The 7444 CollectiveVarious Artists
Please join us at the 7444 Gallery in Saranac Lake, NY for out art minded holiday gifts
Gallery Holiday Hours
Tuesday 12/14 - Thursday 12/16 10a-3p
Friday 12/17 + Saturday 12/18 10a - 7p (extended Hours)
CLOSED December 21st thru the 31st 2009
The 7444 Collective
"various artists"
A holiday collection of artists past and future. Featuring a variety of new, unique, affordable, contemporary artistic items available in limited quantities and exclusively through the 7444 Gallery.
An post-opening reception will be held: Saturday, January 9th from 6 - 8p
(meet the artists)
ARTIST PROFILES:
Elaine Brown - Pottery
Unique Compost pots
Biography
As a 50 something retiree, I find myself living in Lake Placid, NY and happy about that. My husband and I moved here when we became empty-nesters. Now our nest is set up for a relaxed life and visits from friends and, somehow not often enough, our daughters.When I first found myself with some time to work with clay it was as a luxury I took for myself. It became a way for me to express myself creatively. After a career as a banker and then mother and homemaker, it was a new found outlet. I had lots of fun times at home with my girls. When they got older I spent countless hours volunteering in all sorts of ways. I would sneak away for half a day here and there and create some objects in clay and often enough I would be happy with the results.
People always ask me what I do and I generally answer with some generalities and say that I do some pottery. I would like to transition into "I am a potter".
Project Description
Composting is a good thing to do. We feel good about it. We've had a counter compost pot in use for awhile now. We get to look at a nice ceramic container in our kitchen and it works like a pail carried out to the compost bins. It works for us. It is a big improvement on a plastic tub or open bowl.I think this is a good aesthetic development within the composting movement.
Artist Statement
I love functional pottery. I believe that in using and handling the ceramic object one constantly feels what it's all about. Form and function: both need to be pleasing.Stephanie DeJoseph - Fabric
The Adirondack Clutch
Biography
La Mia Designs is a small Independent Design business, owned and operated by Stephanie DeJoseph, that strives to create and manufacture a unique, high-quality product. We guarantee every piece we design and put customer satisfaction first. From the beginning sketches to the finished product we do everything in one studio. From handbags, accessories to home accents La Mia strives to have a niche for all…LaMia products can be found in numerous online boutiques and several stores in North Carolina and New York.
Stephanie is an American Handbag & Accessory Designer who is passionate about creating! She has been sewing and creating since she was a little girl, inspired by her mother who is very talented and creative as well. Growing up without a t.v. she was inspired to do craft related projects in spare time and forced to think outside the box. When she got into college she really did not know what area of study , so Stephanie settled on the Interior Design field. Motivation for running a business and passion for fabrics and design has sent her down the road of entrepreneurship. She currently works in a home studio and plans to build a successful, creative business.
Project Description
My love for the outdoors, the mountains, and hiking inspired me to create a functional handbag incorporating birch bark, portions of old trail maps, and fabric that is inspired by the rustic Adirondack setting. Each bag is unique and one of a kind. With each piece there will be one common thread, an illustration of the Adirondacks and what it means to me. This project is one of constant change and progression so keep in mind that as each item is made they will take new form, color, and texture.Artist Statement
Everything I produce is an expression of my love for fabrics, design, color, form, texture and many other things. From handbags to canvases saturated with mixed media I find some way to make them functional. I believe in recycling and giving vintage items as well as junk new life. Shannon Drowne - Printing
Signed original prints
Artist Statement
My work is autobiographical and references containment, layering of information, and obscured memories or dreams. The items found and layered in my images include natural elements, usually seeds, and objects from daily life such as woodstoves, domestic appliances and physical body parts.
I was raised in upstate NY, where my parents relied heavily on gardening and hunting as a means for survival. As an adult nature fascinates me in ways I could never perceive as a child. This fascination, specifically of tiny elements, didn’t occur until I moved to New Mexico. Ironically it was in the desert that I became reacquainted with nature. I became obsessed with seeds, plants, and even individual trees. My obsession, in particular, with seeds, started due to their miniscule nature and ability to produce life. Seeds and plants now stand in my work as a metaphor for containers of information, information that cannot be seen or obtained, like the mind containing memories and information that is sometimes presented in dreams and obscured thoughts. The life I give the collected or represented nature specimen is an escape from containment, one that is illustrated with fragments from current events, dreams, and childhood memories.
This particular image uses nature as a point of departure. My intention in this piece is not necessarily about nature but about what we, as humans, are doing to nature. The plant represented in this piece is part of a saltbush, which is typically grown in the southwest. The saltbush is known for its ability to grow in harsh conditions with poor soil, drought, and salt. Recently this plant has been successfully in vitro regenerated. The objective was to genetically engineer the saltbush for forage quality, biomass, and tolerance. The use of this plant in my is representative of its resilience, it’s origin, and the potential engineering possibilities it offers scientists. Along with issues such as decreasing water supply, bee and bat population depletion, and widespread pollution, I feel that this scientific manipulation of nature is an area that should cause concern.
Jamie Dyer - Ceramic Art
Hand made Mason Jarz
Biography
Jamie Dyer was born and raised in Northern Maine. As a child and teenager Jamie used writing and the creation of sculptures and textile arts as a form of expression and release. While in high school Jamie traveled to France and Spain where the cultures, so far different from her own, piqued her interest in fine art and the European experience. While attending St. Lawrence University as an English writing major, Jamie became fascinated with printmaking and ceramics; these new passions led to the addition of another major – Fine Arts, studio. Fulfilling her wish to return to Europe, Jamie studied abroad in Vienna, Austria where she became fascinated with the Vienna Secession movement. Yearning to absorb as much history as possible, Jamie traveled to 13 countries while abroad, including a research trip on the Pilgrim Trail to Santiago de Compostela, Spain; she returned from Europe with further appreciation of European art and history.Jamie now resides in Saranac Lake. She works at Paul Smith’s College as their Major Gifts and Grants Officer and stays busy living life to its fullest.
Artist Statement
As an unwilling perfectionist and inquisitive human being, I have always derived pleasure and relaxation from artistic exploration and creation.During my undergraduate ceramic studies, my art involved taking “everyday” “normal” objects and re-creating them in a way that would undeniable change the viewer’s perception of an object they thought they knew, thought was “safe.” While I have been unable to remain as entrenched in creating art as I once was due to the daily constraints of work and the like, this theme has carried into my post graduate life. The drive has remained, though time may be crunched, and I still look to art as an outlet for pleasure and release.
Mason jars are ubiquitous. Yet, no matter how they are acquired, or what story lies inside them, when looking at the mason jar physically it is anonymous, neutral, homogenized – until now. The mason jars I create are unique and functional. While they cannot be used for canning, they can be used as vessels for flowers and drink – and always as sculptural pieces of artwork. They are colorful, funky, and different - say hello to the new, liberated mason jar.
Kelly Gorham - Publication
Signed 1st edition prints
Biography
In a professional career that spans nearly twenty years, Kelly Gorham has created engaging images from Big Sky Country to Berlin. Kelly has worked as a staff photographer for several newspapers and as a corporate photographer in addition to a continous freelance career.
Kelly’s extensive freelance client list includes such names as AAA, Bentley Motors, Holiday Inn and Harley Davidson. His editorial and advertising images have been featured in such publications as the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Forbes Life, Skiing Magazine, Robb Report and GEO. He has earned honors from the World Food Media Awards, International Color Awards, Montana Newspaper Association, University Photographers of America and Montana Addy Awards. Kelly has been an active member of the American Society of Media Photographers since 1995. To visit Kelly's commercial site and portfolio please visit
Artist Statement
Berlin had yet to recover from the devastation of World War II when it and the rest of Germany were divided up among France, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. The divisions that were created at this bargaining table made Berlin a city on the frontline of a struggle between two great superpowers. This tale of political unrest, dominance and oppression played out over the next four decades between the powers of East and West in the city of Berlin.
As a photojournalist and architectural photographer I’ve always been interested how history and a place can be so closely bound. Unlike the pyramids of Giza, the Eiffel Tower or Empire State Building, the history tied to Berlin is slowly becoming a quiet footnote. This project began after a life-long interest in modern European history, particularly the Cold War era. In 2008, following nearly two years of research, I set out to explore the neighborhoods of former East Berlin to create images for The Stones Have Memories. With guidance from historians at home and in Berlin, and from friends who lived on both sides of the Wall, I traced history that I felt was significant back to the location where it happened and photographed the place as it stands today. My guiding creative principal was to let the architecture speak for itself. Is it possible to document emotion without photographing a human face?
November 9, 2009, marked the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War. An entire generation has passed since these events. I hope The Stones Have Memories can be both visually engaging and help to communicate a portion of the somber history of the Cold War in Berlin.
As a photojournalist and architectural photographer I’ve always been interested how history and a place can be so closely bound. Unlike the pyramids of Giza, the Eiffel Tower or Empire State Building, the history tied to Berlin is slowly becoming a quiet footnote. This project began after a life-long interest in modern European history, particularly the Cold War era. In 2008, following nearly two years of research, I set out to explore the neighborhoods of former East Berlin to create images for The Stones Have Memories. With guidance from historians at home and in Berlin, and from friends who lived on both sides of the Wall, I traced history that I felt was significant back to the location where it happened and photographed the place as it stands today. My guiding creative principal was to let the architecture speak for itself. Is it possible to document emotion without photographing a human face?
November 9, 2009, marked the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War. An entire generation has passed since these events. I hope The Stones Have Memories can be both visually engaging and help to communicate a portion of the somber history of the Cold War in Berlin.
Arthur Hash - Jewelry
White Bird Brooches, Machine Gun Brooches, Bubble Rings, Ping Pong Brooches
Biography
Arthur Hash received his MFA in metalsmithing and jewelry design from Indiana University in 2005 and his BFA in Crafts/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002. Currently Arthur is a full time lecturer in the Metal Program at the State University of New York at New Paltz. In 2007, Arthur was awarded his second Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond Virginia and named a Searchlight Artist by the American Craft Council. In May of 2006 Arthur completed his second solo exhibition entitled "Instance" at the Quirk Gallery in Richmond Virginia. Other exhibitions include: Signs of Life 08 at the Facere Gallery in Seattle, From Minimal To Bling: Contemporary Studio Jewelry at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, Virtual Tangible 2.0 at the Velvet DaVinci in San Francisco and NEXT ICONOCLASTS at the Oregon College for Art and Craft. Arthur's work is included in a number of private and public collections around the United States.His work can been seen in such publications as Metalsmith magazine, American Craft Magazine, Domino Magazine and Niche Magazine. Arthur's work comes from a commitment to participate in the contemporary exploration of what jewelry is and can be, while retaining the sense of elegance and beauty found in the long tradition of body adornment. His recent work has incorporated digital fabrication technologies such as waterjet cutting, 3D scanning, CNC routing and rapid prototyping to make one-off art jewelry pieces, large archival ink-jet prints and vinyl sticker installations.
Statement
Different materials that evoke certain feelings in connection with the body bring into question the definition of what jewelry was in the past and is today. Metal and precious stones have historical significance and value. Jewelry throughout time defined status and wealth, emphasized important dates and marked royalty. I treat unconventional materials such as toilet paper, cigarette butts, glue, spices, cough drops, plastics and animal parts as precious as their traditional counterparts: gold, diamonds and silver. By twisting the value of materials and utilizing them to create body adornment I want to re-present what jewelry can become and try and change the stereotype of what jewelry is. Aaron Hobson - Photography
Signed limited edition numbered prints
Biography
Hobson's work is created by combining several sequential, vertical images, thereby offering more visual information and an obscured rendition of any moment depicted by a single image. These preserved moments straddle between the contexts of fictitious, universal and isolated autobiographical experiences. At times inspired by scenery near the artist's residence in the Adirondack mountains, the work contains narratives steeped in the everyday-from the machismo American cowboy to the disheveled Wall Street staffer. In a fashion comparable to that of feminist portraiture the figure in the image is always the artist whose signified identity morphs through changes in attire and ever-changing elusory surroundings.
The nuanced details in the photographs are not forced, whether the interior of a '64 Mercury or a seemingly unconscious figure, and lack excessive or immediately shocking details. Rather, the restive energy that pervades the artist's work unexpectedly draws and subsequently arrests the viewer as the narrative unfolds exposing sensual, disturbing, and onerous undertones. The incredibly intricate and open-ended narratives are at once left to the interpretation of the viewer and restrained by details conveying the intentions of the artist; in the end, leaving the onlooker to ponder happenings within the frame incessantly.
Beth Mueller - Ceramics.
Variety of ceramic items and imagery available
Manifesto
We believe in the transformative power of good design. We believe that a thoughtfully designed and fabricated object can impact for the greater good. We believe in the relevance of the designer/craftsman in a post industrial age. We believe that objects designed and made on an intentionally small scale are imbued with a richer and deeper meaning and quality than those made solely to be distributed quickly and cheaply.
The final product brought to market can only be as honest and beautiful as the intentions that first brought it into being. An object is only crafted as well as the maker is devoted to it being made.
Richard Parrish - Fused Glass
Full color spectrum of platters available: ROYGBIV (red shown)
Biography
Richard Parrish maintains a studio for kiln formed glass and architecture in Bozeman, Montana. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. He was awarded best artist in his category at the Western Design Conference Exhibition in 2008. His work was selected for the Corning Museum of Glass’s New Glass Review 27, and he was awarded the American Craft Council Award of Achievement in 2003. His artwork is in numerous public and private collections in the United States and Europe.Richard has taught architecture and design at The University of Michigan and Montana State University. He teaches classes in kilnformed glass in his studio and throughout the United States, focusing on the visual elements of design; color theory; and inspiration, meaning and intent.
Richard’s glasswork includes speculative work; functional objects; and architectural installations and design elements. Current commissions include a memorial at St. John’s Mercy Hospital in St. Louis and nineteen glass pieces for the Hyatt Chesapeake Bay Resort.
Artist Statement
As an artist & an architect, I find inspiration in both the human-made environment & in the vast landscape of the American west where I grew up. I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of the constructed & the natural, which I often express in my work. I find that it is critical to my existence to make things with my hands, using real materials. I focus on the integration of meaning, design and technique in my glasswork and in the classes that I teach. I am particularly interested in the interaction of light and color in the environment and in my own work. Peter Seward - Illustration
Holiday Card
Biography
I grew up as one of five children. We didn't fully appreciate our artist-parents' efforts to introduce us to painting and majestic landscapes. After all these years, I am embracing early influences shaped by geography in my paintings. I worked professionally as an illustrator behind the scenes in New York City for two decades. Since moving to the Adirondack Park in 2004, I'm conscious of being part of the continuum of the Hudson River School. My recent body of work, entitled "Stealth Towers," has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions in upstate New York, New York City, New Mexico and Connecticut.Artist Statement
This series of landscape paintings depict real and imagined "stealth towers," industry parlance for cellular telephone towers disguised to blend in to "natural" landscapes. The incognito towers are symbols of commerce co-opting sacred icons—trees. church steeples, flagpoles, totem poles—for industrial use.Modern communication infrastructure is contrasted with wilderness, suburbia, and the 19th-century world of discovery and innovation. A persistent, symmetrical composition orders the picture plain around the tower presenting an object of worship. The central motif and the elevated height of the cell-phone towers suggests our "connectedness" has taken on religious significance.
In more recent work, images from Verplanck Colvin's Adirondack Survey (1847–1920) conjure the historical continuum of bringing technical innovation into the wilderness. Colvin built "signal towers" on freshly-cleared mountaintops, while advocating for preservation and the creation of New York State's Adirondack Park, where I live.
The conflict of preservation versus infrastructure still exists today as efforts to provide cell-phone coverage in the Adirondack Park requires an intense approval process—and state-of-the-art camouflaged tree-towers—amidst the protests of those wanting absolute protection of "Wilderness." Hence the name, "Frankenpine," was coined to campaign against its intrusion.
api design - Fire Blok 
Portable Adirondack cedar wood fire block. Locally milled and manufactured at the 7444 Gallery.
1) Break apart. 2) Light. 3) Enjoy.
7444 Gallery . 28 Depot Street . Saranac Lake . NY . 12983 . 518-282-4743
