Ceramics: Work by Marion Munk at the Highland Park Public Library

Marion Munk grew up on a chicken farm in Toms River during the 1930s and 1940s. She was an artist who grew up in one of the 40 different communities that drew people from the cities in the 1930s to start farming. The children of these New Jersey Chicken farmers, many who became artists, are being exhibited at the Highland Park Public Library throughout June. Marion Munk’s ceramics are being shown in the front hall display case.

An art reception and panel discussion will be held on Thursday, April 4 at 6:00 PM in the Meeting Room where art work by Phil Orenstein, Rena Siegel, Jerry Hirniak, Raphael Ortiz, Ellen Rebarber and Bill Giacalone will be displayed. At 7:30 PM the film, The Land Was Theirs, about the New Jersey chicken farmers, will be screened.

Marion Munk has a BA from Rutgers University’s Douglass College and an MFA specializing in ceramics. from Rutgers University. Munk has repeatedly visited the Czech Republic and is a regular participant in the international symposia organized in the town of Dubi near Teplice.

“I bring to my projects a fondness for clear, precise relations for cleanness of form and delight in joyful Playfulness,” Munk said about her exhibit. “I like most of all to depict the connections and shared spaces of sharply defined spherical bodies in white porcelain.”

Marion Munk, ceramics

Artists Raised on the Chicken Farms

The Highland Park Arts Commission is presenting an exhibit on artists raised on New Jersey chicken farms at the Highland Park Public Library from April 4 through May 27, 2019. An artists reception will be held on Thursday, April 4 at 6:00 PM in the meeting room.

A surprising number of artists were raised on these farms and live in Highland Park and the surrounding community. The Highland Park Arts Commission will also screen The Land was Theirs (1993) at 7:30 PM about the experience of growing up on the farms.

A panel of artists including Rena Segal, Marion Munk, Phil Orenstein, Jerry Hirniak, Raphael Ortiz, Bill Giacalone, and Ellen Rebarber will talk about growing up on the farms and their art work. They will also discuss Neo-Dada, Fluxus, George Segal, Happenings, and the influence of Rutgers Mason Gross on the NYC art scene.

These artists will also be exhibiting their work throughout the month of April in the meeting room and main hall display case.

painting by Phil Orenstein

Raising Hands about Dyslexia Awareness

The Highland Park High School/Raising Hands Tutoring Project is raising awareness about the challenges of dyslexia. It will be on display at the Highland Park Public Library, 31 North Fifth Avenue, in the main hall display case from March 1-March 31, 2019. Students in Sarah Grunstein’s art classes created clay pieces to represent the struggle of students with Dyslexia. Four confidently raised hands stand alongside a reluctantly raised arm mounted on ripped paper. On the ripped paper are Highland Park High School student statements about what it means to be reading challenged.

“One in five children are reading challenged,” Holly Turner, director of Raising Hands Tutoring said. “The exhibit seeks to visually represent what text looks like to a reader with Dyslexia.” Raising Hands Tutoring provides these services free of charge for qualifying children in Highland Park. For more information about Raising Hands Tutoring please visit at www.raisinghandstutoring.org.

Raising Hands - dyslexia awaremess

Poetry Reading and Artist Reception with Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Celebrate Women’s Month and the opening of The Friends of the Library Poetry Night Series with New Jersey’s beloved Poet, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, on Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00 PM at the Highland Park Public Library, 31 North Fifth Avenue. Also enjoy an Art Reception for her new paintings that will be up through March 2019 in the meeting room. The title of the art exhibit is Women Dressed in Dreams: Paintings and Collages by Maria Mazziotti Gillan.

She is a recipient of the 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers and the 2008 American Book Award for her book, All That Lies Between Us (Guernica Editions). She is the Founder /Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ, and editor of the Paterson Literary Review.

Maria Gillan is also director of the Creative Writing Program and Professor of Poetry at Binghamton University-SUNY. Maria has published 22 books of and about poetry, and 4 anthologies. Her most recent books are the poetry and photography collaboration with Mark Hillringhouse, Paterson Light and Shadow (Serving House Books, 2017) and the poetry collection, What Blooms in Winter (NYQ, 2016). The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets (Redux Consortium), is a new collection of her poems and accompanying paintings.

“Whereas in my poetry, I try to root my work in the details and specificity of ordinary life, in my art I am not attempting to achieve realistic portrayals of people or birds or flowers. Rather I am trying to capture energy and feeling,” Maria Mazziotti Gillan said. “I am trying to get the essence of the subject down on paper, to convey joy or sadness, exuberance or loss.”

Maria Gillan painting

Maria Gillan

“As I Recall”–Coleen Tyler and Marcia Shiffman—Photographs and Prints

Coleen Tyler and Marcia Shiffman, friends, artists and neighbors in Highland Park, are exhibiting together at the Highland Park Public Library from February 1 through February 28, 2019. “As I Recall”—Photographs and Prints will be in the meeting room and an artist reception will be held on Sunday, February 10 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. The artists will talk about their work at 3:00 PM. This is their second exhibit together.

“We both spend time at Rutgers seriously pursuing our art interests and continue to benefit from the creative and stimulating environment that it provides,” Coleen Tyler said. I think that the title of this exhibit, “As I Recall” reflects a shared focus on time and memory that is evident in our work.”

Coleen Tyler is exhibiting the Gelatin Silver Prints and is also exhibiting in the main hall display case. Tyler has had many exhibits and workshops at the Highland Park Public Library. She has also exhibited extensively throughout the state and the tristate area. Tyler is also an art teacher and ESL teacher who has taught in many New Jersey communities. Her exhibits have featured her art in many different mediums. Tyler has a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. She has her Bachelor of Science in Art Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, PA.

Marcia Shiffman, a printmaker, has also worked as a professional planner and landscape architect since 1976. In 2012, Shiffman returned to her original passion, printmaking. She has created etchings, lithographs, and silkscreen prints.

“I have been creating etchings, lithographs and silkscreen prints,” Shiffman said. “My work has focused on images based upon my memories and life experiences. I am very interested in drawing to create the image with varied lines, shadow, light and textures creating depth.”

Shiffman has a Master of Arts in Graphics and a Bachelor of Fine Arts, both from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. In 2018 she received First Place Prints in the Middlesex County Senior Art Exhibit and has displayed her in Highland Park and throughout Middlesex County.

Marcia Shiffman, Dancers 9

Coleen Tyler

Photographic Memory, Gelatin Silver Prints by Coleen Tyler

Photographic Memory, Gelatin Silver Prints by Coleen Tyler will be in the main hall display case at the Highland Park Public Library from February 1 through February 28, 2019.

Gelatin silver print is the technical name for a black and white photograph made from a negative. A suspension of silver salts in gelatin is coated onto a support, commonly paper. The paper is exposed to light, traveling through the negative. It is then chemically developed in the dark room, creating the print. This process was the most common way to develop black and white photographs in the 1880’s and is still in use today.

“My experience in making photography from film is a recent one and I consider myself to be in the early learning phase of a demanding, yet rewarding, process,” Tyler said. “Light, its presence and absence, are the heart of photography. The black and white image evokes a beauty that is timeless, regardless of the subject matter.”

“I am intrigued by the transformation of subject as it appears in the clear light and deep shadows of the photograph. It is a world unto itself isolated from the emotional layering of color. I think I am searching for some type of truth about nature and humanity that seems to exist in the past, waiting for me to find and acknowledge. While not knowing what I seek, I can recognize its truth, captured in a fleeting moment on film, with just the right amount of light and dark to reveal it.”

Highland Park Artist Coleen Tyler has had many exhibits and workshops at the Highland Park Public Library. She has also exhibited extensively throughout the state and the tri-state area. Tyler is also an art teacher and ESL teacher who has taught in many New Jersey communities. Her exhibits have featured her art in many different mediums. This month she is exhibiting As I Recall: Photos and Prints in the meeting room with artist Marcia Shiffman.

Tyler has a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. She has her Bachelor of Science in Art Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, PA.

Candle, Coleen Tyler

Arts High and Arts Middle School Student Work on Exhibit – 2019

Paintings, drawings and photographs created by Middlesex County Arts High and Arts Middle School students will be on display at the Highland Park Public Library for the month of January. The work is in the meeting room and the Main Hall display case.

The exhibit features work completed by gifted and talented students who participated in the Middlesex County Arts High or Arts Middle School. Highland Park High School students Talia Fishman and Edan Blank have work in the show as well as Highland Park Middle School students, Grace Budd-Cording, Gwyneth Gherzan and Martin Mann. The programs, now in their 39th year, offer advanced art classes in creative writing, dance, instrumental music, vocal music, acting and visual arts to students from public, private, and home schools in Middlesex County. Students, admitted to the program through audition, are released from their schools one afternoon each week during the spring semester to participate in the various courses that are taught by professional artists.

For more information about exhibits at the Highland Park Public Library call 732-572-2750 or go to the website at www.hpplnj.org. For more information on the exhibit or the Middlesex County Arts High or Arts Middle School programs, or to obtain an application, contact the Arts & Education Center at 732-566-ARTS (2787), email info@artsandedcenter.org, or visit their website at www.artshigh.net.

This program has been made possible in part by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowments for the Arts.
Pangilinan- Middlesex County Arts

Isler - Middlesex County Arts

Winter Landscapes: Watercolors by Erich Edelmaier

Eva Love’s father, Erich Edelmaier, was the owner of a local grocery store in a village near Vienna, Austria. He was such a devoted businessman, he had little time to paint, a hobby that became a passion for him. Landscapes: Watercolors by Erich Edelmaier, is a very special exhibit of gifts he gave to his family. The exhibit of quaint village life depicted in each painting is on display at the Highland Park Public Library, 31 North Fifth Avenue, in the Main Hall Display case, throughout the month of December 2018.

“On any special occasion, whether it was a birthday, anniversary or Christmas, we all could count on getting an Erich Edelmaier original and the envelopes were always opened with great anticipation and the cards became treasured family heirlooms,” Eva Love, his daughter said. “I had told my father about exhibiting his cards here at our library and he was touched to hear that. Unfortunately he passed away before he could see it. I am proud to share his work with you.”

Erich Edelmaier, a prolific self- taught artist, also painted in oils, pastels, and acrylics.

Erich Edelmaier painting

Artworks by Shannon Donaghy: The Girl With Three Names

The Girl With Three Names: New Work by Shannon Donaghy will be displayed at the Highland Park Public Library, 31 North Fifth Avenue, from December 2 through December 30, 2018. An art reception will be held for the artist on Sunday, December 2 from 2:00 PM to 4 PM.

Shannon’s works consist of a variety of mediums and practices such as oil painting, drawing with mixed media, fiber arts, and screen-printing. Through her works she expresses the point of view of a transracial adoptee, self-perception, self-portraiture, morphing identity and various ways of seeing the self.

Shannon Donaghy was born under the name of Kim, Mi-Ryung in South Korea, and was then adopted at three months old by her current family in New Jersey. She has graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art from The College of New Jersey. Shannon worked as a Gallery Assistant at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, Intern at the Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, Teacher Assistant and Studio Manager at the Academy of Art of Highland Park and Gallery, Highland Park, NJ, and Intern at the Onishi Gallery in NY, New York. She has exhibited her artwork at the Blackwells Mills Canal House in Somerset, NJ.

by Shannon Donaghy

Romantic Realism: New Sketches and Paintings by Huiyi (Kristy) Nong

Romantic Realism: New Sketches and Paintings by Huiyi (Kristy) Nong will be on display at the Highland Park Public Library, 31 North Fifth Avenue, from November 1 to November 30, 2018 in the meeting room. An art reception in Nong’s honor will be held on Sunday, November 4 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

Huiyi (Kristy) Nong grew up in the Guangxi Province of China. Kristy came to America in 2016 and now lives with her family in Parlin, New Jersey. She is a senior at Saint John Vianney High School.

Her work explores realism with techniques that soften images and invite the viewing eye in to fresh, new worlds.

drawing by Huiyi (Kristy) Nong