“To perform every action artfully is yoga.”

Photo by David Samuel Stern.

A Video Poem.

Filmed, edited & produced by Tommy DeJosia. Starring Nick of The Subjective Perspective.

An Inferno Concepts Picture.

The first voyage of the suffrage campaign wagon in Manhattan in the summer of 1913, on the way to Long Island. Left to right: Edna Kearns, Serena Kearns, Irene Davison. From the photo collection of Edna Kearns.

Ladies, read up. Knowing about our history only fuels us with knowledge to go forward into our future. Learning about where we came from and what past women fought for should only let us appreciate where we are today – 100 years later. What drastic changes women have made strides in!

Suffrage Wagon News Channel celebrates women’s freedom to vote and builds leadership through news and stories of the movement. A visit to the site is a great reminder of our grandmothers, great grandmothers, and other family members who sacrificed and worked for several generations (from 1776 to 1920) so we can vote today. Let’s not take this for granted!

For most of 2012, the wagon has been on exhibit at the state capitol in Albany, NY. and it’s in the collection of the New York State Museum.

As the 2012 presidential election draws to a close, there’s one online resource that reminds modern women about the long hard struggle to win votes for women. It does this in a friendly, non partisan, and light-hearted way (with a New York angle as well).

Suffrage Wagon News Channel has poetry, videos, audio, interviews, twice-weekly posts, features and more that highlight news and stories about the suffrage movement. The news channel is inspired by a suffrage campaign wagon used in New York City and on Long Island in the early 20th century.

suffragewagon.org

Suffrage campaign wagon on exhibit at the state capitol in Albany, NY.

(Reuters) – A week of Asian art auctions yielded strong results at Christie’s and Sotheby’s as both houses said they exceeded their sales’ estimates, together taking in more than $90 million.

The totals highlighted the increasing importance of Asian art collecting as a driver in the global market, continuing strong activity seen over the last 18 months despite a lacklustre global economy.

Sotheby’s said in a statement that it saw a total of $46 million for its three sales over the course of the week, while Christie’s reported $44.7 million at five sales spread over four days. The auction rivals had each estimated total sales of about $30 million for the week.

“There was global participation,” Christie’s international head of Asian art Jonathan Stone said in a statement, adding that this reflected “a worldwide demand for the greatest objects of Asian art.”

Before the sales, Stone told Reuters that “the share of Christie’s sales turnover enjoyed by Asian art worldwide has more than doubled in the last five years,” and the results spoke to the sector’s ongoing strength. Indeed, Asian art has on occasion outpaced the once predominant Impressionist and modern categories.

Among highlights, a Ming Dynasty blue and white moonflask, which was used as a doorstop in a Long Island, New York home and only recently came to attention after its owners spotted a similar piece in a Sotheby’s advertisement, sold for $1.3 million at Sotheby’s, which had estimated it to sell for $600,000 to $900,000.

Also at Sotheby’s, an Imperial jade seal from the late 18th century estimated to fetch up to $1.2 million soared to $3.5 million at the Chinese ceramics and works of art sale. It was the top price of the week at either house.

Henry Howard Sneyd, vice chairman at Sotheby’s for Asian art, said that the $27 million sale, which easily beat its high estimate, was “a good indication of the continuing international demand for the very best Chinese art.”

Before the sales, Sneyd had spoken to Reuters of the strong growth in the Asian art market since 2006, especially in mainland China where a surge of new collectors has been shoring up more established Chinese art clientele from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States.

Christie’s top prices included the $3.2 million paid for an 18th century Joseon dynasty, blue and white porcelain dragon jar, more than half again the estimated price of about $2 million.

A rare bronze ritual wine vessel from China that is more than 3,000 years old fetched $1.4 million, or more than five times the presale estimate. And at Sotheby’s, an inked handscroll entitled “Seclusion Amid Mountains and Streams” soared to $3.2 million, or nearly five times the estimate.

The next major round of sales in New York come in November, when Christie’s, Sotheby’s and distant No. 3 auction house Phillips de Pury all hold their critical autumn auctions, including Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art.

(original post)

Janet Jennings received her BFA from University of Dayton and attended The Dayton Art Institute and The Art Students League. In 1973, she moved to New York from Ohio and worked for Lawrence Rubin of Knoedler Contemporary Art. She joined Waverly Studios, an artists co-op located in Greenwich Village, where she explored Color Field painting. In 1979, she moved to Amagansett, where she was drawn to the light of the East End and switched her focus to landscape painting. Janet Jennings has taught painting to children and adults at The Art Barge, Guild Hall and The Parrish Art Museum. She has exhibited at numerous galleries on Long Island including Gallery North, Elaine Benson Gallery, Hampton Road Gallery, Glen Horowitz Gallery and Lizan Tops Gallery.

To view Janet Jennings’ paintings on her website, visit http://www.janetjenningsart.com/

Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, which includes the Coe Hall Historic House Museum, is an arboretum and state park covering over 400 acres located in the Village of Upper Brookville in the town of Oyster Bay, New York. The name “Planting Fields” comes from the Matinecock Indians who cultivated the rich soil in the clearings high above Long Island Sound.

Near the end of America’s Gilded Age, the estate named Planting Fields was the home of William Robertson Coe, an insurance and railroad executive, and his wife Mary “Mai” Huttleston (née Rogers) Coe, the youngest daughter of millionaire industrialist Henry H. Rogers, who had been a principal of Standard Oil.

It includes the 67-room Coe Hall, greenhouses, gardens, woodland paths, and outstanding plant collections. Its grounds were designed by Guy Lowell, A. R. Sargent, the Olmsted Brothers, and others. Planting Fields also features an herbarium of over 10,000 pressed specimens.

Coe Hall contains many original pieces and furnishings once belonging to the Coe family, including the restored Louis XVI Reception Room. The mostly Elizabethan style interior of the Tudor Revival mansion is a showcase of artistry and craftsmanship in its wood and stone carvings, ironwork, 13th – 19th century stained glass windows and original commissioned murals by American artists Robert H. Chanler and Everett Shinn.

This is absolutely one of my favorite places to get lost in time.

Park Open From 9AM – 5PM

1395 Planting Fields Road Oyster Bay, NY 11771

(516) 922-9200

Enjoy the Beauty and Benefits of an Organic Landscape

Heirloom Gardens is a full service environmentally-friendly landscape design, installation and maintenance company.

They are the only fully accredited organic land care professionals exclusively servicing the East End for over 10 years. Heirloom Gardens provides sustainable and traditional landscape design, installation and complete maintenance services.

When this Hamptons landscaping company designs, installs or maintains your outdoor environment, you can enjoy impeccable service, along with deep caring and stunning results. From day-to-day details, to striking outdoor organic landscapes, you’ll appreciate your surroundings and know that you’re doing the right thing for your family and pets.

Every year more and more East End homes improve their properties with Heirloom Gardens — let them do the same for yours!

Their Philosophy…..

BALANCE, by definition, is a biological system that enables us to know where our bodies are in the environment and provides the point of reference, that, if attained, will keep us healthy. Balance is also the lofty goal they strive for with respect to the care of the natural world they work in.

Today we are flooded with the words “organic,” “green,” “natural” and “sustainable.”  However, none of them hold much value without balance, and whether we realize it or not we all strive for it in one sense or another.  By pursuing an organic approach to landscaping for their clients, they create and sustain the natural environment that surrounds their Long Island homes.

Conversely, the use of extensive pesticides, herbicides and insecticides, all of which are man-made and engineered chemicals, does nothing more than control the immediate symptoms or problems that arise. These chemical solutions do nothing for the overall health of the plants themselves in the same way that taking an aspirin does nothing to cure the common cold.

Therefore, Heirloom’s philosophy is simple: they will take care of the landscapes that they are entrusted with in the same manner a personal trainer cares for a professional athlete. They strive for simple beauty, fluidity of movement and most of all, balance.  After all, plants are just like us!

To learn more about organic landscaping, please visit their website at http://heirloomgardensllc.com/

LI Roller Rebels and Town of Brookhaven team up to collect prom dresses for those in need.

All Long Islanders know that these are difficult economic times and sometimes people need just a little assistance. To that end, the Long Island Roller Rebels Women’s Roller Derby Team in conjunction with the Town of Brookhaven is collecting donations of slightly used prom dresses to help make the dreams come true for some young girls who desperately want to go to their high school prom, but are not able to afford an acceptable outfit and accessories with which to attend the party.

“I am so gratified that we are able to reach out to help these young ladies, who otherwise would not be able to go out and afford a dress and shoes and jewelry and makeup, etc. for such a big event in their young lives, that they so deserve to attend,” said Captain Morgan, one of the Roller Rebels who vividly remembers her prom with amazing detail and gusto. “Getting through high school is such hard work for four years. The prom is the party at the end that signifies the culmination of all that effort. I remember having my hair done in a new style and my wonderful nails and pedicure, I was like Cinderella and Snow White and sleeping beauty all rolled into one Disney Princess.”

“I think every girl dreams of wearing that beautiful dress to one of the biggest nights in their young lives and all the women (and men) at the Long Island Roller Rebels hope in their hearts that we can help make that same dream come true for each and every student. We’d hate to think of some not attending their prom , just because they could not afford the outfit. That would be truly heartbreaking,” said Hardcory of the Roller Rebels who is a key coordinator of this particular prom dress donation collection.

The Town of Brookhaven is very discreet with the ladies that benefit from this. And what the Roller Rebels are asking Long Island residents to do is not so hard. All they are asking that everyone in Nassau and Suffolk counties take a couple of minutes out of one day, to search their closets for prom/affair/party dresses that they’ve worn or their kids or family members have worn and are now just sitting there collecting dust.

Any dress shoes or heels that are buried in the back of that walk-in, or costume jewelry that is cluttering up that old jewelry box. Even look at that “worn only once for Cousin Carol’s wedding party” bridesmaid dress that now hangs forlornly in your closet taking up space.

What is one girl’s strapless aqua taffeta mermaid nightmare could be another girl’s dream prom dress. So take a moment and help the Long Island Roller Rebels in conjunction with the Town of Brookhaven, spread a little fairy dust, share the magic and donate your gently used dresses and accessories .

The Long Island Roller Rebels will be accepting donations now through the middle of May (at their 4/14 and 5/12 derby bouts actually). For more information email info@longislandrollerrebels.com, visit their website at http://www.longislandrollerrebels.com/roller-derby-events.php.

(view original article here)

Call it style with a cause. Prom Boutique, a hip long island charity, is in full collection mode. The program, which started almost 20 years ago, collects gently worn formal wear and donates it to girls on Long Island who cannot easily afford a new prom dress.

“They are thrilled to be giving their dresses new legs,” said Lola Intagliata of Clear Skin Salon. “They enjoyed wearing it at their prom, now they’re looking forward to having another girl have the experience they had.”

Collection sites are located all over the island, including at a West Hempstead salon. The dresses are then gathered and brought to a larger space at the end of April where the girls can shop ’til they drop. Each girl receives a free dress with accessories and on the spot alterations. The charity collects about 3,000 dresses per year.

“They’re allowed to shop for dresses, they find their sizes, it’s all color coordinated,” said Anne Sprotte, Prom Boutique coordinator. “And they go into the fitting room and they come out and their eyes are sparkling, their moms are crying.”

Donors are happy to make those moments possible. They say have no reservations about letting go of their fine threads.

“I got such great use out of the dress when I got to use it myself and I know what the dress meant to me,” one donor said. “I hope someone would get the same enjoyment out of it.”

You can donate your formal wear before April 22.

www.longislandvolunteercenter.org

(by Ashley Mastronardi – original source here)

{video portrait of founder and CEO of blendnewyork}

An Inferno Concepts Picture
Starring: Christine Abbate
Film & Edit: Thomas DeJosia
Music: Caza

CLICK TO SHOP VANESSA QUIJANO’S “ENTWINED” NECKLACE