moving forward
// graduate class notes
Tom Russell MFA 73 PT right: Palimpsest No. 1: Satori (1987/1991, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 62") is among the work exhibited in Thomas Russell: 50 Years / Selected Paintings, a solo show on view from September 3 to January 1 at the Newport [RI] Art Museum. “My work — inspired by poetic things and ideas — seeks to express the radiant effect of their union,” notes the artist, who lives on Prudence Island off the coast of RI.
1977 Cecy Rose 76 PT Having lived almost half her life in Wheeling, WV, Cecy felt right at home painting local landmarks for Mountain Christmas, a 32-page picture book that had a second print run this holiday season. It features 17 acrylic-on-panel paintings full of local color and created to complement the narrative provided by Marc Harshman, West Virginia’s poet laureate.
1975 The Society for Photographic Education named Jim Stone MFA PH the 2016 Honored Teacher at its 53rd annual
conference, held last March in Las Vegas. Jim lives in Albuquerque, NM and teaches at the University of New Mexico.
Moth Vitals, a short film by Nancy Wylie MAE, won the Best Sound award at the Portsmouth [UK] International Film Festival in September 2015, where it was also nominated for best cinematography. The experimental documentary about a veterinarian’s reflections on clients who have an extraordinary reverence for all life was screened at a number of film festivals last year, including the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, a British Academy of Film & Television Arts qualifying festival. A professor of art and digital media, Nancy teaches at the Community College of Rhode Island.
1978 In late August Ricker Winsor 77 PH/MFA exhibited paintings
in a solo show at Galeri Museum Surabaya in Surabaya, Indonesia, where he lives and works. Earlier in the year he spoke with Baruch Zeichner of the website Paradigms, discussing his work and travel experiences during an hour-long podcast interview.
James Watkins MFA 81 GL Jim’s evocative sculptural glass works are on view in Reminiscence, a solo show that continues through January 8 at Newport [RI] Art Museum. “The curvaceous volume found in a seedpod, a bird’s wing or a boat’s hull have all become part of my artistic vocabulary,” he writes, noting that he grew up in coastal Louisiana exploring the outdoors. Jim now lives in Pawtucket, RI. 88
1980 For the past 18 years Stephen Petegorsky MFA PH (Florence, MA) has documented the work of the Polus Center for Social and Economic Development, a nonprofit that works to develop innovative services for people with disabilities. As president of the Center’s Board of Directors, he traveled to Jordan last year to train disabled Jordanians and Syrian refugees to assist others who have been wounded and displaced due to the war in Syria. The Meadows, his series of black-and-white photographs shot on a large tract of land in Northampton, MA bordered by the Connecticut River to the east and south, was on view for the month of November at the city’s Old Courthouse Gallery. This academic year Esther Solondz MFA PH is serving as a Flint and Steel resident at Tulane University. Through the “cross-disciplinary combustion” residency program, the Providence-based artist is creating a sculptural “bee palace” with Tulane entomologist Claudia Riegel that they hope will help educate people about the ecological impor-
tance and dwindling population of bees worldwide.
1981 Maryjean Viano Crowe MFA PH (Belfast, ME) showed work in several exhibitions last year, including FEMMetonymy, a three-woman show at Carver Hill Gallery in
John Harkey MFA 78 PH Sacred Errand (2016, EBook Bakery), John’s fictionalized memoir about a man’s journey to Australia to return a religious artifact to its aboriginal owners, was released in August. His invented narrative is enlivened by his own experiences and impressions of the continent and its people. John now lives in Providence.