Canaries in the Bee Hive 2023
As an artist and environmental activist, I have always spent time outside observing Nature. Since childhood, I have deeply cared about how we steward our planet. Following the Chernobyl accident in 1986, I remember reading an article that mentioned that bee keepers in Ukraine had noted that their bees were not leaving their hives for a few days just after the accident and even before the nuclear accident was reported. There is so much we don’t know about how animals and insects can perceive even the smallest changes in the environment.
I had been introduced to bees when I was only 10 by my grandmother’s cousin in Italy. I was completely intrigued that perhaps these little but critical insects, could be more sensitive to pollution than we knew. Decades later, when I too became a bee keeper, I began to more clearly understand the very fine line we are walking with stewarding our natural resources.
This installation is inspired by reading accounts from other bee keepers, following my own hives activities and speaking with bee keepers in other countries about what has become a global concern over bee decline. I hope that the work will educate and inspire the public to make new decisions about how they can make a difference. Is what they are purchasing either for their table or their garden harming even the smallest of critters– our honey bees?
Opening Reception: Thursday May 18 from 5-7pm
Please Join me at the celebration of 30 years of Peregrine Printmaking
Peregrine Press @30
Cove Street Arts • 71 Cove Street • Portland, ME 04101 • 207-808-8911
September 9 – November 13, 2021
Opening Reception: Thursday September 9, 2021 5:00 – 7:00 PM
If you are unable to attend here is a link to the gallery for a cyber visit!
https://youtu.be/fQHK87EZFn4
Artists’ Sunday is November 29, 2020
Paintings, prints and work on paper posted on this page as well as on the
Green Mountain Print Studio Facebook page will be half price!
2014 Immigration/Emigration Exhibit to open October 3–monotypes by Blair Folts
Immigrazione/Emigrazione
Family roots from Friuli
Monotypes using paper lithography
3 October-24 October 2014
Sala Liberamente
Maniago (PN) Italia
Opening reception October 3, 2014 7 PM
Because I am an American, I feel “rootless sometimes.” My mother is first generation American and her parents both are from Friuli. It is her story that this show is about. (My father grew up in Beijing, China but that is a different story.)
My nonnu was from Poffabro and my nonna was from Casasola. This has always been a magical and special thing for me as an American because it has been here—in Friuli— that I have been able to experience a certain “rooted” feeling despite not having grown up here and despite not speaking the language.
I am excited to exhibit these prints in Friuli this year. They are created from photos of this family and also old documents I have found in the attic and old drawers of my grandparents homes. I want to create a sense that all of these images have been fused onto the walls. There are pages from school books, deeds from homes, maps, school certificates even little workbooks where my nonnu recorded expenses. I have layered these with photos from my own first visit to Friuli when I was only 10 in an attempt to capture the braid of time that is each of our tapestries. Immigration/Emigration is my own search of: “ where do we come from and where are we going?”
Da americana mi sento, qualche volta, ” senza radici”. Mia madre è la prima generazione americana e i suoi genitori sono entrambi friulani. E questa mostra è una riflessione sulla sua storia.( Mio padre è cresciuto a Beijing, in Cina, ma quella è un’altra storia ancora.)
Mio nonno era di Poffabro e mia nonna di Casasola. Queste paesi è sempre stato qualcosa di magico e speciale, perché e stato qui in Friuli, che ho potuto fare esperienza delle mie “radici”, nonostante non sia cresciuta qui e nonostante non ne parli la lingua.
Sono emozionata all’idea di presentare ora le mie opere in Friuli. Sono nate dalle foto di famiglia e dai documenti che ho trovato nei cassetti e nelle soffitte delle case dei nonni. Voglio dare un senso a tutte queste immagini fuse insieme ed esposte sulle pareti. Ci sono pagine di libri scolastici, documenti delle case, pagelle di scuola, cartelle su cui mio nonno registrava le spese. Le ho disposte a strati con le foto della mia prima visita in Friuli, quando avevo solo dieci anni, nel tentativo di catturare la traccia del tempo che è ciascuno dei nostri arazzi.
Immigrazione/Emigrazione è la mia ricerca di ” da dove veniamo e dove stiamo andando.”
Paper Lithography technique is used to create these monotypes. Photographs, maps and documents are Xeroxed, reversed, blown up or made smaller before being treated with gum arabic and ink. The paper is then laid on top of the images and run through a press.
La tecnica di carta litografica viene utilizzata per creare questi monotipi. Fotografie, mappe, documenti vengono copiati, capovolti, ingranditi o rimpiccioliti prima di iniziare il trattamento con gomma arabica ed inchiostro. La carta viene poi stesa sopra le immagini e si mette in una stampatrice.
Archival paper is placed over the inked images and then run through a printing press.
La carta per archiviazione viene posata sopra le immagini inchiostrate per poi passare alla stampa.
These unique prints are each created by going through the printing press many times. Blair Folts is a member of the Peregrine Press in Portland, Maine, a collaborative print studio where she creates her monotypes. She lives in rural New Hampshire in an old farmhouse where she also pursues painting
La stampa finale si ottiene andando più volte sotto la pressa stampante. Blair Folts è membro del Peregrine Press di Portland, Maine, uno studio in equipe dove ha realizzato i suoi monotipi. Vive in una zona rurale del New Hampshire, in una vecchia casa colonica dove si dedica anche alla pittura. (www.peregrinepress.com)
Opening October 3, 2014 Maniago, Italy
WHAT THE BEEKEEPER DIDN’T SAY
GLUP, Poffabro, Italy October 4th-October 11th
OPENING RECEPTION OCTOBER 4, GLUP, POFFABRO, ITALY 5 PM
Studio work continues to explore Mongolian landscape and culture………..
MONGOLIA 2009-2014
mongoliapostcards.blog.com
In 2006 and 2009, I traveled into Mongolia from China. Traveling with small sketchbooks, I was able to record the landscape. This process allowed me to continue my search back home in my studio and my quest to understand the landscape where nomads live much as they have for thousands of years. Having grown up with photographs of family who lived and traveled across China and Mongolia from 1920-1949, I felt familiar with the visual landscape and at home with drawing. Attracted to a nomadic way of life where the herders continue to be deeply connected to living in balance with Nature, I felt strangely at home in this vast country and have continued to be inspired.
Art Inspired by Activism
What happened while we weren’t paying attention. 2011-
Testifying on behalf of the Green Mountain Conservation Group, against the Northern Pass project, I was inspired by the incredible grassroots movement to stop this proposal. At one hearing, speakers were given three minutes to address this vast and complex issue. Katie Rose walked up to the podium with her guitar and asked for four minutes. She proceeded to sing her song Live free or die. I was so moved by her music, the audience and the incredible coming together of the New Hampshire population that an entire new body of art was inspired: What happened while we were not paying attention.
Using alternative lithography techniques to create monoprints, I have combined images of the electric towers already in place in Deerfield, New Hampshire (courtesy of Richard Moore) with old photographs and postcards from Effingham (courtesy of Mayor Earl Taylor) with writings from the Cree in northern Quebec where Hydro Quebec dams are located. I hope that this work will invite the viewer to look more closely into the work and into the layers and contemplate where we are today and “what happened while we were not paying attention.”