Results tagged “Art Exhibits” from Iwasaki Library Blog

Artwork by Tali Silver is on display in the Library for the Fall 2009 semester.

Silver works in painting, mixed media, watercolors and photography. She was educated in the Midrasha Teachers' College in Israel and continued taking studio courses in the U.S., at Mass Art and other local institutes. Since 1999, she has been an adjunct professor in the School for Visual and Performing Arts at Endicott College, Beverly, Massachusetts.

Beauty and Danger 22" x 30" Watercolor 2009

I am drawn to mystery and darkness. I strive to play these qualities against a presence of light. In the road theme paintings, the landscapes are the settings of a daily drama. Familiar roadsides stretch beneath overarching skies. The sky, the most beautiful canvas of all, streams down its hues. The common experience of speeding along the highway becomes a metaphor for living; it conveys a sense of moving towards an impending encounter with the unknown.

My process is based on photographs which I appropriate or shoot while driving. I work out the composition through small sketches and manipulations in Photoshop. I apply paint in layers. Using watercolors, I alternate multiple washes and dry brushwork. I love the challenge which is unique to watercolors, of maintaining the white paper highlights. It makes me think of things in life, which need to be protected in order for the light to shine through.

Come celebrate the opening of Maine Women: Living on the Land, Lauren Shaw's documentary photography series featuring ten Maine women that have lived most of their lives on the land either by producing goods or building a community.

The reception will take place on Thursday, October 18, 2007, from 6-8 p.m. The Huret & Spector Gallery is located on the 6th floor of the Tufte Center building (10 Boylston Place).

“The show not only celebrates the tenacity and integrity of these ten women, but also those individuals that have lived their life in a similar fashion,” declares Shaw. Her black and white photographic installation also includes a video documentary as well as a series of triptychs that marry photographs with topographical maps of the area.

New England photographer Lauren Shaw has been spending the past twenty-six years in Maine as a part time resident. The exhibition began to take shape in 1996 when Shaw decided to start documenting women in Maine in attempt to understand the community.

Shaw’s work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and included in nationally known photography collections such as the Fogg Museum, Harvard University, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Getty Museum. She is currently an associate professor and the head of the photography program in the Department of Visual And Media Arts, where she has taught since 1972.

Photographs by Lauren Shaw, Associate Professor of Visual & Media Arts, are on display in the Library for the Fall 2007 semester.

Artist's Statement

It is with great pleasure that I present a small selection of my work that spans thirty-three years. To have the opportunity to combine one's vocation with one's avocation has been a gift while teaching at Emerson College. Looking back at my work over a period of time gives clarity and understanding of my photographic evolution. Each body of work has always led me to the next project, which has been guided by my intuition and curiosity. The work is a response to the immediate world around me. I think of my work as autobiographical because of the way it resonates with my life. The power of the photograph to convey the evocative as well as the cerebral has provided me the means to express myself both as an individual and an artist.
September, 2007

My thanks to Bob Fleming and Emily Garner who made possible this exhibition as well as Maine Women: Living on the Land in the Huret and Spector Gallery. September 2007

Lauren Shaw

Storied landscapes: 1989-1994

In 1989 while using the Polaroid 20x24 camera in the studio, I was able to place clear acetates of my writing inside the back of the camera. Shortly thereafter, while traveling in the Southwest with my medium format camera, I began to see language everywhere not only in the written petroglyphs left by the Anaszi but in the layers of geology revealed in the landscape. As I looked through the viewfinder, I saw a new field in which to record my own stories.

Maps: 1977-1985

After working with the Diana camera for four years, I felt the need to get close and sharp again. I began by photographing myself and then extended to my family and friends. I wanted to be anonymous and personal simultaneously by getting closer than the eye can focus. This body of work began my interest in “mapping,” representing on a flat surface the whole or part of an area. These close-ups are suggestive of a map. The lines and marks on their faces are references to who they are.

Dianas: 1973-1977

By using a plastic camera, which was virtually unknown in 1973, I was able to free myself from the conventions of a sharp and precise lens. This enabled me to be more spontaneous in my shooting and more visceral with my content. I worked with the Diana camera for several years until I felt the need to get close and sharp again.