Jewelry and pottery are highlighted in August show
BLAIRSTOWN Judith Musicant and Yanina Siani are the August artists of the month at Gallery 23 in Blairstown. Their work will be featured throughout August in the windows of the gallery. The public is invited to a reception in their honor on Saturday, Aug. 8 from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Judith Musicant, a resident of Mountainside, creates functional stoneware pottery. Her work has been shown in juried exhibits at Peters Valley Crafts Center, the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship Crafts Exhibition and the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts. Her work was also included in “500 Pitchers: Contemporary Expressions of a Classic Form,” published by Lark, and also in “Ceramics Review,” a British journal of ceramic arts. “I create functional pottery made from stoneware fired to a mid-range temperature in an electric kiln, said Musicant, “By functional, I mean pottery you will want to drink from, pour from, bake with, eat from, hold, caress, love to look at and make a part of your everyday life. I am often poking, pulling, prodding, cutting or otherwise altering the thrown pot in some fashion. This is what creates a body of work that reflects my vision of what art for everyday use can offer to you.” Siani, a multi-faceted artist, paints landscapes and still life scenes as well as creating original jewelry. Each piece of jewelry Siani creates is of limited edition or one-of-a-kind. She creates each piece by using hand-picked semi-precious stones and pearls and utilizes sterling silver and gold. Her inspiration for each piece comes from the gemstones themselves with endless possibilities in color combinations. Siani’s painting has a strong sense of color and composition, focusing on recreating and capturing visual light effects. She continues her independent study of nature, from the life form of plein air painting of landscapes to classical still life scenes. Siani was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine where she studied under Russian Premier Artist Agafonov at his private school for fine arts. She is a graduate of Ukraine Fine Art College where she studied fine art techniques and art history. Siani is also a graduate of the College of Gemology in Kiev, where she studied gems, metal smith and jewelry design. After graduating she pursued her career as an artist, book illustrator and jewelry designer, and has displayed her works in shows in the US as well as Europe. Siani moved to the United States in 1998 and resides in Phillipsburg. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Call 908- 362-6865 or visit http://www.gallery23.org for more information