NAWA ARTISTS ARE HIGHLIGHTED
AT HIGHLAND PARK’S BEAMESDERFER GALLERY
From September 5 through October 31, 2019, the B. Beamesderfer Gallery in Highland Park, New Jersey, will present NAWA at Beamesderfer 4: Real/Unreal, its fourth in an ongoing series of exhibitions of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) members. Founded in 1889, NAWA’s mission is to encourage, exhibit, and foster public awareness of visual art created by women in the United States.
Real/Unreal presents works by 21 NAWA member artists, This exhibition will present two opposite sides of the artistic spectrum: precise representational imagery and totally nonobjective compositions. With this visual dichotomy, viewers of the exhibition will not only see the great range of imagery possible in art, but can also appreciate the fundamental qualities that all artistic creation: color, composition, technical proficiency and personal expression. A wide variety of art media is shown, including oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel and printmaking.
The B. Beamesderfer Gallery is located about 10 minutes away from the Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University, the home of the historical art collection and archives of NAWA. Evan Brownstein, the owner of the B. Beamesderfer Gallery, is a highly respected preparator and framer of art with clients in New York and New Jersey. His gallery has shown high quality work by local and regional artists for many years, and this collaboration should benefit both the Gallery and NAWA in widening their outreach.
The exhibition is curated by Jeffrey Wechsler, a member of the NAWA advisory board who was actively involved with the creation and presentation of NAWA collection during his long tenure as Senior Curator of the Zimmerli Art Museum.
The artists in the exhibition are: Mary Ahern, Francesca M. Azzara, Mary JoCarew, Judi Gilden, Rita Herzfeld, Carolyn Latanision, Heather Lynn, GayleMadeira, Mary Marley, Nicole Maye Luga, Carol A. O’Neill, Meredith Rosier, Nadine Saitlin, Debbie Shirley, MaryLou Siefker, Mara Szalajda, LeslieTejada, Meredeth Turshen, Barbara Kitty Williams, Pat Zalisko and Abby R.
Closing Reception and Symposium Saturday August 24th 1-4pm
A journey of discovery with no foreknown destination was set into motion and this exhibition is the momentary culmination. This exhibit includes artists who have collaborated beyond their medium of expression, artists both experienced and new at collaborating, parents with their adult offspring, varied processes that combine music, video, garden, humanity. This will excite you and get your creative juices bubbling…but you won’t over-heat. The Islip Art Museum is air-conditioned.
Collaboration Statement:
Mary Ahern is a painter and Mary Schlotter is a floral designer.
We are both Marys and we are also both passionate gardeners. We have joined forces in a number of art shows using our own respective mediums. In these collaborations we select a theme which, for both of us, always includes plant material. We discuss issues of color, size, proportion and duration before the work begins. Usually the two dimensional artwork comes first since it takes longer to create. Then the magic of interpreting those works into three dimensions including the issues of time and sustenance are explored. In our collaborations we offer each other tremendous freedom yet within creative boundaries. Our temperaments and our awe of the natural world surrounding us is the fulcrum of all of our work whether we are collaborating together or working alone.
As a passionate gardener, my art is as intricately entwined as the gardens surrounding my studio. Cultivating and tending these gardens is the first stage of creating the art that grows in my studio.
Flowers represent to me a microcosm of the universe in their cycles of living and loving, families and relationships as well as their quest for survival and eventual senescence and rebirth.
With a duality of external and internal vision, I invite the viewer to see, larger than life, the beauty and intricacy of flowers and in their boldness I suggest a contemplation of their relevance and ours in the social order of our universe.
“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change” – Buddha
My grandmother Maria was from Bari, Italy. As a child she would walk with me through the gardens at our home while pointing out various flowers and fruits. Our house was built on an old fruit orchard. One day she took her thumb and pushed it into the soil. In her apron pocket she pulled out a peach pit. She said it had been so delicious. She had me plant it and covered it with a clean mayonnaise jar, and so it grew.
These walks inspire me in my designs. Every time I step into my garden or see a beautiful flower, a plant or a perfect peach I think of her. I create my arrangements as if they had just been gathered in our arms from the garden.
They are composed in a manner that will not hurt the earth by using toxic design mechanics such as floral foam. Clean water and compostable armatures are my base. When ever possible I grow our flowers and use locally sourced material. I want the recipient or the viewer of my design to feel as if they are catching a glimpse of a garden and give them a sense of peace.
“Adopt the sense of nature, her secret is patience” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’m pleased to have been invited to show my Floral Paintings and Aluminum Prints at this event. I hope you stop by for a chat. You know I’ll be full of joy being surrounded by so many gorgeous plants.
Join us for a pre-dinner art stroll through our lush and vibrant summer gardens. Our evening will feature the work of local artists displaying and selling their work, live music, wine, and passed Hors d’Oeuvres.
I hope you can join hundreds of other Art Lovers for “a self-guided tour of the new exhibits at the museums and galleries in the Village of Huntington, New York. Many of the artists will be on hand to talk about their inspiration while you enjoy tasty treats! Free! No tickets, just come on down!”
I will be so happy if you stop by. We can talk about Art and we can talk about gardens. Your choice!
The Huntington Art Center is celebrating 60 years of designing and creating fine Custom Framing! In 2015, we re-opened the gallery hallway, taking advantage of both entrances and are now showing mixed media, paintings, photography and prints, most of which are from talented local artists’. For this Art Walk, we will be exhibiting the works of Constance Sloggat Wolf , Kieran Johnson and Mary Ahern.
Said Wendy Curtis of the Huntington Art Center, “I feel the arts are a necessary form of expression, and need to be fostered in our community and everywhere. I love that our galleries and museums in the village all come together for this event a couple of times a year, and hope that it will continue to draw attention to the artists and the fabulous art exhibitions we have in our own backyard. No need to go to NYC, the village has become quite the destination spot to stroll through town, grab a bite to eat, and see some extraordinary art!”
Closing Reception in the Memorial Gallery May 24 from 5-7pm.
Farmingdale Memorial Gallery
Though I graduated from the Farmingdale Horticulture Program I was invited to be part of this celebration by the art/communications department. I’m deeply indebted to the amazing education I received at Farmingdale learning about garden design, plantings, and the massive interconnectivity of our environment.
My work in the garden continues to inspire all my Art.
In my home growing up all our living room tables were just like this blue glass topped table. The setting brought back such comforting memories for me as I was painting this piece.
With my submission I selected this piece of writing as the inspiration behind my work. Georgia O’Keeffe has been inspiring me since I first stumbled upon her work in the mid 1970’s. My work is a tribute to her spiritually.
“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is extremely pleased to announce that Mary Ahern has been named as the Gallery’s new featured artist and she will now be promoted by the gallery for the next 14 days in the gallery’s Artist Showcase.
Mary Ahern is a New York based artist whose art is as intricately entwined as the gardens surrounding her studio. Cultivating and tending those gardens are the first stage of creating the art that grows in her studio. Mary was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s recent Solo Art Exhibition Series #11. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.
Mary’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her landscape art in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.
Below is Mary’s Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.
Artist Statement
VORACIOUSLY CONSUMING LIFE
Through the twisting paths and obstacles in life, the two constants for me have been my Art and my Garden. These are my anchors. They keep me balanced, complete, secure. The arrival of spring flings me from my studio where I’ve been creating my Art all winter, into the emerging garden surrounding my studio. The colors shout optimism to me. The joyous season has begun again. This is where I grow my subjects and gather the imagery for my work. I’ve been an Artist for eons, exploring as all true Artists do, a myriad of subjects and with enough mediums that fill drawers and cabinets throughout my studio. I’ve been zigging and zagging throughout my journey with all the bumps and joyous bursts I could grab. Some of my work through the years has had autobiographical underpinnings, some of it was icy flat. I’ve worked big and I’ve worked small. But when it comes down to it, I love color.
RIFFING ON CLASSICAL ART
I love studying Art History. I’ve been doing it steadily now for decades. My personal library still contains the first book in which I saw the work of Georgia O’Keeffe. I wept each time I opened it. I had to limit myself to 10 pages a day since I was exhausted from looking, from feeling, from studying. I remember stroking the large pages hoping to absorb something, something unknowable to me at the time. Her work somehow spoke to my soul. Though I’ve absorbed some of Georgia’s iconography, when I’m painting in traditional oils I reach backwards to techniques of the Old Masters. I enjoy the process of grisaille painting with the painstaking layers of glazes but I do it with a modern flair. Speaking of modern, I may reach backwards to compositions inspired by Raphael’s Madonna del Prato but I may do the painting using digital mediums with Siberian irises as subjects. My classical Art education in New York City was probably the last gasp of formal training before the onset of conceptual and performance art took hold. My professors were all active and renowned in their fields, Wolf Kahn, Herb Aach, Robert Birmelin and Louis Finkelstein. The foundation in color and design they taught is still the basis of all my work. I am indeed fortunate to have studied with professors who opened their SOHO studios and used the NYC art scene as an integral part of their classroom. The proximity I still have with my studio one hour’s train ride from the array of museums and galleries in NYC is rejuvenating, inspiring and jump starting. My education never ends.
HURLING MYSELF THROUGH LIFE
Once I recognized that I was an Artist, I’ve always maintained a working studio even when at times circumstances prevented great productivity. Then I would sit in there and study my books of the masters, absorbing not only their techniques but also an understanding of the enormous obstacles most of them had to traverse in order to continue forward with their work. They kept me going. I make lemonade out of lemons. To remain in the world of creativity and support my sons as a single parent, I navigated into the nascent world of computer graphics during the 1980’s. Here I sold graphics and electronic paint systems to the Television & Production industry for use in on-air graphics and advertising. My Art training was put to good use as I demonstrated the systems to my target market of creative professionals who were just converting from traditional mediums to digital. After receiving a concussion on the glass ceiling, I began my own graphic design business. Designing print media for my clients turned into repurposing their material once they recognized the value of the Internet. I built my first website in 1995, the year after the Internet became publically available. Having a low threshold for boredom has helped me shape my ongoing career in the Arts by pushing me to continually try new ideas, concepts and mediums.
AND THEN FOR A REAL CHANGE OF PACE
Exactly 20 years after I graduated with my Fine Arts degree I graduated with a degree in Ornamental Horticulture with a focus on Landscape Design. I am combining my Art and my love for gardening that was instilled in me as a child by my favorite Uncle Teddy. I am absolutely driven with these two passions. In fact, in 2000 I rebuilt my home and added two studios overlooking the gardens I’ve designed over the decades. These gardens that surround me in the quaint town of Northport on Long Island and beyond are the main inspiration for my Art. I demand excellence in my work and continuously strive to be a subject-matter-expert in my fields of study. My expertise, not only in the mediums I choose but also in the subjects of horticulture and landscape design that I represent in my close-up florals and landscape paintings of gardens is critical to me. I have a passion for life and learning. It is at the core of my being and who I am as a person and as an Artist.
