Re-cycling for Art Show at Hudson Opera House

For the past month at the Opera House in Hudson, NY there was a wonderful class that was given by Artist, Bruno Pasquier-Desvignes -FREE! - 3 days each week. All the Art was created from recycled stuff.


Lots of corrugated cardboard boxes, plastic containers, bags and caps, lids, tubes, wires + fabrics along with paints +hot glue. Mystical animals, people from other realms, wild creations formed from the imagination's of children and adults together taking the classes.

This class is intended to unite the various ages and cultures in our community, while playing as children do when making Art. Playing is often a neccessary part in the creation of Art. I know that is what happens when I do it and with wild childlike abandon, I created a Night Owl wall hanging- seen above.






This "gorilla" show was superimposed on another great show of work by Artist, Jack Millard. The two shows blended well. The animal menagerie of sculptures was up for only a coupla days over the weekend and it's being dismantled quickly as the Artists are coming by to pick up their works piece by piece.



Bruno is here every summer creating in the Opera House spaces with the community according to what I heard. I will surely be back next year to partake again - it was one of the best classes I have ever attended. Thanks Bruno!

A.L Stickley - Variety Store, Rhinebeck, NY

Where and when is the last time you saw a Variety Store or a General Store or Five + Dime store?
Well, there is one in Rhinebeck, NY and it's been in biz for 62 years. My Mom and I went there yesterday to get some stuff.
Stuff like:
A drip coffee pot for Mom and a pink elephant watering can for me!
What fun, as you can I was having -----and I spent under $5.
Here's a peek inside:


Isles + isles that harken back to my childhood wandering through my local Woolworth's and Newberry's in downtown Ossining, NY.

MEXICAN JUMPING BEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELEPHANT WATERING CANS in FLAMINGO PINK + SILVER
And all that girlie-stuff that you never know where to find anymore....


Garters! and corset hook + eyes. Ribbons for your hair by the yard
Bobby pins + Hair nets! this is where they have been hiding all these years.


shoe laces, string


Tickets, pranks + gags, party favors
AND LOTS MORE.
Mom + I had a blast shopping for all our needs in there. I guess today, we have Dollar Stores- what an eyesore those places are. I never go in them. Then there's the mega-big-box store names, which actually started from small mom + pop businesses named Walton's and Kresge's.


Say, "good bye" Mom.....
.....we're off for an ice-cream cone next door.

What I love about my garden (and not)

THE BOUNTY



Sunflowers are the Happy faces of my garden. I can't help but think that they are smiling and saying to me "Have a great day, Gretchen!" when I look at them in awe of how they grow by reseeding themselves every year.


The haul for lunch.... Mmmm - what I love to eat.




MARBLES are what I love to find each year when I dig up the garden. They magically appear whenever I am digging in the earth... I wonder if that happens to anyone else?


SLUGS!- I abhoar! YUK!

Walkin' on Warren St. (Hudson,NY 12534)

Walkin' on Warren St. on Sunday while it sun-showered on and off, I stopped in one of my fave shops: HENRY
What I like about Nancy's shop is her Artful way of arranging. It is her Art (I believe). The eclectic compilation is always an intrigue for me. I have bought many a textile here, which has been the source of design inspiration for me, in one way or another.




...looking out to towards the sunshower....

...a quirky footstool with a cusion of hermetically sealed hay within clear PVC - how natural!

....a beautiful vintage petti-point evening bag containing another petti-point covered compact with original label from Vienna (from another century). Check out the website for this special shop and see more treasures inside.

Breeze

There is something soothing about watching the wind stream through a window and to listen to it's whispering sounds as it is blowing. I can hear it, feel it and see its trail but it's invisible. I can't hold it but it can envelop me, cool me, ease me, yet sometimes ruffle my feathers. It is the ethereal unseen nature of it that I like most - so mysterious.

"Fat Cat" painting by Gretchen Kelly c.1971

I thought this is the perfect beginning for this visual blog - my Fat Cat painting that I did in high school. This is my most treasured painting. If there was a fire in my house, beside grabbing my real cats and my laptop, I would grab this painting. It is a prize. It holds my teenage history and idealism at that time. I have another painting that I did back then which is the antithesis of this one, now that I think of it. That's interesting ....hmmm, I never thought about that before. I will post that later. Anyway, this is coveted and others would like to own this painting, but NEVAIR! as the French would say. The teenage girl with an explosion of talent ready to burst was at the top of her Art class and just starting to explore new mediums, new philosophies, new perspectives, new emotions. I remember it all as though it was yesterday and hold it very close inside my heart. This painting shows my idealistic views on the world back then. I had the typical high schooler's rebellious attitude toward the world and specifically Madison Avenue, which is where my Dad worked in advertising. One of the most important things he taught me was to NEVAIR believe what TV tells you. Which I translated to nevair believe what any of the media tells me. What a wise young girl I was. Today that is still a large part of how I parse out the world and take it all in stride.

Back to the painting: the obvious is visually stated - the American flag is draped on top of the NYC skyline and stands for American Dream and opportunities that are born from this capitalistic nation which the Fat Cat is the creator of and the beneficiary of. This Fat Cat is sitting on mushrooms and floating on his dreams and glory. He is showing you that this is his world and he is proud and happy - happier than a pig in shit. He is a bit like an Allison Wonderland character and very pleased with himself. But his world is dripping on his shoe, it is not unsinkable. It is leaky and he does not notice. The darkness that mushrooms grow in, under-foot, is a bit Hellish and foretelling of ......everyone's life, certainly mine. The big toothy smiles are laughing with you or about you? There will be dark abysses to climb out of as life goes onward. When one thinks she is on top of the world - Woo, this is when the IChing would warn to not indulge in self satisfying patting of the back.

When I review this painting now, I am fascinated by that teenage insight and symbolism. There is also a bit of serendipitous foretelling of how my life would go on it's course. My paintings today are less symbolic usually. Every once in a while a whimsical one pops out of my head, but not as much as back then. I actually, ponder this often and think to myself that I want to get back to my personal imagery and produce more of these inward mindscape paintings. My personal taste in Art is more of this kind of work than what I am producing at the moment- the landscapes and interiors, not necessarily the nudes though.

Enough babblewabble for now.