Dear Creative Community,
A mottled maple leaf landed at my doorstep this morning. In the green hills I see hints of yellow and orange. Bite-sized apples are growing into goodly red orbs. Look closely. We are starting to see tiny details of fall.
These small signals of the changing season are showing us what is to come—huge piles of leaves to jump in, massive displays of bright orange-, red-, and golden leaves across the valley hills, and so many apples that you’ll want to bake for days.
The idea of scale—tiny and big—is a tool artists use to bring attention, focus, or impact to an art piece. And it is a concept that I’ve been spending much time with this summer and going into this fall.
Before we dive into the exciting autumn happenings to come, let me show you how scale made me feel super tiny this summer.
A trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama expanded my idea of scale as I stood among the rockets that were built for exploring outer space in all its massiveness.
The rocket center and this past spring’s launch of Artemis II inspired the development of some fun bear paintings, including this one.
Wrapping my mind around the scale of rockets and the vastness of space is exciting.
Equally exciting is the directed focus, the sheer delight and astonishing amusement of all things miniature, minute, minuscule….
I am thrilled to announce the WESTHAMPTON MUSEUM of ART. This tiny museum will be displaying artwork of all kinds in its five tiny galleries. I renovated this building with paint, flooring, shingles and magic to create a space for tiny, joyful works of art.
WESTHAMPTON MUSEUM OF ART
The Westhampton Museum of Art with a fresh coat of paint.
Galleries are getting painted and prepped.
Smooth flooring for all the visitors.
While the galleries are getting their final touches and the paintings are readying for display, my excitement for this project is already more massive than the tiny scale of this museum.
Speaking of petite, the weekend of September 26-27 launches a small-scale, big-fun art festival dreamed up by the artist duo Kim Carlino and Michael Crigler of Bright Matter Studio. This festival celebrates all things tiny. Strolling through downtown Northampton, you will find tiny works of public art created by 16 artists with the goal of slowing down, looking closer and appreciating the little things.
The Artists are Adam J. O’Day, Chelsea Dupois, Cicely Carew, David and Fred Zinn, Dina Gjertsen, Erika Zekos, Eva Pushkova, Felipe Ortiz, John Higby, M Rudder, Maggie Nowinski, Mary Cleary, Michael Medeiros, Raishad Glover, Sally Curcio, and Scout Cuomo.
You can find my work at the Fun-Sized: Tiny Public Art Festival. And while you are in Northampton, look up at the Northampton Banner Project, where you will find another one of my works on a not-so-tiny scale. The Banner Project is led by the Northampton Center for the Arts where you can find me this October teaching watercolor painting.
And lastly, I will leave you with this tiny, but mighty thought.
If you spot a hummingbird this fall before it heads south for the winter, think of how this little powerhouse, that can fly 500 miles in a single flight, came from a tiny egg no bigger than a pea.
What small moment, practice, or idea in our lives will scale to something truly massive?
All we have to do is look closely.
Be Creative,
Mary