Across the Miles- from My Drawers

What's in my Drawers Post #1, November 18, 2013.
This first piece is from my flat file drawer labeled Kids, Crows, Clothing.

Across the Miles
Toner on hand made paper with inclusions
22" x 17"
©NanciHersh
SOLD

My Crow Series were the first works I did when I moved back east to marry my husband Scott. We had dated long distance for two years.  He was living in NJ and I, in Hawaii. It was exhilarating when together and full of angst our months apart.

Equally challenging, however, was leaving Hawaii. I was so happy to be with Scott, but not very happy among other things to be facing the cold bleak winters of the east coast .

My friend Clem had given us a beautiful copper bird feeder which we hung from a tree in our backyard. Watching the crows come and go felt like my only connection to the landscape at the time. I also wanted to be like these crows - tenacious, strong and resilient.  And I was squawking ALOT.  On any given day that first year, Scott would come home to find me sitting on the floor of my studio with Lambchop my also displaced, surfing rabbit- crying.

I did quite a few of these handmade paper pieces. Some oval, some rectangular - all referencing nests with native NJ plant fibers imbedded in the sheets of paper I made while I was working at the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper (now The Brodsky Center) in New Brunswick, NJ.

What's in My Drawers?

Introducing My First "I'm not Moving Studio Sale." When I left Hawaii, and then, years later, when I moved from NJ to PA I held very fun- and successful studio sales. 

What's in My Drawers
photo by Jessica Czerwin

People had a great time foraging through my drawers finding prints, drawings, collages and works on paper, many having never been exhibited or seen before.

At this moment in time, we have no plans on moving, but why let that small detail stop me from having a fun studio sale?

So for the next 30 days I am going to post a work of paper a day.  I will tell you what drawer it is from, (some are organized by date, others by subject matter like Rabbits, Hawaii, etc.) - and the story behind it.

All work will be available for purchase and I am offering free shipping within the United States

Happy Hunting... starting tomorrow, Monday, November 18, 2013.

Opening and Closing in NJ

I am excited to have two pieces in an exhibition opening tomorrow at the The Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie just as my exhibition Catching Up with Catherine Hartigan closes.

Paper Work: 

Exploring the Many Ways Artists Use Paper in their Work

Saturday November 16, 2013- The Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie 

My love of paper began when I was a drawing major at Pratt Institute. Working with charcoal, graphite, pastel on paper is a visceral, direct and sensual experience that is something I continue to record and explore life experiences and new ideas.

Immersed, 2012
acrylic, spray paint, graphite acquarelle, pastel, collage on paper
36" x 40" unframed
©NanciHersh

My time as a graduate student at the University of Hawaii was spent either in the printmaking or paper making studios. Initially, I learned to pull sheets of paper from plant fibers like cotton, abaca- a hemp fiber made taken from the plant stalks, or linen which you can see are formed around these net-like vessels I make from wire.

Hanging by a Thread, 2012
wire, pulp, encaustic, collage
©NanciHersh

In addition, many of my nets are dipped into the pulp which dries like a skin.  And as with all my work, collage and found objects add layers of textures and meaning to these forms. Shadows in both my two and three dimensional work are an integral part of the viewing experience.

If you would like to hear more about my work and the work of other artists in the exhibition there is an Artist/Curator Talk on Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 2 pm.

I will be there... Hope to see you on December 15th... I will be in NJ on November 16th, but at a wedding!

One Not Enough

California based artist Victoria Veedell is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Shannon Amidon, Jellyfish
photo process on wood
collection of Victoria Veedell

I interviewed Shannon Amidon in 2004 for an “Inside the Artist Studio” article for the Silicon Valley Open Studio Magazine. I was intrigued by the description of her photographic process and her story of how she spent so much time at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium photographing the jellyfish.  From her description I knew I needed to see her work in person. 

My husband and I went to an art auction at the San Jose Museum of Art benefiting Silicon Valley Open Studios. We bid on, and won one of her jellyfish images.  

One piece didn’t seem enough.  So for my husband’s birthday I bought two more.  

Now we have a triptych hanging in our living room.  It’s a good conversation piece as our guest always get close to the images to see what they are and then ask about the process.  Not only do we enjoy looking at the work every day but I have fond memories of what a nice person Shannon is and what a pleasure it was to work with her.

Victoria Veedell is a painter based in San Francisco, California. Her oil paintings on canvas capture the essence of nature by examining the effects of light on form in the natural world. The paintings are vibrant and colorful abstractions of the landscape. 

Note This

Chanukah is crazy early. Thanksgiving is a week late, and Christmas is everywhere.

Feeling a bit of the frenzy yet?

Frenzy, 2013
acrylic, spray paint on canvas
30" x 40"
©NanciHersh
$1250.00

The true essence of the season is one of gratitude and joy. And in that spirit, Catherine Hartigan and I would like to share our gratitude with, and for you.

Our Catching Up exhibition ends next week, on November 16. As a way of saying thank you we have a special offer this month. You can buy one of my Koi paintings or a Catherine Hartigan photograph during the month of November and you will receive 25 notecards with the image of your new acquisition on the front, and blank inside. Perfect for holiday, thank you or whatever cards.

And in case you were wondering, you can purchase a work of art installments, no interest. It's all good.

Share the gratitude. and thank YOU.

Embracing the Dragon

Finished up my 5 day clay tile mural residency with artist and DIAE (DE Institute for the Arts in Education) Artistic Director, Anne Oldach, at Christiana High School. The students worked with their art teacher Rhonda Schone and another DIAE artist last spring to create a large drawing that became the cartoon for the project.

The drawing was gridded into 10- 12" x 12" squares. The students rolled out slabs of Raku clay and created 12"x12" square clay tiles. Working in pairs they transferred their square of the drawing onto their wet clay tile using water soluable markers face down and rolling the back with a rolling pin.

Each team actually created 2, 12" x 12" clay tiles and had to transfer the drawing twice.
The thicker tile was the bottom or base tile. The second, thinner tile became the relief pieces they carved, drew into, and brought the drawing to life.

The twelve by twelve tiles were cut into 12" x 6" pieces so the students could work on them individually and for easier handling, and eventually firing.

Rhonda Schone and a student

It was an ambitious project in many ways, and as Rhonda Schone the art teacher so eloquently stated, "These students are difficult to gauge; often they complain the work is too easy, too hard or too boring but I will continue to teach art as if I am “taking art-making too seriously” as they often tell me."

Here's to being ambitious, taking art making "too seriously", challenging our students- and ourselves, and Embracing the Dragon!

Sacred Home Rendered on Paper

Sandra Dunn of Medicine Park, Oklahoma is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Forest
Watercolor
5" x 7"
©ValeriannaClaff

Valerianna Claff is an artist living in the densely forested foothills of western Massachusetts.

We formed a friendship through our blogs and she gifted me with "Forest" - a seedling

painting of her much larger watercolors in the same series.  

Glowing moonlight invites me into the painting's primal and peaceful forest - a place that

Valerianna calls "sacred home."  Sweeping tonal washes and simple brushstrokes create a magical

landscape that leaves so much to my imagination.  I appreciate her love of nature and the intimate connection she seems to have with her native woods.  

There seems to be an effortless and tender translation from her heart to rendering on paper of these things. 

Sandra Dunn is a painter working primarily in encaustic, and is inspired by nature, spirit, emotion and imagination.