 “FLOWERS FOR THE LADY”
While I was working on this piece,I saw someone carrying a huge bouqet of flowers that he had just bought. It reminded me of Germany,where one always brings flowers to the lady of the house. It gave me the idea of putting the yellow triangles on the three-dimensional stripes. I wanted to create something in abundance. There will be a member show at the State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca from the 2nd until the 27th of May. I will have two three-dimensional pieces on display,“PICKUP STRIPES”and “THE FLOWERS FOR THE LADY.”The opening reception for that show is on Friday,May 4,5:00 –8:00 PM. Please join us to enjoy the wonderful variety of art work. Have a good month!
Elisabeth  “THE BOWER BIRD”
Bower birds are amazing artists. They live in New Guinea and Australia. They have a complex courtship mating behavior. Males build a bower to attract mates. The male collects brightly colored objects like leaves,flowers,stones,berries,and even discarded plastic items. Ever since I saw a DVD by David Attenborough,I have been very attracted to their art —I also collect things and I have boxes and boxes full of “stuff”. For this picture I just emptied out a box and tried to make order in the chaos and do an interesting composition with it. On the bottom are all the collected things,on top you see the bird. The rope that moves through is meant to show the excitement of the performance. This picture can be seen all during April in the Salon at the State of the Art Gallery. Jan Kather and Stan Bowman have a show in the main room. The opening reception will be April 6,from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Please join us to celebrate the art. Have an excellent month! Elisabeth . 
The first time we had dinner at Fine Line,Jay Hart had a show there. I liked how the pictures were displayed and I asked Danny Doyle,the general manager,if he would be interested in having a show of my paintings. After looking at my website,Danny came to my studio and we chose the pictures we both liked to be included in the show. We hung the twelve pictures last week —paintings,collages,and prints. It was wonderfully surprising how harmonious they look on the brown brick wall. They change the feeling of the space with their bright colors,and I’m sure people will enjoy them during their meal. Please check it out! You will get excellent food,wonderful desserts,and perfect service in beautiful surroundings. Fine Line Bistro is located at 404 West State Street in Ithaca. It’s open every day except Tuesday from 5:00 to 10:00 pm,as well as Sundays from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Elisabeth  Excavation (right) is on display at the First Unitarian Society,as part of the seventh annual group show held there called The Art of Friends. The show runs March 1 through April 12 in the Parlor (lower level) of the church at 306 North Aurora Street in Ithaca.
Excavation is a collage on a white background,with waves of rainbow colors floating through the picture interrupted by circles. I like to visit stores where they have varieties of buttons,where I can discover all kinds of beautiful little things. In Excavation,I wanted to make these small objects very special,like jewelry or a treasure brought to light from the ancient world. There will be an opening reception for the Art of Friends Exhibition on March 10 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at the Unitarian Church. Please join us! At the State of the Art Gallery the month of March means it’s the annual Photo Show,a very popular event that brings hundreds of submissions from all over the region. The opening reception for the Photo Show is on March 2,from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Have an excellent month!
Elisabeth  Back to Brilliant Colors
Recently I found myself creating pieces out of cardboard without applying any paint to them whatever. (I showed one of them in my last newsletter) After doing five pieces in nothing but white,brown,and black,I was getting “hungry”for colors again. A while ago I had bought some pieces of plywood size 20″x 60″to create some tall and narrow works for people who don’t have much space in their living quarters. It is a very challenging format,but when I found two cardboard pieces that,together,came to exactly 60″high,my inspiration was off and running. I love to start with one color —in this case with red —and mix it with other colors until it becomes dark. Then I like to put a complementary color against it,like bright green or blue. I had some string in rainbow colors that looked just right to make strings for the guitar. See more
 Happy New Year
“The Secret of the Blue Circle”(left) will be on display in the salon at the State of the Art Gallery through the month of January. The picture is one of four three-dimensional objects I did from some cardboard that was folded already five times. I was fascinated by the effect that the cut-out shapes created and by the interesting shadows they form. First I wanted to paint them,but then I was stuck by how beautiful the collage is with almost no color. See more  Happy Holidays
I think of “The Birthday Party”as a very cheerful painting, good for these dark days! I painted it two years ago and made some changes a few weeks ago. My newest paintings are not yet photographed; two of them are just in black and white. I’ll have them ready to be seen soon. See more  New work from the past several months are now on the website —Summer-Fall 2011.
Many of them,you have already seen in my newsletters,but some have not been here before. Please visit that page and feel free to leave comments! The Computer Expert
There is a story behind this picture. I’d for years put a card board figure on top of a piece of ply-wood with the idea to do a small piece for the gallery,without really knowing how to continue. When someone brought me some pieces of a computer,I got very excited about the beauty of all these little shapes. Without knowing what their purpuse is,I just admired them. Now my “Man”on the wooden board got something to do and became a computer expert. When I was done,I put the piece on the floor on a white paper. I realized how special the white looked beside all these technical shapes and against my plan it became a bigger piece. “The Computer Expert”will be on display in the Salon of the State of the Art Gallery, See more Art Trail Month The Greater Ithaca ART TRAIL is coming up this month! This is an annual event for which 50 artists in our area open up their studios to visitors on two weekends. It’s a great time to see the great variety of art coming out of this region. In addition,the State of the Art Gallery will be showing works by the participants in the Art Trail,so you can get a preview of their work there.
The “Open Studio Weekends ”are on October 8-9,11:00 am-5:00 pm,and on October 15-16 ,11:00 am-5:00 pm. See more | Comments from people who bought work at the Art Trail
"Every day when I come downstairs,I am greeted and cheered up by the vibrant colors. They sing in the house."
-- JW,bought 2 paintings
"My wife and I both love the painting - it livens up our living room and I find it fascinating how it catches the light differently at different times of the day! Thanks so much."
-- RG and BL bought a big project with lights and music
"We recently made a visit to the studio of Elisabeth,where we acquired a beautiful painting for our living room. Elisabeth explained to us that the painting is an abstract composition of a colorful festival,in a village on a creek island. We are delighted by this. We had such a good time looking through her varied work to select just the right piece that made us both so happy and it looks beautiful over the piano. We enjoy collecting the work of local artists and this painting by Elisabeth is such a lovely addition to our growing collection."
-- G/V M
 Elisabeth Gross Marks is a member of the State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca,NY
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