Beyond the Walls: Sculptures from the New England Sculptors Association – Outdoor Exhibition

Peter Dellert 

 “Inheritance is an upright flower form made completely of found recycled automotive catalytic converter covers that I collected over many years. These are riveted to a steel armature along with a small red plastic piece that becomes an eye and shines when light enters the sculpture. It makes a statement about oil/industrial culture and our role in contributing to the continuing problem of climate change.

My sculptures concern themselves with the information both inherent and hidden in the iconic forms and materials of our natural world, often juxtaposed with manmade or found materials. The sculptures are derived from recognizable biomorphic forms, often enlarged or altered and often developed into more minimal statements. While the forms remain unthreatening and familiar, certain details, seams, edges, openings, or surfaces speak of additional information unrevealed, requiring the viewer to further examine and question origin, intent, and purpose. Inheritance and the related pieces made from recycled found catalytic converter covers typify this process, using castoff industrial parts to make a large flower or pod shaped piece. The juxtaposition of manmade/organic is intentional and points out the irony in making a beautiful flower shaped sculpture out of rusted car parts, as well as identifying the source of much of the pollution being produced globally.”

Peter Dellert is a furniture maker, sculptor and collage artist living and working in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Inspired by nature, biomorphic forms, and most recently vintage hand tools, his sculptures utilize such diverse materials as tin cans, tree branches, grape vines, steel, copper, aluminum, carved Spanish cedar, concrete, and found recycled automotive catalytic converter covers. His sculptures have been exhibited in Sculpture Key West (FL), Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood (MA), Sculpture New Hope (PA), and Sculpture Now at the Mount (MA), as well as galleries and museums in the U.S. and Japan. One of his most recent pieces, Truth #1 (lime version) was chosen for inclusion in the Burlington Massachusetts Sculpture Park. His recent New Paradigm Tool Company pieces which incorporate found and recycled tools were part of a solo show at Anchor House of Artists in the summer of 2020.

Peter has taught at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Snow Farm—The New England Craft Program, and North Country Studio Workshops. In 2015 his work was exhibited in Art in the Park (Worcester, MA), Art in Nature (Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA), Sculpture Now at the Mount (Lenox, MA) and Art in the Orchard (Easthampton, MA). His sculptures and collages have been shown in numerous group and one-man exhibitions and included in many publications, most recently in Creating Abstract Art (Northlight Books, 2014).

Website: https://www.peterdellert.com

Cassie Doyon

 “Empty Nest is a mosaic sculpture with an armature of concrete and fiberglass mesh covered styrene. Empty Nest represents the bittersweet moment in parents’ lives when children grow up and move away; there is the fondness of memories along with newfound freedom, contrasted with the loss of a simpler time.”

Cassie Doyon works in mixed media with a focus on mosaics. She uses a variety of materials including natural, foraged, and found items such as sea glass, bone, driftwood, and stone. Her use of color is widely variable, from muted earth tones to bright, psychedelic hues. The mosaics tend to be structured and planned; often incorporating spontaneity and serendipity within the pieces. She is particularly focused on surface design and pushing the boundaries of sculpture with unconventional, repurposed materials.

Much of Doyon’s artwork is abstract in style and form, reflecting her lifelong interest in tribal art and artifacts from around the world. Doyon was born and raised in a seaside town; the ocean has been a powerful, repetitive theme through most every piece of art she has made. She likes to create “color and texture memories” of places she’s visited over the years and to explore macro and micro-environments in nature.

Cassie Doyon has worked as a mixed media artist and sculptor for the past thirty years. She has a Bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Salem State University and a Master’s degree in art education from Tufts University/SMFA. Her award-winning work has been exhibited throughout New England.

Website: https://www.cassiedoyondesigns.net

Larry Elardo

 “Building large clay sculptures requires planning so I often draw multiple variations or build small models in order to work out structural and design challenges. The biggest challenge is designing the piece so that all elements are no larger than 27” in any dimension because that is the interior size limit of my kiln.

White Reed for example is composed of 13 seven inch plus boxes to create a nine-foot tapered form. The forms that I create are simple and usually geometric, but the surfaces generally have organic and sometimes even painterly appearances.

 Segmented Cacti is another tapered form but very organic in nature, broken and twisted it appears lighter than its form would imply.

Slip Stream is a study in contrasts, earthy browns and stark whites, harsh angles and painterly surfaces interact with repetitions and scale changes to form a disparate but unified whole.”

 Larry Elardo is the recipient of several awards: “People’s Choice Award” Sculpture Garden, Sunapee Show, and League of NH Craftsmen. “Best of Contemporary Design” League of NH Craftsmen, “Best in Show, Furniture-Body of Work-Contemporary” and “Best of Show, Innovative Use of Materials” Fine Furnishings Show, Providence, Rhode Island. He is a contributor to “Pottery Making Illustrated” magazine and the inventor of the Inventor of the AccuAngle, a clay beveling tool.

Elardo earned a BFA from North West Missouri State University and an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. He is a frequent exhibitor around the New England Craft Fair circuit, a member of the League of NH Craftsmen and the New England Sculptors Association. He also teaches ceramics at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Website: http://www.mstreetpotters.com

www.accuangle.com

 Barbara Fletcher

 “I am a storyteller and an observer of nature and the nature of the human condition.

Barbara Fletcher earned a BFA from Syracuse University in Commercial Art. Years later she studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Maine’s Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

As a sculptor of paper and mixed media materials she reflects the humor seen all around her, particularly in the natural world. Although she considers herself primarily a sculptor and mixed media artist she also experiments with mono-printing and paper collage.

In the mid-1980’s while living in Maine, she completed a commission of fantasy sculpture for famed writer Stephen King. Now living in Boston for over 30 years, her art has been shown and won awards in numerous galleries and museums including the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, The Danforth Museum, The Duxbury Art Complex, and a one-person show at The Children’s Museum.

For over 20 years, Fletcher has taught children and adults periodically in her studio, art centers, and afterschool programs. Her artwork has been commissioned for hospitals including Children’s Hospital Boston and other medical facilities.

She has also been honored to have been featured in many books over the years on paper art and paper casting, including Arnold Grummer’s “Complete Guide to Paper Casting” and “Paper in 3Dimensions” by Diane Maurer-Mathison.

In September of 2018 she transitioned to creating larger mixed media sculpture and a proposal for her first temporary outdoor sculpture was installed for the Art Ramble walk at The Hapgood Wright forest in Concord, Massachusetts.

Fletcher continues to be challenged by creating and constructing thought provoking works that will inspire and entertain.

Website: https://www.barbarafletchermixedmediaartist.com

Douglass Gray

 “Till No More is constructed of steel using found parts and combined with fabricated pieces. The found elements include the wheel from an antique garden tiller and the harrow tines from a horse drawn field plow. The fabricated pieces serve to unify those elements into a cohesive sculpture. The intent of this sculpture is to call to mind the enormously hard work that was required of early farmers and their families, and to honor those whose lives depended on farming to survive.”

Website: https://douglassgraysculpture.com

Robert Greene

 “Nerve is an abstract interpretation of a severed dying nerve cell. It is inspired by my late father’s battle with ALS. The sphere is constructed using all 18-inch long slices of teak from the core to the exterior. One can peer deep inside at the seemingly endless connections and cross sections that create this form. The attached cord is made of many smaller lengths of wicker separately twisted together to create a large 13-foot long wooden rope that merges with the sphere as it splices into its many connections. The other end of this rope is clean cut as if it were severed, allowing one to see the many layers of wicker from which its comprised. The piece can be displayed in many ways. It can be suspended and animated with its flexible cord or allowed to lay flat and lifeless with its cord on the ground.”

Robert Greene is an East Coast artist/sculptor who resides in Oakdale, Connecticut. His work deals primarily with the human condition. The activity of the mind and nervous system is his main inspiration. Graduating from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2006, he went on to pursue a Master’s in Fine Art at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2010, receiving his Master’s in 2013. He is currently a full time Assistant Professor of sculpture in the Department of Art and Art History at Eastern Connecticut State University. His sculptures have gained recognition along the East Coast with many pieces in both private and public collections. His work has been mentioned from local newspapers to the Boston Globe. Recently Robert had a sculpture featured in the New York Times where it was highlighted in a prominent room the Annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House. Robert’s work has also been seen in The Architectural Digest, Huffington Post and many papers and blogs. He continues to exhibit in conjunction with staying busy creating original pieces and making new discoveries in his studio in Ledyard. He enjoys nurturing the creative minds of his students by engaging them in thought provoking projects. He believes that creativity and innovation go hand in hand.

Website: http://www.rgreeneart.com

 Liz Helfer

 “Trees and their residents bear witness to the passage of humanity; concrete will inevitably bear the marks of natural elements and fail. Constructed of natural and industrial materials, Nesting uses the imprints of local flora and the rough shapes of native bird species to keep a watchful eye. Reminiscent of a slitted eye and the vulva, the concrete nest form is tilted, both supported and pierced by cut maple branches. The branches are burned black, in contrast to the light gray of the concrete that still holds small remnants of leaf matter pressed into its interior surface. Perched on the interior ends of the branches sit roughly carved bird forms, blackened to match the branches. Their legs are bright bronze rod. Meant to invoke familiarity and sadness, the somber color scheme of the branches blends with the wooded surroundings, more shadow than presence. The contrasting “nest” and bright bird legs invite detailed viewing and thoughtful reflection on familiar forms, skewed and out of place.

Nesting comes from a place of fear and appreciation for nature’s wonders. Created out of need to explore themes of motherhood during a time of environmental peril, the process of building this sculpture has been a coping mechanism. Although static, the sculpture may be viewed as a reflection of human impact, destruction, and nature’s resilience. This sculpture can be plopped in place. A steel structure holds all the elements rigid when installed.”

Liz Helfer Studios is located in Waltham, Massachusetts, where Liz creates sculptures for commission and exhibition. Liz has focused on metal for over a decade because of its historical complexity and perceived value. However, in recent years she has been moving away from singular material choices and has moved into a mixed media practice that addresses our impending environmental peril.

After graduating from Alfred University in New York, Liz traveled to create sculptures across the U.S. and Europe. You can find her permanent public sculptures at the Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum in Latvia, in Palmyra, New York, and in Newton, Massachusetts. She is currently the Coordinator at Hatch Makerspace in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Website: https://www.elizabethhelfer.com

Linda Hoffman

 “Refuge is a sculpture that came from my urgent concern for the biodiversity of creatures on the planet as well as the plight of so many immigrants fleeing their homeland because of politics and/or climate change. I have reversed the more usual sense of human beings needing to rescue the animals, and chosen the giraffe and the sea turtle, both endangered species themselves, to come to the rescue of people. Our planet is fragile—all sentient beings need to live together with care and respect for each other.”

Linda Hoffman’s art includes indoor and outdoor sculpture, public installations, and private commissions. Her sculpture commissions can be seen outdoors in Groton, Acton, Harvard, Wellesley, and Stow, Massachusetts, and in Littleton, New Hampshire. Her work is in the collections of Fuller Craft Museum, Harvard University, the Boston Public Library, the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, and the Hechinger Tool Museum, Washington DC. This summer she is exhibiting in Brookline at “Studios Without Walls” outdoor exhibit and at “Art on the Trails” in Southborough at the Beals Preserve. “When We Were Trees,” a two-person exhibit with her daughter, sculptor Ariel Matisse, runs through the summer at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

Hoffman is the orchardist at Old Frog Pond Farm & Studio in Harvard and curator of the farm’s annual outdoor sculpture exhibit. A Zen Buddhist, her dharma name, Shinji, means Truth in the Soil. She writes a blog, “Apples, Art & Spirit.” This fall her memoir, “The Artist and the Orchard”, will be published by Loom Press.

Website: https://www.lindahoffman.com

https://oldfrogpondfarm.com

Janet Kawada

 “Can I Get In? is a circular sculpture with no entrance based on a round nomadic home. The imagery references communities of people and keys used to enter. At the same time there is no way to enter and no roof to shelter. It is secured to the ground by rebar in the ground on the inside so that it cannot be moved. It is weather-resistant.”

Janet Kawada received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and MFA from Vermont College. She recently retired from MassArt. She has taught numerous workshops around the area in addition to curating. Her work can be found in collections around the United States, Canada, and Japan.  Kawada is included in the book, “Artistry in Fiber, Volume 2, Sculpture and 97 Women Artists:  21^st C Agents of Change” to be published in 2021. In her work she is interested in exploring the theme of place, home, and the footprint we leave on the earth

Website: https://janetkawada.com

Bette Ann Libby

 “Do we appreciate what is taken away and are we able to comprehend a different perspective? Seen Not Seen incorporates reflective disc to alter the way we perceive these trees and create a unique sense of harmony. The viewer is provided with the opportunity to stop and appreciate nature from an unexpected viewpoint.

The site-specific sculpture Seen Not Seen is situated on a small grove of trees. Each disc has its own unique colors which vary and change with breezes and light, giving the impression that there are dots appearing and disappearing on the trees. Seen Not Seen has been successfully installed at several Massachusetts sites including the “Studios Without Walls” exhibition at The Riverway Park in Brookline, The Prouty Garden at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Frog Pond Farm Sculpture Exhibition in Harvard.”

For over 45 years, Bette Ann Libby has created art in many media including ceramics, shard mosaics, and repurposed materials such as MRI films. Her work has been exhibited in well over 100 local and national invitational & juried exhibitions, public collaborations, private commissions, and gallery installations. Libby is the founder, curator, and a participating artist of
“Studios Without Walls”, an exhibition of environmental art by sculptors. Now in their 22nd year “Studios Without Walls” has shown the work of 75 artists.

Libby has served on the MBTA (Boston, MA) Silver Line art selection committee and was a DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA) Corporate Sculptor (2002-2005). Since 2011, she has created over a dozen community mosaic projects in schools, libraries, hospitals, and synagogues in Vermont and Massachusetts. Libby maintains studios in Brookline, Massachusetts and Waitsfield, Vermont.

Website: https://www.Betteannlibby.com

https://communitymosaics.com

http://www.studioswithoutwalls.org

Madeleine Lord

“Headless, limbless Greek and Roman sculptures found in museums gave me permission to omit these parts from Core. Heads, arms, hands, feet are all very difficult to find in my scrap dumps. So like Don Juan Castenada in the 70’s fictions, I celebrate the Chi, the core of our existential Znow, from diverse origins.”

Madeleine Lord has worked with steel for over 30 years and has numerous permanent public art installations in New England and nationally. Work welded from scraps transforms metal pulled from a vast metal recycle center. The scraps imply the results, which may be a figure, fauna or flora where you see the image first and the ingredients second. Public art projects include Giraffe, Ostrich, Mr. Bo Jangles, and Angel owned by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Earlier works are cut steel figures. These include Revolutionary Figures in Fort Washington Cambridge Massachusetts, The Enduring American Spirit the first 9/11 permanent memorial in Whitinsville Massachusetts, and recently a Chef Picking Herbs commissioned by Community Servings in Jamaica Plain. Other locations for cut steel work include Gary Indiana, Dallas Texas and San Bernardo, California.

Website: mlordsculpts.com

@madeleinelordmadimetal on Instagram

 Douglass Rice

“Random Vowel “ began as a series of small cardboard cutouts. From 4″ x 8″ pieces of cardboard, I cut out various abstract shapes. Slotting the top of one and the bottom of another, I joined them together creating a free-standing cardboard sculpture. Once this was complete, I did the same process with three sheets of 3/4″ AC plywood, cutting each of the abstract shapes with a jig saw. I then sanded and painted them with high gloss metal paint, so they looked like they were made of steel. From there I took the full-scale plywood pieces to a metal fabricator called Hillary and Company They then cut the shapes out of two 4’x 8’ sheets of 5/8’ aluminum with a water jet. Another factory called Jay Pro then powder coated them to a high gloss “School Bus Yellow” finish. This sculpture is exhibited outside of the Shoreline Arts Alliance in Guilford, Connecticut as part of the Hollycroft Foundation’s Fifty Miles of Sculpture in South Eastern, Connecticut. It is to be viewed from all sides and encourages the viewer to see both the physical materials as well as the negative space that they create and their relationships.”

Douglass Rice was born in La Jolla, California in 1952. He grew up in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. In 1968 his family moved to San Francisco, California. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy where he took his first sculpture class with Richard Lyman. He attended Stanford University where he studied sculpture with Richard Randall and earned a degree in Human Biology in 1974. He also studied painting at the Mendocino Art Center, San Francisco State University, and the School for Visual Arts in New York.

In 1987 Rice moved with his family to New York and raised their two children in New York City’s Soho District. He worked in his high-end residential company from 1987 to 2015. During this same time, Rice maintained a studio in Tribeca. He has exhibited in numerous galleries over the last thirty years, including two shows at the National Arts Club. After his second show there in 2008, he was invited to become a member and continues to serve on the club’s Round Table Committee. Rice was a board member of the Bronx Museum of the Arts for ten years and served as its chair from 2009 until 2013. He is currently Chair Emeritus of the museum. In 2016 Rice moved to Stonington, Connecticut. He now paints and sculpts full time and shows at local museums and galleries.

He is currently an Elected Artist at the Mystic Museum of Art and a member of the Lyme Arts Association, the Bristol Art Museum, and Artist Co-op Gallery of Westerly.

Website: www.rdrart.com

Stacy Latt Savage

Flux represents momentum and impermanence.   While we desire stability and the comfort of known outcomes, the unknown and inevitable change infiltrates all parts of our existence.  In this sculpture, limitless possibilities and writhe and swirl around the globe portraying the ever-present interplay between order and chaos.

Stacy Latt Savage is a sculptor who works across media endlessly searching for meaning and structure through a studio practice signified by a love of making, an enchantment with raw material and a devotion to process and visual discovery. She received her MFA from Cornell University and her BA from Wells College. Savage is a Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth teaching sculpture and drawing. She exhibits her work in a variety of venues including museums and galleries such as the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (MA), Site:Brooklyn (NYC), the Alternative Museum (NYC), The Fuller Museum (MA), The Art Complex Museum (MA), Grounds for Sculpture (NJ), the New Britain Museum of American Art (CT), the Attleboro Arts Museum (MA), the Cotuit Center for the Arts (MA) as well as solo, juried and group exhibitions in university gallery settings such as Brandeis University, Del Mar College, Wheaton College, Stonehill College, the University of Hawaii, George Mason University, Bridgewater State University, UMass Lowell. Savage has a particular interest in fabricating sculpture for natural settings and exploring the dialogue between art and nature. Examples of her outdoor sculpture exhibition sites include the Saint-Gaudens Historic National Site (NH), the Heritage Museum (MA), Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park (IL), the Chesterwood Museum (MA), Forest Hills Cemetery (MA), Tarrant College Campus (TX), the Springfield Armory (MA), the Eustis Estate Museum (MA), the Whaling Museum (MA).

Her passion for artwork in natural settings drew her to found The River Project: Sculpture at the Slocum’s River Reserve, a collaboration with Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, featuring site-specific outdoor sculpture of national and regional sculptors. Savage has been an artist-in-residence at the John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Program (WI), The Yew Tree Farm Iron Residency (Suffolk, UK), the Franconia Sculpture Park (MN) and others. Savage maintains a commitment to collaboration and her community which have led to numerous public commissions and special projects including the Holocaust Memorial (New Bedford, MA), the 350-50 Commemorative Sculpture commissioned by the Town of Dartmouth (MA); and her Project Residency at the New Bedford Art Museum: Entropy, an evolving community-engaged sculpture/drawing installation. Her work is also included in numerous private collections.

Website: https://www.stacylattsavage.com

David Skora

“Watchman is a welded, fabricated steel sculpture in the Modernist tradition. I was inspired to create this piece from the remains of an old tank. As I constructed this piece, a figure shape came into being and the large eye element emerged. I want the viewer to question all of the ways they are being watched whether it is by other people or through the numerous cameras that are constantly watching everyone all of the time. I imagine this piece watching the viewer just as the viewer is looking at the sculpture.

David Skora grew up in southwestern Michigan. His childhood was influenced by the beauty of Lake Michigan and the ever-shifting aspects of its shoreline. After graduating from Western Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Design, he moved to Chicago and worked as a graphic designer. In the mid 1980’s he accepted a position as a graphic designer on the east coast and moved to Connecticut. By the late 1980’s he moved to New York City and attended graduate school at the School of Visual Arts. He received a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1989.”

Currently, David lives with his family in the Northwest Hills of Connecticut where he paints, sculpts, and designs. When not working in his studio, he is a full-time Professor of Graphic Design at Western Connecticut State University. David’s artwork has been shown extensively and can be found in many public and private collections throughout the United States.

Website: https://www.davidskora.com