Duxbury Art Association's Winter Juried Show 2009

I'm honored to be juried into the Duxbury Art Association 2009 Winter Juried Show with my photograph Rodeo III. The juror for photography was Lou Jones. The show will run from February 8 to April 26th at 186 Alden Street in Duxbury, MA.

Here's the complete list of participants.

Phyllis Adams
Franny Andahazy
Marian C.Atkinson
Sylvana Baracchini
Robin Beckwith
Christina Beecher
Evelyn Bernal
Patricia Berube
James Bird
Janet C. Blagdon
Stephen Boczanowski
Robert Bolster
Kristine Brennen
Dennis Broadbent
Kelly Carmody
Judith Chaves
Lilly Cleveland
Nancy Colella
Jane Flavell Collins
Meredith Wildes Cornell
Michael Coyne
Patricia L. Cullen
Donald Dacier
Deborah Ellen Davies
Susan G. Denniston
Esme YC Disch
Kathy Dixon
Sandra L. Donnellan
Dennis Doyle
Russell du Pont
James F. Earl
Dominic J. Farrell
Georgia Fletcher
Jack Foley
D. Randolph Foulds
Kate Garrity
Linda L.Garrity
Anne Garton
JoAnn Gouzoules
Ellen Gower
Karyn Frances Gray
Michael S.Guertin
Susan Hagstrom
Wendy Hale
Becky Haletky
Stephen Haley
Anne Henning
Stephen H. Holland
June Hollisian
Vin Horrigan
Wilson Hunt, Jr.
Shirley M. Jenkins
Ruth Jensen
Roger Carl Johanson
Susan Kelley
Brooks Kelly
Danguole Rita Kuolas
Andrew Kusmin
Susan LaFevre
Robert Lavery
Eleanor B. Lawson
Priscilla Levesque
David P. Locarno
Jim Lo Piccolo
Jeanne MacFarland
Lisa Mackin
Heidi Mayo
Jan McElhinny
Jeanne McKenna
Margaret McWethy
Michele Meister
Felice Mendell
Dianne Miller
David Monteiro
Mary Moquin
Amy B. Moran
Paul Munroe
Yale S. Nicolls
Ann Marie Oliver-Nickerson
Carol O'Malia
Judy Pollock
Glenn Pollock
Deborah Putnam
Page Railsback
MJ Rest
James J. Richard
Stephanie Roberts-Camello
Rain Rodolph
Betty Rogers
Donna Rossetti-Bailey
Nan Rumpf
Elizabeth M. Ryan
Leigh Ryan
Mary Schiess
Luis Seoane
Marcia Sewall
Katherine Smit
Susan R. Smith
Maureen D. Spinale
Chuck Sullivan
Chuck Tamulynas
Lisa Tang Liu
Anne Tcherepnin
Albert L. Tousignant
Lanci Valentine
Collen Vandeventer
Linda Vopat
Nancy Motley Walton
Tina Watson
Paul Weiner
Susan White
Virginia Wilson
Denise Zompa

ABSTRACTION NOW at the Firehouse Plaza Gallery at Nassau Community College

I was truly honored to be with 36 other chosen entries to participate in the show ABSTRACTION NOW, juried by Franklin Hill Perrell, Chief Curator at the Nassau County Museum of Art. The show was hosted by the Nassau Community College art department. What a beautiful gallery space it is!

http://firehouse.ncc.edu/current.html

As mentioned before, my painting AMERICAN ICONS 1: 492 DAYS was chosen among over 300 entries from across the US as well as Europe.

My mother took one hour off from her tax-season Saturday to attend the reception this past Saturday. My sister Vivian and brother-in-law Jonathan were also there. I didn't win any prizes, but I was just grateful and honored to have gotten in.

The show was very strong, and here is the list of works presented there:

Donald A. Budd -- Desert Stripes, acrylic.
Marc Deppe -- Spartan, mixed media on paper.
Matt Dibble -- Chased from the Market, oil on canvas.
Cathy Eckdahl -- Medea, gouache/ink.
Sam Faix -- Ten Foot Wall, oil on panel.
Matthew Farina -- Thatch, oil/canvas.
Richard Gachot -- Action-Reaction, animated sculpture. BEST IN SHOW.
Richard Gachot -- Drip, acrylic.
Eric Galandak -- Most, oil.
Richard Garrigus -- August Field, oil on panel.
David Gerlach -- Zephr, steel.
Lawrence Glickman -- Neruda Song 1, acrylic.
William Grabowski -- Celestia, digital photo.
Ruth Hamill -- Ocean Breeze, oil on raw canvas.
Eleanor Himel -- Jones Beach Sunday, acrylic. AWARD OF EXCELLENCE.
Wei-An Huang -- Within and Without #3, acrylic on canvas.
Greg Ike -- Orchid, acrylic on canvas. HONORABLE MENTION AWARD.
Kenneth Kaplowitz -- Adam Names The Fish, pigment print
Peggy Klineman -- The Tree Outside My Building, oil on canvas.
Jon Leach -- Local Commerce, mixed media.
Adrienne Leban -- 5.31.07, mixed media.
Gili Levy -- Piano, oil and paper on canvas.
Jonathan Levy -- Peacock, acrylic on canvas. HONORABLE MENTION AWARD.
Richard Margolies -- Dream Catcher, acrylic.
Milt Masur -- Flowerbed in Anchorage, enamel bas-relief. HONORABLE MENTION AWARD.
Kevin Mertens -- Spider-Rabbit, mixed media on panel. HONORABLE MENTION AWARD.
Puneeta Mittal -- Pluripotent XXXII, oil on panel. AWARD OF EXCELLENCE.
Marcie Paper-- Untitled #103, acrylic on panel.
Rebecca Perez -- Untitled, oil and mixed media.
Susan Reedy -- Graffito, mixed media. HONORABLE MENTION AWARD.
Cheryl Safren -- Rund 'n Rerund, mixed media.
Denise Segreti DiGiovanna -- Sea Life Series: Bat Star, oil.
George V. Sordoni -- Moments G, oil on canvas.
Kenneth Susynski -- Wedding Song, oil on canvas.
Lisa Tang Liu -- American Icons I: 492 Days, oil on canvas.
Grant Vetter -- Fair-Skinned, oil on canvas.
Rachael Wren -- Portent, oil on canvas.

Upcoming Shows in Early 2009

I'm happy to announce that my work will appear in four shows in the first quarter of 2009.

Opening first is THE VIEW FROM HERE at Springstep Art Gallery January 15 - April 13, 2009. Medford, MA. As mentioned, this is the first time that photos from my AMERICAN FAMILIES project is being exhibited. The opening reception will be on Thursday, January 15th from 6-8pm.

PHOTO 2009 Black And White Classic at the Brush Art Gallery in Lowell, MA. January 18 - March 15, 2009. This is a show juried by Howard Yezerski, the owner of the prestigious, eponymous gallery that recently moved to Boston's South End. This the first time that my Holga image SHARED FENCE is selected for a juried show. CHAIR IN GHOST TOWN, UTAH was also selected into this show. The opening reception is scheduled for January 31, 2009.

My painting AMERICAN ICONS I: 492 DAYS was selected by Franklin Hill Perrell, the Chief Curator of the Nassau County Museum of Art in Long Island. The show is ABSTRACT NOW: 2009 OPEN COMPETITION at the Nassau Community College's Firehouse Plaza Art Gallery in Garden City, NY. There were over 300 entries from all over the US and Europe, and I got lucky. The show is on from January 20 - March 26, 2009. The opening reception is on Saturday, January 31, from 1-3pm.

Finally, I have a solo exhibit at the Watertown Free Library. I will be showing images from my COWBOYS & RODEOS and PURPLE MOUNTAIN MAJESTIES series. The opening reception and the duration of the show is to be determined.

Springstep to Exhibit AMERICAN FAMILIES

In a group show opening on January 15th (reception from 6-8pm) at Springstep's art gallery, I will be exhibiting photographs from my AMERICAN FAMILIES series for the first time in public.

BLUE at the Cambridge Art Association

I'm happy to announce that my Paniolo 1 was selected by Jen Mergel from the ICA Boston to be included in the show BLUE, hosted at the Cambridge Art Association's Kathryn Schultz Gallery at 25 Lowell Street in Cambridge. The show will be up until January 13th.

Here's the full list of participants selected for the show:

Kathryn Schultz Gallery

Jonathan Bechard
Patricia Berube • First Prize
Katharina Chapuis
Andrew Child
Rob Diebboll
Joerg Dressler
Catherine Evans
David Fallon
Helga Felleisen
Suzanne Gainer
Wendy Gedanken
Dena Haden
Ann Forbush Kathy Lobo
Kelly Kerrigan
Julie L'Heureux
David Lang
Rebecca Litt
Madeleine Lord
Nella Lush
Susan Metzger
Steve Miller
Gwen Murphy
Linda Niemann
Suzanne Papin
Gina Picariello
Hugo Porcaro
Sarah Putnam
Beverly Rippel
Andrea Rosenthal
Sarah Rossi
Brenda Steinberg
Lorraine Sullivan
Zsuzsanna Szegedi
Frank Tadley
Lisa Tang Liu
Constantia Thibaut
Dianna Vosburg
William Wexler
Marcia Widenor • Director's Prize
Yefim Zhelezov

University Place Gallery

Rick Berry
Richard Bertman
Scott Bradner
Susan Bregman
Janet Campbell
Alvin Case
Karen Davis
Susan Denniston
May DeViney • Juror's Choice
Kristina Bell Ditullo
John Doyle
Steven Duede
Thomas Durand • Juror's Choice
David Elmes
Merritt Kraft Fletcher
Christian Flynn
Ed Friedman
Jeff Grassie
Don Gurewitz
Ross Harris
Bob Hesse
Becky Holt
Will Holub • Best of Show
Cheryl Jaffe
J.B. Jones
Jurgen Kedesdy
Mary Kostman
Judy Laliberte
Yuri Lipnesh
Sydell Masterman
Anne McNevin
Stephanie Mitchell
Carolyn Newberger
Richard Perkins
Hope Ricciardi
Judith Robinson-Cox
Gloria Ross
David Rossiter
Lia Rothstein
Joan Ryan • Second Prize
Margaret Soltysik-Espanola
Valerie Spain
Amelia Stafford Todd
Ernest Stonebraker
Ted Todd
Catalina Viejo Lopez de Roda
Christine Vielmetti Daniloff
Lisa Winant
Pamela Winters
Carol Wontkowski
John Wood
Gregory Wright
Michael Wright
Philip Young
James Zall

Current and Upcoming

Just a few updates about a couple of shows I'm in or will be in...

The Pen and Brush juried black and white photography show in NYC

, juried by Roy DeCarava.
The Chair, Utah was chosen by DeCarava for the show. Roy DeCarava is a master black and white photographer and a good friend of poet Langston Hughes, with whom he jointly published a book The Sweet Flypaper of Life, chronicling the lives of Harlem residents. This show is located at the Pen and Brush Gallery, 16 East 10th Street in New York City. It'll be up from May 1-25, and the reception is tomorrow May 10th, at 4-6pm. Too bad I'll miss it. My first show in NYC!!!

The Northeast Prize Show, Cambridge, MA.

I just heard the news that my oil painting American Icons I: 492 Days was selected by Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator of the ICA Boston, to be included into the Cambridge Art Association's Northeast Prize show. I was so happy I cried. This show will be up from May 14-June 25, and the reception is on Friday, May 30, from 6-8pm.

Moved into our new place

Ken and I moved two weekends ago, and I haven't had the time to blog. But I'm back!

New Show -- Cambridge Art Association: "Interiors/Exteriors"

The Cambridge Art Association is hosting a new juried show at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery from April 4 through April 29: "Interiors/Exteriors." The juror is James Hull.

And I got in!

Below is a list of exhibiting artists:

Chuck Beisch
Brother Eugene De Lauro
Tom Diaz • Juror's Choice
Catherine Evans
Wally Gilbert
Becky Haletky • Juror's Choice
Fay Hannon
Sirarpi Heghinian Walzer
Bob Hesse • Juror's Choice
Janet Hobbs
Mary Kostman
Simon Lejeune
Bonnie Lerner
Chippa Martin
Trish O'Day
Dana Pearson
Lina LeNeve Pomeroy Tans
Judith Prager
Sheila Rice
Judy Robinson-Cox
Ruth Rosner
Janet Smith
Ernest Stonebraker
Lorraine Sullivan
Zsuzsanna Szegedi • Juror's Choice
Lisa Tang Liu
Adrian Tans
Brenda Van der Beek
Catalina Viejo Lopez de Roda
Karen Weinhaus
Susan Wheelock
Pam Winters
Etta Wolpert
John Wood
James Zall

Stephen Wilkes at The Griffin Museum of Photography

I am now officially a proud member of the board of directors of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester.

The above image was taken off the Griffin Museum's homepage just moments ago. They just finished their exhibition of Stephen Wilkes' hauntingly beautiful photographs of Ellis Island (second from left above). I thought about blogging this in my new blog, The Aht Blog (visual art found around Boston), but decided against it because I saw it on its last day.

The title of the exhibition was STEPHEN WILKES, ELLIS ISLAND: GHOSTS OF FREEDOM
(January 24 - March 30). The images were created in the dilapidated hospital wing of Ellis Island where few people could access. This was a place where the sick were quarantined, and sadly, many died here, after traveling all the way across the ocean with hopes of a new life in the New World.


Images © Stephen Wilkes

According to Wikipedia, Ellis Island's facility operated from January 1, 1892 to November 12, 1954, which means that it would have been impossible that Chinese immigrants came through here. The Chinese Exclusion Act was in effect from 1882 and was not entirely abolished until 1965 under Lyndon B. Johnson. So, factually speaking, there was no Chinese American heritage associated with Ellis Island. But it doesn't matter. All the same, it is powerfully symbolic as a place for immigrants, me included.

If you've seen my fine art photography work, you'll know that I'm a sucker for decrepit places and objects. I was nearly moved to tears as I toured around the Griffin's main gallery, admiring Stephen Wilkes' work. The large scale of the two pieces pictured was close to life size. They made you feel like you were really there, making the sadness of the hospital almost palpable, as if the spirit of the dead immigrants are there, teleported into the gallery in Winchester.

My Holga Silver Gelatin Prints on Display

Tom Yum Koong in Medford (see previous blog entry) has installed 8 pieces of my silver gelatin black and white prints in their restaurant space. These images were created with my Holga camera and developed in the darkroom.

Visit Tom Yum Koong to see my work! 11-13 Forest Street, Medford, MA 02155.

13FOREST Gallery's New Arlington Space

Visit Marc Gurton's new space for 13FOREST Gallery in Arlington! It's at 167A Mass Ave, right near Flora Restaurant and the Capitol Theatre. I have a few pieces in there too! http://www.13forest.com

Joel and Maya's Plant

I photographed this plant a while back. We were plant-sitting for Joel and Maya and had forgotten to water the plant for a few days... We watered it and it was rehydrated within a few hours.

Dead Raccoon

I found a dead raccoon in our backyard this morning. Rabies? Poison? I haven't figured out what to do with it yet. I called the local health department and am waiting for a call back...

Latest updates. Well, the health department can't do anything about it because it's on private property. I may have to summon up the courage to take a shovel and put the body into a double-layered bag later...

Mentioned in the Boston Globe today

I was mentioned in an article in the Boston Globe today. It featured one of my photos as well, though I just realized that my name is not credited in the caption... The article is about our last show in the Medford Square space at 13FOREST Gallery before moving to Arlington.

Here is the article!

Upcoming Exhibit

I'll be showing my work with Sand T and Sophie Glikson at TV3 in Medford from January 10 - February 10. This is going to be a very exciting show, as we are all very different artists.

I have never shown so many black and white pieces in one show, and I'm looking forward to it.

Snow in Boston

I'm feeling very depressed about having to dig my car out. Just waiting for the caffeine to kick in my bloodstream before starting the task.

The ICA, No Name Restaurant, and the Boston Fish Pier

I became a member of the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) recently, and I decided to go back with my friend Bénédicte to see the current exhibit DESIGN LIFE NOW in the West Gallery (through January 6, 2008). This show has some of the best designs from 2003-2006 across many industries. This is my second visit to the show and I still haven't seen everything. The membership at the ICA is definitely worth it. I will go back again with Ken and my cousins this weekend, and possibly again sometime with my former assistant Stephen.

I discovered the No Name Restaurant recently in the process of photographing my client's wedding. What wonderful fish and chips! For those who don't know about the No Name Restaurant, it's located right on the Fish Pier, meaning that the fish is completely fresh, of course. I felt like having a beer today, and I ordered a Budweiser Select, just out of curiosity. A terrible mistake. It's a little more flavorful than club soda. Bénédicte enjoyed the meal with a Harpoon ale. She has a few more months in Boston before returning to France, and she said she would bring her husband Nicolas back to the restaurant.

Finally, a word about the fresh fish from the pier. About a year ago, I blogged about grocery shopping in Boston, and coincidentally, today I was contacted by a David Barkay in Montreal who actually read my blog entry (check out David Barkay's blog). I've been meaning to add to that entry regarding my recent find about the fish, and now I'm motivated to do so.

I have stopped buying fish from supermarkets in Boston. I am so spoiled by the fish at the fish pier that there is no reason to buy from the supermarkets. The seafood companies are mainly wholesalers, but they will sell retail if you ask for something they have. I just bought 4 lbs of bluefish from Bramante Seafood yesterday and roasted 2 lbs in the oven last night with ginger and spiced salt (a mixture of cayenne, paprika, and salt). My mouth is still watering at the thought of last night's dinner.

Now back to work...

Joyce Tenneson at the Griffin Museum of Photography

My friend Bénédicte and I went to see Joyce Tenneson speak at the Griffin Museum tonight. The show is up through August 12,

Joyce kicked off the talk with a couple of Powerpoint slideshows, the first of which was a selection of images from her new book, a retrospective of four decades' worth work.

As she got up to speak at the end of the slideshows, she welled up with tears over the images from her Wise Women series featuring women over 65. The late Jessica Tandy was one of them. Joyce has always photographed from the heart, and she got to know some of these women very well in preparation of her portraits of them. She loved them and wanted to be close friends with them. She explained that she got emotional over them because it was the first time she looked at the slideshow on a big screen with music like this.

She apologized, but of course, we more than forgive her. We just love her that much more for getting emotional. Well, I'm speaking for myself at least.

Wise Women happens to be my favorite body of work by Joyce Tenneson, and I was happy that she was so attached to it. It's her least stylized body of work because she really wanted the women's characters to speak for themselves, and so there weren't any special backgrounds that may distract the viewer from the subject. Pretty young starlets will please the vast majority of the public no matter how poorly you photograph them. Being able to distill the inner beauty from an older woman is something only a master artist like Joyce can do. It's likely that a young male will look at this body of work and say that he has no interest in viewing, but young, shallow boys are irrelevant here. Wise Women will only speak to other wise women, women seeking wisdom, and maybe a few worthy wise men.

The session was then opened to Q&A. I learned the process by which she used to mount her large flower images.

Ken's new short story

My husband Ken won another writing contest recently. The story "Beneath the Language" is now published at http://www.onthepremises.com/issue_02/story_02_1.html

You can see another of Ken's published stories "Algorithms for Love" at Strange Horizons.

StoryLINES at artSPACE@16 in Malden

If you haven't been to http://artspaceat16.com/currentexhibition.htm's new show, go see it before it closes on June 9th. It features sculptures by Pamela Sheridan, paintings by Sam Tan, and photography by Brian Doan.

I stopped by this show for the first time two Thursdays ago and was immensely moved by Brian Doan's large format photographs of Vietnamese Americans in his series Dreamland, particularly one of a Vietnamese American young man in a U.S. Army uniform. This young man is now deployed in Iraq. Blurred in the background of this portrait is a movie poster of Apocalpyse Now.

I felt such strong emotions when I looked at this photograph because Asian Americans always have the need to prove to the rest of America that we are Americans, and the Vietnamese American soldier's portrait is great proof. And of course, the allusion to the Vietnam War just a few decades ago reminds us how once again America is "fighting for democracy" today, but it is just that much more poignant that this young Vietnamese American man, whose parents probably came to the U.S. as refugees from the Vietnam War, is now risking his life for the U.S. government for another war.

Upon browsing through his website and seeing more samples of his work, it struck me how Brian's subjects all display a sense of their own dignity. The rarity of any Asian Americans portrayed with dignity in photographs is astounding. Asian American women are often stereotyped as sex objects in commercial photographs, and Asian American men are either ignored, or portrayed as effeminates. And sadly, oftentimes Asian Americans themselves pertetuate and reinforce such stereotypes. Brian's work is very important to the whole Asian American community and in getting a voice out to the larger American society, not just Vietnamese Americans.

I returned to artSPACE@16 to meet Brian during the artist talk on May, 24th. Brian was an engineer who decided to become a full-time artist, to the dismay of his parents and others around him. Vietnamese immigrant parents, like Chinese immigrant parents, all wish for their kids to have a steady job that earns a lot of money.

Pam Sheridan was not an abstract artist until she was diagnosed with cancer (from which she is now recovered fortunately). Here, on the left, you can see details from one of her sculptures Paradox at artSPACE. The sculpture is about 5 feet in height and is made entirely of intricately woven barbed wires, colored threads and painted spherical shapes.

I had come across Sam Tan's paintings about a year ago in Arlington. His works are often characterized by two juxtaposing patterns and very bright, often complementary colors. In this current show (shown on right), his paintings from the Mindful Landscapes series employ cadmium orange and cobalt teal acrylic paints -- ultra intense, complementary colors in their pure forms. Sam wove them into webs of abstract shapes that remind the viewers of arteries and organs and their own mortality.

Sand T has once again put together another extraordinary show.