"Under Pressure" is underway!

Whew!

It was a busy but lovely day today here at the Museum of American Bird Art in Canton, Massachusetts. This morning started with a gallery talk and luncheon for museum patrons, a quick little printing demo, and then the afternoon public opening of my exhibition, Under Pressure: Birds in the Printed Landscape.

Talking prints with museum patrons

The show looks so lovely in this beautiful venue. It's the first opportunity I've had to mount 50 pieces of my work in one place, which was exciting and a bit unnerving.

Upstairs in the mezzanine my inner educator got to have fun creating an area all about the reduction printing process.

All about reduction prints!

The table case on the left has tools and lino and registration jigs... the panel just to the right of the table has photos of me at work in the studio and a description of each step of the process. Across the center are four prints from which I pulled one sheet at each stage... so viewers can see the print develop. And on the TV at right, a short film produced by Drew Fulton, which I will post here shortly.

The show is now up through September 15. MABA is open Tuesday through Sunday, 1-5pm, so if you're in the Boston area, do stop on in. (Bonus: Museum admission is free to MassAudubon members.) The museum sits on 120 wooded acres, with walking trails and plenty of wildlife to enjoy, too!

I expect you'll read more about this show later, but for now I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the MABA staff, who have been so supportive of me and my work, and who pulled out all the stops to make the exhibition look fabulous. Thank you all!

Under Pressure: Birds in the Printed Landscape at the Museum of American Bird Art

"Dinner Party," reduction linocut, 24 x 24, © Sherrie York

In less than a week I'll be loading up almost 50 framed linocuts and heading south to the Boston area, where I will install a solo exhibition at the Museum of American Bird Art in Canton.

The show, which opens June 15, will include work from across my printmaking career, including some early pieces made in the 1990s! (Practically ancient. Certainly vintage.) The brand-new harlequin duck piece, "Fourteen at Two Lights," was dry enough to frame yesterday, so this will be its first public debut! (As well as the first view of "Spring Calling," the new red-winged blackbird piece.)

Please join me Saturday, June 15, from 1:00-5:00, for the opening celebration. Show continues through mid-September.

There and back again... and again.

Um, yes. Life has been a bit surreal lately. And if you read this entire post, your life may take on a strange aspect, too... since this will be a longish narrative. But there will be nice photos, I promise.

Hey, that's me! Sketching ancient rocks in a French meadow.

After a week in the Netherlands I traveled to France, first to visit friend and colleague Jean-Louis Verdier and his wife Dominique. It was great to see more of Jean-Louis' work, which has run the gamut of science and science fiction illustration. I was most familiar with Jean-Louis' insect paintings... sometimes enormous, and always intricately observed.

Jean-Louis is also one of that interesting breed of Frenchmen who is (and I say this without exaggeration) mad about American "old time" music. He has an amazing collection of antique banjos and mandolins, and was kind enough to indulge my request for a private concert. (You can watch a Sigrove Stompers video here.)

 

Together we visited the Jardin des Sens in Coutières. It's a special place, not only for its lovely gardens, but also because it filters water for the entire community through a "natural" system.

From the countryside around Fomperron I traveled to the coast of Bretagne, wherein I made my one and only train mistake (and I rode a lot of trains). I missed my stop and ended up at the end of the line on the last train of the day. With much gesticulating I was finally able to convince the Chef du Gare to call my friend Denis ("Oui, he speaks French"), who was waiting in the place I was supposed to be. I felt a bit foolish, obliging Denis to drive further to retrieve me, but in the end it turned out to be a good mistake. We drove through the marais salants as the sun set, watching the paludier at work and getting to see marsh owls and baby avocets.

The trip to Mesquer was the impetus for the entire trip. Not the grand art or great food of the Continent, but a birthday party under a big tree in a garden by the sea.

It was so great to spend time with friends old and new, including a few I hadn't seen in 16 years. (!!!) The birthday boy, Denis Clavreul, and mutual friend Robin D'Arcy Shillcock (both outstanding artists, of course) have been my friends, colleagues, and confidants for almost 25 years. Our in-the-flesh meetings are infrequent and all-too-brief... but each time we pick up as though no time has passed and sharing a table is the most natural thing in the world. Which it is.

Dunes and beach at Mesquer, France

But with a blink it was over and I was in motion again, first to spend a day in Rotterdam with my dear friend Nicky and then overnight in Amsterdam for my flight back to the States. In Rotterdam Nicky and I visited the new grand Markthal... an astounding indoor market building. (With apartments all around the top and sides.) I didn't take photos of the exterior (you can see plenty if you follow the link), but here's a panorama of the interior. (That's Nicky looking at the interp display in the lower right.)

Markthal Rotterdam - click to embiggen

One of many cool things about this building is that it has interpretive displays! During the excavation  for three levels of underground parking they uncovered many layers of Dutch historical artifacts. The escalator to the parking levels is itself an exhibit... a timeline of Rotterdam history as you travel up and down.

Markthal escalator with timeline.

At each level's landing there is a door to the parking garage, and just outside the door is an exhibit of artifacts discovered during the construction.

It's fascinating stuff, and really thoughtfully done. (In both Dutch and English, if you're wondering.)

After the Markthal we stopped in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, which has fantastic collections of old masters and modern oddities. I spent a lot of time in the print room, which rotates its displays of work on paper every few months. One can also sit on the bench and access the collection digitally to check out works that are not currently on exhibit. (Images are projected on the wall opposite the bench.)

Nicky returned home to Hardenberg and I found my way to Amsterdam and my hotel. The next day I flew to Boston (via Detroit, if you can believe it). I spent two nights at the Mass Audubon Museum of American Bird Art in Canton, where I had a chance to view an exhibition of watercolors by Don Eckelberry and to lead a couple of printmaking activities with children at the Museum's summer camp program.

From there it was back to Maine and Hog Island. Yes, it was one of those cliché weeks: Monday France, Tuesday Netherlands, Wednesday Travel, Thursday Boston, Friday Maine. It's now a week later and we have just wrapped up five days of programming for Educators' camp.

On Monday the next adventure begins, as I move out to the Bingham cottages and take up my role as Artist-in-Residence.

It's overcast and cool here today, and fairly quiet. All of the campers and most of the staff have gone back out into the world and those of us who remain are enjoying a more leisurely pace... catching up with email and laundry (and blog posts). Thank you all for indulging the travelog the past few weeks... I'm hoping to share some island field work soon!

Boston and its aftermath

Last week's journey to Boston and environs was the usual whirlwind of activity. What was surprising was how little drawing we actually managed to squeeze in. All of the folks we hoped to visit with ended up being available (what!?!?), so we largely went from one warm and wonderful conversation to another. A whole lotta "blah blah blah," as we say. But GREAT blah blah blah.

Not much photo-taking went on, either... but a few highlights can be dredged up:

A day spent at Plum Island with another artist friend, Barry Van Dusen. In the morning we visited the banding station here... catbirds and one brown thrasher were our rewards. Later we ogled shorebirds (sigh, I'm so bad at peeps), and made a few sketches. Mostly I was chewed on by mosquitos and no-see-ums. Inland skin and blood must have been a rare treat for the little buggers, since no one else seemed bothered by them.

Men at Work: Denis and Barry

On the weekend Denis gave a presentation and workshop for the close of his exhibition at the Mass Audubon Visual Art Center in Canton. That's the back of our friend and fellow field-sketcher Clare Walker Leslie in the striped shirt. It's a little crazy how many tribe members are in Massachusetts. I'm beginning to feel as if I didn't get the memo when the headquarters were chosen.


From Canton we sped to Lexington for the opening of "Birds of America" at Francesca Anderson Fine Art, where Barry had work on display. Our friend Cindy House had a typically fabulous piece there as well, and I have to say that her surprised face when we walked in the door will long be a favorite memory of the trip.

Mystery art lover, Barry, Denis, Sherrie, Cindy

I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't know the woman in pink on the left, but the rest of the rogues in this gallery are, left to right, Barry, Denis, me, and Cindy. You can tell who came straight from the field and who was on duty for the party, can't you? The two in the middle look a little ragged.

(And, WHEW! Also in this exhibition were some pieces by Coloradoan Bill Alther. He didn't get the memo about Massachusetts, either.)

Sunday evening Denis headed for Maine and I took the fast ferry to spend Monday around Provincetown. A great sunset over the city as we sped away... a few hours for sketching the next day, and then the trek towards home. This time I think the only thing I left behind was a hairbrush. Somewhere.

If it's Wednesday, I must be home

Email, mail, and phone triage is underway. In the meantime, a little sketch from Provincetown on Monday.

Come and see!

Last weekend was Lilac Sunday in Boston. This week we could well have our own festival here! For the first time in several years, the lilacs didn't get hammered by a late hard frost, and the neighborhood is lavender and fragrant. Brenda brought over a big cluster from one of her shrubs on Monday, and their purple smell fills my apartment. "Come and see!" she said. And I think later this morning I shall.

It's a significant phrase, "come and see," and last week in Boston I had a striking reminder of why.

Denis and I were drawing at Drumlin Farm, a Mass Audubon property. As the name suggests, the Farm has fields and barns and chickens and goats and pigs. A garden. A greenhouse. Tractors. And hordes of small children and their parents. On that day, the visiting population was mostly pre-schoolers and their mums. (And two field artists.)

It's an interesting exercise, drawing in a public place. I've often found that I am treated as a manikin or other exhibit. I've had clueless teachers plant their entire classes between me and my subject so their students can "see what the lady is doing," without asking if I'd mind or considering that they are now completely obscuring my view. Oblivious kids have just run me over... sending paper and pencils flying in all directions. Adults talk about me or my drawing in loud voices, or continue their sometimes very private conversations as if I weren't able to hear them.

But I can and do hear them. And last week my ears caught two short sentences... identical in all words save one, but miles apart in spirit:

"Johnny, come and see," and, "Johnny, go and see."

One an invitation. The other a dismissal.

The "come and see" mums were on their knees with their kids, exclaiming over bugs and the softness of the goats' ears. They played in the dirt. They asked as many questions as their kids, and engaged in delighted conversation. They all saw the farm together.

The "go and see" mums talked to each other. About designer dresses and sales on shoes and the shortcomings of husbands and neighbors. Their kids broke twigs off bushes and ran across garden seedlings.

I realize there are good days and bad days with kids and mums and neighbors and goats and life. But given a choice between a "go and see" world and a "come and see" world of invitation, participation, and discovery... well.... it's no real decision, is it?

I'm going to Brenda's to visit her lilacs now. You're welcome to come along any time.

Larry's baby

Larry and Betty are devoted family folks... all their kids and grandkids live not far from their home place in Canton, Massachusetts... but Larry's baby is this handsome Model A, lovingly restored by the man himself. (That's Larry on the left, Denis on the right.)

The French guy behind the wheel never even put the thing in gear... but it looks good, eh?

Home again, home again

Well. The eagle has landed, but is off again on the morrow for workshop teaching on Saturday. No rest for the wicked.

Boston was great... the Mass Audubon folks were fabulous, Denis' exhibition opened to acclaim, friends new and old were visited, I got to take in the just-opened Edward Hopper exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, AND we got to ride in the rumble seat of Larry's beautifully restored Model A.

Of course, all this running around meant not many sketches were made. We spent our first day at Drumlin Farm, but as usual I spent the first day spinning my creative wheels. (Can you say, "couldn't find the mark-making end of the pencil to save my life?") Three days later we got out to Cape Cod for about 2 hours, since it was a requirement that I at least SEE the ocean. A few small sketches happened there, and a few later at friend Pat's house... and some whilst waiting at the airport and on the journey home. Ah, well... sometimes you just have to go have fun, too.

It will be piper-paying time after Saturday's workshop, so thought it best I put something up before I even finish emptying out the suitcase. Model A photos when I get the camera downloaded.