October 14, 2023
On view: September 7 - October 14, 2023
Gallery hours: Thursdays and Saturdays, 1 - 4 pm
83 Spring Street, Watertown, MA
More photos to follow.
https://www.storefrontartprojects.com/jasmine-chen-body-work-and-practice
This little outpost is a diamond in the rough. Tucked away on a residential street in Watertown, it regularly hosts work by a range of artists, mainstream to modern. The current show “jasmine chen: bodywork + practice” is a lalapalooza of style and content.
Owner Ellen Wineberg says Chen was born in China, has been steeped in creating art since she was 2 years old, graduated from Harvard then Brandeis with a degree in economics. She has been demonstrating her technique at StorefrontArtProjects using traditional Chinese brushes and ink pots. Channeling her inner child, she connects with her muse of the moment, has painted using strands of her hair and pressed lipsticked lips together against paper to make small prints that remind me of Marilyn Monroe blowing kisses with her pouty lips. Oh, and composed one print by pounding her inked shoe on wet paper.
Her most striking ink wash paintings gain power from simplicity and technique by using traditional Chinese brushes and ink. Subtle gradations from shades of black and gray display an uncanny depth. Examining the prints on the walls and lying on the storefront windowsill feels like a form of walking meditation. In these tumultuous times, a visit to Storefront’s Jasmine Chen exhibit inspires a deep cleansing breath.
I had arrived at 11:30 AM, way before the gallery's opening time of 1 PM. Ms; Wineberg informed me that the artist would return in the afternoon, the last day of her show.
I returned to watch Ms. Chen make an ink wash portrait of a young boy and his sister as their mother watched. While sitting on a folding chair taking notes, I was asked if I'd sit for a portrait...oh boy...yes! And was more than happy to make a donation to the artist.
First visit11:30 AM
Scene across from 83 Spring Street Watertown MA reflected in storefront window
Passersby drawn inside by this display of Jasmine Chen's inkwash paintings in storefront window
Below photos...Chen captures subtle nuances of what is under the surface by the way her subjects choose to pose...
and viewers interpret...
while translating ink and paper...
into their own ...
ideas of who each of them were in person.
ABOVE...Chen's work on display in storefront window is as revealing as a photograph.
Creative Chen used her own hair to create this linear tangle... i would have loved to watch her make this one displayed on gallery wall.
Tabletop on which Chen painted this afternoon.
Chen used a painting knife to apply thick layers of oil paint to the portrait above.
Luminous color shows that Chen has mastered oil paint.
Four of a kind ...
Portrait Jasmine Chen made by pressing her lips to the paper...she's created with her hair, boots and now her lips!
Artist bio...
Sunlit office behind the showroom
Gallery owner Ellen Wineberg holding an ink wash painting by Jasmine Chen. Do you recognize the subject on the left side of the portrait in her hands?
Chen portraits are for sale, not her portraits of family.
Coming soon...Jasmine Chen Part 2 - watching the artist at work.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
"Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: 40 Years of Funny Stuff"
From the archives...CALVIN TRILLIN
Upon Reading In The Middle Of The Night
Don’t plan on reading "Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: 40 Years of Funny Stuff" if you happen to be sleeping with someone. By the time you’re halfway through one of his Funny Stuff riffs, “Corrections” for example, you will have guffawed awake your (fill in one) girlfriend, wife, husband, boyfriend, family dog, children in the next room, who will probably not share your hilarity since it is 3:20 AM, an hour customarily reserved for sound repose.
You will quite possibly be greeted with sullen stares at the hour of normal reveille. Citing Trillin as a master of dry, urbane, witty humor who should be on any intelligent reader’s list won’t get much traction. You will likely discover that your copy of said book has gone missing by nightfall.
It’s hard to believe a guy could have a writing voice so damn funny, slyly literate, and keep it going for forty years. His ‘stuff’ has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, and a bunch of books. Ordinarily when you see a list like this, you’re thinking, well those are high falutin’ places, he’s probably pretty stuffy. Wrong.
There are about two hundred bite sized essays and short zippy poems in the twenty sections of Funny Stuff – a few categories: “The Media – Liberal Elite and Otherwise”, “Tales Of A Clean Plate Ranger” (figure that one out), “High Society and Just Plain Rich People”, “Twenty Years Of Pols – One Poem Each”, “Family Matters”, “Beasts Of The Field, Fish Of The Sea, And Chiggers In The Tall Grass,” “English And Some Languages I Don’t Speak,” and “Foreigners.”
Ol’ Calvin can elevate everyday stuff into hilarity that makes you laugh out loud. A few titles: “People In Charge,” “Chicken A La King,” The Italian West Indies,” “Thoughts On Power Neck Wear,” “Economics, With Power Steering,” “Voodoo Economics Up Close,” “Social Questions From Aunt Rosie,” “T.S. Eliot And Me,” “Slip Covers Just Bloom In The Spring, Tra La,” “Holistic Heuristics,” “Killer Bagels,” “Molly and the V Chip,” “Losing China,” … the list goes on.
There are other authors I could add to this DNR (Do Not Read In The Middle Of The Night) list. Billy Collins comes to mind in the poetry department. I’m sure you have a list of your own books that if read during the hours in which you’re supposed to be collecting REM, can cause relational distress.
Remedies might include slipping down to the den or garage (where it’s likely your copy has been hidden) when you have the urge to read such books as a dark of night diversion. I could suggest that you never crack open Trillin’s book but caveat emptor. Once you do, it will be too late.
PS If you have doubt about Trillin's sense of humor, watch the clip of Calvin Trillin on The Daily Show. (If I were clever enough, I'd write a poem about it).
More Trillin...
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/09/140338165/an-anthology-and-a-life-full-of-funny-stuff
Daily Show with Jon Stewart
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/02/24/daily-circuit-calvin-trillin/
and
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/books/review-in-jackson-1964-calvin-trillin-reports-on-race.html
October 30, 2023 in Commentaries | Permalink | Comments (0)