This article was published in "The Lake Country Weekender" October 2016

Check out the complete article and publication here on page 3 - Artist Kim Bellavia to show "The Language of Hands" at Cafe Sol.

Kim Bellavia is a local artist with a home studio in Honeoye. She received a 2016 individual artist grant from NYSCA through The Finger Lakes Community Arts Grants program in Auburn, New York, to create an installation titled, “The Language of Hands.” Her work will be showing for one evening at Café Sol, 4503 State Route 64 in Bristol, on Wednesday, October 5, from 4 to 7 p.m. The installation consists of 33 hands casted from members of the community. The rendered hands will be displayed on the tables of the café and each hand will be holding something found in nature or made from the natural environment, creating a conversation among hands. Hors d’oeuvres will be served along with tastings from Heron Hill Winery and Nedloh Brewery.

As an artist Kim creates sculptures and paintings that give form and contrast to the notions of being and the natural world, rooted in the concept that the natural environment in which we live is a reflection of who we are as beings. Her work is a process of making a dialogue with the natural world in relation to the human experience, depicting how nature and human nature weave themselves into the intrigue of life and the entropy of existence. Her inspiration for this installation came from numerous commissions of casting hands, thoughts of a sense of community and acceptance that is so needed in our world today, an overwhelming love for the natural environment, and this excerpt titled, “Human Hands” From the Cherokee
Feast of Days by Spotted Tail:

“Our hands tell who we are. They are believed to be perfect subjects of the mind. As physical labor shows in the callouses on our palms, so does gentleness or greediness or strength. Nothing else expresses human behavior in so many ways. With our hands, we work, play, love, threaten, show joy or grief. Sensitive symbols of faith and friendship, our hands draw to us everything and everyone we love.
Marvelously made and directed by the mind’s eye, the mind’s ear, and the heart’s desire, our hands continually express our lives. An abusive hand is from an abusive mind. But the gentle touch does exist—even for those who have yet to experience it. What words cannot say, the hands can express with all tenderness and love.”

Kim is currently showing her newest work, “Whispering from the Woods,” at Pat Rini Rhorer Gallery, Main Street, Canandaigua, until October 9. See Kim’s website at www.kimbellavia.com. Contact her at kim [ @ ] kimbellavia.com

—Submitted by Kim Bellavia