2007 dISPLAYS
DECEMBER
Gallery Walls "Mindful of color" an exhibit of abstract and nature photography by kathleen mcbryar
These photographs capture and preserve moments of color seen in everyday objects and views that are always seen but rarely noticed.
Kathleen picked up a digital camera two years ago and has been clicking ever since! With an unerring eye for composition, she builds powerful images from color, line, form, and texture. These photographs reveal the beauty we pass by in our everyday environment but can bring into our lives through a more mindful visual experience.
Trained to use art in psychotherapy with children, Kathleen draws on her professional and personal experience to explore the impact visual arts has on our emotional, spiritual, and authentic selves.
Double Glass Case snowman exhibit private collection
Johnson Memorial case st. patrick's display
NOVEMBER
GALLERY WALLS AGAWAM LIBRARY'S ART PRINTS FOR LOAN
johnson memorial case agawam recycling
OCTOBER
GALLERY WALLS, LOWER LEVEL WALLS, DOUBLE GLASS CASE, LOWER LEVEL GLASS CASE, JOHNSON MEMORIAL CASE ART EXHIBIT OF PRISCILLA SOUDER, KAREN YOUNG, AND DORIS COUGHLIN
This exhibit consisted of an ecclectic collection of different mediums and subjects, some landscapes, some still life, and some abstract.
Priscilla's abstract art is accomplished in watercolor and mixed media. Karen's pieces are in watercolor, and Doris' paintings consist of watercolors, oils, mixed media, and collage.
All three teach classes in the area. Karen and Doris are juried members of the Academic Artists' Association in Springfield, MA. All three have been accepted into many juried shows from Boston to Mystic, CT.
SEPTEMBER
GALLERY WALLS ART EXHIBIT BY DANNY WHITE
What is black and white and read all over? A newspaper of course, but it's also the color scheme of Danny White's newest art exhibit. This show is quite a difference, as his past shows featured eggs in many of the pieces. Many of the paintings use only three colors: black, white, and red. Danny says, "some of the subject matter may be controversial, but satirical wit comes through in every piece. While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it is well worth the time to check it out and most definitely will make the observer think."
Danny has been practicing his art for over 30 years, with a degree in fine arts. He is trying new endeavors such as tatooing. Living in Feeding Hills his entire life, and working a full time job, he still finds time to create.
Johnson memorial case norman rockwell plates of collector mary knowles
AUGUST
GALLERY WALLS ART EXHIBIT OF MISHA EPSTEIN ALVARADO
This exhibit featured mixed media collages made of paper, paint, and found objects with varrying sizes and subject matter. Mischa Epstein Alvarado is a collage artist. She has been a visual and performing artist most of her life. Over time she has developed a distinctive personal style. Her images combine childlike imagination and fantastical compositions into a compelling visual style for anyone who is child at heart.
Mischa has won the the People's Choice Award at the Southwick Cultural Council's Annual Art Show 2007 and Best in Show at the West Springfield 3rd Annual Artist Showcase 2007.
Presently, Mischa's artwork can be seen in many locations. She teaches classes for children, adults, and seniors at many local centers. Mischa is constantly creating a new body of work with new ideas and concepts. Anything you can imagine and she can create may be used as a starting point for a commissioned piece of art.
Double Glass Cases and Johnson Memorial Case Summer reading Program
JULY
GALLERY WALLS ART EXHIBIT OF YULIYA ABRAMOV
The media used in the exhibition artwork are oil paint, ink wash, charcoal, colored pencil, marker, pastels, and anything in between. Some anime/manga will be featured along with still life, a radical design, and a potrait. Her favorite media to work with are probably colored pencil and oil paint.
Yuilya says, "I believe that any form of art can be inspiring, however what inspires me the most is renaissance and annime. I guess it is a strange combination, because those two forms of art are so different. Anime is so stylish and modern, almost rebellious, while renaisaance is so aristocratic and political. I also love anything new, anything that is so different from what we are used to that it makes people think. And of course my biggest goal is to create something so extraordinary that it reaches out and moves people, and it's only after an artist has created such a masterpiece that he can truly call himself an artist. For me, true artists like that are Michelangelo, Naoko Takeuchi, Brois Vallejo, Walt Disney, Van Gogh, and Joseph Michael Lisner, and they are the artists that I really look up to and dare to to dream to measure up to some day.
Although art of people like Naoko and Michelangelo can't compete due to completely different styles, she believes art in general shouldn't have to compete with each other at all. Because everyone's style and interpretation of the world is so unique that it is just wrong to put two different persons' art work next to each other and say which one is better. If you like one person's artwork over another's, it's simply because you have a similiar intepretation of the world and therefore your connection with that artwork is deeper.
Double Glass Cases and Johnson Memorial Case Summer Reading Program
JUNE
Gallery Walls and Johnson Memorial Case Agawam Community Artists and Artisans (ACAA)Exhibit
The ACAA consists of talented artists and artists from Agawam as well as surrounding areas. The show will feature all types of art. All mediums will represented as well as basketry and photography. ACAA is partially funded by the Agawam Cultural Council, which is funded by the Massachusetss Cultural Council.
Double Glass Cases Private Doll Collection
As the collector explains, "the doll collection just sort of happened. People would travel to different parts of the United States and the islands and would bring me a doll." There are Mexican, Jamaican, and colorful New York feast dolls. Also, when people went to Europe and other foreign countries, she would receive a souvenir doll from the country. The collection has Italian, Swedish, Spanish, and Japanese dolls.
The character dolls were her own idea, and she would pick them up at auctions and flea markets. Some of them included Little Lulu, Popeye, and puppets.
Some of the dolls hold greater sentimental value than others because of whom they belonged to and who gave them to her. Maintenance is important, as clothes tend to fade and wear thin. She tries to use material and accessories of the particular doll's vintage.
The dolls have been exhibited at antique classes, various clubs, and libraries.
MAY
GAllery Walls Art Exhibit of Aspapsia Tshihlakis Arvanitis
The exhibit will feature seascapes, landscapes, still life, abstracts, and portraits.
Many years after her children were grown, Aspasia visited the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. When she returned from her inspirational visit, she started drawing lessons and acrylic and oil painting with Donald Forge at Springfield Putnam High School. She has attended painting classes taught by Evelyn King, Thomas Crowley, Mario Vincentti, Mrs. Larry Slezak, Edith Wilson, and Elise Howell. Other classes taken were with Ann Muller at the Agawam High School and Barbara Cohen, of Agawam, and a "special" oil painting class taught by Frank Covino in the Renaissance style of old masters.
Aspasia has won a Humanities Award for Excellence in Fine Arts Paining for Springfield Technical Community College, and a second place award for her painting of "Olive Trees" in 2005 at the Greek Cultural Center.
Presently, she is taking surreleastic oil painting classes with Larry Slezak at Springfield Technical Community College. She continues taking lessons, exploring with different mediums and styles of painting, discovering new styles and techniques. Portraits, landscapes, seascapes, still life, abstracts, and surrealistic works of art may be commissioned.
dOUBLE gLASS cASES tHOUSAND cRANE STUDIO'S sTUDENT aRTWORK eXHIBIT
The exhibit will feature drawing, painting, and 3D work by their students. They have been working on various painting and 3D projects throughout the school year, including self portraits, which were drawn, and later created as a bas-relief in clay, resulting in a hangable, 3D portrait. Student work will be exhibited again this June in the studio's art show at the Basketball Hall of Fame. The show serves as a fundraiser for Dunbar Community Center's Youth Art Program, where the Thousand Cranes Studio runs an after school program for urban students.
The studio is owned by Stan and Shelia Coly, and provides weekly and summer art programs for children and teens. For more information, please call (413)-789-1039, or visit the website at www.thousandcranesstudio.com. Stan and Shelia have a strong belief that accessible to everyone, which is why it is the studio's mission to bring an appreciation for fine arts, world crafts, and world cultures to as many people in the community as possible.
APRIL
Art Exhibit of Diane Lynons-Frasco on Gallery walls
The exhibit will feature florals landscapes, and portraits in mixed media. From the age of three, Diane believed she was destined to become an artist. Out of all the toys she had, her crayons were the most fun to play with. She took her first drawing class at the Springfield Museum. Subsequently, after that class, she tried charcoal drawing and watercolor classes. Diane went on to study with Jean Reich of Longmeadow in oil and pastel painting. She then apprenticed under Jane Barrientos, whom she stayed with for four years. Diane is presently studying under Lynda Montefusco of Suffield, CT.
Diane's work has been featured at A Piece of My Art Gallery in Westfield, MA and the P.S. Gallery in Litchfield, CT, and has been sold all over the world.
On a cold February morning in 2004, Diane saw parishoners outside of the Holy Family Parish in Springfield, praying in front of a billboard of St. Bakhita. Realizing a need, she immediately got to work on a potrait of the black saint. It was later donated, blessed, and enshrined at the church.
Double Glass Cases and Johnson memorial case st. patrick's parade
MARCH
GALLERY WALLS, DOUBLE GLASS CASES, JOHNSON MEMORIAL CASE ARTWORK FROM PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS K-12
Among the work that will be on display are creative samples in various media including, painting, sculpture, and printmaking. The students have been preparing work for the "Youth Art Month Show" since September under the expertise teachers, Debra Florek and Amber Waters from Agawam High School. Also, Melanie Samay from the Agawam Middle Schol, Jennifer Bonivita and Sharon Vasicek from Clark, Granger, Robinson Park and Phelps School. Marcia Scherpa and Andrew Kraus from the Agawam Junior High School brought students' creative work to share in the show.
Youth Art Month is celebrated annually in March. This year's art show is a celebration of creative talent that the students of Agawam showcase yearly.
FEBRUARY
GALLERY WALLS PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT HENRY A. KOZLOSKI
His variety of photos include scenes of Agawam, of the United States, and of Europe.
Mr. Kozloski has been interested in photography since leaving high school. He trained as a film sports photographer while at Springfield College and was a sports photographer while teaching at West Springfield High School. In addition, he taught a section of photography to seniors. He concentrated on filming and developing black and white photos of his children as they were growing up. In years past, he used a Nikon 35mm camera, but now his camera of choice is a Canon D10 digital. His Canon printer allows him to enlarge up to 13 x 9 prints.
Now retired, Kozloski attends the yearly USS Bank SS385 submarine reunions that take him to different parts of the country. With his wife Teresa, he has made several trips to Europe to visit friends and family in their never-ending genealogy search.
Double Glass Cases songs of the gilded age courtesy of Darcy davis
Johnson memorial case display workmaship of master jeweler, zin g. tokman
The display will be of gems, rings, and tools. Mr. Tokman moved to Agawam from Kiev, Ukraine. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev and became a certified Master Jeweler and Engraver. In the United States, he graduated from the Gemological Institute of America. In 1995, he became a certified Gemologist C.G. Mr. Tokman owns T'S Jewelers located at 599 Springfield Street, Feeding Hills.
JANUARY
GALLERY WALLS ART EXHIBIT OF CHUCK SHOPEY OF FEEDING HILLS
Most of this gallery exhibit is devoted to paintings done in oils, although some other means of expression will be found here as well.
Mr. Shopey has been doing surreal works for over thirty years through painting, poetry, sketching, and writings. He has spent a great deal of time in various areas of the country and has spent the last several years in Colorado, thus, the mountanious influence. Chuck has also developed a "mystical" style of expression which illuminates his work.
Double Glass Cases Weavers guild of Springfield
The Weavers Guild celebrated their 55th anniversary in 2006. In the spring of 1951, two friends who were weavers wanted to meet others with the same interest and in November of 1951, the Guild was organized. The Guild put a great deal of effort into arranging weaving lessons at the Evening School of Trade High in the Practical Arts Department, and these lessons were offered for many years.
The Guild exhibits and demonstrates the art of weaving at various fairs in the area and for many years was showcased at the Big E, and also now is seen at Craft Adventure and the Scottish Festival in Northampton. One of the main purposes of the Guild is to publicize their group and this historical art of weaving.
To honor their 55th anniversary, a calendar was created with different weaving designs for every month.
Several of the members of the Weavers Guild have fulfilled the qualifications to be given the Master Weaver Certification from Hill Institute in Northampton. The 5 year course covers various types of weaving, pattern, color, and ways of combining weaving skills in a creative manner.
Items to be exhibited include table linens, towels, fabric, pillows, wall hangings, scarves, and rugs.
Anyone interested in the craft of weaving is welcome to contact the group at their website www.weaversspring.com and also by e-mail at weaverspring@netscape.net. Meetings of the Guild are held the first Saturday of the month at The Landmark at Monastery Heights, West Springfield and guests are always welcome.
Lower Level Glass Case Art Exhibit Thomas Hendrickson, age 8
Thomas is a second grade student at Clark Elementary School. He began to formally take art lessons at Thousand Cranes Art Studio a year ago when he turned seven. He has been learning to use different kinds of materials such as oil pastels, water colors, oil bars, charcoal, plaster, clay, colored pencils, and paints.
He likes being artistic. It makes him feel excited and relaxed all at the same time. At home, he can sit for a couple of hours working on a project. Some of his favorite things to draw are trucks, trains, and cars. He thinks he will use his talent when he's an adult by becoming an architect.
Johnson Memorial Case Native American Artwork by Feedng HIlls Resident Davina Jane Rush
Dream catchers, colied basketry, and beadwork will be featured.
Davina first became interested in native art as a young girl. Her interests were nurtured through the oral history of her family's Cherokee Indian ancestry. She began teaching herself to make dream cathcers, beadwork, coiled basketry, and more, through the use of books at her local library in Florida and through simple trial and error. Over the years as a teenager and into her adult life she has honed these skills to what her craft is today. For more information, visit her web site at: http://owl-woman-trading-post.freehomepage.com
