Open Studios Gallery 2011

William Wessel studied fine arts at Salisbury University in Maryland and at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and currently resides in Boston. He primarily works in acrylics and likes to push the medium in unusual directions while focusing on color and texture.  His inspiration comes from time, nature and space, as well as internal dynamics of our bodies.  

Elizabeth Sheehan - I am a local artist, who first pursued my BA. in English and minor in psychology from Eastern Nazarene College, Ouincy, MA. After receiving my degree, I waited a year and began attending Massachusetts College of Art, I graduated in 1999. I have been painting and teaching art and preschool since then. I have had my work in several

galleries and been in benefits, shows, and Open Studios. I have been influenced by the Fauves, German Expressionist, Klee and Chagall. color theory is also very important to me, for affects the physiological as well as the psychological perceptions of the viewer.         

Cindy Batya Geller -My love of photography began as a teenager. For me, photography has always been about capturing a sacred moment in time. It is a spiritual connection with the qualities that the subject reflects. For example, my signature photographs of the flamingo’s, reflect their beauty, grace and elegance.  To me, taking a good photograph isn’t about taking a perfect photograph. It can’t be forced or planned. As an artist, it comes from a special place - the spiritual. It is my hope that the viewer is able to see those transcendent qualities I am trying to convey in my work.

Vincent Crotty is an Irish-born artist who immigrated to Boston in 1990. Regarded for his landscape and figurative paintings, as well as urban landscapes, Vincent explores the places and faces of both Atlantic coasts as his primary subject matter.

Painting from life as often as he can, Vincent’s plein air approach creates a feeling of spontaneity and ease in his work. His paintings tell a story, convey vivid moods, and depict an immediate sense of time and place. With a style that is loose and fresh, and a remarkable understanding of light, Vincent transforms everyday subject matter into images that are memorable and moving.

Born and raised in Kanturk, County Cork, a small town in southwest Ireland, Vincent began painting at age seven, inspired by his mother’s interest in art and the beauty of his natural surroundings. After secondary school, he spent five years working in a factory, during the bleak economic conditions of Ireland in the 1980s. Vincent then turned to painting at age 22 with a fierce commitment, as he says, “to make my living – one way or another – with paint.” Leaving his factory job, he studied sign painting and interior decorating in Cork City, as well as the old-world trade of painting free-hand letters, Celtic designs, and evocative pictorial signs.

In 1990, Vincent immigrated to Boston to seek out further art training. In the Boston area, he has studied intensively with John Kilroy and Paul Rahilly. He has attended the Scottsdale Artists School in Arizona on several occasions, studying with Mark Daily and David Leffel. He has also traveled widely to pursue plein air painting, taking workshops with T. Allen Lawson, Kevin MacPherson, Matt Smith, and internationally acclaimed marine artist John Stobart.

Vincent has exhibited paintings in over 50 one-man shows and dozens of group exhibits, with galleries in Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Ireland. He teaches on the faculty at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in New York. He also offers workshops at the Duxbury Art Association (Duxbury, Massachusetts) and Fort Point Studio School (Boston). In addition, he has given several portrait demonstrations in the Harvard University Art Museums.

Judith Brassard Brown -My work responds to the insecurity and crisis now consuming us worldwide. I see this crisis centering on conflicts between powers over land and resources, as pitting one culture against another. While we all strive for the same qualities in our lives (wherever we live, our religion or cultural beliefs) powerful interests work against our desires for a safe environment, clean air and water, an embracing landscape to call home.

These mixed media pieces combine elements of people and places from different times and cultures. They have the detritus of every day life embedded in them, remnants we generate as we travel through time. I collect and incorporate materials building them in a process that involves securing collage elements with acrylic and wax to build the armature of the work and then progressing to oil and wax for successive layers. In the complex construction of these images, I look at the range of human experience and how we are remarkably similar regardless of separations across years or political boundaries.

Masako Kamiya - In my painting, I engage in a dialogue with paint. My statement is composed of each dot I make with the brush. It requires me to work intimately on the surface, and yet I also move away from the surface in order to see how the layers of mark-making negate earlier marks and reveal a new form. This process is an interchange with the painting activity. In this way, I slowly arrive at my own truth, which is visual satisfaction.

My painting is gouache on a watercolor paper.

I build up dots of color into half-inch, stalactite-like columns with rich variations in color layers. From a distance the painting is a series of dots, which create larger patterns toward a uniformed center. When observed more closely the third dimension is revealed, a forest of multicolored columns. The surface is dense. Colors on the flat surface of the paper react with the colors on the surface of each stalk when perceived closely.

I challenge the way a painting is conventionally perceived. The sculptural surface moves viewers across the field of the painting. This forces the viewer’s eyes to mix and optically process the various properties of color. Ultimately, the viewers experience the subtle metamorphosis of the color in the paintings as the painting shifts from two dimensions to three dimensions and back again, according to the viewer’s angle to and distance from the work.

Painting to me, is a speculative and negotiable activity. It has become even more critical to the way I make art and serve as a counterpoint to my experience of seeing in today’s world; visual stimulation is more fast-moving and superficial with the advent of the high speed Internet and digital technology.

Rob Scott is a digital photographer.He lives in Milton and focuses on shooting local scenes.He is interested in landscapes, wildlife, water imagery, and architecture--especially old buildings. Recently he has had shows at the Milton Public Library and the Pearl Street Gallery. His work can also be seen at rwalkleyscott.zenfolio.com

Robert William Thornell born in St Louis,Mo Oct.1 1939, his family moved to Detroit Mich. where he developed his strong interest in drawing, painting and photography. Bob's earliest influence in the visual arts was from his grandfather, William A.Perry, an educator, composer and landscape painter.  Though he only knew of his grandfather, spiritually, he always felt a strong kinship through his landscapes and large painted portrait ever present in his parents’ and now his own home.

Bob was encouraged to develop a his talent in school and at the age of thirteen, through  parental support, he enrolled in more formal study the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit.  Bob attended Alma College  majoring in Sociology and minoring in Art and working  in the Art Department as an intern.   Spending several years in Manhattan in the mid sixties, he also did course work at the Student Art League .After moving to Boston, and completing graduate studies at the BU School of Social Work, he continued honing his visual art skills through course work in watercolor and acrylic painting at the Boston Center for Adult Education. 

Bob’s visual imagery, driven often out of his need for social comment finds expression through an eclectic mix of style and tools.  He prefers to be free to explore figurative, as well as abstract themes using drawing, painting and photography.

Bob exhibits his work through several group sponsored venues such as the Harriett Tubman Gallery at USES, Boston African, American Artists Association, the Dorchester Arts Collaborative and his recent affiliation with the African Winter and Pearl Street and 309 Hancock Galleries.   For a number of years he participated in the annual Beacon Hill Art Walk, Art in the Park and in both the Dorchester, and Roxbury Annual Open Studios. He’s exhibited in group shows at both Univ. of Massachusetts-Boston and Simmons College. He has had individual shows at the Fuller Gallery of Boston Medical Center and both the Dudley and Grove Hall Public Libraries.

His work is also in a number of  private collections in the Boston area, the Midwest and the South. 

Tom Acevedo -My current paintings are somewhat autobiographical, an expression of what I’m working through in my life. “ Breaking the Bonds”  was painted during one of the most difficult times in my recovery when I realized I had to let go of some of my shortcomings . “Leaving Paradise” addresses the questions of why I am always looking outside of myself for something that can only be found inside and right where my feet are standing. I paint because it is the only thing I know that I need to do, when my mind is not in the past or the future but in the moment.  Because I feel, I paint. It is a gift for me and one from the universe and in the past 20 years that gift was squandered and ignored.  It is only in these past two years that I have begun to paint again for myself. Painting for me is meditative, cathartic, and emotional. I truly feel I am blessed to have this venue for expression. If I can connect with one person through my painting I am happy.

All of my paintings at the moment are figurative. I love the male form and expressing a quiet vulnerability and masculinity at the same time.  The paintings are usually a compilation of photographs that I shoot and then put together using this hand with that arm or that head. The same can be said of the concept of the paintings. They are figurative painting but I try to transfer an emotion or a stage of my spiritual growth onto the canvas.  Layer by layer I apply acrylic house paint and glaze building references to the emotion I am trying to express. In spite of its personal nature, my work relays a struggle with life's trials and burdens that is universally felt and understood.

With each painting I attempt to challenge myself with lighting and with exaggerated, twisting poses that appear disturbing without being offensive. Truly I want to tell a story, to connect with the viewer. Isn't that what every artist wants? Eventually I would like to relax on the realism and become a bit more surreal combining both approaches to bring the story to another level.

Martha Kempe was born in Dorchester, MA and grew up right across the street from the school she attended and now teaches in, the Mather School, on Meeting House Hill. She now lives in Milton, MA with her husband and children. Although she also paints with pastels and watercolors, oils have always been her favorite medium. Over the past year she focused exclusively on painting with oils and found it to be most satisfying. Always interested in art and in becoming a teacher, she applied and was accepted at the Museum of Fine Arts After School Classes through a scholarship for Boston Public High School Students. A graduate of Emmanuel College with Distinction in the Field of Art, she began her art teaching career in Marblehead. She received a Masters Degree in Art Education from the Massachusetts College of Art. She also taught at Notre Dame Academy and Milton Academy. An avid museum visitor, she served as the Director of the Milton Art Museum, and recently graduated with a Masters Degree in Museum Studies at Harvard University. Over the years, she has written and received numerous grants benefiting her students, colleagues, and her personal and professional growth. International grants have taken her to Italy, Spain, England, Greece, and this summer to the Netherlands. Her travels have inspired her to paint with passion. 

Sandy Coleman - I have been painting and drawing since childhood. I paint mainly acrylic works in a traditional style that is sometimes representative and other times impressionistic. I love bold, bright colors, but also explore softer tones in my work. Often I incorporate African design in paintings or play with symbols to create a personal language. In general, I’m an artist who considers art play. My goal is to explore and follow where the Muse leads me as I seek to understand my own artistic voice. Often I create acrylic-based mixed media pieces that incorporate collage and showcase the beauty, power and mystery of women. But I also create works that reflect my fascination with pattern and bold color. Most pieces are imbued with a texture that invites viewers to want to move closer to see, and makes them wish to touch. I also design and make beaded jewelry and create greeting cards that are works of art that can be framed. My work has been exhibited in the Boston area, and I have been featured on HGTV’s “That’s Clever!’’ making handmade cards. One of my recent drawings, “Forward,” is in the August 2011 issue of O magazine.

Patricia Burson

Patricia was born in Montclair New Jersey. She showed a love for art very early on, majored in art in high school, earned her BFA and continued graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts College of Art, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.  Her workshops with with such notable artists as George Nick, Jack Beal & Sondra Freckleton, Janet Fish, Lois Tarlow, Michael Mazur; Robert Townsend, Joel Janowitz  have nourished her artistic career.  Recently she was guest artist in residence at Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, and has enjoyed residency fellowships in India, Acadia National Park, Cape Cod National Seashore and I-Park.  She is in numerous national and international collections and exhibition history includes DeCordova Museum Corporate Lending Program; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA ;  Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC;  Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA. 

From Bangladesh to Provincetown, Burson waits in the outdoors until something happens. The force of the wind, a sudden sound of movement captures her attention. Tree, dune, boulder are animated. She has her subject and begins to sketch or paint. “The eye absorbs and the hand is automatic,” she writes, “oblivious to time, spellbound, moving only to record the current running through me.” What runs through her emerges as energy and spirit given shape. Her trees are the embodiment of a life force, radiating energy, awakening sensation, kindling a power within the viewer.
The tree, once the incidental in the background of her paintings, is now the portrait itself, the figure about to leap off the canvas, the one that engages our attention. Her dramatic perspective is from the ground up and she captures the essential point where trunk meets branches, neither showing the tree neither attached to the ground nor reaching an end point in the sky. Burson’s trees exist free in space and yet are rooted stolid sentries, outsized in dimension and power. Burson paints them again and again, a tribe of giants, spirits among us to be revered.. – Ruth Rosner

Burson’s work has been exhibited in Alcoa Headquarters, Pittsburgh, PA, Attleboro Arts Museum, Danforth Museum, Duxbury Art Complex Museum The Elements, New York, NY, Huntington Museum, Huntington, WV, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA., Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,, Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, MA,

Patricia has received a number of awards, including fellowships at Acadia National Park, I-Park Artists’ Enclave , Vermont Studio Center , Utsav Mandir Foundation in Delhi, India, and most recently, a residency at the Asian University for Women Support Foundation.

Her work is in the collections of Ashland Coal Company; Appalacian Mountain Club, Boston, MA; Charleston Area Medical Center, Charleston, WV; DeCordova Corporate Collection, Federal Reserve Bank, Baltimore, MD; Goodwin Proctor, Boston, MA; Jasbir Sawhney & Assoc., New Delhi; Kanawha Banking and Trust, Charleston, WV; Shirish Patel,& Assoc Pvt Ltd., Mumbai, India; Utsav Mandir Foundation, Delhi, India; WGBH, Boston, MA; Sea Wind Landing, Nova Scotia, Canada, Massachusetts State College Building Authority, Boston, MA

Her work can be seen online at www.bursonstudios.com

Ali Bahri  Ozdemir

Artist Statement

I focus on religion because I believe it should be paramount in one’s life or simply unimportant. I focus on the three Abrahamic religions not only because they affect my life directly, but also in addition they prove to be the three creeds of progressive monotheistic revelation. I hope to break the barriers of automatic religious relativism, and inspire people to engage in comparative homily.

My work in its 3-D form takes on a mixed media production. Where my 2-D work is primarily of the printmaking process. I manipulate and choose media that supports the message of the piece. For example, on the piece entitled “Restriction” to emphasize the restrictions caused by religious dogma I caused the flexible, stretchable elastic band to be limited to a stationary polygon.

To me my work is an inadequate, but nonetheless good attempt at manifesting the intangible thoughts I have about religion onto a visible, tangible representation.  The biggest challenge I have faced as an artist thus far has been the transition from primarily figurative art to primarily abstract, ornamentation, symbolism, and naturalistic renditions of inanimate objects. The reinventing occurs day by day.

Scotland Huber 

The camera is an instrument that teaches people to see without using a camera." - Dorothea Lange

I came to photography through philosophy. That may seem like a backwards way to come into it, but from my prospective, there is a deep relationship between the two, despite their appearance of opposing natures. And as photography (and much of life really) would have it, it is my prospective that my photography reveals, and my hope is that when you come to my images, you will experience a give and take. You give to it your own insight and take away something of value. Each photo shares something with its viewer, while also requiring something of the viewer. Even the simplest of images do this.

I am often trying to say something with my photographs, but what I'm saying may not be what you hear. It is a journey, and I think we are figuring this all out together. Let's look at some photographs. Then look at the world.