GOSTartist Profile: Alexa Ginsburg: A feltmaker and dyer, she purses her ancient craft with modern lighthearted results.

Alexa Ginsburg - A Feltmaker whose colorful creations are proof that a skilled artist can capture wonder in any medium.

Alexa, a native of NYC, grew up in a highly artistic family surrounded by art supplies from the time she was a youngster taking classes at MOMA and Pratt. She always looked forward to the start of a new school year when she'd get a new box of Crayola crayons. She eventually went to Cooper Union, majored in painting and did large colorful abstract canvases.

In her twenties she spent time in Isfahan, Iran where she taught art at the International School. Side trips to Pakistan and a stint manufacturing hand loomed skirts led to a fascination with hand-dyed and embellished textiles in local markets. A seed was planted from the riotous palette of cotton skeins and tribal embroideries she found in dusty villages. This seed would lie dormant for many years as she returned to the States and settled into domestic life, running a desktop publishing company, working as a graphic designer, illustrating and designing children's books and raising two children.

When she found time to return to her own creative work, it was feltmaking that was the perfect medium for her. She was always in search of a "resonating medium" and felting fulfilled everything she was looking for--it is very hands on, warm, soft and malleable. The vibrant colors appealed to her painting background, and it "felt" responsive to her needs as an artist. By taking workshops and joining a felting guild she gained technical skill that helped her realize her intense interest in color, design, form and craftsmanship. She has been working with felt for the last 15 years and it has taken over her life and house.

Alexa creates gorgeous scarves and wearable accessories as well as artful soft toys which appeal to both the young and young at heart! She works surrounded by a feast of colorful fiber-- mostly wool and silk in brilliant dyed colors. She also does a lot of hand dying and combines different fibers together for textural effects. Alexa sells her work at craft shows, by commission, and online (alexaginsburg.com). She constantly builds her skills through workshops with nationally and internationally known feltmakers. Her designs include felted herons, birds of prey, wolves, foxes, raccoons and other wildlife as well as sweeter domestic animals. Visiting her studio is like being in a candy store. She is surrounded by colors, creatures, and creativity.
Alexa reminisces that as a child she wanted to be Picasso or Geppetto-- but she turned out to be a multi-faceted creator of her own!

#GOSTDOORS Project

GOSTDOORS are being created in Gardiner, NY by Gardiner
Open Studio Tour members this week. Look out for them soon.

#GOSTDOORS in fields, on roadsides, hanging from trees, at corners, why are they here? Where did they come from? 

These #GOSTDOORS serve as an entrance to the artists' spirit realm.  Public art is different than wall art. It's goals are different. It combines the aesthetic with the conceptual aspects of art. Why "this," why "here"?

It's hard to find a good spot to work on a door-sized piece
when it's still freezing cold outside, much less a warm place for
it be while it dries.

Sometimes the reasons are obvious and sometimes they are not. Artists create to express themselves and interact with the world.

Doors let us in, and doors let us out, they separate us and protect
us. They are what we close when we want to hold ourselves appart
and they are what we open when we want to welcome people into
our  lives, our hearts, our homes and of course our studios.

The #GOSTDOORS project is a way for the Gardiner Open Studio Tour members to reach out into our local community to make our presence known, to say, "there are a lot of artists around here in our tiny town of Gardiner, this is special, the Shawangunks are special and it draws us here."

Artist couples.... There are several artist couples on the Tour. Their individual artistic
 voices are often startlingly divergent from each other. The GOSTDOORS as a series
reflects the wide variation in style and artistic influences of the members of the
Gardiner Open Studio Tour.

The #GOSTDOORS we are creating will soon find their way out of the garages and cellars and studios where they were made into the Gardiner/New Paltz area. We want to share with everyone our enthusiasm for art and our exuberance for creating it.

We hope you enjoy the results of the GOSTDOORS Project as much as we have had doing it.

Look for all the doors, photo them, Tweet them, Facebook them, they are meant to be shared. Pick up a Free Spring GOST 2015 Artist Guide and Tour Map at your local area stores and try matching the artist to the door. Some doors are sure to be easier to match with the artist than others.

Find them all. There will be 17.

Please feel free to hunt up our GARDINER OPEN STUDIO TOUR FaceBook page and leave us comments about the #GOSTDOORS Project.

We hope to see you all on the Tour.

    Jonathan Pazer

Chairman
Gardiner Open Studio Tour

Spring Tour - May 2nd & 3rd 2015. 

10am - 5pm

http://www.GOSTartists.org

SPRING 2015 - GOST

GARDINER OPEN STUDIO TOUR

HUNDREDS OF WORKS OF ART ON VIEW

FOURTH OPEN STUDIO TOUR

GARDINER, NY

MAY 2-3, 2015

Artists Host Visits to Their Studios

Our event and the talented artists involved are getting better and better! The Gardiner Open Studio Tour (GOST) announces its fourth open studios tour, celebrating the arrival of Springtime in the Hudson Valley on the first weekend in May. Twenty painters, sculptors, photographers, ceramic artists, and a clockmaker in the Gardiner area will welcome visitors to their studios on Saturday & Sunday (10am to 5pm) May 2-3. Visits are free and the public is warmly invited to drop in and explore the adventure of creating art. 

Each May and October, the GOST arts weekend is a lively and successful event in the natural beauty of the mid-Hudson Valley. Less than two hours from New York City, the tranquil rural hamlet of Gardiner in the shadow of the Shawangunk Mountains is home to a diverse and talented group of artists who, by opening their studios, showcase the vital artistic life of the region.

Most of the Gardiner-based artists are full-time professionals, and many are represented in national and international collections. This is a chance to view new works before they reach the public, and to get to know the artist in his or her creative space. Several provide demonstrations of their techniques. Refreshments are offered. Daffodils and trees are blooming along the way.

The range of artistic production is impressive, from traditional realistic oil paintings – such as the landscapes by Ron Schaefer, the still lifes by Marsha Massih, and the portraits by John A. Varriano – to large abstracts by D M Weil and new visual inventions by Lady Pink, celebrated for her early work as a graffiti artist in New York. Jean Tansey focuses on social issues in her paintings, Stacie Flint creates vibrant images of people and animals, Meadow invents beaked characters from Brooklyn, Andrea McFarland captures local hiking scenes in pastels, Marilyn Perry paints semi-abstractions of nature in encaustic (molten beeswax). Jerry Teters, new this tour, works with interior designers to create unique abstract paintings for their clients. 

Photographers, ceramicists, and sculptors are similarly inventive. Jonathan Pazer’s abstract photographs create memorable images of shapes, forms, and color, while Robert Goldwitz finds brilliant and telling details in the world around him. Keri Gould creates textural photography using papyrus and other papers and also makes wearable fiber art. Annie O’Neill is inspired by Mexican folk art for lively designs on low-fire ceramic platters and plates, Lynn Isaacson experiments with new glazes on beautiful pots fired in her gas kiln, Leonie Lacouette designs unique clocks in copper, steel, and wood, Craig and Pam Booth sculpt automobiles (‘Car-Toons by Booth’) and their owners in clay. Noted tap dancer Brenda Bufalino makes fanciful ceramics; classically trained sculptor Gregory Glasson makes bronze statues on commission. 

How to get to the artists? There’s a free brochure – you can pick one up at any one of our sponsor's business locations and also look for it in various shops, restaurants, and B&B’s throughout the region – with notes about the artists, images of their work, and a map with their locations for the tour. (The new and larger map makes it even easier to plan a visit to several or all of the GOST open studios). 

Or go to our website: www.GOSTartists.org for all the information and sponsor locations. 

Join the Gardiner GOST artists for a weekend of wonderful visual stimulation and inspiration!

For further information on GOST artists and our tour please contact: (845) 255-3336

GOST - HQ

DM Weil Gallery

208 Bruynswick Rd.

New Paltz NY 12561

JP 3-30-15

The GOST is seen at last - The Columbus Day Weekend, Gardiner Open Studio Tour is a reality at last.

We had a long cold Winter, a hot Summer and it took til this Fall to put our hands on the tiller, but the Gardiner Open Studio Tour [ www.GOSTartists.org ] is a reality and in a few short weeks on October 12, 13, & 14, you and your friends can come and see some of the artists who make the Gardiner NY area their home.

Artists who open their studios to you are doing it because they want to share their work, their interests and their process with you.

When you go to the museum and see things on the wall, do you ever wonder, "what was that about?What was that artist thinking? What did they mean by that?" Have you ever seen a piece of art, been deeply moved, and thought, "I wonder if what I see here is what the artist sees too?" Communicating is not always an easy business, and the form of the message and the content of the message are two separate things. Works of art can combine many layers of information and contain many messages.

As a viewer you are the most important person. You don't need anything but your eyes, ears, and your mind to experience art. Our job as artists is to present experiences to viewers. No viewers? No point in doing art, right? So that's the main reason that the artists of Gardiner are doing this: above all, they want to share. To share their work, their motivations and their time with you. They want to meet you and find out from you what you see, what you like and what moves you. This is a two way street. This is not the kind of gallery experience where the salesperson comes over, looks you up and down and tries to determine whether you are worth talking to; this is the sharing of experiences, yours and the artist's.

When you go to an art gallery, you might be intimidated by the formality of the surroundings, and we all have our own insecurities about what we know and what we think other people know.
That's where the Gardiner Open Studio Tour is a different and wonderful opportunity to talk to the artists behind the work, and engage with them. They are in love with what they do and they could talk about it for hours, days, weeks--this is what sets them on fire. There are no wrong questions, no ill informed inquiries. Ask away! The answers you get will almost certainly give you insights into the work of the artist that you won't get without conversing with them in their own studio, in their home town on a beautiful Fall day.

I look forward to seeing you on the Tour!

Pick up your printed GOST tour maps and directions to participating studios at DM Weil Gallery in New Paltz.

For more information:  Gardiner Open Studio Tour Home Page -- www.GOSTartists.org

Gardiner Open Studio Tour, Columbus Day Weekend 
October 12, 13, & 14. Sat & Sun 10 - 5, Mon 10 - 3