Lazy Girl: Scenes from the Summer of '22 - Episode 1

Orient: Dreamscape by the Sea

As in summer's past, I am in Orient, New York. I rented a 1700s-era cottage owned by Nancy Newman, the third-generation of her family to own this historic house. 

The history of the cottage is inextricably entwined with one of New York's treasured shops. Nancy's grandfather, Henry Shaw Newman, purchased the Old Print Shop in New York City in 1928. He was an expert on prints, maps and American Art, and in particular, Currier & Ives. Her father, Kenneth M. Newman, began to work at the Old Print Shop in 1949. He was an expert on American 19th century prints, especially those of John James Audubon. 

I pose with a print of an Arctic Tern in Nancy's parlor.

Nancy has lovingly maintained the house with attention to authentic details. There is original hardware on cabinet doors, a corner cupboard and a steep staircase with quirky, irregularly sized steps.

The staircase leads to the upstairs bedrooms.

There are two bedrooms on the second floor.

A charming mirror adorned with a picture of the 

Golden-Winged Woodpecker

greets visitors in the front entranceway.

Nancy Newman's house in the village of Orient, New York.

The corner cupboard with Nancy's collection of glass and china.

 My dress is by Lisa Corti.

I set up my studio in this room for painting and drawing.

A bouquet on the kitchen table.

The cottage is situated on beautiful grounds with a view across a wide field to the causeway and Long Island Sound beyond. I am five minutes on my bike from Latham's farm stand for vegetables, fruit and flowers.

Riding to Latham's on my Trek Townie to buy gladiolus and dalias.

Purple thistles and blue chicory in the meadow behind the cottage.

I love to walk to the edge of the meadow and feel the breeze. Sometimes I startle a bunny, or hear a cricket or see a monarch butterfly. There are many monarchs in the yard because of the milkweed and butterfly bushes in the garden. Red-headed finches fly down from the apple tree to the bird bath for a drink on a hot day.

A monarch butterfly wing found by my niece and displayed

 in my sister Jeanne's tray of nature curiosities.

In the gazebo. Hat by Lola with my own 

artificial fruit trim.

The gazebo provides a lovely place for a glass of rosé with neighbors.

For things to do, there's the Oysterponds Historical Society's Village House with period rooms and exhibitions. My favorite is the exhibit called "small" which culled little treasures from among the OHS's 60,000 objects.

1881 painting on a clam shell.

I had to do my own version.

My visitors and I practically lived in the screened in porch.

Sunflowers and shells.

Spectacular sunsets seen from the screened-in porch.

I have been transformed into a dream-being by the dreamy cottage.

Hopefully I will be my city self when I return to NYC!

Thank you, Nancy Newman, for a wonderful stay.

A bientôt!

Discovering Ceramics

The Art School on East Broadway

Tourists take note. New York has three Broadways. There's regular Broadway that cuts a north-south diagonal swath from lower Manhattan to the Bronx, West Broadway in Soho, and East Broadway, the secret Broadway running through the Lower East Side and Chinatown. That's where my second home is, the Art School at the Educational Alliance-Manny Cantor Center. Between my dance and ceramics classes, I seem to be there all the time.

The Art School has a storied history. It was started in 1905 for the Eastern European Jews who used the services of The Educational Alliance settlement house. Well-known artists such as Adolph Gottlieb, Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko and Chaim Gross studied and taught there. 

Educational Alliance Art School

Chaim Gross Tapestry

Photo by Renata Delsignore

Last winter, my nephew, Jack Wedge, suggested that we take a ceramics class. We signed up for handbuilding. Jack cofounded, with Will Freudenheiim, Laser Days, the animation studio. Jack lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, so he biked across the bridge on the cold winter evenings, dreaming about what he would make. Soon quirky figures, dogs and chairs populated his shelf. 

Carol and Jack in handbuilding class.

Some of Jack's work on the bisque shelf.

My two ladies are on the right.

"I Love You" by Jack Wedge

Jack and I collaborated on this piece which we call 

"The Cocktail Party"

Jack made the figures and the furniture and I made the room,

enhanced with abstract paintings by Mondrian and Rothko.

A page from my sketchbook where I collected

ideas for objects to make in class.

The building on the left is by Rob. Mallet-Stevens, 1927.

This is my slab-built house -- sort of Bauhaus, sort of 

Mexican influenced. I used underglazes for the color and a

transparent glaze for the final firing. 

Spring Term on My Own

I plunged ahead for the Spring term, this time requesting white clay because it would show off my color. Also, I had a new teacher, Liz Lohr. Liz is the school's Ceramics Education Manager. She has a BFA in ceramics from Arizona State University and started working in ceramics at the age of 15.  Her knowledge is staggering from techniques to chemistry to aesthetics.

Liz with ceramic test tiles which show the various glaze options.

Liz explains: "Test tiles tell the story of color and texture."

Liz Lohr @lizhohr

The Orb Cup from Liz's "Fingerprint" series

During the quarantine years of the pandemic Liz felt a deep loss

of human connection and of being with other bodies in the studio.

Making these fingerprint works, in porcelain, was a way

to use the energy of her body to prove love, so sorely

missed by all of us -- touching the clay to connect

energies across a distance.

A benefit of taking a class is meeting delightful, talented people.

 Here are some of my classmates and their work.

Emily Black @French Blonde

Emily has done extensive color explorations to achieve 

her beautiful results with stains and white glaze, as in this 

group of vases which are wheel thrown then

hand manipulated to achieve the shapes.

The catch all dish with the key (it's ceramic)

demonstrates her interest in highly realistic 

work, with a touch of humor, which she pursues in

addition to the color work.

Benjamin Haddix @__maymai
With these small sculptures, Ben has created a

tiny, private world as he intuitively

shapes the clay into caves and stalagmites.

Celine Griscom @mortal_maker

Celine's meticulous work is driven by her interest in

nature and the cycle of life. She aims to pair beauty 

with a sense of darkness. She uses decoration techniques 

such as silk screens, transfers and underglaze pencil drawing.

For a video of her process, please check out her Instagram.

Daliah Heller @daliaxlexle

Daliah built this vase using a tar-paper pattern technique.

Its shape is based on ancient Greek Island vessels

that she has see in museums in Greece.

Daliah's vase after  decoration.

Interviewing Emily for this post.

A tray that I painted with underglaze colors.

It has been bisque fired but not glazed yet.

Faces by Carol

A group of small catch alls which I created starting

with a slab with hand manipulation of the edges to create the ruffle effect.

Painted with underglaze and bisque fired.

I have since glazed these with a transparent glaze but the

pieces were not out of the kiln at this writing.

My ornaments and flowers.

Thanks to Renata Delsignore for the

photographs in this post.

À bientôt!

Remembering Professor Richard Cramer

 Richard at Layton School of Art

This is a remembrance of my husband, Richard Cramer, and his formative years as a student at Layton School of Art.

In high school in the small city of Neenah, Wisconsin, Richard played ping pong. He also did art for the school newspaper and decorated for the prom. An art teacher noticed his abilities and suggested that he go to art school. In 1950 he began his studies at Layton School of Art in Milwaukee.

Layton was a progressive school. It was founded by Charlotte Partridge, a forward-thinking woman, and run by Charlotte and her life partner, Miriam Frink. The goal was to turn out artists who could earn a living in the world of business, industry and education. There were courses in psychology, drama, music and poetry. These interests carried over to Richard's later life. He loved the music of Philip Glass which he listened to in his studio. His handouts for the Color Course were chocked full of literary and poetic references.  He curated a show for Tyler School of Art called "Intricate Structure/Repeated Image" that not only had paintings, but also dance, poetry and music performances.

Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink

Layton's faculty included both Bauhaus-influenced artists and regionalist painters who used the city and landscape as subject matter. From these teachers Richard gleaned ideas about pure abstract form and learned to love the idea of going out in the environment to paint and draw. 

Richard arrived at Layton in time to enjoy its new Bauhaus-style building spectacularly situated with a view of Lake Michigan.

Layton School of Art on Lake Michigan.

Tragically for architectural heritage, it was demolished in 1970

to make way for a freeway that was never built.

Richard loved architecture almost as much as art. Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn were favorites. Architecture was also evident in his color-field paintings with their geometric compositions. 

Richard told me, "Coming from a naive background, a little Wisconsin town, art influences in those early years at the Lakeview Country School were limited. The Neenah Public Library had three art books. Picasso, Norman Rockwell and Thomas Hart Benton. Layton opened my world to possibilities."

Richard amid his art work at Layton School of Art.

What a romantic picture.

 The black watch cap, the tweed coat, the argyle socks.

The mandolin!

After a rocky start at Layton, (too much fun with older students there on the GI Bill) Charlotte Partridge had a serious talk with Richard about buckling down. He took it to heart and soon excelled at his work. He was largely self-supporting and received scholarships in his junior and senior years. 

A photo in The Milwaukee Journal, November, 1953.

Richard with his fresco painting, done in Layton's paint laboratory. The

object was to increase the students' knowledge of mixing pigments and

plaster. Richard's work shows cat-like faces which he intended to "stress

shape and luminous quality without a specific plan."

Richard began his teaching career while still a student at Layton working two evenings a week at the Milwaukee Boys Club. He also did part-time work as a window decorator at T.A. Chapman's department store, where he gained an appreciation for design and elegant clothing (argyle socks anyone?). 

He was a special student, earning prizes at Wisconsin Salons and attracting the attention of the press in a story, Portrait of an Artist which gushed, "Blond, gangling, handsome 21-year-old-student at Layton School of Art who is an exemplar of the notably outstanding art students to be found in Wisconsin."

Richard told the interviewer, "I really don't know how my style will end up. I'm a student, I never forget that, and while my status is that of a student I intend to work and experiment just for myself."

This newspaper clipping shows Richard demonstrating painting

with liquid plastic to junior high school students.

Richard working on an impasto painting at Layton.

After Richard graduated from Layton in 1954, he went on to earn a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, majoring in medieval art history. He continued at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, earning both M.S. and M.F.A. degrees there.

In 1966 Richard began his 37-year career at Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1969 he created the Color Course which was based on his own painting practice of investigating color through complex color-mixing and swatch-making techniques which he used in large, color-field paintings. A painting might contain 7,000 colors contained in small, rectangular units. 

He worked with a dominant color that he liked and created a mixing system which would allow that color to influence every other color in the field. "I wanted a sensation of light running across a surface as I remembered carp and other fish and their scales reacting to light in the water at sunset back in our swamp in Wisconsin," he said.

Richard with his painting, Redbank, 1975.

Richard Cramer received the Great Teacher Award from

 Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 1993.

I recently looked at the Nominating Packet for this award, reading letters from faculty and students on Richard's behalf. Here is a quote from a letter written by Barbara During (Tyler 1991).

"Richard Cramer's sense of the integrated nature of human experience as the basis of painting, indeed living itself, is perhaps the key to his great qualities as a teacher. He gives the respect and attention that encourage the effort that makes us exceed ourselves... He opens the gate to the living tradition we aspire to enter."

In the spring of 2005, Richard endowed the Richard Cramer Color Award in Painting, essentially dedicating his $10,000 Great Teacher Award back to Tyler. The Cramer Color Award is given annually to a graduating Tyler painting student for their excellent use of color.

In the spring of 2022, in honor of the two-year anniversary of Richard's passing, Tyler and I are mounting a campaign to further endow the Award.  I am pledging to match contributions up to $10,000.

Did Richard open the gate to a creative living tradition for you? 

I hope that you will please consider contributing to the Color Award to help a student begin their life of creative work.

Here is how to contribute:

Richard Cramer and Carol Markel with Emily Erb, the first

recipient of the Richard Cramer Color Award in 2005.

In the way that Layton formed Richard as an artist, Tyler has done the same for thousands of his students. I hope that you will consider paying the experience forward to help another artist. I believe that the creative life is the best life, and we are lucky to live it.

With affection, Carol.