Window1: Jim Price

Window 2: David Derr

Humanity is composed of creative explorers and symbol makers. We have been this way since the beginnings of our existence as a race and before. This is the cornerstone of what it is to be a thinking human being.

[su_expand more_text=”Click here to read the full statement.” height=”0″ hide_less=”yes” text_color=”#000000″ link_color=”#800000″ link_style=”dotted”] My goal has always been to create works that contain the essences of good poetry. A balance of opposites, in a style that is recognizable, yet not necessarily realistic. I find the most effective way of doing this is by using a pseudo primitive style which on the surface seems simple, but in reality resonates deeper emotions.
My studies of children’s and primitive art, as well as symbols, have led me to the conclusion that these types of images speak on a deeper level than completely realistic images. Somehow they reach beyond the surface and touch the very essence of the object represented evoking meanings and emotions that reside deep in our minds and bodies. The use of this type of content allows me to create pieces that contain layers of meaning, meaning which is integral to lasting art.
Content is very important, and by content, I don’t mean the objects in a painting but the meaning behind them. I fill each piece with subjects from music, dance, myths, mysticism, science, and everyday life. I create pieces that will have the ability to have a lasting conversation with the collector and the public. A conversation that can take different and unexpected directions from my original intention. Do my works tell a story….yes, but I will never completely know or be able to tell what that story is, for when work leaves my hand it takes on a life of its own, creating a conversation that is between it and the viewer, each of which brings their own mysteries.[/su_expand]

Window 3: Linda Vonderschmidt-La Stella

This is my contemporary version of the Medieval “Canticle of the Creatures”

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With joy we greet you Brother Sun and Blue Sky!
Ah, Sister Moon, such a comfort,
your soft glow companions us, and with the stars twinkling by your side,
you give us hope when life is darkest.
While the Weathers, fierce creatures that you are,
swirling rain and snow, winds and heat,
swaddle us in your wild caresses.
Ah, Sister Water, so soothing, refreshing, invigorating, playful,
and Brother Fire, cozy, bright, enlightening, ardent, both of you so useful.
You teach us how to be truly helpful
singing and dancing and making merry even as you serve.
O dear Earth, you are surely our Mother,
nourishing us with every good and delicious thing,
surrounding us with beautiful and engaging things,
providing us with furred and finned and feathered ones,
friends to enrich and enchant us.
But you are also most surely our Sister,
created by the hand of the same Mother/Father God;
we are born of the same with destinies linked.
Having been cared for all this time by you, our older Sister,
we now recognize that to go forward, we must walk hand-in-hand, conscious of each other’s needs.

And most fondly of all, we embrace the humanity of all humanity…the whole of what it means to be a human creature, spirit-embodied, both beautiful and disfigured, both charming and crude, both creatively boundless and yet utterly limited,

And we rejoice most especially when we can clasp the reality of all of that, and become a source of forgiveness and pardon and love to ourselves and others.

Finally, deeply encoded in our humanity, our continuing companion, Death, we call you Sister as well
…even as we name the nurturing creatures of Earth herself and Water and the Moon…
who, in your way, completes each of our bodily lives as we know them and frees our spirit from those confines.

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Bobbie Polton

During the height of the pandemic, our lives were dramatically altered. With limited social interaction, loneliness set in. My art responded in a new and unpredictable direction. Still using my signature lost treasures and found objects from industrial sites, I began to create a community of friends to help each other get through the day. This window, at Studio Montclair, gives you the opportunity to meet some of these Best Friends.