Mom and Dad are moving in with you as soon as they reach 65. Get that spare bedroom ready, move brothers and sisters in together. We’re turning back the clock to pre-World War II: The family unit is back and the retired are, once again, about to be the burden of those still working. Come to think of it, little Johnny and Suzy had better get an after-school job to help the family make ends meet. And you can forget about school loans for the high-school graduates, that first car, holidays or remodeling your kitchen — no one will be able to afford them soon, either.You see, Granny and Granddad paid — through all those decades — for Social Security and Medicare. They planned for their retirement, no, not by having huge savings in a bank — there never was enough to put away really. What they did, as 65 percent of all Americans did, was to pay taxes and pay into the system. It’s like paying into a bank account for your retirement, only the government was handling their savings. They were promised Social Security retirement pay. Even if it was penny-pinching tight, at least they could live in their house and eat. They were promised Medicare medical coverage, even if it wasn’t as fancy as private insurance coverage at times, at least it was a safety net.u u uBut the Republicans in Congress this last week voted their first big anti-little guy measure: They want (and passed the vote) to cancel Medicare in favor of a private insurance plan. In other words, all those years of paying into the system are for nothing. You want medical insurance? You will now need to buy it from a private insurance company. The Republicans counter with an offer of a voucher system. They’ll give you a voucher you can trade in with a private insurance company to get minimal coverage. Of course, there is no guarantee the voucher will be worth anything and, on top of that, there will be a deductible, maybe as much as $10,000 per person. Get sick? The first $10,000 is on you. How the heck is someone living hand-to-mouth in this economy supposed to have $10,000 put aside for medical deductibles? Well, that’s OK because Congress members are covered by your tax dollar, no deductible of course, so it is easy for them to tell you to tough it out. They have no clue how hard it is to make ends meet for 65 percent of Americans.Bush Jr. tried this with Social Security, tried to privatize it. The whole nation stood up and said, “No! Hands off our savings, our planned retirement.” Will the nation stand up now and tell Boehner and Co. that privatizing Medicare is similarly immoral and theft on a grand scale? Maybe not. Why not? Because the young really have no idea what illness and old age ailments are like. The very system that has allowed families to live in separate houses and get on with their private lives (Mom and Dad don’t normally live with Granny and Granddad) has allowed the healthy to overlook and be ignorant of the dependence our seniors have on proper medical care without fees.u u uLook, let’s put this another way: Medicare is free for retired people. They do not (any longer) have to think about paying those bills, paying monthly premiums. They can rely on it; it is a benefit earned by paying their share over the decades. When privatized, as the Republicans just forced through the House with a full-court party-line press, will Granny pay the oil-heating bill or the medical insurance bill in the dead of winter. Remember last winter? What would you do? And what will Granny do when she gets ill? “Hello, Son and Daughter, I need help.” And then Son and Daughter say to their kids, “Put your futures on hold, our parents need help.”Now, across the nation seniors are angry at the Republicans’ plan, which is expected. What I would like to remind the young — yes, even you teenagers — is that your responsibility for your parents just shot up and will, no doubt, get worse. Are you ready? Will you take care of your bed-ridden parent with no insurance, a parent who may need 24-hour nursing? And if you do, who’s going to pay your bills if you cannot work? And let’s not forget Republicans want to, once again, try and privatize Social Security as well. They want your savings in Wall Street bankers’ hands. Now there’s a safe idea. Not.u u uWhy do you need to worry about all this? Because Medicare and Social Security payments, made faithfully and honestly over decades, have been raided by each successive administration. Has the government taken the principle money? Nope, that’s against the law. What they have done is take loans against the interest the money has earned and, surprise, never paid loans back at anything approaching commercial interest rates. It is like your savings account being raided and instead of 4 percent or more you got back half a percent. How, why, is this possible? Again, those people in the House of Representatives have passed laws allowing them to do so. The president doesn’t make laws, they do.There is a chance the Senate can stop all this nonsense, but the forces in Washington are rallying to help Boehner and his team to gut your parents’ security in retirement. And when they do — and they have passed the first step — you’re the ones having to pick up the pieces. Of course, you could always ask your parents to do the honorable thing, like aging Eskimos, and get on an iceberg and sail out to death at sea. Maybe, as Scrooge said, what Boehner is really after is “to decrease the surplus population.” One day, youth of America, that would be you. Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.
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Textile designer Justine Valla sits in her father’s chair, which she painted, alongside her husband, illustrator and muralist Victor Valla, in their Atelier Valla studio.
“I was always drawing as a child,” Justine recalled. Victor dreamed of illustrating magazine covers like those of the “Saturday Evening Post.”
Victor studied design and illustration at Rochester Institute of Technology, then received a fellowship to study painting and printmaking at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigne. He graduated in 1967. The following year, he received a grant from the Tiffany Foundation to study printmaking in Paris at Atelier 17, an experimental graphic arts workshop founded in 1927.
“What a great experience that was!” he recalled.
Returning home after the Paris uprisings of 1968, he discovered that the magazine covers he’d hoped to paint had largely given way to photography. His agent suggested trying record covers, which he pursued along with illustration and graphic design.
He also began teaching at Kean University in New Jersey.
“Kean had a wonderful graphic design and illustration department. I loved teaching Graphic Design, even though I never thought I would.”
He later taught at Syracuse University and Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.
In the late 1980s, he decided to stop teaching and concentrate on his own art. He moved to Falls Village, to a house on the corner of Minor and Prospect Streets.
“I used to call the studio ‘Minor Prospects Atelier,’” he said.
He continued working in illustration and graphic design, creating book covers for stories by H.P. Lovecraft and other authors, along with magazine covers, logos, advertising and murals.
Justine and Victor Valla in their studio with a painting of Victor’s,”Jonah and the Whale.” Robin Roraback
His local commissions include the green and gold Noble Horizons signage and wall murals for the Stockbridge Inn, the Spa at Norwich Inn, Orchards Hotel in Williamstown and the David M. Hunt Library’s children’s section.
Justine grew up in the Bronx and studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After graduating, she took on whatever work she could find, including designing toys and novelty items for Russ Berrie. But her true calling was textile design.
She moved to Los Angeles to pursue that calling, where she learned silkscreen printing from 1960s design icon Corita Kent.
“I was in her program at Immaculate Heart College. All fabric design at that time was silk screen. My first job in textile design was in L.A., creating wallpaper for Bob Mitchell Design.”
Justine returned to New York City, where the advent of computers required her to learn new design techniques. She enrolled at Parsons School of Design, studying Photoshop, Illustrator, Lectra U4ia and Kaledo.
Around this time, she met Victor online and moved to Falls Village.
A recruiter found her a job in Arkansas at Dillard’s, a department store chain operating in 30 states and known for its exclusive designer collections.
“They had the best equipment I’d ever seen,” she said.
She became a senior computer-aided design designer there, designing fabric and preparing purchased designs for production.
The Vallas left Falls Village for Little Rock.
“It was a big move,” she said. “It was a different culture, but Little Rock was very progressive.”
The originally planned to stay in Arkansas for five years but ended up remaining for nearly 10.
Then Justine was hit by a car. She suffered injuries to her leg and head and required four years of rehabilitation.
“I lost the ability to paint after the accident. I struggled to paint again.”
The Vallas returned to Connecticut, this time settling in Salisbury, where they’ve lived since 2013.
After leaving Dillard’s, Justine had planned to sell her work through Printsource in New York City, an international showcase for surface and textile design. But after the accident, she no longer had the mobility or energy to travel back and forth to the city.
Instead, she began selling her work locally at craft shows, including clothing, hand-printed tea towels and floorcloths.
She is currently working on selling her collection of textile designs.
In December, Justine will have a show of her tea-themed watercolors at the NorthEast-Millerton Library.
Victor recently exhibited “The American West: A Pictural History” at the NorthEast-Millerton Library. The series, created in the early 1990s, was part of a commission from the Postal Commemorative Society for which he completed 100 paintings in two years.
He hopes to place the series in a museum and has created books from its images, complete with text. Over the years, he has designed many other books that are ready for publication, including “Looking In, Looking Out,” a cosmic view of the universe.
Reflecting on his career, Victor said, “It’s about doing what you love”.
Justine agreed.
To see, purchase or commission work, contact Justine at justinevalla@gmail.com or Victor at victorvalla@comcast.net, or call 860-596-4282.
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Jane Herold’s beautifully simple dinnerware.
Cornwall ceramicist Jane Herold explained that there’s quite a lot of enthusiasm for Clay Way among the region’s ceramic artists.
“We all need work space, which is hard to find or afford in urban areas. The wood-fire crowd needs lots of wood and outdoor space. This area is great because it’s rural enough for us, but has a wonderfully enthusiastic and supportive population of pottery [patrons].”
While many of the artists are returning from previous years, the loose collection of unofficial organizers likes to keep the event manageable for the public, limiting the number of artists and studios each year. A direct drive from the southernmost point at Ann Heywood’s studio in Wingdale to Herold’s big barn in Cornwall is under 40 minutes. But if you want to catch it all, plan for a full day’s worth of art exploration along some of the most beautiful roads in New England.
Starting at its northernmost point, Herold’s studio will host Matin Malikzada of Afghanistan, whose polished, modern interpretations of traditional forms are instantly recognizable. They’ll be joined by wood-fired ceramicists Steve Johnson, with his raw, organic forms, and Harry Levenstein, whose works relate closely to Johnson’s while making even more direct references to nature.
Herold herself creates work that is both beautiful and utilitarian. Her prolific output of objects is intended to be used by everyday people as part of their daily lives.
Moving south is Todd Piker of Cornwall Bridge Pottery. Piker has been making pots in his giant wood-fired kiln since 1971. The kiln looks more like an ancient blast furnace than something designed to transform clay into ceramics, but over the years, he’s mastered its intricacies and produces an impressive amount of fine work.
A ceramic vase by Kathleen Heidemann.Provided
Piker will host Sanah Peterson, who works at Cornwall Bridge Pottery and draws inspiration from both her time with Piker and her time traveling the globe as a child. They’ll be joined by Stephanie Haines, whose vibrant, eye-catching work features underglaze illustrations of birds, fruit and the bounty of nature.
Further along in Warren, Jessica Dubin’s pieces will be on display at the studio of Christine Owen. Both artists seem to appreciate the chaos and unpredictable nature of clay but find ways to refine it all using their own unique methods.
Heading east to Washington, Conn., Will Talbot’s creates intricate work while allowing for the unpredictable nature of clay to play a role. His studio will house Tom Knox and his wide variety of textures and forms, as well as New York City-based Alex Lebedev, who lets music and the nature of improvisation guide his work.
There will be two studios participating in South Kent. Alison Palmner, whose page on the Clay Way website states she “strives to achieve a lighthearted meld of human forms, animals and the vessel.” Her studio will host Ben Eberle, who trained under the guidance of legendary potter Toshiko Takaezu; James Guggina, whose intricate work can appear both deliberate and whimsical; and Paula Shalan, who blends rough, unrefined surfaces with polished precision in individual pieces.
Joy Brown’s delightful ceramic sculptures.Provided
Nearby is Joy Brown, whose work have become a staple of the area, with her figurative sculptures dotting the Northwest Corner. Brown’s studio will also feature Bonnie Levine, who taps into the beauty of chaos and destruction in her work, and Brendan Moore, whose more utilitarian forms are perfect for everyday use.
Finally, the tour crosses the border into Wingdale, New York, where the studios of Drew Montgomery, Ann Heywood and Amy Brenner will host Jackie Sedlock, Lynn Behrendt,and Kathleen Heidemann.
Brenner creates some of the most colorful and vibrant pieces on the tour, while Behrendt’s work is among the most studied and precise. Heywood creates carefully considered, intuitive forms, while Heidemann moves from simple minimalism to intricate textures. Montgomery and Sedlock both find new ways of playing with traditional forms, producing delightfully distinctive pieces.
To learn more about the artists and download a map of participating studios, visit clayway.net
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