2014 Flying Horse Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit
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2014 Flying Horse Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit Pingree September 1 – November 23 Welcome to Pingree School and our fifth annual Flying Horse Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit Our exhibition’s title comes from the home Mr. and Mrs. Sumner Pingree established on this property in 1931. Their Flying Horse Farm was named in honor of the flagship of the shipping fleet owned by Mary Weld Pingree’s father. Shortly after the Pingrees gave their land for the establishment of Pingree School, the institution adopted the Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek mytholgy, as its mascot. Each year, I look forward to the opening of this event. Our open vistas, hedge garden, pond, and entry drive all provide perfect backdrops for art and slow contemplation. Since art has always been an integral part of a Pingree education, it is fitting that we are a setting for such an exhibit. Indeed, all of our students engage in fine and performing arts classes and thereby experience how art expands their minds, brings joy, and affords them a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the world around them. This annual exhibition is a reminder of all that art brings to our lives. This year’s show, which includes more than 40 works by New England artists, is extra special because we open our new arts and athletics facilities in coordination with the exhibition. I invite you to take your time and look closely as you walk around our new and established facilities, enjoy the many different styles of sculpture, view the works and landscape from different perspectives, and watch how the light plays on surfaces and materials. Be sure to stop into the library also to view the five works by five women artists displayed there to honor the five decades of women educated at Pingree and to recognize our school’s first 50th reunion. In closing, special thanks to Judy Klein for her vision and effort to make this exhibition a reality for the fifth consecutive year, and to Chris Williams, a renowned sculptor and North Shore treasure, for being our Honorary Chair for this year’s event. Sincerely, Tim Johnson Head of School Message from Chris Williams, Honorary Chair: It is an honor to chair the Pingree sculpture show. To me, there are no rules in creative expression. No boundaries. Through the beautiful language of art – especially in the creation of sculpture – the raw talent around us sets the highest standard. The uncharted and unlimited challenges of art charge us with the important task of providing a meaningful platform to showcase future artists, allowing them to test and expand their growth and potential. The Pingree sculpture show is an irresistible opportunity to work with, exhibit, and encourage young artists. It will be a treat for everyone: participating artists and the visitors. Enjoy. Chris Williams Honorary Chair “In this fast-paced world, we’ve all seen it many times. People walking around, eyes glazed over, stress building, rushing from thing to thing. What if, out of nowhere, they come upon one of my sculptures at an airport, a stadium, or even on the lawn of a private home. And suddenly, they are transported to a different place. Now they are staring at a full-grown rhinoceros about to charge, a 20-point moose surveying his realm, a playful greyhound on a beach, a 13- foot giraffe grazing beneath a tree, or a huge momma bear with three cubs climbing in a forest. Their hurried, stressed out lives disappear. They are in the world of sculpture. For a moment. For a lifetime. Art to me is life anew, refreshing and reviving, a moment of stillness and joy in a crazy world. You feel as though if you turn your head or look away from the sculptures they will run away, alive in their world, out of sight again. It has been my driving passion to create experiences through art that enrich and elevate how we experience our environment and our own lives. Working in metal, there is a dynamic tension between the metal’s strength and my creative vision. Shaping the piece, the metal fights back. In that artistic struggle, a new life comes, the piece earns a pulse of its own. A living, breathing sculpture is born. My artistic career began in the back of my father’s metal shop in Rockport, Massachusetts. Every day after school I worked alongside my dad to earn my weekly allowance. One amazing day, I discovered some heavy wires that led to an old welder beneath one of the shop’s oil-drenched benches. I dragged it out, dusted it off, plugged it in, and gave it a try. I made a small dinosaur. From that moment when the first sparks jumped, I was hooked. A career in sculpture became my life’s dream.” “Greyhound” Stainless steel, $10,000 “Garden Sphere” Steel, $7,500 “Tree Frog” Bronze, $29,000 CONTACT: 508.846.3307 | 978.768.7652 | [email protected] Michael Alfano Michael’s sculpture, “Peace Offering,” is a functional bench featuring a dove, conveying the hope for peace, while its tail transforms into a hawk, representing hostility. The dove’s wings become open hands, which might be ours, in an asking, a weighing, or an offering pose. Or they might belong to a larger force that welcomes two people to sit down and discuss their differences. Michael has been sculpting for over 20 years, with artwork in galleries, museums, parks, and private collections around the globe. Among his commissioned works are portraits of world leaders and public monuments, primarily in the Northeast. Originally from New York, Michael first studied at the Art Students League. Today, he lives and works in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. “Peace Offering” Faux bronze resin, $7,000 CONTACT: 508.435.4613 | [email protected] | www.michaelalfano.com Daniel Altshuler Daniel Altshuler is a Gloucester-based classical sculptor who makes statuary, busts, bas relief, and medals of prominent individuals that are cast in bronze or carved in stone. His statuary can be seen in universities, hospitals, corporation headquarters, government buildings, museums, galleries, interior design showrooms, and on the internet. “When I work in sculpture, whether it be a portrait or allegorical statuary, it is essential to me that I capture the spirit and the likeness of the subject of theme. I strive to show inspiration and beauty in my work which is revealed in variable lights. By the nature of the intensity of the raking light, the strong and simple expression of each piece communicates its intent in form. The final location of the work is still another important factor to me. I need to know if the work is expected to be viewed from a distance or up close, as this affects the way I would model the statue or bas relief. Whether a sculpture is intended to be inside or outside, a building is also a determining factor in the consideration of the modeled form.” “Grace” Hydrocal, $20,000 (cast in edition of 6, in bronze and mounted on granite) CONTACT: 978.283.2331 | [email protected] Thomas Berger Thomas was born in a small town of the Moselle-region in Germany, where he was deeply involved with nature from childhood on, collecting minerals, fossils, shells, and other natural objects, many of which he sketched or painted for documentation. His love for nature also led him to garden extensively, together with his father, on a several-acre lot. He kept sheep and bees, and collected plants for herbal medicine. After obtaining a degree in agriculture from Kassel University, he worked on farms in France and Australia, and for three years in Niger / West Africa, where he was consulting rice and vegetable cooperatives and subsistence farmers. He also worked in Berlin, Germany for the German Volunteers Service helping to administer development programs in three West African countries. When he moved with his American wife to the U.S., he founded his own business for landscaping and stone masonry Green Art — which allows Thomas to combine his desire to be creative with his passion for gardening and stone art. Thomas is a self-taught painter and sculptor. He designed stamps for the country of Niger and won awards for both his landscaping work, as well as his stone sculptures. His works are found in public places and private collections in New England and Germany. “With my sculptures, I express my admiration for nature in all its forms: the universe, our planet, life in all its variations, our human existence. There is magic found in every living thing, and the creation of nature and life out of a ‘Big Bang’ is a wonderful mystery.” Thomas often uses weathered stone surfaces to achieve a fossil-like appearance which hints at the vulnerability of life. At the same time, these signs of decomposition remind us of the resilience of life that persisted through the shifts of continents, the regression of oceans and the freezing of the planets surface, developing into an ever increasing richness of forms and beauty. We are warned not to destroy the Eden into which we have been born! Thomas Berger’s piece ‘The Apples of Monte Santo’ expresses his opinion that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) bear the danger in them to do more harm than the intended good. The title of the sculpture reflects on nature being saintly and holy (Spanish: “santo”) and is also a play on the name of a chemical company who is a world leader in the development of genetically modified organisms. “The Apples of Monte Santo” Black granite and gold leaf, $4,200 CONTACT: 207.752.7975 | 207.439.7700 | [email protected] Whitmore Boogaerts Whitmore has been creating and selling artwork as a career for the last 20 years.