Open Studio: NCPR's monthly arts roundup

Michael Czarnecki is a rare animal—a poet who makes a full-time living through his art. From his home base in the Finger Lakes, he spends many days each year on the road, reading his work and conducting workshops. His company, Foothills Publishing, has brought forward the work of countless other poets in more than twenty years of collections and anthologies. He will be in the North Country next week, holding workshops and readings in Canton and Tupper Lake. Dale Hobson talked with him by phone to see how he does it all.

Michael Czarnecki will be at the Canton Free Library on Tuesday. As part of the Brown Bag Luncheon series, he will conduct a Palm of the Hand Memoir Writing Workshop at noon, followed at 7 pm by a reading of his Travel Works poetry and non fiction. On Wednesday at 7 pm, he will be at the Goff-Nelson Library in Tupper Lake for a reading of his travel writing, followed the next day at 7 pm by a Palm of the Hand workshop.

On Open Studio, NCPR's monthly arts program, we focus on life as a full-time artist and making ends meet. We talk with poet and publisher Michael Czarnecki, hear spring haiku from youngsters in Canton, and join singer/songwriter Roy Hurd, live in the studio for music and conversation.

Earlier this month the Heuvelton Central School Art Club held its fourth annual Wearable Art Show. It was a fashion program that featured clothing from found or recycled materials. Trophies were awarded for “most original”, “best use of materials” and “most sophisticated”. Heuvelton art teacher Sally Hartman and some of her students told Todd Moe they worked for weeks on their fashion creations. Styrofoam packing peanuts, plastic shopping bags, soda bottles and tin can lids were transformed into dresses, shirts, pants and jewelry. This was an opportunity to make something wonderful from things that are left over or thrown away.

Going Green—a Colton artist talks about inspiration & the outdoors, watercolorist Pamela Meacher & the natural world, recycled poems, rock with Ten Cent Green.

Giving Voice goes green this month on the theme of "Repair, Reuse, Recycle." We repair to the Readers & Writers archive from April 2006 to reuse a poem by Dale Hobson about recycling old poems into new ones: "Editing Old Poems is Like a Cuban Taxi."

Green, recycle, reuse, and the environment are themes in tonight’s show. Canadian artist Pamela Meacher got her start in the arts studying dance as a young girl. The long-time painter and nature enthusiast was an exhibitor at the Canada Blooms garden show in Toronto last spring. She’s studied ceramics in Montreal, oil painting in Ottawa and life studies in Toronto. She spent years creating large oil canvases before switching to the delicate botanically-styled native flora she’s so well-known for. She told Ottawa correspondent Lucy Martin her latest journey into the publishing world has been very worthwhile.

This month’s word gives artists a chance to look critically at what was written or created. The Roman poet Horace thought one should wait nine years before revising a work, but that's a bit much. Some artists make dozens of changes before unveiling a creation. A local composer helps us understand how composers, like Beethoven, made changes in their scores.

Matt Frank is a recent arrival in the North Country, coming here via Illinois, Alaska and Phoenix. A poet and a food writer, he teaches English and creative writing at Jefferson County Community College, and makes his home in Alexandria Bay. For our Giving Voice series, he talks with Dale Hobson about his writing, and about the sometimes painful process of growing as a writer. He reads the poem "The Dressmaker's Dummy" from his collection, Sagittarius Agitprop.

For the last couple of years there’s been a new theater in Saratoga Springs. That community’s first year-round professional theater is in the midst of transition, or move, from New York City to Saratoga Springs. Epiphany Theatre presents four productions a year and lots of educational outreach to young theatergoers. But, wait moving from New York City to Upstate? Shouldn’t that be the other way around? Epiphany Theater co-founder and producing director Amy Kaissar told Todd Moe that the theater’s motto is art for the community.

It's spring and there is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the arrival of the season of renewal. Many early peoples celebrated for the basic reason that their food supplies would soon be restored. Longer days and more sunlight are a big deal here in the North Country, as well as parts of Canada, Alaska and northern Europe. Colton artist Irja Boden grew up in Sweden where longer days begin as a speck on the late-winter horizon.