Cornell-ish Box by Christine Timmons, mixed-media collage on wood panel (Various papers, vintage fabric-covered buttons, shell button, coral glass, dead leaves, half-cork, wire)
Jesup Gallery
December 14, 2024, through February 4, 2025
Reception: Thursday, January 9, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a conversation between Jason Pritchard and Miggs Burroughs at 7 pm.)
Christine Timmons’ work with collage issues from a lifelong interest and involvement with art, craft, textiles, design, and working with her hands.
"I love getting past the initial uncertainty of beginning a new piece and gradually discovering a path through the labyrinth of building a collage," Timmons said. "While working on a piece, I'm always looking for a visual tension (and harmony) among the elements―many of them pieces torn from my trove of old monoprints and often papers that I've painted. Most of my collages nowadays are abstract, and I work principally with paper but often combine it with fabric and occasionally with paint and other media and objects."
Before the pandemic, Timmons began learning to work with encaustics (pigmented hot wax), which contain a "mysterious quality" that both intrigues her and informs her art. Unfortunately, Covid shut down the school where she had been studying, putting a pause to her encaustics efforts for quite a while. Recently she has begun taking encaustics workshops again, excited by the prospect of exploring more about combining encaustics with collage.
Left: Evita’s Eyes by Christine Timmons, Mixed-media collage on wood panel (Ticket stub to Evita Peron Museum, Buenos Aires; details of Timmons' photos, various papers, encaustic wax); Right: Christine Timmons
Timmons grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and earned a BA in French from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (with a year abroad at l’Université de Lyon, France) and an MA in French from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The path of her professional career reflected her diverse interests and included teaching French language and literature; working in the Press Bureau at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; working as a special projects editor for Encyclopaedia Britannica in Chicago; restoring damaged works of art on paper for museums and galleries as an apprentice paper conservator; editing both Fiber Arts and Threads Magazines; and curating art exhibits at The Westport Library for 13 years before retiring in December 2019.
Along the way, she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and took numerous independent classes in painting, drawing, printmaking, papermaking, photography, jewelry making, bookbinding, and collage at various schools and art centers, among them, Silvermine Arts Center, Creative Arts Workshop, Rowayton Arts Center, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Pelham Arts Center, and Rye Arts Center.
Timmons began exhibiting her work in 2018. Retirement allowed her to dedicate more time on her own art, which she has exhibited widely in both New York and Connecticut. She is an exhibiting member of both the Mamaroneck Artists Guild in Larchmont, New York, and the Rowayton Arts Center.
Riverside Park by Jason Pritchard, oil painting
South Gallery
December 14, 2024, through February 4, 2025
Reception: Thursday, January 9, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a conversation between Pritchard and Miggs Burroughs at 7 pm.)
Jason Pritchard uses the medium of oil to capture atmospheric coastal scenes with the intention of illustrating a sense of space and connection to the New England region that he loves.
Utilizing the practice of en plein air painting (painting outdoors to capture the subject in its natural setting) for smaller pieces, Pritchard then uses these pieces as preparatory studies for larger paintings, combining them with photographs that he takes while visiting the areas depicted in his work. He then completes the final piece in his studio.
"It’s important for me to visit the location to access the feeling of what it’s about to help replicate my sense of reaction back onto the canvas," Pritchard said. "Few things make me happier than taking a nice long walk along a beach, hearing the sound of the tide crashing nearby as I explore both physically, then later in my mind’s eye, the thoughts of my experience back into my painting. I embrace the process of unpacking those memories and calibrating the colors, the shifting light and the changing weather elements back in my studio. These variables prompt the type of brush movement, hues and tones I enlist which are often wrapped under an impressionistic skyline, intending to heighten the mood of my paintings further."
Left: Compo Beach by Jason Pritchard, oil painting; Right: Jason Pritchard
British-born American artist Jason Pritchard is best known for his seascape oil paintings of New England. He grew up in East Anglia in the UK, a region that inspired British landscape painters such as John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough who he greatly admires.
During his childhood, his father owned a family printing business, so there was always an abundance of spare paper to hone his drawing skills from an early age. In his 20s', he moved to London and took up watercolor painting prior to moving to New York in 2005, where he studied oil painting at the Art Students League of New York for several years.
Recent accomplishments include being selected as a 2020 Emerging Artist by Cape Cod Art Magazine, acknowledging his growing body of Cape Cod Seascapes paintings. He has exhibited work in New York City, Long Island, and his home region of Connecticut.
Claudia Mengel with her painting, New Beginnings
Sheffer Gallery
December 14, 2024, through February 4, 2025
Reception: Wednesday, December 18, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a conversation between Mengel and Miggs Burroughs at 7 pm.)
Despite its intended goal of turning common metal into gold, a mystical aspect of alchemy was at the heart of its expression in the Middle Ages. It was thus associated not only with chemical experimentation, but also with the spiritual belief in ultimate transformation.
Viewing these canvases, one can almost feel that transformation, thanks to Mengel’s playful experimentation with paint and her soulful combination of interior ideas and experiences. In creating these pieces, the artist turned from her earlier, actively dynamic gestural style to slow the pace of her brushstrokes in order to achieve a greater intimacy. As the poet condenses language to reveal the unwritten theme and finds unity in rhythm and verse, Mengel reflects upon the natural world, whose patterns depict the seen and the unseen, and transcribes them onto a unified canvas. There, the marks of blue, green, pink, red, and yellow are combined to give each a heightened intensity, reflecting a sense of light throughout. The washes of pastels, the layering of impasto, and the occasional collage all help to physically create and capture light not only on the surface, but also in the eye of the beholder. Their patterns and textures create relationships that bring an energy — and perhaps even a magic — to the narrative they impart.
In addition to the dialogue within each work, however, there is also an important relationship among them as a group. The artist’s first painting went on to influence the next, and so it continued, one canvas at a time. Like children in a family, they are related to each other — born of the same mother — yet have different personalities and speak in different voices.
Thus, in viewing these pieces, one is invited to lend one’s own voice to this broader dialogue, by reacting first to the individual works and next, to the group as a whole. Only then can the viewer see the “gold” in this transformation, thanks to the artist as alchemist.
On the topic of her artistic process, Mengel said, “To be an artist, one needs to be in a world of inner connection — at times both poetic and spiritual. Although I draw upon art history especially the Impressionists and Abstract Expressionists, I paint from my own impressions and memories. It is my experience as an artist to take my ideas, images, and inspirations and transform them on the canvas, where together they create a dialogue.”
A long-time resident of Westport and a life-time artist, Claudia Mengel graduated with a BFA from Brainard Art School at State University of New York at Potsdam. Subsequently, she studied painting with Yale University Professor Robert Reed and painting with Boston University Professor Hugh O’Donnell. In addition, she studied concepts of art in Darien with Constance Kiermaier and has done two residencies at the Vermont Studio School. Her work is in private and corporate collections in the United States and abroad.
Jesup Gallery
September 7 – December 10
“Jazz emphasizes this, and blues emphasizes this, and country emphasizes this… but where they all start is in this beautiful boiling American Music pot.” – Rhiannon Giddens
Drawn once more from the collection of American blues keyboardist and record producer Mark Naftalin and his wife, Ellen Naftalin, this exhibit highlights the art of country music, with album covers dating from the 1920s through the 1970s.
Country music is not — and never was — one style of music. It has always been a mixture of many styles, springing from many roots and sprouting many new branches to create a complicated chorus of American voices, joining together to tell a complicated American story, one song at a time.
Country music rose from deep and intertwined roots. From fiddle tunes and hymns, to work songs and ballads; to smoky saloons and secluded Appalachian hollows; to barrios along the southern border, and the wide-open spaces of the American West.
As country music evolved, its greatest artists never created their music in a vacuum. They were influenced by their own experiences, but also by the other types of American music they listened to. That cross-pollination of experiences and styles resulted in innovations in sound, tempo, and instrumentation, creating dynamic new branches of country music.
Description excerpted from film documentary Country Music (2019)by Ken Burns.
Thank you to Ellen and Mark Naftalin for digging though their treasure trove of LPs and sharing this piece of unforgettable American recording history.
Exhibit support provided by The Drew Friedman Community Arts Center.
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
Curated by Walker with help from the Library’s Exhibit Curator Carole Erger-Fass, Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut derives from Westport Public Art Collections and aims to explore an important piece of local history. It will feature 40+ original cartoons by some of the area’s greats, including Dik Browne, Mel Casson, Stan Drake, John Cullen Murphy, Leonard Starr, Jack Tippit, Mort Walker, and more.
Proximity to major syndicates and publishers in New York City drew cartoonists to Fairfield County. Many worked at home in their studios, frequenting Max’s Art Supplies on the Post Road and seeking companionship with their professional peers at local spots: over a game of golf at Longshore, or at local restaurants like Mario’s Place, across from Westport’s train station.
Related: Westport Library Resource Guide: Cartooning in Connecticut
Cullen Murphy, author and son of the cartoonist behind Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, refers to the history of cartooning in Connecticut with fondness.
“For a period of about 50 years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut,” he wrote in Cartoon County, “a bit of bohemia amid those men in their gray flannel suits.”
The Westport Schools Public Art Collections (WestPAC) was conceived by local art teacher Bert Chernow, who began acquiring a diverse collection of artworks in 1964. Featuring many notable local artists, Westpac comprises more than 1,800 works in a broad range of media including paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures, and murals.
Westport cartoonist Mel Casson was instrumental in building WestPAC’s Cartoon Collection, which includes more than 120 original comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, and illustrations. Over the years, the Westpac collection has been displayed in schools and public buildings around town to educate and entertain residents.
This exhibit features many highlights from the collection, representing the major cartoon genres. The graphics on the walls are from Mort Walker’s 1980 book, The Lexicon of Comicana, which will be reissued by New York Review Books in 2025.
Special thanks to Westpac co-chairs Ive Covaci and Anne Boberski, and to the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center for their continued support.
South Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
The State of Cartooning will display works by active members of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, including Greg, Brian, and Neal Walker, who carry the legacy of their father, Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey. Other featured artists include Ray Billingsley, Bob Englehart, Bill Janocha, Sean Kelly, Maria Scrivan, and more.
Founded in 1946, National Cartoonists Society (NCS) activities and events primarily took place in New York City until 1983, when the first Reuben Award Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. At that time, the NCS also began organizing a system of regional chapters for members to participate in. There are currently 23 chapters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Brian Walker started the NCS Connecticut chapter in 1993, involving many remaining Golden Age cartoonists. Meetings were held at local restaurants, including the Silvermine Tavern, Cobbs Mill Inn, The Redding Roadhouse, and Red Barn. From 1994 to 2017, a special Legend Award was presented to 22 Connecticut Cartoonists at their annual fall dinner. Although membership has decreased as the older generation has passed on, the Connecticut chapter is still active. The State of Cartooning displays works by some of the current members of the NCS.
Related: Westport Library Resource Guide: Cartooning in Connecticut
Bill Janocha is a cartoonist and illustrator who majored in Illustration at Syracuse University. He served as a studio artist at Walt Disney Productions and created comics for Marvel's Crazy Magazine. He was also featured in Mad Magazine and has written gags for the B.C. comic strip series, in addition to articles for Nemo, Hogan's Alley, Comic Book Artist, and encyclopedic bios for 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. Janocha created characters and storyboards for Pee Wee's Playhouse on CBS and animated for Madonna's Who's That Girl feature film. His cartoons for Hearst newspapers have been featured in Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year series. Janocha has illustrated books, including Hooked on Hopium, A Most Unusual Farm, and The Life and Art of Mort Walker: A Survey of His Cartoons, comingout this fall. He lives with his family in Stamford.
Sean Kelly is an award-winning illustrator whose portfolio includes The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, New York, Businessweek, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, among others. A frequent contributor to The New York Times, Kelly has produced many political op-ed commentaries. He has received honors from The Society of Illustrators, The Society of Publication Designers; and The National Cartoonists Society, who presented him with the Best Illustrator Award. In 2018, he illustrated Stephen Colbert’s Midnight Confessions. A graduate of Brown University who also studied at Rhode Island School of Design and was a Getty Arts Journalism Fellow at the University of Southern California, Kelly lives in Southport.
Ray Billingsley is the creator of Curtis, one of today’s most significant and poignant comic features. Billingsley draws inspiration from real life, combining the fresh quality of situational humor, melodrama, comedy, and pathos. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Curtis is read in more than 250 newspapers nationwide. The strip depicts the urban existence of Greg and Diane Wilkins, a Black family that lives in a weathered brownstone. In recognition of his storylines in which Curtis tries to get his father to quit smoking, Billingsley has received numerous awards and recognition from the American Lung Association, including the Humanitarian Award from the American Lung Association of Southeast Florida in 1999 and the President’s Award in 2000. Working from his studio in his Connecticut home, Billingsley balances his life with his family, friends, and his faithful companion, Higgins the Basset Hound.
Maria Scrivan is a New York Times best-selling author, award-winning syndicated cartoonist, and speaker based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her laugh-out-loud syndicated comic, Half Full, appeared daily in newspapers nationwide for a decade, and is available three days a week on gocomics.com/half-full. Scrivan licenses her work for hundreds of greeting cards for Recycled Paper Greetings, and her cartoons have appeared in MAD Magazine, Parade, Highlights, National Lampoon, and many other publications. Nat Enough, her debut graphic novel, was an instant New York Times best-seller and launched her critically acclaimed six-book series of the same name. She is also a contributor to Marvel Super Stories, released in 2023.
Bob Englehart attended Chicago's American Academy of Art, then began his editorial cartoon career at Chicago Today, before moving on to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the Dayton (Ohio) Journal Herald, and the Hartford Courant. He has been an adjunct professor teaching “Cartoons in American Society” at Eastern Connecticut State University and is currently a freelance editorial cartoonist and writer. Englehart is the author of two cartoon collections, a memoir, and a novel. His cartoons are included in several permanent collections including the Connecticut Historical Society, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library at Ohio State University, the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and others. His work has been the subject of many major solo exhibits, most recently at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford and the Connecticut Historical Society. He is syndicated worldwide by Caglecartoons.com.
Chance Browne, also known as Bob, attended The School of Visual Arts and Park College, distinguishing himself as an illustrator, art director, and musician before eventually going to work for his father. After his father, Dik Browne, launched Hagar the Horrible in 1973, Chance stepped in to help with Hi and Lois, acting as primary artist on the strip in the mid-1980s. He also served as editor for Hagar the Horrible, which was drawn by his brother Chris. A true renaissance man, Chance still found time to paint, do freelance graphic design, and play guitar with a variety of blues bands and jazz ensembles. He passed away on March 1, 2024.
Eric Reaves started out his career as a high school art teacher, followed by his tenure as creative director for a top apparel manufacturer. There, he created artwork for Disney, Warner Bros., Nintendo, Barbie, and several other top brands. In 1994, he began cartooning professionally when he joined Paws, Inc., the studio of Garfield. As assistant cartoonist, Reaves helped draw the Garfield comic for 17 years. In 2009, he began helping Chance Browne draw the Hi & Lois comic strip. He joined forces with Browne Creative Enterprises full time in 2012. Having been a lifelong fan of Dik Browne’s art, Reaves describes drawing Dik’s characters as, “a humbling, yet daily thrill!” On occasion, he teaches as an adjunct professor at Indiana Wesleyan University, his alma mater. He and his wife of 25 years have five children, so his ability to relate to the Flagstons comes quite naturally! He enjoys engaging with his children’s multitude of activities, creating art in several different mediums, and he finds relaxation in a stream with his fly rod, catching large trout.
Brian Walker has a diverse background in professional cartooning and cartoon scholarship. He was one of the founders of the Museum of Cartoon Art and has served as curator for more than 70 cartoon exhibitions. He taught cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts and also served as editor-in-chief of Collectors’ Showcase magazine. He has written, edited, and contributed to more than three dozen cartoon-related books, including the recently published history The Comics: The Complete Collection for Harry N. Abrams, Inc. He has been contributing to both Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois since the early 1980s. Walker graduated from Tufts University.
Greg Walker studied liberal arts and journalism at Syracuse University and has worked in film, commercial photography, newspapers, and graphic arts. He started his cartooning career writing and drawing comic books, including well-known titles such as Rocky and Bullwinkle, Barney and Betty Rubble, Underdog, Sarge Snorkel, and Beetle Bailey. He began providing gags to his father’s strips in the early 1970s, and in addition to writing, currently does the inking and lettering on Beetle Bailey. In the 1980s, Walker also collaborated with Guy and Brad Gilchrist on the Rock Channel comic strip, and with his brothers Brian, Neal, and Morgan on Betty Boop and Felix.
Neal Walker says, “Growing up with comics, I’ve never been able to imagine doing anything else.” He graduated with a BFA from Syracuse University in 1983. He collaborated with his brothers on the Betty Boop and Felix comic strip from 1984 to 1988 and produced the Beetle Bailey comic book for Scandinavia beginning in 1989. He has also worked in animation as an animator, studio assistant, computer operator, and editor for advertising, industrial film, and children’s educational video content. He designed a Beetle Bailey screensaver and sculpted a Beetle Bailey bronze statue, now installed at Mort’s alma mater, the University of Missouri. After Mort Walker’s passing in 2018, Neal pencils and continues to write gags for Beetle Bailey.
Mort Walker produced Beetle Bailey for 67 years, three months and 12 days — that’s 24,576 strips, the longest tenure by any cartoonist on an original creation. Dubbed the Dean of American Cartooning, Walker was one of the most prolific cartoonists in the comics business, with the creation of nine different syndicated strips credited to him during his lifetime, including Beetle Bailey, the third-most widely syndicated strip in the world. He served as president of the National Cartoonists Society and the Newspaper Features Council and was the founder of the Museum of Cartoon Art. His creation remains one of the most popular features in newspapers today and is continued by his sons Greg, Brian, and Neal. It is ironic that Beetle Bailey, the laziest character in the history of comics, was created by Mort Walker, one of the hardest-working and most prolific cartoonists of all time. Mort passed away at the age of 94 on January 27, 2018.
The Artists Collective of Westport will explore the power of words through the visual arts with two summer exhibits staged at The Westport Library. The two-part exhibition will encompass all three of the Library’s galleries: Word: Visual vs Verbal will span the Sheffer Gallery and South Gallery, and Piece by Piece will be displayed in the Jesup Gallery.
Word: Visual vs Verbal will open Thursday, June 20, and run until Monday September 2. Piece by Piece will be revealed during a special reception, also on June 20, from 6:30 to 8 pm.
Piece by Piece is a 6-foot by 8-foot art installation composed of the work of 48 Artists Collective members. Each artist received a 12-inch by 12-inch blank panel along with a 6-inch square section randomly selected from a contemporary painting. The artists created their individual piece, replicating a part of the larger painting in their own style, without knowing what the final exhibit will look like until it is revealed at the opening reception.
“The end result,” said Artists Collective member and longtime Library supporter Miggs Burroughs, “is an entertaining exercise in community, creativity, and collaboration.”
In addition to Burroughs, those contributing to Piece by Piece include Katherine Ross, Michael Brennecke, Nina Bentley, Susan Fehlinger, Dale Najarian, and Jay Petrow.
For Word, each of the Artists Collective members were invited to display a work in the medium of their choice — all inspired by a single word.
Each 12-inch by 12-inch “piece” of Piece by Piece will be available for purchase starting the night of the reception. Each square will be $100, with 50% of the proceeds supporting the Library’s art programs and 50% going to the artist. The artworks on display in the Sheffer and South Galleries will also be available for purchase, with a percentage of the proceeds going to benefit the Library’s art programming. Additional exhibit support is provided by The Drew Friedman Community Arts Center.
To further support the exhibits, the Library will welcome an Art for Lunch event open go the community on Friday, July 19, in the Sheffer Gallery, and Westport Poet Laureat Jessie McEntee will host a lunchtime writing workshop on Tuesday, August 20, with Word: Visual vs Verbal serving as the inspiration and writing prompt.
The Artists Collective of Westport is a nonprofit organization comprised of 150 local artists who have joined forces to discuss, create, and develop dynamic experiences for the Fairfield County community. The collective is open to all active artists in pursuit of expanding their careers and in developing a strong, diverse arts community.
Word: Visual vs Verbal in the Sheffer and South Galleries
Piece by Piece in the Jesup Gallery
June 10 through September 2
The Artists Collective of Westport celebrates the visual arts with an all-member exhibition on view in all three of the Library’s galleries — Word: Visual vs Verbal in the Sheffer and South Galleries, and Piece by Piece in the Jesup Gallery.
About Piece by Piece
Piece by Piece is a 6-foot by 8-foot art installation composed of the work of 48 Artists Collective members. Each artist received a 12-inch by 12-inch blank panel along with a 6-inch square section randomly selected from a single contemporary painting.
The collective artists created their individual piece, replicating a part of the larger work in their own style, without knowing what the final combined image would look like until it gets revealed at the opening reception. “The end result,” said Artists Collective member and longtime Library supporter Miggs Burroughs, “is an entertaining exercise in community, creativity, and collaboration.”
This year's selection is Plunge, a 1992 acrylic and paper collage on canvas by Kerry James Marshall. To read about the artist and the historical references in this piece, click here.
And check out the video below to hear the artist talk about his work:
About Word: Visual vs. Verbal
In this annual membership exhibit, each of the Artists Collective of Westport members were invited to show one work that fits into the theme, WORD: Visual vs. Verbal. On display are works showing how each artist conveys an idea through visual language and by assigning a one-word title to their piece, they invite the viewer to contemplate the meaning of the word as it relates to their work.
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About The Artists Collective of Westport
The Artists Collective of Westport is a group of creative individuals who have joined forces to discuss, create, and develop dynamic experiences for the Fairfield County community. The collective is open to all active artists in pursuit of expanding their careers and in developing a strong, diverse arts community.
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Interested in purchasing artwork from this exhibit?
Each 12"x12" "piece" is available for purchase for a donation of $100, with 50% of the proceeds supporting the Library’s art programs. All artwork on display in the Sheffer and Jesup Galleries is also for sale, with a percentage of the proceeds going to benefit the Library. Price and artist contact information appears on artwork labels.
For more information, contact Miggs Burroughs at Miggsb@optonline.net.
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Exhibit support provided by The Drew Friedman Community Arts Center
Return to the main "Art At the Library" page
Clockwise from top left: Marlene Siff's Fanfare (2018), Thinking Inside the Box, Camille Eskell's Useless Females: Don't Stand There Like a Bloody Momo (2019), from And All That Jazz.
Music and Women’s History Month are the themes running through four new art exhibits at The Westport Library, with three exhibitions inspired by VersoFest, all currently on display along with a collection of mixed media works by Camille Eskell.
Thinking Inside the Box is being hosted in the central grandstand on the Library’s main level. An idea put forward by artist and author Melissa Newman, Thinking Inside the Box isa unique installation that brings together 21 artists from around the area to create original multi-dimensional works. Participating artists include Tina Puckett, Chris Perry, Marc Zaref, Elizabeth Petrie DeVoll, Rebecca Ross, Janine Brown, Darcy Hicks, Nina Bentley, Miggs Burroughs, Sooo-z Mastropietro, Tom Bernsten, kHyal, Melissa Newman, Mary Ellen Hendricks, Katherine Ross, Five Fingaz, Tammy Winser, S’aint Phifer, Linda Colletta, Mollie Keller, and Norm Siegel.
Running simultaneously in the Sheffer Gallery is Marlene Siff’s Finely Tuned, which features five large dimensional paintings named for, and linked to, a specific expression found in music, along with several maquettes she created prior to construction of the final pieces. Visitors to the gallery can scan a QR code next to each piece and listen to the musical selections that the artist used as inspiration. Finely Tuned runs through June 10, with a reception and artist talk moderated by Miggs Burroughs on Sunday May 5, from 2 to 4 pm.
Also running through June 10 is Eskell’s exhibit, Scheherazade: Storyteller, displayed in the South Gallery. Eskell’s reception and talk will be held Wednesday, May 1, from 6 to 8 pm, also moderated by Burroughs. Part of her series, The Fez as Storyteller, Eskell’s digital photo-based collages incorporate textiles such as saris, hand-made paper, cast sculpture, trims, jewels, and more, to explore self-perception, societal attitudes, and psychological states related to gender bias.
Rounding out the new exhibits is Art of the Album: And All That Jazz, album covers from the collection of Ellen and Mark Naftalin, displayed in the Jesup Gallery. And All That Jazz features album covers of some of the pioneering jazz musicians who changed the face and sound of American music forever.
“Coinciding with Versofest, as well as Women’s History Month, we hope our current exhibits add an engaging and diverse visual arts component that can be enjoyed by the public at large, as well as the extended community that attends this year’s VersoFest,” said Carole Erger-Fass, the Library’s exhibit curator.
L to R: Camille Eskell, Marlene Siff
Siff describes herself as being born with a paintbrush in hand. The Bronx native attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City and earned a BA in Fine Arts from Hunter College, where she studied with Richard Lippold, William Baziotes, Raymond Parker, and William Rubin. After graduation, she began her professional career as a teacher and went on to create bed linen and kitchen collections for J.P. Stevens. After finding commercial success, she designed kitchen and dining room collections for JCPenney before devoting herself full time to her art.
Siff’s work has been juried into 153 competitions across the United States and has won 45 awards. She has exhibited in museums, galleries, and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, the Katonah Museum of Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Mattatuck Museum, the Attleboro Arts Museum, Columbia/Barnard University, the University of Texas, the Walsh Art Gallery at Fairfield University, Eastern Kentucky University, and The Capitol building in Washington D.C.
“As a child, I studied classical music for over 10 years and have always listened to music while studying at school and working in my studio,” said Siff, who is now based in Westport. “My love of music inspired a desire to develop a new interpretation of music in art. These ideas were influenced by the rhythm, structure, and sounds of the musical compositions and songs I chose for each one of the interactive, multi-dimensional paintings.
“Working on 7 Finely Tuned + 1 became a creative, emotional, and spiritual adventure. My hope is to inspire strength, power, courage, and happiness at this particular time of great stress in our country.”
As a first-generation American and the youngest of three daughters from a Middle Eastern Iraqi-Jewish family from Mumbai, Eskell’s purpose has been to examine her cultural history and familial heritage through a feminist lens in her work. For Eskell, the converging of these three ancient societies compounded the underlying disparagement of women they shared, which deeply impacted her as it played out in the family dynamic.
Through her art, Eskell aims to unearth the influences of embedded patriarchal systems and inequitable gendered traditions that persist across generations. In The Fez as Storyteller, she tackles the power of these beliefs and perceptions and their broader social and psychological legacy.
Eskell exhibits her work in solo and group shows throughout the U.S. and internationally, including Mexico and South America. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, such as the Hudson River Museum, Chrysler Museum of Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, and the Islip Art Museum. She received Artist Fellowship grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts in drawing, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts in painting, and the CT Office of the Arts in mixed media. She has also received reviews and features in numerous publications including The New York Times, CT Post, The Hartford Courant, Art New England, the Huffington Post, and online journals Art Spiel, Posit 19, and Ante Mag, among others.
Art of the Album: And All That Jazz, is the fifth in a series of exhibits exploring the history of album art and design, and was curated by Ellen Naftalin from their extensive album collection. Mark Naftalin is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee who rose to fame as the keyboardist with the influential Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Naftalin produced more than 1,300 blues radio broadcasts on three FM stations, in addition and more than 30 blues festivals. Since moving to Ellen’s native Westport in 2002, he has also hosted a monthly broadcast, The Mark Naftalin Show, which is now in its eighth year on Bridgeport's WPKN 89.5 FM.
For more information on these exhibits, and more, visit the Art at the Library page.
Jackson Pollock (foreground) and Lee Krasner
Westport photographer and artist Stacy Bass is bringing a new series to The Westport Library: SmART, a regular program featuring in-depth conversations about art and artists, hosted in the Library’s Trefz Forum.
The first of these, to be held Thursday, March 14, will focus on the relationship between acclaimed artists and married couple Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. It will feature Bass in conversation with art historian, educator, curator, and Pollock/Krasner expert Bobbi Coller, tracing the arc of Pollock’s and Krasner’s brilliant careers, with examples of their artwork broadcast to the 18-foot videowall in the Trefz Forum.
The series was inspired by Bass’ conversation with fellow photographer Stephen Wilkes on the Library stage in November 2022.
The kickoff event starts at 7 pm. Attendance is free; registration is strongly encouraged.
“Westport has always been and continues to be an art-forward and art-centric community,” said Bass. “It’s one of the things I love most about living here. It feels like a natural fit for The Westport Library to offer its patrons access to insightful and educational programs with and about art and artists, and it’s my great pleasure to participate in bringing these conversations to life.”
Before people used the term “power couple,” Pollock and Krasner were two of the most groundbreaking artists of the Abstract Expressionist Movement. While Pollock’s distinctively energetic method of pouring paint directly onto the canvas was at first controversial, he gained a mythic notoriety and is now considered one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century.
It took much longer for Krasner’s art to be appreciated and valued. The recent drive to reassess the overlooked accomplishments of women artists has led to a realization of the strength of Krasner’s work, as well as her essential participation in the creation of mid-20th century abstraction. Her paintings and collages have now been displayed all over the world, sold for record-breaking prices at arthouse auctions, and prized in the collections of major museums.
“When Jackson Pollock first exhibited his powerful abstract compositions in the late 1940s, he shattered existing conventions of painting, causing an explosion in the art world that reverberated into contemporary public life,” Coller said. “Working parallel to him, his wife, the artist Lee Krasner, was an integral part of the experimental art movement known as Abstract Expressionism, which is credited with shifting the center of avant-garde artmaking from Paris to New York in the middle of the 20th century.
“In our informal art conversation, Stacy Bass and I will discuss the lives and careers of both Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, view examples of their work, and consider the complex relationship between two strong and influential artists.”
Coller received a BS in education from New York University and a PhD in art history from The Graduate Center of CUNY. She has taught modern and contemporary art at Long Island University and has curated more than 30 exhibitions, including The Artist’s Mother: Portraits and Homages, which was shown at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. In addition, several of her exhibitions were circulated throughout the U.S. by the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibitions Service.
In addition, Coller currently is the chair of the advisory board of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, New York, the landmarked home and studio of both artists. She curated two exhibitions for that site: The Persistence of Pollock in 2012, which marked the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth, and Pollock’s Champions in 2014, the first exhibition to focus on Pollock’s relationships with his three lifetime dealers.
A political science/photojournalism major from Barnard College, Columbia University, Bass began to focus on fine art and commercial photography in college and studied at the Maine Photographic Workshops with masters Jay Maisel, Joe Baraban, and William Albert Allard. From her first solo exhibition in 1988, her fine artwork has become part of numerous private, corporate, and hotel collections, and her images and unique perspective continue to tap into the emotion and sensibility of a wide spectrum of viewers. Select pieces of her work are currently represented by Sue Appleton-Webster at Swoon Gallery in Westport.
Bass also is a graduate of NYU School of Law, where she concentrated on copyright, art, and entertainment law. She later used her expertise to become vice president of a publicly traded motion picture and television company, Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc.
Bass’ signature images of architecture, interiors, and gardens have resulted in three solo exhibitions and numerous awards. Her photography has been featured extensively in books and magazines including at home (where she was lead photographer for more than 10 years), Garden Design, Luxe Interiors + Design, House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Veranda, AD, Horticulture, Living Etc., British Homes & Gardens, The Wall Street Journal, and many more. She is the author of two best-selling and critically acclaimed monographs/books celebrating the American landscape: In the Garden (Melcher Media/Perseus Books, 2012) and Gardens at First Light (Moffly Media, 2015).
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Pictured: L to R, Stacy Bass and Bobbi Coller. Stacy Bass Photo Credit: Pamela Einarsen; Bobbi Coller Photo Credit: Pauline Shapiro.
Jesup Gallery
March 16 through June 10
From the collection of Ellen and Mark Naftalin, this exhibit features album covers of some of the pioneering jazz musicians who changed the face and sound of American music forever.
Jazz developed in the United States in the very early part of the 20th century. New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, played a key role in this development. The city's population was more diverse than anywhere else in the South, and people of African, French, Caribbean, Italian, German, Mexican, and American Indian, as well as English descent interacted with one another. African American musical traditions mixed with others and gradually jazz emerged from a blend of ragtime, marches, blues, and other kinds of music.
After the first recordings were made in 1917, the music spread widely and developed rapidly in a series of different styles including traditional jazz, Dixieland, swing, bebop, progressive and modern jazz. At the same time, jazz spread from the U.S. to many parts of the world, and today jazz musicians — and jazz festivals — can be found in dozens of nations. Jazz is one of the United States' greatest exports to the world.
Jazz musicians like to play their songs in their own distinct styles, and so you might listen to a dozen different jazz recordings of the same song, but each will sound different. The musicians' playing styles make each version different, and so do the improvised solos. Jazz is about making something familiar into something fresh, and about making something shared — a tune that everyone knows — into something personal. Those are just some of the reasons that jazz is a great art form, and why some people consider it “America's classical music.”
Description excerpted from “What Is Jazz” on the website of The Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Thank you to Ellen and Mark Naftalin for digging though their treasure trove of LPs and sharing this piece of unforgettable American recording history.
Exhibit support provided by The Drew Friedman Community Arts Center.
Return to the main "Art At the Library" page
South Gallery
March 16 through June 10
Award-winning artist Camille Eskell customarily explores self-perception, societal attitudes, and psychological states related to gender bias in her work.
As a first-generation American and the youngest of three daughters from a Middle Eastern Iraqi-Jewish family from Mumbai (Bombay), her purpose has been to examine her cultural history and familial heritage through a feminist lens in her work. For Eskell, the converging of these three ancient societies compounded the underlying disparagement of women they shared, which deeply impacted her as it played out in the family dynamic.
Through her art, Eskell aims to unearth the influences of embedded patriarchal systems and inequitable gendered traditions that persist across generations. In her current series “The Fez as Storyteller,” a group of mixed-media sculptures and two-dimensional works, she tackles the power of these beliefs and perceptions, and their broader social and psychological legacy.
This series is a culmination of Eskell’s lifelong interests in art, history, costume, and psychology. The works combine elements, cultural symbols, and associations from Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sephardic traditions, often melding male and female garments and accessories to raise questions about female empowerment or constriction. She often uses the fez cap, the traditionally male Ottoman headgear, as a structural base for storytelling and to signify the patriarchal base established by her grandfathers, who left Iraq for Mumbai and became traders of these hats in their adopted land.
The crafting of each piece is meticulous, and process driven, integrating a range of materials and techniques to attain her visual concept. The designs combine digital photo-based collage, with textiles such as saris, hand-made paper, cast sculpture, trims, jewels, and embellishments; her methods include disassembling/re-working existing garments, hand-sewing, and beading, and more.
Eskell exhibits her work extensively in solo and group shows throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Mexico and South America. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, such as the Hudson River Museum, Chrysler Museum of Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, and the Islip Art Museum. She received Artist Fellowship grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts in drawing, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts in painting, and the CT Office of the Arts in mixed media. She has also received reviews and features in numerous publications including The New York Times, CT Post, The Hartford Courant, Art New England, the Huffington Post, and online journals Art Spiel, Posit 19, and Ante Mag, among others.
Eskell has conducted residencies Weir Farm/National Historic site and the Vermont Studio Center. She earned a MFA from Queens College/CUNY and lives and works in Connecticut.
Exhibit support provided by The Drew Friedman Community Arts Center.
