ArtSake

September 2010

We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good - not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth.

Of the nine finalists for the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize from the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, six are past MCC Fellows! This month, all finalists will be included in the James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition, running Sept. 22, 2010 – Jan. 17, 2011. The exhibition includes work by Robert de Saint Phalle, Eirik Johnson (Photography Fellow ‘09), Fred H. C. Liang (Painting Fellow ‘04, ‘08), Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ‘09), Matthew Rich (Painting Fellow ‘10), Daniela Rivera, Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ‘10), Amie Siegel and Steve Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ‘05). The winner of the prize, which recognizes and celebrates artists who live and work in Greater Boston, will be announced in early January 2011.

Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ‘06) is featured in the July/August 2010 Design New England. His art was selected as part of a model unit for the W Boston Hotel & Residences in Back Bay, designed by Meichi Peng and photographed by Michael J. Lee.

Congratulations to Patrick Ryan Frank (Poetry Fellow ‘06), a finalist for the Ruth Lily Prize.

James Haug (Poetry Fellow ‘98) has a new chapbook, called Scratch.

Liza Johnson’s (Film & Video Finalist ‘07) film South of Ten will be featured in Hurricane Season, an evening of experimental documentary shorts reflecting the recent history of the Gulf Coast of the U.S. The screenings take place at the Issue Project in Brooklyn on September 15, at 8pm.

Caroline Klocksiem (Poetry Fellow ‘08) has published two poems in Poets for Living Waters, an online poetry action in response to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ‘10) was recently featured in a Weekly Dig article on the Somerville Open Studios.

As mentioned above, Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ‘09) will be among the artists in the Foster Prize Exhibition at the ICA. What’s more, Rebeca’s film blue mantle, an ode to the sea as a beautiful and terrible force, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs September 9-19, 2010. Read a fascinating Q&A with Rebecca from the Boston Globe.

Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘07) recently returned from creating a new mural in China. He shares some images from the adventure on the arts blog My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses.

Laurel Sparks (Painting Fellow ‘04) is profiled on the New American Paintings blog.

Naoe Suzuki (Drawing Fellow ‘06) has a solo show, Mi Tigre, My Lover opening at the Brown University Sarah Doyle Gallery in Providence. The show runs September 6 - October 1, 2010.

Tracy Winn (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) will read from her story collection Mrs. Somebody Somebody at Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Mass., on September 16, at 7 PM.

Past Fellows Notes
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
Apr. 2010
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images and media: Rebecca Meyers, still from the film LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS (2006); Rachel Mello, WHITHER SHALL I WANDER (2009), Oil on hardboard cut to silhoutte, 21 1/2×31 1/2 in; Naoe Suzuki, COME, LITTLE GIRL, COME (2010), Mineral pigment and graphite on paper, 30×66 in.

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Take one look at the artwork of Naoe Suzuki (MCC Drawing Fellow ‘06) and you’ll see evidence of a person deeply committed to drawing. Her art brings to light the complex emotions humans have in relation to animals. Her latest series depicts the relationship between a woman and the tigers in her life. We asked her to briefly step away from the tigers that occupy her recent work and to share with us some thoughts about her art.

What is the allure to draw on white paper? “I’ve been thinking about this lately, actually about the negative space I leave on white paper. I used to create scenes with cut out figures when I was a child. I cut illustrated figures of Japanese people of Edo period, and I laid these characters and objects underneath a thick clear plastic sheet on my desk. Almost every night, I would change their placement. This memory keeps popping up in my head when I’m working in the studio. It’s similar to what I’m doing with my figures/objects on paper. I pay a lot of attention to space between them. I like to give them a lot of space around them, so that these figures and objects float in space. I also studied dance when I was at college, and dancing has been an important part of my life. Maybe subconsciously I’m giving them enough space to move around on white paper.”

Talk about Mi Tigre, My Lover. “This series is inspired by a life of Mabel Stark, a renowned female tiger trainer for circus in the early 1900s. Mabel survived many severe mauling by her tigers but kept going back to the tiger cage. I was thinking about “being captive” and their love/power relationship. Tigers were the ones kept in the cage and obvious captives, but I thought Mabel was also a captive by her tigers. Her life was consumed by her love and obsession for tigers.”

What do you hope people feel when looking at your work? “In Mi Tigre, My Lover, there’s a complex play of love and power between a woman and her tiger. I hope people feel some sort of tension in the space between a woman and her tiger—obsession, control, submission, passion, desire, whatever that is.”

Tell us a little bit about what’s next for you. “An idea for my next project just bubbled up in my head two days ago when I was driving back from Adirondack after spending four days at the Blue Mountain Center. It’s at the very early stage and I don’t have much to say, except it will be something to do with dead computers. And I’m also thinking about different way in approaching triptych.”

Naeo Suzuki
Mi Tigre, My Lover
September 6 - October 1, 2010
Opening Reception: September 16, 5-7pm
Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University, 26 Benevolent Street, Providence, RI
Tel: 401-863-2189
Limited edition prints from this exhibition will be available on Art+Culture Editions.

Image credit: All images by Naoe Suzuki. From top to bottom: Come Little Girl Come (detail); Come Little Girl Come; My Tigre, My Lover (detail); My Tigre, My Lover (detail); My Tigre, My Lover (detail); My Tigre, My Lover.

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In the latest issue of Big RED & Shiny, independent curator, artist, and film producer Jim Manning contributes a terrific video profile of Monica Nydam (Painting Fellow ‘10). In it, Monica speaks about her affection for the local art scene and shares the origins of her intriguing horse portraits. She also tells the story of learning she won an MCC fellowship: the night before, her apartment had run out of hot water, so she took the call still smelling of paint and thinner from yesterday’s studio work. The grant (along with, we hope, helping her upgrade apartments) let her take time off work to prepare for a recent solo show at Boston’s LaMontagne Gallery.

In the same issue, publisher Matthew Nash announced that Big RED & Shiny, an online journal that has explored and championed the New England arts scene since 2002, will no longer publish new issues. Big RED always contained a variety of voices and an unparalleled engagement with New England artists. Happily, Our Daily RED, the journal’s blog, will continue.

To all contributors and collaborators on Big RED & Shiny: thanks for making the local scene a little bit smarter, a little bit more fun, and a little bit better understood.

Images: Monica Nydam, UNTITLED HORSE PAINTING (2009), Oil on Board, 24×48 in; UNTITLED HORSE PAINTING (courtesy of La Montagne Gallery) (2008), Oil on canvas 9×12 in.

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It’s a sleepy August morning, and you are, hopefully, supine in a hammock or in crystalline sand on some manner of cape (Cod, Ann, Canaveral, etc.). In case you brought your laptop, here’s a round-up of useful, edifying, interesting, or otherwise nifty art-related web destinations.

I brake for blogs that find unique uses for the format. Like Good Ear Review, which publishes dramatic monologues by varied writers, including some Mass. playwrights. Though its editor-in-chief is listed as Tristram Stjohn Bexindale-Webb (editor for the past 147 years), one suspects Northampton playwright KD Halpin may be more than the “Adjuncty Staff” the site claims her to be. Find out how to submit your own monologues.

Another fun one is the His Room as He Left It project blog by Ariel Kotker, where she posts additions to her ongoing, handmade installation, as she makes them. Recently, this meant sharing the Mosspocket Spittle Tabs.

The Technology in the Arts blog covers different methods to crowdfund your art. You’ve probably heard of the site Kickstarter, in which creative rewards are used as incentives to donate to projects, such as the successfully-funded Big Hammock (pictured above), a public art project in Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway. The post also delves into IndieGoGo and RocketHub.

A U-Mass Amherst theatre student shares the rules of comedy directing he gleaned from participating in rehearsals for The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, such as “If You Can’t Hide It, Feature It” and “Simplify (Unless You Shouldn’t).”

Comic virtuosity, rock star-ness, and individualized pencil sharpening convene in a bookstore you can’t find. On August 20, Brookline’s native son John Hodgman (of The Daily Show and The Areas of My Expertise), David Rees (of Get Your War On), and musical performer John Roderick are joining for an event at the Montague Bookmill in Western Mass. Among the evening’s offerings are this curiosity: Rees will present a rare, live artisanal pencil sharpening demonstration. What is artisanal pencil sharpening, you ask? My guess is it resides somewhere between satire, conceptual art, and hand-sanding, but seek out the bookshop (whose slogan is “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find”) and find out for yourself. (The Bookmill can’t be too hard to find; according to this Globe article, Hodgman wrote most of his first book there.)

Apply to our Artist Fellowships Program, and you, too, might someday model for Vogue and Time Magazine! Further reading to support the previous sentence: 1. A profile of Jonathan Franzen in Time, which includes his visage on the cover (incidentally, the last time an author graced the Time cover was Stephen King, in March 2000). 2. A story about Franzen in Vogue, which includes a Vogue-ish photo portrait. 3. Our list of notable past Massachusetts state fellows, which includes Mr. Franzen (he received the award in 1986, two years before his first novel The Twenty Seventh City was published.)

When selecting honorary chairs for your theater company, it never hurts to aim high.

Stuck in traffic on the Mass Pike? Stay alert for talking felt, in case some Massachusetts artists decide to emulate Superclogger, a puppet show for gridlocked L.A. drivers.

When writing, do you suffer from the Yoda Effect? Chatty Cathy-ness? The Old Spice Guy Effect? A San Fran literary agent breaks down common writing maladies.

A painter accepts commissions to paint people’s ideal bookshelf, a row of their most treasured or meaningful books.

Provocative filmmaker John Waters is interviewed in the Paris Review, where he talks about his longtime tradition of summering in Provincetown. In particular, his happy days working for local booksellers:

It was a magical time in my life. I worked in the bookshop. First I worked in the East End Bookshop that was run by Molly Malone Cook and her girlfriend, Mary Oliver, the poet, who was not famous yet. And then I worked at the Provincetown Bookshop for many, many years. And it’s still there. Elloyd Hansen, one of the owners, was the guy who really gave me my complete education about books. I didn’t go to school, so he’s the one who told me about Ronald Firbank, Jane Bowles; I learned everything working there.

Image: Digital prototype of THE BIG HAMMOCK, a public art project by Hansy Better. Image courtesy of The Big Hammock Project. The Big Hammock has its grand opening party on August 20th, 1:30 PM, in the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston.

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Steven Bogart (Playwriting Finalist ‘09) is the director of a new production of Cabaret, opening at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge on August 31. It’s an intriguing gig, and a good fit for an artist whose creative reach includes work as a playwright, director, designer, painter, and teacher.

We spoke to Steven about the new production and his ongoing work as a multi-disciplinary artist.

ArtSake: You’re directing Cabaret at the A.R.T. (opens August 31). Amanda Palmer, who will play the Emcee in the production, said on her blog that the show will be “interactive and dark,” with “lots of room for inclusion.” With those tantalizing hints, plus the storied history of the musical, I have to ask: how, as a director, do you prepare for a project like this?

Steven: For me, preparation usually begins with something emotional that pulls me into the script. I try not to worry about other productions of Cabaret. I try to engage in the material on a personal level and trust my instincts around choices, and I encourage the creative team and the actors to do the same. I’ve been in love with Dada, German Expressionist painters and film since I was a boy so I had an immediate visceral response to the themes and images in Cabaret. Then, I think, in the same manner in which I try to write a play, I make sure that the main feeling, idea or image that is resonating is always in front of me. In the case of this production of Cabaret, it is an image of Charlotte Rampling in the film, “The Night Porter” that captured me. You can see that we used that image as a template for the poster.

This production is challenging because we are staging it as an environmental piece where the line between the Klub, the audience and the story of the characters is blurred. I am trying to set up a rehearsal environment where there can be lots of freedom for the actors to engage through improvisation within the Klub and the scenes.

ArtSake: You also worked with Palmer to create The Needle That Sings in Her Heart, performed in 2009 at Lexington High School (where you teach and where Palmer went to high school). Can you talk a little bit about that project – how it came to be, and the process of collaboratively creating a new work from scratch?

Steven: Amanda and I have been trying to do Cabaret together since 2001. After several failed attempts to set it up with different theaters, we decided to workshop a new piece. We were planning to do this in Australia at the Sydney Opera House, and actually had a big meeting in NYC with the Opera House. They were ready to book the project, but then our producer at the time, crunched numbers and it turned out to be too expensive. So Amanda and I decided to do the project at Lexington High School where the students were used to the collaborative playwriting process with me. Of course this was true of Amanda when she was my student. Even though Amanda was 15 years out of high school, It seemed like a great fit.

The process is challenging but incredibly exciting. The way I usually begin is by setting up a jumping off point. It could be an image, a theme, a headline from a newspaper article, or a piece of music. For example, one year I created a piece with students where the starting point was Beethoven’s 9th Symphony digitally stretched over 24 hours. Another time, we used the paintings of Joan Miro as a way in, another time it was stop-motion animation and the Kabbalah. With, The Needle That Sings in Her Heart, the jumping off point was the Neutral Milk Hotel album In an Aeroplane Over the Sea and Anne Frank. We chose this because Amanda and I loved the album and we knew the kids would fall in love with it.

In the rehearsals, we do lots of brainstorming and structured improvisations where the cast is divided into smaller groups and given a certain amount of time to create a short improvisational piece. The n the groups share their pieces, we record the images, ideas, and characters that come out of this work. We keep this process going for a while, usually until something really grabs all of us, and then we hone in on what seems to be emerging. Then the improvisations are more directed towards developing the specifics of the piece. The investment and commitment in this kind of process is amazing and is often life changing for students. We all walk away with a deeper understanding of the possibility of theater and creativity. I love it!

ArtSake: What do you gain through a continued creative relationship, such as your ongoing collaborations with Palmer?

Steven: Amanda is a brilliant artist, and when it comes to theater, our aesthetic and artistic values are quite similar. It is exciting to work with others who ultimately want similar results artistically. She also challenges me with all her ideas, and of course I love working with alums as much as I love working with my current students. I’m pretty lucky.

ArtSake: I’m fascinated by the range of your creative work. Along with directing and teaching theater, you also write plays, do theatrical design, and have a separate, accomplished career as a fine arts painter. How does your work in one artistic discipline interact and inform the others?

Steven: Oh man, I think this is complicated. I’m not really sure I know, and for many years I struggled with this because I felt so schizophrenic. Maybe it’s all the same. I just got excited by art. If I could dance, I think I would do that too. Even now, as I embark on Cabaret, a new idea for a play hit me and I’m excited about diving in, but I am also consumed by Cabaret. However, I think when the juices are flowing in one medium, at least for me, it can get things going everywhere. The problem becomes about time. At one point, my stepmother said, why don’t I pick one art form and become great at it, but I can’t seem to ignore all my loves. My teaching and directing at school allow me to experiment a lot. This answer is all over the place because I really don’t know.

ArtSake: You received a finalist award from the MCC Artist Fellowships for your play Pigcat (read an excerpt). Can you talk about the development of that play, and where it’s headed next?

Steven: I was surprised and grateful to have received that fellowship. The seed for the play came from a short poem I wrote about fishing when I was a boy. The poem led to a ten minute play that was performed in the Boston Theater Marathon, and from there it became a full length one act. It took me two years to write the first draft. I was struggling with it, so I put it aside for a couple of months. I had only thirty pages of the play and some vague notes about where it wanted to go. Getting the finalist award gave me an extra boost of energy to dig in and finish a draft of Pigcat. This led to Pigcat receiving The Holland New Voices Award at the Great Plains Theater Conference. I was very lucky to have had David Lindsay-Abaire, Marshall Mason, Eric Ehn, and Connie Congdon respond to the piece. Now, I’m doing some minor tweaking and plan on sending it out to theaters. We’ll see though. It’s such a difficult process to get a play produced.

ArtSake: What’s the most important idea you try to instill in emerging artists you teach?

Steven: Be patient and give yourself permission, lots of permission to explore anything that stirs your heart and imagination: We hear the word “no” way too much in our lives and it puts a vice grip on our creative impulses. I see this all the time in schools. As a director and theater teacher, my mantra to them is to be invested in the success of every other person in the room with you. I don’t believe the art of theater can be achieved without this kind of commitment.

ArtSake: Can you point to any one decision you’ve made as an artist that has had the most impact on your career?

Steven: Hmm, well I decided to stay in education and that has had its ups and downs as I’ve struggle to find time for my own personal artistic endeavors. And I’ve wondered what a professional life in the theater would have meant, but at the same time, I have created some amazing and mind blowing theater with my students that I probably would not have been able to do professionally and pay my bills. I love creating with my students, and my work in education has really informed my approach and ideas about theater–what it is, and what it could be. Working with students keeps giving back to me in wonderful ways. I’m still connected with many of my alums and it has been personally and artistically rewarding. In this production of Cabaret, I have eight alums involved as performers, designers, etc. I wanted them around me, like a family reunion, but in the theater. I’m so happy about this, I well up now and then. So I guess staying in education has had the most impact.

Cabaret opens at the A.R.T. in Cambridge on August 31, 2010.

Steven Bogart writes, directs, paints and teaches theater in the Boston area. His play Conspiracy of Memory was a Kennedy Center Finalist for New American Plays in 2002. His play Alice In War was part the Summer Play Festival in New York City in 2007 and Chicago’s Stage Left Theater’s Leapfest in 2008. Additionally, his plays have been performed at the Boston Theatre Marathon, ACME Theatre, Boston Theatre Works, and MIT. He is cofounder of Rouged Ape, a paratheatrical theater company working in the Boston area.

Images: Steven Bogart; Steven Bogart and Amanda Palmer at a rehearsal for Cabaret, photo by Kati Mitchell; Steven Bogart, LE GIBET (2009), oil and rustoleum, 16×16 in, photo by Erik Hansen.

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What discoveries await you in this fan blog about Williamstown writer Jim Shepard? A. the above video. B. news of a new collection coming out March 2011, and that The Millions thinks You Think That’s Bad‘ll be rad. And C. that a Project X movie may be on the way. (I guess I just spoiled all your discoveries. Sorry. But still go check out the blog.)

Boston novelist Michelle Hoover guest-writes in the highly entertaining 1st Books Blog (authors writing about publishing their first books). The takeaway: persist, writers! Some 15 years spanned between the author starting her novel to the final days of editing, when she read chapters aloud to Other Press publisher Judith Gurewich.

Local playwright, actor, and theatre artist John Kuntz has launched a blog, and he recently wrote about how the audience at Company One’s Grimm was engaged and interested in the new play process: “It was a packed house, out for the night, they wanted to be there, and they were having a great time.” Dig it. May many more new works find many more enthusiastic audiences.

Jen Mergel, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, was featured in the New American Paintings blog discussing the role of contemporary art in an institution with a strong art history tradition: “I see [emerging artists] as hugely important in terms of keeping the conversation going and the discourse alive.”

And while we’re in the hallowed halls of the MFA: the Boston Globe recently profiled Andrew Haines who, as the museum’s conservator of frames, matches frames with paintings from MFA’s collection (that is, when he’s not creating his own astutely observed paintings).

In promoting their books and advancing their work, writers should definitely do these three things and then also these five things. Then POW: instant fame! Or at least, eight things done.

Sign of the times: Porter Square Books in Cambridge has added an e-Books buying section to its website.

Neato idea: a theatre company in NY enlists donations to cover the cost of giving away seats to audiences who otherwise may not have the opportunity to go.

In the blog of ArtCorps, an organization that sends artists to strengthen and mobilize Central American communities, Massachusetts native Laura Smith talks about using art to foster empowerment with women in El Salvador.

Always wanted to weld/wire/sew/woodwork but don’t have the tools, space, and/or know-how? Artisan’s Asylum, a non-profit community workshop in Somerville, wants to make an array of tools and classes available to current or aspiring makers of things. In preparing their upcoming class schedule, they’re asking for artist/artisans to take an interest survey.

Attend the London Biennale – in Boston. No inter-dimensional wormhole required! TransCultural Exchange, a Mass. org specializing in connecting international cultural communities, is holding a local satellite event - a Curated Salon - as Boston’s contribution to the London Biennale’s three month calendar of cultural events. If you’re interested, bring yourself and a non-artist guest for an evening of brilliant conversation. All participants will be listed on TransCultural Exchange’s website as official participants in the London Biennale. The salon takes place on August 19, 6-8 PM, at the Hampshire House. Download the press release, which includes ticket information, here.

Finally, two “Notes” we missed in our recent Artist Fellows Notes: Wendy Jehlen’s (Choreography Finalist ‘04) Anikai Dance Company is producing a free site-specific outdoor performance at Georges Island on the Boston Harbor Islands on Saturday, August 7, 1:30 PM. And Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ‘06) is featured in the July/August 2010 Design New England. His art was selected as part of a model unit by interior designer Meichi Peng (see art overlooking pillow, below).

Media: clip of Jim Shepard reading the story “Boys Town” at Skidmore College; detail of model unit at the W Boston Hotel & Residences in Back Bay, Meichi Peng, designer and Michael J. Lee, photographer, from Design New England Magazine.

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The Rifrákt artist collective takes the conventional approach to art exhibitions and bends it a bit (the name is a play on the word “refract”). Founded by Carolyn Hulbert and Stephanie Goode, the collective shows work in a variety of spaces, including private homes, galleries, and alternative spaces like coffee houses and libraries. And, with their latest effort, the book 25 Emerging Boston Artists 2010, they aim to advance the featured artists while donating proceeds to causes they support.

We interviewed co-founder Carolyn Hulbert and Stephanie Goode about Rifrákt and the new book, as part of our Art and Philanthropy series, looking at artists who merge creative projects with philanthropic goals.

ArtSake: I was interested in something Carolyn said in an interview with TeaParty Boston, that one of the motives behind forming Rifrákt, along with exhibition opportunities, was helping the members grow as professional artists. How important is community and dialogue to your work, and your careers?

Carolyn: Community and dialogue are very important, especially when you’re trying to create a name for yourself, or for a collective. It helps to start in an environment you consider home, where you know and see people and they start to recognize you and your work. Even though our subjects aren’t directly connected to our community, our work is a product of where we live and the time we are living in.

Stephanie: If one is used to traditional schooling with the benefits of critique groups, Rifrákt and groups like ours make the transition to the art world outside school easier. It helps with self motivation especially.

ArtSake: Can you talk about how the new book came to be? How does the book fit in with Rifrákt’s goals, as a collective?

Stephanie: Carolyn and I talked about doing the book to showcase artists work, hoping that it would help each artist in exhibition and public representation. For some artists, getting their work out there can be very difficult without prior knowledge, contacts, and steady stream of personal strength as potential rejection letters come in. The book was a chance for us to see who else was out there in Boston that we felt everyone should know about. Rifrákt has always been a group aimed to help not only ourselves as we continue our career, but also those in our community.

Carolyn: We just wanted to see more opportunities for emerging artists in Boston. The book was the first larger scale project that we have done, and there are definitely more plans for projects that involve Boston-based artists.

ArtSake: Rifrákt has had four exhibitions since June 2009, and one upcoming in August. Can you talk a little bit about your curatorial process and how you select your venues?

Stephanie: Exhibition and competition is very prevalent in Boston, a city full of art schools. Creating your own alternative space is one way to curate and exhibit your own work within your own means and desires. We started doing one-night house shows with the core members and other guest artists in 2009. Basically, we took in any artist who wanted to exhibit their work and had the same positive and strong energy that we embodied. As time went on, more and more people became interested in joining. We created our website, adding to our member count, and began contemplating exhibiting in spaces other than apartments.

Carolyn: Most of our upcoming shows are through networking with previous and current Rifrákt members. Most of our venues are selected from research and networking. We definitely look at a lot of artist web sites, blogs, venue and gallery web sites, and try to see if it’s a good fit for us.

ArtSake: Carolyn, your own prints and paintings are influenced by ancient cultures, animal imagery, and mysterious symbols. What draws you to the subjects of your work?

Carolyn: The subject of my work is something that is personal or something I am very interested in at the moment. I love the unknown and mysteries. I can’t get enough of ancient cultures. There seems to have been a closer or more spiritual relationship between humanity and the earth. I feel by painting or drawing that, I feel closer to being a human, as well as transferring that feeling into my work. Most of the animal imagery is culture related, or is a current or past pet. I love adding Iceland my cat or Sais my dog into my work, or even using them as inspiration for a piece.

ArtSake: Stephanie, what draws you to the subjects of your work?

Stephanie: Most of my work revolves around psychology, and could be viewed as art therapy. Many projects work within the human psyche, dreams, familial spaces and nostalgia. I am always interested in why things are, how they came to be, analyzing. When I first started taking art seriously in my early teens, I worked a lot with drawing and mixed media. I became heavily involved within traditional photography in college. Now I am bringing back some of the mixed media work, printing photographs on adhesive vinyl, collage works on paper and assemblage projects for the future involving my own and found photographs.

ArtSake: What’s next for Rifrákt?

Carolyn: Rifrákt will be showing at Voltage Coffee and Art in August and at the West End Library branch in September. We will probably do a few small projects and a couple more proposals and submissions. We do have a proposal for a collaboration with another Boston collective! As for me, I have grad school on the mind, so I am taking my time and doing research.

Stephanie: We will continue to show and collaborate. I would like to grow in members and expand our reach beyond current limits. Perhaps collaborate with other Boston collectives, NYC collectives or show in corporate galleries and other venues that we haven’t been able to participate in before. Personally I would like to continue building a body of new work and grow in contacts to exhibit said projects. I may want to collaborate with glass and sculpture artists as well.

25 Emerging Boston Artists 2010 features work by Valerie Arruda, Fiona Boyd, Jessica Brilli, Alexandra Carter, Corey Corcoran, Leah Cunningham, Barbara Geoghegan, Stephanie Goode, Todd Goodman, Luba Grenader, Maggie Hennessy, Amy Hitchcock, Carolyn Hulbert, Vanessa Irzyk, Marco Jimenez, Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ‘10), Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ‘10), Aaron Morris, Nathaniel Price, Jennifer Reich, Nora Richardson, Anna Rochinski, Alec Strickland, Patricia Sarrafian Ward, and Brandy Wolfe.

An opening reception for 25 Emerging Boston Artists 2010 takes place on Friday, August 6, 6-10pm at The Temple in Jamaica Plain. The free event will include musical performances by Huellas and The Organ Beats starting at 7:30pm.

Copies of the book will be sold at cost through the 8/6 event. After that, all proceeds from the regularly-priced book will be generously donated to the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Images: book jacket for 25 EMERGING BOSTON ARTISTS 2010 by Rifrakt Artist Collective; Vanessa Irzyk, UNTITLED (2009), oil on panel, 22×24 in; Marco Jimenez, YOUR DOG WAS AMAZINGLY CUTE, YOU WERE OKAY (2010), Missed Connections, mixed media; Carolyn Hulbert, SAIS AND HIS FRIEND OF GOLD (2010), digital print, silkscreen & gold leaf, 12×16 in; Stephanie Goode, RED, 9 HOURS (2003), light jet print, aluminum/plexiglas mtd. 12×12 in, editioned; Rachel Mello, WHITHER SHALL I WANDER (2009), Oil on hardboard cut to silhouette, 21 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.

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We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good - not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth.

The Rice/Polak Gallery in Provincetown exhibits dozens of intriguing contemporary artists, including numerous from Massachusetts. MCC fellows/finalists upcoming at Rice/Polak include Joshua Meyer (Painting Fellow ‘10), whose Intermingle: New paintings by Joshua Meyer is on exhibit August 13-August 26, with an opening reception Friday, August 13, 7 PM. Following that exhibition, Julie Levesque (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05) and Jane D. Marsching (Photography Finalist ‘03) will both have solo shows, August 27-September 10, 2010, with a reception on Friday August 27, 7 PM.

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) visited Here and Now on WBUR radio to discuss his summer music picks, and those of callers-in.

David Binder’s (Photography Fellow ‘01) documentary Calling My Children is screening at the Woods Hole Film Festival August 3rd at 1:00 PM.

Liza Bingham (Painting Finalist ‘10) is among the artists in Free Association, a summer group exhibition for Associate Members of Kingston Gallery in Boston. The show runs August 4-29, 2010, with an opening reception Friday August 6th, 5:30-8 PM.

Steven Bogart (Playwriting Finalist ‘09) directs a new production of Cabaret, opening at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge on August 31. The production features local performing artist Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) as the Master of Ceremonies.

Jessica Bozek’s (Poetry Finalist ‘10) new poetry chapbook Squint into the Sun has been released by Dancing Girl Press.

Lorraine Chapman’s (Choreography Fellow ‘04) dance company is among those performing and participating in the Massachusetts Dance Festival, which seeks to successfully establish dance artistically, financially and operationally, throughout the state. Lorrain Chapman The Company will perform at the Boston Ballet on Saturday, August 21, 2010, at 8 PM, and at the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center on Saturday, August 28th, 2010 at 8 PM.

This July, Janet Echelman’s (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) Biennial of the Americas was unveiled in Denver. The work is suspended between the Greek Theater and the Denver Art Museum in Denver’s Civic Center Park.

Christopher Faust (Painting Fellow ‘10) is among the artists in On the Road, an exhibit of artwork inspired by the road, running through August 27, 2010, at the Suffolk University Art Gallery at NESAD. The show was curated by Gallery Director James Hull.

Jane Gillooly (Film & Video Fellow ‘07) will screen Today the Hawk Takes One Chick on August 16, 7 PM at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, as part of the DocYard series of contemporary documentary films. Also, Jane received a pre-production grant from the LEF Foundation for her film-in-progress The Suitcase of Love and Shame.

Dawn Lane (Choreography Fellow ‘10) has a new website, at dawn-lane.com. Read an ArtSake article about Dawn’s recent honor in Washington D.C.

Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ‘09) has been hired as film coordinator for ArtsEmerson. Rebecca will program films related to ArtsEmerson’s live performing arts series, as well as “other independent, repertory and foreign films, a student-curated series, classics, and regular screenings of films for children.” (News via the HubArts blog.)

Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘07) is among the artists in The Boat Show, an exhibition in the Drive-by Gallery in Watertown. Drive-by is the new gallery of Beth Kantrowitz (formerly of Allston Skirt Gallery) and Kathleen O’Hara (formerly of OH+T Gallery).

Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05) created a site-specific installation at an abandoned bar called The Artery. The installation treats the inside of a bar as the inside of a body in an immersive multimedia environment. The installation is in the old Artery Lounge space on 26 Holden Street in North Adams, MA, through October 17, 2010. See Downstreet Art for more information, including gallery hours.

Congratulations to Nancy K. Pearson (Poetry Finalist ‘10), who won the 2010 Spoon Review Poetry Review’s Editors’ Prize.

Cynthia Morrison Phoel (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘04, ‘10) has two August reading events featuring her recently published short story collection Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories. She reads at the BigTown Gallery in Rochester, VT, on Sunday, August 15, 5:30 PM. Then, she visits The Provincetown Art Association and Museum in Provincetown on Monday, August 23, 7 PM.

Work by Daniel Ranalli (Drawing Fellow ‘10) will be on exhibit at DNA Gallery in Provincetown, August 13 - September 1. The show, which also includes work by Tabitha Vevers and Peter Hutchinson, was curated by Russell LaMontagne & Richard Baiano.

Monica Raymond’s (Playwriting Finalist ‘07, Poetry Finalist ‘08) poem “The Miraculous” is part of the exhibit “Sinners, Saints, and Censorship: A Quills Art & Poetry Exhibition” at the Central Square YMCA (Durrell Hall), Cambridge, running through August 8th, 2010. The free art show will be up for 45 minutes before, and about 30 min. after, each performance of Bad Habit Productions‘ Quills (attendance of the play is not required to see the exhibit).

Anna Ross (Poetry Finalist ‘10) interviews poet Marie Ponsot in Guernica Magazine.

Sunanda Sahay (Traditional Arts Finalist ‘10) has an exhibition of traditional Indian Madhubani paintings at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, running through September 6, 2010.

Jo Sandman (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘84) will lead a talk and conversation on her work selected for inclusion in the exhibit Out of the Box: Photography Portfolios from the Permanent Collection of the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. The exhibition, which runs through October 30, 2010 and was organized by independent curator Leslie K. Brown, is a fascinating selection of photographs from the DeCordova’s collection. Bring your cell phone for an audio tour of the exhibition by Leslie Brown and Gus Kayafas of Palm Press. Jo’s talk is on Saturday, August 7, at 3 PM.

Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ‘10) will perform a new duet with dancer Jimena Bermejo Black in an evening of pieces called Body of Eyes: a dance party/performance, at Club Oberon in Harvard Square, Cambridge. Sarah’s new duet, “5 light-years 3 seconds now,” looks into grand-unified theories and human perception. New scientific theories are postulating many spatial dimensions and sometimes two time dimensions; Sarah is attempting to find these dimensions and play around in there. The performance takes place on August 11th, at 8 PM.

Lewis Spratlan’s (Music Composition Fellow ‘88) opera Life Is a Dream has its world premiere in July and August, at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico.

Leslie Williams (Poetry Fellow ‘10) has won the 2010 Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America, and her book, Success of the Seed Plants, won the 2010 Bellday Books Prize and will come out in October. Congratulations!

Helena Wurzel (Painting Finalist ‘10) is in the group show Missive at the Russell Projects in Richmond, VA. The show runs through September 4th.

Past Fellows Notes
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
Apr. 2010
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images and media: Joshua Meyer, SMILING AT THE CEILING (2010), oil on canvas, 38×42 in; Janet Echelman, BIENNIAL OF THE AMERICAS (2010), public art installation, Civic Center Park, Denver, CO; Jo Sandman, toned gelatin silver photograph using medical x-ray as source material; Helena Wurzel, TEA FOR ONE WITH LUCINDA WILLIAMS (2009), Acrylic Paint and Paper Collage, 22×30 in.

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Gretchen Romey-Tanzer (Crafts Fellow ‘05) is one of the painters and weavers who created works to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the anthem “America the Beautiful.”

The exhibition, curated by Cape Cod painter Shawne Nelson, pairs teams of painters and weavers together to interpret the lyrics of the anthem (from a poem by Cape Cod writer Katharine Lee Bates, incidentally).

America the Beautiful runs at the Massachusetts State House in Boston July 19-30. Read more about the exhibition.

And check out Fellows Notes for other current news of MCC fellows/finalists.

Image: Gretchen Romey-Tanzer, AMBER WAVES - GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE (2010), weaving, 50×36 in.

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Reams of paper have been used to write about the concept of the gaze in painting. This is a nano-interview, so we’re not going there. Instead we’re honored to have artist Christopher Faust (FY10 MCC Painting Fellow) take us on a quick ride into his mind. Let’s see what he has to say.

What artists’ work do you admire most but create nothing like? Paul Pfeiffer at the moment. He’s got a real straightforward and hardworking approach to the material/medium of video that’s fearless. He’s not afraid of months of work for just a few minutes (or less) of footage.

If forced to choose, would you be an eraser or a permanent magic marker? Definitely a kneaded eraser.

What is the most surprising response to your art you have ever received? I had someone point out to me that there was something wrong with my composition - that the figures were too in the middle. When I told him I knew that and I did it on purpose, he kind of got angry and confused, then he stopped talking to me. I also had a piece stolen recently from a show.

Do you live with any animals? Yes, we have a mixed pit bull named Tessa. She looks tough as hell, but she’s all comedy… crazy smart and great around kids. She’s a rescue and I think she was abandoned because she had no fight in her.

How do you know when your work is done? I don’t, really. I mean I figure it out, because I get to a point where it doesn’t need anything more. I sometimes sit on pieces for months without working on them because I just can’t figure out what’s wrong, then I force myself to work and finish the piece. It’s just hard work, really.

What do you listen to while you create? All kinds of stuff. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Zeppelin. Most often nothing at all.

What films have influenced you as an artist? David Cronenberg’s first film, “Shivers” - just a great disconnected tone and amazing images. Also the last scene of Days of Heaven when Linda Manz is running and you just see her face from the side and this crazy blue/ green light (at least that’s my memory of it). The first scene of Solaris (Tarkovsky’s) where he’s staring at nature before he leaves for the space station….but mostly I see films to escape and they have nothing to do with my art. I love all zombie movies, Dune (David Lynch!) Jaws (every Memorial Day) and all sci fi- the recent Battlestar Galactica being at the top of the heap.

What are you currently reading? “Altered Carbon” by Richard K. Morgan

Spring, Summer, Winter or Fall? Can’t choose on that one - I’m from New England.

What has the MCC Artist Fellowship meant to you? Recognition. I moved back here from New York City after 13 years because I missed it, and to receive this award here, in Massachusetts, has meant a lot to me and made a huge difference in my life. The money’s nice but it means more to me to be recognized in a place where I really want to be.

Christopher will participate in small works invitational exhibition showcasing the works of eleven Massachusetts artists recognized by the MCC’s Artist Fellowship Program. Painted Visions will be at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod from July 13- August 8, 2010. The opening reception is Saturday, July 17 from 5-7 pm.

Image credit: All images by Christopher Faust. From top to bottom:
Red and Green Forest, 2010, watercolor and gouache on paper, 14″ x 20″
Blue House, 2010, watercolor and gouache on paper, 14″ x 20″
Hilltop Bleed, 2009, watercolor and gouache on paper, 14″ x 20″

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