Visited Dia Art Foundation in Beacon NY, with 8 of my favorite lady friends, on a crisp January afternoon.

photograms by www.kleamckenna.com

View in Instagram

Oh I absolutely love this article Why I adore the night, by Jeanette Winterson in The Guardian UK. I couldn’t agree more! The colder months are a perfect time to stay in and become more introspective.

A Sunset photo I took in magical Lake Tahoe last year.

Team Cozy in full effect!

Love to cuddle up with a good book.

…along with the puuurfect soundtrack.

Museo de Arte Moderno is situated in the middle of the large Chapultepec Park.  I wish all museums were surrounded by this many beautiful trees!  The museum is quite small but I saw two excellent exhibits  by female artists there.

The first was a show of paintings by Spanish-Mexican surrealist painter and anarchist Remedios Varo.  I immediately felt an affinity to her magic realist compositions.  Each image was composed perfectly, each representing it’s own dream world.

 

Remedios Varo with gato

painting with a mother of pearl face

The second show I saw was the “Open Process” exhibit, a partial anthology of the work of Marianna Dellekamp (born in 1968).

She is a multidisciplinary artist who employs a variety of mediums in her exploration of the conception and use of images. The exhibition Open Process shows a review of the work of Marianna Dellekamp, an artist who has experienced in exploring disciplines in various media, design and image applications. Throughout her career she has used photography to other research tools, including accumulating, reorder and meanings to different materials. Her work is directed in part to the practice field, where she establishes dialogues and perspectives with the image: the actual image taken from everyday life, confronted image with text or appropriation of objects as an image. Another interesting aspect lies in the concept of accumulation, an important principle for the development of her projects. In the 1990s works emerge arising from facts related images, actions and objects that surround her life: from body fluids microscopic shots to scenes or elements from the environment and that have meaning in the analysis of the social fabric.

gorgeous chandelier in the entrance

Georgia O’Keeffe watercoloring, photographed by her lover Alfred Stieglitz

This week I was heartbroken to hear of the passing of Sarah Charlesworth. It is strange because I have been thinking of her so much lately. Last weekend I had just watched the brilliant film “Guest of Cindy Sherman” which she appears in. I kept reminding myself to contact her, but I never did…

Sarah Charlesworth was my School of Visual Arts MFA in Photo thesis mentor in 2000/2001 and also a huge inspiration to me artistically and conceptually. She was the one that suggested I start doing my photograms on color transparency film instead of just making one of a kinds on paper. That way I could reproduce my work and create editions in the darkroom. I made This whole series on 8×10 film while studying under her guidance at SVA.

I am so thankful to have had Charlesworth and Traub as my teachers. They were so supportive of my very experimental work, especially at a time when the rest of my peers were mostly doing straight documentary and representational photography.

Here are the words from our department chair Charles H. Traub followed by a few of my favorite images by Sarah Charlesworth.

Prayers to her close family and friends.

Charlesworth in New York in 1990. (Photo by Anthony Barboza, courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery)

Dear All,

It is with great sadness and shock that I inform you of the untimely death of our friend, colleague, and mentor Sarah Charlesworth. Apparently, in the past 24 hours, she suffered a brain aneurysm and died without pain or suffering. This is a great loss to all of us personally and indeed to the extended cultural world of which she was a part. At this point, we do not know about funeral services or memorials, but will inform all at the appropriate time.

Sarah was a member of the School of Visual Arts’ Photography, Video & Related Media faculty for 23 years. She was a pillar of this program, a beloved teacher, and remarkable counsel for the issues and directions of our curriculum. Further, we all admired her for her enthusiasm and love of art and her diligence as an artist. She was a great one! Sarah connected the intellectual threads and currents between photography and the conceptual issues of the visual world through her work, which always stood on its own. Each piece was arresting, engaging the viewer in the sheer delight of its visual formation and in the conundrums with which it challenged its audience.

Sarah Charlesworth will be missed in uncountable ways. Her students, her friends, and particularly, her family, are her greatest tribute. This department’s condolences go out to all.

Charles H. Traub

My Botanicals exhibit opens today in Williamsburg.
bconte – 167 N9th St.
Opening is Friday May 3 6-9pm
On view until May 28