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...!!!)