NEWS&NOTES
Isabelle Choy ’13, left, handles a blowtorch under the watchful eye of visiting artist Cynthia Packard. “Talent equals discipline, stamina and fearlessness,” Packard told students.
An Artistic Winter and Spring Visiting artists work with students in various media Cynthia Packard will slather a canvas with paint, cloth, lace, wax and even tar, and then she’ll pick up her blowtorch and get to work. For the Provincetown artist, it’s all part of her process, a conversation she has with whatever piece she’s working on. Eventually, she told Brooks students when she visited earlier this semester, that piece “becomes a friend, or an enemy at times.” Packard was one of two visiting artists this semester who held shows in the Robert Lehman Art Center and worked with students in classes. At Jack Vasapoli’s sculpture opening in the Lehman in April, it was all about the music — both the blues and Cajun that Vasapoli and the Swamptones played for guests, and the blues greats Vasapoli immortalized in sculpture. Arts Department Chair Amy Graham
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Brooks Bulletin
talked about the importance of integrating the gallery into the arts curriculum during Vasapoli’s exhibit opening. “My whole philosophy for this space is that the shows should be something different every time — different style, different media,” Graham said. “Everything here is for us, this space is for the community, and the artists who show here should be involved in the community as well, as artists working with our students in our studios. It’s not separate; it’s all connected.” When Packard visited in February, she had the handful of students start by drawing one line on a square piece of wood. There was more to it than just placing a line on a blank surface, however. “Painting is about freeing yourself, freeing yourself, freeing yourself, not forcing something,” she told them. She then in-
structed them to stand boldly, and showed them how to hold their charcoal pieces more like swords than writing instruments, before making the crucial first, dramatic stroke on their surface. “Your first strokes on the canvas come from your soul, from your gut,” she said. After a little while of painting the wood canvases with a paint-and-wax mixture, Packard ignited the blowtorch and showed students how it can transform artwork. Working with the students was exciting, Packard said, because “they’re going to places they’ve never been before. They’re thinking outside the box, and getting away from what they assume painting is. They’re thinking of more abstract ideas, and understanding how composition, line, shape and form all relate. It’s their voice, nobody else’s voice.” Not that studying art isn’t important. “All paintings need a strong foundation and structure, but there’s also an emotional connection,” she said. Holly St. Cyr, a fifth-form art student, said she loved Packard’s energy, and also heard her message when it came to finding artistic freedom. “I learned to be free with your strokes/marks. It was really cool to let go and let your soul take control of the wood canvas,” Holly says. “Personally, it was sort of hard to let go, but overall I loved the experiences, and the rawness of using the blowtorches.” Isabelle Choy ’13 says Packard is “the opposite of the kind of artist” that Isabelle believes she is. “She just does what she feels like and then fixes anything she doesn’t like. I’m more of a planner. But going through her process was so inspiring because it taught me that you can be spontaneous and still create what you want,” said Isabelle. And, she says, it was great to think of a blowtorch as an artistic tool. “The blowtorch melts the wax paint and gives it a totally different effect. For me, because I’m more of an abstract artist, I liked that the torch allowed me to blend the colors flawlessly.” One of Packard’s great-grandfathers was Max Bohm, an impressionist painter, and her