Meet the Artists

Through the many exhibits that we host at the Art Complex Museum, we have the opportunity to meet and interact with many exciting artists.

Enjoy this opportunity to learn a little bit more about them.

November 1, 2023

An Interview with Nora Valdez

Valdez’s exhibit, “Passages” is installed outside, on the museum grounds, through September, 2025.

Above: Valdez in her studio

1. Tell us a little about your background.

I was born in Argentina. In 1982, I graduated with the title of Professor of Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts in San Luis, Argentina. In 1984, I moved to Perugia, Italy where I further developed and exhibited my work. In 1985, I started working in marble in Zaragoza, Spain, in a studio funded by the city of Zaragoza. I have been living and working as an artist in the United States since 1986.

I have exhibited my work internationally in Europe, Asia, and in North, Central and South America, including numerous international Sculpture Symposiums. I have more than 15 permanent Public Art pieces installed around the world and in the United States. I have received many awards and have been funded nationally and internationally.

I am an advisor and instructor at The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in West Rutland, VT, where I direct the Stone Bench Project, which has created and installed stone benches throughout Vermont. I have been a member of Boston Sculpture Gallery since 2012. My work is part of the permanent collections of the Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA; the Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA; the University of Massachusetts permanent art collection, Boston, MA; and the Changchun World Sculpture Park and Museum, China, among others.

2. When did you know you were an artist?

Since I was 6 years old, when my parents sent me to an Art Academy. I have never stopped doing my art since then.

3. Was there a pivotal moment for you?

Yes, in 1984, when I left Argentina to go Europe to further develop my work

4. Where do you find inspiration?

I use sculpture and installations to create images that reflect on the nature of change, the life of the individual, and the forces that buffet our souls. For the past years my work has focused on the nature of “home” and the immigrant experience, recreating in my art the hard road of those caught within alien systems, seeking the rootedness of home. These thematic concerns are also reflected in my involvement with the community.

5. What is your favorite medium?

Drawing and carving in stone.

6. Can you describe your process?

I use drawing as the first tool to start thinking of an idea. Once I feel I have a good piece in my hands, I pass that to the block of stone. I draw directly on the stone with colored chalk, which is easy to erase if necessary. I then do direct carving. I don’t usually create models beforehand, unless required for a commission.

For many years I carved without power tools, using just chisel and hammer. Now I use a grinder and diamond wheels to help remove materials, and I use pneumatic tools to carve.

7. Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your work?

With the installation of my Passage exhibit on the grounds of the Art Complex Museum, I now have 9 works in Duxbury: 4 pieces in the reading garden at the Duxbury Public Library, and 5 at the Art Complex Museum. I’m very grateful to their community. I love the place!

Above: Valdez carving One More Step, which is installed on the museum grounds.

Above: Valdez outside her studio in Dorchester, MA

September 1, 2023

An Interview with Andrae Green

Green’s exhibit, “Palindrome: Back to Hope” runs from November 12, 2023 through February 11, 2024.

1. Tell us a little about your background.

I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, into a family deeply rooted in faith and community. My father, a dedicated pastor, was an extraordinary self-made man who tirelessly provided for our family. My mother was equally devoted to faith, and our family life revolved around the church. However, the area in Kingston where I grew up, and where my family still resides, was plagued by violence. I witnessed clashes between the police, “gunmen,” and rival political factions from a young age. To cope with the turmoil around me, I found solace in comic books and the church, which served as my refuge.

During my formative years, my exposure to art was limited to cartoons such as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman. It wasn’t until I attended art school that I discovered the world of painting, encountering my first painting at the National Gallery of Jamaica—a captivating piece titled The Fishing Village by Barrington Watson.

My journey as an artist has been profoundly shaped by a traumatic period during Jamaica’s economic downturn in the ’80s and ’90s. Prior to this crisis, I lived in a world brimming with possibilities. However, the abrupt shift into poverty due to the economic turmoil left an indelible mark on me. While my family and much of our social circle were considered “middle middle class,” the economic downturn pushed us down the ladder. This wasn’t unique to my family; Jamaica as a whole faced similar challenges after accepting aid from the International Monetary Fund. This shift in our status implanted a subconscious sense of limitation that influenced my approach to life and creativity.

Today, my artistic focus revolves around revisiting that tumultuous time while reimagining a different outcome—one defined by self-determination, hope, and boundless imagination. This theme feels particularly pertinent now as I navigate through challenges presented by a struggling economy, reminiscent of what my family endured in the past.

As I reflect on Jamaica’s troubled history, memories of the clash between Michael Manley’s socialist policies and the Reagan administration’s approach come to mind. The resulting instability, fueled by CIA-backed drug money, ushered in violence and political unrest that deeply affected my community and my personal journey. Many individuals, including those close to me, were compelled to leave the country due to limited opportunities. Today, I find myself facing a similar situation. With a young family and aspirations for a brighter future, I sense a weight of responsibility to break free from the cycle of limited opportunities that my father encountered.

The concept of life as a circle resonates profoundly with me, reminiscent of beliefs held by ancient tribes. It’s as if I am destined to confront the challenges my father could not overcome and elevate my family’s circumstances. Despite moments of doubt when I consider the current state of affairs in America, I firmly believe that my talents and education can guide me towards a more promising future. Although my connection to Massachusetts may be minimal, I am determined to build the life my father would have wished for me, aiming to fulfill a portion of his unrealized dreams. This sense of purpose propels me forward on my artistic journey, in the pursuit of positive impact, much like my father did in his time.

2. When did you know you were an artist?

My journey to fully embrace the identity of an artist and recognize the role of art in my life was a winding path, taking up a significant portion of my life. Despite its inherent ease, accepting this truth proved to be a challenging endeavor. It wasn’t until I reached the age of 38, with the arrival of my son, that I wholeheartedly embraced the “call” of being an artist. The Renaissance writers referred to it as “il terribile,” describing the possession of Michelangelo by the spirit of art.

In my younger days, I consistently indulged in drawing. My brother and I dedicated our summers to replicating Spider-Man comic books, striving to capture the essence of the comic artists’ style. Beyond mere imitation, what truly captivated me was the liberating sensation I experienced while drawing—especially when crafting my own original figures. A vivid memory stands out: at around the age of 10, my father challenged me to reproduce an image of an American fighter jet from a magazine. Though I meticulously recreated the image to his astonishment and pride, I missed the exhilaration that accompanies true creation. My initial artistic spark waned, and later, I faced disappointment after failing the most significant art exam in the Caribbean, which led me to abandon art.

Art remained a paradox for me—a source of freedom yet a puzzle regarding practicality. The question of whether it could sustain me financially lingered. My father, particularly skeptical of art as a viable pursuit, believed it wouldn’t yield a stable income. In contrast, my mother was steadfast in her support, procuring comics and art supplies. An amusing dichotomy emerged—while my father would temporarily confiscate my art supplies, urging me to read, my mother would quietly return them once he left. In retrospect, this tug-of-war shaped the artist within me. It fueled my continuous exploration of reading, drawing, and imagining. Today, my work predominantly intertwines history, learning, and imaginative creations.

During high school, my aim was to attend the Edna Manley College of Art, but my poor performance on the entrance exam dealt me a blow. Over the following two years, I labored relentlessly to meet the prerequisites for college, and ultimately succeeded. Upon entering undergrad, a remarkable shift occurred and I felt a genuine sense of belonging and camaraderie. For the first time, I felt at home, surrounded by my people. Prior to this, I often felt out of place—whether at home, church, or even in Jamaica itself. Subsequently, I was awarded a grant by the now defunct Chase Fund to pursue higher education at the New York Academy of Art in the USA.

My time in New York profoundly transformed me on both mental and emotional levels. It propelled me to new heights, and it was during this period that I crossed paths with my wife. Our union blossomed, and five years into our marriage, we welcomed our first child, Judah. While art was a constant in my life, it wasn’t until the impending arrival of my son that something clicked. The desire to become a role model for him ignited within me, and the decisive moment arrived when I consciously chose to be an artist. The undercurrent of this sentiment had been present throughout my life. Had I always found joy in creating? Absolutely. However, it was a calculated decision, marked by the birth of my son, that propelled me into action.

Today, I stand as a testament to the power of embracing one’s calling and nurturing the artist within. This journey, though long and occasionally challenging, has ultimately culminated in a sense of purpose and fulfillment that propels me to create and inspire.

3. Was there a pivotal moment for you?

A turning point that truly defined my journey as an artist occurred when my son was on the brink of entering the world. I realized that pursuing art wasn’t just an option—it was a necessity. Until then, art had been an ever-present part of my life. As I’ve mentioned previously, I had achieved accolades in the field, completed a master’s program, and more. Yet I still grappled with uncertainty about my abilities and whether I truly desired this path. This, I believe, is the artist’s mind at work—a tendency to overthink and ponder endlessly, often caught in a cycle of self-examination.

The impending arrival of my son, Judah, introduced a new dimension of motivation. Another factor also played a significant role—an inquiry my father posed shortly before his passing. The moment is etched in my mind. The clock had just struck 8 pm, and he had returned home after dedicating the entire day to his role as a pastor. Immersed in his Bible, he called me into his room and posed a question that has lingered in my thoughts for two decades: “Andrae, what can you say you have achieved in your life?” At that time, my relationship with him was complex; our interactions were often distant, and I harbored feelings of resentment towards him. The question only served to deepen the rift between us.

I now recognize that the birth of my son and the weight of my father’s question from years ago hold immense significance in shaping who I am today. They became pivotal forces that guide my journey as an artist.

4. Where do you find inspiration?

My wellspring of inspiration stems from a harmonious blend of my family, faith, interpersonal connections, and the socio-political landscapes I observe in the world. Furthermore, I draw inspiration from the rich tapestry of art history, including both timeless masterpieces from the past and contemporary artistic expressions. One striking example of this interplay is seen in my artwork, Figure in Repose with Two Sharks, where the conceptual foundation originates from Damien Hirst’s renowned piece, The Impossibility of Conceiving Death in the Mind of the Living. Another instance is my creation, Stoic Whales (2016), which was directly inspired by David Lynch’s cinematic creation, Mulholland Drive.

Presently, my artistic focus revolves around the “Divers” series, which was kindled by a question posed by my father two decades ago: “What have you accomplished in your life so far?” This query continues to resonate within me, driving me to explore life’s complexities, aspirations, and obstacles through the metaphor of diving. This series delves into diverse facets of existence, including fear, failure, ambition, and joy, all conveyed against the backdrop of water—an element symbolizing my father’s attempts to teach me to swim, an endeavor where my proficiency never matched his expectations.

As a new chapter unfolded with the birth of my son, Judah (born in 2017), and my aspirations became more pronounced. I sought to become someone he could look up to with pride. To lend a concrete framework to this aspiration, I drew from a cherished childhood memory: my family’s Sunday trips to Kingston harbor for ice cream, where I observed local boys leaping into the harbor’s enigmatic depths. This poignant image of their enthusiastic dives amid an environment adorned with repurposed materials and discarded objects profoundly resonated with me. Despite their surroundings, these boys emanated excitement, exhilaration, and hope. This portrayal has functioned as a wellspring of imagination, calming my apprehensions while infusing me with optimism.

Within my ongoing series, I embark on a cyclic dialogue between my late father and my young son. Through these artworks, I endeavor to engage in conversations that never occurred during my father’s lifetime and to impart life lessons for my son’s future. The backdrop for these exchanges is a reimagined rendition of Kingston harbor, a location that encapsulates my formative memory of resilient boys plunging into its waters—a metaphor for surmounting life’s adversities. Through these artistic expressions, I delve into the intricate dynamics of familial connections and emphasize the significance of transmitting wisdom and experiences across generations.

5. What is your favorite medium?

My default mediums are drawing and painting, as they’ve been integral to my artistic journey. Drawing has been a natural inclination for me for as long as I can remember—it’s a language that flows effortlessly from my creative core. Yet, it is painting that holds an exceptional place in my heart. The allure of painting captivates me on multiple levels: the historical connections, the philosophical depth, the malleability of the medium, and most importantly, the journey it takes me on.

In the realm of painting, every stroke guides you on a unique journey. My mentor, Vincent Desiderio, aptly terms it “Going to Hell and Back.” Each canvas becomes a portal to what the poet St. John of the Cross referred to as the “dark night of the soul.” This phase isn’t an indication of weakness or failure, but rather a pivotal step in spiritual growth and transformation. It’s a period of shedding attachments, confronting profound truths about oneself and the divine. Moreover, it’s a juncture where one can discover heightened faith, hope, and love, emerging with a richer intimacy with the divine. Embracing and navigating the dark night of the soul necessitates courage and trust; it leads to the dawn of renewal—a new life, a new day, and a renewed self.

Painting grants me the platform to methodically and thoughtfully unravel ideas, ultimately arriving at a personal truth that resonates both intellectually and emotionally. Within the confines of painting, I wield a scalpel to excise my internal demons—fears and anxieties rooted in the world. Surrendering to the process of painting is akin to undergoing a transformation that propels me into a new state of being.

What truly elevates painting for me is its unparalleled plasticity. Picasso astutely remarked, “Painting is a blind man’s profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen.” Painting transcends limitations—it embraces everything and anything. It’s a realm where creativity reigns supreme, and one can utilize diverse elements to craft a visual narrative. This unfettered freedom is what resonates most profoundly with me and cements painting’s cherished place in my artistic repertoire.

6. Can you describe your process?

My artistic process is intricately intertwined with the pursuit of uncovering my personal truths. Typically, inspiration strikes in the form of mental images or reflections on familial experiences—each of these images represents a question about life, a query for which I seek answers.

To begin, I prefer translating these mental snapshots into small drawings. I find that immersing myself in the composition’s structure is paramount before venturing into the realm of color. The art of composition holds immense fascination for me. It’s where I intricately weave the layers of my intended messages, subtly embedding the narratives and emotions I aim to evoke in the viewer. Once the foundational drawing takes shape, I transition to crafting a “bozzetto,” a small-scale mock-up or preliminary painting that guides me before I embark on the main work.

Subsequently, I delve into the creation of concise sketches, each dedicated to a specific element within the composition—whether it’s a figure or an object. These sketches are building blocks for the entire imaginative landscape I’m aiming to manifest. Over the past year or so, I’ve introduced another layer to my creative process—constructing a digital composite of the composition. This recent addition enhances my ability to visualize the final piece, enabling me to refine the nuances before I commit them to canvas.

Once these preparatory steps are meticulously accomplished, the true creative journey commences—a journey I often liken to a crucible, where the fusion of ideas, emotions, and artistic techniques melds into a singular expression.

7. Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your work?

My intention is for my work to spark a challenging introspection within the viewers, inciting them to confront thought-provoking questions. Can one transcend their circumstances? How can we fully embrace the present moment? Is it possible to be one’s true self without compromise? How can I contribute to addressing the socio-economic and political issues that impact not only myself but also my community?

In addition to encouraging this self-examination, I aspire for my art to kindle a sense of hope—a vision of a promising future. This hope, nestled within my heart, drives me to create. I firmly believe that hope imbues life with purpose and significance. Through my artistic endeavors, I strive to inspire this very hope, fostering a brighter tomorrow that’s grounded in our collective efforts to better our world.

Chasing Paradise, 2022, oil and acrylic on canvas

September 5, 2023

An Interview with Anabella Wewer

Anabella’s work is featured in the exhibit, “Unsettled Pieces,” which runs from August 20, 2023 through November 5, 2023.

1. Tell us a little about your background.

I am a graphic designer by profession, working mostly on user interfaces and web applications, but I like to say I am a typographer first. After many years in front of a computer, and having been on the forefront of the desktop publishing revolution, as well as the birth of the web as we know it, I started craving creating with my hands. I missed paper and printing presses and the smell of ink, to be honest. I started learning ceramics and fiber arts, and devoted more time to photography, which had always been a passion. I eventually started working in mosaic which lead me down a path into metalsmithing in a very indirect way (I wanted to make metal masks for a mosaic featuring harlequins…!).

I was born in Venezuela into a Portuguese family, so I grew up speaking both Spanish and Portuguese. My family eventually came to the U.S., and I learned English. Mosaics brought me to Italy where I got to really practice the rudimentary Italian I had from my teenage years. That ability to communicate in Italian has really informed a lot of what I do as a mosaicist, and facilitated my training in the classical ways. Being able to communicate fluently in many languages has also opened up a lot of teaching and learning opportunities, and allows me to really understand the origins of the art and influences of a lot of what I do artistically.

2. When did you know you were an artist?

I pretty much stumbled into graphic design while in college. I had started out in computer science, probably because I simply didn’t know that design was a viable career path while growing up in Venezuela. I still work in the technical field, and am fascinated by all the possibilities of technology, but beautifully designed printed matter or a carefully typeset book make me tingle with delight. All of that is very creative, and I was able to use my innate affinity for color and my love for type in creative ways for years, but I really allowed myself to think of myself as an artist when I was able to tell a story with hard materials and no words. I had made things since I was a young kid, but I didn’t call myself an artist or even a maker until I made an abstract mosaic that I was proud of visually and made people think.

3. Was there a pivotal moment for you?

Yes! I was chaperoning my son’s choral trip to Italy (my first visit there), and we were visiting the Savelli Gallery, just outside of the Vatican. It was really crowded, and looking for some quiet, I rounded a corner away from all the “Pope this and that,” and came face to face with a woman working at a desk. It clearly was an ancient desk, surrounding her on three sides, on a sort of platform. The desk had many compartments filled with colorful filaments of glass. She was making a small, maybe 4” x 4” reproduction of Van Gogh’s Irises.

I didn’t know what I was looking at, but I was enamored. My Italian wasn’t as good as it is now, and I wasn’t confident enough to talk with her, so I left not knowing what that was. It was like no mosaic I had ever seen, so I didn’t even think to search for “mosaic” at first. It was a few weeks before I searched for “micro,” instead of “mini,” “small,” etc. The woman had been making a micro mosaic, using what is called smalti filati, a technique invented centuries before, at the nearby Vatican mosaic studio. I was hooked.

Eventually I spent a month studying the technique, in two different locations in Italy, but I still have a long way to go. Micro mosaic is even more time consuming than mosaics, and there just hasn’t been time for me to go back, but I fully intend to! However, someone advised me early on that I should really learn regular mosaics first, so I went down that path. I took a couple of workshops in the U.S., but quickly decided I wanted to learn the classical tradition, and went to Italy to learn as often as I could. The idea of working in mosaics wasn’t that appealing, honestly. I had only ever seen mosaic on tables, flower pots, and mirrors, and had no idea mosaics could be fine art. That was 2004, and a lot has changed since, both in my exposure to the art form and in the mosaic world in general.

4. Where do you find inspiration?

Inspiration finds me at the most unexpected times: while having dinner, taking a walk, working on something else, in the middle of a conversation with someone…. Ideas come fully formed; I see the finished piece in my mind. I then have to get out of the way, not overthink it, and just make it. Inspiration often comes from nature, or materials themselves, or from looking at other artwork, but the ideas that inform a particular mosaic have usually been sitting around in the back of my mind for a while, waiting their turn. Sometimes the idea is a concept, or a story that needs telling, and my job is to figure out how to use the language of mosaic to tell it. The ideas can be pretty abstract themselves.

I try to be open to seeing details, especially in unexpected places or contexts. It’s sometimes a problem, because I don’t remember the overall context, I just remember what a particular color looked like when the light was filtered through a hole, for example, and then spend endless hours trying to achieve that look with hard materials with a limited chromatic range.

5. What is your favorite medium?

It’s been some time since I’ve worked with metals (with the logistics of studio space), but I’d be hard pressed to choose between metalsmithing and mosaics. The works I make through each are very different in nature, requiring different skills and a different mindset. Unlike mosaics, jewelry is very personal to the wearer, which means I need to hit different notes. Mosaics, on the other hand, allow me to tell more complex stories and work more freely. I am really at home with either.

6. Can you describe your process?

I am truly a process mosaicist. What I mean is that while I am proud of, and generally really like the works when they are finished, once I finish them, they are wall hangings. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at them, except when I am using them as examples to teach with, or others ask me to talk about them. What I truly love is the actual making; the search for the right material; the testing of techniques to make sure the work will “say” what I want it to say; testing textures and color combinations until I get it right; figuring out the technical challenges of my increasingly complicated substrates; it is all part of the making, it is not just making lines with hard materials.

I love the time cutting natural materials and seeing the inside of a stone for the very first time. Many times that process leads to ideas for new projects, just because of the qualities of the materials. I save some materials for years, until the right design comes along for a particular stone. It requires that I am open to what the materials are telling me and to seeing things in new ways, instead of imposing my will upon them (though that does happen often enough!). Sometimes it’s simply not giving up on a stone and trusting the right idea will come.

I don’t sketch a lot. I tend to not work out a design on paper (but I never did in graphic design either). I instead go for a walk or do something else, until I can work it out in my head. I am open to the design changing while I am working on it, open to letting the idea develop and be free. It is one of the benefits of working mostly on abstract works; I don’t have to faithfully reproduce a person or an object. I am using materials and lines, the mosaic language, to speak freely, making use of the strength or delicacy of either to communicate thoughts.

7. Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your work?

I generally write statements because they are required of me. I understand that they help people comprehend what I meant to say, to put the work in context. But I am more interested in what others see in the work, what it means to them, with the strength of their experiences and background, and what they bring to that moment when they interact with my work. I’d love to listen in on the conversations that happen then, between people, or within them, about how the work affects them, what it means to them.

Mosaic is an ancient art form, one which provides immense possibility, and one with a tradition and history I choose to honor and carry forward. It is a slow art, whose knowledge was passed on orally and at the hands of a master, in an apprentice setting, for hundreds of years. New technologies and ease of travel have given mosaic a resurgence, but also a lot of conflicting information. “Truths” are passed on in a whisper-down-the-alley sort of way, leading to mistaken information being written about in well-respected books, with little to back them up. I currently am involved in a lot of research to correct some of the terminology commonly used in our community, or at least to question its translated definitions. It is a sometimes perilous space to be in, because defining mosaic itself is so controversial, especially in the English speaking world.

What mosaic can do is what I am interested in challenging as an artist, as opposed to what it is. Using the ancient techniques with modern technologies (lighter substrates, stronger adhesive, etc.), we have the opportunity to bring mosaic forward, away from a flat surface, or as decorative covering for architectural features, and into the fine art realm, capable of conveying emotion and meaning, and eliciting an emotional response from viewers, as art does.

—Anabella Wewer
www.anabellawewermosaics.com

July 1, 2023

An Interview with Debora Aldo

Aldo’s work appears in “Unsettled Pieces,” a mosaic exhibit that runs from August 20, 2023 through November 5, 2023.

Tell us a little about your background.

I have been an artist since I was old enough to understand the concept. I remember making marks all over the walls at three and four years old. The reaction was not favorable at the time; I am not sure if it was the surface or the marks themselves! My favorite way to spend time as a child was in the garden amid the plants, wandering the brook in my backyard and disappearing into my bedroom, sitting on the floor with a box of crayons or paints making drawings of the natural world that I had just seen outside.

In high school I finished the required classes early and spent my senior year in an art studio with 5 other people. I went to college for art, followed by another degree in communications and marketing, and then got an advanced degree in landscape architecture and horticulture. Yes, I got three degrees and, surprisingly, I actually use them all! I spent time after art school trying to figure out how to use those skills in a variety of jobs. Today and for the last 24 years I have created scale drawings and architectural renderings which are then turned into mosaics. Some of the works are small but most are large works such as pebble and stone paving, sculptures, or hanging panels. Recently I have been working on pushing the boundaries of traditional mosaics.

When did you know you were an artist?

I came here to this life as an artist, it seems prescient. There was never a time when I was not compelled to be an artist or a maker. Art has always been a constant in my life.

Was there a pivotal moment for you?

Yes! I spent my senior year of high school mainly in an art studio. When I graduated my father took me to Europe for much of the summer. It was the “grand tour” and to this day one of my favorite experiences. My father owned a business in Sweden and had many business associates and friends in many countries. While he worked, I explored. I was 17 when I graduated and had never been more than a short plane ride away and never out of the country. Now I was “across the pond” and learning to travel, to explore, to negotiate, and to absorb as much art and culture as I could drink in and I was very thirsty.

I spent time in many countries but the pivotal moment came in Paris, France. I went to the Louvre and spent the day in the museum. I saw the Mona Lisa: too tiny, too many people to wade through to catch a glimpse. Meh…. I walked away to find more to explore and ran straight into the most pivotal moment of my life. It literally changed the trajectory of everything. I came across a fireplace surround: It was a hunt scene; I could see the fear in the fox’s eyes. The red jackets of the riders stood out from the grey dullness of the day. I could hear the dogs braying. I could not stop looking at the story unfolding before my eyes but when I finally did I saw that it was made of thin threads of glass, a micro mosaic. I had never seen a mosaic before but I knew that I loved this art form the second I saw it. I knew, with every cell of my being, that I would make mosaics and they have been a huge part of my life for decades now.

Where do you find inspiration?

I love to look at architecture, to understand how things are constructed, to mentally dismantle them and rebuild them. To think about how I would do it differently and why. I also find inspiration outside, in the woods or at the water. It’s always invigorating and healing.

What is your favorite medium?

I prefer drawing more than painting. It is faster and mostly used as a means to an end to communicate something to a client or someone looking at the drawing. I often start with a drawing to make a mosaic, which is my favorite medium.

Can you describe your process?

For my personal work, I am inspired to create when I find an issue that is meaningful. The environment is front and center for me. The things that motivate me are a concern about our water, habitat loss, or social justice issues such as gender inequality, human trafficking, or racism. I begin researching, reading anything I can find on the subject. The research informs my work and is the jumping off point for creating sketches, small sculptures, and then the actual finished work. I make a substrate and then build up from there, layering mesh and concrete, or carving and prepping the base so I can cover it with glass, stone, plastic, and/or metal. The fun begins as I begin to think about how the materials I’ve chosen will intersect and communicate with each other and they contribute to the story I am telling.

Mosaic is a complex process and one that needs to be processed in a dimensional way. I use this art because a drawing or a painting will not express as deeply as something made of hundreds or thousands of cut pieces called tesserae. Once the work is built, I try to put a statement out for viewers who want to understand what it means to me. But there are other times when no statement is forthcoming and viewers bring their own experiences, often very dissimilar to my thoughts. Hearing them explain my work to me is endlessly fascinating and edifying as well.

Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your work?

Because I have been working in this medium for almost three decades, I am now looking at ways to change my definition of mosaic. After spending years working in classical methods, they became a cage as opposed to a sense of freedom. I felt that the established way of working was too static and I wanted to add motion. I wanted to redefine the base of the work, the adhesives, and the way they looked. There are a few works in this show that are an example of that. And I am thankful to have a place for viewers to look at this new way of making mosaic.

Finally, mosaic began as a craft, made by craftsmen. Yes, men. Today mosaics are made by far more women than men, which is a positive change. Unfortunately, mosaics are still not taken seriously as fine art. I hope that my work and the work of others help to change that. My hope is that visitors who see this exhibit feel the quality of the work and the dedication that is required of this very slow form of making art. Mosaics are an ancient but ever-changing medium.

What Color Is Freedom

Ascension

May 1, 2023

An interview with Tula Telfair

Telfair’s work appears in the “TAG” exhibit, April 2 through August 27, 2023.

Telfair in her studio.

Tell us a little about your background.

I grew up on four continents, but spent most of my early childhood in the rainforests of Gabon with the Fang and Pigmy peoples and where weather and nature were impossible to ignore. I paint remembered and invented monumental landscapes and employ varied painterly techniques to create epic-scale vistas that I hope will be simultaneously awe-inspiring and intimate, fictitious, and familiar.

I received a BFA as a W.W. Smith foundation Fellow from Moore College of Art in 1984 and earned an MFA in 1986 as a Graduate Fellow from Syracuse University. I’m represented by Forum Gallery in New York City and Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, NC. I’m also Chair of the Department of Art and Art History and a Professor of Environmental Studies in the College of the Environment at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

When did you know you were an artist?

In my sophomore year of college, I decided to major in painting instead of becoming a medical illustrator after taking my first art–for–hire job with the VA hospital in Philadelphia. I made a pamphlet that involved lots of line work with ink, no light source, and no color. I wasn’t intellectually or expressively satisfied or challenged and realized that to be happy in life, I would need to experience those things in my studio practice. Painting offered that then and still does.

Was there a pivotal moment for you?

Ever since I was 19, I secretly made landscape paintings as color studies for my “real” hyper-realistic art. They were invented and looked like fluid shapes of color–think Rothko mixed with Avery–very abstract. I loved school and my teachers, but they were modernist and performance artists who told me I would never be respected as an artist if I made landscapes because landscapes are “dumb.” Years later, a gallery director walked into my studio unannounced and saw a group of these paintings on paper drying on the floor and invited me to be part of an exhibition of four landscape painters in NYC. In that moment I accepted the fact that I could make work that I wanted to make, instead of work for art critics. Ironically, landscapes like mine are now considered environmental and political as well as poetic. I no longer feel like my work is a secret guilty pleasure.

Where do you find inspiration?

My relationship with the Wilderness began as an infant, when my parents took me into the jungle to live when I was two weeks old. For years, the primary stimulation and concern for our family was how the nature surrounding us could help us or put us at risk. In this pristine place, we thought about how we could survive. As soon as you build a shelter, find a water supply, or try to keep warm, you begin “landscaping” the terrain to make it safe and hospitable so you can survive.

We approached everything we did with a desire to respect the environment and do as little as possible to put our stamp on the land. Today, most people–even in remote lands–depend on computers and cellphones, and don’t realize how much damage is done to the planet in order to extract the raw materials needed to live a modern and connected life. While we enjoy these wonderful conveniences, everything we do impacts the well-being of this planet. Still, I came to landscape painting instinctively and am drawn to its sublime beauty and the almost religious feeling it triggers in me.

My work comes out of a profoundly inspired awe I feel in the presence of landscape. Today, everyone is aware of the impact devastating weather events have unleashed on this planet. All landscape painting today is necessarily about climate change, even if that is not the first impulse of the artist. Visions of Nature and Wilderness can be soothing or warn of the fragility of a place, they can offer peace and an escape from daily stresses, or they can frighten. In the end, I find solace in Nature and it reminds me that I am small and transitory and that this planet is the one thing I have directly in common with all life that has come before me and will come after me. I paint landscapes out of respect and awe for their beauty and power to inform feelings about life, but now I guess I’m also making political art. Life is complex and I hope that the work I make can serve many needs for many different people. I am on an endless journey to make a portrait of Nature through lived experience and memory.

What is your favorite medium?

Oil Paint–you can do so much with it!!! It’s yummy!!!!

Can you describe your process?

The vivid yet visceral memories I have of places I’ve been or seen inform the technical decisions I make. Starting with a blank canvas, I work intuitively and the image changes countless times until the piece triggers a déjà vu experience. The surface of each painting is extremely varied and heavily layered. Some paintings conceal more than 10 different images below the final one. I use a multitude of painting techniques, picking and choosing where and when the paint will be smooth or rough or creamy or thick or thin in order to facilitate a corporal reaction from the viewer. These works appear to be photographs from a distance, but as one approaches, the landscape image dissolves into an abstract, physically varied and fully material surface that also becomes a site for investigation, serving as an archive of my actions and decisions and a record of my intellectual and emotional explorations.

Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your work?

The remote locations I paint are inspired by areas where physical change is rapidly occurring on this planet. My recent work is informed by visits to active volcanoes, locations where tectonic plates meet and earthquakes occur daily, the solitary Arctic and Antarctic regions, and isolated areas in Africa. As I paint, I try to capture what it felt like moving through a location, recalling how the terrain shifted, how soft or hard it was under my feet, how the sun or wind felt coming into contact with my skin, and the smells and sounds I experienced navigating the area. Ultimately, I am fascinated by the subjectivity of perception and the power of memory to anchor our place in the world.

Telfair as a child.

March 1, 2023

An interview with Carol O’Malia

O’Malia’s work appears in the “TAG” exhibit, opening April 2, 2023.

Tell us a little about your background.

I was born in Boston and am a native New Englander. I majored in Illustration at RISD because I thought it was “safer” than being a painter, though I always wanted to paint in oils. I illustrated for 15 years in oils and then in scratchboard. It increasingly became a less sustainable path financially. I taught part-time at Mass Art for years and thought my path would be to teach, so I pursued an MFA in painting but then was laid off from the teaching position!

After I graduated and was no longer illustrating or teaching, I taught myself all the Adobe programs, bought my first Mac, built a new portfolio, and took contract work. I totally faked my way into design! Then another recession hit and I kept getting laid off. I always painted though, even small paintings while I did temp work. I really couldn’t stand working on the computer all day.

When did you know you were an artist?

I knew I wanted to be an artist when I was 13, but I didn’t tell anyone because I knew that they (the “grown-ups!”) would ruin my dream, so I hid it.

Was there a pivotal moment for you?

At age 39, I had my first and only child. One day I noticed a strange, slightly opaque halo in my eye. I went to the opthamologist and learned that I had aggressively growing cataracts. I had to wait 6 months for surgery, and in that time I lost 80% of the vision in my right eye and my left eye started to deteriorate.

So I quit everything to figure out how to cope with this and a newborn. I went into my studio and painted very large snow paintings. After I finished them, still waiting for surgery, I met with the director of the Fitchburg Art Museum. My work ended up in their triennial show, was reviewed in the Boston Globe, and I got picked up by a gallery in Utah. I had an “aha” moment when I realized people actually liked my work!

Where do you find inspiration?

Initially it was in nature. I’d walk around the woods to calm myself, but that became harder to do with an infant, as the solitary part was gone. I then realized that my inspiration was in my daughter and her changes. She is the female in most of my paintings. I have never done a full portrait of her, rather, I see her as “every girl.” I tried to record the feeling of just that moment in time, the ephemerality of it.

I never felt they were sweet paintings just because they had kids in them. I actually felt like I had to paint them to make sure the kids were safe, because the world is so fraught with unknowns. My kids are always alone, with no adults in sight, but they are safe.

What is your favorite medium?

Oil paints. There is no competition.

Can you describe your process?

A lot of thinking. A lot of planning. All my imagery is based on photos that I take. I set up the models, the pillows, etc. I jump into the pool with my beachballs. I saved my parents’ vintage lawn chairs when my brothers threw them into a dumpster after my parents died. The chairs ended up in a series of paintings.

Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your work?

The fabric paintings are new. I could use a lot of artspeak about composition and color, but really something in there is about my mother who passed away 10 years ago. She sewed everything. I won’t really know what they mean for a while, and I just accept the process.

Carol O’Malia

Remnant #1, 72″ x 60″, oil on canvas

Remnant #2, 72″ x 60″, oil on canvas

January 1, 2023

An interview with Mandy Fariello

Fariello’s work appears in the Duxbury Art Association’s 2022 Annual Winter Juried Show (12/18/2022-03/18/2023).

Tell us a little about your background.

I grew up on a small farm in a tiny town in western Massachusetts. I was always doing something creative, from sewing doll clothes to making tree forts, but never thought of art as a career.

We moved to Marshfield in the middle of tenth grade. Talk about culture shock! I met my future husband when I sat behind him in Anatomy class. I kept being creative, mostly quilting, while working and raising our daughter. I worked in finance at the hospital where I was born for almost 30 years.

When did you know you were an artist?

I didn’t actually make the declaration “I am an Artist” until 2008 when I started to get involved in mixed media and MailArt. Within a few years I was teaching MailArt at local scrapbooking stores.

Was there a pivotal moment for you?

In 2017, I took an intensive 12-week online workshop with Nicholas Wilton (Art2Life Creative Visionary Program) that changed my trajectory. A year later, I stopped working at the hospital and started my journey with The Duxbury Art Association.

My latest project of creating a small collage every day on a vintage library catalog card started in February 2019 and is still going strong.

Where do you find inspiration?

Everywhere! My family is trained to pick up rusty bits on the side of the road. I love the feel of old book pages that have a patina of history built in. I recently acquired 50 years of household bills, checks, and letters from my in-laws that are adding history to my paintings.

What is your favorite medium?

It might be easier to list the media I don’t use….ha! But seriously, my favorite supplies are worn, crusty, rusty found objects and old paper. I find delight in discarded objects. If you drop your shopping list in a puddle, I will probably pick it up to use in a collage…. Humor plays a big part in my art. Even if you can’t see it in the final piece, there is usual some tongue-in-cheek humor hidden in the layers.

Can you describe your process?

I rarely know where I will end up when I start. My paintings usually have many layers of paint and paper that I excavate with tools including an orbital sander. My daily collages are also not pre-planned. I pick up a few books or cut off bits and flip though until an image or phrase catches my eye. From that starting point, my brain starts whirring and making weird connections until the collage comes together.

Mandy Fariello, Daily Collage 04/05/2021

Mandy Fariello_Fried Chicken_2021_sm_found object assemblage_teapot, antique goggles, roller skate, taxidermy clay

Mandy Fariello, Fried Chicken, 2021, found object assemblage, tea pot, antique goggles, roller skate, taxidermy clay

Mandy Fariello_Gormandizer_2022_LL_Old book pages, acrylic, orbital sander, coffee

Mandy Fariello, Gormandizer, 2022, old book pages, acrylic, coffee

November 1, 2022

An interview with Stephanie Todhunter

Todhunter’s work appears in the “The Blue Notebooks” exhibition (9/18/2022-12/4/2022).

Tell us a little about your background.
I grew up in rural towns and city suburbs in Wisconsin and Minnesota. We moved almost every year and the cyclic uprooting continues to inform my work. Always being the “new kid” meant both the continued possibility of radical reinvention but also an absence of culture and community.

When did you know you were an artist?
Art as work was not really an option and I did not consider art as a career until I went back to school for landscape design. I was immediately absorbed by drawing and drafting and decided to focus full-time on developing an art practice.

Was there a pivotal moment for you?
As an artist I find I am constantly pivoting between emotional, physical, fiscal, and familial moments. Each moment requires change and adaptation.

Where do you find inspiration?
My inspiration comes from a combination of childhood experiences and pop-culture influences. I am a devourer of imagery and media from the last fifty years, regurgitating a mash-up of Terminator and Stranger Things; Tron and Bladerunner; Barbie and Gorilla Girls; Star Wars and Mean Girls.

What is your favorite medium?
Plywood, spray-paint, oil pastels, ink toner and dye.

Can you describe your process?
I usually start with an original macro photo portrait from one of my plaster series, Latchkey Kids. Using a combination of digital and analog collage and experimental printmaking processes, I create larger mixed-media works on canvas, plywood, paper, canvas, and glass. I use xerox, inkjet and laser prints, GIMP software (graphics editor) and macro photography. I add color via spray-paint, acrylic paint, oil sticks, oil pastels, and collage. I sand away and paint over. Nothing is ever completely destroyed or completely finished.

Stephanie Todhunter, Donna, 2019, 8x7x4 inches
Plaster of Paris, found objects, spray paint, alcohol inks

Stephanie Todhunter, Marnie wishes she were fascinating, 2020, 24×19 inches
Ink transfer, collage, spray paint, acrylic, oil on printmaking paper

Stephanie Todhunter, Woman’s Work, 2022, 48x36x2 inches
Ink transfer, collage, acrylic paint, oil pastel, spray paint on canvas

September 1, 2022

An interview with Anne Plaisance

Tell us a little about your background.

It’s a mixed media background! I’m French, with a master’s degree in International Trade from the Sorbonne. I play the harp and have a real estate license. I used to own an advertising company in Poland, and also designed luxury jewelry. I’m self-taught as an artist and curator.

When did you know you were an artist?

I still don’t know if I’m one. 🙂

Honestly, it was a process. As a kid I wanted to be a fashion designer, but instead studied international trade. I loved to draw, but was reprimanded for doing so in school. It felt like a forbidden pleasure for a while, but not now.

My parents tell me that as a 4-year-old, I kept looking at the paintings, sculptures, and stained glass in the churches we visited in Italy. Maybe I missed my vocation of becoming a pastor?

I began collecting art when I was 22, spending my salary first on art and then eating pasta and rice for the rest of the month. Later, I took painting lessons in a private school in Warsaw, Poland. A photographer friend saw my first drafts and encouraged me to continue.

I took a leap of faith after closing my advertising company in Poland in 2010 (a consequence of the sub-prime crisis). I thought, “Let’s do something for me, not something that others expect from me.” I completed a preparatory year at the Art School in Warsaw, but wanted a more balanced life. I wanted to be able to see my kids instead of being in class all day, even if it meant that a career in the arts would take longer.

And then synchronicity happened. When I began meeting other artists in 2011, I knew I had found my chosen family. Getting to know them felt like coming back home. I am still in awe that I’ve been welcomed so warmly.

Was there a pivotal moment for you?

I’ve had many pivotal moments in my life:

Children, marriage, divorce, opening a company, closing it, making friends, losing them, learning, healing, seeing artworks that made me cry, conversations with strangers and friends, creating, books, concerts, moving from France to Poland to France to the US, my child’s depression and suicidal attempts.

Life is pivotal and precious.

Where do you find inspiration?

Everywhere, but most importantly from untold stories. Especially from women. Making the invisible visible, and understanding how connection between our souls is vital. Sharing our shame, failures, fears, sadness or despair as well as love, hopes, inspiration, joy and dreams make us closer to each other.

Our shared humanity is my biggest inspiration, whether it springs from conversations, books, music, or stories.

What is your favorite medium?

Paint, I guess, but I love experimenting with other media, such as objects and barbed wire. Art is a constant lesson in freedom and in removing constraints, especially the ones we have in our heads.

For example, curating a show is a new kind of medium, allowing me to invite amazing artists to create a new shared vision, new meanings. It’s also a lot of fun to get to know other artists better.

Can you describe your process?

The only constant in my process is going out of my comfort zone, getting past “No, I can’t do that” and asking, “But what would it look like if I tried?” Curiosity is the foundation. Changing the mindset, setting a new perspective, twisting, and being surprised all the time. Growing, listening to your intuition, struggling, learning to ask for help.

Learning is a constant, too. Last year I did a certificate program at Harvard to grow as a curator; it was fascinating. Next, I would love to learn wood sculpting, as well as repairing old cars, but I might end up getting a degree in sustainability. I just follow my curiosity.

Is there anything else you’d like us to know about your work?

I am working on many projects!

Taboo and uncomfortable subjects are my cup of tea: incest, domestic violence, mental health, suicide, etc. Not because I’m a masochist, but because my conviction is that when you have the courage to have difficult conversations, you find the strength to discover solutions as a society. Art is a mirror and a language, making the invisible visible.

Wonder Women Now, a women empowerment project featured in the Boston Globe, celebrates the strength of survivors of domestic violence. I am working on the London edition right now. I am very proud of this project, in which a lot of incredible international artists are participating. It’s humbling. I plan to show it in NYC, Paris, and Tokyo, but first need to find the right sponsors and convince museums to show it. You can say I like a challenge!

I just began Becoming, a new painting series celebrating famous and not enough recognized women in a variety of fields such as arts, science, politics, fashion, etc. I also have an abstract series called please tell them that I love them focusing on the tiny little moments and words that make loving someone so precious. I also see a recent shift in my work towards more colorful, hopeful, and joyous artwork. Stay tuned!

My brush is my sword!

July 1, 2022

An Interview with Marcia Ballou

Tell us a little about your background.

I grew up in California, in the rural Mt. Diablo area of San Francisco Bay. I spent hours riding my horse in the beautiful hills, surrounded by oak trees, California poppies—and in the Spring—yellow mustard. If I wasn’t riding, I was hiking with my family on the Mendocino headlands. These California moments are still magical memories for me that I draw upon for my work.

At Mills College, I had wonderful opportunities to study with Bay Area artists Ralph DuCasse, Gerald Brommer, Hilda Pertha, Russel Gordon, Jay DeFeo, and Wayne Thiebaud.

When did you know you were an artist?

My mother told me I was an artist! Making trips to the library to look at “art books” was a favorite pastime of mine. Letting me skip school for special visits to museums is also a favorite memory. My mother let me just quietly look at the art, and I have been quietly looking ever since.

Was there a pivotal moment for you?

In college, I took a plein air watercolor course with Gerald Brommer. The course covered watercolor techniques, color theory, and collage with rice paper. It was difficult and I was frustrated and disappointed with myself. We were painting my beloved California coast—fabulous Lupine flowers, California poppies, the green ocean, and blue skies—and I was shocked that I was getting it all so wrong. I was making a mess of it daily.

A class critique was planned for the last day of class. I was dreading it! In a moment of youthful frustration, I tore up many weeks’ worth of paintings—and immediately regretted it.

The regret triggered an idea. Brommer’s lesson in collage came to the rescue. I found some glue and spent the night recreating the 6 paintings in my own “language.” I am sure it was not what Mr. Brommer had in mind, but I did it anyway. I bundled up the paintings and went to the critique, without overthinking them. I was the final student to show my work. No one in the class was expecting much. But I suddenly “felt” Mr. Brommer looking at them. He turned to me and said, “Bravo.”

I’ve been doing collage ever since.

Where do you find inspiration?

A little experience that I hold dear continues to inspire me. I was sitting on a bench in my field, enjoying a sparkling summer day. The field was bright with wild flowers. A dance of nature appeared before my eyes. A swarm of dragonflies was diving, circling, and chasing each other. Their wings sparkled in the sunlight. A lovely kaleidoscope of Monarch butterflies then floated into the scene. It was enchanting.

I have tried to paint this scene many times, incorporating the joyful feeling I had.

What is your favorite medium?

Acrylic collage is my medium of choice, using a palette of painted rice papers and other found papers.

I also really enjoy the “stitch collage” pieces that I’ve been creating. I apply the same approach to the stitching as I do for acrylic collage, but the work is hand stitched, using painted and found fabrics and textiles. The process is slow and deliberate, quiet and soulful.

Can you describe your process?

I work to employ deliberate and spontaneous appliqués. I begin a composition with a simple pencil doodle on paper, which I then recreate on a canvas or board. I create the color and light atmosphere with intuitive gestures in paint. I then use painted papers and fabrics, assembling them like a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces are applied to the board with acrylic mediums, and then enhanced with paint.

My compositions are enlivened by unexpected combinations of material and shapes. The patterns create blossoms of texture on the surface of the painting.

My goal is to evoke joy.

marciaballou.com

March 31, 2022

An interview with Nancy Selvage

Tell us a little about your background.

I am a sculptor living in the Boston area. My artwork has been recognized and supported by numerous exhibitions, public art commissions, reviews, residencies, and awards, including two Artist Fellowships and New Works Commissions from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a National Endowment for the Arts Projects grant, and a New England Foundation for the Arts Public Art grant. Membership in Boston Sculptors Gallery has provided me with many opportunities for expansion, growth, and engagement.

My artwork has been commissioned by Google, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, City of Lowell, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Bristol Community College, Keene State College, City of Cambridge, National Park Service’s Grand Canyon Visitor Center, and North Carolina Zoo.

My educational career includes a Directorship at Harvard University’s Ceramics Program and guest teaching at Massachusetts College of Art, Ewha University in Seoul, Rhode Island School of Design, and School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. I have a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA from Tufts University.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a pivotal moment?

When I realized that I was a 3D person, that there was nothing better than a big open space and nothing worse than a blank canvas.

Who are your biggest influences?

Alice Neel was the mother of my college boyfriend. Spending a lot of time with her had a big impact on my world view. After encountering Picasso’s warped, marked, and reformed clay vessels, I precipitously decided to become a potter. Working on the potter’s wheel led to the realization that I was a better sculptor than potter.

Where do you find inspiration?

I create sculptures that respond to the intersection of spatial context and human engagement. Therefore, I am inspired by the cultural significance of each site and project. For example, the design of this bench evokes the relaxed gesture of lounging and responds to the undulating curves of the Art Complex Museum’s roof line and the organic forms of the tree trunks.

What do you like to do for fun?

I spend a lot of time designing, and cultivating my garden and the surrounding landscape.

What are you reading right now?

Carlo Rovelli’s Helgoland, Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, and Serhii Plokhy’s The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine.

What is your favorite medium?

I strive to capture moments of clarity from the complexity of experience and to engage myself and others in a discovery process. For these probing investigations I choose to work with layers of perforated metal. This medium animates illusive surfaces, fractures light, and envelops ephemeral spaces with complex moiré patterns that dramatically change with the viewer’s shifting perspective.

Can you describe your process?

I generally work on a relatively large scale so I usually design sculptures with smaller scale models before final fabrication. I work with physical scale models as well as 3D CAD models depending on the needs of the project. I use painted and perforated aluminum for indoor sculptures which I fabricate myself with assistants in my studio. For outdoor projects I use perforated stainless steel and work with a welder after the sculpture has been designed and the parts have all been cut.

How have Covid-19 and recent cultural events affected your work?

I was lucky to have a large public art commission to work on and an exhibition to prepare for during Covid, so I have been busy. My engagement with climate action deeply affected the creation of sculptures and photographs for my recent exhibition, “Solstice,” at Boston Sculptors Gallery.

Nancy Selvage is one of five artists chosen to build benches for the “Please Approach the Bench” exhibit on the Woodland Path, part of the museum’s new landscape as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

Nancy Selvage’s website

Nancy Selvage

Landscape Lounger, 2021, Art Complex Museum
stainless steel

Hydro, 2019, Lowell, Massachusetts
stainless steel

Flight Pattern, 2011, Art Complex Museum
perforated aluminum, mixed media

Googling, 2021

Google Lobby, Cambridge, Massachusetts

January 21, 2022

An interview with Mark DelGuidice

Tell us a little about your background.

I was born and raised just outside of New York City and later moved to Boston to go to college. Always creative (which often got me in trouble) I did not have any formal art education until after I graduated with a B.A. in Psychology.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a pivotal moment?

The summer before I finished college, I helped some friends build their house just outside of Boston. This is when I “woke” to my hands.

After college, as the years of retail management and bartending rolled on, I realized that working with my hands would be far more rewarding. So I enrolled in various classes that I found throughout the area to learn more about woodworking and making furniture. This search eventually led me to the Program in Artisanry at Boston University where I came to discover the value of artistic expression in furniture.

Who are your biggest influences?

Influences have included architectural styles as well as furniture history (Art Deco and Shaker) and many individual Artists.

Where do you find inspiration?

My inspiration comes from within me and is triggered by patterns that I experience in nature and in art.

What do you like to do for fun?

For fun I walk my dog Tennessee everyday in the woods regardless of the weather. During the summer I grow vegetables in my community garden plot and kayak. All year round I enjoy photography.

What are you reading right now?

Currently I’m reading the Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell and I just put down The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. And I often revisit Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

What is your favorite medium?

Of course my favorite medium is wood. So much possibility.

Can you describe your process?

My process of creating starts with a seed of a thought and continues with a “what if” of perspective. I then sketch any number of iterations I think are plausible and then I proceed to narrow down and focus on one of them. To do this I sketch the primary design in full scale on Kraft paper, then I use drafting tools to define the lines better. At this point I often create a maquette, a scale model (usually 1:6) to help visualize the piece. After a time of review I will make adjustments on the drawing that I think will enhance the design. And then it’s on to creating the piece during which I allow myself to make changes based on my physical experience and the materials used. During this design process I often plan spaces for incise carving various patterns, as well as my signature Intuitive Hieroglyphs. The hieroglyphs are abstractions and simplifications reflecting our complex visual world. In addition, I carve my daughter Arianne’s name, using Ari, in just about all of my work. The inspiration for this came from the New Yorker cover drawings by Al Hirschfeld where he hid his daughters name “Nina” in the lines of the drawing.

How have Covid-19 and recent cultural events affected your work?

Covid and recent cultural events have been difficult but I’m fortunate to have a private studio space where I can create, which gives me the opportunity to experience hope.

Mark DelGuidice is one of five artists chosen to build benches for our Woodland Path, part of our new landscape being created as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

markedwood.com

Mark DelGuidice

Book Bench, carved and
painted Basswood, soft Maple, Cherry.

Bubinga Console, Bubinga,
soft Maple, Milk Paint

Time Rolls On, Bubinga tambour,
Curly Maple, carved and painted

Passion Calling, Bubinga, Anigre, Walnut, Pearwood, Milk Paint

November 25, 2021

An interview with Mitch Ryerson

Tell us a little about your background.

I grew up in Cambridge, MA. My parents were both teachers and writers. We spent summers on Martha’s Vineyard where I spent most of my time in leaky old boats or making things outside.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a pivotal moment?

I didn’t really know that being an artist was something unusual when I was a kid. I thought everyone made stuff and had long summer vacations. It wasn’t until much later that I realised what a privilege this was.

Who are your biggest influences?

I went to Shady Hill School where my Dad was a teacher. The arts and the woodshop were very respected there and those teachers were my biggest influences.

After High School I went to a vocational school in Lubec, Maine that taught wooden boatbuilding. Back then we were building mostly working lobster boats. I worked in a boatshop in Brooklin, Maine for a few years and then came back to the city. I was in a shop on Lewis Wharf where I built small wooden boats and worked on big boats in the harbor.

Where do you find inspiration?

My biggest influences are woodworkers from many cultures and periods who use their skills to elegantly and efficiently fill a need. We think often of the Shakers as examples of this, but there are so many more from all over the world. There are still a few places where people make what they need by hand.

What do you like to do for fun?

I love to walk in the woods and play outdoors with my 2 year old grandson.

What are you reading right now?

I just read Barkskins by Annie Proulx. I am now reading Learn Move Play Ground which is about building playgrounds in schools in Egypt.

What is your favorite medium?

Wood, although I like to incorporate other materials as well.

Can you describe your process?

I do a lot of sketching and modeling. I don’t do scale drawings much any more unless for a big job where I have to submit drawings.

How have Covid-19 and recent cultural events affected your work?

Covid has reinforced for me the importance of caring about what you do and trying to use your skills to help other people and the planet.

Mitch Ryerson is one of five artists chosen to build benches for our Woodland Path, part of our new landscape being created as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

Mitch Ryerson

Bent Bench, 2020
Black locust, stainless steel,
cast stone

Wave Bench at Fresh Pond,
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Fish Benches, Westport, Massachusetts

Studio detail

September 26, 2021

An interview with Jacob Kulin

Tell me a little about your background.

A graduate of Skidmore College, I received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art. As a Boston-based sculptor of Danish heritage, I have longstanding admiration for Scandinavian design that have influenced my creative pursuits and the interplay of material remains a primary focus in my work. I strive to integrate the perfection of nature into many of my pieces. I believe a finished artwork must complement a space, engage the viewer, and leave a lasting impression. I work on private, corporate, and public commissions internationally ranging from residential pieces to large-scale sculptures for commercial and public spaces.

When did you know you were an artist?

I became an “aspiring artist” in college

Was there a pivotal moment?

I began working with three dimensional forms and jewelry during my undergraduate studies at Skidmore College. I took a number of 3D and sculpting courses that inspired creative interests. A few years later I went on to receive my masters in metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. I’ve been in Boston ever since…

Who are your biggest influences?

Alexander Calder, Andy Goldsworthy, Albert Paley, Jaehyo Lee, Arne Jacobsen, Borge Mogensen… to name a few.

Where do you find inspiration?

Within NATURE and the architectural realm…

What do you like to do for fun?

Play hoops, walk in the woods, hang with my young son & daughter.

What are you reading right now?

The Power of Now.

What is your favorite medium?

Wood, steel, aluminum

Can you describe your process?

My design concepts are usually born from a number of influences. I then rework and figure out what types of materials and forms I wish to work with. There are so many things to consider with each unique commission or artwork… Sketch’s turn into models which turn into computer programming files to then develop fabrication drawings and so on…

My Public Art designs are determined through collaborative dialog and a blending of client / community wishes. Clean forms combined with the use of innovative material and color are what define my portfolio.

How have Covid-19 and recent cultural events affected your work?

My work has been effected on a number of levels from elevated material and freight charges to long standing companies and clients I’ve worked with going out of business and/or downsizing…

Jacob Kulin is one of five artists chosen to build benches for our Woodland Path, part of our new landscape being created as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

Website www.kulinmodern.com

Instagram www.instagram.com/jacobkulin

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-kulin-0a97039/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kulinmodern

Jacob Kulin

Benchmark, 2021, Anodized aluminum, reclaimed oak, 35”H x 18”W x 99”L,

First Chair, 2016, Corten steel/bronze/stainless/granite, 16’H x 10’D

Modern Dance, 2011, Reclaimed fir/pine/hickory/stainless steel, 26’H x 6’W x 7’D

Coffee Table, 2016, Glass/steel/oak/chestnut, 16”H x 36”W x 36”D

Cutting Board Series, 2014, Maple/oak/walnut, 2”-3” thick by 13”-14” D

July 18, 2021

An interview with Leah Woods

Tell me a little about your background.

When I was a kid, my dad was in the army and my family moved around a bit. I continued this trajectory of moving, for college, grad school, residencies, jobs and the experience of moving and changing my environments has had a huge impact on me. I’m not exactly sure how moving around so much has had an impact on me, but I know I crave wandering, looking, walking, seeing new things, hearing different languages, eating different food, experiencing things that I am unfamiliar with, I feel like there is some kind of connection there.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a pivotal moment?

I don’t know when I thought I wanted to be an artist, but I do remember the moment I realized what it meant to learn a skill well-enough to be able to interpret it.

I went to the SOFA show in Chicago in 1995 and saw the furniture of Daniel Mack and Wendell Castle. I was taking my first woodworking class at that time, learning how to make a simple dovetail box and getting really excited about lining up the heartwood and sap wood in my pieces of walnut.

Walking through that show, I saw artwork that was unlike anything I had ever seen. There was a design class that took Yugos, the cars, and turned them into sculptures, such as a working shower, a fire-mantle piece, and a confessional. Then I walked into the main exhibition space and saw Castle and Mack’s work. Daniel Mack used tools as chair parts, chisels, hammers etc. and Wendell Castle created sculptural, highly textured and brightly colored mirrors, and I got so excited at the range of how all the artists in that show were interpreting their material, form, and function.

Who are your biggest influences?

I think my influences come from looking at how artists use material. Whatever the material is, wood, textiles, metal, clay. I’m interested in skill, technique, craftsmanship, how artists build, how they use connections, hardware, to hold material together.

Where do you find inspiration?

I’m inspired by anyone that has the courage to take risks and push themselves.

Recently I watched a documentary about the band Rush, and found it very inspiring. I don’t like their music, at all really, but I found their process to be wonderful. Their willingness to experiment and constantly challenge themselves as musicians and artists in both their creativity and skill, to the point of making mistakes and then learning from their successes and failures, was very inspiring. I guess I found it to be a reminder that this whole experience of being an artist is a long game. And the only way to keep making work is to simply keep making work.

What do you like to do for fun?

Dancing, reading, playing cards, walking, being with friends and family

What are you reading right now?

Over the last few years, I started reading a lot of fiction. There is some connection between learning to feel empathy in a story and thinking about how my work will be received in the world. Who my work is made for, how it can connect with its audience, I think reading fiction helps me to stay aware of how much I value making an object but then knowing that that object is valuable to someone, somehow.

What is your favorite medium?

Wood has been my preferred medium for 20 years. It is so versatile in terms of being able to turn it on the lathe, build fine furniture, build outdoor sculpture, and most recently, I am renovating my garage to turn it into a woodshop, so I’ve been doing construction/renovation work. I’m also interested in expanding my material vocabulary to include metal and concrete. I’m increasingly interested in outdoor sculpture and so I want to expand my knowledge of materials that are durable in various weather conditions.

Can you describe your process?

My working process, for both sculpture and furniture, involves a great deal of experimenting, analyzing, and revising. When I begin a new project, I sketch and build models, using paper, cardboard, and plywood. I can build dozens of models as I work through one idea and this is the most demanding and crucial part of my process. I need to work through ideas and explore possibilities as I get closer to realizing my vision. For this reason, I am building my own studio space, in my garage. To critically construct my work, I hang drawings on the wall, position models on the floor and walk about them, stand back and think, make revisions, and do it all again. To do this analytical work takes time and patience. Interruptions, phone calls, and conversations, cause me to forget the fleeting thoughts and connections my mind begins to form, causing me to lose any momentum I make in processing ideas. Uninterrupted time is my goal in a studio space. A place to sit, think, and critique in peace.

How have Covid-19 and recent cultural events affected your work?

I have been incredibly fortunate during Covid-19, as my work was not seriously affected and my friends and family remain healthy. The biggest take away for me during this past year has been to slow down and be able to be less busy. This less-busy scheduled allowed me to buy (my first) house last summer, it’s a duplex, so I am now learning how to be a landlord, and slowly work on the house, the yard, and begin renovating the garage to create a new studio space.

Leah Woods is one of five artists chosen to build benches for our Woodland Path, part of our new landscape being created as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahkathleenwoods/

Website: www.leahkwoods.com

email: leah@leahkwoods.com

Leah Woods

It was a Beautiful Night
Chainsaw carved bench, Pine and paint – 2019

The Sphere
Aluminum, paint, granite – 2018

Private Conversation
Chainsaw sculpture, Cherry logs – 2016

Private Conversation
Maple, paint, fabric – 2003

Coffee Table
Walnut, cast glass – 2010

May 17, 2021

An interview with Aaron Norfolk

Tell us a little about your background.

I came to Boston – where I have been for well over a decade now – from New York. I went to art school there at a place called the New York Studio School and ended up staying in the city for about thirteen years. I always see these years as critical in my development. The pressures to survive; the interaction with other artists; the isolation; and the scrutiny of so many intelligent and talented people – just to name a few – were priceless influences. I am originally from Virginia and grew up in Alexandria, just outside of DC…and a number of great art museums. I can see now how fortunate I was at a young age. Some of the exhibitions the National Gallery and the Hirshorn Museum put on could not be replicated anywhere else. Needless to say, a lot of time was spent looking at the collections.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a particular pivotal moment?

Being an artist was never really a question, it was something that was always part of me. It is something you understand about yourself. It is enmeshed with the way you process the world around you, and how you act in it. If you are lucky your understanding of yourself in this respect increases over time. But I must make the point that without focused effort none of this has meaning.

Who are your biggest influences?

My focus is painting, and although I cannot say painters influence me, I can say they challenge me. I will always love looking at great work – Giotto, Cezanne, De Kooning, Titian, Matisse, on and on – but it is the level at which they paint that is my focus. How far can one dive into the pictorial language? I study them and I consider their innovations, as I am always looking to push forward.

Where do you find inspiration?

Inspiration comes from nature almost exclusively. It presents the most inventive forms. There are, of course, so many human-made elements today that it is impossible to dismiss, but nature is still greater. It is really a limitless source to draw upon.

What do you like to do for fun?

It may sound funny, but I love to walk around Boston. Whether downtown, the common, the Arboretum – wherever – I walk and think. There is a lot of inspiration in that. Boston is a great area for this. I did it a lot when I lived in New York, so I guess it started there. There is always some adventure in it.

What are you reading right now?

The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia. Great book. It is a history of the human conquest of the oceans. So much of our development, globally, is bound to it. He makes it clear: if you want to know the human world and its societies, know our relationship with the oceans.

What is your favorite medium(s)

Oil paint is where I spend my time. This extends into intaglio often, with the two influencing each other. Sometimes in order to make strides in one medium you have to try-out the possibilities of another.

Can you describe your process?

I used to have a somewhat certain vision of the painting I was making, and I moved toward that end. It was as if it already existed. Now it is more akin to an unknown exploration wherein your instincts and decisions are part of the journey into undiscovered country. You simply set out. The painting is still inside somewhere waiting to be unlocked, but you see what is there more than what you think is there.

How are the things (Covid-19, social distancing, wearing masks, lock downs, shutdowns, the political environment, Black Lives Matter and the protests against police brutality, to name a few) that are now being called our “New Normal” affecting your work and your life?

There is so much to discuss about these issues I cannot begin. More than anything, I need to take responsibility for my actions. We are increasingly a global community – a global human organism – and I have to consider this more. Science and technology have also moved well beyond the human scale. And this, more than anything, is something I feel we all have to take great care in considering.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaron_norfolk/

Aaron Norfolk

Aaron’s studio

March 18, 2021

An interview with Sarah Meyers Brent

Tell us a bit about your background.

I grew up in the country, at the foothills of the Adirondacks, in Hadley New York. It is a pretty remote area, and we rented an apartment in Saratoga Springs to go to the public school, and were back and forth between the two. My grandmother was an artist, and we would make drawings using the Ed Emberley books. I was always making art: drawing, painting, and creating things outside.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a particular pivotal moment?

In high school I was interested in a variety of subjects, including Math and Science, but my best teachers were art and graphic design teachers. They were much more relaxed and I enjoyed their classes.

I went to Skidmore College intending to focus on graphic design. I wasn’t able to take design courses the first 2 years, because of painting and drawings requirements, and I fell in love with painting. I ended up with a dual major in graphic design and painting and, after graduating, worked two different jobs as a graphic designer. At a certain point I was getting sick of staring at a computer all day and wanted to get back into making things. I took classes after work and, ultimately, made the switch and went back and got a Post-Bac in painting from Brandeis and a MFA in painting from UNH.

Who are your biggest influences?

Oh goodness, so many! Currently circling around my head when painting are works by Joan Mitchell, Joan Snyder, Chaim Soutine, and Cy Twombly and when sculpting, works by Lynda Benglis and Petah Coyne. Some contemporary artists I follow are Cecily Brown, Galen Chaney, Lavaughan Jenkins, Jennifer Packer, and Allison Schulnik.

Where do you find inspiration?

In my paintings, I have recently been finding inspiration from dried flowers. Some are 2D paintings and others have sculptures clinging to the edge of the paintings, sort of as if the painting’s surface is the vase, and the flowers are growing out of them. My sculptures are inspired by the forms and colors of the discarded stuff from my house and community. I am, also, inspired by geometric structures. In “Curious Cultivation Installation” I was interested in the wall and how all of the material could spill down from the edge— a similar composition to my small pieces. I am inspired by similar, but much larger, structures at the Art Complex Museum and would love to have all this repurposed stuff growing down from the top of these walls. I am also hoping to obtain more larger repurposed items to provide visual inspiration for floor sculpture.

Can you describe the process of what you do?

My paintings usually start from a visual inspiration from a dried flower still life, and then take off in a different direction as I respond to what is going on the canvas. I sometimes have to make some pretty dramatic changes to the paintings to be able to see them in a new light or decide whether they are finished or not. I am interested in getting a whole mess of different marks from thin and thick. My small mixed media paintings sometimes have the desire to build themselves up beyond the surface. I then add extra sculptural elements and go back in with the painting process. The large sculptures and installations are different in that I start with a visual inspiration, like an archway on a museum wall, do some sketches to work out the form, and then go back in assembling with repurposed items, as if they are pieces of paint and color.

Can you describe a typical day in your life during this pandemic? How has it changed from before?

I have two young boys and it has been harder to find time to get work done. I don’t have a typical day; sometimes I have longer days in the studio, other times shorter blocks, and others no time at all. It has been hard having kids at home on top of each other all of the time. They were getting along well for a while, but now are getting super cooped up and wanting to kill each other! This is, somewhat, what my art is about anyway: trying to find a sense of beauty within a mess.

How has 2020 affected your life and work? What have you found to be helpful and what are your hurdles?

I have been trying to be more streamlined with my studio-process: writing down my goals, not wasting time by ‘picking’ at paintings, or doing social media. I am also just really grateful for any time that I do have in the studio. Making this work is a release for me that has helped me to stay a balanced person and mother.

To view a video about Sarah, courtesy of the Chase Young Gallery, please click here.

Sarah Meyers Brent

Images Courtesy of Chase Young Gallery

January 17, 2021

An interview with Gillian Christy

When did you know you were an artist?

I’ve always been an artist. It became apparent to me in high school which life path I should pursue when in theater I was asked to design and paint the sets rather than star in the musical. For me, taking ceramics in high school opened up my eyes to creating three-dimensional art. Then in college I was introduced to making sculptures with sheet metal and I’ve been a sculptor ever since.

Was there a particular pivotal moment?

During my junior year in college (2001) I studied abroad in Florence, Italy and this was a pivotal time for me. It was my first time away from home for such an extended period, while also being my first time in Europe. It was eye opening for me to live among different landscapes and architecture. Through this lens I began thinking about my home with my familiar surroundings in Iowa and what home meant to me and how the idea of home could be incorporated into my work.

Who are your biggest influences?

My biggest influence is my former professor, sculptor Tom Stancliffe. He not only taught me how to weld, but opened up the avenue of public art. Most importantly he encouraged me to go out into the world and get started. In adulthood my artist friend, painter Luke Randall has pushed me to work on my finishes and surface treatments of my sculptures. I admire his painting, decorative painting and also his on-going interests in learning new things. Artist friends who generously share, but also push and challenge are invaluable.

Where do you find inspiration?

I am inspired to create artwork based on the familiar objects that one may view on a daily basis. I use the term “Connectors” to describe prevailing themes that I explore, considering the elements in our built or natural world that connect home with one’s everyday surroundings. Right now in the Tabernacle Series I am creating intricate architectural forms that hold details which illustrate a story. Most recently I have been depicting events in my life, focusing on my place in society as a women and mother. Through this I set out to express our worldʼs connectedness between home, nature, and one another.

Can you describe the process of what you do?

My goal is to create large-scale public art and much of the work I do supports these monumental projects. I make models which can show potential clients how a sculpture would look prior to making the artworks really big. My gallery work explores different themes and techniques which I consider my sketchbook of ideas.

Can you describe a typical day in your life during this pandemic? How has it changed from before?

Making time to be at the studio during this pandemic has been challenging. I am fortunate that my family is adaptable. We went from a very comfortable schedule to an unimaginable schedule, which now 9 months into the pandemic, is just our normal life. My projects have been delayed and I went from working full-time to part-time in the studio. I go into the studio very early in the morning and then come home to home-school and care for our son.

How has 2020 affected your life and work? What have you found to be helpful and what are your hurdles?

With work I set pretty strict self-mandated goals which helps me stay motivated and on track. With project and exhibition delays along with show cancellations it is hard to stay focused and positive. It also pains me to think of how much I used to be able to accomplish in one full work day so I’ve had to alter my expectations. The most helpful thing I’ve done is to change my mindset and consider this year a gift, because I’m spending so much time with my four year old son. As well as making really, really beautiful salads.

Gillian Christy

Winged Victory
Stainless Steel
110″ by 36″ by 86″

Goodnight Sweetheart
Steel, paint, bronze, 12k gold
36″ by 22 1/4″ by 7 1/2″

Goodnight Sweetheart (detail)
Steel, paint, bronze, 12k gold
36″ by 22 1/4″ by 7 1/2″

Rockabye
Steel, paint, bronze, Styrene, white gold
48″ by 29″ by 8″

December 13, 2020

Chil Mott

Tell us a little about your background.

I’ve been a graphic designer, illustrator, carpenter, musician, and Jr. High basketball coach. I’m a vegetarian who dislikes vegetables, a surfer who’s adverse to water, and a painter with a legally blind left eye. I live with my paramour of many years. We’ve cohabited with 10 rescue dogs over that time, 4 of them are still running with us.

Who are your biggest influences/inspiration?

I was obsessed with black and white line work and mark making for many years — people like Anders Zorn, Charles White, Charles Burns, and Käthe Kollwitz. I’m currently infatuated with Toyin Ojih Odutola’s drawings and interviews.

Some touchstones for the bug series I am working on are Audubon, Wayne Thiebaud, and the Suprematists. While the images are highly realistic, I hope they transcend scientific representation. I feel that certain areas of fine detail, as well as contrasting spaces of distortion, are imperative to help expand the paintings’ potential narrative and interest.

What are you reading right now?

Sarah Kendzior and Timothy Snyder have helped guide me through these last four years. Snyder’s On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom have enlightened me on the magnitude of the dilemmas we currently face.

I’ve long been drawn to existentialist works and was excited to recently learn that Ralph Ellison was inspired in part by Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground for his seminal novel Invisible Man. After re-reading Invisible Man this summer I found it to still be a timely and eye opening commentary that shows how far we haven’t come over the past 70 years.

Music is just as inspiring and essential to my being as painting and prose. But after living and breathing it intensely for so many years I now have a hard time listening to the same band for more than two songs in a row. My life is a shuffle; Miles & Chet, James Brown, Rocksteady, Bad Brains, Jerry’s Kids, R. L. Burnside, Gabby Pahinui, Public Enemy, Bach, Monsieur de Saint Colombe, The Stooges, Sampa the Great, and of course Belly and L7.

How is everything (Covid-19 and the current political situation), affecting your work and your life?

I’m a bit of a hermit with an at-home office/studio so the pandemic hasn’t affected me socially as much, but I feel for all the front-line doctors and nurses fighting without the full support of our government and populace. As an advocate of art, science, world culture, and life on earth, I worry that democracy and our environment will not survive the Republican Party’s assault on them.

To see a video of Chil in his studio click here.

Chil Mott

From Chil’s Sill Lives series

November 22, 2020

Jackie Reeves

Tell us a little about your background.

I grew up in a family of 7 (6 girls and 1 boy) in Montreal. Both my parents were architects and my childhood was filled with creative play with my siblings that steered me in the direction of a career in art. I studied design art in undergraduate school and spent the next two decades trying out different disciplines and teaching myself the necessary skills for illustration, graphic design, teaching, set design and painting, performance, giant puppet making, and commercial mural painting. I did this while raising three daughters with my husband on Cape Cod.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a particular pivotal moment?

I knew at about the age of 12 that I loved to draw, but calling myself an artist came much later in life. Even though I had a 20-year career as a commercial artist and a commission mural painter, it wasn’t until I started painting for myself that I felt comfortable with the title “artist.”

Who are your biggest influences?

Different artists, depending on what I’m exploring in my studio practice, have influenced me. Right now I’d say William Kentridge, Jenny Saville, Julie Mehretu, and Gerry Bergstein are on my mind as I prepare for this show. As a young adult I gravitated toward Egon Schiele, Edward Degas, Gustav Klimt, and Toulouse Lautrec. I still love their loose, expressive drawing styles. At other times, I’ve been influenced by Gerhart Richter, Mamma Anderson, and Peter Doig for painting styles and Arturo Herrera, Marc Bradford, and many Abstract Expressionist painters for mixed media and collage.

Where do you find inspiration?

Going to museums, watching live performances of music, dance, theatre, and generally looking at other artists inspires me to get in the studio. For my own artwork, I find inspiration from family, memories, old photographs, and new art materials.

What do you like to do for fun?

I love travelling with my family, going on road trips with my art friends to see exhibits, walking in nature, dressing up for costume parties, dancing, eating sushi, having visits with my sisters, making plans, going to my studio, paddling on a calm lake, cross country skiing where I grew up north of Montreal… I could go on and on.

What are you reading right now?

I just became an American Citizen this week so I’ve been studying my guidebook to American history and system of government in order to pass my naturalization test. I’ve learned a lot and am prepared to vote in my first election.  On the lighter side, I am enjoying 2 graphic novels; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Diary of a Teenage Girl by Pheobe Gloeckner. I also have a novel next to my bed but I usually fall asleep 2 pages in…. I can only seem to get through novels when I’m in an airport going on vacation. Not much of that happening these days.

What are your favorite mediums?

Charcoal, ink, fluid paints, all drawing materials.

Can you describe your process?

When I get to my studio I usual journal about what’s on my mind. I find this helps me get the daily news out of my head and gets me back to where I left off making art. For new paintings I often start without a solid plan, more of a general idea in my head or theme I am exploring. I play around with materials in an abstract way, spilling paint, pressing, dragging, folding, and manipulating the surface so that I get unexpected results, like a Rorschach print. Then I move the painting around until I start to see something that interests me at which point I edit until I think it’s done.

Other times I know what I want to make based off of an old family photograph. This process is a little more thought out because my goal is to mimic the photo. But then I blur or dissolve the image by doing more of the previously mentioned action painting. I never know what the results will be. Sometimes it’s a fantastic surprise and other times it’s an epic failure that then requires more editing.

I also love making collages by combining pieces of my own artwork with scraps of papers I’ve collected over the years. I puzzle together these disparate elements until I find some kind of order that makes sense to me.

In general I find myself needing to switch things up when I notice myself getting stiff or bored with my process. It helps keep things fresh for me.

How is everything (Covid-19, social distancing, wearing masks, lock downs, shutdowns, the political environment, Black Lives Matter and the protests against police brutality to name a few) that is now being called our “New Normal,” affecting your work and your life?

I find myself waking up to the world around me in a way that I never have before. Becoming an American citizen amidst all of this has really forced me to recon with my new identity at a time when the rest of the world is looking at America in a way it never has before. My first response in March 2020 was to return to my mural painting roots, and I have been engaging the Cape Cod community with several public projects that celebrate the BLM movement (Baldwin Mural on 6A in Barnstable Village), the importance of voting (League of Women Voters community mural in Falmouth), and community connectivity (Together Apart: public social distancing murals). For me, it’s been a constructive form of activism that has brought attention to issues that matter to my community using the power of visual art.

Having my three daughters (two in college and a high school senior) home during this pandemic has drawn my attention to how goal-oriented we all are, working toward some mission we have set out for ourselves. Everyone’s plans are on hold right now, suspended and perhaps forever altered given our new reality living with the global threat of viruses. We are all being forced to live with uncertainty. Some people are equipped for that and some are not. It’s like the walls have come crumbling down around the world and all that’s left are skeletal structures, frameworks that we have built our lives upon. Maybe these foundations aren’t quite what we thought they were and it’s time to rebuild.

Big Plans is the working title of my solo show scheduled for summer 2021. If all goes according to “plan,” I’ll be exhibiting the artwork and ideas I have been formulating since January 2020 up until opening day.

Website: www.jackiereeves.com

To see a video about Jackie click here.

Jackie Reeves in her Barnstable studio.

Triptych in process. Acrylic, flashe, charcoal and wax pastel on fabric. 84″ by 168″

Detail from triptych in process.

Acrylic, charcoal, wax pastel on fabric. 54”by 84”. Work in progress.
.

Another work in progress using cardboard, tape and my daughter as helper.

November 8, 2020

An interview with Artistic Director and flutist Deborah Boldin

Please give us a little history of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble.

Founded in 1998, Chameleon Arts Ensemble has built a reputation as Boston’s most adventurous chamber ensemble, integrating old and new repertoire into unexpected programs that are themselves works of art. Our mission is to present the highest quality chamber music performances, to foster an understanding and appreciation of the art form through imaginative and adventurous programs, and to infuse a public-spirited sensibility in all that we do to make classical music available, understandable, and accessible for audiences throughout the Boston area.

Over the past two decades, Chameleon has performed more than 375 concerts featuring a remarkable array of nearly 750 different works by 325 different composers presented in smart, thematic programs that appeal to both connoisseurs and newcomers alike. We began with a modest five-concert series, and since then we have more than tripled the number of performances each year. Annual activities now include three concert series – Chamber Music Series, Up Close recital series, and music education series – along with our cherished community outreach programming, various residency and guest appearances, and broadcasts on WCRB Radio Boston.

The Boston Globe called us “a local treasure” and The Boston Musical Intelligencer praised us for “rediscovery, curiosity, and supersonic performing.” National honors include 2020, 2017, and 2015 awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, 2015 and 2004 awards from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, and 2009 and 2007 Adventurous Programming Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Chamber Music America. The Ensemble has appeared twice at the venerable Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and has been featured on WCRB Radio, WHRB Classical, and WBUR Radio Boston.

The Ensemble is led by Artistic Director and flutist Deborah Boldin. Her inspired vision and vast knowledge of the repertoire have garnered widespread acclaim. The Boston Globe hailed “Chameleon Arts Ensemble has distinguished itself over the course of two decades by sheer dint of its sparklingly imaginative programming.” Our exceptional, multi-generational roster was called “an all-star lineup of chamber musicians” by The Globe, and individually, they have appeared in concert with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Marlboro Music, Boston Symphony, Chamber Music Northwest, Music@Menlo, and the Verbier, Ravinia, and Caramoor Festivals.

What is your connection to The Art Complex Museum?

It was early in our history that Chameleon Arts Ensemble became associated with The Art Complex Museum. It was through a commission project spearheaded by the Boston Chapter of The American Composers Forum. We premiered Michael McLaughlin’s Trackings for flute, violin, viola, and cello. The piece was inspired by the Museum’s fall 2002 exhibition “Gadgets, Gizmos and Games” which showcased all sorts of kinetic and interactive art. The exhibition was curated by Craig Bloodgood and dedicated to the memory of Edith Weyerhaeuser.

We were very young (having been founded only 4 years earlier) and thrilled to have such an interesting and immersive project to work on. It made a deep impression on us both in terms of bringing a brand-new piece of music to life and understanding the intersections of music and its inspirations. I vividly recall the experience of warming up in the library before the performance and walking through the exhibition itself. Seeing the sculptures firsthand changed my understanding of the motion in the music and this made for an immeasurably rich experience.

We were also fortunate to appear on the Sunday concert series a few years later in November of 2006 with a program of old and new works for flute, viola, and harp by Francois Devienne, George Rochberg, Benjamin Britten, and Claude Debussy. Several of the Chameleon artists who performed on these two concerts were also a part of our current “communing with nature” project and remarked what wonderful memories they had from both.

We’ve played countless concerts since that time and the fact that we remember these two programs so well and so intensely, speaks to the incredible impact The Art Complex Museum had – and continues to have – on our little troupe.

When I approached Mary Curran (out of the blue) to ask if we might be able to record our first virtual concert of the 2020-2021 season on the Museum’s grounds, I was elated and flattered to learn that she and Charles Weyerhaeuser remembered us and were game for another, albeit unconventional, project. To say that we are grateful for The Museum’s support would be an understatement. Overwhelmed and “over the moon” is more like it…!

Can you describe the process of how you work together as an ensemble?

Collaboration is the cornerstone of any good chamber music. Each musician arrives at rehearsal with his or her own conception of a piece of music, and the trick is to know when to put forward your ideas and when to take in others’ ideas. It is a real give and take process that enables us to learn and grow in the moment. The Chameleons embrace this philosophy wholeheartedly. It doesn’t mean we always agree, but the “meeting place” we arrive at, is something that no one person could have come up with, and that is very exciting from an interpretive standpoint. I learn something new – about myself and about music – each and every time I rehearse and perform with these amazing artists.

How has the current situation forced you as musicians to adapt?

I don’t want to turn this conversation too negative, but the truth is that we know the loss of in-person concerts, gatherings, etc., has been both emotionally heartbreaking and financially devastating for all artists – musicians, performers, painters, dancers, and on and on. For my part, I miss the tangible energies that come from playing music in front of an audience. You can truly feel that collective experience, and the challenge now is to explore ways to generate that sensibility from within ourselves in order to be able to bring the love of music to a virtual setting.

The key – from my perspective – is to create virtual offerings that don’t attempt to replicate the in-person experience, but instead conceive of something new that can serve as a “bridge.” This means we can acknowledge our shared circumstances in an honest way, but still revel in the joy of the art form.

I think our outdoor concert at The Art Complex Museum exemplifies this attitude. For example, viewers will notice microphones and cables in the shots. We also decided that the musicians would conclude their performances without the traditional bowing to the audience, or filing in/out of the performance space. Each is a small thing, but taken altogether, it signals that we’re doing something different.

Individually, the Chameleons are teaching, collaborating, and lecturing on Zoom. They are also performing in as many socially-distanced virtual concerts without an audience that comes along. Some are also turning to long-awaited solo projects. Like all artists, being a musician is who you are, not just what you do, and finding ways to engage with one’s creativity is essential during this period.

Chameleon is offering two more virtual concerts this fall. November 14-21 is part of our archival “Rewind” series and December 5-12 is a newly recorded concert of works by Brahms and others exploring the idea of being “interrupted and in between.”

Are there any silver linings?

There are always silver linings if we take the time to look for them. I think our renewed association with The Art Complex Museum is top of my list, along with a reminder of the importance of friendship and collaboration, health and safety, and love of art in all its forms.

What do you all do for fun?

There are cooks and mixologists among us; along with avid readers; bikers, runners, and hikers; coffee aficionados; gardeners; painters (house and fine art); autograph collectors; “parents” of dogs and cats; and more. The Chameleons have a wonderfully varied set of interests outside of music!

Do you sing in the shower?

I sure do! But it’s usually Brahms…

What is your creative process like?

My creative process is one of slow unfolding. As a flutist, I love to learn music over a long period of time, experimenting with sound and color in addition to addressing the technical aspects to execute the piece. The same is true when I craft programs for Chameleon. I typically “sculpt” them over several years, starting with a single piece of music or a theme or concept. Over time, I encounter additional “puzzle pieces” and the entire concert takes shape. In both cases, it is important to have time to dream. I typically have 70-80 different concert programs “in process” at any given time. I hope that I’m able to finish and see each and every one come to life!

What first got you into music?

Music was always around my house when I was growing up. My mom used to play records of Pavarotti singing Neapolitan songs and other opera arias, and I have strong memories of listening to Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” in a specific recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy conducting. The tangible, outward (almost muscular) mode of expression really resonated with me from a young age.

What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?

This is something I’ve never even considered!

To see a video with selections from the concert click here.

The Chameleon Arts Ensemble on the grounds of the museum.

October 25, 2020

Meet Boston Sculptors Andy Moerlein and Donna Dodson, “The Myth Makers”

In 2019, on the grounds of The Art Complex Museum, Donna and Andy installed Seeking Higher Ground. This is the second outdoor sculpture the Museum has been lucky to display. According to folklore, the Blue Jay is symbolic of clarity of thought, taking action. Seeking Higher Ground, is a clarion call to heed the warning signs of climate change and its effects. It reflects a hope that humans can unite to affect those changes needed to adapt and survive – like the Blue Jay.

The collaboration between Moerlein and Dodson is born from a mutual love of the wild. Moerlein takes inspiration from events in the natural world that leave visual marks which strike a narrative chord in the artist. Dodson takes inspiration from the mysterious nature of animals that spark her imagination.

Although monumental in scale, these ephemeral works are temporary in nature. Made from natural materials, they are site specific, and respond to their local audience. Meaning to only last 3-5 years, they appear, fade, and disappear, adding a chapter to the life stories in their communities.

The Myth Makers have completed over 50 projects in the past 10 years. We have worked in 13 states, plus Peru, Switzerland, China and Taiwan. Their work has won national awards and state recognition(s).

In 2017, The Dance, a monumental work of public art created for the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau Wisconsin, was called out in the Museum’s nomination package for the 2017 National Medal for Museum Service, which was awarded to the Woodson – one of only five museums nationwide to receive the nation’s highest honor presented by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Woodson Art Museum also was the 2016 winner of the Wisconsin Governor’s Arts, Culture, and heritage tourism award.

In 2015, the State of Michigan gave a Special Tribute to the Avian Avatars which were selected as one of Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Agents of Change by the House of Representatives in the State of Michigan.

In 2015, Artnet and the Huffington Post named The Myth Maker’s public art project, Avian Avatars, the most beautiful art show in New York City.

Dodson is a graduate of Wellesley College (BA) and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. Moerlein is a graduate of Dartmouth College (BA) and Cornell University (MFA) and a life long art educator from primary ages to adults.

To watch a short video they have created click here.

Andy Moerlein and Donna Dodson

Seeking Higher Ground

The Beacon

The Quest

October 11, 2020

Irena Roman, Transparent Watercolor Painter

Tell us a bit about your background.

I’m a transparent watercolorist from Scituate with a background in freelance illustration. And I’m also a Professor at MassArt.

When did you know you were an artist/maker? Was there a particular pivotal moment?

I knew when I was three that making art was what I really loved and wanted to do. As an only child, I’d entertain myself by drawing for hours on end. Am still doing that today.

Who are your biggest influences?

There are so many! Historically, I adore Homer, Hopper, Sargent, Lillian Wescott Hale and O’Keeffe as well as many of the great illustrators from the 1970’s and 80’s such as the late David Grove and Kazu Sano.

Where do you find inspiration?

Light, and how it reveals form is my biggest inspiration. So I find it everywhere! Paintings that contain a strong light source have the magical power to expose the intangible, ethereal nature of whatever the subject matter is. I admire any and all art that channels radiance.

Can you describe the process of what you do?

Because I work transparently with watercolor (I never add white), I find starting with a value study essential. It’s my road map. Before I begin painting, I apply liquid masking fluid to all areas of the paper that need to remain protected. Even though my paintings appear precise, I usually start with a loose, wet-on-wet wash that covers broad areas. This wash serves as a point of reference for the rest of the painting’s value scale. Once that’s dry, I remove the masking fluid and begin the painting in earnest.

How is everything that is now being called our “New Normal” affecting your work and your life?

At the moment, the biggest effect I feel from this “new normal” in my day-to-day life is trying to stay centered As far as my work goes, I’m sure that new concepts for a future series from having lived through this experience will surface when the time is right.

To view a video of Irena click here.

Irena Roman

September 27, 2020

Wally Kemp

Wallace McMillian Kemp was born on June 2, 1925. He grew up in Braintree, Massachusetts, graduating from Braintree High School. He continued his education at Tufts University and then on to Yale where he became a Doctor in General Surgery.

Wally was one of five other general practitioners who were the original founders of the South Shore Medical Center.

Always working with wood from a young age, Wally also builds and repairs furniture. When he retired from medicine, woodturning became a fascinating pastime.

His love of nature and natural materials is always visible in his work. The association and community of other local woodturners and opportunity for exhibitions and demonstration became great sources of motivation and inspiration.

During the past few months, while in quarantine, he and Duxbury artist Kriss Brennen have been working together collaborating and creating Victorian walking sticks. Wally is still using his lathe and teaching Kriss his techniques. He loves spending time with others and people always enjoy his company. He describes his process of creating his pieces this way: “I use my head, put it on paper, make it, and then I give it to someone I love.” His positive attitude and kindness is infectious and has certainly kept him in good health. He says this pandemic has not really changed his life; he is well cared for and is staying connected socially. He is reading books and enjoying his beautiful home.

To see a video of Wally’s work click here.

Wally Kemp sitting outside the museum.

September 13, 2020

Olga Rothschild

Artist and former museum volunteer

Olga Landeck was born in the American Hospital in Paris on September 4, 1929. Both her parents had graduated from the Columbia School of Architecture the previous year. They took an extended honeymoon traveling through Europe. The Great Depression hit and they returned to America. There was no market for designing new buildings and both her parents turned to teaching, her father Armin to art and her mother Beatrice to music. Olga is a product of progressive education, first at the Little Red School House in Greenwich Village, NYC. Her father later taught at the Brearley School, which Olga attended for high school. From there, she went to Bennington College. She married young, before finishing her degree, but returned to Sarah Lawrence College when her three children were in middle school. It was there that she first made prints and sculpture and studied with the renowned Joseph Campbell. She learned rug hooking from Harriet Clark, an old family friend in Cornwall, Connecticut. She and her first husband divorced in 1980. Two years later she married Dick Rothschild and they settled first in Greenwich, CT and then, for many years, in Duxbury.

More recently they built the contemporary home of their dreams in Rocky Nook, Kingston. Olga created the active group Duxbury Rug Hookers. They meet every Tuesday. It is a congenial, supportive group of women. Each year they raffle off a communal rug with the proceeds going to the Duxbury Senior Center.

Olga answered these interview questions.

When did you know you were an artist?

My father was an artist and so it always seemed a “normal“ existence to me.

Was there a particular pivotal moment?

No, I am still not sure I am an “artist”.

Who are your biggest influences?

Wanda Gag –years ago.

Where do you find inspiration?

In artist’s work and sometimes in nature.

What do you do for fun?

I like to read fiction.

What are you reading right now?

Wallace Stegner

What are your favorite art mediums?

Hooking wool rugs and drawing

How is everything (Covid-19, social distancing, wearing masks, lock downs, shutdowns, the political environment, Black Lives Matter and the protests against police brutality to name a few.) that is now being called our “New Normal” affecting your work and your life?

More time at home.

It was a wonderful treat to visit Olga and we are pleased to share her beautiful world!

To see a video of Olga’s home and studio click here.

Olga in her home studio.

August 30, 2020

Interview with artist Zach Horn

Tell me a little about your background.

I am from Philadelphia, though I have lived in a breadth of eastern seaboard cities. I now live in Dorchester with my brilliant wife and three rambunctious kiddos. Our house is constant chaos, but filled with the best possible commotion. I love it.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a particular pivotal moment?

I have always been an artist. My grandmother was a terrific modern artist and she introduced me early to the wonder of painting. But, I was always tempted to apply my analytical brain, and I could have wandered another less satisfying though more remunerative path.

A few inspirational teachers, like Stan Whitney in Italy, and Richard Ryan and John Walker at Boston University, gave me the clarity to see how I could make a life as an artist. Though I think falling in love gave me the confidence to leap with faith. Thank god.

Who are your biggest influences?

Ben Shahn for his subject matter, Van Gogh for his color. Daumier for his drawing, Helen Frankenthaler for her grace, and Vija Celmins for her attention span.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in little things. When I do the breakfast dishes on Saturdays, I sometimes look at the pancake crumbs stuck in syrup and jelly and think that it is the most beautiful abstract and literal painting. The transparency of the amber syrup and crimson jelly are just exquisite.

What do you like to do for fun?

For fun, I like to do active things like hiking, swimming, camping, beaching.

I cook, though lately I feel like a sergeant in a mess hall. I miss cooking casually…

What are you reading right now?

In my studio, I listen to a lot of audiobooks. Quarantine has put me on a bit of a tear. The best fiction book that I listened to recently is American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson. The best nonfiction book is Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown. I am now in the middle of The Woman Who Smashed Codes, by Jason Fagone, it’s the story of codebreaker Elizabeth Friedman.

What is your favorite medium(s)

I love experimenting with new materials and frequently use paint, graphite, wood, plaster, paper pulp, saw dust, marble dust, and charcoal.

Still, I think there is something special about oil paint. It smells right.

Can you describe your process?

I am consistently inconsistent in my processes. I intentionally look for new ways of making things, mostly for the fun of it.

I am currently working on an exhibition for the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, RI, titled United We Bargain, Divided We Beg, opening on October 5th.

How is everything (Covid-19 and the current political situation), affecting your work and your life?

Ack. I have been in lockdown with the kids, 2, 5, 7, so that has kept me pretty busy. The political situation is nauseating. I am anxiously and optimistically looking forward to November.

You can visit Zach’s website by clicking here.

Zach Horn in his Dorchester studio. Zach was one of the artists in our very successful, “Draw the Line” exhibition last fall. He will return to the ACM for a solo project in 2023.

Horn_Zach_Cave_Graphite and Soft Pastel on Canvas Acrylic and Crayon on Branches_2018

We had to enlarge the wall of our gallery for Zach’s drawing, “Cave”. Graphite and soft pastel on canvas with crayon and branches.

Horn_Zach_BBQs_Graphite on Stonehenge_2016

A triptych of Zach’s “Grill Drawings”. Graphite on Stonehenge paper.

Zach_Spaghetti I_Oil and Acrylic on Canvas Forks_2018

“Spagetti Painting”. Oil and Acrylic on canvas with forks.

Watch Zach’s new video by clicking here.

August 16, 2020

Alfie Glover Coloring sheet

For the past year The Art Complex Museum has enjoyed several of Alfred Glover’s colorful metal sculptures on the grounds. His work inspires childlike whimsy and joy. Visit his website to read about his process and watch a video. To download a PDF coloring page based on his work click this link:

Alfie Glover Coloring sheet

August 2, 2020

Glenn A. Sorei Pereira

Glenn A. Sorei Pereira is an instructor of chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony. He has been performing tea ceremony at The Art Complex for the many years, both for adults and children. He imbibes teaching tea with his wonderful humor to delight all those who have experienced the ceremony.

Originally from Fall River, Massachusetts, of Portuguese descent, Glenn now lives in Boston, where he holds weekly classes for anyone interested in studying tea. His students include both Japanese and Americans from all walks of life coming together to learn both the role of host and guest at a tea gathering. Besides teaching these roles, Glenn also instructs students in flower arranging, cooking and other tea related subjects.

In 1981 Glenn was introduced to chado, the way of tea and immediately began his studies. In 1982 he received a scholarship to enter the Midorikai program of intensive tea study at the Urasenke Professional College of Chado in Kyoto, Japan. Sen Genshitsu XV, Great Grand Tea Master of the Urasenke School of Tea in Kyoto, gave the scholarship to him.

After graduating from the Urasenke Professional College of Chado Glenn returned to Boston where he continues his studies of tea along with teaching. He now does lectures and demonstrations at many schools, universities, social clubs and art galleries throughout New England bringing the way of tea to many people. Glenn travels to teach intensive training workshops for tea groups throughout the United States. He also returns to Japan each year to further his studies in tea.

In February of 1993 Glenn received his chamei, professional tea name, from Sen Genshitsu XV. The name given him was Sorei, meaning beautiful, bright, clear, fine, and serene. In November of 1997 he received, junkyoju, an associate professor degree and in December 2002 he received, kyoju, a professor degree also from Sen Genshitsu XV.

In February of 2013 Glenn became ceritified to teach tea in the Japanese School system.

In June of 2017 Glenn received the Foreign Minister of Japan’s Commendation. It was in recognition of outstanding contributions that he has made to the promotion of Japanese culture in the United States.

As a missionary of chado, Glenn continues the wishes of Sen Genshitsu XV and Sen Soshitsu XVI, to create peacefulness through sharing a bowl of tea. This sharing of a bowl of tea also fosters a great relationship between both countries.

When did you know you wanted to study chado?

In 1980 I received a gift certificate of 10 lessons to study tea. No knowing anything about it I didn’t act on it until 9 months later September of 1981. The reason being was that although I had a great interest in Japan I knew nothing about the tea culture. I went to the first lesson with no intentions of going to the other nine. To my surprise I fell head over heels in love with it.

Was there a particular pivotal moment?

Yes, it was at my first lesson on September 9, 1981. The teacher was very knowledgeable and excited to talk about chado with me. His excitement about it was infectious. When he asked about my background and heard that I was from Portuguese decent he seemed even more excited to tell me about the Portuguese influence in Japan and chado. I knew by the end of that first lesson that I wanted to continue to study and one day to become a teacher as well.

Who are your biggest influences?

Allan Sosei Palmer, without a doubt, that gave me that first lesson.Also, the 15^th generation Grand Master Hounsai Daisosho who gave me the scholarship to study in Japan at Urasenke and the present 16^th generation Grand Master Zabosai Oiemoto. I return to Japan yearly and both continue to set such a good example of what a good chajin (tea practitioner) is- through not only words, but actions.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration from the Grand Masters both past and present. Other teachers and students inspire me. They all make me want to continue my studies and be a better instructor of tea.
When hosting a tea gathering my choice of utensils is inspired by seasonal events, nature, culture and my own personal taste.

What do you do with your knowledge of the tea ceremony?

I am the current Chief of Administration for the Chado Urasenke Tankokai Boston Association. Besides teaching, I as well as other teachers and members of our group, do lectures and demonstrations throughout New England. We are especially busy with local schools of all levels.
Privately, members host tea gatherings for friends and family.

Can you describe the process of what you do?

That’s a tough question. The serving of tea, as simple as it may seem to most people, is actually quite complex in its preparation. It would depend on whether you do a full tea gathering, which would be about 4 hours or just invite someone over for a simple ceremony. The preparation time would be anywhere from a few hours or even less to possibly weeks or even months to organize and prepare.

How is Covid-19, (social distancing, wearing masks, lock downs, shutdowns affecting your work and your life?

Due to mask wearing and social distancing getting together to share tea is currently difficult. All demonstrations and in person classes have been cancelled due to Covid-19. We have however held some classes and events using Skype and Zoom. I’m happy to announce that all our members are safe and healthy. This is due to tea practitioners being extremely disciplined when following rules. Also, purity* is one of the principles we follow so we seem to be always cleaning.
When returning to the tearoom, hopefully soon, we will have new rules and restrictions to keep everyone safe.

For example: In a full tea gathering the host makes two teas. The first is koicha, which is a tea with a thick consistency. The host makes a bowl with enough tea for up to five guests to share. The second tea is called usucha, which has a thin and frothy consistency. This is made for each guest individually.
There is however a koicha ceremony that takes care of the shared bowl problem during a pandemic like we are now experiencing, which was created 100 years ago by the 13^th generation Grand Master Ennosai. Rather than sharing the same bowl the host makes each guest a bowl of thick tea.

For more information about Urasenke Boston or to contact us please go to our website: urasenkeboston.org or Facebook- Urasenke Boston

*I mentioned that purity is one of the principles that we follow. Tea practitioners follow four principles; Harmony, Respect, Purity and Tranquility. These are explained on our website.

Glenn A. Sorei Pereira and student Miko Brais at the Boston Children’s Museum tea house.

Consul General and Mrs. Michii are guests at a tea presentation in the “Shofuan”, (Wind in the Pines) tea house at The Art Complex Museum.

Tea presentation on Swan Boats on Boston Common during the Urasenke 60th Anniversary Celebration.

Museum Director, Charles Weyerhaeuser and staff members, Mary Curran and Sally Dean Mello congratulate Glenn Pereira at the Foreign Ministers Commondations Award in 2017.

Glenn A. Sorei Pereira presenting tea on a Swan Boat in the Boston Public Garden during Urasenke 60th Anniversary.

If you would like to watch the video, “An Invitation to Tea”, click here.

July 19, 2020

Gretchen Moran

Artist and Museum Volunteer

Gretchen studied and received her BA at Connecticut College from 1951-1955, and also attended The Art Institute of Chicago from 1983-1984, to become an Art Therapist. Becoming an artist was a gradual process for Gretchen, starting in her late teens and continuing through her college years. Among the artists she studied with were George Nick, Jon Imber, Sally Bishop and Elizabeth Ahern.

Some of her major influences, in addition to her teachers, are Matisse, Fairfield Porter, and Marsden Hartley, to name a few. The great outdoors and gardens are major sources of inspiration for her landscapes and floral motifs.

Gretchen also loves to travel. She has visited many states including Maine and Alaska, and abroad to Mexico, Greece, Spain and France.

In addition to art, Gretchen loves to listen and attend opera, ocean and pool swimming, gardening and cooking.

She is currently reading “Out of Darkness, Shining Light” by Petina Gappach, “What are People For?” by Wendell Berry, and “The China Mirage” by James Bradley.

Gretchen’s mediums of choice are acrylic, watercolor and collage. Her process usually starts with drawing with a paint brush, adding some color, then reacting to that, and gradually pulling the painting together.

In this state of perpetual change and confusion, what with Covid-19, masks, physical distancing, lockdowns, unprecedented political environment, Black Lives Matter protests, all now the “new normal”, it has profoundly affected the lives of everyone. However, the other side of the coin is now Gretchen has more time for reflection, making art, listening to Met operas, swimming and meal planning.

Check out “A Visit to Gretchen Morans Home and Studio” on Vimeo by clicking here.

White Sands

Black Lives Matter

Pink Sky

July 5, 2020

Wanda Gág

Inspired by her cats, American artist Wanda Gág (1893-1946) created illustrations using them and their antics as subject matter. Gág was charmed by the way cats “fit themselves into all sorts of places and spaces,” as in this image called Siesta (1937).

Surprisingly, Gág had only two cats while making Siesta: Snoopy and Snooky. She sat and sketched their antics on the kitchen floor, then used their various poses for this print. These same cats were her models for her book Millions of Cats published in 1928, the first commercially published children’s book in America. A free spirited artist, Gág’s whimsical drawings entertained both children and adults in their Disney-like, imaginative approach.

Click here to color your own Wanda Gág illustration.

Wanda Gág coloring page

Wanda Gág

June 21, 2020

Fairie Houses!

These magical little homes are perfect rainy-day crafts for kids of all ages. They can be simple or fancy, made from all natural materials from your yard, the woods, the beach or around your neighborhood. You can also construct them out of recycled material. On Monhegan Island in Maine, the tradition has been to make them on site, using only what is already in the woods. Birch bark from fallen branches is wonderful! (only found on the ground – never strip the trees!) Or completely crafted from recycled materials. How you choose to construct yours is entirely up to you. The idea is to express creativity while creating adorable little refuges in which enchanting creatures may dwell.

Here is a great link for making one out of a soda bottle and pebbles.

Click here.

Here is a PDF you can print out as a template for a traditional structure you can cover with materials.

Fairy house template-1

Find a spot in your home or yard to nestle the dwellings into a village. If you can find some moss use that – but anything works! Use your imagination and have fun!

Once you get started you will get all sorts of ideas of things to do with tiny materials you have laying around.

This link takes you to a recipe for cornstarch clay (even though the author says corn flour, its U.K. term for cornstarch). This clay was what was used to make the mushrooms in the video.

Click here.

Sally Smith is a master of fairie houses. To see her art visit her website at

Click here.

To watch a video of Sally Dean Mello’s backyard fairie village and samplings from past fairie house workshops at the museum click here.

Click here.

Fairie Houses

June 7, 2020

Make a Salt Dough Fish Mobile

Click the link below for instructions.

Fish_Mobile_June_19

Click this link to see our YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3vp3nlyIsM&t=32s

Salt Dough Fish Mobile

June 7, 2020

An interview with artist Lisa Houck

Tell us a little about your background.

I studied printmaking at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) in the 1970’s. I have been working as an artist in the Boston area for over forty years. I work in many different media, and I have done a few public art projects over the years. I have recently moved to Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where I have a studio next to my home.

When did you know you were an artist? Was there a particular pivotal moment?

Around the age of thirteen, I had a wonderful art teacher in my public school in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He inspired me to think of art as something you could do for your life’s work. I still have a pastel self-portrait that I did in his class.

Who are your biggest influences?

I love the art of Paul Klee, and I wrote my MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis on his work when I studied at the Museum School in Boston in the late eighties. I like hand-crafted objects of all kinds and I am drawn to the textures and patterns in textiles. I like honest well-made things that show the touch of the hand.

Where do you find inspiration?

I am inspired by the variety and texture in the natural world. I am inspired by color and the love of making things.

What do you like to do for fun?

Yoga, gardening, walking, knitting, beading, cooking, and a bit of reading.

What are you reading right now?

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout and Overstory by Richard Powers.

What is your favorite medium(s)

Mosaics, Ceramics, Printmaking and everything else.

Can you describe your process?

I begin by laying out my materials and getting interested in certain colors and just starting something. Although my work can be drawn and planned out in advance, it changes in the process of making it. I like to have lots of things going at once so I can move around between pieces. I make very orderly pieces out of a chaotic mess of materials surrounding me. I sometimes look at photos and books I have collected to get me started on a new idea.

I am a very social creature and I am finding it difficult that I can’t have open studios or go to museums or art openings or host dinner parties. I am grateful for the beautiful space where I can work, but I am struggling to accept the isolation. I am very disturbed by the lack of leadership in this country during the crises we are facing, and I am hopeful that we will head in a new direction after the election.

www.lisahouck.com

Lisa Houck

Lisa’s studio

May 24, 2020

Musing Around At Home!

Museums around the world are inviting people who are staying at home during quarantine to reinterpret artworks from their collection. Using themselves, their pets and items from the house, people are coming up with clever and amusing photographs and sharing them on social media.

We decided to jump on the bandwagon and have some fun!

Our Education Coordinator, Sally Dean Mello, arranged this still life after the color etching from the museum’s collection.

We have chosen five images from our permanent collection for you to try. Have some fun! We will spotlight a few of them in our museletter. Email your images to sally@artcomplex.org, or post on Instagram- please tag us @theartcomplexmuseum and use the #inspiredbyacm.

Katja Oxman (American, b. Germany, 1942)
Unsuspected Turns, 1985
color etching on paper

Sally Dean Mello’s recreation of Katja Oxman’s print Unsuspected Turns

Rufus Hathaway (United States, 1770–1822)
Judith Winsor, 1795
Oil on canvas

Anders Zorn (Sweden, 1860-1920)
Zorn and His Wife, 1890
Etching

Angelica Kauffmann (Switzerland, 1741–1807), The Two Old Students (Die Beiden Studenten Alten), 1763, published by John Boydell (England, 1720-1804), etching

Andrea Andreani (Italy, c.1560-c.1623)
A Woman Contemplating a Skull, 1592
After Alessandro Casolini

Sekino Jun’ichirô (Japan, 1914-1988)
My Family, 1957
color woodcut

May 10, 2020

An interview with one of The Art Complex Museum’s painting instructors, Laura Tryon Jennings

Tell me a little about your background. When did you know you wanted to do what you are doing now?

Since I was a young girl, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I would spend all day drawing or creating something. My mother would encourage me to go out to play. Sometimes I took her advice, but often I would stand at the end of the driveway waiting for what seemed a reasonable amount of time to go back to making art. I majored in art in college and minored in graphic design. I always felt there was nothing else for me to be but an artist. The first seven or eight years after college I was a graphic designer, feeling it was a more practical choice. I continued to paint for myself. After my second child was born (I have three children, two boys and a girl), I decided to try being a full-time artist. I woke up at 5:00 am. Monday thru Friday to enable three to four hours of uninterrupted painting. I squeaked out another few hours in between naps and trying to keep the children entertained with toys at my feet while painting. I entered my first juried show and won best in show, which gave me the courage to keep going. I was fortunate to receive some awards, attention, exhibits, and sales, in those first few years which made me feel I was on the right path. Through the nineties and early two-thousands I was lucky to maintain a steady presence in the art scene. A series of difficult life events, including divorce and the death of my sweet mother, along with a horrible economy forced me to reevaluate how to go about being an artist. With the new challenge of being a single mum to three adventurous adolescents, I began teaching oil painting and became an expressive arts consultant/facilitator while continuing to paint. I ended up loving both of these other hats in the art world and for a while they were a bit more in the driver’s seat. After a few years of managing this balancing act, the reduced attention to my painting just wasn’t feeling right anymore. Now, I have blissfully returned painting to the driver’s seat while still incorporating teaching and expressive arts.

Who are your biggest influences?

There are so many artists. Off the top of my head the more well-known influences would be Edward Hopper, Pierre Bonnard, Jamie Wyeth, David Hockney, William Merritt Chase, Henri Matisse, and Edgar Dega. I’m constantly inspired by the artists I meet and exhibit with locally and in this region. I feel like I’m part of a community. I need to mention my mum too for her sense of fun, whimsy, creativity, perseverance, ambition, caring and love..among many more attributes.

Where do you find inspiration?

The light always informs and drives my work. The subtleties of light. Painting the stream of light falling into a room while the nuances of the landscape/seascape light play through the window vista grabs me on a core level. I tend to like cozy, quiet, scenic spaces.

What do you like to do for fun?

Anything involving my sweetie and my family! I also like hiking, yoga, bike riding, going to hear live music, hanging out with friends, and reading. A favorite activity is on Sundays. grabbing the Boston Globe, breakfast sandwiches, ice lattes, a little jazz music, and heading to the beach for a couple hours in the morning with my husband.

What are you reading right now?

I usually have a few going at the same time. Right now it’s Mary Oliver’s A Thousand Mornings, Anya Yurchyshyn’s My dead parents : A Memoir, Julie Andrews A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, and I always have some psychological and art books in the mix.

What is your favorite medium?

Oil painting on linen or panel.

Can you describe your process?

I’ve lived in coastal and scenic areas for a good part of my life. The connection to nature and beauty surrounding me is part of the energy I need to paint. The passion to create usually comes from a deeply felt place or concept. For instance, my rumpled sheets or “bedscape” series came from a very transitional period in my life. I tend to go through different phases of how I work on a painting. The one I’m currently using is first to tone a canvas and then sketch on top of the toning. I paint at least 2 -3 layers. My “wow” factor is at the very beginning of the painting. This is where all of the possibilities are in front of me!

How or where can people see your work?

I’m preparing for a solo exhibit at the Woodman Shimko Gallery in Provincetown, MA from July 24-August 6, 2020, which I’ve been assured WILL happen. My work is currently in a traveling group exhibit titled “Mel Leipzig and Friends” which began at the Art Complex Museum in 2017 and was exhibited at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA in 2019 and will proceed to the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in 2022 (date TBA, check back on my website for dates). I’m represented by Copley Society of Art in Boston, MA, Elizabeth Moss Gallery in Falmouth, ME, Woodman Shimko Gallery in Provincetown, MA and Sunne Savage, in Winchester, MA. My work can also be seen on Instagram under Laura_Tryon_Jennings, my website at www.LTryonJennings.com, and in my Marshfield, MA studio by appointment.

Click below for a virtual visit to Laura’s home studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrY3L4AJ2WE

Laura Tryon Jennings

May 10, 2020

An interview with The Art Complex Museum’s yoga instructor Kezia Bacon

Tell me a little about your background.

I’ve been teaching yoga since 1997- almost half my life! I did most of my training at Kripalu, in the Berkshires, and try to get back there regularly to learn more. I teach several weekly public classes, including Wednesdays at The Art Complex, and also work with several private clients. (These days they are all online, because of Social Distancing). I also teach various workshops (“Meditation Basics” is popular), and run the outdoor Yoga at the River’s Edge program for the North & South Rivers Watershed Association.

When did you know you wanted to do what you are doing now?

I started teaching yoga when I was 25. I had been studying it for several years and my teacher encouraged me to become a certified instructor. At the time, I was also beginning a career as a freelance writer, and my hope was that the two vocations would balance each other and provide a sustainable income. It wasn’t until I added my work as a Wedding Celebrant (writing and officiating wedding ceremonies) to the mix that I truly found the balance I was seeking. So yes, I have three different lines of work, and together they are very fulfilling!

Who are your biggest influences?

For yoga, Mary Norton was my mentor. She ran The Yoga Center in Cohasset, and informed a lot of my teaching and business sense when I first got started. I’ve especially enjoyed Stephen Cope, a teacher and scholar, for his insights into yoga-related “big picture” stuff. These days I’m especially enjoying classes with Emma Boyle, who runs Dragonfly in Marshfield.

Where do you find inspiration?

Nature. Much of the writing I do (articles and website content) centers on discovering and sharing aspects of the natural world, at the local level (South Shore). Our local rivers (North, South, Green Harbor) are my happy place. Between that and talking with friends and family, I often gain insights and perspectives that I can incorporate into my yoga classes. For me, the meaning of life is to spread as much goodness and love around as possible. I’m always looking for ways to do that.

What do you like to do for fun?

Walk in the woods, kayak and paddleboard on the rivers, discover new places, share stories with friends and family. I’m also a huge music fan – listening to albums and podcasts, talking about music, reading about music, going to shows, and even playing/singing a little bit.

What are you reading right now?

Liz Phair’s memoir, Horror Stories, and the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine.

How has the current pandemic affected your teaching – the challenges, and advantages?

I had to learn quickly how to teach live classes online! Teaching to the camera on my laptop, constantly checking to make sure that I’m remaining in the frame, and not cutting off my head or feet – it’s been a learning curve. Also, my voice tends to get tired more quickly, because I have to project quite a bit more. On the bright side, people are generally at home, looking for things to do, and also looking for solace, so I’ve seen an increase in attendance, which is – of course – very welcome!

What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen on Zoom?

My students typically set up their laptops and phones at home, where life continues to happen, so there are often random sets of legs (human) walking through the backgrounds, and also pets and small children. But my favorite was the toddler who noticed herself on her grandmother’s monitor and started dancing joyfully, fascinated by her own image!

May 10, 2020

Social Distancing!

In late February, the Duxbury Middle School installed an exciting and colorful display of paper mache masks created under the guidance of their teacher, Amy Squillante. This exhibit is the latest installment of of our ongoing “Complex Collaborations” hallway exhibit series, showcasing the talent of our local students.

The masks are still there, hanging out together, while the museum waits to greet visitors again.

Because of the COVID pandemic, teachers had to adapt to teaching remotely on a very short notice. When Amy was asked how it was going, she responded:

“Remote teaching has been different and challenging. I have been creating drawing videos each week from ‘Mrs Squill’s Art Basement.’ The kids are practicing drawing, photographing their drawings, and submitting in Schoology, our online platform. I’m a YouTube artist!”

Amy’s love for teaching and enthusiasm is infectious, and it shows in her students’ work.

May 10, 2020

Sally’s update on the Fish Project!

I have been working on completing the museum’s community herring run fish mosaic to be part of the Plymouth 400 celebration.

The mosaic is 23 feet long and will be installed on an exterior wall in the sculpture court at the museum.

While quarantined at home, in the spirit of hope and compassion, with the help of Michelle Green of High Street Studios in Hingham, I have been hand-making ceramic fish pendants to be given out to visitors at the reveal of the mosaic, date TBA.

The idea was inspired by the tale of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.
The fish was sacred to the Greco-Roman mythology, where it held symbolic meaning of change and transformation.

In ancient Eastern Indian mythology, the fish is a symbol of transformation and creation. This is observed in the ancient flood myth in which Vishnu transformed himself into a fish (Matsya) to save the world from a great flood. In this form, he guided king Manu’s boat (which contained the select few survivors and seeds of life to re-create the world after the flood subsided) to safety.

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Looking for a unique holiday gift? Support a local artisan!
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In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we share this tiny Southwestern Pomo Feathered Basket from our collection. The coiled gift basket is made from split willow reeds and ferns. It is decorated with top-knot feathers from the southwestern Gambel or Valley quail.

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Weishaupt aimed to abolish all religions and obliterate every government so mankind could live happily in a world of equality. He foresaw the economy operating under a ‘communism of goods’ structure overseen by an enlightened (illuminated) elite over which he presided. if you are interested send a dm now

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Looking for holiday gift ideas? Join us on Dec 2 & 3 for our artisan craft fair, presented by museum staff and volunteers. Among the offerings will be paintings, prints, baskets, sculpture, fine jewelry, wool felted items and more.
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Art Complex Museum

4 weeks ago

In honor of Veterans Day, the museum will be closed on Saturday, November 11, 2023. We thank all that have served our country.

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Opening Nov 12, 2023: Palindrome: Return to Hope, an exhibit by Andrae Green.

Originally from Jamaica and now living in western MA, Green's longing for the sea has translated into his most recent body of work: paintings that speak to the limitless potential for human imagination and freedom, and drawings about weightlessness and freedom, all inspired by the Caribbean landscape.

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Art Complex Museum

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Join us for the final concert of our 2023 series:
Chameleon Arts Ensemble
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Chameleon Arts Ensemble has built a reputation as Boston’s most adventurous chamber ensemble, integrating old and new repertoire into unexpected programs that are themselves works of art.

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1 month ago

Meet the artist on Saturday, November 4th, at 1:00pm! Mosaic artist Debora Aldo will talk about the "Unsettled Pieces" exhibit, on display through November 5th. Aldo curated the show, which contains some of her mosaic works.

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1 month ago

Collection Spotlight: This autumnal scene by artist Virginia Precourt was purchased by museum co-founder Carl Weyerhaeuser from a gallery on Newbury Street, Boston, in 1975. He was immediately drawn to the painting, which was displayed in the gallery's window.

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2 months ago

Join us for a panel talk with The Boston Printmakers on Sunday, October 22 at 1:30pm, celebrating their many years of collaboration with the Art Complex Museum. After the talk will be a demo by Malgorzata Zurakowska, an internationally known master of mezzotint.
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2 months ago

As part of our "Simple Gifts" series, we are offering Color Patterning on Baskets, a 1-day workshop led by award-winning basket artist, Dianne Stanton.

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Meet the Artists

An Interview with Nora Valdez

An Interview with Andrae Green

An Interview with Anabella Wewer

An Interview with Debora Aldo

An interview with Tula Telfair

An interview with Carol O’Malia

An interview with Mandy Fariello

An interview with Stephanie Todhunter

An interview with Anne Plaisance

An Interview with Marcia Ballou

An interview with Nancy Selvage

An interview with Mark DelGuidice

An interview with Mitch Ryerson

An interview with Jacob Kulin

An interview with Leah Woods

An interview with Aaron Norfolk

An interview with Sarah Meyers Brent

An interview with Gillian Christy

Chil Mott

Jackie Reeves

An interview with Artistic Director and flutist Deborah Boldin

Meet Boston Sculptors Andy Moerlein and Donna Dodson, “The Myth Makers”

Irena Roman, Transparent Watercolor Painter

Wally Kemp

Olga Rothschild

Interview with artist Zach Horn

Alfie Glover Coloring sheet

Glenn A. Sorei Pereira

Gretchen Moran

Wanda Gág

Fairie Houses!

Make a Salt Dough Fish Mobile

An interview with artist Lisa Houck

Musing Around At Home!

An interview with one of The Art Complex Museum’s painting instructors, Laura Tryon Jennings

An interview with The Art Complex Museum’s yoga instructor Kezia Bacon

Social Distancing!

Sally’s update on the Fish Project!

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