The average attention span for the notoriously ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds, but according to a new study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the affects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.
Researchers in Canada surveyed 2,000 participants and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms (EEGs). Microsoft found that since the year 2000 (or about when the mobile revolution began) the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to eight seconds."
Open all day from August 12 until Thanksgiving, 2017.
Art In the Orchard is a walking sculpture trail which winds through our productive fruit gardens. The self-guided trail is about a half-mile long. A walk through the labyrinth adds about a quarter mile. This year's exhibition is the fourth biennial which features all new works by sculptors as selected by our credentialed jury.
Art In the Orchard is a walking sculpture trail which winds through our productive fruit gardens. The self-guided trail is about a half-mile long. A walk through the labyrinth adds about a quarter mile. This year's exhibition is the fourth biennial which features all new works by sculptors as selected by our credentialed jury.
Click to set custom HTML
A post shared by Easthampton City Arts (@easthamptoncityarts) on
NORTHAMPTON, MA- A 1975 exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on Dutch anamorphic art, inspired artist Fletcher Smith’s third and latest exhibit at the Forbes Library Hosmer Art Gallery.
Smith explains his anamorphic art
Smith, an Easthampton native and returning resident was particularly struck those years back by a 3-leaf clover and a chrysanthemum mirrored in a cone made out of silver and glass. It was not until recently that he rifled through old notebooks and revisited the art of anamorphoses.
“Anamorphoses” are images, realized by the viewer only at one exact angle, but otherwise distorted or nonexistent. Smith’s exhibit features paintings that head-on, look like misshapen lines, but from an angle form an image so precise it looks like a photograph.
“This is sort of a dormant medium but you can find vestiges of it everywhere,” said Smith, using the example of a the symbol for a bicycle in a bike lane that appears to be an appropriate scale from a distance, but is stretched and distorted once you are above it peering down.
The other element of the “Anamorphic Objects,” exhibit, are conic anamorphoses. To achieve these pieces, Smith designs cones out of billet aluminum that are then produced by G&H manufacturing. Along the perimeter of the cone he paints an image that can only be seen by staring directly into the tip of the aluminum cone. Smith used trial and error, asking questions and gathering information from friends to successfully create the optical illusions.
“I did revisit the chrysanthemum and the 3-leaf clover, and I went to see what mine looked like and what theirs looked like,” said Smith of the 17th century pieces.
Even with a basic explanation of how these visual effects are achieved, Smith’s work manages to be mysterious. The pieces, specifically his conic anamorphoses, exist in two ways. One, a mesmerizing silver cone amidst a swirl of pretty colors- the other, an air-brushed and intangible image.
The images used in the conic anamorphoses and wall paintings are a mix of original and iconic. One of the wall paintings is of a deer skull that was dragged out of the woods in Santa Rosa, California by Smith’s dog, Burton. The more recognized images, such as a Superman logo, are original in this case in that they only exist at one angle or as a reflection.
“I thought about that all the time. The Henry Hausen Cyclops doesn’t exist in anything but sitting here and looking at it over there,” he said.
Last week’s gallery opening allowed people to enjoy the novelty of the pieces, or as Smith calls them, “objects of desire.” Beyond the novelty though, Smith plans to use something from this exhibit in another aspect of narrative painting.
“It’ll tell a story,” he said.
Staff photos by Rachael Roth
A photo posted by ECA+ (@easthamptoncityarts) on
GIRLS, GURLS, GRRLS
AND OTHER OBJECTS OF DESIRE
GIRLS, GURLS, GRRLS AND OTHER OBJECTS OF DESIRE
Artist Fletcher Smith will exhibit his series of 3-d paintings and anamorphic illusions in “Girls, Gurls, Grrls, and Other Objects of Desire” at the ECA+ Gallery from February 4 through February 25. The opening reception will take place on February 8, 5-8 p.m. during the 6th annual Fire & Ice Art Walk in Easthampton. The exhibit is free and open to the public. 3-D glasses will be provided.
As a keen adherent of pop iconography and optical sleights, Smith repurposes personal photographs and found images from the internet—a dating profile photo of woman kissing a freshly caught fish or a vacation pose near the Egyptian pyramids—to infiltrate both the world ordinary intimacy and commercial exuberance. In his own words, Smith is "advancing Western Civilization, one painting at a time."
Smith requires his viewers to don 3-D glasses or physically shift perspective to a precise location as a means to see a concealed and sometimes strikingly familiar image. Though influenced by Chuck Close, Ed Ruscha, and John Baldessari, Smith employs the centuries-old practices of perspectival and conical anamorphsis to create his bold, mutative works. In his perspectival anamorphic paintings, abstracted black and white lines cohere into clear, photographic forms such as a pair of hands casting an elephant-like shadow on the wall when viewed from the side. Other works rely on positioning a reflective billet aluminum cone in the center of a painted disc to achieve the illusion. Viewers looking directly at the tip of a cone might see a child holding an orange balloon or the command to Buy Now and Save emerge from a ring of cheerful amoebic shapes.
Born in 1954 in Easthampton, MA, Smith is among the leading artists of his generation that have experimented with and incorporated anamorphic forms and devices into his narrative painting. After studying art at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and the Pratt Institute in New York, Smith acted as a gallerist and curator for a number of eminent institutions including the R.K. Parker Gallery, Gallerie Michael and Mayer-Schwarz Gallery. Smith’s work can be found in myriad of public and private art collections both in the United States and abroad, and has been seen in numerous exhibitions worldwide. He currently lives and works in Western Massachusetts.
Laugh It Off
Curated by Jane Scott, Girl Wonder, Inc.
11 July – 22 August 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 11th, 6:00-8:00pm
The New York Times suggests we are living in the “Age of Nice.” It’s a good thing too, with GM bankrupt, Lehman Brothers dissolved and real estate prices tanking, it’s time for a cocktail and a good laugh. Laugh It Off is well timed comic relief guaranteed to take the stress out of your life. Just when you thought you couldn’t take another high brow, I don’t get it, how did he get that in the gallery kind of exhibit, this show is designed with a big “E” for everyone, like family entertainment for those with a wicked sense of humor and maybe even a bit of a dark side.
Take Kammy Roulner, whose agoraphobia shapes her world. Her response is to draw one of her own imaginings, peopled with artists as well as plain folk. She draws in a voice we can all relate to and her anticipated world seems all too familiar. Her take on life, art, even facial hair is so universal, and sarcastically funny, you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement.
Remember the happy face? Well if you do, you’re dating yourself, since it first appeared in 1971 and has barely been out of fashion since. Fletcher Smith, who has borrowed from pop culture icons since his student days at Pratt, has re-purposed smiley to literally make a point. Is this some punishing beachware or a proposed symbol for the above referenced age of nice? Does the happy face perhaps have a darker side? In any case, it’s nice to know you can still buy happiness, in this installation anyways, by the row.
Laurie Hogin’s work is beautifully painted and chock-a-block full of allegories. Included in the show is an extraction from the piece What Ails Us: 100 Most Commonly Prescribed Pharmaceuticals, depicting perfectly rendered guinea pigs sporting the brand color of the pill each represents. The undertone here is society’s (meaning you and me, pal) excesses have created the need for many of these drugs. Look, you can even see some of the side effects manifest in the little guinea pig faces. Which is your favorite?
William Powhida is perhaps best known for his self-effacing (or is it self serving)rants about the art world, its people and its power. While we tried to reassure him that Market Crash was only a drawing, he was one step ahead of the game already predicting the future with stunning accuracy. He continues to be engrossed in making work from the future while focusing on other attributes that control the art market. With Bill, you draw your own conclusions, or he does it for you?
Curated by Jane Scott, Girl Wonder, Inc.
11 July – 22 August 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 11th, 6:00-8:00pm
The New York Times suggests we are living in the “Age of Nice.” It’s a good thing too, with GM bankrupt, Lehman Brothers dissolved and real estate prices tanking, it’s time for a cocktail and a good laugh. Laugh It Off is well timed comic relief guaranteed to take the stress out of your life. Just when you thought you couldn’t take another high brow, I don’t get it, how did he get that in the gallery kind of exhibit, this show is designed with a big “E” for everyone, like family entertainment for those with a wicked sense of humor and maybe even a bit of a dark side.
Take Kammy Roulner, whose agoraphobia shapes her world. Her response is to draw one of her own imaginings, peopled with artists as well as plain folk. She draws in a voice we can all relate to and her anticipated world seems all too familiar. Her take on life, art, even facial hair is so universal, and sarcastically funny, you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement.
Remember the happy face? Well if you do, you’re dating yourself, since it first appeared in 1971 and has barely been out of fashion since. Fletcher Smith, who has borrowed from pop culture icons since his student days at Pratt, has re-purposed smiley to literally make a point. Is this some punishing beachware or a proposed symbol for the above referenced age of nice? Does the happy face perhaps have a darker side? In any case, it’s nice to know you can still buy happiness, in this installation anyways, by the row.
Laurie Hogin’s work is beautifully painted and chock-a-block full of allegories. Included in the show is an extraction from the piece What Ails Us: 100 Most Commonly Prescribed Pharmaceuticals, depicting perfectly rendered guinea pigs sporting the brand color of the pill each represents. The undertone here is society’s (meaning you and me, pal) excesses have created the need for many of these drugs. Look, you can even see some of the side effects manifest in the little guinea pig faces. Which is your favorite?
William Powhida is perhaps best known for his self-effacing (or is it self serving)rants about the art world, its people and its power. While we tried to reassure him that Market Crash was only a drawing, he was one step ahead of the game already predicting the future with stunning accuracy. He continues to be engrossed in making work from the future while focusing on other attributes that control the art market. With Bill, you draw your own conclusions, or he does it for you?