THE LONG VIEW
December 1, 2020 - January 31, 2021
Four women artists—Ruth Geneslaw, Paula Madawick, Laura Shapiro, Cassie Strasser—each with a unique perspective, share their long view on life and art. Particularly during this time of Covid-19 and heightened introspection, these women reconsider where they are in their lives and their work, and how they got there. How do life and art intersect? What sacrifices and concessions were made? Age has not diminished their work. On the contrary—with fewer constraints and responsibilities at this time of their lives, they continue to evolve, explore and grow.
RUTH GENESLAW
Many artists follow a linear path, creating work in fits and starts that continues over a lifetime. My own artistic journey took a sharp turn. For 25 years I had worked with fibrous materials constructing forms that were dictated by process and materials. Structure was the primary visual element.
In 1989, a confluence of circumstances, interests, and a new studio environment brought about a dramatic shift in my work. Outsider art and its use for narration had long interested me. I was also struck by how the hand of the maker was always evident in the work, so using whittling knives I began to carve and paint small wood figures and place them in tableaux. These became vehicles for social commentary. I often incorporate wordplay by interpreting visual puns, idiomatic phrases and cliches in their most literal form conjuring up some rather absurd imagery. Other influences have come from the work of contemporary artists Red Grooms and Marisol. The carved wood vignettes presented here comment on racial profiling, political follies, gender issues, and our state of mind….which brings me to the time of pandemic.
I did not make any art at the beginning of the pandemic, but as I read and listened to the news each day, a new language or vocabulary began to emerge: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands. These phrases provided material for new ideas. I began to work in cardboard and paper mache which yields a result more quickly than woodcarving. The impermanence of the materials seemed perfectly suited to the times. The two pieces on social distancing included here are the result.
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www.ruthgeneslaw.com
“Whittle by Whittle: Ruth Geneslaw’s Sculptures at Arts Council of Rockland,”
by Sparrow, January 1, 2021, Chronogram
PAULA MADAWICK
I am fortunate that my mother saved and framed a gouache painting I did in 1952, when I was 7. It’s a picture of gymnasts on a curtained draped stage. More than six decades later I can still remember that day, mixing my Rich Art paints and the strange roughness of cold press watercolor paper.
In 1962, in my first attempt at the School of Visual Arts, I lead a class “walk out” wanting to change the class from antiquated egg tempera to a new experimental medium, acrylic. We were ahead of our time and unsuccessful. That same semester in oil painting 101, I gathered my own copies of the professors’ still life items: Chianti wine bottle, book, candle, drapery, table top, you get the idea, and made an assemblage of the parts. In sculpture I carved a female crucifix out of plaster. These ideas were also not well received. Frustrated by the lack of creativity at art school I dropped out in early December of my first year. Twenty three years later I received a Bachelor of Visual Studies from SUNY Empire College; there my uniqueness was accepted and encouraged.
I now create on hot press watercolor paper and continue to make assemblages. My current “in progress” piece is half dried Hibiscus root and half plastic Barbie doll. It needs something else and that something will find it’s way to me; I’m hoping for a toy rubber tire.
From those early years till now, making, creating and changing has been my life.
The pieces chosen for this show are images from the last five years. I feel under no obligation to be cohesive. It’s experimenting and caring and carrying something through to fruition that keeps me alert and excited day after day.
See what you want in my pieces. I happily do so myself.
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paulamadawick.com
LAURA SHAPIRO
Many times during my life I tried to “right” myself-for once and for all, arrive at the perfect job, body, relationship or place to live. Now in my seventh decade and faced with the immense challenges of the current social and political climate, I see that the goal of getting it “right” is not only elusive, but misguided. I am working at embracing the on-going process of change, accepting being out of balance, embracing not knowing, finding ways to re-center, exploring the scary edges, then integrating, again and again. I continue to ask myself, “ What is essential now?”
My art making process mirrors my “life making” process. Currently, I work with heavy paper, painted with acrylic paint. I cut the painted pieces into shapes and create small pieces that hang directly on the wall. I let myself compose, and recompose shapes, colors and textures, creating small abstract, evocative pieces. My pieces are becoming more bold, dynamic and “essential.” Many artists inspire my art making process including Frank Stella, Joan Miro, Richard Tuttle, Cara Walker and Barbara Leoff Burge. My artmaking/life making process has not been a solo expedition but one supported by loving family and friends.
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laurashapiro.info
CASSIE HYDE STRASSER
The following works depict my recent explorations of the human figure. The image is both negative and positive with a flattening of form to reduce the human form to its simplest most identifiable image. There are references to the modern mechanized world and its corresponding lack of feeling, connection and emotion. The people are just blindly walking or standing in space, rarely touching, and with no apparent purpose. And yet, there is also the attempt to capture or at least hint at the individuality of each human being and their inner essence.
All of the works submitted here were done in 2020. If nothing else quarantining at home gave me the opportunity to rummage through my old portfolios and supplies of raw materials. I found a portfolio of aging, brittle monoprints done with India ink and tracing paper that I later incorporated into new collages. I also found an assortment of fabrics (a robe, curtain and upholstery fabrics). These fabrics, especially the robe that was worn by someone who has since passed away, have inspired new and deeper meanings of material and its relationship to my art. Lastly, I am always excited by what can unexpectedly happen in the process of making art. This happened when I noticed the patterns of dust created on the worktable as I was sanding my steel sculptures. These steel particles would later become finished drawings. I suspect just at is for most others, one idea leads to another and you have to just keep looking.
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