Boston Sculptors

Artists Face the Economy

2012-01-16T04:51:00.000-08:00

Artists use the tools of business to meet the market challenges of the economic slump.

Artists Andy Moerlein (L: Yearning) and Donna Dodson (R: Cardinal) are building a market for their work despite the slow economy. They are proving that they can succeed in the creative market by applying the tried and true methods of commercial enterprise: build name recognition, seek clients outside the familiar gallery setting, keep the attention of their established collector base, look for overseas opportunities, and encourage brand loyalty.

For the past two years the artists have been showing at Gallery Ehva in Provincetown MA. Dodson had an established reputation in this vital arts community, but Moerlein was a newcomer on the scene. To assure the newly established gallery was frequented by the important eyes on the cape, gallery Director Ewa Nogiec invited Moerlein to install several of his large outdoor sculptures in front of the gallery. These notable marks on the roadside art scene drew attention and sales.

Both artists recognized the value of the Provincetown Art Association Museum to the culture of the community and became members, adding their work to the annual shows and contributing to fundraisers. To enrich her familiarity with the collector base on the cape that frequented Gallery Ehva, Dodson took regular trips south from her home in Jamaica Plain for receptions and networking opportunities. She made over a dozen trips to meet interested people, be with peer artists and contribute socially to gallery events. Print ads by Dodson and Moerlein increased foot traffic inside the gallery. Each of these very active investments contributed to the artist's recognition in the community and generated an interest in their work.

Both artists have blogs and maintain extensive email networks They actively seek out interesting community leaders and engage them in conversations about art. Dodson is a connector for Boston World Partnership and Moerlein created a large scale art installation as part of the Concord NH Chamber of Commerce dinner. A fan of her work, businessman and designer Joseph Knight created a line of jewelry based on Dodson's elephant carvings. This relationship has lead to social and exhibition opportunities in the fashion centers of major cities. Exposure to a nontraditional art clientele has proven to be an education for both the artists and the fashion enthusiasts encountered.

Dodson and Moerlein sought opportunities overseas and were invited to a sculpture residency in Verbier Switzerland. The trip was an exceptional opportunity to experience how a small but dynamic mountain village invested in art. Community visionaries recognized that internationally acclaimed artists building sculptures in the heart of downtown could serve as an economic engine to awaken a quiet early summer season. This region of the Alps is known as a destination for alpine skiing, trekking and the renowned Verbier Music Festival. The residency is seen as a cultural draw for the quiet early summer months, as well as an all-season tourist attraction. This vision has resulted in the worlds highest mountain sculpture park.

Upon their return from Switzerland Dodson and Moerlein had a rich body of experiences they hoped to share with other artists, their collectors and curious curators. They invited eight artists who had traveled to make art in similar settings to a panel discussion on international residencies and symposia. The aim was not only to build a deeper dialogue about art as an economic and business catalyst, but also to connect diverse art interests in one room. Attendees included a representative from the state arts council, board members from a variety of nonprofit arts organizations, educators and business leaders. In a quiet economy, this diverse population of interests needs to gather and share information on how the arts can prove to be an catalyst for community growth. Moerlein and Dodson felt the outreach kept their international activities on the radar of people in the community who could most impact future opportunities.

Currently Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein each have solo shows at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, 486 Harrison Avenue. Boston Sculptors Gallery is a cooperative gallery. Each artist plans their shows and publicity with only limited structural support. The single part time gallery employee helps with ideas and address lists, gallery members share in the gallery web site and press dissemination, but individual artists are tasked with making their show as success.

In the lead up to this show the artists have put together an ambitious series of incentives aimed at reaching a deep audience. To meet their business goals Dodson and Moerlein presented a teaser exhibit at Gallery Ehva in Provincetown MA this summer. They advertised both on the cape as well as in the broader New England art market covered by ArtScope Magazine. This exposure caught the attention of art critic Elizabeth Michelman who wrote an article about the couple's solo reputation and collaboration works. By fall there was good attention on the upcoming shows. The goal is to draw a familiar crowd out by assuring that they are aware of the shows and curious about the new body of work these two artists have spent the past two years creating. In a debut show, sales are very important to growing the reputation of an artist such as Moerlein whereas for Dodson, repeat sales on the heels of a successful first show solidify the market value of the new work.

A Facebook presence was key to their plan. The artist community is active. Images of their work in progress drew lively commentary that contributed to the ideas the artists were developing. These social network contacts often grew into dialogue and friendships. Both artists also use email notice to keep a large contact base informed of their concepts and works in progress.

Moerlein's home studio in Bow NH draws an audience from a very different network than the one Dodson has cultivated in Jamaica Plain. To draw their fan base close in the lead up to the show, the artists began a series of dinners and brunches. As with the audience of their panel discussion, the invited guests were selected from a diverse spectrum of community leaders. Increased sales were not a direct goal of these social events. Increased dialogue within these often isolated studio practices was important to the artists and they trusted that using a business model of increased visibility would have increased yield. The reputations exposed by their panel discussion, news articles and several visible commissions allowed the artists to send invitations to well established artists, important museum curators, busy collectors and generate a generous outpouring of well designed social events. The six meals were attended by over seventy five dynamic arts invested community leaders, most of who met together for the first time.

As part of one of these gatherings a bank president suggested that he would like to organize an event in the gallery, featuring the artists. He offered to bring notable clients from his community if Moerlein and Dodson could bring an interesting group of fellow sculptors for an exciting mixer. This event is an unexpected consequence of the pre-show social gatherings.

This week the artists set up their work in the gallery. They are both satisfied that they have laid the solid foundation for a successful show. Their preparation included the usual press releases to all the important news venues, but they also used the tools of good business:

1. Name recognition: Preview show, ads and articles in news venues, blog and Facebook presence.

2. Seek clients outside the familiar gallery setting: Invite creative arts board members to talks and meals. Travel overseas and build friendships/creative communities. Identify arts friendly business people and engage their interest and enthusiasm. Attend events such a fashion previews so they can learn from a similar, yet unconnected business model.

3. Build brand loyalty: The diners and brunches were well attended by collectors who owned the artist's work and by curators who had featured the artists in shows or collections.

4.Create a buzz: The artists understand that in the current economic climate an exciting preview and full frontal presence on social media are required to leverage reluctant investors. Their email lists are broadly selected and their postcards were mailed to an audience that has been chosen for reputation growth as well as future cultivation.

Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein have made a determined effort to create a show that is not just an opportunity to present their work, but is also a vehicle for success beyond the sculpture shown. They are inspired to awaken a fan base that will take notice and grow with them as they build a career in a most unstructured creative market during an unsettled economic present.

Getting to Know Rosalyn Driscoll

2011-12-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

Koo de Monde "brings together exceptional artists, designers and artisans with a global marketplace of sophisticated buyers. Our team of experienced curators scours the far corners of the earth searching for the hidden treasures of masters we like to call our exhibitors." And so perhaps it's no surprise they've teamed up with Boston Sculptor Rosalyn Driscoll. Be sure to check out their "touching" interview with Roz, which includes some simply gorgeous images of her work.

Blogger Scott Listfield on Ellen Wetmore and Jeff Warmouth

2011-12-16T08:33:00.000-08:00

Artist Scott Listfield gave a talk recently at U Mass Lowell and wrote a hilarious blog on the trouble with humor in art; profiling two who succeed - Boston Sculptor Ellen Wetmore and her husband Jeff Warmouth.

Artists Make Creative Leaps by Taking Global Risks

2011-10-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

A summary by Donna Dodson from the recent International Art Residencies and Symposia panel

Mary Sherman set the stage with the history of US residencies. They were designed to promote national agendas in contrast to what they have become, a forum for raising awareness of being a citizen in the world. She gained the perspective of being one among many and an awareness of how other nationalities have conversations with and about Americans. It changed her knowledge of art history to be a part of it in a global sense versus a national sense.

Batu made the point that sharing tools and learning new things from his peers was the part of the symposia that he looked forward to the most. As a teacher, he is energized from the experience of participating in symposia with peers from all over the world and building life long friendships. He also noted the importance of flattening the hierarchy of teacher/student through travel, exchange and sharing. These values are fundamental to his art making practice.

Donna Dodson went to Switzerland with the idea that she wanted to make a pregnant stork figure. The piece was developed in conversation with Kiki Thompson, a resident of Verbier, to celebrate the recent baby boom in town. She planned to use her vocabulary on a larger scale, but in a site specific way to the Alps. The piece changed in conversation with Paul Goodwin, curator to Tate Britain, who challenged her to take a bold risk with the placement of the piece, and not face it to the tourists, but perch it on the precipice of the valley, about to take wing.

Robert Markey described his public art and mural work in Brazil and Cambodia. As an external agent to a community, he is able to re-shape the relationships of street youth to police, and to demonstrate their value to the community. He teaches mural making and drawing skills, and in the process gets a community excited about art. By working internationally, he is able to reach a broader audience through his artwork than through temporary or gallery exhibits, and his art can have an impact beyond his local community in Mass. He brings back a global awareness to his studio practice, for example human trafficking, which is the subject of his recent work.

Roz Driscoll responded to the shape of the rivers, trees, and Greek architecture to create site specific work in residence in England at the Crypt Gallery. She described the process of leaving behind her studio, tools and materials, and making a creative leap, or taking an artistic risk she needed to in order to grow in her work. She brought nothing but she had everything with her, i.e. her experiences, knowledge and collaborative relationships to make new artwork.

John Weidman said as a director of an international symposium he wants artists to come empty, to experience the place, and to create from the heart. He doesn’t want artists to come with a proposal or pre-conceived notion of a piece. In his own work, he often re-visits narratives or themes, but crafts his work in site specific materials, referencing the past, present, future.

Kiki Thompson emphasized three points, Art Culture and Education. 3D foundation brought in a curator at the beginning and the end of the residency to shape the dialogue and conversation. They offered classes to the children in the community to de-mystify the art making process. They brought the artists to Art Basel which pushed her to make a creative leap with her piece, Samsara, or life cycle. She chose to make it black b/c she was responding to the black pieces at the fair the most. Life cycle celebrates birth and death, as a parallel to the seasons of nature.

For Andy Moerlein going to Switzerland and being in the Alps was like coming home to the mountains of Alaska. The people who loved the mountains loved his work the most. For Andy, there was a sharing of himself through his art and an understanding by the residents of Verbier that took place and transcended language. Art bridged the communication gap where meaning and an exchange of value, took place, he gave them art, and they gave him their appreciation.

Laura Baring-Gould described her experiences in Thailand. It changed her perspective of globalization where the stereotype was cheap goods are made in a poor country and consumed by a rich country. As an artist, a maker, and a story teller, Laura is using art to teach Americans about their history, and the Thai people are helping her with their casting techniques, ancient traditions, spiritual practices. They became real to one another, beyond the stereotypes of rich Americans who point at what they want done to working peers in the studio and poor Thai people lacking modern technology to people who are rich in the knowledge of their history, and who have the connectedness of art and culture as the fabric of their lives.

We heard people say that the dialogue would empower the young people in the audience to try out their own ideas in the world. We hope our experiences would encourage the students to take advantage of opportunities to travel abroad and learn from their experiences by reflection and peer dialogue. All of the presenters shared an idea that they wanted to put into place with the help of other people and resources in the community. That’s how we make things happen.

Thank you very much to our EVENT Hosts and SPONSORS:
The Derryfield School & Swissnex Consulate of Switzerland

Moderator:
Mary Sherman is the Director of TransCultural Exchange, an organization dedicated to promoting international art and the understanding of world cultures. Besides her work as an advocate of international creative dialogue, Mary Sherman is an artist and critic. She has participated in residencies in Romania, China, Korea, Chicago and was recently a guest artist at PROGR in Bern, Switzerland. Ms Sherman was an Artist in Residence of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, Cambridge MA.

Panelists:
Laura Baring-Gould, sculptor/installation artist. With extensive travel and work experience in various international settings (Mexico, Ireland, Southeast Asia), Baring-Gould received a 2008 Fulbright grant for artistic investigations in bronze and bamboo in Thailand. From 2006 - 2010 Baring-Gould lived and worked in Thailand creating public art commissions. Her presentation will focus on observations of how art and art-making are differently practiced and culturally valued, and the opportunities present in meaningful global interaction.

Sculptor Rosalyn (Roz) Driscoll just completed a summer artist's residency at Space, a program supported by Dartington Hall Trust, in Devon, UK. Her sculptures explore the sense of touch and the experience of the body. Driscoll’s engagement with touch and perception has led to her participating worldwide at conferences for neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, engineers, philosophers, designers, art historians, artists, and people working with disabilities. Her work has been exhibited in the US, Europe and Japan. Ms. Driscoll has received awards from the New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico.

Robert Markey is a painter, sculptor and multimedia artist. He has been traveling to Brazil and Cambodia for a number of years to work with disadvantaged kids creating mosaic murals. He is committed to purposeful community arts investment.

Batu Siharulidze, Associate Professor at BU and Director of the Graduate Sculpture program. He has a long resume of international residencies in China, India, Turkey, Great Britain, USA, the Netherlands and Georgia.

Kiki Thompson has exhibited in New Zealand, Switzerland, New York, California and London. Ms. Thompson is Co-founder of the Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park Residency and was a participating artist in its first edition in 2011. She lives and works in Verbier, Switzerland.

John Weidman is the Director of the Andres Institute of Art (the site of an annual International Stone Symposia) as well as Director of the Nashua NH Sculpture Symposium. Besides his responsibilities as a Symposia Director, John is an internationally known sculptor who has participated in two or more international residencies/symposia annually for over a decade.

Event Hosts:
Donna Dodson graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts. Since 2000, Dodson has been honored with solo shows nationwide for her wood sculptures. Dodson enjoys public speaking, and has been a guest speaker in conferences, panels and forums at museums and universities in North America . She is a member of the Wellesley College Friends of Art and She won a George Sugarman Foundation Grant in 2007. In 2011 she participated in the Verbier 3D Foundation's Artist Residency and Sculpture Park in the Swiss Alps where she created monumental outdoor sculpture.

Andy Moerlein has an extensive resume of public art works. His work has been shown in museums, sculpture gardens, and galleries from Alaska to New York. In 2011 he participated in the Verbier 3D foundation's Artist Residency and Sculpture Park in the Swiss Alps.

Mr. Moerlein has been an arts advocate, educator, and professional juror for over 30 years. He has been a teacher and gallery director at the Derryfield School in Manchester NH for 15 years. Moerlein holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Cornell University. He lives in Bow, NH.

Press Release: Passage by Harries / Heder

2011-10-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Images L to R: Poetry Trellis, Acoustic Chairs

Passage

We are pleased to announce the opening of the public art installation Passage at the new South Mountain Community Library. Passage is a multi-faceted public artwork that focuses on poetry and the landscape of South Phoenix.

The Four Poetry Trellises span the path as it runs past the Library and towards the Western Canal. Letters welded to the canopy project shadow lines of poetry onto the path. The four couplets were written by noted local poet Alberto Ríos, meditating on the South Mountain landscape.

The three Acoustic Chairs are grouped by the Library entrance. Sitting in these Chairs,
people experience intimate readings of poetry. The collection of poems was curated by Ríos. The collection features 19 poets with writings about that draw on South Phoenix and the landscape of the area.

Jumbled steel letters embedded in the concrete sides of the Chairs and in the surrounding pavement encourage visitors to make their own words and poetry.

For more information please visit:
www.harriesheder.com.

South Mountain Community Library, 7050 South 24th Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85042

From the HarriesHeder website:

"Over the past 8 years we have been involved with the rapidly changing environment of the South Mountain area of Phoenix. During that time this area of citrus orchards and flower farms became a built-up residential community. We have been able to contribute to the pedestrian, bicycle and equestrian connections, and to the public image of this community through a series of projects: Arbors & Ghost Trees for Baseline Road and The Zanjero’s Line for the Highline Canal Trail that have been completed and the soon to be built Western Canal Bridge. Passage creates another link in these trails, one that relates to the others and adds new artistic ideas particularly fitting for the new South Mountain Community Library.

Illustration showing location of Library, Western Canal, and art elements

Passage is a multi-faceted, collaborative public artwork. The South Mountain Community Library is operated jointly by the Phoenix Public Library and South Mountain Community College. Used by students and the community at large, the Library is a magnet for community identity and the spirit of learning. To reflect this energy, we wanted to integrate visual elements with words. With the help of noted local poet, Alberto Ríos, we focused with poetry onto the South Mountain landscape, the quality of words, and the contents of the Library. The project consists of four Poetry Trellises and three Acoustic Chairs.

It's a Giant Person! And It's a Tree? It's Art

2011-10-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

This just in from the New York Times, September 23, 2011 on Boston Sculptor Joseph Wheelwright's show on view through May, 2012

It’s a Giant Person! And It’s a Tree? It’s Art

By SUSAN HODARA

Photo credit: Margaret Fox “Pine Man,” from the Joseph Wheelwright exhibition in Katonah. The tallest of the five tree figures on display is 27 feet high.

ONE figure towers over the Katonah Museum of Art‘s South Lawn, bark-skinned, wild-haired, branching arms and fingers splayed. Another poses by the museum’s entrance, and three more take their places in the sculpture garden, blending in with the over-100-year-old Norwegian spruces as if they belong to the landscape, yet gesticulating in a way that is distinctly human.

The monumental works in “Joseph Wheelwright: Tree Figures,” from 16 ½ to 27 feet tall, began life upside down as live trees rooted in the soil on the artist’s 40-acre property in East Corinth, Vt.

“I start by looking for trees with bifurcated trunks,” said Mr. Wheelwright, a sculptor who lives in Boston with his wife, Susan MacGregor Wheelwright.

“If the hips and the swing of the legs look good, I poke down into the roots to see what the tree is going to give me for shoulders. Sometimes you can follow the root structure all the way out to the fingers.”

Having identified a promising specimen, Mr. Wheelwright, 63, fells the top portion of the tree, which will not be part of the figure, and then, using customized equipment, uproots and inverts the remainder.

“It’s a big deal,” he said. “You have to use a crane to gently remove it, or sometimes I build a ramp so when the tree falls it pulls the roots up and out.”

Completing the sculpture involves adapting and adding to the existing growth to form the head and facial features and position the arms and hands.

“I use every part of the tree that is appealing, but I don’t have any rules about not using other materials,” Mr. Wheelwright said. Often the heads are carved from laminated pine planks and then covered with bark.

The figures are made from an assortment of species. The three pieces in the museum’s sculpture garden, “Yellow Birch Figure,” “Cherry Figure” and “Oracle,” are made from yellow birch, cherry and pine trees.

Mr. Wheelwright has found that hornbeams, relatively short hardwood trees, are particularly suited to his purposes.

“They have fewer roots, but they always send out a few strong shoulders,” he said. “Smoke Jumper,” by the entryway, was created from hornbeam and then bronzed (it is the artist’s second bronzed large-scale tree figure).

The five tree figures in Katonah, sculptured from 2006 to 2008, are part of a group of 10 that Mr. Wheelwright, who also carves massive stone heads, has produced since 2003.

Since the 1970s, he has also been fashioning smaller figures from roots and branches. Five of those pieces, bronzed and ranging from 10 to 32 inches tall, are on view in the museum’s atrium through the end of the year.

Decades of trolling for sources in the forest have convinced Mr. Wheelwright that trees and humans share a common ancestor.

“There’s no question that we are descended from the same organism,” he said. “You see it all the time: an armpit will form at the bottom of a branch; then it will mound like a shoulder. And many times I’ve seen fingers that seem to grow like a hand, with a spray of three or four, and then something thicker that heads down like a thumb. It’s quite astonishing.”

Putting the tree figures on display at the Katonah Museum was a labor-intensive project that involved flatbeds, forklifts and slings.

“It took a week to get them here and unload them and set them up in the garden,” Nancy Wallach, the museum’s director of curatorial affairs, said.

The installation, she said, was one of the museum’s most ambitious to date, in terms of both the size of the sculptures (the heaviest weighs about two tons) and the complexity of securing them in the ground.

The tree figures will remain on view through next spring, giving museumgoers the opportunity to experience the works as the seasons change.

“Just wait till it snows,” Ms. Wallach said. “Can you imagine?”

“Joseph Wheelwright: Tree Figures,” through May in the Marilyn M. Simpson Sculpture Garden and on the South Lawn at the Katonah Museum of Art, 134 Jay Street (Route 22). For more information: katonahmuseum.org or (914) 232-9555.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 25, 2011, on page WE10 of the New York edition with the headline: It’s a Giant Person! And It’s a Tree? It’s Art.

Roz Driscoll Residency at Space, Dartington Hall, Devon UK

2011-06-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

During the month of April, Roz Driscoll had the first artist’s residency at Space, Dartington Hall, Devon, UK, in preparation for a collaborative multi-sensory installation, Just Under the Surface, in Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London, UK, May 6-19, 2011

April was the warmest, driest, earliest spring in English memory, providing me with a glorious month at Dartington Hall, a 2000 acre estate in Devon with a rich legacy in progressive education, environmental practices and the arts. The extraordinary gardens, grounds and community of Dartington Hall and town of Totnes created the context for a rich, productive month. I worked in a spacious studio in the former home of the renowned Dartington College of the Arts, where I made sculptures and drawings in preparation for the installation in London.

See www.dartington.org.

In London, we installed Just Under the Surface, an immersive, multi-sensory installation in the Crypt Gallery, a labyrinthine crypt under St Pancras Church. My collaborators, with whom I had worked for over a year on the project, were Tereza Stehlikova, film-maker, Bonnie Kemske, ceramacist, and Anais Tondeur, textile artist. We considered the crypt our fifth collaborator.

Drawing on the mythological imagery of the neoclassical church of St Pancras, I envisioned the crypt as the Greek underworld—Hades, land of the dead. Five rivers flowed through Hades: Lethe, river of forgetfulness; Styx, river of hate; Cocytus, lamentation; Acheron, sorrow and pain; and Phlegethon, fire. I had made the five rivers in my studio in Massachusetts during the winter and shipped them to London. During the Dartington residency I added two rivers to reflect the modern psyche: the rivers of disconnection and meaninglessness. The installation was richly sensory and immersive, engaging visitors in body and soul.

See www.rosalyndriscoll.com and www.artintouch.co.uk.

(images below L to R: River of Disconnection, River of Fire, River of Hate, River of Meaninglessness)

Edgar Allan Poe Public Art Project RFQ Deadline Aug. 15, 2011

2011-05-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR ARTISTS: Request for Qualifications

DEADLINE: August 15, 2011

The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, Inc. (the Foundation), in coordination with the Boston Art Commission, seeks qualifications from artists, artisans and/or designers to develop public artwork(s) celebrating Poe and his creative work. The site is the Edgar Allan Poe Square, located in Boston, MA at the southeast corner of Boylston Street and Charles Street South and is a roughly triangular brick paved plaza of 1,700 square feet.

Poe was a master craftsman, a versatile writer, and is considered America’s first great literary critic. Additional information on the site, and on Poe, his achievements, and his ties to Boston, can be found on the Foundation's website.

BUDGET: Up to three artist/designer/teams will be paid an honorarium of $1,000 to develop and present site specific proposals. The Foundation proposes a budget of $100,000 for artwork(s) at Poe Square.

ELIGIBILITY: Artists, artisans, and/or designers must be at least 18 years old. Priority will be given to those who are not currently working on a public commission in the City of Boston or who have not had a public art commission over $100,000 installed in Boston within the last two years. There are no geographic limitations, however the Foundation cannot provide housing or transportation.

APPLICATION: Apply online with all materials submitted in digital format. Full RFQ and application through CaFE™. There is no fee to apply.

ARTIST NOTIFICATION: September 16, 2011 by e-mail

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Please contact: Jean Mineo, Project Manager

E-mail: jeanmineo@aol.com

Tel: 508-242-9991

Full Call: https://www.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=707&sortby=fair_deadline&apply=yes

Boston Art Commission: http://www.publicartboston.com/

Edgar Allan Poe Foundation: http://www.poeboston.org/

Find the Foundation on Facebook

CaFE™: http://www.callforentry.org/

Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein at Verbier Sculpture Park

2011-05-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Boston Sculptors Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein selected to participate in the first high altitude Sculpture Park and Artist Residency in Verbier, Switzerland.

Go Tell It On The Mountain: Towards a New Monumentalism
Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park and Artist Residency

Verbier, Switzerland (May 1, 2011) - The 3-D Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the first high altitude Sculpture Park and Artist Residency in Verbier. For five weeks, (May 21 – June 25, 2011) a roster of emerging and critically acclaimed Swiss and New York-based artists are invited to create a museum without walls.

The curatorial premise set by Paul Goodwin, Curator of Contemporary Art at Tate Britain, will present "GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN: TOWARDS A NEW MONUMENTALISM". Artists varying in disciplines are invited to create an individual, site-specific monumental sculpture for the Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park.

The Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park and Artist Residency proposes a new approach to public art and monumental sculpture based on ecological and social sustainability; awareness of global cross-cultural issues and local community engagement; and man’s relationship to the mountains.

The sculptures created in Verbier, will be exhibited 12 months, braving the four seasons at a high altitude of 2100 meters (6,800 feet), between Ruinettes and La Chaux. The Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park is free to the public and only accessible by foot, bike, skis or dogsled.

Free educational classes for local children between the ages of 5 to 12 years old will be offered in June, allowing the children to interact with international artists.

Juried by the 3-D Foundation Board of Advisors, participating artists include: Will Ryman, Andy Moerlein, Kiki Thompson, Etienne Krähenbühl, Musa Hixson, Timothy Holmes, Donna Dodson, Gregory Coates and Sam Bassett.

The opening reception for the sculpture park will take place on June 25, kicking off with “Burning Mad,” a live performance piece where a sculpture is set on fire. In addition, ArtBattles will host one night of their European Tour in Verbier. New York painters, Lexi Bella and Sean Bono will battle two local Swiss artists, Gregory Corthay and Nicolas Constantin. (http://www.artbattles.com)

Renowned artist, Will Ryman will send a rose sculpture from his acclaimed installation, “The Roses,” currently exhibited on Park Avenue in New York City until May 31, 2011. The single rose, representing a gesture of friendship to the Swiss Alps, will be installed in Verbier and remain on display for three months, coinciding with the Verbier Festival. After Verbier, Ryman's sculpture will travel to Miami to be featured during Art Basel 2011.

Go Tell It On The Mountain: Towards A New Monumentalism, Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park and Artist Residency, is sponsored by The 3-D Foundation, la Commune de Bagnes, l’Etat du Valais: Etincelle, TeleVerbier, VERBIER St-Bernard and Atelier D’Architecture Christophe Corthay.

The 3-D Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, founded by New York-based artist Madeleine Paternot and Verbier-based sculptor Kiki Thompson. Its mission is to promote contemporary art and culture, to focus on nature and community and to provide educational workshops. <http://www.3-dfoundation.com>

For further information regarding the project and its featured artists, please contact Alaina Simone at asimone@3-dfoundation.com.

Boston Sculptors on criticism, art and craft

2011-04-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

On Apr 16, 2011, at 11:36 AM, Peter Haines wrote:

Dear BSGers,

I am a fan of [Boston Globe Art Critic] Sebastion Smee. Smee can be tough, and I do not always agree with his opinions, but he has a stance- something to engage with.

Smee's October 8 Globe review of Dale Chihuly's MFA show was a nuanced masterpiece. Chihuly's tacky work has become as ubiquitous as a Louis Vuitton handbag. He is a favorite in Columbus, Ohio where I grew up. The "cognoscenti" can recognize each others pieces on shelves like they might a Hermes scarf around the neck. A seven-inch diameter glass bowl -$6000; am I jealous? (perhaps, yes).

Smee's writing can put into words my own inchoate thoughts and feelings. Like a good poem- [from the Chihuly review] "They're like daily deliveries of unwanted flowers after a regretted one-night transgression." WOW!

Or this, "Nor am I bothered by the absence of ideas in his work; I am all in favor of senseless beauty, and would prefer it any day to most of the brittle, air-filled meringue that goes by the description of conceptual art." YES, with a fist-pump!

I do like the Green Tower at the MFA (Smee agrees). I think that it with two other sculptures do much to relieve the sterility of the new food court. More is needed. Perhaps one of us us has proposed "a spectacle" for that space.

Having read the Chihuly piece in bed, I could not fall asleep for hours after turning out the light. In my mind, I played a taste parlor game:

TASTEFUL / TASTELESS / TASTE IRRELEVANT
Maillot / La Chaise / Rodin
Braque / Dali / Giacometti
Manet / Renoir / Van Gogh
Brancusi / Jean Arp / Picasso
Noguchi / Pomodoro / Calder
Rothko / Georgia O’Keffee / Orozco, Rivera
Joseph Cornell / Klimt, Parish, Erte / H.C. Westerman
Caro / Oldenberg / DiSuvero
I.M.Pei, Foster / Gehry / Calatrava (?)
Minimalism / Pop Art / Abstract Expressionism
Tang Dynasty / Ming Dynasty / (?)
Haines / Jeff Koons / Anish Kapoor

This, of course, reflects my taste- that tends to favor columns one and three. However, some tasteful minimalists (Agnes Martin) bore me, and I like the tasteless Philip Guston (an acquired taste). I puzzle about the appropriate column for others: Bonnard (T or TL), Hans Hoffman (TL or TI), Turner (T, TL, or TI). A great player would have nicely parallel threesomes.

It occurs to me that this game could be a good framework for fun and discussion if we meet as usual at the end of the year. I would be willing to host this year.

Tastefully Yours,
Peter DeCamp Haines

On Apr 16, 2011, at 12:46 PM, DANIEL WILLS wrote:

Thinking about Peter's letter I am reminded of a couple of quotes from Chihuly: I put a lot of stuff together until it looks right and: there is never too much. I also think the green piece is exciting to look at and seems to exist without a need for intellectual content. I also agree with Peter's take on Smee.

- Dan Wills

On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Eric Sealine wrote:

From 1975 to about 1983 I worked in vitreous enamel, fired onto plate glass. (Home page of my website at present.) I was a member of the Glass Art Society and got to know a lot of glass artists and the issues they deal with. I would make two comments about Chihuly and the world of glass art.

First, it is very difficult to make something out of glass that isn't beautiful, just because the medium is like that, and that makes critical judgment very hard. Stephanie Walker's last show comes to mind.

The second has to do with the high cost of incremental technical change. Once you're set up to, say, cast large objects out of glass like Howard Ben Tre or produce thousands of latticino spears like Chihuly, the cost of making a different kind of object is very high. You have to build a whole different kind of factory. This means that glass artists tend to keep making the same kind of object over and over, especially if they are selling well. Chihuly is directly in the tradition of Murano for reasons that have to do with the intractable nature of the material itself.

That lack of maneuverability is one of the reasons I quit working in glass. - Eric Sealine

On Apr 16, 2011, at 4:18 PM, Peter Haines wrote:

Eric,

Interesting. The reason that I never took to the lathe or to the potters wheel,
fun for a while, was the intractable roundness.

Peter DeCamp Haines

On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 10:23 PM, Eric Sealine wrote:

And the intractable 'craftness', which to me entails a definition-by-material. I regard 'oil paint on canvas' as the king of art media precisely because it is so maneuverable. If you want to make an entirely different painting tomorrow than you made yesterday, that's your business. If you want to move into watercolor, the start-up cost can be as much as a couple of hundred dollars; big deal. If you have a glass factory...not so simple, not so cheap, not so maneuverable.

There was always a background chatter at G.A.S. conferences about the division between art and craft, and how it was important to define 'glass art' as 'art' and not 'craft'. My opinion was that, if you're having that discussion, you have other problems.

I can define the junction between art and craft while standing on one foot (thank you rabbi Hillel): Every art has a craft, and every craft has an art. If what you just made doesn't have both, you have nothing, whether that thing is a new patch of sidewalk or the Mona Lisa.

All of which makes being a member of Boston Sculptors so interesting. We're not just a collective of sculptors, we're also a collection of (developing) definitions of what we mean by 'art'.

On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 12:50 AM, Peter Haines wrote:

Yes, Eric.

While I have nothing against ideas, it seems to me that no idea is so great as to justify a crappy object- thus comes craft.

Conversely, take the trajectory of Chinese Art. My favorite objects are from the Shang dynasty (1600 BC). What is amazing is that motifs established then persist for nearly 3500 years. High points are considered to have been reached in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD).

The problem is that the Chinese did not know when to stop, more was always better.
If a white object is beautiful, then white and blue is better, then white and blue and red, then green, then silver, gold etc.

By the time you reach the much-heralded Forbidden City stuff of the Ming and Quin Dynasties, ever more amazing craft has triumphed, at the expense of art- my taste.
Peter DeCamp Haines

Tues. April 19, 2011:

Sebastian Smee, art critic for The Boston Globe, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for criticism today “for his vivid and exuberant writing about art, often bringing great works to life with love and appreciation.” The prize, which is the preeminent award for newspaper journalism, comes with $10,000 cash. Globe art critic Mark Feeney won the Pulitizer Prize for criticism in 2008. This seems to make the Globe the only newspaper in America have two full time staff Pulitzer Prize winning visual art critics.

What Yeats Said

2011-01-29T13:10:00.000-08:00

From Mac Dewart: Yeats said, "We never know when life will catch fire and become art."

Here's a thought: We labor as sculptors not knowing really whether it's Art with a capital A or not.... but we pour our life force into the process none-the-less, we exhaust ourselves mounting shows, we scrounge and borrow and go broke at the last minute, hoping for that moment of fire when the work comes alive and we can't take our eyes off it. In my own work, I never know for sure, but.... in Your Work all of you.....I find inspiration. Three examples: walking into Charles Jones' show, I had to shout out loud, so dazzlingly strong and authoritative the drawing and sculpture was. Looking carefully at Rosalyn Driscoll's piece The Nothingness of Fire, it seemed a tour de force, like nothing I'd ever seen, yet also like everything...flesh, mountain, river...the light at the heart of the world. And at the Scoop show one night, there was a cluster of onlookers around David Lang's piece in the window absolutely mystified, shouting their amazement "at the pigs that could fly." Thank you all for your moments of fire.

Eric Sealine responds: I remember seeing a show at the Art Institute in Chicago in about 1975. I had driven six hours from Ames, Iowa, and saw a substantial collection of genuinely contemporary art for essentially the first time. There was a Christopher Wilmarth sculpture on the wall, about 3' square, of slumped glass, maybe 3/8" thick, with the center square frosted and the rest clear. It was hung from the wall with a single wire that passed down one side on front, around the back, and back up the other side of the front. The shadow was an integral part of the object. It was the most beautiful and elegant and simple thing I had ever seen, and at that moment it occurred to me that this was something you could make your life about. I walked into the museum as one of those young vaguely artsy types, and I walked out as an artist. You never know.

What's YOUR experience? Let us know -

Laura Evans and Jessica Straus in Trigger and Reconfigure

2011-01-29T06:28:00.000-08:00

Trigger and Reconfigure
Jan. 22 - Feb. 21, 2011
Jewitt Gallery at Wellesley College

This exhibition explores how an artwork begins with an encounter between an object or image and the artist. The found form, not necessarily interesting or beautiful to others, is so compelling to the artist that it must be engaged with, seized even. Intuitively the artist understands the possibilities this form offers for reinvention. And thus the art-making process begins. There will be dialogue surely, sometimes a grappling, a coaxing or a nudging of this form until new light or a new life emerges.

Featured Artist: Eric Sealine

2010-12-21T18:59:00.000-08:00

What intrigues me most about artists is not necessarily what they are working on but where they came from and where they have been. Just by learning about someone’s past you gain a greater appreciation for what they create now and who they are. Their background influences every piece of art they make, paint, or build, whether they know it or not.

When I spoke with Eric Sealine, this same fact proved to be true as well. Sealine’s current and future work is based on his past experiences. Sealine has a show scheduled for 2012 at the Boston Sculptors Gallery. The theme for his show, unless things change, will be based on the creek that he played in when he was a kid in Delaware.

Through perspective, Sealine wants to show the natural history of the creek he so often visited as a child. He is very interested in the idea of perception and how it works. People are easily fooled, why is that? People also love to be fooled. However, he does not want the show to be a story of loss but instead that of a gift he experienced as a child. He is also trying to incorporate how our memories get smoothed and changed by taking them out and toying with them as we get older. The concept is one that anyone can relate to.

Sealine’s past has influenced his work in numerous ways. For example, he has built boats by hand and still has the first boat he ever built, which he sails to this day. He was also an architectural model maker. His carpentry skills translate directly to his current works in progress, as well as his studio, which he built.

A lot of Sealine’s work has a three dimensional illusion to it. The picture above is a good example of a three dimensional illusion. It has no official title yet but is just being called, A Work in Progress. Sealine’s work is fun and carefree and when I see this picture, well, I enjoy being fooled. Submitted by Jen Costa, Boston Sculptors Gallery intern.

Featured Artist: Rosalyn Driscoll

2010-12-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

Which material should you choose to work with for your next sculpture? Wood, Metal, plaster? How about rawhide? I bet you haven’t worked with this particular material yet! Rawhide is Rosalyn Driscoll’s medium of choice in her most recent show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, Natural Light.

Driscoll first came across rawhide while she was in New Mexico for an artists’ residency. She was in a drum store and saw a painting on rawhide. After some conversing with people at the store and figuring out that it could be shipped to her, it was an obvious choice for Driscoll that she wanted to work with this material. Driscoll’s father used to own ranch land so her current pieces connect her to her past. Driscoll also is drawn to the rawhides ability to hold form, translucence, and irregularities.

So what draws Driscoll to create art with this material is the fact that the rawhide allows her to make forms that are organic. Driscoll was looking for a way to enliven and mobilize rectilinear forms that she was working with, so what better material to use than a form of skin. Her work is also about containment as well as being rectilinear and how skin is the ultimate container. Driscoll also added some neon lights in her rawhide pieces to amplify the feel of energy in certain pieces. She also used the lights because she was attracted to the transparency of rawhide.

In her piece shown here, Revelation, Driscoll was trying to show that things encounter our quiet, orderly world unexpectedly, for example when someone dies suddenly, or a job changes. The rawhide resembles a hand is passing through this square box that is lined with copper leaf.

As for Driscoll’s future direction, she says she will continue to explore working with rawhide to take it to its next phase. In the spring she will be working in London with some other artists who will be putting together a show on touch and other sensory forms of art. Lastly, she is also collaborating with a neuroscientist. Submitted by Jen Costa, Boston Sculptors Gallery intern

Featured Artist: Andy Zimmermann

2010-11-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

When I think of sculpture, I think of a stationary object that was produced by human hands that I can sit and look at while it is on display. However, the other day, I was introduced to a piece of art done by Andy Zimmerman which was a mixture of sound, video, and sculpture all in one.

Zimmerman finished graduate school at Mass School of Art in 2003. After school he then started using video and sound in his artistic process. Prior to graduate school, Zimmerman’s art work was mostly sculpture with some painting early on in his life. Now Zimmerman is interested in how to integrate video and sound into his new works.

Zimmerman has designed computer programs that sound like instrumental music but are actually computer generated sound. These programs when finished look like a spider web of some type of complex math problem. They appear very intimidating and daunting; however, Zimmerman enjoys making them for his works. He then turns that unique sound back into sculpture. Zimmerman has also used video projection in his installations. In some ways, he feels like he is incorporating painting with the video projection because it is able to manipulate objects. For one installation, Zimmerman used old car parts as his projection surface. The parts were all painted white and then very specific masks were generated on the computer to project exactly what Zimmerman wanted to show.

Zimmerman also likes to use frosted Plexiglas in his work. He enjoys the visual effect that the Plexiglas gives off. For example, in Either Nor, Zimmerman constructed the frame and glass in an abstract geometric way. He then included the image that would serve as a human body in the piece. The theme of the piece was about being haunted and how things of this nature are not very clear but instead give off a foggy presence.

I was able to get a sneak peek at Zimmerman’s most recent work in progress which will be at the BSG in the spring, but I am sworn to secrecy and can’t give you any hints, so you will have to wait and see! Andy Zimmermann’s work will be on view at Boston Sculptors Gallery April 20 - May 22, 2011. Submitted by Jen Costa, Boston Sculptors Gallery intern.

Featured Artist: Joseph Wheelwright

2010-11-22T10:46:00.000-08:00

I happened to luck out today. I was able to interview Joe Wheelwright, and during our interview, Wheelwright told me of his Tree Figures show at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA, and mentioned that sadly, it would be coming down in two days. I thought to myself, “well maybe I’ll see it before he takes it down.” However, I had a very busy weekend and didn't think I would make it. But due to pure luck, I did get the chance to see Tree Figures. I ended up bringing my husband with me to see Wheelwright’s show the day before it was coming down.

I have never been to the Fruitlands Museum grounds, so it was quite a sight. The museum is set on higher ground so you are able to look out and see a scenic vista. It was beautiful, especially with the fall foliage, even though it’s fairly late in the season. I must say that I have never seen quite a show like this one.

We were given a map when we bought our tickets and had to walk through fields and forest to see the Tree Figures. As we began our walk, it was clear that Wheelwright’s Tree Figures, eight trees and one stone carving, were very thoughtfully placed throughout walking trails. Each tree seemed to fit naturally into it’s surrounding area. It was almost as if they were meant to be there all along. As we walked through the exhibit, we came upon tree after tree. We even became a little lost at one point turning this “show” into a small adventure. Walking along the path, we came into a clearing and that is when we saw it, The Oracle, one of Wheelwright’s main trees. It was standing tall and omniscient at the end of the clearing. This tree gave off a feeling of power as we stood there gazing at it. It was beautiful but at the same time, intimidating because it seemed like it was naturally grown there. We both joked and said that if we didn’t know that this was an art show that we would both have probably run in the opposite direction of The Oracle!

I only wished that I knew of this show earlier. However, the trees are now on the move. Wheelwright will be showing some old and some new works in New York next year. So if you want to experience an artistic adventure go see the trees, I promise you will not be disappointed! Joe will also be exhibiting his works at the Boston Sculptors Gallery at 486 Harrison Avenue from January 5 - February 6, 2011. Meet the artist at one of the First Friday receptions Jan. 7 and Feb. 4 from 5 - 8 pm, or at the artist reception Sat. Jan. 8 from 3 - 6 pm. Submitted by Jen Costa, Boston Sculptors Gallery intern.

Featured Artist: Sally Fine

2010-11-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

Sally Fine’s latest show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery will instantly give you the intense desire to travel. Her brightly colored ceramic figures are reminiscent of folk art from island communities. If you have ever been to an island outside of the United States, either on a cruise or vacation, then you know what I mean. As Fine walked me through her show, I couldn’t help but desire to go on vacation to see more of this art. While in the Dominican Republic, Fine explained that everyday at 4:00 pm, these girls from a nearby school would come outside and they would be wearing these rich colors, and had such rich skin. Fine was entranced by these colors and decided to use them in her work.

Fine also incorporated boats and fish hooks into some of her work. Boats are seen in the Dominican Republic as an escape while we in the United States see them as a means of travel, or vacation.

Fine has traveled, in the past three years, to places such as La Romana, in the Dominican Republic, Spanish Wells in the Bahamas, and Vallauris, France. These experiences outside the country have greatly influenced her current work. Fine has even incorporated hair from one of her students in La Romana into one of her ceramic pieces. However, all of this traveling necessitated that Fine adapt to her environment. For example, in La Romana, Fine had to work with minimal studio equipment which caused her work to become smaller in scale where her prior works were much larger in scale. In Vallauris, Fine spoke enough French to get by but could not communicate with others, so she found a book shop that sold English language books, which were hard to find, and went there frequently. This bookstore and books greatly influenced Fine’s piece, Coordinates: SE, E, and SW.

As for Fine’s future work, she says she will continue to use fishing wire and most likely will get larger in scale, but she will be done with ceramics for the time being. We’ll have to wait and see what art comes from her future travel plans. Fine’s work is on view at Boston Sculptors Gallery through December 12. Submitted by Jen Costa, Boston Sculptors Gallery intern.

Eric Sealine at Brattleboro Museum thru 2/6/11

2010-11-08T06:29:00.001-08:00

Sleight of Hand on view through Feb. 6, 2011

Combine a professional background in architectural model building with a creative impulse to paint and draw, then add an interest in perception and magic....and stir. This is the mixture behind Eric Sealines' amusing and perplexing works of art. Each of the relief and 3D words in this exhibition will cause viewers to stop, question, surmise, and look again. How does he do it?

www.brattleboromuseum.org/

Jen Costa interviews Murray Dewart

2010-11-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Murray Dewart - If the road forks, take it.

It was down pouring when I arrived at Murray Dewarts’ studio. Set nicely behind Dewarts’ home, his studio is one that any person, with any artistic hobby, would be ecstatic to have. It is filled with his past and present works, some small, some larger, some wood, some stone, some metal. Looking at some of his work, initially you feel that there is some type of Asian based influence. However, Dewart says that it is just how he is responding to the forms that seemed to work. These works, in a roundabout way, stemmed from a Call for sculpture that Mayor Flynn had sent out in 1989. Dewart came up with his idea for the sculpture one day when he walked into a chinese food restaurant and realized that 1990 was the Year of the Horse in the Chinese Zodiac. So he decided to create his Pegasus Arch which was chosen as the winner.

The story just begins here. After the competition, Dewart was storing the very large and very heavy Pegasus Arch on a friends piece of land. Dewart then had a big show that was coming up in which he had a big space to fill. So he started cutting up the Pegasus Arch in order to fit the steel and wood into his truck. Out of these pieces came his new pieces of sculpture, the ones that some refer to as having an Asian feel. It all took off from there and Dewart says that he is still following that moment.

Dewart attended Harvard College as an English Major and never took a sculpture class until his last year in college. Through this class he was able to get back in touch with what he loved to do. The road forked for him, so he took it. Some forty years later, he is still doing what he loves and never looked back. Dewart says that in art, you have to reinvent yourself everyday. He also said that you have to honor you initial decision, which he has been doing for the past forty years.

- submitted by Jen Costa, Boston Sculptors Gallery intern

Caroline Bagenal: House of Words

2010-10-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

As I walked through the gallery and entered the rear, I immediately stopped and was taken aback by what I saw. Caroline Bagenal’s large scale House of Words stopped me in my tracks. I went in expecting to see some sculptures placed on the wall or on pedestals that I could walk by and look at. However, this is not what I got. Bagenal’s latest sculpture is almost as tall as the gallery ceiling, and actually incorporates one of the columns of the gallery into her project. The sculpture is made of columns of all different sizes covered in newspaper. The newspaper that covers these columns includes art reviews, politics, and crossword puzzles that were actually completed by people, incorporate an authentic hand made(interactive) feeling of the project.

When I saw Bagenal’s installation, it was at its' beginning stages. Bagenal was inspired by meeting houses that she had been to in Mali, Africa called togu na, which translates to House of Words. At the meeting houses people come to rest, converse, teach, and work. These houses are made of wood, earth, have deep thatched roofs, and a few columns. This installation seems only fitting since Bagenal also teaches African Art History locally and occasionally takes students on filed trips to Mali as part of the class.

As work progressed on the project, it was clear that balance is a strong theme of the piece. After all, some of the columns are only held together by newspaper so it is both delicate and sturdy.

Although the onsite build had been stressful, Bagenal seemed very pleased with how the installation was coming together. She initially had a numbering system to help her put the piece together when she got it to the gallery but it was evident that was not going to help much. There were just too many pieces to put together. So instead.....As the work was being constructed, it cast a very interesting shadow on the gallery wall.

Ideally Bagenal wants the viewer to sit on bean bags inside of the piece and be able to look up into the piece. I am definitely going to have to make my way back there to view the finished House of Words. House of Words was on view at Boston Sculptors Gallery through Nov. 7, 2010.
- by Jen Costa, Boston Sculptors Gallery intern

Julia Shepley: OUT / IN

2010-10-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

On my last trip to the gallery, I had the privilege of catching Julia Shepley in the middle of installing her latest show, “OUT/IN.” When I first walked in, I was immediately drawn to the transformation of the gallery environment. The walls, which I last saw painted solid white, had been painted gray in spots to split the front gallery into sections. The gray and white boundaries served as natural frames for the installation, and felt as if they had always meant to be there. Shepley also planned on painting parts of the floor white in order to cast the necessary shadows for the suspended Sky Habitation. It was intriguing to see the use of manipulating an environment to further the artistic experience.

While speaking with Shepley, I was able to delve deeper into the details of her current project. As an artist, Shepley is interested in things that she finds delicate and elusive. She wants things to be viewed as transitory. Take the carved chairs of Sky Habitation, for example, which were meant to be viewed as if they are changing. They are not there as a mere representation of solid objects. They are meant to be pondered as they turn with their shadows ever so slightly with the gently flowing air. With this, Shepley captures a moment of rest, like when a person zones out momentarily, and then snaps back to reality, and in a fleeting second, that feeling is gone. This is some of what she is attempting to recreate. In each of her carved chairs there is also a reference to the person, as well as an association with trees, sky, and architecture.

There are also multiple drawings around the front gallery, some of which she is using cloud, and storm imagery, while some of the others are a beginning of a collaboration she is doing with a Swedish scientist who is studying antibodies.
Shepley sometimes changes the materials she uses in her work, such as wood, resin and glass. However, the one consistency the stays the same is what she is trying to get across.

OUT / IN is on view through Nov. 7. Posted by Boston Sculptors intern Jen Costa.

Two Sculpture Dedications This Month!

2010-10-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

Please join Mayor Thomas M. Menino and MBTA General Manager Richard Davey for the dedication of Sleeping Moon, a monumental sculpture by Joseph Wheelwright.
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 26, 4:00 PM (Rain Date October 28, 4:00 PM)
Ashmont Station Plaza, corner of Dorchester Ave and Ashmont Street on the MBTA Red Line in Dorchester, MA. Performance by Boston City Singers. Facilitated by the Urban Arts Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Sleeping Moon was co-sponsored by the Dorchester Arts Collaborative, St. Mark’s Area Main Street, the Edward I. Browne Fund of the City of Boston, New England Foundation for the Arts, Trinity Financial and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Artist Laura Baring-Gould and the Friends of Edward Everett Square with the Dorchester Historical Society, Saturday, October 16, 2010, 1pm, Edward Everett Square, Dorchester, MA
Rain Date: Sunday October 24, 2010, 1pm
Ten new bronze artworks – complementing the nearby Clapp’s Favorite Pear – symbolize the rich legacy of aspiration, activism and hope in the experience, voice and history of Dorchester’s people from the first inhabitants to the present.
This project was realized with the support of the following: Grassroots Open Space Program, City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development, The Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund of the City of Boston and the Waste Management Corporation. In cooperation with Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism & Special Events, Christopher Cook, Acting Director. For more information: www.Edwardeverettsquare.org and www.publicartboston.com

Rosalyn Driscoll on Synesthesia

2010-09-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

Synesthesia, or sensory crossover, has long been the domain of artists who combine visual effects with other sensory modes, such as hearing or taste, and the occasional odd person who perceives numbers or music as colors.

Although my sculptures explore the territory shared by sight and touch, I never considered myself synesthetic until my work was included in an exhibition called Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art, curated by Sharyn Udall at the Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico. My sculpture-video installation, Second Skin, adds a contemporary note (and an example of using sight and touch) to mid 20th century artists who fused sensory modes: O'Keefe, Dove, Burchfield, Gottlieb, and others. Video of installation at http://RosalynDriscoll.com.

I learned that synesthesia is a special neurological condition, but scientists taking it seriously are discovering that it is more common, and that the senses are considerably more connected, than previously thought. Although my own crossovers between sight and touch are not involuntary or invariant, as they are in "true" synesthesia, I do perceive, think, make decisions (and art) in terms of inner feelings - not emotions but sensations. I wonder how many other artists, especially sculptors, perceive in such idiosyncratic ways.

Link to exhibition:
http://www.cabq.gov/museum/featured.html

Hannah Verlin on creating Bloom

2010-09-01T18:30:00.001-07:00

Bloom: the process behind the installation

Completed installation

From August 21-22 the installation Bloom transformed the grounds surrounding Union Square’s Prospect Hill Monument in Somerville, MA. The piece featured 4,500 paper flowers with “he loves me, he loves me not” and “she loves, loves me not” written on the petals, a field of hope and possibilities. Just as the flowers suddenly appeared on Saturday morning, it disappeared on Sunday evening.

But before the installation…

I approached the Somerville Arts Council in April 2010 about Bloom, since then I have been busily making each of the paper flowers that went into the installation. The repetition of this process reflects the approach that I take to many of my projects.

I begin by breaking the process down into distinct steps. Rather than trying to tackle the full 4,500 at once, I work in manageable units (100 in this case).

Part 1:
Step 1: Preparing the material-- Starting out with 48” wide roll of tracing paper, I would cut off 4” wide strips. These strips I layered together in sets of four that I cut into 4” squares.

Step 2: Folding-- Now that I had 100 4” square pieces of paper in nice sets of 4, I folded each triangularly 3 times, and cut a petal shape into the little folded triangle, much like you would make a paper snow flake. Viola--Four paper flowers made!

Part 2:
Step 1: Writing-- After I had made about 2,000 flower I moved on to the second stage (to take a break from all the folding and cutting). This part of the process, however, was by far the most tedious and labor intensive. Working with sets of 100, I alternately wrote on the petals: “he loves me he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not” and then “she loves me, she loves me, she loves me, she loves me not”.

When doing something repetitive for long periods of time, one discovers all sorts of unexpected aches and pain. These I had a plenty—cramps in the hand, aches in the neck, and a shooting pain in a rarely used muscle of my right arm---but I never thought of the emotional impact that this particular process would have on me. As I wrote, I found myself repeating over and over in my head these messages of love and loss. The message would sink in and I would find myself emotionally strained as well as physically.

Step 2: Stalking-- Stalking the flowers was my favorite part, roll a little glue onto the dull end of the skewer then pierce the sharp end through the paper with a satisfying pop.

Step 3: Bundling-- With the flowers all stalked and drying, I would inscribe another set of petals. Before I stalking that set I bundled the dried flowers into sets of ten tying them up in cotton string left over from a previous project. In the end the 4,500 flowers fit into only two boxes—not too shabby!

Installation is a whole other story…

Public Art Exhibition in Medfield, MA Sept. 1 - Oct. 29, 2010

2010-08-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

Portals: a temporary public art exhibition

Vine Lake Cemetery, 625 Main Street in Medfield, Ma

Exhibition: Sept. 1 - Oct. 29, 2010

Artist Reception: Sunday Sept. 12 from 3 - 5 pm with a guided tour at 3:30. Raindate Sept. 26

Portals features large scale work by five artists: Jim Coates, Danielle Krcmar, Andrea Thompson, Bevan Weissman, and Leslie Wilcox. Portals conveys tangile or symbolic entrance to new life and each artist is creating imaginative new work, specific to the site and theme out of sticks, stones, clay, steel screen, and wood.

For hundreds of years, sculplture has been an essential feature in cemeteries where artisans were commissioned to create individual and family memorials. Portals is planned to revive the century-old practice of engaging artists to design work for this picturesque setting.

The exhibition is free and open to the public daily from dawn to dusk. The art work is located near the lake, visible from the entrance on Main Street (Rte. 109). For more information visit http://www.vinelakepreservationtrust.org/. Portals is conceived and organized by Boston Sculptors Gallery Coordinator Jean Mineo, and juried by Cecily Miller, Director of the Forest Hillls Educational Trust in Jamaica Plain.

To receive email announcements about weather releated cancellations, sign up for the Trust's newsletter on the website above.

Reshaping Reality at Brattleboro

2010-07-26T12:25:00.001-07:00

Reshaping Reality at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, curated by Carol Seitchik,Boston Sculptors Gallery, on view from July 24 - October 24 2010. Artists featured in Reshaping Reality are features the work of 11 artists associated with the Laura Baring-Gould, Benjamin S. Cariens, Rosalyn Driscoll, Laura Evans, Christopher Frost, Peter DeCamp Haines, Michelle Lougee, Nancy Selvage, Jessica Straus, Leslie Wilcox, and Andy Zimmermann. The opening reception, with artists in attendance, will be August 6, 5:30 - 8:30.

The Little Gallery under the Stairs Proudly Presents:
Work by Men, juried by Haig Demarjian featuring new BSG member Andy Moerlein. The opening reception is Saturday, July 31, from 3-6pm at 25 Exchange St., Lynn, Ma.

Moose Myth by Donna Dodson & Andy Moerlein will be featured in a walking tour on July 29th at 5pm, Market Square, Portsmouth NH. The artists will be present.

Ellen Wetmore will be showing new video work at the University Film and Video Conference at Champlain College in Vermont, August 9-14.

Gillian Christy on Daniel Buren and the Rodin Museum, France

2010-07-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from a 12 day trip to Paris, France. I have been fortunate enough to have travelled to Paris before, however, both trips were during the cold month of January. With this trip, it was really nice to enjoy the city and parks during the full bloom of spring. A more detailed account of my trip can be found at http://gillianchristy.tumblr.com/

My favorite public artwork was discovered in the courtyard fo the Palais Royal. The installation was completed in 1986 by Daniel Buren, entitled Les Deux Plateau" or as it is often referred to "Buren's Columns".

Kids were playing, running and jumping from column to column. People were seated in groups around shorter columns or simply walking through the active space. The columns at varying heights, decorated with the stripe, simply encourage play and sort of appear to be playing themselves like a game of "now you see it, now you don't"....It is obvious that the materials were chosen with care, they looked clean, new and well cared for. It is also evident that the whole space was meticulously designed and masterfully crafted.

The trip also marked ny first time to the Rodin Museum. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the collection and relax in the garden. The "Rodin and the Decorative Arts Exhibition" on view through August 22, 2010 piqued my interest to learn more about Rodin and the chronology of his life. Rodin certainly makes a strong case for working with the human form as subject matter as well as being open to working with new materials. Seeing his body of work made me interested in redicovering plaster, stone and terracotta.

Find out more on Gillian Christy at http://www.gillianchristy.com/

Where else can you see the Boston Sculptors?

2010-07-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

• Sculpture by Gillian Christy is featured in Caturano and Company presents "Home and Harbor" with paintings by John Vinton, until October 1st, 2010. Please join them for the reception on Wednesday July 21st, 2010 at 80 City Square, Charlestown, MA, 5:30 - 7:30 pm. RSVP by July 16th at events@caturano.com.

• Charles Jones is featured in Voice Over at the David Winton Bell Gallery in Providence, R.I., June 12 - July 11, 2010, which has been reviewed in the summer edition of Artscope.

• Check out the Peter Lipsitt and Murray Dewart write-up in the Boston Globe of their recent show.

• Nancy Selvage will show recent work in the Science of Art at the Women's Studies Research Center of Brandeis University from April 28 - June 30, 2010.

• There is a great write-up of Sarah Hutt's current show at Boston Sculptors on the Boston Arts Examiner. Read it here!

• Did you see? There is a great review of Charles Jones by Christine Temin in Sculpture Magazine, Vol. 29 No. 2, Mar 2010.

• Kim Bernard has a profile written about her by Ruth K. Meyer in the January edition of www.artistsmagazine.com.

• Laura Evans has a piece in the exhibit Construction at the Suffolk University Art Gallery at New England School of Art and Design. Read the Globe review here.

• Jessica Straus and Andy Zimmermann's April exhibit at Boston Sculptors got a great review in Sculpture Magazine. The review was written by Jane Ingram Allen.

• Botanica, a kinetic sculpture by artist George Sherwood, was installed on The Rose F. Kennedy Greenway, Atlantic Avenue across from Rowes Wharf, in July 2009.

• Look for exhibits by Michelle Lougee at the Boston Children's Hospital in 2010.

• Spire Magazine describes The Boston Sculptors Gallery as one "Eight Great Museum Gems in Boston."

• Joseph Wheelwright's solo exhibition will be at Fruitlands has been extended until November 2010 - don't miss it. Check out this Chris Bergeron's article in the Daily News Tribune. He was also profiled in Art New England Magazine's January 2010 issue.

• Nancy Selvage has recently completed Water Wall, a permanent public artwork for a new park at Trolley Square in North Cambridge, commissioned by the Cambridge Arts Council. For more info visit the Cambridge Arts Council website.

• Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlin are exhibiting the Moose Myths in Nashua and Portsmith, NH, through October 2010. For more information, visit the website: www.donnadodsonartist.blogspot.com

• Harvard University purchased a large bronze by Murray Dewart called "Sun Gate" and it is now installed in the McKinlock Courtyard of Leverett House. There is also work by Dewart in the permanent collections of the Harvard University Art Museums and the Harvard Theater Collections.

Donna Dodson on Snow Sculptures

2010-02-03T07:54:00.000-08:00

Celestial Elephant, 8' tall, snow sculpture, 2010 by Donna Dodson & Andy Moerlein, Black Mtn Ski Resort, Jackson, NH. [Invitational-Snow-Sculpting-Event]

This was my first event making a snow sculpture. I worked with my friend and fellow sculptor, Andy Moerlein on this piece. We heard about the event from Anne Alexander, a Maine sculptor and we consulted with her partner from last year, Sandy Moore who has inspired many people to try their hand at making snow sculptures. The event takes place from noon on Friday-noon on Sunday. Each team starts out with an 8ft cylinder of snow that was packed into a round form on site that measured 4 ft diameter. No colorants, power tools or armatures are allowed in the sculpture but the finished piece can be of any height and can spread out to 12 ft diameter. There were 12 teams- some novices like us and some experienced snow, ice and sand sculptors as well.

The snow this year was made on site at Black Mtn ski resort since there was not enough natural snow to hold the event on the common in the town of Jackson. The snow was soft to carve. We used hatchets, snow saws, and finished our piece with rough grit sandpaper belts. We worked on ladders as well as on our hands and knees. Keeping warm in the 0 degree weather was one of the biggest challenges but we had perfect sunny weather all weekend long. We experimented with water, slush and ice details as well. Snow does not hold fine details well but the surface is very dynamic and working at a monumental scale was very exciting. There are snow sculpture contests all over New England, North America and the world. We might try another snow sculpting event or an ice or sand sculpture event in the future.

We decided to create a white elephant out of the snow, so we did some research...

A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.

To possess a white elephant was regarded as a sign of justice and power, peace and prosperity. The tradition derives from tales which associate a white elephant with the birth of Buddha, as his mother was reputed to have dreamed of a white elephant presenting her with a lotus flower, a symbol of wisdom and purity, on the eve of giving birth.

Because the animals were considered sacred and laws protected them from labor, receiving a gift of a white elephant was both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because the animal was sacred, and a curse because the animal had to be retained and could not be put to much practical use.

In the Pali scriptures it is duly set forth that the form under which Buddha will descend to the earth for the last time will be that of a beautiful young white elephant, open-jawed, with a head the color of cochineal, with tusks shining like silver, sparkling with gems, covered with a splendid netting of gold, perfect in organs and limbs, and majestic in appearance.

Larry Pollans on Cave Art

2009-12-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Even in art school we knew about these cave images, but could see them only in small reproductions. Never-the-less, their mysterious power drew us to see experience the real caves in the Dordogne.

Archeological evidence demonstrates that the Cro-Magnon were already stone hut builders, weavers and tool manufacturers of antler tipped spears and handsomely hewed stone carving tools. They were also consummate artists who understood the concept of an image.

The sophistication of their cave paintings led Picasso to announce after his visit to Lascaux that they had “invented everything” (about picture making). That developmental profile makes them moderns like us. As such, we now assume that the painters had some sophisticated plan.

ORIGINS
There is no evidence to suggest that the painters and their families (in groups between 25 and 50) lived in the caves, even if the hand prints show that from time to time the entire clan, including children, was present inside the caves.

There are hundreds of images in some of the caves sometimes in accessible underground channels, and occasionally in very narrow passages which would require crawling. Imagine dragging yourself down a half-kilometer channel on your belly with a tallow torch and drawing implements, knowing full well that the fuel for your light (burning animal fat in a cupped stone holder) was limited. Imagine too that your shortness of breath was a consequence of your exertion but it felt like there was simply not enough oxygen to breathe because you would, in fact, be using up the stale supply. Some expert investigators believe that the high carbon dioxide content in the caves made it likely that painters and company might have endured - or sought - the kind of altered state that results from such a mix.

FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE
The first lesson learned in touring the caves is really an old one. I have told my students countless times that reproductions via the computer screen, book plate, etc are transposed defanged images. They can not carry the freight which in this case is the dank air, cool temperatures, flickering light, the rock formations, interior spaces, the physical exertion, the surface energy and general mystery of the cave experience, plus the riveting paintings themselves.

After driving from Bilbao in Spanish Basque country to San Felix de Reillac in the Dordogne, we rested in a rented cottage and the following morning we took our first personal look in the Rouffignac Cave. It was the only cave we visited that had a tram. Feeling a little bit like we had wandered into a Disney set, we dutifully hopped onto our seats of simple benches on a flat bed on rails. The dour tour guide hit the accelerator and we were off to see about 10% of the six miles of underground galleries.

Most galleries are too narrow and too difficult for tourists to access. The only light was the hand held flashlight of the tour guide and an occasional spotlight which the guide would turn on as we approached an event. You haven’t experienced pitch black until you tour one of these caves. The interior of Rouffignac that we saw was quite large enough for the tram and the 15 or so passengers. No ducking required.

Scratches, finger marks, incisions, painted marks and even 19th century graffiti, handsomely painted bison and mastodons were all visible. Some of those scratches were made by cave bears. Imagine bumping into such a beast that stood close to seven feet tall and weighed over 1000 lbs. According to paleontological records, the cave bears and homo sapiens were in competition for those caves for a few thousand years until the bears disappeared in the great mega-fauna die off about 20,000 years ago. An early example of catastrophic competition for scarce resources and asymmetric warfare (brain power vs. brawn)?

TECHNIQUE
The images were incised, painted and carved onto the cave walls. And Picasso was right. The images are willful and powerful. Decisions were made about which walls to paint and which animals to paint. Judith Thurman points out in her 2008 New Yorker article “First Impressions, What Does the World’s First Art Say About Us?:

“The painters had used perspective, a technique that was not rediscovered until the Athenian Golden Age; and a bestiary of such vitality and finesse that, by the flicker of torchlight, the animals seem to surge from the walls, and move across them like figures in a magic lantern show (in that sense, the artists invented animation). They also thought up the grease lamp—a lump of fat, with a plant wick, placed in a hollow stone—to light their workplace; scaffolds to reach high places; the principles of stencilling and Pointillism; powdered colors, brushes, and stumping cloths.”

MEANING
Recent ideas suggest that the drawings were meant to be a means to gain access to spirits or gods who could then ameliorate their conditions. That is were the altered states idea comes into play.

It is simply much easier to believe that you are transcendent with the help of the darkness, the drums, the flutes, the high carbon dioxide permeated air and fervent hope. Aside from all these possibilities, however, just as when touring contemporary art galleries, we do not necessarily rely on methodical analysis in the midst of the experience. How do images grab you? In touring the caves, the intensity of the experience is immediate. The flickering light and the animated animals hint at transcendence. You are right there with your ancestors. The cave painters may have entered the caves looking for refuges, but then ritualized the process like a symbolic impregnation.

Murray Dewart talks with William Stover

2009-11-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

"Recently, I had a wonderful talk with William Stover at the Museum of Fine Arts. He's Curator of Contemporary Art. He said there's a wide pluralism in the art world today that did not exist a generation ago. Where once there was a canon, a fairly strict, perhaps ideological direction in the critical establishment, there is now a wider, more fluid openness. There is of course, always the "latest thing, what's hot and cutting edge" but it's less predominant, less likely to alter the whole landscape. Many approaches are tolerated. There are many keys to the kingdom. This reminds me that Boston Sculptors Gallery, with its wide variety of approaches, is perfectly suited for our times." - Murray Dewart