10th Annual Highlands Juried Art Exhbit
Morris Museum, Oct-Nov 2023
No Sound of Water
Michael Wolf
sculpture
Limestone, wood (cherry), 24k gold leaf, red oil paint
15 x 19 x 5.5 inches, 40 lbs.
$5,500
Title T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land is about loss, but can also be viewed as how our natural resources have been exploited. The gold section of the sculpture echoes the texture and reflection of running water. "And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only there is shadow under this red rock."
ARTIST INFO BELOW
"I grew up in northern New Jersey on the New York State border near the base of the Ramapo Mountains with a stream a few houses down from where I lived. As children, my cousins, who lived on the same street, spent hours playing in the woods and the stream, building things with the available fallen branches and rocks and giving me an appreciation of using our natural resources responsibly. In high school, I became interested in working with wood and eventually went on to study woodworking in art school. Wood is still my primary medium, and I find the raw material for many of my sculptures from wood that I find while hiking or driving. In this area of the country, many houses are made of wood. I use the archetypal house form as a metaphor for human experiences to invoke memories that reveal themselves as profoundly personal and universally resonant"
Michael Wolf is an NYC area artist whose work encompasses sculpture, installation, and drawing. Inspired by architectural forms, he uses them as a metaphor for the human experience. The desire for shelter physically and psychologically permeates his work. Wolf uses wood, stone, metal, and gold leaf to create contemporary art with an ongoing dialogue with history.
RECOGNITION
Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, Residency at Mana Contemporary 2020 NJ State Council on the Arts, Individual Fellowship Grant 1990 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Fellowship Grant 1998 Robert Rauschenberg: The Power of Art Award, 1997 Monmouth Museum, Honorable Mention 34th Annual Juried Art Exhibition 2012 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Mini-Grants 1999-2008 NJ State Council on the Arts, Residency Artist-Teacher Institute 1996 Sam Maloof Scholarship, Anderson Ranch Arts Center 1988 Sculptors Guild, Board Member 2014 - current
SPEAKING
Princeton Alumni NYC, Studio visit & discussion, virtual, 2022 Virtual Studio Visit, Center for Contemporary Arts, Bedminster, NJ 2020 Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation, The Materials and Methods of Chaim Gross 2019 Newark Museum, The Newark Museum Through The Eyes Of Gallery Aferro Artists, Gallery Tour 2017 College of St. Elizabeth, Sanctuary a Holocaust Remembrance 2008
CURATION
Poetry and Prose, Governors Island, NY, NY 2014 Arthur, Curatorial app, Internet 2022
ARTS WRITERArt Zealous, Contributing Writer 2016-2021 Whitehot Magazine, Contributing Writer 2022- currently
EDUCATION
MFA William Paterson University
MA Kean College
BFA Philadelphia College of Art
TEACHING
Visual Arts Center of NJ, Bronze Casting, Direct Carving William Paterson University, Sculpture, 3-Dimensional Design, Life Drawing Kean University Bloomfield College Newark Museum
Walking Within: February 25, 1978- April 22, 1978
Elie Porter Trubert
sculpture
ash slice with emerald ash borer
galleries, wild clay mixed with Mica and
the ash of burned journal pages
15” - 20” wide and 5” - 7” high
$1,500
'or scroll down
PURCHASE INQUIRIES:
973-910-2400
highlandsart@njhighlandscoalition.org
Waliking Within: March 8, 1992 - June 8, 1993
Elie Porter Trubert
sculpture
ash slice with emerald ash borer galleries, wild clay shaped around journal pages and burned out in a Weber grill
15” - 20” wide and 5” - 7” high
$1,500
'or scroll down
PURCHASE INQUIRIES:
973-910-2400
highlandsart@njhighlandscoalition.org
Walking Within: September 24, 1999 - September 13, 2008
Elie Porter Trubert
sculpture
Ash slice with emerald ash borer galleries, wild clay wrapped around balled up journal pages
5” -7"h x 15” - 20”h x 15'-20"w x
$1,500
'or scroll down
PURCHASE INQUIRIES:
973-910-2400
highlandsart@njhighlandscoalition.org
Walking Within: September 24, 1999 - September 13, 2008
"Ash tree cookie with Emerald Ash Borer galleries, wild clay mixed with Mica and the ashes of burned journal pages and fired, misplaced trust and naivete, ceaseless thoughts about boys, the days of phone calls on landlines and letters in the mailbox from boys, looking at art and drinking in bars in NYC, parental constraints, basement parties, teenage taste in music, breaking curfew, he loves me he loves me not, dances, the freedom that comes with driving
I have a creative walking practice that I call “walking within,’ that involves the creation of ephemeral, site specific sculptural works assembled from gathered natural materials, and alludes to impermanence, interconnectedness, and attunement. In this new work I have directed my footsteps inward to retrace my own life path.
ARTIST INFO BELOW
Waliking Within: March 8, 1992 - June 8, 1993
Ash tree cookie with Emerald Ash Borer galleries, wild clay shaped around journal pages and burned out in a Weber grill and raku-fired, step-motherhood and his ex-wife, planning to open a restaurant, long distance parental stifling and related fear of risk, the time I slept on the couch, “you’re right” syndrome, pregnant, alone and afraid, early marital ups and downs and downs, those big and deep thoughts, chanting, meditating, puking, money worries, hysterics, dreams, dreams, dreams, changing body shape, bleeding gums and cavities, pregnancy – why do we do it?, twisting and turning, the kind of mother I don’t want to be, love and joy surfaces, the in-laws or history on repeat, male attention-grabbing, maternity jeans worth crying over, uh-oh bed rest, fear, desire!, an episiotomy?, the small mammal, love? Love
I have a creative walking practice that I call “walking within,’ that involves the creation of ephemeral, site specific sculptural works assembled from gathered natural materials, and alludes to impermanence, interconnectedness, and attunement. In this new work I have directed my footsteps inward to retrace my own life path.
ARTIST INFO BELOW
Walking Within: September 24, 1999 - September 13, 2008
Ash tree cookie with Emerald Ash Borer galleries, wild clay wrapped around tightly balled up journal pages and wood-fired, marital bickering, closing the cafe, the start of chronic insomnia, snuggles and giggles, an anti-climactic eve of the new millennium, my work-parenting conflict intensifies, missing my brother, boiling it all down, human and feline life and death, snow, small town small-mindedness and a lawsuit, that wonderful island vacation we had without kids and the less successful blended one, 9-11, searching for balance and not realizing yet that it would be my life work, living with a pre-adolescent, full-on burn-out, the what ifs, the trade-offs
I have a creative walking practice that I call “walking within,’ that involves the creation of ephemeral, site specific sculptural works assembled from gathered natural materials, and alludes to impermanence, interconnectedness, and attunement. In this new work I have directed my footsteps inward to retrace my own life path.
ARTIST INFO BELOW
A New Jersey native, I have lived in the Highlands region for most of my life. My work spans a variety of media including sculpture, installation, audio, video, and photography. It is driven by a deep connection to nature, concern for the environment, and an interest in non-traditional art spaces.
I have an ongoing contemplative walking practice that involves the creation of ephemeral, site specific sculptural works assembled from carefully gathered natural materials. I create “circle meditations” on my walks and leave them for human and more-than-human others to find. Ultimately they will be washed or blown away, or changed by natural processes. These pieces allude to impermanence, interconnectedness, and attunement.
As a result of much time spent in nature, I have developed a process and approach for a “walking-within” practice intended to foster a thoughtful relationship that is healing, consensual, and reciprocal and have shared this practice on guided walks. Recently, I have directed my footsteps inward from an outer, physical process to an inner, metaphorical one, and begun to retrace my own life path.
I have kept a diary or journal for most of my life and have boxes of them that I’ve often wondered what to do with in the long term. I have started to transform them into twelve clay vessels each, that are placed in a circle. The circle is rich in the symbolism of unity, wholeness, and eternity. It is non-linear and anti-hierarchical, and in this iteration, it represents life cycles, time, a clock, a calendar, lunar cycles, planets.
Each journal is transformed using a different process or ritual, encased in wild New Jersey clay, and often stamped with the dates it was written. The ceramic techniques vary as well as the firing methods. Before altering the journals, I read them and transcribe excerpts from each entry. These become written or audio poems that accompany the journals in their new forms.
Elie Porter Trubert grew up in Morris County, the daughter of parents who were active local environmentalists, and now lives near the Musconetcong River in Hunterdon County. She has exhibited widely, most recently at M Galleries PNA (Washington, NJ) and the Art Alliance of Monmouth County (Red Bank, NJ), as well as Sala752 in Zaczernie, Poland and ASC Gallery in London, England. In addition, she has created a series of site specific installations at Whittemore - Community, Culture and Conservation (Oldwick, NJ).
A long-time nonprofit arts leader, Elie was the Executive Director of The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ for eleven years. Prior to that she led the Development and Communications Department at the Visual Art Center of New Jersey and the Hunterdon art Museum, and the Development Department at Morris Arts. She has a BA Studio Art from Kenyon College, participated in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, and is an MFA candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of New Mexico.
Mother Earth
Barry Zawacki
Sculpture
ceramic with impressions of tree bark, with ceramic sphere representing the earth, on a wooden base
22"h x 12"w x 9"d
$350
Barry's work embodies the simplicity of color and form in and through nature, reflecting both the artist's reverence for our environment and his ability to abstract the essence of gesture in natural forms using clay, recycled materials and items found in nature. This piece was inspired by the Highlands.
9. Anderson Woods Stream
Peter Allen
sculpture
bronze steel and enamel paint
$10,000
I grew up and live next to the waterfalls and stream in the Highlands, filled still in my mind with memories of swimming holes and trout fishig. I use the water to model the sculpture after.
ARTIST INFO BELOW
Peter is an outdoor sculpture artist, a resident of the NJ Highlands. His figures in landscapes as a sculptor and painter have been a lifelong passion. He continues to keep making new art by remaining close to form and nature through modelling wax and clay figures and welding cast bronze into stone constructions.
Peter is an alumni of Brandeis University and School of the Visual Arts. He received training at Johnson Atelier in Hamilton, NJ as a foundry apprentice where in afterhours he made his own sculptures and worked with the bronzes of Louise Bougeoise, Joel Shapiro, George Segal, Issac Witkin and Seward Johnson.
He has had numerous art exhibits and also taught and lectured at his Morristown studio.
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PHONE: 973-910-2400
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