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Corrin Halford : Out of This World

May 25, 2021

June 3nd – July 2nd

Artists’ statement:
97% of the human body consists of stardust. This must be why I feel such a deep connection to the beyond.  Everything in history has happened on this spinning ball in our galaxy. When time seems to fly and everything seems chaotic I look up, even just for a second, and feel a sense of wonder. I sought to bring the infinite space of the universe into each piece. Creating a dreamy, starry, and ever-expanding feel through my art. Hours began to fly by as I channeled myself into these pieces. This series is a direct reflection of that experience.

 

PLEASE NOTE: walk-ins are welcome for the gallery. 

Randi Stein : Stories in Paint and Paper

Apr 7, 2021

April 30th – May 29th

Artists’ statement:
I began to draw at the age of forty-two, after a life-altering encounter with a book entitled “The Zen of Seeing”, by Dutch-American artist Fredrick Franck. My first drawing in 1990 was of a #2 pencil. It took me an exhausting two hours to draw. But what that first drawing taught me was that I already had most of the tools I needed to investigate the visual world and— perhaps– even the stories that lay behind the forms and colors I was observing. And indeed, it was the stories of people’s lives that most interested me at that time. So I began with portraiture. People came into the studio that I had rented in a small town in southern New Hampshire, and we talked while I drew;  the charcoal and pastels that I held in my hand gradually became friends, and helped me to invite and tell the story I was seeing. Some of these first paintings were exhibited and sold; two are in this show.
During this pandemic year, when social distancing made studio visits and portraiture sittings impossible, I found myself going back to some old drawings, tearing and cutting and re-arranging the pieces into new stories— often including words and images from my religious tradition, which has been such a help in keeping me spiritually in balance. This year has turned many people’s worlds upside down. It seems appropriate to be telling new stories, and discovering what was perhaps absent from my sight thirty years ago.

 

PLEASE NOTE: walk-ins are welcome for the gallery. 

10% of all sales will be donated to the Amherst Survival Center

Chris Bordenca: 80’s Kid

Feb 19, 2021

March 4th – April 26th, 2021

The nostalgia and sense of fun is clear in Chris Bordenca’s vibrantly-colored paintings of toys, action figures, and other treasured memorabilia from the 70’s and 80’s. His subjects are iconic and familiar: Star Wars characters, Batman villains, Rubik’s Cubes, video games, sea monkeys, and more, that immediately evoke that pre-internet era, especially for 80’s kids. Chris says: Almost nothing gets forgotten anymore. The past exists in the collective memory of the internet, and we can reach in and physically bring those memories into our present. These paintings are tangible and joyful reminders of the most recent pre-internet past, even if you weren’t an 80’s kid.

10% of sales from this exhibit will be donated to the The Belchertown Education Foundation. BEF is an independent, volunteer, non-profit organization committed to enriching the educational opportunities of students in Belchertown public schools.

About Chris Bordenca:
Chris’ work focuses on personal connections to objects and places from his youth in the seventies and eighties, including paintings of action figures, toys, and video games from that era. After a ten-year hiatus he returned to painting in 2018. Since then, he has shown his work around the valley in group shows, and a show in Australia to benefit victims of the wildfires. His painting “Starless Sea With Keys” won first place for acrylic painting at the 2020 Northeast Fine Arts Exposition. Chris has a BFA from UMass Amherst and lives with his family in Belchertown. bordenca.com

PLEASE NOTE: walk-ins are welcome for the gallery. Masks required. Currently we are allowing four customers in the shop at one time.

Q&A with Chris

How has your style changed over the years?
I started painting album covers and comic book art on people’s leather jackets in and after high school. In my 20’s I began painting murals in homes and businesses of whatever was asked, but my personal work turned to abstract figurative paintings. I then moved to large non-representational paintings, while still painting murals commercially. Eventually painting other people’s ideas in the murals became tedious, and I became turned off from painting all together. Ten years later, I decided to approach painting the same way that I approached art when I was young. I would paint whatever I wanted. Anything that made me happy. That is what I do now.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
1982. When I was seven years old I had a coloring book based on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. One of the images inside included a relatively realist drawing of the dog from the movie. I copied the drawing of the dog, and it was the very first time I felt what it was like to really see the thing I was looking at. I suddenly understood how to look at something and draw an accurate representation of it. It felt like real magic, and I was hooked.

What inspires you?
I love tapping into the toys and pop culture from the 70’s and 80’s. I also love old books, abandoned buildings, and beat up vehicles. I like the idea of things managing to survive through time to the present and capturing their magic before they disappear.

What is your creative process like? How do you work?
In the studio I basically play with toys for hours until I find the right feeling. I take a ton of photos with different lighting and arrangements.

What is your favorite piece that you’ve created?
My current favorites are Toy Chest, Space Invader, and Mission: Unknown

Any advice to young or emerging artists?
Make art for yourself, not what other people think you should make, or what you think other people will like.

Images above cropped from:
Space Invader, acrylic on canvas, 20×16″
Smile, acrylic on canvas, 20×16″
Hitchhiker, acrylic on canvas, 20×20″