking, so he could die in dignity. Then in the end, he decided to just die naturally...to go through the process. He died right when the cocktails came out. I think he would still be here if he wasn't so stubborn. It was amazing what the cocktails have done and how so many people are still living.

In 1988, I made a poster, then I printed a t-shirt and sold it for AIDS Project Hartford, then threw a fundraiser. Then in 1990 myself, John Bonelli and a bunch of friends organized Artists Against AIDS where hundreds of artist donated their works, music was played, poets read, dancers danced....it was an incredible event. We raised over $100,000 over 5 years and donated all the money to different organizations that were helping people live with AIDS, buying art supplies, going to the movies, help with medications....doing what then needed to government grants couldn't do.

I do miss Victor every day. I miss his sense of humor. His brilliance. His sharp sarcasm and wittiness. His masks and his art collection. The deep conversations that always made me cry. He was always a teacher and an inspiration.....

Another WORLD AIDS DAY - I look forward to NO MORE WORLD AIDS DAYS and the end to AIDS.

Winter is Here

2010-11-29T18:41:00.000-05:00

The end of November? Impossible - I can't believe November is practically over! Crazy!! I guess it's good when things move fast, though sometimes I wonder. This is the time when it's suppose to be slow and easy....relaxed. I'm waiting for relaxed. I want to paint. I have lots of new panels awaiting my new paints from Hylla. I need some Amaryllis to begin growing, as this is the time!

I did buy 2 bouquets of Tulips a few days ago and they are very beautiful! Yellow, perky, springy....a reminder that Spring will someday come....even though winter hasn't arrived yet.

Here are some random love birds.

Gray Friday, Not Black

2010-11-26T10:48:00.000-05:00

Well today is the day after Thanksgiving and a bit rainy and gray. I woke up to the flapping ears of Maude at 9:15, which was a lovely thing. She only sleeps this late when it is a low pressure system.

I can feel the energy of the people scrambling to get out and shop. What is it about people needing to start shopping at midnight of Thanksgiving, getting ready to drop the money on the big sales and the biggest shopping day of the year. Do you think the sales really will be better today than tomorrow?

I'm happy to have a slow day, a day off and try and gear up for a tomorrow board meeting, a meeting after that a meeting with the Truro Historic Commission and then a big fundraiser for 2 friends at Gallery Ehva in Provincetown. So...I should take it slow today. So if anyone is in the Cape this weekend, Saturday from 4 - 7 [November 27th] there is an event with over 170 pieces of art for sale in a silent auction. Great things. 100% of the money goes to Cyndi and Carla (see previous post)

I'm hoping to get over to Mary D'Angelas once a year sale at Silk & Feathers - and that's about it.

Grateful on the day after to share the holiday with great friends, great food, and good health.

Big Moon

2010-11-20T20:12:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday, November 20th there is a very large moon out there, reflected on the water, very shiny, no wind, though a little crisp out. Tomorrow is the real FULL and it is a blue moon. Meaning two full moons in a month. So that is good! Love blue moons.

Nothing to do with the full moon.........Still coughing.

Here are a few dogs and a bunch of sheep that just came out of the kiln this week. I thought the big dog was going to come out red, as I didn't know the glaze goes green in the salt kiln.

Fund Raiser for a Couple of Friends in Need

2010-11-13T23:29:00.000-05:00

So in 2 weeks Castle Hill and Gallery Ehva are throwing a Fund Raiser for Cyndi Wish & Carla Anderson. Cyndi worked for me for 5 years and quit in the middle of the summer. We really did have what I thought was a good relationship until she left me in the lurch mid July. There was part of me, that understood her feelings of coming back to a pair of comfortable shoes (from 4 months in San Francisco) - that was her analogy of needing to leave - she was over qualified for the job, and I had kept changing it to keep her stimulated and happy. Anyway....she needed to leave and though I was really sad and upset... I have since let it go.

Anyway, about a month ago Cyndi was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. They caught it early and very quickly began Chemo. There is a 90% chance of a full cure. So that is good news.

Cyndi Wish Tornado Series, woodcut

About 7 months ago Carla Anderson was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She and I have been "dating" - she is a writer, photographer and someone who likes to make things out of found objects (hopefully found on the beach after a storm). She has been working on a book, since I met her about her travels and adventures boating down the coast. Oh, did I mention she is a boat captain. Though I have never been in a boat she is captaining, I would really like to.

Carla, out to gather treasures on the back shore, Provincetown

3 Special feathers were found

Saturday, November 27th at 4 - 7 pm, at Gallery Ehva at 74 Shankpainter Road in Provincetown. We are still collecting art for a silent auction or gift certificates or if you can't make the event and want to make a donation to this fundraiser with cash you can send it to: Castle Hill, PO Box 756, Truro, MA 02666.
Tickets are $25 at the door, more of you can less if you can't.

100% of the money raised will be donated to our Friends in Need.

Neither of them are able to work and can really use money for all the needs of staying healthy - ie. food, massage, acupuncture, vitamins, chocolate....

THANKS SO MUCH.

CROWS

2010-11-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

This was a series I did at the beginning of the year, when the seashore threatened to poison the crows to save the piping plovers. People rallied and fought back for the crows... I made this series. I have always loved crows, still do. I spend more time with crows in Truro, maybe it's the trees they like.

Save the Crows, Encaustic 12" x 12", 2010

Anyway the seashore changed their minds and decided to not poison them after all, not because they cared about the crows but because they didn't want to be sued by the humane society.

We Love Piping Plovers, Encaustic, 12" x 12", 2010

Save the Crows, Encaustic, 12" x 12", 2010

Green Chair with Crow, Encaustic, 12" x 12", 2010

I just sold this one (Green Chair with Crow) last month. That was a lovely thing.

Waxing & Waning

2010-11-09T19:47:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking a lot about wax these days. In the sense of teaching and painting, and also hosting a giant Encaustic Conference in Provincetown next Spring with Joanne Mattera. There is lots of excitement about it coming to Provincetown.

I have been teaching a 4 week beginning workshop over the past month, the last class is this Thursday. This is my first time teaching Encaustic, though I have taught other things in the past, like etching, woodcut, printmaking for non-printmakers for adults and lots of teaching with kids. I have really enjoyed teaching - it was a bit challenging in the sense that 2 of 5 have never done art before, and 3 are artist who have worked in other materials. So it is a wonderful challenge.

So back to the Encaustic Conference.....I am also feeling like there might be some worry about housing and staying in town. There are lots of nice bed and breakfasts in town, there are condo's for rent (cyberrentals.com), there are motels, hotels and camping for the rugged type. Lots of places to choose from as the The Provincetown Inn is close to full.

This is Linda Womack who will be in Provincetown next Spring.

I randomly clicked on a post from last year and found lots of great artists working in encaustic, who will be coming to the cape to do either a demo, a talk or a post conference workshop.

So, a few things to think about....registering early. There is a early bird special of $390 and after November 30 it goes up to $450. Think about being in beautiful Provincetown. There couldn't be a better place to be for a conference.

Sun, light, water, drag queens, galleries and a lot of waxing activities! We are working with lots of galleries to host shows that feature people working in wax.

Deanna Wood, Comfort" collage, gouache, and encaustic on panel, 36" x 36"

The above image is by Deanna Wood, who will be doing a Masks and Stencil demo at the Conference. Her work is beautiful. And did you hear about the Monoprint marathon?

To see a preliminary list of the conference schedule click here!

Halloween in Provincetown

2010-11-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

Well the Flash Dancing Zombies were back and it was great. We ate at Saki a Sushi / Thai kind of place. The flash dancers came right in and danced. It was GREAT and a big surprise too. I tried to upload it to this page but it was too big. So here are a few random shots....

Lovely man in a cellophane dress

Happy cow woman

A couple who took this holiday very seriosly

Just your average penis and vagina

Random man with a nose on, drinking coffee

Francine, gallery director of Kobalt

Two guys who stepped out of the jungle

R U My Daddy man....

Just a man with really nice horns

It was a little cool out, but it didn't stop anyone from taking this holiday very seriously. I was surprised I barely saw any nurses. But I did see a penis and a vagina, a sheep and her hurder and a good amount of witches.

Anyway, I thought I posted this last week, now it is old news!!

What is up with the AMAZING SKIES

2010-10-29T18:57:00.000-04:00

Ok....this week the sky has been so incredible. I have been driving and walking around talking pictures in the air. Skies, clouds, water, light, air. Yesterday started like this.

Then came this in Truro....

This is overlooking the pamet river.

Wild tree with sea grass reflection

Then I was driving home and needed to stop on the side of the road.

Now this was today....while driving, no stopping this time!

The famous Days Cottages, which by the way is for sale.

Only $500,000 for each little cottage.

Now this is the dunes facing the east. With reflections across Pligrim lake.

Then I got home and this is my house from below looking to the sky.

Walking on the beach at dusk.

Beautiful reflections in the almost last day of October.

Well, it is a possible that I live here because of all this.

Yup, I think this is why.

70 degrees on October 28

2010-10-28T20:35:00.000-04:00

The last few days have been so beautiful...first some rain, which sounded great and loud on the skylights and at work nicely banging around the tower walls. A good storm at work is really good! I work in a windmill. Or really a water tower. I can say that not too many people can say, they work in a water tower and it is a very lovely thing. I am lucky. I still do love my job.

Then today started with big thick fog that finally burned off and then became 70 degrees outside. Sunny, warm and blue. On my way home I stopped 3 times to take pictures as the sky was insane with pinks and baby blues.

I can't believe it's almost Halloween, which is a high holiday in Provincetown!

People take this holiday very seriously! Since Halloween is on a Sunday, I think Saturday will be the big night. Which means there is a lot of nurses, drag queens that are as common as a ghost in the inner city, parade on the street. It is an un-organized parade that begins close to 10 pm , though some start much earlier. Like tomorrow night perhaps. Last year it was great about 20 people dressed up as monsters and did a choreographed dance of Micheal Jacksons "Thriller." - It was SO GREAT. And unexpected. They would show up all over town and just break into dance.

I have been watching these random birds who are showing up on the deck. They are searching for a good drink. And Harpo is not so interested in sharing his deck. So, he is getting a bit possessive and also protecting me. Protecting me from the bird take-over. So every time they land....he runs over and barks....growls.....and gets very dog - like.

But look at how cute this bird is! Yellow Beak....slowly drinking in the bowl that I made. He is a bit safer when he goes in the bowl, as then Harpo doesn't see him. Nice to know they like my bowl. I have been throwing bowls for the past 4 years. I really love pottery or is it Clay or Ceramics. I can consider myself a bowl maker. Not mugs, not plates, not bird food holders.....bowls. I love bowls.

Oil Lamp Series

2010-10-23T16:18:00.000-04:00

This series is mostly what I painted when in the Dune shack, it was great to see how they changed from painting to the light of the oil lamp in the night to the daylight of the day. All are encaustic (melted on the wood stove), oil stick, ash (from the wood stove) and a great Daniel Smith Painting Medium. They are all painted on handmade paper about 9" x 12" or so.

Internationl Encaustic Conference in Provincetown!

2010-10-23T10:11:00.000-04:00

Conference founder and director Joanne Mattera, in conjunction with the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, are pleased to announce that The Fifth International Encaustic Conference will take place June 3-5, 2011 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with Post-con Workshops June 6-9 at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.
.

The Provincetown Inn, with Cape Cod Bay in the foreground and the Atlantic Ocean in the distance
.

Keynote speaker: Jackie Battenfield, nationally acclaimed artist and the author of The Artist's Guide

The conference will take place at the Provincetown Inn, a hotel and conference center at the tip of the Cape. The big events have already been scheduled, and I’ll fill in specifics over the next few weeks, adding boldface links and additional linked posts, but here’s the skinny: .

Conference highlights:
. Keynote speaker Jackie Battenfield, author of The Artist's Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love
. Saturday Morning Panel: Mastering Media, with Kandy Lozano (video), Cherie Mittenthal (catalog), Nancy Natale (blog), Jeff Schaller (newsletter; promotional projects), Linda Womack (self-publishing); moderator Joanne Mattera (commercial publishing)
. Friday afternoon Monotype Marathon, three presenters in three hours
. To be announced shortly: Nine demos and talks each day
. Sunday morning in-house “hotel fair”
. Beeline, a themed juried Show at the Kobalt Gallery, juried by Kobalt’s owner and director, Francine D’Olimpio. (Independently curated exhibitions at other P-town galleries are anticipated)
. A sculpture show at Castle Hill, curated by Cherie Mittenthal
. Vendors: So far we have confirmed Conrad Wilde Paints, Enkaustikos, The Fine Art Store; Evans Encaustics, R&F Paints. We expect the list to grow.
. Lunch provided on Saturday and Sunday
. Beverages provided during the day
.
Facilities: The conference rooms and hotel accommodations are part of the same complex. We're going to limit registration to 250 again this year.
.

Click here to register for the Conference (scroll down to the conference listing)
. Earlybird special, Now through November 30: $390

For more information go to: The Castle Hill Website

For more information

Making Art in the Dunes

2010-10-21T21:27:00.000-04:00

encaustic, oil stick & ash on handmade paper

I started out each day writing in my journal, drinking percolated coffee and gathering up the last of the Vitamin D of the sunshine, here in mid October. I can't believe how warm it is outside. Two days of bright sunshine. I am feeling lucky to be alive.

This is a sign that I painted last year. It pointed to the well. I was happy that it lasted nicely through the winter weather. I realized I had no vacation at all last year. This was the first stretch of time with no watch, with no agenda, with no phone...totally disconnected since last December. I had planned on possibly taking a vacation to Italy last Spring but it didn't happen. So here I am on vacation....loving it.

Gearing up to make some art....

This is a detail of a C-Scape Shack Painting

I was working in mostly oil sticks & encaustic & was also using some painting medium and ash from the wood stove. I was getting some great texture. I painted a painting of the shack too.

Oil lamps, Dune Grass & Solitude

2010-10-17T21:35:00.000-04:00

C-Scape Shack facing West with Storm Brewing

I had a lovely week in the dune shack. It was a wonderful week of weather, quietness and swaying grasses. I arrived around 10:30 on Saturday morning in 60+ degree weather. The skies were perfect blue with no clouds. I put away all of my groceries into the cooler (the gas refrigerator died last year), so they fill a cooler and an antique ice box with ice, and John come back around mid week to deliver more ice. I then organized & laid out my art supplies, my journals, my papers and my books to read. I put my clothes upstairs and made the bed. I brought in some wood. I sat down. Then I began to breath (in between coughs).

View from my deck

View towards the ocean

I look at the things that changed since last year. They put up some new boards on the west wall between the rafters, covered the deteriorating foam insulation. They put in a new (small but efficient wood stove). The newlyweds who stayed the week before me left flowers, they lasted the full week.


		View of the Antique Ice Box with Flowers

oil lamp station

View of the living room


View of the kitchen

So, as I begin to get acclimated, I sit on the couch and read through a book that an artist - Suzanne Lewis had self published called C-Scape Summer, it was filled with her experience of her 3 week residence. Full of photos, words and her art. I enjoyed it. She came up from Texas to have this experience. I think of how so many people have shared this space, lived so simply and how enjoyable it was for all. Well most people I think enjoy it. I read through some old shack journals and find it interesting so many parents bring their children out there, and how cool it would be as a kid to have that experience. There were lots of left over bubbles hanging around on the shelves.

As night began to fall, I lit the oil lamps and started a fire in the wood-stove. Something I was looking forward to all day, but it was too warm to build one earlier & this just took the coolness out of the air.

Pink sky over Seagrass

Reflection late in the day

Dusk - day one

Nice little Jotel Wood Stove

Here is my studio table, and new wall behind

I begin to get my art stuff together. I decide that I was going to do some painting and realized that the encaustic pallet was too big to fit on top of the wood stove. I was trying to come up with all sorts of ways to melt my wax, when I realized I can just put the little metal pots directly on the stove. I brought a nice little thermometer that rested on the wood stove, so I can see what temperature it is. I don't want it to get too hot, as it is not good to breath the fumes. It worked great!

Amazing how close Provincetown really is, only a few miles away

Flowing Seagrass with the Atlantic Ocean

Two Seagulls facing West

The next day I bundled up for a nice walk over the dune to the ocean, the hill changed a lot from all of last winters storms, it was steep and I was a little worried about getting back up, since I have been feeling so asthmatic.....the ocean was full, the waves were crashing, the beach had no footsteps, there was a random fisherman and a seagull with a broken wing.

I wondered for a while and gathered up some kindling then went home and painted.

All Packed Up to go to the Dunes

2010-10-09T00:20:00.000-04:00

I am probably taking way too much. If I really thought I ate that much in one week I would be 300 pounds. But....a lot is fruit and nuts and of course I will make a big pot of black been soup, that will last a few days. Chips and salsa (staple), cheese and crackers, peanut butter, bread, eggs, milk, coffee, cookies (of course) a few bars of chocolate (can't remember the last time I ate a chocolate bar!).

Lots of paper, lots of paint, and I decided I was going to bring my encaustic paint, and work on top of the wood stove! I'm sure it must have been done in the thousand years of encaustic painting. Bringing a few panels but will focus on working on handmade papers.

This wavy fence was from last January on Balston Beach, Truro

I am so very happy to be leaving town as WOMAN'S WEEK in Provincetown begins today and there are screamingly loud woman out my window at 12:08 (shit it's 12:08). I like women, but I really dislike woman's week. I don't think gender should have to carry a stereotype by any stretch but....geeesh. Maybe I'm just getting old. Why the loudness? Why all the drinking? Ok I better go to bed now.

I do have a thing for fences....they make great neighbors.

Trying to Get Organized

2010-10-07T22:59:00.000-04:00

Well it's 10:48 and I did manage to go to Stop & Shop, did 2 loads of laundry found some flannel-lined pants and tried to organize what to bring in terms of paper, panels and paint to the dune shack. I had planned on NOT bringing encaustic paint, but in the middle of the night last night thought about the wood stove and thought....hmmmmmm, I think I will bring my encaustic paints and work on paper. Maybe a few small panels. I have been using a torch for the past year, and it will be good.

Looking forward to being with nature and the quiet. To be disconnected. To try and force relaxation as I have had a cold that turned into a cough for 3 weeks, and do need to just do nothing. So this is a forced time to get better and heal. Drink lots of water and Emergen-Cs. Walks on the beach. Spread some color. And be out of town for Woman's Week! I like that part....

Foot

2010-10-04T19:36:00.001-04:00

Well I always liked photographing feet, my sister has the same thing.

I was looking for some ideas for my blog and I came a cross this photo of Harpo's foot and the juxtaposition of the snowy feet from a broken sculpture that sits on my deck (even know) showed up

and I thought perfect.

My Birthday

2010-10-03T19:46:00.001-04:00

Well today is my birthday. Feeling really good about being 47. A nice number, adds up to 11, which equals 2. I'm feeling a low key birthday, no fanfare, no big parties, low pressure, just a relaxed day. The sky and the water are the same color...a lovely shade of gray. The same color as Maude. I am closer to 50 than I was last year. I never have an age thing....like OMG, I'm going to be 30, or 40 or any number for that matter. It is just a number. Maybe when one gets to be a really high number all of that will change, but probably not. I just wish I would stop coughing....this cold, virus, cough thing is going around and it seems to last, as the people say.

Cookies are being made as we speak, and I am looking forward to dinner at Front Street.

So do I look 47?

Living in Provincetown

2010-10-02T17:39:00.001-04:00

One of the best things about Provincetown is the light....but I do have to say it's true. Amazing light, reflections, dark clouds, lit up boats, red boat, glowing light house....all beautiful.

The other important part about this town is tonight 7:00 - 8:00 in front of Provincetown Town Hall is a candlelight vigil to honor the lives of 4 gay teens - Billy Lucas, Seth Walsh, Asher Brown, and Tyler Clementi - which came to tragic ends by suicide in the face of bullying from their peers.

Over 200 people came to the vigil.

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows: Italian Painting Tour and other wacky Tales from the boot!!!!!!

2010-10-01T23:01:00.002-04:00

THIS IS BY, Sophia Salinger AKA Julia Salinger

Here's only some of what transpired....

As the Grateful Dead once sang..."Oh, What a long strange trip it's been." It had certainly been a long journey from Boston via New York to Rome and then Naples...It always starts with our new fangled and improved technology...we tried to print our e-tickets from the new passport scanner machine, but, as luck would have it, it was not to be...The Delta supervisor informed us that there were delays in New York due to the fog and thunderstorms and we would have to reroute our tickets...In his official Delta garb, he waved us to the ticket counter....We unfortunately got the wrong woman...the one who just started with the company, and told us there was no bad weather in New York...We would be just fine. "Are you sure", I asked in my sweetest voice your supervisor Glen told us there would be four hour delays..."It looks like you're clear" and handed us our tickets....bye, bye....

A ten mile trek across two terminals and five electronic conveyor belts later, we finally got to the counter only to hear about six hour delays in New York..."but we were just told everything was clear." "Can you fly us direct Boston to Rome?" "I can't help you now...please sit down and we'll call your name." After a quick glance at the faces on line I knew we had to take other measures...Cherie called our travel agent in Provincetown and told him our tales of woe...after much negotiating with a delta rep it looked like we were on the flight direct to Rome. You have to understand that now all our plans are askew...we are supposed to meet up with our group in Rome or Naples to then drive to our first destination...meanwhile our bags are already on a cart somewhere...they put out an all points bulletin to retrieve our luggage...8 miles back to baggage claim and we are sitting around thinking about what else could possibly go wrong and like manna from heaven our bags plop out of the luggage shoot...

I knew it all sounded too good to be true...A group of ten like-minded individuals sign up for the first international Castle Hill painting tour. What could be bad? Eleven glorious days of painting some of the most magnificent villas on the Amalfi Coast, savoring the fruits of the sea, taking a boat to Positano, and sketching in the olive groves. All of us, together, en masse indivisible by 10 different flights, 15 different opinions, 9 meat eaters and 2 vegetarians (more on this later). The tour of a lifetime. Right.

It is now only 9am. We have been up for five hours. Cherie and I are waiting for several hours to fly Boston/Rome...I, in the meantime, have bought every magazine know to man from "bird fancy" to "gourmet" to "American Gladiator." "What are we going to do?" Cherie asks. "We don't have much of a choice...you want to read "bird fancy?" Once the airport grille opened we were scarfing down chicken wings and guacamole and really wanted some sort of alcoholic beverage but we had to settle for iced tea...and it was way too early...

Finally, we are boarding...Hallelujah!!!! All snug in our seats...yes seats, the plane is half full and we are in heaven...well almost...up until the pilot announces we have door trouble...the door won't shut all the way...Boston we have a problem. At this point, I basically want to hang myself from the wing and we haven't even taken our first flight yet.

Now, it is time for the vino...like the relief of an epidural during childbirth...I don't care if we sit on the tarmac all day...I have my mini wine bottle, my peanuts, my toxic airplane blanket and styrofoam pillow...I’m set.

Fast forward...hours later...Roma...crazy airport...15 minutes to make our connection to Naples...It has now become the amazing race....we are rabid...running, panting, pushing over innocent bambini, and grandmothers with too many plastic bags, we get to the gate...we are greeted by the no nonsense Italian vogue airline employee...In her most felliniesque face she informs us our plane has left...."but we are here on time...we were delayed...there was a door issue, i can't breathe." "Yes, I know you are on time but i am sorry but the plane is leaving...you cannot get on the plane...you will have to go upstairs (10 more miles by foot) and get on the next flight to Naples." All of a sudden, my Italian school day memories come flooding back...when in Rome do as the Romans do or don't do...

Now it is in the morning on another day and I’m confused...While on route to the new gate we pass mecca...a bar filled with the most beautiful cheeses and fish and shellfish and vegetables and salads...this is no Korean market salad bar...we are now in Rome, and we are hungry and very thirsty and we missed our flight to Naples and we are going to sit at this bar for three fantastic hours and eat, drink and be merry. I am in an Italian food and wine trance... it's time to board...we are now in Naples...home of the thin crust pizza, Neapolitano song and crime...we get our baggage and find the exit and there like a mirage stands our Italian Adonis holding a sign that says "Castle Hill." We have truly arrived...

At 120 miles per hour, Michele our designated driver, is taking us to Pontone a small village above the town Ravello on the Amalfi Coast...It is sunny, hot and delicious and we realize we are no longer in Kansas. As he points out Vesuvius and other items of interest...our velocity is such that the human eye cannot absorb this information...I practice my Italian...listen to Michele and Cherie in the back seat...

Consider the lemon or the limone, as we say in Italian...In season, grande...a coat of canary yellow, succulent, earthen flesh cradled in a prehistoric skin...think of thousands of these golden pregnant beads shrouded in a black madonna's veil...this is the fantastic image which enveloped us as we made our serpentine way up the Amalfi coast to our first destination, Pontone. The black nets protect the fruit...Michele tells us, and in about a week all the nets will be lifted in time for the limone Festival...sounds good to me....the car gracefully wends its way up into the hills...we pass citrus groves, cascading waterfalls of flowers and sea vistas that would make Homer proud.

Cherie and I don't even know what day it is...at this point, we don't even know our names...we just want to shower off the airports, sleep..oh, and of course, eat...

We spot Gail Browne...our trip leader and painting instructor extraordinaire...for the next 11 days. She looks a bit perplexed....the room situation didn't quite work out to her specifications...we are in front of our apartment...Anna our apron clad hostess is so excited we have finally arrived and even more excited that I can speak in her native tongue...do we want espresso? you better believe it...

Her gardens are gorgeous, succulents, begonias, fava beans galore and yes, the lemons...we end up shelling beans at the table with Anna...she is our new pal...we love her and her most yummy espresso with a perfect peel of lemon...I have never seen a cleaner kitchen...the woman was born with a sponge.

It's time to meet the roommates and see our room...there are three of them in our apartment each with her own room...One is too cold, one is out painting and one has the grand suite and has already rearranged all the furniture...then there are the two of us...we stand in our room...yes, stand is the operative word here, because there isn't much more room for anything else...It is clear now, after travelling with someone for twenty some odd hours you either like them or you don't...Cherie and I liked each other and we just laughed at our tiny room with the beautiful view and rolled with the day. I was too excited to sleep or shower so we changed and went out to walk the town and photograph. Cherie took a photograph of every square inch of Pontone...I couldn't believe someone else was that into taking pictures...I had found my match.

8pm...dinnertime...we are going to one of the two restaurants in Pontone for dinner...we now meet our trip comrades...we are all stripes, ages, colors, we all love to paint and we all are very hungry...we realize ordering with 12 people is an impossible, mathematical, statistical nightmare...nothing a little wine can't fix...vino is the glue that binds us...Pizzas arrive bearing artichokes and funghi...salads of the freshest greens and grilled vegetables...we are all full, happy and ready for our next day....we walk back to our apartment...It is very dark...we already have forgotten how to work the outside light that illuminates our decent down hundreds of tiled steps to our bedroom...mission accomplished...a laughing attack ensues and we are asleep.... the next morning we convene in the piazza to be greeted by Raffaello, our resident cappuccino maker and dolce specialist...you want to be on Raffaello's good side of which there are many...It became clear that even though he was half my age a romance was brewing...so to speak… In the morning before cappuccino you quickly learn the personalities of your fellow travelers....we won't go into detail (that's for another website) but suffice it to say, that one's true colors emerge...the one who can't speak until she had slurped down 3 coffees, the one who just doesn't stop talking no matter what, and the one who has ingested so many cornettos that she will roll all the way down the hill to Ravello...and then wonder when we are having lunch!!!!!

We are on our way to the Villa Cimbrone this morning...after much discussion...2 vans, 2 drivers and many hand gestures later we have entered Ravello the quintessential amalfi coast town, the one with the famous postcard view of the two umbrella pines sheltering an emerald sea...this time of year (april) is a wonderful time to visit these magnificent gardens...wisteria is melting over statuary, poppies, dahlia's, carpets of pink and purple flowers are everywhere....succulents peek out from the wet rocks...we are truly in heaven...Gail gives a watercolor demo and workshop and we go off like wood nymphs with our brushes... once again it is time to eat...since I am the resident linguist...I carry a bit of weight (literally) and feel it is my duty to suggest a wonderful eating establishment which I frequented on my last trip to Ravello...It is Campo Cusino the domain of Signora Netta...Grand master of all things pasta and fresh...we embrace and it feels like no time has elapsed since my previous visit...steaming perfumed bowls of vegetable soup come marching out of the kitchen, followed by sea bass flash fried with mint, wild greens, pasta with funghi, crepes with ham and a bechamel sauce and pesto and clams and it never stops...until all wine is consumed and we make our way home...

Today is one of those stunning clear hot Italian days....the intoxicating lemon blossoms have embraced all the air and we are stoned...light shimmers on a crystalline sea...we are on our way to the boat to Positano. As we glide along with the sun...the turquoise water hides in grottos...we are all taking pictures and awaiting the town of Positano as it spills into the sea...

Positano is like a multi jeweled ring set into the cliffs....she wears every color imaginable...we have some time to explore on our own, comb the sand for ancient chards, grab a gelato and start to paint...me, I am on a mission to find my friend Gloria of many years ago...she is a local character so I am convinced I will spot her...as i walk down a curved street…I see a shock of gray hair and come upon Gloria...she remembers me and invites me to the table...Salvatore her friend and fisherman...Is having a rendezvous with a new lady friend and has marinated his freshly caught fish in olive oil, lemon and garlic...he offers us a plate...It is instant fish karma...It is the essence of fish... of the sea... of Salvatore...I am in love...I want Salvatore to feed me fish every day...wait...I’m getting ahead of myself...I’m in fish rapture... after soaking in the Mediterranean sun...drawing on my pad in ink and colors...I am one with the page...I am transported...I am Italian...I want to eat....again!

Oh no another group meal!!!! we are all one now, we are all Italian...we are tanning and burning and ordering and drinking beer and flirting and eating polipo my favorite thing in the world...octopus in oil and parsley and lemon and celery and pepperoncini...I never want to leave...I never want to take the last bite...I am swimming now...In the water...It is cold but the chill subsides...Cherie is taking a film (see film clip) i am running out of the water freezing...dancing...laughing...

We are in the boat going back to Amalfi...we are sun-soaked and tired and we go back to Pontone and have quiet time and walk and photograph and wallow in the greens of the village.... we go to the piazza for night time hang out...chat with the locals...have pizza at the other restaurant in Pontone...we go to bed...we hear furniture being moved my our room...we can't sleep...what is going on...we are mad...but more at another time... we are up...we stagger to the piazza for cappuccino...we imbibe...today we embark on a journey to Amalfi...to see the glorious cathedral, eat some lemon cloud confection to die for...buy pepperoncini on a string (no relation to soap on a rope), see the resident paper maker, see the very old sculptor in the park and eat once again, the most yummy meal of the trip so far...If you can believe it...Today we are accompanied by Bill Papaleo, painter and castle hill teacher...he lives in italy and he is our fantastic liaison to all things Italian and fun and scrumptious....Including himself...he has arranged this spectacular feast of pasta and seafood, a wild foraged green salad in all its crispness and bite on the tongue...some local white vino with a bit of effervescence and perfectly sautéed fish with luscious greens...then more cafe and a chocolate and whipped cream bauble that is melting in my mouth right now...we all go for a walk...look around and return for some rest... tonight is our festa...up at the villa...I have to reiterate the UP part....UP is five hundred million stone medieval steps of varying height and crumbliness...this is no paved highway...there is no elevator to the villa...we are trudging up but then i start to think about all the wine and food and dancing at the villa (see video clip) and i can't imagine coming down these steps at some god forsaken hour, half in the bag...we get to the villa we need oxygen...we hear Brazilian music...a group from Naples...a wonderful singer...we dance and play guitar and have a cake and knife dance and eat and drink and play the magnum of champagne.

now it is tomorrow and we are hung-over...I can't take one more medieval step...every bone in my body aches...I have tendons and muscles i didn't even know existed...I need rest...I need cappuccino...I need amore i am sad we are leaving...I have to say goodbye to Anna and Raffaello and all our other town friends...

It’s o.k. cause I’m coming back in October...I look forward to seeing them all again...In the darling town of Pontone... after many long goodbyes we pack into the vans and head out to Terravecchia our next destination for six days. Terravecchia is a medieval village of 51 inhabitants and is currently being restored by our friend Gregorio. Gregorios ancestors have lived in this town for hundreds of years and he is lovingly documenting the history of the town and rebuilding these magnificent dwellings. Terravecchia lies in the ancient olive groves and is surrounded by fertile farmland rich with volcanic soil.

by Sophia Salinger Loren

Cherie Mittenthal, Director of Castle Hill and yours truly Sophia Salinger Loren (artist, poet and board member) get ready to embark on a three week Italian adventure. Please note that names have been omitted to protect the somewhat innocent...If you want the real story call Cherie or myself and take us out for a drink and we will expound...
On our way, we stop at a tiny market filled with incredible goodies fresh mozzarella, olives, roasted peppers, wild strawberries and other delicacies we get to the town and start our picnics immediately. We are greeted by Gregorio and his childhood friend Franco who is the poet, chef and all around bon vivant in residence we all get situated and this time Cherie, myself and Catherine all share a palace of several rooms each equipped with four beds a kitchen, dining area and fireplace, two bathrooms and radiant heat we learn to love radiant heat especially in the cold mornings.

Some of us meander off and explore the town Cherie and I walk through the olive groves with the sensuous pink and green netting we come upon Constantine who is a close friend of Gregorio and a photographer he beats the bushes with his walking stick foraging for wild asparagus I try to tell him about Euell Gibbons but I have no luck.
Later that day, we all go to the one and only restaurant to have dinner Angelina our chef has issues there are no substitutions on her menu it is what it is. You don’t make waves with Angelina she thinks we want Americano/Italiano food but she doesn’t know the palettes she’s dealing with we do get a fairly good pasta e fagoli one night but we quickly see that breakfast is the only way to go with her.
We are on our way to Scala outside of Terravecchia higher in the hills in the fall, there is a wonderful chestnut festival Scalas architecture is more reminiscent of northern Italy than the south we perch ourselves on a wall and watch a very serious bocce game played by the octogenarians of scala. Like bowling, in the states, each man has his own bocce style it’s our afternoon entertainment.
In my mind, all days become one. There is the day of painting the lava cliffs in the olive groves a dry, warm day my ass on a hard rock falling asleep lizards scampering around me, fortunately no black snakes.

A luscious day to Paestum to paint the Greek ruins the rocks baking in the sun getting lost in the rubble photographing and finding a secret crypt where I daydream among the faded frescoes the Paestum museum with one of the most elegant collections of painted sarcophagi writing is a hollowed out stone seat. These moments will last with me forever.
We are in for an amazing surprise from Paestum we walk over to the water buffalo and organic farm where the make the fluffiest mozzarella on the planet this is water buffalo central and Cherie our animal lover to the max is in love. She proceeds to photograph every snout, horn and hair of these majestic creatures some of us check out the organic farm and all the artichokes sprouting in the fields we return to find Cherie rolling in the mud with the buffalo it wasn’t pretty at the farm, there is a caf that sells guess what??? A lunch of all the fresh cheeses, meats, olives, salad and perfectly charred hearty bread this is la dolce vita.

Its time to look through the kitschy souvenirs ancient fragments of ruins for only five dollars totally authentic, augustus erasers, erotic postcards and much more full stomachs full shopping bags we board the bus back to terravecchia.
That night we are dancing to Catherines Ipod all the music we danced to in the 70s and 80s..Its lots of fun we light a fire and run around our immense new house with the radiant heat. I compose a shrine in my room out of all my new knickknacks we color and drink beer.
For additional details email Sophia Salinger at bakedmashedfried@yahoo.com for an appointment

Hear about the groovy ceramic factory in Vietri Salivate about our pasta and clams Shop with us for pottery and trinkets.
Hear about our lost tour participant in a trance on a street corner of Salerno.
Check out the enormous cherubs.
The three gals who rock Pompeii
Franco really does speak Italian.
Shop for chocolate.
And many other fun things.
Like drawing in the medical botanical gardens of Salerno with the school kids How to shop in an Italian supermarket like an Italian and not an American read the labels!!!!!
But wait, there’s more, the largest olive in Naple Show to tie dye a tee-shirt with olive juice and other fun crafts.

I leave you now with the surreal images of our final festa true Fellini movie(see clip) I have been spending the day gathering natural elements for my festa headdress, a construction of artichokes, fava beans, ribbon, peppers and food labels, tonight is the big night, the final blowout
Gregorio and Franco are the festa masterminds, at about 5pm Italian time they are going food shopping meanwhile, the original festa location has been changed to another apartment next to our house, this at first causes quite a bit of commotion but isn’t that the Italian way?? So thinking the festa is still in our digs we host the pre-party, all our food from various travels with plenty of beer and wine, we are all now smashed and I haven’t even gotten my head gear in order. Olive branches are flying, bobbie pins breaking, fava beans spiltting, I’m not having a good hair day, my luck starts to change and before I know it I have a verdant still life balanced on my head.

The party hasn’t started it is 8pm, no sign of Gregorio or Franco, food bags piled up in the wild tiled kitchen, no trace of them anywhere, guests start to arrive. A vat of wine is brought out, the bacchanalia begins!!!!!
Cherie and I do a Madonna photoshoot in an abandoned bedroom with a wrought iron bed frame.
The wine has been flowing for an hour, no food in site, in the distance. The smell of sausages barbequing in our fireplace, I am ravenous. This is the best sausage I have ever eaten, perfect fat to meat ratio, the right snap, this is from someone who comes from a long line of sausage eaters. I have been transported to the fields and mountains of my ancestors. We have kerchiefs on and are pounding the grapes for the harvest.
Back at the festa.
It is now 11pm and Franco is totally ensconced in the kitchen. He dons a floral apron and silly chefs hat and he is smoking and drinking and stirring the pasta we are gorging ourselves with mozzarella balls and prosciutto pasta next with tuna sauce that Gregorios wife made earlier, please note that Gregorios wife does not attend this party, more meriiment, 1am, franco and I are in an Italian movie. I am now wearing an apron..my cleavage in full view, I have a cigarette dangling from my lip and I’m serving food, it is the 60s I’m Sophia he is Marcello, he is peeling grapes and I’m stirring the insides of our future cannolli’s, we are a match made in Italia.
The party has dwindles down to 7 of us, it is 3am, I don’t know where I am. I am reclining on a Italian wicker love seat, my feet in the air my vegetable headgear in tatters, a glass of vino in my hand, I see you through the green glass of a wine bottle you are melting no dripping Who am i????
We are dancing and singing and we have a birthday surprise for Phyliss, the guitars come out and tears are shed all out of pure joy for savoring all these wonderful moments together the 12 of us have put aside our quirks and embraced one another for 2 weeks(don’t get me wrong the quirks certainly added color)and now this is the culmination of many laughing attacks and hundreds of wine bottles and thousands of bright moments which will stay with us for many days and many new friendships to boot!!!!
Ciao,
Sophia

Sophia Salinger is a resident lover of life, artist, performer, hat maker, entertainer, gourmand extraordinaire just to name a few things. She can be reached at bakedmashedfried@yahoo.com or check out her website: www.bakedmashedfried.com

reprinted by permission of the artist Sophia

Italy, Water Buffalo & Art

2010-10-01T22:46:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine Amy Heller took this photo of me in front of my Water Buffalo painting. This was part of an Italy Show at Gail Browne Gallery in Provincetown. A few years ago, Castle Hill organized a trip to Italy in collaboration with Gail Browne and Bill Papaleo in the Amalfi Coast. It was a fabulous trip where 11 artists came together and painted and drew and drank and ate and ate some more! It was fabulous. All had a great time.

Three Water Buffalo's eating in harmony

Detail of a Fresco

We are planning another trip for next April, so watch for details. Gail and Bill will again leading the workshop.

Cute old woman with her garden pot in Terravecia

Another Beautiful Old Fresco form the 14th Century

View of Amalfi Coast


A little Island of the Coast of Naples, Procida

I went to this little island called Procida with a friend Julia, after we finished the Castle Hill Workshop. Though the workshop was in Italy it was still work for me in many ways....dealing with the money, making sure everyone was happy, putting out personality situations, passing out tickets for boat rides...things like that.

So this was a little holiday, one week on this isalnd. The only thing that ever happened on that island was the filming of the movie IL POSTINO. Which was their claim to fame. It was a tiny fishing village, very similar to Provincetown, though they still have fish there. Every man had a different kind of fish they fished for. Polipo....squid, and sardine man. Hundred year old men sat on the pier repairing their fishing nets. It was beautiful to watch. Cats were hanging out waiting for some fish left-overs. The food was great. The stories were great. I will post some journal entries in my next post....very funny, from the Julia AKA Sophia Salinger Loren.

I definitely had a thing for the Water Buffalo

One of the highlights was going to the Water Buffalo Farm. Water Buffalo are gigantic creatures, yet gentle and beautiful. They lounged in the mud, rolling around, and then horning their neighbors. That would be a verb of rubbing their horns against another - while lounging in the mud (I made that up). They were delicate in a very strange way. They did a lot of eating. I was in a water buffalo trance while I was there. We spend a few hours wondering on the farm, and I must have taken 400 photos of them, feeding them and just staring at their crude beauty.

We ate at the cafe there, we had miscellaneous buffalo mozzarella and other cheeses and bread and olives, all was just outrageous. They also had smoked mozzarella, that was cooked over a fire, right out back. It was like nothing I ever ate. And then the red wine....that was a lovely thing too!

Blue knocker on Blue Door

Chewing somethings up

Political sign on the side of the road in Naples

Pasteum Ruins

Gail Browne reading the Banner with Water Buffalo ignoring her

This is Julia eating polipo, her favorite (Octoypus)

This was in a tiny town above Amalfi,
I forgot the name off the top of my head

Italy is a beautiful place. Well that goes without saying. So much history, so much art, so many churches, so many beautiful clothes lines (I began a study of clothes lines, I'll need to dig them up), so many beautiful people, such good food. The Lemons were in season when we were there and they were the size of your head. Had some delicious Lemoncello. A strong after dinner drink that is made with lemons and sugar and something that makes it have a very strong alcoholic content.

I met a guy wondering in the forest looking for fresh asparagus. He was old and walked for miles to gather what looked like a small bunch of asparagus. It was a thin bundle. It was dinner. It always tastes better when you pick your own meal. Wild asparagus grows very differently than say an asparagus farm. It is few and far between. It grows randomly like weeds. And that's the end of the story.

Dune Shack Living

2010-09-29T19:54:00.000-04:00

If there is ever anything that a person can do before they die, it might be to live in a dune shack for a week. It is a very special thing and hard to explain without experiencing it, but I am going to give it a try. In Provincetown, there are 10 - 15 shacks out on the sand. They are not fancy, they are are usually one room, though some have a few rooms. All are walking distance to the Atlantic Ocean. All are simple. All are rustic. All are intensely competitive to get to stay in. None have running water. None have electricity. None have indoor plumbing. So why are they so desirable? They are about self. About being able to spend time listening to the ocean, writing, making art, looking at birds and wild life, waking up with the sun, going to sleep once you can't see anymore from the gas lamps or are tired. Pumping your own water from the well. Being one with nature.

There are 3 ways to stay in them, one is by joining the Peaked Hill Trust and getting your name in a lottery. The 2nd is another lottery through the Provincetown Community Compact. Hundreds of people apply year after year. The Peaked Hill manages (I think) 8 shacks, and the Compact manages 3. The 3rd way is to own one. There are a few that have been with the families for generations, there has been an on-going "process" of dealing with the National Park Service of the National Seashore who wanted to tear them down. Years of meetings and trying to identify who will get them once the families original person dies. It is really complicated and I know I'm not giving it justice.

When you are out there, you would never believe that the town of Provincetown is only a few miles over the dune. You really feel like you are "somewhere else" far away.

I am very lucky that I have been awarded one again this year, in the next few weeks. The following paintings and drawings were done last year in Seascape. Last year I was there for the same week in October and there were 3 Nor'easter during that week. One would say that it would have been nice to have the storm windows put up before I arrived not the day I was leaving. It was VERY windy inside. There was a lovely wood stove, though it didn't stay on through out the night, so by morning starting a new fire....it was cold.

Most of these are very little paintings 4" x 6"