BEV WHITE
I call these goddess bodices. Each one reflects a mood or a theme such as hope, fantasy, heroines, family, idols, dreams, struggle, longing or some mixture. Composing these gals often feels meditative. The process is usually very stream of conscious. I am usually surprised and comforted as each bodice emerges.
Jeanne Widmer
Photography
"My goal in photographing people is to capture the unscripted moments which reveal the often hidden parts of a person."
Growing up in Rhode Island shaped Jeanne Widmer’s attraction to worn urban locations and friendly, neighborhood businesses. An educator, counselor and writer, Widmer, from Belmont, Massachusetts, has studied photography at the Arlington Center for the Arts, the Griffin Museum and the New England School of Photography. Besides many group exhibits, she has had two solo exhibits, one which captured the vibrancy, color and dark expectancy of a single screen movie theater and another which highlighted the subtle drama and dignity of an historic, working class group of businesses. She exhibited with the Atelier 29th class at the Griffin Museum of Photography focusing on portraits.
Find her online on Instagram @WidmerJeanne
John Williams
Collage
I am an artist dealing with autism. Living with this challenge is a daily struggle with overwhelming anxiety and the discomfort of never fitting in socially. These feelings never leave me. The world is a chaotic place for me, and thoughts swirl around endlessly in my head, making it hard to stay calm and focused.
When I was a small child, I found that clay modeling gave me an escape from these pressures. I was able to channel my fears into the fanciful dragons and dinosaurs I made which were so lifelike that they drew everyone’s admiration. I went on to study sculpture in college, but the anxiety about how I could pursue this field after school caused me to look at other options – leading eventually to my current medium of cut paper collage. Even though I work with small pieces of flat paper, I am able to imbue my pieces with a sculptural quality.
Creating collages is a metaphor for my daily life. I make order out of chaos by organizing tiny pieces of cut paper into totally new and coherent visions. Once I draw out the design and choose the paper colors and textures, the process takes on a life of its own and the end result is often different and more intriguing than the original concept. My portraits and landscapes offer completely new perspectives on the world. While the portraits are usually historical in nature, my landscapes are restful and calming, often featuring water elements like streams or the sea. They provide a safe and intimate hideaway for the viewer and for me.
Website: http://johnmwilliamsfineart.com/
Carol Wintle
Collage
Art Heals:
My Artist Statement gives an overview of how my art has played a part in my and others emotional healing. I have used art-making to help me and others cope with the difficulties of life. I have used it also to draw towards myself and others what I strive for and envision.
Prison of the Mind was the first significant collage I made for the purpose of helping to manage and express my emotions. It reflected my experience of dealing with Depression.
I use art making as well to reflect my wishes for peace and inner tranquility. secret spaces hangs in my living room. It shows a homemade twig bench in a wooded area, someplace I would love to sit and meditate. Surrounding this space are a pleasing array of subtle colors and textures. It seems to represent mystery. I never get tired of looking at this collage.
As a Psychotherapist I utilize elements of Art Therapy and Narrative Therapy to help patients co-create metaphorical stories that can be used to help people heal from mental illness. I’ve designed 200 4”x6” cards that I use for this purpose. Image #89 is one of these cards.
And finally Wonderland is my most recent collage, created in March 2021. I love the lush, exotic background with larger than life elements of nature (such as gigantic Orchids). The piece seems to signify feelings of being uplifted and free.
General Statement:
I am an artist, psychotherapist, and published author.
My art presents journeys of fantasy and reality. Even though I experimented with different art forms for over forty-six years, the mixed media art classes I took in 2007 significantly impacted my ability to successfully express myself visually. Since then my work has been shown in over 56 gallery exhibits.
I often use images (from recycled paper) that I am drawn to, and allow a process of creation to intuitively flow, adding shapes and colors that match or connect with a core theme. Acrylic medium, watercolor, acrylic paint, watercolors, oil paint and pastel are media that I use.
My healer and artist selves work hand in hand to create two-dimensional pieces that contain whispers of stories which are ripe for stimulating one’s imagination.
A review in artscope of one of my solo art exhibits called my work “eclectic and surprising”.
The review went on to say, “…Wintle is an informed and intelligent art maker who takes risks with every piece. Her psychological level of art production is one of the most fascinating themes within the show; the lack of ambiguity, brutal honesty and emotion is a relief from much of the art being produced today.”
Joan Wolcott
Charcoal Drawing
Website: www.joanwolcott.com
Instagram: joanwolcott
Capturing a likeness--and capturing a spirit--those twin challenges propel me in drawing a portrait. I welcome the limited constraints of black, white, and infinite grays, seeing what I can do with the simplest of tools.
In this case, my subject was a very special young friend, the daughter of my neighbor. I'd seen her grow from young girl to a young woman, watched her wonder and witnessed her maturity. She sat for me a couple hours as I began her portrait, then I completed it with the aid of my photograph. Drawing her portrait was a wonderful way to be with her--to honor her and record this moment of her life.
Drawing has been a natural inclination for me since my teens. Often, I've been drawn to natural forms, rendering them with close observation and detail. I've also used observed forms as a jumping off place for more abstract compositions. Always, it's a journey from the visual to something deeper and less literal, to lessons of beauty and truth within.
David Wunsch
Photography
A. David Wunsch has been a serious photographer for over half a century, he studied with Minor White in 1966 and has shown his work at a number of galleries including the MIT Creative Photography Gallery and the Addison Gallery and the Town of Belmont Community Art Gallery. He works only in black and white and does his own printing. He has lived in Belmont for 38 years. .
Website:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10112499@N02/
William Zinn
Photography
This photos was taken on a trip to Bhutan: a man meditating next to a spinning prayer wheel.
Transforming Belmont: Transforming Community
A Group Show Featuring Work by the Artists behind the BELMONT ART ASSOCIATION's wildly successful
“Transforming Belmont” Public Art Project:
Adria Arch, Rocky Cotard, Nadya Cuevas, Anne Katzeff, Liz LaManche, Grace Julian Murthy and Ian Todreas
Funded by a grant from the Belmont Cultural Council
Thanks also to Anne Mahon