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Posts Tagged ‘trish-coonrod’

Demo Prep/ Sand Dabs, Five

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on April 24, 2025| 2 Comments »

Eye to the Future— At West End Gallery

You can have the other words-chance, luck, coincidence,
serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but
I’ll take it.

— Mary Oliver, Sand Dabs, Five

I am getting ready for a painting demonstration I am giving on Saturday at the West End Gallery, beginning at 10 AM. This event is part of the Arts in Bloom Art Trail of Chemung and Steuben County which involves open tours of artists’ studios and events such as this in the area’s art galleries.

As I mentioned before, I seldom paint in front of people and am a little self-conscious as a result. Even more so when at one point on Saturday painters Trish Coonrod and Gina Pfleegor will also be showing off their prodigious talents. Both paint in a more traditional manner at a very high level of skill. I think of Trish’s talents as one would of a grandmaster pianist and Gina’s as that of a highly trained operatic soprano or a golden voiced chanteuse.

Me? I think of myself as a guy with an old and out of tune guitar who knows maybe three or four chords. Sings a little off key. What I lack in skill I try to make up for with the 3 E’s— effort, emotion, and earnestness. 

I do whatever it takes to find something on that surface in front of me. It’s kind of like the line at the top from poet Mary Oliver— I’m forever looking for serendipity or, on those special days, grace to show up before me in the paint. There’s a lot of time when its appearance is an uncertainty and it can take some time to coax it out into the open. 

My hope is that it will choose to show up during the few hours I will be working on Saturday. I am still trying to decide if I should have a plan on how or what I will paint or if I should just let serendipity and grace decide for me. I am leaning toward the latter just because that path can sometime be the most exciting.

We’ll see what happens Saturday morning. I am hoping grace shows up for a brief visit.

I am sharing the rest of the Mary Oliver poem, Sand Dabs, Five, from which the line at the top was taken. I think that I could apply much of what it expresses to what I am trying to say as an artist., particularly those final lines.

 

Sand Dabs, Five

Mary Oliver

 

What men build, in the name of security, is built of straw.

*

Does the grain of sand know it is a grain of sand?

*

My dog Ben — a mouth like a tabernacle.

*

You can have the other words-chance, luck, coincidence,
serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but
I’ll take it.

*

The pine cone has secrets it will never tell.

*

Myself, myself, myself, that darling hut!
How quick it will burn!

*

Death listens
to the hum and strike of my words.
His laughter spills.

*

Spring: there rises up from the earth such a blazing sweetness
it fills you, thank God, with disorder.

*

I am a performing artist; I perform admiration.
Come with me, I want my poems to say. And do the same.

 

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The Bears/ Demo Update

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 16, 2025| 4 Comments »

“Oh well, bears will be bears,” said Mr. Brown.”

― Michael Bond, More About Paddington

We’ve been visited just about every night recently by a family of bears, Mom Bear and her 3 young ones. I believe they are yearlings, probably not far from the time when they will be set out on their own by Mom. The photo above was from the night before last, right around 7 PM. It was a little earlier than their usual as they normally come under the cloak of darkness to invade our bird feeder, so I was able to get a few shots of the group. This shot was taken from a window in our dining area.

We normally get visits from bears several times a year. They usually tear down and empty our suet and hummingbird feeders or destroy two hanging feeding platforms that I continuously remake from old picture frames. Our large main feeder is on a pole that is about 9 feet off the ground because over the years bears had destroyed a few of our previous feeders on the shorter post that was then in place. We wrapped the pole with stovepipe because the taller post alone didn’t dissuade the bears from climbing up to get the feeder. You can see how crunched and dented the stovepipe now is from years of their attempts to climb it.

This group has made our feeder a regular stop on their dining schedule lately, to the point that I now go out as it is getting dark to stow away our platforms and the suet. They came this night before I had chance to get out there. Mom was not really feeding this time and seemed to be just showing the gang the ropes. She was super attentive to noises up in the woods and down the driveway and would sometimes lumber off to a point higher in the yard to sit and watch over the young ones. 

We gave them quite a while to feed off the fallen seed on the ground. But when one of the little guys finally stretched up and was able to grasp one of the platforms, spilling the seed all over its head, we decided it was time to head out to disrupt their party before they destroyed the platform and crushed the suet cages.  Merely opening our backdoor caused them to scatter, Mom and one of the small ones quickly heading up into the forest and the other two setting down through the yard toward our pond in full sprint mode. They might seem to lumber around but when they need to move their speed over open ground is startling. I don’t know that many large dogs could run faster.

We were worried that they might be separated but a few hours later they were all together again and revisiting the bird feeder.

We enjoy having them around even though they tend to periodically tip over our garbage and compost bins or invade our feeders. Or when Mom leaves big piles of, uh, let’s just call them calling cards all around our yard and bird feeder. Though I admire their resilience and love seeing their natural beauty, I find myself worrying for them. They have such a hard existence that it’s easy to overlook their occasional transgressions.

After all, bears will be bears.

I also want to remind everyone that I will be doing a painting demonstration at the West End Gallery on Saturday, April 26. My demo begins at 10 AM and runs to about 12 noon. Maybe a little later than that depending on how the painting I will be working on is progressing.

Gina Pfleegor-Unbound at West End Gallery

This event is being held in conjunction with the Arts in Bloom Art Trail of Chemung and Steuben County which involves open tours of artists’ studios and events such as this in the area’s art galleries. I mentioned in the earlier announcement for the demo that painter Trish Coonrod will also be giving a demonstration of her immense talent beginning at 11 AM but failed to mention that the wonderful Gina Pfleegor will also be giving a demo beginning at 10 AM.

So, at one point you can see three painters with three distinct styles at work.  I’ll certainly be taking a break or two from my own demo to watch Trish and Gina ply their talents as I am big fans of both.

Hope you can come out to the West End Gallery to spend some time with us, maybe ask a question or just chat while I smear paint on stuff. Could be fun.

Trish Coonrod- Still LIfe with Eggs and Shot Glass, West End Gallery

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