Wayne Says: "I was born in Cambridge with a pencil in my hand and have been drawing ever since. As a biologist I travel around the country a lot and spend most of my time catching wildlife and studying nature. I take my sketchpad everywhere I go. During my off-season I turn my drawings into paintings. I've been painting for over 10 years; I don't have any particular style as I choose a certain style that best fits my subject. My paintings are not something you should think too much about, but rather something to be enjoyed."

Fran Says: "My paintings are oil on canvas, primarily linen, which I stretch and prepare myself. I use classical oil painting techniques: under- and over-painting, glazes and varnishes, but try to keep the overall technique looking fairly fresh and immediate. When I paint a still life it is sometimes something that catches my eye, sometimes something planned and which I then set up carefully in my studio. As an artist my first love is portraiture, so when I do still lifes, I try to make it a portrait, or group portrait of objects. I look for the personality of the object, the emotions which the objects emanate. I pay a lot of attention to depicting the space and air in, around, and between the objects, and in portraying the presence and interactions of these objects. I feel the viewer should be invited to move into, through and around the space in the paintings and feel welcome in that space."

Marshall Says:

"I blur the line between painting and photography.

Romancing the subject with intense color and bright highlights brings out a feeling of excitement and vibrancy in the viewer.

Creating images of places that look the way I feel about them

is much more satisfying than making an accurate rendering."

Ryan is a photographer based in Somerville. A theatre artist as well as a photographer, he strives to embrace and explore the emotional texture and narrative depth in the details of the everyday. Some of his earliest and most vivid memories are of leafing through family photo albums, and wondering at the power of the camera to collect and seal in an image all the weight, feeling, and mystery of a moment, and equally wondering at the power of our minds to unlock the image and
let all those things come rushing out. On stage, in life, and on camera: Every moment is an image. Every image tells a story. And every story has the potential to touch us, to move us.

Chris says: "My goal with my work is to make a true reflection of my inner state. In my mind there are so many conflicting ideas competing for attention,so in my work there is sometimes hundreds of separate elements brought together. Out of this chaos emerges a precarious harmony and it is very important to me to stop working on a piece at  just the right time. When the original inspiration is gone and I try to make a piece "nice", it always kills the spirit, so I keep it rough, to keep it real. Some of my recurring themes include over-stimulation, media manipulation,sex and violence, distrust of authority, and a search for understanding .I embrace of multiple interpretations of my work . I don't believe in only one answer for complex questions, so I offer a buffet of ideas and imagery in one piece for the viewer to work through themselves.

Ellen Says: “My passion is creating art that invites the viewer to a beautiful, mystical place. My images typically feature classical architecture – sometimes with angelic figures – set against a vibrantly colored landscape scene. All my life I have seen visions of beautiful places, and when I’m creating, it always feels like the place I’m designing actually exists in another realm. It is quite an experience! In addition to these visions I have, my inspiration comes from my obsessions with Atlantis and Ancient Egypt, as well as my fascination with astrology, symbols, sacred geometry, and the night sky. I currently live in Cambridge during spring, summer and fall, and the Bay Area during the winter, where I market my art as prints, canvas-wraps, greeting cards, journal books, and magnets. It is my hope that my designs offer people inspiration, a sense of peace, and a feeling of being taken away to a beautiful respite, far from everyday concerns.”

More Information Coming Soon!

Angie says: "My prints and paintings are informed today by what I could not articulate or understand in the past.  Memories, pleasant or painful, are mine to keep. I am ferociously protective of them.  By embedding my reminiscence in prints and paintings, under multiple layers of imagery I am able to face these recollections objectively, all the while maintaining the privacy and intimacy with my memories that I cherish."

More information coming soon!

Jenna Fisher Miller is a Jamaica Plain, MA artist who creates original works in mixed media and acrylics. She paints in her own style, layering translucent brush strokes to highlight the interplay of atmosphere and light within a scene. She creates from life as well as from photographs, and portrays in each painting the mystery she encounters within its subject. Her work can be seen at Out of the Blue gallery.

Minatsu Says: “Art is life. Without art, who are we? Art is a belief, a power to heal. Art breaks boundaries and unites disparate peoples around the Globe. Art changes lives and society itself.

When I first came to the United States from my native Japan, I learned and expressed my ideas about the American experience through my art. The studio was where I found relief from the early challenges of language and other cultural barriers.  Pictures share even more than words alone, art is communication in a beautifully pure form.

 

With our art we share our spiritual and psychological minds, our hopes for peace and goals for a fulfilling future. Art helps people like nothing else can, and I am so thankful to the wonderful people of the United States who appreciate the value and joy of art.

 

Art is to heal, to heal is art.

Art is to believe, to believe is art.

Art is to love, to love is art.

Please visit Minatsu's official website at:

 

http://daruma.site90.com/index.html

Laura says: "In the act of photographing, I search for a perspective that accentuates beautiful and unsettling aspects of my subject matter, whether that involves an uncommon view of a common object, or a new twist on the personality of a common object. For most of my career, I have seemingly created other worlds with my photographs by exploring the properties of various items of my fancy. My photographs have focused on the texture and color of food products, environments, belongings, and mixtures of all three, with a dark sensuality. Using unlikely subjects that are manipulated (physically, or with light or camera angles) creates a captivating image, and leaves the viewer bemused concerning the context of the photograph.

I have photographed food, toys, plants, tools, and corners that evoke personal memories, and attempted to make them as grand as I remember. The subjects may hint at representing people from my past, but the project is more of a self-portrait, in that it is a personal vision of my past. From the photographs, I desire a sense of dreamy voyeurism as well as an effect of saturation and enlargement in the subjects. I think about the act of remembering; how a photographer can go beyond documenting and into dreaming. What does a memory look like? We never remember things the way they physically existed in the world. It is hard to restrain exaggeration or manipulation. I embrace this concept to explore my way of seeing."

April Says: "I had my beginnings in Cape Cod, then Brookline, and attended Wesleyan University, where I majored in English Literature. I am mostly a self-taught artist, though the Italian side of our family is rich in the tradition. I look at my work and the style I developed as like a hot tub on acid. I usually pick one topic to explore in my work, and while I paint, think and dream, other background characters seem to appear surrounding the topic. In this way I try to suggest life and its conceptual stories."

"My name is Kerry Mooney. I am a photographer, fine artist, writer, and world traveler. There is nothing I enjoy more than being dropped off in the middle of a city or town that is foreign or unknown to me. As I learn to find my way around, I photograph, paint, draw, and write my way through the people I meet, the places I see, and  my experiences in general, each time, I return home to Boston with a clearly shifted perspective. For whatever it is worth to you, remember, it is a big world out there, don't forget to see it, taste it, and realize it. It has changed my life for the better." 

-Kerry Mooney

Jack Morefield is a Boston based portrait artist, with work in many private and corporate collections. For a complete resume e-mail the artist at jackart@att.net. Go to the photos option for some of his images, and the links option for where to see more of his work

I have always been a portrait artist, primarily in graphite, until '95 when it was suggested to me to paint on canvas. My style came about by mistake. I was working on a drawing, when I decided that I disliked the direction it was going, and wanted to destroy it. I took an eraser and made broad strokes across the portrait. Later when seeing this 'destroyed' image again, I became fascinated with the patterns, and started to 'detail' them. The end results, years later, are these paintings. I have lately become festinated with the idea of time, and have attempted to show time in its two accesses, Synchronic time: time motionless (represented by the figure), and Diachronic time: time in motion (represented by an iconic pattern of whirls, semantic presences) combining two separated but integrated levels of expression.

Matt says: "Perhaps curious of myself and how I relate to stuff.  Like art.  Is there something fundamental that connects intellect and conceptualization to some sort of thing, like a picture or sculpture… there’s obviously importance put on quality.  Craftsmanship…   people want evidence of effort.  Also perhaps I’m all over the place anyway, so why not let that come through.  Art relates somehow with reality, either to reflect it or refute it, some of it in regards to external observation, or internal searching. 

A lot of times I guess both sides are somewhat true.  So, being a somewhat odd, somewhat average American male, I love cars and planes and trains and all that junk.  First off, where is everyone in the world going at any given moment?  Secondly, transportation is a classic romantic idea.  How you get where you’re going says a lot about who you are.  Trains have a great, larger than life mysticism.  Planes are the elegant ladies in the skies, dancing along like a Gershwin tune.  Cars are the quintessential American statement. 

 How does any of this fit or make sense?  Because they can reflect emotions, history, hopes, insecurities.  They can provide momentum or wreak chaos and destruction,  driving straight and strong, or hydroplaning into a tree."

My art is constantly evolving, yet orbits particular psycho-spiritual, socio-political, and natural themes. With little formal training in the visual arts, I focus primarily on the physical, emotional, and spirituals ‘truths’ of what the images reveal. The significance of attachment and relationship is central to my work.

Through Nature’s cycles, the human form, planetary pulling, companions, heroes, and memoriam…I extend an invitation for reflection, conversation, and rebellion.

~~Blessings, Elizabeth

I was born in Long Beach, California.  After several years and several cities, my family relocated to Alabama.  Though art was initially used as an outlet to relieve stress, I realized in college that art and producing it were what I wanted to do with my life.  Soon after this realization, I relocated to Boston in the summer of 2007 to pursue a potential art career.  I have no formal training in art and I'm still learning to transfer thoughts into visual material.  The drawings were created using a rapidograph pen with black india ink. Each taking six to eight months to complete, while the oil paintings take about four to six months to complete.