WHOSE WOODS THESE ARE -- Photographs by Tom Artin

OPENING RECEPTION, SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 2-4 p.m.

A series of black-and-white photographs that document a little known installation of earth art created by Father Jorn, an octogenarian who was chaplain at the Dominican Convent in Sparkill for many years, will be on exhibit at the Piermont Public Library this month.  Responsible for tending the cemetery on the land behind the convent, Father Jorn cut brush, raked, cleared paths, dug out stones and picked up trash.  Rather than discarding these materials, he transformed them into cairns, a tepee made from tree trunks and a variety of assemblages in the adjacent woods, which qualified him as an "Outsider" artist according to Vivien Raynor, art critic for the New York Times.

"In the light of Father Jorn's Scandinavian ancestry, the garden seems like an atavistic manifestation," she wrote, "but for all contemporary purposes it may be classified as the work of an Outsider - though one amazingly devoid of creative ego.  Conversation with him left Mr. Artin convinced that the friar had no conception of his efforts as art...."  Artin, however, recognized the significance of the work and photographed it as it developed over four years.

Tom Artin has worked as a photographic assistant to William Vandivert, staff photographer for Life and Time magazines and one of the founders of Magnum.  More recently his work as been primarily in the fine-art category, though he has done fashion and other commercial photography.  He is currently on the roster of Bruce McGaw Graphics' artists, creating images for fine art posters sold around the world.