For the month of January, Fivesparks has been transformed into workspaces for 16 local artists in an Artists in Residence program. The gallery usually displays the finished result of hours of an artist’s messy, cluttered, researched work, but in this unusual use of the gallery space, visitors are invited to glimpse what goes on before the beautifully matted and framed work goes up on the walls and the public reception commences.
The building is open to the public Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., for visitors to observe and interact with artists at work. On Saturdays, hands-on demonstrations and workshops will give visitors the opportunity to experience and practice different mediums and techniques. Those will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on a drop-in basis. Some artists will have work for sale. Check www.fivesparks.org for a schedule of artists and their mediums, workshops, and demonstrations.
Visitors can see artists working in oil, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor painting; cartooning; stamp-making and printing; indigo ink; pastel; neographic drawing; painterly and sculptural felting; weaving; art journaling; and graphic medicine—an emerging genre that uses comics to tell stories of sickness and health. Even for someone who has followed art for a long time, there will be opportunities to hear new ideas, concepts, and definitions of art.
Lyn Slade, needle felting artist in residence at Fivesparks. (Photo by Margaret Kusner)
Fivesparks’ Artists in Residence program isn’t just a peek into artists’ studios but a chance to get a deeper understanding of how artists work, wherever they set up. The visitor can view the sketches and sketchbooks, the notes, the references, the tools and supplies, the paints, the wool, the inks, the paper, the canvas, and so on.
Artists who had taken or taught classes, exhibited at the gallery, volunteered, or who were otherwise known to Fivesparks as artists were offered, by email, a month of free work space at Fivesparks. According to Executive Director AnaMaria Nanra, many of those who responded to the offer already work in their own home studios, by choice or necessity. So who would take Fivesparks up on this offer? After all, it’s a bit of work to load up supplies, lug them into the building, arrange a temporary space, and then reverse the whole process.
They may want the experience of working with other artists, where they can talk about their work, learn, and get new ideas. Suzan Osborn, a garden painter, said she will be working on paintings for her upcoming exhibit at New England Botanical Garden at Tower Hill and looks forward to engaging in conversation with visitors about how “artists choose their subjects, and the inspirations and influences that stimulate their art.”
Kristin Kelly-Munoz, a weaver, said that having a residency “helps you to focus on your work. All the distractions that we all deal with when working from home—laundry, pets, dishes, email—are easier to set aside or are absent completely.”
Jill Adamy, a mixed media artist and art journalist, said she applied for the residency “because I’d like to share the joy of being creative, even for beginners and those on a tight budget.”
For those who teach, it’s a chance to introduce or demonstrate a new medium or technique. Many artists appreciate the opportunity to present their work to the public.
Needle-felting artist Lyn Slade is glad to get away from her studio because every January she reorganizes, orders supplies, makes room for supplies, cleans up, evaluates, and resets her studio for the coming year. Here at Fivesparks she said she can actually create some art this month.
