Four women artists’ works on display through March 24
Four artists (who happen to be women) with four different takes on the idea of Family will share the walls and airspace of the Mad Dooley Gallery from Feb. 9 through March 24.
Patricia Reller said of her work: “My strange family of ‘characters’ or ‘fetishes’ mirrors my lifelong passion for odd and curious items of tremendous interest but no great value. Stitch by stitch and knot by knot, I sew hundreds of random found objects onto quirky characters that develop their own personalities. To me, they evoke the fun and the wonder of our existence.”
Catherine Welshman’s body of work is born from discarded paintings that are deconstructed and then reconstructed. Their desire is to escape and change into three-dimensional cutouts in order to live on their own, separate from the original confinement within a traditional rectangular or square prison.
Theresa Gooby’s books explore ideas of rarity, extinction and interconnectivity. The physicality of the books is enhanced by images resistant to rationality, which are then encased in an ancient material — encaustic.
Sharon Watts’ assemblages are a mix of innocuous, everyday materials, along with found trinkets and lost treasures — objects with former lives. “I draw upon my own encyclopedia of symbolism reflecting memory, emotional connectedness, miscommunication and loss — all under the umbrella of how human strength coexists with human fragility.”
Mad Dooley Gallery, 197 Main St. in Beacon, opened in 2012 and is a new addition to Beacon’s art scene. It is run by Welshman and is named for her grandmother Madeleine “Mad” Dooley. Gallery hours are Friday through Monday, noon – 5 p.m.
