A camera allowed me to explore my vision. I always wanted to do things and see things differently. The world in the frame captured in the moment. I grew up in an immigrant family that didn’t have much but yet managed to provide me a life here. I believe that I matured at a young age due to many family issues. I learned the value of a dollar and even a penny. Working with fashion, as I saw it, was all about designer wear, top brands, and known people. I chose to explore the clothing and body as a form. The connection between both, and the emotions portrayed by the confidence in the model being comfortable in their own skin. The model's trust allows for freedom in creativity and poses while maintaining an artistic approach. Using one continuous light or a natural light source and clothing from thrifts stores. Making low budget images look and feel as creative as possible.
My name is Jack DeBusk and I am a painter that explores figurative and abstract work. Much of my recent figurative work has been an exploration of color and subject matter in a more surreal or dreamlike way. While I abide by many formal constraints of the figure, I am fascinated with color and vibrations that are created through the multiple layering and the meeting of opposing colors which create that tension and vibrancy. While in the painting process, themes of relationships, how we connect with one another and even themes of mortality and death are at the forefront of my mind while exploring this play of color and form and has been the purpose and push for my work for a long time.
Migration means change and movement, it means pattern and direction. Elements I have tried to make evident in my work. The basis of my thesis has been the exploration of transformation and creation. From simply rendered life drawings and typographic experiments I have taken what I have plainly seen in front of me and transformed that into what I see with my inward eye. Something beyond the physical which advances into the spiritual, the symbolic, the lyrical. A migration from matter into meaning, and image into narrative. In my process I obsessed with texture and color, with form and line and how they all could be interwoven to create something the viewer could not only see but feel. With intersection of line, the play of color, and the battle between hierarchy and balance I sought to create work that, after being initially produced as an exercise, was reimagined and then executed with meticulous and meditative practice over hours, imbuing my life with a sense of sacredness and stillness through the beauty-in-practice of embroidery. These are migrations frozen in time, snapshots of transformation. They endeavor to show my wonderment at the complexities of creation, for all it’s goods and ills. They are my response to the world around me. As an artist I am bound by the rules and wants of creation. My materials consist of recycled wool and threads foraged from thrift stores and dumpsters, colored pencils and plain pastel paper. No material being unworthy of being made into a praise of creation, into my reflections on reality. Yet I recognize that I am only a way station in the constantly evolving process of creation. I may cease work on these pieces but, as is the nature of things, they are never quite complete. Only in a state of rest waiting for the next hand to come along and precipitate the next migration, the next creation. The cycle is unending.
Maeve Lally is a painter and sculptor who deals with soft sculpture relating to the human body; our interactions with our own, each others, and our conception of what bodies are. They are interested in how experiences and emotions can be conveyed through organic and recognizable forms, as well as the idea of touch and the process one needs to go through to be able to touch. Life casting and wearable sculptures will further the notion of what is meant to be interacted with, yet these objects being presented in a gallery setting will deter the viewer from their initial reaction to touch.
Lexi Palmberg is an interdisciplinary artist from Stafford, CT. Their work confronts identity, experience, language, and communication through hypothetical systems of cause and effect to ultimately explore new forms of collage and assemblage
At around seven years of age, I stumbled upon a box of photographs that my dad took in the early 1990’s. I was in awe of these images and studied them for hours at a time. I always knew that each photograph I looked at had a story to tell. At times, I even made up stories for the photos themselves. Creating these false memories in my mind and enjoying my loved ones past memories from a visual perspective was just the beginning and aroused within me feelings of delight and inspiration. I wanted to further explore the concept of invoking these fabricated memories using a variety of photographic mediums which will include 35mm Black and White, expired 35mm color film, Digitally manipulated digital photography/video, and Black and White Super 8 film. I want to invoke nostalgia and yearning in myself and others when I create and show my work. I want to unravel and understand how to navigate the winding hills and blurred lines that lay within the hearts and minds of our memories in the past, present and future.
Cameron Silva is a sculptor who mainly works in ceramics creating bulbous and undulating organic forms that are reminiscent of the body. These forms often have smaller more parametrically formed characters called Lil Guys, interacting or intersecting with the organic forms. He uses these interactions to reference how his mind and others around him perceive different situations, emotions, and consciousness. His work also deals with themes of introspection, metaphor, the body, and the human condition.
My name is Holden and I’m a 21 year old undergraduate student studying at the Montserrat College of Art. In May, I will receive my BFA in Painting, however my interests serve multiple mediums such as: printmaking, photography, performance, collage & woodworking. I was born and raised in Maine, and while I live in Massachusetts for the moment - it continues to be a place of great inspiration. My work is currently concerned with analyzing the effects of white male toxic masculinity. I’m striving towards creating a dialogue between the past, present and future - be it through the lens of family, friends and environment. In my mind, these are essential devices that I utilize to create a coming of age narrative in rural Maine. The way someone looks back at you, their mannerisms - all speak to a deeper and larger experience that I wish to unpack. The hope is that they reflect not only time and place, but that they record and look back upon experience in an effort to redefine masculinity. As an observational artist when I approach a piece of work I am mainly looking to understand and re-evaluate. Paintings remain in a flux with no particular attention to certain parts, the whole picture frame is taken in consideration. The paintings build an attention to the surface, its history and change is analogous to how I perceive people as perception is a constant struggle for me. As I have learned, there is a necessity to remain responsive and to be open to natural outcomes. As long as I remain conscious of this, a visual statement is reached - that is what leads to breakthroughs and ultimately deeper, more understood work.
Chris Carchipulla @chris.carchipulla
Jack DeBusk @debuskart
Adam Klebon @indigo_the_vagabond
Maeve Lally @maeve.lally
Lexi Palmberg @lexi.palmberg
Thomas Rutigliano @thomasrutiglianophoto
Cameron Silva @camsilvaceramics
Holden Willard @holdenwillard