Saturday, October 02, 2021

My Exhibit at the Bellefonte Art Museum, Bellefonte, PA

 


Some of the PR for my small show at the museum. I'm delighted with the way they have displayed my work in the gallery. It's a relatively small room complete with three doors, two built in bookcases and a fireplace! But the curator, Lori Fisher, did a fantastic job with groupings of similar birds/colors/etc. Here are the photos, for so many of you who live no where near Bellefonte, Pennsylvania!

Upon entering the gallery, this is what you see.

The wall to the right, in the photo above. Details below of separate groupings.

The painting over the fireplace (40" square)

Fireplace and corner wall

Detail of corner wall

Next to the closet door - one sold before the opening!

To the left of the above

Table display

Below, three photos of the different groupings on the long wall as one enters the room.



On the display table, is the artist's statement, below.


This was posted prior to the opening of the Exhibit.

It's been a wonderful opportunity for me to create a series of paintings of one of my favorite subjects - birds! And it's thrilling to see how the efforts and time spent and resulted in an exhibit that I am delighted to share. Hope you enjoy it here or there!








Friday, September 24, 2021

Catching Up!

 


I've been a bit busy for the past several months preparing for an exhibit of my watercolors at the Bellefonte Art Museum in Bellefonte, PA. All the painting above are now framed and ready to be delivered to the museum this weekend. The show is titled "Our Feathered Companions," and will be for the month of October - the Museums hours are 12:00 Noon - 4:30PM Fridays through Sundays.

And this is how the museum has featured the show on their webpage!


The paintings above are actually a triptych - 3 pieces in one frame. Here they are framed - a Trio of Ravens.


Needless to say, I'm thrilled and excited to have this opportunity to exhibit my watercolors! Once the show is up, I'll post more photos of the exhibit itself. Meanwhile, here are a few of the pieces in the show.

There are about 2 dozen paintings of my feathered friends - some are acrylic, but the majority are watercolors like the ones at the top of this post. No, they are not all ravens or black birds, despite their large presence here. Here are a few more of the typical back yard birds!

Blue Jay

Cardinal

Rufus-sided Towhee

All of them are regular visitors in this area. The ravens aren't - but I love the crows, so ravens or crows, I've painted them. My raven reference photographs are the wonderful work of Wendy Davis, Photographer. She has generously given me permission to use her work for inspiration and accuracy when painting these amazingly intelligent birds.

Nearly all of the paintings in the exhibit will available for purchase - but I have kept a few of my favorites...just because.

Also on exhibit there this month at the Bellefonte Art Museum is a really SPECIAL exhibit of selected photographs taken by the Hubble over the past 30 years! Something really unique to be able to see up close and in real life! 



I hope those who are close enough to attend will be able to do so. The museum is unique to our little town and gets a lot of attention state wide and beyond.


Saturday, July 10, 2021

Preserving & Sharing Grandma's Quilt and Our Memories of Her...

To be framed together with a photograph of Grandma, her necklace, 
and any other small memento I can find in a shadowbox style frame.

Our grandmother, Therese Grieman Gangl, was born in Minnesota in 1888 and lived until she was 104. She was very talented with her mind and her handiwork, and born at a time when good hand-work was very important in family life. She was the oldest of 12 children born to a Burgenland, Austrian immigrant father and a 2nd generation Bilfingen, Baden, Germany immigrant. German was the language spoken in their home - and continued until my dad went to elementary school and could not speak English. From then on, no German was spoken at home, to teach the 4 children proper English. My dad still remembered German nursery songs that had once been sung to him and played many German/Austrian melodies on the button accordion.

 
John P Gangl with Therese Grieman in 1909

The Stephen Grieman Family
Therese is second from right in this photo.

Grandma was always making something, often out of very little! We know she created several quilts, embroidered bed linens and more, she crocheted many doilies, crocheted kitchen towel hangers, created artificial flowers, and so much more. All of her children, grandchildren and some beyond have something that Grandma once made - many things were kept for her grandchildren's hope chests, as was the tradition in her youth.

Grandma Therese with two oldest children about 1916

I inherited a quilt made around the mid-1920's, likely from a pattern found in the local newspaper with a quilt block for each of the then 40 states, including the flower and bird of each state hand embroidered on white sturdy fabric. I recently learned the Grandma liked to use the edges of worn out sheets for her handiwork, because they were of sturdy construction and were not worn thin with use.

The whole double bed quilt

The quilt was well used by her family and eventually passed down to my Dad, the eldest child, and then to me - a middle child, but the only quilter in the family! I kept it in my maternal grandmother's cedar chest for years - a mistake, for sure. Old fabrics next to wood absorb the tannins into the fibers. But most of the damage was done while still in use by the family. There are obvious spill stains in several places which gentle soaking, washing, rinsing, laying out flat to dry could not remove.

The green border fabric of the quilt is also very fragile and is torn in several places and too fragile to repair. So what does one do with a family heirloom that is slowly disintegrating as time passes? I've worried about this quilt for years and the only idea that keeps coming back to me is to separate the quilt squares and offer them to any of Grandma's descendants who wants one. Granted, I don't even KNOW all of her descendants, but I do remain in contact with most of my cousins, now that we are spread about the country. I was the first to leave our home town, and I've continued to move further and further east as life went on! I'm aware that I have nieces and nephews that now live out of the country!

So yesterday, I wrote my siblings, children, and cousins telling them of this quilt and asking them, if they are interested in having a square, to tell me their first, second and third choices for their chosen states. The responses are heartwarming, grateful, interested, and also include those who believe the quilt should remain whole.

The 40 quilt blocks photographed separately

I totally understand wanting to "save" the quilt as it now is - but I also know that there is no museum who has the appropriate facilities to repair/save the quilt would be interested in this particular quilt. Museums want the BEST of quilts - ones that are done by really great hand quilters, ones that are especially intricate in design, ones that are rare in the block pattern or fabric use or in some way outstanding.

Just as libraries run out of space and remove old books so they can have new ones available, museums face the same quandary. Space is limited - and it must be temp and humidity controlled, etc. It simply is not realistic to preserve the quilt by donating it to a museum that has little storage or none of the right type of storage. 

Grandma's quilt was a utilitarian quilt using a pattern that was common throughout the US in the 1920's. She was living at the poverty level and used what scraps she could get from the laundry where she worked. There are many examples of it in museums throughout the country, many that are far superior in technique. And if you've never hear of the "Quilt Police," you aren't a quilter! The standards for quilts are incredibly high!

It is my belief that Grandma would want to share her work with as many of her descendants as she once knew, held, and loved - and to their descendants.

And so the decision has been made, and offered to my family members. Several have made their selections known to me - I've created an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices by those wishing a block. I hope that everyone will be able to receive their 1st or 2nd choice, but we only have 40 blocks to share! Fortunately for some, the photographs and stories will be enough. 

I know when the time comes to actually cut this heirloom into 40 pieces, it will be difficult for me to do. But Grandma will be with me, helping me to pass on mementos of her love for her children, grandchildren, and beyond.

The top half of her quilt

The bottom half of her quilt

My favorite photo of Grandma and our son abt.1975

Sunday, July 04, 2021

Happy 4th of July, 2021!

 


I hope everyone is enjoying this birthday to the best of their ability. We've been relaxing here and walking the dog peacefully before the fireworks get started in earnest. He'll not go out then, for sure!

Here is Charlie this week - wearing his "summer cut" so he'll be able to endure the heat. He still thinks he's a lap dog, despite having gotten much bigger over the 8 months that we've had him in the family!

Puppy cut in the upper two photos and 5 weeks since cut below!

The warm spring and early summer has brought an abundance of flowers to our yard. Here's a selection of some of the better photos of the past few months outside.








I guess there's an obvious color scheme appearing here, however I never consciously planned it that way! The Nasturtiums are just beginning to bloom - so their orange color will arrive in another blog later in the month!

I've also been painting with some serious intention. I'm scheduled to have a show at the Bellefonte Art Museum in one of their gallery spaces throughout the month of October this year. So I've been doing a series of primarily song birds to exhibit along with some of my older pieces (acrylic paintings of ravens, in particular and possibly one of goldfinch).  It takes some time to get everything framed up, labeled, photographed, etc. prior to any show, so I'm putting in the time required!

Here are a few that I've completed in the past month or so.

Female Baltimore Oriole collecting nesting materials 
from my flower basket on the porch.
Male Oriole in flight above and below, perching on a branch.
And the paintings prior to framing. 
On the left, a Wood Thrush, and below him, a Pine Warbler that hit one of my windows, was unconscious so I did blow in her mouth to resuscitate her, then put her on the feeder to let her catch her balance and grab a bit to eat.

And now for pure enjoyment sake, here are some photos of our area that show just how much beauty abounds around us.





May you all stay safe and well as the summer provides us with abundance!