Kim Powell 91 IL
In France Melissa thrives on “the constant stimulation... and the sheer beauty of the place.”
above: Sixteen years into a “six-month visit” to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Kim continues to find inspiration in the colors and contrasts of her adopted home. In March and April she exhibited paintings including Legorreta Gallo (oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm) in a solo show at the city’s Imagine Gallery (kimpowellart.com). “It is my hope that the paintings exude a sense of lightness of being and a joy of life,” she says. “Mexico heals my soul and I wanted to pay homage to that.”
FOLLOWI NG I N TH E FOOTSTE PS
of many accomplished artists before her, Melissa Ferreira 90 IL fell in love with Pont-Aven — a picturesque town in the French province of Brittany — the first summer she taught there. In 2002 former RISD professor Caroline Boyle-Turner invited her to teach figure drawing and illustration at the PontAven School of Contemporary Art (PASCA), which she had founded as a summer venture. And three years later, when Boyle-Turner expanded PASCA to a year-round operation, she urged her friend to succumb to the inevitable and relocate from Rhode Island — where the illustrator was freelancing, teaching at RISD and maintaining a studio. For someone who hadn’t even boarded a plane until she was 25, the move from New England to small-town France was a big adjustment. But Ferreira not only loved the place, she could feel her creativity blossoming “away from all the familiar norms that I contained and that had also contained me.” Put simply, she thrives on the “constant stimulation in the environment — the Breton and French languages, the cultural references, the extraordinary light and the sheer beauty of the place.”
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When PASCA, which had initially drawn her to Pont-Aven, closed in 2013, “everything changed,” Ferreira says, including her financial stability. But she had made her home in the town and wanted to stay. Before long she established a business under the arts association La Maison des Artistes, setting up shop in a tiny space off the main road in Pont-Aven where she sells her work and runs workshops. The combination — along with the Wintersession courses she continues to teach at RISD — allows her to get by, but few luxuries. “I possess a lousy business mind,” Ferreira admits with a smile. She’s gearing up to launch a Patreon presence, but says: “Money has just never been a priority for me.” Instead, she enjoys a different kind of prosperity. “I live on a hill and look to the night sky before signing off to sleep. I listen to the owls, then hours later have coffee with songbirds.” Most importantly, her work offers the rewards of “making images and objects that please me, and guiding others as they discover creative play.” Life in small-town Brittany may not be the fast lane, Ferreira reflects — but it suits her and it feeds her creative hunger. “And the crêpes ain’t too bad either,” she says.
For more on Melissa’s work go to melissaferreira.net.
John DeVore 88 IL 2017 was a banner year for DeVore Fidelity, the audio speaker company John founded in 2000 (a while after building his first pair of speakers at RISD). Built by hand in Brooklyn, DeVore speakers enjoy an international reputation in the niche high-end market, and last year their success was capped by the top honor in the industry: Stereophile’s Speaker of the Year award (among other awards and recognition from Audiophilia, AudioStream, Part-Time Audiophile and Rocky Mountain International HiFi Press).
top, far left: photo by Scott Davis
MOVED BY BRITTANY