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Edna J. White

The pandemic has affected absolutely everyone and no one more so than small business owners and entrepreneurs. They have never worked harder to stay afloat than in the past year.

Elizabeth Malafi, Coordinator of the Miller Business Center acknowledges their hard work. “Small businesses and entrepreneurs have had such a hard time, especially those who rely heavily on in-person events, shows and markets,” she said. 

Because of the limits on these types of events, the Middle Country Public Library’s annual Women’s EXPO went virtual last year. And, now, for the first time in its history, this traditionally fall event will be held virtually in the spring. 

An initiative of the Middle Country Library Foundation, the Women’s EXPO is a vehicle to promote economic development for Long Island women entrepreneurs.  “Offering a virtual marketplace during this time gives women an opportunity to promote themselves in a new way,” said Malafi. “It also pushes them to create or expand their digital presence. With support from Bank of America and our other sponsors, we are able to offer workshops that help them continue to grow their businesses virtually.” 

Recent workshops focused on expanding a small business’s social media footprint.  

“The mission of the Library’s Miller Business Center has always been to promote economic development on Long Island. The overwhelmingly positive feedback we received from the exhibitors about our first virtual EXPO led us to make the decision to offer the event for the first time in the spring. Now more than ever, we needed to give Long Island’s women entrepreneurs every opportunity to get back on their feet,” said Sophia Serlis-McPhillips, Director of Middle Country Public Library.

Support local businesses and shop for spring events at the Women’s EXPO on Thursday, April 15 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Register at www.womensEXPOli.org. Virtual attendees will be entered to win one of several door prizes. Computers for browsing will be available at the Middle Country Public Library’s Centereach branch at 101 Eastwood Blvd, Centereach on the day of the event. For more information, please call 631-585-9393, ext. 296.

And now, meet some of the participating entrepreneurs!

Edna J. White

Edna J. White

An author and life purpose coach, Edna J. White was looking for a way to revive her business during the pandemic. When she saw the EXPO was going virtual last fall, she thought it would be a good way to promote her books and coaching business. 

“At first it was a little confusing because it was my first encounter with this innovative idea but after getting much-needed direction from the EXPO team, I was off and running!” she said. “The online EXPO was a great experience with a lot of engagement.” 

White is hoping for even more success this spring. 

Mary Ann Butera

Mary Ann Butera

Mary Ann Butera, of Crafty Butterfly, was intrigued by the idea of a virtual EXPO but didn’t think it was really for her … until she visited the online event last December and saw how great it looked and how easy the platform was to use. 

“This event could well become a new trend as an addition to in-person fairs. Middle Country Library offers such excellent events and programs, this new approach is just so logical and creative — it fits perfectly into the growing acceptance and use of social media … and gives me another outlet for my hand knit creations.” 

Butera will be selling felted hats, shawls, wraps, unique accessories and more during the online event.

Sherry Davis

Sherry Davis, of Davis Fiber Arts, had just decided to start selling her artwork as the pandemic hit. She quickly detoured into mask making, taking advantage of both her treasure trove of reclaimed fabrics and her fiber art skills.

 Now that things are slowly returning to some semblance of normal, Davis says she is “back on track and ready to offer my handwoven upcycled rugs to the public.” After being referred to the virtual EXPO by another woman entrepreneur, Davis decided it was “just the right time for me to debut my work.”

Tiana Le

Tiana Le, owner of Le Fusion, an artisan spring roll company, has participated in the EXPO for many years and always loved the comradery of the day but was skeptical about the event going virtual last fall. 

“When I heard they were doing the EXPO as a virtual market I wasn’t sure how it was going to work but it was AMAZING!!!” said Le, adding that she had customers asking questions throughout the day, like they would in person.

“They brought e-commerce to a different level. The platform was live and interactive. It was a successful and amazing experience!!” Le believes she will be just as successful at the April 15 event.

 

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Stock photo

By Lisa Scott

Every person has dignity and potential. But one in three American adults has a criminal record, which limits their access to education, jobs, housing, and other things they need to reach that potential. Observed in the United States during April since 2017, Second Chance Month is a nationwide effort to raise awareness of the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction and unlock second-chance opportunities for people who have completed their sentences to become contributing citizens. 

NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice reports that the number of people incarcerated in America today is more than four times larger than it was in 1980, when wages began to stagnate and the social safety net began to be rolled back. We’ve long known that people involved in the criminal justice system — a group that’s disproportionately poor and Black — face economic barriers in the form of hiring discrimination and lost job opportunities, among other factors. People who were imprisoned early in their lives earn about half as much annually as socioeconomically similar people untouched by the criminal justice system.

The staggering racial disparities in our criminal justice system flow directly into economic inequality. These consequences are magnified and reinforced throughout a lifetime of discrimination in employment and access to economic opportunity. They are felt by individuals, of course, but also by families and communities. And they are felt in such large numbers, and in such a systemic way, that they constitute a major structural factor in economic inequality.

Suffolk County has the highest parole population in the State, so New York State legislative criminal justice and reentry reform proposals (and action) in 2021 can have a powerful impact for our community members. Here are a few examples :

Relocation So Parents Can Be Closer To Their Children While Incarcerated was passed as Correction Law 72-C

HALT (Humane Alternatives To Long-Term) — Limiting Solitary Confinement was passed and will take effect April 1, 2022. 

Fair and Timely Parole Act (NYS Senate and Assembly Bills S497A/A4346) This would shift the standard for discretionary parole release, moving toward a presumption of release under state law. It would remove language that says an inmate should not be given parole if their release will “deprecate the seriousness of his crime” and under the bill, parole could be denied if there’s a “current and unreasonable risk” the person will break the law if released, and that the risk “cannot be mitigated by parole supervision.” 

Juvenile Offender Second Chance Act (NYS Senate And Assembly Bills S7539/A6491) This would allow a person previously adjudicated a “juvenile offender,” who did not receive “youthful offender” status (converting the criminal conviction to an adjudication), an opportunity to petition the court and get “youthful offender” status on the previous charge when they are: at least 26 years old and fulfill other requirements.

Clean Slate — Automatic Expungement (NYS Senate and Assembly Bills S1553A/A6399) Of particular interest (although less likely to become law this year) is the Clean Slate law that will automatically clear a New Yorker’s criminal record once they become eligible. With more than 400,000 New Yorkers arrested on criminal charges each year, the exclusion of people with criminal records from employment opportunities via background checks and other barriers hurts productivity and deprives the workforce of crucial talent. The ACLU estimates that, nationally, excluding individuals with conviction histories from the workforce costs the economy between $78 billion and $87 billion in lost domestic product. 

Expansion Of Sealing Convictions 160.59 would be a small, positive step but currently is only under discussion in the NYS Senate. 

Voting-Restoration For People On Parole (NYS Senate and Assembly Bills S1931/A4987) Last year, the Governor issued an executive order granting 35,000 voting pardons to people on parole, but that’s just a stopgap measure. This law would make voting rights for people on parole permanent, so that a future Governor could not overturn the executive order. Additionally, it would automate and simplify the process, removing confusion from eligible voters and officials that currently keeps people on parole de facto disenfranchised. 

Other sites that offer information on prison reform and reentry justice are the Prison Fellowship, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, The Vera Institute, The Collateral Consequence Resource Center, Prison Policy Initiative, and The Sentencing Project.

Lisa Scott is president of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, visit www.lwv-suffolkcounty.org or call 631-862-6860.

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The last Blockbuster Video in existence located in Bend, Oregon

Reviewed (sort of) by Jeffrey Sanzel

You see, there’s this new movie — The Last Blockbuster — and it’s fun, you know (ya know)?

‘Cause, when you watch it, sure, you’re going to (gonna) watch it, but what you’re really going to (gonna — all right, I’ll stop now) do is remember. For a movie about a business that was only around for thirty-five years, it evokes a nostalgia for days-gone-by — for a kinder, gentler time before the world went to streaming-in-a-handbasket, and those crazy kids wouldn’t stay off your lawn. Or something like that.

But seriously. (Kinda …)

Writer-director Kevin Smith

As the various celebrities you might have heard of (and a whole bunch of people you’ve never seen) share their thoughts about Blockbuster, you’ll exclaim, “Right! That’s it! That’s what I did! That’s exactly right!” (And, yes, every sentence you say or think is going to end with an exclamation point.)

As I watched The Last Blockbuster, written by Zeke Kamm and directed by Taylor Morden, I thought of my video watching history. I was twenty when I bought my first VCR — a Goldstar I believe. I had memberships at two mom-and-pop stores (one was actually just several shelves in a pharmacy) where the prices ranged from $1 to $2.  

By the time I was in my early twenties, Blockbuster had replaced most small operations. I alternated between the two in Port Jefferson Station and the one in Rocky Point. It always the time/geography formula:

Let’s see, I’ll be coming from work, but I won’t be going back that way until Monday, so maybe if I swing by the one in Rocky Point before going home, that would make more sense. But, if I don’t rent any new releases, it would be just as easy to go to the one on Route 112, and I can return it when I’m on my way in to work on Monday. 

It became the world’s least significant word problem. “If a man leaves the house at noon, on a Tuesday, with one movie due the following day, but two movies rented three days earlier at $2.99 …”

So … The Last Blockbuster.

The Last Blockbuster, ironically, is now streaming on Netflix. Ironic because services like Netflix, while not directly killing video stores, were one of the final nails in its plastic coffin. The documentary goes to certain lengths to explain that it was the financial meltdown of 2008 that caused Blockbuster’s true downward spiral. But there is no question that streaming services and VOD were detrimental to the traditional setup.

Sandi Harding, manager of the last Blockbuster video store

The movie begins by tracing the history of the business. It follows the rise and the decline of the video rental service, giving insight into the shift from the small operations through the Blockbuster takeover, and the corporate stores versus the franchises. 

It points out that revenue sharing changed the entire face of the video industry. Blockbuster would sell movies to the stores at the lowest costs, and then they would take a percentage of the rental fee. It reduced the store owner’s costs from $100 a movie to a few dollars, enabling the purchase of multiple copies. As small video stores were incapable of competing, Blockbuster created a monopoly. 

At one point, Netflix offered to sell to Blockbuster for a surprisingly low price tag. The film’s hypothetical reenactment depicts this with great whimsy: Muppet-like puppets around a board room table laugh a Netflix rabbit out of the room.

The movie takes some time to find its rhythm. The filmmakers were concerned that the company’s history would not be interesting enough to be presented linearly so they’ve interspersed it with individual remembrances, which muddies the progress. Once they are past that, it flows better.

Comedian Doug Benson

The catalyst for the entire project is The Little Store That Could. At its peak, there were 9,000 Blockbuster stores. Supposedly, there was a time when one was opening every seventeen hours. When the filmmakers began, there were twelve remaining stores. Then there were four, with three of them in Alaska. And then there was one. 

As of 2019, the last existing Blockbuster is in Bend, Oregon, managed by Sandi Harding, the Blockbuster Mother. Much of the film focuses on Sandi, following her around the store and in her home, interacting with customers and her family, and shopping for stock at Target. 

Sandi is beloved, having employed dozens of young people in her community and many of her family members. She is charming, open, and honest. There is something truly noble about her desire to keep the store going — almost a mythic figure on a hero’s quest. We can’t help but root for her. 

Throughout, she is waiting to hear from Dish, the monolith who bought the bankrupt Blockbuster. The film’s only suspense is whether they will allow her to renew for another five years. The Bend store has now become a place of pilgrimage. People come from all over the world to take pictures and buy souvenirs. It is a Grand Canyon of pop culture.

Various men in the video industry offer insight into the business side. Often, there is a sense that they are reluctant witnesses, tight-lipped and uncomfortable, weighing in on both the smart and less savvy choices made by the company, including the infamous eradication of late fees, costing the company two-thirds of its revenue. They make for a strong contrast with the others who are interviewed simply for their love of the place. 

Brian Posehn in a scene from the film.

Writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks) has only the fondest memories. Comedian Doug Benson is giddy when he finally visits Bend. Others singing the praises are actors Ione Skye, Brian Posehn, Paul Scheer, Samm Levine, and Jamie Kennedy. 

Particularly entertaining are the random musings of Ron Funches, whose free-associating is one of the film’s quirkier delights. Some have direct connections to Blockbuster in their pasts, having worked in local outfits in their teen years; others simply reminisce.

As I watched, I realized that everyone was saying the same thing, which brought me to the realization that what The Last Blockbuster truly celebrates is the universal experience. We are all part of a collective memory because we all had the same experience:

It’s Friday night, and we enter the blue and yellow temple with our significant other or spouse or family or friends. Occasionally, we make a solo visit. We breathe in the smell of stale popcorn and slightly opened soda, the library aroma of media dust, and the unique scent of plastic cases. We walk the perimeter of new releases, looking at each one, staring at the covers, occasionally reading a blurb. 

Oh, look, the one we wanted isn’t in. We go to the register and ask the clerk when it’s due back. It was due back today. So we stand at the counter and hope that it gets returned. After a bit, we roam the aisles, meandering into the older sections, neatly divided by genre. We make stacks of videos (and later DVDs). We negotiate: If we rent that for you, can we get this for me? Finally, we’re ready to check out. The clerk goes through each one to make sure that the tape matches the case.  (Ah, the plastic VHS cases with their brick-like weight and satisfying click as they close with a perfect snap.)

Sometimes we spent more time looking for the movies than we did watching them.

That was the Blockbuster culture. And that was a great part of the joy. “Ah,” we think, “the youth of today will never know this as they scroll through their My List of a hundred movies and a thousand television shows.”

The Last Blockbuster is not a great documentary. For something that doesn’t even run a full ninety minutes, it is often repetitive. But it has an enormous heart and genuine nostalgia. It celebrates the last bastion of a bygone era. So, when you watch it, be kind. (And rewind.)

Photos courtesy of 1091 Pictures

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'Emptied' by Ethan Koenig
'Things We Left Behind' by Kayla Timpanaro
'Summer's Sanctuary' by Eleanor Dexter

The Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills recently announced the winners of its 14th annual “Go APE” Advanced Placement Student Exhibition which features 2-D and 3-D works by 124 students from 37 Long Island High Schools. Award-winning artist, artist community organizer, and the Art League Program Manager Andrea Lawl Manning selected award of excellence winners and honorable mentions. 

“The Go APE exhibition is one of our most exciting exhibitions every year,” said Manning. “The strength of the work in this exhibition made the jurying process incredibly difficult. The last year pokes its way into this show as a whole, and certainly into the pieces of our winners. Ideas about life, loneliness and isolation, cultural and social issues weave into these works. These evocative, thought provoking, and conceptually mature pieces are bolstered by achievement in technique, and skillful manipulation of medium. There is an authenticity, a boldness, and an honesty in the works of these young artists. Through these works we see a complicated world through their eyes,” she added.

The following students have been selected for awards:

Awards of Excellence:

◆ Kristine Zhou, Syosset High School, Caged, colored pencil and white tape on white paper

◆ Keren Dial, Valley Stream South High School, Cultivating the Mustard, colored pencil

◆ Jordan Brand, Baldwin HS, Illusion is Illumination, acrylic on watercolor paper

◆ Sarah Hauk, Sayville High School, White Wash, acrylic painting

◆ Emma Romano, Oceanside High School, Cultural Cleanse, photography

◆ Kathryn Yi, Jericho High School, Connection, pencil drawing

◆ Aleena Abraham, Hicksville High School, Tenderness, oil on canvas

Honorable Mentions: 

◆ Angela Jang, Syosset High School, Dental Repair, colored pencil, foam core and rubber bands

◆ Kayla Timpanaro, Earl L. Vandermeulen High School, Things We Left Behind, acrylic and ink

◆ Ava Fama, Plainedge High School, The Curtains, acrylic on canvas

◆ Teddy Angelopoulos, Long Beach High School, Skulls, mixed media

◆ Ethan Koenig, Northport High School, Emptied, 3D computer modeling

◆ Alyssa Paino, H. Frank Carey High School, Too Much Pressure, oil pastel

◆ Eleanor Dexter, Mount Sinai High School, Summer’s Sanctuary, watercolor and fine liners

The virtual exhibit close date has been extended to April 9 and is on view at the Art League’s website at www.artleagueli.org.The virtual gallery format allows the viewer to “stroll the gallery” in the virtual rooms, or view the artworks online in an “at a glance” format.

For more information, please call 631-462-5400.

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From left, Dr. Sunil Kumar Sharma, Dr. Priyanka Sharma, Ritika Joshi, and Dr. Ben Hsiao. Photo by Lynn Spinnato

By Daniel Dunaief

“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink,” according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” 

That won’t be the case, particularly in areas with fresh water that needs decontamination, if Stony Brook’s Ben Hsiao and Priyanka Sharma have anything to say about it.

The duo recently won first place for creativity in the prestigious Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water that drew research applicants, and runners up, from all over the world who are addressing water-related challenges. Hsiao, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University and Sharma, Research Assistant Professor, will receive $133,000 for winning first place for the award which is given every other year.

Hsiao and Sharma are continuing to develop a plant biomass-based filtration system that is designed to make drinking water, a scarce necessity in developing nations around the world, more accessible to people who sometimes have to walk hours each day for their allotment.

Hsiao said he was “really honored [just] to be nominated” by the Department Chair Peter Tonge. “There are so many people in the whole world working on water purification.” 

Winning the award was “truly a surprise,” with Hsiao adding that he is “humbled” by the honor.

Sharma said it was an “amazing feeling to receive an international prize.” The work, which has received two other awards including from the New York Academy of Science, has “truly gained its importance,” she wrote in an email.

Sharma said her parents and her husband Sunil Kumar Sharma’s parents, who live in her native India, have been “spreading the news” in India and are excited for the recognition and for the potential benefit to society from the research.

Hsiao, who started working on filtration systems in 2009 after Richard Leakey invited him to visit the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya, has made several discoveries in connection with a process he hopes becomes widely available to people in communities that don’t have electricity.

He and Sharma have developed adsorbents, coagulants and membrane materials from biomass-sourced nanocellulose fibers.

The standard commercial water purification system involves using artificial polymers, in which electricity pumps water through the filter that can remove bacteria, viruses, heavy metals and other potential contaminants.

Hsiao and Sharma, however, have turned to the plant world for a more readily available and cost effective solution to the challenge of filtering water. Plants of all kinds, from shrubs to bushes to feedstock, have overlapping cellulose fibers. By deploying these overlapping needles in filters, the Stony Brook scientists can remove the kind of impurities that cause sickness and disease, while producing cleaner water. 

The needles, which are carboxy-cellulose nanofibers, act as a purifying agent that has negative surface charge which causes the removal of oppositely charged impurities. By using these fibers for water purification, Sharma said the team has improved the efficiency and cost related to impurity removal.

Hsiao and Sharma have not tested this material for filters yet. A few years ago, Hsiao used a similar material for filtration. When Sharma joined Hsiao’s lab, she helped develop a cost effective and simpler method, which is how she started working on the nitro-oxidation process. The substrate from nitro-oxidation acts as a purifying agent like charcoal.

The substrates they created can benefit the developed as well as the developing world. In the future, if they receive sufficient funds, they would like to address the ammonium impurities initially on Long Island. The area regularly experiences algal blooms as a result of a build up of nitrogen, often from fertilizers.

The negatively charged substrate attracts the positively charged ammonium impurities. They have tested this material in the lab for the removal of ammonium from contaminated water. Not only does that cleanse the water, but it also collects the ammonium trapped on the carboxycellulose fibers that can be recycled as fertilizer.

Hsiao is working with two countries on trying to make this approach available: Kenya and Botswana. The Kenya connection came through the work he has been doing with Richard Leakey at Stony Brook’s Turkana Basin Institute, while Botswana is a “small but stable country [in which he can] work together to have some field applications.”

Hsiao said Sharma, whom he convinced to join his lab in 2015, has a complementary skill set that enables their shared vision to move closer to a reality.

Sharma’s “cellulose chemistry is a lot better than mine,” Hsiao said. “I have these crazy visions that this is going to happen. She allows me to indulge my vision. Plus, we have a team of dedicated students and post docs working on this.”

Hsiao encouraged Sharma to join his research effort when he offered his idea for the potential benefits of the work.

Hsiao said he “ wanted to do something for societal benefit,” Sharma said. “That one sentence excited me.” Additionally, she said his lab was well known for using the synchrotron to characterize cellulose nanofibers and for developing cellulose based filtration membranes.

Coming from India to the United States “wasn’t easy,” as no one in her extended family had been to the states, but she felt a strong desire to achieve her academic and professional mission.

Hsiao described Sharma as a “promising, talented scientist,” and said he hopes they can land large research grants so they can continue to develop and advance this approach.

Back in 2016, Hsiao set an ambitious goal of creating a process that could have application throughout the world within five years, which would be around now.

“I was naive” about the challenges and the timing, Hsiao said. “I still have another five to 10 years to go, but we’re getting closer.”

Broadly, the effort to provide drinkable water that is accessible to people throughout the world is a professional challenge Hsiao embraces. 

The effort “consumes me day and night,” he said. “I’m dedicating the rest of my life to finding solutions. I’m doing this because I feel like it’s really needed and can have a true impact to help people.”

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Photo from Sweetbriar Nature Center

HELLO DEER!

Charlotte the deer stopped by Sweetbriar Nature Center’s socially distanced  Egg Hunt and Magical Spring Walk Through the Enchanted Forest event on April 3. She met the Easter Bunny and then browsed the gift tables before selecting a stuffed deer toy aptly named ‘Charlotte’! Check out future events at the center by visiting www.sweetbriarnc.org.

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'Storm Passing' by Anne Raymond
'Cross Over' by Sue Contessa
'Into the Blue' by Anne Raymond
'Undertow' by Sue Contessa
'December Blue Series' by Anne Raymond

By Tara Mae

Abstract art invites an audience to use its imagination and interpret meaning. 

Gallery North’s newest exhibit, Laminar Rituals, celebrates the creation and explores the impact of mark making and non-objective art through the works of artists Sue Contessa of St. James and Anne Raymond of East Hampton. The show opens today, April 8.

Featuring Contessa’s acrylic paintings and Raymond’s monotypes and oil paintings, the title of the exhibit refers to their artistic styles, which incorporate transparent or translucent layers of paint that laminate, protect, and enhance their marks and brushstrokes. 

“Both artists really work in a very intuitive manner … Sue’s work is really about the experience the viewer has in front of the [art]. Anne is much more interested in transient qualities we find around ourselves — things like change in weather patterns, changes in light over the course of the day … trying to capture those fleeting moments around us,” said Gallery North Executive Director Ned Puchner. “I think when put together, this exhibit is really presenting records of our experience out in the world.” 

Rather than seeking inspiration from outside sources, Contessa finds meaning in the methodology of crafting her art. She uses acrylic paint and occasionally graphite pencil to build marks on the canvas. This technique creates a perceived visual depth to her paintings.

“The work is about repetition … The paintings are more about formal art issues, and the repetition allows for that form of meditation that I always hope will happen. I just have to trust my process. I tend to work rather thinly and transparently, so you are always seeing something from underneath, which impacts each layer,” said Contessa.

For Raymond, the development of her palette is an essential part of her creative process. “I work from a palette based on what I feel like at the time. If I don’t like it, I completely change it,” she said. “I float back and forth between doing monotypes and painting. I think this helps me stay fresh.”

Raymond uses plexiglass plates for her monotypes, making unique single prints with oil-based, pigment-rich, lithography inks. Unlike oil paint, the inks dry fairly quickly so Raymond is able to produce a few in a single session. 

The process of working in these mediums is different, but its influences are largely the same. Her art, although abstract, is impacted by the natural world. 

“Almost all of my work has reference to landscape, seascape, or sky. I feel really lucky. The beauty of Long Island is my muse,” Raymond said. 

Classically trained, Contessa and Raymond each studied art in college and then attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City. They worked in traditional, realistic mediums like figure drawing and still life before becoming abstract artists. 

After taking classes at the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills, Contessa was asked to teach figure and basic drawing classes there. 

“I have a background in realistic painting, but it wasn’t satisfying for me. It wasn’t what I wanted to paint. I wanted to paint something that didn’t exist before,” Contessa said. “When you create an [abstract] painting, it is something that you created. The reason for doing it in the first place is that I don’t know what it’s going to look like.”  

Raymond worked as an illustrator, for a newspaper, and in the travel industry before fully transitioning to a career as an abstract artist. “When I was studying, I did a lot of live drawing … I appreciate the skill, but it was not exciting in the way that working abstractly is. While working as an illustrator, I was already doing abstracts … I think it is creatively engaging to invite surprise into your process,” she said. 

Their complementary mindsets about composing abstract art is part of what initially inspired Puchner to pair their art for an exhibit. “I saw common features with both of them,” he said. 

It is the first show that Contessa or Raymond have done since the pandemic began. The exhibit is part of Puchner and Gallery North’s ongoing effort to introduce patrons to the work of local artists and provide the local artists with additional exhibition possibilities. 

“I’m really trying to present more artists and give more artists more opportunities to show. I have fun trying to create these pairings and expose our audience to more local artists,” Puchner added. 

Gallery North, 90 North Country Road, Setauket presents Laminar Rituals through May 16. The exhibit will be open to the public during the gallery’s normal hours, Wednesdays to Saturdays from 11 a.m to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. All onsite events are socially distanced and masks are mandatory for entry.

In conjunction with the exhibit, Raymond will lead a monotype workshop for a class of up to six people at the Studio at Gallery North on April 10 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Contessa and Raymond will participate in a Virtual ArTalk on April 24, from 6 to 8 p.m. 

For more information, to register for these programs, or to learn more about Laminar Rituals and other upcoming exhibits, visit www.gallerynorth.org or call 631-751-2676. 

 

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Mia

MEET MIA – AGAIN!

This week’s shelter pet is Mia is a 3-year-old mastiff/pit/lab mix who is still waiting at the Smithtown Animal Shelter for her furever home. 

Mia is stunningly beautiful, goofy and playful. Because she lacked proper socialization in her puppy years, she tends to distrust strangers.  She needs someone who is willing to give her time to trust; then you will be rewarded with kisses, cuddles and slobber. Once she trusts someone, it is forever.  

Mia would be best suited as an only pet in an adult only home. She is spayed, microchipped and is up to date on her vaccines. If you are interested in meeting Mia please call ahead to schedule an hour to properly interact with her in a domestic setting, which includes a Meet and Greet Room, the dog runs and a Dog Walk trail. 

The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. Shelter operating hours are currently Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sundays and Wednesday evenings by appointment only). Call 631-360-7575 or visit www.smithtownanimalshelter.com.

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The Reboli Center for Art and History, 64 Main Street, Stony Brook is pleased to name Janet Zug as its artisan of the month for April. “I discovered Janet while looking for some handmade glass for the Design Shop.  I searched the internet and found several glass blowers, but I loved her pieces and contacted her. Janet agreed to sell her work at the Center, and we have done very well with her beautiful creations,” said Lois Reboli, founder of the Reboli Center and wife of the late artist, Joseph Reboli.

• Janet Zug at work in in her studio

Janet started blowing glass in 1990. She answered an ad in the local newspaper for a glass blower apprentice and no experience was necessary. The position was with Simon Pearce, a famous glass production studio in Vermont. She got the job and after five days, fell in love with the art of glass blowing. When she was done for the day, she was allowed to work on her own designs. In 1992, she founded her own business and rented space from other studios to make her creations. In 2004, she installed her own hot shop at her studio in Vermont, where she lives.

According to Janet, “I am inspired by function and beauty. A piece should be useful and pretty, such as my hanging vases. I love making drinking glasses as you can use them, enjoy them, wash them and they are so personal. There are so many things I love about glassblowing. First there’s the hot stuff itself, what a crazy medium to play with! Then there’s the challenge of executing high quality work from this pot of hot goo. I never get tired of it because it’s always changing. Blowing glass is the best part, of course, but being a productive business person is equally as important as designing work that I am proud of.”

Janet Zug’s drinking glasses

Her studio is open on Saturdays from Thanksgiving until Christmas and visitors can take a class, where she will help someone make a piece. For more information, visit her website at www.zugglassblower.com

Janet Zug’s hand-blown glass is for sale in the Reboli Center’s Design Shop. The Center is  open Tuesday – Saturday from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Lois Reboli, president of the Reboli Center, noted that, “The Center is adhering to CDC, New York State and Suffolk County coronavirus guidelines, which limits the number of attendees at one time and requires all visitors to wear a mask and socially distance. Please be assured that staff and volunteers will wear masks, and do continuous cleaning and sanitizing.

For more information, call 631-751-7707.

 

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