By Rosemary Chandler BOSTON, MA– The work of five Roxbury artists has traveled to Back Bay’s American Islamic Congress for Discover Roxbury’s latest exhibition, “Egyptian Moments, Roxbury Connections.” Inspired by Egypt but grounded in the artists’ Roxbury roots, the artwork reflects the artists’ personal experiences in the civilization built up along the banks of the Nile. The exhibit features the work of multimedia artists Ekua Holmes, Lucilda Dassardo-Cooper and Basil El Halwagy, as well as photographers Hakim Raquib and Derek Lumpkins. All of these artists recently spent time abroad in Egypt. Ekua Holmes’s “Ascension” series is the clear standout of the show. The four-panel series — composed of collage and mixed media on wood — is a fiery burst of brilliant reds and oranges against the white walls of the gallery. Holmes imparts her impressions of Egypt through an assemblage of … [Read more...] about Egyptian Moments, Roxbury Connections at the AIC Center
Artscope Online
The International Encaustic Conference Hits Provincetown
PROVINCETOWN- The motto of this year's Sixth International Encaustic Conference is "All Waxing, No Waning" and from the sound of things, there will be no waning at this year's conference. Encaustic, for those of you who are not in the know, is the use of making art with a paint that has been mixed with beeswax and fixed with heat after its application. Some may see this as a fad or a novelty, but encaustic has been used as early as ancient Egypt. Artists like Jasper Johns used to make his own beeswax paints, but as of 20 years ago companies have been manufacturing beeswax paints to accommodate artists' needs. It's safe to say that encaustic is no passing fad and the International Encaustic Conference is a testament to that. The conference journey began with artist Joanne Mattera and her book The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax … [Read more...] about The International Encaustic Conference Hits Provincetown
Back to Basics at North Bennet Street School
by Sara Farizan BOSTON, MA- I have to admit something. Kindles/Reading tablets and their ilk frighten me. I know, one day I will probably have to use one, since bookstores are closing left and right, but there is something precious about holding a book in your hands. The feel, the smell, wondering who has read the book before you, or, if you're so lucky to have a first edition, to think about the history of that particular book and where it comes from. That is why I find the non-profit North Bennet Street School so fascinating. It is a school, founded on 125 years of tradition, that teaches age old basics to potential craftsmen/craftswomen in things like book binding, jewelry, violin making and repair, carpentry, jewelry making and repair, preservation carpentry and locksmithing and security technology. NBSS began as an industrial school for immigrants in 1885 teaching trades and … [Read more...] about Back to Basics at North Bennet Street School
Cornered: Interview with Marilyn Kalish of The Vault Gallery (Part Two)
The “cornered” feature in the May/June 2012 issue of artscope features J. Fatima Martins’ interview with Marilyn Kalish, owner of The Vault Gallery in Great Barrington, Mass. Space restrictions didn’t allow us to run the full interview in the issue so we’re sharing the portion that didn’t make it into the magazine here. How did you find your working ritual? Marilyn Kalish: Organically. People like us trust the process. It’s a matter of how long can you stay in the space without answers. We are comfortable with the process and we are trusting in the uncomfortablility. It’s ritual, ritual, ritual until the answers arrive, and they always do. How have you managed challenges and mistakes? MK: I have mentors; people who understand my working method and how I think. That’s very important. The answers don’t come quickly... search, search, search and I will find a truth and it’s visceral, … [Read more...] about Cornered: Interview with Marilyn Kalish of The Vault Gallery (Part Two)
Mother Nature Inspires a Mother in Nature
by Sara Farizan NEW BEDFORD, MA-Mother Nature is all around us, but very few of us take the time to appreciate her. When we aren't busy with work or family, we busy ourselves with computer screens, television screens, cell phone screens and any thing that can screen our sight of the great outdoors. Who better then to embrace and notice all of Mother Nature's nuances than an artist who happens to also be a mother? Amanda Swain Bingham goes back to her roots in documentary photography in her new show at the Colo Colo gallery this month. Swain Bingham studied under Bill Burke, a renowned photographer who told her to photograph what she knew. This lead to Swain Bingham's well received 'Til Death Do Us Part' series, chronicling her parents' divorce in 1996. Since then she has had a long career showing her work at the Howard Yezerski Gallery, the Boston Museum School's Grossman Gallery; … [Read more...] about Mother Nature Inspires a Mother in Nature
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson at the BU Theatre
By James Foritano BOSTON - “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” currently on stage at the BU Theatre, is a volatile brew of sex and danger, exploitation, oppression, death and the devil. But you wouldn’t know that from the dilatory conversation of the ‘boys in the band’ — four black musicians assembled in a Chicago recording studio to rehearse and wait for the arrival of Madame ‘Ma’ Rainey. It is the 1920s and New Orleans-inspired music is leaking slowly northward as the Great Migration rolls from every southern city and hamlet towards Chicago’s burgeoning ghettos and jazz dens. This music, though, is not the ‘hot licks’ that will erupt from the horns and drums of isolated rebels, but the tamed product, the ‘jug band’ music, with just enough sass, but not too much, to enliven but not threaten white audiences. August Wilson’s finely-drawn characters practice that restraint, that affectionate … [Read more...] about “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson at the BU Theatre