By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
COOPERSTOWN _ The works of 50 artists from the region will come to the Cooperstown Art Association next weekend. The event is part of NPR radio station WSKG's traveling exhibit, Art in Motion.
Paintings, photographs and a three-dimensional clock created by Richard Birkett of Otego will be on display and for sale from April 9 to 11.
Ann DuBois of Stamford will exhibit her ``Batwoman,'' an oil on wood imaginary portrait of her real friend, Winefred, a science-fiction writer.
The writer, in red, has a bat on her head and snakes on her shoulder.
``I've known her since I was 17, and she just strikes me that way,'' DuBois said Thursday. ``It's a character study, you might say.''
Dubois, who moved from Brooklyn to the village of Stamford about five years ago, said she submitted her work to WSKG after hearing about the upcoming tour and was asked to join it.
By featuring artists from upstate New York, the radio station is not only aiding the arts but also the artists, she noted.
Art in Motion will travel to six venues in almost two months, visiting Hornell, Ithaca, Corning, Mansfield, Pa., and Binghamton after leaving Cooperstown, according to WSKG.
Among local artists represented is photographer Paula Friedman of Unadilla, who is showing ``Spring Pond Lily Fantasy,'' a vivid and colorful look at natural complexity.
``I have discovered incredible beauty in some very unlikely places,'' she wrote in a narrative that accompanies the photograph. ``Even roadside ditches and culverts can be sources of some amazing images if we take the time to look.''
Lee Robbins of Hartwick will exhibit ``Clown,'' ``oil pigments suspended in resin counterpoint painted glass embedded in resin.'' This three-dimensional work stands on a welded steel base with light creating changing color patterns inside a translucent block.
Quilter Susan LeFever of Sherburne will show ``Heavenly Stars,'' a 4-foot-by-4-foot ``variation of the historic Carpenter's Star quilt pattern.''
``My father worked a second job as a carpenter building houses to pay for his children's college education,'' she wrote in her narrative. ``This quilt square is dedicated to the memory of my father for the love, caring and guidance he provided to our family.''
Photographer Kevin Gray, who received his bachelor's in fine arts from Hartwick College in Oneonta, will exhibit ``Devils Den,'' a photograph ``printed using a process very similar to the 19th century tintype process,'' he wrote, noting he was inspired by Civil War-era photographers such as Matthew Brady and Timothy O'Sullivan, as well as contemporary photographers, including Sally Mann.
The artists and radio station staff will attend an opening from 7 to 9 p.m. next Friday at the Cooperstown Art Association, 22 Main St. in the village.
For more information about Art in Motion and prices for the artworks, visit http://wskg.org/support-wskg/auction/art-in-motion-2010.aspx.
