Artist Tour 2017 group (seated, left to right) Dan Evans, Aronda Xystris & Susan Ann Thornton(standing, left to right) Chris Bendixen, Koitz, Patrick Loy, W. Douglas Topper, Martinu Schneegass, Warren Boyd Wexler & Mark Atten, many of them participants in Artist Tour of Cherry Grove 2020 on line
As the pandemic precludes going from house to house to see artists’ work and to chat with them about it in person, Susan Ann Thornton has put the seventh annual Artist Tour of Cherry Grove online at https://www.artisttourcg.com . “I wanted to keep our visibility,” she says. Painters, photographers, and those working with glass, cloth, stone, and ceramics, both familiar and new to us, are represented here with their art.
“These paintings are my love letter to Cherry Grove … paintings inspired by my beloved beach community,” organizer Susan Ann writes, of her dramatically-lit land, ocean, and skyscapes, in oil and acrylic. Adrian Milton’s colorful abstracts incorporate geometric figures and were inspired by the Tantric art of India. Bob Lerch records Natural scenes and shapes in his photos, taken in Cherry Grove in different seasons. Diane St. Pierre’s painted rocks and crystal sun catchers capture the light of Cherry Grove. Diane Quero’s paper lines and shapes are pinned to walls or pressed between pieces of glass and backlit.
In George Lyter’s work, black-and-white cutout clowns peer out from Fire Island locales, often incongruously, and scenes are sometimes accompanied by their own reflections. Patrick Loy shows bright oil paintings of home and trees, plants, and flowers. Anna Botarelli’s acrylic paintings of Nature are “inspired by my life on Fire Island.” Michael Abdis shares stained glass abstracts, aptly lit.
Susan Kravitz, who collected her work in the book “Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem,” shows vivid photographs of the people of Cherry Grove, and the ocean and the beach, fully lit and in fog. W. Douglas Topper’s oil paintings, in dazzling colors, are of flowers, palm fronds, and a Luna moth. Lorraine Michels displays her books, “The Invasion of the Pines” and “Celebrating the Heart of Cherry Grove—The Community House,” and photos of queens Orangina-in-butterfly-wings and Lola-contemplating-her-reflection. Michael Fitzgerald offers his abstract works, their figures, shapes, and colors. Martinu Schneegass gives us his impression of Dune Point and an interracial male nude couple, seen from the rear, as well as his beach towels and t-shirts in vivid hues.
Koitz displays the new book of his photography, “Gay Fire Island: It’s Good to Be Us,” and photos of the Cherry Grove Invasion of the Pines and of sexy male nudes. Aronda Xystris conveys the spirit of the Grove in photos of Invasion, of her paintings of the dunes, and the hypnotic shape of the dune fencing. The bay, the dunes, and the birds on the beach shimmer in Rosana Chinchilla’s acrylics. View Cherry Grove from above in Jim Kelly-Evans’ aerial still photos, via drone, and Dan Evans’ paintings depicting the swale and the bay to the west of the Grove, on the way to the Sunken Forest.
Larry Crawford’s always unusual paintings here show a hand, holding a lit candle, covered in melted wax; a male figure emerging from a cornstalk; a face full of sadness; and part of a figure clutching a horn. In his photos, Warren Boyd Wexler focuses on our Grove neighbors: the deer, the foxes, and the birds. Dune Point’s Petra Brehl’s art covers ceramic dishes, cups, and bowls. Ceramicist Chris Bendixen’s stoneware and porcelain art pieces come in various shapes and colors.
David P. Morrow’s photos are of male figures in Fire Island scenes in unusual colors. Jesus AKA Jesse works in found objects, such as rope and a paper roadmap, to show boats, young men frolicking in the ocean, a whale, Buddha, and Samson—Walt Whitman finds his way into the work. John Mansueto depicts, in acrylics, someone fishing in the ocean, the dunes, a red wagon, and wetlands. Mike Fisher fields digital sketches of boots, moccasins, a swimming pool against a cityscape, a heart, and a chair. Bill Hirt’s jewelry and ornaments incorporate Fire Island beach glass and seashells.
Photographer Koitz has been chronicling the gay people and events of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines for more than a decade and a half in work that has appeared in newspapers and been displayed in art shows. Koitz’s clear and sensitive photos find a dramatic setting in a new art book entitled “Gay Fire Island: It’s Good to Be Us,” with foreword by Patrick ...
