This one might as well be titled “When columns collide,”  but seeing as my week was filled with disparate worlds orbiting around my own, it sorta makes sense—at least in my poor addled brain. 

In point of fact, it is my distinct pleasure to visit a variety of worlds as I traverse the Upper Delaware River region. I don’t often stick close to home. I travel from county to county, village to village, and hamlet (no, not the play) to hamlet, where stolen phones, birthday parties and art symposiums often exist simultaneously. 

Each one of these subjects is worthy of an entire column, but there’s always another waiting in the wings, so…

Even though “The Case of the Stolen Cell Phone” is not the title of a Hardy Boys mystery, it could be, and it jump-started my week (and heart) with drama and intrigue, replete with nefarious shadowy criminals who managed to pull off what the fine folks at Apple, Inc. called “an increasingly common” scenario. 

While grocery shopping last Monday, a stranger stopped me to ask about the app he had “observed me using” on my iPhone. It’s called “Yuka” and makes it possible to scan bar codes and deliver info regarding the healthy (or not) attributes of an individual food product. I put the phone down in the upper basket of the cart (where That Dog Named Gidget rides in a safe and hygienic manner) and as I explained the virtues of the app to the man, the woman reached into the basket “to pet the dog.” As I turned to see her, she said, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize she was a service dog,” and the pair skedaddled. 

Yup. Twenty minutes later, when I went to retrieve the phone to use the app again (da da da dum) it was missing, and hysteria ensued. I flew to the help desk, (“Sorry, no”), and then raced to call my service provider from a friend’s phone as I hyperventilated while breathing into a paper bag, since I felt “totally helpless” without my electronic lifeline. 

Twenty-four angst-ridden hours later, some kind soul found my (deactivated by my carrier) phone in the parking lot, handed it in to customer service, and my world once again began turning. Consider Jonathan’s nightmare a cautionary tale.

“All’s well that ends well” (no, not the play), I said to Farm Arts Collective’s (FAC) Tannis Kowalchuk, after regaling her with my tale of woe. “And yes, since it had a happy ending, I’ll be at your party.” 

Ostensibly devised to celebrate the birthdays of both FAC Artistic Director Kowalchuk and Company Manager Jess Beveridge, the festivities served as a fundraiser to help support the collective, as federal arts funding continues to be stripped away. 

Oh, and that gang of artsy folks sure knows how to throw a party. To see more pics of the festivities, check out our Facebook page and the photo gallery on our dot com. Suffice it to say that a fine time was had by all, much-needed funds were raised, and no one even attempted to steal my phone.

On Saturday, I decided to venture forth into the world once again, this time to Livingston Manor, NY, home of Catskill Art Space and the Art and Ecology Symposium held there, featuring artists Daniel Giordano, Davana Robedee and Kathy Ruttenberg. Having just completed a group show at CAS, the trio was joining forces for “an Earth Day-inspired discussion moderated by artist/writer Hovey Brock,” where they were scheduled to address “how their practices engage with the climate crisis,” according to the gallery’s website. 

Honestly, there is “too much to unpack” (as the young folks would say) regarding the works and words of the three artists in question, but I’ll do my best to be succinct, using some of their words, rather than my own interpretation of them. 

Giordano’s bio reveals that his exhibit includes “intimate assembled objects along with recent reliefs rendered from former boat cushions.” (Wait, what?)  

Additionally, he creates “forms treated with substances that reference the body, lipstick, hosiery, marzipan and urinal cake, materials that evoke personal and cultural memory.” Wow.

Using the gallery’s paperwork again, I read Robedee’s description of her “large-scale textiles.” It states that she “centers her practice on experiences of visual aura, lucid dreams and hallucinations, questioning the nature of consciousness and perception.” OK. 

Working with indigo that “she grows in her own dye garden,” her fiber-art pieces “function as metaphors for the liminal space between thought and matter, dream and waking life.” It’s probably just me, but...

Last but not least, I read that Kathy Ruttenberg is “widely recognized for her ceramic sculptures depicting a ‘wonder world’ in which species merge and figures serve as landscapes.” Not to be outdone, she describes her process as employing ceramic, concrete and light to “explore ecofeminism, animal liberation, sexuality and emotional vulnerability.”

Did I mention that it’s a lot to unpack? Even though I asked a bunch of questions, I’m not sure that it was much of a “symposium,” nor that I grasped much of what the three shared during the Q&A portion of the program, and my head is still spinning with words like “shibori,” “ecofeminism” and the head-scratching “urinal cake”—but, in short, I was keenly interested. 

While it’s abundantly clear that all three are talented, (and since it was an “Earth day-inspired” event), I found Robedee to (IMHO) be ever so slightly combative when asked about her role as educator (“It’s not my burden to bear”) on the subject of the environmental impact of commercial dyes. Hippie-ish Ruttenberg was kind of charming regarding her concerns about the environment and how she addresses those concerns through her work.

I was positively riveted by Giordano’s take on the ills of the planet, so much so that I’m already planning a trip to “Vicki Island,” his insanely eclectic-looking studio based in Newburgh, NY—so stay tuned. 

Just last week I declared that “Art isn’t easy,” and my visit to CAS supports that notion. I may not understand much of what I see and hear, but I’ll keep trying, while living up to my promise to fill you all in with my humble opinion, one fantastic gallery at a time.

Fun Fact: “When Worlds Collide” is “a classic science fiction disaster film depicting Earth’s destruction by a rogue star.” It focuses on a “race against time and societal panic.” Hmmm.