The Carlsons of Cadillac / From the Weeds

Exhibit at...
Fine Line Bistro, 404 East State Street, Ithaca, NY
July 2012
Reception: Sunday, July 8th, 4p

An exhibition of two series of portrait works...

The Carlsons of Cadillac : oil painting of the artist's ancestors based off oral and photographic history
& 
From the Weeds : the classic scenario of the artist-waiting-tables is laid bare in this on-going portrait series, in which the artist documents her compatriots nurturing their often hidden creative lives in a great range of activities.

Collecting Imagination

Now showing at Cornell Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections...

Collecting Imagination: 
Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of 
Human Imagination


June 7, 2012 - Oct 29, 2012
Hirshland Gallery, 
Carl A. Kroch Library

Through a remarkable array of rare books, manuscripts, and artifacts from the collection of Jay (’77) and Eileen (’76, ’78) Walker, this exhibition showcases imagination as a driving force throughout history and celebrates the adventure of discovery, learning, and creativity. Collecting Imagination features such treasures as an original Soviet Sputnik alongside a U.S. Vanguard satellite, a cuneiform cone from 2000 BC, and a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible. This exhibit marks the first time an extensive selection of objects from this unique private collection has been on public view.

Exhibit Project Manager: Jillian Piccirilli

New Works!

Just Added...

Six New Additions to

From the Weeds

The classic scenario of the artist-waiting-tables is laid bare in this on-going portrait series.  In From the Weeds, the artist documents her compatriots nurturing their often hidden creative lives in a great range of activities.

August Show at Moosewood

Family Portraits: The Carlsons & Cook

Carl Albin (b. 1912, Dept. store manager) / LincOln

Now showing for the month of August at
Moosewood Restaurant

215 N. Cayuga, Ithaca, NY
*Open Daily*

Two series of work that approach family portraiture from vastly different angles: The Carlsons of Cadillac, oil painting portraits of the artist's ancestors based off oral and photographic history, and Learning How to Cook Everything, an intimate color 35 mm and collage series of the artist's husband's foray into cooking.

New Work: The Missy Commis

A newly finished commissioned series, born out of The Carlsons of Cadillac.  The Missy Commis portrays three generations of Carlson women.

Selma in her Sunday Hat

Oil on wooden panels (2011)

Now Showing: Italo in Ithaca

Gimme! Coffee
430 North Cayuga Street
Ithaca, NY 14850

Histories of Lenore’s citizens are cut from similar, if not identical templates. They are punctuated by sets of dates and described using simple designations: wife, father, daughter, brother, and achievements are framed by relationships of blood, marriage, or conquest. None of Lenore’s citizens are remembered unfondly, but in the delivery of sentiment, there is a deliberate absence of frivolity.

A series of excursions intended to document an overlooked present and a past not told, "...but [contained] like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps...", this project is an exploration of the narratives embedded beneath the surface of Ithaca, New York.

Photography by Jillian Piccirilli / Writing by Mary Thomas

Now with a new website: www.italoinithaca.com

Press for The Art and Life of Alison Mason Kingsbury

Published in the Cornell Chronicle

By Gwen Glazer

Jillian Piccirilli '08 formed a close relationship with a woman she'll never meet: Alison Mason Kingsbury, an accomplished artist, dedicated Ithacan and wife of Cornell historian and professor Morris Bishop.

Alison Jolly, the artist's daughter, began working with Piccirilli in 2008 to create a complete catalog of her mother's work. The catalog grew into a book, "The Art and Life of Alison Mason Kingsbury," published in 2010 by Cornell University Library. ...

Full article available here.

Now Showing: Learning How to Cook Everything

RiverRead Books
5 Court Street, Binghamton, NY

The Kitchen Forest / mixed media / 2009

Opening: Binghamton Gallery Night
Friday, May 6th, 6-9p

The mixed media series Learning How to Cook Everything was born out of a collaboration between the artist and her husband to intimately document his foray into cooking as developing a life skill, a creative endeavor, and an avenue to continue a family tradition after his father's death. The title is a reference to New York Times writer Mark Bittman's seminal cook book, which served as the how-to manual to her husband's otherwise unmentored efforts. Using traditional and non-traditional negatives and incorporating collage, the artist sought to weave together highly personal photographs with images culled from wider cultural sources.

Now Showing: The Carlsons of Cadillac

April 17 - May 22

Just a Taste

116 North Aurora Street

Ithaca, NY 14850

The Carlsons of Cadillac series is the product of many long conversations with my maternal grandmother, who drew biographical sketches of her parents and siblings for me while we pored over family photographs. 

A photographer in her youth and the last remaining Carlson, Gamma recalled her Michigan dairy farm family in vivid, sometimes heartbreaking detail. After our exhaustive interviews, I asked that she assign a color to each individual. ...Axel had a temper, so he is red...Al was rather dapper and owned a handsome grey suit, so he is grey... It was with this rich stock that The Carlsons portrait series was created.

New Work: Mama Vinter

The final chapter of the Mama Series comes to a close with Mama Vinter, who takes us on one last rambling wander through New England, showing us her version of the world both through her companionship and her own lens.

Rag Mag {Occasionally}: See the Cat? See the Cradle?

Jillian Piccirilli
"...Or if the sun comes out,
maybe I'll go for a walk through one of the gorges..."

Rag Mag {Occasionally} Vol II, Issue I: is live!

Works inspired by a communal reading of Kurt Vonnegut's anthropology thesis.  Please enjoy.

Rag Mag {Occasionally} is an online publication based out of Ithaca, NY, that gives voice to the work of emerging writers, artist, and other so-inclined creative folk.  Occasionally.

From the Weeds

The classic scenario of the artist-waiting-tables is laid bare in this on-going portrait series.  In From the Weeds, the artist documents her compatriots nurturing their often hidden creative lives in a great range of activities.

Ethan Meussdorffer Samuels: Barista-Bartender / Writer

Portraits available here.