Do you have questions about love, your career or your creative direction?  Sharilyn Neidhardt, a Brooklyn-based artist and experienced medium with more than twenty years of experience studying occult mysteries, will perform individual divinatory consultations for gallery visitors from her latest work VERNACULAR, a card deck of her own design. 

VERNACULAR uses photographs of words and word fragments on signage around New York City. The images are meant to provoke subconscious feelings and ideas, which can then be discussed. Neidhardt's VERNACULAR consultations will focus on psychological outcomes of the seeker, especially concerning artistic development and creative destiny.

This event is presented during Dumbo 1st Thursday in conjunction with Abby Goodman’s The Wishing Tree, now on-view in BAC Gallery until February 8, 2013.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sharilyn Neidhardt is a Brooklyn-based artist and designer. Her photography has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Sun and the New York Post. She is a founding member of Glowlab arts collective and The Williamsburg Chess Club for Wayward Men and Ladies. She has performed internationally with Sal Randolph as "Weapons of Mass Destruction". Ms Neidhardt is currently a design consultant working on methods of using the socially networked internet to change the world. A native Californian, Sharilyn loves single malt scotch, obsessively collects vinyl records, and speaks only a little German. Keanu Reeves once lit a cigarette for her.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The Wishing Tree (September 28, 2012 – February 8, 2013) transforms BAC Gallery into a tree shrine. Visitors to the gallery are invited to participate by attaching their wishes to the overhanging branches. Wishing trees are sacred places found all over the world, where people are invited to attach prayers onto the branches of sacred trees in hopes that their wishes will be answered. This exchange transforms latent desire into faith in the power of the universe. Nesting in the branches of the shrine is a herd of Deerfly. The Deerfly is a magical creature that continues to be the most significant iconographic symbol in Goodman’s work. Half butterfly, half deer, the Deerfly represents both spiritual and physical metamorphosis.

Based on daily life experience, dreams and journeys, Abby Goodman creates an autobiographical pastiche complete with beautiful beasts and barren landscapes. Goodman uses this illusive world as a platform to address the human condition and its effect on the human spirit. Working with a variety of media, Goodman utilizes her dedication to process in a material based practice to emphasize content. Found objects, reconstituted components, and traditional techniques create an iconography unique to this imaginary universe. This imagery acts as a harbinger, yet functions as a symbol of hope.