City of Worcester, Massachusetts

Art in the Park 2009

An exhibition of sculptures by New England artists at Worcester’s historic Elm Park, Highland Street and Park Avenue
August 6, 2009 – October 4, 2009

Presented by the Worcester Cultural Commission, funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council with support from Park Spirit and the City of Worcester Department of Public Works & Parks.

This exhibit was juried by Michael Hachey from Worcester State College, Beth McLaughlin from Attleboro Museum and Ellen Driscoll from RISD. Majority of works are available for purchase. Contact artist direct for further details.

Related Art in the Park happenings:

Art in the Park in the News

Exhibiting Artists & Works:

 

1. Playing With Blocks

Joe Fix, Newbury, MA
Plywood, paint, polished stainless steel

The site-specific sculpture is built in pieces around a tree. No pieces are mechanically attached to the tree. This piece evokes one of our earliest experiences with creativity – playing with building blocks.

2. Seraph

Joseph Ferguson, Weston, MA
Aluminum/acrylic

Since childhood I’ve been interested in building, in creating objects in space that were not there before. I had a talent to draw pictures or make models of the visions of my imagination locked on. I chose stained glass as a medium for its purity of color and the dynamic animation it offers to sculpture in the landscape.

3. Flight Lines

Joe Fix, Newbury, MA
Wood, paint

This installation relies really on parallax perception – what you see depends on where you’re at – to give the illusion of motion. The piece was influenced by optical devices and toys of the past as well as the contemporary work of Rufus Butler Seder. The subject of the pieces was inspired by the Canadian geese that make this park their home.

4. Tarpin Chasing Silversides

Susu Wing, Arlington, MA
Laminated plastic on a steel fence

In general, my artwork explores translucence and the play of light casting shadows. I am particularly fascinated by motion and changing colors. Plastic has become my favorite medium because it is lightweight, transparent, inexpensive and less explored artistically than many materials.

5. What Lays Within

Joe Fix, Newbury, MA (created in collaboration with Sara Fix)
Wood, sod

Within
The layers of the earth,
The rings of a tree,
The pages of a book,History is written.

6. Chair Arch 9

Susan Champeny, Worcester, MA
Resin-cast lawn chairs, cable ties, ree-bar

Chair Arch is created entirely of resin-cast lawn chairs, a disposable form of seating often used as ‘parking chairs’ in winter, and barbeque seating in summer. Over the past year I have collected or been given more than 60 chairs.

7. Toaster

Steven Rolf Kroeger, Albany, NY
Neon, VW Microbus, steel, paint, Styrofoam, expandable foam

Toaster is a sculpture from an incomplete series that brings my own print, Varoom, from an imaginary two dimensional world into 3D reality. Enormous burning matchsticks serve to light an endless highway in which an animated toaster and a speeding vacuum pass each other by.

8. Red Totems

Susan Champeny, Worcester, MA
All recycled materials – red plastic plates, bowls and cups, on pipe cast into bases of paint buckets filled with concrete

Totems is a series of 10-20 six-foot high totem poles created out of stacked red plastic plates, bowls and cups commonly used for summer picnics. This concept was successfully installed as a one-day interactive community artwork in Elm Park in August 2008.

9. Pianista Observatorium

Michael Frassinelli, Holliston, MA
Piano parts, wood, steel wire, copper wire, mechanisms

This is a free-standing structure inspired by dwellings of nomadic peoples and structures used for celestial navigation and observation. Viewers are invited to step in and either stands, looking out at the world around them or to sit and contemplate.

10. Heffalump

Marisa Dipaola, Vernon, VT
Basketwoven found plastic bags and outdoor lights on reinforced chicken wire frame

I am a nomadic sculptor and installation artist creating site-specific work from found materials. My recent artwork is a collection of storybooks come to life in this word including the flying honey-eating elephant creature dreamt by Winnie the Pooh.

11. Dragonfly

Marisa Dipaola, Vernon, VT
Basketwoven found plastic bags and outdoor lights on reinforced chicken wire frame

While staring off at a sunset following a thunderstorm, I saw giant floating animal clouds, glowing in pinks and blues and violet. I had been collecting colored plastic bags in these particular colors for years now, quite unsure of their purpose, until seeing these clouds… flowing floating animals, oh my.

12. Nexus (Rhizomes)

Brooke Mullins Doherty, New Bedford, MA
Polyester, wire, acrylic, polyurethane, wood, styrofoam

The lives of all organisms depend on water, which comprises the largest part of our physical makeup. Consisting of three floating yellow elements resembling pond blossoms, Nexus (Rhizomes) references the underlying forms and processes common to all organisms, and it also draws from the aesthetic features shared by marine microscopic life.

13. Bird Work

Marcella Stasa, Upton, MA
Bird’s nests with mixed media

I consider these to be collaborative works between birds and myself. All the nests used in Bird Work are made from abandoned nests which are no longer suitable for birds to use.

14. Found Nest, After Ice Storm

Lisa Barthelson, Rutland, MA
Mixed media environmental sculpture of found branches, roadside stones, inner wire from downed electrical lines

Found Nest is product of 8 days of a family huddling around a wood stove, no electicity, having a ‘pioneer expreience’, in our nest surrounded by piles and mounds of branches, trees, ice, snapped telephone poles, draped and downed lines, and ice.

15. Listening for Lightning

Andy Moerlein, Bow, NH
Sawn maple log and saplings

We all know the sensation – moist evening air, a sudden gust, all breath held. Sad voices from the house. Foreboding clouds moving so fast they shake the earth beneath my feet. I tremble as the first drops chill. I cannot go back inside – ever again. I am waiting for my sky to fall.

16. Growing Home

Andy Campbell, Boston, MA
Pressure treated pine, welded steel, hemp twine, black enamel, solar powered lanterns, English ivy

The taller structures are the parents, their patterns more complex with age. The smaller are children. All will grow to fill the hemp armatures over the summer months, filling the years with actual growth as we can only hope for ourselves.

17. Einstein’s Onion

James Kitchen, Chesterfield, MA
Found objects, iron and steel

Kitchen employs found materials, including iron and steel recycled tools, doorknobs, and farms items in the creation of his work. Invoking wonder derived from the celestial, scientific, and energetic, the gravity of Kitchen’s work is juxtaposed by the use of commonplace objects.

18. Saturn

James Kitchen, Chesterfield, MA
Found art, iron and steel recycled tools, doorknobs, farm items

Kitchen employs found materials, including iron and steel recycled tools, doorknobs, and farms items in the creation of his work. Invoking wonder derived from the celestial, scientific, and energetic, the gravity of Kitchen’s work is juxtaposed by the use of commonplace objects.

20. Steel Vessels, #1 and #2

Vicente Garcia, Simsbury, CT
Steel, re-bar

While growing up in south Texas, I was introduced to machine forms used in an industrial context. Such long-term exposure to mechanical forms has had a significant influence on my creative direction. I am attracted to the precision of man and machine made steel objects and the manner in which clay can be manipulated to simulate such forms.

Location Map of Artists’ Works

1. Joe Fix, Tim-berrr!
2. Joseph Ferguson, Seraph
3. Joe Fix, Flight Lines
4. Susu Wing, Tarpon Chasing Silversides
5. Joe Fix, What Lays Within
6. Susan Champeny, Chair Arch 9
7. Steven Rolf Kroeger, Toaster
8. Susan Champeny, Red Totems
9. Michael Frassinelli, Pianista Observatorium
10. Marisa Dipaola, Healump
11. Marisa Dipaola, Dragony
12. Brooke Mullins Doherty, Nexus (Rhizomes)
13. Marcella A. Stasa, Bird Work
14. Lisa Barthelson, Found Nest, After Ice Storm
15. Andy Moerlein, Listening for Lightning
16. Andy Campbell, Growing Home
17. James Kitchen, Einstein’s Onion
18. James Kitchen, Saturn
20a. Vicente Garcia, Steel Vessel #1 Round
20b. Vicente Garcia, Steel Vessel #2

 

Art in the Park wins Gold Star Award (copy)

On March 4, 2010 the Worcester Cultural Commission's Art in the Park 2009 Exhibit was honored by the Masschusetts Cultural Council with the prestigious Gold Star Award. Worcester is one of just six projects throughout the Commonwealth to be presented with the award. Pictured here accepting the award at a State House ceremony are artist Susan Champeny, Cultural Commission Chair Helen Beaumont, Commissioner Alex Dunn, AIP Committee member Claire Forgues, and Commissioner Deb McNamara.

Art in the Park wins Gold Star Award

On March 4, 2010 the Worcester Cultural Commission's Art in the Park 2009 Exhibit was honored by the Masschusetts Cultural Council with the prestigious Gold Star Award. Worcester is one of just six projects throughout the Commonwealth to be presented with the award. Pictured here accepting the award at a State House ceremony are artist Susan Champeny, Cultural Commission Chair Helen Beaumont, Commissioner Alex Dunn, AIP Committee member Claire Forgues, and Commissioner Deb McNamara.

2009 Art in the Park Photography Contest

The Worcester Cultural Commission and the Worcester Photography Center recently collaborated to host the “Art in the Park Photo Contest.” Winning images can be viewed here.