“Making magic” is how Cate McQuaid of The Boston Globe characterized our 2023 show at Fountain Street Gallery, What We Make of This World. Artist Sylvia Vander Sluis and I teamed up and transformed the stuff of our lives in video, sculpture, and audio scapes.
Image by Kurt Klinzing
Audio scape by Katie Semro
Filmed in Magnolia, MA
Filmed at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Concord, MA
These videos were filmed during a residency in Maussane-les-Alpilles in the Provence region of France. Many thanks to Nicky Ginsberg of @ngartcreativeresidency for making it all possible.
Thank you to my dear art colleagues Karin Cagy and Paul Connor.
“At the Gate” was filmed at MFA Boston’s Japanese Zen Garden, using a stop-motion technique in which the movements of real people are made to appear like animation.
Audio by Katie Semro, with contributions from Greta Bro and Ricardo Frota
"Here" reflects the beauty and character of a place, the Dutch island of Terschelling, and the artistry it inspires.
“Outside What’s Inside” is set in a forest bright with the sun’s rays. A woman, carrying a suitcase, approaches from a distance. Close up, the flare of a match may augur well, or ill. Amidst towering trees, the woman lifts up, hides behind, and balances on the suitcase. She eventually tries pressing the latches. The suitcase contents come tumbling out. The work is a simply told story of what can happen when daring to open up the baggage we’ve been carrying to the sunlight, fresh air, and beauty of the forest.
A dispirited curator whose art exhibit has been upended by COVID-19 finds a cardboard bear in the trash. Walking together in Boston - to the new location for the exhibit - they happen upon several magnificent public murals. Stopping to take in these sights, the curator and the bear make some surprising discoveries about art’s capacity to awaken and transform us.
Seven cutout figures reveal themselves in the slow weaving of their paths through light and shadow. The figures serve as trustworthy personas made manifest to help us navigate and mediate the world today. Each raises a torch, or scepter, holding the light, signaling and leading the way.
A metal ring encircles the entrance to a passageway. Cutout birds appear and disappear in time with low rolls of thunder and the calls of a flute. The artist enters, unadorned, eyes on the camera. With these simple elements, Shaak, like the bird, carves out an alternative passageway for breath, voice and creative sustenance. This is a story of catching seeds and creating channels for growth. It is a quiet but insistent exhortation—to listen to the colorful calls as well as the ominous rumblings that emanate from both self and surrounds.
This video was created for the Arts Arlington Fox Festival 2020.
“Dear Jamaal” documents live, in-gallery painting as part of the exhibition “Jamaal Eversley’s Real F.R.I.E.N.D.S” at Beacon Gallery.
Part of Fountain Street Gallery’s exhibition “Upended,” which I curated, was a collaborative installation by seven visual artists. I invited a poet, a musician, and a dancer to view the installation, and recorded their gorgeous responses.
“DIY Waking Up” was inspired by Karen Bray’s Site Specific Dance class at New Art Center.
Thank you deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum for allowing me to film “Moving Sculpture” there.
“Shop Vac” was filmed at the wonderful Waltham Mills, where my studio is located.
Acrylic on paper, 16 x 16 inches
Acrylic on paper, 22 x 13 1/2 inches
Triptych, acrylic on paper, 30 x 66 inches
Acrylic and oil pastel on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic and collage on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches
These paintings were completed during my residency at Vermont Studio Center, January 2020.
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 50 x 38 inches
Acrylic on paper, 38 x 50 inches
Acrylic on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 50 x 38 inches
Acrylic on paper, 50 x 38 inches
Acrylic and marker on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic on paper, 108 x 30 inches
“…for this I have abandoned all my other lives.”
This line of text, from the poem “Waxwings” by Robert Francis, is in the reddish rectangle of the painting “Still Digesting” below. The phrase reminds me of what is both delightful and unnerving about painting—of the infinite possibilities that can emerge from a blank piece of paper, ultimately all are abandoned but one. For this. I am still digesting this phenomenon in painting, and, by extension, in life.
Acrylic and charcoal on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Acrylic and cheesecloth on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic and charcoal on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches SOLD
Acrylic on paper, 40 x 26 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches
“…for this I have abandoned all my other lives.” [Robert Francis]
Acrylic on paper, 26 x 40 inches
Acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Diptych, acrylic on paper, 30 x 44 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches
In espionage parlance, the term “cutout” refers to a trusted intermediary. These figures serve as that for me — trusted, personal archetypes made manifest to help us navigate and mediate the world today. Each raises a torch, or scepter—holding the light for us, signaling and leading the way.
The series Holding the Light for You was inspired by the three unruly strands of hair in Georges Braque’s painting La Nuit (Night). The strands started, and the raised arm completed, the outline layer of each painting. Djuna came first. The others followed quickly, with facial features, names and poetry flowing. The process, one of seeking and finding form, was filled with creative sparks and enigmatic turns. The figures ultimately took a dare and stepped out of their paintings into space and time — first in sculptural form and then in video and performance art. The invitation inherent in the work is to catch and take hold of the creative impulses that come, seemingly out of nowhere. Out of Nowhere is the title of the show (Fountain Street Gallery, Boston, May 2021) in which these figures, in all their forms, were exhibited. In Fall 2021, the sculptural forms were part of an outdoor installation — Art Ramble 2021 in Concord, MA.
Djuna half-moona
Crescent and chrysanthemum
Motherlode of all
Journey, top-grafted
See your scions in full bloom
With tiger tails too
Estella bella
Tella all, why do you scream?
Or are you a-song?
Flor, you play on words
And tiles. Arms crossed and freedom
Bound tangentially
D. Ray mirroring
A war correspondent’s gaze
Brazen camouflage
Françoise steals the blues
Hewing close to scepter height
Torchlight to their truths
Jade bade me go yon
Fonder still of the Eastern
Sky and smoke and shroud
At Fountain Street Gallery amidst paintings by Marcia R Wise
At Fountain Street Gallery
Outdoor installation — Art Ramble 2021 in Concord, MA
Outdoor installation — Art Ramble 2021 in Concord, MA
At the core of the series and its title piece is the interplay between the flat gray areas outlined in teal and the revealed layer underneath, with its amorphous shapes and shifts of color. The phrase Through Lines, as used in theater, suggests the simplification of a narrative. In the paintings, the dominant story line, almost myth-like, is juxtaposed with underlying pockets of local color, rich with variety.
The work reflects a quest for balance in what is bold and simplified versus what is nuanced and complex, and as such is relevant to the personal, familial, cultural and political stories we tell every day.
Acrylic and collage on paper, mounted on board, 26 x 40 inches
Acrylic on paper, mounted on board, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic and oil pastel on paper, mounted on board, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches SOLD
The understory is the layer of the forest beneath the canopy. This work involves building up layers of paint, in an unplanned and improvisational way, then scraping through to reveal something of the life underneath. What’s found there is often surprising, vibrant, and complex, like the understory of a forest.
Acrylic on paper, mounted on board, 22 x 30 inches
Acrylic on paper, mounted on board, 10 x 10 inches SOLD
Acrylic on paper, mounted on board, 22 x 30 inches SOLD
Acrylic on paper, mounted on board, 30 x 22 inches. At the opening of this show in March 2016, poet Mary Pinard read her magnificent poem entitled "Estuary" SOLD
Acrylic on paper, mounted on board, 30 x 22 inches
Acrylic on paper, mounted on board, 30 x 22 inches
These acrylic-based monotypes are made with a gel plate. All of the paint is applied directly to the plate and transferred to the paper in multiple rounds. Often I use the residual paint on the plate to create a ghost image.
My process typically involves scraping away some of the paint on the paper before it dries. In this way I dig down to reveal the colors and patterns of the layers below.
These layers evoke for me the generations of a family. What colors, forms, and rhythms have been laid down by preceding generations? What does the new generation carry of the old, and in what combination? What is visible, versus what is masked, and where are the ghosts?
14 x 12 inches
12 x 14 inches
12 x 14 inches
12 x 14 inches, with collage element added
12 x 14 inches SOLD
14 x 12 inches
This series emerged from my love of wordplay. Each image is a monotype with the addition of a collage element.
I have tapped into a deep stream of creativity by working quickly, in 3D, and often with a performative element. Most of these impromptu, temporary pieces are from the Creativity Lab, conducted by Karen Lane Bray and Cathie Brenner.
