Behind the Image

I am excited about a new exhibition "Behind the Image", now showing at the Suffolk University Art Gallery. Exhibiting Artists include: Hannah Barrett, Dana Clancy, *Lisa Costanzo, Heather Hobler, John Guthrie, Cristi Rinklin and Joe Wardwell.

*Lisa just sent me an image of her "wall" with one of the more "elaborate" hairpieces - the painting in the center is "Hunter", oil on canvas, 30"x40"; the painting is exhibited alongside Lisa's reference material/inspiration/studies ...

Behind the Image is an exhibit of seven well-established artists who live and work in the Boston area. The exhibition reveals some of the investigations, processes and inspirations these artists used to produce specific artworks. The highly crafted paintings and drawings created by these artists are shown side-by-side with the sketchbooks, digital mock-ups,photographic studies, art history books, and color studies that informed their decisions during production. In addition to preparatory sketches, the curator attempts to re-create the “studio wall” of each artist - surfaces covered with inspirational objects, unexpected images, postcards, photographs, magazine pages, album covers and news clippings. The creative act itself is on view in many ways. The finished work is given a history through this “contextualizing” of the artwork with early stages of thought and jumping off points in evidence. Students, other artists and the public get an opportunity to see what is “Behind the Image” in each of these diverse artistic practices.

Behind the Image
November 6, 2008 - January 3, 2009

75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA

Gallery is free and open to the public: M-F 8am-11pm, Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 12pm-6pm

Telephone: 617.573.8785
Email: gallery@suffolk.edu

*Lisa recently exhibited these three small paintings from her "Nest" series at Three Graces.

They are currently available in the gallery and here on our New Online Shop!

New! ErinMoranDesigns.com

I am thrilled to announce that ErinMoranDesigns.com has been launched! I finished the site for Erin last night, which features her hand built pottery and jewelry designs.


* Erin's pottery and jewelry are always availble at Three Graces ...




... and in our NEW Online Shop!!!

Rachel Paxton Online!

This past Friday we celebrated the opening of "The Moment/The Eternal", an exhibition of recent works by the fabulous Rachel Paxton! All of the paintings can now be viewed and purchased online here.




For those of you too far to make the trip, here are a few photos of the installation...

Restaurant Week in Portsmouth!

I just received this email from Karen of Seacoast Buy Local and I wanted to pass along the info...

Please join Seacoast Local in dining out for Restaurant Week Portsmouth,this week! Events run Nov. 10-16, with deliciously detailed menus online at http://www.portsmouthchamber.org/restaurantweek.cfm.

We're proud to live in a place where so many restaurant owners arepassionate about what they do, and are working hard to create businesseswith incredible reputations. We're also honored that proceeds from the eventwill help support Seacoast Local's work in building strong local businessesand sustainable agriculture.

Take a break with friends or loved ones before the holidays, explore newtastes, help stimulate the local economy, and enjoy your community—we'll seeyou out there!

Upcoming: Rachel Paxton

Here's a sneak preview of our upcoming show: "The Moment/The Eternal", Recent works by Rachel Paxton...

Rachel’s paintings and collages blend archetypes of nature and spirituality to explore life's universal rhythms and its contradictory journey. Fragments of maps, music, and historical motifs merge with natural phenomenon and Jungian symbols to create an altered visual world. - evoking memory, the passage of time, and the cycle of life.

"The Moment/The Eternal" opens Thursday, November 6th. Please join us at the opening reception on Friday, November 7th from 5-8pm. (In conjunction with the Art 'Round Town gallery walk)

New! New! New!

The gallery has been graced by new works from Abby Glassenberg, Dustan Knight and Robin Luciano Beaty in the past few days!

All Abby's work is hand-made in her home studio in Wellesley, Massachusetts. For the past year she has been making a series of bird soft sculptures including owls, wading birds, larks, chicks, canaries, penguins, swans and raptors. Abby likes to incorporate vintage and unusual fabrics and found materials into her work...

Dustan Knight continues to work toward a distillation of concept - "(the elusive perfection of ‘not too many notes – not too few’) drawing on themes which mean something tremendously important to me, which I attempt to convey as eloquently as possible to my viewers." Influenced both by the emotion and physicality of the expressionist movement and the imagery and delicacy of traditional methods of Asian Art...




Robin Beaty's work is gorgeous!! each individual painting is sophisticated to stand on its own, but it is the combination of these works that commands attention. In fact that's what makes them so fun to collect, you can start out with one, then add two to display in a row of 3, then perhaps a grid of 9, and then one can always dream of a big beautiful grouping of 20!



It's been brought to my attention that I always use the same words to describe deserts when speaking of Robin's work, well, I confess and maintain that they are delicious...

I am in the midst of creating an online shop!! It is taking a bit more time than expected (as I am committed to posting EVERY single piece of artwork, jewelry, handbag, furniture, cup, bowl, etc. )

I recently uploaded the "Jewelry" and "Paintings and Works on Paper" sections, so take a look - all of the new works by Dustan Knight and Robin Beaty, among many others are now available to purchase online here!

From Italy to Paint

This month has been crazy busy!! I almost forgot to post about the current show "From Italy to Paint", an exhibition of recent paintings by Helene Farrar.


Helene was in Italy this past summer - her amazing trip inspired the recent body of work. Here are some images of the show...

Helene also brought three triptychs...


Everyone has been so excited to be able to actually touch the doors and open them to reveal the inside (shown "The Humble Sheep of Spannochia")

All of the paintings from the show can also be seen here!

Autumn in New York

I just got back from a very brief visit to New York City! Bob had to go on business, and since his trip coincided with my day and a half off, I decided to tag along. Our time in the city was short and went by so fast, however it was great to get away, explore the city and see some amazing artwork...


...Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel...

...while Bob went off to work to attend to business...

...I attended to the pleasure with a morning stroll thru Central Park...

...then off to the Museums - the Met was my favorite, I spent most of my first day there...

...they have the most incredible collection of Egyptian artifacts...

...an ancient obelisk dating 1450BC...

...and encaustics (just like the ones I mentioned in a previous post)...


...I particularly enjoyed seeing works by Raphael, Vermeer and Ingres...


...my dark side - I have a strange fascination with severed heads...


...I also ventured to the Guggenheim, the current exhibition was Louise Bourgeois (which I saw in London)...

...so I decided to move on to the Frick Collection, which I greatly enjoyed. My next morning was spent at MoMA...


...at which point my small memory card was full...with my last picture, I captured the Statue of Liberty...


...well, sort of.

Bats

4:58 p.m. — A Market Street caller told police a sick bat flew into a store and was "flopping around on the floor." The bat was gone when police arrived. (Portsmouth Police Log, September 15th)

Background: I recently moved to a new apartment with a bonus attic studio space. I am thrilled to have the extra space to paint in, however, for the first few weeks I had to share the space with a little brown bat. We finally figured out where the little guy was getting in and out and sealed the hole (so I like to think he found a new warm dry dark home to sleep in throughout his days).

I couldn't believe it when yet another bat flew into my life, rather, flew into the gallery - right thru the front door!

A Long Story: It was around 5:15 pm when a woman standing out on the sidewalk outside the gallery was pointing in and telling me "you have a bat in there". What!?

Sure enough, I turned around to see a little brown bat on the floor in front of my desk. The bat tried to fly, but quickly fell back onto the floor. His second attempt failed as he flew into a pedestal and fell back onto the floor. He crawled on his elbows (?) into the dark corner.

I was paralyzed with fear. I know they are wonderful creatures, but I admit they scare me, ALOT. Also, this little bat did no seem "right". My purse (containing my cell phone) was still on my desk, 10 feet and the little bat separated me from it. The kind passer-by who had sited the bat was kind enough to stand guard while I ran off to my neighbors, Macroscopic/MacroPolo. We put our heads together and first tried calling animal rescue - closed...animal control - closed. Finally we tried the police department, who at first said that they could not come because of a bat, "sorry, but you're on your own", I told the dispatcher that the bat looked sick, and she said she would send an officer down.

A few minutes later, a handsome young officer came to my rescue, rather, he seemed as afraid as me and took a quick look thru the gallery with no findings. He did rescue my purse containing my cell phone. (Thank you for that!) He suggested I close the gallery and call animal control in the morning.

I didn't like that idea. Thankfully, Amity (of the Odd Showroom) and her boyfriend Josh were walking by. I told them of the bat and they marched right in - no fear! Amity quickly spotted the little guy clutching to the back of a pedestal up against the brick wall. They acted quickly, she brought back a small tupperware container and Josh gently cupped the container over the little bat then slid a postcard beneath, trapping the bat inside. He was soooo cute.

We then decided we should free him, so we walked him down to the gardens of the Moffat Ladd House right up the street - at this point we also decided he probably wasn't sick, but sleepy, dazed and confused.

I still can't believe how many encounters with bats I have had as of late...

...more bats - on display in the Teeny Tiny Art Show#3 - encaustic/bat transfers by Dorothy Imagire. ( I am going to purchase one as a gift for Amity and Josh for coming to my aid!)

New! Teeny Tiny Online SHOP

Three Graces is thrilled to announce the grand opening of our Online SHOP!

Following the opening reception of the Teeny Tiny Art Show 3 (last Friday), I've been busy uploading images of all of the works from the show.

For the first time, my friends and art enthusiasts, you can view the entire show, and make purchases online! click here

The Morning After

Last Friday's opening for the Teeny Tiny Art Show 3 was fabulous! It was a pleasure to finally meet many of the artists I've been emailing in preparation for the show. Unfortunately all of the pictures I took at the opening were out of focus! I did manage to take some pictures of the installation the morning after...

You can see more pictures of the installation here.

HOPE

Artist Robert Indiana, known for his iconoclastic "LOVE" painting, unveiled a new work of art, "HOPE" at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. A 6-foot-by-6-foot stainless steel sculpture of the word, instantly recognizable as Indiana’s, was created by Lauren Holmgren and Josh Dow.


Josh and Lauren run Green Foundry, part of Sanctuary Arts in Eliot. There, they cast sculptures in bronze and other materials.

The "HOPE" project, includes a number of different mediums, including prints, that Indiana has created in support of presidential candidate Barack Obama. Indiana’s donating all proceeds to the campaign. read more

Congratulations Josh and Lauren! I hope you'll still be my friends now that you're famous!!

itty bitty and witty

As mentioned in the previous post, Studio Visit Magazine, is a new series of artist books. Each volume features approximately 150 artists from all over the country who have been selected by professional curators. I was given a copy of Volume 1 this past spring by Nicole Maloof, as she was one of the artists featured. I was delighted to see a painting by Lisa Costanzo on the cover - I first fancied Lisa's work when I visited her studio in the South End in Boston during the SoWA art walk a few years ago.

Both Nicole and Lisa will be participating in the Teeny Tiny Art Show 3!! Here is a sneak preview...

Shown above: "Is this all we really have in common?" by Nicole Maloof (acrylic and ink on paper 4"x4"); and "Track Drifter #2" by Lisa Costanzo (watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper, 7"x9").

Preview more works by Nicole and Lisa here.

"Turn My Knobs"

The Packages keep coming in as TT3 draws near!! Yesterday, I received works from Abby Glassenberg and Denise Duong!

Abby made eight little birds in all - Three Blue Birds (with teeny tiny hands for feathers!) and Five "Drab" birds in earthy brown and warm grey tones - you can see them here. I love Abby's soft-sculpture, her craftsmanship is AMAZING and her use of pattern and texture to creat various stylized birds is brilliant. I also enjoy reading her blog, "While She Naps".

I also received a package from Denise Duong! I originally came across Denise's work thru Studio Visit, as she was one of approximately 150 artists from across the country featured in the first volume. Denise creates her lyrical mixed media paintings on canvas. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute, and currently lives and works in her resident studio in Oklahoma City.

Three of Denise's pieces are quite special - I was perplexed when I pulled them out of their package to see a tag inviting me to "Turn My Knobs". As I did so, the center panel began to shift revealing more of the image...

How cool is that!? I love the Teeny Tiny Art Show!!