Oct 3rd: ecoartspace, Solar One, & Habitat For Artists event

Please join ecoartspace and Solar One on Saturday Oct. 3rd for events with the Habitat for Artists Collective.

A performance piece Mothers and Daughters at Solar One by artist Chere Krakovsky from 1 – 4pm.

Solar One - East 23rd Street and the East River, NYC
Map here.

Followed by an opening at ecoartspace NYC, for Down to Earth from 6 – 8pm

ecoartspace - 53 Mercer St. between Broome and Grand, 3rd Fl, NYC
Map here.

Down to Earth Artists:

Joan Bankemper, Knox Cummin, Stacy Levy, Ann Rosenthal/Steffi Domike, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Simon Draper and the Habitat for Artists Collective, including Todd Sargood, Cathy Lebowitz,E Odin Cathcart and Jeff Bailey.

Additional Contributing Artists:

Jacinto Astiazarán and Fritz Haeg, Lenore Malen & The New Society for Universal Harmony, Eve Mosher, Andrea Polli and Chuck Varga, Andrea Reynosa/Kevin Vertrees-SkyDog Projects and Christy Rupp.

ecoartspace is a nonprofit operating from both the east and west coasts in a growing community of artists, designers, scientists, curators, writers, nonprofits and businesses internationally who are developing creative and innovative strategies to address our global environmental issues. We promote a diverse range of artworks that are participatory, collaborative, interdisciplinary and uniquely educational.

Facebook event page.

More information here.

OCTOBER 3RD @ SOLAR 1 NYC

We are putting together an event at Solar 1 , on October 3rd . There will be various artists bringing their works and applying them to the new shed studio at 23rd St and East River . BUT before all that can happen WE will be building the NEW studio . So Sue Hope Altkin , if you are reading we will be doing that WORKSHOP ..... or more a SHED RAISING !! Bring tools , and heft .

Chere Kravosky will be doing a performance "Mothers and Daughters " bteween 1 and 4 , and there will be talks by various artists and curators including ecoartspace's Amy Lipton.

We are hoping to get a local CSA from the Hudson Valley with produce and they will also present a short talk on Alternate Farming in the Hudson Valley . Especially pertinent after the weird summer we had this year !!

We're hoping to get going around 11 , so bring tools if possible and note pads as there will be a
short step by step on how to build YOUR habitat studio .

Also presenting material we hope to have URBAN GO GREEN , inner city green initiatives from
start up opportunities to training for green jobs . We are currently working with UGG and will be showing a new habitat studio at their expo , October 24/25th at the Harlem Armory.NYC.

Here's hoping for more of this wonderful FALL weather continuing through October .

Stay posted ...SD

HABITATS IN THE HABITAT STUDIO

We recently took down the habitat studio at SCENIC HUDSON's Poet's Walk Park , Redhook NY. The paintings had weathered quite well and the color for the most part still vibrant . I want to thank those of you who left their comments either on the studio or in the comments box. There was a diverse range of response to the shed , some positive some very dismissive . What I found interesting were the notions of nature and natural surroundings in which there were many points of reference to an object in the landscape. For the most part we are culturally imbued with notions of beauty or natural beauty with out a point of reference . But I'll get back to that later. Amidst this interesting and somewhat polemical range of comments we found that the creatures in the park had quickly adapted the studio to their own needs .

We found that in the rafters both hornets and yellow jackets had built extensive nests . Above the one window ants had found enough cellulose and moisture to build an extensive home. A small field mouse had established two abodes for herself and her young , one in the floor and one behind some of the artwork on the work bench. Below the habitat floor around the footings was a nest of garter snakes who were glad of the shelter. A boston creeper or similar ivy had started to climb the north side and the studio was surrounded by the various plants now growing in that field . A testament to how "Nature " adapts to changes sometimes better than humans ?

So back to those comments ,.... my musing about this come from our whole relationship to what we perceive as natural . The park at Redhook follows the tradition of classical romantic ideas in respect of landscape. Wholly european in origin with exponents such as Capability Brown in England and Downing at the turn of this century in this region. A walk in the park where we come across an object , a folly placed to intrigue , a vista , a bridge over a stream ,.... a moment to reflect or comment upon in the our course of walking. BUT this groomed landscape was created in europe by the centuries of clear cutting , building fleets of frigates for the Navy and scaling machines to lay siege to some castle ,.... and building houses .

The fields we now walk in, all along the Hudson were for the most part Forested . From this fine exponent of the classic park at Red hook we have a grand view of the untamed mountains of the Catskills a beautiful juxta position to the rolling 'tamed ' fields . The small studio shared this view with many a visitor to the park , yet for some its placement there seemed an afront to the natural beauty surrounding it rather than a compliment , both were shaped by human hand ,.....
save the mountains . Our notions of beauty in the landscape groomed by generations of classical romantic painters who ultimately influenced the Hudson River School . During the height of this Painting school , the views were being pock marked by the rise of the Industrial Revolution ,...the very Railroad that brought these painters and poets up the valley tore through many land masses and mountains in order to be built.

Many of these fine Estates in the Hudson Valley were built from this new wealth and fueled the new age of Industry and Urban dwelling .... a wonderful counter point to the landscape in the growing slums of the Lower East Side of NYC ?

Meanwhile the old residents of the habitat sudio have had to find new dwellings in their 'natural ' Habitat . Some may return to the studio at its new location in the Park next Spring .We'll see ...

In the meantime enjoy the view , and I'll be reading more comments left for thought and contemplation at the old studio at Poets Walk Park , Redhook NY.

PANEL DISCUSSION SEPTEMBER 24TH @SUNY,and MORE

Wendy Bounds , will moderate a panel discussion on the habiat for artists project this Thursday evening , September 24th at 7pm on the SUNY New Paltz Campus. There will be a number of artists who participated in the project , curators Amy Lipton and Brian Wallace and Board Trustee Shai Osborn . Also joining the panel will be Richard Heyl De Ortiz Director of Public Programs at HHS . Please make a note of this event if you wish to attend , and add your comments.

SEPTEMBER 9th Saw the dismantling of the Ecotones Show at the Dorsky Museum at SUNY
with the "in museum" habitat studio getting de installed . The various parts and materials will be finding their way into other habitat studios over the next few projects to come .

SEPTEMBER 10th We moved the two habitat studios at SOLAR 1 in NYC to make room for their outdoor film series running over the next couple of weeks . OCTOBER 3rd we are planning a joint event with Solar1 and eoartspace . Details to be announced.

SEPTEMBER 12th Despite the grotty weather we had a wonderful turnout for the reception of the 'Down To Earth' exhibit at SCEE in Philadelphia . Thankyou to Cathy Lebowitz , Jeff Bailey and Todd Sargood who were instrumental in this project occurring and who were in attendance that day . Unfortunately Odin Cathcart couldn't be there as he had previous engagements in VT
at the Helen Day Gallery, Stowe. Thankyou to the SCEE staff who were key to the gardens surviving since planting in June ,.... and thanks to Amy Lipton , for her inspired show concept!

SEPTEMBER 14th HFA , partnering with URBAN GO GREEN , gave a presentation to the HARLEM ARTS ALLIANCE , at the theater of Riverside Church NYC to gain interest from visual artists and others in participating in the project which will be part of UGGs 2nd ANNUAL EXPO at the Harlam Armory on OCTOBER 24 /25th .Thanks to HAA Executive Director , Michael Unthink and Tiwana Jackson of UGG for making this possible .

SEPTEMBER 16th The habitat studio at SCENIC HUDSON"s , POET"s WALK Park,Redhook NY was removed from its bucolic setting to get a little 'TLC' over the winter and will return to the park at a NEW site . We will be looking for WRITERS to take up short term residencies at the studio in the Spring of 2010. Further postings about will be announced .


As you can see we have been very active of late and will be posting a variety of pix from these events. Remember we still have THREE (3) habitat studios in New Paltz , more on those Monday . Chris Brandon just finished his writers residency at HHS and will be drafting a story from the many suggested stories he collected whilst at his temporary writers shack there.

Common Grounds Farm at Stonykill had their benefit Picnic Sunday 13th and we'll be hearing how that went from Tim and Devin this week end . We were able to pay fwd some material from other studios and combine with the boards the GREEN TEENS painted during the Summer.