The Wellesley Women Artisans is now exhibiting original artwork in the windows of the former Rugged Bear storefront. The show features pottery, paintings, handmade plush toys, collage, and decoupage work by a diverse group of women artists who live and work in town.
Over the last year the members of the Wellesley Women Artisans have been meeting regularly to share progress, provide support, and create together. “It has been really wonderful to connect with other creative women who live here in Wellesley,” said Abby Glassenberg, a textile artist and founding member of the group. “We learn so much from one another. Making art can feel like a lonely endeavor at times. It’s inspiring to get to visit one another’s studios and see the new directions each person is undertaking with their work.”
Elizabeth Cohen, a potter and also a founding member of the group said, “When Laura Fragasso, director of the Wellesley Community Art Project, offered the former Rugged Bear storefront as display space for group members, we were thrilled! This is a our first show together and we are so pleased to be able to have our work on display right here in our own community.”
The works will be on display until June 25. Inquiries about individual pieces should be addressed to each artist. Members whose work is on exhibit include:
Elizabeth Cohen http://www.elizabethcohenpottery.com
Abby Glassenberg http://www.whileshenaps.typepad.com
Julie Vari-Nikolewski http://www.julievari.com
Jodie Poresky http://poresky.com
Jenny Schneider http://jennyschneiderillustrations.wordpress.com
Crystalle Lacouture http://crystallelacouture.com
Carolyn Watson http://www.carolynmackin.com
Julie's paintings are visual paradoxes that exist interdependently and all-at-once. Executed with painstaking precision, they are built-up, layer after layer, with matte sign-makers paint. All evidence of the artist's hand is repressed. Shape becomes line. Figure turns into ground. Sour becomes sweet. The result is a powerful pictorial tension of seemingly irreconcilable visual contradictions that somehow seems to work in spite of themselves.
A Wellesley resident of 5 years, Julie hails from Chicago, Illinois. When not painting in her home studio, she is busy helping her husband renovate a 19th century farmhouse. In the summer, she can often be seen wielding a lightsaber in her front yard or building a sand castle at Morses Pond with her two young boys. She is a member of both the Hunnewell and Schofield school communities where she serves as the school's PAC representative.
(Look through the glass to the back wall to see two additional works by Julie)
Crystalle is an artist and illustrator living in Wellesely. She received her degree in fine arts from Skidmore Collge and went on to work in several art related jobs in New York City before moving with her family to Wellesley in 2010. Crystalle is especially excited about finishing "The Moth and the Firefly" a children's picture book set to debut on the Barnes and Noble Nook in June.
Crystalle has twin baby-boys and a daughter who is currently attending the Wellesley Montessori School.
Jenny is an artist, illustrator, writer and world traveler. She is also a mom of two wonderful boys who are currently attending the Sprague Elementary school in Wellesley. With them in her company, she never runs of of inspiration.
She has earned a MA in Art Therapy at Lesley University and took many classes at the SMFA (School of Museum of Fine Arts) in Boston.
Jenny loves children's books and is currently writing and illustrating her own. Her paintings are mostly done in watercolor, she always likes to add little collage pieces thus turning into mixed media. She is happiest with lot's of paint on her hands.
People say that her work makes them smile and she hopes it does the same for you too.
Jodie is a self-taught decoupage artist. She primarily specializes in using family photographs to create beautiful and distinctive home decor. Being a very nostalgic and sentimental person, she first became interested in decoupage once she had children. Jodie believes photographs are meant to be seen and loves creating functional home accessories to help bring those special memories back to life. She lives in Wellesley with her husband and two kids.
Recently I redirected my creative energy toward acrylic painting, though I have been a photo-based artist for 2 decades. I enjoy the spontaneity and freedom of building my paintings with many layers and allowing them to develop from a place a intuition and mystery. My influences include the glowing illumination of a city at night, patterns that suggest exotic locales, peeled layers of paint on old buildings or furniture, and cultivating equanimity through yoga and my art practice. In 1996 I earned a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) from Syracuse University, and in 2003 a MFA (Master of Fine Arts) from the California College of the Arts.
My husband and I moved to Wellesley from the San Francisco bay area in 2009, and have 2 young boys. My older son attends P.A.W.S. and will enter kindergarten at Hardy in the fall. I have also served on the membership committee of the Wellesley Mothers Forum for the past 2 years.
(Look through the glass to the back wall to see two additional works by Carolyn)
Elizabeth Cohen is a self-taught independent studio potter living in Wellesley. She works in porcelain clay, altering wheel thrown forms while still pliable. Inspired by botanical forms, Japanese arts and mid-century design, she is interested in making work that can be used for daily rituals such favorite foods, flowers, and cup of coffee or tea, as well as sculptural work.
She earned a B.A. in English from Tufts University and an M.A.T. from Simmons College. After teaching high school English, she began her ceramics career, while raising three children who attend Wellesley Public Schools.
Abby Glassenberg
Abby Glassenberg creates unique patterns for stuffed animals from her home studio in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Abby has a master’s degree in education from Harvard and taught middle school social studies in Mississippi and Massachusetts before becoming a textile artist and the mother of three girls.
Today Abby enjoys teaching people to sew and opening their eyes to the joy of designing their own stuffed animals.Abby’s first book, The Artful Bird: Feathered Friends To Make and Sew, was an ALA Booklist top ten craft book of 2011. Her new book about soft toy design will be published by Lark in May of 2013. Abby has also licensed toy designs to Simplicity.
Abby Glassenberg creates unique patterns for stuffed animals from her home studio in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Abby has a master’s degree in education from Harvard and taught middle school social studies in Mississippi and Massachusetts before becoming a textile artist and the mother of three girls.
Today Abby enjoys teaching people to sew and opening their eyes to the joy of designing their own stuffed animals.Abby’s first book, The Artful Bird: Feathered Friends To Make and Sew, was an ALA Booklist top ten craft book of 2011. Her new book about soft toy design will be published by Lark in May of 2013. Abby has also licensed toy designs to Simplicity.
Abby has lived in Wellesley for eight years and she and her husband, Charlie, have three daughters. Their eight-year-old is a second grader at Sprague, their six-year-old is a kindergartener at Sprague, and they have an 18-month-old who spends her time at home, playing with mommy and fabric.
