May Day

I love this time of year when the world feels reborn, the garden grows in great eruptions of bloom, and the long process of sculpture is complete and the figure emerges from the clay. This winter I found inspiration for two new sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both were just on exhibit at the Art Students League on 57th Street, the venerable institution where I study.

At the Met a larger-than-life carved marble called “Evening” is cool and quiet, folding in on itself. In my hands it became “Round Midnight,” warm and pulsing with life, letting her hair down in response to a jazz riff. My second piece “Dream” was inspired by a Birth of Venus painting by Cabanel. I love the languid pose but not the ocean or the cherubic pitti flying overhead. My version is floating on air, her hair cascading down.  I found a base of carrera marble to stand in for a bed of clouds. The painting was a gift of Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, the sole woman among the founders of the Met. Her Art Club has shown two of my pieces at the National Art Club on Gramercy Park, so I feel a special affinity to her.

I’ve been painting as well. I did a series of watercolors from my visit to San Miguel de Allende, and showed “Adama Street” at the Woodstock School of Art Alumni Exhibit. My curiosity regarding abstraction and pastel was explored in a workshop with Meredith Rosier. It was liberating to focus on the watery quality of the paint and not the representation of an image, but to let the subconscious lead and to play with color and texture. I was delighted that my painting “Pulse” was accepted to a juried show. It’s at the Lev Shalem Gallery at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation.

This summer I plan to sculpt a male figure on my porch in Woodstock, a perfect studio for art. The armature and clay are ready and my hands are eager to begin.  I’m going to try more pastel.  Stay tuned, and surround yourself with beauty this summer..