Lenox Library is pleased to partner with the Guild of Berkshire Artists to bring you a virtual artist seminar. Join us on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. when needlepoint artist Mark Olshansky discusses his work.
This event will take place via Zoom. Please click HERE for the meeting link.
Meeting ID: 843 7074 1985
Password: 002957
Artist statement: “I have a passion to create in wool these pictures from my mind, and now that I’ve been doing this for 40 years (with a brief 20-year hiatus), I have the skills to express my ideas in the medium of needlepoint. I do it in needlepoint because I can’t do it in any other medium.
My work is intuitive, I don’t try to figure it out. It works for me, and the end result is all I care about. I study music while I work: I study the constructions of Verdi operas, Brahms chamber music, Bach, and on and on.
My work is all Persian wool stitched on 10″ or 12″ scrim. I design each piece as I go along: I put a blank scrim on the wall and try to visualize what I want to do, and then I always do something completely different. Now that I’ve reached 80, I realize that I chased the wrong things. But it’s really never too late: creating these things is now my life, and it’s a joy.”
About Mark Olshansky: “I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., was educated, drafted, married, started a family, and went into business. At about my fortieth year, a friend introduced me to needlepoint at a party. Ten years later, I had created many tapestries, pictures, a large rug, and more. Everything was designed as I went along and was made from Persian wool.
In 1980, I stopped my art when my wife and I decided to wet our toes in the wine importing world. Twenty years later, we retired, and I immediately picked up where I had left off. The procedure and material are the same today. In the past ten years I have produced many pieces of various sizes, and I have exhibited in over 100 shows, both juried and galleried. My favorite way of working is creating pieces in series, such as Art and the Fugue, Mahler and Infant series.”