Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

Item 1: This week starts a month long exhibit at the Witter Art Gallery in Iowa, of 20 large paintings. See below a nice write up in Iowa’s Storm Lake Pilot Tribune.

“How often will you see a veterinary clinic sponsoring an art show? But it is fitting, as the Witter Art Gallery partners with sponsor Lake Animal Hospital to mount Peta Kaplan-Sandzer’s “Stray Dog Series.”Begun in 2006 in Nicaragua, these portraits of stray dogs seek to capture the soul and personality of animals left to fend for themselves on the streets of the beleaguered Central American nation. While facing the daily hardship of securing food and shelter, they maintain an undaunted spirit that is reflected in the big canvases.Found in abundance on the streets of Nicaragua, these dogs are a sad bunch that for the most part get kicked and chased away. But they are survivors and great characters – one cannot help but be touched by them. They are very human in their behavior and fascinating to watch as they scour the streets for nourishment and affection. In their dignity, these dogs remind the painter of the human struggle in Nicaragua, whose people while downtrodden exhibit the strength and desire to survive. Although the paintings in the Stray Dogs series begin with sketches done on site, as well as with photographs, they are painted with an intuitive directness. After a few preliminary sketches, the work on the 5’x5′ unstretched canvases begins with thinned oil paint, or at times first with charcoal, which creates a ghost-like drawn image.

The painting usually comes together quickly, with a sense of immediacy that complements the observation that first drew the artist to her subject – a dramatic shadow, an unusual bend of a tail, or a gently curved paw.These paintings ask the viewer to respond both personally and emotionally. One cannot help but be touched.The expressionist painter lives in Highland Park, Illinois, dedicating her career to the plight of the animals. Nicaragua’s civil war may be a thing of the past, but its problems and poverty reflect the conditions of its troubled history.

Kaplan-Sandzer traveled to the country in 2006, establishing partial residence there and introducing Nicaraguan students to oil painting, drawing, and tile-making. As an artist, she is seeking to contribute to the culture of a country that remains haunted by violence, her rapidly-rendered, hardscrabble dogs serving as symbols of scarcity and survival, persisting against the odds, reflecting hope and vulnerability in equal measures.”

Kaplan-Sandzer is a highly skilled painter who counters her subjects’ distress with the beauty of expressive drips, shadows of black and blue, and poses that emphasize the vulnerability of their circumstances. Inevitably painted in singular isolation, the dogs are the one recognizable form on a field that is deliberately close to gestural abstraction. As a result, there is a tension between what is seen and what is implied, what is abstract and what is not,” one critic reflects on the attention-grabbing show.”

Teddy,” A Small Dog with a Big Personality” features a white-and-brown furred animal with a closed eye and a collapsed ear. He is nothing but survival itself, yet friendly, as many of the dogs that patrol the streets seem to be.Born in South Africa, Ms. Kaplan-Sandzer is the Co-founder of the Granada Art Project, a Nicaraguan Art Magnet school.”

Item 2: Peta’s Cool Globe continues its national tour. Back in 2007, at what seemed to be a public awakening of consciousness about environmental issues in the U.S., following Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth movie, Peta was invited to participate in a Chicago Public Arts project “Cool Globes”. Since then, a small group of globes were selected to tour the country. This week, this touring exhibit moves from California (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco) to Texas (Houston).

Item 3: Peta readies up her Granada Studio. The lot which we bought last year, which is basically a big open space with no roof, is being cleared of rubble and the ground is being leveled. The magnificently large fruit trees (mango, coconut and almond) line the street side wall. Peta’s challenge will be to avoid getting hit by the falling mangoes, or worse coconuts! Large chunks of black charcoal were picked up from CO2 BAMBU’s facility, which includes a large kiln — i.e. an unending supply of burnt wood / charcoal for Peta’s future use…

After writing this entry, we walked to the studio, charcoal in bag. We had bought a gallon of white paint. Suddenly, stray dogs appeared on the cinder block walls. Peta has initiated her studio.