For artisan Craig Altobello of Peterborough, New Hampshire, marquetry, the art of assembling thin slices of wood to form an image, is an act of perfection and serendipity. His perfectionist tendencies propel him toward combing through numerous bins of hundreds of color-organized wood slices to find that piece. That’s where serendipity — finding the perfect slice — intersects with skill. The art of marquetry is not new, but it is rare. In the 16th century, Italian craftsmen began using marquetry on furniture — a stunning touch of decorative art emphasizing the beauty of wood. Today, many centuries later, Altobello marries his love of nature and wood in a contemporary version of marquetry. A longtime resident of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, Altobello is fond of long walks in the woods and hikes in the mountains to appreciate the trees, wildlife and nature along the … [Read more...] about CRAIG ALTOBELLO: FINDING MARQUETRY’S BEAUTY BENEATH THE BARK
Current Issue
VISUAL DIPLOMACY: GLOBAL EMBASSIES OPEN GALLERIES TO U.S. VISITORS
The 35 days of the United States Government partial shutdown in late December through late January left the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. barren and vacant of visitors. Tourists and locals, temporarily not working, roamed, as in a sci-fi movie, the nation’s capital looking for open, free cultural exhibitions. Private museums, including the Phillips Collection and Kreeger Museum, charged fees that tourists were unwilling to pay, and locals at this time could not pay, not knowing when the situation would resolve and when their paychecks would arrive. The United Kingdom and France managed to keep their museums open, free and accessible during government strikes and temporary shutdowns; the embassies of these and other nations satisfied cultural cravings for all visitors. Foreign embassies, foreign collections and cultural centers offer permanent art on view, while temporary … [Read more...] about VISUAL DIPLOMACY: GLOBAL EMBASSIES OPEN GALLERIES TO U.S. VISITORS
THINGS ARE HAPPENING HERE: CHALKBOARD STUDIOS CELEBRATES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY
Chalkboard Studio in Barnstable Village, Cape Cod, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with an open house on April 27. The three core founders, Jackie Reeves, James “Jamie” Wolf and Richard Neal met at Cotuit Center for the Arts (which Wolf originated) — and started painting together there, for the hell of it. Reeves, who was looking for studio space, said, “I was used to working with other people around. I grew up in a big family where we all shared space.” Wolf “never worked with others until the three of us started talking, having a beer together. I found I could still throw paint with them around.” He was leaving Cotuit and wanted a studio. Neal had been making do in his basement. When fellow painters Karen Ojala and Edie Vonnegut showed Reeves the historical 1854 Old Schoolhouse owned by the Unitarian Church of Barnstable, she convinced Neal and Wolf to join her … [Read more...] about THINGS ARE HAPPENING HERE: CHALKBOARD STUDIOS CELEBRATES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY
MUTUAL RESPECT SOCIETY: SCHERER AND ABRAMS CREATE A NEW HUMAN TEXTURE
Age, wisdom, the accumulation of experience and its imprint on the human body have attracted fiber artists Deidre Scherer and Jackie Abrams, both pioneers in their media for many years. Collaborating for an exhibition called “Connections,” at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Vermont, on view from March 9 to June 16, 2019, they have created strongly textured vessels that beautifully and uniquely reflect the human image. The vessels on display, resulting from their collaboration, derive from reconfigured and printed images of Scherer’s original thread-on-fabric works which Abrams deconstructs and weaves into her vessel-shaped works. Scherer, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, is widely exhibited, awarded and commissioned internationally. She pioneered a unique figurative approach to the medium of thread on fabric in which she applies thread to layered fabrics … [Read more...] about MUTUAL RESPECT SOCIETY: SCHERER AND ABRAMS CREATE A NEW HUMAN TEXTURE
SOFT UNCERTAIN SPACES: SCULLY GIVES ABSTRACTION BACK TO THE PEOPLE
Wadsworth Atheneum visitors are in for a treat: Sean Scully’s exquisite “Landline” series, just off a run at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., has arrived in Hartford. It’s here through May 19. Works from this master of post-minimalist conceptualism enraptured viewers in 2015 at the Venice Biennale. The show explores the title through a variety of media with works inspired by his years in Ireland. The series also marks a significant shift in Scully’s work from what had until recently become increasingly complex arrangements of stripes and colors. Landline marks a departure from his earlier hard-edged minimalism to his current expressive style. It has been Scully’s stated aim to give abstraction back to the people — and in recent years his paintings have been wildly popular, in some cases commanding $1 million apiece at auction. Scully, … [Read more...] about SOFT UNCERTAIN SPACES: SCULLY GIVES ABSTRACTION BACK TO THE PEOPLE
PROCESS PURISTS: TEMPERA’S SENSE OF SUSPENDED VISUAL MOMENT
“Tempera — Nature and Narrative,” at Attleboro Arts Museum from April 6 to May 4, focuses on paintings by eight artists working with classic egg tempera as a medium of today. We usually associate egg tempera with Italian Renaissance paintings. These masterworks produced a luminosity of color created by glazing techniques. The labor-intensive method can build freshness of color and clear resonance in dark areas as well as light areas as it achieves a harmony of color. The painters glazing techniques consisted of layering thin veils of color, one on top of the other. Many artists are known to meticulously refine the panels on which they paint and all of the contemporary artists in this show have created their own paints. Artist and curator Diane Savino mentioned Fra Angelico, de Filippi and Botticelli as masters of egg tempera from which she has drawn inspiration. Some will see … [Read more...] about PROCESS PURISTS: TEMPERA’S SENSE OF SUSPENDED VISUAL MOMENT