An opening reception with the artists behind the contemporary exhibit ‘Making our Mark’ will be held on Sunday, Dec. 9, at the Mandell JCC in West Hartford.

Artwork by C. Dianne Zweig on display as part of ‘Making our Mark’ at the Mandell JCC. Courtesy image

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Curated by C. Dianne Zweig, Making our Mark is a unique group exhibit that features abstract artwork by multi-media artists who revel in the art of Contemporary Mark-Making. 

Using both conventional and improvised tools, this show celebrates the creativity, ingenuity and skill of “master scribblers.” Inspired by mid-century designers, the dynamic rhythms and movements found in music, dance and nature, this diverse collection of artwork is an exciting celebration of artists who have “made their mark” in fine art.

The exhibit will be on display in the spacious Chase Family Gallery at the Mandell JCC in West Hartford through Jan. 31, 2019.    

C. Dianne Zweig, who teaches Mark Making in Abstract Art at The West Hartford Art League will be showing her artwork accompanied by 11 outstanding artists from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York who, like Zweig, enjoy the art of mark making.

Participating artists include: Debra Cantor, Jennifer Davies, Jon Eastman, Anne Doris-Eisner, Nancy Eisenfeld, Amy Furman, Lynn Gall, Sue-Ellen Landwehr, Jill Pasanen, Michelle Peterson, and Susan Spaniol. 

About the Artists

Debra Cantor: Rabbi Debra Cantor is the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom in Bloomfield, CT. She served as rabbi of the historic Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn, NY, and Congregation Tifereth Israel in Andover, MA. She is also an accomplished artist who enjoys exploring Torah and Jewish ideas through collage and mixed media art. She is currently working on a picture book about her father’s adventures growing up on a chicken farm in Ellington.

Jennifer Davies: Jennifer Davies graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and spent a year in Rome as part of the European Honors Program. Trained as a painter/illustrator, she now works with paper, most often of which she makes herself using both Eastern and Western paper-making traditions. She uses a variety of fiber techniques, such as dyeing, sewing, and wrapping to make textured objects.

Jon Eastman: A Mixed media artist from Bloomfield, CT, has worked as a museum preparator at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford  (America’s longest continually running museum.  

Anne Doris-Eisner:  Anne Doris-Eisner has a studio in Erector Square in New Haven, CT. She works almost exclusively on paper because of the immediacy and physicality of mark-making on that medium. Anne enjoys working with large sheets and most often uses non-traditional tools found in nature, such as feather, twig and bone, to capture the resilience and transformative beauty of the natural world and its expression of our capacity for resilience, defiance and renewal.

Nancy Eisenfeld: Nancy Eisenfeld is a multi-media artist with a studio in Erector Square in New Haven, CT. She is inspired by nature and uses many organic and natural materials from sloughing tree bark, decaying wood, invasive vines in nature, rusted wire, weathered plywood and commercial metal parts from the discard of the streets. 

Amy Furman: An accomplished contemporary painter, mixed media artist and printmaker from Needham, MA, Amy has exhibited in numerous shows, museums and events in the Greater Boston area.  

Lynn Gall: Lynn Gall, a gifted collage artist and painter from New York City, is an active member of the Con Artist Collective in the lower East side. She also maintains a studio in the Eclipse Mill in North Adams, MA. Her work can be found in collections throughout the United States and in Europe. 

Sue-Ellen Landwehr: Sue Ellen Landweh balances her creative time between stand-up comedy performances, teaching at Team Greenlight Comedy Collective, teaching  art and making exciting, colorful Abstract Mixed Media art. She is from Bethel, CT.

Jill Pasanen: Jill Pasanen, A prize-winning Connecticut artist from Burlington, CT, incorporates her experiences as a painter and a dancer with her successful use of painted papers, markings, ink, and printing into abstracts, flora collages, and landscapes. Her works capture the energy and rhythm of a dancer in lively colorful abstracts.

Michelle Peterson: Michelle Peterson’s abstracts are favorites in the many local and regional exhibits she has participated in. An art educator for many decades, she is now a full time artist from    Bloomfield, CT. 

Susan Spaniol: Susan Spaniol a retired Associate Professor and full-time faculty member, Lesley University’s Expressive Therapy Division is an exceptional visual arts educator, writer and artist who now resides in Bloomfield, CT, and has exhibited in over 40 exhibits in the past four years.  

C. Dianne Zweig: C. Dianne Zweig, show curator, is a Contemporary Mixed Abstract artist from Avon, CT, whose artwork is influenced by the organic shapes and abstract deigns of 1950s textiles. She has authored several books on Mid Century home styles, is a recipient of the Pat Rosoff Abstract Art Award and has competed on HGTV’s Flea Market Flip. Dianne  is on faculty at the West Hartford Art League teaching Contemporary Abstract Mark Making.    

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