The Kids are Alright: NYC's newest art fair The Dependent at The Sheraton put the fun back into fairs.

Call it old school, if you will, but the history of The Armory began as an inexpensive art fair in the Gramercy Hotel (then called The Gramercy International Art Fair) in 1994. It was organized by four hip young art dealers  who couldn't get into the established fairs;  Colin De Land, Pat Hearn, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris.

Last night, Swiffer-looking "yarn art pieces" wandered the halls of the twelfth and fourteenth floors, with one room devoted to a performance of hanging out, drinking beer and watching art videos. Affordable for all the invited and fun, the newest NYC art fair, The Dependent was a one-night wonder where participants had an hour to set up their rooms and where, appropriately, many participants rolled their art in, in suitcases.

At KS Art in room 1407, gallery director Kerry Schuss showed Freddie Brice paintings
 of watches and Ray Hamilton outline watercolors.

It took over two floors of The Sheraton Hotel at 160 West 25th Street for one afternoon and evening, Friday, March 4th. Some galleries rooms looked like artist club houses, others fitted up the room with items that "made sense" like Polly Apfelbaum's tie dye bedding (below) and artful pillows and curtains in Cleopatra's room #1408. Then there was all the crazy, creative ways artists installed art in the bathrooms. Plastic flowers stuffed into one, sculptures in shower stalls next to the drain---tubs filled with ice and beer was everywhere. The lines to get in were long, 45-minutes we were told by someone who made it up.

Apfelbaum's "rainbow roll" bedding in Cleopatra's room.

A painted satin 50's wedding dress and Zine display in room 1203. 

One Night Stand mixed media painting.

Soloway Gallery in room 1203.

Oversized fake nose and eyeglasses in Canada's room.

Max Schuss and his Goth-inspired drawings.

Artist Max Schuss hogged the bathroom to watch Youtube videos.

Sculpture and painting installed in one bathroom

Bread and scented oil at Cleopatra sent herbal aroma down the halls.

Tubs of beer were ubiquitous.

Creative use of found art materials like wet wadded up toilet paper
to make bows on bathroom mirrors.

Some online reviews of The Dependent follow:
Hyperallergic:
http://hyperallergic.com/20133/the-dependent-art-fair-2011/

Art Observed review by N. Linnert

http://artobserved.com/2011/03/ao-on-site-photosetnews-summary-new-york-the-dependent-art-fair-at-the-sheraton-hotel-on-26th-street-floors-12-and-14-march-4-2011/

Artfagcity.com dubbed it a success.

http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/03/07/the-dependent-fair-as-seen-through-the-crowds/

Michelle Levy for Artslant.com reported many attendees saying this fair would be the only one they attended. "The spirit of The Dependent felt less about the actual art and more about camaraderie and solidarity, along with an inevitable shade of insider-ness."

http://www.artslant.com/ny/articles/show/22067

Artnewsworldwide.com pre-show report:

http://www.artnewsworldwide.com/art-fag-city/17429-the-hip-and-practical-attend-two-new-nyc-art-fairs.html

And Hyperallergic's piece on who was attending The Dependent. Hey, there's our friend Joanne and Sheeba.

http://hyperallergic.com/20110/emerging-collectors-at-the-dependent/

-Monica Forrestall

Miami Art Fair--NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) at Deauville

Toured the NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) art fair in Miami Dec 3-5th.

Here are some of the different booths Max and I saw.

above: Crawling red-suited figure at Workplace Gallery booth # 315.

        

Max in a Nada co-winning Best Booth.

above: Max in Wen Fang's painted knife display at La B.A.N.K booth.

above: Wacky science experiment pieces, at Museum 52 booth seem to have big boy-appeal. 

above: One of the two winning Best Booth winners, Kate Werble Gallery, NYC of the Nada art fair.

Max sees through sculptures.

Visiting dad in KS Art booth featuring Bill Adams work. 

left: Director of NADA Heather Hubbs (old friend of Max's), Max and Lisa Cooley, gallery owner Lisa Cooley, NYC (another old friend of Max's)

---Monica Forrestall

Max's love of bird watching inspires his art making for Paint the Town art exhibit in Annapolis Royal

Max loves birds. Watching them, writing about them and drawing them. His obsession with bird watching has inspired all aspects of his life, including his art making here at Beach Rose Cottage.This is Max's Common Loon drawing made using watercolor pencils we brought from NYC.  And this is the piece that Max has chosen to exhibit with his mom in the "Paint The Town" artists exhibition this weekend in Annapolis Royal. The plastic Common Loon that Max picked up at a yard sale in Granville Ferry last week for $5...(there was an astonishing amount of garden ornaments for sale). Whatever inspires a piece of art, is worth the price! I guess especially if your parents (Kerry here) are paying. :)

Below: Max's "Common Loon" (top right) and his "Mallard" watercolour pencil drawing submissions for the Paint The Town exhibition in Annapolis Royal on August 21st and 22nd, 2010.

Natalie Forrestall Memorial: Remembering mom

Our sweet and loving mother, Natalie Forrestall passed away four short years ago, on March 13th, 2006. The pure love that poured out of mom's big heart for her grandchildren, children and husband of 48 years, Tom Forrestall, and everyone she ever met, was a rare and beautiful thing. We were all so blessed, so very lucky to have such a wonderfully kind woman to call mother. Beyond her endless capacity to love everyone, mom was a talented painter in her own right. Mom earned her own degree in Fine Arts from Mount Allison University, as well as a teaching degree from a teacher's college in Oromocto and, luckily for dad, had a brilliant mind for buisness. Our mother was an art teacher to elementary aged children in the early years of her marriage, helping to support the family. Mom gave up her painting career to manage our father's career and the busy household of six children and umpteen pets, so dad could focus on his painting.
Here are a few photos of mom with members of her loving family who will never, ever forget her.

Tom Forrestall and Natalie Forrestall holding Max Forrestall Schuss at Three Oaks in July 2002. 

My brother, Frank Forrestall recently found an old video on his computer with footage of mom doing some gardening with his eldest daughter Gwen. Frank writes about that special moment in time below.

"I've attached a few stills from the video. It was another of those special moments with Gwen that mom loved so much (like their time baking together). Mom loved those moments and always found little projects for them to do together. In this video they were re-potting some plants together; I don't think Gwen was of any practical assistance, but I don't think mom was seeking perfection in the task, she found perfection in the moment."

Natalie Forrestall gardening with her grandaughter Gwen Forrestall in Dartmouth.

Natalie Forrestall planting flowers in her hanging plant holders for the porch, with her grandaughter Gwen.

My sister, Renee Forrestall (below with mom) was touched by the gardening photos of mom, and had this memory of gardening with mom to share, "I love the gardening pictures! I loved that mom would put on her striped overalls for even the slightest of gardening work! I remember the first garden we put in together on the side of the house when I was seventeen - it was pouring rain - torrential - but we went ahead and did it anyway! We were transplanting daffodils that we had found growing deep in the woods at 3 Oaks. We dug a massive trench the length of the house - right under the down spout of the gutter! Never mind we had no clue what we were doing! We laughed so much - all the daffodils kept bobbing up and floating around like little boats. We kept dashing around the 20 foot trench trying to anchor the bulbs to the muddy bottom of the rushing stream we had created. The problem was we had hundreds of bulbs!

We always had a good chuckle when the daffodils would come up every year. They still come up - I always think of this fun time with mom  when I see daffodils." 

My brother Curphey didn't have any photos to share, but writes "Still miss her, still speechless."

Renee Forrestall and mom, Natalie Forrestall August 4th.

Family gatherine in Karsdale, Nova Scotia Summer 2005. From left, back row: Monica Forrestll, Winkie deVries, Kitty Forrestall, Tom Forrestall, Miles DeVries, Natalie Forrestall, David DeVries (back) Nick Matyas (front), Nicoline DeVries . From row, from left: Pierson Matyas, Max Forrestall Schuss, David Matyas, Jack Matyas (holding) Duff.

Natalie Forrestall, Tom Forrestall and Prime Minister Trudeau. 

Back row, from left: Curphey Forrestall, Anne and Bess Forrestall, Natalie Forrestall, Marie Webb, Tom Forrestall, Rachel Forrestall, William Forrestall. Sitting, from left: Jamie, Gwen Forrestall, Jasmine Forrestall, Diana and Jessica and Frank Forrestall, (foreground) Millie Webb, Renee Forrestall.

Natalie and Tom Forrestall.

William Forrestall, Natali Forrestall, Monica Forrestall, Tom Forrestall in front of the family home in Fredericton, New Brunswick on University Avenue where we all grew up as children.

Fam photo taken in Point Pleasant Park in 1977. From left: Curphey Forrestall, William Forrestall, Natalie Forrestall, Tom Forrestall, Renee Forrestall, Frank Forrestall, Monica Forrestall, Jack Forrestall.

Family brunch at The Digby Pines (mom's fav place to go in the summer) in Summer 2005. From left: Tom Forrestall, Natalie Forrestall, Max Forrestall Schuss, Monica Forrestall.

Background from left: Kitty Forrestall, Renee Forrestall, Natalie and Tom Forrestall. Front: Monica Forrestall (holding) Marie Webb, John Distefano at The Farm in the Annapolis Valley.

At The McDonald Museum in Middleton, Nova Scotia for a family exhibition opening. Back row, from left: Diana and Jessica Forrestall, Jaimie, Jack Forrestall, Natalie Forrestall, Tom Forrestall, Frank Forrestall. Front row, from left: Gwen Forrestall, Renee Forrestall, Kristin Grimson, Nico, Kitty Forrestall, Matthew Grimson. 

Nat & Tom Forrestall  (above)

Tom and Natalie Forrestall, Renee Forrestall and her eldest daughter Millie Webb.

Above: From left: Marie Webb on her uncle Curphey Forrestall's lap, Natalie and Tom Forrestall, Millie Webb, Monica Forrestall on Christmas morning in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The girls are wearing matching burgundy velvet dresses mom bought for them. 

When mom was in the hospital, Millie and Renee smuggled in Millie's pet rabbit Humbug, because mom loved her own pet rabbit so much, who passed away. Mom's cranky rabbit was only sweet for her.

 

Natalie and Tom Forrestall on their wedding day, Friday, September 13th.  

---Monica Forrestall

"Unreadable Books" an Art Book making workshop with Max and friends at Artbook@X

My friend Sarah had allerted me that on Saturday, January 16th a most interesting art book-making workshop was taking place at Artbook@X on West 22nd street, here in NY. The workshop was led by Pietro Corraini who makes extraordinary artful books for children. Pietro's goal was to show children (and their parents) how to make a book without words or images.

Pietro, who ran the workshop with Ilaria Rodella, began by showing many examples of mini books, all made without words, using very interesting materials like: clear plastic pages, flat sponges for pages, felt, vellum and pages that are cut in order to see through to the next page in some way.

Then Pietro invited the children to spread out at the two tables, which were laden with piles of interesting art materials of all sorts, from markers and glue to containers of white rice and piles of fluffy cotton balls.
The only rule in putting together the book seemed to be that there were no rules; other than not using any words.





Below: Joseph (right) and Max (center) pay close attention to Pietro's instructions, and flip through the sample books Pietro passed around.

The poster for the event.










Instructor Pietro, Max, Davis and his mom, Tamra.

Max and Davis both chose to make Star Wars stories, all without text.  Davis chose to use a long, rolling out scroll-like piece of paper for his story. He described it as giving ideas for TV shows. Max
drew scenes like a story board for a film, on graph paper, which he bound by clipping together with a large black clip.


Max's book "The Mendolrians".

The girls work away on their books. 
When all the children were finished with their books, they were invited to come up and talk about them.

Max points out pages from his book. Max's friends Davis and Joseph also discuss their books.

Below: Joseph talks about his book.

below: Davis talks about his interesting scroll-style book.

A fun part for parents going to the workshops is that they are often invited to "make their own projects as well"...here is my all white materials book, made with vellum paper.

This page (above) has white string and flat cotton pads on the left, and paper cut into a cloud shape with a metal hanger hanging from it, below are three circular cotton pads and a flattened pile of white rice, glued down.

On this page is a spaghetti like pile of white string, glued down on the left, and on the right hand page, several metal doll hangers, hovering above a pulled apart cotton ball, which is glued down.








Below: The last two pages are more piles of white strings glued down.