Presents New Work from Jen Bradley, William Hamlin, Dermot Meagher, Stephanie Roberts, Vicky Tomayko

SHOW DATES: Fri. June 27 - Wed. July 9, 2008
RECEPTION: Friday June 27 6 - 9

JEN BRADLEY   is a painter who is fascinated with human and primate behavior.  She has been studying a group of Lowland Gorillas at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Massachusetts for the last 12 years.  She routinely visits the zoo to observe the gorillas and the public; recording her experiences thru drawing and video.  This current work is inspired by the traditional toile* wallpaper pattern.  The panels combined layers of drawing, plaster and transparent glazes. Bradley inserts her gorillas into these scenes to create an original toile that examines the ideas of civilization, with its self-conscious attention to class, society and aesthetics, and the animal world, with it’s presumed freedom from such constrictions. 

*By definition, toile is a repeating motif that often tells the story of refined rural life, images of historical events and pastoral scenes that came into vogue in France and England in the mid 1700’s.

BILL HAMLIN  presents  four new pieces in his series of woven images of water that show the play of light and its reflection in and around the water of swimming pools. They transcend the ordinary and are elevated into a whole new reality by his meticulous technique.  The images shimmer and sparkle, a reflection of patterns and swirls that pull you into its current for a joyous dip.  The woven photographs are about 13” x 20” all in editions of 10. Hamlin started experimenting with different techniques while studying photography at NYU’s Tisch School of the Art. An added interest in Cubism and its theories led him to a double major in art history. It was a combination of the two - the practical techniques of photography and the aesthetics of art he used together to create a series of collages in the style of David Hockney and a series of photographic extensions inspired by Lucas Samaras, which eventually led him to his own technique - the woven photograph.
Hamlin lives and works in Provincetown, where his work is widely collected. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a one person exhibition at The Provincetown Art Association and Museum.   

DERMOT MEAGHER ‘S  mixed media drawings this season are engaging, relaxed images of figures at the beach. There are twelve framed, small and medium pieces. MEAGHER is widely collected locally and in the Boston area. His drawings were described as “haiku-like and serene” by the Boston Globe, although he claims to have no idea where such tranquility comes from. “I draw and use whatever is within arm’s reach to make a mark-- pen and ink, pencil, Sumi ink, tar, tea, coffee, charcoal, watercolor, oil pastels and sometime mud with my fingers. I try not to ask too many questions while I’m drawing,” he says.

Meagher has studied art at the Worcester Art Museum, Harvard College, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Castle Hill Center for the Arts in Truro, Massachusetts, the Fine Arts work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 2001, his work was selected for the Provincetown Art Association’s Emerging Artists show. He is represented by the Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown and has shown there every summer since 2003.

STEPHANIE ROBERTS’ studio is in a rural woodland area in Pembroke, just south of Boston.  The inspiration for her work stems from nature and her love of experimentation with many mediums. Robert’s new series of mixed media paintings on paper combine casein, collage, b&w photographs, and thread.  Her mark making and use of pattern can be seen as a kind of language or signature from piece to piece.  Color, shape, direction, and texture all become stepping-stones in the development of the final image. Much of her work, although abstract, employs references to nature that function as archetypes or symbols.  The integration of all the elements is very important to the works' cohesiveness.

“Some paintings come about from a sequence of events or impulses that are acted upon.“Careful what you wish for” took a full year to develop. It began simply as detail photos of a weeping pussy willow tree. After printing all the B&W photos in the darkroom, I knew that I was going to
build a tree, and began connecting the images together. “

Stephanie graduated in 1985 with a BFA in painting from RISD.  She continues to show regionally and nationally, most recently her work was exhibited in April at the Krause Gallery in Providence, R.I. 

VICKY TOMAYKO presents new work, mostly one-of-a-kind prints; representations of the complexity of rural life. Tomayko’s prints are compelling and colorful results of this accomplished artist’s abilities to integrate the joy of color and the accuracy detail with narrative prompts. Besides the local landscape, Tomayko sites Louise Bourgeois and Charles Burchfield as major sources of artistic inspiration. Tomayko populates her landscapes with fantastic, friendly creatures with personalities rooted in watchfulness, humor, and the conflicts of living in a changeable world. Narratives are an integral part of the imagery, though they are used as prompts and guides rather than explanations. Characters reappear in successive works, examining the geology of shifting sands and waters. 

Tomayko’s new work explores the four seasons in one-of-a-kind images produced as drawings, monotypes, drypoints, and paintings. Many of the new drawings are “transfer prints”, a gritty/textural printing method used by Paul Gauguin in his illustrations for Noa Noa, A Journal of the South Seas. With the drypoints (in which a printing plate is directly scored with a sharp scribe and printed as an intaglio), she is exploring the evolution of a print from beginning linear sketch to an intense, multilayered picture.
           

The Schoolhouse Gallery is located at 494 Commercial Street in the heart of Provincetown¹s East End Gallery District. For information and press contact Mike Carroll at 508.487.4800 or email mike@schoolhouseprovincetown.com .