Eville Native Opens Art Gallery and Teaching Studio
Eville Native Opens Art Gallery and Teaching Studio
Bluebird Studio Opens on Elm Street in East Aurora
New Artspace in East Aurora: Blubird Studio Opens on Elm Street; Former MUSEjar location will include The COMMA Gallery.
Blubird Studio, formerly of 21 Elm Street, will re-open on 17 Elm Street, the location that until recently housed MUSEjar Art Supply. MUSEjar and owner Vanessa Frost moved the MUSEjar campus to its new location at 71 Pine Street in East Aurora as of July 1. 17 Elm Street will re-open to the public with a grand opening celebration on Friday, July 28.
Blubird Studio is owned by local artist and art educator Tami Fuller and will house Fuller’s working studio and gallery, as well as a private teaching studio for new and returning students.
The front portion of the building will contain The COMMA Fine Art Gallery. The COMMA is co-curated and operated by Fuller and artists Christina Paul and Liz Birardi. The gallery will offer solo and group thematic exhibitions of work in the front street facing portion of 17 Elm.
The COMMA will operate with a mission to support local and regional artists by providing quality exhibition space and professional support, with a primary goal of fostering community and encouraging the public to engage with art by showcasing fine work in an accessible setting. By highlighting the talent of artists working among us, the founders hope to inspire, elevate and create new perspectives while building on the foundation of arts access that the artistic community of Elm Street has strived to maintain.
The gallery will hold monthly exhibitions, informal artists talks and salon-type gatherings to create space for dialogue and arts of all disciplines, as well as various additional programming to provide support and exposure for the artists working within the East Aurora community.
Blubird Studio will be open on appointment basis for lessons and private studio visits through the month of August until opening with published hours after Labor Day with a curated selection of fine and cottage-industry fiber supplies, kits and hand tools to supplement learning, a lending library of fiber learning resources and a schedule of open evenings for the fiber-curious.
Blubird Studio is also the exclusive local showroom for Lost Pond Looms, a world-renowned maker of looms shipping. A selection of kits born from the collaboration of Blubird and Lost Pond will also be available for retail purchases.
Tami Fuller is a self-taught fiber artist, working as an abstract weaver and felt artist, using woven tapestry, soft sculpture, mixed media and metals to express the female experience. Born and raised on a family sheep farm, and connected to the fiber community in a professional capacity, she uses traditional women's work to explore post-trauma identity concepts and concepts surrounding self-actualization. Her work combines traditional process-based techniques and fine art applications, with a modern discipline.
In addition to working as a full-time artist and writer, she teaches fiber art and creative practice workshops for adults and youth across New York State and the East Coast in order to modernize and invigorate interest in fiber in fine art. She is a NY Council on the Arts 2022 Creatives Rebuild NY (CRNY) artist, a program defining culture-makers working to promote and revitalize the arts landscape post-COVID.
Her work has been shown in several group and solo shows, and she holds awards from the Carnegie Art Center and NYS Sheep and Wool. Her work can be found in collections in the United States, Canada and Australia. Fuller's studio is located in the rear of 17 Elm Street, where she educates, creates and shows her work. She is also an editor, a self-taught pianist, oil painter and model. She is a member of the Carnegie Art Center, the Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, the Arts and Craftsmen Guild and was a 2022 Roycrofters-at-Large Association Emerging Artist. She presently volunteers with the organization and serves as its public social media manager.
Fuller hopes that the collaborative spirit will continue to promote the values of accessible fine art and education that the community has come to expect from Elm Street. “This place has been like a home to me since I began working in the arts in East Aurora, and it means so much to me to be given the opportunity to create something that empowers and provides community to other artists working here among us that may be underserved or would benefit from support. I am using my presence in this space to work to establish a Greater Buffalo and Niagara Fibershed project, and I hope that this central hub will provide those working in all aspects of fiber, from students, consumers, producers to fine artists working in the fiber community a place that we can all grow from.”
Blubird and the COMMA Fine Art will debut to the public on Friday, July 28 with an exhibition of work by artist Ted Wetherbee, entitled “As I See It,” with an opening reception rom 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wetherbee is a figurative painter who works in multiple mediums, creating larger than life compositions that invite the viewer to pause and examine the modern experience.
His large canvases dominate the space and offer a striking view of the human condition; "I try to express our times as powerfully, eloquently, and realistically as I see the brave new world and the people in it.“
As I See It will be on view from July 28 - Sept. 1 and will offer new work as well as a selective retrospective of Wetherbee's works previously published in the book of the same name, "As I See It - The Paintings of Ted Wetherbee," 2022, Arts Council for Wyoming County
From the Wetherbee: "All good artists admire and are influenced by other artists; while I admire the good and great of all time, I do have a special interest in expressionism and the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity) of the early twentieth century. I do feel that the arts and sciences are mankind’s greatest achievements. I feel fortunate to be a small part of the great tradition of figurative art."
Wetherbee is a Western New York native who moved to the Buffalo area in 1939 after being born in Middletown, Connecticut in 1993, where he was influenced by the landscape and people of the WNY region. Wetherbee attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School alongside fellow students Walter Williams and William Gothard.
Submission to The COMMA’S first group show, INSIDE, OUTSIDE, IN BETWEEN, which will coincide with East Aurora Fall ArtWalk, is open for submissions from local artists through their website until August 7.
More information on Blubird Studio can be found online at www.oneblubirdstudio.com and on Fuller’s social page at @blubirdstudio on both Instagram and Facebook. Inquiries about private lessons or the Fibershed project can be submitted to info@oneblubirdstudio.com through the website.
Artists who wish to submit work for consideration in future exhibits or inquire about solo shows through The COMMA may email an inquiry to info@thecommafineart.com. More information on the project space and to sign up for notices of new artists and exhibitions can be found online at www.thecommafineart.com. Follow The COMMA’s social media pages on Facebook and Instagram, @thecommagallery.