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Lake George’s Summer Concert Series Tunes Up

By Mirror Staff

Thursday, June 28, 2012

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To be able to hear free live music outdoors by Lake George at sundown would, by any standards, be worthwhile regardless of the performer. But the fact that the Lake George Arts Project’s Summer Concert Series, which begins on Independence Day at Shepard’s Park, books seasoned musicians from all styles and backgrounds only adds further incentive to be there. Below is a list of this summer’s performers. All concerts in the series begin at 7:30 pm (unless stated otherwise) in Shepard’s Park located on Canada St. in Lake George Village.

7/4, GROOVE THERAPY. For those who feel they require medical attention for want of party hits, the seven members of Groove Therapy provide something like a cure. The group introduces the series with covers from the best of soul, funk, rock, disco, pop, and R&B.

7/11, THE CHANDLER TRAVIS PHILHARMONIC. With a curious sense of humor and penchant for quirky showmanship (expect the band to perform in Santa Clause hats) the nine members of Chandler Travis’ band from Boston are bound only to their clever—and sometimes odd—whims. Lately, that whim has been New Orleans jazz.

7/18, C.J. CHENIER AND THE RED HOT LOUISIANA BAND. The son of Clifton Chenier, the first Creole musician to have ever been awarded a Grammy, Clayton Joseph Chenier continues in the zydeco tradition mapped out by his father with exquisite, bustling results. “You play zydeco and you see shoes flying off,” Chenier has said, and in his case, that is certainly true.

7/25, MISSY RAINES & THE NEW HIP. Blue-grass jazz act led by Missy Raines, an accomplished stand-up bass player, that surprisingly veers from blue-grass into technical jazz and funk instrumentals, and not without a glimmer of country-western.

8/1, PAUL CEBAR. Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cebar clearly has an intuitive ear for hooks and rhythms. He renders them all the more zestful by pulling inspiration from Caribbean, African, and Latin American traditions.

8/5, THE LUZERNE MUSIC CENTER SYMPHONY. From the local summer camp that takes in gifted young people from around the world comes Pytotr Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony, conducted by Charles Peltz.

8/8, STREET CORNER HOLLER. Old time blues never really feels so old. Mark Tolstrup and Dale Haskell are only too aware of this. The band’s self-titled debut is a collection of raw, tough blues songs that add a lot of crunch to the classic.

8/8, ERNIE WILLIAMS BAND. Blues mainstay from the Capitol region Ernie Williams died last March, but his steadfast band is determined to keep Williams’ stirring music alive and well. The performance is a salute to the artist and his music.

8/15, RAMBLIN’ JUG STOMPERS. When the band’s members call themselves Bowtie, Cousin Clyde, Mr. Eck, and Wild Bill, you know that its fondness for jug and traditional string music is more than a side-interest. It must be a passion. Also on the band’s set list are classic covers from Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Hank Williams, and others.

8/22, BRAVE COMBO. Working with fresh music traditions from around the world, Brave Combo has recorded Japanese pop, tango, rock n’ roll, and orchestral works. The band has been the recipient of two Grammy awards in addition to seven nominations, and worked with the likes of Tiny Tim and David Byrne.

8/23, 7 pm, FESTIVAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. Nigel Armstrong, who became the highest-ranking American violin soloist in the 14th Tchaikovsky International Competition, performs Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto Op.35 and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.4. A fireworks display over Lake George follows the performance.

8/29, ROSANNE RANERI. Vocalist and singer-songwriter from the Capitol region, Raneri’s most recent album, Shift, is a collection of folk-pop songs with an electro twist.

8/29, LOREN BARRIGAR AND MARK MAZENGARB. With technically gifted guitarists of the past like Chet Atkins as their role models, these two seasoned guitarists—Barrigar from central New York, Mazengarb from New Zealand—collaborate to make what they have called “finger-style.”

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Art From Thurman: Three Dimensional Collages by Diane Golden at the Courthouse Gallery

By Anthony F. Hall

Friday, April 6, 2012

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We were talking about art from Thurman. “Are they talking about Art Cameron?” a woman at the end of the table asked. “I think they’re talking about Art, the one armed guy who repairs snowplows,” said her husband. Actually, we were talking about neither. We were talking about art. Fine art.

Thurman has always drawn its share of sophisticated people. Jack Binder, the artist who created the Nazi-smashing comic book hero, Captain America,  painted there. John Hall Sr. could go by horseback to Chalet Francais, where Post Star publisher Art Irving liked to dine and a Turk who called himself Piano Pasha tinkled the ivories. Today, there’s Nettle Meadow farm, Perky Granger and disoriented fans of Bill McKibben, who get lost  searching  for Crane Mountain.

And there’s Diane Golden, the artist who makes Joseph Cornell-esque boxes  and whose opening at the Lake George Arts Project’s Courthouse Gallery we had just come from.  At the age of 70, this show was her first.

“Our gallery committee was reviewing slides, and here’s this wonderful work from Thurman,” said gallery director Laura Von Rosk. “We didn’t get it. There’s an artist from Thurman I don’t know about?”

Actually, Von Rosk said, she knew Golden from her visits to the Courthouse Gallery.

“I knew she was an artist, and probably a good one, but I didn’t make the connection,” said Von Rosk. “It wasn’t until later that I realized whose work this was.”

“The Courthouse Gallery has been a secret sanctuary for me,” said Golden. “When there was a call for slides, I decided to make a submission. I was thrilled to be given a show here.”

These three dimensional collages, assembled from objects trouve, where do they come from? Von Rosk asked her.

“The process always starts with an object. I walk around with it and see what it’s drawn to,” Golden said.

Golden is a scavenger. She said she has always collected objects “with no intrinsic value and with no purpose in mind.”

It’s a trait she inherited from her father, she said.

“In the town in Illinois where I grew up, the local store had a big basket with things wrapped in brown paper, which they called ‘Surprise Sales.’ He couldn’t resist those,” she said.

What intrigued her most was the anticipation, the excitement she felt before unwrapping the package.

“The sense of surprise – that’s what I’ve always found engaging,” said Golden.

Her boxes instill that sense of surprise in the viewer, who wonder what’s in the box, and then wonder why those particular objects are combined.

“Are you telling stories?” the artist Bruno LaVerdiere asked.

“No, and that’s why I don’t title pieces. I think I just love patterns,” Golden said.

The pieces may not be narratives, but they’re often sly commentaries on life and even current events, said a collector of Golden’s work who attended the opening.

As has been noted, Golden is not a native of Thurman. She and her husband Tom moved to the Adirondacks a few years ago.

According to the Arts Project’s press release, “After an early career in educational research, Diane Golden returned to school at age 39 to pursue an undergraduate degree in art. A graduate degree in counseling and certification as a Gestalt psychotherapist followed. Diane was director of the Office of Publication and Design at Western Connecticut State University and maintained a small private therapy practice.”

“I always made art, but I never had any sense of its worth,” said Golden.

“You and every other artist,” noted Laura Von Rosk.

Golden’s show at the Courthouse Gallery runs through April 20. She’s paired here with painter Lorraine Glessner, who makes work with layers of fabric that have been subjected to processes such as burning, rusting, decomposition, burying, or exposure to the elements.

The exhibition is funded in part by Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation, the Village of Lake George and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. The Courthouse Gallery hours during exhibitions are Tuesday through Friday 12 – 5 pm, Saturday 12 – 4 pm, and all other times by appointment. The gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse at the corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets in Lake George Village. Call 668-2616 for more information.

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An Artist Encounters Antarctica

By Anthony F. Hall

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

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Laura Von Rosk, Adirondack artist and Lake George Arts Project curator, joins a team of scientists at the end of the world

The ends of the earth and the Adirondacks must have something in common (other than the fact that we sometimes feel as though we live in the antipodes), because artists are drawn to both.

The most famous of these, of course, is Rockwell Kent, who traveled to Greenland and Tierra del Fuego in the 1920s and 30s.

But another Adirondack artist is now eligible for membership in the Explorers’ Club: Laura Von Rosk.

Von Rosk, who lives in Paradox, is also the director of the Lake George Arts Project’s Courthouse Gallery, where she organizes several exhibitions of contemporary art every year.

But she’s best known for her own haunting paintings, which novelist Douglas Glover describes as playful dialogues with the Hudson River School, illuminated manuscripts and the early Renaissance Italians.

In December, Von Rosk returned from Antarctica, where she spent eight weeks assisting a team of divers and biologists studying single-cell organisms known as Foraminifera.

Officially designated a research assistant, Von Rosk’s true function was that of artist-in-residence, said Dr. Sam Bowser, the Albany biologist who organized the expedition.

“Art is another way of communicating what we as scientists are doing,” said Bowser.

The collaboration began more than two years ago, when the Courthouse Gallery exhibited “Raising the Fleet,” a show that brought together the archaeological study of shipwrecks, the scientific study of single-cell organisms living in the lake and the illustrations of Elinor Mossip.

“Since I knew that Sam worked with artists, I asked him to consider me if there was ever another project where one was needed,” said Von Rosk.

Laura Von Rosk and Dr. Sam Bowser in Lake George

“Both John Strong, the Arts Project director, and Chris Moran, an artist who taught a workshop about synthesizing art and science for the Arts Project, told me I had to look at Laura’s work. I did and I couldn’t believe what I saw. I got it,” said Bowser.

So Bowser took Von Rosk up on her offer, and invited her to join the expedition he was leading to Antarctica in October of 2011.

“My specialty, and that of about five other people, is Foraminifera, which build their shells by gluing or cementing together grains of sand, shells, or other particles from the sea-floor. These critters are carbon sinks; they started pulling carbon out of the atmosphere 300 million years ago.  These are important creatures, not least for people thinking about climate change,” said Bowser.

The team’s destination was a remote field camp known as Explorers Cove, west of McMurdo Station.

“Explorers Cove has the highest diversity of forams of any place on earth; they’re living fossils, which allows us to study the early evolution of the organism,” said Bowser, who’s made trips to Antarctica almost every year since the 1980s.

Before traveling to Explorers Cove, Von Rosk received orientation training at McMurdo Station, where she was taught  survival tactics, camped on the Ross Ice Shelf and learned to operate a snowmobile.

“A week later, we boarded a helicopter for the 40 minute ride across McMurdo Sound to our camp, which consisted of two large, connected tents for sleeping and living, a lab hut, a bathroom shack, solar panels and wind generator near the generator shack.  The shore is just a short walk to the east, but it was hard to tell where the sea began and ended because snow and ice cover both land and sea,” said Von Rosk.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Von Rosk.

But since it’s expensive to maintain one person for one day, surely she was not along just for the ride.

Apart from an invitation to incorporate this experience into her own work as a visual artist, Von Rosk’s job was to assist with the scientific research and dive teams in one way or another.

“The first two weeks, we focused on melting dive holes, troubleshooting and repairing equipment. Just about every muscle in my body grew sore from the heavy lifting and from performing tasks or using equipment I was unaccustomed to,” said Von Rosk. “Every task took longer there, because we were always bundled up or had to take precautions because of the extreme weather.”

Her most stressful job (but, she emphasizes, among the most rewarding), was assisting the divers who disappear into holes cut through eight feet of ice.

“I was there to be alert to any signs of danger, but I was also limited in my ability to help if someone was in danger. A rescue team was at least an hour away by helicopter,” she said.

Von Rosk said she was encouraged to devote time to her art, but resisted the urge.

“I would have felt like a slacker,” she said. “Everyone else was so busy.”

Living in close proximity to others while isolated from the rest of the world (though email and internet connections were maintained) was itself an education, said Von Rosk.

“You learn to be tolerant, because you’re depending upon others for your safety. But that’s easier than you might think, because a situation like that can bring out the best in people,” said Von Rosk.

The beauty of the landscape was sometimes overwhelming, said Von Rosk.

“Sometimes the distant icebergs were very pronounced white shapes in a blue-ish landscape, other times they look ten times the size from the day before, transformed into gigantic dark towering craggy hills,” she said.

While the landscape may not have been a direct source of inspiration, the experience itself will find its way into her art.  “How could it not?” she asks.

Von Rosk said she also intended to bring the work of Bowser and his colleagues to the public’s attention “through my art, either through education projects or images, and cycle back to the public eye what I’ve learned.”

But according to Bowser (who’s also collaborated with film maker Werner Herzog and musician Henry Kaiser), that’s not the sole function of an artist in residence.

“Laura can’t predict what I’ll draw from her experience. She sees a big picture, while I’m focused on the microscopic. She reminds us to remain open to experience and, above all else, to keep our eyes open,” said Bowser.

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David Greenberger

David Greenberger's “Licorice Nibs Circling the Drain"

Two Artists at Lake George’s Courthouse Gallery: “What You See, Might Not Be What You Get”

By Richard Stout

Monday, November 21, 2011

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Mary Gaynier and David Greenberger’s art work at the Court House Gallery, in Lake George Village is a wonderful show. Having seen the work beforehand on the Lake George Arts Project website and receiving a post card announcing the reception, I can’t express how surprised I was when I entered the gallery. Art is a manmade endeavor, and in a world where we access so much art through reproduction (internet, television, print), it’s important that we physically experience it. Whether it’s art in your home, gallery, museum, live music, theater or reading a novel; that intimate relationship is critical in appreciating and understanding not just the art, but the hands that created it.  Modern and Post-Modern Art has allowed artists to combine mediums and styles which communicate concepts that traditional art(narrative) can’t convey. Abstraction would certainly come to mind. I thought Mary Gaynier and David Greenberger might be abstract artists. As I stood in front of the work and realized what I was looking at, I couldn’t help but smile. Both artists have synthesized abstraction with representation(symbols). Mary Gaynier works in Scherrenschnitte(traditional German scissor art), snowflakes and lace patterns might come to mind(which she used to make for the holidays). However, Mary’s snowflakes have morphed into complex “Pop Culture” icons. David Greenberger’s abstractions become simple visual essays of observations of his life.

Mary Gaynier is a great example of Post-Modern Art. Some of these artist employ various traditions, ethnic cultures and styles, and new mediums to express contemporary concerns. She is also a retired 2 Dimensional Design teacher’s delight. I can’t imagine the amazement of seeing these intricate paper cuttings unfold for the first time. Diners, waiters, workman, animals, villains and nursery rhymes are just some of the characters and scenes that weave there way through the repetitive and rhythmic compositions. I also appreciate the combination of Fine Art with Folk Art. To assume that artists(art) are one or the other is a tenet that has to be re-evaluated in our Post-Modern culture. The blending of styles, mediums and ideologies reflects our forever connected world. Although she retains the purity of the paper(left natural), I can envision them in color. They also have a “stored energy”that suggest movement and excitement. I want to spin them, imagining they would come to life.

Mary Gaynier's “How Many Does it Take to Screw in a Light Bulb”

David Greenberger’s minimal approach might suggest abstraction or at least the influence of abstraction(David mentioned Mark Tobey and Grosz as influences, I couldn’t help but think of Hans Hartung) until you read the titles. You retreat from abstraction into “Dave’s Place”. A witty, whimsical, sensitive and thoughtful world of distilled American culture into a hand crafted “snapshot”. Vertical and horizontal black ink lines and small colored penciled squares became “The Party Explosion Embedded With Confetti In The Window Screen”. Simple geometric and organic shapes become licorice nibs, crows, dogs, and everyday objects. Black ink lines become paper clips, screen, springs, and grass. On the surface, all of this seems very funny, but there is a reflective dimension(acceptance) to it as well. David’s “audio art” shares and expresses the same concerns. David narrates edited interviews with individuals who share a brief story(reflection) about a particular moment(event) in their life. These compilations are enhanced with his original music compositions(CD’s are available at the gallery).

As in all exhibitions at the Court House Gallery, the work is well crafted. It’s an intimate venue which lends itself well to this presentation. If you need some cheering up, go see this show.

“Mary Gaynier and David Greenberger” is funded in part by Price Copper’s Golub Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. The Courthouse Gallery hours during exhibitions are Tuesday through Friday 12 – 5 pm, Saturday 12 – 4 pm, and all other times by appointment.  The Courthouse Gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse, corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets, Lake George, NY. For more information call (518) 668-2616

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Painting by Deanna Lee

Painting by Deanna Lee

So Different Yet So Much Alike: Lee and Banks at the Courthouse Gallery

By Richard Stout

Monday, September 26, 2011

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In the year 30,000 B.C or thereabouts,  Cro-Magnon(early modern man) began observing in natural form qualities that reflected themselves and their relationships with the world around them. At first they just collected the objects but soon began manipulating the forms to express and suggest a specific event, individual, or experience.  These symbols reflecting gods, deceased relatives, rituals, food sources, and fertility became manifestations that defined their lives.  So began Art. The artist and the shamans of these pre-historic communities were usually one and the same and the making of art became a spiritual ritual.

The acrylic paintings by Deanna Lee and the assemblages by Diane Banks share a fascination with nature that reflects a kindred spirit with their pre-historic predecessors.  Neither artist pre-conceives their work.  They allow the work to evolve, employing their intuitive and instinctive spirit to guide them through the creative process.  Both artists are inspired by the natural world and their relationship with it and they are both superb craftsman.

Initially Diane’s work seems whimsical, delicate and fun.  Mysterious, complex and sophisticated is just as appropriate.  Working with mixed media (paper, string, wood, leather, wire, glue, thread, shells and found objects) she sometimes refers to her art as “child-like” and her studio as my “play space”. I couldn’t help but imagine reassembling grandma’s discarded household stuff and sewing box.

Her assemblages begin with an infrastructure of wire and wood that are covered sometimes entirely, sometimes partially with paper, fabric or leather, suggesting “skin” or natural exteriors. These forms reflect birth, life, growth, death, deterioration, decomposition, and re-birth, leaving behind the “bare bones” and withered forms.  The passing of time is evident throughout her work and one cannot help but think of things that once were.  John Dewey wrote in “Art as Experience”, that it is not just the experience the viewer receives from art as much as the experience the viewer brings to art.  I couldn’t help but reflect on my many walks on sea and lake shores, fascinated with all (organic and inorganic) the “neat stuff” that washes up.  “Unexpected Encounter” a mixed media wall hanging suggesting entangled nets, floats, drift wood, discarded man-made objects (garbage) and marine life made me think of my time on Sandy Hook, N.J.(gateway to the N.Y. harbor).  Diane’s latest work might strike one as visceral; it is an idea born from one of her own assignments for her 3-D design class at James Madison University (good teachers make good artist).  Stuffed fabric suggests external and internal human form.  Proportionately these forms might make one uncomfortable.  The stitching is intense and one cannot help but feel something has gone terribly wrong.  All of the work is so well constructed and admiration is appropriate, but I couldn’t help but smile at all of it as well.

A mixed media piece by Diane Banks

Deanna Lee’s approach to creating is similar to Diane Banks however the results are quite different. She describes her abstract acrylic paintings as controlled doodling.  That description doesn’t do her work justice.  These are profound interpretations of an internal exploration of her relationship with nature.  Organic shapes suggesting landscapes painted with primary and secondary color, superimposed with black and white linear forms, flow, float, and blow across the surface.  I couldn’t help but feel and hear the movement.  “Waves, wind, hair, muscles, topographical maps, and geographical strata, are all metaphors for emotional states, social and environmental relationships”.  Her Asian heritage, music and science background have all influenced how she distills these experiences.  Like many abstract painters, “automatism” comes to mind. “ Terra Nova”, reminds me of looking down on a pond, collection of lakes, or a savannah.  The artist’s inspiration was a topographical map, but I like to think of it as something else (we are allowed to do that).  The blue and green shapes suggest to me something wet and organic, while the orange line that connects, intersects, and overlaps the shapes reminds me of roots and shoots, a spring lily pond about to bloom.

This is a great show and gallery director Laura Von Rosk has done a wonderful job in bringing together not just these two artist but many others who regularly exhibit at the Court House Gallery.  The Adirondacks region has historically been an inspiration and showcase for contemporary artist of their time and the Lake George Arts Project should be commended and supported.

Richard Stout is an artist living in Hague.

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Don Byron New Gospel Quintet

Don Byron New Gospel Quintet

Lake George Jazz Weekend Returns September 17 & 18

By Mirror Staff

Thursday, September 8, 2011

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John Ellis

For the 28thconsecutive year, Lake George Village’s Shepard Park will host the free Lake George Jazz Weekend. This year’s festival will be held on September 17 and 18.

Highlights of this year’s festival include a Saturday evening concert by the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet.

Byron’s New Gospel Quintet combines original compositions by the highly regarded clarinetist with traditional Gospel pieces. He will be joined by vocalist DK Dyson. The concert begins at 7:30 pm.

Saturday’s performances begin at 1 pm with Cuban-born pianist Osmany Paredes. Paredes gained national attention a few years back through a high-profile tour with fellow Cuban percussionist Dafnis Prieto, who performed at the Lake George festival in 2007.

Next up will be saxophonist John Ellis, backed by the New Orleans sounds of Double-Wide. Ellis’s album, “Dance Like there’s No Tomorrow,” introduced Double-Wide’s unique sound, described by Billboard magazine as “jazz steeped in the who-dat nation through a hip Brooklyn lens.”

Grace Kelly

The last performer on Saturday afternoon will be vocalist and alto sax player Grace Kelly, who, at the age of 19, has six recordings to her credit and some lofty accolades, including  several awards from the Boston Phoenix.

Sunday’s program opens with Charles Cornell, a gifted pianist from nearby Hartford Central School, who will attend Purchase College Conservatory in the fall. He’ll be joined by an equally talented and young band from the area.

Apex, with alto-sax players Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green, takes the stage next.

The festival will close with the Kyle Eastwood Quintet. Kyle, the son of Clint Eastwood, grew up in southern California. After studying film making, he turned to music and in 1998 his debut album, From Here to There, was released on Sony. After two more album releases in 2004 and 2006, Eastwood combined his interests of film and music together. As a composer, Eastwood began working in film with a contribution to the score for Mystic River. His compositions for film include pieces for Million Dollar Baby and soundtracks for Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Gran Torino and Invictus.

The Lake George Arts Project is able to present the Lake George Jazz Weekend thanks to the generous support of Kenneth and Susan Gruskin, the Village and Town of Lake George, program advertisers and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Performance Schedule:

Saturday, Sept. 17, 1 to 6 pm:

Osmany Peredes Quartet

John Ellis and Double-Wide

Grace Kelly Quintet

Special evening performance, 7:30 pm: Don Byron Gospel Quintet

Sunday, Sept. 18, 1 to 6 pm:

Charles Cornell Quartet

Apex: Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green

Kyle Eastwood Quintet  

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Zoe Muth

Zoe Muth

Lake George Concert Series Features Eclectic, Innovative Music

By Mirror Staff

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

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After almost thirty years and 300 performances, John Strong’s Summer Concert Series in Shepard Park is both a popular and critical success, drawing 600 to 800 people to every show, and commonly acknowledged as one of the best concert series of its kind anywhere.

The setting in Shepard Park helps, says Strong, who is executive director of the Lake George Arts Project, which established the series. “It’s a magical place,” he says, not only because of the quality of the acoustics but because of “the open air, the lawns, the lake in the background. It’s an oasis.”

Robert Michaels

But it is Strong’s ability to attract talented, emerging performers that is the key to the series’ success. From among the hundreds of CD’s, demo tapes, and calls he receives throughout the year, Strong chooses nine performers.

“I look for an eclectic mix, a nice balance  – singer songwriters, big bands, tango, Irish, blues – not the commercial bands that you can hear in any bar,” he explains.

While Strong searches for new talent every year, he’ll occasionally invite performers to return if they’ve made an impression on him and on the audience. One such performer, Latin jazz guitarist Robert Michaels, played last year.

“There are so many people who wanted to hear Robert Michaels but weren’t able to, and even more people who heard about the concert after the fact who wished they’d been here, that we decided to invite him back. It’s rare for us to invite someone to come in consecutive years, but we wanted to give people another chance to hear him,” said Strong.

Born in Canada, raised in Italy, and having studied in Cuba, Robert Michaels is a prize-winning artist whom the critics call dazzling and who leaves his audiences spell-bound, Strong said.

“We invited him back from his first appearance here last year for one reason: he is that good,” said Strong.

Robert Michaels will perform July 27. The 2011 concert series starts on July 6 with the Chris O’Leary Band. As a matter of tradition, the first concert of the season is meant to be a crowd pleaser, and this seven piece, roots and blues band from the Hudson Valley will fit the bill, said Strong.

Harold Ford

The Chris O’Leary Band will be followed by the Seattle-based Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers on July 13. “This is one of the performers I’m most excited about,” said Strong. “Zoe Muth combines an interesting blend of styles and she has a great band, which includes mandolin, bass, guitars, drums and keyboard. Zoe Muth plays guitar and sings, and her lyrics have an honesty that’s reminiscent of some of country music’s greats,” said Strong.

Another act that’s sparked Strong’s enthusiasm is Chatham County Line, an acoustic American Bluegrass band from North Carolina.

“The band is very cool, very young, with a deep interest in traditional American music,” said Strong. Chatham County Line will play on August 10.

Other acts this season include: Hair of the Dog, the Capital District-based Celtic rock band, which will perform July 20; the 42nd Infantry Division Band of the New York National Guard, playing August 3; the Sweetback Sisters, a country band from Brooklyn, performing August 17; Harold Ford’s tribute to Johnny Cash, appearing August 24; and on August 31, Mule Bone, which features blues guitarist Hugh Pool and wind instrumentalist John Ragusa, will perform.

All concerts start at 8:30 pm and are free. The Summer Concert Series is sponsored by the Village of Lake George, the Town of Lake George and the New York State Council on the Arts.  This year’s media sponsors are LakeGeorge.com and the Lake George Mirror.

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Jim Boden

Jim Boden

At Lake George’s Courthouse Gallery, the Political is Personal

By Mirror Staff

Monday, May 9, 2011

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Laura Von Rosk, the director of the Lake George Arts Project’s Courthouse Gallery, confesses that she was nervous about pairing the two artists whose work is now on view at the gallery through June 10.

On the surface, their work is radically different, and Von Rosk feared the artists would clash rather than complement one another.

Alison Denyer’s large, monochromatic and meticulous works verge on prettiness; a quality that leaves Denyer herself ambivalent; she’s uncertain whether to flee from it or embrace it.

Jim Boden, on the other hand, cannot avoid ugliness; his theme is torture and its affect on the body and identity.

Alison Denyer

At the opening of the exhibition on May 7, however, Von Rosk was relieved, and with good reason. The superficial differences between the two artists’ work belie an underlying unity, which makes “Jim Boden and Alison Denyer” one of the gallery’s most successful shows in recent memory.

That unity emerges from the fact that both artists think politically. In Denyer’s work, politics shape the landscape; in Boden’s, the body.

“Boden and Denyer directly and indirectly examine poignant humanitarian and environmental issues in their work. Boden’s painterly hand, and Denyer’s intricate graphite marks lure us in; revealing more than meets the eye, with a great deal of complexity beneath the surface,” said Von Rosk.

Denyer is an English-born artist who now lives and works in Salt Lake City, where she teaches at the University of Utah.

Moving to an arid climate after growing up in a wet one, she came to think of water in ways new to her, and became absorbed by the debates about how a limited resource is apportioned. She became aware that an element of nature that she had taken for granted in the past can be degraded and ultimately extinguished.

“Environmentally, the altering of rivers through human intervention… contribute to flooding… As river levels fall, water consumption increases, resulting in battles over water rights and ethical practices,” Denyer said at the opening.

Denyer’s work, graphite and pastels on paper, are highly detailed images derived from watersheds and coast lines.

Lake George Arts Project's Courthouse Gallery

“My intention is for these drawings to function on several different levels through media and scale manipulation,” said Denyer. “The viewer is drawn into each work through its almost blank appearance… on closer inspection, these works reveal miniscule details created through an intricate web, resembling the complex patterns of the earth’s surface as seen from above.”

While Denyer’s graphite on black paper work may initially strike the viewer as “blank,” Boden’s paintings of torture victims are almost too immediate and accessible.

“The distorted figures, the claustrophobic space, and color of bruised flesh, are a bold, unflinching examination of victims caught in a nightmare,” says Von Rosk.

“These paintings are my personal response to the fact that the U.S. allowed and condoned the use of torture in its interrogations of military prisoners,” explained Boden.

“On one level, Jim Boden’s interrogation paintings reinforce what most of us know about torture from the written accounts, photographs and videos,” said Larry Merriman, who directs the Cecila Coker Bell College Art Gallery at Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina, where Boden is a professor of art.  “On another level, Boden’s disturbing images are more visceral and personal than documentary evidence. In other words, Boden’s paintings close a disconnect that exists between our awareness of torture and the actual experience of torture.”

The exhibition is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. The Courthouse Gallery hours during exhibitions are Tuesday through Friday 12 to 5 p.m., Saturday 12 to 4 p.m. , and all other times by appointment.  The Courthouse Gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse on the corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets, Lake George, N.Y.

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Invitation to Voyage: The Paintings of Laura Von Rosk

By Mirror Staff

Saturday, February 19, 2011

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As the Lake George Arts Project’s gallery director, Laura Von Rosk reviews hundreds of slides each year from artists hoping for a show at the Courthouse Gallery.

But she’s also an artist in her own right, and the mythic, archtypal landscapes that have won her prestigious fellowships and grants and exhibitions appear untouched by the trends influencing her contemporaries.

Some of her work was on view at Art in the Public Eye’s Gallery 99 show, which was installed in Glens Falls’ Empire Theater from February 10 through February 13. Although she’s lived in the Adirondacks since the late 1990s, Von Rosk says her paintings are not necessarily rooted in the landscapes of the region.

“I used to think these paintings were about specific places, and in many ways this is true,” she says. “But I notice there are forms repeating. It seems I now look for places that are already in my head. I can still say I work from memory, but I’m not sure where the original memory comes from.”

Von Rosk began painting landscapes while still living and working in New York.

“After a trip to Maine, my senses were reawakened; I just wanted to get out of the city, to become engaged with nature,” she says. “My first landscapes were painted from the memory of that trip.”

Those first landscapes were denser, more detailed, with more textured surfaces than recent work, she says.

Her work today has more highly finished surfaces, and is cooler. That in itself may be a reflection of living in the Adirondacks.

“Something of your physical environment, how you live in the world, seeps into your work,” she concedes.

People frequently “read” Von Rosk’s paintings, as though she is trying to tell them a story.

“I have no interest in determing what people’s response to the work should be,” Von Rosk says. “But light, color, shape, can’t help but to evoke feelings. The paintings’ deep space draws you in; there’s something familiar about the landscape. You’re at the edge of being allowed in. No; I’m inviting you in.”

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Ice and Air Show in Bolton Landing

Ice and Air Show in Bolton Landing

Ice And Air: Kites on the Lake will Recall an Art Exhibit Remarkable for Lake George

By Anthony F. Hall

Friday, February 4, 2011

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At Lake George’s Winter Carnival this month, dozens of multi-colored kites will be unleashed above the frozen lake.

If the sight of abstract shapes and bright colors displayed against a stark winter landscape reminds some of an event co-ordinated by the Lake George Arts Project more than 20 yrs ago, it is intended to.

“Although a very different kind of event, we wanted to recreate something of the experience of the Ice and Air Show,” says, John Strong, the Arts Project’s director.

Billed as “a temporal sculpture and sound show,” the Ice and Air show, consisting of works by ten artists, was held on the frozen surface of Bolton Bay for three days in February, 1983, drawing 5,000 visitors.

Selected by Tal Streeter, who also participated in the show, the artists came from as far away as the west coast and the U.K and as near as Diamond Point to assemble installations on the ice.

“It was a huge undertaking,” recalls Strong, who had been appointed the Arts Project’s director shortly before the show opened.

“As an arts administrator, it was ‘baptimism by ice,’” he says.  If the show was a success, it is because it exhibited the unpredicatiblity and force of nature as much as it did works of art, Strong says.

A geodesic dome by Jon Kessler sank and Kit Yun-Snyder’s “Wire Mesh Arches” was wrecked by the wind and renamed “Ruins.” Those were among the show’s countless, unintended surprises.

“The impact of the wind, freezing rain, the cold, the melting ice on the pieces, all demonstrated the power of Lake George,” says Strong, adding, “That’s what a show of environmental art should do.”

That, however, was a point missed by many. Local critics and some residents dismissed the show at best as a pretentious waste of money (the costs of the show were reported to be anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000) and a hoax at worst.

Says Barbara Law, who at the time was a local correspondent for the Post-Star, “A lot of local people thought it was above their heads, and didn’t attend. Some who did were critical. I appreciated the effort the artists put into their work, and tried to approach it with a positive attitude.”

Strong acknowledges that some criticisms were justified.”The reality is, a lot of pieces didn’t succeed; the artists’ stated intentions weren’t realized.” he says. “They should have been identified as works-in-progress.”

Some installations were, however, a popular success, like George Peters’ “Ice Feathers,”

“It was a simple piece, but simplicity appeals to people,” says Law. “It worked because it was well-integrated with the wind and with the environment as a whole.”

Other aspects of the show were equally memorable, including a concert organized by composer Charlie Morrow using horns designed by Bruno LaVerdiere, as well as whistles and church bells, and a night-time show of lighted flares by Tal Streeter.

John Strong’s most lasting impressions of the show were, he says, are the sense of community the event created.

“The ice fishermen shared their knowledge of the lake with the artists, Frank Leonbruno opened state facilities so the artists could work on their pieces, people cross country skiied from site to site,” he recalls.

That atmosphere appears to have colored many people’s memories of the event.

“I recall it as a warm, cozy experience,” says Rolf Ronning, who at the time was a member of the Lake George Arts Project’s Board of Directors (and was therefore also conscripted to sell hot chocolate during the event). “The artists were congenial and engaged the community. It brought a new dimension to the arts on Lake George, and it would never have happened without the Lake George Arts Project.”

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