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Open! Wednesday – Sunday 10:00-5:00
Located in historic Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY, and amidst the rolling hills of Washington County in upstate New York, Valley Artisans Market is one of the oldest arts cooperatives in the country. Local fine artists and craftsmen work in a variety of hand-crafted media including glass, paper, cloth, photography, oil paintings, pastels, wood, mosaic, sculpture, metal, jewelry, ceramics and more. The Small Gallery features rotating shows by members and guest artists, and the market is always staffed by one of its artisan members.
Small Gallery
September 27, 2024 - October 21, 2024
Artist reception will be held 9/28, 3:00-5:00. The public is welcome!
Studio Migrations: Bird paintings by Timothy Achor-Hoch |
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I’ve been a birder since the mid-1980s. Gathering photographic reference gets me out of the house, into the woods, and onto the marshes and beaches. It teaches me to listen and observe. The pleasure I get from birding migrates easily to the studio. I paint these birds to share a little of that joy with you. One motivation for this series is the increasing scarcity of these species and how precious they have become. Thinking about the dangerous journeys these migrants make each spring and fall is inspiring.
Shorebirds and grassland birds show the deepest decline. Seeing them now is a privilege that I hope we can preserve. There are certain easy steps we can take to check these birds’ decline, but the pressures on them are very real. Painting birds may seem like a way to hold onto them—but that’s hardly a conservation strategy. For me, painting each singing beak and display feather brings beauty into my world. I would like to share my enthusiasm for that with you. Before we lose something this precious, let’s take some time to see it. My hope is that together we can plan a way to preserve birds for future generations |
About the Artist
I grew up in Pennsylvania, where I also went to art school (A.A. Art Institute of Pittsburgh) and college (B.A. Juniata College). Besides birds, my obsessions over the years have included social justice/ideological pluralism (which led to my art director job at Bread for the World in Washington, D.C.), fly fishing (which led to my art director job at the Orvis Company in Manchester, Vermont), and skateboarding (which led to no jobs but didn’t keep me from landing the ones I got). I started FishCrow Studio in 2020 and have been pursuing my art full time since.
Featured Artist
Erin Sheridan
Wherever Erin Sheridan goes, she keeps an eye out for the eclectic items that grace her cotton clothesline rope baskets. Peacock feathers, felted flowers, vintage jewelry, geodes, and even antlers adorn the unique vessels she creates in her Hummingbird’s Heart Studio located in White Creek just outside Cambridge, NY.
Erin’s background is equally eclectic. A college English and Journalism major, she joined the Air Force and worked as a Crew Chief on B-52 bombers in the late 1970s. Eventually, in 1989, she became a real estate agent and broker, also working as a NY State certified real estate licensing instructor and continuing education creator.
But she was always drawn to artistic pursuits. Her mother, a musician and accomplished chef, opened a restaurant and bar in the area in 1969 and there taught Erin culinary skills, including baking and cake decorating. This led Erin to establish her own catering business for a time. Her mother also taught her to sew, a lifelong passion.
“I love the sewing process,” Erin says. “Once I start to build my basket, the repetitive motion is very calming to me. None of the baskets are ever the same—they start to take on their own shape and personality as I work on them.” She sometimes uses her commercial embroidery machine to create the bases for the baskets. She enjoys digitizing some of her original designs for her machine to “read.” Current examples include a loaf of bread (for a breadbasket, of course) and a tree of life. It was worth it, she says, to travel to Chicago twice to learn how to use the required software.
Erin’s passion is to make her baskets functional, as well as ”pieces of art that everyone will enjoy.” She especially loves using unique elements from nature and incorporating them into the exterior of the basket. “Sometimes the decoration is the very first component. If I find an interesting piece of bark or a cluster of unusual moss or feathers, it will inspire my basket’s design.” A challenge she faces is finding the right quality rope, because most rope these days is made of plastic or other synthetics. Another challenge, she says, laughing, “is not breaking 20 needles on one basket.”
Erin has always been a “maker of some sort,” as she puts it. While working at a quilt shop in Saratoga she taught classes in quilting techniques, design and color theory. Over the years, she has also taken classes with different artists in a diverse variety of mediums, including quilting, weaving, fabric dyeing, and printing. She enjoys making paper beads and jewelry from junk mail and creates art quilts using her hand-dyed fabrics and felted wool. Many of her artistic creations have always involved sewing of some sort, but baskets were a “What if!” moment for her. She says, “My attitude has always been, you can’t fail unless you try. Although I’ve failed miserably at some things, I’ve mostly enjoyed much success at others, and doesn’t that make it all worthwhile?”
– Nancy Roberts
Upcoming Shows
- Karin Vollkommer. Paintings and other works
October 25, 2024 - November 18, 2024
- Members, Holiday Show
November 25, 2024 - December 24, 2024
- After Christmas Sale
December 26, 2024 - December 29, 2024
See past shows →
News
Remembering Joyce Decker
We just found out that one of our founding members of VAM passed away in 2021. We are sad for the news. Joyce Center Decker (B) 8/22/1924 (D) 9/8/2021 She didn't beat Grandma Moses (whom she met) in longevity but at 97 she survived most. Joyce was a fierce individual,...
Small Works Show Winners!
The Valley Artisans Market SMALL WORKS SHOW WINNERS ANNOUNCED Thanks for casting your vote during our Small Works show! Here are the winners! Best in Show: Maude White won first place for “Bluebird” (cut paper) Honorable Mention: Isaac Semko for “Woman in the Woods”...