WHAT:
Photographs by Christopher Curtis
Ceramic Sculptures by Immer Mowry Cook
Paintings by Susan Valentine
WHEN: March 9 – April 3, 2020
Reception: Monday, March 16, 6:00-8:30pm
WHERE: Hosmer Gallery, Forbes Library 20 West Street Northampton, MA.
Immer Mowry Cook
Artist’s Statement
I grew up in and currently live in Easthampton, MA. An interest in modern and contact improvisational dance led me to pursue the study of dance in college. While there I found my way to ceramics and have been committed to the medium ever since. I have been creating work out of a shared community studio in Florence for the past few years.
I use traditional hand-building techniques and occasional wheel thrown elements to create my sculptures. My work has generally always made reference to vessel forms, using the architecture of the vessel( foot, body, handle, spout), as a vehicle for self expression. One thread in my current body of work represents a departure from that focus. In this series I tried to develop a personal iconography which led me to a series of portraits and the incorporation of a pedestal element into my compositions.
Susan Valentine
Artist’s Statement
I’m endlessly fascinated by the play of natural light on a surface. In 2017 I began to direct that interest to my parents’ childhood marble collection playing in the afternoon sun on my windowsill. That became a three-year journey, which grew to include many more marbles photographed on sunny afternoons as reference for these oil paintings.
I begin with a sunny day, use my phone’s camera, crop and edit those photos and then grid and draw the smaller ones, pulling out the projector to draw in the larger, more complex compositions. Just a few layers of thin oil paint gets my intentions across.
Currently, I focus my attention to the beautiful forms of fruits and veggies. I include a smattering of the series, Sustenance, in this exhibit.
Thank you for your interest in this local art scene. I’m very proud to be a part of it. See examples of my work at
www.susanvalentine.art.
Christopher Curtis: Luminous Places
Artist’s Statement
I am interested in photographing landscapes where the bones of the earth are revealed, where there are big skies and wild animals moving freely, and where sunlight etches the features of the land. I am also interested in the sacred places where its ancient aboriginal man’s relationship with the land can still be seen. Many of these places are vanishing forever, just in the time that I have been on the planet. With these photographs, I hope to convey the sense of place and the extraordinary beauty and fragility of our planet.
My exhibit is titled “Luminous Places”, and includes images from wild places around the world. My photographs are large format color landscape images, some panoramas, beautifully printed on cotton rag paper. I have travelled the world in search of landscapes that are wild, spiritual and ancient, and that speak to me in an ineffable and timeless voice. These places connect me, with their compelling beauty, the deep silence, sweet scents, light and shadow, to a sense that god is present in nature, and that nature is a powerful and dominant force. My photographs include images of rare ecosystems on top of Mount Kenya, dreamtime rock art in remote Cape York, Australia, sunrise on the islands of the Sea of Cortez, shamanic petroglyphs in Wyoming, mists in the Hoh Rainforest, rainstorms over Canyonlands, Masai villages, and ancient granaries in the Grand Canyon.
I have been photographing for over 40 years, and studied photography at the University of Colorado. My work has been exhibited in numerous one-person and group shows, including at Porter Phelps Huntington House Museum, Greenfield Community College, the Vermont Center for Photography, Franklin County Arts Council, Northampton Center for the Arts, University of Nebraska, Greentrees Gallery, University of Colorado, Alfredo’s Photographic Gallery and other galleries.
Forbes Library
20 West Street
Northampton MA 01060
413-587-1011 x 4529
fkaufmann@forbeslibrary.orghttp://forbeslibrary.org
