After living in San Francisco for 30 years, in a post-pandemic dimensional shift, Alison Pebworth took to the road exploring artist residency after artist residency (including the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire), before she landed in the Berkshires. After staying with her nephew for a short while, she settled into a small cabin in the woods, experiencing the complete opposite to the residencies: solitude and meditation. Here she undertook a personal journey, pointing inward, turning out deeply contemplative drawings. Eventually came the first tilt of the pendulum that led Pebworth down a rabbit hole of synchronicity, where events unfolded towards her residency at MASS MoCA in a most unusual and serendipitous way: she was invited to a dinner where MASS MoCA Director Kristy Edmunds happened to be one of the guests. She and Pebworth began to talk, and Edmunds was drawn to … [Read more...] about A MUCH LESS TORTUOUS PATH: PEBWORTH INSTALLS NEW ENVIRONMENTS IN NORTH ADAMS

I first saw the photography of Chelsea Bradway at the Franklin Square Salon at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, Massachusetts. The September 2021 reception for her “Be a Lady They Said” exhibition, presented by ArtsWorcester, had the double benefit of being an opening and the first time many people felt safe coming together again in a public gathering. My notes from that afternoon said that Bradway was a self- proclaimed whimsical photographer who aims to construct a collective voice through her photographic subjects, aiming to dismantle preconceptions of femininity and power with her own words stating, “When silence is broken around the modern struggle between women’s personal and professional identities, both subject and observer can reclaim some of themselves from fear, and stand up for what they believe in.” Some of her female subjects in the show were professionals – including … [Read more...] about ALL THINGS SPARKLEY: CHELSEA BRADWAY’S PHOTOGRAPHS SPEAK LOUDLY

These words from E.E. Cummings’s “Maggie and Milly and Molly and May” could be used to describe Penelope Jones’ oil paintings on panel and precision-cut paper collages which are anti-heroic in scale, and yet her stripped-down abstract visions, often no taller than her outstretched hand, could easily fell a Goliath. If Jones’ recent paintings in oil and gouache come from the heart, the compressed collages of her “Border Series” spring from the head. Jones’ decades of teaching painting and drawing at Bates College lend authority and grace to her intimate compositions and carefully orchestrated color relationships. Warm and cool tones vibrate in arresting tension, while pure hues sing out against more muted shades. Subtle patterns of variation in value and texture repeatedly delight the eye. Paper (often affixed to a wood panel), is Jones’ silent partner. Fibrous and resilient, it … [Read more...] about “AS SMALL AS A WORLD AND AS LARGE AS ALONE”: PENELOPE JONES’ STRIPPED-DOWN ABSTRACT VISIONS

Myles Danaher’s studio in Brattleboro, Vermont has the aura of authenticity from an artist dedicated to his craft and willing to work hard. Tubes of partially used oils oozing slightly around their caps are stacked haphazardly across a paint-stained table in front of a cluster of brushes standing upright in glass jars as if petitioning to be used. Multiple vintage stereo speakers – KLH, Advent – are stacked to the ceiling, pouring out pastoral orchestral music into the sunlit room. “This is how I get through,” the artist shared as we entered the studio. “I keep it at about this volume, and I can stand here, and just...” Turning to a collection of monoprints, Danaher motioned to a compact press, acquired from fellow artist William Hays. Working the press is “another way I loosen up,” Danaher explained. A longtime protégé of Wolf Kahn, Danaher began his formal studies at the Portland … [Read more...] about A DESCENT INTO THE UNSEEN: BRATTLEBORO’S MYLES DANAHER’S “UNFOLDING” LANDSCAPES