Culture Crawl

This section includes a peek at the latest in theater, reviews of women-only exhibits, reflections on something interesting in film,
a snapshot of ​a special cultural or community event, etc.

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Shining Light on Women’s Stories
Panel Highlights & Exhibition at the New York Public Library 
May 2023​

Out and About in New York City:
​An appropriate exhibition for mothers and daughters/sisters and friends in celebration of motherhood, sisterhood, and women helping women this month!

By Sandra Bertrand

The National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) has been celebrating women fine artists and their artworks since 1889. So, it’s only fitting that the New York Public Library is once again featuring a series of works by members of this national organization. On view until May 31st and online, the current exhibition, "Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories," does just that in the way that only art can do. ​

Panel Discussion with NAWA Artist Members 
​at NYPL's 53rd Street Branch (April 11, 2023)
L to R: Penny Dell, Pauline Chernichow, Sandra Bertrand
​& Panel Moderator, Jill Baratta, Executive Director of NAWA

On April 11th, three NAWA member artists, including Pauline Chernichow, Penny Dell, and myself, were honored to be panelists at the New York Public Library’s 53rd Street Branch in the hopes of shedding light on the places in our personal history that often remain hidden or just out view. 

Perhaps the most poignant story to emerge comes from Pauline, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, managing to bring their daughter from a displaced persons camp in Ulm, Germany to the United States when she was two. 
 
Pauline’s Polish mother, who was a profound storyteller, and her Ukrainian father both instilled in her a love of art, as well as the “good, bad and ugly parts of life.” Early inspiration from teachers at Brooklyn College and, later, NYU and ICP (International Center of Photography) as well as study with renowned photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Alex Webb expanded her horizons from a home-bound mother with two children and serious aspirations to a serious visual storyteller. “For me there is a difference between creating with a camera and creating with paint. When I create using a camera, I expose the outside world to my inner self. When I create with paint, I uncover my inner world…an endless dialogue.”

​In the play “The Collaboration,” the artist Basquiat says to Andy Warhol that he painted his deceased friends so that they would live. When she experienced the production, Pauline understood that was exactly what she was doing in her work, painting all who were lost in order for them to live again, including herself. Quoting critic Jerry Saltz, she said “Art is something like an undoing of death.” 

​For Penny Dell, her early inspirations sprung from her British schooling in Mexico City. It was there that she was surrounded by the great art of the Mexican people – pyramids, stone carvings, murals and prints. “My father collected the works of Francisco DosAmantes, a member of the renowned Taller de Grafica Popular (TGP), and I studied them intensely as I grew up, taking to printmaking like a duck to water.” A monotype workshop taught by Dorothy Cochran (a distinguished member of NAWA herself) connected Penny to best practices in printmaking and a Charles Brand press. It’s been a fascinating evolvement in technique for this artist.
 
Her artwork builds up in layers, often starting with a woodcut monoprint, then the application of collage elements. The collage layer is made up of handmade paper and the very exciting patterns found in security envelopes – envelopes that camouflage and protect the financial information sent in bank statements, credit cards and utility bills. Charcoal, India ink, stitching, gilding and encaustic often finish off the work, giving it a translucency, saturated color, and added impact.
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Penny served as NAWA’s president from 2005-2007 and remains an active member of the Governing Board. In her words, “It has been an honor, a privilege and a joy to be part of a mission and an organization I believe so strongly in – the force, the talent, the impact of women and their art.”

First Place: Light in Darkness
Oil on Canvas
​ ​​© Irene Nedelay
Photo Courtesy: National Association of Women Artists

Mary Cassatt
Acrylic on Canvas
​ ​​© Sandra Bertrand
​Photo Courtesy: National Association of Women Artists​

​There’s an old saying “curiosity killed the cat” but my own curiosity to reach out from my roots in California’s San Joaquin Valley to experience the world and interpret it has taken me on a kind of survival trip through several disciplines of the arts. Performing, writing plays, exploring the arts through cultural journalism, teaching acting, doing portrait photography, then landscape and street images, to capturing the “decisive moment” (as photographer Cartier-Bresson spoke about) were early passions. In the last several years, rediscovering painting through travel and figurative studies at the Art Students League has brought new energy.  A Strong Women series of expressionistic portraiture has enabled me to discover many creative women artists through time that has been very rewarding. Figures such as Mary Cassatt (chosen for this exhibition), Colette, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Joan Didion are just a few of my subjects.
 
Being a NAWA member has also proved to be a richly abundant way to connect with other artists and to tell their stories. As Gertrude Stein once said, we live in the “continuous present.” As a founding editor of NAWA Now Magazine, I was fortunate to be able to create another way for these deserving women, past and present, to find their voice.

Readers will find the online exhibition with list of winners from the NAWA website.

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In-Person Exhibition:

"Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories"
New York Public Library (53rd Street Branch)
18 West 53rd Street
New York, NY
This exhibition is open to the public through May 31.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Closed on Sundays)

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Sandra Bertrand is an award-winning playwright and painter. She is Chief Art Critic for Highbrow Magazine and a contributing writer for GALO Magazine. Prior to working for Sanctuary as Culture & Travel Editor, Sandra was a Featured Artist in May 2019.