Dear Friends,

At the Dorothy Gillespie Studio "Open House" on Saturday June 25 (see announcement below) visitors will have the opportunity to meet Anthony Mancuso, a second - year graduate art student from the University of Central Florida. Anthony was selected by the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation to begin a two week art residency in the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation studio beginning on June 23.

I met Anthony on my last visit to Orlando when I visited the UCF art gallery where his work was on display. Anthony explores painting and printmaking to depict real and imagined domestic spaces that transcend a mundane once-over glance and encourages viewers to enter a formal meditation on space, place, and routine. (See his works below)

As part of the application for the Artist-in-Residence Program, applicants are required to write their reasons for doing a residency. Below the "Open House" announcement is Anthony's rationale for doing the residency, his artist statement, as well as photos of his artwork.

Gary

Dorothy Gillespie Studio Residency

By Anthony Mancuso

I feel a strong connection to Dorothy Gillespie's work. The high key color palette and emphasis on geometric and undulating shapes is an aspect of her work that I really respond to. These are things that I value when creating paintings. When I think of Dorothy I am very moved by the obvious devotion and the amount of work she has done in her lifetime. This is clearly someone who was involved in her practice. It is evident in the quality and quantity of work I often come across throughout the Orlando community, and when I look through her online portfolio.

Over the last three years I have worked extremely hard to define my practice. Developing theory, beliefs, and methods and applying them to my work to continue to gain facility in painting but to also create a focused body of work that can act as a visual documentation of these developments.

David Hockney often emphasizes the idea that artists are workers, they enjoy the work primarily. This is a value I have identified in my practice, and I believe was at the forefront of Dorothys as well. During My stay at the studio residency, I would be thrilled to spend some time with her work. Hopefully, gaining a little insight into how her mind worked and experiencing the range of her thinking and process firsthand.

As I look through the images of the landscape surrounding the Gillespie Studio residency in Narrowsburg, I feel compelled to paint this area. I spent some time living in upstate New York as a child and have always wanted to return. One of the methods of painting I enjoy most is plein air painting, working from direct observation. Given the opportunity, I would like to spend my time here exploring the property and create a series of small plein air paintings and watercolor monotype prints.For me, making is thinking. I will often create several small paintings in response to my direct experience and then look back to pull repeated themes and imagery to scale up. I would use these field studies as preliminary paintings to develop ideas for at least two larger oil paintings made in the studio.

It is my aim to use space well, in a way that I hope can match the spirit and commitment I feel from the photographs. As well as spending some time with Dorothy's work in the space. My work is often informed by my surroundings. I believe that the spirit of the Dorothys work, commitment as well as the surrounding landscape could inform some wonderful paintings of the Catskills and surrounding area.

In summary, I would like to spend my time at the residence, becoming more familiar with the work of Dorothy Gillespie. Then, set out to create a series of small paintings and monoprints of the surrounding area in dialogue with Dorothy Gillespie's High key color palette and geometric forms. After I collect these ideas, I would use them to inform several oil paintings of a larger scale. It is my hope that this series of work will act as a visual documentation of my experience here at the residence in Narrowsburg.

Anthony Mancuso

Artist Statement:

My work reanalyzes spaces and perspectives in often-overlooked systems of routine and ritual that define domestic spaces and habitation. Through the meditative act of painting, I engage in an introspective dialogue about intimacy and small moments of negotiation involved in sharing a home. I recreate imagery from my personal experiences and ruminate on materiality, color, and surface to reflect my personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences toward cohabitation. I invite viewers to reflect on how the small moments in our lives can resonate with meaning by constructing space, reanalyzing routine, and exploring negotiation of a modern household.