Thoughts on naming artwork

by Kathleen Gerdon Archer

Kathleen Gerdon Archer, A Single Picture Appeared, 34″ x 48”
2017, polypropylene print on Sintra

Gallery owners prefer that artists work have titles but deciding on one can be frustrating work for an artist.

My titles are sentence fragments taken from favorite books: those that perfectly explain in words what I am saying with my photography. It is amazing that writers, photographers and other creatives can portray the very same thoughts, as if of one mind, in such uniquely different media. 

My recent photographic series, Fare Well: The Art of Ending, employs a narrative structure with timelessness, geology, and personal family history at its core. My effort is to show the scope and immensity of one life.

To make my photographs I first build an ice sculpture filled with memorabilia pertaining to the person I am profiling. With each form I create, an individual life is celebrated in all its scope and importance.

Tinkers, the beautifully written Pulitzer Prize winning book by author Paul Harding became the source of the titles for my work of the last seven years. It is a huge story in a small volume. The Pulitzer board called the novel “a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality.” 

The sentence fragments I choose as titles pair the author’s beautiful words with my abstract image, leaving room for the viewers interpretation.

Kathleen Gerdon Archer, Phantoms in a Silver Mist, 36 x 36”, 2017,
Polypropylene Print mounted on Sintra under Plexiglas

Kathleen Gerdon Archer, Sleep is Another World, 42 x 48”, 2017,
Polypropylene Print mounted on Sintra under Plexiglas

Kathleen Gerdon Archer, Not at Ease in this World, 45 x 48”, 2017,
Polypropylene Print mounted on Sintra under Plexiglas

The exhibition Fare Well: The Art of Ending is on view at Kingston Gallery through October 1, 2017.

Like a moth to a flame…

By Laurel McMechan

Our installation team curated the exhibition heated to unite the space through a system of chromatic hot spots. As you enter the gallery, the crisp lemon yellows, intense oranges and pinks connect across your view. Like a moth to a flame, Rachel Sevanich’s painting Circus Act I pulls you into the farthest gallery.

heated, Installation view. Photo by Tatiana Flis

The formal elements of line and pattern undergird the rambunctious color of the exhibition. Swirling lines from Rachel Thern’s paintings, the cast shadows of Rachel Mello’s wire drawings and stitched threads adorning On-Keong Syeong’s paintings echo the fragile stilted legs of Tatiana Flis’s delicate sculptures.

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Like a patch of shade to rest in, the middle and rear gallery spaces swim with earth tones, calmly smoldering like the intense red of fresh cherry juice staining your hands and the effervescent green of ripe watermelon rind. Nat Martin’s black and white photographs remind you of the inky void after the fire has gone out and winter’s chill before the spring blooms again.

Nat Martin, Landscape #3, archival inkjet print, 2017

heated is on view through August 27, with a Closing Reception from 12 – 3pm. Included in this exhibition are Kingston artists Jamie Bowman, Tatiana Flis, Jane Lincoln, Nat Martin, Laurel McMechan, Rachel Mello, On-Kyeong Seong, Rachel Sevanich, Rachel Thern, and Anne Sargent Walker.

‘heated’ brings the August heat

by, Jane Lincoln

The Kingston Gallery opening reception for heated was crowded and hot – most appropriate for the theme.

As a colorist, I focused on how to project the emotion of a hot summer day. In the painting August Heat, I explored how the intensity of a color accelerated the warmth and how the interaction between colors altered their strength.

August Heat, acrylic on paper/hardboard, 24″ x 24″, 2017 (photo by Will Howcroft)

It was rewarding that so many viewers closely examined the structure of my paintings and questioned me about the material and my process. The works are hand painted collaged paper on ampersand hardboard. I paint BFK Rives paper with acrylic – the adjustment of each color being my primary focus. I paint the strips of paper in greater dimensions than I will use in the final painting so I can physically adjust the bands of color until they visually feel right. Some edges are cut so as to cast a shadow, others are painted.

Painted BFK Rives papers

In August Heat, the thin blue strip near the bottom was my last decision – and I am pleased even blue reads warm. The painting stands out from the wall an inch so as to cast a colored shadow behind the work – the magenta from the surface moves around the edges and to the back. This warm glow is consistent with the title.

heated is on view through August 27, with a Closing Reception from 12 – 3pm. Included in this exhibition are Kingston artists Jamie Bowman, Tatiana Flis, Jane Lincoln, Nat Martin, Laurel McMechan, Rachel Mello, On-Kyeong Seong, Rachel Sevanich, Rachel Thern, and Anne Sargent Walker.

The art and the technique of Erica Licea-Kane in Over and Over

Erica Licea-Kane, Small Disruptions, 1, 2017, 12” in diameter, pen, burn tool

For my solo exhibition, Over and Over, now up at the Kingston Gallery, I wanted to push myself in ways that I hadn’t before. Aside from exploring large shaped works with the familiar extruded medium, I decided to produce a series of round drawings. These works, 12” in diameter, started with a series of pen line drawings that have decorative patterns based on and dependent upon the grid. The drawing component to these works took about 5 months of working in the evenings to create the repetitive fine lines. These drawings became a meditative task for me as I was not aware of the hours that passed as I worked.

I chose the round shape because I knew that I wanted to burn holes in the center openings. I also knew that I wanted to burn the surfaces as well…….I just wasn’t clear about how at the beginning of the process. As I started the burning process, I realized immediately that I wanted to create patterns on the surface knowing all along that my intention was to defy the preciousness of the original surface. The juxtaposition of both surfaces and their differences were always what I had imagined.

Erica Licea-Kane, Small Disruptions, 2, 2017, 12” in diameter, pen, burn tool

I discovered that using a metal shape guide helped me to create the layers that I wanted. I also learned other ways of shaping and covering with the burn tool that resulted in a sepia surface of many values. Ultimately, I realized that working this way was not that unlike my other work, as it also involves layers of repetition and embedded imagery that you discover upon close inspection.

– Erica Licea-Kane, July 2017

Join us for a closing reception for Over and Over, along with Drawings by Brian Littlefield, and E. Orleans by Joan Baldwin, on Sunday, July 30, 3-5pm.

All about E. Orleans by Joan Baldwin

“The space in Kingston Members’ Gallery is just the right size, where the viewer is in the middle of the terrariums which are on the walls and the installation, Too Many Babies which is all around the room. The viewer is surrounded by my impressions of the E. Orleans walking paths along Pleasant Bay. I’ve included the beauty of the area as well as the unfamiliarity and deterioration. While walking on the paths, it is routine that I come across dead and deteriorating animals, but it seems part of the reality of the marshes and natural. The paintings in the terrariums are preserved at a certain time in their existence but the cocoons and moths in the installation are more in the present, very much alive and growing, with life in the future. The mother moth in the installation, Too Many Babies can only watch as the babies are behaving instinctively, investigating and flying all over. There’s no use trying to keep them in line.

“The procedure of making the terrariums involved a series of steps. I painted the backgrounds with oil on Masonite and then incorporated found objects. The natural objects are from the area near the water at Pleasant Bay. In the installation I used fabrics as well as hair and hair accessories. The cocoon attached to the stick and some of the baby moths are moving with the air currents in the room, giving them a special effect. In order to put the show together, I relied on skills that I’ve used in the past, which are sewing, window display design and of course painting. I had to imagine how the entire show would look and feel when installed in the members’ gallery, since my studio is a much larger and different space.”

Joan Baldwin, July 2017

The exhibition E. Orleans is on view in the Kingston Members’ Gallery through July 30, 2017.

Meet Jennifer Moses

This article is being re-published with permission from the Boston Voyager. We thank the Boston Voyager Editorial Staff and Edward Clark for the original feature and for supporting local art in Boston.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Moses.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jennifer. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My story is the story of a group of talented artists who had the vision to start a gallery. The Kingston Gallery is a dynamic, contemporary exhibition space located in the heart of the most densely populated gallery district in Boston, SOWA.

Founded in 1982, this artist run cooperative gallery provides its member artists with the freedom to develop and curate their own exhibitions. It was conceived to be a space where the membership actively support and encourage experimentation and development within each member’s ongoing body of work. The membership is comprised of 24 artists working in a variety of media from painting to photography, installation art to the sculpted object.

Beyond solo exhibitions of member artists, we host national juried exhibitions, present group exhibitions by both member and non-member artists, introduce emerging artists, and sponsor other exciting cultural events and projects. The gallery remains committed to presenting a broad range of contemporary styles and media and to providing an alternative and complement to Boston’s museums and commercial galleries.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It is pretty amazing that the Kingston has remained a strong dynamic presence in the Boston Gallery scene since 1982. It is Boston’s second oldest such institution presently in operation. There have been over 60 artists who have cycled through the gallery since its inception and it can be challenging to uphold the mission of fostering experimentation and change (two qualities not usually associated with financial success) while remaining financially solvent. So far we have prevailed and we maintain a good balance but it can be tough in a city where rent continues to skyrocket.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We specialize in presenting diverse ideas and art idioms in our exhibitions. We are proud to be critically acclaimed artist run business.

What were “you” like growing up?
Kingston Gallery is an artist-run cooperative incorporated in 1982, Boston’s second oldest such institution presently in operation. It takes its name from its original location at 129 Kingston Street near Boston’s Chinatown. In 1997, the gallery relocated to the South End (now 450 Harrison Avenue #43), in Boston’s largest gallery district a short walk from the Boston Center for the Arts.

Residency: Linda Leslie Brown on Haystack Mountain School of Crafts

Haystack, photo by Linda Leslie Brown

“Haystack Mountain School of Crafts has recently begun offering a two-week residency program for artists. I applied, although I wasn’t sure my work would qualify in the crafts category, and I haven’t made anything out of ceramic clay since undergrad. To my grateful surprise, I was accepted. I had no real structured plan of what I might do there, and as it turned out, many of the resident artists in the program were also there to experiment with media new to them, including working in the Fab Lab with laser cutters and 3D imaging.

“I had heard so many wonderful things about this place, since Mass Art brings students there every Fall. The location, far out on Deer Isle on Jericho Bay, amid rock islands covered in pine and fir trees. Architect Edward Larrabee Barnes called Haystack his “happiest” project, and it is a joyous meeting of building and environment. The spare, 60’s modernist buildings float over a huge granite outcropping, connected by a system of walkways and stairs of pressure-treated lumber. Cabins are very basic and simple, uninsulated and unheated. My roommate and I shared the tiny bathroom.

Jericho Bay, photo by Linda Leslie Brown

“Unprepared for the chilly night temperatures, I spent a frozen first night, awakening to the amazing beauty and silence of early-morning coastal Maine. I took a stroll on the walking trail winds through the Haystack property, among trees sheltering oval pads of brilliant green moss a foot thick. Breakfast was ample, fresh, and made right there in the kitchens. The food is locally sourced where possible, healthy and tasty. The chef wowed everybody daily with fresh baked cookies and outrageous cakes.

“We residents fell into a rhythm of long days and nights of work in the studio. The weather continued cool (I seldom removed my down vest) and changeable. When the sun came out it’ was brilliant, and (almost) warm out. Then, in would roll massive clouds, signaling a spectacular thunderstorm. I acclimated to the weather, acquiring more blankets-and I finally found my alpaca socks which I wore to bed almost every night. Breaks were celebrated with a bonfire on the rocks at the edge of the ocean one evening, and a lobster picnic. Cell phones were banned from studios and cabins, but most of the time this felt more liberating than annoying.

Kiln loaded, photo by Linda Leslie Brown

“The ceramics studio was the place where I spent most of my time. The first day I went through 25 pounds of clay, making stuff that will be parts for new sculpture, I hope. I spent most of my time working in hand building, although I did try throwing again (after many years since undergrad.) It’s not like riding a bike, at least in my case. However, some of the artists there were capable of creating gorgeous air-filled forms on the wheel. At the end of the first week we fired the gas salt kiln for the first time. The salting sequence was spectacular, generating clouds of vapor out the stack as the salt/soda mixture vaporized in the hot kiln. I also learned to make paper, and experimented with some 3d forms made of pulp. Both processes seemed simple and proved challenging to do at all well. I’m happy to be coming home with a small stack of handmade cotton paper.

Haystack woods, photo by Linda Leslie Brown

“This two-week residency culminated with a festive celebration, live and silent auctions. I was able to snag a beautiful piece by artist Michelle Samour. So, I returned to Boston with that, a decent haul of works in clay and paper from the studios, and many memories to treasure of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.”

To see work by Linda Leslie Brown visit her artist page: www.kingstongallery.com/artists/linda-leslie-brown/