![Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2022/Hamilton-Jan24f.jpg "Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird")
(BOUND BROOK, NJ) -- Hamilton Street Gallery hosts a winter exhibition entitled “Bird’s Eye/Worm’s Eye” from January 30th until March 10th. For this juried exhibition 16 artists examine the method of perspective and how we see things. Specifically, their focus is on the “Bird’s Eye View” of observing objects from above, as would a bird in flight, and the “Worm’s Eye View” which emphasizes seeing things from below as a worm crawling on the ground, with eyes of course, might experience.
In addition to the artistic practice of perspective, the exhibit also looks at the ways in which we view and judge different kinds of cultures and customs within our society. This may apply to class, economic status, race, religion, health, sexual orientation, age, and endless other hierarchical markers of social identity. From a particular standpoint, are we looking up or are we looking down?
There will be an opening reception on Sunday, January 30th from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. All are welcome to attend free of charge. The gallery is located at 6 Hamilton Street in Bound Brook, NJ, next door to the Brook Theater. Our hours are Thursdays 12:00pm to 5:00pm, Fridays 5:30pm to 8:00pm, Saturdays 1:00pm to 5:00pm and by appointment. For safety concerns regarding the ongoing occurrences of COVID 19 masks are required to be worn while visiting the gallery.
![Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2022/Hamilton-Jan24a.jpg "Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird")
Anastasiya Baron “Dreamcatcher”, acrylic on canvas, 24”H x 12”W, 2021
"It's easy to lose yourself in this tumultuous world, so I paint to remind myself of what is important," said Anastasiya Baron. "Russian heritage and my ancestry are among the things that I dedicate my paintings to. My paintings resemble a time capsule, where carefully analyzed items are placed. Each is inspired by the memories of the past and its most pivotal moments. It is also a realm where interaction between the past and the present occurs, and the complex overlapping of both happens. There are always several storylines on which I build my composition. I explore themes of loss, separation, longing, and alienation. A lot of attention must be paid to the imagery. They are objects that bear the likeness of real things and objects that my imagination has transformed. The compositional arrangement is chaotic, busy, and surreal with unsettling and baffling undertones. I use allegories and allusions to communicate my feelings, and symbolism is my preferred method of expression."
"I only make one painting at a time and get consumed by it entirely," continued Baron. "I paint it in my head when I can't in real-time and dream of it at night when my mind is free of day's worries. Dreams often provide exciting material that I adopt in my work. Image search is critical to my work, and I dedicate a lot of time to it. I explore segments of time that evoke melancholy and yearning. Some things from that period no longer exist, and old memories cannot be relied on for details when you need a realistic representation. I dig out objects that have long been forgotten, and it stirs many feelings in me. It revives lapsed memories which in return inspire new paintings. I use acrylic paint and don't use big canvases. I like the sense of intimacy a small canvas offers: it's like a tiny window into my soul. Recently, I started experimenting with oils and began adding them on top of acrylic underpainting to achieve more color nuances."
![Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2022/Hamilton-Jan24b.jpg "Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird")
Parvathi Kumar “Hand to Foot”, photography on maple board 11” W x 14: H, 2021
"As a photographer, I am taken by moments, subjects, and scenes in all seasons, times of the day, locations, weather, and light, from the mundane to the novel," explained Parvathi Kumar. "I leverage what I see from different vantage points to create visually interesting imagery. I may choose to leave a photo 'as is' with only simple edits, or I may use features of different smartphone apps to render a new version with results ranging from subtle to complex or abstract. There is a journey in the creation and unfolding of each piece, starting in the mind’s eye of exploring composition, to capturing and recording what I perceive, to perhaps further enhancement and manipulation digitally or otherwise, to presenting the image in a format and style that best suits and allows it to speak clearly, and finally, to the experience of the viewer who beholds it."
![Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2022/Hamilton-Jan24c.jpg "Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird")
Larry McCandlish “Eclipse” Digital Art - ink die on glossy paper, 19” W x 13” H, 2021
McCandlish talks about the piece. "A time traveller, holding aloft a light orb, dances through an encampment of stargazers outside the town of Madras, Oregon on Eclipse Eve. The traveler, (who is invisible except for his orb), pauses for a few seconds and casts an oversized projection of next morning’s total eclipse up and onto the northern sky. Then, he travels a few more steps before leaping back to the future. The whole event is over in less than half-a minute.
"Next morning, the eclipse was seen in the eastern sky. The traveller’s demonstration of coronal shape was borne out. But the Sun and Moon were now smaller in apparent size. The entire eclipse event unfolded as Moon Shadow raced eastward across the continent from the Pacific Coast to the Eastern Seaboard.
"Totality popped in Madras at 10:19 AM local time as the sightline from Madras to the Sun fell entirely inside the Moon’s umbral shadow. Totality ended 2 minutes and 40 seconds later, as Moon Shadow galloped out of Madras to the east.
"Alas, was the previous night’s premonition only a dream to be preserved on a piece of glossy paper?
Eclipse is a superposition of fact and fiction. Truth is that pictures lie all the time, including this time.
"The eclipsed Sun, in the northern sky, is a total fiction.
"A stranger, holding a light aloft, actually moved into the scene during the time of Eclipse’s timed exposure. But, the stranger, moving too fast and too dimly lit to register, was invisible to the camera’s detector, much like Dark Matter. Only the motion of the orb was recorded.
"So much for time travel. …It’s not real. …at least not yet.
"Otherwise Eclipse is 'real,' except it gives the appearance of more light being there than actually was there. And Eclipse itself, the paper thingy framed and hanging on the wall in front of you, really is real.
"One last thing: If you think too much about the nature of time you’re sure to get confused and also you might get a headache.
"A second last thing: What about Moon Shadow––racing with the eclipse on its back from West to East, faster than a jet plane, rather than the other way around?
"Doesn’t the Sun rise in the East and set in the West? …Yes, according to our senses. Doesn’t the Earth revolve on its axis once in a day? …Yes, so it’s OK to deny our senses. Doesn’t the Moon orbit the Earth in an almost circular path once in a lunar month? …No, not really. Moon Shadow knows both Moon and Earth orbit the Sun. He is not confused. Truth is a matter of perspective. And perspective always casts a shadow on our understanding."
![Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2022/Hamilton-Jan24d.jpg "Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird")
Naomi Nierenberg “Under the Sea” colored porcelain, 4” H x 8” W x 13” L, 2020
"Working with my hands since early childhood, particularly with clay, has been a source of pleasure and on occasion, great fulfillment," said Naomi Nierenberg. "When I engage in this media, I get so absorbed with the process, that the 'real world obligations' disappear.
"My inspiration is based upon nature and its surroundings with the commonality of how mathematics and mathematical formulas are continuously found in nature. The sequence of sunflowers seeds, pineapples, and many other magnificent natural orders have very specific progressions. This has had a profound influence on my work, which for the last few years have been carved and/or hand built. Math was my major in college and my college thesis was 'Mathematics in Nature'. This apparent connection between my clay works and nature has evolved over the years, and I truly believe this is related to my higher education.
"From the beginning of working with clay, the process of carving or distorting clay has been a priority. In 2011, after an almost 25 year absence, I once again became a ceramic student. Working at the wheel became a challenge, physically, so hand building became an avenue to explore with intensity. Whether I hand-build, roll a slab, or extrude the clay, the smooth surface calls me to distort, carve, or bend it. Initially I gently carved into the clay with dental tools; however I find that using carved textures and designs are more intriguing. My carvings have gotten more intense and more daring, as I have continued this method – from light indentations to deeply cut designs as exemplified in my works.
"Most of my works have been electric fired, however during the last couple of years, almost all of my work has been soda fired with remarkable results.
"The exploration into the ceramic world is most challenging with the many phases a single piece has to endure – designing, creation, firing, and then the final stage of surface treatment and firing again. There are so many stages which one can fail, however the test is perseverance. It’s worth the effort.
"More recently i have been exploring working with colored porcelain after taking a workshop on colored clay. This has opened a whole new venue with lots of room for imagination."
![Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2022/Hamilton-Jan24e.jpg "Hamilton Street Gallery presents "Bird")
Jan Ten Broeke “Time For Change”, oil on panel, 19”H x 15” W, 1976
“Spoken language is insufficient to negotiate existence and its meaning, therefore, other forms of expression are needed," explained Jan Ten Broeke. "In my artwork, I aim to be thought provoking, to arouse inner awareness.
"I have always been interested in exploring the scientific miracles of the natural universe, especially within the fragile biosphere that envelops Earth. The paintings of the last decade draw inspiration from nature—including biological, geological, and astronomical phenomena—and anthropological and prehistoric artifacts. My work does not represent any reality as we see it, but attempts to demonstrate the experience of the forces essential to the continuity of life on Earth.
"Ultimately, my mind, my eyes, and my hands are merely instruments in producing this work. Despite knowing better, I do frequently experience the sensation that the work is not created by me, but through me. My art has a chance for limited survival, but I know my body does not.”
Ten’s first encounter with notoriety came on the day of his birth. His mother would often tell how he had entered this world in the wee hours of Pentecost Sunday morning. A severe thunderstorm was raging, and it would ravage the countryside of rural Marienberg, in the province Overijssel in the Netherlands, before the night was through. Within a mile of the ten Broeke family home, two heifers were struck by lightning and killed. Ten was born a blue baby gasping for air. A thin membranous veil—locally believed to signify the gift of second sight—covered his face. The gift conferred in lieu of the supernatural, however, was manifest from early childhood, in the form of his uncommon artistic skill and a profound understanding of and reverence for the wonders of the natural world.
Ten arrived in the United States as a young man. While working as a drug designer alongside some of the greatest minds in organic chemistry, Ten never neglected his career in art. He was an active member of the vibrant, revolutionary art scene that electrified Greenwich Village in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, where he earned the admiration and friendship of many of the scene’s most influential members. Although that dynamic era in art has sadly receded, Ten has had many domestic and international shows, honors, and awards, and he has consistently garnered enthusiastic praise for the entirely unique biomorphic, geomorphic, and metamorphic imaginings that he renders with perfect technique, brushwork, and style.
Throughout his career, Jan ten Broeke has been known and recognized by his simple nom de brosse, “Ten”. Ten titles his work with his name and date of each work’s completion as opposed to traditional, descriptive labels, because he believes it confuses the viewer’s perception of his paintings rather than clarifies it.
Ten lived with his wife, Barbara, in the historic village of East Millstone, NJ, in a Dutch colonel farmhouse that was built in 1763. He was highly active in local environmental and historical preservation organizations. They have two grown daughters and three grandchildren. Jan “Ten” ten Broeke transitioned from this world to the next in 2019.
