Curator's Notes  updated 5.20.14

Guide to help understand the Theme, CYCLES, of the exhibit:


Our life -- and the life the entire world around us -- is based in Cycles:   We all understand beginnings, middles, ends and starting again… Cycles can be usual and regular, like breathing, the seasons and the days, but even those have surprises, accidents and coincidences that make each cycle a little different.
 

Interactive human-scale Sundial.                                        Tim Gallagher, Greenwood Lake, NY

In a 14-foot circle mowed into the knapweed on the path to the Ponds, stand in marked pre-determined area

and your shadow shows the correct time. Tim Gallagher works with natural, found, weathered and recycled objects.

 

"We cycle through each day measuring time, from sunrise to sunset to sunrise, again. 

Here’s a way to be a part of it."

 

The Hawk and The Salamander                                            Philip Monteleoni, Olivebridge, NY  

Look carefully in the various ponds to find the carved bluestone salamander sunning on a rock and find the Sugar Maple tree with the airy folded copper hawk. Born in Italy during WWII, Philip Monteleoni moved to the US as a child.  He was an architect.for 40-years and now resumed his interest in sculpture, focusing on  realistic depiction of animals, respectful of their fragile place in our changing ecosystem.                                 www.philipmonteleoni.com

 

"To know as much as I can about animals, our precious cousins, I make sculptures to respect and honor their essence."

 

Hanging Wands: Magic in the Birches                                 Jim Caufield, Harrisburg, PA

How re-cycled wood takes on, retains and emits the natural energies of The Wand.  Jim Caufield makes furniture, objects and sculpture from natrual materials. Some are useful; all are magical.  www.rusticmagic.net

"Tools to attract, collect, and “recycle” the energy of nature.  Stand quietly near them."

Mid-May:  The Birch Tree is filling in and the wands are less visible.

The Emperor Bee  and The Egg-Laying Insect                   Najim Chechen, Otisville, NY

The mossy green egg-laying insect greets you at the start of the Pond Trail and the Emperor Bee is waiting

towards the end. Quite large playful creations from recycled materials. Najim Chechen's latest series of works

aim to express the spirit of nature, man's connectedness to nature and vulnerability to forces beyond his control.    

                                                                                                                                  www. thefineartsstudio.com

     

"Larger-than-life reminders that humans are just one small part of the cycle of life."

 

Mid-May Both wings of the Bee have collaspsed in the high winds across the Nature Center... or just another episode/reminder of colony collapse?

 

Hidden Birdbaths                                                                                       Amy Lewis, Cornwall, NY

Crafted from antique farm equipment -- hidden in wildflowers and grasses.  Amy Lewis rescues antique farm equipment to reinvent agricultural heritage.  An architect and welder by profession- Amy Lewis is an adventurer and inventor by nature. Agrisculpture combines her creative, environmental and spiritual missions into one design practice.                       www.Agrisculpture.com                                                              

"Recycled disc harrow blades used to turn soil and start the cycle of yearly growth, now hold the water for birds -- connecting to another cycle of life"

 

18’ kinetic spirals      each has a 4’x4’ footprint                            Julius Medwin, Warwick, NY

Lyrical cut aluminum spirals respond to air and light. Julius Medwin  Born 1929 NYC. Studied engineering

at City College & Columbia. Evening sculpture workshops at Art Students League & National Academy working 

with clay and carving stone and wood.Ran an elctroplating business for 45 years and then resumed interest in

large, outdoor, geometric sculptures in steel, aluminum, wood.  Exhibited Seligmann Center, Sugar Loaf, NY            


"Cyles of movement, light, air, beauty, size."

 

Understories: Rotation                                                                   Cary Baker, Newburgh, NY

looks at the cyclical nature of human transformation, and our universal journey to and from sentience.

A succession of figures rise from the earth, fan out onto a body of water and eventually return to dry land where

they descend back underground, suggesting an infinite loop of progression and retrogression. 

Cary Baker is a New York-based mixed media artist and designer.  Plant propagation and morphology,

puppetry, choreography and living architecture and design are some of the influences that have shaped her

recent body of work.  csbaker.net


"Suggests a parallel universe and new ways understand the natural world."

 

Community Learning Circle                                                        Friends of DIRT, Pine Island, NY

a Place, a Learning Circle, where groups can sit, read, visit and do a variety of self-renewable activities and

a Place to attract animals or insects to the circle for children to observe.  Friends of DIRT Charter School

 

More

"We learn from each other. Relax. Observe. Reflect. Share".

Painted Plaid Path Installation                                                     T. Charnan Lewis, Beacon, NY

 A temporary/refreshable land painting on the grass. Coming Soon! When the Grass grows a bit more           www.tcharnanlewis.com
 

"The painted grass grows, gets mowed and painted again and then grows again."

Mid-May: This picture is the only evidence available of this installation... still waiting, waiting.

White porcelain flags in a knapweed field              Jean-Marc Superville-Sovak, Beacon, NY

An image of defeat, a rallying cry, a reminder of powerlessness before creative forces that ushered this world

into exsistence.  A Bard MFA graduate, Jean-Marc Superville-Sovak has exhibited at the Aldrich Museum,  

Socrates Sculpture Park and Manifesta8 in Spain.  He collects bricks in Beacon, NY.         supervillesovak.com

"The white flag, planted in a field, reminds us of our powerlessness before natural forces, and rallies us together. That civilizations come and go; only the creative force that ushered this world into existence remains eternal."

Mid-May The plastic tube supports for the heavy porcelein flags have bent in the ourdoor climate and all the flags have sagged to the ground.  It happened just after that federal climate change report came out.  Surrender?

Deer Heads                                                                                                   Hildreth Potts, Garrison, NY

17 deer with unusual eyes and antlers follow the contour of a pond and, hidden in the foliage, watch us as

we discover at them.; Made from paper-mache’ recycled egg cartons with glass eyes  Hildreth Potts: I use animal forms as

conduits to examine our human selves. My work strives to create both thought and empathy - two practices which contribute to the quality of life and may help us cherish our planet.    espieglerie.wix.com/hildrethpotts

"The 17 deer heads are about observing and being observed. Who is looking at whom?
When the Deer see the Visitors, what do they see?"

 

Site Specific Performance/Installations

July 13    Activities to JOIN!    during the Mid-Event Celebration,

10:30 and 12:30     Dancer Julie Lyon Rose: movement in nature “responses” to the Installations.

                                 A professional dancer, choreographer and vocalist, She has a private practice in Accord, NY, offering

                                         homeopathic consultation, body-centered  psychotherapy and play therapy.            

11:30 and 1:30       Artists Riva Weinstein and Linda Byrne create spontaneous works around the Pond Trail

                           

April 19           3 pm, artists Riva Weinstein and Linda Byrne led a silent walking meditation to celebrate Art and Nature.