New work

Solo Show up and open daily 10 to 2pm until September 17, 2012

What do Steve Jobs, Tom Cruise, Lewis Carroll, Steven Spielberg and Leonardo daVinci have in common?

I met Serena Kovalosky years ago at the winter carnival in Whitehall NY. Where I drove my team of North American Spotted Draft Horses as the hay ride entertainment. We had lovely conversation  and come to find we use the same photographer Jim McLaughlin. Years later she now published and article interviewing me on dyslexia art and life.

So here goes-

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#103 – While not all Artists are dyslexic, the Artist Mind is the portal through which dyslexics experience their world.

A vivid imagination. An appreciation for color, tone, texture and form. Exceptionally visual and highly innovative. These are some of the characteristics of an Artist. They also represent the positive side of dyslexia.

I met miChelle M. Vara many years ago and, being a fellow artist, our conversation quickly turned to the subjects of art and the creative process. Vara works in a variety of mediums, from sculptural work in metal to paintings and murals, to airbrush commissions, faux-finishes and installations. She is a whirlwind of creative energy.

Our paths crossed again recently as a result of this blog, and as I researched her work and background, I discovered she is severely dyslexic.

Vara has what’s known as “crossed optic lobe”, where incoming information goes to the opposite side of the brain, and is therefore received upside-down and backwards. “I think in pictures,” says Vara. “I remember people, events and ideas as if they were photographed. I also remember feelings, emotions, textures, lighting,…..but no words. I connect very differently from everyone else.”

At a young age, miChelle Vara’s father placed her in a Montessori school system. “I was considered an extreme case,” says Vara. “It took a very long time for me to develop verbal and reading skills. Had I been left to a parent who was not understanding and caring, I would have been labelled as retarded. I would not have blossomed in a public school system, even though my IQ is actually well above average, because I am unable to take regular tests.”

"Neon Flames" by miChelle Vara

How has art figured into her life? “I’ve been an artist from Day One,”answers Vara. “Thankfully. I grew up in an environment that embraced my differences, feeding my imagination. But don’t let me kid you, my path has not always been easy. I still received enormous pressure from the outside world – people would call me stupid, make fun of me. I got picked on terribly by adults as well as children.”

“Art is my refuge,” she continues, “and any uncomfortable situation would send me into creation mode. My best friends were a thoroughbred horse named Socks and a dog named Cherice. I am thankful I have always had the ease of art and the love of animal friends and I think all handicapped children should have a pet and a safe place to escape.”

I ask Vara if art helped her with her understanding of how her mind works.

“No,” Vara replies. “My mind works because of my art.”

“Art is where I feel safe and at home. I am driven on a soul level to create, which is why I feel a compulsion to be in that creative state continually, making visual statements and conversations. My art is my life – it’s all very metaphorical.”

“I draw daily,” she continues. “My life is one artistic picture after another – it is nothing more than visual accounts of time. I create sculptural work because I often feel compelled to create an idea/statement of dimension that is not only ascetically pleasing but structurally sound. I often don’t have time to get all my ideas and thoughts into a physical object, so I may come back to it years later.”

Over the past 30+ years, miChelle Vara’s artwork has won numerous awards, and she regularly receives commissions from museums, corporations, individuals and municipal clients. The artist recently created a large-scale sculpture especially for the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY, using the museum’s logo as her inspiration for the fascinating work entitled, “The Guide”.

Vara wants to make one thing perfectly clear. “Please understand that I do not see dyslexia as a handicap to who I am and what my work is,” she says. “It is my greatest birth gift. “

Life is what you make it. miChelle Vara knows how to make the best of her life, and she has the artwork to prove it.

- SerenaK    http://www.artfulvagabond.com/artists-and-dyslexia-day-103/

North Country Art Juried Show At Crandell Park on 12-6-11

We invite you and your family/ friends to interact with the artist at:
Crandall Public Library's Friends Gallery in Glens Falls, New York. This year's show runs from Tuesday, December 6, to Friday, December 30, 2011, with the opening reception Thursday, December 8 at 6 p.m. Look forward to seeing you there!

One Brown Crafter -Article on Vara’s sculpture

http://onebrowncrafter.blogspot.com/2011/11/artists-showcase-michelle-vara.html

News Artical for Sculpture called "the Guide"

Adirondack Museum acquires new artwork with an old flair

WILTON - Artist miChelle M. Vara used the Adirondack Museum’s logo as inspiration for “The Guide,” a one-of-a-kind sculpture designed and made specially for the museum in Blue Mountain Lake.
The sculpture is intended to capture Adirondack history and the relationship between the wilderness and a guide’s life.
It is 12 feet tall, 15 feet long and five feet wide. It is made with re-thought metal, colored in translucent paint and finished with clear.
Vara has done many historical pieces using recycled metals, funded through grants and the private sector. She chooses metal for its past history to tell a story by way of unconscious perception.
The sculpture was released to the museum July 30.
http://www.hamiltoncountyexpress.com/News/08242011_artwork

Koi Fish are Fun

Koi Fish- Commissioned functioning sculpture, mail box holder made with recycled materials and finished in color.

Sculptor to bring new life to old metal

CLICK To WATCH the VIDEO-

http://www.poststar.com/news/local/article_b871664c-8b9c-11e0-b966-001cc4c002e0.html

Michelle Vara says she enjoys when a piece fights her to "get the conversation out." An artist for more than 35 years, Vara, of Ballard Road Art Studio in Wilton, says metal sculpting is not only her job, but her life.

  Grinding, cutting and pounding pieces into shape, she welds them together, working to express "a flow and dimension beyond words." The rigidity and resilience of the material is why she chooses the medium adding that once the metal is "concurred," it is soft and subtle enough to convey deep meaning to a variety of audiences.

Integrated into many of her sculptures are items with a history: A hammer used for years by a stone-mason friend who has passed on, an egg basket whose owner simply adored her chickens, a piece of keepsake glass saved for years and brought from one continent to another. Vara says she enjoys not only the hunt for the piece, but the story of the piece, and by integrating these items they lend "new life to a new project."

  Vara is constantly sketching ideas for projects. Her library contains more than 3,000 sketchbooks of concepts, some realized, many yet to come to fruition. She says her ideas never end because the world starts anew every day.