For more information, call John at 460-9286 or Ryan at 778-5322.

The Gallery is set up for art teachers to run own art classes. For more information call Simona Gavern, at 877-3900. Feel free to inform other teachers as well.

Boats

Ripples throughout Space

Annmarie Ciccarelli and Heather Martyak will be having an exhibit of their paintings from March 1-30, 2012 at the AFA Gallery in Scranton.  There will be an opening reception on First Friday, March 2nd from 6-9 PM

Annmarie Ciccarelli received her BA in Visual Art from Keystone College. Her work is abstract, combining bold color with organic and geometric shapes. She has exhibited her work throughout the region in juried and group exhibitions. Annmarie is an Artist in Residence with the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts. She was awarded a Lackawanna County Arts and Culture Grant in 2010 for a collaborative project.

Annmarie draws inspiration from her surroundings.  She says, “Scranton, a city that I couldn’t wait to leave, has now become home to me. With a renewed acceptance I view my home with new eyes. I peel away the most interesting shapes, reflections, and shadows. Together they create a pattern of shapes which then breathe new life into what was there already, a reflection of myself and the beauty of the city that is my home.”

Heather Martyak has received both an Associate of Fine Arts degree and her BA in Visual Arts from Keystone College.  She continues to work as an artist both personally and professionally.  Heather’s inspiration comes from nature and a connection to something greater in the universe.  “I appreciate that life is made up of the tiniest particles joining together, working in harmony and forming a larger more beautiful whole.”

Her paintings have been exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally including commissioned works and murals.  She is currently working to nurture creativity and art exploration with preschool children at the Endless Mountains Learning Center in New Milford.

This Open Call is offering More Prizes than Ever. An esteemed panel of jurors will select 4 Winners to be named the Grand Prize Recipients in Art, Photography, Graphic Design, and Furniture Design.

FOUR Grand Prize Awards

• $500 cash grant
• 3-Month Work Residency in NYC
• Inclusion in a New York City Group Exhibition
• Online feature promoting you and your work internationally

Register todayand get your work seen by a panel of esteemed jurors from SUITE New York, PRINT Magazine, and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

One People’s Choice Award

• $5,000 cash grant
• 1-year Work Residency in NYC
• Inclusion in a New York City Group Exhibition
• Online feature promoting you and your work internationally

Project Overview: The purpose of StArt is to partner with First Friday Scranton to engage and inspire the Greater Scranton business community and local artists with events that encompass the artistic ability in our region and showcase available Downtown Scranton storefront venues.  StArt will use art as a focal point for community development and highlight the integral role the arts play in strengthening the vitality of Downtown Scranton. StArt feels that through creative use of the arts, the quality of life can be improved, economic prosperity can thrive and cultural tourism can grow.

Eligibility: Open to all artists

 Call Requirements:

1. Brief statement explaining the artist’s interest in being considered.

2. Current artist resume.

3. 6 images of recent work (within past two years)

4. Non-refundable Entry fee of $10 made payable to Leadership Lackawanna

Applications and entry fee can be mailed to or dropped off at:

The Vintage Theater

Start! Leadership Lackawanna

119 Penn Ave.

Scranton, PA 18503

The submission deadline is Midnight (EST), Friday, March 2, 2012. (If the Vintage Theatre is closed applications can be placed in the mail slot on the door.)

March/April 2012: StArt Project members meets to review materials and select finalist for the live event; All artists will be notified of outcome following review meeting via the StArt Facebook page.

Friday May 18, 2012: Finalist will create their pieces at a live timed event.  Winners will be chosen to display their artwork in vacant store fronts. (The number of winners will depend on the number of vacant store front availability).

May 21 – May 31, 2012: Artwork from the live event and additional pieces are installed in the vacant storefronts.

Friday June 1, 2012 June First Friday Scranton artwork is displayed to the public.

Artist & Artwork Requirements:

• Final artwork must be able to fit through a standard size door (30” x 84”)
• The artwork may not contain nudity, profanity, or other inflammatory language or subject matter as it will be placed in a public location.

Additional Information:  If you have questions or require additional information about this project, please contact the StArt Team at startleadershiplackawanna@yahoo.com or contact us through our Facebook cause, Start! Leadership Lackawanna.

Paul McCrone was a visual artist, painter, and sculptor. His work explores figurative and abstract themes in a variety of media, both traditional and unconventional, including oil, acrylic, charcoal, gouache, tar, plaster, and mixed media, as well as sculptures of clay, plaster, and marble. He studied fine arts at The Art Students League of New York. He was a freelance artist and had his work shown in New York City, Brooklyn, Binghamton, and Scranton.

Paul issued an Artist’s Statement describing his work in 2009.  At that time he said the following:

“The exploration of forms, figures, and their transformation has been a fundamental basis for my visual art, which is primarily comprised of paintings and drawings in a variety of media, both traditional and unconventional, including oil, acrylic, charcoal, gouache, mixed media, tar, plaster, tile adhesive and grout, as well as sculptures of clay, plaster, and marble. A combination of figurative and abstract subject matter informs my art. My current body of work explores the human figure, with a focus on the torso, a subject that grew out of another previous theme in my work exploring figurative iconic images.

Originally trained in realism as a student at The Art Students League of New York, I have continually expanded and developed my art from this strong foundation.

Initially, I focused on the human figure from my studio training, and feel that others can relate easily to this realistic style. More recently, my figurative studies have evolved as I have transformed my understanding of forms and figures by blurring their boundaries and have discovered their abstract, essential core through reductionist methods. The result is a transformative view of reality. Through exploration of form to identify its essence, I have learned to trust my subconscious to manifest a form’s true meaning. Truth cannot be discerned through form alone. Often it resides in grey areas, between the boundaries.  Although it sounds paradoxical, I can best grasp this truth by not recreating an exact copy, but by exploring these abstracted images.

The past few years have been especially crucial as I have challenged myself to not depend on traditional artist’s paints and materials.  Instead, I have been incorporating building supplies and materials, such as tar, plaster, and grout into my paintings and drawings. As unconventional as these items may appear, I have been able to capture a highly textured, sculptured effect and rough surface. The nature of these materials represents the coarse, rough subject matter and allows me to evoke a distorted and disjointed reality, a collapse of boundaries, and a journey that brings me closer to the truth. The use of these common materials in a different context has created new vehicles for expression and for portraying a particular mood and, by their very nature, permitted me to manipulate their substance.

Thankfully, my classical training has prepared me to incorporate these materials through smearing, blending, and layering of colors and mixed media in order to achieve the desired effect of distortion in my work. The use of this method, along with the earthly hues, exhibits a natural randomness and illustrates the reality permeating through our thoughts and perceptions.

My exploration of figures and forms inspired a body of work whose subject was the Crucifixion, which has always been a predominant theme in my art throughout the years. From my body of work, the trauma of agony manifests itself repeatedly through the image of the Crucifixion. Earlier in my career, I depicted a realistic Crucifixion, the corporal pain evident in the face and wounds. As I returned to this subject, I found myself focusing more on the body, specifically the torso. What started as a literal depiction of the figure has become twisted, abnormal, and unearthly. Unsatisfied by the limitations of paint, I also explore this theme of suffering through marble, clay, and plaster sculptures. The human figure, in many of my paintings and sculptures, has been contorted from a recognizable shape to an emotive unraveling of its former structure. This dissolution of boundaries, this evaporation of form, has allowed me to far better express a body that has been reduced, a figure that has been half finished.

My overall motive is to challenge traditional boundaries and explore more emotive and personal subject matter using forms and figures, which is itself a transformative process.  I tend to describe my paintings as free-form figure painting expressing movement, while at the same time suggesting gestural inhibition. Much of my work portrays a single figure done in a manner of semi-realism with abstract tendencies. I will admit that my perceptions are somewhat dark and mysterious.

I subscribe to the practice of transforming raw material — taking a concept and allowing it to manifest itself in concrete form. I try to translate spontaneity throughout each work, while retaining a certain structural integrity. I believe that I try to reconcile the subjective and objective when executing a piece, although I don’t think this can be wholly resolved. I come from a point of view that portrays concepts of duality, ambiguity, and principles of negation. I believe inherent limitations are responsible for construction of style.

My work is influenced by an array of experiences, both positive and negative. Self-reflection also plays a vital role. I use technique as a basis, but tend to rely more on mood and feeling. I try to remain versatile and experimental when executing a piece.”