The Artful Mind this is January issue 2025-1

THE ARTFUL MIND

BERKSHIRE’S ART MAGAZINE FOR PROMOTING ARTISTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL | IN PRINT & FREE SINCE 1994

JANUARY 2025 ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

JASON BARD YARMOSKY

Photograph by Jessica Strother

Erika Larskaya

“Confessions” Mixed media, on 24x24 canvas

"As an abstract artist, I search for ways to represent the invisible, subtle, and unexpressed.

I am driven to lay out fleeting and intangible experiences on physical surfaces". —Erika Larskaya

Erika Larskaya Studio at 79 Main St. Torrington, CT www.erikalarskaya.art

THE ARTFUL MIND JANUARY 2025 • 1

2 • DECEMBER 2024 THE ARTFUL MIND

the

ARTFUL MIND

IN PRINT SINCE 1994

JANUARY 2025

This year, we are excited to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of The

Artful Mind! This milestone presents a wonderful opportunity

for us to reflect on the diverse world of art and the passionate individuals

who contribute to it. We encourage everyone to join us

in supporting and uplifting one another in our creative endeavors.

Thank you for being an integral part of our journey—

your contributions have truly made a positive impact! As we enter

the new year, let’s continue to inspire each other and make strides

in our artistic pursuits! —Harryet Candee, Publisher

JOANE CORNELL

FINE JEWELRY

Happy New Year to All!

A Conversation with Enid Futterman... 14

Jason Bard Yarmosky Visual Artist... 24

Travel Journal Africa 2024

Photographs by John Lipkowitz

Accompanied by Nina Lipkowitz ... 38

Richard Britell | FICTION

Something for Over the Couch

PART 23 “The Abandoned Elks Club” ... 47

Mining My Life

Diaries of Jane Gennaro ... 48

A single, 18kt yellow gold flower, at the top of the earring is set with a single, fine, white

diamond in the center. A cascade of Argentium silver flowers, that are black acid dipped,

form the body of this lightweight earring. An 18kt gold ear wire Is fashioned to allow this

earring to sit right up into the hole of your lobe. Dimensions; 3.75” L x 2.25” W

Hand Forged Designs

www.JoaneCornellFineJewelry.com

9 Main St. Chatham, NY

Publisher Harryet Candee

Copy Editor Marguerite Bride

Contributing Photographers

Edward Acker Tasja Keetman Bobby Miller

Contributing Writers

Richard Britell Jane Gennaro

Third Eye Jeff Bynack

Distribution Ruby Aver

Advertising / Editorial inquiries

and Subscriptions by mail: 413 - 645 - 4114

artfulmind@yahoo.com

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The Artful Mind. Permission to reprint is required in all instances. In any case the issue

does not appear on the stands as planned due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond

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writers are not necessarily the opinion of the publisher and take no responsibility for their

facts and opinions. All photographs submitted for advertisers are the responsibility for advertiser

to grant release permission before running image or photograph.


Carolyn M. Abrams

Pink Sky at Night, Everyone’s Delight

Oils/cold wax medium 12” x 12”

Visit me at District Kitchen and Bar in Pittsfield

Atmospheric and Inspirational Art

www.carolynabrams.com

MEMBER GUILD OF BERKSHIRE ARTISTS

4 •JANUARY 2025 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! THE ARTFUL MIND


RICHARD TALBERT

LIONEL DELEVINGNE

“Back to the Future” 1976—2024

Opt 125, (c), Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper, 24” x 34”, 2022

510 WARREN STREET GALLERY, Hudson NY now offering

Vintage Delevingne silver prints for these times

richtalbert1@gmail.com

| Richardtalbertdesign.com

https://www.instagram.com/Lioneldelevingne

http://www.lioneldelevingne.com/

http://www.510WarrenStreetGallery.com

PETER ALVAREZ

413-441-1011

6 • JANUARY 2025 THE ARTFUL MIND


Mark Mellinger

Paintings

Collage

Constructions

CLOCK TOWER ARTISTS

75 South Church St, Pittsfield, MA

3rd Floor

914. 260. 7413

instagram@mellinger3301

markmellinger680@gmail.com

Permafrost. Triptych. Acrylic and tissue on canvas. 64" x 70"

Ghetta Hirsch

Call or text 413-597-1716

Ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com

@ghettahirschpaintings

Ascending Oil and cold wax medium on canvas, 7” x 8”

8 • JANUARY 2025 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! & HAPPY NEW YEAR! THE ARTFUL MIND

Jennifer Pazienza

C'è la Luna? 60 inches D Oil on canvas

From the series, Vision & Dialogue

@Jennifer Pazienza | www.jenniferpazienza | jennpazienza@gmail.com

THE ARTFUL MIND JANUARY 2025 ANNIVERSARY ISSUE • 9

PATAGONIA

ACRYLIC, LATEX, GRAPHITE ON CRESCENT BOARD, 40”X30”

BETWEEN THE LINES

2023, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 36.5” X31.5”

JAYE ALISON

MOSCARIELLO

Jaye Alison Moscariello harnesses water-based

mediums like acrylic and watercolor, influenced by

a creative upbringing and artistic journey. Through

abstraction and intuitive color selection, she captures

the interplay between forms, with lines that

articulate deep-seated emotions. Her art resonates

with joy and upliftment, transforming personal and

worldly complexities into visual harmony.

The artist is passionate about creating art, painting

on flat, smooth surfaces, and using materials that

are environmentally friendly.

Moscariello’s work has been exhibited both nationally

and internationally, and has appeared in

print, film, television, the web and Off Off Broadway.

Transforming personal and worldly complexities

into visual harmony. In celebration of her new studio,

enjoy 10% off large paintings and 30% off

small paintings.

“Abstract Memories”, Knox Gallery, January 31

- March 8, 2025. 452 Main st, Monterey, MA. Reception:

January 31, 5:30 - 7pm.

Jaye Alison Moscariello -

Studio Visits -

By Appointment Only: Pond Shed (behind the

Buggy Whip Factory), 208 Norfolk Road, Southfield,

Massachusetts. 310-970-4517,

jayealison.com, jaye.alison.art@gmail.com

TREE AND SHRUBS

BRUCE PANOCK

I am a visual artist using photography as the

platform to begin a journey of exploration. My

journey began in earnest almost 14 years ago when

I retired due to health issues and began devoting

myself to the informal study of art, artists and particularly

photography. Before retiring I had begun

studying photography as a hobby. After my retirement,

the effort took on a greater intensity.

My world had changed for reasons outside of

my control and I looked for something different in

my work. I wanted to do more than document what

was around me. I wanted to create something that

the viewers might join with me and experience.

Due to my health issues, I found myself confined

with my activities generally restricted. For the first

time I began looking inward, to the world that I experienced,

though not always through physical interaction.

It is a world where I spend more time

trying to understand what I previously took for

granted and did not think about enough. The ideas

ranged from pleasure and beauty to pain and loss;

from isolation to abandonment; to walking past

what is uncomfortable to see. During this period of

isolation, I began thinking about what is isolation,

how it can transition to abandonment and then into

being forgotten. The simplest display of this idea

is abandoned buildings. They were once beautiful,

then allowed to run down and abandoned, soon to

be forgotten. After a while they disappear. Either

mankind knocks down these forgotten once beautiful

structures, or remediates them, or Nature reclaims

the space. Doesn’t mankind do the same

with its own?

My work employs references to other photographers,

painters, as well as sculptors. The brushwork

of Chinese and Japanese artists is appealing

for both its simplicity and beauty. Abstract art has

its own ways of sharing ideas which are jarring and

beautiful at the same time. Black and white and

color works each add their own dynamic. My work

is influenced by these art forms, often using many

of them in a single composited image.

Bruce Panock -

Panockphotography.com

bruce@panockphotography.com

Instagram @brucepanock

TOP: RED X

BELOW: LAST SUPPER

LEONARDO SIDERI

DRAWALL

I’m Leonardo Sideri: artist, interior industrial

designer, inventor. I’m the creator and maker of

‘drawall.net’, a product devised in the 1980s. At the

time, I was drawing, drafting my own design projects

using a Mayline straight edge on a traditional

horizontal drafting surface. There were times as a

designer when I wanted to draw something full

size, large format.

I don’t recall when the idea to adapt the Mayline

concept to a wall application occurred but at the

time, I had a project involving pulleys and belt

drives, so I had an assortment of pulleys lying

around my studio. The process involved assembling

the odd parts to create this new drawing device:

pulleys, sash cord, counterweights, a straight

edge. Surprisingly, it worked quite well. Who knew

40 years later I would offer it to the art world.

Due to changing life circumstances, Drawall

went into storage. Until one day, at age 75, I viewed

a room size ‘Sol Lewitt’ pencil drawn installation

at the DIA Museum. It was all I needed for inspiration

lasting the next 11 years. I started drawing

using what’s now known as Drawall and referring

to myself as an artist. I’ve produced what I consider

a small modest body of work based on my mystical

X theme.

I’m offering Drawall to the ‘art world’ as a new

tool to explore, to hopefully resurrect drafting and

mechanical drawing to a new ‘art genre’. It’s not

every day a new analogue tool is introduced to the

art world.

Leonardo Siderileonardosideri.com


MARY ANN YARMOSKY

This art collage was part of a line of greeting cards created

for the Nassau County Museum of Art's exhibit: La Belle Epoque

elizabeth cassidy

Artist, Illustrator, Writer, Poet, Peace Lover

elizabethcassidyatudioworks.com

elizabethcassidyart@gmail.com

EVOLUTION 17.5 X 21.5 Framed

maryannyarmosky.com | maryannyarmoskyart.shop

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! THE ARTFUL MIND JANUARY 2025 • 11

TRIUMVIRATE, CLAY, CRYSTAL, QUARTZ, MARBLE, PAINT

PHOTO: JANE GENNARO

JANE GENNARO

Jane Gennaro is an artist, writer, and performer.

Solo exhibitions include the Fashion Institute of

Technology, Klapper Center for Fine Arts at Adelphi

University, World Monuments Fund Gallery,

and The Claverack Free Library. Time & Space has

championed Jane’s work since 2007, most recently

in Reliquaries.

Gennaro’s solo plays have been produced by the

American Place Theatre, the Culture Project Impact

Festival, and the Toyota Comedy Festival.

Her work has been reviewed in the New York

Times and featured in New York Magazine, and

The Artful Mind. Gennaro’s commentaries aired on

NPR’s All Things Considered.

Jane Gennaro -

www.janegennaro.com

I like to be the right thing in the wrong

place and the wrong thing in the right

place. Being the right thing in the

wrong place and the wrong thing in

the right place is worth it because

something interesting always happens.

—Andy Warhol

BERKSHIRE FALLS WATERCOLOR

SALLY TISKA RICE

BERKSHIRE ROLLING HILLS

Born and raised in the captivating Berkshires,

Sally Tiska Rice possesses artistic prowess that

breathes life into her canvases. As a versatile multimedia

artist, Sally seamlessly employs a tapestry

of techniques, working in acrylics, watercolors, oil

paints, pastels, collages containing botanicals and

mixed media elements. Her creative spirit draws

inspiration from the idyllic surroundings of her

rural hometown, where she resides with her husband

Mark and cherished pets.

Sally's artistic process is a dance of spontaneity

and intention. With each stroke of her brush, she

composes artwork that reflects her unique perspective.

Beyond her personal creations, Sally also welcomes

commissioned projects, turning heartfelt

visions into tangible realities. Whether it's capturing

the essence of individuals, beloved pets, cherished

homes, or sacred churches, she pours her soul

into each personalized masterpiece.

Sally's talent has garnered recognition both nationally

and internationally. Her career includes a

remarkable 25-year tenure at Crane Co., where she

lent her hand-painted finesse to crafting exquisite

stationery. Sally is a member of the Clock Tower

Artists of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Guild of

Berkshire Artists, the Berkshire Art Association,

and the Becket Arts Center. Follow on YouTube,

Facebook, and Instagram.

Sally’s work is on the gallery walls of the Clock

Tower, Open Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00 pm for

self-guided tours.

SallyTiskaRice@gmail.com

www.sallytiskarice.com

https://www.facebook.com/artistsallytiskarice

Fine Art Prints (Pixels), Twitter, LinkedIn,

Instagram, YouTube, TikTok

ARTFULMIND@YAHOO.COM

JANET COOPER WAS IN THE FIRST ISSUE OF

THE ARTFUL MIND IN 1994. “BOTTLE CAP MANIA”

STILL ON THE PAGE AND GOING STRONG!

JANET COOPER

THE ART OF FIGURING OUT

WHAT KIND OF ARTIST I AM

Fabrics, anatomy, stitches, colors and bricologue

are words, imbued with intense emotionality for

me, a maker, collector and lover of objects and

places.

My first love was clay, so basic, earthy and obsessively

compelling, I adored making pottery

shapes and objects, resembling torsos. A period of

fascination with vintage tin cans, bottle caps and

junky metal discards followed. Metal was sheared,

punched, riveted and assembled into figurative

shapes. I began to use fabrics with these works

and eventually abandoned metal for hand stitching

doll sculptures, totems and collages, all with second

hand or recycled fabrics.

Lately I have introduced paint and waxes into

my work. I also am using animal bones, those armatures

of mammal form. I am recycling old

works into the new, a kind of synthesis of who I

have been with whom I am now.

I am also returning to jewelry or ornament making.

as well as fashioning a collection of garden

and street wear art aprons.

Janet Cooper -

janetcoop@gmail.com

www.janetcooperdesigns.com

12 • JANUARY 2025 THE ARTFUL MIND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!


A CONVERSATION WITH

ENID FUTTERMAN

“It’s all work in progress — the musicals, Imby, me.”

Interview by Harryet Candee

Photographs Courtesy of the Artist

Enid Futterman's career is a testament to her

versatility and adaptability, spanning fields such as

musical theater, journalism, fiction writing, and advertising.

She has successfully juggled multiple disciplines,

showcasing her ability to simultaneously

excel in various creative endeavors.

She is a talented lyricist and librettist, produced

here and abroad. Her musical theater pieces include

Yours Anne, based on the diaries of Anne

Frank and two concert pieces based on the same

score (I Remember and I am Anne Frank); Portrait

of Jennie, based on the novel by Robert Nathan;

and An Open Window, a ten-minute musical based

on the short story by Saki.

Enid's literary work includes a visually stunning

novel titled Bittersweet Journey: A Modestly Erotic

Novel of Love, Longing, and Chocolate, which includes

her own photographs of chocolate as emotional

subtext.


As a journalist, she was co-editor/publisher, with

her partner John Isaacs, of Our Town, a local

quarterly, for nine years, and she is now cofounder,

with Isaacs, and editorial director, of

IMBY (imby.com) a hyperlocal news network.

There are many layers to Enid and I had questions

I hoped would illuminate some of them.

I enjoyed our meeting the other day at your home.

We settled into your living room, with the stunning

view of the Catskill mountain range in the distance.

Over a cup of bone broth, our conversation flowed

from the house itself to your late partner, Richard

Levenson, and one of his striking sculptures, a crucifix

made from cordage, wood, and clay.

Before you took me to see John’s studio, next to

your house, you shared a recurring theme in your

work in all mediums — the pursuit of balance between

the feminine and masculine principles.

The studio is organized, stylish, and has a vibe

that seems perfect for creative collaboration. John

showed me some of his own work, which includes

numerous art books and catalogs, that while different

from each other, are all designed cleanly with

contemporary fonts. John’s studio is also the heart

of IMBY, an exciting collaborative project.

I am thinking about the dessert named after the

Brooklyn Bridge, at the restaurant under the actual

bridge, the setting for the final chapter of Bittersweet

Journey. I’m sitting down at the computer

with a bag full of chocolate, and the memory of our

meeting, to raise questions.

What was it like, Enid, growing up in Brooklyn

in the ’50s?

Insular. PS 238, was, of course, a public school

(also Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s school), but the children

were virtually all Jewish, like the children on

our block and in our building. I knew about the po-

Enid and John’s studio

grom that killed my grandfather in Ukraine, but

didn’t realize that we were a minority group here

until one Christmas when I noticed the carols playing

relentlessly on the radio.

Junior high and high school were much more diverse.

In junior high, I had a brilliant, beautiful,

Black English teacher all the girls in our class

crushed on, including me. He encouraged me to

write.

We lived on a very wide street with a bicycle path

and a bridle path and benches and trees that met in

an overhead arch. You could drive from Prospect

Park to Brighton Beach on it and I see it now

through the sweet, innocent scrim of nostalgia, but

I couldn’t wait to get to Manhattan.

In what ways did the current events of the time

shape your experiences?

I don’t know that they did, although I remember

the McCarthy hearings and getting under our desks

for air raid drills and the polio vaccine, but it was

the culture of the time, the music, the theater, and

especially the musical theater that shaped me. My

first LP was the soundtrack of the movie version of

Carousel. I was too young to have seen Carousel

or Oklahoma on Broadway, but the hit shows were

performed at camp, and I was taken to see Damn

Yankees, and The Pajama Game in New York,

which is what Brooklynites called Manhattan, for

good reason. They were the current events in my

small world, although I had an Elvis poster on the

wall of the bedroom I shared with my grandmother.

Did you engage in any performing or visual arts

during your youth?

I choreographed a dance for Sing in high school,

and always had the dancing parts in musicals at

camp.

How did you typically spend your summers?

I spent every summer from the age of six to nineteen

at Camp Swatonah, as camper, CIT, and finally,

counselor. It was just across the Delaware

River from Sullivan County, which is now almost

as vibrant as the Hudson Valley and Berkshires, but

was then a real backwater. We loved it, especially

the old moviehouse in Callicoon, which still exists,

and the general store in Galilee, which doesn’t. The

camp itself was beautiful, and my salvation, my refuge

from tense, volatile home life.

Did you keep a diary?

Occasionally, but it was childish and unremarkable,

unlike Anne Frank’s diary. My stories were better.

At what point have you felt an overwhelming

sense of rebirth through your theatre work?

Sitting in an audience, or standing in the back of a

theater, while a show I wrote is onstage. As everyone

who has had the experience will tell you, there

is nothing like it.

What path did you follow after graduating with

a degree in journalism and English from Douglass

College at Rutgers University?

I got a job as a copywriter in a big New York ad

agency. In retrospect, I should have tried for a job

at a newspaper or magazine. But what I really

would have liked was to work in the theater, but

you can’t get a job as lyricist and/or book writer unless

you are well established. You have to create the

job by creating the play, and that was far too tall an

order at the time.

What did it mean to be a woman while you were

coming into your own and approaching life with

determination, especially when starting your

first real job?

I’m not proud of it, but I enjoyed being the only

woman in the room.

During your time in the workforce, you had a

passion and a talent for advertising. Where did

you work? Continued on next page...


Je-Anne, Entire cast by Roy Beusker

I never had a passion for advertising. I got fired

after working at Grey for twelve years because I

hated it. Truly. That’s what he said. I then freelanced

at various big New York agencies like

DMB&B, Backer & Spielvogel, and Grey too, as

well as directly for clients like ADL and a mayoral

campaign for David Dinkins.

What conflicts and barriers did you face as a

woman?

None that I was aware of. Maybe I just didn’t see

it. Maybe getting fired for my bad attitude despite

winning all the awards wouldn’t have happened to

a man.

How do you look upon that experience, and in

what ways does it surface now?

I was very well paid, and I miss that, but the good

money doesn’t make up for feeling compromised

and unfulfilled. We did, however, do some worthy

work for good causes. Friends don’t let friends

drive drunk hopefully took the curse off You’re

never too old for Kool-Aid. That surfaces when

people riff on the former.

During your career in advertising, did you want

to discover an untapped well of creativity that

you could bring into other endeavors?

The saving grace of advertising was getting to work

with talented people — art directors like my future


ex-husband, Alan Kupchick and my late partner

Richard Levenson; cinematographers like Haskell

Wexler; filmmakers like Albert Maysles; photographers

like Phil Marco; and composers like Michael

Cohen. I learned about design, film,

photography, and music from them, all of which

served me later.

How did all of that shape your approach to future

projects?

The first lyrics I wrote that weren’t parodies for

camp songs were for an NHTSA (National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration) campaign i.e.

anti-drunk driving songs for PSAs, in collaboration

with Michael Cohen, who became my collaborator

on Yours, Anne. He was the music director at the

agency, but he had a classical and theater music

background. I could never and would never have

written the piece without him.

When did you first feel inspired by and connected

to Anne Frank and her diary?

When I read it. I was her age. I identified with her,

as did every girl (and many boys) who read her

diary. We were alike, at least on the surface. I too

was a thin, dark-haired, green-eyed Jewish girl,

who adored her father, couldn’t stand her mother,

and wanted to be a writer. But I was shy and quiet

while she was outgoing and noisy and full of spunk.

And a better writer. And of course I never had to

endure what she did. The differences in our circumstances,

which were just a matter of time and place

were huge.

After that initial connection, you experienced a

significant surge of creative expression related

to Anne Frank. Can you share that story with

us?

That was the second point of connection, and the

real inspiration, but it was more than a decade later.

I had started to write lyrics for PSAs at Grey in collaboration

with Michael Cohen, and Andrea Marcovicci,

the actress and cabaret singer, recorded two

of the songs we wrote and asked us to write a musical

for her. I didn’t take that seriously until one

day she was wearing her hair parted on one side

and held with a barrette on the other. It was chin

length and made her resemble the only photograph

of Anne Frank that was known at the time. It was

on the cover of the paperback edition of Anne

Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. It was the lightbulb

moment.

In what ways does writing lyrics come naturally

to you?

Because it is natural, and instinctive, it’s hard to describe.

I’m not a musician; I don’t play an instrument

and I can’t even sing, which is a frustration.

It means I can’t sing my own songs, even to present

them to potential collaborators and producers, but

A CONVERSATION WITH ENID FUTTERMAN

Je-Anne, Sem Konijn & Silvana Rocha by Roy Beusker

I seem to have an ear, and a sense of rhythm, and I

know a good melody when I hear one.

You knew Anne Frank's father. How did that

connection come about? What influence did he

have on the work?

When Michael and I sought to obtain the underlying

rights to the diary so we could get the piece produced,

we were introduced to Frances Goodrich

and Albert Hackett, who wrote the play The Diary

of Anne Frank. They liked the demo we made and

introduced us to Kermit Bloomgarden, who produced

their play on Broadway, and Kermit, and

Frances and Albert all wrote letters to Otto Frank

recommending our work. (The situation was highly

unusual. The play and the diary were merged legally;

in order to get the dramatic rights to the diary,

you had to also get the rights to the play.)

Otto replied to say that he could only see the diary

onstage as opera, written, perhaps, by Leonard

Bernstein. They all wrote back to urge him to hear

what they had heard, and so we all converged in

London on August 4, 1975, which was the anniversary

of the arrest. It was a terrifying, but ultimately

gratifying experience; he gave us his blessing minutes

after he heard the score.

He had two notes, which, of course, I took. I had

written the lyric for a lullaby in Yiddish. He asked

me to translate it into German, as western European

Jews didn’t speak Yiddish. He also asked me to

write a song based on his favorite diary entry. I later

spent a day in Basel, Switzerland, with Otto and his

second wife Fritzi, who had lost her husband and

son in the Holocaust. That was when he told me

what he has told many others. He hadn’t really

known his daughter until he read her diary, after her

death.

He also told me something I haven’t seen elsewhere.

I knew, because it’s the diary, that he had

promised Anne that she could take her diary with

her if they had to leave the hiding place. But I didn’t

know that after the arresting officer took Otto’s

briefcase, where the original diary, Anne’s notebooks,

and loose pages were kept, and dumped the

contents on the floor so the briefcase could be used

to hold the jewelry taken from the women, Anne

walked back and forth across the floor to gather the

few things she could pack in a rucksack and ignored

the diary, the notebooks and the papers. I’m

convinced that she knew, probably not consciously,

that if she took them, they would be lost.

What touches you about her?

Her ability to see herself, the good and the bad, very

clearly.

I find these lyrics from your score to be an apt

description of you, as well as Anne:

I can recapture everything

As long as I know I can write

I know I can write

I know who I am

I see myself whole

As good as my heart

As bad as my dreams

As old as my soul

I can imagine anything

As long as I know I'm alive

I still love life

Thank you. But my need to write doesn’t have the

same urgency as hers, for the obvious reason.

You have to relate to yourself before applying it

to someone else, and I think you got that. What,

at this point, would you be changing for upcoming

productions?

The piece has been evolving toward realization of

its potential as a true musical and theatrical translation

of the diary. I know what I mean by that, but

until I achieve it, probably in collaboration with a

director, I don’t want to say more than that, except

that the latest version, produced in the Netherlands

this year, got close and was very well received.

Sorry. I can’t resist including an excerpt from my

favorite review: Can you turn a compelling diary

into a musical without crushing it, without detracting

from the writer’s strength and the horror of the

war? The answer is yes, you can. In fact Je, Anne

is perhaps the most compelling rendition of the

diary available. Continued on next page...


Imby Daily / Enid’s review on Leopoldstadt for Imby

It has such a penetrating authenticity that a masterpiece

has been created here.

Tell us about the making of your book, Bittersweet

Journey.

It just happened. A friend was about to embark on

publishing a series of small books all called A Passion

for … and asked me to write one. I immediately

thought “Chocolate”, i.e. A Passion for

Chocolate. For one thing, it was an excuse to take

a self-guided chocolate tour of Europe and eat all

the chocolate I wanted. But while on that trip, I realized

that I was unconsciously constructing a

narrative, in part from the stops along the way —

Vienna, Munich, Brussels, London, Paris — and I

changed course and started to write and photograph

a work of fiction, based in part, on some of my own

experiences.

And the meaning? What were you trying to say?

I didn’t know until I was far along in the writing,

the tasting, the photography, when I understood

why I and so many other women have an intense

but fraught relationship with chocolate.

Chocolate — good chocolate — has a dark, primal,

mythical quality, the quality we learn to suppress

in ourselves very early, because we’re trying to be

good girls. Later, we crave something outside of

ourselves that has that quality, like good chocolate

and/or bad boys. Which satisfies the craving, but


not for long. We don’t realize that something essential,

something inherent, is missing.

I love these words that accompany a pivotal moment

in the story. Charlotte buys a box of Burdick’s

iconic chocolate mice and bites off their

heads, while naming each one after a bad boy.

And then … The boys who made her wait. The

boys who made her want. The man who promised

her love and gave her chocolate. Were the bad

boys all that bad?

They were unavailable, either circumstantially or

existentially or, more often, both. One of them fell

at my feet with desire, until I succumbed. And then,

poof. I wanted to name them with their real names

— that would have been cathartic — but the publisher’s

lawyer said not to. Richard, my late partner,

who was not one, liked to call me the queen of

longing.

Did you find it challenging to merge reality and

fantasy?

There is really only one fantastical chapter, and it

isn’t so much merged as inserted. It was time for

Charlotte to transcend her addictions and she

needed something big and magical to happen to her.

Why have you cut back on eating chocolate,

your closest ally?

Chocolate was never my ally. It was my subject and

my substance of choice. I cut back because I transcended

my obsession when Charlotte transcended

hers.

What inspired you to set the final chapter in that

café under the Brooklyn Bridge?

I wanted Charlotte, to come full circle back to

Brooklyn, where the journey begins, and the River

Café had a delicious and photogenic dessert called

Brooklyn Bridge.

Who were the lucky ones to get the first hot offthe-press

book?

My mother, of course.

In what ways do you find that your work overlaps,

and when do you specifically need to keep

each separate?

They don’t really overlap so much as intersect.

They’re connected by the subtext of my unconscious

intention to restore the balance between the

Feminine and the Masculine. By that I mean the

Jungian definition, the principles, not the genders.

What is the mission, goal, and description you

can give for your current work on IMBY?

It has that subtext in common with the rest, but to

answer your question in reverse order, it’s a hyperlocal

digital network of, thus far, 32 community

sites for citizen journalism in the Hudson Valley

A CONVERSATION WITH ENID FUTTERMAN

Enid and John Photo: David-Mcintyre

and Berkshires. The goal is to use the scalability of

both the platform and the network to build a national

network of communities that are given the

means to create their own digital newspaper. The

mission is to help save local journalism and build

real community.

What helps maintain a balanced working relationship

with your partner, John Isaacs? Do you

sometimes find it challenging to collaborate so

closely with someone on multiple levels?

Well, yes, there’s more to argue about. On the other

hand, there’s more to argue about. Thankfully, we

each have our own work in addition to IMBY, so

we’re not totally symbiotic. But IMBY is our child

together, and it’s important to us, in part because of

its potential for real change.

You practice meditation. How does it benefit

you, and in what specific moments do you find

it essential to meditate?

When I’m too tired to keep going. It picks me right

up. Its benefits are many, but for me, there is something,

well … transcendent, about being in a place

of absolute stillness, which isn’t easy to get to

otherwise. It’s a state of consciousness that is easy

to achieve with TM.

Would you say your entire life has been your

work?

God, I hope not, and don’t think so, although sometimes

it feels that way.

What message do you want to convey that expresses

what is important to you as a woman,

artist, and visionary?

I can’t claim to be a visionary, but there are things

I’d like to see in the world — women truly equal

to men in every way, which is not to say that men

and women are the same. I love and trust the esoteric

view that we are on a trajectory toward that

balance between the Masculine and Feminine,

which doesn’t necessarily mean equality between

men and women, but I don’t think you can have

equality without that balance.

And because the quest for that balance, that harmony,

seems to undergird everything I write, I feel

a sense of belonging to the effort. With the Anne

Frank pieces, I see the diary and our musical theatrical

expression of it, as the story of an inner life, a

literary, spiritual, and sexual journey of becoming

— writer, Jew, woman — in only two years. She

was still only fifteen when she died in Bergen-

Belsen, and in the eighty years since, has become

an icon, a symbol of transcendence, of spiritual survival

in the face of physical death. That to me is evidence

of the growing light and power of the

Feminine. or as some of us call it, the Divine Feminine.

But it’s also true of Bittersweet Journey and Portrait

of Jennie, a musical adaptation of the novel,

which is about a painter who is disconnected from

his inner Feminine, when a little girl shows up to

say that she hopes he will wait for her to grow up.

Even IMBY.

You are a woman on fire. Your visions in many

disciplines have come to fruition. What do you

think is the force behind all of this? And what is

left to create?

I’m not actually prolific. In theater, I keep working

on the same two pieces, because in my view — and

my view is the one that counts — they’re not finished.

If your next question is “How will you know

when they’re finished?”, I have two answers: “I’ll

know.” And “When I see a performance and have

no notes for myself or the director.”

I am, however, writing something new. A memoir

with photographs about my difficult relationship

with my body.

What challenges do you still face?

There has been a lot of ‘close but no cigar’. Deciphering

that is a challenge, but there’s something I

like about still striving at this stage. It flies in the

face of death, and retirement, which to me is dangerously

close to death.

enid@imby.com, https://imby.com


SNOW-SHOEING IN CANOE MEADOWS, WATERCOLOR

FENCES, WATERCOLOR

MARGUERITE BRIDE

INSPIRED BY NATURE

Many of my paintings recently have been “Inspired

by Nature”. It is hard to imagine more beautiful

scenes in any season to capture in a painting.

I even have a special page devoted to this type of

painting on my website….take a look, many of the

originals are still available.

In the not-too-distant future (May 2025) I will

be moving from the Berkshires to another beautiful

New England area….the Lakes Region of New

Hampshire. After 30 years in paradise, another adventure

is calling me.

How will this affect my art career? My living

and working space will be considerably smaller

compared to what I have here. But I expect to still

be painting and teaching….those details are still unknown

for now.

Soon I will be “disassembling” my studio and I

have a lot equipment, studio furniture, art materials/supplies,

tables, flat files, print storage shelves,

chairs, and racks looking for new homes. Please

check my website, my watercolor Facebook page,

or call/text/email me directly for more details about

dates/times of scheduled sales events. I can also set

up an appointment for you to visit privately.

In the meantime, besides planning this move, I

am also still painting and doing commission work.

Marguerite Bride –

413-841-1659; margebride-paintings.com

margebride-paintings.com/nature-madescenes/margebride@aol.com

Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors.

Instagram: margebride

RICHARD NELSON

AI

The concept of Ai is frightening to me. I’m an

avid Horror/SciFi fan; I’ve seen all the movies. The

potential for disaster is palpable. Black Mirror fans

may recall the Metalhead episode with the rampaging

Ai robot dogs. I digress.

The controversy with AI art is that the art is the

result of pirated bits of other people’s art. I have a

friend whose art was found in an Ai piece. I appreciate

and understand the conflict, but curiosity and

boredom get the best of me. So I bought into it,

downloaded an app and took the plunge.

By entering rather vague written prompts, and

shooting to emulate Petr Valek, being as creepy as

possible, astounding images were created. Each

time you create you can create up to three images

at a time. Each image is completely different, each

one just a little more ... distorted.

It was fun, unpredictable, I never knew what sort

of image would emerge. Honestly, it seems no different

from audio sampling. In that sense it seems

no more harmful than that. Especially for an artist

such as myself.

I don’t make any money on my art, I just like to

share my art in a realm of like-minded artists who

get the satisfaction of presence without the necessary

leg work to get a gallery show. I hesitate to

show an image created by Ai that I haven’t manipulated

or drawn over in some way. This comes to me

at a time when I have been in a slump. One advantage

of the iPad format is that it makes it very quick

and easy to draw and paint simultaneously, with an

endless source of pigments that are bright, colorful

and very manipulative.

I created a very large catalog, as well as over

two hundred songs on Garage Band. But everything

was feeling forced, and that just won’t do.

The AI has put some fun, even a little sense of mischief,

back into my artistic process. It’s the future

and like it or not, it’s only going to get worse. That’s

scary. Let’s not forget the two AI computers, on opposite

sides of the world, a few years back, that

were unplugged because they started a conversation

in a coded text.

But check it out as an art tool for yourself before

you condemn it. Cheers.

Richard Nelsonnojrevned@hotmail.com

“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye.. it also includes the inner

pictures of the soul.” —Edvard Munch

TOP: COLIN CARR

BELOW: YEHUDA HANANI

BACH SUITES

FOR CELLO

COLIN CARR &

YEHUDA HANANI

Six Unaccompanied Bach Suites for cello performed

by Colin Carr and Yahuda Hanani will take

place on Sunday, February 23, 2025, at 4 PM at

Saint James Place, Great Barrington.

Two leading Bach interpreters embark on a journey

traversing his Six Suites, the apogee of the

cello repertoire. Filled with mystery and beauty,

blasted through with rapture, every note is a bold

statement. Music that first flowed from the composer’s

quill in the early 1700’s, it belongs to no

specific time or place. At the same time as it floats

in the heavenly spheres, it provides plenty of

earthly pleasures—courtly music, riffs, Celtic jigs,

the merriment of a tavern musician, and glimpses

of modern minimalism.

The title “Unaccompanied” is a bit of a misnomer:

a single cellist takes on numerous voices,

making the music a drama for three or four characters

played by one actor! If angels danced, this

is the music that would no doubt accompany them

on their gramophone.

Colin Carr has been hailed for his “supreme

technique and ebullience” (Boston musical Intelligencer).

And Yehuda Hanani has been lauded by,

among many other publications, the San Francisco

Examiner:

“In this era of the cello, Hanani is among the

best. His Bach was absorbing, imaginative,

beautiful in all respects.”

Close Encounters With Music -

https://cewm.org


THE ARTFUL MIND JANUARY 2025 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! • 21

FRONT STREET GALLERY

Painting classes on Monday and Wednesday

Mornings 10-1pm at the studio in Housatonic and

Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field.

Also available for private critiques. Open to all.

Please come paint with us!

Gallery hours: Open by chance and by appointment anytime

413. 274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell)

413. 528. 9546 (home) www.kateknappartist.com

Front Street, Housatonic, MA

Inspired by Nature

Wide selection of framed and unframed

Original Paintings and FIne Art Reproductions

413-841-1659

www.margebride-paintings.com margebride@aol.com

Ruby Aver

Solar System Bracelet

You are the Sun.

Find charms that delight and fascinate. Hand-made beaded jewelry

plus there’s so much more to see on Laura’s online site!

Commissioned pieces welcome!

LoopeyLaLa

www.LoopeyLaLa.Etsy.com

Enter promo code ARTFULMIND10 to receive 10% off your purchase

Woven Dreams no.4 Acrylic on canvas 24”x30”

rdaver2@gmail.com | Instagram: rdaver2.

Housatonic Studio open by appointment: 413-854-7007


Karen J. Andrews

Watercolor Expressions

Cottage watercolor on paper, 2024

Silo Abstracted watercolor on paper, 2024

Inner Vision Studio

Fine and Functional Art

and original watercolors, giclee prints

in various sizes and surfaces

Visit my gallery in West Stockbridge

please call ahead: 413-212-1394

Or shop online at:

InnerVision-Studio.com

Greenhouse Door watercolor on paper, 2024


Photograph by Jessica Strother

JASON BARD YARMOSKY

VISUAL ARTIST

“There is no measuring with time, no year matters, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means not

reckoning and counting, but ripening like a tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the

storms of spring without fear that after them may come no summer. It does come. But it comes only to the

patient, who are there as though eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly still and wide. I learn it daily,

learn it with pain to which I am grateful: patience is everything!” —RAINER MARIA RILKE

Interview by Harryet Candee

Photographs Courtesy of the Artist /Cover photograph by Jessica Strother

Jason’s artistic work explores both the physical

and psychological aspects of aging, sparking a

thought-provoking dialogue that challenges societal

views on growing older. Drawing inspiration

from the rich techniques of 17th and

18th-century painting, he incorporates elements

of costume and childhood into his pieces. This

combination weaves together a narrative that

examines the complexities of aging. Each artwork

invites viewers to reflect on the transformative

journey of life, encouraging a deeper

understanding of the aging process and challenging

preconceived notions.

Okay, you're in your studio with a fresh canvas

in front of you...Before you set to work, what

pre-flight prep check goes through your mind,

letting you know your ready for the canvas?

I generally have an idea of what I am going to paint

prior to actually painting. I do preliminary work for

my figurative portraits prior to painting. I have a


general idea of an image and work out the composition.

I look for the costuming or interior space

needed. I sketch and take photography references.

Then I am ready for the canvas.

Oh, so how is photography used in your work?

I take images of my subject with the lighting required

for the painting. Lighting is everything. I

have a larger than life size screen in my studio that

I am able to work from when I don’t have the luxury

of having a subject physically sit for a painting.

I work from the figure on the screen as I would in

real life.

Could you share with us where your journey

began? How did you learn to paint and draw?

I’ve been drawing for most of my life. I didn’t

begin oil painting until 2010 during my last semester

at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

That was the time I really fell in love with paint.

Over the years there has been trial and error. I have

explored areas of painting, even abstract, that have

influenced where I am today as a painter. I am

amazed in how you can move around color that

creates tonal values, ultimately building form that

our brains recognize. I like to paint with a sculptural

lens. Moving the paint to model a solid shape growing

out of and into the canvas. We can see the shape

because of how the light reveals it. The fun part is

refining that shape. The accents need to be indicated

with accurate consideration of their comparative

importance. “They are the nails upon which

the whole structure depends on for solidity.” -Student

of Sargent. This method of painting allows

room for spontaneity. I’m interested in the duality

of paint, how an image from a distance can feel real

in an exacting way, yet almost abstract up close.

Jason, it's clear that your love for art has deep

roots in your family. From an early age, your curiosity

and eagerness to draw and visualize were

nurtured, becoming a mainstay for communi-

Senior Prom 2012.

Oil on linen. 54 x 36 in.

Private collection, Los Angeles

cation. Could you share more about your family's

influence on your artistic journey?

My grandmother’s uncle was a painter. He was the

only visual artist in my family that I know of. My

grandfather was a Juilliard educated clarinetist. My

maternal grandparents were very cultured. I learned

a lot about music, film, and art from them. They,

along with my parents, recognized my drawings

from a very young age and always supported my

interest and ability in the arts. I grew up fascinated

with aging and mortality. I wanted to explore these

themes in my work. When I graduated from SVA

and began painting, my grandparents agreed to be

my subjects for my series entitled, “Elder Kinder.”

This body of work explored age and challenged our

societal perception of its meaning, using costumes

as metaphors. Influenced by the paintings of Caravaggio

that I had grown up admiring, I implemented

the chiaroscuro technique in the portraits

of my grandparents, to further emphasize my interest

in shedding light on what society has conditioned

us to see as dark. From adolescent dress

up ideas of cowboys or bunnies to the immortal

icons of superheroes, the use of costumes became

a leitmotif for metaphors.

What family values or beliefs did you grow up

with that supported your artistic expression and

creativity?

My parents encouraged my sister and me to pursue

what made us happy. Art became that for me. My

parents always emphasized hard work and demonstrated

it as I grew up. I’m grateful to love what I

do which doesn’t make the work feel as hard as it

is at times.

What wowed you when you realized you had the

gift to create images from those you saw in your

head? That could have been the epiphany of

knowing you would become an artist.

When I was 5 years old I drew a picture of three

figures sliding down a slide in perspective. This

really stood out to my parents, especially my

mother who was a pre-school teacher. I think I’ve

always had a propensity to visually translate what

I see. It wasn’t until I got older and began working

from observation that I realized everything we see

is because of light. Once that was a concept I truly

understood, I realized I could best express myself

visually with few limitations.

During your SVA years, outside of school hours,

when you were free to roam and explore and

wander through the city, what do you remember

that stands out in your mind that was particularly

an inspirational experience that you discovered?

I had not realized my studies went as

far as observing people on the train as an every

day ritual ewould impact me…and you?

When I attended SVA I received an education both

in and out of classes. The school had a wide range

of academic requirements. Living in New York

Continued on next page...


JASON BARD YARMOSKY | VISUAL ARTIST

Rainbow Body. Oil on canvas 14 x 11 in. Private collection, Palm Beach

Slide 1992. Pencil on note paper. Artist's collection

Remembrance 2013. Oil on canvas. 36 x 64 in. Artist's collection


Sleep Walking 2013. Oil on canvas. 83 x 73 in. Private collection, Los Angeles

City was wonderful. I was surrounded by a melting

pot of culture that is hard to find elsewhere. I loved

visiting the museums here, especially the MET.

I also loved, at that young age, the grittiness the city

exuded. It’s hard to gauge if the city inspired me

more or distracted me more at times from painting.

I wouldn’t be who I am today without the many

NY lives I feel I’ve lived.

Your grandparents were a strong force of beautiful

energy in your life. The connections were

undoubtedly significant for you in many ways.

Could you share how you involved them in your

art? How did they feel about modeling for you?

Did they always have a sense of humor? Did

they play into your vision? How did you convince

them to participate, such as wearing costumes

while modeling for you?

My grandparents were very cultured people with a

great sense of humor. I grew up watching films

with them such as the Marx Brothers, Chaplin, and

early Woody Allen. I realized that humor is a tremendously

important quality to maintain. Even as

they aged they never lost their sense of humor.

Being the supportive grandparents they were, it

wasn’t hard to convince them to put on costumes

and sit for my paintings. There was constant laughter

throughout the process. They were happy to

help me and they also saw the value in what I was

trying to say with my work. The decade-long effort

of this work not only gave me more than I can express,

but it also gave them something at their age

to be part of and look forward to. It was an education

for all of us.

Please answer, "I remember one time… it was

really funny yet powerful for me, was when my

grandparents told me, showed me, explained to

me….”

I remember when my grandfather once told me

what his father once said to him, “I look in the mirror

and I don’t recognize who I see. I feel the same

way I did when I was 18.” This inspired my first

video and series of paintings I made for an exhibition

entitled, “Dream Of The Soft Look” in 2013.

These works explored the psychological elements

of aging, soon followed by ideas of memory and

time.

I am deeply touched by the video you made of

your grandmother, Elaine, dancing in front of

the kitchen sink and another video singing and

dancing as if she was 20 years of age, wearing a

Wonder Woman costume. This is what you gave

them that I was talking about--Vitality and a

sense of newness, even when she was having a

bad day--you gave them both so much. Explain

the concept of the costumes and how the relationship

with your grandparents might have

been changed or put into a new light.

In 2013 my grandmother began showing early

signs of dementia. I wanted to create a portrait of

this new chapter in my grandparents' relationship.

I decided to paint my grandparents on separate

planes as a metaphor. The painting entitled Sleep

Walking, presents my grandfather waking up in the

night to find my grandmother sleep-walking on the

wall. Their gaze meets in the focal point of the canvas.




Whispering Grass 2015. Oil on canvas. 84 x 84 in. Private Collection, Brussels

Her shadow, which is behind her, represents the

past and is cast over their wedding picture on the

wall, emphasizing the distance between when they

first met and the present moment. Beside that picture

is an oval mirror, which is reflecting my

shadow, putting me in the room with them.

During this transitional time my grandmother expressed

exuberance and humor that came naturally

to her. I always saw her dancing.

You honed in on your vision and artistic purpose

to capture and taste the period when they were

your age. How did you go about your mission?

What puzzle pieces did you have to gather before

the conceptual piece of art existed?

Michele de Montaigne said, “Every man has within

himself the entire human condition.” To truly understand

what my grandparents were experiencing

I needed to put myself in their predicament with a

great deal of empathy. I envisioned myself 60 years

forward in their shoes. I watched their transitions

and how they responded to them. I also took notice


of how all of this was affecting me.

The question I have for you, Jason, is that you

are defying what society tells us is beautiful; if

you're young, you're beautiful…. And you are

saying – no, every age is beautiful. And you

found that out working with your grandparents,

other models, etc. Like a flower – you know, a

Rose is considered top of the line, and a wild

flower, well, that can be pulled. But look closer

at it, and you discover the complexities and

beauty in that wild, untamed, unappreciated

flower and end up tossing that Rose! You see this

underrated plant, maybe in some ways leaning

on the mysterious and taboo nature of mortality,

offers more answers to you and your work

rather than the glorified Rose. So, must your artistic

mission be somewhat related to this?

I’m fascinated by our society’s fear and avoidance

of aging. Yet aging is inevitable. I understand no

one wants to lose their mobility, autonomy, or who

they love. But the reality is if we’re lucky we will

get old. Life can be hard but it is also beautiful, and

aging is a part of it which I believe is worth celebrating.

I love meeting elders who share their experiences.

Most of the time they haven’t lost the

other ages they’ve been, but it’s their bodies that no

longer reflect their youthful spirit. I’ve had quite an

education over the years between my relationship

with my grandparents and others from their generation

I’ve met in the city. I’ve learned about what

the world was like and what their experiences had

been. I relate this to our world and my experiences.

This gives me a perspective I couldn’t find elsewhere.

I look at the experience of life as an education

and we have many lessons to learn.

What art were you producing during COVID

2020?

In the beginning of COVID in 2020 I lost my

grandfather, Leonard. I had lost my grandmother,

Elaine, two years prior. I took that year creatively

to process this loss. Because my grandparents were

no longer physically here, I began experimenting

The Boxer 2012.

Oil on linen. 72 x 60 in.

Private collection, Palm Springs

with painting abstraction without the figure. This

work broke all of the observational techniques I had

previously engaged with. I began a series of paintings,

rainbow bodies, that would investigate loss

and transcendence. The paintings referenced the

Tibetan Buddhist belief of Rainbow Bodies;

achieving a level of realization which transforms

the physical body into radiant lights.

What poem or literary piece, film, music score,

or work of art have you used as a soundboard

for your ideas that would eventually turn into

art?

In 2015 Whispering Grass was painted in response

to a few voices who expressed discomfort with

Elaine posing for paintings. At that time I was faced

with a moral decision to continue our work or not.

My grandmother answered my question when she

told me she felt excluded after I took some space

and continued working with my grandfather. The

significance of our relationship artistically only

began to grow from that moment. “Whispering

Grass” depicts Elaine standing in the foreground

wearing a Wonder Woman costume. Placed behind

her is a vast field with a windswept tree, burdened

with external voices of doubt. The painting title was

inspired by the song Whispering Grass written by

Fred and Doris Fisher in 1940.

Share your experience of the first breakthrough

art exhibit, a pivotal moment that demonstrated

the significance of your artwork to viewers. How

did you perceive people's reactions, and how did

those insights help clarify your ongoing artistic

direction?

In 2011 and 2012 my “Elder Kinder” exhibitions

in New York had a unique way of confronting

viewers. The portraits of Leonard and Elaine

dressed in costumes reminiscent of youth exuded

an unconventional playful humor.

In 2013 my “Dream of The Soft Look” exhibition

in New York confronted the viewers with the psychology

of aging with a video piece that curated the

paintings. I filmed Leonard in black and white waking

up to Chopin’s Nocturne. He slowly moves

through his painstaking routine of showering, shaving,

etc. I integrated flashes of 8mm color footage

that Leonard filmed himself, creating flashbacks of

his actual memories to the video. There were 18

paintings in the show, most of them black and

white. The film was playing in the back room of

the gallery. There were two monitors in the front

windows on 25th street. The right window featured

video of my grandfather’s face, as he saw it in the

reflection of the mirror in black and white. The left

window was 8mm footage of my mom as a kid,

dancing ballet in chiaroscuro color. Those two videos

represented the whole concept of the exhibition.

The color paintings with costumes

reminiscent of youth represented the past and the

black and white portraits the present.

In 2017 I had my first solo museum exhibition entitled

“Somewhere” at The University of Maine

Museum of Art.




Waiting 2015. Pencil on paper 24 x 18 in.

Collection of Huntington Museum of Art

Keys Open Doors 2024. Oil on canvas. 84 x 64 in.

This body of work focused on my grandmother and

explored the intangibilities of her experience

through paintings, drawings, and video. The video,

Somewhere, studies expressions of dementia, confronting

the viewer with psychological vulnerability.

Elaine responds to the subconscious mind,

speaking to a dream-like state of memory- a place

intangible to those not experiencing it. The exhibition

also featured a painting entitled Wintered

Fields. This is one of two 12 foot wide black and

white portraits of Elaine. She is wearing a Wonder

Woman costume as a symbol of strength where the

backgrounds can be viewed as a backdrops mirroring

her mental state. This exhibition created an important

conversation with the senior community in

Maine. The museum programmed a series of lectures

including one with the Alzheimer's Foundation.

The arts today are filled with energy and countless

opportunities for creativity. Inspiration surrounds

us; even a simple walk down the street

can spark new ideas. While various influences

can be overwhelming, they also offer many possibilities.

What recent trends or movements


have you noticed that could inspire you to experiment?

Might these experiences encourage

you to see your goals in artmaking?

We are living in a truly unique time because of

technology. The internet is saturated with information

and content of all kinds. I think it is important

as an artist to stay focused on your initial goals

while allowing for new information. I try to take in

information as nutrition for my mind. I draw inspiration

from reading about artists or topics that inspire

me. I visit related work in museums as well

as watch films and documentaries. Inspiration can

find you anywhere, but it always finds you while

working.

What do you often have to remind your art students

about constantly that is based on your experience

and knowledge?

I am constantly reminding my students to squint

when drawing from the model.

Being an artist enhances our intuitive sensibilities.

What does it mean to be an artist from this

perspective?

I believe powerful art can enhance our capacity for

empathy. When you view a work of art you are seeing

into the mind of the artist.

Where would you go if you were suddenly transported

to another time in our world or a moment

in our universe?

I’m sure every artist imagines living in another time

before the one they are in. There’s a great quote

from Woody Allen’s film, Midnight In Paris. “Nostalgia

is denial - denial of the painful present. The

name for this is golden age thinking - the erroneous

notion that a different time period is better than the

one one’s living in is a flaw in the romantic imagination

of those people who find it difficult to cope

with the present.”

You are in an art exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum,

and the painting I am seeing is of two

sisters sitting in front of their beloved mother's

portrait – a painting within a painting. Tell us

about this painting, please.

I painted Keys Open Doors with the Brooklyn Museum’s

artists show celebrating the 200th anniversary

in mind. It is a portrait of memorialization. The

portrait of Brooklyn born identical twin daughters

Wintered Fields, 2015 triptych. Oil on canvas. 72 x 144 in. Collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

honoring their mother. Soull and Dynasty sit beside

each other in front of large wooden double doors.

The twins are adorned with their handmade garments

and jewelry layered with key symbols, a leitmotif

consistent with their artistry. Behind them is

a painting of Josephine, their late mother, resting

on the doorknob between the twins as well as joining

the doors. The painting is entitled Keys Open

Doors, a metaphor for family. Josephine is the key

and the doors represent the lives of Soull and Dynasty

who honor her.

Where do you wish to see your artwork sometime

in your life?

I would love to show one day at the MET.

Being that you work on more than one painting

at a time in your studio, how does this way of

creating work benefit your creative process?

I work on several works at the same time so I have

an escape from one and can return to it with fresh

eyes. Although sometimes one painting captures

me straight through.

Whenever you are sketching, you are gathering

new ideas. What is your latest insight?

Sketching can be helpful to understand what information

is good to take and what information should

be discarded. Although my work looks realistic

from afar I enjoy the looseness and simplicity of

the brushstrokes up close. I like simplifying the

forms and not over-painting or over-including information.

Miles Davis said, “It’s not the notes you

play, it’s the notes you don’t play.”

What do you love about your studio and the

neighborhood it's in?

I love that my studio is a place that feels the most

private. I can comfortably express myself. I can

make mistakes over and over again and yet feel

progress simultaneously.

There are many diverse realities to explore,

which can greatly enrich your artistic practice

in the future. Do you agree? How so?

New York City is a melting pot of culture. I think it

is important to experience a myriad of environments,

cultures, as well as engage with those of various

ages and circumstances.

What are your favorite art supplies and art

stores?

I often get supplies online. Jerry’s Artarama has

good deals. My studio is close by SOHO Art

Supply in case I need something fast. I also really

like Kremer Pigments in Chelsea.

So, you turn the lights off in your studio and are

ready to leave for now. Walking away from a

work in progress is beneficial. Stepping back

from your painting is always suggested as well.

It allows you to gain a fresh perspective and return

with renewed inspiration. What do you

think about, or how do you make good use of,

this ending time of day at the studio?

When I shut off the lights in the studio I am exhausted.

On a good day I feel satisfied. On days

where the painting doesn’t go so well I still feel I’ve

accomplished something. My artistic practice isn’t

dissimilar to an athlete’s training. You don’t always

see the hard work you put in immediately. However,

hard work finds its way out. Those are the

days I leave most satisfied.

www.instagram.com/jasonbardyarmosky

@jasonbardyarmosky

www.jasonyarmosky.com


ERIKA LARSKAYA

Confinement and Breakaway examine the mental

state of struggle to make sense of our environment,

both physical and psychological. I incorporate

childlike drawing to represent nonconformity; the

unadulterated state before we get confined by rules,

commitment, insecurities, and other “add-ons.”

“I distress and repair parts of the painting, as we

do within ourselves. The drawings of floor plans and

elevations, which I use as a starting point, create a

sense of enclosure, which I expand by continuing

the lines outward, breaking the structural pattern.

This alters the sense of confinement, breaking away

from the [rigid, static] norm”.

Erika Larskayahttps://www.erikalarskaya.art

©Vintage Delevingne silver prints for in these times …

LIONEL DELEVINGNE

Lionel Delevingne is a French born photographer

and author whose work has taken him all over the

world for publications such as the New York

Times, Mother Jones, Figaro magazine among

many others. His work has been collected and exhibited

widely in Europe and the US.

His two most recent books “To The Village

Square, from Montague to Fukushima 1975 to

2014” and “X-ING …My Adventures at the Carwash

2022” are emblematic of his commitment to

environmental concerns as well as the uncovering

the absurdity of today’s reality.

Lionel Delevingne-

917-496-1863

lioneldelevingne@gmail.com

https://www.lioneldelevingne.com

https://www.instagram.com/Lioneldelevingne

BRUCE LAIRD

I am an abstract artist whose two- and threedimensional

works in mixed media reveal a fascination

with geometry, color and juxtapositions.

For me it is all about the work which provides

surprising results, both playful and thought provoking.

From BCC to UMASS and later to Vermont

College to earn my MFA Degree. I have taken

many workshops through Art New England, at

Bennington College, Hamilton College and an experimental

workshop on cyanotypes recently at

MCLA. Two international workshops in France

and Italy also.I am pleased to have a studio space

with an exciting group of artists at the Clocktower

Building in Pittsfield.

Bruce Laird-

Clock Tower Business Center, Studio #307

75 South Church Street, Pittsfield, MA

“The color blue symbolizes tranquility and inner

peace. It was done at a time when I needed some

calmness in my life. The peaceful, tranquil color

resonates with me and is often used in my paintings.

I added a touch of purple to this one for healing

and enlightenment. When you see it and study

it, your mind just relaxes through the chaos. It is

the balance of the two emotions I tried to show in

this painting.” —DL

DON LONGO

http://www.donlongoart.com

"SPIRITS"

18" x 24" on canvas wrapped around a 1.5' W wood frame.

32 • JANUARY 2025 THE ARTFUL MIND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

ERNEST SHAW

Sumo, Blue Mountain Grante, 136 in. x 164 in. x 48 in., 1994, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton N.J.

Distance is but a stretch of the imagination. —Ernest Shaw

Mnemonic XIX, ht. 22”, Bronze, 1988

Sumo Study

Black pigment on paper Ht. 18” W16” 1993

ernestshaw179@icloud.com | ernestshaw.net

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! THE ARTFUL MIND JANUARY 2025 • 33

DURING THE STORM, MID PANEL FROM SNOWSTORM,

ALFORD VILLAGE, TRIPTYCK

STEPHAN MARC KLEIN

I have been sketching and making art for all my

adult life, since my undergraduate education as an

architect in the late 1950’s. What interests me most

at present about creating art, besides the shear visceral

pleasure of making things, of putting pencil

or pen or brush or all of them to paper, and of manipulating

images on the computer, is the aesthetic

tension or energy generated in the metaphoric

spaces between the abstract and the representational,

between individual work and reproduction,

and between analog and digital processes. I enjoy

creating images that result from working back and

forth between the computer and the handmade.

My wife, artist Anna Oliver, and I have made

our home in the Berkshires for the past three years

and I am still entranced with its beauty. I think

much of my work is in part a kind of visual rhapsody

to the area. The idea for Snowstorm, Alford

Village, came from an interest I have had in exploring

the dimension of time in the plastic arts.

Also, I love snowy winters.

Stephan Marc Kleinstephanmarcklein.com

smk8378@gmail.com

Member 510 Warren Street Gallery, Hudson, New

York

BEE BALM CELEBRATION

WATERCOLOR ON PAPER 2024

KAREN J. ANDREWS

Karen J. Andrews has been painting in watercolor

for the past 20 years and has honed a unique style

that expresses her love of movement and form. She

sees the “dance” in everything and treats each

painting as a unique encounter with the paint medium

and the subject. Her approach is always fresh,

and she lets herself go right to the edge, creating

sometimes unexpected results.

Over the years, Karen has studied briefly with a

few of the watercolor masters such as Charles Reid,

Josepeh Zbukvich and Marc Folley. Her background

was studying Art History at Oberlin College,

so she has seen a lot of great art. Karen has

devised her own language of brushstrokes and

compositions that give her paintings a sense of immediacy

and aliveness.

Karen’s subjects range widely from floral to

dance, portrait to architecture, and landscape to abstraction.

“To me it’s not so much about the subject but

about the encounter with light, form and color, and

expressing the delight I feel in discovering the

beauty of what I am seeing, one brushstroke at a

time. I never know exactly what’s going to happen,

so of course there are some “misses”, but the surprises

that can occur make it worthwhile.”

Karen’s work will be on display in a solo show at

the Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon,

New Hampshire from Jan to April 2025.

Her work may also be seen at her own gallery,

Inner Vision Studio in West Stockbridge, MA. Visitors

are always welcome with a phone call ahead.

InnerVision-Studio.com -

413-212-1394

17 Cone Hill Rd, West Stockbridge, Massachusetts

karen@innervision-studio.com

TOP: STRAND NO.5

BELOW: RONDO E RONDO E RONDO NO. 1

LESLEE CARSEWELL

My artwork, be it photography, painting or collage

embraces a very simple notion: how best to

break up space to achieve more serendipity and

greater intuition on the page. Though simple in

theory, this is not so easy to achieve. I work to

make use of both positive and negative space to

create interest, lyricism, elegance, and ambiguity.

Each element informs the whole. This whole, with

luck, is filled with an air of intrigue.

Breaking up space to me has a direct correlation

to music. Rhythm, texture, points of emphasis and

silence all play their parts. Music that inspires me

includes solo piano work by Debussy, Ravel,

Mompou and of course, Schubert and Beethoven.

Working with limited and unadorned materials, I

enhance the initial compositions with color, subtle

but emphatic line work and texture. For me, painting

abstractly removes restraints. I find the simplicity

of line and subsequent forming of shapes quietly

liberating.

Lastly, I want my work to feel crafted, the artist’s

hand in every endeavor.

Leslee Carsewell -

413-229-0155 / 413-854-5757

lcarsewellart@icloud.com

ARTFULMIND@YAHOO.COM

Join us for the New Year!


LONNY JARRETT

FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY

413-298-4221

Berkshirescenicphotography.com

Lonny@berkshirescenicphotography.com


Bruce Laird

Clock Tower Artists

Business Center

Studio #307

75 South Church Street, Pittsfield, MA


ASCENDING

OIL AND COLD WAX MEDIUM ON CANVAS, 7”X 8”

GHETTA HIRSCH

Winter is here. The snow that surrounds us as I

write sends me in a dreamlike state. I can watch

snow falling with the same serene concentration I

experience observing the movement of gentle

waves on a beach. Both involve water elements in

different forms and rock my mind similarly to

what a baby in the bath must experience.

I am recovering from a very bad fall and surgery

to repair broken bones, and I need all the healing I

can manage. Of course, I will not have the pleasure

of walking in this virgin snow as I am still glued to

a wheelchair, but watching the purity of this white

blanket covering our Berkshires trees and bushes

relaxes my mind and encourages me to meditate

peacefully.

In January snow will continue to surprise us

some mornings. Kids may be thinking “Snow

Day”, but I will marvel at the quietness and the silence

that will surround my home and feel inspired

to recreate these peaceful views on a canvas.

Did you notice how snow takes on the colors of

the atmosphere? I am often surprised to pull out

pink, blues and purple oil tubes of paint when I

work on a winter scene. It is as if the sky had landed

on this white coverage. Yet, when it snows, the

weather is grey. A complete mystery - a trick of the

light.

I have quite a few snow paintings in my home

studio, and you are welcome to visit, especially as

I cannot go out due to my accident. Call or text if

you are in Williamstown and you can view some

interesting winter art. Gallery North, a new Art

Gallery in North Adams, is exhibiting quite a few

of my paintings as well.

Ghetta Hirsch -

413-597-1716.

Instagram: @ghettahirschpaintings; website:

ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com.

Gallery North, 9 Eagle Street, North Adams - open

Tuesday through Friday 3:30-7, Saturday 3-8 and

Sunday 11-2. www.gallerynorthadams.com

BERKSHIRE DIGITAL

Since opening in 2005, Berkshire Digital has

done Giclée prints/fine art printing and accurate

photo-reproductions of paintings, illustrations and

photographs.

Giclée prints can be made in many different

sizes from 5”x7” to 42”x 80” on a variety of archival

paper choices. Berkshire Digital was featured

in Photo District News magazine in an

article about fine art printing. See the entire article

on the BerkshireDigital.com website.

Berkshire Digital does accurate photo-reproductions

of paintings and illustrations that can be

used for Giclée prints, books, magazines, brochures,

cards and websites.

“Fred Collins couldn’t have been more professional

or more enjoyable to work with. He did a

beautiful job in photographing paintings carefully,

efficiently, and so accurately. It’s such a

great feeling to know I have these beautiful, useful

files on hand anytime I need them. I wish I’d

called Fred years ago.” ---- Ann Getsinger

We also offer restoration and repair of damaged

or faded photographs. A complete overview of

services offered, along with pricing, can be seen

on the web at BerkshireDigital.com

The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial

and fine art photographer for over 30 years having

had studios in Boston, Stamford and the Berkshires.

He offers over 25 years of experience with

Photoshop, enabling retouching, restoration and

enhancement to prints and digital files. The studio

is located in Mt Washington but drop-off and

pick-up is available through Frames On Wheels,

84 Railroad St. in Great Barrington, MA

Berkshire Digital -

413-528-0997 and Gilded Moon Framing

17 John Street in Millerton, NY

518-789-3428 / 413-644-9663, or go online to

www.BerkshireDigital.com

There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,

but there are others who, thanks to theirart and intelligence,

transform a yellow spot into the sun.”

LONNY JARRETT

BERKSHIRE SCENIC

PHOTOGRAPHY

My initial memory of awakening to the creative

impulse was hearing the first chord of the Beatles,

Hard Day’s Night, when I was six years old. I knew

something big was happening at that moment, and

I had to get on board! I began studying at the Guitar

Workshop, the first guitar school in America. I’ve

performed music most of my life and play jazz fusion

with my band Redshift.

My interest in photography blossomed as an electron-microscopist

publishing neuro- and molecular-biological

research out of UMASS/Amherst

and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the

Bronx in my early 20s.

As a lifelong meditator, martial artist, musician,

and photographer, everything I engage with comes

from the same unified intention toward engendering

the true, the good, and the beautiful. I endeavor

to capture the light that seeps through everything

in landscape and nature photography.

Lonny Jarrett -

Community: Nourishingdestiny.com

Books: Spiritpathpress.com

Art: Berkshirescenicphotography.com

Teaching: Lonnyjarrett.com

— Pablo Picasso


Travel Journal AFRICA 2024

Photographs by John Lipkowitz / Accompanied by Nina Lipkowitz

JL: I love taking portraits of animals close up but at the same time look for them in context with one another.

Those of elephants can convey simultaneously their size, power and intelligence as though they are in conference - and perhaps they are!

JL: On safari we’re always looking

for cats and spotted ones are

just so beautiful. Crossing the log,

just to get a higher perspective,

this cheetah, either very well fed

or pregnant ( we couldn’t sex it)

became one of those images that

is simply a gift from on high.

38 •JANUARY 2025 THE ARTFUL MIND

JL: We had stopped to watch this rhino and starling riding him.

Finally the starling came down and for an instant lined up perfectly with its former host.

Have you ever been on safari to Africa? If not and it’s not yet high up on your bucket list perhaps you ought to seriously

consider if you can. My wife and I have been to various countries in Southern and Eastern Africa numerous times, most recently

to Kenya in the East where I took all of these photographs. On this trip my wife was most interested in seeing one of the reintroducing

centers for re-wilding orphaned elephants who grew up in their nursery center and when from three to five years old are transferred to

one of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s three such centers. I was most interested in seeing some of the very few remaining supertuskers

among wild bulls with a least one tusk weighs at least 100 pounds, and emergents with a chance of becoming one in another ten,

fifteen or more years. —John Lipkowitz



“Man Alone”, pencil drawing 36” x 36”

Drawall with a 36” x 60” sketch, paint markers on paper

Two examples illustrating some of the ways to use DRAWALL

DRAWALL … ‘Invention as art’ … a new drawing medium, a tool, new age mechanical

drawing, pencil drawing on a vertical surface, clean drawing surfaces, large format,

reviving the art of the ‘draftsman’ … The ‘built world’ has always relied on drawings

by draftsmen, I’d like to reclaim that art form to create a new ... art genre. If I’ve been

using Drawall to make art, I’m sure other talented types can use Drawall, too.

I’m offering Drawall to the ‘art world’ as a new tool to explore, to hopefully resurrect

drafting and mechanical drawing to a new ‘art genre’. It’s not everyday a new analogue

tool is introduced to the art world. —Leonardo Sideri

Contact Leonardo Sideri at leonardosideri.com for further information and inquiries


janet cooper

Bone Art

www.janetcooperdesigns.com

Sally Tiska Rice

BERKSHIRE ROLLING HILLS ART

CLOCK TOWER ARTISTS

Studio 302, 3rd floor

75 South Church St, Pittsfield, MA

(413)-446-8469

www.sallytiskarice.com | sallytiskarice@gmail.com

Late Winter

Watercolor Matted and Framed


CARLOS CAICEDO

Carlos’ award-winning graphic work has been

shown throughout the United States, from Alaska

to New York, and from South America to Europe.

Museums include Museo La Tertulia in Cali, Colombia,

The Anchorage Art Museum in Alaska, The

Waterloo Arts Center in Iowa, The Ft. Wayne Museum

in Indiana, The Springfield Art Museum in

Missouri and the Housatonic Museum of Art in

Connecticut.

In 2008 and one more time in 2025, he was invited

to participate in the Florence Biennale of

Contemporary Art in Florence, Italy. His work includes

illustration, painting, and, most currently,

photography.

During the last ten years, he has concentrated on

exploring photography as an art form. Since 2019,

he has won multiple National and International

Silver and Gold Awards for his photo work with

paper, including the well-known international publication

Graphis. During the same consecutive

years, he was honored with two Gold medals and

two Best Of Show for his Photography series using

pencils as a subject, by Trierenberg Super Circuit

in Austria, the largest photo Art contest in the

world. His photo artworks have also been translated

into museum-quality apparel.

As he put it, "Paper and pencil have been lifetime

companions for me, not simply tools. In a digital

age, these humble objects remain stubbornly useful,

and our connection goes back to memory. It’s a

physical relationship. A yellow pencil in a child’s

fist moving on blue-lined paper. A word is being

bo:n, MOM. The weight of a book and the sound

of a page as it turns, the curve it makes, and how

its shadow moves.These are pleasures that haptics

can’t mimic. My photography is a journey of discovery

with these old friends to see if we can still

surprise each other.

He also published an award-winning book called

“paperandpencilsbycarloscaicedo”.

Some of his work can be seen at

https://500px.com/p/carloscaicedo1 and has over

75,000 followers. His page has been visited over

20 million times over the last 9 years. Carlos

moved from Colombia to The United States in

1981.

Carlos Caicedo -

carlosart.net /

Apparel:

https://www.legaleriste.com/33/carlos.caicedo

Prints:

https://www.pictorem.com/profile/carlos.caicedo

carloscedo@yahoo.com

Eclipse Mill, 243 Union St North Adams MA

TOP: HANDMADE COMMISSION

ORDER DIAMOND RING IN18KT GOLD.

BELOW: THREE CUSTOM COMMISSION ORDER

CUFF BRACELETS

JOANE CORNELL

FINE JEWELRY

My designs are derived strictly from an organic

process. A portion of my designs come to me in the

wee morning hours when sleep evades me. My

work studio tables are peppered with different

groupings of stones. Tourmalines, corundum, beryl,

moonstone, amethyst, etc. Strands of Peruvian pink

opals, turquoise, black tumbled tourmaline. Rough

tumbled ruby, and green garnet beads.

I enter my studio, walking slowly past these surfaces,

absorbing the images/stones for reference.

The design comes first, then, what stones will fit

the process. And at times, it’s the reverse. A stone

will inspire a design.

Every design is a process. From melting the

metal and hand forging/forming the “parts” that

will eventually become the item.

Studio time. My favorite place.

Commission orders welcomed.

Joane Cornell Fine Jewelry -

9 Main St., Chatham, New York;

JoaneCornellFineJewelry.com / Instagram

MARY ANN YARMOSKY

My work is a collection of a variety of people, a

collection of experiences and expressions. It’s

about understanding their history, understanding

the power of their history, the power of their power,

the power of their vulnerability, the power of transformation,

and the power of purpose.

My works are abstract in nature, but aren’t we all

pieces put together by our life experiences? Who

is to say what is real when we look at a person.

Don’t we always project onto them some characteristic

we think we see, some fleeting feeling that

crosses their face, or some mannerism that indicates

their comfort or discomfort?

I work mainly with acrylic on canvas, paper or

wood and often add fabric, thread or other artifacts

that seem to belong. My process unfolds unintentionally

since my characters dictate what needs to

be said. I invite you to weave your own story into

my works. You can decide what is held in an expression,

a certain posture or the clothes they wear.

I hope you enjoy the adventure as much as I do.

Mary Ann Yarmosky -

marymaryannyarmosky.com

maryannyarmoskyart.shop

There is no must in art

because art is free.”

—Wassily Kandinsky


Ernest Shaw’s new book

ERNEST SHAW

In reality, we don’t get a ‘fixed” and solid thing

called a “self”, with a “life”, but rather, in a world

of constant change, we get moments to live.

Art speaks of those moments, raises the eloquent

ash of artists, birth and death. How we live the moments

matters. What we leave behind matters.

Weaving words or images together reveals a

story, from the personal to the universal, not as absolute

truths, nor certitude, but as an open query,

raising possibilities, a way of facing into life’s mystery,

and, as Kafka said, “letting the world roll in

ecstasy at your feet. It has no choice.”

Ernest Shawernestshaw179@icloud.com

ernestshaw.net

STILL LIFE, KATE KNAPP

FRONT ST. GALLERY

Pastels, oils, acrylics and watercolors, abstract

and representational, landscapes, still lifes and portraits,

a unique variety of painting technique and

styles you will be transported to another world and

see things in a way you never have before join us

and experience something different.

Painting classes continue on Monday and Wednesday

mornings 10-1:30pm at the studio and

Thursday mornings out in the field. These classes

are open to all...come to one or come again if it

works for you. All levels and materials welcome.

Private critiques available. Classes at Front Street

are for those wishing to learn, those who just want

to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and/or

those who have some experience under their belt.

Kate Knapp -

413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell)

Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by

appointment or chance anytime.

www.kateknappartist.com

VISIT

ArtByMatt

Bernson.

com

PORTRAITS

PIN UPS

NUDES

matthew.bernson@

gmail.com

Instagram

@MattBernson.Art

BOTTLE CAPPED

UPCYCLED BOTTLE CAPS

DEBORAH H. CARTER

Deborah H. Carter is a multi-media artist from

Lenox, MA, who creates upcycled sustainable

wearable art. Her couture pieces are constructed

from post-consumer waste such as food packaging,

wine corks, cardboard, books, wire, plastic, and

other discarded items and thrifted wares. She manipulates

the color, shape, and texture of her materials

to compel us to question our assumptions of

beauty and worth and ultimately reconsider our

habits and attitudes about waste and consumerism.

A sewing enthusiast since the age of 8, Deborah

first learned her craft by creating clothing with her

mother and grandmothers. Her passion took hold

as she began to design and sew apparel and accessories.

After graduating with a degree in fashion design

from Parsons School of Design in New York

City, she worked as a women’s sportswear designer

on Seventh Avenue.

Deborah’s art has been exhibited in galleries and

art spaces around the US. She was one of 30 designers

selected to showcase her work at the

FS2020 Fashion Show annually at the University

of Saint Andrews, Scotland. She has featured in the

Spring 2023 What Women Create magazine.

Deborah H. Carter has been featured in The Artful

Mind, Berkshire magazine, What Women Create

magazine and was a finalist in the World of WearableArt

competition in Wellington, New Zealand

2023.

Deborah H Carter-

413-441-3220, Clock Tower Artists

75 S. Church St., Studio 315, 3rd floor.

Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Instagram: @deborah_h_carter

Debhcarter@yahoo.com

THE ARTFUL MIND Magazine

In-depth interviews focusing on today’s

artists here and beyond.

Thank you for all the support

continuously given to the artists

and services in this publication.

arfulmind@yahoo.com

413. 645. 4114

44 • JANUARY 2025 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY / HAPPY NEW YEAR! THE ARTFUL MIND

RICHARD NELSON

THE ALPHABET SERIES FROM A TO Z: “G”

&

AI

ART

Digital Art

nojrevned@hotmail.com

Rick Nelson on FB



Something For Over The Couch

PART 23

“The Abandoned Elks Club”

My new hoodlum friends from Brooklyn and I

agreed to meet the following day to exchange my

painting for the switchblade knife. I set off with a

great many things to do. I had to do a painting to fit

the description I had given, but first I had to purchase

a suitable second hand frame to put the painting in.

It was Saturday afternoon, and I was able to find an

adequate frame, complete with glass and a mat in a

junk shop on James Street, next to the closed down

Rialto Movie Theater. I had often been in that junk

shop, and took pleasure in looking at the terribly bad

paintings that were hanging on the back wall.

Directly in front of the art works there was a pile of

frames on the floor, leaning against the wall. Almost

all were prints that had lost their color, especially

their reds and yellows. They seemed to retain their

blue tints even in the pictorial death they found

themselves in.

You might consider the significance of those assortments

of rejected and abandoned artworks in the

mind of some young aspiring artist. Here perhaps is

the ultimate destination of a person’s life, sitting on

the floor in the back of a junk shop, as opposed to,

for example, some special rooms in a museum

somewhere. But I was in a hurry that afternoon and

did not have any time to ponder my fate.

I went home, went up to my attic studio and in

about an hour produced my ‘Voyage of Life,’ painting.

When I started, I was worried that it would

somehow possess the lying and dishonesty that

brought about the commission, but I was wrong. I

thought it was a little masterpiece. I had seen some

Paul Klee watercolors in the bookstore and I thought

there was as much Klee in my little mountain as

there was of myself. As for the part that was not Klee

there was also some Rothko thrown in. Of myself

there was something I think, I am not sure exactly

what, but it was an urgent situation and so I had to

avail myself of some help from the masters.

Promptly the next day I arrived at the meeting to

exchange the painting for the knife. I was punctual,

as if for an important business meeting, but it was

Sunday, and the convenience store was closed. The

convenience store being closed had nothing to do

with my business transaction but made me feel that

the entire thing was possibly just a fraud. I waited

for half an hour, and finally I had to admit that John

Pontormo had been just pretending to be interested

in my painting. I was being made a fool of over

something that was extremely important to me. In

short, I was a gullible simpleton, and I was angry

with myself for being so foolish; nevertheless, I

managed to go back to that convenience store at

noon everyday for a week.

Then three weeks went by and it was the end of

August. School was about to begin, and it would be

my senior year. I forgot all about the knife, but the

knife did not forget about me.

I was walking down Genesee Street on my way to

the book store when I heard someone shouting my

name. It was not exactly my name, but someone was

calling “Ricky, hey Ricky.” I did not look around,

but then an old V.W pulled to the curb in front of me

and Ivan put his head out of the passenger side window.

He didn’t say anything to me, but just looked

at me with a thick bruised face. Mr. Pontormo began

talking to me from the driver's seat, gesturing and

explaining himself from behind Ivan’s shoulder saying,

“We’re sorry about last week, we had some difficulties.

We had to fix the car.”

They wanted me to join them in the car, but I suddenly

began to fear for my life. It was not the claustrophobic

smallness of the back seat of their VW, it

was the black and blue aspect of Ivan’s face that was

frightening. The entire fantastic interaction with

these persons had so far been an unreal bit of play

acting, but to get into the back of their little car, for

no reason at all, was not a possibility. I made an excuse,

I was waiting for my girlfriend, she was an

imaginary person who was supposed to be in the

bookstore.

John, still talking to me over the shoulder of his

partner, invited me to come to their house, and to

bring the picture. “Bring the painting to 100 Cooper

Street,” he said, and he repeated the address a little

louder. I replied with a nod, and went into the book

store and pretended to look at a book. They sat there

in front of the store talking about something for a

long time, and finally drove away, their car making

a scraping sound.

The following day, about three in the afternoon, I

walked to 100 Cooper Street with my painting under

my arm. I was familiar with Cooper Street because

it was often in the news; mentioned as the location

where some crime had been committed. It was a logical

location where hoodlums from out of town, up

to no good and down on their luck would be living.

The city had tried for years to get rid of Cooper

Street entirely, but had not succeeded. It had been

the target of urban renewal, and much of it had been

torn down to make way for the cross town bypass,

and what remained were apartment houses with plywood

for windows and doors. Number 100 was a

brick building of three stories that, according to the

stone arch above the entrance, had formerly been an

Elks club. Most, but not all of the windows and

doors were covered with plywood. Their car was at

the back of the driveway, partially covered with a

gray tarp.

The abandoned building they were living in and

the car covered with a tarp, a tarp whose corner happened

to cover the licence plate, told an obvious

story of criminal activity of some sort. But regardless

of the obvious suspiciousness of the situation I

was drawn in with a kind of fearful anticipation. I

knocked on the door frame and after a few minutes

a face appeared in a window of the porch and I was

directed to go around to the back, where I found the

back door open. Actually there was no door, just an

opening. The door itself was in the yard. The door

had been set up as a sort of picnic table with bricks

and cinder blocks for support. Nearby was a fire pit,

and next to it a pile of woodwork casings, apparently

torn from the house and being used as firewood. All

of this obvious cannibalistic destruction of the building

was happening in complete privacy because the

large lawn was surrounded by brick walls, and the

walls were overgrown with every kind of wild vegetation

nature can create in twenty years of neglect,

especially sumac trees. In short, the yard presented

a kind of perfect thieves den of iniquity.

I didn’t enter the building right away but stood on

the back steps admiring the yard, and what it signified,

and then we went into the building together.

The back door opening entered into a kitchen, but

not a kitchen for some family with a few kids, it was

a kitchen that had at one time prepared meals for

grand events. It was a kitchen of the type found in

the basements of large churches, along with the out

of tune upright piano. It was probably twenty years

ago that the kitchen had been used, and everything

was broken, and the plumbing disconnected. There

were long marble countertops that somebody had

broken in various places probably just for sport. The

sinks were full of plaster dust from a part of the ceiling

that had collapsed. You couldn’t see the floor, as

it was covered with dirt and plaster dust, and made

a crunching sound under your foot. Two matching

doors at each end of the kitchen led to a big formal

dining room devoid of furniture, except for a folding

card table missing most of its vinyl covering.

I had never been in an abandoned building in my

life, but the first few minutes in such a place is capable

of overthrowing a lifetime of simple basic assumptions

about life, and what it is supposed to be

like. It is a moment just as memorable as the first

time one sees a dead person. I wanted to be taken on

a tour of the entire house, and witness all the things

it had to say, but I was there for the transaction, the

first sale of a painting to a stranger, and the payment.

I handed the painting to my client and he took it and

looked at it admiringly. I suppose it is natural in such

a situation, to expect some questioning criticism, but

John was enraptured by my little painting. He

wanted very badly to say something about it, but he

did not have any of the vocabulary that the admiration

of a painting requires, but his face had the unmistakable

expression of the pride of ownership. We

were in the dining room, and he had already picked

out a place for my painting in the next room, which

was the grand smoking room of the old Elks club,

a room which still retained some of its leather covered

couches and easy chairs, and even a spittoon.

The painting was destined for the place of honor, on

a little rusted nail on the wall above a magnificent

walnut fireplace mantle. My picture was nowhere

near big enough to command the space, but nevertheless

I was very proud of the painting and the moment.

John handed me the knife, and I put it in my

pocket. My sale was complete, the knife was illegal,

to buy a switchblade knife was illegal, the transaction

took place between two trespassers in an

abandoned building. I thought to myself, “This will

make a good paragraph in my future biography once

I am famous, and dead.”

RICHARD BRITELL, DECEMBER, 2024

PARTS 1 - 22 AT SPAZIFINEART.COM/SHORT-STORIES/


48 •JANUARY 2025 THE ARTFUL MIND

BRUCE PANOCK

Broken Glass Portrait

Panockphotography.com

bruce@panockphotography.com

917-287-8589

Instagram @brucepanock

Deborah H Carter

Runaway Bride

Photograph by Korenman.com Model: @brooke.e.roy

Represented by the WIT Gallery Clock Tower Artists

The Artful Mind this is January issue 2025-1

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