April 25, 2017 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Art Watch: Songbirds and Cupcakes

Bird of Paradise and Forsythias by Jeremy McGirl

For the last weekend in April, local galleries around town will be taking down their April shows. This week I am highlighting the April show of Gallery 222 in Malvern, but there are also terrific shows now all over our area that are too numerable to list. Many are all closing this weekend in preparation for First Friday openings of exciting new shows in May.

Gallery 222, located at 222 King Street in Malvern, will be closing their April show on April 29th. The April show features the works of artists Nancy Bea Miller, Jan Wier and Jeremy McGirl. The primary large gallery space is filled with the still life paintings of popular artist and PAFA graduate Nancy Bea Miller. Most of her images are small paintings that feature still life set-ups of everyday foods, pretzels, cupcakes, coffee and eggs. I particularly liked her use of turquoise in the cups or backgrounds, which brings to mind Northern Renaissance portraiture. They’re clean, cool depiction, but objects that are lovingly chosen.

Looking up and down the gallery you will see many “red dots” which indicate that the pieces are sold, but are still some unsold gems like “Hugh’s Breakfast”, “One Coconut Cupcake” and “Shy Flower.”

The second gallery is smaller, but a perfect venue for PAFA graduate, artist and art educator Jeremy McGirl. Jeremy uses collage, paint, cut-outs, photo-transfer and primarily drawing to create his images of birds, nests, and memories. The main wall is full of his tenderly drawn birds. He uses graphite on ivory paper, which he cuts and places on a white background. The birds are lovely and have an old fashioned quality of detailed realism to them that Jeremy contemporizes by rather spontaneously snipping away at the background of these things that he has taken so much time to create. The result is that the bird drawings are both beautiful, and slightly goofy, which is a very endearing quality of all of Jeremy’s art work.

I own four of his drawings and I love them! He doesn’t do gallery shows a lot due to his teaching schedule, so it is a particular pleasure to see him here at Gallery 222. His newest work is a collaged multi-panel construction that interlaces a painting of a toddler boy’s jacket, a bird of paradise flower, and a television or window image that contains a bright red cardinal in front of a wide landscape expanse with a meandering river. He places layers of cutout reeds atop the spaces. At times the cutouts are layered so densely that they resemble a nest. The imagery seems to speak to rearing children, joy, life’s journey, nature and all in all, a sense of paradise. This work is entitled “Bird of Paradise with Forsythia” and it is still available.

The third even smaller gallery space at 222 is occupied by the loose, impressionistic paintings of artist Jan Wier. Her paintings have a light touch, lovely colors and a joyful sense to them. Unlike a lot of contemporary impressionistic painters, Jan pays individual attention to each item in the scene, instead of making everything all beat to the same decorative rhythm. For me, her cupcake paintings are the stand-out. I don’t even like cupcakes, and I wanted to purchase one! The “Pink Buttercream on Damask Ground” or Vanilla Buttercream on Cupid Toile” are beautiful small paintings, modestly priced at $375 each.

Gallery 222 owner Andrea Strang puts a lot of effort into each of the artists that she chooses every month. She personally goes to each artist’s studio to select the works for the show, publishes artist’s biographies on the gallery website, makes short Utube/Facebook films interviewing each artist, and has a once-a-month artist talk which is open to the public and has an open bar and inviting kitchen. This past artist discussion was packed “shoulder to shoulder” exclaimed Andrea, “what a fun group!”

Gallery 222 has three separate exhibition spaces, as well as an outdoor sculpture garden and onsite studio spaces for working artists. Currently, artist Randall Graham is painting and teaching out of one of the studio spaces.

The gallery is also frequently rented out for parties and other events, and the outside sculpture garden will be a great place to hang out this summer. Gallery 222 is located in a charming older clapboard house that contains a light-filled, airy, inviting set of gallery spaces. Andrea magically is able to provide a white streamlined space to show artwork, but still manages to make it cozy and friendly.

For the month of May, opening reception May 4 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Gallery 222 will show artists Luba Caruso, Kristy Gilfillan and Denise Sedor.

About Lele Galer

Lele Galer is an artist who has chaired numerous art shows, taught art history and studio art, public art and has chaired, written and taught the Art in Action Art Appreciation series for the UCFD schools for the past 12 years. She worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and wrote for the Associated Press in Rome. She has been dedicated to Art History and art education for most of her adult life. Lele and her husband Brad own Galer Estate Winery in Kennett Square.

Art Watch: Songbirds and Cupcakes Read More »

Meeting scheduled to fight gerrymandering

Local News, Local News Pocopson

Southern Chester County residents – and especially Pocopson Township residents – can learn more about efforts to fight gerrymandering in Pennsylvania during a special meeting May 11.

The meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at Unionville High School, is one of many by Fair Districts PA, a statewide group dedicated to reforming the redistricting process. Gerrymandering is a term used to describe how voting districts are redrawn to benefit those in a particular political party.

Volunteers with Fair Districts PA illustrated to Pocopson Township supervisors Monday night how gerrymandering has affected the township.

In 1992, according to volunteer and township resident Eric Newman, Pocopson was in the 16^th U.S. congressional district. That district included a large block of voting precincts from Lancaster west to West Chester, north to Sanatoga and south to the Delaware state line.

Ten years later, when the districts were redrawn following the 2000 census, Pocopson was moved to the 6^th District, which had previously included Reading, areas to the west of Allentown, and a section that extended north from Selinsgrove to almost Williamsport, toward the center of the state.

In 2002, the 6^th District had shifted south to include the eastern part of Lancaster County, the Coatesville and West Chester areas – including Pocopson — and parts of Norristown, Conshohocken and Ardmore.

“We were stuck at the bottom of the 6^th District,” Newman said. “We don’t know how this happened.”

In 2011, the 6^th District shifted again to include the Lebanon area and more of Montgomery and upper Chester counties. Pocopson became part of the 7^th District at that point and “was used as a conduit” between two different areas of the district, according to Newman.

“We were called the No. 4 worst gerrymandered district in the nation” in 2014, Newman said.

The result of the redistricting was confusion, he added. One house on Huntsman Lane in Pocopson was listed on a state website as being represented by the 16^th District, when it should have been listed as being in the 7^th District.

“What happens with these crazy districts is it’s all messed up,” Newman said. “People are confused. And it could get worse if we don’t change the rules.”

Amy Baram, another Pocopson resident and volunteer with Fair Districts PA, said there is support in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives for Fair Districts PA and the redistricting reform. State Rep. Eric Roe, R-158, and Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-135, were planning to introduce a bill that would create an independent citizens commission to oversee future redistricting.

Newman asked Pocopson’s supervisors to consider a resolution in support of the citizens commission.

For more information on Fair Districts PA, go online at www.fairdistrictspa.com.

About Monica Fragale

Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.

Meeting scheduled to fight gerrymandering Read More »

Later start time for U-CF students

School & Education

Older students in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District will be able to sleep in a little longer beginning next year. School Board directors last night voted 8-1 for a later start time for high school and middle school students beginning with the 2017-2018 academic year.

Classes at Unionville High School and CF Patton Middle School will start 25 minutes later, at 8 a.m., instead of the current 7:35 a.m. The school day will end at 2:43 p.m. instead of 2:18.

Elementary school students will have a change in time also. Their classes will start 15 minutes later than they do now, beginning at 9:10 a.m. instead of 8:55. Elementary school classes will end at 3:40 p.m.

The lone vote against the change came from Director Gregg Lindner who said he favors the change, but not until the 2018-2019 school year.

Lindner — who represents Region C, comprising Chadds Ford and Pennsbury townships — said waiting the extra year would give parents, businesses and the district’s transportation department more time to prepare for and adjust to the change.

“I do not disagree with a 25-minute change in the start-time for the middle school and high school,” Lindner said taking part in the meeting while on the phone from Germany. “The difference is I think it should go into effect in 2018-2019…I don’t think we’ve given enough time to adjust all the schedules.”

Studies leading up to the vote had been going on for three years. Students, members of the Chester County Intermediate Unit, parents, teachers and administrators reviewed scientific reports and recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The district also formed a committee strictly to review the scientific literature.

Director Jeff Hellrung, who has advocated for the change almost from the beginning of discussions, said voting for the change was an intuitive and logical decision.

“If we knew that most of our teenagers, due to a developmental condition that comes with puberty, were not able to get the sleep they need due to our early start times, wouldn’t we want to help them,” he asked rhetorically.

Hellrung spoke of the “detrimental effect” a lack of sleep has on cognitive performance and that it “leads to an increase of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, substance abuse and suicide.” He also said there is a degradation of immune response caused by a lack of sleep.

“Since 2014, there’s been an increasing chorus of pleas from our doctors and sleep experts, including the American Academy of Pediatricians, American Medical Association and Centers for Disease Control that our teens start their school days no earlier than 8:30 a.m.,” he said.

Hellrung called the lack of sleep “a public health crisis” and said hundreds of schools across the country have already made the change to later start times “but not yet in Pennsylvania.”

He also acknowledged the difficulty in implementing the time shift that calls for coordinating changes in bus schedules, transportation, after-school activities such as athletics and student jobs, as well as child-care concerns for parents.

School Director Carolyn Daniels said the district engaged in a “detailed and thorough investigation” of the idea and that investigation resulted in the change.

“This proposal comes out of months and months of research,” Daniels said.

All the scientific research studied pointed to a need for a later start time for the teenage students because of changes to their biological clock. As people reach their teen years, they produce melatonin — the sleep hormone — later than they did when they were younger, making it impossible for them to get to sleep before 11 p.m.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.

Later start time for U-CF students Read More »