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Greetings!
Shortly after the opening of our new gallery, The New York Times interviewed gallery director Arlé Sklar-Weinstein, artist association director Luis Perelman and others and published a wonderful article, which you can see here:
nyt-gallery-article.
If you get a chance to chat with gallery manager Patricia McKasty, you'll find she has many touching stories about folks' experience of the gallery. She says that the gallery has been drawing in a myriad of people, young and old and of varying ethnicities, all very enthusiastic about having a place to come and enjoy art.
For instance, one day an 11-year-old boy walked in alone and confidently introduced himself as an artist. He left and quickly returned with his sketch pads. Patricia says his pencil drawings were phenomenal. She talked to him about using color, which excited him so much that she told him she would bring him crayons, not baby crayons. He interjected, "I know, you mean oil pastels!"
A 40-ish Hispanic man walked in with his sketch pads, and told Patricia that he drew all the time but wanted to know if he was an 'artist,' if he was good. Patricia says that she would not presume to criticize; her style is about "self-expression, being unique, everything goes, just work toward personal excellence." But she was wowed to see that the man had a clear style and direction, and a way of breaking up space that echoed of European masters--without ever having been to art school or getting any feedback. They talked for a long time, and she told him about gesso and how he could gesso cardboard, wood or newspapers just to get practice, if expensive art supplies weren't in his budget. He walked out of the gallery on air.
Lynne Goodman
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Update
Blue Door Monthly Meeting 2009
This is a chance to find out what's happening and offer your input. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, May 11th at 6:00 p.m. at the Yonkers Riverfront Library on the second floor community room 2B.
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| Upcoming Events
ARTISTS' WALK 'n' TALK
May 9, 2009 at 2 pm
Closing reception of the current exhibition
Helayne Friedland / Stoneware with silkscreen
Vernon Ford for Monique Ford / oil on Canvas
Pratibha Garewal / watercolor
Leslie Miller / Inkjet print with collage
Marilyn Miller / Bronze sculpture
Lea Weinberg / wire mesh sculpture
Eleanora Grace / Clay with patina
 Eleanora Grace
Pratibha Garewal
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At the Gallery
SHOW & TELL
Artist Demonstrations each Saturday 12-4 pm
Kaya Deckelbaum
We will be showcasing artists both in exhibition
and live demonstrations at the Blue Door Gallery, 13 Riverdale Avenue (south of Main), Yonkers.
May 23rd and 30th
June 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th
Featuring:
Don Axelroad, Woodcut printing
Sally Aldrich, Clay wheel throwing and coil construction
Gino Civale, Textural painting
Kaya Deckelbaum, Wire mesh sculpture
Lily Schor, Clay slab vessels
Leslie Miller, Digital Collage
Jef Campion, Mosaics
Florence Suerig, Sculptural Choreograph
Turhan Von Brandon, Photographs to Paintings
Annegret Rice, Encaustic Painting
And others
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Member Exhibition
Barbara King
"Decorations III"A site-specific mixed media installation
created for the Narthex Gallery
at Saint Peter's Church
May 5- June 17, 2009
Artist reception:
Friday, May 8 - 6:00-8:00 pm
While Barbara King's panoramic installation "Decorations III"-- on display at the Narthex Gallery of Saint Peter's Church from May 5- June 17--is colorful and decorative, it also challenges the viewer to ponder the nature of heroism, militarism, and the complexities of war.
Based on the myriad patterns of United States military medal ribbons, the work consists of a black-taped grid enclosing more than one hundred 7" x 27" acrylic-on-Mylar rectangles decorated with bright bands, stripes and blocks of color that seem to pulse across the entire gallery wall. Roughly half the horizontal panels replicate actual U.S. military ribbon awards, while the rest are the artist's own original designs.
King first noticed the decorative bar-shaped medals adorning the uniforms of high-ranking army personnel in the aftermath of the Iran-Contragate scandal. She decided to literally decorate with these decorations, mounting the large replicas in a grid-like wallpaper while adding her own personal designs to expand and complicate the awards' significance.
Some two decades later, with the United States embroiled in two wars in the Middle East, "Decorations" has not lost its resonance or relevance. King has added awards created for American soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a series of pink decorative ribbons to symbolize the increased presence of women in the Armed Forces, silver and gold panels in which the reflected visitor becomes part of the exhibit, and original designs inspired by textile patterns and color charts.
Born in Syracuse, N.Y., King currently lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. She earned a BFA in Printmaking from SUNY Buffalo, where she was the recipient of a Creative and Performing Arts Scholarship, and an MFA from Hunter College. Her graduate thesis show was awarded a William Graft Scholarship. She has taught art workshops and classes in New York and Buffalo and her work has been exhibited in Buffalo, Rochester, Hastings-on-Hudson, and Yonkers.
Saint Peter's is on the southeast corner of 54th Street and Lexington Avenue.
Gallery hours are 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily.
For further information call (212) 935-2200 or contact the artist directly at (914) 329-7996.
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Public Art
New Sculpture at City Hall
A new sculpture has just been installed at City Hall. Artist Rain Kiernan is the creator of this work in marble, titled Maya. Below are photos of the installation process and final result. Gravel will be added around the base.
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| Artist Opportunity
Call for Art
Blue Door Gallery #5 DESIGNERS BREAKOUT
September 19 through October 17, 2009
Call for Designers
of the new millennium
in
Graphics, Fashion, Household Decor, etc.
Co-Curated by Gloria Cunningham of FIRST STONE MARKETING, Inc. and the Blue Door Gallery Exhibition Committee.
Designers are often on the cutting edge of Fine and Commercial Art.
Are you a designer who breaks the mold, sees outside the box, goes beyond the grid and over the wall?
SURPRISE US!
Please direct us to your web site or send your ideas, several images and a brief resumé by August 14, 2009 along with your $35 application fee* (made payable to BLUE DOOR GALLERY) to:
Blue Door Gallery
Mailing address: 5 Hudson Street
Yonkers, NY 10701
BDG 914-375-5100
yonkersbluedoor@gmail.com
www.bluedoorgallery.org
Hours: Wed, Sat: noon to 5:00
Thurs, Fri: 2:00-7:00
(HOURS MAY CHANGE)
*entry fee applied to exhibition fee if selected
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| Member Exhibition
Judy Werlin in Chelsea
Ceres Members Group Show
June 16 - July 11
Reception: Thursday, June 18th 6:00 - 8:00
547 W 27th St., Suite 201
Gallery phone: 212-947-6100
This show takes place in the heart of Chelsea. There are 16 galleries in this building alone, so there will be many opening receptions to partake in on the same night as the reception for this show. |
| Exhibitions
Yonkers Riverfront Library
Parallel Journeys
May 27th - June 10th 2009
This art exhibition celebrates the life and legacy of older adults through mixed media collage. The artists engaged in the creative process using imagery and metaphors to express passages of life, similar to written pages of a biography.
Come and join us - it has been a remarkable journey!
Opening Reception
May 27th 2009
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Yonkers Room (4th Floor)
Refreshments will be served
These works were created in "Sanctuary for Creativity" - an environment within the library where older adults can freely express themselves through the arts. This environment was created in an 8-week workshop developed by Celeste Walls, a local Artist/Art Therapist, to honor the unique life stories of older adults through mixed media collage incorporating both words and imagery.
This program was part of:
Creative Aging in Our Communities:
The Westchester Libraries Project
It was generously supported by the Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation, designed by Lifetime Arts, Inc., and administered in partnership with Westchester Library System.
Riverfront Library - One Larkin Center
For more information, call (914) 375-7966
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Newsletter Management Team
Celeste Walls
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