Exhibit at the GARAGE in Montpelier

There's an exhibit of  SPA studio artists and local friends at the GARAGE in Montpelier, a space behind Julio's restaurant. All eleven studio artists at SPA have work in the show, along with 13 additional artists. The work is wonderful and diverse -- from forged iron sculpture to fluorescent light installations to painting and fiber. There's something wonderful about art installations in empty, non-traditional spaces that are not designed for exhibition, but somehow bring their history with them and contribute it to the mix.  Go see it if you can!

I have a room with my new work in cabinets and the six modified portraits that are left after four were sold. Here are some views of my part of the exhibit, in a self-contained room, with brick on the exterior wall. I made a poster showing the three levels of the drawer, so people can see what's in it without pulling the shelves out.

 

Bella Feldman

I came across the work of Bella Feldman in the October, 2014 issue of Sculpture magazine. She has been making War Toys since 1992, and has images from two groups on her website. The older ones are here and the newer ones here. They come out of the same impulse as my Rolling Boil pieces, though I use found, weathered materials, and she uses steel and glass.

They are very wonderful pieces -- do go to her website and have a look! Sometimes you look at the work of another artist and think, "Why am I making art, when this person has done it ever so much better?"

It's Even Worse Than I Thought

This piece is from the Rolling Boil series from a few years ago, in which I considered how we roll animals away at our convenience, like "rolling stock."

This just in, from the October 4, 2014 issue of New Scientist, one of my favorite publications:

Enjoy them while you can. Only half of the world's animals are left compared with 40 years ago, mainly due to habitat destruction either by locals for farming or by the multinational mineral and timber trades.

The biennial Living Planet Report, released this week by conservation charity WWF, tracked the fate of 10,000 vertebrate species around the world between 1970 and 2010. It found that the total population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles has declined by 52 percent in only two generations of humans.

Latin America saw the steepest decline, with animal populations falling by 83 percent. Animals living in fresh water also fared badly, plummeting by 76 percent.

"The majority of species extinctions and declines are being driven by human pressures on the environment, both international and local," says Sam Turvey of the Institute of Biology at the Zoological Society of London, who helps run a scheme to protect unusual species.

It's a very challenging issue that requires a lot of effort and attention with complex solutions, given that it's happening at a global level," he says.