ARTIST OF THE MONTH
FRANK COLETTA
Artist Statement:
In this series of works I want to capture the beauty of this area before it is gone forever. The dairy farms are disappearing and the corn fields are being plowed under. I started the drawings on one of those Indian summer days last Fall. One of my favorite roads in Clifton Park is Farm to Market Road. It had several dairy and cattle farms as well as vegetable stands full of fresh produce. In its day it was the main route from the Mechanicville region to points west... Clifton Park, Niskayuna, Schenectady being a few. The farms have shut down and the fields are now overgrown. I talked to some of the owners of the farms and they told me that they couldn’t make enough to keep the farms running, so they sold them to cover their losses. Thousands of acres are now destined to become developments. Transitions are part of life. Things do change.
That is the simple reason for my passion to capture the beauty of this area before it is gone forever. There are very few “up states” left in this area. So I offer you my experiences as I try to capture scenes taken from Farm to Market Road. This is a land that is now in transition with many who will forever have fond memories of what was.
In this series of works I want to capture the beauty of this area before it is gone forever. The dairy farms are disappearing and the corn fields are being plowed under. I started the drawings on one of those Indian summer days last Fall. One of my favorite roads in Clifton Park is Farm to Market Road. It had several dairy and cattle farms as well as vegetable stands full of fresh produce. In its day it was the main route from the Mechanicville region to points west... Clifton Park, Niskayuna, Schenectady being a few. The farms have shut down and the fields are now overgrown. I talked to some of the owners of the farms and they told me that they couldn’t make enough to keep the farms running, so they sold them to cover their losses. Thousands of acres are now destined to become developments. Transitions are part of life. Things do change.
That is the simple reason for my passion to capture the beauty of this area before it is gone forever. There are very few “up states” left in this area. So I offer you my experiences as I try to capture scenes taken from Farm to Market Road. This is a land that is now in transition with many who will forever have fond memories of what was.
