2008 Goetemann Artist Residency

Distinguished Artist/Teacher in Residence: Sue Miller, June 22-27

Sue Miller, an artist whose work “traverses a thin line between abstraction and visionary landscape” (from Gallery & Studio, April 2001, by Andrew Margolis), has been selected as the Distinguished Artist/Teacher in residence at the Rocky Neck Art Colony from June 22-27, 2008.

Miller has been represented by Allan Stone Gallery in New York City for the past 29 years and by Nielsen Gallery in Boston. She lives and teaches in Boston.

Marion Lane, May 27 – June 21, 2008

Marion Lane, a New York painter and sculptor with impressive professional and exhibition experience, is the first of four artists to be awarded a Rocky Neck Art Colony Residency.  On Wednesday, May 28 at 7 pm Lane will give a presentation of her work at the Bryan Gallery, 56 Rocky Neck Ave., Gloucester. The public is invited to attend. On Wednesday, June 18, Lane will give a second presentation at the Avery Mann Gallery, 77 Rocky Neck Ave. where she will speak about her experience and show work she completed during her residency.

Marion Lane’s painting and sculpture shows a deep understanding of 20th century artistic genres. Her work has transitioned from abstract expressionism to minimalism. Her primary interest has been on feminist issues, which she addresses in metal relief sculptures and draped mixed media pieces. Her professional career includes positions as an adjunct college professor, teaching studio and art appreciation as well as work in the field of art therapy at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center in New York.

When asked what she could bring to Rocky Neck, Lane replied “My work would be of interest to your community. It is work that has a history and has gone through a process of evolution and change based on my life experience and changes in the art world.”

Rocky Neck artists in residency are selected because they demonstrated high-level accomplishment, originality, and seriousness of purpose. One artist was selected for each of three one-month residency terms, beginning May 27, 2008. A fourth professional artist/teacher was selected for a one-week teaching residency beginning June 22. The program includes prime studio/gallery/living space in Rocky Neck, opportunities to lecture and show work, and access to the rich cultural community of Rocky Neck and Cape Ann.

These events are funded by the Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC) in partnership with seARTS through a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) John and Abigail Adams Fund.

June 22, 3 pm: Introductory lecture and slide presentation Cape Ann Museum. Open to the public.

This event is funded by the Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC) in partnership with the Cape Ann Museum, and in part by seARTS through a grant from the Massachusetts Cultral Council (MCC) John and Abigail Adams Fund. Corporate support has been provided by the Hershey Frame Company of Rockport MA. 

Mark Lavatelli, July 8 – August 7, 2008

Mark Lavatelli, an encaustic painter with an impressive resume of one-person exhibitions, awards and grants, and academic credentials, will be the third artist in residence for the Rocky Neck Art Colony. He will give a presentation about his work on Wednesday, July 9, at 7 pm at the Bryan Gallery. On Wednesday, August 6, Lavatelli will show work he has completed during his residency at a Gallery talk at 7 pm in the Avery Mann Gallery, 77 Rocky Neck Ave.

Lavatelli said that “The Rocky Neck Art Colony residency would provide an opportunity for me to develop further my practice of encaustic painting through the time and space to work in a visually stimulating environment, contacts with other creative people, and through exposure of my work to a new audience.”

In two previous residencies, one at the Saltonstall Foundation near Ithaca, NY in 2001 and one at the Wurlitzer Foundation in 2004, Lavatelli made new work that led to exhibitions and acknowledgment of a high level of accomplishment.

“What I look forward to,” said Lavatelli, “is the process of assimilating aspects of nature and expressing them in the wide variety of techniques that the hot-wax encaustic medium offers. … I am also poised to create a series of encaustic monotypes possibly based on rocks and water.”

This event is funded by the Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC) in partnership with seARTS through a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) John and Abigail Adams Fund.

For more information, please contact Gordon Goetemann, 978-281-6128

Ben Shattuck, September 9 – October 9, 2008

 Ben Shattuck, an emerging artist and recent graduate from Cornell University’s School of Fine Arts, will be the fourth artist in residence for the Rocky Neck Art Colony’s 2008 Artist in Residency Program. He will give a presentation about his work on Wednesday, September 10, at 7 pm at the Bryan Gallery. On Wednesday, October 8, Shattuck will show work he has completed during his residency at a Gallery talk at 7 pm in the Avery Mann Gallery, 77 Rocky Neck Ave.

Shattuck’s expressive and sometimes humorous oil paintings revolve around the cultural and natural history of New England. The New England landscape with its windtorn trees, salt marshes and cold, stormy seas, influence the heart of both the New England towns and of his landscapes. “I’m also interested in the link between formal New England History and that which becomes exaggerated, fantasized, but somehow just as true: the Salem Witch trials as both fantasy and fact; [and] the distortion of historic figures that radiates from nostalgia specific to New England,” said Shattuck.

In Shattuck’s 2007 solo exhibition New England: Fantasy Love, at the Tjaden Gallery, Cornell University, Shattuck combined technical skill with excitement, imagination and history to create his fantasy interpretation of historic New England. A review of the show by The Cornell Daily Sun says that “the exhibit really does evoke a sense of place, and, not to mention, person. Shattuck’s new paintings brag technical skill and teem with excitement and imagination. Where is this New England Shattuck paints? I want to go there.”

“If you were to get a package of New England in the mail — if you were to order New England — you would get a little box of nostalgia, a little box of history, a little box of haunted houses,” remarked Shattuck. “And you can collect these things into something that feels like a sense of home. But how do you describe that?”

Shattuck’s work is about process: processes of growth and identity and interaction between artist and viewer.

This event is funded by the Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC) in partnership with seARTS through a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) John and Abigail Adams Fund.