The Open Studio in Catskill, NY

We were merely strolling up and down Main Street in this quirky little town, looking for a restaurant. Every cafe or eatery that we tried was closed. AT least we got to stretch our legs after the long 2 hour drive from home, and at least we got to see the Cat-n-Around cats of Catskill, a uniquely artistic venture in the area. But we were hungry and thirsty and could find no where to lay our heads, lol.

Passing by a store front, something caught my eye.

This artifact was found among others, in a chipmunk borrow [sic] in Greene County.

According to Miriam Levin, author of “Rodents, Culture and Customs” (1), all chipmunk art has a religious function. This has been identified as an important deity, believed to have the power to attract nutritious seeds.

(1) Random House, 1988

Then this:

When the moon was young she used to smoke this pipe.

I bust laughing, right there on the street. I looked up, and saw the name of the place: Open Studio. We ventured inside. It was quite the coincidence that the place was open, as it’s regular hours are only on weekends, and other times “by chance or by appointment.”

The place is like a little museum of quirky works of art. The art is not my style (I prefer more formal, classical pieces), but the placards with the artwork was delightfully humorous! I love it!

This is the cosmic egg from which the universe emerged.

This was my favorite:

In the Amazon there were found the remains of a barbaric god, his name was TeeVee. He self destructed, methodically shrinking the heads of his worshippers, eating their brains and pitting out the rest, until none was left.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

The studio is run by artist Dina Bursztyn, an artist originally from Argentina but living in New York City and now Catskill, NY, since 1976. She received the attention of The New York Times in a review of her work.

Before the Hudson was called Hudson, and even before it was called Mahicanituk, along its shores there used to live a tribe of diminutive sculptors, now believed by many experts to be extinct. *  It was a highly civilized tribe and had a taste for the monumental. “Balance” is perhaps its only remaining monument in existence today; however some archeologists claim that there are many more to be found, its components scattered, waiting to be put together.   * A minority of experts claim that the tribe is not extinct at all, but that it has mutated to a smaller size, so small that it is virtually invisible; proof is their water sculptures, easily sighted at sunset.

It was a pleasant diversion on a hot day in a strange town. We eventually did find a restaurant. More on that, later.

James Tissot Exhibition at Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum will be hosting a spectacular exhibition of the watercolor paintings of the illustrious 19th century French painter, James Tissot (1836-1902). It looks marvelous! The exhibition is “The Life of Christ,” and will include 124 of Tissot’s watercolors. Tissot was a remarkable painter– in an era when French painters were still dabbling in impressionism, pointilism, and heavy oil washes, Tissot was moving toward realism in watercolor. His paintings are lovely, and give a glimpse into the thoughtfulness of the painter.

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Stunning Works of Art From Your Photos

Wow! If you have not yet seen this site, Paint Your Life.com, you really should check this out! Something like this would make such a beautiful Mother’s Day gift. Paint Your Life.com allows you to send them a photo (either by email, by upload at their website, or by snail mail) and they will create a work of art from your photo– a 100% real handmade painting or drawing. You can choose what art medium (pencil, oil painting, acrylic painting, etc). You pay 20% in advance. When your painting is completed, you are notified by email. You can approve the work immediately and pay the rest of the cost, and Paint Your Life will ship it out FedEx to anywhere in the world; or if you want, you can ask for modifications before making the final payment and approving shipment. Medium-sized paintings take about 2 weeks (give or take) to complete. So if you want to get something like this for your mom, now is the time to order.

I’m really amazed by this service! What a terrific gift these paintings will make– very unique and very, very personal. The prices are very affordable– many are under $100, and some of the biggest and extravagant portraits can be $500. Something like this would also make a terrific anniversary gift for the parents, or a wedding gift for a young couple, wow! You have got to check out the site. It’s really impressive.

Photo Hunters: Scary!

This was another really tough one for me this week! I find bugs to be very, very scary.. but it’s late October here and all our bugs are either frozen by now or are migrating down to annoy you folks in the south, hee. But I brainstormed with the kids and guess what? I FOUND SOMETHING REALLY REALLY SCARY! It’s THIS:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am the computer technician in the house, and we have.. SIX computers! So when I see this, my hair goes white and my knees start to clatter.

But you know what’s worse? That image is from a screen saver! It’s a program you can download and install on your computer! (Or as a nasty, nasty prank but we don’t want to be doing that, do we? An infuriated co-worker or spouse would be ever scarier!). You can see for yourself– information about this scary screen saver program is here.

One other scary thing I thought of was a work of art we saw this week at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute museum. I didn’t get a photo, though– I was videotaping. It’s a short video, you can see the big bug here. It was quite startling to enter the museum and see this huge spider dangling from the second floor! The artist did a great job, too– it looks real!

How did your Photo Hunt go today?