Essex Art Center: Galleries January

[Andre Leroux]

---

From: Cathy McLaurin [mailto:cathyesse...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 12:09 PM
Subject: Galleries January

Happy New Year from Essex Art Center!  This email contains two press releases: Main Gallery exhibition opening, "Animal Imagery" and Elizabeth A. Beland Gallery exhibition opening, "Wisdom, Inherited: a correspondence of women".

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Leslie Costello, Essex Art Center

978-685-2343

les...@essexartcenter.com

 

Animal Imagery

 

 

Exhibition dates:  January 12 – February 23, 2007

Opening reception: Friday, January 12, 5-7 pm with

 

The Main Gallery at Essex Art Center is pleased to present, in our newly renovated galleries, Animal Imagery.

 

Animal Imagery features work by six artists who are deeply connected to animals, which have inspired works, celebrating their glory and wonder.  Shane Crabtree will show horses, Shawn Kenney-bulls, Carolyn Letvin-sheep, Barbara Moody-goats, Cynthia Stroud-wild animals, and Helen Tory-ducks. 

 

Shane Crabtree, educated at Smith College, Haystack and the DeCordova Museum School (among others) has drawn horses all her life.  For Shane, horses symbolize freedom and power and have much to teach us human beings who have become so separated from nature.  Shane believes that we can be nurtured by responding to the souls of animals.

 

Shawn Kenney, trained at RISD with a career in commercial art, now devotes his time to painting and drawing.  The bull is a familiar symbol that he returns to again and again.  He feels the best images have the power to transport the viewer into another world.

 

Carolyn Letvin, schooled in Flemish old master techniques by the realist painter, Ted Fitzkee, at the York Academy of Arts, York, Pa, finds Jacob’s Sheep a captivating subject.  They offer a satisfying vehicle for exploring paints, texture, composition and color.

 

Barbara Moody, educated at Syracuse and Harvard is a professor at Montserrat College of Art. Her drawings portray animals in ambiguous situations; caught in peculiar circumstances. They seem to evaluate various options and escapes and use their primal instincts and intuition.  Will the goat address this situation with reason and intelligence or act impulsively and erratically?

 

Cynthia Stroud works in many mediums.  For Animal Imagery, she will show sculpture.  She was educated at the Maryland Institute College, of Art, Philadelphia College of Art, and Parsons School of Design, among others.  Cynthia is concerned that wild life is endangered and ecosystems are threatened. She is drawn by wild animal’s vitality and sheer energy, as well as its plight.  In her work, she responds to the quiet intensity of animals when stalking, and the choreography of their movements at play.

 

Helen Tory keeps sheep, ducks, chickens, a llama and a dog.  She cares deeply for the animals in her charge.  In her artist statement, she says, “I have a routine which usually includes spending time with them morning and evening. I sometimes surprise them in the barn during the day, when they don’t expect me. If I am lucky I can see them while they are still unaware of me when they behave in a different way from when humans are around.”  Helen has focused on her sheep, some of which she’s known for 15 years, in your art work.  She says, “From lambs I have seen them grow into healthy adults and now into increasingly bent and boney old age pensioners. I love them and love their individuality.”

The ducks are newcomers for Helen and she has only recently begun to include them in her work. “Instead of appealing as individuals, Runner Ducks appeal as a group. They think together, react and act together. They often appear attached to each other by invisible wires and move like wind-up toys. But, when you surprise them in the middle of the day, when they are unaware of you, while they stay together, they are not such groupies in behavior.”  It is her investigation of this unfamiliar lot, the Runner Ducks that is the focus of her work in Animal Imagery.

 

For further information about this exhibition or to receive high resolution digital images for publication, please contact Leslie Costello, les...@essexartcenter.com  or at 978-685-2343.

 

The Main Gallery is located on the first floor of Essex Art Center at 56 Island Street, Lawrence, MA.

 

Gallery hours:  M T TH F  10-6;  W 10-8:30  

Closed Jan 15 and Feb 19

 

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Cathy McLaurin, Essex Art Center

978-685-2343

cathyesse...@yahoo.com *  Please note new email contact address

 

Wisdom, Inherited: a correspondence of women

 

Exhibition dates:  January 12 – February 23, 2007

Opening reception: Friday, January 12, 5-7 pm with

 

The Elizabeth A. Beland Gallery at Essex Art Center is pleased to present, in our newly renovated galleries, Wisdom, Inherited: a correspondence of women, an installation by Joetta Maue and Megan Randlett.

 

Joetta Maue and Megan Randlett share a mutual interest in the restrictions that society has placed on women, and in the community that has grown from efforts to address those restrictions.  In their Wisdom, Inherited installation and related collection of correspondence, Maue and Randlett aim to celebrate the wisdom of women and the community that women create.  The installation will be a re-construction of a “red tent”, housing advice and stories collected from women of all generations, from all over the world. 

 

The red tent structure is based upon a tradition from biblical times in which women were separated from men during their menstruation cycle and childbirth.  This tent created a place for women to identify with one another.   As a result, and in most cases, for the first time, the women began to share their wisdom of love, life, motherhood, and midwifery, along with their other life experiences.  The walls of Joetta and Megan’s tent are covered with contributions collected from women through postal mail and through previous exhibitions of Wisdom, Inherited.  All women viewers are invited to share their own wisdom, by adding to the tent.  The contributions are varied, and include: stories, straightforward advice, favorite quotes, and art work - both humorous and serious.

 

Wisdom, Inherited is a celebration of community created by women.

 

Joetta Maue and Megan Randlett met as MFA candidates at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Joetta received her BFA from Ohio State University, Columbus, OH in 2000 and expects to receive her MFA in 2008.  Her work has been included in many group exhibitions throughout Massachusetts, Ohio, in Chicago, and, recently, at Artist Space in New York.  Megan received her BFA from University of Connecticut, Storrs in 2004 and expects to receive her MFA in 2008.  Her work has been included in group exhibitions in Connecticut, Brooklyn, Providence and at Columbia College in Missouri.

    

For further information about this exhibition or to receive high resolution digital images for publication, please contact Cathy McLaurin, cathyesse...@yahoo.com  or at 978-685-2343.

 

The Elizabeth A. Beland Gallery is located on the first floor of Essex Art Center at 56 Island Street, Lawrence, MA.

 

Gallery hours:  M T TH F  10-6;  W 10-8:30  

Closed Jan 15 and Feb 19

 

 

Cathy McLaurin
Special Projects and Elizabeth A. Beland Gallery Director

Essex Art Center
56 Island St.
Lawrence, MA 01840
cathyesse...@yahoo.com
www.essexartcenter.com
978-685-2343

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com