Excitement new project canvases

The Saratogian news

Cemetery project preserves piece of Wilton history

Shown above is an art shot of one of the headstones in the Brill Cemetery in Wilton by artist miChelle M. Vara.

By Paul Post, The Saratogian

POSTED: 01/08/15, 2:01 PM EST | UPDATED: 3 DAYS AGO

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This image shows the gate of the Brill Cemetery in Wilton. with a white backdrop.WILTON >> The town of Wilton and local artisans recently joined forces to restore a small cemetery and an important aspect of Wilton history.

The Brill Cemetery is located behind a Saratoga Bridges facility at 690 Route 9, just north of Waller Road.

Last year, Saratoga Bridges acquired a small piece of cemetery property to build a pavilion for its clients.

The cemetery, which dates to the mid-1800s, only has two headstones marking the graves of Hanna and James Brill. To maintain the site’s boundary, town Historian Jeannine Woutersz suggested that the cemetery should be enclosed by restoring an old iron fence.

However, much of what remained of the fence was badly deteriorated.

With support from the town, Woutersz contacted miChelle Vara at the Ballard Road Art Studio about handling the project.

Vara and her partner, Chad Wilson, collected the metal pieces and attempted to find pictures or documentation about what the gate would have looked like in its original condition.

That produced no results, but Vara found clues unearthed from the site, including evidence of small rosettes in the original pattern. But they, too, were extremely deteriorated.

However, she is a metal collector and had rosettes from a bed frame made in the early 19th century. So with a few tricks of her trade, welding and reworking the metals, she restored the fence gate and posts, using some original material and pieces she fashioned based on the original pattern.

Enclosing the entire cemetery would have been too big a project. But the restored gate was installed last week, serving as an historical marker and a reminder about the small cemetery’s presence.

“To have the town save that is monumental and important,” Vara said. “It’s great to see somebody local that really cares.”

The town funded part of the project. However, Vara and Wilson donated considerable time and talent.

Woutersz said the Brill family came to the Wilton area in 1813. They built a brick homestead, planted orchards and prospered on surrounding farmland.

The Brill property was sold to Charles A. Waller in 1900 and was used as a dairy farm until 1945, when it was sold to Don Pepper and became part of the former Pepper’s Turkey Farm.

The old brick house still stands.

“It could tell some wonderful tales,” Woutersz said. “Let’s hope it survives another 100 years.”

click link for further information: Blossom  -

Blossom (2014) Original Oil pastel By Artist miChelle Vara 

January & February slipped by in the blink of an artist eye.

The weather is wait a minute change, as I look out my office window to a fierce total white out and think what a perfect day for daydreams and strong black coffee. 

Click here to see the entire updated post with pictures.

Please note I would like to express my great appreciation and thanks to all that have worked, helped, hindered, enlightened my path recently.   Life is magic thanks for being there.

 Originally posted at - http://mvarametalandpaint.com/site/blog/

Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine bar hosting 'Anti-Super Bowl Art Party'

Friday, February 1, 2013

By Andrew Beam
abeam@troyrecord.com
Twitter.com/beam_record

TROY — If you are upset none of the New York football teams are in Super Bowl 47, or you don’t care for either of the teams, or you simply couldn’t care less about football at all, then the Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar on Second Street has an alternative.

The “Anti-Super Bowl Party” will be held at the wine bar where people can enjoy not only wine, cheese and beer but also a half-time art show.

According to a press release, the party will feature metal sculptures made out of found materials and created by metal sculptor Michelle M. Vara, of the Ballard Road Art Studio Gallery in Wilton.

On display will be Laissez-fair #344, aptly-nicknamed “Couch Potato,” as it is a piece made out of parts from a tiny television.

Co-owners Vic Christopher and his wife Heather La Vine had both worked in the sports industry — they were with the Tri-City Valley Cats until they were fired because of their relationship — but he said he now realizes sports aren’t all that important.

“I worked in professional sports for a decade. It took me that long to realize that a game has no direct impact on my life,” Christopher said in the release. “Wine and Cheese get me more excited than watching some guy throw a ball around the grass.”

But the real purpose of the party, at least for La Vine, is to get away from the television screen and interact with human beings.

It also helps the bar doesn’t have a television in sight.

“We spend too much time looking at a screen and not enough time looking at each other,” La Vine said in the release. “At the Confectionery we encourage conversation between friends old and new.”

The event will run from noon till 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Andrew Beam may also be reached at 270-1294.

http://mvarametalandpaint.com/site/2013/02/02/wine-bar-hosting-anti-super-bowl-art-party/

URL: http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2013/02/01/news/doc510c62c498366496191741.prt

Sneak Peek - Elms College Borgia Gallery to Feature miChelle M. Vara’s “inVoices” Art Exhibit

New Works and Jewelry

The exhibit is open 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily from October 28 through November 16.

(Chicopee, Massachusetts)—The Borgia Gallery at Elms College will feature the work of miChelle m. Vara, titled inVoices, from October 28 through November 16, 2012. The artist’s reception will be held 12-2 p.m., November 16 in the gallery, located on the second floor of Mary Dooley College Center on the Elms College campus.

Remembering 911- in metal sculpture

Remembering 911- my heart and thoughts are with all who suffer the events past.

I have a master key from the World Trade Center shared by a local family to which I will incorporate in 911 monument sculpture upcoming. The 911- monument "Respectful Remembrances" made by me is open at The Wilton Fire Company on Ballard Rd, 6-9 pm tonight. Wishing all peace!~

Experience Junkie

I’m reading about the philosopher Martin Heidegger’s relationship with artist Eduardo Chilida. I found there point of view very interesting and of my personal perception and thought.  I enjoy, look forward to, have many, I am always reaching for more experiences.  From those experiences I do build perception but with that also comes the art. My art is the heart of who I am. In this process I can say the journey reveals discovery leading to development of my works. Unlike Eduardo Chillida, I do not feel that experience is one foot in the past. I like to think that all of me even in reflection is in the present or the now.

This is the excerpt I am referring to:

Eduardo Chillida engaged into a dialog with the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. When the two men met, they discovered that from different angles, they were "working" with space in the same way. Heidegger wrote: "We would have to learn to recognize that things themselves are places and do not merely belong to a place," and that sculpture is thereby "...the embodiment of places." Against a traditional view of space as an empty container for discrete bodies, these writings understand the body as already beyond itself in a world of relations and conceive of space as a material medium of relational contact. Sculpture shows us how we belong to the world, a world in the midst of a technological process of uprooting and homelessness. Heidegger suggests how we can still find room to dwell therein.

Chillida has been quoted as saying: "My whole Work is a journey of discovery in Space. Space is the liveliest of all, the one that surrounds us. ...I do not believe so much in experience. I think it is conservative. I believe in perception, which is something else. It is riskier and more progressive. There is something that still wants to progress and grow. Also, this is what I think makes you perceive, and perceiving directly acts upon the present, but with one foot firmly planted in the future. Experience, on the other hand, does the contrary: you are in the present, but with one foot in the past. In other words, I prefer the position of perception. All of my work is the progeny of the question. I am a specialist in asking questions, some without answers."

Maybe you have thoughts you’d like to share on the subject – Just email me!

Spring into art !

I am glad to say this spring has shaped up to be like no other. The collector parties (sales) and private invites to travel, show, teach and speak have been wonderfully exhilarating.

I wanted to extend my grate appreciation & thank everyone for sharing and making all the fun.

Life is supposed to be fun!

Art words

DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
I admit I do not know how to speak your language, that is, the language of your art.

 Nevertheless, I tell you that profoundly and still more profoundly, inside this heart of mine I feel a sentiment. The same as it was that day, when I saw an image for the very first time. Something touched my heart deeply: something happened inside me – without being aware of it - something that changed my life. Since then I felt that something was rushing and rushing inside me, through my veins, enrooted its seeds into my spine. 
I love art, trying to love it as love loves. I do not know any other reason to love art, rather than simply love art. What can I say, more than this? 
You know what I mean. I just want to say to you that anytime I talk – or write – about art is… that I love it. Sometimes I suffer that someone can just reply to what I’ve said and not to my love. Anyhow, as I told you, I do not take anything for granted: I will never ask art for more that it has decided to give me, don’t you?

Unknown author

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-

__________________________________________________________

#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/

Cherry –mixed media series

Cherry 2012- A mixed media series- 2pcs just finished one sold.

http://mvarametalandpaint.com/site/blog/

This one is available
 for purchase but in the works of finishing 6-12 more.  
Of course they are different sizes and attitudes of life’s process and story.

Material:

recycled background (this piece Cherry bed head board)
paint(enamel, poly), brass chips, vinyl,
1970 Bingo chips- Highlighting spirit points & the energetic and intuitive relationship to unique therapeutic function of moving energy , healing.(does anyone remember these bingo chips with the metal edge and magnetic wand to pick them up with. I found a bag in the Schuylerville used store and had to have them. The woman who runs the operation for the school told me they were from the 70’s and what would I want with them?

 I Love the Visual hunt for material items to incorporate in my process of life and digestion, encapsulating a new vibration of visual intent.

Client bosts B.R.A.S. service up!

Client says- "My experience with them was amazing they welcomed me with open arms and showed me around and gave me a tour of the place. I brought my Aluminum welding project and i met with Chad. I must of talked with him for 2 hours before we even started talking about my project. The welds look amazing and it does not leak at all. I would highly recommend them to any one they are just friendly people and are very down to earth. They will be seeing me in the future"- Mike Harm

http://mvarametalandpaint.com/site/2012/01/17/client-comments-about-ballard-road-art-studio/

Satisfied customers keep coming back to Ballard Road Art Studio

In the more than 30 years of running an art studio it has been my pleasure to enhance many clients ideas through metal and paint. But this couple, repeat clients are my most recent tickle or prize. When they picked up the airbrush painted, ford truck tailgate,  up she cried that night she e-mailed me to say-

“I just wanted to thank you again for the most BEAUTIFUL tail gate EVER!!!!!!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH..... I never in a million years thought it would be soooo beautiful. I know your work is amazing,...but this was way over the top. I love it so much it was simply breath taking,..literally.. I was so shocked of how beautiful. You are one amazing artist MICHELLE- thank you,- thank you, thank you --GOD BLESS!”  SHARON