Abba Cudney: A Spectrum of Memory

August 2nd – September 1st

Paintings by Providence artist Abba Cudney.

Abba Cudney documents specific nostalgic moments in time within interior spaces. Not only the moments themselves, but also the essence. She decides what details are important, and what can be left abstract for the viewer to interpret. Certain objects are represented and have solidity, others are made with quick gestures and loose strokes to give a feeling of intangibility and impermanence. Remnants of underpainting and drawing are visible alongside the representational, as if past and present are meeting.

Abba says, “I want people to experience their own narratives when viewing my paintings. What the objects and spaces mean to me personally can convey an entirely different story or memory for someone else.”

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 2nd, 5-8pm, during Amherst Arts Night Plus.

About Abba Cudney:
Abba was born and raised outside of Chicago. She moved to New Hampshire in 2011 and earned her BFA in Painting and Printmaking at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She currently resides in Providence, RI, and works and teaches printmaking at the Providence Art Club. She has exhibited in Chicago and Italy, and throughout New England. AbbaCudney.com

Q&A with Abba:

How old were you when you created your first artwork?
I don’t really know an exact age, I just know that I have always been creating. I remember one Christmas when I was probably 3 getting an “art table” and to this day has been my favorite gift.

How has your style changed over the years?
For a long time, I was focused on rendering things in a very realistic manner. I found it to be a great learning process and at the time, satisfying. But throughout college I gradually started to find my own voice and create in a way that felt more natural and freeing to me. Now my work has become a sort of hybrid between real and abstract with the intent of creating a dream-like experience.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
Art is something that has just always been a part of me. I suppose when I “officially” decided I wanted to pursue art as a career was the end of high school when applying to colleges. I had an interest in many different subjects but I couldn’t escape the idea of going to an art school and dedicating my time to evolving creatively.

Why did you choose your medium?
I have always loved working with paint-the fluidity, vibrancy, and textures that can be created with it. I use both acrylics and oils. The acrylic helps me achieve a drip-like base layer and go in without any restrictions. The oils allow me to bring the space to life with more vibrancy and texture. After my base layer of acrylics and before I go in with oils, I draw the scene and objects with charcoal. Almost 100% of the time I will leave much of the lines. I feel as though the charcoal helps enhance the feeling of impermanence, like one is looking at a fading memory.

What inspires you?
There are two quotes I always go back to. One by Antonio Lopez Garcia: “I want to paint everything that is my life, all of my experiences”. The other by David Hockney: “I paint what I like, when I like, and where I like, with occasional nostalgic journeys”.

When I began on this interior journey, all of the spaces were either of my first college apartment or friend’s apartments. I explored everything in front of me, everything that held a memory and story. My work then evolved to a series of recreating rooms of my childhood home both occupied and empty, acting as a form of therapy almost. My art changes and evolves with the passing of time, all dependent on where I am and how that space holds significance to me.

Where do you work?
I currently have a small studio in my apartment. There are ups and downs to having your studio where you live, but I enjoy being in the comfort of my home and having the option to work late at night.

Which artists do you admire?
Antonio Lopez Garcia, David Hockney, Édouard Vuillard. Many of the artists I am inspired by were a part of The Nabis movement and some considered intimists, painting the everyday contemporary life. Much of their philosophies revolved around the idea of drawing emotion out of these everyday scenes and objects. I think that what connects all of the artists I draw inspiration from is their ability to take what some see as the mundane and create a more intimate story, “a window into the soul”. As far as stylistically, I have always admired the Impressionists and their ability to use paint in such a bold and vivid way, truly bringing life to a painting.

What is your favorite piece that you’ve created?
It usually tends to be whatever I am working on at that time. Every piece is a learning process and holds a form of attachment for me as I am creating it. There is one piece I am quite attached to, though. It was the first interior scene I had ever painted of my first apartment. One day I woke up and looked around our living room and the mess that was created from the night before and just thought “I need to start documenting these moments in time”.

In the front window: Local Landscapes!

We live in such a beautiful area! For the month of August, we’re displaying some gorgeous local landscapes from four talented local photographers: Greg Brown, Sara Lyons, Tom Pitta, and Randi Shenkman. We printed them up large, and added some rustic style frames. All pieces are for sale. Come by and see these big beauties in person!

Cathe Janke: True Through

July 5th – 28th

A live art installation by Greenfield artist Cathe Janke.

This interactive exhibit will feature paintings, prints, and a growing installation based on the heart shape, and a continuous story series of paintings. The installation will feature many of the art and craft techniques Cathe learned in India, including silk painting, lost wax casting, stone carving, along with printmaking and painting. She combines her love of color and fabric with recents experiments with drawing, everyday materials, local plants, and found objects, to provoke feelings and experiences of our interdependence with other species and each other.

Cathe says: “It is very important for me to remain aware that artistic inspiration arises unexpectedly from very different sources. I try always to cultivate this awareness and travel continues to be an important part of my artistic experience. I am excited to be able to create an interactive environment here. The rich cultural history of Amherst is preserved in its remarkably diverse community and the potential for inspiration seems unlimited. I look forward to gathering community members at the opening and closing of this show.”

Cathe will be working in the gallery on Wednesdays and Fridays, 12-3pm; more dates will be announced.

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 5th 5-8pm, during Amherst Arts Night Plus. A closing reception follows on Wednesday, July 25th, 6:30-8:30pm.

About Cathe Janke:
Cathe received her MFA in 2D from Massachusetts College of Art. She has been awarded grants and fellowships to Vermont Studio Center, Elsewhere Studios in Colorado, RIACE Festival in Odisha, India, Can Serrat Int’l Art Center in Barcelona, Mustarinda in Finland, Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, MA, DISC in Odisha, India, and Wingate Studios in New Hampshire. Her work has been exhibited at Brandeis University, San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana, Lalit Kala Academie in Odisha, India, and A.I.R. Gallery in NYC. She is currently a member at Zea Mays Printmaking and has traveled to India numerous times for art and vipassana meditation practice. cathejanke.com

Image: detail from See Through”, by Cathe Janke

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Daniel Chiaccio: Homesick for the Unknown

June 7th – 30th

Etchings and screenprints by Easthampton artist Daniel Chiaccio.

The imagery in Daniel’s work draws upon what we call home, our inner desires to see the world, and the idea of working with what you have.

Daniel’s compositions urge us to place ourselves into his elaborately imagined scenes. Each setting has a story to tell and asks the viewer to wonder how life is lived there. This is an atemporal world with an emphasis on quiet stillness, while maintaining some sense of reality. Each piece is intended to draw us in and imagine ourselves immersed in an unknown yet somehow fully familiar world.

His work has a salvaged and arbitrary look, while simultaneously appearing complete. The idea of working with the materials one has, within one’s means, is very relevant in Daniel’s art and is meant to inspire fascination and inspiration, rather than a sense of struggle. He captures this mood with traditional printmaking techniques – scenes are etched on copper plates and hand-printed. The show also includes screenprints and a large outlandish sculpture.

Opening Reception on Thursday, June 7th, 5-8pm, during Amherst Arts Night Plus. There will be an Artist Reception on Saturday, June 9th, 4:30-6:30pm.

About Daniel Chiaccio:
Daniel is a printmaker currently residing in western Massachusetts. After receiving his BFA at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, Daniel came to the area for an internship at Zea Mays Printmaking where he researched green printmaking practices. Daniel’s preferred medium is copper plate intaglio, a process in which a copper plate is inscribed with an image, coated with ink, then transferred onto paper. Being a process-driven artist, Daniel was quickly drawn to printmaking for its tactile nature and emphasis on problem solving and experimentation.

Image: detail from Easy Does It“, copper plate intaglio print, 2018, by Daniel Chiaccio

PVPA Student Works 2018

May 3rd – June 2nd

An exhibition of artworks made by PVPA students during the 2017-2018 school year.

These works explore a diverse array of themes, subjects, materials, and methods; unified by the ambition and vision of these young creatives. Hope & Feathers and PVPA are proud to showcase this selection of emerging valley artists.

Exhibiting students include: Galia Pakman Arrojo, Josephine Boneceto, Brianna Clark, Alex Chase, Emma Demerath, Sarah Edler, Noa Miller, Vivian Mitchell, Analua Alencar Moreira, Leonardo Vance Udell, Alarice Wohlers, Eva Weigand Whittier.

Opening reception: Thursday, May 3rd, 5-8pm, during Amherst Arts Night Plus.

About PVPA:
Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School (PVPA) is a regional public charter school serving 400 students in grades 7-12, from over 60 towns throughout western Massachusetts. Their mission is to offer students intensive exposure to the performing arts within the context of an excellent college preparatory curriculum. The goal of PVPA is to provide students with a supportive and challenging environment that is responsive to multiple learning styles, emphasizes learning through the arts, and integrates creative and critical thinking throughout the curriculum. www.pvpa.org

Image: details from Reading Palms by Emma Demerath, Untitled by Brianna Clark, Light by Noa Miller

Artist Statements

Galia Pakman Arrojo
Galia is an 8th grader at PVPA who hopes to further explore the visual arts department in high school. She loves experimenting with new mediums, but is ultimately most comfortable with pen, pencil, paints and doodling all over her math homework. She is very excited to be a part of this showing.

Josephine Boneceto
Josephine is a Sophomore at PVPA currently living in rural Leverett. She tends to work with many different mediums including watercolor, marker, ink, and the occasional magazine clipping or other form of material to spice things up. Josephine hopes to attend MassArt after graduating PVPA in order to continue learning the skills needed to write and illustrate her very own comic that she has been dreaming up and developing for years.

Brianna Clark
Brianna is a 8th grader at PVPA currently living in Holyoke she enjoys kpop and anything. She has had a passion for art since kindergarten. She has one cat and loves BTS she has been a fan since 2012 they are the inspiration for most of her art work.

Alex Chase
Alex is a Junior who resides in Greenfield. Alex has studied a wide range of media working in both 2D and 3 Dimensional mediums through her years at PVPA.

Emma Demerath
Emma is a junior at PVPA who enjoys stand-up comedy specials and painting (usually at the same time). She plans on attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s art program this summer to further her passion for painting. She is very grateful to Hope & Feathers and to her teachers for this amazing experience.

Sarah Edler
Sarah is an aspiring young artist that enjoys drawing various subjects. Regardless if it is a simple sketch or a fully developed painting, she pours her heart into everything she makes. She’s been drawing and painting since she was old enough to hold a pencil and brush and has been working with digital media for the last 3 years. Sarah is in 8th grade and is still exploring where her artwork will lead her in the future.

Noa Greer Miller
Noa is in love with western-mass, luckily, lives there too. She is inspired by the album Blue by Joni Mitchell (perhaps a little too much,) the process of making gumbo, and shampooing loved ones; surprisingly enough, her art tends to stay within the realms of wobbly college campuses, hands, and naked women. She would like to continue making art until she no longer needs to. She thanks her mothers, her teachers, and her friends for everything.

Analua Alencar Moreira
Lua is a 9th grader at PVPA who has been drawing since she first picked up a crayon. She is thrilled to have her work shown in a gallery for the first time! A Belchertown resident, she likes to write and learn about social justice when she isn’t creating works of visual art.

Vivian Mitchell
Vivian is a Junior at PVPA who resides in Amherst, after graduation Vivian hopes to Major in illustration at MassArt in boston. She’s currently most comfortable using graphite, ink, and watercolors, but would like to one day use thick buttery oil paint. Vivian is dedicated to the gay agenda, and according to the pamphlet she received in the mail after coming out to her parents, the first step to corrupting straight capitalism is by making as much queer art as her grubby little gay hands can muster.

Leonardo Vance Udell
Leo is a Sophomore at PVPA who resides in South Hadley, he hopes to attend MassArt after graduation. His favorite medium to work in is watercolor, pen, pencil and marker. Along with art he enjoys writing music and fantastically weird stories. One day Leo hopes to be a professional techie, artist or underpaid barista.

Alarice Wohlers
Ali is an 8th grade student who lives in Granby. Ali has taken numerous visual art and fashion clases in her first 2 years at PVPA and is currently enrolled in the Mixed Media course.

Eva Weigand-Whittier
Eva is a ninth grader at PVPA who lives in Northampton with her mothers, brother, and four cats. She loves drawing with pencil and pastels. She also loves rhubarb pie, and likes to experiment with new types of art.

What Will Happen? Mixed Media Portraits by Jason Antaya

April 5th – 28th

Mixed media collage portraits by Chicopee artist Jason Antaya.

“What will happen?” is a common contemporary sentiment. This question can often feel constant, keeping us projected into possible futures, preventing us from enjoying the present, leading to anxiety and depression. We can all relate to these feelings, whether we feel them intensely or as brief glancing blows. Antaya’s recent collection of portraits was created with the intent of depicting this uncertainty and raw emotion in visual form. The fragmented nature of mixed-media collage with vintage, worn, and weathered materials is the ideal medium to express this current condition.

Opening Reception Thursday, April 5th 5-8pm, during Amherst Arts Night Plus. There will be an Artist Reception and DIY Collage with Jason, Saturday, April 21st, 4:30-7:30pm.

About Jason Antaya:
Jason works primarily in mixed media collage. Vintage papers, road maps, and weathered text are featured heavily in his work. He studied Visual Arts at Holyoke Community College from 2008-2011 and was studio assistant to Holyoke artist and professor Dean Nimmer. Jason cites Andrew Myers and Paul Cristina among his artistic influences. He continues to pursue his dream of creating unique, thoughtful pieces that intrigue and invite the viewer to ponder the process and intent. His work has been in local exhibitions in Holyoke, and Agawam, and increasingly further afield in New York, North Carolina, Laguna Beach, and Palm Springs. He lives in Chicopee, MA.

Image: detail from What Will Happen?“, mixed media, 16×20”, 2018, by Jason Antaya

Q&A with Jason

How old were you when you created your first artwork?
Well, I can’t remember my first but a truly memorable one was when I was five years old. My class and I glued colored tissue paper balls onto a Styrofoam cup to use as an ornament. I guess that was my first collage piece and I still have it and we use it as our Xmas tree topper!

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?  
I guess I’ve always known but never had the self confidence to take it seriously until 10 years ago or so. I am colorblind (red/green) and have always been nervous and uncomfortable to use and mix colors. It wasn’t until around 2007 when my wife encouraged me to go back to school and take a drawing class. I have always been drawing ever since I can remember but never thought I was good enough and didn’t take it seriously. It wasn’t until those classes at HCC that my mind was opened to other mediums like painting and collage. I met some great instructors and my life changed after that. I got into some group exhibitions and was fortunate enough to help out my former teacher/fantastic artist and friend, Dean Nimmer in his studio for a brief time. I realized that I needed to make art to be an artist, not a degree or someone telling me I wasn’t good enough. My dream is to create art full-time as I juggle various part-time jobs.

Why did you choose your medium?   
Collage is the most fun and inspiring for me for numerous reasons. I love the materials and the process for starters. I tend to incorporate lots of vintage paper and text in my work and my wife Annie and I go to all the area flea markets and look for source material for my work. I love to repurpose and give these ephemera new life as I appreciate the craftsmanship and font styles of text from the past. Finding paper that is yellowed and stained is like finding gold for me. There is a layering process in collage that is necessary to create depth and to generate interest to the viewer. I have covered up many mistakes and changed my mind numerous times after finding something else works better. 

Which artists do you admire?  
I admire any person that is creative and likes to express themselves in such a manner that is both unique and inspiring. I would say that my work is influenced by more modern contemporary artists than the old masters. Some of my favorites are Guillermo Kuitca, Matthew Cusick, Andrew Myers and more recently Paul Cristina. All of their work is completely different from one another but I admire not only the art they create but the work ethic and process in which they create. When I go to a museum or exhibition, I really like to observe the work AND the presentation. How is it framed or matted? Is it a glossy or matte finish? I take mental notes and try to incorporate those observations into my own work.

Where do you work?  
I work in my cat’s bathroom! Lol I have a little studio in a spare bedroom in our apartment and that happens to be where our kitten Ziti’s litter box is housed. Most of the time my studio is filled with ripped and cut paper scattered on various tables and my desk. Its a messy process but I have things pretty organized for my needs. A bigger studio would definitely be beneficial in the future for working on larger pieces and one without a cat toilet!

Any advice to emerging artists?  
Make LOTS of art!! Try to get enough work for a series and get critiqued whenever possible as a fresh set of objective eyes can help tremendously. Work on developing your own style and try to visit local art museums and galleries to gather inspiration. Even if you don’t necessarily like the work you might get inspired by the presentation or the building it is being shown in! I love architecture especially old Victorian and Art Deco structures. Most importantly, make the art that YOU want to make. Don’t make what you think people want to see. Get involved with artist opportunities and don’t be afraid to show your creations in a public setting. 

Spring in the City: Urban Landscapes by Mishael Coggeshall-Burr

March 1st – 31st

In these urban landscapes from New York City, Paris, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, Montague artist Mishael Coggeshall-Burr integrates the art of photography and oil painting to create novel and compelling images on canvas. Taking blurred shots with a 35mm camera, the artist searches for peripheral scenes with cinematic color and tone. He translates selected images into abstract-realist paintings with convincing color, formal structure, and subtle references to art history. Through his actions Mishael questions both the truth of photography and the fiction of painting: we enter a liquid, cinematic space, capturing the magic moment when Alice seems to step through the looking glass. The photorealistic image melts away, the prosaic merges with poetry.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, March 1st, during Amherst Arts Night Plus, from 5pm to 8pm.

About Mishael Coggeshall-Burr:
Mishael studied painting at Middlebury College, The Glasgow School of Art, and the Art Student’s League in New York. His artistic adventures have led him to many countries and continents, including China, Tibet, and Nepal, where he garnered images for a show in Kazakhstan; London, UK, where he made his own art and installed a variety of artwork at the Tate Galleries for several years; Mozambique, where he met his amazing yogini wife Nadya; Germany, France, Hong Kong, and Macao, as well as Central America and the Caribbean, with many images from his travels featured in his art exhibitions. He lives, works, and paints in Montague with his wife and four children. 

Images above: details from “Blossoms and Lights, NYC” and “High Line, NYC”, both oil on canvas.

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Q&A with Mishael

How old were you when you created your first artwork?
I could always draw. When I was a kid I was asked by friends to draw things, and I think in grade school I won my class an ice cream party and after that I was “The Artist”. I didn’t start painting until a freshman college course where we made 3×5 foot paintings. Life painting lessons at the Glasgow School of Art were a turning point. Studying abroad at an excellent art school had a profound effect on me, and I think that’s when I realized what being an artist would entail, and when I began those first steps on that path.

How has your style changed over the years?
Yes, and it varies by painting somewhat too. I think there are so many ways to paint, to get paint on the canvas, it’s a shame to give any up, and it’s always fun to learn more.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
As a kid, everyone told me I was one, so in that sense I always felt it was a possibility, but to really know myself? I guess in my 20’s I realized that the artist/maker part of me was the “core” part, around which the other parts came and went, so to speak, so in order to pay the bills I pursued jobs in and around museums and galleries as an art handler.

Why did you choose your medium?
Because it is the best one! (Kidding). Oil paint is the best choice for what I want to do, I suppose is the best answer. Oils look the same when they dry, and they generally have a long open/working time before they dry, but they also have a unique smell/flavor/creaminess rooted in antiquity that I am in love with. Oil paint is the one way I have found that I can translate the rich tones and colors in the photographs–“draw” them, recreate them with my hands–into something new and deeper.

What inspires you?
Travel is central to my work: the sensation of being in a new place, or a long-forgotten one. Travel brings out an awareness of the details in the mundane, the contrasts and signature elements of a place, and a perspective that helps to frame the scenes I am out to capture.

Where do you work?
I take photographs all over the world; I paint in my studio in Montague, MA.

What is your creative process like? How do you work?
Travelling, or at least outside exploring, I take loads of 35mm photographs, maybe a thousand over a week, then sift through the prints. One out of every hundred shots becomes a painting. I look for images that capture a memory as specifically as possible, that can stand alone as a memory in paint. The darkest darks inky black, highlights almost white, saturated colors in brightly sprinkled dots and chromatic greys sliding around behind. Something like a film still from life.

What do you like about being an artist in the valley?
There is a great awareness of the arts here, and a lot going on–although with 4 kids I haven’t seen as much as I would like! The unique blend of rural life and contemporary culture is one of the reasons my wife and I ended up here. There is a friendliness towards artists here, with so many full time and part time artists and hobbyists, and all the academia, it makes for an interesting and engaging environment, but with space to withdraw from it all and reflect and make.

Which artists do you admire?
I admire artists in many genres, but relative to my own work I’m interested in artists that span the divide between representation and abstraction, with a foothold in each. Chuck Close comes to mind. Richter’s landscapes. Turner. The visual/physical playfulness of sculptors like Caro, Calder, Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Long.

What is your favorite piece that you’ve created?
I love all my babies, but the painting on my easel is the one I am in love with. Seinfeld was asked a question about what was his favorite episode, and he responded something like “Making [an episode] is like breathing for me, so you’re asking me what is my favorite breath of air? My favorite at any one time is the one that I’m taking right now, the one that gets me to that next breath.”

Any advice to emerging artists?
Go for it.

And if you’re not ready to make your work yet, or you can’t, then live your life in anticipation of making your work. A close friend travelled to Italy ostensibly to make art as a student, but once she got there she realized she didn’t have anything to make art about, so she decided to just live. Make your life about your art, even if you’re not able to make the art yet.

Give a Sh*t: Printmakers Creating Work with a Social Message

January 29th – February 24th

Taking a stand, inspiring a conversation… showing that you give a shit. Printmakers create work with a social message.

Talented printmakers from western Massachusetts and beyond answered our call for politically-leaning art. With artist and printmaker B.Z. Reily, we curated the work of twenty-seven artists expressing themselves through their art on a variety of current social and political issues, in a range of printmaking techniques, including: intaglio, relief, screen prints, letterpress, monotype, collagraph, and mixed media.

The work in this powerful show addresses such topics as climate change, the environment, gun control, gender issues, immigration, reproductive health, political figures, feminism, and more.

Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, February 1st, 5-8pm, during Amherst’s Arts Night Plus.

Joan Appel

Amanda Barrow

Anne Beresford

Annie Bissett

Peter Cangialosi

Bruce Chandler

Daniel Chiaccio

Madeline Conover

Erin Cunliffe

Madge Evers

Kelly Garabadian

Nancy Haver

Sara Inacio & Emma Wolfsohn

Eli Liebman

Haley McDevitt

Scott Minzy

Nolan O’Connell

Zack Pinson

B.Z. Reily

Julie Lapping Rivera

Terry Rooney

Hope Rovelto & Kate Katomski

Richard Turnbull

Clover Ulrich

Jaime Wing

Artist Bios:

Joan Appel, Marshfield, MA
Joan is a professional musician and under the name of Joan Nahigian, teaches piano, directs choruses, provides music for the Linden Ponds retirement community Sunday services and gives concerts. As Joan Appel, she creates art: monotypes, oil paintings, mixed media. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists. 

Amanda Barrow, Easthampton, MA
Amanda was raised in the Midwest by a social worker and an Episcopalian priest, in an environment conducive to creativity and abstract thinking. In 1992, a Fulbright research grant provided an opportunity for her to live and work in India for 13 months. She has returned to India many times since then, funded by fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Boston Cultural Council, and a host of other institutions. At present, she lives/works in Massachusetts, New York City and Maine. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Boston and New York Public Libraries, and the Museum of the Book in the Netherlands, among numerous other places around the world.

Anne Beresford, Leverett, MA
Anne holds a BA from Harvard University and an MA from New York University. She has taught printmaking and painting at The Art Institute of Boston, Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence and Harvard University. She was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship in 2015. Her most recent solo exhibition was Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: A Conversation with the Collections, at the University Museum of Contemporary Art, UMass Amherst. (2015).

Annie Bissett, Northampton, MA
Annie has been working primarily with Japanese-style woodblock prints since 2005, when she studied briefly with New England woodblock artist Matt Brown. Annie’s print work builds on her 25+ year career as a freelance digital illustrator, serving a clientele that has included Time-Life Publications, National Geographic Society, and the Wall Street Journal. Her prints have been exhibited throughout the US, in the UK, Canada, and Japan. She is a member of Oxbow Gallery in Northampton and is an instructor at Zea Mays Printmaking Studio in Florence.

Peter Cangialosi, Easthampton, MA
Peter is a printmaker and graphic designer. Several of his landscape monotypes are part of The Boston Athenaeum’s New England Prints and Photographs permanent collection. He’s a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and his work has appeared in various locations around the Pioneer Valley. He is available for commissioned woodblock and monotype prints.

Bruce Chandler, Springfield, MA
Bruce is a printmaker/printer. He studied drawing and sculpture at Boston University (BFA:1970); printmaking with George Lockwood at Impressions Workshop, Boston; letterpress printing with Harold McGrath at The Gehenna Press in Northampton, and was a graphics assistant to Leonard Baskin at the press and in Devonshire, England. The Heron Press is a vehicle for his printed work, often in collaboration with other artists.

Daniel Chiaccio, Easthampton, MA
@danielchiaccio
Dan is a printmaker who focuses primarily on copper plate intaglio. He has a BFA in Illustration and Printmaking from New Hampshire Institute of Art.

Madeline Conover, Washington, DC
@madeleineconover
Madeleine is an emerging artist. Born in Changzhou, China and adopted to the United States as an infant, she currently works in Western Massachusetts where she attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and studied Studio Art and Sustainable Food & Farming. Her work seeks to explore the unique intersection of the arts and agriculture. Conover focuses primarily in relief and intaglio printmaking, painting, collage, 35mm photography, and writing.

Erin Cunliffe, Terryville, CT
@erincunliffe
Erin is a freelance illustrator and printmaker. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Illustration and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Hartford’s Hartford Art School. She draws her inspiration from stories and characters she created during her childhood. Current politics and pop culture are also big inspirations to her. She is currently working on a series of relief style prints called “FIGHT LIKE a GIRL” highlighting inspirational women and their words of empowerment.

Madge Evers, Haydenville, MA
@sporeplay_
In her early years, Madge was a fine arts photographer with an interest portraiture and the human form. Her current work originates with her passion for the garden where she cultivates the mushroom variety Stropharia rugoso-annulata. When not making spore prints, Madge can be found teaching high school English, or somewhere in the garden.

Kelly Garabadian, Marlborough, MA
@kelly_green73
Kelly’s work spans a wide range of artistic mediums including photography, fiber arts, printmaking, and digital art. Her work is fueled by her curiosity and desire to always be learning. She is mostly self-taught, but currently taking classes toward her Master of Education with concentration in Visual Arts.

Nancy Haver, Amherst, MA
A member of the Boston Printmakers and Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, Nancy has exhibited her work at a variety of venues in the Northeast. She taught drawing, illustration, and relief printmaking at the University of Massachusetts and Holyoke Community College for twelve years and has taught the same subjects privately. She tries to spend as much time as possible outdoors, and enjoy hiking, bicycling, jogging, ukulele and tap dancing.

Sara Inacio & Emma Wolfsohn, Portland, ME
@earsandhands
Ears and Hands Collective is a group of printmakers and socially engaged artists striving to forge connections and encourage conversation around current events through open dialogue and collaborative art making. Our goal is to foster empathy through listening and responding to one another and the world around us.

Eli Liebman, Northampton, MA
Eli is an apprentice at Stonepool Pottery in Worthington, and a part-time printmaker. He graduated from Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN in 2015, where he studied applied math and ecology. Other prints and pottery can be found on his website.

Haley McDevitt, Amherst, MA
@haleymcdevitt
Haley is an emerging artist. She is pursuing a Bachelor of the Fine Arts in Studio Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Haley’s paintings and prints typically focus on themes including memories, feminism, and residences while utilizing found or recycled materials.

Scott Minzy, Gardiner, ME
@scottminzy
Scott makes artist’s books, relief prints and animations that deal with the universal themes of fear, regret and longing. His past life in public relations and corporate sales has led him to seek a less jaded but more authentic life in the state of his birth. As a result, he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine and teaches fine art and digital media at Erskine Academy as well as in his studio in Gardiner, Maine.

Nolan O’Connell, Hampstead, NH
@noconnellart
Nolan focuses on woodcut and linoleum relief printmaking. The content of his work reflects the culture upon which he was raised in as well as his love for science and space exploration. He has studied under professional printmakers in Portsmouth, NH as well as Florence, Italy and has graduated from the New Hampshire Institute of Art. He lives happily in Southern New Hampshire where he leads workshops in relief printmaking.

Zack Pinson, Northampton, MA
@arkansasgreasefire
Zack was born and raised in Arkansas and now lives in western MA. Lover of pizza.

B.Z. Reily, Cooleyville, MA
@bzreily
B.Z. is a mixed media artist working primarily in sculpture, assemblage, and collage. She is an art educator and a member of the Oxbow Gallery and Zea Mays Printmaking in Northampton. She has shown her work throughout the northeast in galleries and museums.

Julie Lapping Rivera, Leverett, MA
@julielappingart
Julie is a collage artist and printmaker. Her work has been exhibited both locally and nationally. She is a member and teacher at Zea Mays Printmaking Studio and an art teacher with the Amherst Public Schools. Previously she lived in New York, where she worked as a teaching artist with Studio in a School, the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center Institute. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including an Artist’s Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and Arts in Education grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Terry Rooney, Amherst, MA
Terry was born in NYC in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Educated at FIT, Art Students League and apprenticed with artist Elizabeth Murray and founder of The New Museum, Marcia Tucker, while receiving her Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from SUNY Empire State College.. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with her artwork in private and public collections.

Hope Rovelto & Kate Katomski, Portland, ME
@Hoperovelto_littlechair
@k_katomski
Hope earned her BFA in sculpture from Maine College of Art and her MFA in Ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology. She is most currently the owner of Little Chair Printing, a custom screen-printing shop in Portland ME, works part-time as an Admission Counselor for Maine College of Art, and is an Artist Member at Pickwick Independence Studios in Portland.

Kate is a multimedia artist and educator whose interdisciplinary experience includes sculpture, printmaking, performance, video and installation. She received a MFA in Studio Art at Maine College of Art (2002). She received a BFA in Ceramics with a minor in Textiles from the University of Washington (1985). Richard Turnbull, Northampton, MA www.furiousdaypress.com Rich is an art historian who also makes prints, artists’ books and experimental photography. He lives and works in both New York and Northampton.

Clover Ulrich, Amherst, MA
Clover is currently a junior at Vanderbilt University At Vanderbilt her major is Medicine, Health, and Society and the themes and topics she has explored during her studies have impacted and inspired her printmaking work. She is also a Studio Art minor, and this past semester took her very first printmaking class and produced the work in this show.

Jaime Wing, Portland, ME
jaimewing.com
@wingedartwork
Jaime is an artist, designer, printmaker and UMass alumnus. A member of the Pickwick Independent Press in his hometown of Portland, Maine, he is passionate about community and social justice work. With a focus on texture and the tactile nature of relief printmaking, he is most interested in making work around themes of identity, sexuality and mental health, usually using text or abstract imagery alongside the human form.

On Shelves: Alice Briggs, Amherst, MA
www.alicebriggs-illustration.com
Alice has been a professional illustrator her entire working life. After graduating from Bennington College she went to the Museum School in Boston, having decided that a career in art would be better than life in a practice room. There she discovered she was an illustrator and got jobs right away as a freelancer.

7th Annual Small Works Show

November 30, 2017 – January 13, 2018

The 7th Annual Small Works Show is here! Featuring over 200 works by local artists — all 6×6″. From paintings to photographs, illustrations to assemblages and more, the show features works in wide variety of mediums. All cash-and-carry!

Please join us on Thursday, December 7th, during Amherst Arts Night Plus, 5-8pm, for the opening reception and our Holiday Pie Party. Celebrate art and the season and join us for pie and spiced cider, and hang out with some fabulous local artists!

A reception and art raffle will follow on Thursday, January 11th, 5-8pm. Join us for a chance to win one of the small works, winner’s choice!

NOTE: We’re postponing the reception & art raffle due to the impending storm on 1/4. This event and Amherst’s Arts Night Plus are postponed until Thursday, 1/11, 5-8pm. Stay safe everyone, and hope you can join us on 1/11!

Raffle details: you can fill out a raffle ticket now at the shop, until January 4th! One ticket per person. Drawing will happen at 7.15pm, you must be present to win.

Info for Artists:

A big THANK YOU for showing your wonderful small works in our gallery! It’s been a pleasure to show your work, and to meet so many of you. 

Payment: we cut checks for sold work and notify artists via email in three batches. Some of you have received payment already. The next batch will go out after January 1st. The third batch will go out shortly after the end of the show.

Unsold works will be available for pick up January 15-31, during business hours. If your piece sells by the end of the show (the 13th), we’ll let you know so you don’t have to waste a trip.

If you have any questions, please call or email us!

It’s Pastel!

November 2nd – 25th

The work of three artist friends, Sally Dillon, Susanne Personette, and Ruth Rinard, who share a love of painting in soft pastels. The title was inspired by the answer they often find themselves giving to viewers of their work who inquire: “What is that? Is it oil paint?”

Sally says,” The pastels themselves — and the simplicity of using them — are as inspiring as whatever scene I am painting. The method of applying color is direct and every mark can vary in size and intensity. With an infinite number of colors and textural possibilities, I feel like a kid again, making bright colored marks with pastel on sanded paper. Pastels are such fun! Who could ask for more?”

Susanne says: “For as long as I remember, my eye has been caught by the color of light and color of shadow in nature. Pastels are the most richly satisfying way for me to joyfully respond to what I see. I am thrilled by the intensity, vibrancy, and purity of these colors and their intensely tactile application to sanded paper. Pastels are deeply colorful, completely engaging, generously forgiving, and incredibly flexible.”

Ruth says: “I have always felt a deep connection to the visual world, and I’ve drawn since childhood. It is only within the last ten years, though, that I found the medium that allows me to fully express what I both see and feel. When I am drawn to an object or scene, I want to explore what makes it special and worth observing, what qualities might be easily overlooked or passed by. A shape, a color, a line, or a mood — all can compel me to see and explore with awe in pastel.”

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 2nd, during Amherst Arts Night Plus, from 5pm to 8pm.

About Sally Dillon:
Sally has been a fiber artist for more than 40 years, specializing in hand-painted silk and more recently felted wool.  After retiring from the craft fair circuit a few years ago, she decided to try her hand at some more traditional artist’s materials and techniques, and fell in love with pastels. 

About Susanne Personette:
Susanne has been drawing, painting, and studying art since childhood. In the midst of a 30+ year career in architecture, taking a pastel workshop was the “eureka moment” when she found “her” medium.  Painting as often as possible during the past ten years of her career, her recent retirement finds her eagerly pursuing her passion for plein air painting in pastel.

About Ruth Rinard:
After careers in academe and health sciences, Ruth became intrigued with the freshness of pure pigment and the tactile possibilities of pastel. When she realized she could use her drawing skills within the painterly framework of pastel, she never looked back! Ruth has studied painting with Christine Labich and exhibited work with the Connecticut and New Hampshire pastel societies.

Shaking Loose: Rhys Davies and Ann Knickerbocker

October 5-28, 2017

New work by local artists Rhys Davies and Ann Knickerbocker. This show marks new and live experiments in approach and process for the two artists. The two artists will be painting live in the gallery a few hours each week, separately on their own work and together on a single piece, a growing arrangement of painted brown paper to reach, they intend, to the gallery ceiling.

Ann Knickerbocker paints large, gestural bright-colored abstractions more inclined to light than realism. Ann says her new works are “abstract paintings about abstraction”, a different approach to painting than her usual method of beginning with a specific topic. Rhys Davies paints tangles of flowers, not-quite flowers, in deep colors, nature woven into secretive shape and shadow. In his new body of work, Rhys aims for less control of his process, to “let the images appear”.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 5th, in conjunction with Amherst Arts Night Plus, from 5pm to 8pm.

About Ann Knickerbocker:
Ann and her husband, Charles Tarlton, moved to Florence from San Francisco in 2014. Her painting “You Must Thrash This Out for Yourself” will be included in a show of Gallery One Connecticut artists at the Marquee Gallery in New London, September 13 – October 7, 2017. She has exhibited in solo shows at The Emily Dickinson Museum (September 2016) and at Cider House Media in Easthampton (September 2015) and is a former member of Amherst’s Gallery A3. Her work was selected for juried shows at the Essex Art Association in 2017 and 2016, for the Northampton Biennial in 2015 and for the 105th Juried Annual of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts in Mystic, Connecticut in 2016.

About Rhys Davies:
Rhys is a Welsh-born artist and illustrator who currently lives in Amherst. In this new body of work, he aims to not over-control the process and let the imagery slowly happen. He has exhibited in the UK and Denmark, and locally at Wunderarts and The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, and The Elusie Gallery and the Grubbs Gallery in Easthampton. This will be his fourth show at Hope & Feathers.