Window1: Marisol Ross

Baseball is nostalgic, forever tied to childhood, of what was and is always good. In a world of constant change, the one constant is Baseball. I strive to capture the universal, spiritual magic through these Polymer Clay Paintings. These are authentic, historical, Baseball highlights. My hope is to spark a joyful memory that transports the viewer to an all-inclusive, shared emotional feeling.

I grew up in the Bronx and went to college in New York City. I was a vendor at Yankee Stadium as a teenager and into college. This continuing love for baseball influences and reflects in my work.

Window 2: Kathleen Yemm

Inner city born and bred, I am without formal training, but my elementary school teachers encouraged my creativity by sending me home at the end of each term with a pile of paper and drawing materials that brightened my summer.[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”]  In my twenties, I regularly placed first in amateur shows: Chatham, Fishawack Festival, Garden State Cultural Council, Irvington Art Association, Ocean County Artists Guild, Verona Arts Council, West Essex Art Association, West Hudson Community Arts Festival, etc. Now, some forty years later, I am beginning where I left off.

In contrast to the concrete, asphalt, and blacktop out of which I grew, I am these days finding myself drawn to nature as my subject matter, even as my
background remains in spirit. Those neighborhoods of my youth were impoverished but rich in color and texture, and plants so well portray mysteries of wilderness and cultivation. My outsider art aspires to access a diversity of blossoming consciousness.

As my life, like most, has rarely been in balance, so is my work asymmetrical, gently seeking fresh perspectives.
And shapes?—sometimes I want to reduce an image to geometry (Water Lily unveils some of this inclination), and sometimes I want to evoke energy and motion in shapes (see Day Lily), while other pictures here express both elements coexisting on the canvas.

As for colors, most of mine are rich, but delicacy also entices me. My flowers’ hues evoke memories and sensations, personal and cultural. When I paint for
friends, I ask which colors they like, which always surprises them, as they expect the artist to tell them what is esthetically correct, while I prefer that they instantly feel pleasure at what they see on their walls, even as I hold to my visions.

Viewers’ experiences fascinate me. Many people sense the portrayed plant as such and also as a kind of landscape to traverse or even to enter, to fall into as if magnetized (as they describe Purple Plant). Some have described a flower (like Pansy) as looking so delicious that they want very thoroughly to savor it. Each sighting is different, with many messages, possibly contradicting, possibly reinforcing each other. Viewers’ imaginations make my audiences my co-creators.[/su_expand]

Window 3: DJ Dougherty

Nature, to me as it is with many people, is soothing. The wind blowing through leaves, the sounds of birds and distant water, the shape and color of clouds in the sky. When I paint, I try to bring that meditative calm to my paintings. I try to recreate, with oils, the presence of nature as it is, as it should be, a view, a glimpse, of a microcosm of the world that we can happily be lost in for a time.

Santino

Born in Astoria, N.Y. and raised in New Providence, N.J. my formal training is in music and photography. My abstract oil on canvas work, however, has opened a completely different method of expressing myself. Whether I am using a knife or brushes, my approach to the canvas is a very visceral experience for me. My ideas originate in the initial color palate but are driven by the emotions I associate with the subject. I enjoy creating texture on the canvas with differing consistencies of paint which  allows me to develop upon the original color scheme and more importantly focus my emotions toward the subject. Just as a songwriter’s lyrics can be interpreted differently for each listener, I hope that my work awakens some emotional response that is unique to the viewer.