Awake: Mindfulness and Presence in Art

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This catalog is an accompaniment to the exhibit organized and presented by Unbound Visual Arts, Inc. Edited and Produced by Unbound Visual Arts Exhibit Assistants: Jessica Hernandez, Sommer Smith McPherson, Shuxian Zhang, Sophy Zhu

Exhibit Coordinator: John Quatrale

UVA MISSION STATEMENT Unbound Visual Arts (UVA) is a unique Allston-Brighton (MA) based non-profit art organization. We serve the Greater Boston community with impactful educational programs and exhibits to encourage learning, engagement, and change.

UVA Board of Directors & Council of Advisors Louise Bonar, Tsun-Ming Chmielinski, Francis Gardino, Marcie Laden, Madeline Lee, Jeanne Lin, Susan Loomis-Wing, Brenda Gael McSweeney, Emelia Misail, Andrea Newman, Ira-Ilana Papadopoulou, John Quatrale, Ruth Rieffanaugh, Diane Sheridan, Karen Smigliani, Jennifer Turpin

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Unbound Visual Arts Inc. 43 N. Beacon St. Arthaus Gallery Allston, MA 02134 UnboundVisualArts.org info@UnboundVisualArts.org 617-657-4278

Artists: Nedret Andre, Bayda Asbridge, Mary Barton-Lech, Nina Bellucci, Yildiz Grodowski, Christiana Lauzon, Miranda Limon, C.J. Lori, Ariel Matisse, Maureen McCabe, Carol E. Moses, Erin Palazzolo Loparo, Paula Pitman Brown, Adriana G. Prat, Julia Purdy, Sarah Richi, Dan Rocha, Alexandra Rozenman, Shirah Rubin, Lynn Simmons, Jacobey A. Waldman, Allida Warn, Laura White Carpenter

Copyright 2023 Unbound Visual Arts, Inc. Nothing in this catalog may be reproduced in any manner without permission, except for exhibit and art reviews or other educational purposes.

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Curator’s Statement Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing. This exhibition explores the concept, practice, and idea of mindfulness by highlighting the myriad ways it takes form in and through art. Through ceramics, painting, sculpture, and mixed media, the artists in this exhibit demonstrate the way mindfulness can be expressed through different creative forms. This wide array of visual renderings of mindfulness illustrate that it is a cornerstone of mental and physical health for many, and that it is a quality that every human being can possess and utilize through practice.

Through their work, the featured artists remind us that creating art is a mindful act. It not only requires – and strengthens – one’s attention, awareness, and concentration, but through such deep focus it has the potential to offer a greater understanding of one’s presence and being in the world. Indeed, many of the artists remark on intentional acts of observation whether it be noticing the details of their surroundings, their interior and mental states, or the state of society. Overall, mindfulness comes to the center of this exhibit in unique and meaningful ways, prompting viewers to examine their own relationship to the idea and practice.

Declaración del Curador La atención plena es la capacidad humana básica de estar plenamente presente, consciente de dónde estamos y qué estamos haciendo. Esta exposición explora el concepto, la práctica y la idea de la atención plena destacando las innumerables formas en que toma forma en y a través del arte. A través de cerámica, pintura y técnicas mixtas, los artistas de esta exposición demuestran la forma en que se puede expresar la atención plena a través de diferentes formas creativas. Esta amplia gama de representaciones visuales de la atención plena ilustran que es una piedra angular de la salud física y mental para muchos, y que es una cualidad que todo ser humano puede poseer y utilizar a través de la práctica.

A través de su trabajo, los artistas destacados nos recuerdan que crear arte es un acto consciente.

No sólo requiere – y fortalece – la atención, la conciencia y la concentración, sino que a través de un enfoque tan profundo tiene el potencial de ofrecer una mayor comprensión de la presencia y el ser de uno en el mundo. De hecho, muchos de los artistas destacan actos intencionales de observación, ya sea notando los detalles de su entorno, sus estados interiores y mentales o el estado de la sociedad. En general, la atención plena llega al centro de esta exhibición de maneras únicas y significativas, lo que lleva a los espectadores a examinar su propia relación con la idea y la práctica.

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Curator’s Biography Boston-based mixed media artist, Jack Energy brings a refreshing and profound depth to his works, melding a luscious, organic sensibility with an urban edge. Having written/produced several alt rock albums, curated and promoted many music-centric art events over the years, Energy brings his vision to UVA's new Overlook Gallery with Awake: Mindfulness & Presence in Art. "Mindfulness has been key in my good health and creative output. I visualize attendees of this exhibition leaving informed, invigorated & inspired. Our life paths become better and brighter with that first conscious breath."

Biografía del Curador Jack Energy, artista de medios mixtos radicado en Boston, aporta una profundidad refrescante y profunda a sus obras, fusionando una sensibilidad deliciosa y orgánica con un toque urbano. Habiendo escrito/producido varios álbumes de rock alternativo, curado y promovido muchos eventos artísticos centrados en la música a lo largo de los años, Energy trae su visión a la nueva Overlook Gallery de UVA con Despierto: Atención Plena y Presencia en el Arte.

"La atención plena ha sido clave para mi buena salud y mi producción creativa. Visualizo a los asistentes a esta exposición saliendo informados, vigorizados e inspirados. Los caminos de nuestra vida se vuelven mejores y más brillantes con ese primer aliento consciente."

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Artwork

Nedret Andre Dive Oil on Canvas 36 x 36 inches

Nedret Andre Water Column Oil on Canvas 18 x 36 inches

Bayda Asbridge Blue Mountain Paper Collage, Mixed Media on Handmade Cradled, Puck Light, Remote Control Wooden Board 72 x 18 inches

Bayda Asbridge It’s A New Day Saori Weaving Mounted on a Handmade Cradled Wooden Board; Dowel, Origami Cranes; Wooden Wedges 39 x 72 x 3 inches

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Mary Barton-Lech Backyard Mixed Media/Fabric and Acrylic Paint on Canvas 16 x 20 inches

Nina Bellucci Just Breathe Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 12 inches

Nina Bellucci Meditation on Place (Here I Am) Acrylic on Canvas 14 x 14 inches

Yildiz Grodowski Reflections Acrylic/Mixed Media/Collage on Canvas 24 x 48 x 2 inches

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Yildiz Grodowski When She Closed Her Eyes Acrylic/Mixed Media/Collage on Canvas 36 x 36 x 1.5 inches

Lisa Jay Breathe Acrylic Painted Papers Mounted on Canvas 20 x 13.5 inches

Lisa Jay Spirit Gather Acrylic Inks and Tissue Paper Mounted on Canvas 20 x 16 inches

Christiana Lauzon Composition No. 2 Mixed Media on Stonehenge 22 x 30 inches

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Christiana Lauzon Composition No. 7 Mixed Media on Stonehenge 22 x 30 inches

Miranda Limon Border Watercolor 11 x 18 inches

Miranda Limon Breathe Watercolor 24 x 18 inches

C.J. Lori Adrift Oil on Cradled Panel 20 x 16 inches

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C.J. Lori Spring is in the Air Oil on Canvas 24 x 30 inches

Ricardo Maldonado Mediterranean Acrylic on Paper 30 x 40 inches

Ricardo Maldonado Oranges Acrylic on Paper 9.5 x 11.5 inches

Ariel Matisse Fierce Reality Bronze, Steel Wire, Wood

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Maureen McCabe Breathe Acrylic on Panel 12 x 12 inches

Carol E. Moses we have to be both happy and sad Framed Print 18 x 13.5 inches

Carol E. Moses what must we cultivate Framed Print 13 x 16 inches

Erin Palazzolo Loparo veins and vines (searching self) Acrylic Ink, Gouache, Carving, Gel Pen, Free Association Words on Claybord 16 x 16 inches

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Paula Pitman Brown Golden Day, The Six Point Oil on Canvas 24 x 18 inches

Paula Pitman Brown Tangle, Bittersweet Oil on Canvas 24 x 18 inches

Adriana G. Prat Unveiling Your Interior Acrylic, Acrylic Pen, and Collaged Paper on Corrugated Cardboard 41 x 32 inches

Adriana G. Prat Where Dreams Go Acrylic, Oil, Oil Sticks and Oil-based Markers on Canvas 12 x 10 inches

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Julia Purdy Mandala Meditation Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches

Julia Purdy We’re All Connected Acrylic on Canvas 30 x 40 x 1.5 inches

Sarah Richi Nodus Tollens Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 18 inches

Sarah Richi Where the Sirens Play Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 18 inches

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Dan Rocha Angelis Wood/Metal Leaf/Pigment/Lacquer 21 x 17 x 5 inches

Dan Rocha Koan Wood/Metal Leaf/Pigment/Resin 21 x 17 x 5 inches

Dan Rocha Nyx Wood/Metal Leaf/Pigment/Lacquer 21 x 17 x 5 inches

Alexandra Rozenman Untangle Oil on Canvas 24 x 36 inches

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Alexandra Rozenman Where Are You Now? Oil on Canvas 24 x 26 inches

Shirah Rubin Half is Whole Ceramics, Wire, and Sand 16 x 16 inches

Shirah Rubin We Remember Ceramic, Sand, Wood Box 12 x 12 inches

Lynn Simmons Bye-Gender Deconstructed Wooden Parlor Chairs 35 x 17 x 24 inches

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Jacobey A. Waldman Primordial Tapestry Silkscreen 72 x 54 inches

Jacobey A. Waldman Life Imitates Gesso and Pigment on Wood Panel 16 x 20 inches

Allida Warn Songs for Olmsted Park: City Emergence and Falling Away Multimedia Installation

Laura White Carpenter Divining Stone Porcelain 25 x 15 x15 inches

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Laura White Carpenter Protection Porcelain 14 x 8 x 8 inches

Art in this exhibit may be purchased by visiting the gallery or going to the Unbound Visual Arts online art shop 18

Artist Statements and Biographies 1. Nedret Andre Bio: I’m Nedret, a full-time SOWA artist working in South End, Boston. I earned my BFA in Painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and received my MFA in Visual Arts from Maine College of Art. My abstract oil paintings are process based; exploring color, texture, mark-making, and gestural drawing. I love the way oil paint drips, flows and makes terrific unexplainable combinations. Most of my paintings since 2015 have been about our environment, more specifically about seagrass habitats. My work is inspired by eelgrass restoration projects and my collaborations with local marine ecologists. I love being in the field with these wonderful scientists and helping bring awareness to the vital importance of this ecosystem. Part of the proceeds from each sale or commission is donated to one of the seagrass projects. You can also view my field trips and learn more about the science on my blog.

2. Bayda Asbridge

My art is inspired by nature and its elements. I depicted nature initially in my Asian paintings (2D) and moved on to use natural elements in my weavings and sculptures by utilizing natural materials such as paper, wood, seeds, plants, roots, wood bark, driftwood, shells, pods, etc. Even though I am interested in many genres of art, Asian art with its simplicity and appreciation of nature and everything living plays an important role in my art. So, whether I paint, weave, or sculpt, I aspire to bring that Asian aesthetic into my work. Some of my work is aesthetic, some of it is functional and some of it is political or carries a message. Being a female from the Middle East, I grew up to be a human rights activist. As an artist, I believe we have an obligation to bring awareness to social, political and humanitarian issues through our art, because art makes a difference. Recently, I took classes in wire and natural fiber basketry and since then my hands have not stopped weaving vessels small and large. Meanwhile, I’m working on a long-term project called Hold Me Tender addressing the refugee crisis in the Middle East and more recently the earthquake in Syria via building boats held in birch trees and branches. Finally, I want to keep an open mind and continue learning and being creative without boxing my art/craft under one label or another. Creativity can’t be boxed.

Bio: Bayda is an American Syrian artist residing in Worcester, MA. She is a multi-disciplinary artist, who works in a wide range of mediums.

Bayda was trained as an Asian Brush painter then she moved on to teach that art form at Worcester Art Museum. She has vast knowledge in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, Japanese weaving (Saori), mixed media, sculpture, installation, and basketry. Her work has been recognized in several New England art institutions including Worcester Art Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, Attleboro Art Museum, Cambridge Art Association, Fountain Street Gallery and Schweinfurth Art Center, giving her a well-rounded knowledge of all stages of artistic 19

production from conception through to presentation. In 2011, Bayda was awarded the Frances Kinnicutt Travel & Study Award from Worcester Art Museum so she traveled to England and studied mixed media. In 2021, she was awarded Mass Cultural Traditional Arts Award in Arabic Calligraphy and got trained in Diwani font. More recently in 2023, Bayda was awarded the individual artist grant from Mass Culture which she utilized in learning traditional and modern basketry weaving.

3. Mary Barton-Lech Ever since spending more time at home during the pandemic, I try to focus my awareness on the here and now. I find the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh very helpful in that pursuit. “I breathe in, and I let my in-breath proceed naturally...Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out. I smile at my out-breath… Try to breathe in this way when you experience joy. For example, when you are looking at a sunset and are in contact with the beauty of nature, practice mindful breathing. Touch deeply the beauty that is before you.” – Thich Nhat Hanh (2009), You Are Here, Shambhala Publications, Inc. This practice makes me keenly aware of the nature around me. In spite of and in contrast to a very built-up environment, I see the struggle, strength and resiliency of nature.

Bio: I am a lifelong artist who spent 20 years teaching and being inspired by public school students in grades K-12. My current work has layers of acrylic paint and fabric collage. The painting sets the initial tone and inspires a drawing on fabric, which is then cut out and applied to the canvas with a clear acrylic coat. I love working with the structure of this process. I am in constant dialogue with the work, and enjoy juxtaposing painting with precisely drawn and cut fabric. I am drawn to the intersection of the built and natural environments I see around me in my Boston area neighborhood.

Education Massachusetts College of Art, BFA, 1982 Endicott College, MEd, Arts & Learning, 2006

Exhibitions Endicott College, 2007 Belmont Gallery of Art, 2010 Danforth Art Museum, 2011 Endicott College, 2012

Belmont Gallery of Art, 2012 Montserrat College of Art, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 Belmont Gallery of Art, 2021 UVA Arthaus Gallery, 2023

4. Nina Bellucci My recent body of work combines a variety of methods, materials, and imagery like clouds, grids/nets, numbers, sun rays, and notebook paper, with the repetition of phrases like ‘Breathe’ and ‘Be Here’. The use of these phrases in my work and in my daily life helps me to find the focus and courage I need to explore questions of spirituality and to create with a playful and experimental mindset. I strive for a sense of movement, light, and air in each work by layering imagery with different textures and levels of transparency. Ultimately, I hope to encourage the viewer to take more time to look, to wonder, and to be present.

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Bio: Born and raised in sunny Florida, Nina Bellucci received her BFA in painting from the University of South Florida (2006) and an MFA in painting from Boston University (2009). Recent solo exhibitions include Doorway_a_gallery, Waltham, MA; Shelter In Place Gallery, Boston; and Dream Clinic, OH. Select group exhibitions include Gallery Tempo, Boston; The Yard: Williamsburg, NY; LaiSun Keane, Boston; Collar Works, NY; Slag Gallery, NY; and Basement Projects, CA. Bellucci has received numerous nominations and awards, including a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant in Painting (2018), a Joan Mitchell Fellowship nomination (2022), and a residency at Room83Spring Gallery in Watertown, MA (2017). She is a founding member of the artist group Musa Collective Boston and exhibits with them regularly. Her works on paper can be found at Uprise Art NYC. Bellucci maintains a studio in Waltham, MA and lives in Newton with her husband and two children.

5. Yildiz Grodowski

As an artist and a dancer, I find many connections between abstract painting and improvisational dance. Just as I let the music move me from within, I allow my artistic intuition to bring my brush to life. I make art because I don’t know how to live without creating. The foundation of my art is connections. I aim to communicate the essence of a relationship or place with my visual language.

In my art, ideas and expressions are more important than the materials. My goal is to transport the viewer to a place, person or moment in their life. I create abstract paintings with harmonious and brave colors. Using acrylic, mixed media, and collage material, I love exploring with unusual tools for surprising and delightful effects. My paintings go through three stages. I start by playing with colors and marks, following my intuition, allowing my technical knowledge only here and there.

Then comes the 'ugly stage.' Nothing seems to be working, the colors and shapes struggle to be saved. It’s tempting to discard the work right here, but I always push through knowing the beauty I can create. This connection to my work brings me to the home stretch. I will never sign a piece until I’m completely connected with it. Once I am, you will be too!

associations.

Bio: Born and raised in İstanbul, Türkiye, Yildiz Grodowski spent most of her life in the Boston area. These two cultures constantly enrich and inspire her. In her early years, she designed sets for stage performances and residential interiors. If she doesn’t find art, art finds her. Prior to painting, Yildiz sculpted with clay. Then downsizing made her a painter. But in true form, Yildiz doesn’t know how to keep things small. From working with watercolors in the corner of a living room, and with multiple spaces in between, her paintings led her to a spacious studio. An international award winner, her work is exhibited in solo and group shows, and collected both nationally and internationally. She is a member of multiple art

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6. Lisa Jay I make art that reflects my identity and emotions as I travel through depression and anxiety. My Blackness, my gayness, and my femaleness shape the lens in which I see the world. I desire to create images, colors, and outlines that express my feelings and excite my eyes. Colors win me over every day and give me a reason to continue to put ideas to canvas, paper, and board. I usually work in acrylics, collage and line work portraits over abstract backgrounds. I am learning more about mono-printing processes, and enjoying the collage papers I create from them. I want people to know more about who I am and what I feel through color and execution. I hope they can enjoy my attempts at making and learning.

Bio: Lisa Murphy was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Her love of art began when she attended art club at Boston Latin Academy. Lisa graduated from Boston Latin Academy and Emmanuel College. Lisa is currently a member at Artlifting, an organization that assists disabled people and persons formally unhoused. She has attended years of Open Artist Studio sessions at Boston University Recovery Education Program, where she works side by side with other artists. Miss Murphy completed the Artist’s Training Program at Gateway Arts. She has also participated in an Artists Open Studio group sponsored by partners Lesley University and NAMI. Lisa is a black, gay woman, living with depression and anxiety. She has found that art making is a fuel for her pathway to recovery. In her paintings, she uses acrylics, collage, and Morse code as a visual, auditory, and tactile communication tool. She employs transfers, line work and stenciling to define figures that speak to her identity. Lisa continues to experiment with mediums and processes as she discovers them.

7. Christiana Lauzon These paintings are realms, as in listening to a song, it transports you to a place. My approach is in discovering the light, holding the darkness, and moving through a piece, to have rhythm, to have color, to transform, and engage. These paintings are me, and these paintings are you. They are about finding the inner power. It’s like looking into the fog, searching for something: Is that a house, a person, is it the start of an ocean, is that where the valley dips low and mountains rise? These realms allow us to explore and imagine, and when we begin to imagine again, we begin to heal.

Bio: Christiana Lauzon, based in Somerville, is an artist whose work delves into the intricate play of light, sound, color, and atmosphere.

Holding a BFA from Montserrat College of Art, she is currently pursuing a Master's in Expressive Art Therapy. Her dedication to this field is fueled by the belief in art's capacity for transformation in healing. She is deeply committed to utilizing art as a means of freedom, curiosity and exploration.

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8. Miranda Limon

As we journey through life, our minds accumulate a wealth of experiences. Yet, as we reach the midpoint of our lives, something within us often seems to falter. Our experiences, a mix of joy and sorrow, are meant to guide us, but they can also drain our energy with the weight of past traumas.

In the modern world, we strive for balance and seek to preserve our humanity. Let us maintain clarity and honesty in our thoughts while also charting a course toward a better future. Regardless of the transformations we undergo, it is only through embracing freedom that we can truly move forward.

Bio: Miryana Mihaylova is a multidisciplinary artist working in ceramics, sculpture and drawings. Her art is ever changing and evolving but always remains rooted in aspects of earth, clay and glaze. At present, she focuses on abstract watercolors and drawings as a means of conveying emotions and psychological states through two-dimensional 'events' in color and shape. Guided by her long pedigree as a ceramic artist, inspired by the freedom of experimental music, informed by different ideas, including dreams, Miryana navigates experiments in unpredictability, letting watercolors emerge as a juxtaposition between vibrant colors and darkness. Miryana comes from one of the ancient craft centers of Southern Europe, where the secrets of pottery making have been passed around since time immemorial through the Thracian, Byzantine and Ottoman stylistics that have amalgamated with modernity to form her unique approach. Miryana currently lives in Massachusetts with her family and continues to follow her passion for arts. In 2021-2022 she was an Artist in Residence at Worcester Center for Crafts where she produced works in ceramics and watercolors, some of which were exhibited at Krikorian Gallery, Worcester. Currently she is a ceramic instructor at New Art Center in Newton.

9. C.J. Lori Mindfulness has been a key for me to creating artwork for many years. In the studio, it seems so natural to be “in the moment” through the process of conceptualizing, sketching, then mixing paint and putting brush to canvas. I am inspired by daily walks in nature, in which I closely observe both the intricate details of leaf, branch, water and sky, and the overall sense of scene. In my paintings, I try to create a reality (or surreality) that captures the attention of the viewer to draw them into the presence of my vision and hold them there. It is a way of sharing my intense experience of mindfulness in the natural world. It is only within the past few years that I have adopted mindfulness as a personal practice as well. I participate in a weekly group of mindfulness meditation led by a Reiki Master, then continue that practice on my own. Living in the present is a challenge, as one is so often imagining the future and dwelling on the past. As a person prone to worry and rumination, mindfulness helps me embrace acceptance of myself and others so I can move forward in the world with openness and positivity.

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Bio: C. J. Lori is an oil painter living in Brookline, Massachusetts. Her work reflects her abiding fascination with the natural world, as well as her interests in literature, anthropology and psychology. Often called “Neo-surrealism” or “magic realism,” Ms. Lori’s paintings explore the complex relationship between humanity and the environment. She exaggerates or distorts color, form and composition to emphasize often contradictory sensations: clarity and mystery, excitement and sorrow, beauty and decay.

Committed to art activism, Ms. Lori is a member of Shared Habitat Earth and i3Cartists, two artist groups focused on environmental issues and climate change. She served as Exhibitions Chair and Vice President at Galatea Fine Art in Boston from 2017-2020. She also served in 1997 as First Vice-President of the National Women’s Caucus for Art, and for several years as President of the Boston Chapter. Ms. Lori’s artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New England, and in New York and Chicago.

She had a solo exhibition, Close to the Trees, in June, 2019 at Galatea Fine Art in Boston. Her work has been shown at the Danforth Museum in Framingham in OFF THE WALL, Community of Artists, and Figure, Fantasy and Illusion, Selections from the Arthur S. Goldberg Collection. She is represented by 13 Forest Gallery in Arlington, Array Contemporary in Boston, and Indigo House Gallery in Duxbury. Her other interests include traveling, reading (especially Henry James), watching professional football, and walking in nature.

10. Ricardo Maldonado I enjoy painting and experimenting with color. My preferred subjects are related to nature and the outdoors, where the light and the colors change often with the seasons and the time of the day.

Those changes, subtle or abrupt, are always a challenge to the artist.

To me, painting is a search and a discipline. Painting has taught me to see things in a different way, observing every detail more carefully and more consciously, distinguishing colors and shapes, and ultimately appreciating more deeply what I see.

Bio: I have a passion for painting. I have been painting on and off since I was a child. Now recently retired I find the time and inspiration to enjoy this beautiful hobby. I have shown my work locally in many public venues, libraries, hospitals, universities, open studios and other non-commercial sites.

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11. Ariel Matisse Bio: Ariel is a wire and metal sculptor whose inspiration comes from the natural world. She is President of Artisans Asylum in Allston-Brighton. She grew up in a family surrounded by art and artists. In addition to the work of her artist mother, her father, Paul Matisse is a creator of musical sculptures, and her great-grandfather is the French painter, Henri Matisse. A competitive rider in the horse world for 12 years, Ariel returned to art creating small wire sculptures mounted on beautifully finished works of wood.

12. Maureen McCabe

My painting series is about my meditation practice and the awakening I've experienced through mindfulness meditation. This series is titled “Process.” By creating textural and luminous abstract paintings, I take the viewer on a journey through the terrain and landscape of my mind. Each piece in this series represents the different stages of my mind and body awareness that I experience during my meditation practice. Before meditating, I usually have "Swirling Thoughts," as they say in Buddhist practice, "Monkey Mind." To calm these thoughts, I stop and become present. I sit on my meditation cushion and "Breathe," I slowly inhale and exhale. I observe and watch my thoughts rather than engage in them. During this process, my mind calms, and I slowly become more aware of my thinking, mind, and body. I then delve deep into "Introspection" and reflection. As I "Emerge" from the meditation, I come forth with a new awareness.

Bio: Maureen McCabe paints iridescent abstract landscapes that evoke both an earthly and otherworldly terrain. McCabe creates her cosmic topographies in a spin on action painting, where her tools come from the kitchen and her motions from massage therapy. In her distinctive process, she works on panels set flat on butcher-block carts with casters. Moving along with the artwork, she pours, drips, sculpts, and builds, using a mix of molding paste and acrylic paint in the luminous hues of gemstones. Thick with impasto, each surface reflects and radiates light. The artist, who earned her BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, lives and works in Medford, Massachusetts. Her art is in many private and public collections, including Boston Children's Hospital and Charles River Community Health in Brighton.

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13. Carol E. Moses I have created these works on the subject of awareness, understanding our consciousness, relating to our meaning. I observe all my typical responses to the world – aversion, clinging, and the persistently popping-up wish for things to be other than they are. The apparent cause of suffering in the world! I grapple with the impermanence of things, sometimes unwilling for things to arise, sometimes unwilling for them to pass away. I try to be awake and aware. I try to observe truthfully.

These ‘word-paintings’ arise in the intersection of observation and accounting or recording what I become aware of.

Bio: Carol Moses creates non-representational tableaus. Grids, patterns, repeated linear elements, and biomorphic forms create a distinctive visual vocabulary. Discrete styles namely calligraphic, gestural, and geometric appear throughout her omnivorous practice that moves between drawing, painting, printmaking and photography.

Moses’ watercolors, small in scale, recall Helen Frankenthaler’s canvases in their methodology, and concentration on a centralized mass often foregrounding white space or emptiness. But whereas Frankenthaler's expansive canvases often conjure landscapes, Moses’ tightly composed images create intimacy, evoking interiority. Her work is a means of externalizing an internal state. This ability to transcribe sentiments which are at once subjective and objective is one of the qualities that makes these works both evocative, and universally legible. Some of the gestural and expressionist qualities evoked by the Abstract Expressionists can be seen in Moses’ oil paintings which tend to move outward, employing a more allover compositional strategy. As well as the watercolors, they recall the work of Expressionist painters Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, using color and shape to create rhythm and balance, prizing stillness over movement, contemplation over emotion. In Moses’ oil paintings on paper and canvas, color is employed compositionally throughout, as a means of creating balance and order.

Although Moses’ work is principally strongly-colored painting, she also makes small-scale black and white drawings and another genre she calls word-paintings. These quick focused works on paper have their own singular approaches, in the case of the drawings in their use of line and form, and with the word-paintings in their emotional responsive tone.

14. Erin Palazzolo Loparo

My art process is inherently therapeutic. As an artist and art therapist, I have created personal mandalas for the past 20 years. I'm now in the space of leading mandala experiences for others as well as continuing my own practice. I enjoy a physical and visceral mixed-media art process, working intimate to large-scale. My spontaneous mark-making is mindful and dialectical - it aims to move viewers into a reflective interior space that is both conversational and cathartic. This mandala piece, "veins and vines (searching self)" begins and grows from the center (of the self) outward. As I paint, carve and free associate what I see and feel, my self-understanding deepens. We all have a rich interior life that seeks expression. We also seek connection to others, never existing solely within a vacuum of space. My mandala is a mindful contemplation of self-growth in relationship and connection to others.

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Bio: Erin Palazzolo Loparo (b. Tarrytown, NY 1979) is an abstract expressionist, mixed-media and mandala artist based out of Andem Art Studios in Brookline, MA. A registered art therapist (MS-ATR), Erin leads art therapy groups at the New Art Center in Newton, carries out a teaching artist grant for Brookline Early Education Program and creates private/institutional art commissions. A member of the American Art Therapy Association, Cambridge Art Association and UVA, Erin has shown her artwork in exhibitions in NY and the Boston area with work on permanent exhibit at Harvard Medical School.

Background: Erin trained for ten years with studio instruction under printmaker Myril Adler during her early life. She graduated valedictorian of Briarcliff High School, NY (1997), studied abroad at Syracuse University School of Art and Design in Florence, Italy (1999) and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude from Williams College, MA (BA: Studio Art Honors Thesis/English, 2001). She worked at Charity Navigator as a non-profit program analyst before earning her M.S. in Art Therapy from the College of New Rochelle, NY (2005). Erin trained and worked in psychiatric hospitals and skilled nursing home settings, earning her ATR (Registered Art Therapist) credential from the Art Therapy Credentials Board (2008). She previously worked as Chair of the Art Department for Mount Alvernia High School in Newton, MA (2007-2010).

15. Paula Pitman Brown

The two pieces that I am submitting are both related to my passion for advocating for local wild animals. Tangle, Bittersweet: This is a portrait of a Blue Coyote who has been captured in the moment. He challenges and questions us. His intensity is unmistakable. He must exist. He must navigate around the perils of human infrastructure. Nature too, has its daunting obstacles. Golden Day, The Six Point: A perfect golden fall day, lovers hide in the forest undergrowth absorbed in each other. A majestic six point buck, finds them, observes them curiously and cautiously. The buck must be mindful. Fall is hunting season. Winter will soon be here and he has much to do.

Bio: I began teaching art in 1979. I have taught ever since. I taught high school for approximately 30 years including A.P. Art Studio Arts etc. I have taught K-12, most of the time high school. I have taught at several art museums and am presently employed as a Painting Instructor for the last 9 years at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I love to balance my teaching with my studio time. I paint every day, I show extensively, have published my work, have several YouTubes and have my art in many collections. I have degrees from Massachusetts College of Art, graduated with distinction in Art History and Painting. I have continued education post-grad from Boston State and Suffolk University. I have a degree in Art Education. I am an environmental and narrative painter. My daily walks and runs give me the opportunity to look for local wild animals. When I see them, I consider this auspicious, inspiring for my art and it gives me hope. I am an advocate for helping local wild animals co-exist with us in our human dominated world.

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16. Adriana G. Prat I create my artwork in a state akin to meditation, when I am present, observing my thoughts about existential dilemmas, such as identity and loss, and those related to the human-made environmental disruption. I work intuitively, allowing my occasional emotions and the physicality of the painting materials to guide me, always open to happy accidents and chance, and with a strong thirst for color and texture. Although I am a non-representational artist, I re-create topographies of imagined territories, experimenting with oil or water-based media, collage, assemblage, and other mixed media techniques. In search of finding more sustainable ways to produce my art, I use reclaimed materials (repurposed/found canvas or panels of sturdy corrugated cardboard and packaging materials) to minimize my environmental impact on the world and to inspire awareness and action for the climate crisis.

Bio: Adriana G. Prat is an academically-trained scientist turned artist and curator of the i3C Artists Group (www.i3CArtists.com) on a quest to inspire action for the environmental crisis. Her early passion for nature in her country of birth, Argentina, influenced her to study science, but after moving to the US, a more introspective lifestyle inspired her to become a fervent artist who studied art fundamentals in adult education centers and considers herself highly self-taught.

Adriana has exhibited extensively at juried and open shows. Some of the galleries where she recently exhibited are: Hallspace, Dorchester MA; Trask Gallery (National Arts Club), New York City, NY; The Charles Gallery and Deering Gallery, both in Gloucester MA; Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville MA; Piano Craft Gallery, Boston MA; Association of Icelandic Visual Artists Gallery, Reykjavík, Iceland; and SKT Art Spaces/Badiani Art Space, London, UK. She has also shown in museums such as the Rockport Art Association & Museum, Rockport MA; Metropolitan Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham MA, and academic institutions such as Cambridge College, Charlestown, MA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge MA; and Montserrat College of Art, Beverley MA. Adriana has also exhibited at The Umbrella Arts Center, Concord MA; Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown MA; and Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge MA, in addition to alternative spaces such as Craft Central, London, UK; Logan Airport, Boston MA; Boston City Hall, Boston MA; BIO (Biotechnology Innovation Organization) Convention, Philadelphia PA; and Academia Nacional del Tango, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adriana is a juried member of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) and the Cambridge Art Association (CAA), and the SoWa Artists Guild, among others.

17. Julia Purdy Meditation is integral to my art process. My paintings originate from intuition. I am inspired by images and compositions that I experience in a meditative state - well before engaging with the canvas. During meditation, I envision a picture of the finished artwork - the color, composition, and other elements of a painting. I am inspired by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.

Sometimes, I meditate on the idea of the connectivity of all things, as explained in this quote by Hanh: “The flower is made of non-flower elements. We can describe the flower as being full of everything. There is nothing that is not present in the flower. We see sunshine, we see the rain, we

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see clouds, we see the earth, and we also see time and space in the flower.” I am also interested in the impact of light on all things - the light within us and the light that surrounds us. White is an important color in my work. It represents white light - the positive light, love, hope, peace and spirit within us.

Bio: I am an intuitive, abstract artist working in the SoWa Art + Design district in Boston, Mass. I have studied at the MFA, Boston, the New Art Center in Newton, MA., and with artist Margaret Gerding. I have a MS in Arts Administration from Boston University and a BA in English from Michigan State University. Prior to painting, I was a gallery teacher at the Harvard Art Museums and a volunteer at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I have exhibited at several group exhibitions, including the Piano Craft Gallery in Boston, Mass., the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., the Kathryn Schultz Gallery in Cambridge, Mass., and the Attleboro Arts Museum in Attleboro, Mass., among others. My paintings can be found in collections across the United States. I am a member of the Cambridge Art Association, the United South End Artists, the Newton Art Association and Shared Habitat Earth (SHE).

18. Sarah Richi I'm an intuitive abstract painter, my intention lies more in the process than the product. While similarities can be found in composition and especially color, every piece has an incredibly unique journey. This journey is shared through texture, the tangible memories of what lies under the final piece. While all abstracted, my work ranges from nonrepresentational, to portraits/figures, to landscapes. I use myself as a reference for portraits, and my fantastical imagination as reference for my landscapes. However, I often find a bit of imagination in my portraits, as well as myself in my landscapes. There are no rules in my studio. When I am painting, anything within arms reach may be used as a tool. I paint with brushes, paint tubes, caps, paper towels, and most of all my hands.

I have always painted with my hands, it is the most intimate I could possibly be with my work.

When painting with my hands, I feel complete control. Not just over the piece, but over myself, my life. I feel most powerful when I am integrated with my art. Even in my oldest works, finger marks can be found. When I was introduced to abstraction as a 17 year old, I did not understand the door that was opened for me. The freedom, the mess, the underlying meanings, the intention and lack-there-of, the absence of rules, and ability to make your own. I believe abstract art is true freedom of expression. In my work with children, I encourage this freedom of expression by providing the tools, just as it was done for me.

I am inspired by the work of little ones, especially my nieces. We are born with creativity. We are born loving color. As we grow into society and away from our most authentic selves, we forget that.

Bio: Sarah Richi is a 24 year old abstract painter based in Boston, Massachusetts. From a very young age she has had an affinity towards art. During her teen years she had the opportunity to be mentored by some of the most talented professional artists in the Boston area. She is passionate about giving back to the community that has given to her, 29

and that drives her as she pursues her degree. Sarah believes in promoting creativity and self expression in even the youngest members of her community. Her own childlikeness can be seen in her art, as she creates bright and bold abstractions.

19. Dan Rocha I have always thought about artwork as a contemplative activity, both the viewing, and the creating of it. Artwork has presence; it bridges itself from a subconscious to an evolved awareness, tethered to both. Clarity without rigidity as an ongoing state.

Bio: Most Recent: Group show, sculpture: Emerge Gallery, Greenville No & d’Art Center Norfolf, VA 2023 Cape Cod Museum of Art, with NESA, sculpture 2022 Exhaale Art in the Park, Worcester, MA 2021 Meredith Sculpture Walk, Meredith NH, 2021 Collections Include: Fidelity Investments First Enterprise Bank Mass College of Art & Design BFA 1976 Berger Award Cambridge College M. Ed. 1992

20. Alexandra Rozenman I grew up in the Soviet Union where artistic freedom was repressed. My imagination was stimulated by forbidden freedom and I have been painting since I could remember. I started taking classes with dissident artists and became a part of the Moscow underground artistic life in the 80's. In 1989 I came to America as a political refugee where I had to learn everything from the beginning. I had to reshape my personal identity. My story, informed by a life-long introspection about lost identity and otherness, the search for belonging and the journey from Common Place to Foreign Land lies at the core of my work. I bring in my work my own illusions and displacements. I embrace them and I play with them. Folktales and myths take a utopian and funny dimension in my work. I am absorbing and expressing the psychology of otherness as a fundamental part of my identity and of the contemporary world we live in. In my artwork I’m telling a universal story through a personal one. I focused on playful and humorous narratives of me cohabitating with famous artists often inserting myself into the painting. I point out the irony of “living” with an artist’s work as it relates to immersing myself into the lives and works of artists for inspiration and painterly influence.

I use historical research to choose vistas or scenes of domestic life during the eras of the artists with which I metaphorically live. I want to touch upon questions of artistic influence and dialogue, emulation and creativity, continuity as well as discontinuity in contemporary art and the world as a whole. At the same time, my portrayed place-at-odds can be viewed as a metaphor for immigration and the cathartic journey of re-inventing a new personal and artistic identity.

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Bio: Moscow-born, both classically and conceptually trained, Alexandra Rozenman brings a canny and charming mysticism to her life and art. Rozenman came to America from Moscow, Russia as a political refugee in 1990.

She creates her personal and often surreal world, where shapes, colors and images are often utilized like words in a story. Living in the Soviet Union, Rozenman studied in Russia with today's well-known dissident artists and was a part of the Moscow alternative cultural scene of the 1980’s. She holds a Masters degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Beginning in 1989, her work has been represented nationally and internationally. In 2006 she was awarded a MacDowell Foundation Fellowship. She was also a fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center and Ragdale Foundation fellow. Rozenman is a core member of the Fountain Street Gallery in Boston, MA and a gallery director at Brickbottom Gallery.

21. Shirah Rubin “Half is Whole” is a series reflecting upon society’s labeling of individuals and communities as “half” of something else and how that labeling is both unnecessary and potentially detrimental. It prompts us to think about the importance of shifting labels so that what was considered “half” is actually both complete and whole. The wire emphasizes the wish to retain the halfness as fullness. The sand in this piece is a cradle. The piece rests on the sand lying in its own contemplative satisfaction. “We Remember,” 2023: A sandbox reminds me of play - the summer. Contemplative time on the beach. These vessels placed in sand are intended to transport us through an unearthing process. The sand invites interaction and an encounter to play. The act of play invites us to be present in the moment. The imprints in the sand created by the viewer are reminders of ephemeral moments.

Bio: Shirah Rubin is a sculptor who works in mixed media most often incorporating ceramics. Through my artistic endeavors, which include sculptural ceramics, installations, and public art, I invent three-dimensional worlds that explore memory and the challenges posed by its fragile nature. I believe that the past is caught between three discrete elements: its reality, our idealization of that reality, and the impossibility of recapturing that reality. By investigating these intersections I reclaim fragments of memory, defying the notion that reclaiming memories is beyond our grasp. As a teaching artist, Shirah develops art workshops for audiences ranging from young children through adults in museums, universities, schools, and camps. Shirah has taught at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Fresh Air Fund at Camp Hidden Valley, NY; Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design Hillel and Gallery.

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22. Lynn Simmons My visual work is constantly involved in a conversation between nature and abstraction, location and desire, and activism and materials. The potential of art that I am interested in is the transformative power of the creative process as a mindful practice, both in the making and the receiving, specifically the potential that art has to remind us of connections between each other and to things larger than ourselves.

Bio: I am a visual artist and educator, who holds a BFA in Sculpture from the Maine College of Art & Design, and MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts. In addition to many smaller venues and galleries, my work has been featured at the Portland Museum of Art Biennial (Maine), the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine, the Davis Art Gallery in Worcester, Assumption University, Fitchburg Art Museum, Attleboro Arts Museum, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the Worcester Art Museum. I was honored with Best of Show in Worcester, Massachusetts' first outdoor sculpture exhibition Art in the Park: An Exhibition of Sculptures by New England Artists.

23. Jacobey A. Waldman I’m particularly inspired by organic forms and overlaps between nature and anatomy. Forms and patterns can be found naturally both in living creatures and in nature. I’ve taken this interest and invented my own world of living beings with a twist on nature and anatomy. I've devised a visual language for representing life and the many forms it could take. I try to maintain an element of ambiguity in my representations of life because I see them all as vessels which house consciousness and I want for any viewer to be able to relate with the figures being presented in my work. Ultimately, my artwork attempts to provide answers to life's unanswerable questions. What does consciousness look like and where does it come from? Where does it go when we're done using it? Are we ever truly done using our consciousness? These questions can leave your head spinning since there probably will never be answers to satisfy us. What is our purpose? Why do we have such curious minds and an impulse to create? Through all these questions my thoughts always return to the importance of practicing mindfulness exercises.

Forcing yourself to be present in the moment and opening your mind to the whispers of the universe is where I believe we can begin to find these answers to our shared reality. Through employing a meditative element into my artistic process, I've been able to reliably get into a creative headspace that's conducive for making art inspired by these existential themes. I owe much of my artistic success to meditation and I see it as an important tool in my studio, like a brush or a pencil.

Hopefully, my work is able to provide a moment of meditation for the viewer and make life feel less complicated for a moment.

Bio: Born in 1997, Jacobey Waldman is an illustrator and fine artist.

After high school in Brookfield, CT, he received his undergraduate degrees at Lesley University in Boston, MA where he studied fine arts and illustration. Jacobey creates art using a wide range of mediums; from screen printing to digital illustrations, and even 32

embroidery and ceramics. There’s almost nothing he hasn’t explored when it comes to the visual arts. His unique visual creations and organic forms are often derived from anatomical language and the natural world. Along with elements of surrealism and comedy, organic "life-like" forms are common in his work. Jacobey’s art attempts to disrupt the viewer and engage them with wonder and excitement.

24. Allida Warn Drawing or even photography which exists as a static final image in a frame obscures the artist’s journey of discovery. To make those hidden relationships visible and give viewers a view into what I learned, I developed a new form of drawing. Process Drawings, like the ones in this exhibit, center on the meditative process of discovery undertaken by the creator. In process drawings and the art which emerges from them, the journey of the artist is revealed by tracking or documenting the process and order as the creator makes marks on the page. Speed can be changed and “mistakes” can be undone, but ultimately, whatever choices are made, they become a part of the time lapse. Creation and destruction are linked in this way: while the entire thing is ephemeral, choices are permanent. Every choice has a pathway and must be “lived” with. Every choice changes what came before, sublimating what the artist was thinking or feeling into an accessible visual record.

Bio: Allida Warn is an artist, teacher, and visual researcher who creates participatory projects that offer a window into the creative process through contemplative works that make her journey of discovery visible to others. She studied Costume Technology and Design at DePaul University’s Theatre School, and Fiber and Materials Studies and Print Media at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Spain and completing a Teaching Fellowship while completing her B.A. from DePaul University in Art and Education. When she landed back in the States, she began working freelance as a designer, educator, and arts administrator in California and Michigan. In 2017 she completed the Arts in Education master’s program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and presently lives and works in the City of Boston. The videos and prints being shown are Songs of Urban Ecology which is a socially engaged and multi-disciplinary project. The songs include celebrations of places that I have lived with images and sounds that highlight the invisible and interconnected contrast between what is natural, and what is human. The first series of photos took place over three years walking along the same path in Ann Arbor, Michigan, my home town. The song came from a recording made one morning as I paused to listen to the joyful sound of birds returning to Boston in the spring of 2020. Inspired

by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus, I purchased a flute and recorded layers of sound to meld with the mixture of bird song and sirens rushing along the Jamaicaway to the nearby hospitals.

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25. Laura White Carpenter My art path began as a painter of abstracted environments and my focus has transitioned to conceptual sculpture, which continues to explore this theme of the relationship between humans and our earth. Integrating the shapes, textures, and colors of architectural forms and nature into dynamic artwork, I invite the observer to delve more deeply into our mysterious world. I remain intrigued by indigenous totemic art, exploring its enduring impact and relevance even as these works collide. My work is rooted in mindfulness while creating miniature complex forms that are similar but not identical. Each individual shape is created to be singular and yet part of a collective.

Bio: Laura White Carpenter is a Providence-based artist who primarily works in hand-built porcelain sculpture and mixed media of found materials (metal, wood, “junk”). She is an published welder and manipulates her found steel also often adding hand built ceramics to her sculptures. She has lived on four continents and has been greatly influenced by the seemingly universal imperative of using decorative marks to indicate an object’s or place’s significance. Meanwhile, she has increasingly utilized techniques and supplies that have a lower impact upon the Earth. She has a degree in art therapy and occupational therapy and works daily at the intersection of the healing arts, encouraging hospitalized patients to utilize creative arts in their healing journeys. She has shown her work in galleries and exhibits throughout the United States and abroad, gaining recognition for her unique vision of the natural world in distinctive organic forms.

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