Tag Archives: Artists of the Catskills

Upstate Dispatch: September Update

Upstate Dispatch turned 12 years old this year! To celebrate, I will be getting back to my writing roots.

Meanwhile, two of my Catskills Mandalas (below) are now for sale at the AMR 5th Annual Group Exhibition at the Galli Curci Theatre on 801 Main Street in Margaretville, NY 12455. The theatre is open from Noon – 5pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday until October 4th, which will the last day. It’s a fabulous show! A real feast for the eyes of local talent. Please visit before it closes.

My mandalas got a nice write-up in the Mountain Eagle in the Arts Section:

I also got a quarter page in the Reporter. Thanks to Joan Lawrence-Bauer for the kind coverage! See Page 22 of the Reporter at bottom of this post.

So we are three days into a crisp autumn and I’ve already decided that this season, I will be working on the fall print edition of Upstate Dispatch to be published next year with a fresh body of work written over the next three months. The print editions will eventually be four seasons in a box set, a mix of photography, memoir and, local interviews and reviews. I’m looking to add a memoir piece about pivoting in midlife, describing my eclectic experience living and working in the Catskills and want to include other women entrepreneurs here like me. I’m excited to get back into writing again, and I’m hoping to reconnect with my old neighbors in Fleischmanns, and interview people that I haven’t seen for years, friends who were part of the beginning of my life in the Catskills.

By the way, if you haven’t visited the Upstate Dispatch studio yet, it’s on the far right of the image (the green building) at the top of this article. The studio will be open throughout fall and – weather permitting – winter. It’s said that we’re going to have a relatively mild winter and I’m crossing my fingers.

October 1st is “Random Context”, the Open Mic Night at Union Grove Distillery from 6pm to 9pm, run by Writers in the Mountains. This is a chance to read any work you have in progress to a writerly audience. Hope to see you there!

Finally, I am running a series of writing workshops throughout fall/winter. If you are interested, please email me on info@upstatedispatch.com. I have a handful of interested people. Stay tuned for more details coming next week.

Upstate Dispatch Studio, 818 Main Street, Margaretville, NY 12455. Tentative Fall Open Hours: Friday 11-4pm, Saturday 10-5pm, Sunday 11-3pm.

Alix Travis at The Commons Gallery

The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis

The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis

The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis

The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis

The Barbershop Singers by Alix Travis in watercolor on handmade paper (top) and again, in block print (underneath) both at the Commons Gallery for the next couple of days.

Catskills Conversations: Brian Tolle

© J.N. Urbanski

© J.N. Urbanski

What brought you to the Catskills?

We (Brian and his partner, Brian Clyne) had an apartment in the city and I had the studio for 20-odd years in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. We both grew up on Long Island, so we grew up close to the water but for whatever reason, we both had an affinity for the mountains. One summer – I think it was about the year 2000 – we had enough friends up here that we could spend two or three weeks up here as vagabonds, throughout the Catskills. We went to different regions, but this region in Delaware County was very appealing to us. There was something about the topography, the landscape and the history of all this that suited us very well.

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Catskills Art At The Commons Gallery

5833f6f2-db36-4521-b679-381721ded33eLocal Catskills’ artist Alix Travis invites everyone to pop into her new winter studio in Margaretville for a cup of tea and to watch her work. In the gallery you can view her latest exhibition entitled “Family Friends Celebration and Holiday Colors”, which consists of gorgeous works of oil on canvas, watercolor and collage on the subject of relationships, warmth, brilliant color and the shared values of the holiday season and all year round

the Commons Gallery, the Commons, 785 Main Street, Margaretville, NY; December 3, 2015 through March 31, 2016. Open Saturdays from noon – 4pm, and any day when you see the lights on.

Catskills Conversations: Lisbeth Firmin

© J.N. Urbanski

© J.N. Urbanski

Lisbeth Firmin works out of her warmly inviting art studio in Margaretville, in upstate New York. She was part of the Catskills Open Studio Art Tour last weekend in which she showed many strikingly gorgeous cityscapes in oil.

JN: How long have you lived in the Catskills?

LF: I moved from New York City in 2000, but I kept my apartment down there, so I went back and forth for a while.

What were you doing in the city?

I was a painter and I had a two-bedroomed apartment on Sullivan Street and I painted in one of the bedrooms. My career was just taking off and I needed a bigger space, so I bought a storefront in Franklin, upstate New York.

That sounds very Williamsburg. I remember, back in the day, artists used to buy storefronts and paint out of them. Those were the days.

Oh man, those days, Williamsburg. You can’t even go anywhere near the city these days. I’ve heard Newark is happening.

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Catskills Open Studio Tour: July 25th & 26th

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Upstate Dispatch goes on the road! Catch us if you can…

This weekend, July 25th & 26th join Upstate Dispatch for the Art Tour Margaretville Roxbury Open Studios 2015. There are so many talented artists here in the Catskills and they are throwing open the doors to their studios and welcoming visitors.

Take a gander around the website here, print out the map, and then take the tour in your car. Zoom around the countryside and eat at the following places on your tour:

Roxbury Public Lounge, opposite WIOX radio station in Roxbury

The Cheese Barrel (in Margaretville when you visit The Commons Gallery and our fine watercolours, all for sale)

The Flour Patch (best vegetable sandwich, dressing to die for), across the street opposite Freshtown

Goatie White’s in Fleischmanns

Arkville Bread Breakfast

Finish up at Peekamoose or The Phoenicia Diner for post-tour refreshment.