Photographer Mary Ellen Bartley is wrapping up her month-long residency at Watermill Center with an Artist Talk on Saturday at 2 p.m. and the work viewable in an Open Studio event until 4 p.m. Also presenting is artist Geoffrey Farmer, who is the most recent artist to join Watermill Center's winter artist-in-residency program.
While at Watermill Center, Mary Ellen Bartley has been making a set of photographs using books from The Watermill Center Study Library as subjects. The photographs will be used to create a book of books, whose format and edition are yet to be determined.
The books that Robert Wilson has left bookmarks and handwritten notes in are of particular interest, as they illustrate the way books can be used as inspirational sources and create layers of connection between artists, ideas, and places separated by time and geography. Rather than use the library for research, Bartley will interact with volumes that catch her eye and follow the connections that arise in studying them through her camera.
Saturday's presentation is a chance to see the work in progress and hear Bartley describe how this body of work differs from her other series that focus on books as subject and muse.
Mary Ellen Bartley giving a talk and tour of her work at Watermill Center. Photo by Caterina Verde.
Mary Ellen Bartley giving a talk and tour of her work at Watermill Center. Photo by Caterina Verde.
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Videography by Carlos Soto.
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BASIC FACTS: Mary Ellen Bartley's Open Studio takes place on March 7, 2015 from 2 to 4 p.m. Watermill Center is located at 39 Watermill Towd Road, Water Mill, NY 11976. www.watermillcenter.org.
RELATED: "Photography by Mary Ellen Bartley" by Pat Rogers. Published on February 25, 2015.
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