February 2024

Open Vessels

Hayle Lovstedt, Michael Medeiros, & Akemi Rice

February 2 - February 23

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Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

• Hayle Lovstedt

  Hayle Lovstedt is a ceramic artist from Los Angeles, CA, and an MFA candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Prior to coming to UMass, Hayle spent five years teaching high school English and Art. While Hayle tends to focus on functional objects, this body of work is an exploration into the way form and scale can impact our relationship to an object. These objects were created with openings or voids to invite the viewer into the form. Hayle purposefully avoided using traditional ceramic glazes in this body of work so as not to “candy coat” the materials being used, thus removing a barrier between the viewer and the clay; the clay is instead finished with an application of oxides or mason stains.

• Michael Medeiros

  Michael Medeiros works at the intersection of words and artistic imagery, with a deep questioning of the ways in which people perceive and conceptualize the world around them. He is a Studio Arts MFA candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he previously earned an MFA in Creative Writing. Primarily a poet and ceramist, he also connects photography, printmaking, fiction and narrative non-fiction in a multidisciplinary personal practice and community public art collaborations. Mindfulness and the exploration of the ways in which each of us uniquely experiences the world are essential aspects of his artmaking and teaching.

• Akemi Rice

  Artist Statement:

  I am drawn to the intricate beauty and detailed design aspect of the Nantucket style baskets, which are made with much more thinly cut reeds than other styles of baskets. While this makes the weaving process very time-consuming, the thin reeds create an elegant effect. I find the time spent weaving to be relaxing, almost like a meditation of sorts. The different kinds of hard-woods such as cherry, walnut or oak, (for the base and lids) along with different molds used allows for a broad set of possibilities for natural combinations of wood colors and designs. I am drawn to the traditional aspect of Nantucket baskets. Friendship baskets can be made and handed down from generation to generation as family heirlooms. The natural wood color of the basket reeds changes over time, adding to the beauty.

  While most of my work is in the style of Nantucket baskets, I also create traditional baskets, and more recently, colored paper based baskets, which are on display as well.

  Bio:

  I was born and raised in Iwate Prefecture, Japan and came to Massachusetts in the late nineties. After raising two children in the Boston area while teaching basketry, I relocated to Hadley in 2021. I first became interested in Nantucket baskets when I took a course at a studio while living in the Boston area about 15 years ago, which led to me becoming an instructor. I’ve been teaching ever since, and am currently offering classes and workshops out of my studio at the Brassworks in Haydenville, while also making new creations.

January 2024

Substratal

NCFA’s 2024 Curritotial Committee

January 4 - January 31

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Opening Reception on Arts Night Out

Dictionary

sub·strate /ˈsəbˌstrāt/

An underlying substance or layer- the surface or material on or from which an organism lives, grows or obtains its nourishment.

This exhibit showcased the works and talents of NCFA's first Curatorial Committee, which began as the Steering Committee responsible for laying the groundwork for how the Barn Door Gallery would foster community connection and represent the residents of West Mass and

• Carlos REC McBride

  Description text goes hereCarlos REC McBride (he/him) is a resident of Northampton. He works for The Division of Community Care through the Northampton Department of Health & Human Services. He is a multi-disciplinary artist that merges community engagement, education and music to foster and cultivate narratives around healing and issues of social injustice. REC is also an active board member at the Northampton Center for the Arts and is heavily engaged in using his art to bridge communities that are often not connected through traditional social spaces.

• Javier Lopez

  Javier Lopez (he/him) is a Chicano artist hailing from Corpus Christi Texas. Javier is currently a 5th grade educator at Holyoke MA, and a board member for the Northampton Center of the Arts. Currently, Javier has been focused on the ancestry of Mexican Americans in the United States, and the impact of a lost history that is the unfortunate commonality of many descendants of immigrants.

• Natania Hume

  Natania Hume (she/her) was born in New York City, but spent her formative years amidst rural academia in Amherst, Massachusetts in a household of artists. Natania earned a BFA from UMass Amherst and a Master's degree in Art Education from Southern Oregon University. She enjoys many verified kinds of artistic pursuits, and when not in her studio she can be found volunteering as a board member for the Northampton center for the Arts, and teaching art at The Williston Northampton School where she also serves as Arts Department Chair.

• Robin Griffith

  Robin Griffith (she/her) currently resides in Northampton with her wife, Miriam, children, Ell and Lily, and dog Leo. Living in Western Massachusetts has given her the perfect environment to create and grow as an artist. Robin best describes herself as an artist, as a seeker. Artistic desire and expression has always been part of her life. When she is creating she follows her intuition and intellect to seek the story of a given piece. The purpose of Robin’s work is to have the viewer see art in everything. Robin is a primarily self-taught artist and has learned by experimenting with different mediums. She enjoys creating art that is spontaneous and organic in nature, creating shapes, colors, and objects that viewers can experience in new and different ways.

  Robin expresses her artistic vision through photography and mixed media paintings. Her current focus is on pieces that are centered around women of color (WOC). Her WOC works are a political series and her first attempt at celebrating women of color in her art. Once she started working this series she was moved to create works with messages which amplify the voices of marginalized groups. She strives to create work that is outside the norm and imagines a world of what could be. This is passion and the message she wants to communicate to the world.

• Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz

  Labrador Inuk Ella Nathanael Alkiewicz (she/her) is a self-taught artist and poet with university training in teaching, journalism, and nonfiction writing. Her work has been displayed in galleries across Massachusetts, as well as internationally in Toronto, Ontario, Varna, Bulgaria, Istanbul, and Turkey. Ella is a 2022 Easthampton City Arts Arts Workspace Easthampton studio resident, a 2022 Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts Project Evolution Grantee, and a 2023 Massachusetts Cultural Council Culture Sector Recovery Grantee. She works in her studio “Art by E.A.” in downtown Northampton and lives with her husband and tabby in Northampton. Ella is thrilled to be a part of the first exhibit in the renovated Barn Door Gallery with her steering and curatorial committee colleagues.

• M Rudder

  M Rudder (they/them) is a queer and trans Japanese-American artist creating work that explores the intersections of the natural world, gender identity, the sacred, and belonging. They are here to create images, spaces, writings, and conversations that call out to us to remember that we belong. To the earth. And to each other.

• Nyasia Velazquez

  Nyasia Velazquez (she/her) is a Puerto Rican abstract artist from Springfield, MA with a love for glitter. She's been a diva for as long as she could breathe and in high school she studied Design and Visual Communication and applied her personality to her art. Typically she will complete one piece in one sitting, to convey and preserve the emotions of that moment but her process has changed recently to allow herself more time to create depth on the page and enjoy coming back to it. This year she has fully immersed herself into her art, beginning with getting her work recreated on her nails - art manicures, each finger a small canvas. In August, after months of art manicures, she decided to have an art show on her birthday at The Artist Cafe in Springfield to present to everyone for the first time - Clandestine Collective. Since then she has vended at art events, attended open art studio days, and gained a lot of organic art friends. She is very honored to share her first public gallery show with so many talented and unique artists that she has been working alongside for months now.