The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/139921
Artist of the month: Vicki Whicker About the Artist: Vicki Whicker I moved to Otsego County on a whim. I had no job and knew no one here beyond a friend who'd moved back to New York from L.A. (and who is my current neighbor). Why? I was facing an empty nest as my only son was off to college, and I was over L.A. and the sun and smog and earthquakes! I had a lovely career as a fashion designer from my mid20s to my exit, but I was looking for something new, something smaller and greener than L.A. As I was contemplating this conundrum, a friend posted a picture on Facebook of a brokendown old farmhouse in Burlington Flats. I bought that house, sight unseen, and moved to Otsego County in July 2011. It took eight months to renovate that old house, which was once Dunga Brook Dairy, a thriving dairy farm from the late 1800s to the late '70s. Hence the name Dunga Brook Diary - "diary" because, while I waited for my renovations, I started taking photos with my iPhone. At times it is hardly useful as a cell phone out here! I started posting them to Facebook under the heading of "Dunga Brook Diary: AKA Facebook Farm." As my West Coast friends followed my journey, I took more than 20,000 pictures of this area. Of course I didn't post them all, but I did post a good portion of them and began to have a following. Several L.A. friends have visited me here and one even moved here! In the fall of 2011, Kristen of Cherry Branch Gallery in Cherry Valley started following my journey and asked me in April 2012 to have a show in April 2013. This show, curated by Kristen and me, opened in April at the gallery. I sold 45 prints and launched my career as an iPhoneographer. - Vicki Whicker 'Slowdance' 'Liljester' 'On the Road Again' 'Clover' About the Art Whicker explains: "iPhoneography as a mobile method for making art and as a creative movement was exploding around the world while I was stalking the flora and fauna of my new home in central New York. I had no idea that I had joined this special group of artists until I began putting my show together for Cherry Branch Gallery. "It has been my great joy to capture the beauty of central New York. Most of my photos are taken on my travels around the county's dirt roads and in my back yard." Whicker's iPhone photos are on display at the BANK Gallery in the Decades Showroom at 204 Main St., Suite B, in Sharon Springs, through June. Whicker has called her show, titled "Dunga Brook Diary: On the Road Again," "my love letter to central New York." Kristen Henderson, director of the Cherry Branch Gallery in Cherry Valley, said of Whicker's work, "Looking doesn't have to get any better than this. Vicki Whicker demonstrates a mastery of this genre through wit, heart, critical awareness, style, technique, and an infectious appreciation of her subject matter." Author Rachel Resnick of writersonfire.com described Whicker's photographs as "jubilations," writing that, "Each photograph reminds me to appreciate the moment, the loving detail, the mystery of nature and indeed, of our own holy breath. Her images are meditations. They awaken in me what is most human." June 6, 2013O-Town Scene 5