VINCENT PIDONE
"Over the course of a few years I purchased an antique scrapbook with all but the blank pages torn out, a cigar box full of mica sheets, and two small blocks of note paper with advertising printed on the edges of the sheets. The scrapbook and mica languished while the note paper was used for reminders and shopping lists. Eventually I started drawing on the note paper.

"One day I realized that the note paper was exactly half the size of the mica sheets and that the proportion worked with the scrapbook pages. Wax changed the color of the note paper to blend with scrapbook paper, while the imperfections in the mica mimicked the spots and stains on the antique paper. The series of three dozen pieces was done in October 2010.

"That series worked well enough that I started looking for a way to create a similar look for the subsequent drawings. I began layering the drawings two and three deep and laminating them with wax and mica. Eventually I settled on one or two sheets either with or without the mica. That resulted in the “Flying Dream” series begun in 2010."

LORRIE FREDETTE's installations and sculptures are inspired by medical and environmental news stories pulled from today's headlines and historical sources. Upon choosing an area of focus, such as the swine, avian and Spanish flus, or the increased incidence of poison ivy with the growth of greenhouse gases, Fredette sets upon a rigorous course of research, gathering images which she then alters, vets and rejects through an elaborate system designed to completely subvert and distort any likeness to the original source.

Her drawings, sculptures and installations have been presented in solo and group shows including the Jyväskylä Art Museum (Finland), the Samuel Dorsky Museum at the State University of New York, Gallery Ehva and Conrad Wilde Gallery.

Fredette received her BFA from the Herron School of Art, Indiana University, where she studied sculpture and drawing. She currently resides in New York’s Hudson Valley region. Images of her installations and other works can be viewed at her website, lorriefredette.com

BONNIE MARIE SMITH is a ceramic and paper collage artist living in Kingston, NY. She crafts plant, animal and human forms from clay on a hand-held, intimate scale. Some of her figurines are part of a narrative, and some simply express states of being; they form around such themes as nature, childhood experience, myths and fairy tails, mystical experience, experiences of loss, domestic life and the banished feminine. Many are solitary. Some meld and interact with other figures, animals, plants or abstract forms. Some figures are whole and some are broken into pieces. Many are formed entirely from clay alone. Others are embellished here and there with a tidbit the artist may have found in a gutter or a garage sale. Smith says:

Sometimes I know what my art is about and other times I do not. Often the work itself teaches me about its content... In my work I try to be sensitive to whatever arises in each piece and allow that to unfold and complete itself as much as possible with whatever means and materials are available. Play is very important to me. One of the gifts of making art is that it challenges me to trust the process enough to play and to allow the work to evolve in an organic manner. This way of working—when I am able to achieve it—allows for discovery and surprise. I like to be delighted by everything I make. Beauty is also something I strive for in my art. I appreciate beauty most that is authentic and unsentimental. I make art because I have a need to do so and it is my hope that others will be inspired by my work as well.