Re Institute shows Joel Foster
From the Millbrook Independent, published April 25, 2015 PDF version
April 25-- The first show of the Re Institute’s 2015 season opened with an exhibition of “Reverse Engineer,” an installation of “Stairs Revisited,” a series of paintings on paper by Joel Foster.
Joel Foster’s 17 paintings on paper in the Re Institute’s downstairs gallery differ from his prior work. The swirls and arabesques that characterized his earlier paintings have been replaced by jagged forms resembling a series of steps.
In 2007 Foster lost most of his sight to Stargardt’s Disease. For a time he had just enough peripheral vision to continue painting, but as his sight deteriorated, he set about finding a means to render the images he had in his mind. To create a design, he devised an ingenious way of laying down two pieces of thin tape adjacent to one another on a piece of paper as a form of stencil. Through feel he was able to paint within in the spaces between the tapes.
Foster has always been rather matter of fact about the loss of much of his vision. "Losing all but peripheral vision has limited what I can do. The repetition of simple images and colors, which are self-imposed limitations, can be very liberating." According to Klimowicz, Joel simply says, “this is what I have. What can I do with this instead of focusing on what I can’t do.”
The side view of stairs in many of Foster’s new work, “was an early memory that I drew as a child. The stairs may be a metaphor for the challenges of navigating through the world.”
In each of these painting stairs lead upward in different configurations. In some they are seen in silhouette. In one, a series of red, blue, black and white squares tumble down the steps. In another yellow, black and gray painting, the stairs are seen from a number of different view points that create not only steps, but triangles and a series of zig zags.
Foster works diligently for most of every day. He is eminently self-sufficient and makes his compositions without any assistance. In fact he is so self-sufficient he often rides his bicycle on the rail trail. That is courage.
The exhibition can be seen at the Re Institute - April 25 – May 30. 1395 Boston Corners Rd, Millerton, NY 12546 (518) 567-5359 www.thereinstitute.com
The exhibition can be seen at the Re Institute - April 25 – May 30. 1395 Boston Corners Rd, Millerton, NY 12546 (518) 567-5359 www.thereinstitute.com
A Different Perception: Artist Continues Despite Growing Blindness
By Joseph Montebello
Published: Monday, January 13, 2014 in the Art Space section of the Winter 2013 edition of Passport Magazine. PDF version
Works by Joel Foster in Amenia
by Carola Lott
Published in the Millbrook Independent, April 26th, 2013 PDF Version
Joel Foster's 15 images from his 1620 series, hanging at the Cozy Corner Cafe & Tap Room in Amenia, refer to memories and history of colonial New England.
The inspiration for this 1620 series comes in part from his ancestor, Elder Thomas Faunce, about whom historian Nathanial Philbrick wrote, "In 1741, the ninety-five-year-old Thomas Faunce asked to be carried in a litter to the Plymouth waterfront. Faunce had heard that a pier was about to be built over an undistinguished rock at the tide line near Town Brook With tears in his eyes, Faunce proclaimed that he had been told by his father, who had arrived in Plymouth in 1623, that the boulder was where the Pilgrims first landed. Thus was born the Legend of Plymouth Rock'
Foster's grandmother grew up in Plymouth, and Foster himself grew up in Hanson, Massachusetts, not far from Plymouth. Both the legend—whether true or not—and memories of his childhood near the sea have informed much of his work
The 1620 series depicts the intersection of the white man's road with the indigenous culture. In many images one can see the white man's road as it makes its way through the topographical features of the earth, the sand, the sea and the air. "On the Beach' shows a shallop (a traditional fishing boat) pulled up on the sand as the sun rises majestically from the sea.
In 2007 Foster lost most of his sight to Stargardt's Disease, but for a time he had just enough peripheral vision to continue painting. As his sight worsened, he set about finding a way to render the images he had in his mind. He devised an ingenious way of laying down two pieces of thin tape adjacent to one another on a piece of paper as a form of stencil. He then painted in the spaces between the tapes, which are thin enough for him to manipulate into swirling designs that evoke the waves of the
Although most of the images are abstract, one can nonetheless discern shapes that resemble canoes, sailing boats and coastal fishing boats. The sea is a constant presence—the texture of the sand, the waves, the swirling water of the incoming tide. The sinuous lines and forms are rendered in subtle shades of blue, melon, beige and gray that convey a great sense of space.
Earlier this year Foster was part of a major show of blind artists at the Bausch & Lomb headquarters in Rochester, NY. Recently he was the only artist in Dutchess County to receive a $1,500 Artist's Resource Trust (A.R.T.) fund grant from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, to explore new materials. He has become too blind to continue working with tape and now wants to work with plaster and metal grids to create more tactile pieces.
Second Sight, An artist's loss of vision bring unexpected freedom in the studio
by Tom Keyser
Published in the Times Union Albany, New York. Nov 30th, 2008 PDF Version
Vision without Sight
By Olesia Plokhii
Published in the Millbrook Independent, April 7, 2010
Paintings by Joel Foster
Published in the Millbrook Independent, September 28, 2011
