Category Archives: Art-Architecture

Mass College of Art and Design Thesis Show

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A friend with whom I worked on the Wendemuth Meadow project has been studying for a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Mass College of Art and Design for the past two years, and she’s almost done with her program! Her thesis work and that of her classmates is now on display in three of the galleries at the college; the show’s opening was tonight. Of course I had to be there, so I took the afternoon off from work and drove in to Boston. Not wanting to drive in city traffic around rush hour, I parked at Riverside and took the Green Line to the Fenway stop, then walked through the Fens to Huntington Avenue.

Mass College of Art repurposed their current space over the years; here I’m about to enter the exhibit, which was displayed in three galleries:
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Ann paints in oils, and her work is prominently featured on this side of the Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery.  At the right of the photo, she’s talking to a visitor:
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I kind of like her work, which can be classified as abstract:
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Here is her Artist’s Statement:

This series of paintings is about the workings of nature; about how living things respond to pressure through adaptation and evolution.  I paint about how the struggle for survival drives creativity and about what happens when adaptation is not possible.

As I paint, I reflect on the analogies between my process and that of nature: I invent elements — then subject them to selection and transformation.  The relationship between forms is akin to an organism’s evolution to fit to its environment.

The paintings represent a stage of development.  The elements rest in their current state, and some have died away to become part of the “geology” of the piece, leaving their outlines underneath the newer layers.

In art, as well as nature, there is more than one solution to any problem.  The myriad of species on our planet shows that life is about creative answers and open possibilities, a reality I reflect in my paintings.

This is a talented group of artists, and there was quite a crowd of friends and family, perhaps even potential patrons!
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As this was the opening reception, there was a nice spread of snacks and desserts for the guests, and before I headed back home, I grabbed some treats for the road. Many years ago, I worked in this area at the Harvard School of Public Health, but as I walked down Longwood Ave to the T stop on Chapel Street, I marveled at how many changes there had been over the past thirty years. I do suppose it’s for the better, and certainly the Mass College of Art has flourished here.  Congratulations to the 2015 graduates!

Art Venture Adventure at Wendemuth

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The East Quabbin Land Trust‘s Service Learning Coordinator had a wonderful idea for an event at Wendemuth Meadow, the newly-conserved property in the center of North Brookfield: she called it an “Art Venture” and scheduled it for this morning, from 9 am to noon.

Those of us who volunteered to help arrived around 8:30 to set up the five stations: (1) sketching in the barn, (2) origami and boat races at the stream, (3) rock art along the stone wall, (4) stick sculpture at the bend in the path, and (5) kite-making and flying at the top of the hill. All materials were provided by the Land Trust or by donations (I brought in some of the stones for the sculpture and also supplied one of the kites).

We were blessed with a gorgeous summer day, with constant sunshine and high clouds.  Here is what the meadow looked like, from my vantage point near stone-lined culvert:

ArtVenture1Small groups stopped by throughout the morning, but I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a higher turnout.  All told, about a dozen people showed up, and the children seemed to enjoy themselves, which is what really counts.

As I’ve done paper-folding since I was a child, I offered to teach participants how to make paper boats to sail in our little stream. Here are some of our creations, afloat in the still waters!
ArtVenture2The boats are made with paper sheets that are the standard 8-1/2 x 11 and the folds are simple enough that even young children can complete them.  I also offered to teach visitors how to fold water lilies, for which we needed the traditional square origami paper (I brought paper cut to 5-1/2 inches per side); more complicated folds are required to finish these.

When I first imagined our paper boats sailing along, I wondered where they would end up, if I followed them all the way from source to sea.  To satisfy my curiosity, I pored over paper maps and researched Massachusetts watersheds online.  I discovered that North Brookfield lies entirely within the Chicopee River Basin, which is comprised of four major watersheds: the Swift, the Ware, the Quaboag, and the Chicopee.  Our small stream, which crosses under Bates Street three times, joins Coys Brook, which crosses Cider Mill Road and Route 67, then joins the Quaboag River in West Brookfield.  The Quaboag meets the Ware River and the Chicopee River in . . . you guessed it: the Three Rivers section of Palmer.  The Chicopee, in turn, flows west roughly parallel to the Mass Pike and joins the Connecticut River in the city of Chicopee.  The Connecticut, longest river in New England, flows southward from the Canadian border 410 miles to its mouth in Long Island Sound.  Its watershed encompasses five U.S. states and one Canadian province; the river has 148 tributaries, 38 of which are themselves major rivers.  It would be quite the journey for a paper boat launched on Bates Street to sail to this river.

Here are some of the rock art creations:
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The most popular activity this morning seemed to be the kite-flying; at one point, I looked up and counted at least four kites in the sky.  Alas, I knew my camera would not be able to record the sight from where I stood near the old barn.  But now I know where to go with my kite, when fall arrives and the leaves change color and the migrating hawks also ride the thermals on their way south.