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March/April 2019

Donna Dodson at Queen Califia Magical Circle Garden in Escondido, California.

MAKING CONNECTIONS WHILE ON AN ART-THEMED VACATION

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, March/April 2019

by Andy Moerlein

VACATION TRAVEL FOR ARTISTS: WORK OR PLEASURE? Every vacation I take with my wife (and fellow Myth Maker), Donna Dodson, begins with goals: take a break together, hike landscapes, experience climates unfamiliar and see art that inspires. We prioritize exercise, abhor crowds and limit driving to four hours a day. After a year of working in our studios preparing solo shows and completing four monumental public art projects, the idea of unfamiliar art museums and walking blocks of art galleries together seemed a delightful rest. Donna had Niki de Saint Phalle’s “Queen Califia’s Magical Circle” in Escondido, California in mind. My ambition was an off-season hike into the Grand Canyon. Phoenix proved a great arts-destination airport for our adventures. We experienced a fortuitous beginning — public art greeted us at the car-rental building: Ten of Jun Kaneko’s life-size, ceramic … [Read more...] about MAKING CONNECTIONS WHILE ON AN ART-THEMED VACATION

TOP LEFT: Nancy Diessner, "Boat Grasses," at Anna Maria College. TOP RIGHT: Heidi Whitman, "Ozymandias," at Chandler Gallery at Maud Morgan Arts. BOTTOM LEFT: Kate Shaffer, "Nina Simone," at Carney Gallery at Regis College. BOTTOM RIGHT: Patricia Brace, "BRACE 2020," at POP-UP 265 Gallery.

CAPSULE PREVIEWS

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, March/April 2019

by Brian Goslow

“Renewal” is the theme of this year’s “Annual Juried Members Show” that opened on February 28 at the Copley Society of Art, 158 Newbury St., Boston. The exhibition, which continues the gallery’s tradition of covering a wide variety of mediums, including painting, photography, graphite and pastel, was curated by Meg White, director of Gallery NAGA. First prize was awarded to Acadia Mezzofanti’s illusionistic photograph, “Self-Portrait: Untamed;” Carolyn Latanision’s watercolor painting of a rusted steel engine, “Powered Down, Bethlehem Steel,” took second prize while Mary Hughes earned third p rize for her abstract painting, “Ice Flow I,” which evokes winter-ice surfaces. The show runs through March 28. Art League Rhode Island is presenting “Twisting Fibers — An Art for All Reasons,” an open juried national exhibition that opens on March 8 and continues through May 8 at the Blackstone … [Read more...] about CAPSULE PREVIEWS

Samurai White holding one of her Nutcracker creations.

SAMURAI WHITE: HEAVY METAL AND MUERTOS NUTCRACKERS FIND LOVE

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, March/April 2019

by Molly Hamill

“It’s basically my brain throwing up — because I have to get it out — I do the ‘thing’ and I feel a lot better afterwards. It’s like I have a record of it. This is what happened, and there’s the proof. It’s out of me and it’s in its container.” Samurai White has found a way to deal with the darkness. During her time at Rhode Island School of Design in the early 2000s, White studied graphic design and mix media arts, but years later, took a deep dive into her art as a coping mechanism while caring for her father as he was dying of lymphoma. Having left her own life up North to be with him in Atlanta, his fate looking evermore grim, White began building these funny little men, her “Heavy Metal Nutcrackers:” Slash, David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, just to name a few. Wooden nutcrackers sculpted, painted and adorned to the likeness of music’s most notorious heavy-metal men. “I did it as a … [Read more...] about SAMURAI WHITE: HEAVY METAL AND MUERTOS NUTCRACKERS FIND LOVE

HeARTspot Art Center’s painting classes have attracted a loyal following.

FILLING A CREATIVE VOID: EAST PROVIDENCE’S NON-TRADITIONAL HEARTSPOT

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, March/April 2019

by Ron Fortier

Oh, the times they are a changing! Bob Dylan nailed it! The times are always changing. Dylan knew what it meant to change before change changed him. The audience booed him when he performed his first electric concert at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Why? It just wasn’t done — folk music was sacrosanct! The arts are a commodity. Art galleries are businesses. Galleries provided exhibitions and exposure to artists and viewing and purchase opportunities for viewers, collectors and the casual buyer. The art business is both like and unlike any other business. The business of art is now in a constant state of flux in lock-step with the global economies. Everything and anything that affects other businesses affects galleries. With increasing services prices, rents and the shift in the art-buyer demographic, plus a glut of emerging artists and the rising inventory of … [Read more...] about FILLING A CREATIVE VOID: EAST PROVIDENCE’S NON-TRADITIONAL HEARTSPOT

Jess Hurley Scott, "Barrel," 2017, acrylic on multiple layers of acrylic, 29” x 44” x 2”.

JESS HURLEY SCOTT: HAND-PAINTED TRICKERY IS PICTURE PERFECT

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, March/April 2019

by Bryanna F. Drew

While working for Tommy Hilfiger in New York City, Jess Hurley Scott took her first steps in developing her unique style of painting. Living in Manhattan on the bare minimum her $25,000 salary could afford, Scott managed to scrounge up enough money for a cheap, nude-model night course at The Art Students League. The class wasn’t meant for critique but to simply be an outlet where Scott could paint. Upon her second year of attending this class, the teacher, Hugo Bastidas, approached her and asked, “why are you here?” Scott, taken aback, said, “I’m here to keep my hand in, to keep painting and not lose everything I’d done over the years, and this class forces me to come paint.” “Yeah, but why are you doing this class?” Bastidas asked, “You obviously hate painting nudes. I mean you’re competent at it, but you can tell this is not your passion. What do you paint at home?” Her … [Read more...] about JESS HURLEY SCOTT: HAND-PAINTED TRICKERY IS PICTURE PERFECT

LEFT: Kyungmin Park, "Give me a Kissy Kiss," 2016, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 13” x 12” x 10”. RIGHT: Kyungmin Park, "Belly Canvas," 2016, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, milk paint, wax, 21” x 12” x 12”.

KYUNGMIN PARK: CERAMIC STORYTELLER SEES THE WORLD THROUGH HER FIGURES

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, March/April 2019

by Flavia Cigliano

What struck me about a recent conversation with Kyungmin Park was her clarity — clarity in what she tries to convey as an artist and in how she wants people to see her work. A figurative ceramic sculptor, Park has been recognized nationally and internationally as a gifted emerging artist in her field. She is the featured artist in “Ceramic Sculpture Culture: Uniting the Figure” at Endicott College, where Park is an assistant professor of 3D studio art. The exhibit’s title references the group of professional ceramic artists who have come together to share information on gallery opportunities, future exhibitions and to provide funding and scholarships for emerging ceramic artists. As co-curator of the exhibit, Park has selected works by fellow members of the Ceramic Sculpture Culture — recently renamed Ceramic Sculpture Collective — from throughout the United States to display in … [Read more...] about KYUNGMIN PARK: CERAMIC STORYTELLER SEES THE WORLD THROUGH HER FIGURES