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!

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?

Only in Art- Fancy Cakes without the Calories

Wayne Thiebaud, 1963
Oil on canvas

I have always been seduced by Wayne Thiebaud's paintings and prints of cakes and pies, his lush color and graphic composition. There is also a sense of nostalgia in those rows of desserts that remind me of the NJ Diners I would frequent growing up.  The ritual of sitting down to a meal and the narrative that goes along with that particular time and place has been a part of my work over the years.

Fancy Cakes
Digital print on hand made paper
with inclusions
14" x 11"
©2011NanciHersh

This piece Fancy Cakes, is currently on exhibition at Willow on State in Kennett Square, PA.  A mixed media piece with handmade paper incorporates images of a set of stirling silverware  I inherited from my grandmother and an old Ladies Luncheon cookbook I found.  Both of which, speak of a time when a women's place in the home feels a bit out of touch, but really, not that far away.

Body as an Open Book

Body As an Open Book is from a series of mixed media prints using photographs of my body that were taking before and during treatment for breast cancer.  It is currently part of my exhibition at Willow on State in Kennett Square, PA.

Body as an Open Book
Digital print on hand made paper with collage
10" x 22"
©2011NanciHersh

It's easy to feel like a specimen rather than a person as you move through all the stages from diagnosis to healing.   And, there is no recipe for getting through the physical and emotional trauma of any life altering experience.

But I found, that the more I made work about it, the more control I felt I had of the situation. Focusing on process. finding images and various materials that intuitively felt right with each piece helped me find distance, healing and even the lighter side of life.

What connection do you see between my body and the elements incorporated into the piece?

Up & Running at Willow on State

Our show is up and running at Willow on State in Kennett Square, PA.   

We have the honor of having our work featured at two First Friday Kennett Square Art Strolls this fall season.  If we missed you this past Friday, October 7,
November 4, 2011 is the next one. Nathan Laing, Maya Winters, and myself will be there along with FishCastle; original music by Cyril Caster and Catherine Braik Selin.

Featured at the gallery are mixed media prints, collages and sculptures from my Body as an Open Book, and Inherently Found Series.

Prints, paper, dried pulp on wire, encaustic, collage
Flotsam & Jetsam speak of what we inherit,
what we hold onto, and what clings to us
©2011NanciHersh

Nathan Laing of Habitat Studios has photographic collage prints hanging upstairs of the gallery and Maya Winters has her allegorical paintings on the street level.

Nathan Laing at Willow on State

Maya Winters at Willow on State

There are also alot of great hand made items- jewelry, pottery, altered books and vintage and retro collectibles. Owners, Sandy Mayer & Hillary Sculthorpe bring their own unique eye to pull together an exciting new vision for Kennett Square.

See you on the 4th.   Be there AND Be Square (couldn't resist!)

The Art of the Studio Visit

Last week, Sandy Mayer and Hillary Sculthorpe, gallery owners of Willow on State, an exciting new space in Kennett Square, PA came by for a studio visit.

Hosting a visit with gallery owners, museum directors, curators, collectors, other artists or friends, is an opportunity to show or sell your work, as well as get feedback on where you are at any given point.

It also motivates you to clean your space, curate your work, and consider how you speak to other about your work.  A great clarifier.

Hanging Spoon with Net
Wire, flax, encaustic

Net Drawings, 2011
Acrylic, graphite, collage on paper

Untitled (for now) installation with Nets (wire, overbeaten flax,  collage and encaustic)
I seem to be channeling Lady Haversham from Great Expectation
by Dickens

Detail of hanging Nets

Exhibition at Willow on State coming soon... keep you posted.

Do you have a tip or favorite story from a studio visit you have had?