Thanks to all those wonderful people who have been a part of my ongoing support team through my illness and beyond for taking photos at the Opening of the show “Built/Broken” which make up for my lack of skill as a photographer. in order of their appearance in the slideshow: Brian Goslow, Stephen DiRado, Judith Rowland Knight, and Cathy Weaver Taylor.
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The best reason I know of to be sure to attend Openings:
Other visitors often have profound insights and can bring a show alive as they elaborate on what they see.
I had the opportunity to be standing beside my friend, Laura Cahalane as she spoke to a glass and fiber artist. I had listened to her artist’s talk but my friend’s ability to elaborate and expand on the connections between the glass work and fiber brought my understanding to a whole new level.
Later, as I was standing next to a friend Janice Nazarewicz who told me of her son’s work on what had been one of my favorite reclaimed sites in Worcester, the skate park sited in an abandoned area under railroad tracks as well as the blood, sweat, tears, and money spent as a group of teens organized and, with no help from adults, created beauty where ugliness had been. It is a sad statement about my city to realize that we are sponsoring any number of “programs” to increase youth involvement in the Arts but will not allow for far more beautiful spontaneous creativity.
Again, this is a show not to be missed. There are other far more able photographers at Clark who will provide greatly improved documentation of the Show. I refer you to them.
I am thrilled to be able to invite as many people as I can to this show because the students have historically done a great job of jurying, installing, and showcasing the work we have submitted and deserve much credit as well as the instructors (listed below) who guide them. Because of the time frame, and number of invitations we were each given, I began by giving them out to those people who have provided me with ongoing support and inspiration through my illness and treatment. Even then, I didn’t have enough! I feel blessed to have you all in my life.
Artists:
Taylor Apostol, Cynthia Back, Michele Fandel Bonner, Johnathan Derry, Hilde-Kari Guttormsen, Patty Harris, Donald Hartman, John Hayes-Nikas, Jan Johnson, Robert Lewis, Dylan MacLeod, Robert Maloney, Angela McHale, Duncan Morimoto Brown, Chelsea Revelle, Seth Rubin, Cathy Weaver Taylor, Jill Watts
Exhibition Dates: March 20 – April 17, 2019
Opening Reception: March 20, 4-6:00
Artist Gallery Talks:
March 20, 4:15-4:45
April 2, 12-1:00
Exhibition location:
Schiltkamp Gallery, Traina Center for the Arts, Clark University
92 Downing Street
Worcester, MA 01610
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 9-7
Friday, 9-4:30
Saturday and Sunday, 12-5
For More Information:
Professor Elli Crocker, Gallery Director: 508-793-8818 and/or
Tina Zlody, Visual and Performing Arts Events Coordinator: 508-793-7349
INNER VISION VERSUS OUTER APPEARANCE
Getting older, as I walk past mirrors, I am startled to see my mother staring back at me or certainly a person who is broken and barely patched together, not the person I think of as “me” or who appears in my dreams as “myself”. She is hidden inside and whole.
Medium: cone 10 ceramics, glazes, stains, chicken wire, steel wire, epoxy.
Date: 2/19
Dimensions: 24” wide, 20” deep, and 38” tall.
Mailing Address: 129 Beacon St. Worcester, MA
E-Mail Address: 129.jwatts@gmail.com
Cost/Insurance Value: $2,800
Artist’s Statement: For many years, I have worked with dreams and visions with the goal of realizing the ephemeral in concrete materials. Ceramics, especially cone 10, reminds me just how fragile and unpredictable reality can be. We are all in a constant process of dying and being born as our cells are replaced, as the living things we all harbor come and go. It is more obvious for some than others. These cycles repeat throughout the universe and interact. There is more space than substance to all living things allowing for change. Those of us on the surface of the earth are the connection between the beings living in the earth and what is above, the substance becoming more dense as it descends. The kiln provides many surprises, some positive and some not particularly so. My challenge is to accept both as with the dreams and visions. This piece had to be made in sections because of the size of the kiln. The plan was to have the chicken wire cause disruption to those pieces and to mirror the chicken wire used to assemble the entire torso and to hold the inner figure in place.
Humanity’s incessant impulse to both create and destroy may be an expression of the life force itself, but with the pace of these cycles seeming to increase ever more markedly and with the impact of human activity felt ever more globally, it is worthwhile to reflect on this impulse. While material culture transmutes continuously, so do socio-economic, political, and religious “structures”. We see marvelous systems designed only to fail in various ways – from the Internet to transportation networks, from medical science to government programs. Are we building beyond our ability to control or manage what we build? Is poor design contributing to things falling apart?
The artists in this exhibition are creating things, while commenting on breakdown at the same time – from individual bodies succumbing to age and affliction, to the falling of great empires; from the building of new “temples” on the rubble of the old, to the questioning of consumer culture and unfettered growth. There is also fear expressed about the impact of all this activity on the climate of our planet and the well-being of all of its denizens. These artists also find meaning in the ruins, remnants, and debris left behind in the wake of this relentless building and breaking, and breathe new life into this material. Like the ever-dancing figure of the Hindu god, Shiva, we humans hold creation and destruction in our hands. With this enormous power comes both grief and hope.
This exhibition was conceived, curated and installed by students in ARTS 296 Gallery Culture and Practice, a “problems of practice” course, in which students explore opportunities to connect what they learn in the classroom with issues and matters faced by professionals working beyond the campus.
