MELISSALAND

Next week I start installation on our exhibit with painter Harry Orlyk, whom I have always adored. This afternoon I photographed over two dozen works to be included and have picked some of my favorites to share. The one above is titled Christmas Trucks and Tractor painted last December up by Salem, New York where Harry lives.

“Sitting in the cold in a traditional way, I paint what is before me, sometimes as still as the Eskimo who earns his family’s meal by waiting and watching and thinking. He kills an animal; I make an image. We are linked together by our years of long studied views across a common land. I am so cold sometimes with the windows of my black Dodge van rolled up tight (I never turn on the engine once parked to paint, afraid of carbon monoxide). In a cold-induced trance, painting continues all by itself. Often the final dim presence of light exits while both hands are still at work and I do not know what I have made until the painting is brought into the light of a room.” - Harry Orlyk

I love this one because it is rare for Harry to include text in his work, but you can just make out the wandering letters at the bottom of the piece: “Someday a cold winter wind will come to take you down”

Garden in Mid-Bloom, 2008

Farm Pond, 2008

I imagine if I were to ever move away from this area, that I would like to own one of Harry’s paintings as a nice reminder of how absolutely beautiful New York is. Harry’s New York especially.

If you would like to attend the opening, it is taking place on Saturday October 18th from 6 to 8pm. For more information visit www.carriehaddadgallery.com or email me