Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Bee-Cause

The View From Randy Orzano’s StudioTraveling northwest to the foothills of the Berkshires in Sharon Connecticut last week with fellow artists Dianne Parmalee and Marc Chabot, we went in search of the farm inhabited by artist Randy Orzano. The goal of our expedition was a studio visit to the upcoming featured artist in the Flanders artist lecture series and “ Art of the Earth” challenge.This art and environmental education outreach initiative, conceived by education coordinator and farm manager, Dianne Parmalee, will focus on raising an awareness to specific issues concerning the environment. The first such challenge will center on the plight of our pollinators who are critical to both maintaining biological diversity and our food supply.
Mixed Media Drawing by Randy Orzano
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Flanders Nature Center and Land Trust. Flanders has always had an strong connection in the arts with an active committee of art professionals. Art has now been formally included in its official mission statement. This is much in keeping with the vision of its founder, artist Natalie Von Vleck and opens the doors to an expanded program for adults in the coming year. This will include events that highlight the connection between art and the environment. (I'll be posting more on that in the future).Mixed Media Drawing by Randy Orzano







Randy recommends the a good read and some additional links
- Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture by Ross Conrad
- http://www.wicwas.com/
- http://www.pfeiffercenter.org/index.aspx
- http://www.anarchyapiaries.org/
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Partridge in a Pear Tree?
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Mourning Doves in the Maples- Bridget Grady |
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Feed the Animals!!
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Graphite Drawing by Bridget Grady |
The proceeds from the sales of the cards will go toward the feeding the animals who reside at Flanders.
The card's design incorporates some of the resident Shetland sheep and an invented likeness of artist Natalie Van Vleck as their shepherdess.
Natalie Van Vleck was an artist, farmer, and an environmentalist.She had the vision and foresight to preserve the property that gave her such creative inspiration from the impact of a beginning trend of suburban sprawl developing in the 1960's. Her vision remains an enduring gift to residents and visitors to the town of Woodbury.
For information for where, when, and how one can purchase these cards in the very near future!:
Contact Dianne Parmalee, (who herself is both an artist and current shepherdess to the flock), at Flanders.
http://www.flandersnaturecenter.org/ or visit
Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust
5 Church Hill Road
Woodbury, CT 06798
Telephone: 203-263-3711
Fax: 203-263-2214
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Matang Gonzales ! ! New Website!!
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"Sea Turtle", 48" x 48",Acrylic on Canvas Matang Gonzales |
Check it out at www.matang.net
Monday, November 21, 2011
Sketchbook Randomness
Graphite on Paper-Bridget Grady |
A couple of random pics from the sketchbook.Purely from invention.One never really knows where they come from or where they will end up:)!
Graphite on Paper-Bridget Grady |
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Graphite on Paper-Bridget G |
Sunday, November 20, 2011
International Painting Annual !
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Painting by Elsa Munoz |
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"Conversation with Pieter and Paul" by Bridget Grady |
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Paintings by Cole Carothers |
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Paintings by Dana Saulnier |
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Crop Circle Show Pic's
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Tina,Hugh,Anne,Mat,Billy,Kristie,and Jay setting up |
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Artists-Janice Bielowa,Hugh O'Donnell,Bud,Eileen,Dad,and Ritchie |
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Milo, Joyce, and Dad |
Blue Horse Arts Studio
Installation View
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Billy Cactus and Jay Foster on Mandolin |
Image Right
Billy Cactus,
Dan Sharkey's knee,
and Jay Foster on Mandolin
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"Sea Turtle"
Mantang Gonzales
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Sea Turtle - Matang Gonzales |
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Artists- Moniera Stotz,Lee Cordon, Hugh O'Donnell |
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Artist Barbara Grossman and Guests |
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Watching The Electric Bakery |
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Cupcake - Haute - Couture Anne Flynn |
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Visiting Witches Brenda and Robin |
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Artists
Kristie O' Donnell,
Matang Gonzales,
and Carol MacDonald
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Kevin,Alex,Jay, and Dan |
Image Right
Electric Bakery
Kevin,Alex,Jay, and Dan
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Gabby,Kristie,Billy,Jay,and Dave |
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Between Sets
Gabby,Kristie,Billy,Jay,and Dave
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Georgia, Ginny, and Eileen Coladarci |
JFoster Music Studio
Gallery Room View
Georgia Sheron Photographer
(Sorry for the blurry pic:)!)
Guests,
Ginny, and the fabulous
Eileen Coladarci

Image Right Top
Mosaic Artist
Heiu Morgan
Image Right
" Family Portrait
A Piece from Georgia Sheron's
Documentary Series
A Blurry End ! Sometime Around Midnight!
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Dad, Steve, and Fran |
Friday, October 28, 2011
ANNE FLYNN in CROP CIRCLE!
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Image detail- Anne Flynn |
For the Crop Circle project, I was given cupcakes from the local market as a focal point . As I began engaging the image of the cupcake I found myself thinking about what a cupcake might represent apart from its literal existence as a confection. What might cupcake conjure up in the poetic world of our psyche?
Marcel Proust very famously used the idea of the taste of a small cake in evoking the themes of of memory and nostalgia in his extended reverie "Remembrance of Things Past" when he wrote:
"Many years had elapsed during which nothing of Combray, save what was comprised in the theatre and the drama of my going to bed there, had any existence for me, when one day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called "petites madeleines", which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell. And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreary day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory - this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could, no, indeed, be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean How could I seize and apprehend it?
For Proust, the madeleine was an image invoking involuntary memory. How would I apprehend the cupcake?
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Gone But Not Forgotten- Cupcake Parchment,Plexi, and Wood- Anne Flynn |
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
CROP CIRCLE SHOW REMINDER!!
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Image by Jay Foster |
It's almost here!!! The opening of the show is this Friday from 7-9PM.Fine Artists,Fine Farmers, Fine Musicians, and Fine Food! So come on down and support our local farmers and other artisans!!!
I've been slacking on the posts and the painting as of late because I've been scurrying around getting the spaces ready and attending to the last minute details. Some of the work is still coming in! And its looking like over 90 works for this event!!!! (A word of warning, if one is expecting to view 90 still life paintings you will be in for a surprise!). Lee Cordon, a late comer to the event (but definitely worth the wait!), delivered four gorgeous paintings today. Her piece on Gustafson's Farm is stunning.Anne Flynn's interpreted works inspired by the cupcakes of La Palette have to be seen to be believed.
I regret I haven't had a chance to represent all of our local farmers or those participating in the Farmer's Market but that work will continue for me through out the year!I would like to say a special thanks to Steve Shappy, the owner of the building, for being so supportive of this show, and the one's in the past, as the Porter Street Artist's Collective. Doreen Breen, the force behind the Farmer's market and promoting the artisan's in the area, is especially deserving of our thanks! And Eileen Coladarci ROCKS!!!!!!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Bill Gusky in Crop Circle!
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The Saint of Suburbia- Bill Gusky |
My take on Crop Circles -- Bill Gusky
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Drink in a New Century- Bill Gusky |
I recall a first snow, fat white tufts that made the huge volume of air over the fields visible. I recall a watercolor painted at 1 a.m. in early November, steam lifting off the pond in full moonlight. The washes kept freezing into crystalline patterns and I had to breathe on them to get them to settle into the paper. I learned a lot about drawing and painting on that farm. I owe the Churches a lot for that.
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Feed the Beast- Bill Gusky |
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Headlock-Chumley-Startled Stewardess-Orgasmic Cat-Bill Gusky |
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Bill Gusky-Digital Stereo-Scopic Image |
The Inertia Garden (Meditation Availed Deeper Insights, image 9 of 21) -- 2011 -- right-side image of digital stereoscopic pair-Bill Gusky
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Matang Gonzales in Crop Circle!
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Matang Gonzales |
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Matang Gonzales |
One never knows what will manifest from this artist's mind and hand whether it be drawing painting,sculpture or animatronics! One thing is for sure, there will be a completely different take on his foray into the Farmer's Market than one would expect and I personally can't wait to see what becomes of it!
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Matang Gonzales |
After several shows in NYC, with favorable reviews from the New York Times, Matang Gonzales stepped away from the world of fine arts, and focused on commercial illustration and product design. Working and studying under many talented conceptual artists and designers, he sharpened his knowledge and skills and eventually became the Design Director of ToyBiz, the Toy Division at Marvel Entertainment, a position he held for four years. He has since returned to rural Bethlehem CT, where he continues to illustrate and design toys for various clientele and license holders, including Marvel, Mattel, Disney and Nickelodeon.
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Matang Gonzales |