Previous Exhibitions
Phragments & Pheathers
Joel Tro and Jeff Butler
May 16 to August 2, 2010
What's in a name? Plenty, if the title of the Westboro Gallery's newest exhibition is any indication. Phragments & Pheathers the brainchild of artists Joel Tro and Jeff Butler, is a must-see exhibition like no other. Tro uses "phragments" of found objects and scraps of woods and metals to create his captivating three-dimensional assemblages, while Butler masterfully transforms wood and other materials into his detailed "pheathered" bird sculptures and other unique pieces.
The exhibit will be on display from May 16 through August 2, 2010. An opening reception for the show will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 16th, in the gallery, just off the rotary at 8 W. Main St. The reception is open to the public and light refreshments will be served. Artwork by the 2010 Therese M. Bacharz Award winner also will be on display at the gallery.
While both artists frequently work in wood, each expresses himself in a different and unique way, often through the addition of other mediums, such as brass, steel and other metals and plastics.
Inspiration for Mr. Butler's pieces is typically drawn from one of two sources. "Sometimes I have simply seen a bird in a pose or scene that appeals to me just as it would to a photographer or painter. Other times I find a limb or split piece of wood and know that it's the head, neck and body of a heron or the leg and foot [ with all its toes ] of a Jacana. Once it was the root of a sapling, obviously the entire foot of a bird of prey. Just which bird of prey was arbitrary, size was the only limitation." Extraordinary detail and craftsmanship can be found in pieces such as "Blackburnian Warbler" (basswood, brass, acrylic) and Yellow Crowned Night Heron” (pine, applewood, acrylic).
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Jeff Butler has been with the Westboro Gallery since 2002, and has served as the gallery's Facilities Director since 2006. Before that, he was a founding member of Redwing Gallery in Worcester. His work has been featured in the National Decoy Show in New York as well as the Ward Foundation World Championship Carving Competition in Maryland. Butler's wood carvings were depicted in "Championship Carving," the illustrated text of wildfowl art by Tricia Veasey and Tom Johnson.
Butler and Tro seem to share a similar bold sense of vision. In discussing the vision behind his technique, Tro says, "I enjoy discovering time-worn scrap materials rich with traces of earlier uses and transforming them without changing them." Many of Tro's pieces reflect his love of art deco and Native American design, as evidenced by his "Dream Catcher" wood assemblage and also the standout metal assemblage, "Metallica."
Joel Tro received his BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and also holds a degree from the New York School of Interior Design. He began his art career as a freelance designer, and went on to work for Golding Industries in Manhattan. He later became the Design Director for Leshner Corporation in New York City, where he managed his own studio and organized and scheduled designs in both original art and production across the United States and Europe.
Tro's work has been exhibited in many juried shows and galleries across New England, including the Northboro Artists' Guild, the Danforth Museum in Framingham, and Allure Gallery in Westboro, and Greenville, New York. Tro has been active with the Westboro Gallery since 2006, and currently serves as Display Director for the Board of Directors. He is also a member of the Cultural Arts Alliance in Hopkinton.
Drawing the Light
Dave Kaphammer
March 7 to June 2, 2010
On Sunday, March 7th, 2010, The Westboro Gallery will celebrate the opening of its latest show, Drawing the Light, by pastel artist Dave Kaphammer. An opening reception will be held from 2-5pm at the gallery's satellite space at Tatnuck Bookseller and Café, 18 Lyman Street in Westboro. The reception is open to the public and light refreshments will be served. The exhibit will be on display at Tatnuck Bookseller from March 7 through June 2, 2010.
Mr. Kaphammer's portfolio covers a breadth of subjects—from spectacular New England scenes such as the verdant hillsides of Pomfret, Connecticut and the storm-churned water of Casco Bay in Maine—to the quiet calm of Institute Park in Worcester.
The artist's paintings also span all seasons, and he is equally adept at capturing the rich, vibrant hues of a brisk fall day and the bitter cold of a gently trodden snowfall, as evidenced by “Autumn on the Pond” and “Red Path at Twilight”. Other works reflect the time Dave Kaphammer spent out west; “Foothills Color”, for instance, captures perfectly the illusive interface between the mountains and plains in Colorado, while “High Mountain Shack” and “Hall Ranch Shadows” show the brilliant high country light and evergreen forests.
A resident of Westboro, Dave Kaphammer has been drawing all his life. His formal art education started at the Worcester Art Museum, where he studied still life, portrait, and figure drawing. He was finally drawn to pastel painting by Ella Delyanis, a well known pastel painter and teacher at the Museum. Pastels were a perfect medium to begin painting with color while maintaining the intimate feel of drawing. Working mainly from his own photographs, the artist explores the local landscape, looking for scenes to use as inspiration for paintings. He uses color and light to create an inviting depiction of a place that makes the viewer wish to step into the frame. Looking at the world with this idea in mind makes it more beautiful and interesting, and the artist hopes to bring that same feeling to the viewer and collector. According to the artist, “my idea is to see the magic and beauty in places and scenes that most people pass by without noticing, and bring it to life in pastel painting”. And through his unique use of color and pigment, Kaphammer's scenes—whether they are realistic portraitures or lush, green landscapes—do indeed seem to “come alive” and jump off the canvas, inviting the observer to linger for a moment and get lost in the scene.
Dave Kaphammer also has studied pastel painting with Gretchen Acharya in Boulder Colorado, and Jeanne Smith of Sudbury Massachusetts. He has had several successful solo shows at Booklovers' Gourmet in Webster Massachusetts. He has participated in juried shows at the Post Road Art Center in Marlborough where he recently won the People's Choice Award, and is currently a member of the Westboro Gallery. His art is currently exhibited at the Westboro Gallery and Tatnuck Booksellers in Westborough. To learn more about Dave Kaphammer and his art, visit http://www.davekaphammerart.com/index.php.
Life Journeys
Shari Fox
August 30 to November 14, 2009
On Sunday, August 30th, 2009, the Westboro Gallery will celebrate the opening of a new show entitled “Life Journeys,” featuring Shrewsbury artist Shari Fox. This open-to-the-public reception will be from 2:00 – 5:00 PM at the gallery's satellite space at Tatnuck Bookseller & Cafe, 18 Lyman Street in Westboro. The exhibit itself will run through November 14th.
As the title of the art exhibit suggests, the inspiration for Ms. Fox's work has been informed by her passage through different stages of her life. Earlier works were inspired by art from other cultures, strengthened by trips to Japan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. After getting married and having children, her artwork became more autobiographical.
“This exhibit follows my life over the past 14 years,” states Ms. Fox. “As I have traveled the world and come back to make a home and a family, my artwork has reflected this.”
The assemblage “Biological Clock,” for example, uses objects that allude to a desired shift in lifestyle Ms. Fox experienced in her early thirties. Maps symbolizing her global wanderings are juxtaposed with clock parts, birds' eggs, and a white picket fence, representing her desire to settle down. After getting married and having children we see a watercolor painting entitled “Late Talker,” which depicts her son at two years old under a magnifying glass, surrounded by tape measure and clocks. The piece expresses her worry that he was not yet talking.
As the subject matter of her work has evolved, so too has the media with which she chooses to create it. Always experimenting with innovative methods of self-expression, Ms. Fox has worked in media of all types and has a remarkable ability to successfully transition from one medium to the next with great facility. The show at Tatnuck Bookseller will include lithographs, monotypes, and encaustic work influenced by her travels, along with mixed media, assemblage, watercolor, and digital photography reflecting personal losses and gains, worries and hopes. “My artwork will be forever changing with my life,” she says.
Ms. Fox teaches art at Shrewsbury High School, where she has been for almost fifteen years, and holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Post-Baccalaureate degree in Studio Art from Brandeis University, as well as a Master of Arts in Teaching from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Wish You Were Here—Landscapes Near and Far
Nancy E. von Hone
February 7 to May 2, 2010
Looking for an escape from these cold, snowy New England days? Come to The Westboro Gallery's newest exhibition, Wish You Were Here—Landscapes Near and Far, and let artist Nancy E. von Hone whisk you to warm, sunny destinations through the latest pastel works in her Caribbean and Burgundian (France) region series.
The exhibit, which will be on display from February 7 through May 2, 2010, also will feature works by Ms. Von Hone from places far and wide, such as Morocco, Ireland, Mexico and Tibet as well as more local fare, including breathtaking landscapes of Wachusett Mountain and the fields of Sturbridge. An opening reception for the show will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7th, in the gallery, just off the rotary at 8 W. Main St. The reception is open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
As the title of the exhibit suggests, the inspiration for Ms. Von Hone's work has been heavily influenced by her passion for travel and the unique perspective that she applies to the sights and sounds she has encountered along the way. “I love to travel and am always on the lookout for fabulous views and places and spaces that pull me in and make me wonder, What's around that bend of the shoreline or curve of the waterway? What's over that dune or beyond that horizon?” Ms. von Hone says. “The world around us, if one pauses to look, is full of colors most people never notice, of shapes and spaces that nature puts together in the most remarkable ways. My challenge as an artist, and what makes the creative process so exciting for me, is to capture a glimpse of that world and present it in a way that brings the viewer a sense of peace, delight, wonder, or awareness.”
Ms. von Hone uses her own photographs as a starting point and reference. “I always have a camera with me, so the subjects of my paintings reflect my New England roots and love of travel to out-of-the-way places. Painting encourages me to see my surroundings with new eyes. It has made me an intentional, rather than casual, observer of the world. With Boylston as my home base, there is never a shortage of wonderful and interesting places to explore.”
In recent years Ms. von Hone has worked almost exclusively in pastels. “Most of my pastel paintings begin as rough sketches on a lightly sanded paper,” she says. “The painting develops through many layers of pastels to create the rich depth and strong sense of atmosphere in my pieces. The pure pigmented colors of pastels are a joy to work with.”
A graduate of the University of Rhode Island with a BA in Urban Affairs and of the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ms. von Hone is the administrator for an academic department at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Primarily a self-taught artist, Ms. von Hone explains, “Early tutoring by my father, and then several years of study with Worcester Art Museum instructors Ella Delyanis and Bill Griffiths have contributed to my artistic expression. I approach my art work as food for my soul and a refuge from the chaotic demands of everyday life. The sense of 'calm in the storm' that I feel while creating my paintings is the same sense that I hope my paintings bring to the viewer.”
An active member of The Westboro Gallery since 2001, Ms. von Hone also has exhibited in numerous regional juried exhibitions and group shows. Her solo shows include Quinsigamond Community College Gallery, University of Massachusetts Medical Center and SPAC Gallery in Shrewsbury. Affiliations include Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod and ARTSWorcester, where she has been on the board of directors since 1999 and now serves as board president. Her paintings are in many private collections.
New and Revived Works
Andy Volpe
August 14 to November 8, 2009
“New and Revived Works," by artist and living historian Andy Volpe, is the newest featured show at Westboro Gallery. The exhibit will open Friday, August 14, 2009, with an open-to-the-public artist's reception from 5:00 – 8:00 PM at the Westboro Gallery, 8 West Main Street, Westboro. The exhibit will be on view through November 8, 2009. In addition, on Sunday, August 16, 2009, 1:00 – 3:00 PM the artist will give a talk, "Medieval Art and Falconry," with special guest Julie Collier of Wingmasters and her live hawks and falcons, at the Westboro Gallery Satellite space in Tatnuck Bookseller, 15 Lyman Street, Westboro.
Andy Volpe's works on paper, including pencil drawings and Printmaking, reflect his varied and intense interests in history, wildlife and the process of making art. Historic sites, detailed pen and ink drawings of raptors and owls, linocut prints for bookplates, illustrations for stories and a drawing of full plate armor for the Higgins Armory Museum's "Age Of Armor" national traveling exhibitions catalog, are just a few of his artistic accomplishments.
Mr. Volpe says, “The title of this exhibit, New and Revived Works, has double meaning for me. It refers to new ideas and new works I am exploring and to works and projects that I shelved years ago and have recently decided to revive and finish. The other meaning is in reference to my passion for researching and reenacting history, 'reviving' it for new audiences.”
“I am now working to incorporate my artwork with my living history work, and part of this is embodied in my newest 'series', that of small ink drawings with watercolor of Medieval Falconers,” according to Mr. Volpe. The drawings were created, in part, to embellish his newest living history persona—that of a Medieval Artist (ca 1470's), a program he is developing for schools and colleges. The Medieval Artist program covers art media and techniques in use in the late medieval period into the renaissance (1430's – 1600's), and includes demonstrations of Silverpoint (drawing with silver on a prepared paper or wood panel) and pen ink drawing with a feather quill, two of the techniques of the period.
“I am looking to 'revive' some of the Old Master's techniques that have been forgotten in recent times,” said Mr. Volpe. “My new project now is to start building a series of new works using these medieval techniques, both as an exploration of them, but also to show how the Old Masters were making their art we are still able to see in museums today.”
Mr. Volpe holds a Bachelor's of Arts in Fine Arts, concentration in Drawing and Printmaking from Westfield State College (class of 2000). He has taken art lessons from Christine O'Brien of Southbridge, MA (l'atelier de Christine) and supplemented his Printmaking background with classes and open studios at Worcester Art Museum, working most notably with Randi LeSage and the late Tom Lewis.
A native of Plymouth MA, who grew up in Sturbridge, it was while working at Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester MA, that Mr. Volpe recognized the value of living history reenactments as a teaching tool and form of artistic expression. He gives a regular series of programs at the museum in the personas of a Roman Legionary and a Medieval Soldier. He also visits schools and colleges giving these programs/presentations. Additional information about his living history presentations can be found on his website www.andyvolpe.com.
In conjunction with the “New and Revived Works” exhibit, Andy Volpe will present a special program "Medieval Art and Falconry" on Sunday, Aug. 16 from 1-3 at Tatnuck Booksellers. He will be joined by Julie Collier of Wingmasters who will bring live Falcons and Hawks to help illustrate the art of Falconry, considered one of the oldest sports and hunting techniques in human history.
Photographic Expressions
Bill Lewis
May 31 to August 21, 2009
“In the water, up close with humpback whales, off the coast of the Dominican Republic,” is how Bill Lewis describes his most memorable photography experience. Photographic Expressions — Landscape, Seascape & Wildlife is the newest exhibit at the Westboro Gallery's satellite gallery at Tatnuck Book Seller. An open-to-the-public reception will be held Sunday May 31, 2009, from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm at Tatnuck Book Seller & Café, 19 Lyman Street, Westboro, MA. The exhibition will run through August 21, 2009.
Photographic Expressions is a collection of 30 photographs taken by Whitinsville, MA, based Freelance Photographer Bill Lewis during his travels, both near and far. His images convey the color, beauty and uniqueness of the many subjects. Mr. Lewis has travelled extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Caribbean and the Far East capturing many photographic images along the way. Some of his major interests are landscapes, seascapes, wildlife and marine mammals, all of which are reflected in this exhibit. Mr. Lewis already is planning a new trip to the Gulf of St. Lawrence to photograph Blue Whales.
Mr. Lewis became interested in photography in 1948 while working in an after school job in Cambridge, MA, where he was born and raised. After graduating from Cambridge's Rindge Technical High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in both Korea and Vietnam before retiring from the service. His interest in photography remained with Mr. Lewis during his military career. While in the service he obtained his first professional camera and began photographing anything and everything around him.
After retiring from the military, Mr. Lewis began his formal training in photography attending courses at Worcester State College, Santa Fe Workshops and Adobe Photoshop Workshops, and began his new career as a professional photographer. His greatest photographic influences include the works of Gordon Parks, Lou Jones and Frans Lanting.
Clayscapes — In Platters & Vessels
Carol Mecagni
May 8 to August 3, 2009
A badly broken wrist could have been the end of a career for a potter, but for Carol Mecagni it proved to be a transformational moment for her work. “Clayscapes,” her Westboro Gallery exhibit of platters and vessels, is a celebration of her new direction in forming vessels from clay. An open-to-the-public artists' reception will be held from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, 2009 at the Westboro Gallery, 8 W. Main St, Westboro. The show will run through August 3, 2009.
Unable to continue with the strain and muscle action required of working in her usual style of throwing on the potter's wheel, Ms. Mecagni started experimenting with other techniques for working with clay. By making coil, slab, and pinch pots and then draping, molding and pressing textural items into the surface of the wet clay, she was able to make platters of varying sizes and shapes. The resulting works represent an exciting new direction in technique, but like Ms. Mecagni's earlier work in ceramic they combine visual pleasure with usefulness.
“I love the process of making art in the medium of clay,” Ms. Mecagni says. “It gives me the freedom to make a three-dimensional 'canvas' of any size and shape and then decorate on that surface as I feel inspired. I also love the solitude I find working with my hands in the studio and discovering another layer of myself.”
Inspiration for her Clayscapes work is drawn from her observations of the natural world — from the ever changing forest near her home to the long stretches of ocean beach she frequently walks. Clay shapes, surface decoration and glazes mimic what she sees in her “vertical landscapes.” Ms. Mecagni says, “In this new work, I am looking down into the organic growth and rich layering that you find in a multilayered pond or color filled piles of beach stones.”
Ms. Mecagni, who began illustrating for her father's printing business while still a teenager, is a graduate of Mass College of Art with a BFA in painting and printmaking, and earned an MFA from SIU, School of Fine Arts with a major Painting and Drawing. A Hopkinton resident for over 30 years, she has taught many different forms of art in various public and private schools. After teaching at Hopkinton High School for 10 years, she retired in 2003 to devote her time to making art pots at the wheel and experimenting with glazes in her own clay studio.
In her career as an artist, Ms. Mecagni has been a printmaker and painter, illustrator, tapestry weaver, has affiliations with Primarily Potters, Fireworks, Craftworks, Women's art Forum, Hopkinton Cultural Arts Alliance, Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Potters Loft, and Nature's Gallery, as well as the Westboro Gallery. She continues to use watercolor as a sketchbook for her pottery designs, and spends most days in her studio making decorative utilitarian objects from clay and teaching pottery at Hopkinton's Senior Center.
Concurrently, Bianca Colangelo, the winner of the fourth annual Westboro Gallery Therese M. Bacharz Art Scholarship and 2009 graduate of Shrewsbury High School, will display her work at Westboro Gallery from May 8 - 22. Ms. Colangelo will be presented her award at the Opening Reception on May 8th. This award is presented to a deserving high school senior who plans further study in fine arts. Ms. Colangelo is still awaiting the rest of her college acceptance letters before making her final decision about where to study next year.
Recent Works of Barry Hanshaw
Barry Hanshaw
February 8 to April 27, 2009
Barry Hanshaw is no stranger to the central Massachusetts art scene having shown his work in exhibits at Assumption College, WPI, all of the UMassMemorial Campuses, and numerous galleries and art shows in the area. A prolific painter, creating landscape oil paintings rich with color, light and atmosphere, Dr. Hanshaw's recent works will be featured at the Westboro Gallery, on display from February 8 to April 27. An opening reception for the show will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, February 8, in the gallery, just off the rotary at 8 W. Main St, Westboro.
Dr. Hanshaw's paintings of brilliant sunsets, waves crashing against a rocky coastline, a quite backyard garden, or a vista of rolling hills and countryside are painterly, conveying both a passion for the place and a quiet restfulness. "I am a representational painter with an appreciation of the abstract. Composition and color in art determines what is good art, in my opinion," said Hanshaw. "I have chosen to work in oils primarily, but also paint in acrylics and pastels. Oil and acrylics are well suited to creating tonality, atmosphere and impressionistic images in nature. My recent works are all in oils."
An admirer of Claude Monet, Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth, Dr. Hanshaw draws on their influences in his interpretation and representation of the landscape. "Claude Monet is, in my opinion, the modern master of color and composition. His genius was in his remarkable ability to extract meaningful design from an apparently casual scene. He found, with instantaneous insight, the natural rhythms of nature, one of the intriguing and enduring satisfactions in painting the landscape."
A retired pediatrician, scientific researcher in viruses that effect newborns, author of two books on viral diseases, dean emeritus and professor of pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a college health services physician at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dr. Hanshaw has indulged in his passion for painting for less than twenty years. Since 1988 he has taken courses at the Worcester Art Museum with many instructors, but has been particularly influenced by Ella Delyanis and William Griffith. He has studied with Massachusetts artist Joseph McGurl, and California master pastelist, Gil Dellinger. Dr. Hanshaw believes them to be among the best of living representational artists. "I guess this would classify me as an unreconstructed classicist with an impressionist bent," said Hanshaw.
Barry Hanshaw lives in Boylston, Massachusetts, with his wife, Marian Christine Hanshaw, a pianist. They have five adult children, all of whom share an interest in art and music, and three grandchildren.
10th Anniversary Restrospective Exhibit
Former and Present Gallery Members
November 23 to December 12, 2008
Ten years after first opening its doors, the Westboro Gallery, a Not-for-profit Artists' Cooperative, is still celebrating the arts. On November 23rd, 2008, the gallery's 10th Anniversary Retrospective exhibit will open with works by former and present gallery members.
Westboro Gallery founder, Terre Bacharz said, "In 1988 I decided to refocus back to my own artwork and thought it would be great to have a group of artists and a gallery to show our work. This very nice shop on Main Street was available for rent so I decided to take a risk and try to start an artists cooperative." The risk was worth it!
Since that initial group of 25 artists joined the gallery in 1988, nearly 100 local and regional artists have been members of Westboro Gallery. The 10th Anniversary Retrospective exhibit brings back 20 former members, including several from the original group of 25, to join the current 18 members of the gallery in an exhibit of artwork that celebrates the enduring role of art in our lives and community.
From paintings in oils, watercolor, acrylics and pastels, to pottery, photography, fabric art and found object collages, the gallery features an eclectic and ever changing collection of fine arts and crafts. "It's that diverse range of artistic styles and mediums available at the Westboro Gallery that has helped the gallery survive for these past 10 years," said gallery board of directors member, Nancy von Hone, a pastel artist and gallery member since 2001.
That same diversity appeals to artist members as well as to customers. "For most artists, our work involves solitude. Our association as an artists cooperative brings both social contact and sources of inspiration, techniques and materials just from being in contact with painters, potters, photographers, printmakers and fabric artists," said gallery member Jeff Butler, who carves realistic, as well as whimsical, birds from a variety of woods.
Opening Sunday, November 23, 2008, with an open-to-the-public artist's reception from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Westboro Gallery, The 10th Anniversary Retrospective exhibit will run from November 23rd through December 12th, concurrently with the Holiday Members' Show which will continue January 31, 2009.
Returning and current members expected to participate in the 10th Anniversary Retrospective include: Westboro residents Jeff Butler, Robin Fleming, I. Tink, Gloria Carter; Northboro residents Katia Pechonis, Jeanine Vitale; Shrewsbury residents Terre Bacharz, Jerry Callaghan, Pat Austin, Pauline Bergassi, Shari Fox, Joel Tro, Phil McGourty; Hopkinton residents Michael Alfano, Joan Sprachman, Carol Mecagni; Worcester residents Elliot William Salloway, Mary Dewey, Eloa Jane; Boylston residents Barry Hanshaw, Nancy von Hone; Grafton residents Andy Volpe, Fay Morrison; Janet LaPoint of Holden; William Lewis of Whitinsville; Catherine Haynes of Franklin; Mary Carolyn Webber of Milford; Marcia Haskell Anzalone of Upton; Cindy-lee Fedelli of Sterling; Tom Savageau of Oxford; jo Russavage of Easthampton; Jean Pascoe of Cambridge; Nina Kussow of Beverly. Also Nina Jordan, Ed Turner, Nancy Bailey, and Tomi Higgings.
It's All About Hue
Mary Dewey
November 16 to February 8, 2009
It's All About Hue, is a union of impression and reality through color filled landscapes, and the familiar objects of still life in paintings brilliantly created by Worcester artist Mary Dewey.
Mary Dewey's still life paintings use the universal language of the familiar, emphasizing light to create a still moment in time, allowing the viewer a personal interpretation. Her still lifes are restful and contemplative.
In contrast, her impressionistic landscapes are a vibrant, colorful exploration of our natural environment as memory. Infused with an idea of reality, the pieces bring a broader recognition to each landscape. The viewer freely relates to the painting as a depiction of memory with an appreciation of vast form, space, and time.
Fascinated with the arts since a young age, Mary Dewey earned a degree in art from Emmanuel College and a master's degree from Lesley University. She believes that "all people are potential creative artists," and says "this belief has been continually confirmed by my art students throughout my teaching career." A Worcester resident, Ms. Dewey now teaches visual art at St. Peter-Marian Jr-Sr High School in Worcester. Mary is an active presenter for the Massachusetts Art Education Association, and is on the steering committee for Art All-State in MA.
Ms. Dewey's own artistic works are in a variety of mediums including oil, acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink, woodcut and mono-printing. She is an active artist/member of The Westboro Gallery and ARTS Worcester. Her work has been awarded six one-person shows in Boston and Worcester, and has been accepted into numerous juried shows throughout New England. Newly juried exhibits at The Cultural Arts Alliance of Hopkinton garnered awards of "Best in Show", and "Honorable Mention" in painting. In Cape Cod Art Association's juried "Art New England" show, Mary was awarded second place in the painting category.
Other recent exhibits have been with The Concord Art Association, ARTS Worcester, The Westboro Gallery, The Lesley University Porter Square Gallery of Cambridge, The Fitchburg Art Museum's Regional Exhibition, The Worcester Public Library, The Goddard House Exhibits, and The Cultural Alliance of Hopkinton. Many of her works are in public and private collections throughout the United States. Mary's artwork is presently on exhibit at the Westboro Gallery, The Cape Cod Art Association, and the Zullo Gallery of Medfield.
Paper Thoughts—The Revelation of Colors
Eloa Jane
September 7 to November 10, 2008
"Paper Thoughts—The Revelation of Colors," reflects Ms. Jane's soul journey as she met the challenges and excitement of her move to the United States in 2005, and her artistic evolution since then. "I believe that art made to express the soul perpetuates a moment and I wanted to keep new memories of my new beginning," said Ms. Jane.
"After the first months of excitement about my new life in America, I started facing the challenges of establishing new residency in a different country, a new way of life, dealing with the language barrier, and I had a hard time."
Everything was new. In Brazil Ms. Jane painted with oils. Here she works in pen and ink, acrylic paint, recycled paper and uses different techniques including quilling, origami, papier-mache and collage.
Ms. Jane's earliest works shown in this exhibit are paired works of "Light and Shadow," black—the absence of colors, and white—the plentitude of colors. "Hope" and "Excitement" are reflected in the addition of colors, and three dimensionality, in the work that followed with titles such as "There is Hope in the Red Door!," "Dance with the Colors," "Explosion," "The Revelation of Colors," and "Creation." Other works on display include vessels, cards and other items of woven recycled paper.
As an architect for over 20 years, first in her native Brazil, and now in Worcester, Massachusetts, Ms. Jane has seen a large number of her projects built in Brazil and in Africa. Her artwork, too, shows the strong influence from the architectural techniques she has used in her design projects.
¡Life's Good Times!
I. Tink
August 2 to November 7, 2008
The opening reception will be a benefit for Mr. Tink's non-profit, ¡Life's Good Times!, that has the mission to provide PhotoArt and other art pieces and performance art in nursing homes, psychiatric facilities and other places where people have limited access to the wonderful sights most of us see every day. "My style of photography is highly compatible with my experiences as a psychologist, and I have a very large repertoire of images that would be interesting and calming to people who are shut in."
I. Tink, in consideration of his many friends who will be in attendance at the Opening, will offer his PhotoArt at a 40% discount for purchases made at the reception. In addition, he is giving free DVDs, for personal use, of 200 of his favorite PhotoArt images to the first 300 people in attendance at the August 2nd event. Given the large number of the artist's personal friends and associates who will be attending, it is anticipated that the DVDs will go quickly. I. Tink will talk about his PhotoArt at 6:00 PM at the Reception.
A photographer for almost 50 years, I. Tink has taken over a half a million photographs since he won his first camera in a contest at the age of seven. He now has well over 100 PhotoArt Collections including Finding Faces; People Shooting People; Talking Hands; Up in Clouds; Antigua, Guatemala; Making Waves; Dancers in Motion; Lowell, City of Factories; Alhambra, Spain; Sturbridge Village; Flowers and Art of Versailles; Samaná Beaches; Flowers of the Dominican Republic; and Flowers of Guatemala.
For the "¡Life's Good Times!" exhibition, I. Tink's PhotoArt Show will emphasize Boston; Lowell; the California Coast; Paris; The Dominican Republic; Antigua, Guatemala; The Vatican in Rome; and Madrid among other locales. Themes will carry the viewer from the most basic essentials of life—rocks and cobblestones, buildings and bridges, flowers and birds, and the sea and the sky—to how we harness the elements around us to build great civilizations.
"Most exciting to me are those shots that result from adversity or mistakes – weather that just won't cooperate or the flash misfiring," Mr. Tink says. The plan to photograph one subject results in something else entirely. "I want my photography to challenge the viewer, to make the viewer take a second look, to do some thinking about how I got that picture, or the way I play with light."
I. Tink's photographic work includes an extensive collection of photographs taken in travels around the world, weddings and social events, advertising and insurance photography. "I learned to combine my interest in art and photography with each of my jobs," and he has done so throughout his careers in sales, psychology and health systems administration, and consulting.
Two years ago, after surviving a heart attack on a flight from Boston to Florida, Mr. Tink decided to refocus his life on his photography and how to share it with others. He decided to use ¡Life's Good Times!, as a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing art into the lives of people who have limited mobility, who are shut-in, incarcerated or resident in nursing homes and hospitals.
Mr. Tink is a consultant in health mental health and criminal justice systems, computer installations, grant writing, change management and human resources. A member of The Westboro Gallery for two years, Mr. Tink currently serves on the Gallery's Board of Directors.
Third Annual Westboro Gallery Therese M. Bacharz Art Scholarship
Conor Nolan
June 12 to June 19, 2008
Conor Nolan, the winner of the third annual Westboro Gallery Therese M. Bacharz Art Scholarship, will display his work in the gallery from June 12 – 19. This scholarship is announced and presented with a cash award at graduation to a deserving senior at Westborough High School who plans further study in fine arts. "I feel extremely privileged to be showing my work this early in my art career and hope that people enjoy it and ultimately take something away from it. This is my passion, I hope it shows," said Mr. Nolan.
Short Takes — Explorations in Small Format
Group Exhibition
June 12 to August 24, 2008
The latest show to open at The Westboro Gallery should prove the adage that bigger is not always better.
Short Takes — Explorations in Small Format, a summer group exhibition by members of the decade-old artists' cooperative, will feature miniature works of art, none of them larger than 9 by 12 inches, in a variety of mediums, both 2 and 3 dimensional. It will run from June 12 to Aug. 24, 2008.
Reflections & Illuminations: Stained Glass & Kiln Formed Art Glass by Kathy Blackmer
Kathy Blackmer
May 4 to July 29, 2008
Reflections & Illuminations: Stained Glass & Kiln Formed Art Glass by Kathy Blackmer, is the title of a featured exhibition of glass art at The Westboro Gallery's Tatnuck Bookseller Satellite Gallery, which will be on display from May 4, 2008, through July 29, 2008. An opening reception for the show will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 2, at Tatnuck Bookseller, 18 Lyman St., Westboro.
“Creating and being able to teach art glass techniques are my passions,” Ms. Blackmer says. She began teaching copper foil stained glass methods in 1989 and added kiln formed glass techniques in 1995. She teaches at her studio, and other glass studios, both in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
Ms Blackmer's creations include mirrors, small windows and other decorative glass pieces, but she says, “Lamps are my absolute favorite! They are a creative challenge because they need to look good both lit and unlit. I use one-of-a-kind custom bases for my lamps so they are each unique in both the glass work and in the design of the base.”
Much of her design inspiration comes from the work of two of her favorite artists, Bradford Washburn and Georgia O'Keeffe, and from the landscapes and colors she enjoys on family trips to national parks, lakes, the mountains and the ocean. “I do my best design work while hiking!” she says. Floral motifs, organic forms and mission style geometrics and colors are all part of her design repertoire.
Ms. Blackmer says she began working in glass when, while looking for a fun diversion after five years of night school earning a degree in Business Technology while working full time, she took a Worcester Night Life class in stained glass techniques and a new career interest was born. After 13 years with the Norton Company in Worcester, she left to focus on her glasswork and her young children. She opened 'OurGlass Stained Glass Studio' out of her home in Boylston in 1989 and moved the studio to Grafton in 2004.
A member of The Westboro Gallery for two years, Ms. Blackmer currently serves on the gallery's board of directors as director of new membership. She is a member of the International Guild of Glass Artists (NE Chapter) and served on their board of directors for four years. Ms. Blackmer has exhibited in numerous fine arts and crafts shows including the Paradise City Arts Festival and the Festival of Crafts at Worcester Center for Crafts. Her studio, OurGlass Stained Glass Studio, is located on Rt. 140 in North Grafton, MA.
PASTELANDSCAPES: Paintings by Nancy E. von Hone
Nancy E. von Hone
November 15 to February 4, 2008
PASTELANDSCAPES: Paintings by Nancy E. von Hone, is the title of a featured exhibition of pastels at The Westboro Gallery, which will be on display from Nov. 15, 2007, through Feb. 4, 2007. An opening reception for the show will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, in the gallery, just off the rotary at 8 W. Main St. The exhibit will include new works from the artist's “Tibet: The Top of the World” series and her “Sunsets” series.
“I am drawn to landscapes that convey a strong sense of space and movement,” Ms. von Hone says. “Within that space I'm particularly interested in the interplay of color and light in a landscape. Color and light, space and movement are the cornerstones of the composition and execution of my paintings and provide both the harmony and the tension in them.”
While landscapes are her favorites, the Boylston resident occasionally chooses other subjects. “I work from my own photographs, striving to make my paintings bring out what the camera cannot. I always have a camera at hand, so the subjects of my paintings reflect my New England roots and love of travel to out-of-the-way places. Painting encourages me to see my surroundings with new eyes,” she says. “It has made me an intentional, rather than casual, observer, and I am constantly on the lookout for inspiration for my paintings from the world around me.”
Ms. von Hone works in both pastels and watercolors, but in recent years has focused her attention to pastels. “Most of my pastel paintings begin as rough sketches on a lightly sanded paper,” she says. “The painting develops through many layers of pastels to create the rich depth and strong sense of atmosphere in my pieces. The pure pigmented colors of pastels are a joy to work with.“
A graduate of the University of Rhode Island with a BA in Urban Affairs and of the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ms. Von Hone is the administrator for an academic department at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Primarily a self-taught artist, Ms. Von Hone explains, “Early tutoring by my father, and then several years of study with Worcester Art Museum instructors Ella Delyanis and Bill Griffiths, have contributed to my artistic expression. I approach my art work as food for my soul — a refuge from the chaotic demands of everyday life. The sense of 'calm in the storm' that I feel while creating my paintings is the same sense that I hope my paintings bring to the viewer.”
An active member of The Westboro Gallery for six years, Ms. von Hone also has exhibited in numerous regional juried exhibitions and group shows. Her solo shows include Quinsigamond Community College Gallery, University of Massachusetts Medical Center and SPAC Gallery in Shrewsbury. Affiliations include Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod and ARTSWorcester, where she has sat on the board of directors since 1999. Her paintings are in many private collections.
Pottery, Tapestry, Watercolor: Three Mediums, One Artist
Carol Mecagni
October 28 to January 1, 2008
Pottery, Tapestry, Watercolor: Three Mediums, One Artist, works by Carol Mecagni, will be featured in The Westboro Gallery's large satellite exhibition space at Tatnuck Bookseller & Café through Jan. 31, 2008. An opening reception will be held 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday Oct. 28, along with a pottery demonstration by Ms. Mecagni. Works by other gallery members will be on display concurrently.
Ms. Mecagni is a visual artist who started out painting with watercolors, has been a free-lance tapestry weaver, an illustrator of children's books, and who currently concentrates on her interest in pottery. In whatever the medium of choice, she uses the same visual language: the beauty of the natural world – flowers, leaves, hills, rocks — all with an emphasis on texture, pattern and shape.
The Hopkinton resident, who has taught art in various public and private schools, always has maintained a studio, first at the Fort Point area, then at the Boston Center for the Arts. After teaching at Hopkinton High School for 10 years, she retired in 2003 to devote her time to hand-building and throwing pots at the wheel and experimenting with glazes in her own clay studio. She continues to use watercolor as a sketchbook for her pottery designs, but spends most days at the potter's wheel making decorative utilitarian objects.
“I love the process of making art in the medium of clay,” she says. “It gives me the freedom to make a three-dimensional 'canvas' of any size and shape and then decorate on that surface as I feel inspired. I also love the solitude I find working with my hands in the studio and discovering another layer of myself.”
As a teen-ager, the Quincy-born artist-artisan often helped her printer father with quick sketches needed for print jobs. While attending the Massachusetts College of Art where she trained as a painter, she worked as a sign painter and window decorator. She later earned an MFA at Southern Illinois University in painting and printmaking and has 30 post-master's credits.
She has exhibited widely in Central Massachusetts and in diverse settings, from DeCordova Museum , Corning (NY) Museum of Glass and Maison de la Culture in Montreal , to Boston Symphony Hall Gallery, Famous Barr in Chicago and Flint Institute of Art in Michigan. Besides her membership at The Westboro Gallery, her work is at Craftworks, Northboro; Potter's Loft, Boylston; Nature's Gallery, Brimfield; and in many private collections.
Inconsolable - Reflections on Life, Love and Loss
joAnne Russavage
September 5 to November 11, 2007
“This work is a bit of a departure from my other recent work in that it's more autobiographical than I usually exhibit,” says Russavage, who works in textiles and fibers with related embellishments such as beads, embroidery and found objects to create wall quilts and other arts pieces. “During the making of the work for this show, I and some of my close relatives had some serious health issues. Then I lost both my last surviving grandparent and my mother in the space of six weeks early this spring, so that changed the way the show came together.
“While it is still influenced by my travels and my world view, the show is a bit more introspective than I'd planned. My subjects became more poignant, my images hopefully more emotive. Still, having seen art exhibitions this past year with work generated by survivors of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, and by people affected by war, poverty, environmental concerns and other losses, I suppose inconsolable is a common theme.
“And really,” she adds, “artists have a long history of taking as their subjects those things that have them broken-hearted or grief-stricken – whether they are singing about their lost love or depicting the devastation of natural or manmade disaster.”
Russavage, a former Westboro resident who recently moved to Easthampton, comes from a traditional quilting background and continues creating those works as well. She is a Pennsylvania State University graduate, trained as a horticulturalist and floral designer, has earned an MBA, and runs her own interior plant and floral design business.
jo lived for 10 years in Australia, working both “in town” in various consultant roles for horticulture and business, and “out bush” in aboriginal communities. Describing herself as a very tactile person, which is expressed in her works' layered textiles, raw fabric edges and exposed knots, Russavage has gone a step further: Aboriginal women in the Australian bush taught her how to collect, prepare and dye fibers with natural dyes, and jo continues to dye her own fabrics with plant extracts from anil (indigo) to zinnia flowers.
“Through my travels I've come to really appreciate indigenous arts from all over the world,” she says. “There's such an elegant simplicity to much of it, and so much meaning and energy in each piece. I've tried to convey more with less in my work as a result.”
Woodicisms and Impossiburdities
Joel Tro and Jeff Butler
March 11 to May 13, 2007
Wood is the shared theme and medium used in entirely different ways by two artists featured in a new show opening at The Westboro Gallery on Sunday, March 11.
Joel Tro, who creates hanging wood assemblages out of found objects, and Jeff Butler, whose carvings release the birds he sees within found wood, blur the lines between their more traditional roles in the gallery as wall and three-dimensional artist respectively and unleash their imaginations to present a joint exhibition of works playfully titled “Woodicisms & Impossiburdities.”
Their works will be featured in the spring exhibition, to run March. 11 through May 13, at the gallery, situated just off the rotary at 8 W. Main St. An opening reception is planned for 2 to 5 p.m., Sunday, March 11, with a snow date of March 18.
Tro's assemblages are often whimsical and off-the-wall, literally if not figuratively. He and his wife Ellen, a potter, troll flea markets because, he notes, “found objects are the best way to recycle and create unusual compositions. I enjoy discovering time-worn scrap materials — wood, metals, etc. — rich with traces of earlier uses, and transforming them without changing them.”
His intelligent and witty themes, originating from cleverly juxtaposed unrelated pieces, have been reflected in his part of the exhibition's title, “Woodicisms.”
A New York City native now living in Shrewsbury, Tro earned a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology, having studied also at the New York School of Interior Design and the Art Students League, and was a freelance designer for many years, as well as design director for Leshner Corporation. In that position he worked closely with designers Joseph Abboud, Alexander Julian, Eileen West, Dan River Mills and Collier Campbell in London. Retiring in 2001, he renewed his interest in three-dimensional art and a fascination with art deco design. Tro's logo design was chosen to adorn the Shrewbury Public Library book bag.
He has exhibited at the Trofeo Gallery in Seattle; in Greenville, NY, and with the Northboro Artists' Guild. Tro was juried in to The Westboro Gallery last May.
Rather than the accurately detailed, life-size and sensitively rendered stand-alone pieces he is known for, this time Butler offers fantasy birds bordering on the absurd, some suspended in air and mobile with the currents.
“My style varies depending on what I'm trying to portray, whether the piece will be painted or have a natural finish, and where the initial inspiration has come from — whether it's a limb or root of a tree trunk I've found, a particular bird I've observed — or imagined — or simply a shape I've seen which could be leaves, clouds, paper, anything.
“The majority of this current series is of imaginary flying creatures, impossible and-or absurd, thus the name Impossiburdities,” Butler said, explaining the made-up word that defines his part of the joint exhibition.
A Westboro native, current resident and member of the gallery for about five years, Butler attended the Rhode Island School of Design and has been involved in carpentry, cabinet and furniture making, store display, and fabrications of dioramas, museum and zoo exhibits. While many would describe him as a wood sculptor, he calls himself a bird carver. Self taught as such, Butler has won awards at the National Decoy Show on Long Island; the International Decoy Show in Clayton, NY; and the World Championship Bird Carving Exhibition in Ocean City, MD. He has also exhibited at the Fitchburg Art Museum, Depot Square Gallery in Lexington and the Worcester Center for Crafts.
Both artists' works are represented in private collections from coast to coast. Their show will run concurrently with the spring exhibition of new works by the other gallery members.
Elemental
All-Members
June 3 to August 20, 2007
Works interpreting the elements wind, water, earth, fire, metal and wood will be the central theme of the annual all-members' show at The Westboro Gallery.
The Westboro Gallery's second annual Therese M. Bacharz Art Scholorship
June 7 to June 17, 2007
The summer schedule will also feature a display of works June 7-17 by the recipient of The Westboro Gallery's second annual Therese M. Bacharz Art Scholarship, which is awarded along with a small stipend to a deserving graduating senior at the Westboro High School commencement who plans to continue studies in the fine arts.
Pastels and Portraiture
Eugene Epstein
December 2 to February 25, 2007
Born and raised in The Bronx, NY, Eugene Epstein early on developed interests in photography, pastel painting, woodworking and the natural sciences. All but the last were put on hold for a half century upon his entering college and eventually becoming an ophthalmologist.
His medical practice in Worcester spanned 36 years. “After retirement,'' Dr. Epstein says, “all my former pursuits were passionately rekindled.”
The results were not long in coming. He earned the distinction of Copley Master in black and white photography by The Copley Society for having won three major awards in the venerable Boston art association's juried exhibitions. “And when I was not in the darkroom, I could be found in my workshop producing furniture and reproductions of Sam Maloof rockers and chairs.”
Pastel painting followed. At the Worcester Art Museum, he studied with well known instructors such as Bill Griffiths and Kat O'Connor, and he discovered portraiture which, he says, was refined locally with the help of Charlotte Wharton and with other prominent portraitists/pastel painters: Daniel Greene, Paul Leveille, Connie Pratt and Rosalie Nadeau.
While acknowledging that he has had a number of commissions, Epstein, a Worcester resident, admits, “I am still searching for a ‘style', as no one style seems to fit all subjects.”
Dr. Epstein's show will run concurrently with the winter exhibition of new works by the other gallery members.
Mind, Body, Heart
Sculptures by Michael Alfano
September 10 to November 12, 2006
Hopkinton resident and award-winning sculptor Michael Alfano will feature his work at The Westboro Gallery starting September 10th in an exhibit portraying three important themes in his art: “Mind, Body, Heart”.
“My signature style is surrealistic, based on the figure, with philosophical and spiritual tones playing off of the form, especially the face. My main intentions are to elicit thought as well as emotion from the viewer, while providing aesthetic pleasure.”
Alfano typically sculpts in clay, then casts the final versions in either bronze, a copper blend, resin, or hydrostone. By using materials other than bronze, many of the sculptures are surprisingly affordable for high quality fine art.
In addition to Westboro, Alfano's sculptures are shown at other galleries primarily in the Northeast, from Provincetown to the Berkshires, and from Newbury Street to Fifth Avenue. He regularly wins awards in his native New York and the Boston area. In 2005, he earned the Cambridge Art Association Artist of the Year Award for Sculpture, juried by Boston Globe veteran art critic, Edgar Driscoll, for his Torsos of Positive and Negative Space that will be shown in “Mind, Body, Heart”.
Also on display will be a bust of a young girl, Paulina, an example of Alfano's commissioned portrait work. Some of the notable figures he's sculpted include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Anwar Sadat and the poet Walt Whitman. Last October, at a private gala in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's famous Temple of Dendur, Alfano unveiled his portrait of Arnie Snider III, a surprise retirement gift from Deerfield Management, the hedge fund group Snider founded. He is currently working on full-size sculptures of Mother Clelia Merloni, the foundress of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and Daniel Weadock, the former President of Sheraton Corporation for the International, a private golf club in Bolton Weadock owned.
Alfano's commissions also include public monuments. Most are too large to exhibit in the gallery, but the show will include a maquette of his September 11th memorial located in Norfolk, MA and Clifton NJ. He will also show a fragment of a Children's Holocaust Monument he recently sculpted for Temple Emanuel in Great Neck, NY.
“Mind, Body, Heart” will include one monumental size work— Peace Offering—a functional bench that features a dove conveying the hope for peace and whose tail transforms into a hawk, representing hostility. The dove's wings become large open hands that welcome two people to sit down and discuss their differences. Peace Offering is one of a number of works that express Alfano's Soka Gakkai Buddhist practice, with the intention of contributing to peace and culture.
Alfano studied figure sculpting from the model at the Art Students League in New York City and has been working professionally for over a dozen years. His influences include Dali, Michelangelo, and Rodin. “Art offers a special way for me to create change in the world. For the most part, art is outside the daily concerns of life. As an artist, I can communicate about topics that are not part of routine conversations. My art speaks to universal elements and emotions of life and entices viewers to consider an issue differently. Throughout history, in literature, drama, and visual mediums, art has transformed abstract ideals into demonstrable improvements in the world. That is why I sculpt.”
Summer All-Member's Show
All gallery members
June 8 to August 20, 2006
This show will run concurrently with the special exhibits.
Therese M. Bacharz Scholarship Award
Rebecca Jablon, Westboro High School senior
June 8 to June 18, 2006
Rebecca is the first recipient of The Westboro Gallery's Therese M. Bacharz Scholarship Award, named for the gallery's founder.
The Master-Faux Show
Gallery artists
June 22 to August 20, 2006
A collection of playful copies and reinterpretations of great works of art.
Art in Bloom
Gallery artists
July 13 to July 16, 2006
Several artworks in the Summer All-Members' Show at the gallery will provide the inspiration for floral interpretations created by garden club members using mostly fresh blooms from their own summer gardens. Participating with arrangements are Carla Wright, Sharon Drellich, Dorothy Flynn, Leigh Emery and Linda Maloy, all of Westboro.
This is the second time the 8-year-old not-for-profit gallery and the Westborough Garden Club, founded in 1932, have joined together for such an event. They both share a community spirit; sponsor special events; express their creativity in various ways, one in long-lasting and permanent two-dimensional and three-dimensional media, and the other in ephemeral and seasonal plant material; and each funds a scholarship to a graduating local high school student. Throughout the town of Westboro, the gallery's artists and artisans also show their works at several satellite locations, while the garden club funds, designs, plants and maintains 11 community plantings.
Fire and Water
Carol Mecagni and Robin Fleming
March 12 to May 21, 2006
Fire and Water, a joint exhibition of pottery by Carol Mecagni and watercolors by Robin Fleming, will be the new featured show at The Westboro Gallery March 12 through May 21. An opening reception will be held from 2 to 5 p.m., Sunday, March 12, at the gallery, situated just off the rotary at 8 West Main St.
Whether in clay or on paper, the works of both exhibitors present a shared love of nature. Each enjoys hiking and the great outdoors and, while the potter always carries a watercolor set wherever she travels, the watercolorist’s passion is working with her hands to turn her garden into a living sculpture.
Carol Mecagni’s inspiration for this exhibit stems from nature in winter when plant life is contained or growing inside closed forms. Plant forms, potted floral motifs, textures from tree bark or the bands of muted color in an overcast landscape can be seen. These ideas are transposed onto pots by using various techniques such as scrafffito, stamping, or Japanese brushwork drawn into and onto the clay. Pots are fired in the kiln up to four times to achieve the result she seeks.
“I love the process of making art in the medium of clay,” she says. “It gives me the freedom to make a three-dimensional ‘canvas’ of any size and shape and then decorate on that surface as I feel inspired. I also love the solitude I find working with my hands in the studio and discovering another layer of myself.”
As a teen-ager, the Quincy-born artist-artisan often helped her printer father with quick sketches needed for print jobs. While attending the Massachusetts College of Art, she worked as a sign painter and window decorator. She later earned an MFA at Southern Illinois University in painting and printmaking and has 30 post-master’s credits from Worcester Center for Crafts. A Hopkinton resident, Ms. Mecagni has worked as a tapestry weaver and illustrator, and continues to paint in watercolors. She taught art at Hopkinton High School for 10 years, retiring in 2003 to devote her time to pottery. She opened her own clay studio to hand-build and to throw pots at her wheel and experiment with glazes.
She has exhibited widely in Central Massachusetts and in perse settings, from DeCordova Museum, Corning (NY) Museum of Glass and Maison de la Culture in Montreal, to Boston Symphony Hall Gallery, Famous Barr in Chicago and Flint Institute of Art in Michigan. Besides The Westboro Gallery, her work is at Craftworks, Northboro; Potter’s Loft, Boylston; and Nature’s Gallery, Brimfield. She is represented in many private collections.
Robin Fleming, of Westboro, gains inspiration from working in her own garden: “I am deeply influenced by nature and love curving, flowing line and form,” she says. “My art work tends to spring from nature’s shapes, colors, movement and growth.”
Born in Princeton, IL, and growing up in the Washington, DC area and Annapolis, MD, Ms. Fleming studied art and linguistics at the University of Maryland, graduating with a BA in English. She continued learning, taking publication design and art classes at the Montserrat College of Art, Worcester Art Museum and Worcester Center for Crafts, while raising her three children.
She has worked as a graphic artist, publication designer and illustrator, having illustrated herbal and holiday cards as well as a home health-care textbook. Since 2000, upon earning her teaching certificate from Framingham State College, she has been an art educator in the Framingham Public Schools. In 2005 she earned her Master of Art Education degree from Framingham State. In her spare time, the artist enjoys singing and gardening.
Recently, in the process of creating a water garden and patio at her home, she became fascinated with landscape design. She loved working with the various manmade materials, boulders, and garden plantings chosen for their colors, shapes and textures. “It is a delight to find that, even as I grow and change with my garden, my garden is influenced by my experiences with art as well,” she says. “Hopefully, we are both benefiting.”
Barry Hanshaw
Recent Paintings in Oil and Pastel
November 27, 2005 - February 12, 2006
Opening reception: Sunday, November 27, 2005, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
View photos from Barry's opening reception.
Gentle landscapes with soft lighting dominate the art of Dr. Hanshaw, who maintains studios in his Boylston home and at his summer address on Lake Morey, in Fairlee, VT.
Initially working solely in pastel, recently he took up painting in oil. “Pastel, a drawing and a painting medium, has malleability, spontaneity, and richness of color, ideal qualities for painterly landscapes,” he says. “Oil permits a comparable and perhaps a greater versatility, especially with respect to range of values.”
Many of his works, when not painted plein-air, are created in the studio from memory. He is inspired by the skills of famed artists he admires, among them skies in J.M.W. Turner’s paintings and how waves crash against the rocks in Winslow Homer’s late Maine seascapes. Dr. Hanshaw notes, however, that his greatest influence historically was the impressionist Claude Monet’s mastery of composition as well as color and the nuances of changing light.
That’s not to say his contemporaries don’t count. “I have been particularly influenced by the work of Massachusetts artist Joseph McGurl,” he says. “He, more than any other living artist, has demonstrated to me the wonderful qualities of oil in executing fine detail, value range and nuances of color. Watching Joe execute a sky over a Cape Cod marsh was for me a life-changing experience,” he says of the artist with whom he took a particularly rewarding workshop. He also singles out Gil Dellinger, a California master pastelist whose interpretations of the Big Sur and of the Rocky Mountains Hanshaw describes as “breathtaking.”
Born and brought up in Scarsdale and, later White Plains, NY, Barry Hanshaw exhibited early artistic talent, but the challenge of biology won out. Creating art was essentially put on hold for several decades while he went through college at Syracuse University and medical school at State University of New York at Syracuse on scholarships, interned in Cincinnati, became a captain in the U.S. Air Force during a two-year stint in Japan, and finished his residency at University of Rochester Medical Center. Among his many subsequent academic appointments in an illustrious medical career were teaching at Harvard Medical School and becoming provost of University of Massachusetts Medical School.
During stolen moments, he was producing barely one or two paintings per decade, until 1988, when his wife Marian, a pianist on the music faculty at the College of the Holy Cross, suggested that the dean relieve stress and renew his artistic soul by taking courses at the Worcester Art Museum School. He did just that. For 11 years he studied with Ella Delyanis, Alexander Farqharson, William Griffiths and Charlotte Wharton. In those classes his creativity, bottled up by years of time constraints, was uncorked and became an unstoppable gusher; he started spilling out a painting a week. Before too long, he was exhibiting a growing body of work and taking additional workshops throughout New England.
These days, the father of five grown children is professor of pediatrics and dean emeritus at University of Massachusetts Medical School. Because it is hard to retire from what he loves to do, Dr. Hanshaw, at 76, continues to practice medicine part-time at the WPI Student Health Center, where he also teaches UMass resident pediatricians and internists. Incredibly, he manages to paint prolifically. Well over 200 of his paintings are in private and institutional collections. He has participated in 10 one- and two-person shows, most recently this summer at Tower Hill Botanical Garden, Boylston, and he has exhibited in juried exhibitions and a number of galleries. A member of The Westboro Gallery for five years, Dr. Hanshaw is affiliated with many art associations and is a corporator of the Worcester Art Museum.
“My wife says I’m obsessed by my art, and she’s right,” he said, smiling. “It is my passion.”
The Seventh Anniversary Members’ Show
June 2, 2004 - August 28, 2005
The Westboro Gallery is observing its seventh year as a cooperative. In celebration, the new summer show will present members’ work throughout the entire space. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 2, 2005, at the gallery, 8 West Main St., just off the rotary in downtown Westboro.
Artworks on display will include a variety of media, among them oil paintings, acrylics, watercolors, monotypes, multimedia pieces, woodcarvings and marble sculpture. Artisan works will include ceramics, jewelry, weavings, decorative tiles, and more.
Mary Harrington
Mary's Contrary Garden
March 5, 2004 - May 22, 2005
"Mary’s Contrary Garden," an exhibition of computer-enhanced photographs by Mary Harrington, will be the new featured show at The Westboro Gallery March 5 through May 22. An opening reception will be held at the gallery on March 5 at 4:00 – 7:30 p.m, with a snow date of March 12.
This exhibit, a gentle breath of spring air during a snowy winter, features evocative works created from photo images of flowers growing in the artist’s own garden, as well as that of her mother, an avid gardener. "The New England growing season is just too short, and I love capturing flowers at their peak bloom," she says.
The artistic process begins with a 35 mm Nikon camera fitted with a macro lens. "The macro lens is perfect for photographing flowers. It allows me to get in close, and renders beautiful detail," Ms. Harrington explains. "But I don’t want my artwork to look like a seed catalog," she adds, pointedly. "Using Adobe Photoshop I am able to use the vivid colors and textures of the blooms to create images that can be enjoyed all winter long."
She achieves engagingly unique effects by scanning her images into the computer program, manipulating and enhancing them, and finally, printing the works on art paper. Some pieces are created using both original photos and scans from old periodicals, post cards, vintage portraits, junkyard finds and attic treasures. She often uses Celtic knot designs as a framework for backgrounds created from her photographs. Her work is in a number of private collections.
Mary Harrington earned a B.S. cum laude in Media Communications from Framingham State College and has completed courses in art and design at the Worcester Art Museum. The former copy/photo editor, free-lance writer and magazine photographer was recipient, as a newspaper photographer, of a Massachusetts Press Association Best Spot News Photo award, as well as a Harte Hanks Honorable Mention for best feature photo in the children’s category.
Represented by The Westboro Gallery for the past year and a half, and also a member of Craftworks in Northboro, Ms. Harrington works full time as a communications director for a trade association, has two grown children, and lives in Westboro.
Gloria Carter
Explorations
November 28, 2004 - February 20, 2005
"Explorations," an exhibit of oil paintings by Gloria Carter, will be featured at The Westboro Gallery Nov. 28 through Feb. 20. An opening reception with the artist will be held at the gallery, 8 W. Main St., 3:00 - 6:30 p.m. Sunday Nov. 28 to coincide with the second annual Village Stroll, sponsored by The Westboro Downtown Business Association. A snow date for the reception is 4:00 - 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4.
The show's 20 works display the artist's progression from classical realism to what she terms a mosaic-like pointillism. Early training in oil painting was with renowned classical artist Robert Douglas Hunter of Boston and his influence—the softly blended edges and fidelity to local color—is evident in the show. Nevertheless, she notes, "I wrestle with an internal conflict. This technique is not emotionally accurate for me. It does not convey the surge of joy or excitement I feel when I spot a llama, chocolate ears cocked to distant sound, or a toddler, skin gleaming, at play on a beach. I need more color, pure color. Gradually, I am responding to this need in a style more akin to pointillism."
This is why the show is titled "Explorations." "I am still working on developing my own personal style," she explains. "So far, the mosaic-like effect has been most satisfying. A series of six fruit miniatures in this exhibit more closely resemble mosaics or stained glass windows and for me, this new style that is emerging is becoming more accurate." In addition, she has returned to her first love, oils, after painting in watercolors for many years.
Gloria Carter recalls growing up in the bucolic setting of her parents' farm in Cabot, Vermont, surrounded by animals, "pale blue mountains, majestic elms, fields of emerald grass, valleys filled with lush clover. I've been away from Vermont for 35 years, but these images and sounds still touch my heart—blue mountains speak to me in my dreams. Yet each day I am faced with the question, how am I to translate this emotional response and these exquisite images into paint on canvas? It is a process that has alternately perplexed, exhausted and exhilarated me all of my life."
Mrs. Carter earned a BA in psychology from Framingham State and a master's degree in counseling psychology from Assumption College, having chosen the field in order to have "a better grasp on the meaning of life and for personal enrichment." She studied drawing at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, oil painting at the Worcester Art Museum School, and took watercolor workshops in Rockport with Ferdinand Petrie, and in Kennebunkport, Maine, with Carl Schmalz. She also painted scores of commissioned pastel portraits of children. The artist and her husband have resided in Westboro for three decades, where she has raised four children and paints in her home studio as well as en plein air.
The artist has exhibited in many juried shows, among them the Fitchburg Art Museum Annual Regional Area Exhibition and the Arts Center at Southboro's "Group Show: Award Winning Artists." Among her several solo shows were those at the former Digital Equipment Corporation, The Davis Gallery in Sterling Millworks, Sterling, and the Westboro Public Library sponsored by the Arts Lottery Council.
Her works are in several corporate and public collections. The former Shawmut Worcester County Bank purchased a sizable collection of watercolors, as did the former Digital Equipment Corporation. In addition to The Westboro Gallery, Mrs. Carter is represented by Art Effects Gallery in Northboro.
Andy Volpe
Visions
September 11, 2004 - November 14, 2004
"Visions," an exhibit of prints and drawings by Andy Volpe, will be featured at The Westboro Gallery Sept. 11 through Nov. 14. An opening reception will be held Sept. 11 from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at the gallery. The artist will give an introductory talk at 5:30.
Influenced by masters such as Durer, Rembrandt, Homer, Escher and Gerald Wise, Volpe says he creates in what he describes as a "semi-realistic" style: "I try to employ character, personality and feeling into my work," he says. "I’m trying to show people that you can see ‘color’ in black and white. I find it more challenging and masterful to remove color from the object, break it down to basics, shapes, geometry, shading and gradation."
While the preferred medium for expressing this is graphite on paper, he is also a printmaker, doing etchings, engravings, linocuts and xylographs (wood engravings). "Occasionally I’ll work with lithography. I’ve worked in traditional stone, aluminum sheet, and the new polyester plate, a nontoxic technique."
The Grafton resident’s favorite subjects New England landscapes, ships and birds: "My interest in birds of prey began in childhood while growing up in Sturbridge, but it developed heavily during college," he says. One of the few non-biology majors at Westfield State to take a course on ornithology, Volpe graduated cum laude in 2000 with a degree in fine arts, and has volunteered at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine’s Wildlife Clinic for the past three years.
The award-winning artist’s work has been featured in a number of exhibitions, among them the Blackstone River Gallery in Woonsocket, RI, and the Arts Center of Southborough’s annual juried art show. He was involved in city art projects through the Westfield Community Development Corporation and, in Worcester, the Highland Artist Group and the Festival of Trees organized by the Junior League. In 2001 one of his works appeared in newspaper advertisements for art classes at the Worcester Art Museum, where he had taken printmaking and computer graphics classes and was a teacher’s assistant for its youth art classes and programs for area schools.
Volpe has given workshops on wildlife art at Lancaster Memorial Center Elementary School, a one-day class on Renaissance art for children at Higgins Armory Museum, and has taught summer courses in Southbridge at L’Atelier de Christine, the studio of Christine O’Brien, with whom he had studied privately for many years.
Currently employed as a silk screen printer at Jansson/Chase Printing in Milford, Volpe also volunteers at Higgins Armory Museum, providing research and public demonstrations on historical combat techniques and Roman legionary living history presentations.
Jean Pascoe
The Animate Vegetal
June 5, 2004 - August 22, 2004
WESTBORO—"The Animate Vegetal," an exhibit of paintings by Jean Pascoe, will be featured in a new show at The Westboro Gallery June 5 through Aug. 22. The opening reception will be held from 4 to 7:30 p.m. June 5 at the gallery, 8 W. Main St.
"My work explores the energy, presence, and animation I see in the natural world," the artist explains. "While I find myself increasingly interested in abstraction, much of my recent oil painting, such as the works in ‘The Animal Vegetal,’ is representational still life." Despite describing these works as "fairly conventionally realistic," she says the aim is to convey "something of a sense of mystery, sometimes exuberance, sometimes unease." Many of them investigate the notion that vegetables and other natural objects can be seen as having a kind of personality or consciousness.
The New York native, a part-time urgent-care physician in Southborough, grew up in Westchester County: "My parents were not artistic, per se, but they owned and ran a company that made Alvar Aalto’s furniture in this country, and their showroom also carried modern design, such as the jewelry of Alexander Calder."
After earning a B.A. in studio art at Smith College, she returned to New York, starting a career in magazine and book publishing, and concurrently studying printmaking with Seong Moy at the Art Students League. Gradually, however, medicine became a new focus: "I took all the pre-med science courses I hadn’t taken in … and went to med school at UConn (Farmington) 10 years after graduating from college."
A New York City internship followed. But art remained in the picture. While doing her residency in internal medicine at Providence’s Miriam Hospital, Dr. Pascoe took drawing classes at the Rhode Island School of Design. She later moved to the Boston area, working in urgent care before settling down to practice primary-care internal medicine in Southborough. Art has partnered with medicine ever since.
Her work has been shown in the Worcester District Medical Society Art Exhibit at UMass Memorial Medical Center – University Campus, and at the Groton Public Library. Juried shows include those at the Cambridge Art Association, the Danforth Museum in Framingham where she also had a solo exhibit in its museum school gallery, The Center for Arts in Natick, and the Arts Center at Southborough. Her paintings were hung in the "Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works" New Arts Program of Lehigh Valley and Berks, PA, and as part of "Mini Works on Paper" at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. Besides The Westboro Gallery, her affiliations include Round Room Gallery in Framingham, the Monotype Guild of New England and the Cambridge Art Association.
Dr. Pascoe also studied at the Danforth Museum School, Arlington Center for the Arts, Cambridge and Boston’s centers for Adult Education, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, to which she intends to return for a summer class in intaglio printmaking. "In the last year or so, I’ve rediscovered printmaking, mostly monotypes so far, but I’m starting to get back into ‘multiples’ methods." Not surprisingly, considering her profession, she adds, "I’m interested in hazards and safe use of art materials, about which there is considerable misinformation out there."