By Jennifer Jean Costello
President, Massachusetts

Say ‘Oui’ to 2022!

On these cold mornings, I am reminded of how incredible the power of “light” is and what has brought us “light” this past year. Even in a year that continues to throw us challenges – or maybe because of it! I wish all of you that you, too, have moments to breathe, recharge, and enjoy the light that inspires you.

It’s a new year filled with hope, and with it comes two recent exhibitions, workshops, classes, social events that will bring you even more reasons to celebrate this time next year. Let Art continue to shine in our lives. Art is one of the fundamental ways human beings express their perceptions and create inspiration. Humanity has never had so many resources and knowledge, but we can do nothing without hope. Thank you for all your support, thought-provoking and beautiful works as we live in dynamic, progressive, and constant change, but life is nothing if we are not experiencing it.

With that said, our Chapter continues to grow with a healthy roster: www.nawama.org/calendar. We have scheduled demo/talks such as:

• ‘A Few Basics of Marketing and an Introduction to Instagram’ as part of ‘Your Social Media Arsenal on-going workshop,’ on February 24, 1- 3 pm;
• ‘The15 Word Exercise II’ in 2022;
• ‘SHELTERING IN PLACE Social and Art Salon V’ in Spring 2022;
• Transcultural Exchange’s 2022 International Conference ‘Create the Future’ November 4-6.

All of this is along with our submission on the way for three Fine Art Scholarships where young women all receive a $1500.00 scholarship based on overall achievement in Art, academics, community, and extra-curricular work.

In addition, we continue our members’ visibility through our PR coverage via sponsor Artscope Magazine, Artscope e-blast, social media platforms, Hello World, An Art Affair Around the Globe (a virtual travelogue of artworks created by nearly 250 artists working in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia) and our online ‘Shops.’

The power of local community collaboration, such as SEBA, South End Business Alliance to support, strengthen and unify us as artists; leads to our two current shows in January. The first show from January 15 – April 30, 2022, ‘Changing lives, Changing future’ at Atlantic Wharf Gallery, designed by Höweler + Yoon Architecture, the Gallery+building floorplan, using a concept that centers on a highly visible “cloud” ceiling and monumental stairs. These two architectural elements act as iconic markers for the Gallery Space.

The second January show is ‘Nourishing the Senses’ at Wedeman Gallery, The Yamawaki Art & Cultural Center, Lasell University from January 26 through February 19; both shows featured in Artscope Magazine social media sites, bi-weekly e-blast, and Capsule Previews for Artscope 96:
https://artscopemagazine.com/2021/12/capsule-previews-for-artscope-96/

Captions are clockwise from left:
1. Art Forward at Galatea Fine Arts, Boston with Maria Coppola, Jennifer Jean Okumura, and Niamh Ultaigh
2. Lunch with MA Chapter VP Lisa Goren, MA Chapter President Jennifer Jean Okumura, and Visual Artist Lorrie Berry
3. Manipulation is Art and Play at Piano Craft Gallery, Boston with Mixed Media Artist Kirstin Ilse
4. Manipulation is Art and Play at Piano Craft Gallery, Boston with Mixed Media Artist Susan Denniston, Juror, PCG Board Director, Art Advisor Haley Neville, NAWAMA Pres Jennifer Jean Okumura, Curator/Multimedia Artist Kamal Ahmad, Gallery Director Erik Grau featured on Artscope Magazine social media platforms.

Clockwise from left:
1. Manipulation is Art and Play at Piano Craft Gallery, Boston with Mixed Media Artist Susan Denniston
2. Changing lives, Changing future at Atlantic Wharf Gallery exhibition committee Visual Artist Jennifer Jean Okumura, Mixed Media Artist Kirstin Ilse, Mixed Media Artist Susan Siefer, and Visual Artist Marsha Nouritza Odabashian
3. Changing lives, Changing future at Atlantic Wharf Gallery with Sculptor Pam Gordon and MA Chapter President Jennifer Jean Okumura

In addition, we celebrate our member successes, such as being the featured artist on PBS_NJ, Shedd Aquarium social sites, ArtExpo New York and Scope Miami 2021 exhibitor, Playing with States: A Conversation with Local Printmakers hosted by Harvard Art Museums to discuss the role of revision, correction, and adjustment in our printmaking process, and on how modification creates the prints on view at the Harvard Art Museums in the exhibit States of Play: Prints from Rembrandt to Delsarte along with Fractal 2-Fractals NFTs, Fine Art America, Cape Ann ARTWaves, Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT, Harp Publishing the People’s Press ‘The Marrow of Longing,’ retrospective solo and group shows among others. We are rocking it as a chapter, congratulations to all!

Last, be well, be safe, and be in touch with anything.  We look forward to seeing all of you and on future endeavors.

By
Roberta Millman-Ide
President

NAWAFL just finished our elections; and most of our incumbents were re-elected with a few new additions to our Board.  Welcome to our new Treasurer, Kathy Ferguson, our new Membership Chairperson, Denise Cormier Mahoney and our new Social Media-PR person, Magdala Charles.  All our 2021-22 Board Members can be found listed on our website.  www.nawafl.org

And, NAWAFL is set for a busy new 2021-22 Annual Year.  We have been very busy with building our new website (you’ll still find us at the same www.nawafl.org url). Thanks to our online Event Coordinator, Anabel Rub Peicher, we’re continually engaging our members with online workshops, presentations and art salons.  Recently, on Sept. 22, I presented “My Narrative Art & Getting Your Right & Left Brain to Communicate Together on Canvas.”   Other online talks/demonstrations include:

Past Workshops

Oct. 14 – Fran Mann Goodman gave an online workshop on using paint ‘skins’

Nov 2 – Denise Cormier Mahoney gave a talk on her recent Residency in Canada…and how to find artist residencies

Dec 8 – Kathy Coakley gave a demonstration on alcohol art

Jan 26 – Most recently, we featured NAWAFL member and our Florida West Coast Exhibitions Coordinator Muffy Clark Gill, who gave a demonstration and spoke on her Batik – a katazome technique using stenciling.  Such an interesting and ancient art form!

The Upcoming online presentations include:
Feb 23 – Helene Kleiner presents Expressionism in Relief
Mar  23 –  Kathy Ferguson (subject TBD).
April 20 – NAWA President, Christie Devereaux, will present “The History of my Evolution as an Artist
May 18 – Anika Savage will be doing her online workshop on “Studio Tour and Critique”
June 1 – Anabel Rub Peicher will talk on “Peruvian Artists”. (More presentations to follow will be listed in the next newsletter.)  

Our online demonstrations are included with our Chapter Membership and are made possible from our talented members donating their time to do this.  We ask that our members volunteer two hours/year of their time toward helping NAWAFL.  This is a wonderful way to share one’s talent, self-promote one’s artwork and have a good time doing so!

In addition, we have multiple exhibitions planned for the start of 2022. We’ll be at MARJCC (Miami, FL) in March with “Flight of Fancy”, and Why We Volunteer, The Driving Force behind The National Association of Women Artists, Florida Chapter, March 1 – April 30 at ArtServe Bienes Gallery in Fort Lauderdale.  This exhibit honors & showcases the heart of NAWA Florida Chapter, our 2020-22 Board Members.  And we’ll be at the Center for Performing Arts (Bonita Springs, FL) in April-May.

And finally, our NAWAFL Annual Luncheon /meeting is Sunday, March 6th, (12-2pm) at the Perl Restaurant, Aventura, FL  (prior to the ”Flight of Fancy” Reception.) We will also be having an informal luncheon gathering Friday, March 18th, at the Seasons 52 in Fort Lauderdale (12-2pm). (prior to our “Why We Volunteer” Reception)

And there’s so much more to come!

By
Fran Gardner
President

CURRENT NEWS
Greetings from the South Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Women Artists. In typical SC fashion, one day we are wearing t shirts and flip flops and the next day we are pulling out the scarves and gloves. The Chapter has been working on strategic planning and will be rolling out plans over the next couple of months.

In November 2021, we held a virtual annual meeting of the membership. That meeting was full of information for our members, but we were also focused on listening. Immediately following the meeting, we sent our members a survey with questions that would help us get to know them better and questions that would help guide the Board towards what the membership wants and needs from our Chapter. We gathered information on everything from their materials of choice, to who mentored them, to how many exhibits they wanted to participate in yearly, to their level of interest in volunteering with the Chapter. While it will take the Board a while to create the full strategic plan based on this data, we have already started making decisions about numbers of exhibits both online and face to face, entry fees, and networking opportunities.

We will begin rolling out opportunities in February so our members can plan accordingly. We all agree to invite our members to gather for an annual meeting, and we will begin holding these in the Spring starting in 2023, hopefully in person. For 2022, we will hold member events around our exhibition at the Aiken Center for the Arts. It is a time of gathering for food, fun and the opening of Spring Fusion: Renew and Reinvent. The show will open on March 31st with a reception from 6-8pm. The exhibit will run through May 6, 2022. We encourage all members to join us for a Welcome Lunch at noon on March 31^st, followed by the reception later in the evening. Our host, the Aiken Center for the Arts, is a dynamic and engaging gallery in the heart of downtown Aiken, SC. This exhibit coincides with the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta and is a prime tourist time for Aiken. As always, we take safety seriously, but at this point we are planning to see each other and see the art in person following safety protocols. Please visit www.nawasc.org  for more information on how to join in the fun.

EXHIBITS AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Members Survey pointed to two areas in which our members are most interested – exhibits and professional development. The Board is carefully considering responses and making plans that respond to our members’ needs. The Board will begin rolling out plans in February.

BOARD DEVELOPMENT
The SC Chapter is very interested in expanding its Board membership. If you are a member of National and the SC Chapter, and you have an interest in service in the arts, please contact us through the website. The SC Chapter Board is already strong with leaders who believe in the mission of NAWA and we would love to add another board member who shares our vision. Our websites are full of information about the National Association of Women Artists (www.thenawa.org ) and the SC Chapter (https://nawasc.org ). Take a look and contact us to be part of the leadership of an organization with a strong mission to promote women artists. (https://nawasc.org/contact).

NAWA SC CHAPTER MEMBER FEATURE

Mary McDonough, Cascade Locks Train, 18 in. x 18 in, collage and acrylic paint on cradle board.

Get to know: Collage Artist Mary McDonough from Seneca, South Carolina
Tell us about your work:  The southeastern US landscape and its people have influenced my perspective in creating art. My art practice reflects how I view the world, past, present, and future. My work is not representational, but an abstraction; it evokes the scene of the subject and the feel of the moment. Concentrating on the desire for the viewer to see blocks and shapes of color, shadows, and textures in our world, I create a moment in time to pause and consider…that’s different! Working with a planned color palette, theme, and collage elements, I use shape, texture, and color to interrupt and pivot a piece in an unexpected direction. Forms are used in modified colors that are opaque or translucent; along with a variety of textures that are painted or printed in acrylic. Wet or dry charcoal sticks, oil sticks and implements are used. Acrylic mediums and varnishes, oil varnish and cold wax are used to finish the piece.

Who is your art crush? I have two phases of an Art Crush — the past and the present. I love many artists’ new digital works I see on Instagram and other media sources. Even so, I keep going back to Romare Bearden and Cedric Morris. They both used color and shape, flattening forms, and yet creating depth through texture and shadows. They took reality and bent it around to create an abstraction of a moment in time to make an artistic statement.

Tell us about your most influential time: In 1987 my husband and I had a very active 2-year-old. Family funds and morale were low. When I came up with the idea to go back to school, my husband didn’t think it was possible. I applied for and received financial aid, a graduate assistantship, and a graduate artist studio. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of Dr. Margaret Johnson and Professor Paul Martyka, I worked toward completing an equivalent BA in Art to satisfy graduation requirements for an MAT in Art Education at Winthrop University.

Mary McDonough, Hanging Wash, 20 in. x 20 in, collage and acrylic paint on a cradle board.

What is your superpower? I really don’t have any secrets or superpowers. I guess the main strength for me is that I don’t know when to give up on something even when things aren’t going as planned. I have it in my brain to create and make and present and keep moving forward. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but you still get up in the morning and put on your makeup.

Greatest moment in your art world: Selling art is great, don’t get me wrong! But, it’s not the only thing that motivates artists. I have many moments that stand out in my art world — creating art shows for students and parents, the process of watching and guiding children to make their art, moving forward professionally as an artist, winning first place in big fancy art shows, obtaining membership in NAWA and hearing my husband tell people he’s married to an artist — these are all great moments in my artistic life.

See Mary’s work on Instagram @collageandpaint and on her website at www.collageandpaint.com

NAWA SC is proud to be a part of the National Association of Women Artists and further the national mission – to promote awareness of, and interest in, visual art created by women in the United States – in our state of South Carolina. Please contact fran.gardner24@gmail.com if you have questions about this news update, have news to share or wish to join the NAWA SC Chapter. To learn more about our members and our chapter, please visit https://nawasc.org.

Fran Gardner
Distinguished Professor Emerita, USC Lancaster
Community Development Consultant, Lancaster County Council of the Arts
President, SC Chapter, National Association of Women Artists