Arts in Bloom 2020

Dimensions: 16 x 20
Medium: Acrylic Paint
Year created: 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: Through the time we were not in school, I did a lot of art. I decided to try painting in a different way. Rather than use a paintbrush I swirled paint around a canvas by movement.

Dimensions: 18 x 24 x 1
Medium: Acrylic
Year created: 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: Originally I had thought to paint another tulip when I came across this image in my photo file. I loved the color as well as the layers of unfolding petals. The star of the show, in my mind, is the little bud behind the glorious orange flower. It almost lurks in wait as the older blossom will eventually fade away. It is named for a woman who helped me with a recent computer purchase, not a remarkable event except for the fact that she was totally blind. It reminded me that even though my computer was going dark, my world was not. She was amazing nonetheless and an inspiration to me, and no doubt others.

Dimensions: 27 x 23 x 1.5
Medium: Yarn, roving, ribbon, thread and...a hula hoop.
Year created: 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: I was drawn to create this, my largest round weaving, by the themes expressed in the Arts in Bloom call for art. I am looking for ways to fuse multiple fiber art approaches in a single piece, and the concept of crochet elements blended with my weaving immediately came to mind for the Arts in Bloom show.

Dimensions: 24 x 18 x 1.5
Medium: Acrylic and oil paint
Year created: 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: This was in honor of my parent’s wedding in Kansas in 1947. Each panel represents one of my parents. It was a humble wedding but beautiful, and the start of a long and happy marriage. The church was filled with pink peonies cut from people’s gardens.

Dimensions: 18 x 24 x 1
Medium: Photography
Year created: 2020

Dimensions: 30 x 40 x 1.5
Medium: Acrylic on linen canvas
Year created: 2014

Dimensions: 11.25 x 7.5
Medium: Watercolor & India Ink
Year created: July 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: A year in Glasgow had me fall in love with Charles Rennie Mackintosh art, particularly his stained glass work. I never thought I could paint stained glass! This "Exploring with Watercolor" challenge truly inspired me to see Mackintosh's iconic rose with fresh eyes!

Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 1.5
Medium: watercolor on paper
Year created: 2018
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: For 31 years I have been growing a garden that runs the length of my driveway. I refer lovingly to this tangled profusion of colors as the Jackson Pollock Hill. Wildflowers abound. Swirling sweet peas travel across the tops of yellow coreopsis; a butterfly bush tangos with wild sage; and lilies of the valley bump into bee-balms of fuchsia. Here in the garden I orchestrate happiness and hard work. Through my drawings and my paintings in the spring of 2017, I came to know intimately the beauty of each flower. This memory from long ago returned to me during that time: I am a young girl in my New Jersey hometown library, and I am reading a picture book. There are just a few words on each page along with simple drawings of a man and a woman and a flower. All is lovely; and then, all is not. The book, and its message about the fragility of life and the courage it takes to remain hopeful in the darkest of times, has stayed with me as an artist, a teacher, and a gardener. With a single daisy, I pay homage to James Thurber’s, "The Last Flower: A Parable in Pictures", published two months after the outbreak of World War II.

Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 1.5
Medium: Oil/Collage on Bo
Year created: 2016
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: An oil and collage on board, "1962" embodies life, death, renewal, hope. Shadow and light are gently held in this nest of torn canvas and bits of gauze. A closer look reveals a Girl Scout badge for Drawing & Painting, a badge hard earned by a 12-year old girl whose love for art kept her alive. This work inhales beginnings, exhales departures, and pauses to hear the heart beat gently.

Dimensions: 138 x 56 x 60
Medium: steel and stainless steel
Year created: 2018
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: My training as an architect draws me to the structure within nature. I can only attempt to replicate all of it's wondrous intricacies! Note to juror: Installing this sculpture outside on the grounds of HCA is an option.

Dimensions: 96 x 24 x 28
Medium: Welded steel and found objects
Year created: 2018
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: My father was an architect in Buckminster Fuller's office in the 1960s-70s. I was always fascinated by the geodesic domes they were designing and building around the world. I wanted to make a giant globe of my own! I have always been drawn to the infinetely more intricate form of the dandelion puff and can only attempt to capture it's beauty!

Dimensions: 18 x 12
Medium: ink jet print
Year created: 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: I love plants and I love shadows so when they appear together I take a shot-click! and get to share it with others.

Dimensions: 11 x 14 x 0.25
Medium: oil on board framed
Year created: 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: I grew up overlooking a marsh from my bedroom window. I feel a sense of peace when I see a marsh especially at sunset.

Dimensions: 14 x 11 x 1
Medium: Cardboard construction, acrylic paints, pens & glitter
Year created: July 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: This piece was a dream. After helping my 9 years old daughter cut cardboard flowers for her summer Fine Art class, I dreamed of a door with a bright lively garden hidden behind. I was totally engrossed by making that vision alive. In these difficult times, we are all forced to hide behind closed doors, I believe each one of these doors hides vibrant flowers full of rebirth and life.

Dimensions: 12 x 14 x 6
Medium: Wood, paint, paper, wire, plastic, found objects.
Year created: 2017
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: More in a series about changing neighborhoods, this model is crammed with specific buildings from the Union Square, Somerville neighborhood, crushed under the weight of new development.

Dimensions: 30 x 40
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Year created: 2016
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: I am a colorist who likes to paint the balance of bright and shadows. This is a illustration of nature that inspires hope In the viewer.

Dimensions: 11 x 14
Medium: Digital photography
Year created: 2018
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: I am drawn to water and particulary like to capture its movement during early spring when streams and rivers are most full.

Dimensions: 18 x 24 x 1
Medium: oil
Year created: 2017
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: Attempting to imagine how a backlit sunset on the Charles River would look.

Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 1
Medium: Computer
Year created: 2020
What drew you to create this piece? What was your inspiration?: Coronavirus is forcing us to adapt in unexpected ways.