You're Invited!

This Collective Pull : A Mass Collaboration

February 6 - February 28, 2010

fivesevendelle

57 Delle Avenue

Boston, MA | 02120

OPENING RECEPTION : Saturday, Feburary 6th | 6:00 PM

(left to right)

Top: Jenna Antonangeli, Anthony Montouri, Hayley Perry, Julia Puriton, Catalina Viejo

Middle: Judy Brown, Peter Brefini, Bradford Rusick, Justin Bothwell, Kathy Archer

Bottom: Luba Grenader, Heather Counselman, Rose Olson, Mary Bucci McCoy, Counselman

This Collective Pull is a Beverly, MA based movement formed to raise awareness of Boston area artists while working to encourage a strong, collaborative community. Working in collaboration with Boston's alternative gallery space fivesevendelle, the members of This Collective Pull are pleased to announce this month long exhibition featuring the drawing, installation, mixed media, paintings and photography of 16 Boston based artists. Join us at the opening to speak with artists and learn how to become involved with fivesevendelle and This Collective Pull for future projects. We believe collaboration and community lead to the cultivation of new ideas and hope you will join in our efforts.

Visit and follow This Collective Pull's blog at www.thiscollectivepull.blogspot.com for updates on this project, future projects and to get involved! We are also looking for new friends to work with so drop a line!

Check out the Facebook invitation HERE for a list of participating artists.

See you there my friends!

Two New Creations and a Whole Lot of Ideas

Well my dear friends, I have been a busy Bea (HAH!)

My curatorial project This Collective Pull : A Mass Collaboration is well underway in terms of getting the word out there and receiving submissions. To any of you readers out there that are interested in exhibiting artwork in an alternative Boston based gallery, please scroll to the previous post and upload the PDF call to artists! I still can't believe that a small exhibit that began in my friend Dan's apartment will now be a month long installation in a real honest to goodness gallery! I hope you will all make it to the opening on February 6th at 6:00pm. The gallery, fivesevedelle , is located at 57 Delle Avenue, Boston MA (get it?)

Work in the studio has been slow and steady, there is a large drawing that I have been struggling with that is nearing completion and I have been photographing it along the way so once it is done, I will post pictures of it going through the transformation from beginning to end. I have also been working with lots of collage work in which I am really building up the surface. I am antsy to be working three-dimensionally again, and have lots of ideas for how to do this. I have been working with clay and building up surfaces with torn paper as well. I am hoping that while in residence at the Hambidge Center in Georgia this coming April I will have the space to work larger. That being said, below are two pieces that crawled out of my brain this past week. I'd love to hear what you think!

Untitled, 10" x 13" Shellac, graphite, gouache and ink on bristol board. 2010

(Detail)


Untitled, 9" x 12", Shellac, graphite, gouache and ink on bristol board. 2010

I recently cleaned my studio (normally atrocious) and set up a flat surface to work on which was very helpful for the creation of these pieces. I really enjoyed working with the gouache, and I have begun working to incorporate it into my larger pastel drawings. I think the "chalkiness" of the paint will work nicely with the texture of pastel. We'll see!

Thanks for reading!

This Collective Pull : A Mass Collaboration

Hi Everyone,

I am happy to announce the Open Call to Massachusetts Artists for This Collective Pull : A Mass Collaboration. This will be the latest installment of my curatorial project with Julie O'Boyle. I am happy to say that this time around we were offered a beautiful alternative gallery space in Boston, MA for a month long installment! The space is called fivesevendelle, and occupies a beautiful brownstone from the late 1800's, complete with fireplace and chandelier!

To download the PDF click here.

For those of you not living in Massachusetts, or not working as an artist, I hope you will save the date for the opening which will be February 6th at 6:00 PM. I will be posting directions and details soon! In the meantime, help us spread the word by referring people to our blog at www.thiscollectivepull.blogspot.com. Visit our blog by clicking here and become a fan of our facebook page here!

For images and information about the last This Collective Pull, see my blog post here.

I look forward to seeing your submissions, and if you have any questions you can email me at this.collective.pull@gmail.com

Now hop to it! Deadline is January 28th!

Happy New Year!!

It's been said many times by now I'm sure, but let me add my "Happy New Year" to the list.

2009 was a pretty good year. It started off in the best way possible with the inauguration of Obama, an event I am so thankful to have been able to attend, and not one I will forget. I am thankful that the end of 2009 marks yet another year that I have managed to balance my job and life with making my art. I kept my studio practice going while applying to exhibitions and shows, some I was accepted to and some....well....not. I am also thankful to have readers like you who follow my blog and leave some wonderful encouraging comments for me. I am going on three years having a blog now, and trying my hardest to make it a more regular part of my schedule. If I made New Year resolutions, maybe this would be one??? I pretty much make resolutions every day, so I stray from making a blanket resolution at the beginning of the year. However, I do have goals for this year. It's pretty simple: maintain my studio practice, continue exhibiting my work, continue to apply to residencies and get into graduate school. When I graduated from college I gave myself a few 5 year goals. I have achieved 2 of the 3, and have two years left to achieve the third. It is a once a year chance for that one, so we'll see!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve and here's to hoping 2010 is your best year yet!!

Images of new drawings coming soon, keep being patient! Also, please forgive the inconsistent formatting, I promise to make up my mind soon!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

...all I ever wanted!

I must say that mine has been treating me well. I have been in Rhode Island at the parental units for 3 days now and love having them make me dinner and pour me homemade eggnog as I finish my application to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As you have read in past posts, I am applying to SAIC this year. I visited the campus back in October and fell in love, after attending an Open House in Boston the Admissions Director as well as a painting faculty member encouraged me to apply this year. The school is tough to get in to, and painting and drawing is the toughest department to be admitted to within the school, due to the number of applications they receive each year. I am willing to do what it takes: I love Chicago, I love the museum, and I love the interdisciplinary approach of the school. It's tough going, but wish me luck!

On another note, I have been doing small drawings (a lot of which have been given as presents over the past few days) but have not had a chance to photograph them. So to satisfy the visual aspect of this post I will show you a few of the wonderful gifts my family bestowed on me as we celebrated yet another wonderful year.

First on the list is a Matthew Ritchie book I have been eyeing. It is a beautiful hardcover with wonderful visuals of his installations, drawings and paintings as well as text from Ritchie, friends and critics. I love reading about his work as much as I do looking at it! I relate to his work in the sense that he creates overwhelming spaces, something I am working to achieve. He has become very literal with his space and his scale only in that he is working with installation, again, something I hope to do one day (maybe while at my residency in Georgia?) I love that he maintains abstraction while creating forms we can relate to, and create a plethora of associations with.

An installation shot showing one of Ritchies installations a the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Reminds me a lot of Sarah Sze (who I blogged about here) in the way they play with and exaggerate space and in the lyrical lines that they both create.

Another wonderful gift that I recieved from my mother was a promise for the two of us to go see The Lion King on Broadway in New York!!! I love seeing musicals and plays, and Broadway is the place to do it! This has become somewhat of a tradition, since my mom brought me to see Sunday in the Park with George a while back, a play about the creation and story behind George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.



I also received some beautiful paper from my father that I have never used before. It is called Wallis Paper and is supposed to be THE paper to use for pastel. It boasts being able to hold up to 25 layers of pastel, something almost all of my drawings have! Dad (and some of you) have listened to me complain about the point when the paper just can't take any more pastel and I have to relinquish control, so I am excited to use the paper and give it all I've got. My thoughtful brother and sister rounded out the day with a rice maker (from the brother who just returned from three years in Japan) and a beautiful journal of bound Tibetan papers (my sister will be doing an away rotation as part of medical school in Tibet next February.)

Hope you have had a good holiday season so far and that you too, have some time off! I'm hoping to get new work up soon, sit tight!

Dear Bea, why haven't you been posting?

Because I have been hibernating!! Sorry for the lapse in posts my friends, life is crazy with playing santa, relaxing, walking in snow and being with friends after a long, long, TOO long, travel season. Don't worry, today marks the first day of vacation for me, which means much more drawing and many more posts!

Hope the snow is treating you well!

The results are in...

...and they are that I will be spending five weeks in the mountains of Northern Georgia courtesy of the Hambidge Center!!! That's right folks, a dream come true! I found out on Friday that I had been accepted, and now having notified the boss, I can share it with the world!!! I will be leaving for Georgia on April 3rd and sh'ant return until May 9th! I am excited about this for so many reasons. First and foremost, I am looking forward to having five straight weeks to create work. For the past year I have felt on the verge of something new and haven't quite been able to reach it because "life gets in the way." Hambidge will allow me solitude and time! I am also excited because I have never been to Georgia before, and as you probably have gathered, I do enjoy new places.

I was originally drawn to this program because of the focus on nature and how it influences people's work and working habits. I spoke with the director today and she told me that I have been "assigned" the largest visual arts studio that they have to offer. All of the studios are cottages with a bed and a small kitchen, with the rest being the studio. I think this residency will be a lot different than when I attended the Vermont Studio Center last winter, mainly because of size. At any given time Hambidge has 8 artists while VSC has 50!

Well, that's my big news folks! I'll keep you updated as I find out more information!!