Children’s Museum hosts textile arts exhibit

Dover was once known as one of the textile capitals of the nation. The Children’s Museum is revisiting the city’s legacy in Gallery 6 with a summer exhibit called “A Continuous Thread,” on display through Sept. 6.

The new art display complements the museum’s recently completed Cochecosystem exhibit, which shows visitors the natural life on the river as well as its industrial past. In contrast, the museum’s Gallery 6 showcases three fiber artists with a contemporary take on the medium.

Portsmouth gallery closing its doors, but starting a new project

Three of the four artists who own the ellO gallery and shop were sitting in the backyard of their downtown Portsmouth location on June 20, after roughly 20 participants in their pinewood derby had left. Anticipated rain showers never came, and despite heading toward their closing reception on Friday, June 26, the owners were as optimistic about the future as ever.

Glenn DiLando, John Fanning and John Winters are beginning ellO Projects when the ellO gallery closes at the end of this month for financial reasons. The fourth owner, Byrdy DiLando, will take the time to focus on her clothing line, which has been difficult while working at the gallery and two other jobs to keep it afloat.

Standing in his spacious third-floor studio at the Button Factory in Portsmouth, artist Marshall Carbee proudly displays a recent painting. In earthy shades of brown and red, like western soil at sunset, the piece depicts a plant budding from underground roots. Its title? “First Green Painting in the Modern World, 2008.”

The painting is not green in color, but in its materials. Carbee used a hemp canvas with no frame and petroleum-free paints derived from natural earth pigments. For a primer, he used a soy-based gesso—a non-toxic, non-hazardous, zero-VOC product Carbee helped create. That product, called Carbee Soy Gesso, is now available to all artists.

“It’s the first of its kind,” Carbee proclaims. “There’s nothing like it.”

needle arts piece together Portsmouth’s past

Magazines will tell you that clothes say something about you. It seems, though, that textiles from the past have whole stories to tell about the people who made and wore them.

There are more than 2,000 textiles in the Strawbery Banke Museum collection, and the ones with family stories tend to be the most compelling. About 30 of those pieces are on display through April 18 in the Randall Gallery of the Portsmouth Athenaeum during an exhibit called “Through the Eye of the Needle: Sewing Stories and Family Stories.”

Needlework is often underappreciated among fine arts and crafts, yet the tangible and familiar textiles have a way of conjuring up emotions and memories. Many of the items now on view have never been publicly displayed before, and they reveal an intimate portrait of Portsmouth’s past.

Rather than show the best side of the garments, some are inside-out to show the work that went behind them. Clothes were patched as needed and let out as children grew. A mother’s dress was cut and sewn again to fit her daughter. Different types of stitches reveal intentions. Some are for ornament, while others are necessary to the construction, and the hasty ones were quick alterations.

blooming silk in York

The York Art Association will mark the start of spring with a colorful display of silk and watercolor works by local artist Sue Wierzba. The exhibit, called “Bloomingsilk,” begins with an opening reception at the gallery on Friday, March 20 from 5 to 7 p.m.

Wierzba began working with dyed silk in 2006, combining the material’s vibrant colors with its unique texture and weave. She also paints with watercolors, specializing in flowers, landscapes and seascapes. An avid gardener, her work is meant to translate the fresh and ever-changing subjects of nature. The exhibit will include about 35 images, plus a couple of dozen hand-dyed scarves.

exhibit benefits AIDS Response Seacoast

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of paintings by Provincetown artist Laurence Young at the Banks Gallery in downtown Portsmouth will benefit AIDS Response Seacoast. The exhibit, “Paintings of Provincetown in Summer,” will run through Saturday, April 4.

An artist reception will be held on Friday, March 13 from 5 to 7 p.m. The suggested donation for the reception is $20.
AIDS Response Seacoast is a non-profit, community-based service organization dedicated to providing education, assistance and advocacy for people affected by HIV and AIDS. It is based in Portsmouth and serves the greater Seacoast community.

The Banks Gallery is located at 420 Court St., Portsmouth.

Portsmouth Pearl opens under new management; Center for Community Cultureand Change quickly closes

There’s good news and bad news about the newest arts and cultural venues in Portsmouth.

First the bad news: The Center for Community, Culture and Change shut down within a month of opening in downtown Portsmouth. The organization was founded by Troy Esby just last month, offering a space for classes, performances and other cultural events. It was located at 40 Pleasant St., in the basement of a former federal building at the corner of State and Pleasant streets.

Many of the scheduled events and classes had a new age or otherwise spiritual theme. With a network of people behind it, there were several events planned at the center, including introductory classes to holistic medicine and journeying and spiritual movie nights.

Web site gives bigger audience to small art

The Atom Group, a Web site development agency in Portsmouth, has built a new user-friendly Web site for local art gallery Nahcotta, putting the Enormous Tiny Art Show online.

The site, www.enormoustinyart.com, showcases Nahcotta’s biannual event, allowing visitors to easily view the artwork, research the artists, see real-time inventory updates and purchase original artwork online.

“We want everyone to experience the thrill of owning their own artwork,” said Deb Thompson, owner of Nahcotta, in a press release. She explained that the show, which has artwork measuring 10 by 10 square inches, was created to make buying original artwork more affordable and realistic. The event has gained momentum over the years and the Web site expands the experience, making the art accessible to people who may not be able to visit the gallery in person.

As a freelance photographer covering Capital Hill and last year’s presidential campaigns, Mannie Garcia saw the chin-up image of Barack Obama in “Hope” posters daily—without realizing it was his photo that inspired it.

Garcia takes hundreds of photographs on assignments. This one was taken for the Associated Press at a conference on human rights.

Los Angeles-based street artist and graphic designer Shepard Fairey lifted the photo from the Internet and used it to create the poster that became a symbol of unity for the grassroots campaign behind the Obama election. As is typical of Fairey’s artwork, many posters were hung or stenciled in public places and otherwise given away, but some were sold.

New Hampshire was undergoing a movement in the early 1970s that had nothing to do with the social and political change most people associate with the time.

It was an art quilt movement. A new appreciation for the old craft of quilting was probably inspired initially by the bicentennial celebrations of many towns, but developed as an art form thanks to several major gallery exhibits. 

Wen Redmond has been a fiber artist since 1973, when she made her first intuitive pieced art quilt. But, for the first time, she recently found inspiration in politics.

meet the mill artists in Dover

The Galleries at One Washington Center will feature a month-long “Who’s Who in the Mill” event beginning Saturday, Feb. 7.
During the past couple of months, several new artists have moved into the building and joined the Dover Mill Arts Collaborative, said gallery curator Daisy Adams, a painter. The show will introduce the new artists and also feature some previously existing tenants in the Picker Building. 

There are now more than 20 artists in the mill, nine of whom will participate in the show. Each artist will display one piece that represents their work, along with a brief biography and description of their art, and contact information.

CATA relocates to Dover

The Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy moved recently from the woodsy setting of Barrington to the restored mill building at One Washington Center in downtown Dover.

January 26 marked the start of the second semester of the school year, but applications are still being accepted, said CATA interim director Christy Cloutier-Holmes. She said the new location allows for growth at the 60-student charter school, a college prep school that integrates arts and technology into the curriculum.

The school also hosts many cross-curriculum arts events, she said. For instance, when a play is arranged, art students make the set, music students write and perform the score, and theater students perform as actors.

Congress Street Gallery fits into downtown Portsmouth

Some may be reluctant to embrace the Congress Street Gallery, since it is only designated as half of the Green River Silver Company’s space in downtown Portsmouth, while the other half is a jewelry store. But it turns out to be an appropriate setting. This art gallery is a real gem.

The gallery at 75 Congress St., which opened roughly a year ago, is owned by brothers John and Dan Goldman. John is more focused on jewelry and Dan on art. They also own locations in Rhode Island, home to the gallery’s three featured artists this month—Marjorie Ball, Dora Atwater Millikin and William McCarthy.

This month’s group show, “Landscapes by Congress Street Regulars,” runs until Thursday, Dec. 4. It opened on Nov. 7 in conjunction with the city’s monthly Art ’Round Town event. Curator Carol FitzSimonds filled the space with both established and emerging artists who paint the way they see the world.

The York Art Association typically closes the gallery after its fall exhibit, but this year it will remain open through the winter.
The number of people who attended the opening reception of the fall art show on Friday, Sept. 12, justified its commitment to staying open year round with more exhibits and other community events. Diane Servis, the Association’s secretary, said art and writing workshops and performances are planned. “It’s going to fly,” she said. 

The fall show opened in conjunction with Art in the Park, directly across from the gallery on Route 1A at Moulton Park in York Harbor, Maine. The one-day event happened on Sept. 13, but the fall show will run through Oct. 5, featuring paintings, photos, pottery and jewelry.

Art ’Round Town rolls to first Friday

On the sidewalk outside Three Graces Gallery in downtown Portsmouth, a crowd gathered on Friday evening as Barbara Poole took photos of adults getting reacquainted with a hula hoop.  

Poole, a Boston artist, attempts to snap photos at the moment when people begin to overcome their self-consciousness and get into the groove. “Something magical happens,” she said, as if people are transported back to childhood. She only paints the photographs that capture this moment.

meet the artists of Overnight Art

In celebration of the summer-long Overnight Art exhibit in Portsmouth, Art-Speak is holding a “Meet the Artist” event on Saturday, Sept. 6 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The six Overnight Art participants will be stationed by their outdoor installations to answer questions from the public. 

artisan marketplace available

A retail shop at 503 Central Ave. in the heart of downtown Dover is transforming itself into an artisan marketplace.
Cynthia Ouellette, owner of Cynthia Designs Studio, is offering four retail spaces inside her store to established local artisans and craftspeople who are interested in testing the retail waters and looking to build brand recognition.

Ouellette already offers her own hand-crafted clothing line and interior design items at the shop, where she works daily at the sewing machine in the front of the store. The open space inside invites a more bustling atmosphere, she said. When the spaces fill up, “it will become a destination spot.”

The 57th annual Ogunquit Art Association auction at the Barn Gallery will be held on Saturday, Aug. 2. 

Auctioneer Hap Moore will take bids on paintings, graphics, photographs and sculptures by members of the Art Association, the area’s oldest professional artist organization. A percentage of the proceeds go to the Ogunquit Arts Collaborative, a non-profit organization that owns and administers the Barn Gallery. Artists also have the opportunity to donate work with 100 percent of the sale price going back to the Collaborative.

Nestled in an alley between busy shops and offices on Congress Street in downtown Portsmouth is a pine room with birch saplings sticking out the top.

“You look in the window and, first of all, you see the trees. You kind of slowly realize you’re looking at your reflection like a mirror,” said Jamie Calderwood, the Portsmouth artist who made the piece called, “Inside/Out.”  

It’s a reversal of the modern world, where people are sheltered from the wilderness in their comfortable homes, provoking meditations on the relationship between the man-made and the natural environment.

art festivals in Dover and Rollinsford open doors to thriving arts communities

This Saturday, May 10, Seacoast residents will have a chance to get to know their local artists. Two studio buildings in Dover and Rollinsford will open their doors to the public and invite families and art lovers to explore their work space.

Dover’s first ever One Washington Center Arts Festival will be held in two 19th century mill buildings from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. In the past 18 months, one of these two mills, the Picker Building, has been transformed into a commercial space housing small businesses and artist studios. The other mill will display a sneak preview of exhibitions coming to the new Children’s Museum in anticipation of its grand opening this summer in the Butterfield Building, located next door.

remodeled Currier shows NH artists

Out of an almost two-year remodeling project emerges a little gem of a museum—the new Currier Museum of Art. The improved museum in Manchester has some bright facets to show off. It has expanded its footprint by more than a third, adding 33,000 feet of gallery space and ancillaries. The renovations now enable the museum to host larger, nationally prominent shows, such as “Andy Warhol: Pop Politics,” which is coming in late September. 

The introduction of five new galleries also means Currier will be able to exhibit 50 percent more of its collection. The current exhibit, “Celebrating New Hampshire Artists,” contains just about every medium: painting, glass, sculpture, tableware, crafts, ceramics, fine art furniture, wood engraving, prints, silver gelatin and giclée photography. The work of New Hampshire artists will rotate through a gallery dedicated to this concept for the next six months.

Overnight Art 2008 submissions sought

This year, when May rolls around, flowers won’t be the only things blooming in the Port City. Public art will also take root at various locations throughout Portsmouth. Art-Speak, Portsmouth’s Cultural Commission, recently announced its call for submissions to its public art contest, Overnight Art 2008. The competition will culminate in a scattered-site exhibit of public art from mid-May until the end of the summer.