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Hope & Feathers Framing and Gallery is proud to host the works of Northampton artist Jan Ruby-Crystal from January 20 through February 27, 2016.

The exhibition of paintings and handmade paper considers themes of life and decomposition as viewed through close visual studies. As the artist notes:

“Vegetables and fruits have a life cycle. At first they are ripe and delectable, arranged to emote their sensual qualities and relationship with one another through size, color and form. As they age their contours are pushed and ripped to reveal inner seeds and juices. Sent through the extractor, they are whirled and chopped into a myriad of pieces and vibrant colors. Dumped onto a platter, their patterns merge into their own abstract designs. As they decompose they are mashed into pulp, emerging into usefulness once more as handmade paper. A new beauty arising from their end.”

An opening reception will be held on February 4 in conjunction with Amherst Art Walk from 5:00pm to 8:00pm and will include a demonstration by the artist. An artist reception will follow on Saturday, February 6, from 4:30pm to 7:00pm.

Above: Hooked. Jan Ruby-Crystal. Oil paint on gessoed handmade paper. 40 in. x 28 1/4 in.

Press

Daily Hampshire Gazette 1/13/16: Keeping Tabs on the Arts

Hampshire Life 2/4/16: Art Maker: Jan Ruby-Crystal | Painter

October 1 – November 20, 2015

Hope and Feathers Framing and Gallery invites the public to Chasing Daylight, a unique exhibition of handmade papers and monotype prints by local artist Elisa Lanzi. For Lanzi, her art is in the experience of the “making” process. Each piece is a record of the stories and passages of time and space held in the materials and in the environment around her. As she explains:

“Tearing up a skyblue linen sundress is how my handmade paper begins. Rags to pulp, who are those other makers, women in Turkey and Hong Kong whose work I tear apart? I hold back a few large snippets and add them to the work as tribute. It’s early September and outside of the papermaking shop, the fields are drowsy with dragonflies and the last hummingbirds. The silvery White Creek, with its stones and trout, finds its way into my papers and monotype prints.”

Chasing Daylight will be on display at Hope and Feathers Framing and Art Gallery from October 1st through November 20th. An opening reception and paper making demonstration will be held in conjunction with Amherst Art Walk on Thursday, October 1st, from 5 to 8 pm. An artist reception will follow on October 3rd, from 4:30 to 7 pm.

Elisa Lanzi is a papermaking artist and printmaker who lives in the Connecticut River Valley. She and three other artists make up the Trout Paper Studio, a hand-papermaking shop in rural Washington County, New York. Elisa is an artist-member of the Zea Mays Printmaking Studio in Florence, Massachusetts Her work is in numerous private collections, and has been exhibited in the United States, Italy, and Brazil.

Featured image: “Rivers to Cross.” Elisa Lanzi. Monotype construction. 2015

August 6-31, 2015

A Group Show Curated by Michael Crigler

FEATURED ARTISTS: Martin Bridge, Kamil Peters, Michael Crigler, Carl Bridge, Jesse Massaro.

Hope & Feathers Gallery presents Art as Medicine, a group show curated by Michael Crigler. The opening is from 5 — 8pm on Thursday August 6th, 2015. Refreshments will be served. Work will be on display and for sale until August 31st.

Whenever illness is associated with loss of soul,” writes Shaun McNiff, “the arts emerge spontaneously as remedies, soul medicine.”

The medicine of the artist, like that of the shaman, arises from his or her relationship to “familiars”—the themes, methods, colors and materials that interact with the artist through the creative process. In this exhibition, curator Michael Crigler brings together 5 local versatile artists working in various media to explore the creative process of healing. Art as Medicine demonstrates how the imagination can heal and renew, not only the artist, but the viewer through the natural process of creation and vibration.

“Color and line provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.” Wassily Kandinsky