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I chickened out and never went to Woodstock in 1969. There was no art there then—only cows. August 2011, finally made it up to this authentic artist’s colony that has the feel and look of a college town with its organic vittels and good strong coffee. You can get almost anything you want but don’t expect the spirit of Janis Joplin. As it is throughout the American landscape, the art is homogenized and pasteurized. Artisans and craftfolk have made a legitimate commitment to the area and they feed upon the enthusiasm from SUNY New Paltz and Purchase. |
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“I chickened out and never went to Woodstock in 1969. There was no art there then—only cows.”
Woodstock Weekend
Tony Zaza
I chickened out and never went to Woodstock in 1969. There was no art there then—only cows. August 2011, finally made it up to this authentic artist’s colony that has the feel and look of a college town with its organic vittels and good strong coffee. You can get almost anything you want but don’t expect the spirit of Janis Joplin. As it is throughout the American landscape, the art is homogenized and pasteurized. Artisans and craftfolk have made a legitimate commitment to the area and they feed upon the enthusiasm from SUNY New Paltz and Purchase.
“Hair” is playing at the Woodstock Playhouse, a structure that has a National Park look to it. Tinker street has several galleries, the library, and craft centers. The legacy goes way back to 1902 when the Brydcliffe art colony began.
Photography seems to dominate the landscape with a show of 8 x 10 original Polaroid prints of nudes at Photosensualis and a bright densly populated exhibit of alternative process prints at galeriebmg, capped with Leah Macdonald’s romantic dreamscapes. At Bearsville Graphics there are original linoleum block prints and woodcuts by Karen Whitman, propriortess. The Medium and the Message at the Byrdcliffe Guild features group shows of prints and paintings focused on alien interventions into the natural order of things. These works comment upon the intervention of technology in the framework of making and displaying. At the Center for Photography, there is a showcase of works from various workshops that run year round as handmade printing competes with the digital world; it’s not the Age of Aquarius anymore.
It’s all very serious business but there is, in the presence of many tie-dyed t-shirt stands, the remnants of the spirit of the Peace & Love Generation that has all but completely mutated into a tourist attraction.
