Many artists have to work a second job to support their first job as artists. Choosing to add parenting to the mix can create a tricky balancing act. “Painting at Night,” an exhibition at Collar Works in Troy, presents work specifically made by the artist/mother who found a way.
This is the third annual “Painting at Night” juried exhibition, founded by the Artist/Mother podcast. The first iteration opened in March in Nashville, Tenn. In 2018, Kaylan Buteyn, an artist based in Ft. Wayne, Ind., Started the Artist/Mother podcast, which features interviews with artist mothers (they welcome artists introducing women of all backgrounds, gender identities and sexuality.) He gave the annual exhibition the name “Painting at Night” from a quote he read in The New York Times: “You can’t paint at night in your kitchen and hope to be a great artist.”
Even if the original quote came from a art gallery announcement that it was leaving New York City because of the high cost of living, the point was taken. And not appreciated. As Collar Works curator Judith Braun said, “I can’t believe for a minute that kids and kitchen tables are barriers (that) actress mothers can’t jump. Mothers are full of their hands and hearts and heads, but they are the pioneers in doing so. ”
The show features 66 women who actually do it, while doing all sorts of work. It’s a packed show of diverse artists connected by their self-identity as guardians but curator Braun, himself an actress, mother and grandmother, was able to organize the work in a coherent and illuminating exhibition.
There are well-thought-out groupings throughout, hanging in salon-style arrangements that often have large pieces that bridge them to other works on the show. At the entrance of the exhibition is a large wall with a mixture of pieces of fabric and pieces that refer to fabrics. Fern Apfel’s soft “Blue on Blue (Baby Jacket)” provides a break from the cracked color and pattern on the wall around it, the blue repeated in Angela Witmore’s “Artist Desk” and “Toy Block Quilt #2 “by Anna Wallace. There are other quilted pieces like Victoria van der Laan’s “Hex 1” or Jacquelyn Strycker’s “Leftovers” and “Sampler,” which both look like quilts but are made from other materials like paint and prints.
Opposite this wall is Katie Cercone’s “Mago Poeta”, a large assemblage of recycled fabrics with Minnie Mouse repeating throughout and bursts of pink. It is next to a black and white graphite drawing, “Night Disco” by Jenna Ransom, which refers to quilting patterns and the two pieces are visually colored in the color and shape of a large pink and white plastic assemblage by Martha Chason- Sokol.
A cluster of small sculptures includes two pieces associated with new motherhood raised with icons: “Hand Pump,” by Aimee Gilmore, a shiny red chrome-plated breast pump, next to “Self Care, “a cement-encased breast pump part by Katherine Duclos. Next to it is Amy Branch-Lambert’s “Beauty in the Broken,” a small sculpture of a female figure that looks like part of an animal, with hair covering her face and breasts dangling, simultaneously writhing. -emotional, disturbing and darkly funny.
While many of these artists specifically address issues about motherhood, certainly not all. Some work through formal or conceptual questions. Some share concerns related to consumerism and climate change whether by repurposing materials-Claire Sherwood, Jess Blaustein, Cercone and Chason-Sokol, for example, or more directly, as in the flaming “ Rage “by Sara Farrell Okamura, an abstract painting that can stand for more than what the artist calls,” the stigmata of the climate crisis. “
There are moments of dryness here, too. Sara Corley Martinez’s “Clown”, a photo of the artist wearing a rainbow wig, is on the wall featuring a trio of pieces connected by pop sensibility: Jen McGowan’s “Cheerios Mouth”, Rylan Morrison’s clown sunset “Highway,” and Sandy Claffords ’“ The Queen of Diamonds – Shining on You Hoes. ”
Of the 78 works by 66 artists, many more can be seen here. Once an actress has decided to become a mother, the motivation to make art remains – even if it means painting at night in their kitchen (or during naps and play dates).
If you go
“Painting at Night”
Where: Collar Works, 621 River St., Troy
When: Until July 31, Friday-Sunday
For more information: Collarworks.org o 518.285.0765
