Diversity

What a marvelously diverse world we inhabit! Living in the North Country, we are fortunate to have many opportunities to enjoy this.


Some time, when you are outside, look down. How many species of plant and fungus do you observe? What types of rock are visible? Can you guess, or do you know, what manner of microscopic life is there? How about insects - or the critters which feed off them?


Of course, when the snow gets deep, such observations are more challenging. But the point remains: so much life, so many forms, await our inspection!


Then, of course, there is human diversity. How many cultures have humans created across the world and over the millenia? How many forms of expression? Who can count them? Not I.


This leads us to the heart of a show opening tomorrow (Saturday 11/14/09) at the Adirondack Park Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) at Paul Smiths, on Route 30, about 12 miles north of Saranac Lake. Titled "Discovering Diversity", the show is sponsored jointly by the VIC and the Arts Council of the Northern Adirondacks, and features 22 artists working in a wide variety of media. Watercolor, acrylic, and pastel are represented - so is photography, fiber art, glass, etching, and printing. There is even an ice sculpture!



I have not yet seen these works, but many of the artists are familiar to me. Two of them, Sandra Hildreth and Ursula Wyatt Trudeau, have been subjects of previous blog posts here. (Click here and here to see.)



It is exciting to anticipate the experience of new art - both by those whose previous work you know, and by artists not yet discovered. This show hangs through January 4, 2010: I hope all who love diversity will have the chance to see, explore, admire, learn, and enjoy!

Art Works

News flash:

Art works in Saranac Lake.

By this I mean, art is an effective engine of both cultural enrichment and economic growth. Art functions to draw the community together socially and to attract visitors to enjoy our village.

Of course, this is not unique to Saranac Lake; a recent Plattsburgh Press Republican article points out that "several development studies have concluded that a real revitalization of downtown cannot happen unless there is a strong arts corridor." To read the whole article, click on this link:

http://www.pressrepublican.com/ed_choice/local_story_160232423.html

Saranac Lake's "arts corridor" is dazzling. Perhaps because it is a relatively small town, art-related vitality permeates nearly everything. In recent months, a group called Saranac Lake Art Works has been re-energized, and is actively working to use the arts as a vehicle to promote and strengthen the whole town. (Click the link to see their website.)

At present, Saranac Lake Art Works consists of 11 arts-related businesses and individuals, and, since formally associating about 6 months ago, they have engaged in multiple promotions and events.

Over the winter, the group drafted an article about local arts for the 2009 - 2010 Visitors' Guide produced by the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. Besides the advertising support of several member businesses, the group itself created a full-page ad to highlight the village's creative wealth.

In April, they mounted and staffed a collective booth the Adirondack Living Show in Queensbury. Pictured above, it featured work representing each group member and also general information about Saranac Lake.

In August, Saranac Lake Art Works will be hosting the First Annual Adirondack Plein Air Festival. Plein air, or working outside in natural light, is favored by many artists, and many more are curious to try it. (Click here to see a previous NCPR report by Todd Moe about plein air artists.) Artists of all suitable media (painting, pastel, photography, etc.) will be invited to spend a weekend working en plein air in the Saranac Lake region from August 21 - 23, culminating in a show and sale of the weekend's work on Sunday afternoon.

And of course, Saranac Lake hosts the Third Thursday Art Walks every June, July, August, and September. The Saranac Lake Art Works group certainly didn't start this (though one of the group's members, Tim Fortune, did), but they are active in helping promote it. Similarly, the Artists at Work Studio Tour, a soon-to-be three-year-old event, was initiated and is run by others, but Saranac Lake Art Works invests in advertising it. (And again, one of the magnates of the Artists at Work Studio Tour, Sandra Hildreth, also belongs to Saranac Lake Art Works.)

Art works. A community with arts-related industry works. Saranac Lake is one of the most vibrant arts-related industrial centers of the North Country.

The Light Fantastic

Light.

I have written before of its significance - its centrality - to our lives and our arts. (Click here to read.)

Light is mentioned repeatedly in the PBS documentary about the Adirondacks, which first aired in May 2008. Through the history of white settlers' wilderness explorations and into the present day, people have found that something about these mountains creates an extraordinary quality of light.

Artists strive to capture a sense of this quality; as the source of vision, light is the root of all visual arts. Painters especially seek that elusive, magical illumination which will elevate a two dimensional surface to three dimensions - or more, if time can be considered a fourth. Since the 19th century, many have embraced the value of working "en plein air", or in the open air, as a way to understand light. Painting in this way has its own challenges, of course - not least of which is the need to work quickly, for light changes constantly with the earth's rotation.




Plein air paintings are often suffused with light in a way unique to the painting world. Have you seen, standing in the woods on a cloudy day, how softly the light might touch a mossy boulder or a naked branch? The forms are hard, defined, unyielding - but the light is gentle, and alters their solidity.



Alternately, have you found vivid colors and sharp shadows when direct sun pours down? Colors appear which you never saw before; shadows develop layers of depth; water can even hurt the eyes with its brilliance.



A master of plein air painting sees these things and more, and expresses them on (usually) canvas or paper. A painting made by such a master can bring you to the world, so you almost smell the pines, feel the touch of breeze, hear the splashing river.



Such a master is Sandra Hildreth. Pictured above is one of her plein air portals, a doorway to an Adirondack afternoon. Her style is realistic, but more: it leads you from the confines of your daily life, your worries and distractions, into a realm more than real, a place where you see as never before.



A place where light comes alive.



Sandra's work is currently featured at the Adirondack Artists' Guild in Saranac Lake; that show has an opening reception Friday, June 5th, and will hang until July 5th. (As I have written before, the AAG knows how to throw an opening!) If you can't make it to Saranac Lake, however, she will also have a show at the Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek from June 27th through July 30th.



If you can, go see her work. You will gain a richer vision of our world, and a fuller comprehension of light.