Jan Harrison / Other Voice on Green

1. “Cat With Raw Nose” / 2006
beeswax, damar resin and encaustic
6.25 x 6 x 8 inches
Exhibited as a sculpture, and also presented by the artist as
a mask being in Animal Tongues performance.

2. “Tendril Birdfish” / 1997
bisque-fired porcelain sculpture
19 x 15.5 x 9.25 inches
Exhibited separately, or included in
Animal Tongues Installation.

3. “Corridor Series #1, Primate” / 2009
charcoal, pastel, and ink on rag paper
30.25 x 22.50 inches
Series of endangered animals in ecological and
psychological corridors.

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JAN HARRISON — Animal Tongues and Vision
Statement 2009

My work has been a lifelong journey. As a child I was
closely connected with animals, and developed a deep kinship
with them. Identifying with animals has helped me to have
empathy with the life force, and to express the complex
experience of what it is to be here as a flesh and blood being.

Since the earliest drawings in the 1980’s I have been engaged
in a developing interaction between the animal nature
and the human psyche. Entities interrelate, one being becoming
another being. Mysterious and intimate characters act
within an inner landscape, similar to dreams.
I work to experience the mystery, purity and sacred/profane
spirit of the animal nature, something we often overlook as
humans, as we live in a technology driven, industrialized
society.

A myth which involves both knowledge and innocence,
darkness and light, has always been central to my work.
The myth is intuitively known in my body, and not based
on recorded mythology. Primitive animals are within us. The
eyes of animals invite us into their world.

Physicality is integral to my work's message and expression.
The use of pastels, wax, and clay enables me to caress the
surface with my hands. Beings emerge and evolve through
touching the surface of the paintings or working with the
wax or clay. Coming from the body's sensual/spiritual
desires, felt in the bones and cells, a metamorphosis
happens as I caress the surface.

The materials I use have always been important to the
content in my work. I recycle drawings, paintings, and
sculpture, working and reworking until they are the
way they need to be. I do not throw away materials.
I reuse and reuse materials. For instance, the beeswax
that was part of an earlier encaustic painting became a
wax sculpture. This is true of all of the materials I use,
including pastels on paper.

Recurring themes are both autobiographical and universal,
having to do with grief, joy, pain, sexuality, death, rebirth,
rejection, humor, brutality, sensitivity, anger, love, identity,
power and vulnerability. Sometimes the animals are self-portraits,
and sometimes they are the "Other." I identify with the
animals in my work, and feel as if their bodies are my own.

Since 1979, I have spoken and sung in Animal Tongues,
which I perform with the animal head sculptures. Animal
Tongues acts as a bridge to the world beneath the surface.
It expresses the emotions and the mystery of the animal
nature, and enables me to live and see clearly.

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JAN HARRISON — Ecotheology and the Animal
Bio 2009

Jan Harrison's paintings and sculptures involve empathy
with the animal nature as it relates to human existence
and the collective psyche. Her work is considered to
be an influence in the investigation of the animal/human
interface in art. Harrison’s subject matter relates to
ecotheology. Her painting is on the cover of ECOSPIRIT,
Religions and Philosophies for the Earth, edited by
Laurel Kearns and Catherine Keller, 2007, Fordham
University Press.

Harrison’s art has been shown in over one hundred and
twenty solo and group exhibitions, including
Animal.Anima.Animus, which opened in Finland, and
traveled to Holland, Canada, and PS1 in New York.
Arcana Mundi, a monograph, was published by Station
Hill Press. A chapter on her work is included in the book,
In The Making: Creative Options for Contemporary
Art, Linda Weintraub, published by d.a.p., Distributed
Art Publishers, Inc., New York, NY.

Harrison was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and
raised in the southern United States by a single mother.
Her childhood was spent primarily with animals, and
her early bestial companions became a spiritual source
of identity, as well as a guiding force in her life and work.
In 1989 she moved to Kingston, New York from Cincinnati,
Ohio, having lived in the Midwest for thirteen years
She has also lived in California and Georgia.

The recipient of five fellowships in art, her work is in
over one hundred private and museum collections, and she has
also produced two house-as-art projects. In addition to painting
and sculpture, she speaks and sings in a language, Animal
Tongues, which she performs.

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To view the 2009 video performance of Jan Harrison
speaking/singing in Animal Tongues, with close-up views
of animal sculpture heads moving, click on:
http://www.janharrison.net/pages.php?content=downloads2.php&navGallID=Downloads2

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For information on Jan Harrison, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images and sounds © Jan Harrison 2009

Atticus Lanigan / Other Voice on Green

BIO

Atticus Lanigan is land use planner for Orange County. She

has lived in the Hudson Valley since 1993. She has a strong

devotion to the Hudson Valley that manifests itself through

art and love on a constant basis. She has a Master’s degree

in City & Regional Planning and is a wife and mother. She

recently created a newsletter called Hudson Valley Movement.

She can be reached at immensejoy@hotmail.com

HIVE WOMAN

Bill Mckibben states, “…a bee hive is a society, which we know

from own experience is infinitely more complex than an

individual. More robust in certain ways, but more delicate too.

These are incredibly balanced, lovely evolved little nations.”
Inter-connected is everything. To develop concern for the

natural environment is to uncover in oneself an understanding

of inter-connectness (one that your soul knows inherently).

You find your heart, mind and floodgates open. The connections

seem and are endless and often too much for one mind to contain.

An individual with genuine passion for the world, in human hearts

and the physical landscape, can become overwhelmed while being

intriqued and inspired and fulfilled. This can lead to madness,

or least a slight infection, a bulbous growth that catches

dust and gives rise to little demons.
This piece snapshots the moment before the bulbous growth is

dissolved or burned, hopefully by the individual’s natural cleansing

process, allowing for more growth and the onset of new

understanding of the inter-connectness. The snapshot resides

at the end of winter, when incubation is over and an individual

can grow again, thereby also demonstrating a devotion to

the earth’s life-cycle (seasons).

Materials: used honeycomb, recycled doll’s head,

Chinese newspaper, blue flowers ripped from a very old

tattered plastic stem found in an empty blue wedding

album circa 1890s, glue, dark red thread that pervades

my work, two recycled brooches altered, camphor used

for prayer at Spice Aroma restaurant in Poughkeepsie,

a wooden box acquired from a sad florist going out of

business, nails taken From the halfway dismantled

box from the sad florist.

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All 3 images © Atticus Lanigan

Imelda Cajipe Endaya / Other Voice on Green

Imelda Cajipe Endaya
Artworks
1. Forest in the Midst
mixed media on fabric & handmade paper
65 cm. x 52 cm.
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2. Forest of the South
mixed media on fabric & handmade paper
65 cm. x 52 cm.
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3. Forest of the East
mixed media on fabric & handmade paper
65 cm. x 55 cm.
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Artist’s Statement
I use materials from the Southeast Asian culture that
nurtured me. I collage, stitch and paint on textiles and
handmade paper: at times I combine them with plastics
and photographs. I want my work to admonish on the use
of appropriate technology to halt the degradation
of our forests, air and water. Often poor countries would
cut their trees fast without replanting, then export them
as raw materials to industrialized countries. Developing
countries are made dumping ground of technological waste
from their richer neighbors; and much of the global
pollution that reach them are produced by the world’s
wealthiest nations.
My work is a voice from Asia-Pacific where traditional
art and craft used to be sourced from indigenous grasses
and trees. More and more these are displaced by the lure
of “development”, and replaced by modernization’s plastics
and synthetic products. Weavers and dyers have lost
work too because forests are no longer there.
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Artist’s Bio Summary
b.1949 in Manila; lives and works in Newburgh, NY
Creating paintings, mixed media, prints, and installations from
womanly and homely materials, Endaya has consistently
tackled issues of cultural identity, peace, globalization,
displacement, and environment from a Filipina’s point of view.
Her work has made a strong presence in the contemporary
Asia-Pacific art world before she moved to live and work
in the USA in 2005.
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For information on Imelda Cajipe Endaya, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © Imelda Cajipe Endaya

Gray Works / Other Voice on Green

For information on Gray Works Interpretive Furniture Design,

contact: Andrew Gray and Elizabeth Bryant at

info@grayworksdesign.com

A link to the web site is on this blog on the right

under "Other Voices on Green"

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All 3 images © Gray Works

Jane Dell / Other Voice on Green

ARTIST STATEMENT
Environmental Chaos Series
My inspiration is nature, which increasingly finds itselfin a losing

battle for survival. The balance that once existed between people

and the planet is being replaced by confusion and concerns about

the future. Things are spinning out of control.

Using the artistic tools I’ve developed over a lifetime my paintings

create tension and meaning through contrast. Seductive and

pleasant images are played off against images that are

unexpected and uncomfortable. Lyrical forms contrast with

geometric shapes. Lush, rich colors bump up against

monochromatic fields. The result is a whirlwind surface

in which shapes and forms race across the picture frame

and dart in and out in 3-dimensions providing a

visual equivalent of the disconnect between human beings

and the natural world.

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BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE
Jane Dell was born in New York City and began her study of art

at the High School of Music and Art, Art Students League and

Pratt Institute. Many people have influenced her recent work,

but her painting/printmaking teacher from Pratt Institute,

Jack Sonnenberg, instilled a love and respect for art history

and the creative process that has remained with her to this day.
Her work has been selected for many group and solo shows in

New Jersey and New York, including City Without Walls

Gallery, Montclair State University Gallery, George Segal Gallery,

1978 Gallery in Maplewood, Kling Gallery in Montclair, New Jersey,

the Creative Center Gallery located at 147 West 26th St., NYC

and recently the White Space Gallery in New Haven, CN. She

has also sold works to private collectors and designers.

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For information on Jane Dell, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © Jane Dell

Barbara Bachner / Other Voice on Green

For information on Barbara Bachner, click on her web site

listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"

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All 3 images © Barbara Bachner

Susan Knight / Other Voice on Green

ARTIST STATEMENT
My sustained interest in water compels me to create visual
perceptions of water and water ecology. I cut, fold, stretch and
tie paper, Mylar, tape and plastic to express ecological issues
ranging from the dramatic ecosystem breakdown in the Great
Lakes, to the modest, almost overlooked ecological problems
in Papillion Creek in Eastern Nebraska.

1. Breakout II, uses layered, overlapping, cut Mylar, and
acrylic ink, to celebrate water’s ability to replenish itself.
It ultimately finds its own path regardless of human
impositions and restrictions. The 2008 piece is thirteen by nine feet.

2. Chaos Flow, cut and folded paper, suspended over an acrylic
tube, refers to a researcher’s theory that the almost microscopic
Spiny Tail Water Flea is destroying Lake Michigan’s food web.
Seventy-eight by forty-eight inches, it was cut in 2008.

3. Water Lines II, cut paper over cut Mylar with acrylic
ink, makes visible multiple, complicated, webs of ecological
connection under water’s surface. It measures forty-six by
eighty-six inches and was created in 2008.

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BIOGRAPHY
Susan Knight, an Omaha, Nebraska-based painter and paper
artist, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has exhibited
widely on a regional, national, and international basis.

Susan studied at the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s
College, Notre Dame, Indiana, from which she received a BFA in
art. She also studied at The Glassell School of Art, Houston,
Texas, and The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois.

She was awarded residencies at Ragdale, Lake Forest, Illinois,
and at the International School of Art, Montecastello di Vibio, Italy.

In 2004 she traveled to the People’s Republic of China to present
her art at colleges and universities in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai
with other US artists including Flo Oy Wong and Roger Shimomura.
In 2008 she returned to China to present her work in Kunming and
Chungdu.
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For information on Susan Knight, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © Susan Knight

Meadow / Other Voice on Green

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For information on Meadow, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © Meadow

Tammy Wofsey / Other Voice on Green

Traffic . Linocut Chine-colle’ Prints

Traffic?

The word can have a few meanings. For myself it is the
consumption of space and time. I let the traffic into
myself.

I began using a bicycle after moving to New York City
ten years ago. After thousands of miles between work,
studio and home, I have started to reconsider. I don't
have the $20,000 suit of highly polished armor as I
ride down the road, I look in through the other
people's windows, and see the car's prisoners of
status and safety.

But then two weeks of cycling in Copenhagen, returned
me to NYC not quite the skeptic I was. In my mind
there is now a perfect place where the streets become
calm, and by shoe or by tire, everyone smiles. The fog
of grey hydrocarbon congeals into a fluffy white cloud
and a stratospheric happy face.

My series of linocut chine-colle’prints is an attempt to
reconsider car culture.

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About Web Plotzing Press

http://plotzingpress.com
“I’m plotzing over here!” my mother would shout on

various stress-related occasions. It means, “I’m about to

explode, and everything is coming apart, what to do?”
As a macaroni and bean collagist who grew up in Colorado

I knew this Yiddish word would someday find future meaning.

I later attended SUNY College at Purchase where I studied

printmaking and book arts. This is when my blood began

to flow with ink.
After graduation I started working as a monitor in exchange

for print shop time at Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop.

The transformation of an art student to printmaker began.

Ideas, lifelong friendships and experimentation brewed.

While printing at the workshop, I took the pragmatic

approach and worked towards a library science degree.
I then set up shop in Brooklyn where my etching and

typeset presses now live.
Eventually, my studio did explode … literally, as

thousands of cubic feet of natural gas knocked down

walls and flooded the floor. My presses somehow

gained mutations that allowed them to undo years

of my work in a blink. Things come apart. What to do?
Plotz.

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For information on Tammy Wofsey, click on her web site

listed on the right on this blog , under "Other Voices on Green"

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All 3 images © artist Tammy Wofsey

Matt Mays / Other Voice on Green

I too create work that is green in nature. Currently, I'm
in a National recycled art show at the AZ Museum for
Youth and was just the featured green artist in the
Nov/Dec's Kontakt Magazine Green issue.
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ARTIST STATEMENT
Start listening for time. It is a notion, an illusion that
dictates every aspect of our lives. It is our landscape,
the arrow being the horizon; the horizon being a reference
that's safe. Symmetry is best seen in the human face.
The more symmetrical, the more beautiful; also far
less memorable. My work revolves around the ever-evolving
cast of human emotions which resist simple understandings
and live beyond the bounds. In this series of sculpture,
process echoes concept. Each work is a compilation?
a symphony, both harmonic and discordant?
slices of prior purposes. To create things alien to consumers.
Blue jeans were once the face of the working class,
today they a status symbol.
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BIO
Matt Mays was born in Sydney, Australia and grew up
on a tobacco farm in Appomattox, Va. He received a BFA
in Illinois and has studied at The Art Students League in NYC.
He worked for many years as a studio assistant to a pupil
of artist, Hans Hofmann. His work is owned by all types
of folks, including legend Willie Nelson, West Coast
Chopper's Jesse James, The Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Google. He is 2007's recipient of the Professional
Development Grant from the Arizona Commission of the
Arts and is involved in the Arcosanti project. His next s
how will be at the Arizona Museum for Youth.
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Kontakt Magazine Green issue links:
http://www.kontaktmag.com/print_issue/2008/octobernovember-2008/
http://www.kontaktmag.com/art/artist/matt-mays-%e2%80%93-blurring-the-line-that-separates-humanity-from-nature/
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For information on Matt Mays, click on his web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © artist Matt Mays

Richard Brachman / Other Voice on Green

1. Helio was first built in 2000 and exhibited at Empire/Fulton Ferry State Park, Unison Arts Center, Adelphi University, and Look Out Sculpture Park. It is a symbolic representation of the sun and had statements attached to it about renewable energy sources, global weather change, and the need to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. Helio is built of recycled wood 3” x 4” from discarded shipping pallets and detritus from demolished buildings. It is 15 feet in diameter.

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2. Phobosuchus and Caddy was painted in 2005 with various kinds of oil, enamel, latex, acrylic and industrial paints. It was first exhibited in a show titled Extinction which had an accompanying essay connecting the dotes between our overly dependent automobile society, global warming, fossil fuels, the source of fossil fuels, and extinction, both that of the dinosaurs and possible ours. The painting is 64” tall by 48” wide.

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3. Model Home was first built in 2003 and exhibited in the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition at Empire/Fulton Ferry State Park and is now installed at Adelphi University. It features a 75 watt Sharp photovoltaic panel, a battery, controller and a light. The houses’ interior is accessible through the door and there is literature attached to the walls that discusses the mechanics of photovoltaics, causes and evidence of global weather change, and health and environmental concerns associated with weather change and pollution. Model Home is built of wood scavenged from construction sites, vinyl siding and shingles. It is 9’ tall by 7’ long and 4’ wide.

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For information on Richard Brachman, click on his web site listed on

this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"

All 3 images © artist Richard Brachman

Creating a Database . Call for GREEN ART until March 15, 2009

I'm creating an interactive broad database of artists working in relation to my upcoming solo exhibit/installation at the Mill Street Loft (see invitation letter from Exec. Director Carole J. Wolf)

PROJECT: Fresh Green
Innovative ideas from artists talking about environmental issues using the arts to present, denounce, reflect and encourage others to take a look at green problems and/or green solutions.

To be part of the project, I'd need to receive as soon as possible and no later than March 15, 2009

• 3 images (300 to 600 dpi, please)
• one page bio
• one page statement related w/green work: content, materials, etc.

I'll print your 3 images, bio and statement and will include them in a binder that will be on display as part of the exhibit/installation as "Other voices on Green". I'm also planning to include the 3 images in my blogs.

This database could be available for any other future art events.
No FEE is involved.

Submissions and questions before sending your materials,
please get in touch with me at: elisapritzker@gmail.com

Spread the word. Thanks!

Letter from Carole J. Wolf, Exec. Director Mill Street Loft

December 11, 2008

Dear Elisa,

Mill Street Loft is pleased to extend an invitation
to you to have a solo exhibit/installation in our gallery
at 45 Pershing Avenue. Poughkeepsie NY in 2009.
The exhibit will run from May 16 to June 14. The opening
reception will be on Saturday, May 16 from 3 to 6 PM.

Since the Mill Street Loft encourages and supports
sustainability and green issues, we are excited to present
your “PROJECT FRESH GREEN” exhibition. We believe
that your work will be of a great value to our institution,
the students and the community at large.

We appreciate your commitment towards the awareness
of these topics through the arts. Since you have been
working with recycling and environmental themes since
2000 and have had this art shown locally, regionally and
internationally in highly respected institutions, we are
especially pleased to have your exhibit here at Mill Street
Loft as well.

As part of the exhibition, we'd like to include a panel
presentation about green issues and a guided gallery
tour open to all the community.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any
questions and/or comments. We'll discuss further details
in the near future.

Sincerely,
Carole J. Wolf,
Executive Director