ArtSake

Artists and creative individuals are often asked (or decide) to make their work available for free. ArtSake guest blogger Bren Bataclan, for instance, gives away all of his Smile Boston Project paintings; playwright Charles Mee makes the full texts of his plays available online for other artists to “remake.” Others might choose to not share any work without direct remuneration.

So, where do you draw the line? Do you donate art to good causes? Share excerpts to build interest? In our conversations with artists in numerous disciplines, we’ve asked: How much art do you give away?

Jendi Reiter, poet
Good question! I hardly ever give my poetry books away, because I think it’s important for creative writers to be recognized as professionals, and unfortunately in our society that means getting money for our work. However, since the publisher of my first chapbook is going out of business, and I still care about this work reaching an audience, I plan to ask her for the right to create and distribute an e-book version for free.

Alice Bouvrie, filmmaker
I often donate a DVD to a relevant, non-profit organization to be used as a fundraiser – either as an item in an auction, or for a screening with a paying audience.

Suzanne Strempek Shea, writer
The question once could have been “How much art don’t you give away?” Early on, I used to give away a lot, between stories, talks, classes and book donations. I was grateful for anyone’s interest in my books, and appreciated any opportunity to spread the word. I’m still grateful for anyone’s interest (no readers/audience/students and I don’t get to do this for a living) and the chance to spread that word, but as I’ve been lucky enough to get busier and busier, I’ve had to pick and choose when and where to donate work and time – because I have only so much time. In recent years I’ve become my family’s primary breadwinner, so I’ve actually been soliciting more paying work to fund dog kibble and other household necessities. I do try to donate work when I can, in continued gratitude for that all-important interest from readers.

Lilly Cleveland, painter
I have given away work for worthwhile causes and fundraisers (mostly silent auctions). This always generates another request from the same group each and every year. I still donate original art work but the donation is NOT tax deductible (Ed: in MA, only the cost of materials is tax deductible for the artist). Once, I heard an interesting solution from Kathy Bitetti of the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition. Give a 20% off coupon as your donation so that the art buyer can come to your studio and pick out a painting and receive the discount. Raffle off the coupon or donate to silent auction.

Elizabeth Searle, writer
“A gift;” you are “gifted.” These are the somewhat lofty terms we use to describe any sort of talent. I once heard a poet advise his students, “If you write for money, money is your God.” Or as Jon Stewart put it, talking about show biz: “You don’t go into it for the health benefits.” In the theater world, while the profit motive is strong, I’ve found there is still at heart a playful spirit of: “Let’s do a SHOW! My Dad’s got a BARN!” These days, I enjoy all the outlets – online and elsewhere – that writers can make “free” use of in today’s topsy-turvy literary world. Of course I prefer pay. But I also like jumping into the mix and giving some of my work away, sometimes in connection with a good cause or two. I have spent over a decade working (and playing) within the group PEN/New England, trying to find ways for writers to use our particular gifts to “give back.” Art for art’s sake – wisely, the MCC named this blog for that creed. Whether or not you eventually luck out money-wise, I think that’s what it comes down to, “art-wise.”

Eric Hofbauer, composer and jazz guitarist
When art became monetized it forever changed the public’s relationship to it. For better or for worse, art and especially great art gets much of the attention and respect it deserves by the price tag it wears. This was the status quo for decades and it worked in all artistic disciplines quite well until the internet flooded the world with free “amateur art” of all kinds. Now the artist must be willing to give something away to reach potential buyers, agents, venues, critics, and most importantly audiences. Personally, I give away full recordings to critics, and all other music industry people, including my musician friends and colleagues without hesitation. I also give away “teaser” or sample tracks via online outlets, like my website, soundcloud, spotify, etc. to my fan base and potential audiences. There is still a vivacious audience in the world who respect great art by placing a financial value on their relationship with it. The 21st-century artist must find ways for “free art” to reach these audiences and pique their curiosities and passions without diminishing art’s reputation by being associated with amateur art outlets.

Jendi Reiter’s most recent book is Barbie at 50; Alice Bouvrie’s film “Thy Will Be Done” screens at First Parish of Watertown on Feb. 10, 7 PM; Suzanne Strempek Shea’s most recent book is Sundays in America; Lilly Cleveland teaches watercolor painting at South Shore Art Center; Elizabeth Searle’s most recent book is Girl Held in Home; Eric Hofbauer will perform at the Lily Pad, Feb. 3, 7 PM and at Longy School of Music Pickman Hall (w/Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Club), Feb. 4, 8 PM.

Image: Joe Wardwell (Painting Fellow ’12), NEVER BE STRONG (2011), oil on canvas, 18×32 in.

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The Massachusetts Cultural Council is honored to announce the 2012 MCC Artist Fellowship awards in Drawing, Painting, and Traditional Arts. Fifteen artists will receive fellowships of $7500 and another 16 will receive $500 finalist awards. See a complete list of this year’s fellows and finalists.

The awards are anonymously judged, based solely on the artistic quality and creative ability of the work submitted. Applications were open to all eligible Massachusetts artists. A total number of 866 eligible applications were received; 317 in Drawing, 531 in Painting, and 18 in Traditional Arts.

Hear Irish-American button accordion-playing by Traditional Arts Fellow Joe Derrane.

The Drawing panelists were Dina Deitsch, Jan Howard, Kate McNamara, and Evelyn Rydz. The Painting panelists were Margaret Burgess, Masako Kamiya, Al Miner, and Susan Stoops. The Traditional Arts panelists were Winnie Lambrecht, Rebecca Miller, and Lynne Williamson.

Learn more about the fellows/finalists at Gallery@MCC.

Later this year, we will award artists in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry. The deadline to apply in these categories is Monday, January 30, 2012.

Images: August Ventimiglia, UNTITLED (YELLOW RADIAL) (2010), yellow snap-line chalk on paper, 22 1/4×22 in; Joo Lee Kang, BOUQUET OF NATURE #1 (2010), Ballpoint pen on paper, 55×43 in; Daniela Rivera, GROWTH (2011), oil on canvas on board, 8x30x30 ft; Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz, UNTITLED WAR RELIEF (2011), oil and cast pigmented Hydrocal, 20x9x2 in; Yari Livan, ELEPHANT POT (2006), White stoneware clay, glaze, 9x10x10 1/4 in, photo by Jason Dowdle.

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New year, new notes from past Artist Fellows/Finalists. (Speaking of, apply now in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry.)

Go see the 2012 deCordova Biennial ASAP (1/23-4/22). Why? Work by Matthew Gamber (Photography Finalist ’11), Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), and 21 other terrific New England artists/collectives, is why.

The work and life of Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11) will be honored at a special event and exhibition at the Roswell Museum in New Mexico (1/13).

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) shares never-before-read-for-an-audience poetry at Literary Firsts, Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge (1/23, 7 PM).

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) has work in Adult Swim (1/13-2/4) at Gallery 1988 in L.A. – and they used one of his iconic astronaut paintings for the show flyer!

If you’re within high fiving distance of Suzanne Matson (Fiction Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’98), do so; she received a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship!

Great interview with Christian McEwen (Playwriting Fellow ’11) on the radio show “Writer’s Voice.”

Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) collaborated via Skype with an actress in Finland to create a piece for the Internationalists’ Around the World. Also, hear her poem The Sacred on qarrtsiluni.

Superb, excellent, and just plain neato mosquito: Allan Reeder (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10 and ’06) won a Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Grant.

Daily swims during at a Blue Mountain Center residency inspired Naoe Suzuki‘s (Drawing Fellow ’06) Blue, showing at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center Gallery (1/13-3/2).

He’s getting into Dodge: Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show at NYC’s DODGE Gallery (1/12-2/19).

Read past Fellows Notes. If you’re a past fellow/finalist with news, let us know.

Image: Michael Zelehoski, CRATE (2011), found crate, painted plywood, 63×96 in.

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Part of the thrill of making art is discovering how your audience interacts with your work. In our conversations with artists in numerous disciplines, we’ve asked: What’s the most surprising response to your work you’ve ever received?

Kathleen Volp, visual artist
I have been under the impression that the subject of many of my pieces was a deeply textured cantaloupe. I was surprised to find many viewers didn’t even remotely see a cantaloupe! Not even a kumquat. People saw protoplasm or coral or some kind of micro-organism or a CAT scan of the brain. It’s all good, even exciting, but really, really shocking to me. How could I not have seen this in my own work?

Mary Kocol, photographer
When I first started exhibiting at Gallery NAGA in 1993, some people thought the photographs were paintings – perhaps because I presented the work without mats or glazing, the traditional way to exhibit photos back then.

Ilie Ruby, writer
I once had a short story ravaged by wolves in a writing workshop. A friend suggested that the best revenge was revision. I looked over the story, dotted some i’s, crossed some t’s, and decided I was happy with it as it was. Then I haphazardly tossed the story into a box marked “contest,” (not knowing what contest it actually was). A few weeks later I received a phone call: “Congratulations, your story has just won the Edwin L. Moses Award for Fiction chosen by T.C. Boyle!” I received a huge prize, a small amount of satisfaction, and learned never again to listen to wolves.

Joshua Meyer, painter
I once stood in front of my paintings with the poet Robert Hass as he described my art to me. I felt like I was in the midst of one of his poems, a participant.

Scott Tulay, visual artist
My daughters, who are eight and five, consistently complain that my drawings are “too scary.” They will ask me, “Why can’t you draw something nice, with color, like with a rainbow?” Once in a while, however, I’ll do a drawing, and they’ll tilt their heads to the side and say, “Not bad, Dad.” This scares me.

Christopher Faust, painter
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.

Tara Masih, writer
“I love that story about your father.” When I told the woman it was fiction, that the character was not my father, she burst out, “Don’t tell me that! It was better when I thought it was real.” People seem to have a pathological need to have writing be autobiographical.

Rick Berry, painter
Tears.

Paul Goodnight, painter
Silence.

Jeff and Jane Hudson, musicians
YouTube and iTunes.

Shelly Reed, visual artist
Well, the most common response is that people very carefully and diplomatically suggest that I add at least a bit of color. The most surprising response was when someone contacted me from my Web site and asked me to design their tattoo.

Merrill Comeau, mixed media collage artist
I was working at the National Park of the Old North Bridge, on the edge of the Concord River. As I walked down, I fell into a sink hole of mud up to my knee. When I got to a good spot to work, I removed my boots and socks, washed them out in the river and hung them on branches to dry. I set out my tarp, stacks of fabric, lunch, etc. and worked all day. When I climbed back up to the bridge, the Park Ranger told me a group of women, seeing me on the edge of the river, asked where to leave money for the homeless person (me).

Salvatore Scibona, writer
My local Provincetown bookseller tells me that on the day my book (The End) came out, he sold a copy to a woman from New Hampshire, a tourist, the wife of a retired minister. It sounded interesting, she said; she liked the cover. What could be more commonplace than a person on a walk in a small town stopping to buy a book and taking it home? But also, what could be more unlikely, more uncanny from a writer’s point of view, than that a stranger he will never know should walk down a street with years of the writer’s thoughts in her bag?

Image: Kathleen Volp, BOUND MELON #2 (2011), photographic transfer, oil, metal and graphite on fabric and wood panel, 12x12x1 in.

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Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) recently returned from a one-month residency at Ucross Foundation, an experience that allowed for deepened explorations of her unique, cut-silhouette paintings.

Rachel drove out to the Wyoming cattle ranch, where artists, writers, and composers take up residence for intense focus on their work. Bringing only what she needed, she worked spare. And she got used to it: upon return to her workspace at Mad Oyster Studios, she immediately thinned out her supplies and gave away older artworks to anyone who would donate to the charity Food for Free. Spaciousness is well-suited to Rachel’s practice, which requires several distinct work stations – and yields truly distinct work.

Rachel’s paintings exist in multiple places at once, with surfaces cut to silhouettes (often urban scenes) painted with contrasting landscapes (often rural or pastoral). The urban/rural tension is a theme the artist has been grappling with for years, and her ideas began to crystallize during the 2000 mile drive to Ucross, winding through Midwest farmlands and ranch communities of the Great Plains. So much of the world’s population lives in cities, with little awareness of what it’s like to be in a rural setting (Rachel, living in big cities all her life, among them). Yet city dwellers are more dependent than ever on food and farming practices of rural areas. Despite the disconnect, there are always two sides to the way we live, urban and rural livelihoods that depend on each other even while they are separate. Rachel is passionate about this interdependence and interconnectedness, and what she thinks of as the shared humanity of disparate people. “These differences in how we live and see the world are simultaneously deeply profound and at the same time profoundly superficial, when you come down to it.”

Here, you can see Rachel sketching at her drawing table. Sometimes, Rachel paints from photographs, but at Ucross she began experimenting with painting from her own loose sketches. A passing storm cloud – too ephemeral to capture with the more time-intensive process of painting, and too dramatic in lighting and color to capture in a snapshot – inspired her to grab her colored pencils and sketch. Later, she would work from the sketch to create a painting, giving her landscape one further magnitude of artistic intervention. The rest of her time at Ucross after that evening, she spent alternating between sketching and painting, developing a new process for herself that she has continued on returning to Somerville.

Rachel’s cut-silhouette paintings make intriguing use of her educational backgrounds in architecture (undergrad) and theatrical design (graduate school). Her silhouettes, which she cuts with a vintage Cutawl K-11 saw, depict grids, powerlines, buildings’ angles, architectural but abstracted.

Installed, the paintings play with dimension, making depth and shadow part of the visual experience – as would a design for the stage. For the new works from Ucross, she painted both sides of her silhouettes. The works are meant to hang suspended from the ceiling rather than against a gallery wall. She plans, for her next show, to hang all of the works this way, overlapping and filling the space, with the only work on the walls being the shadows of the suspended pieces.

The new paintings embody Rachel’s past concepts and expand them. Duality encompasses the work. The pieces contrast imagery and landscapes but also artistic disciplines, suggesting sculptural depth while rooted in two-dimensional forms. Inside and outside, urban and rural, flat and planed, past and present: all co-exist in where we are now.

Images: Rachel Mello, A SUPPOSEDLY GOOD IDEA (2008), Oil on hardboard cut to silhouette; relief prt of silhouette 21 1/2 h x 37 in diptych total; WHITHER SHALL I WANDER, oil on hardboard, cut to silhouette, 21 1/2 in hx37 in w total; photos of Rachel’s studio and work, taken by ArtSake.

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Well now this is cool.

Gobs of Lines Some Wet Some Dry, a “pop-up” exhibition, will take place at the studio of artist Conley Harris (Painting Fellow ’86) on November 17-19 in Boston’s South End. The show features several past MCC Fellows, Brian Corey (Painting Fellow ’08), Christopher Faust (Painting Fellow ’10), and Mary O’Malley (Drawing Fellow ’06), with Jeffrey Gibson, James Kennedy, John Guthrie, and Kim Pashko.

Along with the art (which = awesome), this show is just nifty in its conception. According to a Boston Globe review of a past pop-up show, Harris organized the series as a monthly exhibition of local artists, in response to a decrease in opportunities for artists due to the economic downturn. Participating artists contribute $25 for exhibition costs, but all sales directly benefit the artists.

Each Pop-Up centers around a theme. From Harris’s announcement:

It is my pleasure to exhibit painters and drawers who pursue line as the main language and expressive mode in their works. That first line serves as the generator, the machine that propels ideas through a range of complex impulses and responses. Here we see either painterly lines, delicate lace-like lines, poured and flowing lines or layered patterns of line as the artist’s means to express their passions. These extraordinary works, some fantastically large and others quite small and intimate, show an impressive group of Boston artists.

I really like how this series devises an all-rise solution to dry economic times. Add one part generosity, one part ingenuity, and one part inventive art. You never know what might pop up.

LISTED and Conley Harris present Pop-Up No. 4, November 17-19
Studio No.1 at 1140 Washington Street near East Berkeley Street in Boston
Opening Reception: 6-8 PM, Thursday November 17
Additional viewing: Fri / Sat Nov. 18 and 19, 1-6 PM

Images: Brian Corey, NE BOUNDARY (2011), acrylic, ink, graphite on panel, 24×24 in; Mary O’Malley, HAECKELS GARDEN (2008), Metallic ink on paper, 32×40 in.

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November, upon us like a helping of heavily syrupped sweet potatoes, brings with it this bounty of news from our past Fellows/Finalists…

(more…)

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In September, past MCC fellows/finalists venture into imagined flora, faraway lands, outer space, the impermanent, the temporary, and the nearly not. (For starters.)

And now, we venture into our monthly round-up of the news of past awardees of our Artist Fellowships Program.

Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11) will be honored by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in a tribute program, on Sunday, September 25, 2011, 3 PM. Read more about the program on ArtSake.

Sally Bellerose (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’04) will read from her novel The Girls Club at Forbes Library in Northampton on Saturday, September 24, 2011, at 3 PM. The novel tells of the complicated, interconnected lives of three working class sisters in small town Massachusetts.

Congratulations to Alice Bouvrie (Film & Video Fellow ’11), whose documentary Thy Will Be Done now has a distribution partnership with New Day Films. The film will be appearing at Heart of England International Film Festival in the UK, September 7-18, 2011. The film, an excerpt of which won the artist an 2011 Artist Fellowship, will also be screening at the North Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Shreveport, LA on September 17 (12:30 PM) and September 20, 2011 (5:30 PM, followed by a panel discussion). Next month, along with a screening at the International Film Festival Australasia in Australia, the film will be shown at Lesley University‘s Marran Theater in Cambridge on October 12, 2011, at 7 PM.

Sarah Braunstein‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04) novel The Sweet Relief of Missing Children was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.

John Cameron‘s (Crafts Fellow ’11) work is included in New Hampshire Furniture Masters 2011. The annual auction is on September 10, 2011, at the Currier Museum of Art in NH.

Cheryl Clark (Poetry Finalist ’10) will read her poetry on Saturday, September 24, 3 PM, at Outpost 186 in Inman Square, Cambridge, as part of the Unaffiliated Reading Series.

Shawn Cody‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’07) new music theater work The Water Dream will have a staged reading as part of Shakespeare & Company’s Studio Festival of New Plays. The performance features Broadway veteran Anthony Rapp and takes place Monday, September 5, 2011 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. Read about the event in Playbill.

Rebecca Doughty (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo show of new paintings, called Nearly Nots, at The Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown. The show runs September 2-21, 2011, with a reception on Friday, September 2, 7-10 PM.

Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ’06, Drawing Fellow ’00) will have an exhibition titled Floragenis at the Rice Polak Gallery in Provincetown from September 1 to September 15, 2011. Opening reception, with the artist, Friday, September 2, 2011 at 7 PM. An interview with Vico Fabbris on his Floragenis exhibition at the Rice Polak Gallery will appear in the Provincetown Banner on Thursday, September 1, 2011, written by art historian and art critic Susan Rand Brown.

Long time organizer of poetry and interdisciplinary programs in Massachusetts, Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) has created a brand new organization, The Temp Series Project, to advocate and promote writing and art in the Commonwealth. Based in culture-rich Lowell, MA, The Temp Series Project will create interdisciplinary events, develop commissions, and host special showcases that highlight Massachusetts artists and promote their appreciation. Projects in the works include a temporary reading series, pocket poetry festival, and temporary public art. For more information, join The Temp Series Project on Facebook. The Temp Series Project was recently approved for fiscal sponsorship by Fractured Atlas.

Brian Knep (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11) is showing Healing 2 as part of the group show Building Expectation: Past and Present Visions of the Architectural Future at Brown University in Providence, RI. The show runs at the David Winton Bell Gallery September 3-November 6, 2011, with an opening reception and curatorial talk on Friday, September 9, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Jesse Kreitzer (Film & Video Finalist ’11) has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for his independent feature film, The Wake. The film, which was recently selected as a finalist for the 2012 Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab, is the story of a grief-ridden social worker who cares for a dying woman in secrecy from his wife and two children.

Dawn Lane (Choreography Fellow ’10) will premiere a new work of dance, one potato, two potato, at the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow on September 2, 2011 (8 PM) and September 3, 2 PM and 8 PM. The work draws on aspects of Irish culture & history (i.e. knitting, the famine and Irish dance) to explore perceptions of excess, wastefulness, having enough, or nothing. Dawn’s MCC Fellowship, as well as a Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Creative Development Residency, helped pave the way for the new work. One potato, two potato is presented in cooperation with Jacob’s Pillow Community Dance Programs and Community Access to the Arts. Read Dawn’s post about the development of one potato, two potato, on ArtSake.

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) is among the artists with work in Lift Off: Earthlings and the Great Beyond at the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University in NJ. The exhibition is in the Main Gallery September 1, 2011-January 5, 2012, with an opening reception and catalog launch Thursday, September 15, 5-7 PM. Follow Scott’s new blog for more info on his upcoming solo show at the University Gallery at UMass Lowell, Astronaut: Paintings by Scott Listfield. That show will run November 7–December 2, 2011, artist talk & reception November 8, 3-5 PM. Finally, Scott is featured in a recently released book documenting the great Crazy 4 Cult art shows at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.

Christian McEwen‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’11) new book World Enough and Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down will be published by Bauhan Publising this month. The book reflects on how slowing down the pace of one’s life can have profound benefits, including on creativity.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has two solo shows in Massachusetts, this month: Musical Storms is on exhibit at the Cushing-Martin Gallery at Stonehill College in Easton from September 22-October 31, 2011, with an opening reception October 5, 6-7:30 PM. Another solo show, Changing Waters, is on exhibit at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown September 30-November 30, 2011.

Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo exhibit, Mopang: Recent Paintings on view at Lohin Geduld Gallery in NYC, from September 7 through October 8, 2011, with an opening reception September 8, 5–7 PM. A catalog with essay by Jonathan Franzen (who, incidentally, won our Artist Fellowship in 1986!) accompanies the exhibit.

Congratulations to Marlo Poras (Film & Video Fellow ’05), whose film-in-progress The Mosuo Sisters received a Chicken & Egg Pictures Liberty Grant.

Eric Henry Sanders‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) play Reservoir is being remounted at Theater 89 in Berlin (translated title: Haseks Heimkehr), following a successful production there in May. There was one performance in August, and upcoming performances September 9, 10, 16, and 17, 2011.

Tara Sellios (Photography Fellow ’11) is preparing for a solo show called Lessons of Impermanence at The New England School of Art & Design, this November 2011.

Peter Snoad‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) short play My Name is Art was staged at Artists Exchange in Cranston, RI, August 19-28 as part of their Black Box Theatre’s annual one-act festival.

Julia Story‘s (Poetry Finalist ’10) poetry was recently featured in TriQuarterly literary journal.

Steve Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ’11, ’05) currently has a piece in Night Vision, an exhibition on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City through September 16, 2011.

Frank Ward (Photography Fellow ’11) gave two presentations in Central Asia, in August, first presenting his work in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, followed by a lecture in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Jeff Warmouth (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’05) has a solo exhibition at the SHOW Gallery and Performance Space in Staten Island, NY. The show, called SuperJeffuBurgerMarket, runs September 10-October, 29, 2011, with an opening reception Saturday, September 10, 5-8 PM.

Ellen Wineberg (Painting Finalist ’04) has work in two MA exhibitions this months: she has four pieces in 24 Solo Shows at Bromfield Gallery in Boston, August 31-October 1 (opening reception Sept. 9, 6-8:30 PM). She’s also part of a five-person show, Exquisite Corpse at Deerfield Academy. The show, with work ranging from minimal to real, runs September 22-November 17 (opening reception Sunday, Oct. 2, 2-5), at the school’s Russell Gallery.

Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show at Sanford Smith Fine Art in Great Barrington, running through October 13, 2011.

Past Fellows Notes
Aug. 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
Apr. 2011
Mar. 2011
Feb. 2011
Jan. 2011

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: Painting by Vico Fabbris, from the FLORAGENIS series; paintings by Rebecca Doughty, from the NEARLY NOTS series; Michael Hoerman’s digital rendering of Storehouse No. 1, a video installation proposed by The Temp Series Project in Lowell; cover art for Christian McEwen’s WORLD ENOUGH & TIME (Bauhan Publishing, 2011); Frank Ward, #3 (2009), Giclee print, 22X33 in.

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We’re excited to announce that the Massachusetts Cultural Council 2012 Artist Fellowships guidelines are now available. The Artist Fellowships are unrestricted, anonymously judged, competitive grants in recognition of artistic excellence.

There are two deadlines per fiscal year, divided by discipline, and applications are now being accepted in Drawing, Painting, and Traditional Arts. Deadline: October 7, 2011.

Beginning December 15, 2011, MCC will accept applications in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry. Deadline: January 30, 2012.

Who should apply? Generative Massachusetts artists who meet eligibility requirements (see guidelines) are encouraged to apply. Read our tips on applying for an MCC Artist Fellowship.

We know artists work in ways that are not always easily categorized. If you have any questions where your work might best fit in the program, don’t hesitate to ask us.

Read full program guidelines, eligibility requirements, and application instructions.

Image: Luke O’Sullivan, SUITCASE (100,000 DOLLARS) (2009), screenprint on wood, 18x13x11 in.

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New American Paintings, a periodical that serves as a juried exhibition-in-print of some of the most exciting work in painting today, is accepting applications to its Northeast Competition. Massachusetts artists are encouraged to apply – deadline in August 31, 2011.

Publication in New American Paintings has served as a key step in the careers of many talented artists, including past MCC awardees Laura Chasman, Anne Neely, Evelyn Rydz, Naoe Suzuki, and Helena Wurzel.

This year’s juror is Dina Deitsch, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art for the deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum, Lincoln, MA. On the NAP blog, Editor-at-Large Evan Garza asked what Deitsch was most looking forward to in the Northeast Competition review process:

Deitsch: Seeing new work! It’s funny, I’ve always thought of myself as more of a time-based media type – video and all – but I have to say, there is nothing quite like looking at a painting. I think that it’s probably the least forgiving of mediums and therefore it either works or doesn’t – almost viscerally.

Read the full interview.

The program accepts four images of two-dimensional work, including a broad definition of “painting” (see the FAQs for the type of work that can be submitted). There is a $50 application fee.

Learn more about the Northeast Competition.

Images: Laura Chasman, NICHOLAS (2008), gouache on illustration board, 12×11 in; Helena Wurzel, TEA FOR ONE WITH LUCINDA WILLIAMS (2009), Acrylic Paint and Paper Collage, 22×30 in; Anne Neely, SURPRISE (2009) Oil on linen, 45×60 in (photo by Clements/Howcroft).

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