Stellar Concrete House!!

This is a Dave Sellars creation up in the hills beyond the hamlet of Warren VT! Made entirely out of pured concrete! Absolutely beautiful if you ask me and just about ready for habitation...Oh how I wish...

BIG PIG ROAST PART 2!!

Though not as well attended as the Hair of the Dog/ Year of the Pig Party back in 2006...
The pig rocked the house and was as juicy and delicious as can be!! Raised right here on Spry Farm

Picking Wild Cranberries Down At The Bog

A bunch of old friends were down for the Pig Roast Holiday Party!! So we put them to work and we all picked succulent little red berries off of the frozen vines along the shores of the beaver pond. Then we decided to make a cranberry infused vodka!! YUM

AUTUMN RESIDENCY IN IRELAND

Just a few images from my 3 months in Ireland.Where I made a bit of art, read a ton of books,had time to think and wonder about the past, present and future of my art making as well as travel the country. Which is rich in history and still quite lovely behind the chunky layer of development that seems to block your view at every turn. Wonderful as it was, I'm happy to be home to my hot apartment in a cold state in an ecnomically depressed country with a newly elected democratic administration.

HOT APARTMENT!!

The Farm Project

Taking a small break before we head to Ireland for a 3 month residency at Belmont Mills! In the mean time we are renovating an apartment in the barn on my family's land in Maine and helping with the flora and fauna they raise on their organic farm!! Soon to be featured in the MOFGA newsletter and can be found at the Common Ground Fair in Sept. under the name Androscoggin Apple Company. Normally I would happily be there scooping shaved ice for cider syrup sno-cones but ALAS we will be in the land of muck...
Here are just a few pix of our farming adventures...
I apologixe that I can not adequately describe the taste of the goat's milk ice cream and the crisp apple cider that comes out of this place... But I bet you can imagine.

Summer of '08

The reincarnation of the tornado!!
I was asked to install the Great Storm of 1971 in the gallery at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont CA.
Had a great time doing it and it maybe even looked better than the first!
We even snuck in a road trip to Joshua Tree (my favorite) and had good eats at In and Out Burger and my new heartthrob Cliftons. Hot decor and even hotter jello... in every color

The Last of the Collages Not Yet Seen on This Blog

There were close to 30 collages created for this lastest exhibition and unofrtunately not all of the could make it into the show.
So here are the last few that I haven't put up on the blog so perhaps you can get a taste of the full extent of the content covered in the show.

A Closer Look

Here's a peak at some of the smaller details from the show that may have been overlooked due to the large crowd at the opening.

Images from PLAN B

The following pix are from the latest installation from Plan B that opened at Ziehersmith Gallery on the 17th of April and runs through the 17th of May. The following text is from the press release.

In Karin Weiner’s new exhibition, her humorous vocabulary of survival and discovery spawns a combination of large scale sculpture and works on paper. In the latter, her signature collage elements are now attended to by impositions of paint and ink. Weiner shifts between animal and human narratives, as parallels unfold wherein the natural world mimics our daily antics and vice versa. Humans grow roots and houses sprout rainbows, while animals smoke cigarettes. In her universe of hordes and hoarding, the world seems to be inundated with itself but is never devoid of visual surprise and pleasure


view images from the exhibit The artist, recently removed from the urban bustle of New York City to the quiet of a rural Vermont studio, created the works while holed up against the forces of weather and informed by the constant radio static of dramatic world events far removed. In one installation, a tottering island is littered by ridiculous dwellings clinging for dear life to precarious crystal cliffs. Created from the accumulations of imagery and actual material of past bodies of artwork, the sculpture’s massive presence, drenched in an oily black, is lifted up by a halo of spouting rainbows. It has a range of implications from the artistic growth process to a universal desire for joy and salvation in a hazardous, morally ambiguous world.

In the main gallery, a full-size lifeboat lays run aground. Cobbled together from found wood and designed as a home for a single survivor, the piece has personal as well as political ramifications. In the artist’s own words:

When I was a kid, we would spend the summers with my father in Maine. We lived on his boat and were left alone at a very young age to mind ourselves while Dad went to work. It sounds criminal today, but to us it proved our father’s trust. In addition, we developed this incredible sense of freedom and adventure. We had a small dingy that we would row out into the middle of the bay day or night. In complete darkness, we would be amazed with the stars and the phosphorescence in the water that sent up an eerie glow when stirred by the oars. We would float around for hours, oblivious to danger and fear which should have been very real, before attempting to navigate our way back to harbor by way of the few lights on the houses. Therefore, boats have always been symbolic vessels for me. They embody something mysterious and wonderful from my childhood and even that incongruous sense of security remains appealing…

This ship is the artist’s escape pod in an upended world and represents the notion that in the end, one is left with oneself. The vessel is about her own personal salvation as much as her hopes for the future.

Karin Weiner has exhibited widely with recent solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland as well as group shows in Boston, New York, and Vienna. This summer, she will be artist in residence at Belmont Mill in County Offaly, Ireland. This is her third solo show at ZieherSmith.

A Few More Of The New Collages

Some of the others I thought I might share with you

In The Belly of The Beast

Talking on the phone while on board the ship...

Even More...

Collages for Ziehersmith April 2008

These six collages are the newest things to come out of the studio.Each one is around 11 inches to 13 inches square, so smaller than the recent collages shown on the west coast. The work is a bit darker than usual. Dealing with various themes having to do with natural disaster, extinction, awe and wonder in nature, human existance or dilemma, amongst other things. These works will be part of my upcoming solo exhibition at Ziehersmith in Chelsea this spring. Stop by the opening on the 17th of April at 6:00pm if you want to put back a PBR with the rest of us. Also please feel free to comment on or criticize the work, I am always open to suggestions and opposition to my ideas and images.