Eclipse Mill Gallery Schedule: 2010
The artist-run Eclipse Mill Gallery is located on the first floor, #102, Eclipse Mill Artist Lofts, 243 Union St., North Adams MA, one mile east of MASS MoCA on Route 2. The building is handicap accessible.
Unless otherwise noted all events are free and open to the public.
"The Art of A.J. Schlesinger"
Exhibition opens February 19 and runs through March 20
Curated by Julie Seitel
Opening Reception: Friday, February 19, from 6 to 8 PM
Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 5 PM
NORTH ADAMS, Mass., February 9, 2010 – The Eclipse Mill Gallery at 243 Union Street in North Adams, Mass. will present "The Art of A.J. Schlesinger" from February 19 through March 20, with an opening night reception on Friday, February 19, from 6 to 8 PM. The exhibit will feature vibrant abstract expressionist paintings by 20-year-old Andrew J. ("A.J.") Schlesinger, a Williamstown artist whose body is severely crippled by cerebral palsy. Despite his extreme physical limitations, Schlesinger's complete body of works numbers more than 60 paintings, approximately half of which will be on display in this exhibition.
Schlesinger's physical control over his body is limited to head movements. Though he can vocalize, he cannot formulate words and phrases with his own voice. To speak, he uses a computerized voice synthesis device called a Dynavox, which provides Schlesinger with words and phrases organized in a network of nested menus. Schlesinger navigates through the menus by tapping a sensor on his wheelchair with a sideways motion of his head. The device is cumbersome to use because of the time required to move through the menus, but it does give Schlesinger verbal capabilities he would otherwise be completely without, which are a vital part of his painting process.
They are, however, not the most vital part. Without any control over his hands and arms, Schlesinger must employ someone else's physical capabilities in order to paint. This is where professional art tracker Jane-Ellen DeSomma enters into Schlesinger's story.
DeSomma, an art teacher at Mount Greylock Regional High School, first met Schlesinger six years ago when he was a student at the school. DeSomma felt that Schlesinger and other students with severe physical disabilities should have equal opportunity to create art, and applied for a grant to pay for Tracker Training for MGRHS teachers so they could better meet these students' needs. The training, offered by a company called Art Realization Technologies, teaches trainees how to provide to disabled artists the physical capabilities that they lack. Schlesinger worked with DeSomma throughout his student years, and now that he is out of high school, he employs DeSomma as his tracker for regular painting sessions several times a week.
"Being a tracker means that you act as the artist's arms and legs," said DeSomma. "The artist can paint if they can indicate a yes or no in any possible way, so even if an artist doesn't have a Dynavox, a blink that can indicate yes or no is the key in the door." DeSomma emphasized that objectivity is vital to the process, so that the product is truly the artist's work, rather than a collaboration between the artist and the tracker. "The artist is asked yes or no questions that encompass everything including size, color, intensity—all of the specific artistic choices," she said. In Schlesinger's case, the verbal communication between the artist and the tracker can be much more than simple yes or no questions, as his Dynavox is programmed with commands and descriptive words specific to his painting process. Schlesinger can tell DeSomma exactly what type of brush he wants to use, direct her in the mixing of his desired color, and describe shapes or types of brushstrokes.
Schlesinger utilizes a laser pointer mounted to the side of his head with a headband to guide his brush over the canvas. DeSomma holds the brush and follows the laser's movement as closely as possible, checking in with Schlesinger frequently to make sure she is clearly understanding his wishes.
"A.J.'s painterly gestures are, when you get to know his works, very uniquely his own," said Julie Seitel, the Exhibitions Director of the Eclipse Mill Gallery, who is curating the exhibition. "Many of his works exhibit shapes such as circles that are a product of verbal communication using shape terminology, but the works of his that I feel are the strongest and the most interesting are those that are primarily freeform brushstrokes done with the laser pointer."
"A.J.'s hallmark characteristic is the dominance of strokes that cross the canvas diagonally from left to right and moving downwards," Seitel continued. "I've observed A.J. several times while he's been painting, and that left-to-right downwards stroke is predominant in his head movements. It's what comes the most naturally to him, so when he paints freeform with the laser as opposed to with verbal commands, that's what manifests itself most strongly in the painting." A relatively long and smooth stroke to the lower right corner is often followed by a more jagged return to another part of the canvas. When several of his freeform works are viewed as a group, this signature gesture emerges as an obvious throughline.
During a recent painting session DeSomma remarked on how Schlesinger's works have matured over the years she's worked with him. Schlesinger has in his menus of commands the option to say "Paint backgound," which directs the tracker to begin a new painting by covering the entire canvas with a solid color. Lately, however, after mixing a color, Schlesinger will select a wide brush and use his laser pointer to cover the entire canvas not with smooth linear strokes such as a tracker might do without further instruction, but with the more jagged, wandering gestures that are an echo of his own body's movements. "That's his humanity," remarked DeSomma after Schlesinger had prepped a canvas with a sky blue background using his laser pointer to cover the entire surface. "That's so much richer than it would be if I had just done it for him. That's who he is, right there in that painting."
Schlesinger does not intend for his paintings to be interpreted as representative of a particular subject. His mother Jacquie Schlesinger, who has watched her son develop his voice as an artist over the last six years, used to search for imagery such as ships or moons in his paintings, wondering whether he was trying to depict something specific. "I've asked him several times whether he starts with a picture in his head that he is trying to reproduce, and he always says no. He just grabs a color and goes for it."
Schlesinger first came to the attention of the Eclipse Mill Gallery through his participation last season in its High School Art Show and in the 2009 Berkshire Salon, an annual event hosted by the Eclipse Mill Gallery that invites all Berkshires-based artists to exhibit a single work. Schlesinger's contribution to the Berkshire Salon, "Incision Painting #2," sparked curiosity among gallery visitors and fellow artists in the show, who wondered how an artist so severely physically disabled could produce such a painting. Members of the Eclipse Mill Gallery Committee began talking with Schlesinger to learn more about him, and explore the possibility of featuring Schlesinger's works in their 2010 season. Schlesinger was enthusiastic from the first mention of a possible solo show.
Upon learning that Schlesinger's painting area at his residence in Williamstown is cramped and devoid of natural light, the Gallery Committee began looking for a way for Schlesinger to do a residency in the Eclipse Mill that would take advantage of the Mill's spaciousness and large north-facing windows. Painter Rick Harlow, an Eclipse artist whose studio is set up for painting very large works, volunteered the use of his studio to Schlesinger for a five-week residency. Schlesinger and DeSomma have been painting at the Eclipse Mill three times a week for the weeks leading up to the upcoming exhibition. The extra space and light has given Schlesinger the opportunity to work on canvases much larger than he can in his own studio space in his home. Ten of the new works from his Eclipse Mill residency will be featured in the show, which will be his first solo exhibition.
Schlesinger's impromptu conversational abilities are somewhat limited by his Dynavox's relatively small library of stock words and phrases, but he recently prepared a statement about his work so that he could recite it on television for the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon, which aired last month. When asked what his art means to him, he stated: "Before I started painting, I was very frustrated. Painting allows me to express how I'm feeling. I get excited to see my paintings come alive and I get angry when they don't turn out the way I expected. I want to keep painting and make enough money to help me out financially."
In an interview at the end of a recent painting session at the Eclipse, Seitel asked Schlesinger a few follow-up questions, including: "How often do your paintings not turn out how you expect them to?" Schlesinger indicated that usually they do turn out how he wants them to. In response to the question, "Do you ever get so frustrated with one that you just want to ditch it and throw it away?" Schlesinger replied, "Yes." The ten works from his residency, some finished and some still in progress, lay about the studio space on the floor or propped up against the wall. "Any in this room?" asked Seitel. "No," came Schlesinger's immediate answer. DeSomma, listening in the background, raised her fists in the air in a gesture of victory.
All are invited to meet the artist, celebrate his works, and kick off the 2010 Eclipse Mill Gallery season at the opening night reception for the show, Friday, February 19, from 6 to 8 PM. The gallery will be open to the public regularly from 12 to 5 PM on Saturdays and Sundays for the duration of the exhibition.
Contact:
Julie Seitel, Curator of "The Art of A.J. Schlesinger"
Eclipse Mill Gallery
julieseitel@gmail.com
646-522-3010