‘Hers & His: 25 Years of Art and Marriage’

This selection of works by Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano will be featured Aug. 31-Sept. 28, with an opening reception, 5-7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, at Vanderlyn Hall 265, SUNY Ulster, 491 Cottekill Road, Stone Ridge. Throughout their marriage of 25 years, Levy and Serrano have been making art independently of one another. Although they have both been inspired by similar subject matter connected to natural history and science, their creative processes couldn’t be more unlike. Levy’s work is purely intuitive and a reaction to the natural world. Her process begins by collecting different natural materials – such as seeds, bark and flower petals. This process such as gathering enough material(s) to complete a painting can sometimes take years. Her challenge is to create something unique and more beautiful than the natural inherent beauty of that material found in nature. She tries to build interesting patterns that highlight the small details of the natural material that are often overlooked when viewing that same plant in the wild. Serrano’s work is scholarly and idea based. He starts with a strong visual image and concept that has to be intriguing enough to develop and execute over a period of years. He attempts to create the type of detail found in 18th- and 19th-century science engravings with colored pen-and-ink drawing, building the image slowly by layering one dot at a time. His illustrations are laden with political references and current social concerns. Upon moving from California in 1999 to the rural life of the Hudson Valley, they began cultivating different plants for their art. Levy bought plants based on their flowers, leaves and seeds that she could incorporate into her encaustic paintings, while Serrano chose plants to attract different types of insects as well as to breed wild American silk moths for his drawings. Now, 20 years later, their interest in plants has grown into a botanical garden and level II arboretum called Hortus Conclusus (Hortus.biz), located in Stone Ridge. Gallery hours for the “Hers & His: 25 Years of Art and Marriage” exhibit at Vanderyln Hall 265 are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, or by appointment by calling 687-5113.