This Week's Art Happenings

Walks thru Life: Shoe Portraits
©2011NanciHersh

Selections from
Inherently Found Series

In addition, my work is up through the New Year at Willow on State, Kennett Square.
Another First Friday Art Stroll in Kennett this week.  - Hard to be two places at once but I am happy to meet you at either of my shows at your convenience- we can grab a cup of tea or coffee afterwards!

Look and Look Again

"Only buy what you like. Go to museums, read about the artist, learn, travel. But mainly just look and look again."

Sage advice from Rosamond Bernier in her memoir, Some of My Lives.

Mona Lisa at the Louvre

Here's to looking, learning and traveling!

Art & Soul on Purple

Dropped off my Walks thru Life: Shoe Portraits off at the Tideline Gallery, Hockessin, DE earlier in the week.

I love how owner, Patty Daniels hung the show. Fun & Organized- boots in one column, dress shoes in etc....  I  need her in my closets at home! 


Plus, I love how the purple is the new black here- goes with them all!

Grateful for Paradise on my Walls- Artist as Collector #6

Gratitude is a part of my daily practice.  For people, for places, for experiences and the ability to express my self and connect to others through my art is such a gift.

Our extended Ohana
Pegge's granddaughter Natalie, Griffin, Pegge's grandaughter Elly, Nate

In her recent post as a guest blogger here, Karen F. Rose wrote about having a piece from her friend and mentor Mary Hatch.

Like Karen, I worked for another artist managing the Pegge Hopper Gallery in Honolulu for many years. 

Surrounded by Pegge's beautiful paintings and drawings, I learned so much from Pegge about a committed art practice and managing a business.  Pegge and I continue to be dear friends and our families are still a part of each other's lives as well.  On a recent "big" birthday Pegge graciously and generously gifted me a painting of my choice.  This painting is a cherished part of my collection. Pegge's draughtsmanship, sense of color and design inspire me daily and the painting is a reminder of our friendship and one of my favorite places on earth.

What inspiration do you draw from your walls?

Tending to Art - Artists as Collectors # 4

This week's Their Art, Your Walls post is from guest blogger and artist Karen F. Rose:

I am so pleased to have a Mary Hatch signed original digital print "Tending Alice's Garden" as part of my art collection.

Tending Alice's Garden
©2011MaryHatch

For years I admired Mary's paintings and when I found that she was looking for new painting assistant, I jumped at the chance.

While I was teaching a computer graphics painting course, I worked for her stretching canvas, updating computer files, packing and delivering paintings to galleries.

An accomplished and well respected painter, she took an interest in digital art and soon began to create original digital art pieces. 

I like to think we learned from each other.

When I moved from Michigan, she was very gracious to gift me one of her prints. 

Seeing this print each day reminds me of our love of art and our friendship.

Is there a gift from a mentor or teacher gracing your walls?

Who Knew - Artists as Collectors #3

Just got back from a quick two day trip to NYC to meet up with some friends and see some art.

Bob and Meg

a Duchanp hanging in a stairwell

Megan looking at a John Chamberlain
with a Warhol of Mick Jagger to her right

Headed over to Gagosian Gallery uptown to see Howard Hodgkin when Megan and I discovered that also at Gagosian was a show titled Collections from the Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg.  A great find for my new series Their Art/Your Walls- Artist as Collector. Apropo, and what a treasure trove!  3 floors of drawings, paintings, prints, and sculptures of his friends like Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, John Cage, along with Duchamp, Matisse, Beuys, Morandi, and some Warhol to name drop a few.

Many of the works were signed "to Bob." Two of which were from dancer/choreographer and close friend of Rauschenberg's, Trisha Brown.  Megan reminded me that Brown taught dance while we were Pratt Students. That class fulfilled the one gym requirement for our undergraduate degree. I don't remember her so much as I remember trying to pirouette across the gym floor without hitting a wall!

How many people can say that Trisha Brown was their gym teacher?

Kitsch vs. Art- Artist as Collector #2

Rabbits have been a part of my life and art for many years.  Because of that people have given me rabbits, rabbits and more rabbits. Kinda kitsch, but fun.

Sheep, on the other hand are on my walls because they are art.  

I first saw the work of Theodore Waddell at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery many years ago when the gallery was in New York City.  Scott and I bought this small drawing when we were in Seattle just after we were married. Excited to find an exhibition of his work at the Linda Hodges Gallery, I noticed it leaning against a wall and brought my husband back to see it.  It became a wedding present to ourselves and now hangs in our dining room.

Ted Waddell, 1989
Winter Sheep Drawing 3A
Oil/graphite on paper

 Betsey Reagan is a friend with a unqiue and quirky view of the world. Like Waddell, she is adept at depicting a range of animals, but sheep permeate her work. Anthropomorphic, they help us see ourselves with humor and irony.  This detail, illustrates her subject and her own unique way of working with plaster and oil. In this case, on a small found college banner. A gift and a gem.

Betsey Reagan, 2002
Dolly Goes to College
Oil and plaster on Pennant

Art or kitsch,  what do you collect?

Their Art, Your Walls- Artist as Collector

Willow on State, Kennett Square offers artists a discount when they purchase another artist's work from their gallery.  Great idea. Incentive, encouraging, and helpful.

I have traded, bought and been gifted the work of other artists.  I am also honored when a colleague hangs my work on their walls.  So I thought it would be fun to share with you over time different artists and a selection of what they have chosen to hang on their walls.

I'll start. This is a shot from my home and a triptych in my collection.

Eileen's triptych, my favorite chair,
a Hot Pepper Magazine rack by Shari Epstein, and a small painting
on cradled panel by Laura B. Ferrara that
I picked up from the Pyramid Atlantic store in Silver Spring, MD.

Eileen Foti is a gifted artist and master printer.  She is also a good friend, so fortunately, I acquired this triptych through a trade.  Adept in all printmaking, it is her impeccable drawing and lithography skills that shine through.  Titled Caution: Hilo, the work is from her Images of Extinction series, and was her response to seeing so many things on her travels that were facing extinction. This work is about both a plant and a bird endangered from the Big Island of Hawaii.  

Caution: Hilo, 1999
Lithograph with gold leaf and colle`
©2011EileenFoti

Hauntingly beautiful, as well as quite personal, this 3 piece "altar" hangs in our bedroom. It also serves as a reminder of the power of art to celebrate, preserve and remember.

What do you have on your walls? Please send me a jpg and a few lines...

I will post it here weekly.

O. Fork

O. Fork. Can you believe it's November already?!

I started making forks, spoons, and knives out of wire dipped in a vat of over beaten flax or abaca several years ago. After they dried and were coated with encaustic, they look aged, yet alive, like an old relic. 

After my grandmother passed, I inherited her set of sterling silver cutlery. This got me thinking about what we do and what - to do with things that may be of value, but not necessarily something we asked for (sterling silver, those old books, cancer, you get the idea) that comes into our lives one way or another.

10 Cups of Tea
Wire, pulp, encaustic, collage
19" x 3" x 3"
©2011NanciHersh

The tea bags were from the daily cups of tea I make my husband every morning. Our ritual.  Honoring the present, and another way of marking time. 

However, just as I was getting ready to deliver the piece to Willow on State for my current exhibition, I added the finishing touches. The small pages between the prongs and the O. on the tea bag tag.

Now,  it's complete.

10 Cups of Tea (detail)

10 Cups of Tea (detail)

Originally, I titled the piece 10 Cups of Tea, now I am thinking I like O. Fork.

Which title do you think fits this piece best?