AH.... SPRING!
The long dark nights are behind us and Spring is slowly transforming the cool hills of New England.Tanagers, grosbeaks and hummingbirds are making their first appearances among the tender new leaves.The air is filled with the distinctive perfume of lilacs from tall bushes heavy with blossoms. Bumblebees delight in the violets, buttercups and bluets that throng in bare spaces between the grass.I have been buzzing with activity as well, inspired by the joyful transition and the delicate palette of Spring color in natural gemstones and vintage worldly components to create new designs to celebrate the season...Please visit  Deborah Garner Design to see what I've come up with. And if you see something you like, use DGDSPRING16 for a discount at checkout from 4/30-5/30. Enjoy!  

           

Matisse and DuBuffet at NYC's MOMA

The colorful paper that Matisse found such pleasure in cutting out and arranging into joyous visual celebrations in the last decade of his life, is the star attraction at MOMA, New York, from October 12th through February 8th. Simply called “The Cut-Outs”, it will undoubtedly offer saturated tropical color as succor for winter-weary visitors.

More somber in tone, but equally uplifting in its freedom of expression and bold experimentations in alternative and natural mediums is Dubuffet’s smaller exhibit called ,”The Soul of the Underground”.

What a feast for those  of us who appreciate the beauty beneath their feet, in shadow play, rusting metal and “untrained” art creation…

Dubuffet was one of the seminal promoters of naive art and responsible for its appellation, Art Brut, (Raw Art). 

He embraced the art of children, the insane and the art of non-Western cultures previously considered “primitive” by Western academic standards. 
About his own art-making,he says, “I would like people to see my work as a rehabilitation of scorned values and, in any case, make no mistake about it, a work of ardent celebration."

It truly is… 

Don’t miss this inspiring exhibition by the grandfather of Outsider Art from October 18th through April 5th!

Soul of the Underground by Jean Dubuffet

MOMA writes on their website: “Jean Dubuffet (French, 1901–1985) maintained a rebellious attitude toward prevailing notions of high culture, beauty, and good taste, and was a relentless innovator from the time he committed himself to art making in the early 1940s. Jean Dubuffet: Soul of the Underground, the first monographic presentation on the artist at MoMA in over 25 years, illuminates Dubuffet’s radical experimentation with form and material by focusing on the key moment in his career, from the 1940s to the mid-1960s. He mixed sand, gravel, and other materials into his pigments, applying them in layers with brushes and palette knives to create a thickened impasto, and then excavated images from them by scratching and scraping away with the pointed handle of his paintbrush. He revolutionized lithography, experimenting with textures by attacking lithographic stones with sandpaper, rags, and chemicals, and creating images with dirt, fruit peels, leaves, and other organic materials. Drawings in ink or gouache mimicked these feats of combination and re-combination, resulting in surfaces of decaying or ever-expanding membranes.”

Autumnal Abundance

Golden October is once again weaving her spell and dappling the hills with fiery color, as maple, beech and birch respond to cold nights and warm days.

It is a most magical season to be in New England... rampant beauty is popping up everywhere as each area reaches peak...The smell of smoke from recently lit wood stoves and the delicious aroma of wet earth, fallen leaves and fresh air is pervasive in my woods.
With brilliant blue skies and dappled sun, my earthbound form of Heaven manifests all around me...
The farmers' markets along the roads feature the abundance of the season and mountains of apples and mums delight the eye. Pumpkins, gourds and squashes in heirloom varieties add their unique shapes and colors to the sumptuous feast...

Visitors from around the country and the globe join us this weekend in celebrating these natural wonders.
Wishing you all a stunning Autumn, wherever you are...

 

The Blessings of Bears

The summer has been cool and fleeting here in New England.
Scattered throughout the lush woods, random maple leaves have assumed fiery shades and an early Autumn seems in our future. Most of us are having mixed feeling about that...
The vegetation has thrived with all the dramatic rain storms and berries and mushrooms have been abundant, bears as well.
The distinctively marked female that I have watched for over three years now has not been sighted, but her two cubs, now a year old have visited fairly often. The male was persistent in his pursuit of the battered old feeder, put out for the returning grosbeaks and songbirds, early on, but has been infrequent of late.
This has allowed the shy sister to bring her adorable three cubs by. She is so gentle with them and they are so mindful of her silent direction, that these brief glimpses of their relationship is a treasure.
They sit like amazingly well-mannered toddlers as she looks about until she urges them on, when they roll and tumble after her, playing tag in her wake. In a few minutes they are gone but I am blessed by the experience.
I have shared these woods with my ursine friends for 21 years and besides a missing feeder or two in the early Spring, I have never had other than courteous treatment from these beautiful, shy creatures.
I wish them all safe passage in the challenging seasons to come here in the wooded hills.

The Icy Grip of Winter...

Arctic vortexes bringing ice, snow and wind chills of -24 degrees F. have made the start of 2014 a challenge for those of us in New England.

Winter’s icy grip has even surprised the Deep South creating havoc on roads, freezing pipes and causing power outages there and throughout the USA.

New Englanders usually embrace the season and the magical transmutation that snow and silence conjure in rural pastures and wooded hills.

I share this enthusiasm, but bitter wind and slippery roads have made even usually stoic

friends moan and stay in to enjoy a good book beside the wood stove…

The plucky little chickadees and the assorted titmice, finches and juncos that hangout with them are enjoying the abundance of sunflower seeds I’ve been providing to keep them fueled up, as the North winds blow.

Likewise, the feral cats that inhabit these winter woods with owls, fishers, raccoons, coyotes and bobcats are out looking for nourishment. 

I love seeing the overlapping patterns their tracks make as they crisscross the yard.

They all seem to fare better than the deer eating my yew hedge down to the trunks and nibbling arbor vitae trees to far above their heads.

My heart goes out to all of them on these nights that fall well below zero.

The maple sugaring season is in the wings and preparations are being made to tap that golden nectar of the Yankee gods for another year.

Soon enough, we’ll be complaining about mud season on our 18^th C. dirt roads and Spring will be in the air.

But for now we’ll celebrate the brilliant sun on sparkling snow and the steady lengthening of the days…

Summer Solstice / Long Days Time

After many weeks of heavy rain, blustery wind, and fire in the woodstove to cancel the persistent chill, the Summer Solstice has arrived in splendid fashion.

Brilliant sun falls through the lush foliage, woven into a living tapestry around my woodland home.

Golden-green light suffuses the air, as tree boughs bend and dip in the benign breeze.

The resident creatures emit a collective sigh of pleasure to find themselves under a cerulean sky, basking in warm sun or lolling in cool shade, after a challenging spring.

The nesting birds have had the hardest time, violently tossed about in the frequent storms as arctic fronts clashed with humid weather from the south.

It seems the black bears have fared better. They shyly emerge in my yard from time to time, coats glossy blue-black and radiating good health, despite the long winter and raw spring.

Butterflies and bees seem more plentiful this year, as the late-blooming rhododendron opens her fuchsia flowers and irresistibly draws them near, en masse.

The Long Days Time arrives with the Solstice, as Nature starts to slow her pace and put efforts toward the growing fruit. The Long Days Time announces the fulfillment of spring’s promise of abundance resulting from a firm rooting in the Earth. It is the first of the three cycles of the summer season

 Today is the height of the year, the Zenith Sun, the longest day and shortest night…

It was a magical time in cultures around the world for many centuries. Bonfires blazed and blessings were petitioned for with cake and ale…

It is still a cherished time for humanity as a whole, as we slow down and savor the beauty of the season.

May your gardens be fruitful and good times plentiful, as you gather to celebrate the summer days to come.

A Sparkling Winter's Day

The snow is deep again in these craggy New England hills.

A surprise thaw had removed it all and then the “historic” storm replaced it, days later. We bask today in brilliant sun, reflecting off the pristine layer that arrived in the hours before dawn.

I ventured out on snowshoes into my woods early this morning, to savor the beauty and enjoy the crisp, fresh air. As I crunched along an old logging road I was accompanied by a cheerful band of chickadees that are my daily companions during the winter months.

The male cardinals were beginning to call, hidden atop the hemlock trees, sadly depriving me of their brilliant crimson plumage on this Valentine’s Day.

I crossed many trails of deer, their deep footprints a shadowy blue in the diagonals of sunlight falling through the bare trees. I had spotted a young doe after the melt and was shocked to see a young fawn trying to keep up with her. It was good to see no signs of them in the mounting drifts. The erratic weather has upset all the natural cycles it seems.

The distinctive print of a lone wolf soon caught my eye, snaking back and forth through the deer tracks. Sometimes he howls late at night advertising for a new companion. He lost his mate two or three winters ago now. I thought I heard an answer once but way off in the distance.

Red foxes are courting despite the chill and barred owls shout out their ardent mating calls. Love is indeed in the air…

Many cold days still lay ahead, but one by one, we persevere, we make it through the darkness of another winter and into the light of Spring.

 

Hang in there, oh despairing ones… and a happy Valentine’s Day to each and all!

"Painting with Beads"

Before the richly saturated colors of Autumn transform the landscape, I am finding the last blasts of summer floral color against the endless green inspiring.
For talented tribal artists and artisans around the world, the primary colors in the form of tiny seed beads transform personal and utilitarian objects into portable works of art.
Nimble fingers sew, string, and embed red, yellow, blue, black, white beads into traditional geometric or organic patterns from nature that have deep significance to their cultural backgrounds. Others may just express the maker's sheer joy of beauty and the pleasure derived from art making.
Either way, I will consciously take inspiration from the women before me who "paint" so effectively with tiny glass beads.
And I'll hope to emulate their patience and humor as I begin my Fall designs in the stones, beads and silver that I have gathered for this purpose. Especially when less than nimble fingers let a loaded strand slip and send beads rolling across the studio floor!
Here's a glimpse of beaded treasure from my collection that will stoke my creative fires...

 

The Last Days of Summer...

Where have the days, weeks, months gone....
As we kick off the last official holiday weekend of the Summer here in the US, I am feeling a bit befuddled.
The lush green foliage is still abundant but tell-tale signs of an early Autumn are everywhere.
The resident wildlife is obviously confused as well, the hummingbirds are still about and a mama bear had two darling but very young cubs following her several weeks back.
The cats and I will take advantage of the perfect weather and relax outdoors surrounded by the chorus of crickets, cicadas and wood frogs ... Wishing you and yours a most enjoyable Labor Day!

Deborah Garner at Gallery in the Woods, April Opening

The earliest Spring in memory followed the icy start to March.
Now, as the final days of this fickle month are here, we have gone from
the sweet songs of Spring peepers and flowering forsythia back to the chilly blasts of Arctic air.

The poor goldfinches are mottled in olive and yellow not knowing whether to fully commit or not…
The rest of us motley humans are committed, and not looking back, despite the low readings on the thermometer at night!

In that spirit, April 6th is the second opening for my painting exhibition “Glimpsing Apeiron” at Gallery in the Woods in Brattleboro,Vermont.
This first Gallery Walk of the season is always a party, as people turnout in droves to celebrate the longer days and local artists.

Besides my work, there are lots of fine arts and crafts to be savored and our opening’s live musical guests will be Jesse Lepkoff and friends playing sultry Bossa Nova from 6 pm - 8:30 pm. Many of the 40 or so exhibits around town will feature live music as well…

The oil painting shown here is a diptych that measures 6' x 4' called "Tsunami". It was being painted last year when the tragic tsunami struck Japan and was my reflection on the plethora of global natural disasters and mankind continuing to do business as usual, leaving the animals to attempt to migrate around it all.

It is featured in this exhibition and has received a lot of favorable attention,I'm happy to say.

If you find yourself in Western Massachusetts or Southern Vermont please come on out and support the Arts in downtown Brattleboro!
Hoping to see many familiar faces there!

“Glimpsing Apeiron” New Work by Deborah Garner at Gallery in the Woods

March has slipped into these wooded hills dressed in white.
Great dollops of snow bend hemlocks and transform bare branches into lacy latticework.
Snowflakes spin and swoop in a dizzy dance in the restless air.
Chickadees and goldfinches compete with a huge flock of smoke colored juncos for seeds in the drifts.
After a mild season, most of us had our sights set on an early Spring as the calendar changed.
But March is always a tempestuous month and coolly says “wait and see”…

Tomorrow night in Brattleboro,Vermont is “Gallery Walk”, the monthly celebration of the arts. A snowy start just adds to the fun in these parts, where most have bemoaned the lack of the white stuff all winter.
My feature show “Glimpsing Apeiron” will open at Gallery in the Woods
(145 Main St.) at this time and continue through the end of April.

This always inspiring venue will also be hopping with live music by the Moondogs.
A good time will be had by all who venture out!

The new work on canvas and paper continues to explore abstraction, energetic line and dynamic color. To me it reflects the animating energy of the Universe. The Greek philosophers termed this primal source “apeiron” and defined it as “that from which all being comes and into which it returns”. This seemed to eloquently express what I aspire to describe in my paintings.
During the show I look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new folks who feel art is essential, even ( or especially) in challenging times!

To see what else is happening in Brattleboro on any given day, checkout www.brattleborology.com for the inside scoop!
These guys do a great job keeping up with all the creative arts in the area.

The End of an Era ... Irma Bailey

Who would have ever guessed back in 1981 when a humongous motor home with plates from New Mexico squeezed down Divinity Ave. in Cambridge, Massachusetts and somehow, miraculously, found a parking space, that lives would be changed?
At the helm, a mountain of a man, a gigantic personality with an intellect to match, chain smoking cigarettes and deftly summing up all the individuals who crossed his path with precision.
Beside him, in the passenger seat was his sweetly smiling, petite wife of many years.
They appeared out of nowhere, no appointment was on the docket and I, as the new buyer for the Peabody Museum Shop at Harvard, was soon invited by soft spoken Irma Bailey, wearing her weight in precious Native American turquoise and silver jewelry, to come outside and “take a look”. Her blue eyes twinkled as I was encouraged to open drawer after drawer of stunning coral, turquoise, and silver necklaces, belts etc. It was like entering a vault of incredibly beautiful treasure.
Thus began three decades of friendship and mentorship. Wayne Bailey had lived and worked closely with over 30 Native American tribes, respecting each and respected by all in return. He was incredibly knowledgeable about tribal traditions and soon was sharing information with anthropologists at the Peabody. Ten years later Wayne had a heart attack while on the road in Massachusetts ironically enroute to see my partner and I.
Who would have imagined in less than a year Irma would secure a driver and get back out on the road she loved, to create special fund raising events and exhibitions at museums all over the country. She had over two dozen shows at Harvard and was loved dearly by staff and all who met her. She blossomed in her seventies, encouraging everyone she met to do what they loved. Despite failing eyesight and physical problems due to her age, her mind was sharp, her spirit indefatigable and her sense of humor irresistible.
While entertaining friends in Albuquerque on January 5, 2012 Irma had a massive stroke and surrounded by loving friends she left us on January 9th. She wished no fanfare, just a graceful exit.
Her spirit is now free of the shackles of old age and she lives forever in the hearts of legions of admirers and close friends. She has also proven to be an inspiration as she set the bar high...
May we all aspire to be as open-minded and open-hearted as this remarkable woman, who changed the world of all who knew her by simply being herself.
Well done, Irma! Yours was a long life, well-lived…
Thank you for graciously sharing it with all of us! May we follow in your footsteps!

Photo by Jose Falconi

Hats Off to the New Year!

It is a crisp, clear night, here in the hills.
A fresh layer of snow covers the now frozen ground and softly reflects the waxing moon.
The fire cracks and pops in the woodstove from still damp wood, lately gathered in.
The holidays are behind us, a new year has been delivered and it is back to work.
My first project involves documenting a charming assortment of headdresses and hats from tribal peoples around the world.
Before me lay peaked caps with long trains sewn from black cotton and lavishly embroidered in red, gold and green silk floss. Satin stitch and petit-point create the Tree of Life, solar wheels and stylized ram’s horns, all vitality symbols, all charms for the new life that will wear them.
These handsome headdresses are made by mothers in Kohistan, N. Pakistan. The long train protects their newborns from the chill winds and the symbols welcome them to this world with hopes for a strong and vital life-force. Supplementing the embroidered designs are old coins, tiny white seed beads, metal circular charms and shiny buttons to deflect misfortune and attract wealth and prosperity.
I marvel at the creativity and skill of their makers and think of the love that went into each stitch and collected ornament of this traditional tribal culture now living in the 21st Century.
New life, new beginnings, New Year…
May their world and ours be blessed in all the days to come.

Elegant Artistry

The golden days of Autumn have been transient and few here in the hills.
The water-logged forests are just starting to display the reds and fiery oranges,
hallmarks of this special season.
Many of the stressed trees yellowed early and gave up their leaves in weariness, soon after the torrential rains of Irene withdrew.
Now rain has come again, too soon for all still relishing the bit of Indian Summer that blessed us last week.
Days are getting shorter and this afternoon’s dim light sets the stage for the season of introspection to come.
I am indoors, happily lost in the natural beauty of smooth oval beads of metamorphic limestone.
Minerals and dendrites have imbued them with finely detailed landscapes, abstract patterns and subtle gradations of tone that rival Chinese ink paintings.
I have had the pleasure of looking at each one and arranging them into poetic strands evolving into necklaces.
Soon they will make others wonder at the patterns on their deliciously smooth surfaces…but for this moment, I hold these myriad small worlds in my hands and sigh.
Nature’s artistry sets a standard that mere mortals will rarely match…
But the inspiration is visceral, heady and sweet…

Tribal Treasures on a Summer Afternoon

Cicadas drone, crickets chirp in the lush green hills.

The humidity is noticeable, but not unpleasant, as I sip a small cup of expresso and admire the cache of heavy silver bracelets on the homespun indigo cloth before me.
The light skims along edges and among patterns of incised and repoussed design.
Ancient spirals, floral discs, twisting scales and peacock feathers, reveal themselves in glints and shadow on the cool metal.

Though in New England now, each piece brings up memories of steamier days in Southeast Asia and the thrill of discovering something authentic in the mishmash of forgeries and tourist pieces that have dominated the Asian art markets for several decades.

As the world becomes smaller and traditional cultures tweet and surf the web,
it is gratifying to know that art historians and anthropologists are still researching and recording the traditional cultures of tribal peoples in these rapidly changing times.

In many Southeast Asian groups, jewelry forms reflect Neolithic and Bronze Age art, animist religion and represent the microscopic view of the universe. The lovely old patina from wear and use adds to the visual power of these handsome dance objects.

The Barbier-Muller Museum in Geneva holds a treasure trove of traditional jewelry from Indonesia,Malaysia and the Philippines. They traveled a breath-taking exhibit called Power and Gold back in 1985 and the catalog by that name is a must have for those interested in such things. In 2000, Anne Richter gave us The Jewelry of Southeast Asia , her wonderfully insightful study of the history and cultural impacts of ancient as well as dominant cultures of the region on jewelry design.

I’ve enjoyed re-reading these books as I researched these bracelets which are now up on my website. Go to www.deborahgarnercollection.com to learn more, then choose Adornments/Asia /1. and click on the thumbnails.

Complete book information is given in the text, if you want to enter this fascinating world via these lovely objects.
It is truly a rich feast.

"Energetic Revelations" New Work by Deborah Garner

Two years of exploration have culminated in a body of work being currently shown at Augusta Savage Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
This is the introduction to my process given at the opening May2,2011 at the request of viewers.
The work can be seen in a slide show at http://www.artistsofleyden.org
“Energetic Revelations” refers to the spontaneous and intuitive approach that was taken in creating this body of work. It was my goal to disassociate from the end result, to forgo conscious intellectual judgment during the process and keep my artistic ego in the background as much as it is humanly possible. I wanted as direct a means of expression as I could put on paper and later on canvas.
This journey began two years ago when I had the good fortune to collaborate on an interactive art work that was presented at the Zendai Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai. After visiting the Shanghai Museum and deepening my appreciation of Chinese ink paintings, I purchased some horse hair calligraphy brushes and determined to explore traditional Chinese painting on my own.
The results were humbling and discouraging. The dynamic characters I tried to copy were clumsy and wooden from my untrained hand, but the brushes were divine. I loved their flexibility and responsiveness to the tiniest movement. It was like holding the reins on a thoroughbred racehorse. I could feel the potential of these instruments. To my delight, I found that if I held the brush at the handle’s end and let it respond to the most subtle gesture, a wonderfully graceful and expressive line was created. I had to disconnect from trying to control the results and let the ink loaded brush lead the way.
It became a visual dance as I tenuously released fear and gave myself over to the process. I blurred my vision by squinting so I couldn’t judge what was being put down and soon marvelous forms were revealed. It was instantaneous and required me to literally “go with the flow”.
The speed was exhilarating and the slightest hesitancy immediately created a train wreck…
I began to trust the process and work larger, eventually using a dowel with my brush taped on the end to get more physical distance and worked with the paper on the floor, as I stood over it.
I had feelings of lyrical verse flowing from the brush in the smaller works and the early large ones. I felt they were melodious, whispered poetic phrases. But soon I felt I was taking urgent dictation from a different “voice”.
Later I noticed that these strong expressions seemed to coincide with natural disasters and dramatic weather events…it was like Earth herself was urging me to pay attention to what is going on. Heat waves, volcanoes, hurricanes, microbursts, the Gulf oil disaster all were recorded here. As an interesting aside, I do not have television reception in the wooded hills where I live. I had limited exposure to visuals online prior to and during this work. This added to the sense of surprise when obvious correlations were discovered.
As a dealer in the traditional arts of tribal peoples for the past 30 years, I have a background in cultural anthropology. The mark making that became primitive alphabets and sacred calligraphy were ultimately symbols of power, the word made visible.They were transmitted to shaman/priests from the world of spirit or Divine realm in ritualized settings.
All cultures have examples of this. The earliest Chinese characters were etched onto oracle bones in 2,000 BC/CE. Other examples include Nordic runes, Haitian ve-ve, and Arabic calligraphy. In South East Asia it is still practiced today by animist -Buddhist monks of great power.
In 19th C. psychiatry this method of intuitive discourse was termed “automatic writing”. The Surrealists felt that automatism was a higher form of behavior than the constrictive reflexive one that psychiatrists deemed it to be. They believed that automatism directly expressed the creative force of the unconscious in art. It became part of their Manifesto and the cornerstone of Surrealism.
Andre Masson led the charge in the Surrealist circle with automatic drawing and poetry writing. Later the leading lights of the Abstract Expressionists: Pollack, Krasner, de Kooning, Motherwell and Kline all met regularly to experiment with spontaneous drawing, poetry and introduced various glyphs and calligraphic elements into their paintings. Other New York artists of the 1940-50s, Pousette-Dart, Twarkov , Tomlin and Gottlieb developed work around these themes as well. Interestingly, many of these artists were aware of and interested in ethnographic art termed “Primitive Art” at the time and read books on anthropology and Jungian psychology. I have enjoyed discovering affinities with these action/gesture painters.
Many artists outside of these circles created a similar visual language at a slower
Speed, most notably Miro, Klee, Mark Tobey, especially his White Writing series, Brice Marden and Cy Twombly.
There are so many I have yet to discover that found themselves on this path during their experimentation. I love the synchronicity of discovering other kindred spirit painters at just the right moment.
In my personal approach to direct painting in oil, I found the gestural flow translated differently in the viscous nature of the paint. Spontaneity was curtailed by the drying time between layers. What resulted was more of a short hand dictation in some cases and calligraphic arabesques in others. As in the works on paper, intellectual premeditation was avoided and the finished works were still “revelations” to me…
My art making has in turn been visionary and symbolist for the past decade.
This foray into abstraction has opened me to infinite possibilities of expression and I can tell that it has only just begun.

Google Art Project: Check it out!

As yet another massive storm dumps two feet of snow onto of the already substantial ground cover, cabin fever begins to intrude upon the tranquility of these woods.
The cats have chosen to sleep off the dream of winter, but for us humans, an exciting new cyber adventure has been provided by the new Google Art Project.
This incredible website permits one to wander at will through actual galleries via street cam technology of over a dozen major museums worldwide. You can zoom in to see brushstrokes in paintings, watch commentaries by curators and related videos on You Tube and even create your own collection….I’ve already got my eclectic collection started with William Blake’s “Ghost of a Flea” from the Tate, London and a smattering of tribal offering from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
What a fabulous way to spend a snow day or any free time and expand your knowledge of art history and world museums… As a museum lover and artist, I could get lost in here for days.
Check out their intro tutorial to see all the possibilities this site offers.
Thank you Google and all the museums that participated in launching this project!
What a wonderful resource!

Dazzling Seminole Patchwork

The colorful and dynamic ceremonial attire of the native peoples of the Florida Everglades is instantly recognizable. The patterns are evolving into more and more complex work even while referencing antique forms based on the natural environment.

Patchwork designed skirts, “ohoone”, are the traditional attire for Seminole and Miccosukee women, to be worn for the New Year ceremony known as the Green Corn Dance. Before the arrival of Europeans, Woodlands Indians from the Northeast to the Southeast participated in this ritual.

The Green Corn Dance is held to mark the height of the new growing season. Taking place during the new moon phase of the “Everything Growing Moon”, which usually falls around the end of June or first of July. It is a time of purification and cleansing, as well as a celebration of a year of new life. The ceremony itself extends over several days and involves dancing, singing, and a ritual ballgame.

Besides the sacred nature of this ceremony of renewal, it is a social time for the local Native community to see and be seen in dazzling and colorful patchwork clothes. The women have been making skirts and jackets for themselves and their families all year long. Until fairly recently a Seminole or Miccosukee adult woman may require three or more long skirts to be properly attired during the duration of the event. This was very costly in terms of material and time required to produce such elaborate work.

Many young people today favor jeans and tee-shirts with a small amount of patchwork on a hat or jacket, although many are making simple patchwork articles to sell to tourists.

As each year’s dance ritually requires new clothing, ones from previous years serve no ceremonial purpose. More care is taken in design and execution in clothing produced for family than patchwork made for the tourists passing through the reservations.

These skirts were collected after they had been worn for the Green Corn Dances of the 1970s and 1980s. Names of the makers were recorded when that information was available but the Miccosukee are very private and sometimes reluctant to divulge that information.

The beauty and aesthetic appeal of the dazzling patterns prove them to be a collectible, traditional Native American art form. The creation of complex patchwork patterns with mosaic- like fragments of cloth is labor-intensive work that is admired and seen as expression of identity within the Miccosukee and Seminole communities. It is also highly appreciated by other Native American peoples and textile lovers around the world.

To see examples and learn more please visit my web site www.deborahgarnercollection.com.
Go to Textile Arts/ Americas

September in Santa Fe

Santa Fe is special in any season but September brings forth visual delights and olfactory pleasures that note the arrival of autumn.


I was lucky enough to find myself in the high desert under the full moon at the recent equinox. Rain had at last come to the parched earth and every living thing seemed to rejoice. The sagebrush seemed luminous against the saturated lavender-grey earth and myriad indescribable shades of sea greens glowed as the heavy clouds passed over.


Huge clumps of golden-flowered chamisa were everywhere, here and there joined by purple asters. Aspen leaves had turned to yellow and the cottonwoods were following their lead. Roasting chili peppers and pinon smoke wafted through the air,the traditional incense in this ancient land.


No wonder so many artists and writers have found inspiration here.


The Museum of International Folk Art sits high up Camino Lejo on Museum Hill with three other fine museums. MOIFA houses the world’s largest collection of traditional folk art from around the globe and is a feast of color, texture, and form. They also have one of the finest collections of traditional costume from around the world in their collections.


Curator Bobbie Sumberg has put up a carefully selected exhibition called “Material World” which features stunning examples from the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Near East many from the 19th C. She has written a richly illustrated catalog of the same name to accompany it which is available in the museum bookstore.


For a sampler of the treasures to be found there visit http://www.moifa.org/

Filled with Southwest soul food: beef and chile tamales from Santa Domingo Pueblo,
perfectly seasoned pinto beans, butterfly shaped bread hot from earthen ovens and lemon yellow melons, I gathered up the inventory soon to be online http://deborahgarnercollection.com and headed back to New England against a watermelon pink sunrise.


Arriving home I was startled to see how quickly peak foliage season is arriving in the hills. Soon the local autumn pleasures of fiery maple trees, apple cider and mountains of pumpkins will fill my senses and New Mexico will be a world away.
Until then, I will savor both.
Wishing you all the pleasures of this special season…

Make Time for "Picasso Looks at Degas"

“Picasso Looks at Degas” is a visual picnic for a summer’s day!

This delightful exhibition at The Clark in Williamstown, MA displays many small works that are gems, such as Picasso’s powerful self-portrait as a young man in charcoal and the exquisite chalk portrait of his father. Degas is represented by dark and dreamy monotypes and charcoal sketches of bathers formed of elegant line and form. Large paintings by both artists of women at work ironing, washing their hair, or plying their trade on stage and in brothels are placed in close proximity.

Through the catalogue and signage we learn that most were Picasso’s interpretation of earlier works by Degas. It is humorous at times and awe-inspiring at others as we witness the risks and innovation both artists pursued to capture their subject. Large scale preliminary drawings by Degas in slashing gestured lines and animated ink washes held me transfixed for some time. They look vital, alive and totally contemporary where Picasso’s now “classic modern-isms” seem dated to the viewer today.

As introduction to the theme of this exhibition the curator states:
“Pablo Picasso is said to have remarked that "good artists copy; great artists steal." Throughout his long and prolific career, Picasso often made works of art in response to his predecessors, "quoting" famous compositions by Rembrandt, Delacroix, Manet, and others in his own paintings. In his youth, contemporaries also noted the influence of Edgar Degas in Picasso's paintings of cabarets and cafés, portraits, women bathing, and ballet dancers—subjects that had come to define the older French artist's work.”

“When he moved to Paris in 1904, Picasso lived in the same neighborhood as Degas, though they apparently never met. Despite striking differences in character, they shared many preoccupations. Both were artistic revolutionaries, yet much of their work was based on the human figure and informed by their knowledge of the past. They were both superb draftsmen who also experimented radically with sculpture, printmaking, and photography. Picasso's interest in Degas even inspired a series of etchings, made late in his career, in which Picasso depicted Degas himself, a final act of homage to the older man.”

If you find yourself in the Berkshires this summer put “Picasso Looks at Degas” on your must-do list. If you are too far away between now and September 12th, visit it online at http:www.clark.edu for a taste.