2018 Art Ramble

ART RAMBLE 2018: “NATURE MEETS NARRATIVE”

Curated by Anne Eder

The Umbrella Arts & Environment Program presents Art Ramble 2018, an outdoor art installation in the Concord Hapgood-Wright Town Forest in collaboration with the Concord Natural Resources Division.

Exhibit dates:
September 15 – November 30, 2018

Exhibit Description
Mythologies and folklores tend to be rooted in specific geographies. For example, the fairytales of the Brother’s Grimm are set against the backdrop of the Black Forest; the desert sands gave us The Arabian Nights; Hawaii’s magic and root vegetable, taro, inspire many a tale. Artists work in this installation will respond to the Town Forest with work that either draws on or inspires fictional or factual narratives related to these Concord woods. These narratives may be purely imaginative, or related to the history, seasonal changes, or the endemic flora and fauna of the Hapgood-Wright Forest. Underlying this exhibit is a belief in the ability of the natural world to fire the imagination, in the elemental role of active imagination in developing resourcefulness, and in fostering stewardship by forging connections through art and story. In our fairytales and fictions, we find hope and proof that difficulties may be overcome. 

Exhibit Map 

Participating Artists

Bruce Armitage / The Hermit (5)
A Resident Artist at Harvard University Ceramics Program, Bruce's main focus is on representational, figurative sculpture. His work combines classical elements with contemporary esthetics. 

Ted Castro / Gravity (2)
Ted Castro creates figurative sculptures out of wood, stone, and metal. Personal reflection drives the process and the outcome. Drawing from life and imaginative sketching are mainstays when he isn’t carving. Ted graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.

Anne Eder / The Musketaquid Shaman (3)
Anne Eder is an interdisciplinary artist and educator from Philadelphia, and also, the curator for this year’s Art Ramble. She is an advocate for increased access to the arts and maintains a commitment to public art in her practice. A member of both SPE and NCECA, she is faculty in the Harvard University Ceramics Program and at Penumbra Foundation, NYC. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in both public and private collections. She currently lives in Boston making monsters, writing fairytales, and catering to her fabulous Chihuahua, The Brain.
Events: Curator Walks: Sun. Sept. 30 and Sun. Oct. 28

Barbara Fletcher / Look Deep Into Nature (11)
Barbara Fletcher is a sculptor of paper and mixed medium materials. Using color, humor, and animation, she tells stories, often around themes of nature and the human condition.

Vicki Heller / Be Fruitful and Multiply (4)
Vicki Heller studied Ceramics and Painting in Michigan, following which she moved to Florence Italy, making sculpture based on architectural idioms.  She decided on a dual career in Medicine, returning to the US and attending Harvard Medical School.  Moving to Boston, she joined what is now the Harvard Ceramics Program, where she continues to work.  She practiced Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School for over 30 years.  In 2013 she closed her practice in order to return to full time artwork. She is currently an Independent Artist at the Harvard Ceramics Program.  Her work reflects some of her experience as a physician, and her ongoing interest in women’s health.

Lee Kennedy / Cabinet in the Woods (6)
Lee Kennedy is a Massachusetts based environmental artist who interacts with the landscape through site specific installation, photography, and collecting objects while exploring nature.
Event: Woods walk and talk: Collecting as part of an artistic practice. Sat. Oct.13

Bette Ann Libby / Gargoyle with Butterfly Wings (1)
Bette Ann, Founding Artist, initiated Studios Without Walls in 1998. She has worked in clay since 1972 and has been influenced by her sojourn in Samoa, travels in Asia, India and the Mid-east. Her award winning work has been shown nationally. Her community building mosaics recently include “Sacred Flowers,” Vilna Shul, Boston, MA, “Tulipmania,” Boston Children’s Hospital, “The Great Wave,” James Otis School in East Boston, and “Paul Klee: Village” a mosaic series created at the MFA with children, installed at the Martha Elliot Health Clinic in Jamaica Plain. Bette Ann’s talk “Shard Stories”, can be heard on TEDX Fenway. She maintains studios in Brookline, MA and Waitsfield, VT, where she gives mosaic shard workshops. Her original ceramic shard mosaics may be commissioned for site specific installation. She is represented by L’Attitude Gallery, Boston.
Contact: BALibby@gmail.com | www.betteannlibby.com | www.communitymosaics.com

Margaret Moody / Badger Meets the Fairies
Margaret Moody loves the way two hands and a few puppets can tell a lot of stories. She studied Bu Dai Xi puppetry with the I Wan Jan Troupe in Taiwan and loves to use the style's acrobatic movements in her stories. Margaret works as a solo artist as well as with Galapagos Puppets (NJ/Boston) and Dreamtale Puppets(Cape Cod).
Event: Puppet show Badger Meets the Fairies 2:30 Sun Sept.16

Julie Nussbaum / Vodnik In Cruel Shoes (7)
Julie Lupien Nussbaum spends her time limning the deep in search of the fantastic and doting on her furry friends.
Event: Fan Fiction Hour Sun. Sept. 23

Stephanie Osser / All About Eggs (8)
Stephanie Osser is an illustrator in Porcelain/Clay coming from a career as an illustrator of non-fiction books, editorial pieces,  and museum illustration. She enjoys creating 3D narratives inspired by her love of children, music and nature. Her ceramic work is created in the techniques of bas-relief tile, architectural ceramics for the wall, sculpture, lithophanes (back lit translucent porcelain images), print on porcelain, and illustrated slip-cast porcelain dinnerware. 
Event: Sat. Oct 20 / Making clay sculptures using molds.

Paul Ruhlmann / Tikkun Olam, Repairer of Creation (12)
Paul Ruhlmann began his professional woodworking career after apprenticing with Jon Brooks in 1975-6, and since then he has been producing sculpture and furniture for galleries and private collections.  For the past 40 years, he has taught woodworking at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, MA.  In 1999 he invented the Veritas® tenon cutter, followed by related articles and a video on “Making Rustic Furniture” for Fine Woodworking. In 2003 he was voted New England Woodworking Teacher of the Year by the NEAWT.  He will be working out of the Umbrella Community Arts Center upon completion of the current renovations.
Event: Making miniature ladders with a master woodworker. Sat. Sept.22

Dave Smyth / Na Daoine Maithe (13)
Dave Smyth was born in Dublin in 1965 and graduated Mass Art in 1996. He has lived and worked in Concord since 1999. His work in various mediums explores the ancient history, culture, and mythologies of Ireland, especially as it relates to spirituality and nature, and is connected to other indigenous cultures and traditions.
Event: Storytelling in costume as part of the Full Moon Walk Thurs. Oct 24

Delanie Wise / Predisposed (10) and Fragments (9)
Delanie Wise has spent a lifetime working in clay. The last decade she has expanded her work to include cement, wire, paper and fiber. When not making art she enjoys spending time with her husband of 42 years, Bill, walking her sweet little dog, Frankie, and playing with her four overly energetic, but brilliant grandkids: Nina, Meron, Matt and Zoey.