Emerging Line

Hi All,
Below is the press release for Emerging Line, my most recent show. Emerging Line is my first show in New York City, as well as the first show that I have hung drawings rather than paintings. Two of my very close friends Ebenezer Archer Kling and Justin Paszul are in the show as well. Emerging Line is the first show to be held at the brand new Temporary Gallery in the Lower East Side. Click on the image below for details, and I hope you can make it to the show! Also, the two drawings that I have in the show are in my last post. Hope all is well.

New Drawings

Hi Everyone,
Due to a recent and large donation of paper I have been been working primarily with charcoal and pastel on paper. Below are two of my recent drawings. I am continuing to work with similar shapes and patterns while addressing more complicated ways of dealing with space and becoming more ambitious with my mark making. Hope all is well!

Happy Birthday Ebenezer You Can Have This Drawing. 30"x40" Charcoal and pastel on paper. 2007

Nessy in 1776. 30"x40" Charcoal and pastel on paper. 2007

New Hampshire Institute of Art Bienniale

Hi Everyone,
I have recently had a painting accepted into the New Hampshire Institute of Art's Biennial which was open to artists from all over New England. You can see an image of "Combine" the accepted painting, in one of my earlier posts. The juror was Pamela Clark Cochrane, the director/owner of The Clark Gallery in Lincoln where I showed six of my paintings earlier in the year.
Also representing Montserrat in the Biennial is student Bradford Rusick and faculty members Judith Brassard Brown and Fred Lynch as well as fellow alum Mike Wells. The opening will take place on November 15th from 5-7 pm in the main building at 148 Concord Street. I hope to see you there! For more information visit www.nhia.edu/

A New Show!

Hi Everyone, again I apologize for the distance between new entries. I have taken a new job at Montserrat College of Art working as an Admissions Representative. It's a great job, but it is time consuming, I am traveling all over Massachusetts and spent all last week in Connecticut. Anyways, I do have a new show coming up. I had a painting accepted in to "Equinox," the Fall Member's show at the Copley Society of Art on Newbury Street in Boston. This is the third show that I have been accepted into that is affiliated with the Copley Society. The opening is October 18th , I won't be there because I will be traveling in Chicago, but I hope that you can make it! Below is the painting that I submitted, there are about thirty pieces in the show, with a wide variety of styles. You can get more information about the show at www.copleysociety.org.

Sharmi, Acrylic and pastel on panel. 28"x30". 2007.

New Work!

Hi Everyone,


Below are some images of new work, all completed within the last two months. I am excited to be entering some of them into the New American Paintings Northeast Competition as well as some other local open calls.


Also, I still have three paintings up at the St. Botolph Club and will soon have two paintings that were on display in the Clark Gallery hung somewhere in Boston through the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum's Corporate Art Loan Program!!!

Enjoy the paintings!


Justin's Wallpaper. Acrylic and Pastel on Panel. 30"x28"




Bradford, Stop Eating So Many Goddamn Jelly Beans. Acrylic and Pastel on Panel. 28"x30"




The Tailor. Acrylic and Pastel on Panel. 22.5" x 22.5"



Sharmi. Acrylic and Pastel on Panel. 28" x 30".

Stay tuned for more news about my upcoming shows!

Commission Completed!

I have finally completed my first professional commission! A local woman had seen my work in the Copley Society's 18th Annual Student Exhibition, and then saw three more of my paintings as part of the Copley Edge show and decided she wanted one for herself. The woman contacted the Copley Society and we got together for a meeting in which she gave me color swatches of the room she wanted the painting for. We talked about the technical aspects of the commission such as material, canvas size and how long I had to complete the painting.


It was odd doing a painting knowing it was already bought and for a specific person but once I let go of that idea, I had a great time with the painting. Also, because the woman wanted the painting to be light enough to easily transport, I had to paint on canvas for the first time in over a year, it took some adjusting to but ended up being fine. Below is the finished piece, it is titled " Two Tabs A Day" and is 48" by 48, acrylic and pastel on canvas.

This was a great experience and I hope to be getting more commissions soon!

"Introducing..." The Opening

The opening for "Introducing..." the summer group show at the Clark Gallery was another great milestone for me. I consider this to be the "real deal" now that I am out of school and showing in a "real live gallery."

An installation shot of some of my pieces at the Clark Gallery,pictures of the pieces as well as the titles and sizes can be seen on previous posts.

The opening was great, despite the fact that I showed up forty minutes late (which I don't recommend doing) I had a great time. I have told other people that it was probably the most laid back opening I have been to, and I don't know if it is because I had been to the gallery a couple times before, or because I had such a great turn out of friends to support me or if I am just getting used to openings, and learning to enjoy them instead of being nervous the whole time.

The show as a whole looked fantastic, organized organic and repetitive form was consistant in the work and helped tie together the drawings, sculptures, jewelry and paintings from the nine participating artists. It was great to meet the other artists who all had different backgrounds and experiences. I was very happy with the placement of my work right in the front of the gallery intermingled with sculpture and jewelry.

Thank you to all who traveled out to Lincoln to support me during this opening, and to those who haven't yet gotten there, I hope you do!



I have already been back for a second visit and will probably return a few more times to really let it all sink in!

Mentioned in the Phoenix!

"Wilbur" by Michael LaFosse. An origami pig, currently on view at the Peabody Essex Museum, was the image that accompanied an article I was mentioned in as "an artist to watch."

Much to my surprise, on June 5th, I received two emails forwarding me a link to an article in the Boston Phoenix. Randi Hopkins, of the Allston Skirt Gallery in Boston had mentioned my name as well as Alyse Rosner's as "artist's to watch" in relation to the show "Introducing..." at the Clark Gallery. The article was located in the Arts section and was titled " Know When to Fold 'Em" since it was mainly speaking of the Origami show that is currently up at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.


A very exciting plug for me I hope there are many more to come!

The Saint Botolph Opening

I am going to preface this post with the fact that it is long overdue and that I still have two more posts coming after this one. Having a blog is like having a pet, you need to pay lots and lots of attention to it. I promise I will be better.
That being said, I have lots of exciting news that has happened in the past week and a half.


I finally had the long awaited openings of my two concurrent shows at the Saint Botolph Club in Boston, and the Clark Gallery in Lincoln.

The opening for the Saint Botolph show (which is actually two shows) was on June 6th, at the club. My friend Emily and I drove into Boston and met my Mom, Dad, and sister Katharine at the huge, converted double mansion, they call the Saint Botolph Club. The venue itself was beautiful, but the shows were very impressive.

My sister Katharine and Dad Lawrence, standing in front

of my pieces in the stairwell. (These three pieces

can be seen in a previous post with title, dimension

and medium)

The forty works in total were installed in a stairwell. The bottom part of the show was called "The Copley Masters" this consisted of work from artists who had earned the status of a Copley Master by exhibiting in a number of shows, and then winning major awards in them. This show was a bit more conservative with landscapes, figures and still lives.


As you climbed the stairs you came across "The Copley Edge" (the show that I was actually involved in.) These pieces were a bit "edgier" with more experimental technique, color, and scale. The relationship between the two shows was interesting, finding similarities and dissimilarities between the works of masters and emerging artists.

My sister Katharine, my mom, myself and my dad on the top floor of the show.

Camilo Alvarez of the Samson Projects and Suzan Redgate of the Copley Society made some very nice speeches about the show, Camilo's was more of an informal question and answer session. I had met Camilo at his gallery last First Friday, and have known Suzan since last February when I exhibited in the 18th Annual Student Exhibition.

I was flattered to find out, when I arrived at the show that I had been awarded Exceptional Merit, which is why I had three pieces chosen to be in the show.


I am glad my parents and sister were able to come to the opening and get yet another taste of the life I will be leading for the next however many years. However, after they left I continued to have a great time. Emily and I had signed up for the dinner after the reception and found ourselves a spot at a table in the main room, after being booted from our original spots (I guess they were saved) I sat next to a man named Geoffrey, who is both an Attorney at Law and a practicing artist. We had a great conversation during the dinner, both of us having very different ideas about the way art should be shown and marketed. Emily sat with a wonderful woman named Anita, and apparently, over the course of the meal " solved all of the world's problems."


After dinner, Emily and I were getting wary of a parking ticket and decided to head home. We stopped and talked to Camilo and Caroline Vokey, who is the Manager of the Copley Society and helped make the show a success as well as many others. And then we were on our way...and we ended up with a parking ticket.


The night was a success, and the show is up until mid- September so go check it out (you can see the show every Wednesday from 2-4 at the club, the website has directions.) The Clark opening post will be coming soon!

Resume

To satisfy some people's curiosity about other shows I have been in as well as other projects I have been involved with, I am going to post my resume which I am now happy to say, has the letters "B.F.A" on it!


Education
2007 Montserrat College of Art, B.F.A., painting, Dean’s Honors
2006 Studio Assistant for Thaddeus Beal

Solo Exhibitions
2006 “When I Wasn’t Working for Bob…” Paul M. Scott Library, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly MA

Group Exhibitions
2007 “401” The Bear Gallery, Beverly, MA
2007 “Introducing…” Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
2007 “The Copley Edge” St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA
2007 “Artrageous! 21” Juried live auction, Beverly, MA
2007 “The Small Works Show” The Bear Gallery, Beverly,MA
2007 “Say Farewell” The Bear Gallery, Beverly, MA
2007 The Bear Gallery, Grand Opening show, Beverly, MA
2007 “The Decorated Human Antler (with distant core layers…a la mode)” 301 Gallery, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2007 “18th Annual Student Exhibition” Copley Society of Art, Boston, MA
2006 “Blue” University Place Gallery, Cambridge, MA
2006 “Find Your Place; the Art of Essex County” Castle Hill, Ipswich, MA
2006 “On the Cusp: Emerging Artists Exhibition”, the Boon Gallery, Salem, MA
2006 Regional BFA Exhibition, 808 Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA
2006 “Viterbo” Carol Schlosberg Memorial Gallery, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA

Curatorial Projects
2007 “The Small Works Show” The Bear Gallery, Beverly MA, co-curators: Katherine Romansky, Emily Pardoe

Awards/Scholarships
2007- Montserrat College of Art’s Graduation award in Painting
2007 – Montserrat College of Art’s Graduation award in Fine Arts
2007- Painting Merit Award
2007- 2nd Jurors Prize, Copley Society of Art’s 18th Annual Student Exhibition, Boston MA (juror: Kristin Dodge of
The Judi Rotenberg Gallery, Boston MA)
2006 -Carol Schlosberg Memorial Fine Arts Scholarship
2003-2007 -Montserrat College of Art Talent Award

Bibliography
“Hospital Teaches a Tough Art Lesson” The Beverly Citizen, February 22, 2007
“The Mail Project” Andy Curlowe, ed. 2006

Commissions/Projects
2007-Private Collection, Martha’s Vineyard
2007- Beverly Hospital, Beverly, MA
2005/2006- Environmental League of Massachusetts Earth Night Gala Event installation and design team
member
2005- Sally Heller’s “Calamatrees and Other Works” construction and installation team member
2005 Private residence, Portsmouth, RI

New Work

Here are four paintings that I have recently completed, three of which will be on display at the Clark Gallery Summer Show as well as four other of my recent peices. I hope you can make it to the show and enjoy them in person!


Bradford, Stop Eating so Many Goddamn Jelly Beans. 30"x 30"
Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007


Talking to Dad (October 17, 1985 - October 24, 1942). 36" x 40"
Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007





Old Man Ziskie. 17" x 17" Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007

The Tailor. 22.5 " x 22.5 " Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007

COMMENCEMENT 2007!

Ebenezer Archer Kling, myself, and Commencement Speaker Emily Pardoe after the Ceremony.

It finally came! After four years (or about 3 and a half if you account for the occasional "artistic break", I, as well as over 60 classmates, have graduated with my B.F.A from Montserrat College of Art (with Deans Honors might I add)!

The day started off early around 9:00 (yes that's early) with one last group breakfast at the local Michelle's Place. Then off to the Hardie building to put on our gowns and hats, which were the brunt of many jokes, to wait around in the Main Gallery. A big group photo of the entire class was taken on the steps of the Beverly Public Library while we all suffered in the 90+ degree heat. Then the bagpipes started and we were paraded around Beverly and took the long way to the Cabot Street Cinema where the ceremony was held. A couple of us had decorated our gowns and caps, some with glitter, some substituted there issued gowns with ones they had made out of old term papers, and I, in a minimalist fashion just wrote "BOO YEA" in big letters on my cap, a small reference to the childhood term my siblings and I used when we had achieved something great (like getting the last home made cookie.)

After we all filed in and took our seats I found my family, they were right behind me and I made sure to turn around occasionally to give a thumbs up. The president spoke, the Dean of Students ,the Mayor of Beverly, Liberal Arts professor Gordon Arnold and photographer Edward Brytynsky , but by far, the best speech was given by my dear friend Emily Pardoe. She did a fantastic job of getting the audience to laugh as well as summing up Montserrat pretty accuratley with the simple line " this place is strange..." It was a very funny but also emotional speech that got a huge standing ovation.

The awards ceremony came next. This is when awards are given out to students who showed exceptional improvement, leadership or continuted excellence in each field. I was extremely happy and a bit surprised to receive two awards. One was the Fine Arts Award, and the other was the Painting award. It was nice to hear what each presenter said about the recipient before we knew who was getting the award. Other award recipients were Kate Burgess, Micah Englington-Woods, Carolyn Hulbert, Jamie Press, KC Lee and Emily Pardoe. All are very deserving people who took the honor graciously.

Next came the faculty award, which I didn't know exsisted. It was give to Bart Uchida, a fantastic sculpture teacher who is going to Belgium for a carving workshop. He deserves it, and as Emily and I were saying, the department as a whole deserves the attention.


....then diplomas were handed out...yada yada yada... and Commencemnt 2007 was done!


We all filed out of the cinema giving high fives and hugs to whoever offered them, and marched to the Beverly Commons for one last big goodbye to our teachers and some fellow classmates we may not see for a while. The heat melted all of the cheese and the cake, and had made the juice the opposite of refreshing, but it was a great time to let my mom take embarrassing picture of me, as well as some great photo's with friends.


It was an incredible day, fantastic weather and a great turn out. And to top it off, when my whole family went out to lunch, they surprised me with a trip to Japan which I will be taking at the end of September for at least a couple of weeks. But that is a whole other post...

Below are two pictures from the big day!

The family and I, huddled together for the first time since December!

My roomate Sam Donohoe and myself.

Upcoming Summer Shows

I have two shows coming up this summer, the openings being within three days of each other...



The first show is titled "The Copley Edge" a juried offsite exhibition at the St. Botolph Club in Boston. This show opens June 6th and is up until the tentative date of September 17th. I am not sure the exact number of participants in this show, but there are a total of about twenty pieces included in it, three of which are mine. This show was juried by Camilo Alvarez of Samson Projects. "The Copley Edge"is a show organized though the Copley Society of Art on Newbury Street in Boston, where I recently showed two paintings in "The 18th Annual Student Exhibition". The opening for this show is June 6, at the club from 5:30-7:30.



The second show I will be included in this summer is "Introducing..." at Clark Gallery, in Lincoln MA. About five of my pieces, ranging in size, will be on display from June 5th until July 31 with the work of eight other artists. The opening is Saturday June 9th, from 4-6pm.

Artrageous! 21

Proof that I changed out of my paint stained jeans and flannel for the 21st annual Montserrat Auction. I am with Ethan Berry, the director of the Senior Fine Arts Seminar at Montserrat.

The auction was a success. The monetary goal was exceeded and almost all of the work was sold (hundreds of pieces were hanging on the walls). This was also the first year that students were juried into the live auction, myself included. The two other students were my good friends Claudia Saimbert and Justin Pazul. We were biting our nails when our pieces were being bid on but they all sold at relatively good prices (mine went for twice as much as was being asked for it!) The jurors were Kristen Dodge of the Judi Rotenburg Gallery and Joshua Buckno of the Neilsen Gallery, both of which are on Newbury street in Boston. Kristen Dodge was also one of the jurors for the Copley Society's 18th Annual Student Exhibition in which I won second place juror's prize. It was a great night, always fun to dress up and look at artwork. Also, the free Mexican food was a nice touch.

Above is a picture of the piece I donated, its more than a year old so it is a little bit different than the work I have posted down below, but it is titled "Nono" (even though at the auction they said it was Untitled.) It is oil and pastel on panel and measures 34"x37.5". So it was a great night lots of Margaritas and a great dance party afterwards while we were all dressed up, I am looking foward to next year's auction!

A SUCCESS!

The Third Semi-Annual Small Works Exhibition and Sale was a success!


Installation view

"For the first time since its creation the Small Works Show was an open call to Montserrat students to submit work to be juried by students Bea Modisett, Emily Pardoe and Katherine Romansky, with the only guidelines being that the piece could be no larger than six inches in any dimension. All work will be for sale, ten dollars for students, and fifteen dollars for non-students. Every artist is compensated ten dollars for each sale, and the extra five goes directly to benefiting the Bear Gallery, where the show will be on display. In the past the response and enthusiasm for the “Small Works Show” has made it an event that students and faculty have come to look forward to."

Thirty-nine artists and close to 200 small works helped make my first curatorial project a success. The point of having an open call was to encourage students who had not participated in the first two shows a chance to jump in and see what displaying and selling work was all about. Since myself and my two co-jurors are all graduating, we wanted to spread the enthusiasm to those who will stick around and hopefully carry on this new tradition.

We raised about $170.00 for the gallery as well as gaining it some publicity with our opening and the giant Brie cheese wheel we had. The Bear Gallery is a recently formed all student run gallery that has been hosting shows for the past three months. We are working on getting a permanent home to make this a part of Montserrat history.

I am glad it was a success, but I am glad it is over with, so I can relax a bit more before graduation...(T-Minus 16 days and counting...!!!)

The following paintings are pretty much in chronological order,starting with the most recent completed work to the oldest. This work is all from this semester, and I will only be posting work done since the beginning of Spring 2007.

Maxamillion, 40"x48", Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007

Combine, 44.5"x48", Acrylic, pastel, and cut paper on panel. 2007.

Untitled, 9.5"x9.5", Acrylic, pastel and cut paper on panel. 2007.

Moiese...or was it Moiese? 24" x 24", Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007

Untitled, 17.5"x17.5, Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007

I Miss My Grandma You Son of a Bitch, 30"x 30"x , Acrylic and pastel on panel. 2007

1035 Trumbull Highway, 48"x40", acrylic and pastel on panel, 2006.

I thought I should start out with some information about myself for readers who may not know me in person. I am a senior painting major at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts. I will have to update that in a month since I am graduating on May 25th. I am excited to get out of school and continue painting in my Beverly studio but without the stress of papers and exams. I also plan on continuing to show my work as well as doing any commissions that may come my way.

I work primarily with acrylic paint on masonite panel that I build myself, sometimes incorporating collage and dry medium such as pastel. Below is a copy of my artist statement explaining my intent and a bit of my process:

Through colorful, enthusiastic mark making I am exploring the complex relationships that happen when many disparate elements are placed on one surface. As a painter, the use of shape, line and material is essential in achieving intricacy in spatial relationships and surface quality. My recent paintings appear very graphic and decisive from a distance, but it is important that you move closer and discover the painterly qualities of the piece that I introduce in contrast to the more resolved elements of the paintings. I allow myself to approach these pieces as formal explorations and experimental. A piece can be resolved, but until it is achieving the complexity of the original goal, it is not completed.

My work is currently being shown as part of Montserrat's Annual Open House in the Montserrat Gallery as well as the Carol Schlosberg Memorial Gallery at 23 Essex Street, Beverly MA.

A larger body of my work will be on view in two places this summer.

The first show is titled "The Copley Edge" a juried offsite exhibition at the St. Botolph Club in Boston. This show opens June 6th and is up until the tentative date of September 17th. I am not sure the exact number of participants in this show, but there are a total of about twenty pieces included in it, three of which are mine. This show was juried by Camilo Alvarez of Samson Projects. "The Copley Edge"is a show organized though the Copley Society of Art on Newbury Street in Boston, where I recently showed two paintings in "The 18th Annual Student Exhibition". The opening for this show is June 6, at the club from 5:30-7:30.

The second show I will be included in this summer is at Clark Gallery, in Lincoln MA. About five of my pieces, ranging in size, will be on display from June 5th until July 31 with the work of eight other artists. The opening is Saturday June 9th, from 4-6pm.

So now that I have that out of the way I am going to get to the fun part of learning to upload some images. I hope you can make it to some of my upcoming shows, and as always, if you have any suggestions or comments you can avoid the hassle of joining blogspot by emailing me directly at beamodisett@yahoo.com. Loving it.

Starting Out

Welcome to my Blog! This is going to serve as my temporary link to the online world. I am in the process of developing a website, but since computers are not my specialty, it is taking me a while. In the meantime, this page will be available for you to view my most current work as well as keep track of any shows I may be participating in. Enjoy! And if you have any suggestions, send them my way!