Working on picture-stories about seasons and stars and children and animals.
Recent Posts
EllyRubin.com link
photo albums
Studio Restored
During the summers '06-'07 David Rubin lovingly restored this old barn. It was beautiful as a shingled structure but David has prolonged its life, given it a new sheen and made it weather tight so that my stored art work is safe.
Japan: Journey 2006
These photos give a few glimpses of my 2006 visit to Japan. My visit to an artist's studio in Kyoto where indigo dying was taking place was one highlight of this journey.
Influence of Ink, Stone and Wood
One image from the series, "A Season of Changes" welcomes you into this album. Other images from The "Seasons" series follow. A image called "Transformations" is inserted to introduce the notion of text and image entertwined, a continuing theme in much of my work. Two sumi ink drawings in this album were created in August '05 with the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on my mind. A common characteristic of all the images in this album are the shared influence of Japanese art on my sumi ink drawings, watercolors and woodcuts. NOTE: The link at the top left of each photo album page will take you back to the weblog where you can select another photo album or another post.
Skylit Space
Many visitors to my studio know the barn behind my house with its weather beaten brown shingles, mural of flying birds, and a stretch of scruffy grass, between house and barn. Since 2002 a second work space at the top of our house has been added. This space is the "Skylit Space" where watercolor, cut paper and other new work emerges. The rugged barn is not forsaken. It too is being updated with snug windows and new barn-red siding. Woodcuts, stencil paintings, etchings emerge from the barn aided by a large French American Tool press that is its centerpiece. NOTE: To leave this album and return to the weblog, click on the link in the grey bar at the top any photo album page. Once back at the weblog you can chose another "Album" or another "Post"
Summer '08
June 10, 2008
Cello in June
Haydn London Trio #1, Boccherini Sonata for two cellos and music for eight cellos have preoccupied me for the last few weeks. The music is entering my images. Examples to follow.
May 12, 2008
May Harbinger
click on the image to enlarge it. May is Open Studio time in Newton. I am hard at work on images for publications and so I invite you to visit my studio "virtually." Please feel free to browse my on-line artist's journal entries to see some of my current work. And contact me through my website, (www.ellyrubin.com), if you'd like to see more watercolors, woodcuts or artist's books. I'll be delighted if you also check the other features of this blog which I update periodically.
March 23, 2008
Blind: Seeking Shelter 1937
An exhibition of handmade books which interpret the theme "Shelter" will be on view April 10-22 '08. This exhibit will include a book I made using a Braille printing plate as the cover. This book contains within its hinged metal cover, an immigration document for Joseph Leonard, my uncle who was blind. Joseph Leonard was a pianist and composer. He was provided "shelter" in the U.S.A by his brother, Alfred Leonard, and by well known musicians who vouched for him as a skilled performer. This combined support helped him to escape Nazi Germany and to immigrate to America in 1937. Below is a image of the book that will be on exhibit at the Yamawaki Art and Cultural Center, Lasell College, Newton, MA. The official exhibition Opening will be held 4-7PM April 10, 2008.
(Click to enlarge image)
March 12, 2008
January 13, 2008
A Sea of Voices
In this post I am highlighting my art work on the cover of "A Sea of Voices," a collection of poems by women poets in Israel. This book was edited by Marjorie Agosin and will be available as of summer 2008. Below is a picture of this book which is to be published by Sherman Asher, Sante Fe, New Mexico.
(Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it).
November 22, 2007
Virtual Studio Open House
I've chosen this calligraphic drawing of a woman to represent my current work in progress.
This image together with two other November '07 posts and new photo albums, will collectively give you a feeling for my on-going interest in narrative art. Comments are welcome. Click to enlarge this and all images.
November 16, 2007
Work in Progress: Homage to GEGO
Years ago I met the Venezuelan artist GEGO (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912-1994). This year I saw the retrospective of her work at the Drawing Center in New York. I've grown to love the works on paper and the sculptures of this woman who draws with wire and whose work can be both monumental and intimate in scale. Here are a few recent works of mine inspired by GEGO's "Lamina" series. (click image to enlarge)
November 14, 2007
Work in Progress: Narrative images
This year's "WORK IN PROGRESS" includes several series of narrative images. Mid November through January 1, '08 I will post a secession of on-going narrative series. This group of images is called: "A Twig of Bird Song"
October 18, 2007
Illuminations
My watercolor, "Floating Possibilities" is part of the Fall '07 Illuminations exhibit which opens Novemeber 7, 2007.
Illuminations is an exhibition at Massachusetts General Hospital's Yawkey Center for Cancer Care.
August 29, 2007
"Being in Pictures" book by Joanne Leonard, foreward by Lucy Lippard
The photos posted here are from the book "Being In Pictures: An Intimate Photo Memoir" by Joanne Leonard. Joanne Leonard is my identical twin sister.
(All photos can be enlarged by clicking on the image within the post. Click "Being in Pictures" link to get to Joanne's website and ordering information about the book.)
" Intimate is the perfect word to
describe this remarkable and beautifully
designed collection, our pick for the best art
book published this year. The stylistically
diverse photography, which ranges from
documentary photographs to photo collages, is
clearly the work of a singular artist. Joanne
Leonard's work, linked by her feminist politics
and her deep engagement with family, comprise
an autobiography in which the pictures and
accompanying text echo off each other, breaking
open a most interesting life and the work of a
major artist."-- Karl Pohrt, bookseller, Shaman Drum Bookshop
The first image I show in this post is the book's cover. Photos from the book's early chapters of Elly and Joanne as infants and as teens are also posted here. The photo of Joanne and Eleanor in their 20s was taken by Elly's husband David.
Joanne has included my artwork in her book. Below is one drawing by me which appears in her photo memoir: Pictured is the birth announcement card for Joanne's daughter, Julia Marjorie Leonard:
