In celebration of Pittsfield’s 10×10 Winter Arts Festival, the NUarts Gallery at 311 North Street will host a group show featuring each of the member artist’s interpretation of “10.” The show will be on display from February 14 through March. A festive reception open to the public will be held on Friday, February 15 from 5-8 pm in the gallery on the second floor.  The gallery area has been recently refurbished; this will be the first exhibit in the newly enhanced space. Because NUarts is primarily “working artists’ studios,” regular open gallery hours are limited to planned events. However, viewing appointments can be made by calling or emailing any of the artists. Also, by chance, if you see the NUarts sandwich board on the Union Street, which means the gallery is open to the public.

Most of the 19 artists at NUarts will be participating, so expect a show with a wide variety of mediums and styles. Artists were free to interpret this theme in any way they chose. Here are descriptions of the entries by some of the artists:

Diane Firtell says of her work, “10X10 inspired me to create ten, 10X10 digital images in Photoshop, using my photographs and paintings.  Transferring the images, using different sizes and onto different surfaces, offered limitless possibilities of arrangement and presentation of the images. This piece is one of three from this series “buddy can you spare a lime”. Two other pieces are also exhibited in 10X10, one at 10X10 on 10, an interdisciplinary collaboration between Alchemy Initiative (AlchemyInitiative.org) and WAM theatre (WAMtheatre.com) at the Y Bar and the other at the Berkshire Museum for the Berkshire Art Association fund raiser.”

For Ellen Joffe-Halpern “10 Days in January” equals a lot of coffee and tea cups. The work could be a light hearted interpretation of T. S. Eliot’s famous line “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”. The work is mixed media on paper.  Ellen, painting under the signature of Joffe, tries to capture the immediacy and freshness of making marks on paper while searching to find timelessness in a moment. Ellen is an artist, teacher, and art therapist living in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She has worked with all ages in a variety of treatment settings as an expressive art therapist and has taught studio art at the High School and Community College level. Ellen has been working out of her NUarts studio for the past eight years.

Artist Sally Tiska Rice, born and raised in the Berkshires, attended Pittsfield High School and Berkshire Community College and since 1998 she has been employed as a Hand Bordering Artist with Crane & Co., Inc. A multimedia commission artist that enjoys painting personal paintings, Sally will honor her late father’s love of metal art and will show art works of copper and brass.

Lisa Merullo is a mixed media artist living in Pittsfield, Ma. Her recent work involves the Pittsfield community. She has been using found objects in her artwork. This work has been related to her walking the Pittsfield streets the past 3 years. Lisa works abstractly and on large scale. Her photographs are street portraits of local Pittsfield people holding an “I Love Pittsfield” banner Lisa created in 2011. These images and a few large scale paintings are on display at The Marketplace Cafe this month.

Claudia Shuster’s 10×10 entry, a drawing of two pianists’ hands on one keyboard, reflects her love of classical music. Claudia’s work currently focuses on oil portraits of children and adults.   She works from life as well as from photographs.  Claudia started her formal studies at the Art Students League in New York City and at Brandeis University, drawing the human figure.   She has studied in the Berkshires with Yura Adams, Julie Shapiro and Susan Godwin. Her work also reflects her multi-year studies of sculpture with Harvey Glasson Erna Weill and Phillip Howie.

Dee Randolph, portrait artist/illustrator will submit a piece called “Sticking the Landing for a 10”, an acrylic on canvas. Coincidentally, the artist’s studio is #10. This is the final piece in a series of maneuvers on the vault for girls gymnastics.

Dan Brody, a multimedia artist, is submitting “10 x10 fingers”, a hanging sculpture made out of 20 gloves.

Marguerite Bride’s piece entitled  “10 Ghost Balloons in the Night” is a watercolor on canvas depicting 10 hot air  balloons in a nighttime sky, illuminated in flight,  with seemingly empty baskets. This piece is a departure from her style in a number of ways….the colors are deep and rich because the painting was done in liquid pigments and ink, it is on a specially treated canvas, and it’s not a building!

Scott Taylor, a Berkshire County painter has been throwing paint in one form or another for most all of his adult life. Treed ridge lines, old barns and abandoned trucks and automobiles supply much of the influence for his work these days.  His piece entitled “ten vases” shows a playful side of the artist as he presents ten colorless vases with ten oversize flowers on a colorful backdrop.

Sam Ponder who sculpts folk art from gourds from Arkansas, will be exhibiting a mobile of baby  whales.

14 Feb This entry was written by airyedu and published on February 14, 2013 at 1:30 am. It’s filed under exhibit and tagged 10x10, art, artist, exhibit, festival, opening, pittsfield. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.