ArtSake

Vincent Sferrazza, a self-taught artist who lives and works in Boston, has an exhibit of his drawings and paintings at The New England College Gallery.

Vincent creates his portraits from from life. However, he’ll also employ the use of sketches, drawings, and occasionally photographs. Each paintings will go through a remarkable metamorphosis as his brushmarks emerge into distinctive portraits.

Of late, says Sferrazza, “I have been trying to incorporate these unintentional figures or landscapes, hoping for at least a resolution worth saving if not the elusive finished product.”

Paintings and Drawings by Vincent Sferrazza is on exhibit at the New England College Gallery through March 5, 2010. Gallery hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Weekends are by appointment.

The Gallery is located on Main Street in Henniker, New Hampshire, adjacent to the Colleges Administration Building. For more information, call The Gallery at 603-428-2329. Admission is free.

Vincent has been represented by Nielsen Gallery for 14 years. To contact Vincent Sferrazza directly, email at vincentsf@comcast.net.

Image credit: All paintings and drawings by Vincent Sferrazza.

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Torpedo Factory Art Center Visiting Artist Program invites emerging/experienced artists to apply for one, two, or three-month residencies between June 1 and August 31, 2010. The TFAC (Alexandria VA), home to 140 artists working in 82 studios, is open to the public every day. Visiting Artists will be provided workspace and will be able to display/sell original artwork. For more information contact vap@torpedofactory.org
Deadline: Sunday, February 28, 2010

12th Annual International Juried Portrait Competition
The Portrait Society of America is hosting an international competition/exhibition showcasing portraiture and figurative works. The top 15 selected finalists will bring their original works to our annual conference, April 22-25, 2010, just outside Washington, DC for final judging. All media accepted. For more information contact Amanda Oliver at 877-772-4321 or amanda@portraitsociety.org
Deadline: Monday, March 1, 2010

Call to Photographers: The 16th Juried Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography. Juror: Dr. Jörg M. Colberg. All entries must be received between February 1, 2010 and March 31, 2010.
Go here for guidelines and application form. Deadline: March 31, 2010

Call to Artists: Seeing Double. A national, juried exhibition at the Attleboro Arts Museum. Open to all media, sizes and concepts that explore this dueling theme. Email entries will not be accepted.
Deadline: May 15, 2010 at 3pm.

Image credit: Sculpture by Amy Podmore, MCC 2003 Sculpture Finalist.

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Congratutions to Sand T on her 2009 New England Art Award victory as the People’s Choice for Best Standout Work by a Local Artist in a Group Show as organized by the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research. ArtSake recently caught up with artist Sand T and she has graciously agreed to let us take a peek in her studio and talk to us about her work.

The primary intention of this body of non-objective work is to create a simple visual experience utilizing the basic elements of dot, line, color, surface and light. I feel the pieces suggest concepts of time, concentration, and the meditative energies of motion. The reductive aesthetic in my work is an overlapping of decidedly contrary visual elements: fluidity vs. structural, opacity vs. transparency, and formalistic vs. introspective.

I use a combination of UV resistant industrial epoxy resin, graphite, and paint on archival tempered clayboard or acrylic glass panels. The lines are drawn using graphite in varying weights and grades. Resin droplets are placed on the final surface one at a time. The placement of these two elements is sometimes improvised, sometimes planned until a “visual plane” emerges.

Though my process is time consuming and labor intensive, working with resin and acrylic glass provides a balance of structure and chaos that is fulfilling to me. It challenges my affinity for problem solving, material sensitivity, time management and organizational skills. Lighting plays an important role in the presentation of my work for it maximizes the viewing experience. When the viewer moves from one side to another of the artwork, they will see a sequence of reflections in the work. Clearly, there is more to be mined from the work when seen in person.

A huge challenge for viewers is to not touch the work. The physical properties of these tactile art objects fill viewers with an almost irresistible urge to touch them. The glistening, shining surfaces give them an appearance of being wet with beaded water.

Photographing this series of work is a challenge for me. The glossy surface and the intricate visual details innate in my art objects are hard to capture with any accuracy. The source, brightness and angle of the lighting changes the appearance of the object. These fine details are usually not noticeable or distinctive in any image reproductions. Since accurate reproduction is very difficult, I invite interested persons to view the original creations at my studio or art exhibit. What could be more satisfying than being able to appreciate a piece of original work of art up close in person?

So with that said, I would like to invite you to a reception to be held at Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery in Bristol Community College in Fall River on Thursday, March 11, 2010, from 6-8pm. This joint exhibition, Linear, is curated by Kathleen Hancock and features the works by three regional artists. Exhibition Dates: March 11 - April 7, 2010. For more info, please visit Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery’s Web site. To learn more about my work, please visit my Web site.

Image credit: All images courtesy of Sand T. Image captions: Image 1, 2 and 3: In progress… I am getting ready these panels for my show at Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery this March-April. Panels’ dimensions: 42×42x3.5”and 46×46 x3.5”. Image 4: Packing time. Image 5 and 6 : Work on display in my open storage in Malden, Massachusetts.

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The Danforth Museum of Art will be exhibiting Outspoken, an exhibition of gouache paintings by 2010 Massachusetts Cultural Council Painting Fellow Masako Kamiya. On view in the Museum’s main galleries from March 17-May 16, 2010, the exhibit will feature a survey of work from 2002 until the present time.

The works of Masako Kamiya have a lot to say for themselves. Columns of paint rise up, bristling with energy. Dots of color vibrate, forcing the eye to dive beneath the rough, uneven surface to consider painting in an entirely different way. “Pointillism is the first thing people think of when they see my work,” Kamiya admits, but she challenges viewers to go beyond scientific ideas about color theory or optical mixing of paint. “A point is very different from a dot,” she observes. “And my paintings start with dots.”

As a student, Kamiya tried “everything.” She enjoyed a long apprenticeship that explored the flexibility of oil to create landscapes, and loved the expressive works of Constable and Turner. However, she eventually realized that for her the most memorable element in those paintings was the sun or moon. Inexplicably attracted to the quality of that round shape, she found that her dot paintings evolved from there.

“Mark making is important,” says Kamiya. “Dots not only make individual marks, but also make a shape that is clear and simple.” Kamiya brought minimal dot shapes together to become a larger thing, and as her paintings evolved, her brushes got smaller and smaller. She came to rely upon the fast drying quality of gouache as a material that would support the accumulation of color. Gradually, she began using paint to construct miniature towers—variegated points of light that serve to record a painter’s experience of setting down the mark.

“Painting is like breathing,” she says. “It’s pretty much what I do everyday.” A self possessed and clear sighted vision allows her to admire—and remain dispassionately separate from—the scientific impulse that inspired Seurat; the ironic use of comic book imagery that defines Lichtenstein; or the pixilated break down of image in the work of Chuck Close. She can consider the dot paintings of the Australian Aborigines, or the neurotically obsessive dot works of fellow country woman Yayoi Kusama, and still know that she is coming from a different place. “My inspiration comes from the paint itself,” Kamiya observes. “It comes from the process of making the work, the kind of conversation I will have as each particular painting evolves.”

Since 2001, she has worked to build up surface through an accumulation of dots. Most recently she has left areas of space unpainted to reveal the natural grain of the wood panel in contrast to her painted dots. Her 2010 painting Trace, reveals her determination to sometimes “not paint.” The conversation that has always been so important “is now happening between the area painted and the area not painted. I now find that each mark is more intensely considered.”

In her examination of artist statements culled from four sequential volumes of New American Painting, linguist Karen Sullivan examined how artists use language as a metaphor to discuss their relationship to their work. Specifically citing Kamiya’s statement, and her use of the word “dialogue,” Sullivan observes that abstract artists tend to speak with their materials, while representational artists are more likely to speak to the viewers. Both kinds of artists use words such as language, vocabulary or conversation in writing about their work, but they use these words differently. Like other abstract artists, Masako Kamiya speaks about conversing with her material.

It’s the sincerity of this discourse that makes Kamiya unique. Spare and eloquent, her paintings are inviting—asking viewers to go beneath their rough surface to experience mark making activity for themselves. They contain none of the cold formalism found in some abstraction. Instead, Kamiya’s works are full of feeling. “I can be very emotional,” she admits. “But even within this suppressed language, I can be expressive.”

Japanese born Masako Kamiya grew up in Chiba, a suburb just south of Tokyo. As a child she loved art and enjoyed the intensity and number of art classes provided by her school. From an early age, she wanted to become a painter. After studying briefly in Canada, she came to the United States and received her BFA from the Montserrat College of Art in 1997, followed by an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1999. Soon after graduation, her work met with critical success, and has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, Art in America, and featured in two editions of New American Paintings. In 2004 she received a grant from the St. Botolph Foundation and in 2006 was recognized by the International Association of Art Critics for presenting the Best Gallery Show of an Emerging Artist in New England. She has twice received Massachusetts Cultural Council Painting Fellow Awards in 2006 and 2010, and currently lives and works in Boston. Teaching painting at the Montserrat College of Art, her alma mater, it is her goal “not to simply tell students what may make their art work better, but to demonstrate how to think and work as an artist.”

Outspoken: Masako Kamiya, 2002-2010
Danforth Museum of Art
Exhibition: March 17-May 16, 2010
Artist’s reception: Saturday, March 20, from 6-8 p.m.
Artist’s talk: March 17 at 12 noon and April 11 at 3 p.m.
Museum hours: Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm. Friday and Saturday 10 am to 5 pm.

A concurrent exhibit, Masako Kamiya: New Paintings, will be at Gallery NAGA, 67 Newbury Street, Boston, MA from April 3-May 1, 2010. THe opening reception is Friday, April 2 from 6-8 pm, and a gallery talk by Masako on Saturday, April 10 at 2 pm.

Image credit: Monologue, 2010, gouache/paper, 20 x 16 inches; Duet, 2010, gouache/paper, 20 x 16 inches; Primal, 2010, gouache/paper, 20 x 16 inches. All works courtesy of the artist and Gallery NAGA, Boston.

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One If By Land: Vermont Studio Center has received funding for 10 new Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship awards for visual artists based on quality of work and demonstrated financial need. The Vermont Studio Center is an international residency program open to all artists and writers. Year-round, VSC hosts 50 artists and writers per month, each of whom receives an individual studio, private room, and all meals. Residencies last from 2-12 weeks and provide uninterrupted time to work, a community of creative peers, and a beautiful village setting in northern Vermont. In addition, VSC’s program includes a roster of Visiting Artists and Writers (2 painters, 2 sculptors and 2 writers per month) who offer slide talks/readings and individual studio visits/conferences. Applications and information available here. Deadline: February 16, 2010

Two If By Sea: Dune Shack Residencies: Applications for residencies in the historic Fowler and C-Scape Dune Shacks in Provincetown for artists, writers, and the general public are available at The Provincetown Community Compact. One residency includes a $500 fellowship for a visual artist, and there are two funded weeks for writers. The general public is encouraged to apply for this unique, primitive experience in the Cape Cod National Seashore. Deadline: February 15, 2010

Three If By Virtual: National Arts Marketing Partnership Webinar: Marketing for the Independent Artist. How to Advance Your Career and Build Your Business. Discover the basics of marketing strategy based on those objectives and how to make it real. Presenter Deborah Obalil will address the difficult balance of making art while running a thriving small business. This webinar is free to professional members of Americans for the Arts. Americans for the Arts members should register here. Non members can learn more here. The webinar takes place on Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 2 p.m. EST

Image credit: John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768, Oil on canvas, 35″ x 28 1/2″, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Paul Revere House Web site details his midnight ride and Longfellow’s poem.

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In Three Stages, we ask Massachusetts artists to shed light on their art-making process by focusing on three stages in the creative life of one work of art.

Here, writer and editor Tara L. Masih takes us through the writing process that produced the upcoming story collection Where the Dog Star Never Glows (Press 53, 2010).

Tara will read from the collection at Brookline Booksmith on February 23.

INSPIRATION

Inspiration for the stories in my debut collection came from many places: snippets of conversation shared and overheard; newspaper stories; and personal experiences, especially during travel. I look for stories in landscapes, in unusual facts, in the absurd, in research. But there are those special, all-too-rare stories that find me. I wish I could control that process, that sudden, electric realization that I have a story to write, a character to listen to, and something of import to translate from nebulous stirrings into coherent language. Louisa May Alcott had a Glory Cloak that she would wear, sewn by her mother, to inspire her to finish writing her books. I don’t have props, just drive. But I love that image of the writer cloaked in “glory” as she created one of our most enduring classics.

In the end, necessity is the most important part of inspiration for me. What made each story good enough to appear in this book was a feeling that it was necessary in some way that I start writing it, finish it, polish it as best I could, and then send it out into the world.

CHALLENGE

Sylvia Plath said that the worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. Inspiration is the fun step, the addictive step I keep looking for. The challenge, once I start writing, is to keep self-doubt from interfering. It can be depressing when the brilliant passage I wrote in my half-sleep the night before turns out to be clichéd garbage the next morning. It can be a challenge to not get distracted with life to the point where inspiration turns into heavy responsibility or duty. The goal is to keep writing and finish the story even though it does now feel like duty and the early adrenaline rush is gone. Only in a few rare occurrences has inspiration carried me all the way through an instant first draft, even in the briefer flash form. More often than not, work intervenes, child and family interrupts, and I have to look to those obligations I’d rather ignore, like food and water and sleep!

I meet the challenge when I ignore self-doubt and give birth to that first complete draft, which in some cases is within hours, in other cases, years. But the challenge continues as I rework the draft, looking for all the ways I can show that “glint of light on broken glass,” as Chekhov advises.

COMPLETION

I know when a story is complete when I simply cannot think of a way to improve it anymore, or know I’m incapable of taking it to any other place than where it ends. Feedback is crucial, because it’s hard to be objective about your own work, particularly fiction. I find trust is the final step in completion - trusting you’ve learned to separate the bad advice from the good, trusting your publisher to make insightful edits, trusting your decision to make it public, and then trusting readers with your creation. It’s not an easy thing, putting your work out there. It’s a very naked feeling, in fact. In retrospect, I suppose challenge appears at every stage. It can’t be compartmentalized into one area of the creative process. It continues, on to the next project that inspires.

Read about Where the Dog Star Never Glows in NewPages, where it is listed as a new & noteworthy fiction book.

On Feb. 23, 6:30 PM, there will be a launch party for the collection at Brookline Booksmith. This will be a party to celebrate the book’s launch and the local writers/mentors/teachers who helped it come to fruition. Come for champagne, wine, juice, chocolate-covered strawberries, and more. Reading and Q&A, with a prize for best question. 279 Harvard St., Brookline, MA.

Tara L. Masih grew up in the small harbor town of Northport, situated along the Long Island Sound. Much of her time was spent on the beaches and in the woods, and as a result her writing is often set within the framework of nature and place. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have been published in numerous literary magazines, including Confrontation, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, New Millennium Writings, Red River Review, Night Train, and The Caribbean Writer, as well as in many anthologies. Several limited edition, illustrated chapbooks featuring her flash fiction have been published by The Feral Press. Awards for her work include first place in The Ledge Magazine’s fiction contest, a finalist fiction grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices, and Best of the Web nominations. Tara judges the intercultural essay prize for the annual Soul-Making Literary Contest, and is editor of the acclaimed Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (2009). C. W. Post College presented her with the Lou P. Bunce Creative Writing Award upon graduation, and Emerson College, where she received her MA in Writing and Publishing, awarded her with a Bookbuilders of Boston Scholarship. Tara now works as a freelance book editor in Andover, Massachusetts.

Images (top to bottom): author photo, Tara L. Masih; quote from the story “The Burnings;” quote from the story “Delight;” quote from the story “The Guide, the Tourist, and the Animal Doctor;” quote from the story “Bird Man;” cover image from Tara L. Masih’s story collection WHERE THE DOG STAR NEVER GLOWS (Press 53, 2010).

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ArSake has been thinking a lot about the economy lately and how artists navigate their current economic realities. Artist Tabitha Vevers’ monetary policy is to take this subject straight on through her painting.

Tabitha Vevers: Value Added

Artist’s Statement:
With so much talk about the ups and downs of the economy, I began to wonder if I could take matters into my own hands, adding value to US currency by painting on it. In what quickly became addictive, I began painting on singles, and eventually worked my way through twos, fives, and tens, all the way to one hundred dollar bills. In Sally Hemings, the imagined eye of Jefferson’s lover gazes out from a two-dollar bill. In the Nest Egg paintings, broken eggshells and gold leaf echo the oval shape that once framed the portraits of US statesmen. These paintings are, in a sense, collaborations with the various Treasury Secretaries, such as Hank Paulson and Larry Summers, whose signatures adorn the currency. The work raises issues about art and commerce: is a painting on a $100 bill worth more than one on a $5 bill? Is the value of an art object in the artist’s work or the paper it is painted on? Is the currency worth more or less now that it can no longer be spent?

By purchasing this work, the collector becomes part of the Value Added series itself by establishing that the value of a work of art is greater than the materials used to create it. It is my hope that viewers will encourage their congressmen to support the Artist-Museum Partnership Act, which “amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work, rather than just the costs of the materials, when they make charitable contributions.” http://museums-now.blogspot.com/2009/04/advocate-let-artists-get-tax-deductions.html

Eden Series + Value Added by Tabitha Vevers, as well as work by Rama Rejman and Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz is currently on display at the Art Institute of Boston Gallery at University Hall, (Lesley University/Porter Exchange Building), 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA.
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 11 from 6-8pm
Exhibition dates: February 4 – March 6, 2010
Gallery Hours: Tues + Wed 12-5pm, Thurs 3-8pm, Fri + Sat 12-5pm

It’s All About the Hamiltons: The 2nd Artists’ Roundtable, sponsored by ARTmorpheus/BCA, will will take place on Wednesday, February 10, from 5:30 to 7:30pm in the Cyclorama, at the Boston Center for the Arts.

These free of charge roundtables provide artists with the opportunity to talk about their professional needs and exchange resources. In addition, each month features a guest presenter. Their co-sponsor for this month’s Roundtable is the Massachusetts Society of CPAs and Susan Dupuis, an income tax consultant and an attorney who will answer your recordkeeping and tax questions.

This roundtable follows their two-session Basic Finance for Artists workshop, which will conclude on Monday, Feb 8. There is no pre-requisite attendance or knowledge for attending the Roundtables. The only thing they request is that if you plan to attend on Feb 10th, please RSVP to beer@artmorpheus.org to ensure adequate seating and consider bringing an edible item to share.

It’s All About the Washingtons: If you’re interested in further honing your business finance knowledge, you may also be interested in registering for and attending Business Finance and Accounting Basics, at the Copley Square main branch of the Boston Public Library on March 23, from 6-8pm. There is no charge for this program. For more information, contact the Boston Regional Office & Minority Business Center at 617-287-7750 or register online.

Image credit: Tabitha Vevers’ VALUE ADDED: Watching II (after Hank Paulson) © 2009 oil on US currency

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For more on Yanik’s work, be sure to visit his Web site.

Image credit: on left, Private Enterprise (2007), Oil on wood construction, 44″ x 33″ x 2 3/4″ On right, Viable Option (2007),
Oil on wood construction, 34″ x 16″ x 2.5″

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Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) invites anyone interested in contemporary art and culture to apply to Conversations about Curating, a free program focused on the critical and practical issues at stake when putting together an exhibition. The first part of the program consists of a series of four lectures/discussions delivered by well-established curators, as well as a roundtable discussion on marketing, budgeting, and producing an exhibition, and a networking session. The application process is via email only. There is no fee to apply. To apply, please submit a concise exhibition outline (250 words or less, no images) and your CV with detailed contact information to millsgallery@bcaonline.org.
Deadline: Applications must be received before February 10, 2010.

Samuell Day Gallery is looking for artists and craftspersons for the 2010 season. Please send pictures to c_samuell@hotmail.com or come by the gallery with work samples between 10 am - 5 pm, Wednesday - Saturday at 4030 Route 6A, Cummaquid.
Deadline: All submissions must be in by March 1.

Call to Artists: LA GALERÍA at Villa Victoria Center for the Arts in Boston ’s South End and Essex Art Center in Lawrence, MA are pleased to announce a Call to Artists for their collaborative juried exhibition project, Exchange, to be mounted simultaneously in each art center in the Fall of 2010. Designed to unite diverse communities of artists and audiences, Exchange encourages visual artists working in innumerable mediums to approach the concept of exchange in just as many ways. Go here for guidelines.
Deadline: March 15, 2010

The Sturgis Library has exhibition space available. Visit online for exhibits and displays and for an application form. 3090 Main Street, Barnstable. For more information call 508-362-8448.

Central Productions has announced their annual open call for submissions to the 9th Annual Boston Cinema Census (BCC) hosted by the Brattle Theatre. The BCC-curated annual showcase of work by local emerging filmmakers, students, professionals, struggling artists, and film enthusiasts. Go here for more information, entry guidelines and forms.
Deadline: February 10, 2010

Image credit: Date: 11.12.1966, Photograph of Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., pilot of the Gemini 12 space flight, performs extravehicular activity (EVA) during the second day of the four day mission in space. ID: S66-62939
Credit: NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC)

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Adam Lampton, (2007 MCC Photography Finalist) has some of his work being shown in and around Boston.

Nothing Serious Can Happen Here
A solo exhibition featuring a selection of work from Macao will be on view at
Carroll and Sons, 450 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA
Feb 23 - March 27
Opening reception on Friday, March 5, 5:30 - 7:30pm

St. Botolph Club
Emerging Artist Grant group exhibition
199 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA
Jan. 19 - Feb. 21
Open to the public on Wednesdays

City of Dreams
A solo exhibition featuring different work from Macao
Montserrat College of Art
Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery
23 Essex St., Beverly, MA
Feb. 2 - 27
Opening reception Thursday, Feb., 4 6 - 8pm

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