Peggy Guggenheim was a woman of art, audacity and adventure who was used to making headlines and pioneering her own path. One of her enduring legacies is the role she played shining the light and exposing Europeans to new American art at the 1948 Venice Biennale.
After a 6-year hiatus, due to the second world war, the Biennale recommenced in 1948 with many empty international pavilions. Lots of countries were struggling with their own economic scars and unable to participate. Peggy, a wealthy American with a unique gallery of contemporary art in New York City, was invited to curate a show of her collection in the empty pavilion belonging to Greece.

Today is the last day to visit the extraordinary Shah Garg Foundation, “Making Their Mark” exhibition in Chelsea NY. I rushed to catch the show in the city last January and was happy to see it extended for an extra two months. Since its extension, the exhibition has lingered in my thoughts, sparkling in my mind’s eye like jeweled hors d'oeuvres. I am left wanting any one of these women’s oeuvres to be delivered up as a fine meal.

The work on display focused specifically on Mason’s work 1970’s period when a lot was going on in both Emily’s professional and personal life. As the daughter of Alice Trumbull Mason and the wife of Wolf Kahn, both major artists of note, Mason navigated the complexities of her own burgeoning career amidst her husband’s rising profile and the increased burden of domestic chores and childcare. Her mother’s death in 1971, further compounded her challenges, as she assumed the role of managing her mother’s archives and promoting her artistic legacy, which served to make Emily downplay her own career.

I am thrilled to announce that on Wednesday, January 10, I will be concluding my exploration of ten remarkable, yet often overlooked, females from art history with a special feature on Anni Albers. Join me on the Inspiration Arts Group International YouTube channel for an insightful discussion about the life and legacy of this pioneering weaver and teacher

Art critics and gallerists abound in attributing influences and lineages to Marden, drawing parallels to Matisse, Beckmann, DeKooning, Kline, Rothko, and the Tang Dynasty poet Tu Fu. Yet, a direct acknowledgment of Anni Albers remains conspicuously absent.

Embark on a journey with three zines featuring Gwen John, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and Dora Maar. All three intrepid artists defied the conventions of their era.

Does Fall seem to be the big squeeze for you? My calendar feels like a giant tube of paste being squeezed in the middle. Everything needs attention, from the garden to the house to the studio to work and to social causes. Dad’s workshop is brimming with new glittery combinations of computer guts. Michael’s busy framing his large geese for a show in January. I have almost a dozen new works to be varnished. All the flat surfaces in the barn studios are occupied and even the rafters support dangling mobiles crafted by summer guests. It’s almost overwhelming

A two-person exhibit at Vassar College’s Palmer Gallery, was a sweet opportunity for my partner Michael Gellatly and I to really look at each other’s work, study our own process, and see how we fit together. The show, curated and hung by Amy Manso and Ed Cheetham, was called the “Osmosis Experience”! We actually accidentaly showed up in near matching outfits!

Judith Leyster, a rare female Master of the Dutch Golden Age, used the name of her father’s beer brewery as her last name. “Leyster” meant “lodestar”or “leading star” and she created a fanciful monogram combining the J and the L with a star shooting across. She is known to place this monogram in different locations within a painting- and it has become a clue to uncover forgeries, and false attributions.

Art historians have assumed that she quit painting after a short seven years once she got married to another artist. The truth is that she did keep painting all the way until she died at the age of 50. Her late paintings are in private collections and rarely if ever covered in the news. History seems to prefer Judith as a shooting star!

Buy my latest zine- Volume 3 of 2023, in my series of “Who is She?” and learn more about her.

February 22, 6pm on YouTube, a short 30 minute presentation on a female artist who was famous and influential in her day and yet, since her death, totally forgottne or erased. Join me for some short inspiring stories. Each monthly talk is free and corresponds to a zine available in my website store.

Between the farm and the studio, a lot of sweet stuff is happening this season!

My oracle cup idea came to me about 15 years ago. I remember the exact moment… I was in a tea house with my little sister in Santa Cruz. At that time my youngest child was looking at schools on the west coast, I was headed for a divorce and in danger of losing my house on the farm. My sister was (and always is) a solid I could lean on. As I drained my cup, the tea leaves swirled at the bottom and …

Here is a view of my booth at the Poughkeepsie Trolley Barn (489 Main Street) open today- and through the weekend 10-5 - 10-7 today.
Shop Local!

What is in the center of your holiday table this year?

From a single wolf to the wolf pack, these paintings remind us that we are not meant to be alone. Together we can stand up to injustice with tenacity and vengeance. Working in a partnership with others can lead to solutions for problems that dodge us.

This past week I took a break from my studio and my art practice. I needed it, after months of preparing for the Open Studio weekends and the intensity of the double weekends themselves.

The science is out about how an art practice will help you slow down and bring you some inner peace. Yesterdays NYTimes article by Melissa Kirsch shares the same ideas. But it is all easier said than done.
Do you have a project in mind that keeps being put on the back burner? Is there a Painting or sculpture series just waiting to be born? I understand that it is hard to make time to prioritize your own dream and I am here to help.

I am excited to share what I’ve been working on in my studio. My lunar collection, where each piece- a wood disk painted in acrylic and sealed with archival UVA protective varnish- is a repeating phase of the moon. On the back- which is drilled for hanging at multiple orientations- are written phrases for meditation inspired by the depicted lunar phase.
Each is one of a kind and precious.