Marionettes on Display at Kent Public Library!

 

   

Marionettes constructed by Mary Schreiber will be on display during the month of February at the Kent Public Library.  The marionettes are part of a series of “freedom fighter” puppets.  They are constructed from a variety of materials, including polymer clay, fabric, wood, yarn, and wire.  Recycled materials are used whenever possible.  For example, Pete’s banjo is a silver polish lid, Harriet’s turban had a previous life as a dishtowel and Susan’s boots once were a briefcase.

These puppets are all marionettes.  Mary also constructs puppets in other forms, including hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets. Several years ago, along with a group of creative people, she formed a theater company, now known as Hawk Rock Theater.  This troupe combines puppetry, music, live action, and literature.  Their productions have included The Canterbury Tales, Tam O’ Shanter, and Beowulf.  Hawk Rock Theater is based at Arts on the Lake. For more information, visit hawkrocktheater.org.

The 25th Anniversary of the Friends of the Great Swamp Quilt (FrOGS) will be  on display at Art at the Kent Library in January​​​​. Designed and made by four members of FrOGS, the quilt features twelve plants and animals that call the swamp home. Patchwork and fine needlework, colorful fabric scraps and sparkly beads were lovingly crafted to tell the story of an extraordinary place.

 The Great Swamp is New York State’s second largest fresh water wetland. It brings clean drinking water and flood control to communities in Putnam and Duchess Counties and provides habitat for hundreds of species, many rare or endangered.  The Great Swamp spans two watersheds, divided at Pawling into a north and south flow. To the north, it traverses the towns of Pawling and Dover via the Swamp River, then the Ten Mile River. It crosses into Connecticut, where it meets the Housatonic River and eventually flows into Long Island Sound.The south flow traverses the towns of Patterson and Southeast via the East branch Croton River, then it flows into Westchester via the East Branch, then the East Branch Reservoir of New York City's Croton Reservoir System, making the Great Swamp important headwaters for New York City's water supply.

The quilt will be exhibited through the month of January. The exhibit is sponsored by

the Friends of the Great Swamp. FrOGS is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that

works to preserve and protect the Great Swamp watershed through research, education

and conservation.

Kent Nature Almanac 2016 Photo Competition

Kent Nature Almanac

2016 Photo Competition

The winning images from the 2016 Kent Nature Almanac Photo Competition are now on display as Art at the Kent Library. The images highlight the beauty of nature in the town of Kent. They were chosen for artistic merit but also for evoking the joy of taking a closer look.

 

The Kent Nature Almanac, informal notes recording nature observations, is published monthly by the Kent Conservation Advisory Committee. To contribute your sightings and for more info visit: http://www.kentcac.info

The photos will be exhibited through the month of December. The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Friends of Kent Library and The Kent Conservation Advisory Committee.

Joann Zwolski Paintings on Display at Kent Public Library

JOANN ZWOLSKI 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Joann Zwolski works in a wide variety of mediums but in particular acrylics, and watercolor. She also creates painted collages. Her work visually expresses a passion for color, line and texture. The color red is her favorite color. Red symbolizes joy and happiness. Her palette is full of brilliant hues from a wide spectrum. Her line is a gestural line. Her work is inspired by nature. She combines both abstract and thematic elements in her work. 

Joann received her BFA from Pratt Institute and her MA from the College of New Rochelle. She has exhibited her artwork at several solo and group shows in the tri-state area and Delaware. She has taught art for over thirty years to students from kindergarten to high school at the Lakeland Central School District. Currently she teaches a drawing class to adults through Lakeland Continuing Education. She is on the Board of Trustees at the Putnam Arts Council in Mahopac, New York

Contact the artist at:

jzwolski14@gmail.com

Tanya Kukucka Paintings on Display at Kent Library

Tanya Kukucka

Tanya Kukucka draws on deep worlds of the unconcious

and the fantastic. She dwells within a place of

fears and dreams, nightmares and

touches of reality.

Her work reflects upon Death and Rebirth,

as she incorporates both feelings

of sadness and grace.

Symbolism is important,

from butterflies reprisenting the Soul,

to ancient texts depicting Shamanistic stories.

Her work is cathartic, as she believes

that she is purging her soul as she creates,

which becomes a cleansing and healing process.

More of Tanya's work can be seen at

www.TanyaKukuckaHeart.blogspot.com

She can be contacted at

Troutybean@aol.com

Karen Roff Paintings on Display at Kent Library

 

The Cherry Tree Series, a group of paintings by Karen Roff, will be on display at the Kent Public Library through the month of September.

Ms. Roff started The Cherry Tree series in 1988, shortly after she had  moved to Dutchess County from the city. There is an ornamental  cherry tree in her front yard  along the road that attracted her, and  she began to draw and paint this tree under varying conditions and with an  assortment of mediums. 

She had always liked Mondrian’s tree pictures from the early 1900s, especially one entitled The Red Tree, an oil painting completed in 1909-10. There was energy expressed in the twisted branches that filled the space of the canvas, and she observed the same type of energy in her cherry tree.

 This series later evolved to include other trees and the untrammeled growth on her property, and was the inspiration for a group of abstractions that were informed by the textures and structure of  natural  forms, and the sensation of ambient light as it selectively illuminated swaths of the landscape at  post sunrise and pre-sunset.

This phenomenon was a fleeting occurrence that would suddenly materialize when the sun was low to the earth, and  its rays would send  shards of light across the vegetation, causing her to run for her cellphone to record the vision before conditions altered.

While working on these abstractions that were concerned with the interaction and quality of lines, luminosity, directional forces, and contrast of values, she also continued to work with more traditional realistic views of trees, some of which straddle a border between order and chaos, and the three dimensional hybrid sculptures which are a combination of cement and branches and function as tree reconstructions.