Open Up!
Local artists host Open Studios
Story and photos by Sherry Mazzocchi
Getting up close and personal was the order of the day this past Sunday, as scores of local artists in northern Manhattan let visitors have a glimpse at their creative work spaces and homes.
The diversity of chosen media, and the array of form, language and style proved that northern Manhattan is filled to teeming, in every nook and cranny, with artists hard at work, and play.
Sherry Mazzocchi visited with a few.
Jessica Lagunas
It’s only fitting that artist Jessica Lagunas showed her work at the Inwood Hill Nature Center. Her jewelry is made from natural objects found in the park. She collects leaves, pine needles, sweet gum and other flora from the park during different seasons of the year. She covers them with an adhesive and gold leaf for an elegant and natural look.
Darlene Aschbacher
Darlene Aschbacher takes the obituary page from The New York Times daily and folds it into quarters. Then she puts it into a large plastic container. After sorting through the pages and finding an image that strikes her, she reproduces it in drawings, prints and paintings. Those faces are the basis of her current work, Extended Obituary. Her work is currently on display at Art for Change Gallery.
Marta Chilindron
Marta Chilindron’s art is geometry at play, as seen at her studio on Bennett Avenue. Her flexible, fungible Plexiglass shapes explore the unexpected by fusing shapes into other shapes and playing with perceptions.
www.ceciliadetorres.com/artists/focus/marta_chilindron
Karen Loew
Displayed at the office of Councilmember Robert Jackson, Karen Loew’s linocuts have a spiritual edge. Angels represent dearly departed ones. In one, a bear with a halo poised by a stream full of salmon represents a favorite uncle who loved fishing. Another depicts an image of her parents, known around her West Virginia town as Aunt Sophia and Uncle Henry. “I made them put on winter clothes in the middle of August,” she said of the work. “They went with it.”
Maggie Hernandez: Illuminated Abstractions Generation I
Maggie Hernandez’s work has an interactive feature. Lit from the back, the painted Plexiglass squares allow the viewer to see themselves in the work. Part of this series is on exhibit at NoMAA. Working with Plexiglass is challenging, explained Hernandez, especially learning how to apply exactly the right amount of pressure when cutting the substance. She said, “I felt like I was back in grade school, playing again.”
Dindga McCannon with Harlem Memiors
#1 – Artista
Dindga McCannon is a versatile artist who takes inspiration from textiles, paintings, music and Paris. Her April in Paris series, features fabric collages inspired by the Eiffel Tower, Monet’s gardens at Giverney and France’s treatment of its immigrants.
Her mini-masterpiece series features images of women that she imagines.
She gives them names and personalities, and buyers always tell her they know someone like them.
112: Part of the April in Paris series
108 & 107 Mini-masterpiece Series
