Through the years the St. Agnes Library has featured many local artist’s exhibitions. It has become something our patrons look forward to seeing with each visit. With our temporary closure due to COVID-19, we want to share artists' work so that everyone can experience some beauty in their life.

Since 2015, artist Rossella BLUE Mocerino has had the privilege of bringing her work to patrons of NYPL by exhibiting in eight different branches. She exhibited at St. Agnes Library in 2019 with a show entitled ‘A Staircase to Heaven’. Her subject matter are masked figures and the inspiration for her work is the Venice Carnival which she has yearly attended since 1993. This year she was in Piazza San Marco when the local authorities cancelled the last two days of Carnevale due to COVID-19. “A reminder that we must seize the time and go after what we passionately love,” says the artist.

In this current digital show, ‘Meditation Among Pigeons’ the artist explains: “Meditation, contemplation, praying are all cerebral but physical acts, too.  We use our hands to express gratitude, to petition for a better future, to talk to a higher authority, to calm us down. Hands could in their own right tell their own story, yet I knew in these paintings there had to be a balance and unity between the eyes and hands.  When I visited Rembrandt’s paintings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, I noticed how often the hands in his paintings are left unfinished or downplayed, if you like.  Composition in a painting is about featuring some aspects and toning down others, a system of checks and balances. Yet I knew that in these paintings, hands had to be prominent.” 

The first and last image of this show is a diptych entitled ‘The Gatekeepers.’

The artist invites you to check out her blog, The Painter's Eye,  where she writes about art in general, in addition to showcasing her work.

The artist, Rossella Blue Mocerino, owns the copyright to all the images shown in this blog post.

Suggested Reading and Listening

Books

• A Course in Meditation: A 21-day Workout For Your Consciousness by Osho
• From Mindfulness to Insight: Meditations to Release Your Habitual Thinking and Activate Your Inherent Wisdom by Rob Nairn
• Meditation: The Simple and Practical Way to Begin Meditating: A Start Here Guide by Dr. Patrick J. Harbula
• Mindfulness and Insight: The Mahasi Method by Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw
• Mindfulness and Intimacy by Ben Connelly
• Mindfulness and Meditation: Handling Life With a Calm and Focused Mind by Whitney Stewart
• Stages of Meditation: The Buddhist Classic on Training the Mind by the Dalai Lama
• Yoga, Meditation, and Mysticism: Contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks by Kenneth Rose

DVDs and CDs

• Betty and The Sensory World: Experimental Electronic Music by Doug Bielmeier (Music CD)
• Chants for Meditation: Gregorian Chants for Meditation and Relaxation (Music CD)
• Heal: Change Your Mind, Change Your Body, Change Your Life (DVD)
• Meditation, Resurrection by William Parker Quartet (Music CD)
• Mindfulness Goes Mainstream: Techniques (DVD)
• Night Echo - Star Seed: Meditation Songs for Native American Flute by Kelvin Mockingbird (Music CD)
• Titans of Yoga: Interviews with 25 Modern Masters of Yoga, Meditation and Mindfulness (DVD)