Ellen Bradshaw: Making an Artistic Journey Upstate By Way of Chelsea

For most adults, taking a mental step backwards to revisit childhood memories can often seem like a luxury, especially in these busy and trying times. Thank God for art! Art affords, both its creator and its admirers the opportunity to reflect upon a lifetime of experiences. In my opinion, everyone should allow themselves the time to delve into the past to spend some precious moments there. Nothing is more rejuvenating than to honor the places that we have known--the ones that we remember with great fondness. Products of our own specific environments, the “where” impacts us the most and make us who we are. It is the thing that makes each of us special, and, in many cases, helps us find common ground with one another.

Who hasn’t been touched by the facades and the innocent perfection of a “Main Street” somewhere? My mind’s eye frequently flashes to memories of lonely, winding, foliage-lined roads that lead out of town. Artist Ellen Bradshaw’s latest show, Heading Home, Keuka Lake, at Pleiades Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, takes the spectator on a journey through just such places.

Known mostly for her distinctive cityscapes inspired by the Ashcan School, Bradshaw, a Rochester native, departs from the urban jungle and heads Upstate to the openness of New York’s Finger Lakes region and all the beauty of Keuka Lake and the villages of Hammondsport, Penn Yan and Branchport. Artistically, this was a logical progression for Bradshaw, since these are the places where she has spent so much time getting to know the land, its sweeping vineyards, and the moodiness of the lake itself.

In Heading Home, Keuka Lake, Bradshaw has compiled a wonderful mix of works that easily transition from the varying blended greens and azures of brilliant summer scenes, to stark, solitary brown, cobalt blue and gray depictions of fall landscapes, to peaceful winter holiday scenes that are shaded with melancholy.

Bradshaw’s paintings could easily persuade one to quietly slip out from underneath the pretense of the city and head for the uncomplicated, single-layered lifestyle of small town America, where “overscheduled” refers to long, spontaneous walks in the woods (leaving the timepiece on the bureau) or lazy afternoons with a pole and awaiting fish, not to mention fall country drives in the shadow of trees bedecked with orange, red and brown leaves.

While the works in this exhibition evoke intense emotions for the spectator, even if they’ve never had the opportunity to know the subjects that inspired them firsthand, Heading Home, Keuka Lake is clearly a communion with the past for Bradshaw. Her artist statement says that the development of this series was tantamount to reclaiming part of her soul. Keuka, known as the “Lady of Lakes” because of its exquisite beauty, has always beckoned Bradshaw lakeside. What is most special about this show at the Pleiades is that the artist openly and lovingly shares her artistic journey, and gallery goers will be equally drawn to the landscapes that she knows so intimately.

Heading Home, Keuka Lake runs through November 22 at the Pleiades Gallery located at 530 West 25th Street, 4th Floor in Manhattan. Visit www.pleiadesgallery.com for gallery hours and more information.

DUTESCO & "CHASING WILD HORSES" STUNS AND AWES AUDIENCE

For those of you who love to watch Bravo, be on the lookout in the next couple of months for the documentary "Chasing Wild Horses," a film that chronicles one of former fashion photographer, Roberto Dutesco's three visits to Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Having first seen his work on the living room wall of a former associate who met him in the Hampton's, I was later excited in 2006 to notice the creation of his SoHo gallery, located at 13 Crosby Street, dedicated to his project "The Wild Horses of Sable Island." Dutesco co-founded the gallery with his business partner and curator of the exhibit, Peter Tunney. Weeks later, I had the pleasure of attending the exhibit's opening night party and was in awe of the gorgeous, almost other wordly, photographs that he had taken while on his photographic journey to Sable Island.

This past Friday, I was invited to the screening of the film "Chasing Wild Horses" that documents his visit in 2007, and it is altogether, spectacular, completely uncommercial (in the best sense of the phrase), and emotionally stirring. I was utterly transported to this very special world, which exists on a piece of land that stretches only 40 kilometers long, and where about 350 horses have minimal contact with a small staff of scientists that look after the place. The film points out how natural selection is well at work on Sable Island, where the strongest survive. It begs us to ask the question, should humans get involved there at all? The film references a male horse who had broken his leg four years prior, and still limping, was looking to mate, showing the horse's resiliency. Dutesco, unexpectedly found himself narrating this piece and he brings a wealth of emotions to his recollections of his experiences. Perhaps, the most poignant part of the documentary is in its final minutes, in which the audience gets a glimpse of Dutesco nuzzling with a group of horses, in the most natural and fundamental way.

It was hard not to leave the intimate venue at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South without having shed a tear and having been changed in some way. Days later, I am still both haunted and delighted by what I experienced.

For more information on the documentary read the piece in Halifax's The Coast.

SEE CLIPS OF DOCUMENTARY HERE!!!

NOTHING AT ALL

I did absolutely nothing this weekend...well, if nothing is a long bike ride, laundry, mask-making and getting a bubble tea at Flushing Main Street. Main Street is a pretty interesting destination these days. Not only can you find the best bubble tea in New York City—Sago Tea Café, for the Jasmine Milk Tea with Tapioca and Coconut Jellies, and Ten Ren’s Tea Time for Lychee Green Tea with Tapioca or not and the Matcha Green Tea. The pearls at Ten Ren are better, but they don’t use real milk, so I’m forced to alternate my patronage when I’m in the mood for dessert.

Main Street is really building up these days. There is a new, interesting mall called Queens Crossing and is home to some street level casual eateries and also fine Asian dining upstairs. I stumbled across the Shanghai Museum Store on the lower level the other day and was completely charmed by a young lady from Peking that sells replicas of museum treasures to tourists that stay at area hotels. She made my day.

This weekend, I started work on a two-foot sculpture of a woman. It’s a gift for a Hindu friend of mine and I think this piece is going to be interesting. I also started two additional miniatures and completed a repurposed mask that I began last week.

In addition to the mask-making, I spent the afternoon watching the National Puerto Rican Day Parade featuring some of the celebs with whom I have worked on projects. I also spent 7 hours or more finishing up a Spanish to English translation that I have been working on. Lots to do this week!

I LOVE NEW Y'ART!

(Blue Fin XXX, Elinore Schnurr, 2007)

This past Tuesday evening, I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful art opening of a new exhibit curated by Ken Ratner at Flushing Town Hall on Northern Boulevard in Flushing, Queens. If you’ve never been to the space, you don’t know what you are missing. It was constructed during the Civil War and has been everything from a theatre to a prison as well as other things less than pretty and has withstood the test of time. P.T. Barnum and Tom Thumb played there and it is the place from which the North sent troops off to battle during the Civil War. I had the pleasure of performing in the musical RAGS there in 2001 and loved every moment I spent there. Flushing Town Hall, just a few blocks from the Flushing Main Street Long Island Railroad stop on the Port Washington line (2 stops from Manhattan’s Penn Station/15 minutes), is also home to a performance hall, which doubles as an event space, an art gallery and a sculpture garden. It’s a wonderful piece of history maintained by the Flushing Council on the Arts and Culture.

The gallery’s latest exhibit entitled “Five Women Artists in New York” includes the extraordinary work of Ellen Bradshaw, Lisbeth Firmin, Lynn Jadamec, Elinore Schnurr, Sonya Sklaroff, women who ascribe to the precept of Ashcan School founder Robert Henri “that artists should seek inspiration from their immediate surroundings.” This show includes delightful works that celebrate the “great emotion and beauty in the life of everyday New York City.”

After leaving the office later than usual, I rushed to get my train to Queens so that I would still have time to snag a glass of chardonnay and amply meditate on these artists’ works. Harried, breathing heavy upon entering the edifice, I was greeted by my old pal Mel, who is the resident security guard and a performer himself. Then I proceeded to run into another friend Clyde Bullard, who runs Flushing Town Hall’s jazz series. The evening was clearly winding down, and those who remained were ferociously gathered around the food table, which sent an aroma of warm brie and fruit into the air. I made my way to the bar where I was privy to the last bit of white wine.

Now, with my heart rate finally falling back in line with those of the other people in the room, my eyes began to adjust and I was immediately pulled towards a painting by Elinore Schnurr. The more I looked, the more I was sucked into a very familiar world-- this one oil on canvas--where I recognized the overstuffed chairs and lamps, vintage and cozy, as if they were in a dream or a past life. The thought came to me, “That looks like Caffe Raffaela,” one of my favorite hangout spots in the West Village (now closed and forgotten by many, but held lovingly in my memory) from earlier in the decade. Of course the description plate on the wall confirmed that it, indeed, was Caffe Raffaela, and I was transfixed for five glorious minutes thinking of a rich cappuccino and a slice of mouth watering carrot cake. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Elinore!
(Caffe Rafaella I, Elinore Schnurr 2002)

While Schnurr’s work is softer and moody, Sonya Sklaroff is quite adept at painting a very familiar New York as well, but in photo-like depictions that boast bold and bright colors, as is seen in her work “Downing Street.” Sklaroff so brilliantly captures the color, tone and crispness of, what I refer to as , one of those “classic New York City skies.” I could scarcely believe that I was indoors and not in the middle of the scene, feeling a fall breeze that carries the scent of lunch from a nearby deli.


(Downing Street, Sonya Sklaroff 2007)

Both Lynn Jadamec and Lisbeth Fermin’s work seem to combine the splendor of Sklaroff’s cityscapes with Schnurr’s use of the personality and emotional tension of the the diverse faces found in the Big Apple. From the morning sunlight upon a pedestrian in Williamsburg, Brooklyn by Jadamec to the colorful freneticism of an Asian woman on a cell phone in Chinatown by Firmin, they both give the spectator a complete tour of New York City and its people without ever having to get on a train to Manhattan.


(Williamsburg Morning, Lynn Jadamec 2004)

Reminding us of the harsh and pensive nature of a New York winter, Ellen Bradshaw’s “Winter Lower Manhattan” captures the cold, quiet calm of a city street at night. Her ability to convey tones with which the New Yorker can immediately identify with is amazing, whether it’s the loneliness of a deserted Fulton Fish Market, or the coziness of a gentle snowstorm in ”Snowbound Manhattan.” It’s her ability to effectively tell the full the story with a brush that adds her to the roster of my new favorite artists.

(Winter Night, Murray Street, Ellen Bradshaw, 2003)

“Five Women Artists in New York” will be on exhibit through June 29. For more information visit www.flushingtownhall.org.