HOUSE: a Structure built to become a place of habitation for individuals and/or family units. Houses come in an incredible range of sizes and shapes, in styles from every period of history. They can be a tiny one-room bungalow or a vast mansion with dozens of rooms and numerous wings or additions. In each period of history, in each country on the globe, a new sensibility arose about the nature of dwelling places. In many cases, brilliant architects throughout history have devised ever greater designs for human living or the housing of their royalty or rulers. Houses have been and continue to be constructed of a vast array of materials: brick or stone, woods of many kinds, glass and steel, concrete slabs, plastics, sheet metal and tin…the list can go on and on.

Houses in many areas may be designed very much alike, but become distinctive or more singular through the creativity of their owners. This is where and when the HOUSE---the structure---becomes the HOME---the residence of a family or an individual. HOME is the Inner Sanctum…The Place where we can feel at ease to most be our selves…The location for gatherings of Family and Friends, the breaking of bread, the preparation of meals, the site for our intimate behaviors.

Most people bring into the HOME---their most prized and favorite possessions…they adorn the rooms whether few or many with varied colors, decorative moldings, pictures and artworks, furniture reflecting their individual taste and preferences---They make their homes a reflection of themselves----whether as a showcase to vie with the neighbors or for the sheer pleasure of building a personal habitat that suits their needs and use.

The artists gathered together for the GIMMEE SHELTER art exhibit have created artworks, both 2 and 3 dimensional in many styles and mediums. These works approach the ideas of HOUSE AND HOME for the metaphorical content of the nature of the places built for us to live in and the dwelling it becomes when we reside in that structure. In this way---the structure can refer to a larger concept reflecting our current national or regional feelings about our homes. These works in many cases become metaphor for loneliness and alienation, repetition and conformity, grandiose behavior, posturing or exaggerated sense of self. The final word is that these homes and houses represented offer the view of artists in their reflection about the where and how of contemporary living.

As people all over the East Coast watched in late August as a storm of terrible power jeopardized their homes and well being they in many cases were happy to weather that storm and return once again to the comfort and Shelter of their Houses and Homes.-----Lawrence Cappiello, Curator

Participating artists include: Fanny Allié, Tom Bartel, Laara Cassells, Niina Cochran, Bill Durgin, Irene Gennaro, Jo Hamilton, Frances Heinrich, Gina Lucia, Vincent Minervini, Judy Moonelis, Lindsey Muscato, Deborah Pohl, Carol Schwartz, Etta Winigrad, and Jane Zweibel.

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