| “Paper or plastic?” That familiar supermarket query may strike you differently after you see the new exhibition at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in Waveny Park. “ENVIRONMENTALITY: Art + Ecology” which opens Sunday March 11th, features sculpture, photography, installations, assemblage, drawing, painting, and printmaking by 20 artists from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. The artists consider recycling, pollution, resource conservation, preservation, biodiversity – just a few among the many environmental challenges facing the world today. An opening reception will be held on Sunday March 11th from 4 to 6 pm at the Carriage Barn Arts Center’s Betty Barker Gallery. Free and open to the public. The show will run through Saturday, April 7th. Three free lectures will be given by participating artists during the exhibition.
“This is the 30th anniversary year of the Carriage Barn, and as part of a year-long celebration of that milestone, a show of contemporary art that confronts an important topic and also relates to the past 30 years seems appropriate. Environmentalism provides the perfect subject,” said curator Cecelia Barnett. “The Carriage Barn was saved, restored and devoted to community interests and cultural endeavors in 1977, in the midst of an era of growing political and grassroots concern about the environment. The Department of Energy was also founded in 1977. That same year Congress passed the Soil and Water Conservation Act and the Supreme Court upheld the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Across the globe in Kenya, Maangari Matthai founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization that has planted several million trees in the past 30 years,” Barnett explains. “For the 20 artists in this exhibition, being green - to one extent or another - is a way of life. And their art either directly or indirectly reflects their thinking on environmentalism – their ‘environmentality’ as I call it,” Barnett said. “Everyone’s got it – from those who advocate for greener products, conservation, anti-pollution controls, to those who don’t believe in global warming. It’s all a matter of degrees, sort of like climate change. It has been very interesting to see the paradigm shift on climate, particularly in Washington, just in the short time since we started planning this show. Environmental concerns are at the forefront again. These artists are doing their part to illuminate the issues and heighten everyone’s ‘environmentality’.” Three natural science artist/illustrators bring their skills to bear on a variety of different topics in this exhibition. For Kathie Miranda of Monroe, a teacher in the Botanical Illustration Program at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, it’s the challenge of invasive plants such as barberry, bittersweet and yellow iris. “As an artist it is very difficult to portray these lovely specimens as beasts to be uprooted and destroyed.” But she realizes these invaders pose a serious threat to native species that are just as lovely, provide food and shelter to native fauna, but are losing ground to more aggressive imports. Mindy Lighthipe, of Warren, NJ runs her own school of botanical illustration in New Jersey and is also a teacher at the New York Botanical Garden. She leads annual artist trips to Costa Rica but for this exhibition considers environmental matters closer to home. Her concern is the impact of increasing suburban sprawl on native species like the bobcat, wolf, and the tiny leopard frog. The title of one of her paintings tells it all: “If You Build It, They Will Disappear.” Katie Lee of South Salem, NY, is an internationally recognized botanical and wildlife artist who teaches master classes around the world and leads “art safaris” to photograph, draw and paint animals and birds in their native habitats. She contends that such concentrated, quiet observation automatically inspires conservation. Ms. Lee, who also teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, will give a free lecture about her experiences sketching in the Okavango River Delta in Botswana and the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil on Thursday, March 15th at 7pm at the Carriage Barn. M.G. Martin of Woodbury also draws upon natural history as an influence for her scratchboard drawings and collages that use fossils, insects, plants and animals in complex designs. One depicts a fossil found in the 530 million year old limestone quarry known as the Burgess Shale. “Pikaia” is a chordate creature – a vertebrate, like humans. “We are all related to everything else on Earth,” she marvels at the evidence from the distant past unearthed from layers of rock. Stone also inspires Norwalk sculptor C. Derek Uhlman whose works center on his concerns for environmental stewardship and the preservation, ultimately, of human civilization. Creator of such mammoth outdoor sculptures as the 37,000 pound “Stone Flowers”, Uhlman’s work is necessarily exposed to the elements. Marble ravaged by acid rain is incorporated into his creations as a commentary on man’s careless disregard of the condition of the World and reckless destruction of nature. He says, “What was once seen as permanent, man is making temporal.” Acid rain is just one issue associated with water – the essential component of life on Earth. The vital importance of water and the struggle to regain and maintain a clean and plentiful supply is a theme that several of the participating artists explore. For Norwalk-based photographer Ingbet (as he is known professionally) “Watch for Water”, a sign posted by the side an empty road in the midst of an arid landscape, seems an ironic but ominous warning. “We so easily take the most precious resource for granted,” he laments, pointing out that “Cape Cod, Long Island, Santa Fe, Los Angeles and many more locations in the US are already endangered and running out of water.” Fairfield County is blessed with an abundance of fresh water sources, but their health and consequently that of all the related ecosystems, including Long Island Sound, is contingent on careful conservation and protection. An avid amateur photographer, Sally Harold of Fairfield has a unique opportunity to appreciate the Saugatuck River Watershed and the Devil’s Den Preserve. As The Nature Conservancy’s Project Director for the Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership, Harold is a professional conservationist who always has her camera at hand. Her efforts, in conjunction with a partnership involving 11 area towns, are aimed at preserving and enhancing this extraordinary regional resource. She will discuss the project and show slides of her beautiful Saugatuck Watershed images on Thursday March 29th at 7pm at the Carriage Barn. For many years photographer Irwin Block of Norwalk has been exploring the Norwalk River to reveal the “surrealistic currents that structure our environment and the sheer beauty of nature.” Other themes of Block’s photographs concern the human form emerging from nature and evidence of man’s hand in nature. While Block considers man’s “inherent isolation and aloneness,” his images reveal not only how insignificant man can appear in the natural world but also how significant his impact on the environment can be. The Norwalk River and its Watershed encompasses 7 area towns. A local non-profit organization, The Norwalk River Watershed Association, is working hard to preserve this resource and educate its neighbors. Soon there will be many new neighbors along the river at a reclaimed industrial site in Georgetown - the former Gilbert & Bennett Wire Mill Factory. From the 1830s until it closed in 1989, heavy metal by-products contaminated the land and the Norwalk River, which was both the power source for the mill and its waste disposal system. Now the site is being cleaned up and developed as a “green” community and village center. Photographer Elyse Shapiro of Redding has trained her fine art lens on “the spaces around and the surfaces within” this industrial landscape for several years. Layers of peeling paint are a reminder of years of impact on the environment. Images of and through factory windows are “reflecting the present as well as offering a glimpse into the past” of this industrial ruin. The first of the old buildings has already been razed. “Soon only the images will remain,” says Shapiro. Stratford artist Christine Goldbach’s expressive oil paintings may also soon be all that remains of a treasured, unspoiled New England landscape. Each September for the past 12 years, Goldbach has led groups to paint in the woods, fields, and marshes of the Maine coast. This year it’s different. The camp is up for sale and a favorite vista, a stand of pines, is slated for development - into a parking lot. Christy Gallagher of Bridgeport deals with the developed landscape in her oil paintings. The industrial heart of the city and the graphic qualities of the architecture of bridges, train trestles and power plants have a haunting beauty of their own. Where riverscape meets industrial landscape, the interaction of man and nature is most dramatic. Ernest Garthwaite of Old Greenwich has a deep reverence for the natural landscape that he learned from his Father in his native Saskatchewan. His father had, in turn, learned from his Cree neighbors. Garthwaite feels a strong connection to the Native American philosophy of living in greater harmony with nature. In a unique piece designed for this exhibition, Garthwaite will create a self-contained “environment“ with paintings, drawings and sound. Wendy Shalen of Waccabuc, NY takes a very intimate view of the landscape and man’s impact on it. In detailed graphite drawings, she transforms the “discarded road debris I collect on morning walks” into veritable portraits of found objects. “In this work, I try to convey the impression that nature is watching us as we destroy our environment (and ultimately ourselves), with garbage, pollution and a selfish disregard for our actions. I hope these drawings will help us recognize what we are doing.” Landscape – both industrial and pastoral – is a major subject for artists interested in investigating, recording and preserving the environment through photographic images as well through paintings and drawings. Perhaps the most “green” of the artists, however, are those who create using actual found objects -- reclaiming, reusing and recycling the discarded detritus of our material world into works of art. Mary McKay Maynard of Westport is also a morning walk collector of roadside trash. The flattened cans she finds often end up in her studio for a different kind of recycling – they become “Buddies.” Named for the preponderance of beer cans of a certain brand, Maynard sees the unique personalities in their distinct shapes – and paints them accordingly - a soprano, a debtor wearing a barrel, or characters from nursery rhymes. “The tins tell me who they are.” “I have always wanted to have a bumper sticker that reads: WARNING: I brake for rusted metal!” says Wiltonian Lucy Krupenye, who creates sculpture with stone, wood, bone and other found objects – often metal parts that have fallen off cars. “My sculptures are both tied to the earth and representational of some of the non-natural materials used in today's society,” she explains. “My sculptures are a form of recycling. What many people consider to be flotsam, jetsam and garbage are often treasures for me!” Barbara Morse-LuBell of North Salem, NY began noticing the interesting colors, textures, and shapes of the egg crates and other molded paper forms that protect produce shipped to supermarkets. She initially made a series of collagraphs using the materials as a matrix. She soon discovered that the inked-up forms themselves, run through the press, flattened and fragmented, made intriguing graphic collages in their own right. “The paper was already recycled once, and sometimes you can see type and words from its previous incarnation.” Now it has yet another. For the past 14 years, Natasha Cohen of Salisbury has been creating assemblages, primarily of found objects. She often incorporates photography and printmaking into her works as well. “My work seeks a balance between abstract form and human identity, between physical and spiritual presence. It should be considered the material manifestation of an obstinate and long journey, and continuous investigation,” she explains, specifying that her work “explores the process of transformation. It does not express perceived notions, but ideas in progress with found objects and discarded materials.” “Transforming recycled materials into something new and unexpected has been a common thread that has run through my work,” says Joseph Fucigna of Weston. It was not a conscious environmental statement but an economic necessity. Inner tubes, aluminum printing plates or scrap steel were “cheap or free if you were not afraid to do a dumpster dive.” But his sculptures are not just about the materials. “Creating a perfect balance between idea and material that allowed both to be active participants was the ultimate goal.” “Recycling and reuse are wonderful elements of art making and alchemy (making something out of “nothing”), says Constance Old of New Canaan. Living in an extreme consumer culture inspired to Old to collect barcodes off all her household purchases. As a graphic designer, the “arbitrary stripes” appealed as symbols of consumerism as well as of the Pop Art and Dada movements. She first created barcode collages, then a series of abstracted intaglio prints. More recently, Old has been combining traditional crafts of rughooking, needlepoint, and wreathmaking with ubiquitous contemporary materials – plastic bags, caution tape, twist ties – to create art objects in an updated folk art tradition. Old will talk about her work and her influences on Thursday April 5th at 7pm at the Carriage Barn. An assemblage created entirely from an old stereo he didn’t want to just throw away, “Our Tellus Antithesis” is Pete Rizzi’s commentary on the environment. “This piece pretty much embodies the disregard we have for our world, as well as the bad news and messages we receive via the media,” says the 22-year old New Canaan resident. A 4th year student at Westconn majoring in writing, Rizzi explains, “Tellus was the Roman goddess of earth and fertility, and basically the title of the piece means that we as people have created things like this for our own use and pleasure that destroy the planet we live on... In essence, the antithesis of Mother Earth.” “I hope this show gets people to think about environmentalism today and how far it has come in 30 years. Depending on how you look at it, it’s come quite a long way, and not nearly far enough,” said Barnett. “I am delighted to include so many concerned artists in this show with such a range of intriguing, often exquisite, always thought-provoking work. I am particularly glad to include Pete Rizzi in his first exhibition. At 22, he clearly represents, at least by default, the next generation to deal with our continuing and emerging environmental challenges. He is a bit cynical, but he is smart, concerned, and creative. And that is promising.” “Fortunately, there are numerous dedicated and talented people working on environmental issues right now. A few of the many organizations involved in multiple efforts will be providing information on their projects and programs and ways for people to get involved – locally and globally. Three national organizations, Environmental Defense, The Nature Conservancy, and The Sierra Club, as well as two local environmental groups, SoundWaters (Stamford, CT) and The Norwalk River Watershed Association, will be represented. In addition, “E – The Environmental Magazine”, which is published in Norwalk, CT, will provide free copies of recent issues that offer a comprehensive clearinghouse of information and resources on a complete spectrum of environmental issues. Environmentality – Artist Talks – [Repeat info from body text and prior listing] Three free lectures will be given by artists participating in the Environmentality exhibition. On Thursday, March 15 at 7:00 pm Katie Lee of South Salem, NY, an internationally recognized botanical and wildlife artist, will talk about sketching in the Amazon and the Okavanga River Delta and how quiet observation inspires conservation. [SEE SEPARATE RELEASE & JPG] On Thursday, March 29 at 7:00 pm Sally Harold of Fairfield, CT, a photographer and Nature Conservancy Devil’s Den Saugatuck Watershed Project Director, will discuss efforts by her group, in partnership with 11 area towns, to preserve and enhance this vital regional resource. On Thursday, April 5, 7:00 pm Constance Old of New Canaan, a printmaker and fiber artist, will give a talk about her work using barcodes, recycled packaging, and plastics to add a new twist to a traditional craft. Reservations are suggested for the lectures. Please call the Carriage Barn at 203-972-1895. The Carriage Barn Arts Center is dedicated to supporting community interests through involvement in, and appreciation of, the visual and performing arts. Exhibitions, lectures, classes, concerts and other events are held in a converted 19th-Century stone barn in Waveny Park, off South Ave. (Rte. 124), New Canaan, 1/4 mile north of Merritt Parkway Exit 37. Gallery hours: Tues.-Fri., 12pm-4pm; Sat., Sun., 1-5pm. Gallery information: 203-972-1895 or www.carriagebarn.org. |
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