MOQUIN

Poet Rhina Espaillant says, “Writing is the process of listening internally - to understand what it is the poem wants to be.”  For me, it is the same in painting except that I look more than I listen.


There are many doorways of transition and transformation that each of us experience in the course of a lifetime, some that are of our own choosing, and some that unexpectedly slam behind us.It is at those times that our perception shifts, priorities change and beliefs are challenged.


For several years I have focused on two motifs that serve as my metaphors to explore these questions. One example from nature – the tree, another man made – the house. Both of these endure the hostility of the ever-changing environment. Both serve as shelter. Both are equipped with different methods of coping and both ultimately decay. They bear witness to time’s constant wearing away on any notion of permanence, while I watch.


While watching, I seek brief moments of clarity, little glimpses of grace, the times when my eyes are focused so intently on seeing what is behind that damn veil of unknowing that I finally begin to see the hazy outline of something. I strive to give form to that something. I am filled with hope when I see a shape that remains the same no matter where I stand, and sustained by the knowledge of its existence even when it is hidden. I watch bare tree limbs reach unashamed and unprotected into the winter sky. I feel the fearlessness, the unwavering faith in the potential buds they carry while blissfully ignorant of what storms lay ahead.

Like a poet, I seek to extract some sort of meaning from these observations and find a way to share the encounter through shapes and colors on a flat surface. As Stephen Dobyns has so articulately written, “A work of art gives testimony as to what it is to be human."  It is an exchange between one human being and another in an attempt to communicate and offer some existential relief in the recognition of our shared experience. I am a wordless poet, therefore I paint.


Artist Statement



EDUCATION


M.F.A. in Painting, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA, 2009

B.F.A. in Printmaking, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA 1988   

                       magna cum laude

          

RECENT SOLO AND DUO EXHIBITIONS:


Finding My Way

                           Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA July 2017

Dualing Colorists

                           Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA July 2016

Common Threads

             Group Show, Highfield Historic Hall, Falmouth, MA 2015     

Relationships

             Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA July 2015

Revelations

                      Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA August 2014

Transitions

                      Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA October 2013

A Space in Time

              Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA July 2013     

Color Notations

              Cove Gallery, Wellfleet, MA July 2012     

Timeless Explorations

                   Cape Museum of Art, Dennis MA Dec 2011          

Memories of Color

              Addison Art, Orleans, MA.  August 2011

Translucent Revelations

              Addison Art, Orleans, MA.   July 2010

Remembered Encounters

              Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA June 2010

Interpretations

               Addison Art, Orleans, MA July 2008     

Explorations in Light and Color

              Addison Art, Orleans, MA July 2007

Meditations in Color

                   Addison Art, Orleans, MA – 2005

Along the Way

                   Cape Cod Community College, 2005 Retrospective

                         and artist in residence

Expressive Realism

                    Old Selectmen’s Bldg., W. Barnstable, MA - 2003

The Journey Continues

                          Old Selectmen’s Bldg., W. Barnstable, MA - 2001









RESUME

RECENT JURIED REGIONAL,

NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL AND INVITATIONALSHOWS


Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY 76th Regional figurative exhibition

                         "Contemplation"


Blanche Ames National Exhibition, Easton, MA 2018, First Place

                          "Contemplation"

Contemporary Cape Cod Artists: Images of Land and Sea

               Invitational Exhibition of Artist’s included in Deborah Forman’s newly

                released book of the same titled, published by Schiffer 2013,

                Tao Water Gallery, Barnstable, MA 2013  

The Magnificent Splendor of Trees

                     Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit, MA 2013

LandEscapes II

                The Great Room Gallery, Yarmouthport Common  2012

Paper/Process

                Cape Cod Community College, Higgens Art Gallery 2010

Boston Young Contemporaries

College of Fine Arts, Boston Univeristy - 2009

     Northeast Prize Show          

                 Cambridge, MA Juror: Willikam Stover, Curator, MFA Boston - 2009

MFA Thesis Show     

               Umass Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA - 2009

     National Prize Show     

                  Cambridge, Ma  Juror: Cheryl Brutvan, Curator, MFA Boston - 2006

     Art of the Northeast

                           Silvermine Guild Gallery, New Caanan CT

                 Juror: Harry Philbrick, Director Aldrich Museum - 2003

Impressions, Prints of the Northeast

Creative Arts Workshop, New London, CT

                 Juror: Gabor Peterdi, Yale University

International Print Exhibit

               Clary-Minor Gallery, Buffalo, NY

25th Annual Red River Exhibit

                 Plains Art Museum, Moorhead, MN

3rd Biennial International Print Exhibit

                     Somerstown Gallery, Somerstown, NY

Images of Four Women Printmakers

       South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA

Women Creating

       CMFA Dennis, MA - 2002

Four Friends and a Paintbrush

                     Group Exhibition, Brewster Ladies Library, Brewster, MA – 2001