Bits & Banter: Thompson at U.S. Open, PechaKucha!, Change at Ashawagh, Sculpture Garden in Quogue

Artist Elaine Faith Thompson On Location at 2018 U.S. Open

Elaine Faith Thompson is back at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.

Through Sunday, June 17, the Long Island-based artist will sign and personalize prints of her 2018 U.S. Open Championship fine-art print, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the merchandise pavilion, marking her sixth painting with the United States Golf Association.

Her first dates back to the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course, followed by Shinnecock Hills in 2004, Winged Foot Golf Club in 2006, Bethpage Black again in 2009, and Sebonack Golf Club in 2013.

The artist is also known for her scenic work, including local lighthouses, the Big Duck, Theodore Roosevelt’s home at Sagamore Hill and, most notably, a commission from President Ronald Reagan for the official poster design of the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please call (631) 589-0069 or visit thompsonart.us.

Ready, Set, PechaKucha!

From photographers and artists to a Reiki master and a dollhouse maker, this is PechaKucha — a series of rapid-fire presentations about living creatively on the East End — returning Friday, June 15, to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.

Each speaker will show 20 slides for 20 seconds apiece, creating a compelling, and diverse, program of six-minute-40-second presentations from this session’s roster: artist and registered nurse Valley Bak; artists Jackie Black and Dinah Maxwell Smith; furniture and miniature maker Jeremy Brandrick; painter Rainer Gross; graphic designer and Reiki master Joan Ranieri-Certain; fine art photographer Russell Munson; and branding and advertising exec Lew Sherwood.

“We’re thrilled to present another exciting group of creatives at PechaKucha, the East End’s prime talent show,” Corinne Erni, senior curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects, said in a press release.

PechaKucha Night Hamptons, Vol. 24, will begin at 6 p.m. at the museum, located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. Tickets are $12, or free for members, children and students, and reservations are required. For more information, please call (631) 283-2118 or visit parrishart.org.

Change of the Guard at Ashawagh Hall Writers’ Workshop

Come September, Ashawagh Hall Writers’ Workshop will have a new leader: Maryann Calendrille, co-owner of Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor.

Invited by the longtime group, Calendrille taught college-level English and composition before hosting her own writing workshops at Canio’s, which she has owned with Kathryn Szoka since 1999.

The Ashawagh Hall Writers’ Workshop predates her tenure there, started by Marijane Meeker — who wrote under the pseudonym ME Kerr — in 1983 to help promising writers get published, and create a community for experienced writers to encourage and support each other, according to a press release.

Meeker ran the group until she retired four years ago at age 87, and Laura Stein rose to the occasion. She decided to retire this past spring.

The workshop is always welcoming new members, and fiction and memoir writers are encouraged to apply with a writing sample. For more information, please call Canio’s Books at (631) 725-4926.

June Outdoor Sculpture Garden At Quogue Library

Niki Lederer’s starting point are discarded and found objects — repurposed consumer plastic harvested from curbside recycling that she scopes out at night while she walks her dog, trying not to draw attention to herself.

She finds the colors intoxicating, each bin a treasure chest of endless opportunity.

Back in the studio, she process the bottles — thoroughly cleaning them and removing all branding — and then dissects them, cutting the plastic and fastening it back together with wire, jump rings, machine bolts and hex nuts.

The ease of assembly enables spontaneity, and lends a playful quality to the work — some shapes are organic clusters and others flat forms — which is now on view on the grounds of the Quogue Library, located at 90 Quogue Street in Quogue.

“Her sculptural practice combines East and West Coast sensibilities, with formal and conceptual approaches to art making,” according to a press release. “Lederer explores a love/hate relationship to consumer culture, most recently manifested in her found object sculptures created from repurposed consumer plastic.”

For more information, please call (631) 653-4224 or visit quoguelibrary.org.