Fall 2009 Artists
Robert Markey
Biographical Sketch
Robert Markey was born in New York in 1947. He earned his B.S. in physics from M.I.T in 1969 and his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts in 1982. Until 1980 his main focus was music, performing on classical guitar and sitar. In 1981 he began to work in the visual arts and also began his study of Tae Kwon Do. For the past twenty-seven years those two disciplines have been at the center of his life. He has traveled extensively, working, studying and teaching in Japan, India, Europe, Central and South America.
Robert works in several media including painting, sculpture, installation, video and mosaics. He has done public art projects in cities around the country including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston and Minneapolis. His first video was aired on PBS, and he received national media coverage for his public performance work on domestic violence. He has done mosaic murals in Brazil, Mexico and the U.S. and his mosaic sculptures have been featured at Chesterwood in Stockbridge MA and Sculpturefest in Woodstock VT.
He currently works out of his studio in Ashfield, Massachusetts and teaches at the Springfield Museum School and the Northampton Center for the Arts. He is represented by the Wit Gallery in Lenox MA, the Elaine Beckwith Gallery in Jamaica, VT and the Tappan Z Gallery in Tarrytown, NY.
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Artist Statement My work combines the visual and the conceptual. I want the visual statement to be profound, to be questioning and to be a source of inspiration and of beauty. Conceptually, my work often speaks about hope, about humor and about the human condition: what it is and what it could be. Much of my earlier work was visually brutal, showing the suffering which one group of people cause to another. My later work pushes this brutality beneath the surface, showing more the beauty and hope that is possible. Currently I am working primarily in oil painting, sculpture and mosaic murals. In my paintings I work with layers of intense color creating a deep almost primeval feeling space. My sculptures are outdoor installations using steel, stone, glass, wood and mosaic. The sculptures often have a political or social motif. The murals are often done in collaboration with community organizations. “Climate Change?” Exhibition Climate Change? is an installation composed of a number of (10 -20) sculpted lizards. Each piece is small (6” - 12”), made of ferrocement, with a surface treatment of mosaic. The lizards are installed around the area as if they were at home in the space, (i.e. crawling on the walls, in corners, etc.) Visually, each piece is unique, brightly colored and situated to provide interest and beauty to the space. Conceptually, the piece asks a question of why there are southern desert creatures in a wet northern area. The issue of global warming and climate change is argued in political, economic, public health and other spheres. This piece puts a future possibility visually in front of the viewer. Not a catastrophic vision, but one that asks the viewer to ponder the real issue of climate change. It has always been my belief that by creating a work of art that strikes the viewer with beauty and interest can be profoundly effective in opening them up to questioning an underlying social or political issue. |
Lynn Kline
Biographical Sketch 
Twelve years ago, after a career in Graphic Design, the study of woodblock printmaking, and a stint teaching college courses in communication and organization development, I developed a chronic illness, chemical sensitivity, and could no longer work or use the materials necessary for printmaking.
After an initial recovery period, I experimented with a material I could work with, paper, and with an unexplored interest I had in weaving. In hand woven paper my love of paper, color, design, hand work, and weaving found perfect expression.
I was fortunate to grow up in a town where I had access to both the power and depth of the ocean and to the silence and textural complexity of woods and meadows. These things are still strong influences in my work today. Hand weaving paper is, for me, a contemplative act that allows me access to the spirit within and without. It is a way to explore both my own inner depths and the underlying design and pattern of nature. Through my work I come to an experience of self and the universe.
“Questions in Woven Paper” Exhibition
The art work in this show is a visual time-line of sorts that tracks the development of the medium of hand woven paper. Early on in the process each piece of art work was an attempt to answer the question, “I wonder what will happen if I …?” Out of each question answered came a new question or, more often, a series of questions that begged to be answered.
After the initial experimentation with the question of how many different ways can paper be woven, the work took on a further complexity with the addition of surface design and the incorporation of other materials and embellishments.
Some of the materials used in my work include a variety of paper, pigmented starch paste, woodcut prints, inks, yarn, thread, and metal. The process used includes handmade stamps, writing and other mark-making techniques, hand weaving, embroidery, and machine and hand stitching.
Like life, my work grows and changes. Nevertheless, there are two questions I always ask about my work: “How can this piece of art reflect the unique properties of the medium?”; “How far can I stretch this piece and still maintain the integrity of the medium?” With this body of work I invite the viewer to explore their own questions.
Peter Barnett
Biographical Sketch
Peter is a painter of landscapes and portraits who has been painting in New England for forty-five years, and has been based in Springfield for the last fifteen. He is a resident of Monson, Massachusetts. His work has been exhibited widely, and he has gallery representation throughout New England. His studio is in the Indian Orchard Mills in Springfield, MA, where he is gallery coordinator for the Artists at Indian Orchard Mills, a community of over 40 artists in a variety of media.
Peter graduated from Amherst College in 1963 with a major in art and art history, and went on to get his PhD in Art History from Harvard University. He taught art and art history from 1969 – 1980 at Clark University and Earlham College.
Throughout his career as a landscape painter, Peter has been primarily a plein-air artist, working directly from nature in a single session. He seeks to capture the immediacy and truth of the scene, through the momentary effects of light and color. More recently he has been developing larger works in the studio, drawing on his storehouse of images, and long study of nature’s effects. His most recent 1-man show was “Rock Opera”, an exhibition of paintings of rock and rocks, at the Dane Gallery in Indian Orchard.
"Nature’s Drama" Exhibition
I am always looking for the quiet drama in nature. We know nature’s moments of high drama – hurricanes, gales at sea, avalanches – but I look for its everyday drama, the drama that is always there to be found in the forms, the movement and the light.
Human beings have a strong empathetic relationship to nature. We read into nature our own feelings, moods and emotions. Because of this, nature allows us to be more aware of our own feelings, and to experience them more fully.
The sky is the most changeable and expressive element in nature. Clouds come in infinite forms, full of movement and portent, matching the endless shades of our own moods. The sky colors the landscape below with its moods, making a familiar scene new.
I also love that expressiveness of rocks, whether boulders standing majestic in the woods, or living rock, muscular and emphatic. Rocks mirror our martial moods, full of power and resolve.
Trees also grow up to be highly expressive; as with human beings, age brings them character. Just as the lines of the human face carry a record of a long life lived, so ancient trees express the trials of surviving in the world.
Lastly, drama is in the light, no matter what the scene. The light is never the same twice, or for two hours running. Light changes everything it touches, colors everything, just as feelings color our every experience of the world.