Erika Larskaya

"As an abstract artist, I search for ways to represent the invisible, subtle, and unexpressed. I am driven to lay out fleeting and intangible experiences on physical surfaces". —Erika Larskaya

Erika Larskaya Studio at 79 Main St. Torrington, CT www.erikalarskaya.art

JOHN LIPKOWITZ PHOTOGRAPHER BOTSWANA AND NAMIBIA: 2023

John Lipkowitz is a Great Barrington, Massachusetts photographer who loves traveling to exotic and not so exotic places around the world. Asked to describe his photography, he currently refers to himself as opportunistic and experiential, always seeking to capture some of the essence of the people, places and things he encounters in that particular moment. Wildlife, people, grand landscapes, ordinary objects – each he attempts to see and capture with a very personal eye, whether from a big lens or iPhone or anything in between. His exhibits at 510 Warren St Gallery in Hudson, New York, reflect his personal spectrum.

This image is from his recent trip to Botswana and Namibia with his wife Nina. On one of their game drives in Botswana they found a lion pride with several youngsters playing - behaviors to be developed both for hunting and peer livingamong the only social cat species. Time and patience permitted the capture of dozens of such images. This is among his favorites.

510 Warren Street Gallery, Hudson, NY.

Opening Reception for John Lipkowitz: Saturday, September 2, 3 - 6pm.

Friday and Saturday 12 - 6, Sunday 12-5; 518-822-0510 www.510warrenstreetgallery.com www.johnlipkowitzimaging.com

Artist Mary Ann Yarmosky

We long for a way to be heard from the moment we are born. For some, words suffice; for others, there needs to be a deeper form of expression.

That is how artists are born. Where one might send their message through an instrument in the form of music, another might write poetry or prose. Still, others speak in something more tangible through painting, photography, pottery, or sculpting. Words only bring us so far…art is the language of longing…a longing never fulfilled.

I have always found expression through art. At age five, I began speaking through the piano that sat waiting expectantly in our den, an instrument that brought me peace throughout the years. Later I took to creating through fashion design, dreaming up and constructing costumes for the Boston Opera Company and outfits for the fashionable elite of Newport, Rhode Island. From there, my path took many twists and turns as I lived as a wife, mother, caretaker, and professional career.

When my youngest son passed away unexpectedly several years ago, my longing to be heard returned with a vengeance. Words did not suffice. There are no words to express grief and hope for what is lost. On that journey of anguish, I met other women who had or were experiencing their style of pain. I marveled at their resilience and ability to go on despite different types of loss or simply dealing with the uphill complexities of life’s challenges. I began to recover my voice through paint and a bit of canvas, but it was not just my voice. The women I create in paint are a composite of the many amazing women I have met and continue to meet. I paint their humor, joy, hidden heartbreak, and longing. These women do not exist except on canvas, and their stories are yours to imagine. Hear them.

Mary Ann Yarmoskymaryannyarmoskyart.com

Ann Getsinger

New work in the studio feels exciting. Unveiling “The Garden of Curiosity” on September first at the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Leonhardt Galleries is a dream- come-true.

During my first- ever artist residency, in Virginia, this February, I found the time, space, and support for experimentation and its resulting surprises by working directly from imagination. This work will be unveiled at the exhibit.

Other new work, a series of nine small constructions of part painted, part object, was inspired by recent work constructing dioramas. The space between reality and perceptual mystery extends as I allow the unexpected to remain visible. Surfaces erupt with texture and the carefully observed stand in contrast to loosely abstracted passages.

This is the most challenging exhibit of my career due partly to intense experiences of the recent past and the work which was inspired there. Life has my full attention and the work in the studio reflects that.

Please visit www.anngetsinger for more info or to sign up for occasional newsletters.

“The beautiful, which is perhaps inseparable from art, is not after all tied to the subject, but to the pictorial representation. In this way and in no other does art overcome the ugly without avoiding it.”

– Paul Klee

Lonny Jarrett Berkshire Scenic Photography

My initial memory of awakening to the creative impulse was hearing the first chord of the Beatles, Hard Day’s Night, when I was six years old. I knew something big was happening at that moment, and I had to get on board! I began studying at the Guitar Workshop, the first guitar school in America. I’ve performed music most of my life and play jazz fusion with my band Redshift.

My interest in photography blossomed as an electron-microscopist publishing neuro- and molecular-biological research out of UMASS/Amherst and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx in my early 20s.

As a lifelong meditator, martial artist, musician, and photographer, everything I engage with comes from the same unified intention toward engendering the true, the good, and the beautiful. I endeavor to capture the light that seeps through everything in landscape and nature photography.

Lonny Jarrett -

Community: Nourishingdestiny.com

Books: Spiritpathpress.com

Art: Berkshirescenicphotography.com

Teaching: Lonnyjarrett.com

Peggy Reeves An Orgy Of Saccharine Beauty

“This new series of botanical paintings were initially inspired by the ferns in my garden, hence, the titles of the works are “Fernature #1, 2, 3” etc. The misspelling is intentional. The show at 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, NY, August 427, will feature the series of gouache paintings on paper title “An Orgy of Saccharine Beauty.”

My intention is to lead the viewer over the lush threshold of abstraction and representation. Within the span from edge to edge of these imaginary gardens, there are contortions of vegetation that seems to be at play, in conversation, or neighborly interactions. The growth may bolster or support each other.

I see the plant life as a powerful, forceful agent and the title of the series “An Orgy of Saccharine Beauty” is meant to negate the normally held concept of a sweet or passive nature and delicate existence that the subject of flowers in art brings to mind. The plants are coming together in a connectiveness that also speaks of the energy, as Dylan Thomas wrote, “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower, drives my green age…” of the garden as a metaphor for the human condition. In most cases, what is immediately seen may shift, becoming richer over time with negative and positive spaces and shapes revealing themselves. The experience of sustained seeing may lead to new recognitions maintaining the sense of a liminal space and a story unfolding.”

510 Warren Street Gallery, 510 Warren St., Hudson, New York, August 4 – August 27, 2023. 510warrenstreetgallery.com

Conversational Spanish

Learn the fundamentals of conversational Spanish. All levels. Via: Zoom, Skype, Whatsapp video call, & Facebook Messenger

Instructor: Esteban Valdés

Author of the acclaimed book: Con Permisito Dijo Monchito (Amazon.com)

References available • 15 dollars per hour

Ellen Kaiden Painter Of Metaphors Canyon Ranch

I am pleased and proud to announce a sizable exhibition of my paintings at Canyon Ranch in Lenox. To view, please contact the Wit Gallery in Lenox, MA. info@thewitgallery.com or call 413637-8808.

This year was the year to go all in as an artist and invest in myself. It is difficult to put yourself out there, but I have reaped the benefits.

It's been a productive winter, and hopefully, it will be a successful summer. I am proud to announce that I was awarded BEST water media artist nationally for 2023 by ADC, Art Design Consultants, a Juried show, "Art Comes Alive". My two-month show at Woodfield Fine Art in St Petersburg, Florida, opened a whole new world for me by putting me face-to-face with other artists and potential clients that knew nothing about me. I had good sales and was well received by a vibrant and young arts community, and I am happy to say I have a Florida gallery home.

My paintings are more than just pretty flowers. They tell stories about the world, politics, and women.

Last year I changed the way I approached my paintings. I started to work in series and better communicate my work's Metaphorical nature. To date, my series include "Lady Paints the Blues," the war in Ukraine, “Women's Voices”, and “The secret life of Sun”. "Flowers and just plain Happiness." This has proved to be successful for me.

Ellen Kaiden@www.Ellenkaiden.com

www.thewitgallery.com

Mark Mellinger

Practicing art for 60 years and psychoanalysis for 40, Dr. Mark Mellinger’s careers concern what can be spoken of and what transcends language. In painting, collage and constructions of wood and iron he is drawn to the physicality of materials.

Avoiding predictability of style, Mellinger explores the possibilities of matter and media. Our lives and our world are transient. We must seek meaning in truth, creativity and connectedness.

Mark V. Mellinger, Ph.D.-

914-260-7413,

71 S Church St, Pittsfield MA

Mary Davidson

Mary Davidson has been painting regularly for the last 16 years. Davidson’s paintings are a twodimensional decorative visualization of line, color, design, shape, patterns, and stamping. As you begin to study the paintings, you will find that the foreground and background tend to merge with overlaid patterns. “I love the intense complexity and ambiguity of space and dimension.”. The effect can be startling: the longer you look at the piece, the more you see.

Davidson’s New Hat series consists of 70 paintings. “I start with a basic drawing, building with color and shape, coming to life with gesture and flow. As the title suggests, the hats are important, and the millinery designs emerge. There is much joy in their creation, and my passion for playful designs is reinforced by their bright colors, linear rhythms, and patterns leading our eyes around and through the painting. My newest series is even more abstract, with an even stronger emphasis on design. I do like to use stamping, along with painting, because I love the result.

When I finish with a painting, I adhere the canvas with mat gel to gator board, creating a nice tight surface. My paintings are always framed.”

Mary Davidson413-528-6945 / 413-717-2332; PO Box 697, South Egremont, MA mdavidsongio@aol.com marydavidson83155@gmail.com www.davidsondesigncompany.net

DON LONGO AT THE CONNECTOR GALLERY KIMBALL FARMS, LENOX

“Creating abstract art is so very cathartic to me. It allows me the freedom to choose the colors, textures and design format from my own intuition and see what develops. Sometimes it takes days of layering and other times it comes out in a few hours. The more intricate the layers, the more interesting I find the final composition.”

When I begin a new painting, my end result would be one where there is texture, atmosphere, and feeling. Many are based on my background of growing up in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts where the natural beauty of the land and the serenity of quiet places gave me the daily energy I loved.

My first paintings started with a more realistic design. I wanted to capture the light and the quietness of the environments, such as walking to the lake through pastureland, dreaming of my future, or driving the backroads by myself, looking for that solitary area to listen to the sounds of the wind, the leaves, birds and babbling streams.

Today, I concentrate more on semi-abstract versions of those places with some similarity of realism. I use colors of the season I want to represent with smooth and rough textures. I sometimes use close-up images to bring you into the painting, then make you travel around the scenery just like I did as a young man being there. Other times I like the viewer to be far away, looking at the solitude of the distant landscape.

Once I decide my viewpoint, I begin manipulating the canvas with textural pastes, acrylic paint, oil stains, water, mineral spirits, and spray paint until I get the final desired result.

I loved to explore as a kid, and I now continue to explore as an adult. But now I do it on my canvases.

Don Longowww.donlongoart.com

Astrology for Creators August 2023

“Obstacles as Paths”

(Western Tropical Astrology. Time Zone ET)

Deanna Musgrave

We begin the month of August having experienced a few weeks of the Venus Retrograde that started July 23rd and will be lasting until Sept 3rd - 4th, 2023. As stated in my last column, a Venus Retrograde for creators might bring on a more introspective time in your studio practice. In general, Venus rules things like love, romance, relationships, money, luxury, and abundance. Now that some weeks have passed into this retrograde did you notice any changes in these areas since July 23rd? Certain astrologers advise against any major purchases or aesthetic changes during a Venus Retrograde as there may be regrets once this planet returns to express in a direct motion. This doesn’t mean you can’t do basic updates like refreshing a look you are already committed to but, astrologers don’t advise any major changes.

The other transit that began in July 2023 that we may want to begin reflecting on in August is the North Node changing signs from pointing towards Taurus to instead Aries which occurred between July 12th – July 17th (depending on if you go by the true North Node or not). In my last column, I pointed out that having the North Node change to Aries might bring about more of a collective focus on sovereignty, self-expression, entrepreneurism, gender politics, conflict, military, sports, and war. With the North Node moving signs it might also start to ease and provide solutions around the issues that arose in the past year and a half while it was pointing North to Taurus such as money, housing, food costs, land issues, the environment or art. I do expect some Taurus issues to continue for a few years, especially with the final Lunar Eclipse this fall and until Uranus moves out in 2026.

We also begin August on the 1st with a Full Moon in Aquarius which has to do with humanitarian efforts, visionaries, technology, alternative wisdom, outsiders, and invention. With Pluto coming back into Aquarius for 20 years as of January 2024, I will be watching this Full Moon for themes that might relate to how this sign will express a generational shift that will see power (both the good and misuse of it) moving towards technology, humanitarian efforts, outsiders, and visionaries. During this Full Moon, we have Mercury in Virgo Opposite a Retrograde Saturn in Pisces. As an example, this could translate to a difficult communication (Mercury) about a hard lesson (Saturn) having to do with rebels (Aquarius) and the sea (Pisces). With Virgo’s interests in analytics and health, I wonder if it could be an awareness and communication (Mercury) of statistics related to public health (Virgo). It could also be something challenging with the media (Mercury) and government structures or institution (Saturn). As I have been observing Saturn in Pisces expressions for the past few months, I’ve noticed there is an association with this transit to artistic A.I. technologies, the UFO/UAP/USO phenomena, pharmacy and weird happenings in the sea or waterways. I would advise against travelling by water during this Full Moon given the tragic events surrounding the Titanic Submarine this past June 18th, 2023, where it went missing on a New Moon in Gemini that was Squaring Saturn in Pisces conjunct Mercury that was squaring Neptune in Pisces. The Titanic Submarine remains were later found damaged with the crew having perished. With Neptune representing the sea and Mercury connected with travel communications, as well as Saturn bringing in karmic waves of the past tragedy of the Titanic, one can see the connection of the planetary motions to this tragedy. Going forward, I will personally not be travelling by water during a Moon that has difficult aspects to either Neptune or Saturn in Pisces, especially if Mercury or Uranus is involved.

On the positive side, in synchronicity with this Full Moon in Aquarius, Mars in Virgo will be making a trine angle to Jupiter in Taurus. I’m guessing that while there will be a tense force discussed in the latter, there will also be a positive passion (Mars) with it that will be assisting expansion (Jupiter) in areas of Taurus such as money, food, housing, the environment, land, and beauty. Be prepared for a mixed bag of positive passion with complex communications with this Full Moon in Aquarius. For artists, this might create a situation where you are finding it difficult to communicate or express a new idea you are passionate about. If you experience that, know that all energies pass like weather and come at the new idea on another day.

Leading up to the New Moon in Leo on August 16th is going to bring complex energies. The period around August 13th – 15th could be interesting as the Sun will become conjunct with that retrograde Venus in Leo on the 13th which could “enlighten” (Sun) what you might be reflecting on with regards to relationships, love, beauty, money, abundance, luxury or your artistic studio practice (Venus). Soon after, around the 14th – 15th that same Sun will make a tense aspect of a square angle to Uranus in Taurus. This could shine a light (Sun) upon a new idea (Uranus) around Taurus themes. You may get a sudden inspiration on this day that resolves the struggle you were having to communicate or express around the Full Moon on August 1st. This disruption or enlightenment will set the stage for that New Moon in Leo on the 16th where we could plant seeds to initiate new creative expressions, how we shine our light in the world or how we are in relationships with others.

I think the week of August 20th – 26th could be a bit intense. Venus makes a difficult Square to Jupiter starting on the 20th but, lasts through the entire week which could spell anything from money, food, housing, or other Taurus issues. Also starting on the 20th, Mars in Virgo will oppose Neptune in Pisces which can add to deception, illusion, fantasy, or disillusionment in areas related to Virgo and Pisces themes. These two signs have health, pharma care, spirituality and healing in common. This same week sees the beginning of Virgo Season on August 23rd which is going to start a bit bumpy given that its planetary ruler, Mercury, will be stationing to go retrograde on the 24th. For me, this translates into a period of heightened miscommunications and technology blunders. At the same moment that Mercury begins to station Retrograde at 3:58 am ET, the Moon makes a Square to the Lilith asteroid which feels intense given that the Moon has to do with our innermost feelings and Lilith often represents the parts of ourselves that people try to make us wrong for. The day before and during, Mercury will be in a trine aspect to Pluto in Capricorn which might reveal a positive revelation in that area of your chart. For the collective, this will be in the areas of authority figures, governments, and institutions. As I look at this series of aspects, it gives me a feeling of a family trip where, despite unfortunate events, is united in overcoming these obstacles.

The final important transits I will mention for August is Uranus going retrograde on the 29th for the rest of 2023 which happens just before the Full Moon in Pisces. Uranus retrogrades create a slowing down and reflection period having to do with innovation, rebellion, visionaries, and those who might consider themselves on the fringe of society. With this happening in sequence with the Full Moon in Pisces, it is likely going to have to do with the themes coming up with both Neptune and Saturn in Pisces. For each of us, Pisces will represent something different but, it does have a strong association with the arts!

Musgrave is an artist, energy worker, channel, and hypnotherapist. You can contact her through her websites at: www.deannamusgrave.com www.artisthehealer.com

FRONT ST. GALLERY

Pastels, oils, acrylics, and watercolors…abstract and representational…..landscapes, still lifes and portraits….a unique variety of painting techniques and styles….you will be transported to another world and see things in a way you never have before…. join us and experience something different.

Painting classes continue on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1:30 pm at the studio and Thursday mornings out in the field. These classes are open to all...come to one or come again if it works for you. All levels and materials are welcome. Personal critiques are available.

Classes at Front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and those with some experience.

Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. 413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell) www.kateknappartist.com

Jane Hudson Water

The light of the Universe is ever present. It falls upon the Earth as potential energy, as heat, as creative force. It touches the the magnetic energy field of Earth creating great vortexes that generate storms and water. This quintessential substance carries the memory of every living being falling as it does to form all bodies. It fills and forms according to genetic principles that adhere to climates and landscapes, families and cultures. Humans have sought to control water, to domesticate it for convenience, the consequence being that it is deadened, lacking the vitality of its origins. We must now acknowledge its brilliance, exalt and praise it, spin it back into its heightened properties and recognize its partnership with life.

Jane HudsonJane.video@gmail.com

Http:://janehudsonpaintings.com

Richard Alan Cohen Fine Art Photography

I create landscape images to highlight my reverential relationship with the environment through which I walk daily. My process begins with the discovery and exploration of a subject, and then moves on to imagining what the image could become. I see landscape as an invitation to the viewer to enter imaginary worlds, ones which may suggest past or future visions, offshoots of the moment that the shutter clicked. I take natural details of streams, waterfalls, moss rocks, and decaying tree trunks and put them in new contexts building imagined landscapes and new worlds. These provide a larger perspective that emphasizes the importance of climate change to even the smallest niches within nature. I give my images an otherworldly appearance to impart distance from the ordinary reality in which these spaces are threatened by global warming and to pay them respect as places of beauty.

I use perspective and scale to magnify tree stumps into craggy cliffs and small waterfalls and streams into mountain cascades. I pause at natural wonders to make images of them to preserve their existence and enlarge their importance as records of what natural beauty can be. I wish to set apart their beauty from threats of climate change by keeping their settings pristine, their surroundings otherworldly, their scale majestic.

As I have unbound myself from representing reality, I have freely expanded the time of the image far beyond the duration of one shutter click, compositing pieces of the landscape with satellite views, stars, and galaxies. A great advantage of making art is the ability to recapitulate reality. A photograph is an opportunity not to copy nature, but to allow the imagination to take one to new places.

I print my own images using archival methods to last, with technical excellence, and in limited editions to increase its value.

My work is exhibited in national and international galleries and has been acquired by noted collectors.

Richard Alan Cohen -

Richard@richardalancohen.com www.richardalancohen.com

Instagram: @richardalancohen