Skaneateles Winterfest Attracts Noted Fiber/Collage Artist To Gallery 54

The 2020 edition of Winter-fest, here, not only celebrates winter, it highlights the talents of many local artists as diverse as those who create the ice sculptures that annually decorate storefronts in the village for the celebration as well as local artists such as Sharon Bottle Souva whose artistic creations with fabric, needle and thread have been celebrated and appreciated throughout the Central New York region for years.

Fabric artist Sharon Bottle Souva

Bottle Souva will demonstrate her creative and colorful fabric collage technique from noon to 3 pm at Gallery 54 on Saturday, January 25.

Sharon describes herself as a “process artist.” “I work with my hands to create my art work,” she said recently, noting “I find that this process adds to my love for fabric and sewing allows me to pursue the endless possibilities inherent within this medium.” As one of the local artists whose work has been featured at Gallery 54 for years, she notes that the tactile nature of fabric “sends my imagination off into a creative space. Texture and pattern are inherent in fabric, she notes adding “. . . since I have been sewing most of my life, I know its nature and can push the materials. I'm always searching for ways to give fabric a voice through my creations.”

Goddess Moon Tree

It's not uncommon for guests at Gallery 54 to think they are viewing a painting when they initially encounter a Bottle Souva creation. Through her demonstration she will showcase not only her creative process but artwork that presents itself as predominantly non-traditional/contemporary wall quilts and collage. In addition to her demonstration she will exhibit a wide variety of images and sizes including small landscape design quilts that are made in much the same way as collage only with the addition of the quilting stitch.

All of Sharon's creations are original with a strong sense of color and design. With a keen eye for picking interesting fabrics, she also custom dyes some of the fabrics she uses. The end product is always ready for display and the small nature of her pieces allows them to fit into any room or décor.

Marsh Meditation Collage

During her demonstration or just while viewing her completed pieces visitors to the gallery are likely to be moved by her love of fabric. “I love to buy it, dye it, iron it, cut it, sew it and (of course) sell the finished work,” she says.

Bottle Souva's creativity has been recognized with many awards over the years ranging from art festivals around the state, to work commissioned by the Gallisano Childrens' Hospital for display in their spiritual chapel, to the recognition of having her creations represented in the permanent collections of both Onondaga Community College and SUNY Brockport.

Mountain Sunset Collage

Sharon earned an Associates of Applied Art degree at Onondaga Community College before continuing her education and earning both a Bachelors of Fine Art and a Master of Arts from SUNY Oswego.

Gallery 54 Tees up a “Three-fer”

Sookie Kayne in her studio

Who'd a thunk?” as the saying goes. It's one thing when you get the opportunity to interact with a bone fide, accomplished artist but entirely another thing when the chance to personally meet two artists and explore their work. Gallery 54 apparently doesn't think a “two-fer” is enough so it's contribution to the November 1^st First Friday activities in Skaneateles is upping the ante with a “three-fer.”

Sookie Kayne Ceramic Vase

Pottery artists Sookie Kayne and Jamie Noce account for numbers one and two in this triple-barreled presentation, while Nurit Nussbaum will have you wondering “How'd she do that?” as the third member of this November threesome.

Thirty-four years ago, Sookie Kayne attended her first class in pottery. She found what the instructor, Sheri Schuckardt, shared with her students “amazing. I've never stopped,” she said recently.

Evidence of just how amazing is what will be on exhibit at Gallery 54 as Sookie assumes the role of guest artist for November, along with fellow ceramicist Jamie Noce whose interest in creating ceramic art began nearly a decade ago while still in high school. The third member of Gallery 54's November triple-play is Nurit Nussbaum, the newest to the world of creating art and her's

Nurit Nussbaum felted scarf

could not be more different from the others. Called “the scarves lady” by her friends, while visiting Jerusalem earlier this year she attending a workshop on felting that emphasized nomadic felting techniques from Uzbekistan and Kurdistan. Immediately after the Jerusalem workshop Nurit began incorporating these nomadic techniques into her scarves.

“Spinning mud!” Sookie exclaims, “starting with a lump of clay and creating something functional and beautiful is what attracted me to the art of pottery. I've been hugging trees and gardening for a very long time,” she says noting, “the form and designs I create are inspired by nature.” During this exhibit her “Fall Leaves Series” celebrates the end of a season.

While Jamie may have only gotten serious about her ceramic art a relatively short time ago, compared to Sookie, “I come from a long line of crafty and artistic people,” she says. “I've been creating from a young age and working with clay since grade school. So she believes it was natural that she found the potters wheel and dove in while in college.

Jamie Noce works the potters wheel

Sookie notes, that besides her first teacher, mentors including well known Central New York pottery artists Millie Schmidt and Tim See have had an important impact on her growth as a pottery artist.

She particularly enjoys the opportunity her pottery gives her to create art that can be used every day.

Jamie notes that while her pots are contemporary in design, they are meant for everyday utilitarian use. “They are made to fit into anyone's home and spice-up their living space,” she says. She uses a minimalist color palette and lets the forms, clay and surfaces speak for themselves.

Nurit likes to work with colors that match here mood. “Every morning I enter my studio loving the freedom to choose what colors to work with that day, the colors that sooth my mood . . . I enjoy seeing the end results, which are sometimes very different from the idea I started with,” she says.

Jamie Noce ceramic bowls

Sookie credits 43 years as a pediatric physical therapist with helping to develop the light touch and controlled movements required to treat babies. “These same motor skills,” she says, “make me a better pottery artist.”

“My work is special,” says Jamie, “because of my textures. Patterns are created by chance, without being pre-planned. I let the clay and colored slips do what they want on the surfaces of the pots and then use a glossy glaze to give contrast.” She notes, “Even though pots are given the same treatment, they are going to come out completely different, yet still match.”.

This First Friday opening at Gallery 54 will also feature a wine tasting by Anyela's Winery as well as the blue harp music of Chris Molloy.

Gallery 54, an artist owned and operated gallery, is open from 10 am to 5pm Sundays through Thursdays and from 10 am to 6 pm Fridays and Saturdays.

Roots in Early 20th Century

October's Guest Artist

Even though the seed for ceramic artist David Webster's interest in creating pottery was planted when he was in high school, he acknowledges the influence of artists as far away as Germany in post World War II. In particular, he points to Germany's Bauhaus School of Art that became famous between 1919 and 1933 for its efforts to combine crafts and fine arts.

David Webster. ceramic artist

That Bauhaus influence will be seen in the utilitarian pottery Webster will have on exhibit as Gallery 54's guest artist for October. The opening of this exhibit will be the featured event for October's “First Friday in Skaneateles” from 5 to 8 pm at the gallery. Webster will be on hand to talk with guests and explore how he creates his utilitarian pottery.

“I didn't actually study pottery in high school,” recalls Webster, “yet it was what kept me in school. The pottery class teacher would let me come into the lab after school and I was immediately infatuated with the potter's wheel. There has always been something about the turning wheel, using your hands to put pressure on the clay and then watching as shapes were molded that captivated my interest,” he says adding, “That's never changed for me.”

Following high school he pursued an education in the study of ceramics at Alfred University in Southwestern New York State. Here he appreciated the opportunity to study what he recalls as one of the gurus in the study of ceramics, the late Val Cushing.

In the years since Webster has experienced the broad expanse of options surrounding the art and craft of ceramics. Even as he experienced and experimented with the reactions of different glazes on varying surfaces, he was enjoying a wide variety of opportunities within the ceramics community. Aways attracted to the utility he could bring to his pieces, early in his career he worked to create a following through his participation in arts and craft shows. Eventually, he responded to the demands of the wholesale market. Ultimately, he found his passion to create artful ceramic, though still utilitarian, pieces led him back to where his interest began . . . the classroom.

Still answering the question, “what's its use?” Webster accepted an invitation to share his knowledge and skill in the classroom at Onondaga Community College. It was an invitation that would challenge and captivate him for 15 years as he taught ceramics, basic design skills, and sculpture as a member of the college faculty.

Eventually, Webster went back to high school, though this time solidly in the classroom as a ceramics teacher at Fayetteville/Manlius High School where he teaches beginning and advanced ceramics and sculpture today.

In addition to a collection of his pottery, the opening show will feature light refreshments and wine, along with music by guitarist, singer and songwriter Jane Zell.

Gallery 54 is an artist-owned gallery of fine art and crafts. It's open Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. To 5 p.m. As well as Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. To 6 p.m.

Gallery 54 to celebrate 10th anniversary

A Decade of Art, Craft, and Friendship

The artist/owners of Gallery 54 can be excused if ten years ago they didn't realize the impact of what they were setting out to build. They were a dozen disparate Central New York artists without much more in common than their desire for others to appreciate their art enough to purchase it and make it part of their lives. A few potters, painters, and jewelers; a fiber artist, a photographer and a stained glass artist spent months looking for the right location for their dream of a gallery to showcase their creativity to the community.

Painting by founder and first president of
Gallery 54 – Kathleen Schneider

On September 6^th, First Friday for the Arts in Skaneateles, they are throwing a party from 5 to 8 pm, to celebrate ten years of reaching for their dream.

While only three of the original dozen founders remain as owners of the artist-owned and operated gallery, they still strive to represent the artists of the greater Central New York region. Touted by the Post Standard newspaper in 2018 as one of the top “Indie gift shops” in Upstate New York, several former founders and interim owners remain active artists with the gallery.

The original dozen artists have grown to the point that no one really knows how many artists have called Gallery 54 home over the years, according to one founder and potter Sallie Thompson. At any given time, she notes, 40 to 50 Central New York artists exhibit and offer for sale a broad range of work in virtually every discipline of the arts. “It's come to the point that we regularly have artists from outside of Central New York, seeking the opportunity that showcasing their work in Gallery 54 represents. As a group, we carefully curate each and every request, but few from outside our Central New York community make the cut,” she adds.

Founder and jeweler Donna Smith recalled recently that ten years ago the original group of artists, behind the leadership of painter, Kathleen Schneider was motivated to seek a venue to call home that was on the main street of Skaneateles.”We really wanted a highly visible home base where people could find our work and the heart of Skaneateles was always our objective.”

A popular Skaneateles view by Photographer Tom Dwyer

As with any fledgling business, “There were new tricks to learn,” Smith notes. “Simply put, we had to learn how to get things done.” She notes that the founders' early decision to vote on all significant decision sometimes slowed us down, yet at the same time helped us move forward in a deliberate fashion. “Being artist-owned and operated was always important to all of us,” she adds.

Stained glass artist, Liz Micho, bolsters Smith's thinking when she focuses on how serious the founders, and subsequent owners, have always been about molding an ever-changing group of artists into a cohesive team of business owners. Even a decade after those first days of business in the summer of 2009, notes Micho, we work hard to understand what our customers want and each artist personally works to provide it,” she says.

The need for everyone to be on the same page was evident right from the start. “We didn't really expect as much interest in the gallery right at the outset,” says Smith, “and therefore as much business, as what materialized right from the day we first opened our doors. None of us had ever run a business before. So we had to quickly learn how to get things done and how to prioritize all these things.”

“You might not think that paying attention to 'getting things done' would take so much effort,” notes Micho. As an example, she notes “We started out hand-writing all our sales receipts. With a fast-growing list of artists showcasing their work in the gallery, this quickly became onerous, to say the least, and demanded that we upgrade operations as quickly as possible with the installation of our computerized Point of Sale system.”

“That kind of business decision paled,” says Smith, “when compared to learning how to make adjustments when artists leave the gallery. We've had emotional changes, such as when founder and potter Lauren Richie died unexpectedly while visiting family out of town, and business-driven changes when we wanted to welcome an artist had to leave.”

“We have always been guided by the same objective,” says Thompson, “Carefully curate a collection of fine art and craft, with emphasis on work created by local artists.” Thompson credits this philosophy, at least in part, for the gallery's emphasis on supporting the local arts community with donations to various art causes as well as by instituting “our very successful guest artist program whereby we invite local established as well as up and coming artists, to exhibit their work for a month or two at a time.” The gallery also sponsors and hosts events like the juried Central New York Photo Expo that saw photographers from throughout Central New York vying for cash prizes as well as recognition.”

The success of the guest artist program is evidenced by the growing list of accomplished, respected and well-known artists who have accepted, and often sought, the opportunity to exhibit at Gallery 54. Currently painter, David Kiehm, a BBC wildlife artist of the year, and Roycroft Artisan, porcelain pottery artist, Leslie Green Guilbault are currently guest artists at the gallery. The list of notable guest artists is long, however, including award-winning watercolor painter, Bob Ripley; fiber artist and teacher, Sharon Bottle Souva; metal sculptor, Jay Seamans, oil painter, Wendy Harris; potter, Tim See and abstract painter and mentalist, Bob Lawson.

In addition to wine and refreshments, the gallery's anniversary celebrations will feature the opportunity to meet and interact with a number of artists, all with the background music provided by the popular guitarist and singer/songwriter Jane Zell.

Gallery 54 Artist Offers FREE "lessons"

Gallery 54 artist, Tom Dwyer, whose medium for his art is photography, has launched a free online program designed to help people interested in photography learn about it while enjoying it. The new program, called f-8 insights delivers Tips, Trick & Techniques by email directly to subscribers' inboxes, a new one every seven days.

Tips, Tricks & Techniques are presented as short easy to digest snippets on subjects ranging from  "Building a foundation" for your photography, to the value of an "l-bracket" for your camera, to "Visualizing your image," and much more.

A sampling of f-8 insights subjects may be viewed and you can subscribe to this free program at: Introduction to f-8 insights–Tips, Tricks & Techniques.

While most subjects are currently discussed in brief articles that take only a few minutes to peruse,  Tom will soon introduce videos in order to more effectively demonstrate subjects that benefit from this format.

Tom Dwyer

Tom is an award winning photographer recognized as an effective nature photography workshop leader who conducts workshops not only in Central New York but in the Adirondacks, the Fingerlakes, and more recently in national parks.

He has recently become the organizer of a Meetup Group that can be found at f-8photoclasses.com.

Tom has often been called upon to judge photography competitions at local camera clubs, photo expositions such as the CanAn Photo Expo in Buffalo and the annual contest at the Great New York State Fair.

He will be a featured speaker at the SWMCCC (Southwest Michigan Consolidated Camera Club) Summer Photography Weekend July 26-28 at Hope College in Holland, MI presenting on three subjects, Seeing with the eyes of an artist, Photography in our backyards, and a hands-on experience of night photography in downtown Holland.

Examples of Tom's artful photography may be viewed and is available for purchase at Gallery 54.
Click here for more information about Tom's upcoming workshops 

"A form of escape" – July First Friday's featured artist

The art of abstract artist Donna Atwood is unlike what most people think of when they encounter the word “abstract.” Beginning July 5, with the opening reception for her month-long show as Gallery 54's featured artist for July, visitors will be entertained and even amused by the whimsey of her art.

Artist Donna Atwood

The open reception is part of the Skaneateles July First Friday, from 5 to 8 pm.

The next day, July 6, Atwood will share how she creates her art during a three hour demonstration from 1 and 3 pm at the Gallery. Visitors to the gallery will get see a unique painting technique that involves putting textures into the watercolor background and then going into the now abstract background and finding the images of animals

Even though Atwood was a science education major in college her interest in creating art, which began as a child, continued to flourish. It wasn't until 2012 that she started practicing watercolor, she says describing her artwork as abstract impression. While she creates her share of surreal landscapes her preference, as the Gallery 54 show will demonstrate is for paintings of animals.

“I decided to create surreal animals and found many different ones lurking in patterns,” she notes. As she describes her work, the backgrounds start out as abstract colors and shapes, but “by manipulating shapes in to eyes, ears and a noses,” she can get the viewer to see” what she sees . . . “the face and body of a creature.”

Atwood is particularly fond of finding animals that are endangered or under represented in artwork generally. Many people, she notes, relate to specific creatures or what she calls “spirit animals.” She likes that viewers of her paintings relate to her whimsical version of “their animal” and that the colors or faces in her paintings make them smile.

“Keeping the background of a painting as untouched as possible allows the animal to grow from it,” she says, adding, “I want to express the presence of the animal, not highlight every hair or whisker.”

Atwood's work has received awards at the New York State Fair and well as numerous local art exhibits. A resident of Sempronius, NY she has had artwork shown at the Cortland Public Library, the Dryden Community Cafe and the Gilded Lily gallery in Connecticut. Following her show at Gallery 54 she will have an exhibit at the Cortland Guthrie Hospital, from September through November and currently has work displayed at the Tully Artworks Gallery.

Light refreshments will be served, accompanied by the music of guitarist/singer Jane Zell.

Gallery 54 is open 10 am to 5 pm Sunday through Wednesday and 10 am to 8 pm Thursday through Saturday.

Gallery 54 Features Mitzie Testani & Her Curious & Playful Art

 June 7 is a good day to mark on your calendar so you won't miss the opening of the month of June-long show at Gallery 54, “Traveler, Gouache and Watercolor Paintings by Mitzie Testani” featuring the playful and colorful painting of award winning Syracuse artist.

     

Artist Mitzie Testani, photo by Derek Pfohl 

After just a quick glance at her work you won't find it difficult to believe that her interest began on childhood camping trips in Colorado, or that her desire to teach her son, Alec, the alphabet provided the foundation that helped her to incorporate illustration into her graphic design career.

      When Alec was young, Mitzie would draw pictures and words, pasting them on the wall for the two of them to talk about. Her artwork is curious, playful, colorful and full of nature. She's quick to point out that it can become “somewhat opinionated” when she adds lettering and makes it “kid friendly.”

      Those pictures and words pasted on the wall evolved into painting during nap-time and taking illustration classes online. Mitzie loves the escape she finds in her art and notes it has given her an outlet to process whatever may be going on in her life. “When I'm making a painting,” she says, “I start with research and thinking through sketching and lettering.”

     

Her projects, she notes, allow her to travel vicariously and to see things she would not have seen otherwise, had she not gotten up early to paint. Her exhibit at Gallery 54 will feature new work, specifically wine trail maps for Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga lakes. She will have both prints and original paintings available for purchase along with original paintings of icons featured on her maps.

      As a graphic designer at Corso's Cookies, some of her illustrations are used in cookie designs as well as packaging. Mitzie earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School of Art at Temple University.

      Her art has been exhibited at the PATF Snow Show at the Marriott, Syracuse Co-Works Space, the SUM Art shows in Syracuse, the Tech Garden in Syracuse and at the Natur-Tyme Gallery in Dewitt, NY. She has also had solo exhibits at the Maxwell Memorial Library in Camillus, NY. Mitzie also has work in the permanent collections at the US National Library of Medicine and at the Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University in Chicago.

      The opening reception will be held from 5 to 8 pm, June 7 at Gallery 54, 54 East Genesee St, Skaneateles, NY.

  Meet Mitzie and enjoy the “Blue Harp” music of Chris Molloy.