Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Jerusalem View from a Rooftop

Oil on Linen "Jerusalem View from a Rooftop". (c)Heather van Wolf.  All rights reserved van wolf studio 2014-2015

Friday, February 24, 2012

Limited Edition Prints


VAN WOLF LIMITED EDITION  PRINTS BY GARY LICHTENSTEIN STUDIO

According to Fine Artist Heather Van Wolf, the choice of where and how to print editions of original artwork is absolutely critical.  "I do not like producing digital prints or giclĂ©e of my fine art because you cannot truly control the edition which depletes the value. There is no plate or screen in the digital printing process which shows its age through the process. I either create my own etchings or work with master printers who collaborate with me to create unique identifiable pieces of art with closed editions from Gary Lichtenstein Studios or Bowne & Company Stationers in New York."
  Gary Lichtenstein and Heather van Wolf with "Paris View from a Rooftop." 

The original pen & ink "Paris View from a Rooftop" has been on exhibit at the National Arts Club, Gallery in the Park and was profiled in the New York Times and Art in America Magazine and is represented on the cover of her book .  The original is now part of a private collection. These hand pulled silkscreens created at Lichtenstein Studio's are large format in a limited edition run of 50.

"Working with Gary has been fantastic.  We recreated one of my favorite pen & ink drawings on a large scale with color. This is a fascinating and complex process and each print is beautiful and absolutely unique.  No two are ever the same because of the process itself. This has been a joy to work on and I am excited to produce more of my citiscapes on a large scale with Gary,"  says van Wolf.

Lichtenstein's prints are currently on exhibit at the The Butler Institute of American Art where he created unique prints with Charles Hinman. Lichtenstein has worked with leading contemporary artists and his prints have exhibited at museums across the country.

in 2003 Van Wolf worked with Bowne & Company to produce a limited edition printing of "Sail Manhattan" and "NYC May 2001."

"It's an absolute delight to work with Bowne & Company's master printers," says van Wolf,   "I always look forward to my visits there.  When you walk through the door it's like stepping back through time. They produce top notch work and the antique printing equipment they use is an outstanding example in design, engineering, craftsmanship and material."

Interior of Bowne & Co Stationers photo by Friends of Bowne


Late in 2012 New York's South Street Seaport Museum along with the historic Bowne & Company closed their doors. A vibrant advocacy effort saved the museum and print shop located at 211 Water Street.


Bowne & Company Stationers printers of  "NYC May 2011" & "Sail Manhattan"

Friday, November 18, 2011

Help Save Pound Ridge Reservation's Trailside Museum


Please help us save the Pound Ridge Reservation's Trailside Museum.

This museum will be closing on January 1 unless we tell our County Government how important it is to us. Please if you have a moment, let them know. I have created a petition which you can sign online to help the county prioritize expenditures. The parks department is not where we should be cost cutting.

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION

We also have a Facebook Group you can join to get updates, meeting times, Phone Numbers and action items to help up safeguard Westchesters 50 Beautiful Parks, the employees who take care of them, the historic buildings and learning institutions which help introduce nature to the public.

BECOME A MEMBER OF SAVE THE TRAILSIDE MUSEUM ON FACEBOOK

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Pound Ridger Uses Art to Battle Fracking

The Record-Review
Friday July 22, 2011
By Don Heppner

Heather van Wolf, a Pound Ridge resident, activist and artist is using her art as a weapon to fight hydrofracking in New York State.
Hydraulic fracturing, often called fracking, is a process used to mine gases that lie between layers of shale. The method employs fracturing of the rock layers using liquid loaded with chemicals to help separate layers and extract gas.
Ms. Wolf participated in a Sierra Club-sponsored event last month that featured the work of many artists, wine and music. Ms. Wolf exhibited several drawings and an installation that grabbed the attention of all of the more than 100 people who attended the event in Manhattan.
Ms. Wolf said that the fracking sculpture she made is technically called an art installation, which isi a mixed-media sculpture blending conceptual art and a scientific technical illustration.
The drawing on the plexiglass at the top of the installation is done in the classical method of etching with a diamond tipped needle. Bubbles were drawn around the helical chemical compounds, which illustrate what is released in the air and water when fracking occurs.
The pools beneath the steel frame represent the earth pre-fracking to the right and post- fracking to the left, and even contained a live goldfish in the first bowl. The second bowl represents the chemicals infused into the water, and the third bowl gives a picture of the water that has gone through the fracking process.
"The fish represents nature as it is impacted by our efforts in gas drilling," ms. Wolf said. "I want people to want to protect and nurture the fish, and the gallerygoers were interested in making sure the fish wasn't hurt."
Her installation is topically specific and was designed for the Sierra Club event. A number of institutions focusing on installation art were created from the 1980's and onward, suggesting the need for installation to be seen as a separate discipline.
Frank Morris, the National Sierra Club board member who invited Ms. Wolf to participate in the event, called her work "beautiful" and "effective."
"I met Heather two years ago at a Sierra Club meeting, where she does lots of good works opposing expansion of the airport at Westchester," Mr Morris said. "I was very impressed by her poise and intelligence, and then I met her again through Facebook."
Ms. Wolf had made some online posts about gas fracking that impressed Mr. Morris, and he later discovered that she was an "accomplished" artist.
He has combined art and wine to raise funds before, and he said they have all been successful and that he thought Ms. Wolf would make a great contribution to the show.
The New York State chapter of the Sierra Club Officially opposes fracking, but the national organization embraces gas as a transition fuel becuase it's cleaner burning than crude. So there is no official position against fracking from the National Sierra Club, but local state chapters will continue to work to protect natural resources from the results of fracking.
Well over 100 people attended the event at 28 East 35th Street to see artists take on the idea of gas drilling in New York State.
"I have been involved in the oil issue for about 20 years," Mr. Morris said.
"The fracking issue came to light in 2005, and my involvement came a few years later."
He said that oil companies created fracking technoloigy and "they loaned it to their little brother, the gas companies."
To allow fracking would present a dangerous situation for New York State, according to Mr. Morris. "My information is that Governor Cuomo has opened the fracking process in 85 percent of New York State," he said. "We don't have shale in 85 percent of the state, but we have a lot of shale."
Mr. Cuomo made a stab at protecting the New York City and Syracuse water supplies, since both water supplies are unfiltered and if fracking chemicals got into a reservoir system, the water supply would become polluted, but Mr. Morris said that is not enough.
"Does the governor think that filtered water systems will be protected from irradiated frack foods?" Mr. Morris asked. "Irradiated waters are being released into the watersed. I don't think the people of New York State want that. I don't know how they are going to manage the radiation that comes from the fracking process."
He said that people often mistakenly say, "The solution to pollution is dilution."
Mr. Morris said that the best chance to stop fracking comes from New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who is suing the federal government if it does not commit to conducting an environmental review before the regulations authorizing gas drilling are finalized. Mr. Schneiderman would take legal action to compel such a study.
"Schneiderman's lawsuit is important," Mr Morris said. "He is making demands, so if I have an optimism, it is coming out of Schneiderman's office."
The art show, dubbed "No Fracking Way," was declared a booming success by organizers and participants.
"We made enough money to make it worthwhile to host another show," Mr Morris said. "I like the art/wine environment as outreach, and we can use the money received to fund our lawsuits and advocacy."
Mr. Morris is working with Ms. Wolf to bring a similar wine and art show to the Northern Westchester area soon.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

No Fracking Way- The Event

Open Invitation to
Live Music & Art Exhibition to
help the Sierra Club

Stop Fracking in the NYC Watershed!

28th East 35th Street, NYC
June 23rd, 2011 6:30-9:30pm

Featured Artists
Jennifer Egert, Lisa Futterman, Gabrielle Lindau, Heather van Wolf

Live Music
John Collinge Jazz Trio
piano-soloist Julian Lampert
Kyra Tebo Singing songs from her musical All Caught Up
Italic
Appetizers
Franchia Vegan Cafe


Artisanal Wine-Tasting
Chamber Street Wines


This festive fundraising event will help support the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter's efforts to safeguard 18 million NY residents' drinking water from the destructive practice of hydro-fracking (a means of natural gas extraction).

$30 per person in advance
$35 per person at the door

To Purchase Advanced Tickets
email rebeccakasilag@gmail.com

RSVP to Studio@vanWolf
or drop by the Facebook Page

No Fracking Way. The Event.


Monday, May 30, 2011

Katonah Art Museum Association show at the Northern Westchester Hospital

Pen & Inks by Heather van Wolf are on display at The Katonah Art Museum Artists Association's show at Northern Westchester Hospital. 25% of Sales go to support the Museum's Artists Association, and Hospital.

Sale of the Mianus River Gorge Pen & Ink also supports the Mianus River Gorge.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Metropolitan Museum of Art Benefit at National Arts Club Oct 15, 2010



Announcing a

Benefit Reception

for the
Metropolitan Museum of Art

at the
The National Arts Club
15 Gramercy Park South NY, NY

Friday Oct 15, 2010
5:30PM ~ 8:00PM


Hosted by
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club
Founded 1896
For the opening of the
114th Annual Juried Salon Exhibition of Women Artists


RSVP

Studio@vanwolf.com





On view:
Gibraltar View from a Rooftop
By Heather van Wolf
Pen & Ink


Suggested donations are tax deductible, begin at $25 at the door and go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Curatorial Travel Fund. This fund helps curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to preview the works of artists and museums across the United States.

The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club was founded in 1896 in honor of the first founding woman donor and member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her extensive Fine Art collection was bequeathed in its entirety to the Museum.

Business casual to festive attire.


Friday, October 8, 2010

Please help save Trenton City Museum

The following is an open letter sent to Trenton New Jersey Mayor Tony Mack regarding the scheduled closings of several art Museums sent on Wed. Oct 6.


Honorable Mayor Mack and City Council Members,

We ask you to protect the institutions and art museums which define the character of Trenton. Your 2011 Budget cuts funding to these precious community resources, forcing vibrant community based profit centers to close.

Art museums provide a strong sense of pride to citizens, and a unique destination for travelers. Trenton Museum has a sizable visiting public from Princeton, New York City and Philadelphia. Visitors to the museum spend the day eating in local restaurants, buying local merchandise and some later choose to call Trenton home. 25,000 people a year visit this museum. Locals donated $110,000 and volunteered $250,000 worth of time to support it last year alone. Hon. Mayor Mack, your 2011 Budget closes this and other invaluable institutions.

These are historically demanding fiscal times and we understand that unsavory decisions must be made. Cutting funding for historical bedrocks in the community is a dubious way to mark these times and it will invariably further reduce the value of properties surrounding the museums. By eliminating cultural bedrocks like Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie Mansion, and severing Arts in Trenton you are in fact destroying community artifacts and vibrant cultural epicenters which have been nurtured through previous depressions. Some of these locations predate the American Revolution.

We must work together to make sure Trenton does not become a town that once was a unique cultural center. We all want to see Trenton as a city that nurtures it's creations and takes pride in it's cultural institutions even during a tough economic environment. By cutting funding and closing precious community resources we will deprive future generations of the unique history these remarkable communities hold. Art-related foundations and institutions are becoming the first casualties in restructuring of budgets during economic downturns. Museums and historical societies across the Nation are closing at an alarming rate. This devaluing of Art Museums and cultural centers is an unfortunate misguided miscalculation. Arts Institutions are incredibly powerful. They give towns and city a sense of longevity, place and perspective. They anchor a town much like a Town Hall, Library, Court House, or Historical Society. Together they house the comprehensive history of our communities and offer locals and visitors inspiration, hope, and an engaging connection to the past and perspective on current events. Our Art Museums help us identify with and love our town and respect our collective history. They are also sources of economic productivity and prosperity. Art Museums provide a benefit which is complex to quantify like any long term investment with multiple secondary income flows.

With so many competing interests for the precious dollar during this tenuous economic position we must take a definitive stand to preserve our cultural institutions which define our towns. If we do not protect these, one by one we will be dismantling our townships, scattering to the wind our history and reshaping a town that braved revolutions and depressions to a town that caved during a recession.

Please Mayor, and Honorable Council members take this opportunity to protect these cultural and historical resources. Include Cultural preservation into the FY11 Budget, and keep the 1719 William Trent House Museum and Trenton City Museum Open to the public. After all the Trenton City Museum draws a nascent .0012% of the City Budget.

CC: Local, Regional, National, Press, Chief Elected Officials, Artists Organizations, Museums


2 MUSEUMS SLATED TO BE CLOSED BY MAYOR MACK

http://www.ellarslie.org/TrentonCityMuseum-Welcome.htm
http://www.fieldtrip.com/nj/99893027.htm

If you support art museums I urge you to call the Mayors Office to voice your support for funding the Trenton City Museum and 1719 William Trent House Museum.
You can leave a message for the mayor at (609) 989-3809.
http://www.trentonnj.org/Cit-e-Access/Mayor/?TID=55

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Hope Offensive


The Hope Offensive is a different way to solve some of the worlds most long standing and difficult problems. Leaders in the Hope Offensive compassionately seek the truth of difficult situations. They are unafraid to look deeply and critically at problems and they are delivering solutions. spreading peace and hope through patient determination, commitment, will and love. These individuals have given their lives to help fellow human beings across the world and are motivated to ignite hope were there was no hope, peace where there is war, health were there is disease, and comfort where there is pain. The Hope offensive is the answer to the worlds deepest and most confounding problems.