Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars' Rocks: Laura Cannamela

STATEMENT

I live and work in Valatie (named from Dutch word for “Little Falls”), near a gorge carved from glacial flow and eroded by a creek that empties into the Hudson River. I reflect on the interconnectivity of water and landscape every day, and am continually reminded of the vastness of geological time through my surroundings. Throughout my observations of creek waters as they surge, meander, ripple, and drift toward the Hudson River, the words of Heraclitus are always with me. You never step into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and you are not the same person.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in New Jersey, Laura Cannamela received her MFA from Queens College of CUNY before moving to the Hudson Valley area of New York. Her artwork has been featured in numerous exhibitions at galleries around New York and New England. Within the past year, she has shown her artwork at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY and at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz. Her ceramic sculpture installation was selected for the Hudson Valley Artists 2017 Purchase Award and has been added into the Dorsky Museum’s permanent art collection.

She has received recognition for her artwork through the Platte Clove 2014 Artist-in-Residence Program, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) 2009 SOS Grant Program, and the NYFA 2008 Mark Program. In 2010, she was awarded a grant by the Freeman Foundation, along with the Five College Center for East Asian Studies, to travel to Japan. She has taught art courses at Queens College of CUNY, the College of St. Rose in Albany, and Sage College of Albany, and at Ichabod Crane High School in Valatie, NY.