CALENDAR of EV E NTS
Meditations on the Hudson Art and Artifact by John Lawson
October 11 - November 9
TSL • 434 Columbia St, Hudson, NY. fyi@time&space.org
ART
510 WARREN STREET GALLERY
510 Warren st, Hudson NY 518-822-0510 / 510warrenstgallery@gmail.com
Sept 5-28. Reception Sept. 5, 3-6pm. Ken Sahr: Paintings
BERKSHIRE ART MUSEUM
159 East Main Rd, North Adams, MA 413-644-9550
BARBARA AND ERIC RUDD ART FOUNDATION
EXHIBITIONS East Main StreetThis season: Creatures, and Ontogens created in the 1970s., as well as his large collage and large collage reliefs, In addition to the large relief works, Rudd continued the collage process in smaller motifs. “Small Reliefs” are exhibited in the side gallery on the main floor. “Artistic Genes” exhibits artwork by six generations, exploring the question whether there is artistic DNA.
CORRIDOR GALLERY
185 E. Main st, North Adams, MA
The Corridor Gallery is an experimental exhibition space set in the grand entryway of the Walkaway House. The Corridor Gallery is a project of artist and founder Carolyn Clayton and is activated by the work and vision of guest artists and individuals.
CHILDS + CLARK GALLERY
684 Main Street, Unit 1, Great Barrington, MA Ceramics, Glass, Painting, Sculpture, Fiber.
BECKET ARTS CENTER
7 Brooker Hill Rd, Becket , MA 413-623-6635 office@becketartscenter.org
Sept 5-28: Creature: featuring Caryn King and Teresa Bills. Reception Sept 5, 5 - 7pm.
BERKSHIRE BOTANICAL GARDEN
5 West Stockbridge Rd, Stockbridge, MA 413-298-3926 BerkshireBotanical.org
Aug 15-Oct 5: Works by Frances Palmer: Terracotta and FLoral Photography; Oct 18-Nov 30: Flock Watercolor Paintings by Robin Crofut-Brittingham. Reception Oct 24, 5-7pm
BERNAY FINE ART
296 Main st Gt Barrington, MA 413-645-3421
Sept 20-Oct 19: The Paper Chase: The show will fea-
Works of Passion
August 15 - September 14
Curated by Janene Gentiel and Demoy Shilling 60 Broadway, Tivoli, NY
Painting by Janene Gentile
ture work by Nancy Blum, Susan Dory, Betsy Friedman, Mike Glier, Jessica Hess, John Lippert, Hideyo Okamura and Eric Wolf.
CARRIE HADDAD GALLERY
622 Warren St, Hudson, NY info@carriehaddadgallery.com
Aug 1-Sept 21: Weathered
THE CLARK ART INSTITUTE
225 South St, Williamstown, MA 413-458-2303
July 12-Oct 5: Berenice Abbott’s Modern Lens
CLOCK TOWER ARTISTS’ STUDIOS & GALLERY
75 S. Church St, 3rd fl, Pittsfield, MA clocktowerartists.com
First Fridays: Sept 5. The Clock Tower Artists is a collective of working artists, see website for artists and open studio visits.
CHESTERWOOD
4 Williamsville Rd, Stockbridge, MA chesterwood@savingsplaces.org
47th annual contemporary outdoor sculpture exhibition
FREYLINGHUYSEN MORRIS HOUSE AND STUDIO
92 Hawthorne St, Lenox, MA
Visit the home of American Abstract Artists George L.K. Morris and Suzy Frelinghuysen, set on a 46-acre estate in the heart of Lenox, Massachusetts.
FUTURE LAB(S) GALLERY
43 Eagle St, North Adams, MA
Ongoing art exhibits. Opening First Fri in Sept
GALLERY NORTH
9 Eagle St, North Adams, MA 413-663-1509
A fine art gallery featuring artists in many mediums
GREYLOCK GALLERY
71 Sprig St, Williamstown, MA 413-884-6926
Oil paintings, landscapes and whimsical metal sculptures-traditional and contemporary art.
HUDSON MILLINER ART SALON
415 Warren St, HUdson Ny info@hudsonmillinerartsalon.com
Through Oct: Charlotta Janssen:Smells Like Team Spirit. The Hudson Milliner Art Salon is a creative and
collaborative art space featuring art and performance as well as the intersection of the two. We feature exploratory, edgy and political work.
INNER VISION STUDIO
KAREN ANDREWS
2 Furnace Rd, West Stockbridge, MA
Call ahead: 413-212-1394
Fine and Functional Art
LAUREN CLARK FINE ART
684 Main St, Gt Barrington, MA
Lauren@LaurenClarkFIneArt.com
Fine art, glass, sculpture and paintings
MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA WAY, Hunter Center, North Adams, MA info@massmoca.org
Oct 15: Jimena Sarno: Rhapsody
MCLA GALLERY
375 Church St, North Adams, MA 413-662-5000
July 18-Sept 28: I Am Too, A Piece of Clay: LaRissa Rogers
NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM
9 Glendale Road, Stockbridge, MA 413-298-4100
July 12-Oct 26
Hidden Worlds and Wonders: Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition Juried Show: Artists
PAMELA SALISBURY GALLERY
362 1/2 Warren St, Hudson, NY Ongoing art exhibits.
ROAM
16 Water St, Williamstown, MA roamgallery.photo/
ROAM A Xtina Parks Gallery is an African Contemporary Art Gallery and Fair Trade showroom specializing in works of art, sculpture, African wildlife photography, ceramics & pottery, vintage textiles, jewelry, woven baskets and much more.
SOHN FINE ART
69 Church St, Lenox, MA 413-551-7353 info@sohnfineart.com
Thru Oct 6: Blaze, Smolder, Char
SOUTHERN VERMONT ARTS CENTER
860 SVAC Drive / West Rd, Manchetser VT SVAC.ORG
What to do In and around the berkshires .
múm
2025 North American Tour
September 20, 7pm
Hudson Hall
327 Warren st, Hudson NY hello@hudsonhall.org
Experimental music
Jay Jackson (1905 – 1954)
Etta Moten Barnett Dancing, c. 1940, for American Negro Exposition, 1940 Watercolor, ink, and charcoal on paper.Delaware Art Museum, Acquisition Fund, 2022. © Estate of Jay Paul Jackson
Norman Rockwell Museum
9 Glendale Rd, Stockbridge, MA
November 8 - April 6, 2026: Jazz Age Illustration
Step back into the vibrant world of the 1920s and 1930s with Jazz Age Illustration, a major exhibition exploring the art of popular illustration during this transformative era.
Through January 4, 26: Into the Abstract: Paul Gruhler and Neha Vedpathak
SPENCERTOWN ACADEMY
790 Rte 203, Spencertown, NY 518-392-3693
Sept 27-Oct 26: Art As Memoir: Regional Juried Show
SUSAN ELEY FINE ART
433 Warren St., Hudson, NY
Sept 4-Oct 19: Barbara Marks, Angela A’Court & Kate Snow; Oct 23-Nov 30: Sasha Hallock & Susan Lisbin
THE ARTFUL MIND POP UP GROUP Art Exhibit
11 Eagle St, North Adams, MA
413 - 645 - 4114 Wed - Sun noon - 4:30
Please call ahead if coming from a distance.
TURNPARK ART SPACE
2 Moscow Rd, West Stockbridge, MA
Thru Oct 31: John Clarke: Passing Through
NEW MARLBOROUGH MEETING HOUSE
154 Hartsville, New Marlborough Rd New Marlborough, MA
Thru Oct 5: “Black and White and What Lies Between” Sept13: ART SHOW: Botanically Speaking
TIVOLI ARTISTS GALLERY
60 Broadway, Tivoli, NY
Sept 18-Oct 11: Anita Kiewra Solo Show. Reception Sept 20, 5-7pm.
THEATER
BERKSHIRE THEATRE GROUP www.berkshiretheatregroup.org
The Unicorn Theatre 6 East St, Stockbridge, MA
Sept 25-Oct 26: Metamorphoses
MAC-HAYDN THEATRE
1925 NY-203, Chatham NY 518-392-9292 Sept 12-21: Beehive
SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY
70 Kemble St, Lenox, MA 413-637-3353 shakespeare.org
Oct 10-12: Tina Packer Playhouse: Celebrating Jewish Plays - An Immersive Weekend of Staged Readings
SHARON PLAYHOUSE
49 Amenia Rd, Sharon CT info@sharonplayhouse.org
Sept 26-Oct 5: The Mousetrap, plus much more
MUSIC | EVENTS
HUDSON HALL
327 Warren St, Hudson, NY hello@hudsonhall.org
Thru Oct 5: Christian Marclay: Christian Marclay’s inventive fusion of visual art and music takes center stage in this solo exhibition of video, photography, printmaking and collage, curated by Second Ward Foundation and drawn entirely from its collection.
MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA WAY, Hunter Center, North Adams, MA info@massmoca.org
Sept 17, 8pm: FRESH GRASS
SPENCERTWON ACADEMY
790 Rte 203, Spencertown, NY 518-392-3693
Oct 4, 8pm: Jen Chapin Trio Roots & Shoots Concerts is excited to present Jen Chapin accompanied by GRAMMY© nominated bassist Stephan Crump and “impeccable melodist” (New York Times) Jamie Fox on electric guitar, debuting a new cabaret-style performance of her urban folk songs entitled Anything Goes, and How Did We Get Here?
FIRST FRIDAY in NORTH ADAMS
FIRST Fridays is a grass-roots initiative to get folks downtown on the first Friday of the month by asking the galleries and businesses of North Adams to stay open until 8:00pm!
EDUCATION
ART SLAM
34 Depot St, suite 101, Pittsfield, MA ArtintheBerkshires.com
Monthly on first tuesdays. Join us for an Art Slam, a fast-paced, fun, and interactive event where artists take the stage to present their work, share their process, and engage in conversation—just like a poetry slam, but for visual art!
BERKSHIRE ART CENTER
13 Willard Hill Road, Stockbridge MA
Make Art, Buy Art! Visual art classes, workshops, events year-round for all ages/skill levels. Shop artwork by local artists, discounted art supplies, books
FOUNDATIONS OF DRAWING FOR LEE TEENS AND TWEENS
Lee Congregational Chirch 25 Park Place, Lee, MA (Free) Sept 12, 4 - 5:30pm
GUILD OF BERKSHIRE ARTISTS www.berkshireartists.org
Workshop: Pulling Prints with Jody King Camarra September 18, 9- 2pm
SPENCERTWON ACADEMY
790 Rte 203, Spencertown, NY 518-392-3693
Sept 20, 10 am-12:30pm: Make it, Shrink it, Wear it! Jewlery, Charms and more. (free); Oct 9, 11:3012:30pm: Connected to the Ground: How to Cultivate balance and strength: Six consecutive Thursdays taught by Fran Snyder.
FILM
BERKSHIRE JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
197 East St, Lenox, MA Oct 20, 4pm-8pm
IMAGES CINEMA
50 Spring st, Williamstown MA 413-458-1039 imagescinema.org
Sept 11: Moana 2; Sept 12: We Live In Time; Sept 13: The Apprentice
TURNPARK
2 Moscow Road, West Stockbridge, MA
Wild Strawberries, Ingmar Bergman; Sept 25: 7:309:30: Coffee and Ciggaretts by Jim Jarmusch
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rdaver2@gmail.com | Instagram: rdaver2. Housatonic Studio open by appointment: 413-854-7007
Airborn Acrylic on canvas 36” x 36”
RICHARD BRITELL
ARTIST | WRITER
"I have become famous in my own zip code" —Richard
Richard Britell: “I never thought I would be asked to be on the cover of The Artful Mind. I have followed this publication since it started and even from the beginning I have had work in its pages. It is a pillar of our artistic community, but there is a lot about my life I have been reluctant to share with others, and sometimes even with myself. And so, having agreed to be interviewed, I will try to be as honest as I can.”
Harryet Candee: Thank you, Richard. Can you elaborate on this quote you wrote: “Artists are often asked to create an artist’s statement, and although I have never written one, I would say that invisible, yet structural elements inform my paintings.”
Richard Britell: The entire statement says: These structural elements consist of pivotal experiences that dot my personal history like buoys on the ocean. Here is a partial list of those experiences. I have been in a straight jacket twice in my life. I know what the
inside of a rubber room looks like. I spent a month in the notorious Northampton State hospital, a sinister establishment long ago torn down. I have been in the back of a police car twice, in handcuffs muttering the Lord’s Prayer, and stood before a judge in a courtroom, shackled hand and foot. In 2006 I had a heart attack, and in 2012, I had a stroke, which left me unable to recall people’s names, which has often been of benefit to me. And on July 25, 2022, just three years ago, I suffered cardiac arrest, in my car in a parking lot, but fortunately some stranger called 911 for me, and I was resuscitated after 25 minutes. None of this drama, suffering and pain, embarrassment and shame, shows in any obvious way in my paintings, of which I am justifiably proud.
Now, let me explain. After those events I had to reconstruct myself and reestablish my health and my sanity. The images I paint, at first glance present a logical and orderly image, especially architecture, painted with careful precision and objectivity. On
closer examination, you see that these structures are succumbing to the stress of time and are in the act of disintegrating. So, the paintings are quite obviously, carefully concealed self-portraits.
Richard, tell us about the black ball. The black ball came from a toy bowling machine that was in a bowling alley when I was about ten years old. I acquired one of the balls, I don’t know how. It was quite heavy and I decided to make it into an art object. I painted it decoratively with high gloss enamel, using red gold and silver. Then I hung it over my bed by a string, and would wind it up and watch it spin when I went to sleep. My brother said that when I created it, he thought it signified that I would be an artist some day. Recently he asked me if I remembered the thing, and I said that I remembered it, and that it was on the floor in the corner of my living room. If I had to explain it now, I would say that it symbolizes the continuity of my creative life.
Britell
Interview by Harryet Candee Cover and inside Photography by Edward Acker as noted
Photograph by Edward Acker
How did your awakening for art develop while growing up in Utica, New York, a town that did not have a prominent artistic culture?
It was not a gradual development, or the influence of some person or teacher. I think my artistic temperament was evident at an early age. I remember working on a painting in kindergarten, it was a typical five-year old’s painting, with a house on a ground line, a tree, the sun in the upper left corner. I put the brush in the black paint, and I covered it from top to bottom with black. My teacher rushed up and said, “Why are you doing that?” and I responded, “Because it is night now.”
I flunked the intelligence test to start kindergarten. This failure alarmed my father because one of my answers seemed to be especially stupid.
The question was “Which is faster, a car or a plane?” I answered, “The car.” My father said to me, “Why on earth would you think a car is faster than a plane?” and I said, “Because Dad, just look at them.”
This occurrence, etched so deeply in my memory, told me one thing I never forgot. My parents thought I was a stupid child, and I knew that I was not stupid, but different from other children.
What followed then for you? Did you find your voice and follow it?
No, because there was nothing gradual about it, and no point of discovery of an identity. By fifth grade I was what might be called the class artist and was al-
ways called upon to do illustrations. I did block lettered names of other classmates in perspective on cardboard for twenty-five cents each. In high school I was the one who had to paint the murals for the prom, or backdrops for a school play. Nevertheless, I was developing in an atmosphere of mill town America in the 1950s, in which a desire to be an artist was strenuously discouraged. It was quite simple, my parents feared I would be “gay.”
The sudden death of my father when I was thirteen years old, put a complete end to any anxiety I might have had about measuring up to some norms that existed in my family, and by high school I was happy to be considered a “weirdo,” and gladly decided to identify as an artist.
Do you remember your early years when you first established yourself and learned the ropes in the Berkshires? Are you attached to living here in particular? Please describe life back then and how it compares to now.
Wow, that is a good question and touches on the conflicts of my entire life, both in the past and now. I moved to Pittsfield in 1972 with a sense of despair. Pittsfield was the same as Utica where I grew up, and I had been used to the Brooklyn and Pratt Institute, and college towns like Northampton. I had no awareness of the cultural life of South County, or the importance of Tanglewood.
I began to work on a series of paintings that would
get me representation in a New York Gallery. In 1976 I began showing at a gallery on the Upper East side, called Staempfli. I lived through a few years of an idealized artist existence. I would deliver a painting to the city, and it would be sold before a week went by. I imagined that that was how my life would be. Then, in 1981 I had a one-person show, sold all the paintings, and was written up in The New York Times with a very glowing review.
I proposed to do a second show. My first show had been realist paintings, but I wanted to do a series of abstract works. I did a large abstract painting and brought it to the gallery to show them what I was planning to do, a series of large abstract fresco paintings on portable panels.
The gallery director was adamantly against this idea and was refusing to even consider hosting it, but then a very strange thing happened. Someone came into the gallery and purchased my five-foot abstract fresco painting, right then, on the very day I showed it to them.
But the devil was laughing in the back room as this scene unfolded, because it took two years to complete the works for the show, and I sold not a single one. This led to an explosion of insults and arguing in the gallery, ending in my expulsion. That event was followed by the end of my marriage, a manic episode, and then I was put in a mental institution. This is not the place to talk about what I experienced Continued on next page...
Richard Britell, 14th Street Station, oil on wood, 2024, 12 x 16 Private Collection
there, but it is the reason why I said in my statement, “I know what the inside of a rubber room looks like.”
So, I got out of the hospital, and began living in my North Street studio, which was in the Onota Building. But, the devil did not have the last laugh, because my fresco paintings caught the eye of someone at The New York Times, and although I did not get a review, The New YorkTimes reproduced one of my paintings in the center of its “Galleries” page. Someone at Dartmouth College, the director of the art department, saw the image, and went to the Staempfli Gallery and asked if I might like to do an artist in residence semester at the college. They were particularly interested in the fact that I was doing fresco paintings because the school had a fresco by the Mexican muralist Orasco. So, not long after my stay in the mental hospital I went up to Dartmouth as an artist in residence.
But when I returned to Pittsfield I had to figure out a way it exists as an artist in the Berkshires, and let me tell you, that was not an easy task.
I painted a mural for a restaurant in Lanesboro, it doesn’t exist anymore. I copied Canaletto Paintings on 4 x 5 foot plywood panels for $250 each for the walls of an Italian restaurant. I began to paint furniture in multi-color patterns because it was the height
of what was called the Memphis Style.
I rented a third-floor loft space in the Barbieri Lumber Mill, but then suddenly I thought, this place should be an art gallery. So, without heat, and without even any lights, I began to sell paintings out of a gallery I called Spazi Fine Art. So, again starting in 1989, I began selling my paintings, but to a new, strange and exceptional group of people we call the “New Yorkers”
Was the gallery scene different back then?
When I first sold paintings in the city it was on 77th Street on the upper East side. Back then in the 80’s there were hundreds of galleries up there, but now there are only just a few. They all moved to Soho, and then in the 90’s in SoHo every doorway was a gallery. Now Soho has no galleries, because they all moved to Chelsea. Now the galleries are moving to Tribeca, and in Tribeca you find streets with galleries one after another. But! The galleries in Tribeca are exactly the same as the 77th street galleries in 1976. If you went to a carnival in the 1930’s, or you went to a carnival in 2025, you are going to find the exact same things, but simply in a different spot. The carnival pulls up it stakes at the end of a week, and the galleries pull or their stakes at the end of a decade, but when they move and open again it is the same
set of stunts, gimmicks, and rides, and always with some interesting foreign woman at a computer at a desk.
But I love galleries and am always going to them. But I go the same way I go to the carnival, and I want it to always be the same. I expect to again leave asking myself, “Are they really serious, or are they just putting me on.”
Just thinking —For me, the best part about being an artist is the freedom I’ve found in not caring what others think of my work. To make art for my soul. Not needing to share it. What about you? What do you consider the best part?
I have never had the luxury of doing art just for myself. I have always had to find a way to meet the requirement to sell my work. Pictures cost a lot of money to create. That being so, I have often noted that our contemporary artists, especially the avante garde ones, are invariably trust fund babies. So, my works have to meet two high standards, that have to meet my desire to express myself and, at the same time, be a work that some person wants to purchase, even if it didn’t have a signature.
But what gives me the most joy is coming across things I did years ago, forgot about, and discover by accident, like for example, the envelopes of the
Richard Britell, "Melville Street," oil on linen, 1978, 14" x 18" Private Collection
letters I sent to my sister when she was eight years old and at summer camp.
Saying “no,” and truly meaning it, and standing up for your beliefs while fighting for what you think is right all stem from a deeper place. I’m not entirely sure how we develop these traits or why some people become more passive. While I don’t want to generalize, I’ve noticed that artists often adopt a rebellious nature, especially in the early stages of their development. What has your experience been like? I’m curious about your encounters with the law. Additionally, if you’re comfortable sharing, could you talk a bit about the reasons behind your breakdowns?
Well, first of all I am definitely a bipolar person. Bipolar indicates 2 polls, one is said to be manic and the other pole is depressive. But it turns out that I am sort of single polar, in that I have a tendency only to become manic. Now in my life I have experienced some traumatic experiences. The first, as I mentioned before, was the death of my father. In the weeks that followed I remember being manic, and living in a dream world, but everything was confused, and nobody noticed anything was wrong with me. The end of my marriage which coincided with the end of my gallery representation brought on the
first of my adult manic episodes that lasted for about six months. My behavior and especially my anger terrified my wife who called the police, and the police stopped me in the street on North Street in Pittsfield and just took me away without any explanation. Really, I don’t like to go on about this because, they were doing what they had to do for me, but when I read in the news every day that people are taken away, they don’t know why, and that they don’t know where, and no explanations are given, and no questions asked. I think to myself, people are finding out what America is like, when you fall into the hands of the police.
Having an epiphany is a significant and transformative experience. Some of us might have them as early as five years old. They often come out of nowhere, built from our life experiences. Richard, what are some of the epiphanies that have stuck with you?
Just one, and it is the most important thing to happen to me in my life, yet it is going to sound like almost nothing. I was sixteen, it was summer. I had decided to improve my grades in school. My older brother gave me this advice, “Just read a lot.” I am a very slow reader and I thought, “it’s not going to work for me,” but I thought I would take a short cut and read
only classic literature. I went to the bookstore, and I bought “Crime and Punishment,” and started to read it. On page 12 I came across this sentence, “He was dressed in an old, completely ragged black frock coat, that had shed all its buttons. Only one still somehow clung on, and this one he kept buttoned, obviously not wishing to shirk convention.” I stopped reading at that point and thought to myself, “He has described this man, his life and his character and situation, with the description of a button.” I left the house and started walking up the street and then stopped and said to myself, “I have been blind my entire life, I have never really seen or understood anything.”
So, I embarked on a project of collecting buttons, and I now have millions of my own buttons which I use to structure the stories I write. Also, looking back on it, I now realize that at that moment I became a writer, and an artist, because the same ability to see the storytelling aspect of a thing is at the crux of both painting, drawing, and writing.
Do you often visit galleries and museums nowadays? What influences your choices about which exhibitions to see and where to spend your time? The art world is quite active; how engaged are you in experiencing art firsthand? Continued...
Richard Britell, “North Street Night” oil on linen, 1978, 14” x 18” Private Collection
Show announcement, first NYC show and second show announcement.
Photo of myself from 1985, just after the mental hospital, and at Dartmouth College as artist in Residence
I am interested in all the art and music that is going on around me. I will go to listen to the buskers on Railroad Street in the summer. A few years ago, Bernay Fine Art opened in Great Barrington and I have seen every one of their exhibits. The Hotel on North Street puts up an exhibit in their lobby every month, and I have looked at the work of every artist they have decided to show. But, I have been to Tanglewood only once in my life, and have not been to the Clark, or to MassMoca in twenty years. I will go further and say that I am interested in all the art in my environment, but I don’t like the idea that there are people who are experts in what one should see and hear, and because I feel that way I avoid museums and concerts. There was a time when I was younger that I was constantly going to museum exhibits and now I never do. It is a kind of rebellious feeling of not wanting anyone to tell me what is good.
What are some of your core principles that govern your artistic thinking from conception to outcome? How have they altered and changed over
the years? I know the history of the world has been a great influence to you. Actually, I was asked a version of your question at a show I did a few years ago at Lauren Clark. This is what I said, and I titled the statement, “The Trash Man’s Living room.” I said. “When I paint a picture, I am always trying to make a thing that is the
opposite of bitcoin, the opposite of an NTF. An object with intrinsic value, even bereft of signature and attribution. An object, if put out someday into the trash, would never make it to the landfill, but instead would find its way to the trashman’s living room wall.
Who might you mention that have been important influences while developing your artistic style and focus since the start?
It is not individual artists that influence me but certain periods of art history, and the art of various cultures. So, for example, I have always been interested in, and sometimes sought to emulate Russian Icons. As a matter of fact, the first art book I ever purchased was a book of Russian Icons, and I bought it when I was a freshman at Pratt. At that time, I would say that I was also affected by the paintings of Rouault. Rouault also painted icon like religious paintings. I had an assignment when I was in college to do a collage. I still have the piece I did for that assignment, and in it you can see both the influence of Russian Icons, and also Rouault. Continued on next page...
Richard Britell, Icon collage, 1962, 6" x 12" Artist Collection Envelope.
Richard Britell, This image is a preliminary study of the Zeus and Hera Painting"Zeus And Hera" acrylic on canvas 2000, 17" x 11" Artist Studio
Your art, it all unfolds with countless layers, on each canvas, inviting me to discover something new with each step as I look deeper and closer, feeling and seeing from fine point to atmospheric abstract. All of your art has that effect on me. I find you to be a great artist and storyteller. For you, what specific pieces of art have brought you satisfaction and why?
One painting especially. I told you about my first show at Staempfli and how I sold all the paintings in that show. There were 29 paintings in all, and so when it came down I never saw any of those paintings again. Of those 29 paintings I had some favorites and my sister purchased one of them without even telling me. When I asked her about it she said, “One of those things had to stay in the family.” I visit my sister in Utica about twice a year, and I always go and look at that old painting and think, “How did I ever manage to do this?”
My daughter Catherine has one of the fresco paintings from the second show in which I sold nothing, and when I visit her in New Jersey I always have a look at it as a relic of my disasters. Three works from that show survived, one belongs to my first wife, one to my daughter Catherine, and one was purchased later from my studio by a couple in Lenox, and none of the others survived.
Could you tell us about your color field paintings, particularly “Blue Tending to Violet” and “The picnic of Zeus and Hera and their Ocelot under the Eternally Crooked Apple Tree,” 2020? I find that they evoke a deep response in me and take me on a journey through the mind’s eye. What inspired you to create these works?
I have not mentioned that when I was in high school, in 1960 a museum of modern art opened in Utica. It was called the Munson Williams Proctor Institute, today it is called simply “Munson,” but through the years it is always called the “Munstitute.” Now, in 1960 I was 16 years old and just imagine how strange and shocking it was for me to walk into that place for the first time. It was so totally out of place in that city, but I never questioned till very recently how it came into existence. The explanation is quite simple. There were historically three wealthy families in Utica. In 1959 the Guggenheim opened in New York, and our local rich folks wanted to do something similar. In New York the galleries were showing Pollack and Rothko and Kline, and so, just out of the blue, like visitors from outer space, the paintings by those characters showed up in Utica, New York, like travelers on a train who got off at the wrong stop. The paintings in that museum had a permanent effect upon me. I will not say that it altered
my own trajectory, but certainly gave it a shove. The most important space in the museum was taken up by a gigantic Pollock painting. Pollock was certainly not new to me, but I didn’t like that painting then, and still don’t care for it now. But upstairs in a less important space was a Rothko painting which permanently affected my aesthetic sense. I felt that he was studying the difference between two colors. He was looking at the place where yellow starts to be orange, but then changes direction and decides to be yellow-green. I did not start doing the same thing, because I was already doing it. At the time I saw a Rothko for the first time, I was painting small watercolors and the entire purpose was to find the place between two colors and move it around. So, the blue tending to purple is just more experimenting with the space between two colors, but it is in the form of a suggested landscape.
As for the “Crooked Apple Tree,” painting. I often begin figurative works as abstractions, and with no specific intent. I will start with washes of acrylic and while it is in the middle of drying I will blot the surface which removes some of the paint in an uncontrolled way. I will keep on applying colors in layers and removing it part way until I begin to see figures and then I will begin to develop those images little by little. That painting was done in that way. It was
Richard Britell, "Blue Tending to Violet" oil on canvas, 2020, 48" x 32" Artist Studio
done just a day after giving an art lesson to one of my occasional students who was ten years old at the time. She was reading the Odyssey, and I asked her to do an illustration for the first chapter. Later, the next day, I was thinking about the Greek Gods and Goddesses, and I got to thinking about Zeus and Hera, and how they would fight and argue. I was thinking about how couples sometimes will fight and argue and want to kill each other, but then later can be seen enjoying each other’s company. The couple in the painting, supposedly do not get along, yet are enjoying a perfect moment. But something is probably not right, just as apple trees are always crooked. But why the ocelot? Just because he appeared in the accidental patterns and textures of the acrylic paint.
I am drawn to The Striped Shirt. It is acrylic on steel. Please tell us about this work and those related in the same medium and style. What was your main focus and challenge?
It is part of a very emotional series of works on small pieces of steel, iron, and copper. All the metal was found in scrap yards, and I chose pieces that already had a considerable patina. Like working on the figurative pieces built up from acrylic washes, the works in that series were developed out of the patina surfaces of the metal. There are about a hundred of
them all done one after another, all done in the months after I separated from my second wife, and before a long stay in the Jones 3 mental ward. Most of them were sold by Lauren Clark Fine Art, but I still have about 20 of them, including the striped shirt one. The entire series was called “Days of Copper, Nights of Brass.” All the pieces had long titles, some even almost short stories. That painting had this long title, “I’m a painter. With a drop of turpentine, I accidentally undid her blouse. With some paint I closed it up again, but I couldn’t fasten the button.”
What, in your opinion, constitutes a great work of art? There must be some groundwork in your deciphering.
If I am standing in front of a painting and I start crying, it is probably something I think is a great work. So, I am going to state what is fundamental to my understanding of contemporary art, and that is that there is nobody who has ever shed tears over a Warhol soup can, or a Jeff Koons balloon dog sculpture.
Have you enjoyed curating shows? Which ones in particular did you fancy, and why?
Dotties has closed, where I have been curating shows for about four years or more. There were four shows a year and I put up the works of three artists
for each show. I started curating shows for my own gallery Spazi Fine Art in Housatonic and did a show every month from 1989 to 1996, but oddly enough it was the curating for Dotties that was the most important and rewarding for me. There are restrictions for showing in a gallery, any gallery. First the gallery owner must like the work , but that is never enough. The work must also sell, or the gallery will lose interest. When you put up work on the walls of a restaurant none of those considerations matter. There are so many people who do their own art and the restaurant venue gives them the experience. But that is not the most important consideration. The most important thing is the social aspect. Art has an important social function. I noticed this in Housatonic. The gallery has a community function and serves to create a small society of interacting people. Dotties was the same, but even more so. If the opportunity arises I will curate more shows, I think it is important far beyond just the appreciation of art. I find your sense of humor comes through in an earlier piece, from 2001, called Drawing, A Day in the Life of Six Hats. I am curious to know if this is on the lighter side of your art making. I find it humorous, especially to read the explanation that goes with it. It’s a collaborative study between the Continued on next page...
Richard Britell, "Zeus And Hera and their Ocelot, Under The Eternally Crooked Apple Tree" oil on canvas 2020, 48" x 30" Artist Studio
Richard Britell, "Striped Shirt”, 2001, oil on steel 5" x 4.5” Artist Studio
.literary and the visual illustration. A great idea. I mentioned that after Spazi closed I did a series of works on metal and sold most of them at Lauren Clark. Following that series came an enormous psychiatric episode that put me in the hospital from the beginning of September till after the new year. All the events that led up to that hospitalization were widely talked about and even mentioned in the Berkshire Eagle. The Eagle even sent a reporter to Great Barrington to check up on me. They wrote a little piece about me in the paper that said, “Richard Britell is down there in Great Barrington out in the street directing traffic with huge gestures, he is a man who is acting very strangely.” said the owner of one of the stores on Main street.
When I got out of Jones 3, which, by the way, is the locked ward, I could not bring myself to go back to Great Barrington where I had been living and where I had been evicted from my apartment. I was mortified and deeply ashamed of how I had acted, but on the other hand, I hated all the people who had looked at me, and talked about me as a strange curiosity. I decided to sell my art without any interaction with any people whatsoever. I wanted no contact with any gallery, and more importantly, no
interaction with any people, no interaction with collectors.
How could that even happen you ask? My brother called me, it was in the year 2001, he said “”Dick, do you have a computer.” I said no. “I’m going to send you one,” he said.
I was walking down the street in Housatonic, and I ran into Carol Gingles. Carol asked me, “Do you know anything about Ebay?” I got the computer from UPS, I plugged it in and looked up Ebay, in a google search.
I sold my first drawing on Ebay on April 1, 2001, for $20. For the next few years I sold drawings on Ebay. I produced four or five drawings a week and sold them for 20 or 30 dollars each for two years. I developed a following and was able to sell pieces for over $100 consistently.
All the drawings had some text or technical explanation, and others had humorous stories or comments, always made up while I was working on the drawings. I have all those texts, but the writing was done with the idea that I was selling something to people who probably had no actual interest in art because Ebay is like a tag sale environment. The drawing you mentioned about the hats was an ebay
Richard Britell, “Six Hats" paper and pencil.
6 individual drawings each Approx. 4 x 4” 2002
Private collection
drawing. It sold for $60.00
I see you play the piano. How serious do you consider yourself as a musician?
I am a very serious musician. I have played the piano since childhood. I play popular music by ear, and classical music from scores. I love Bach, and all the music created before Bach. I love Bach but he is too difficult for my skill level, nevertheless I have memorized many Bach keyboard works.
If you search my name on Youtube you will find a video of me playing the cello. I do not play the cello very well, and when my cello teacher asked me to be in a recital, I asked a singer I knew to sing a song where I played the accompaniment.
I don’t know how well I play the piano, but several videos of me playing the piano are on my instagram account, so you can watch them and decide for yourself.
You have garnered a dedicated following in The Artful Mind with your literary contributions, including the series “Something for Over the Couch,” the seven-part narrative “Valeria,” and children’s stories such as “Sir Isaac Newton’s
Cat.” Could you elaborate on the motivations that drive your writing?
I write because I am so interested to find out what will become of the characters I create. Also, I am also often amazed by the way I decide to explain things. Now, you might ask, how can you not know how the story is going to progress. It is like this. Two nights ago, I had a dream about my Mother. In the dream my Father had been dead for many years. I was in the living room listening to a conversation my Mom was having with some other person. My Mom was saying, “I like to go out, I go out every night now.” the other person asked her, “Where do you go,” and she replied, “Memory Lane.” Then I woke up and instantly thought to myself, “Memory Lane, what a strange and ridiculous name for a place.” Here is the point: I was surprised in the dream by the name of a place. How can one be surprised at the content of your own dream? You don’t know the content of your own dreams because your brain is composing it without your conscious awareness. So, I think my stories are made up in some part of my mind I can’t get to, but if I listen to the voice in my head, I can hear it being dictated. I could make none of it up, I just listen to it and then write it down.
What makes life now full and brings you happiness?
Too many things to enumerate, working in the studio with earphones on, listening to Spotify. Walking down the street in Hudson in the summer. Going to Utica to visit my sister and going to the museum to look at the Pollock painting again for the thousandth time. Driving down 183 from Lenox to Housatonic and being forcefully reminded by the landscape that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Having coffee at the Lenox Coffee Shop and listening to parents talk to their children in Chinese or German or French. Starting my car after changing the points and plugs.
But really, sometimes strangers in Pittsfield will stop me, street people, even drunks and, looking me up and down for a moment will say, “You’re the artist aren’t you, and it is so odd, but I can see they take some pride in the fact of my existence.
Can you encapsulate these thoughts by noting words from any written works in literature that you have come across?
I mentioned Dostoevsky, in what I said about his description of the button, but that is not the line that
has become the most important thing to me. It is a line that describes what a person had been like in life. It is from, “House of The Dead.” his account of being in prison. Here is the line. “I asked Katia if she remembered him. She looked at me in silence and turned weeping to the wall.” This simple sentence completely describes a relationship long over. Here is my version of the same idea from one of my stories in The Artful Mind. When she would laugh, he would turn and look at her with the utmost pleasure, as if such childhood laughter was the best and only purpose of human existence.
What art work from the history of the world can you best relate to and have studied over and over again?
Johann Sebastian Bach, “The Well-tempered Clavier”
www.richardbritell.com
Richard Britell, "West 11th Street" oil on linen 10" x 8" 2025 Artist Studio
BRUCE LAIRD
Clock Tower Artists
Business Center Studio #307
75 South Church Street, Pittsfield, MA Instagram- ecurbart
Carolyn M. Abrams
Soulscapes
Atmospheric and Inspirational Art www.carolynabrams.com MEMBER GUILD OF BERKSHIRE ARTISTS
FRONT STREET GALLERY
The Andrews House Incoming Ferry Block Island 24x30”oil on canvas
Painting classes on Monday and Wednesday Mornings 10-1pm at the studio in Housatonic and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field. Also available for private critiques. Open to all. Please come paint with us!
Gallery hours: Open by chance and by appointment anytime 413. 274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell) 413. 528. 9546 (home) www.kateknappartist.com Front Street, Housatonic, MA
A List of Things That Don’t Suck. Much.
Getting up before the alarm goes off. Just make sure it’s not 3:45 AM. The tulle from a ballet outfit from years ago.
Eyeglasses that make you think you look smarter.
First kiss. The first really good kiss. Why can’t I remember that?
People who get me. Really get me.
All others need not apply.
Letting a ladybug lie in state in my bathroom.
Painting by my own rules.
All other rules need not apply.
Deep, rich chocolate that won’t stretch out my pants. Who cares if it does.
Visiting polar bears in Central Park Zoo.
Telling them that I will be back to liberate them.
Dancing in the streets.
Driving the wrong way on Second Ave. at 3 AM on a Sunday morning. And not getting caught.
Knowing that I will probably die alone and being okay with that. Who needs any more drama?
Never chipping another tooth for as long as I live.
Eating a whole strawberry and finding out that I am not really allergic to it
While in the emergency room.
Walking up five flights of stairs.
Wearing every single piece of jewelry
That I have ever owned
When I meet up with you again.
And you telling me that I am the only soul Who could pull this off without falling on my face.
@2025 elizabeth cassidy
elizabeth cassidy studio works artist, illustrator, writer, poet, peace lover elizabethcassidystudioworks.com
"Divine Vessel" oils/cold wax medium
artschool99somerville.com www.alexandrarozenman.com alexandra.rozenman@gmail.com
www.markmillstein.com
JHPumphrey@gmail.com | www.JanetPumphrey.com
artist, illustrator, writer, poet, peace lover elizabeth cassidy studio works elizabethcassidystudioworks.com Little Love Letters: A Peaceful Revolution is looking for people who are ready to join the peaceful revolution. Please go to: elizabethcassidystudioworks.com (under Social Impact) and find out how you can help us help our country and the world heal...one card at a time. You will receive an assortment of cards to leave in public places, in a greeting card, on a peach, or in the hand of someone who could use some kindness and feel seen by you.
“I’m
STEVEN SORMAN
PAINTER / PRINTMAKER
in awe and bedeviled by much. I have questions and when I get close to something resembling an answer it turns into a question again. Some work takes shape over years, some appears suddenly.”—Steven Sorman
Interview by Harryet Candee Photographs courtesy of the Artist
Curious to know the chronological order in which your artistic explorations in various mediums have developed.
STEVEN: I began drawing and painting and soon thereafter developed an interest in printmaking. I’ve pursued all equally, using a broad and ever expanding range of materials, techniques and processes. Collage has always been integral to this activity.
Can you share the journey of your artistic ideas and concepts? How did they first take shape, evolve, and ultimately become what they are today?
It’s more a series of collisions in a flood than an evolution. Things appear and disappear. Everything moves and changes. I just try to keep my footing in this slippery stream.
In what ways do the distinct characteristics of
painting, drawing, and printmaking interconnect to enhance your overall artistic expression?
I think of each as a member of a large family. They do best by getting along.
Could you share the technical and creative methods you’ve used in your work?
To me the line between the two is blurry. One does not serve the other. They work together. It’s all experiment. I figure out how to do what I am doing as I do it. You take what you have and what you stumble into on the way and try to move it to a friendly camp.
Are there any exciting new methods of making art that you hope to try someday?
I’m willing to try anything.
Could you share the specific concepts behind
your art and the messages they convey?
There are no governing concepts and certainly no messages. I’m just trying to see what I can do, to give shape to what I imagine. The more you try to figure out what something means, the less you will know what it is.
What types of paper do you find work best for your prints?
There is no best. Having many options to choose from is what matters.
At present I have an inventory of over 100 different paper varieties. Over the years I’ve used over 200.
What specific inks and paints, drawing tools do you find bring your ideas to life?
They’re all mute lumps until you get them to dance. Charcoal, graphite, silver point, gold leaf, rust, oil, pastel, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, flashe are all
equal citizens in this world.
In the process of printmaking what are the contributing factors?
The medium demands a high level of craft and attention to detail. That said, a surfeit of craft with a dearth of imagination will deliver no more than a dreadful print,
Is it true that the fewer prints made, the more valuable they are? And what does that depend on?
It depends on the artist. What’s scarce in the world of supply and demand usually commands a higher price. Little demand and it makes no difference.
Do you break any of the "traditional" rules in artmaking on purpose?
There’s tradition and there are rules. Rules are made
by fools and beg to be broken. Tradition is the legacy we inherit and learn from. I just try to stretch myself every time I work.
Do you rely on outside sources or assistants to create work that is museum quality?
Many times over my working life I’ve collaborated with master printers in various print shops. Among the most notable was Tyler Graphics which was located in Mt. Kisco, NY. Ken Tyler is arguably one of the finest and most innovative printers to have ever graced this planet,
What was the most memorable, strange, or interesting place you ever worked out of to create art?
Wherever I’m working at the moment.
What part of your artmaking process is the most
enjoyable?
It unfolds continually and unpredictably in so many different ways. I never know what I’m going to run into. Lots of uncertainty and surprise. I love all of it.
Tell us about your biggest adventure in the art world so far for you?
The people I’ve met, learned from, grown fond of and shared this life with.
Where was it that you wore your finest feathers in your hat event to?
I can’t ascribe more importance to one event over any of the others. I’ve been alternately disappointed and exhilarated over the years. Both keep me working.
Continued on next page...
Steven Sorman’s studio
Steven Sorman. Center panel from "is was will be", 2010, etching, drypoint, collage, acrylic, polymer medium on linen, 9'x8'
Steven Sorman."nonetheless", 2004, rust, copper oxide, gouache, c’excerptollage, gesso on various papers, 22"x81"
.Steven Sorman. "acting like ourselves", 1991, mezzotint, carborundum aquatint, on BFK Rives paper, 32"x40"
Steven Sorman."certain unbelief", 2014, gouache, watercolor, gesso on goatskin parchment, 14"x12"
Steven Sorman. Four from the series "outside in inside out", 2010, watercolor, collage, pumice gel medium, gesso on 1929 J Goodman paper, 42'x28"
.Steven Sorman. "excerpt from a temporary universe"#183, 2025, graphite, watercolor, silverpoint, collage on handmade Indian paper, 12"x8 1/2"
What parts of art history have you found inspiring?
All of it.
How do you feel your emotions affect your artwork?
Like everything else in my life. It’s easier to work in jot than in sorrow, yet you do both
Please tell us about your large piece “is was will be”.
In 2010 I started to assemble this work with individually printed etchings and drypoints on linen. When assembled I went back into the work with some painting and collaging. At 9’x39’ it may be
the largest print ever made, not something I set out to do. As I was working it just kept growing until I felt it looked comfortable with itself.
What do you hope your art will convey to future generations?
I have no idea. If deemed worthy it will make a space for itself.
Where can the sense or see your humorous side to you?
Being serious is a form of self parody.
Are you also a chef?
I’m not a chef. A friend affectionately referred to me
as such. I love to cook and do so reasonably well. Chefs are artists with a depth of skill and imagination beyond my ken.
http://stevensorman.com
Steven Sorman. "excerpt from a temporary universe" #180, 2025, graphite, gouache, collage on handmade Indian paper, 12"x 8 1/2"
LEO MAZZEO
Backstabbed”, distress oxide, graphite, highlight pen, metallic color pen, and ink on fluid mixed media paper, 6.5”x9” (c)Leo Mazzeo.
“
KATHERINE BORKOWSKI-BYRNE
I studied painting at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts when painting was king. It was when I first saw a deKooning painting, that I knew what painting could do and that I had to be a painter.
My main love is oil on canvas or paper giving the full range of marks from watery thin to luscious thick. One of my favorite teachers at art school, said, “When you paint in oils, you have the whole orchestra.”
My inspiration comes from many outside sources but my excitement comes from the process of painting when any original ideas disappear and the painting has a life of its own. My favorite pieces are those that come from “within.”
Katherine Borkowski-Byrne — www.katherineborkowski-byrne.com artborkowski@aol.com
FRONT ST. GALLERY
Pastels, oils, acrylics and watercolors, abstract and representational, landscapes, still lifes and portraits, a unique variety of painting technique 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 10-1:30pm 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 welcome. Private critiques available. Classes at Front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who just want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and/or those who have some experience under their belt. Kate Knapp — 413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell) Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. www.kateknappartist.com
JULIA GREY
Julia Grey has spent the last twenty years training, photographing and painting hummingbirds; both in the Berkshires and in Las Vegas, NV. They are her great loves.
Ms. Julia Grey — She/Her/Miss www.xgender.net
Thea Knapp
theaknappbaker.com instagram / lpplanding12@gmail.com
TWILIGHT'S RHYTHM
ACRYLIC ON PAPER PLUS MAPLE FRAME, 16” X 20”
LORUS, PHOTOGRAPH, 12” X 18”
Whale Watercolor, 9” x 11”
KATE KNAPP, RODMAN’S HOLLOW VIEW WITH TREE
THREE MORNING GLORIES, WATERCOLOR, 8” X 8“
STEPHAN MARC KLEIN
I have been making art on and off since my undergraduate education as an architect in the late 1950s. But I began drawing in childhood and I have always loved to sketch. Although I don’t always use them, I rarely leave the house without a sketchbook and pen or pencil. I have sketched when I’ve travelled, and I have sketched when I ‘ve been at home. I often sketch directly in ink. I think it is a great discipline—every line counts—you can’t erase.
Before moving to the Berkshires, I lived for many years in Greenwich Village in New York City in an apartment that had wonderful urban views from every window. I’ve loved to sketch looking out across the City from my apartment and have done many drawings and paintings over the years of The Village and the City beyond. I found endless fascination with the jumbled geometry of rooftops, water tanks, fire escapes, building shapes, etc. The roof of my building had even better views than from my apartment, a full 360 degree unobstructed panorama of Manhattan. For this issue I’ve shown views from my roof in three of the four cardinal directions— West, North, and East. My wife and I moved the Berkshires in mid-2017. Sadly, it was before I got around to doing a sketch from the rooftop of my building of lower Manhattan looking south.
Stephan Marc Klein — stephanmarcklein.com | smk8378@gmail.com
Member 510 Warren Street Gallery, Hudson, NY
ALEXANDRA ROZENMAN
Alexandra Rozenman’s narrative about identity, search for belonging, and journeying to a foreign land forms the core of her work. She says, “my approach to beauty and wonder came with me from Russia and has kept playing a big role. I am always working with it or against it.” Her paintings tell stories and invite viewers into her world of images, symbols, historical events, and the lives and work of famous artists. Rozenman’s work touches in personal ways on issues of artistic influence and dialogue, emulation and creativity, and continuity and discontinuity in contemporary art. She shows us how we are all part of a larger story. In her most recent work, mainly done after the invasion of Ukraine, Rozenman uses trauma (e.g., floods, fires, emptiness) as subject matter, asking the viewer to think about the meaning of even the darkest things around us.
JAYE ALISON
“But above all things was it a return to Nature - that formula which seems to suit so many and such diverse movements: they would draw and paint nothing but what they saw, they would try and imagine things as they really happened.”
-Oscar Wilde
Rozenman was born in Moscow and emigrated to the U.S. in 1989. She was classically trained in the Soviet Art Academy and with well-known artists from Moscow’s underground movement. She lived in New York City in the 90s and was part of what later became Artists Alliance Inc. on the Lower East Side. Rozenman holds a BFA in Painting from SUNY and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts. She has studied with artists Gerry Bergstein and Robert Ferrandini. Her paintings and drawings blend the styles and symbols of folk art, illustration, Russian Underground Conceptualism, and Jewish Art. Rozenman exhibits nationally and internationally at venues that have included Lichtundfire Gallery in New York, Trustman Art Gallery at Simmons University, Hudson Gallery in Gloucester, MA, Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, CT, French Cultural Center of Boston, The Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery in Washington, DC, Gallery 360 in Minneapolis, MN, The Painting Center in New York, and Moscow Center of Contemporary Art. Rozenman was a MacDowell Fellow in 2006. She leads her own art school for adults and teenagers in Somerville, MA called Art School 99. She is a member of Fountain Street Gallery since 2016.
Alexandra Rozenman — artschool99somerville.com www.alexandrarozenman.com alexandra.rozenman@gmail.com
"I was really anxious because we were pretty much snowbound in our homes, being in a particularly cold 2025 winter. I had moved many of my art supplies to my studio in Southfield, and had begun organizing works. The idea of playing with them, cutting some of the ones to which I felt drawn to do so, this had been playing around in my mind for a looooooong time, but this weather allowed me to take advantage of the opportunity- I couldn't go anywhere, so I could just focus and play."
Jaye Alison harnesses water-based mediums like acrylic and watercolor, influenced by a creative upbringing and artistic journey. Through abstraction and intuitive color selection, she captures the interplay between forms with lines that articulate deep-seated emotions. Her art resonates with joy and upliftment, transforming personal and worldly complexities into visual harmony.
The artist is passionate about creating art, painting on flat, smooth surfaces, and using environmentally friendly materials.
Alison’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has appeared in print, film, television, the web, and Off Off Broadway.
Transforming personal and worldly complexities into visual harmony. In celebration of Jaye's new studio, enjoy 10% off large paintings and 30% off small paintings.
Jaye Alison — 310-970-4517
Studio visits by appointment only: Pond Shed (behind the Buggy Whip Factory), 208 Norfolk Road, Southfield, Massachusetts jayealison.com jaye.alison.art@gmail.com
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT COLLAGE, CRADLED WOODEN BOARD, 10”X10”X2”
BELIEF IN THE POSSIBILITIES OF SPRING COLLAGE, CRADLED WOODEN BOARD, 12”X12”X2”
“In Good Company.”
Three shows —— Three Months
August | September 8th ‘Momentum’ | October
Reception for the Artists
Saturday, September 13, 5 - 8pm
Ruby Aver
Lori Bradley
Richard Britell
Katherine Borkowski-Byrne
Leslee Carsewell
Janet Cooper
Candace Eaton
Yana van Dyke
Jane Gennaro
Julia Grey
Ghetta Hirsch
Sarah Horne
Stephan Marc Klein
Thea Knapp-Baker
Bruce Laird
Leo Mazzeo
Bobby Miller
Mark Millstein
Dawn Nelson
Richard Nelson
Ellen Pollen
Janet Pumphrey
Alexandra Rozenman
Richard Talbert
Jay Tobin
Mary Ann Yarmosky
Yana Van Dyke — vandykeyana@gmail.com TENDING
YANA VAN DYKE
Yana van Dyke is a Conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1999, specializing in the conservation of works of art on paper and parchment. Connoisseurship, scientific study, art historical research, and practical matters intertwined in caring for and preserving works of art fuel van Dyke’s investigations into artists materials and techniques. Curiosity, experimentation, and a passionate pursuit of knowledge guide her own creative process.
SEASIDE, PASTEL, 9” X 11”
THEA KNAPP-BAKER
I have been a practicing artist since I was fice. I always loved looking at nature, animals, trees, etc. and then to replicate that vibrant energy and vision was quite a fun challenge! An artist translates tears, laughter and curiosity itself.
For me, art has been a lonely means of creativity, escape, and reflective communication. I love the quote: “My art is a way of praying and crying at the same time...and the highest expression of love and solitude.” - Guayasamin
Thea Knapp-Baker — www.theaknappbaker.com
Email: lppanding12@gmail.com
JWS ART SUPPLIES
WE’VE MOVED!
Welcome to JWS Art Supplies at our new location, 291 Main Street in Great Barrington. We're excited to offer a wide variety of art supplies and craft materials for artists of all ages and skill levels. Whether you're a parent looking for fun projects for kids or a professional artist seeking high-quality materials, we have something for everyone.
Our knowledgeable staff is here to assist you with whatever project you're working on. Don't hesitate to ask for recommendations or guidance—we're dedicated to helping you find exactly what you need to bring your creative vision to life. Visit us and explore our extensive selection of art supplies!
JWS Art Supplies — 413-644-9838 - 291 Main St, Great Barrington, MA. info@jwsartsupplies.com
RICHARD TALBERT
Richard Talbert c, Machu Picchu and Bees, Photomontage, 20” x 30”, 2025.
My recent photomontage, titled “Machu Picchu and Bees,” captures a glimpse into two different eras: 2000 and 2025. In 2000, I had the privilege of camping at the old monastery, nestled across a breathtaking 1500-foot drop gorge from the Archaeological Historic Site. Back then, I was a freelance architectural designer, and my life took an exciting turn when a French hotel developer acquired the old monastery. Their plan was to transform it into a luxurious hotel, and I was thrilled to be a part of this project.
For several days, I immersed myself in the beauty of Machu Picchu, capturing its stunning landscapes at various times of the day. At night, the ancient grounds were transformed into a nocturnal sanctuary, where large bats swarmed, catching small critters. Amidst all this, I had the delightful opportunity to befriend a friendly llama for several days. While working on sketches of the monastery, which would eventually become a 5-Star hotel, I formed a deep bond with Machu Picchu.
BRUCE LAIRD
I am an abstract artist whose two and three-dimensional works in mixed media reveal a fascination with geometry, color and juxtapositions. For me it is all about the work which provides surprising results, both playful and thought provoking. From BCC to UMASS and later to Vermont College to earn my MFA Degree. I have taken many workshops through Art New England, at Bennington College, Hamilton College and an experimental workshop on cyanotypes recently at MCLA. Two international workshops in France and Italy also. I am pleased to have a studio space with an exciting group of artists at the Clocktower Building in Pittsfield.
Bruce Laird — Clock Tower, #307, 75 South Church Street, Pittsfield, MA. Instagram: @ecurbart
SALLY TISKA RICE BERKSHIRE ROLLING HILLS
Born and raised in the captivating Berkshires, Sally Tiska Rice possesses artistic prowess that breathes life into her canvases. As a versatile multimedia artist, Sally seamlessly employs a tapestry of techniques, working in acrylics, watercolors, oil paints, pastels, collages containing botanicals, and mixed media elements. Her creative spirit draws inspiration from the idyllic surroundings of her rural hometown, where she resides with her husband, Mark, and cherished pets.
Sally's artistic process is a dance of spontaneity and intention. With each brush stroke, she composes artwork that reflects her unique perspective. Beyond her creations, Sally also welcomes commissioned projects, turning heartfelt visions into tangible realities. Whether it's capturing the essence of individuals, beloved pets, cherished homes, or sacred churches, she pours her soul into each personalized masterpiece.
Sally Tiska Rice will be the featured artist at the Hotel on North, located at 297 North Street, Pittsfield, MA through September 1, 2025. Set in the heart of downtown Pittsfield, this beautifully restored boutique hotel blends 19th-century architecture with sleek, contemporary design—and is the perfect backdrop for Sally’s richly layered, lightfilled artwork.
Sally’s work is on the gallery walls of the Clock Tower, Open Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00 pm for self-guided tours.
SallyTiskaRice@gmail.com www.sallytiskarice.com https://www.facebook.com/artistsallytiskarice Fine Art Prints (Pixels), Twitter, LinkedIn Instagram, YouTube, TikTok
JJ (JAY) TOBIN
“I primarily use house paint because it is acrylic and mixed with artist's paint. The canvas from the life net is thick and coarse. You can't stretch it so that I will use it as collage material.” —JJ Tobin
What were some of your most memorable experiences working as a full-time artist?
JJ: Twenty years ago, I took a course in painting using fresco, which is pigment in wet plaster. The Sistine Chapel is probably the most famous. It was given at the Frelinghuysen-Morris house in Lenox. I painted a large mural using fresco at East Coast Refinishing on Industrial Drive in Pittsfield. It was great making the plaster and painting such a large piece. (10ft x 20ft). Looking at it now, I would change a lot.
When creating your black-and-white paintings, what challenges did you set for yourself to test your skill and ability to produce aesthetically pleasing work?
JJ: I have been doing black and white paintings on and off since the late 1970's. At Umass, I had John Grillo for a painting class. I did a black and white painting that he thought was awful. He told me about an artist he knew who used black and white almost exclusively. His name is Myron Stout. Stout has had a big influence on my work. I try to set up these paintings so the black shape or negative space and the white positive space are "nice looking shapes," as Grillo called them. I try to get the black and white shapes to play off each other. One isn't more important than the other. Certain objects lend themselves to just two colors. A firefighter's facepiece or a drop of liquid, for example.
A woman’s name raises doubts until her work is seen… I will show your illustrious lordship what a woman can do.
—Artemisia Gentileschi
To read full interview, please plug in this link: https://issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/docs/the_a rtful_mind_.._nov_2024_online
JJ will be in The Artful Mind Group Exhibit, In Good Company, at 11 Eagle Street September and October. Reception date: september 13, 58pm. Please visit the gallery.
UNTITLED
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 35"X25"
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES ACRYLIC ON ARCHES PAPER, 20”W X 26”H
BUBBLE EYE
WATERCOLOR ON 300LB COLD PRESS SHEET. MATTED AND FRAMED IN A 8”X10” BLACK WOOD FRAME. SOLD
BRUCE PANOCK
I am a visual artist using photography as the platform to begin a journey of exploration. My journey began in earnest almost 14 years ago when I retired due to health issues and began devoting myself to the informal study of art, artists and particularly photography. Before retiring I had begun studying photography as a hobby. After my retirement, the effort took on a greater intensity.
My world had changed for reasons outside of my control and I looked for something different in my work. I wanted to do more than document what was around me. I wanted to create something that the viewers might join with me and experience. Due to my health issues, I found myself confined with my activities generally restricted. For the first time I began looking inward, to the world that I experienced, though not always through physical interaction. It is a world where I spend more time trying to understand what I previously took for granted and did not think about enough. The ideas ranged from pleasure and beauty to pain and loss; from isolation to abandonment; to walking past what is uncomfortable to see. During this period of isolation, I began thinking about what is isolation, how it can transition to abandonment and then into being forgotten. The simplest display of this idea is abandoned buildings. They were once beautiful, then allowed to run down and abandoned, soon to be forgotten. After a while they disappear. Either mankind knocks down these forgotten once beautiful structures, or remediates them, or Nature reclaims the space. Doesn’t mankind do the same with its own?
My work employs references to other photographers, painters, as well as sculptors. The brushwork of Chinese and Japanese artists is appealing for both its simplicity and beauty. Abstract art has its own ways of sharing ideas which are jarring and beautiful at the same time. Black and white and color works each add their own dynamic. My work is influenced by these art forms, often using many of them in a single composited image.
Bruce Panock— Panockphotography.com bruce@panockphotography.com Instagram @brucepanock
DEBORAH H. CARTER
Deborah H. Carter is a multi-media artist from Lenox, MA, who creates upcycled, sustainable wearable art. Her couture pieces are constructed from post-consumer waste such as food packaging, wine corks, cardboard, books, wire, plastic, and other discarded items and thrifted wares. She manipulates her materials' color, shape, and texture to compel us to question our assumptions of beauty and worth and ultimately reconsider our habits and attitudes about waste and consumerism.
Since she was eight, Deborah has been a sewing enthusiast, and she learned her craft by creating clothing with her mother and grandmothers. Her passion took hold as she began to design and sew apparel and accessories. After graduating with a degree in fashion design from Parsons School of Design in New York City, she worked as a women's sportswear designer on Seventh Avenue.
Deborah's art has been exhibited in galleries and art spaces around the US. She was one of 30 designers selected to showcase her work at the FS2020 Fashion Show annually at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland. She has been featured in the Spring 2023 What Women Create magazine.
Deborah H. Carter has been featured in The Artful Mind, Berkshire magazine, and What Women Create magazine and was a finalist in the World of WearableArt competition in Wellington, New Zealand, 2023.
“Sending Messages” on display at Hancock Shaker Village, 34 Lebanon Mountain Rd, Hancock, MA. Through November 30th.
Deborah H Carter — 413-441-3220, Clock Tower Artists 75 S. Church St., Studio 315, 3rd floor Pittsfield, Massachusetts Instagram: @deborah_h_carter Debhcarter@yahoo.com
JANET
COOPER THE ART OF FIGURING OUT WHAT KIND OF ARTIST I AM
Fabrics, anatomy, stitches, colors and bricologue are words, imbued with intense emotionality for me, a maker, collector and lover of objects and places.
My first love was clay, so basic, earthy and obsessively compelling, I adored making pottery shapes and objects, resembling torsos. A period of fascination with vintage tin cans, bottle caps and junky metal discards followed. Metal was sheared, punched, riveted and assembled into figurative shapes. I began to use fabrics with these works and eventually abandoned metal for hand stitching doll sculptures, totems and collages, all with second hand or recycled fabrics.
Lately I have introduced paint and waxes into my work. I also am using animal bones, those armatures of mammal form. I am recycling old works into the new, a kind of synthesis of who I have been with whom I am now.
I am also returning to jewelry or ornament making. as well as fashioning a collection of garden and street wear art aprons.
Janet Cooper— janetcoop@gmail.com www.janetcooperdesigns.com
ADVERTISE YOUR ART & RED DOTS WILL HAPPEN
The Artful Mind — 413 - 645 - 4114
ARMORED IN ART PHOTO: KORENMAN COM MODEL: KALEB MCDANIEL
PORTRAIT OF BRUCE BY BOBBY MILLER
WALL MURAL, MIXED MEDIA
COURT
ENGRAVING, 8” X 9” 2025
MARK MILLSTEIN
Mark’s work is shaped by the convergence and conflict between natural forms and human cultural and architectural constructs. His images are meant to invite extended looking, revealing new details under close observation.
A central theme in his practice is the parallel between Brutalist architecture and drypoint engraving—both defined by precise forms animated by surfaces marked with irregular, tactile traces. In a similar way, Mark’s process begins with a structural framework, a foundation upon which imagery and patterns accumulate as a theme emerges. By alternately creating and disrupting perspective, he constructs shifting planes of imaginary space, seeking to capture pockets of both calm and chaos within planned environments and forgotten landscapes.
Mark Millstein— mmillstein@umassd.edu www.markmillstein.com
GHETTA HIRSCH
Yellow ochre has been on my mind for a while and seem to appear in much of my recent work. I consider myself a colorist with an Abstract Realism style. I have been asked recently if I prefer abstract to representational. I must say that colors and composition are more important to me than form. I also often start with a landscape or subject that gets transformed as I work. I prefer to work slowly and add layers to build a story that is subconsciously part of of me.
“Circling” is about the driving around in real life but also in thoughts and feelings. Do we know where is the beginning or the end of anything? Yet, there are moments of lightness that will overcome the darks of our days. Here is my secret. My life routine is in the yellow ochre and it is steady.
Come and see my work studio - call 413-5971716
Or visit the new gallery, The Artful Mind Gallery, representing me at 11 Eagle Street, North Adams, MA. Open Wednesdays to Sundays. 11:30 to 4:30pm.
Ghetta Hirsch— Website: ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com
JOANE CORNELL FINE JEWELRY
I am sitting in my work studio at the moment, working on an extraordinary commission order.
The customer supplied her own diamonds, each one calibrated exactly to the other, at 3.20 mm diameter. The weight of each diamond is referred to as shy 20’s, as in .20 points. They’re actually .18 points each.
Fifty modern cut, brilliant, round, F color, VS clarity diamonds. Collection quality.
This woman commissioned me to make her a wide, chunky, high domed, three band, solid, 18 karat gold rolling ring. That’s quite the undertaking considering how thick and wide these bands are. To be hand formed with basic rudimentary tools. That’s the beauty of hand forging. It takes not only the calculations of what size the bands need to be, for the end result of a size 7.75, which need to be precise for it to be a smooth roll of the design. To fit snuggly into one another. The physical strength required to form these around a steel mandrel is another story. And then the time consuming process of setting 16 diamonds per band, is quite the undertaking as well.
Each of the 16 diamonds require 5-6 different size drilling bits to finally accomplish the right size for the actual diamond diameter. And then of course, the actual setting of each of the 48 diamonds being used in the design!
A casting of each of the three rings would’ve been a lot less labor intensive, and certainly a lot faster. But this customer, as well as many others, love the idea that this was produced with a lot of hard work and expertise.
Total appreciation for the art.
I’ll post the finished ring in a future issue of The Artful Mind”.
Find
Joane Cornell Fine Jewelry — 917-971-4662 9 Main St., Chatham, NY joanecornellfinejewelry@gmail.com Instagram
https://issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/docs/the_artful_mind_june_2025
Commissions welcome!
TWO PAIR OF EARRINGS —THREE STACK RINGS
“CIRCLING”
OIL ON VINTAGE LINEN, 2025
LORI BRADLEY
Lori Bradley is a contemporary painter working primarily in oil and acrylic on canvas and wood panels. She describes her style as alternative realism—a blend of storytelling and whimsy grounded in the natural world. While inspired by the traditions of past and present realist painters, her work integrates modern themes, bold colors, patterns, and design elements, creating a dynamic synthesis of classical and contemporary painting. Much of her imagery is rooted in nature, reflecting her fascination with the mysterious connections between humans and the natural world. Through her paintings, Bradley explores visual mythologies and narratives that reveal both the wonder and complexity of our relationship with the environment. Lori Bradley— loribradley@comcast.net http://www.loribradleyart.com
BOBBY MILLER
Bobby Miller is a poet and photographer who lived and worked in New York City for thirty years. He has also the author of 23 books including — Fabulous! A Photographic Diary of Studio 54, A Downtown State of Mind: NYC 1973 – 1983, Wigstock in Black & White:1985 – 2005 and Queer Nation
Bobby has published three books of poems, Benestrific Blonde, Mouth Of Jane and Rigmarole and is included in several anthologies: Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Verses That Hurt, Pleasure and Pain from The Poemfone Poets and The Outlaw Bible Of American Poets. His work has been shown in New York City, Provincetown, MA, Palm Springs, CA, Seattle, WA, Hudson, NY and the Berkshires, MA. Bobby Miller — troubleblonde@comcast.net
BERKSHIRE ROLLING HILLS ART CLOCK TOWER ARTISTS
Studio 302, 3rd floor
75 South Church St, Pittsfield, MA (413)-446-8469
www.sallytiskarice.com sallytiskarice@gmail.com
SARAH HORNE
I find myself drawing and painting primarily from nature. I am an abstract painter and I don't look to copy nature so much as I want to evoke the feeling I have about the subject. I want to capture a moment that has affected me.
The images I paint first come under my own looking and investigating, usually done with drawings and photographs. That done to my satisfaction, I let all of that initial process go. Then, I can paint with freedom and without over-thinking.
Sarah Horne — sarahhorne29@gmail.com
CANDACE EATON
EATON www.candaceeaton.com | candaceeatonstudio@gmail.com (631) 413-5057
DAY CLOUD, JOHNSON, VT. ACRYLIC AND PASTEL ON PAPER, 11”X14”
ANDY WARHOL, 35MM FILM & DIGITAL IMAGE, ARCHIVAL INK AND PAPER
American Gypsy. Oil on Canvas. 32” X 28”
CANDACE
WARM WIND, OIL ON WOODEN PANEL, 24” X 18”
Sally Tiska Rice A Story to Tell.
LESLEE CARSEWELL
My artwork, be it photography, painting, or collage, embraces a very simple notion: how best to break up space to achieve more serendipity and greater intuition on the page. Though simple in theory, this is not so easy to achieve. I work to make use of both positive and negative space to create interest, lyricism, elegance, and ambiguity. Each element informs the whole. This whole, with luck, is filled with an air of intrigue. Breaking up space, to me, has a direct correlation to music. Rhythm, texture, points of emphasis, and silence all play their parts. Music that inspires me includes solo piano work by Debussy, Ravel, Mompou, and, of course, Schubert and Beethoven.
Working with limited and unadorned materials, I enhance the initial compositions with color, subtle but emphatic line work, and texture. For me, painting abstractly removes restraints. The simplicity of lines and the subsequent forming of shapes is quite liberating.
Lastly, I want my work to feel crafted, the artist's hand in every endeavor.
Leslee CarsewellPrints available, please inquire. 413-229-0155 / 413-854-5757 lcarsewellart@icloud.com www.lcarsewellart.com
CAROLYN M. ABRAMS INSPIRATIONAL AND ATMOSPHERIC SOULSCAPES
My work is about relationships. Connecting with my creative spirit and the world around me, most especially Mother Nature in all her beauty and her challenges. There is a voice in nature that touches us and connects us to one another in ways that evokes an emotion and stirs the soul. My work is about creating that connection. It is a metaphor for so many ethereal moments in life that are fleeting and bring with them a bond like no other. Using unique mediums such as oils and cold wax, I feel that relationship as I work layering, adding, subtracting, constructing and deconstructing on canvas, paper and wood panels. Mark making is a must to infuse my energy in each work and you will find each of my atmospheric "soulscapes " intuitively honors this affinity with Mother Nature. My work can be found online at www.carolynabrams.com and in the gift shops at Chesterwood and Becket Arts Center as well as upcoming venues throughout the Berkshires
If you are interested in learning more about the medium, I will be facilitating a one afternoon intro workshop at the Berkshire South Community Center in September. For more info contact me or look for sign up info late August/early September at the Guild of Berkshire Artists website www.berkshireartists.org or though the community center.
Carolyn M. Abrams — www.carolynabrams.com Member, Guild of Berkshire Artists
CANDACE EATON
WarBride was created to honor all women who suffered the indignity and physical brutality of rape which is still happening in the 21st century by warring aggressors. It was a shock to me when women were brutalized in Sarajevo (the Bosnian War in the later 1990s) where not long before, the Olympics had been held. In my depiction of women, I stress their strength, dignity and indomitable spirit over that brutal ravaging. They are stronger than the terror & indignity committed to them. These Archetypes are part of my Icon and Archetype Series I have been creating for decades. I use a general ‘realistic’ style that is not part of any current realist movement to let the Image be its’ own voice. This allows me to subtly augment any gesture to emphasize a psychological statement, as it looks like an ‘established’ older painting.
Human subtlety…will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does nature because, in her inventions, nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.
—Leonardo da Vinci
I also paint my expressive, abstracted Jazz/Horse Series, a more joyful & sensuous celebration of the life force, which often involve the dance of connectiveness between the figures, anchored by the symbol of the horse which expresses the physical world where the connectiveness & melding with the Other abolishes all existential isolation in that sensual union where one momentarily transcends one’s self.
Candace Eaton
— www.candaceeaton.com candaceeatonstudio@gmail.com
WARBRIDE, OIL ON CANVAS, 36” X 52”
HOLY ENCOUNTER OILS/COLD WAX
ROSEMARY BARRETT LOTUS PAINTINGS
I paint in oil with a technique that I have developed that gives a soft and clear feeling that is inspired by nature and our part in it. The use of vivid color, design and composition is a successful result of many years of study. I attended The School of the Worcester Art Museum on a full Ford Foundation scholarship setting my artistic life in motion.
Working and traveling as a Trompe L’ Oeil artist for many years I have now come home to the canvas, teaching and enjoying in my studio.
I have found this series to be emotionally deep and moving for me. The Lotus represents commitment and optimism for the future, rising from muddy waters. It is a sacred flower and occupies a unique position in art and mythology. I explore and interpret the beauty of nature and give back to the world, working in Holyoke, MA.
Rosemary’s work will be in a show at The Stewart House in Athens, New York, opening Oct. 11, 47pm, 2025 and will continue through December, 2025.
Rosemary Barrett— @rbarrettstudios (instagram) www.rbarrettstudios@gmail.com
DAWN NELSON
Dawn Nelson lives and works in North Adams’ Eclipse Mill, where she has had a studio since 2008. She grew up in the Midwest, and graduated with a B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MEd from Lesley University. She has been a working artist for her entire adult life, exhibiting extensively.
For 30 years, Dawn was a middle school Art Teacher in the public schools of Weston, MA, and lived in Jamaica Plain, MA. She was active in the arts in both communities; Jamaica Plain and Weston. Dawn was part of the group that initiated Jamaica Plain Open Studios.
Since retiring from teaching in 2014, Dawn has transitioned to living full time North Adams, and has since become involved in Future Lab[s] Gallery, First Fridays Organizing Committee, and the Eagle Street Alive initiative.
Dawn Nelson— dawn.leslie.nelson@gmail.com www.dawnneslon.org
RICHARD NELSON
Art is therapy for me. A good way of processing my own personal baggage. I illustrate, in detail, whatever particular ism that I am dealing with. It helps me to see it and give it a face, so to speak. But the nature of it is too personal to share openly, so I obscure it until it is no longer discernible. I know it's there, but only I know. It's very cathartic! nojrevned@hotmail.com
Richard Nelson — Rick Nelson on FB nojrevned@hotmail.com
Rick Nelson on FB
WHISPER, OIL ON CANVAS, 52” X 30”
BEGINNINGS, OIL ON CANVAS, 52” X 30”
JANET PUMPHREY PHOTOGRAPHY
Janet Pumphrey’s traditional, representational photographs span the genres of portraits and street photography, vintage and sports cars, travel, landscapes, and wildlife. While photography is a representational medium, Pumphrey also moves beyond the inherent realism in traditional photography to see the world in a new and more creative way. Her work is painterly, sometimes abstract, sometimes impressionistic. Each piece is a unique, creative interpretation of a realistic image. Currently, Pumphrey shows her work at the 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, New York. From June, 2020 until October, 2024, Pumphrey showed her work at the Janet Pumphrey Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts. Previously, she showed her photographs in many galleries in the Berkshires and in the Hudson Valley.
Janet Pumphrey —
An interview with Janet Pumphrey is in the July 2020 Artful Mind: https://issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/docs/the_artful_mind_july_2020_issue_enjoy
and an interview and tour of her gallery is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYHhXtSWl-g Facebook - Janet Pumphrey
MARY ANN YARMOSKY
My work is a collection of a variety of people, a collection of experiences and expressions. It’s about understanding their history, understanding the power of their history, the power of their power, the power of their vulnerability, the power of transformation, and the power of purpose.
My works are abstract in nature, but aren’t we all pieces put together by our life experiences? Who is to say what is real when we look at a person. Don’t we always project onto them some characteristic we think we see, some fleeting feeling that crosses their face, or some mannerism that indicates their comfort or discomfort?
I work mainly with acrylic on canvas, paper or wood and often add fabric, thread or other artifacts that seem to belong. My process unfolds unintentionally since my characters dictate what needs to be said. I invite you to weave your own story into my works. You can decide what is held in an expression, a certain posture or the clothes they wear. I hope you enjoy the adventure as much as I do.
Mary Ann Yarmosky — instagram: @maryannyarmoskyart
ARTISTS COMING UP: SEPTEMBER: MOMENTUM
Ruby Aver
Lori Bradley
Richard Britell
Katherine Borkowski-Byrne
Leslee Carsewell
Janet Cooper
Candace Eaton
Yana van Dyke
Jane Gennaro
Julia Grey
Ghetta Hirsch
Sarah Horne
Stephan Marc Klein
Thea Knapp-Baker
Bruce Laird
Leo Mazzeo
Bobby Miller
Mark Millstein
Dawn Nelson
Richard Nelson
Ellen Pollen
Janet Pumphrey
Alexandra Rozenman
Richard Talbert
Jay Tobin
Mary Ann Yarmosky
BERKSHIRE DIGITAL
Since opening in 2005, Berkshire Digital has done Giclée prints/fine art printing and accurate photo-reproductions of paintings, illustrations and photographs.
Giclée prints can be made in many different sizes from 5”x7” to 42”x 80” on a variety of archival paper choices. Berkshire Digital was featured in Photo District News magazine in an article about fine art printing. See the entire article on the BerkshireDigital.com website.
Berkshire Digital does accurate photo-reproductions of paintings and illustrations that can be used for Giclée prints, books, magazines, brochures, cards and websites.
“Fred Collins couldn’t have been more professional or more enjoyable to work with. He did a beautiful job in photographing paintings carefully, efficiently, and so accurately. It’s such a great feeling to know I have these beautiful, useful files on hand anytime I need them. I wish I’d called Fred years ago.” ---- Ann Getsinger
We also offer restoration and repair of damaged or faded photographs. A complete overview of services offered, along with pricing, can be seen on the web at BerkshireDigital.com
The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial and fine art photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston, Stamford and the Berkshires. He offers over 25 years of experience with Photoshop, enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement to prints and digital files. The studio is located in Mt Washington but drop-off and pick-up is available through Frames On Wheels, 84 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA (413) 528-0997 and Gilded Moon Framing, 17 John Street in Millerton, NY 518-789-3428. Berkshire Digital413-644-9663, or go online to www.BerkshireDigital.com
The Artful Mind Pop Up Thru Oct 11 Eagle Street, North Adams, MA Wed-Sun noon to 4:30
FROZEN, PHOTOGRAPH
“TERRA TERRIFIED” DISTRESS OXIDE, GRAPHITE, HIGHLIGHT PEN, METALLIC COLOR PEN, AND INK ON TONED TAN SKETCH PAPER 5.75”X8.5”
LEO MAZZEO
As a long time advocate for the arts, New Ashford based artist Leo Mazzeo has served on regional boards and acted as a catalyst for many arts related projects. He works primarily on paper, using diverse media and techniques appropriate for each piece’s theme. Initially, he establishes a broad concept, which evolves into a narrative as a piece progresses.
Mazzeo sketches from life, reference images, and imagination, assembling compositions almost as a collage artist would. Symbolism is key, and characters and objects often have repeating roles. His themes are sociopolitical/psychological, often surreal, reflecting personal perspectives and offering therapeutic benefits.
Leo Mazzeo — l-mazzeo@hotmail.com
JANE GENNARO
Jane Gennaro is an artist, writer, and performer based in New York City. Jane’s work has been widely exhibited, performed, and broadcast. She has been featured in the New York Times, New York Magazine, and NPR among others. Her illustrated column, "Mining My Life” appears monthly in The Artful Mind magazine. Jane’s art studio is in Claverack, NY.
Jane Gennaro — www.janegennaro.com shop.janegennaro.com https://performingartslegacy.org/
RUBY AVER
Growing up on the South Side of Chicago in the 60’s was a history, rich and troubled time. As a youth, my playing in the streets demanded grit. Teaching Tai Chi for the last 30 years requires a “Zen state of mind”. My paintings come from this quiet place that exhibit, the rich grit of my youth .Movement, shape and color, dominates, spontaneously combining raw as well as delicate impulses. I was honored with the exhibition of my abstract painting (inspired by Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring) in the Amsterdam Vermeer exhibit 2024 . Ruby Aver— Housatonic Studio open by appointment: 413-854-7007 / rdaver2@gmail.com Instagram: rdaver2
HOUSATONIC : OUR RIVER ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 24”X24”
Valeria and the Ants CHAPTER 4
THE DEATH OF A SPIDER
I decided to apply for the job at the carnival on the spur of the moment, it was going to be something to do for the summer, after I was rejected from all of the colleges I had applied to. “Well, Yale didn’t want me, and neither did Harvard, so I will be one of those people running rides at a fairground then.” I thought of it as a gesture of contempt for fate. If not the carnival, well then, I will be a bum.
I went out to the fairgrounds and asked for the manager. The manager was fixing a tractor motor, and seemed to be at his wits end with frustration over it and had no time for me. Not only did he have not a minute to spare to talk to me about some job, he acted like I was somehow responsible for his difficulties with the tractor motor.
I mentioned to him the notice in the paper and it seemed he did not even know about it, as if someone had placed the ad as a prank. Finally he stopped what he was doing, put down an enormous screwdriver on the fender of the tractor, then after having moved the screwdriver just slightly so that it would line up parallel with the edge of the tractor fender, he said.
“Joe died, he ran the bumper cars? You can have his trailer to live in and meals, and fifty dollars a month. Go talk to the assistant manager, she will fill you in on the details. The assistant is Valeria, you will find her in that black and red trailer over there.”
So I went to the black and red trailer and knocked on the door. A child probably 9 years old opened the door and looked at me with curiosity. “I want to talk to Valeria,” I said. “I’m Valeria,” she replied. Valeria, who was eight “just going on nine,” turned out to be the assistant manager of the fair grounds and the carnival. She was not actually the manager of anything at all, but I was about to enter a world in which nothing was ever taken seriously and everything was deliberately the opposite of what you think it should be. Valeria offered to show me around the carnival grounds, and I told her that I was going to take the place of Joe, who had been in charge of the bumper cars. We began walking together toward the bumper cars ride. Valeria seemed to be lost in thought and then she said.
“Bumper cars!,” and then after a long pause she said, “Do you believe in free will?”
“Why would you ask me about free will young lady?” I said.
“Because free will is the most important aspect of bumper cars. All the other rides in the fairgrounds, and especially the ferris wheel, are the exact opposite of the exercise of free will. Even the scrambler, it seems to go in all kinds of directions unex-
pectedly, but the passengers have no control at all. But with the bumper cars…”
I interrupted her lecture to say, “Does the lion in his cage in the zoo exercise free will when he decides to pace back and forth rather than taking a nap?”
I didn’t want to enter into a philosophical argument with the child, but even though she seemed to be very serious about what she was saying, I thought that she was putting me on, really actually making fun of me and my future job.
“Will you buy me some fried dough?” she asked. We were just then walking past the fried dough stand.
I purchased two fried dough but the man tending the stand just waved me off when I offered to pay. Valeria took her fried dough and began putting powdered sugar on it with a sugar shaker. She put three shakes on each side as if she had a specific routine for the eating of fried dough, and like she had done it many times before. I felt I was entering someone else's established world, with rituals I knew nothing about.
Valeria sat down at a red painted picnic table but she did not start eating the dough, but instead set to work picking flakes of red paint from the surface of the table. “Who put the idea of bumper cars and free will into your head?” I asked her.
“That’s really a very insulting thing you have just said to me, don’t you think,” she replied, looking up from her paint chipping project and giving me an angry look.
I instantly felt embarrassed at my thoughtlessness. When I asked her who put the idea in her head, it never crossed my mind that a child would take offence, but I suppose the assumption was sort of belittling and dismissive. She began to eat her fried dough, looking at me angrily as she did so, and I was thinking of some kind of apology, but on the other hand, was I really wrong to say what I said. After all, was she born knowing about free will, the idea had to come from someplace. So I said, “So, were you born considering the idea of free will, and it’s your original idea?”
Pointing to her head with her index finger she said, “It's not my idea, Joe, the bumper car man put the idea into my head,” indicating a spot just above her ear where the idea had apparently been inserted. Having said that, she took a bite from her fried dough, and then laughed at me for thinking she was actually angry.
I asked her about Joe, the bumper car operator who died thinking that if he was the kind of person who would discuss free will with a child, he must have been an interesting person, but I was wrong. Valeria explained the man to me with these abrupt comments while continuing to eat the fried dough, and talking to me with powdered sugar on her face. “Joe was stupid,” she said bluntly. “He had only one idea in his entire life and that idea was about free will and the bumper cars. He explained it to people over and over again, whenever there was a long wait to get in the cars. Not only did he explain it all day long, but even using the same words.” Then, assuming Joe's voice and his facial expressions she did an imitation of him giving his lecture.
“It was sad though, the way he died,” she continued. “If the cars did not fill up he would ride in one himself, and was always very excited to crash into people. His last trip in the cars happened at closing time, and so he was still in the car in the morning. His head was slumped to one side and the car was still going, and bumping into the wall of the ride over and over. There was something weird about it,
and even though you could see that he was dead because his face was blue, nobody wanted to shut the electricity off, and go deal with him.”
“How old was he?” I asked but she didn’t bother to answer the question.
Then assuming an angry judgmental tone, she sat up straight, holding the remains of fried dough at some distance from her face as she pronounced, “Joe is much better off dead.”
I admit I was shocked to hear a child speak dismissively of a dead person, especially when it was a person she knew, but I began to suspect that, like with taking offence about the source of her ideas, she was again baiting me to see how I would react. I thought to myself, “This has to be the result of growing up in the middle of a carnival, where everything is for effect, and nothing is really real,” but I didn’t say anything. When she saw that I was not going to react to her blunt, insensitive remarks about Joe’s death, she decided to elaborate on the theme, which could have been called, “The goodness of death.”
“When there were no customers for the ride he would sit in a chair with his knees far apart, and with a stick he would poke and dig at a hole in the ground. He always dug at the same hole, and with the same stick, for hours on end. He smoked cigarettes one after another and his fingers were dyed yellow from the smoke. One day something happened and he was taken to the hospital, and when he came back he had stopped smoking, but I noticed that he had switched to chewing tobacco. Sometimes he would cough for a half an hour at a time. He seemed only alive for a few minutes a day, when he was crashing around in the bumper cars, driving himself into the other kids. At those times you could see him smile, showing his single remaining tooth.”
I began to be annoyed by what she was saying and I interrupted her with a defence of life itself, “If you pull all the legs from a spider till they have only one left, the spider with its single remaining leg will try to run away from you.” I said to her almost in anger, and angrily she replied, “How would you know that?”
It was obvious that she knew the answer to her accusatory question but I was unable to confess to the crime and tell her the truth, and I blamed the torture and murder of the spider on my older brother, explaining,
“He thought it would die when he pulled off one of its legs, but then it kept trying to escape until he killed it in desperation.
We were in the old part of the cellar of the house, there were millions of spiders down there, and they were all watching us. I am sure they will never forgive us.”
That was how I met Valeria, and our conversation that first day. I started my duties as the attendant of the bumper cars, and the next time I saw Valeria it was just a few days after Bruno the elephant yelled at her. She seemed to be a different person, when she came to see me, and very soon we were talking about the death of insects again.
—RICHARD BRITELL AUGUST 2025 CHAPTERS 1 - 4 CAN BE FOUND AT RICHARDBRITELL COM
Cape Cod Skies and Seas
Deborah
Photo:
Joanie
Model:
Clock Tower Artists