The Artist Wears Many Hats Artist. Teacher. Blogger. Filmmaker. Vermont’s Samantha “Sam” Talbot-Kelly fits into all of these categories, and many more. “I’m not a filmmaker yet,” she responds, modestly, when I run by the list of descriptions I’ve amassed for her work. “I happen to go between disciplines, that’s for sure, but I’d just say that I’m an artist and depending on the concept, I decide whether to do it in painting or film or installation or sculpture or illustrations.” And film. Talbot-Kelly, who is based in Montpelier, is in the early stages of putting together a film — with the assistance of cinematographer Carlos Diaz — that will look at the studios of professional artists in Vermont and explore how being based there affects their work. “Sometimes, those artists are bringing the world in to their practice, in the sense of, it doesn’t matter where they are, it just … [Read more...] about Sam Talbot Kelly
Issue Articles
Paradise City Arts Festival
A Celebration of Craft in Northampton If you really need an excuse to visit Northampton, the Paradise City Arts Festival is a good one. Two times a year, over the holiday weekends bookending the warm weather season, hoards of artists and crafts practitioners descend upon the Northampton Fairgrounds, transforming the agricultural barns and fallow fields that were once the playground of horses into a grand emporium of fine crafts. Jewelry, fiber and fashion, photography, fine woodworking and elegant expressions of furniture are all part of the mix along with painted tableaus and mixed media works in a plethora of sizes and styles destined to find homes on the walls of patrons. Four art barns feature a stable of artists and crafts folk who regularly return for each show, vending their wares and looking for a unique niche and presentation point. Many have developed an ongoing … [Read more...] about Paradise City Arts Festival
C. Parker Gallery
Art Blooms in Greenwich Spring on Connecticut’s Gold Coast and the outside world is imbued with light, scent and color. At the C. Parker Gallery in Greenwich, the “Art in Bloom” exhibition is underway. Within the 2,000 square foot space are many variations from 15 of the gallery’s artists. In conjunction with the gallery’s monthly lecture series, art historian Dr. Jessica Winston is giving a talk on Van Gogh timed to coincide with the upcoming Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, “Van Gogh: Irises and Roses.” And while it’s rare for a retail business to incorporate an educational component into its daily operations, for Tiffany Benincasa, owner of the gallery for the past three years, a passion for art and an interest in learning has long been an ancillary mission. Through many of the services the gallery currently offers, Benincasa hopes to instill in her customers, and their … [Read more...] about C. Parker Gallery
Amy Arbus
After Images The woman, eyes closed, body tinged an earthen orange-red, gently caresses the breast of an attendant crow cradled in her hand. It is a tender image, for she and the (stuffed) bird appear in repose and adoration, content with one another’s company. But for the classic art literate, there is something hauntingly familiar here, a shadow, a gossamer memory. Only upon reflection does one realize it is a living homage to Pablo Picasso’s “Woman with a Crow,” crafted toward the end of the artist’s “Blue Period.” Titled “Nina/After Crow,” it is one in a series of portraits by Amy Arbus — she of a dynasty of photographers of both the odd and the everyday — that literally bring to life the works of some of the world’s most beloved painters. The traveling exhibit and accompanying book, “After Images,” to be on display through May 24 at Mitchell•Giddings Fine Arts in … [Read more...] about Amy Arbus
Tom Culora: Shock and Awe
Asking Questions at Van Vessem In anticipation of an exhibition featuring the work of painter and mixed-media artist Tom Culora, I visited his studio in a wasabi-green cinderblock building that once housed a handkerchief mill in Warren, Rhode Island. Thirty-something years ago, Culora received a full scholarship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, earning a BFA. Delving into the art history of the late 19th and early 20th century, he developed an unbridled appreciation for painters like Edward Hopper, Robert Henri and others who offered images of “everyday people.” At that time, he was too earnest for irony. That has changed. Culora has worked much of his life in the military — he is an aircraft pilot and an authority on underwater warfare — and in international relations and security. Culora’s career path took an unusual twist, and yet that deviation from the standard … [Read more...] about Tom Culora: Shock and Awe
Tyler Vouros
After-Life At Seen Gallery Sunflowers in the drawings of Tyler Vouros are really portraits of flora mort super-sized and emerging from the depths of their velvety black backgrounds. Through May 24, SEEN Gallery in Pawtucket presents a selection of Vouros’ works that emote expressive hyperrealism, featuring gigantic owls drawn by the artist. Titled “AFTER-LIFE,” his solo exhibition puns upon the notion of things organically dead while aiming for a style of aesthetic freshness. Vouros’ works also can be interpreted as still lifes, and as such have a directed cascade of light that informs them internally. They are built-up using techniques that maximize variations in mark-making. Vouros has created tonally complex and visually engaging surfaces. He uses a water bath to bond his finished drawings to canvases that are then stretched onto wooden supports. It is an incongruous method … [Read more...] about Tyler Vouros