Featured Artist: Sally Fine

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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