Amy Kotel

Amy Kotel

by | Aug 8, 2023 | Featured Artist

Amy Kotel

Florence, MA

amydawnkotelart.com

Amy is an artist to the core. Whether it’s fine art, performing art, dance, or puppetry, creating needs to come out of her for her to feel satisfied with life. Her fine art is bright, bold,  joyous, and or intense. She often uses patterns of circles to make the larger artwork. She loves to explore the dichotomy between how weird human life is and the joy life holds, and the beauty of nature that lives under all sidewalks. In recent years her medium has been color pencils, but of late has been exploring other mediums such as collage and watercolor.

Work

Featured Work

feathery abstract color pencil drawing

Amy Kotel

Feathery Abstract

a bird and egg

Amy Kotel

A Bird and Egg

Color pencil drawing Heart AB

Amy Kotel

Heart AB

Biography

Amy has been making art of all forms since she was a little bittle. Born and raised on Long Island, NY. She attended Syocett school of Visual and Performing arts as a fine arts major and went to SUNY New Paltz initially studying fine art and eventually graduating with a BA in Women Studies and a Minor in Dance. Her career path has taken her to dance, puppetry, fitness, environmental ed and education. While most of her adult life Amy has been a dancer, fitness professional, taught many subjects, and was a professional puppeteer, she turned back to her fine art roots about 7 years ago and became prolific in creating as the pandemic took over. For Amy, art is much more than just a creative out let, but also an outlet for her dreams, her challenges and her joys. Her work has been shown many places locally, including having a solo show at City Space this last spring and at the River Valley Coop in Northampton.

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Carla E Reyes

Carla E Reyes

by | Jun 30, 2023 | Featured Artist

Carla E. Reyes

Brooklyn, NY

carlaereyes.com

Carla E. Reyes is an artist based in New York City who uses mixed media to create textured pieces that explore the interaction between the natural and man-made worlds. Her work includes semi-abstract depictions of both urban and natural scenes and themes of motherhood and women’s issues. Reyes has exhibited her art at galleries such as Raandesk Gallery of Art, The Art Snack Registry, Grand Central Art, Beeswax Arts, and Leche Vitrines Art Alliance in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She has been featured in various publications and media, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, BBC World News, The Queens Chronicle, and more. She currently works from her studio at Brooklyn Art Studios in Greenpoint.

Work

Featured Work

Potty Party mixed media

Potty Party

Carla E. Reyes, 2023; acrylic and mixed media on panel.

Showing Up painting of viewpoint of mom looking down at her lower body with paint spattered apron, jeans, and black shoes, standing on a wooden floor

Showing Up

Carla E. Reyes, 2021; acrylic and mixed media on panel.

Shower Bath Multitask painting

Shower/Bath (multi-task)

Carla E. Reyes, 2022; acrylic and mixed media on panel.

Scale Fail painting

Scale Fail

Carla E. Reyes, 2022; acrylic and mixed media on panel.

Laundry Every Day painting

Laundry (every) Day

Carla E. Reyes, 2023; acrylic and mixed media on panel.

Happy Hour NapTime painting

Happy Hour / Nap-Time

Carla E. Reyes, 2022; acrylic and mixed media on panel.

Artist-Mother Series by Carla E. Reyes

Having experienced another year in a semi-isolated pandemic situation, the need for self-care, alone time, and personal reflection grew deeper for the artist. Being a mother of two young children faced with the challenges and rigor of working, motherhood, domestic responsibilities, an overwhelming “mental load” in an ongoing pandemic with limited support, while also pursuing artistic goals; drove a yearning to insert herself into her own artistic world in subtle ways. Feelings of overwhelm, identity loss, and a need for escape, begin to push into the nature scenes. Her own shadow began to cast itself into the scenes asking to be seen, to gain space in her own world. Her feet step or run into the picture plane, inviting the viewer to see through her eyes; revealing glimpses into the experience of no longer existing as an individual, with the exception of fleeting, stolen moments in time. These works explore rare and fugitive moments of independence, as well as boundary blurring attachments with people, places, and things dependent on the care and attention of the mother. There is a sense of humor, bittersweetness, absurdity, and irony in the chosen scenes, coupled with a hidden longing and loss of self often unexpressed by many mothers due to social pressures and expectations surrounding motherhood. Physically, the work still incorporates relief texture and a strong emphasis on surfaces, as well as a growing interest in pattern and materials often associated with domesticity, craft, the “feminine,” and children; such as textiles/fabrics, brightly colored plastics, bubbly, fuzzy, and plush objects. For this series she consistently works on small wood panels for the intimacy and fine detail that can be appreciated with close contact and attentiveness at this scale, and the rigid surface provides a strong support for the textural treatments and sculptural elements applied.

Esther S White

Esther S White

by | Jun 29, 2023 | Featured Artist

Esther S. White

Northampton, MA

estherswhite.net

Esther S White is an artist, mother, curator, educator, self-publishing evangelist, and unschooler. Her passion for creative expression has led her to explore various mediums, including functional pottery, artists’ books, textiles, and prints. Esther’s work is characterized by her experimental approach to materials and deep exploration of personal history. Beyond her artistic endeavors, Esther co-founded the Northampton Print & Book Fair, an event that celebrates self-publishing and encourages community engagement in the arts. Her dedication to promoting independent voices in the creative world is fundamental to her practice. Esther’s work has been exhibited in galleries across the country and internationally, and her pieces are featured in the special collections of numerous prestigious institutions. She received her BA in Studio Art and Art History from Barnard College.

Work

Featured Work

Learning to Walk #3 quilt image.
I left the Dishes in the Sink quilt image

Esther S White, Learning to Walk #3, 2016; quilt: cotton, fiber-reactive dye; monoprinted, hand-dyed, machine-stitched, and quilted. 42”x40”.

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Esther S White, I Left the Dishes in the Sink, 2016; cotton, fiber-reactive dye, ink, copy toner; monoprinted, screenprinted, hand dyed, marbled, photocopied, machine stitched and quilted. 51”x41”.

Eva Pushkova

Eva Pushkova

by | Jun 29, 2023 | Featured Artist

Eva Pushkova

Northampton, MA

pushkova.com

Eva Pushkova is a maker of things. She has learned through play and experimentation, from numerous teachers, as well as at FIT and MassArt. She currently works in ceramics, glass, fiber, metal, and found objects. A web developer since 1994, Eva enjoys working at the intersection of design, storytelling, and technology. Her current work explores the friction and synergy between the highly technological and the handmade.

Work

Featured Work

TikTok Dopamine Tufted wool yarn rug.
Repetitive Stress Injuries Tufted wool yarn rug
Influencer Influenza Tufted wool yarn rug

Eva Pushkova, TikTok Dopamine, 2023; tufted wool yarn.

Eva Pushkova, Repetitive Stress Injuries, 2023; tufted wool yarn.

Eva Pushkova, Influencer Influenza, 2023; tufted wool yarn.

Artist Statement by Eva Pushkova

The subjects of the rugs in this show reflect some of the many challenges and questions that all of us, particularly parents, engage with as digital society rapidly evolves all around us.
I’ve observed that many of us who work in technology seek something physical and messy and tactile to balance it out. Parents seek this balance for our children, trying to make sure they engage in other, more physical and tactile activities, to counterbalance “screen time”. The last few decades have seen an enormous renewal of interest in handmade arts, paralleling the explosive growth of digital society, as all of us try to find more balance.
There’s something about the space where the two meet – the friction and synergy between technology and the handmade – that is fascinating to me.
These rugs were made in that space. The rugs are based on designs created in collaboration with Midjourney AI by fine-tuning hundreds of language prompts. These AI-inspired rugs were then created by hand using a tufting gun and reclaimed and thrifted wool. The technology-rooted subject matter heightens the contrast with the ancient and tactile art of rugmaking.
In this moment of conversation and controversy about Artificial Intelligence, this project seeks to blur the lines further — giving these “imaginary” images a physical reality, and creating a partnership between AI and the hand, eye and tools of a human artist.

Christina Balch

Christina Balch

by | Jun 28, 2023 | Featured Artist

Christina Balch

Easthampton, MA

christinabalch.com

Christina Balch (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist, producer, and technologist. Christina mainly exhibits her work in the Boston and New England area and also exhibits globally. Christina is part of the artist collective FeministFuturist and received a Collective Futures Fund grant with them in 2021. Curatorial projects include a pair of exhibitions about artist representations called AVATARS and a show called Performing the Home that explored public/private performances in a home-based art gallery. Christina is an experienced digital producer and digital marketing consultant for small businesses, advertising agencies, and corporations. This commercial work directly influences her art practice and research for projects. Christina is based in Western Massachusetts and a Southern California native.

Work

Featured Work

Closeup image of the artist with data words across the image.
Mama Data
By Christina Balch
New data visualization and installation
June 6 – 30, 2023
Public artist reception: Friday, June 9, 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Artist talk and exhibition walkthrough: Thursday, June 15, 5:30pm
Live data painting performance: Tuesday, June 6, 1-4pm
Instagram Live artist talk: Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 1:00 – 2:00PM @christinabalchstudio

 

In this multimedia process-based exhibition, artist Christina Balch sketches, paints, prototypes, and iterates on the data she collected in 2020 during her first year as a parent. The raw data illustrates the mundanity of this phase of parenting, while the multimedia artwork shows the frustration, exhaustion, highs, lows, love and humor that are part of raising a baby. This exhibition also features a special room installation specifically for parents of young children and other caretakers to rest.

Elena Ciampa

Elena Ciampa

by | Jun 28, 2023 | Featured Artist

Elena Ciampa

Northampton, MA

@elenaciampamusic

Elena Ciampa is an award-winning musician, composer, songwriter, arranger, and bandleader with a lifelong passion for music. After teaching high school Spanish for twenty years, she pursued her dream of studying music and is now performing, recording, and producing her original pieces. Elena’s thoughtful writing and melodic expression promise a unique listening experience.

Work

Featured Work

Elena Ciampa and Friends Septet, “Busting Out;” live 2022; MICAfest.

Elena Ciampa and Friends Septet, “A Wind at the Dor;” live 2022; MICAfest.

Elena Ciampa and Friends Septet, “Sunday Morning Song Combined QuasiDixieland & Bossa Versions;” live 2022; MICAfest.

What people have been saying about Elena’s work...


“(Her) feel is organic…beautiful voicings…melodies are good…improvisation
is well constructed.”
“Elena’s got soul!” —Bob Christopherson: Professor of Piano Performance at Berklee College of Music. Pianist, vocalist,
composer.
“Wonderful arranging and solid work.” —Sarah Brindell: Songwriter, arranger, producer, vocalist, keyboardist. Touring credits with Norah Jones,
Carole King, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic; original music synced to television shows including
MTV’s Made; Panelist in Song of the Year contest (VH-1’s Save the Music Foundation) & Billboard World
Song Contest. Full-time Professor of Songwriting at Berklee College of Music.
“Elena’s recordings evoke a classic, live-session sound.”
“Her talent and magnetic spirit attract A-list musicians.” —Nate Christy: Multi-instrumentalist producer, recording engineer, mixer, composer, arranger &
songwriter. Nation-wide touring credits supporting various artists, from Boston singer-songwriter Casey
Desmond to national touring artist David Cook.