Ian Creitz-Show at Bennington Museum

Ian is one of our newest members here at Valley Artisans Market.  He is a photographer and has such a mastery with light and innovation in his work.  He will be showing his photos at the Bennington Museum for the next six weeks as part of the regional artist program.  

There will be an opening reception today from 3-4:30 at the museum.  The admission is free today but there is a charge of $10 after today being as it is the museum.  We  at VAM wish him good luck with his show and we hope he has a great well attended opening reception.

He currently is showing smaller clip frame pieces and a beautiful large panoramic at Valley Artisans Market and we hope you will come in and see his work along with the work of other Valley Artisan Artists.Valley Artisans Market is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00AM to 5:00PM and Sunday from 11:00AM to 2:00PM.

The Very Talented Arleen Targan

Please join us for the opening of Monotypes by our very own Arleen Targan.  If you have been to Valley Artisans Market I am sure you have enjoyed her work.  The new exhibit is wonderful.  Please come and join us.  It is a wonderful opportunity to see what Arleen can do with a monoprint technique and an exhibit of work that she has not shown in VAM in quite some time.

 Arleen Targan
"Monotypes"  
June 22 - July 17
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 23  4 - 6
The Small Gallery

Welcome New Member Ariana Kolins

What do you make and how did you start creating your art?

I am a clay artist who makes sculptural, functional and sculptural/functional work.  I’ve been working with clay for over ½ my life, in Brooklyn, North Carolina, Maine, Tennessee, Northern Ireland, New Orleans, and most recently Portland Oregon- where I finished a post-baccalaureate in Ceramics from the Oregon College of Art and Craft.  Having just moved to Albany I’m continuing to make and learning about what this region of the world has to offer.

For most of my clay life I have worked with slabs, recently I fell in love with pinching, and I can’t get enough of it.    

If you could go back in time to the beginning stages of your venture, what advice would you give yourself?

I feel like I am still in the beginning stages of my venture.  And the advice I give myself daily is to believe in myself and everything takes lots of work and time, so be patient and go one step at a time. 

What inspires you?

Good conversation, good tea, an un-pinched ball of clay in my hands, the excitement of my last piece and the possibility it holds for the next. (…and a deadline.)

What makes your work different from other people who create items that are similar to yours or in your media?

Many potters make their pots using the wheel.  I have recently chosen to go back to the basics and perfect the first technique most people work with clay do, making a pinch pot. Pinching my pieces by hand, a slow meditative process, for me strengthens my connection to the piece, and strengthens my connection to the person using the pot. 

Where do you sell your work?

Currently VAM, local craft fairs, and within the next week or so, ETSY

How did you hear about VAM?

I heard about VAM from a new friend, encourager, and good resource (I just moved to the area a few months ago,) who said that there was interesting work, good people and a good organization.  So I decided to check it out, and here I am. 

More Beautiful Pieces from Cheryl and Cecily

 Please join us on Friday June 1, 2012 for the opening reception of  this beautiful show in our Small Gallery.  The reception runs from 6:00 pm to8:30 pm.

Both Cheryl Gutmaker and Cecily Callahan- Spaulding are members here at VAM and their beautiful works are available every day.  I have seen the show after it was put on display and it is just beautiful. 

 If you are not able to come to the opening, please come by in the weeks to follow to see this lovely work displayed. 

Valley Artisans Market is also sending out a call for artists to join our artist cooperative.  Please refer back to the Call For Artist's blog post which explains in detail our policies and jury details.  See you soon!

Glass and Paper, Cheryl Gutmaker and Cecily Callahan-Spaulding

Glass and Paper

Landscapes and History Books

Cheryl Gutmaker and Cecily Callahan – Spaulding

May 25 – June 19, 2012

Reception June 1, 2012 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Valley Artisans Market

25 E. Main Street

Cambridge, NY

      Landscapes have been a traditional art form for centuries. Recent developments in glass manufacturing have allowed a new type of landscape to be created by fusing glass. During the past two years, I have begun to explore the many possibilities available for use in the fused glass landscape.

      The work in this show reflects the beginnings of a major shift in the way I work with glass. I have moved more towards a painterly image rather than a purely functional approach. My landscapes are made totally from glass; there is no paint used in this process. The illusion of depth is produced through the careful layering of tiny bits of glass called frit, graduated size of components within the piece and multiple firing of successive layers of glass in the kiln. Using these techniques, I have endeavored to create the felling of beauty and joy that I experience when reflecting on walking in nature.

Cheryl Gutmaker

     

        Over the last forty years a rich and varied body of work has grown from craftsmen and artists creating traditional handmade books to new book forms of imagination and wonder. As an artist, I am fascinated by books and history.   My work is within the book as art tradition.  A variety of book forms have been the vessels over time that have given us a connection to our common past.  Information, stories, ideas, visions and mysteries have been transferred through language to make up a collective    body of thought that enriches and enables our modern life.  

     My work is a celebration of this connection.  Each piece is an expression of specific cultures, images, rituals and languages that are part of our collective memory.  They are a new take on what it is to be a history book.  The works communicate visions of our past through color, texture and a mix of old and new images.  Come see the show on a spring day and enjoy a creative history lesson like you have never seen before.

Cecily Callahan - Spaulding

DebraAnn Salat

DebraAnn Salat is a hand embroidery artist who has been with Valley Artisans Market since March of 2011.  DebraAnn learned how to hand embroider from her grandmother when she was just a child.  Hand embroidery has been a constant in her life since that time.  She starts with a simple drawing and lets her embroidery needles do the work from there.  That makes all of her pieces one of kind as she follows where ever the needle leads her. 

DebraAnn loves to use variations of color and she has said that her favorite projects are made of tangled up threads where she picks just the right color and then decides where to place it in her work, random and planned at the same time.  She does many different types of hand embroidery, from primitive, to abstract to realism and her favorite stitch is the french knot and many of her pieces feature them.  Debra also writes her own blog: http://www.tanglestitch.blogspot.com. and sells her work on Etsy.

Just a Reminder

Hi All!  Just a reminder that the our own Carolyn Kibbe and her daughter Kate Torpey are still our featured artists in the small gallery.  The opening was a great success and it was a pleasure to meet Kate for the first time.  Some of Carolyn's work is from a trip last year to Mongolia.  It is a beautiful exhibit and well worth a trip to Cambridge.