Fourteen wonderful artists have contributed their time and effort to create visual interpretations of Tina Barry’s words. We will be showcasing a glimpse of what the artists have done for Ms. Barry, and also letting them rock out with their respective accomplishments and laurels. Check out the first seven (in no particular order) of these talented women. Each artist submitted a photo and a bio. Each piece’s photo is prefaced by the passage of Tina Barry’s that inspired it, and followed by the materials and techniques used to create the piece.
Trish Classe Gianakis:
Gianakis received her B.F.A. degree from Arizona State University, and her M.F.A. in computer art installation from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Trish’s work has been shown in numerous galleries, including the Broom Street Gallery, NYC. Trish’s graphic arts won the Golden Addy Award for Best Interactive Web Design.
Birth
“Bed of blood and bone. Him her you us. The great usurper who knit himself from me.”
Trish Classe Gianakis’ “Birth” (Raku-fired porcelain and horsehair).
Lori van Houten:
van Houten has exhibited her artwork internationally. She has been awarded residencies in County Kerry, Ireland, and Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Her work is in the collections of the New York Public Library; the International Center of Photography, NYC, NY; St. Louis Art Museum; the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art; as well as university and corporate collections.
White Flannel
“Marc’s head blurs above mine. I pull my hips up, wrap my legs tight. Now he whimpers in his sleep. Marc, I say, shaking him. Marc. His eyes are in some bleak country when he slams his fist in my face. He’s awake now, rushing back to himself. He wants to explain. To tell me what horrors he’s relived. But I hold my hand up. Something has closed inside me.Later, while he snores, I dream of embroidering his face on white flannel. Careful black stitches edge the long nose. I color his lips vermillion. Two thin lines stitched shut.”
Lori van Houten’s “White Flannel” (pigment print glazed and framed, pigment print mounted on panel with encaustic, modified found object, porcelain, linen, on wood shelf).
Leslie Bender:
My artwork is an exploration of the depths of my life experience, divulging the darkness to reveal the light. Between these two forces, a magical terrain emerges ~ surreal narratives filled with color, movement, and passion. As I paint, unexpected characters and places begin to emerge, creating palimpsests of motion and time. Pools, beaches, carnivals and circuses~ all are fecund petri dishes for fleshing out the profound and the profane of our shared existence. Bender earned a B.F.A. in fine arts from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, and an M.F.A. in printmaking from SUNY New Paltz, NY. Bender has had numerous solo shows, and has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, and The Whitney, NY.
Water
“Ida arrives in her city clothes: a hat with a tidy veil, a nipped jacket and tight skirt. Shoo, she says. Go! Go! as the children hug her legs. I have told her my plans: Café. Coffee. Book. I don’t tell her my real intentions; until I drove to the dirt road and parked, I didn’t know them myself. I walk along a path that twists and twists deeper into the unknown woods. The stones beneath my shoes guide the way. Trees heavy with emerald fringe a rock-trimmed oval of water. I undress with no shame. No fear of being discovered. Cold circles my knees.
Then waist. Then neck. My skin contracts, nipples tighten. I’m a long white eel dividing the dark pond. My laugh, high and keening, a child flung into the air.”
Leslie Bender’s “Water,” oil on board.
Kate McGloughlin:
McGloughlin is a painter and printmaker who lives and maintains a studio in Olivebridge, NY. Kate’s prints and paintings are included in over seventy exhibitions, with art in the permanent collections in four museums. Kate is the winner of more than a dozen notable awards for achievement. She is President of The Woodstock School of Art where she also teaches landscape painting and printmaking. Requiem for Ashokan, her multi-media exhibition of paintings, prints, text and spoken word premiered at The Woodstock Artists Association & Museum in June 2017, and is the subject of her book, Requiem for Ashokan, The Story told in Landscape.
Check out her work at www.katemcgloughlin.com
Hide Away
“I thought I’d die living away from the city’s diesel perfume. Hot dogs’ steamy water bath. Pools of dogs’ urine lifted me on my toes. But when I’m here, Jean’s hand in mine, it’s as if these new smells — milky cows’ breath. The sweat of nervous chickens. Frogs’ exhaled algae — are an elixir. Our home, snug against the hill, a stitch of blue before clouds. The road loops and loops with a long story to tell. Wood smoke curls from patched barn wood chimneys. Even the stars pose, waiting for attention.”
Kate McGloughlin’s “Barns, Moonlight” (oil on panel) one of a series of three paintings.
Heige Kim:
Since her move from New York City to the Hudson Valley in 2007, Kim has been focusing on fostering community building and engagement through art. Kim’s notable projects include launching the Roos Arts gallery in Rosendale, New York, where she promoted and collaborated with regional and international artists and curators; and as the Women’s Studio Workshop, in Rosendale, NY, programs director for the August art festival in the summer of 2015, that featured outdoor installations and performances. The Virginia Project is her first participation in a group exhibition since her move to the Hudson Valley.
So I Came from the Sea and Sat Down
“Pretend I’m a slender whale, an odalisque along the shoreline. Stud one arm with stars. Let your eyes travel the full gleam of my tail. What do you carry? A line-drawing etched on ultramarine? A harmonica playing lilies? Unfurl Jean’s fingers. She offers a stack of wishes. In my palm, I hold a smaller hand. A branch of coral on the lifeline.”
Heige Kim’s “So I Came from the Sea and Sat Down” (watercolor and casein on paper).
Anique Sara Taylor:
Taylor holds an M.F.A. in drawing and a B.F.A. in painting from Pratt Institute. She also holds an M.F.A. in poetry from Drew University, and a Diploma from The Sorbonne. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited in solo and group shows, including one-woman exhibits, in the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT; Monmouth Museum, NJ; Hurlbutt Gallery (now Flynn), Greenwich, CT; Puffin Foundation, Teaneck, NJ; Deborah Davis Fine Art, Hudson, NY; and the Westchester Gallery, SUNY Peekskill.
Small(er)
“You desire me for my smallness. Smallness. When I stand I can look down on your scalp. But that’s not the smallness you mean. You mean not Bella. Bella of the opalescent skin. Bella whose body opened to yours like an eager cleft note to a staff. Whose mind, so punctuated with color, dulled your own. My smallness, my lesser than, is my gift. For you I make myself small. Supple. A birch tree easy to bend back.”
Anique Sara Taylor’s “Thoughts” (graphite on archival paper).
Adie Russell:
Russell appropriates found imagery, using it as a background to experiments in abstraction. Exploring themes of the representational vs the abstract, direct perceptual experience vs the imaged world, and landscape vs portrait, she generates tension between these opposing forces, creating an aesthetic of the in-between. Russell is a multi-disciplinary artist working in photography, video, performance, drawing, and painting. She holds a B.A./B.F.A. from the Eugene Lang College/Parsons School of Design at The New School for Social Research. Russell has exhibited in the United States and Europe. She currently lives in Kingston, NY.
Raft
“Make my body your raft. A black raft drifting down a slow, bumping river. A happy raft. Your useful raft. Climb on, please. Am I big enough? Are you comfortable? How do I look against the blue water? Should I change color? Shall I change the color of the water? I want you to look at me and think, Beautiful raft.”
Adie Russell’s “Beautiful Raft,” acrylic, gouache, archival inkjet print.
Stay tuned for the next seven artists! And remember, support all of these ladies, and TIna Barry, by checking out The Virginia Project!
