A tribute to creation
Artists Association to host student/faculty exhibit
by Mary Lancaster • Photos by Rob Benchley
Creating a quality piece of art is a deeply soul-satisfying experience, one that is spiritual and difficult to articulate. But sometimes the means to transfer an image from one's mind's eye to paper or canvas, or the ability to see that image more clearly and how to best render it in a medium of chalk, watercolor, oil or clay may need guidance from others

Children in the toddler art program run by Jo Slavitz enjoy the messy side of creativity. All Artists Association students will have work on exhibit starting Friday. Clockwise from top, Sasha Cohen adds a bit of yellow to her red finger paint. Chloe Girvin (left) and Maggie O'Keefe indulge in drier materials such as crayons. Amelia Hofford (left) with Sam Hofford smear on crimson goop for their picture backgrounds. Chloe Girvin and Maggie O'Keefe dip into a bucket of sand as they stay with the neater stuff.

experienced in the art world.

To that end, and with gratitude from numerous students over the years, the Artists Association of Nantucket has hosted classes since 1945. On Friday, April 4, AAN hopes the island's public will visit the opening of its annu- al student/faculty art exhibition at the association's Joyce and Seward Johnson Gallery at 19 Washington St. to view work by this past year's students and their teachers and learn more about its programs.

What AAN provides has been invaluable to many who have transformed from students to professionals selling their work or young people whose knowledge gained through classes helped them become accepted into highly regarded art colleges, explained Elizabeth Hunt-O'Brien, AAN's arts program coordinator. Penny Scheerer had an interest in watercolors when she was a practicing lawyer. She took classes, then became a member of AAN and from 2005 to 2007 served as its president. She remains a board member.

For Elizabeth Sutherland, who studied graphic design and fine arts in college but took about 20 years off to raise a family and attend to other things, getting back into her art through AAN classes was a life enrichment she needed. She began in the program just over two years ago, first using pastels, then taking drawing classes and now experimenting with oils. She started with AAN as a student and became an association member with the privilege of showing work in its gallery.

"What the Artists Association is so great about is that people can return to things. It attracts a lot of people like that. Every medium has its challenges and limitations and its freeing parts. This has been enriching for me," she said. "What I've enjoyed as a middle-aged person is to learn something new. There, you have that opportunity. It is great for people with aspirations or avocations and have put them aside to raise a family or whatever. There is a history of doing art on Nantucket that began about 1890. The tradition here is incredibly rich and long, and there aren't many communities where people can experience fine art and exhibit. It's an extremely unique and powerful thing."

Chris Bourbeau has her own studio now. When she and her husband moved permanently to the island in 2003, at the end of that year she enrolled with AAN, mainly learning about oil painting and how to critique her work. It was not long after she started the courses that Bourbeau, who always held a love of art, realized she needed her own studio to develop her abilities beyond the classroom.

"It has been an incredible experience," she said of working with AAN and becoming a member in May 2006. "First of all, it's meeting people in the community and getting such great instruction from such great teachers. You are able to grow through the process. Art is something I've always loved, but I didn't have the time to do it. When we moved here permanently it became my passion."

O'Brien said the association opened originally at the Thomas Macy Warehouse on Straight Wharf and began classes in the early 1980s. When AAN had to relocate, the courses stopped for lack of space but were renewed in the early 1990s by artist Sherre Wilson Rae, who is still on the faculty. Those classes were held in a garage at 1Gardner Perry Lane and could only accommodate about eight students at a time. In 2000, the AAN raised enough funds to add to and renovate the garage and in 2002 it welcomed four classes at once, each able to fit six to 20 students. Last summer they added a covered roof outdoor studio. Along the way, donations have provided the ability to hold ceramics classes, renovation of the scupture department to include stone carving and computer lab equipment for photography or Web site-related courses.

"The program is so expanded since we moved here in 2002. It has really exploded," said O'Brien, sitting in a large, bright classroom studio surrounded by paints, brushes, easels and assorted still life setups. A sign on one table reads, 'Please do not move my mangos.'

"The [student/faculty] opening is popular and fun because people who have never shown their work in a gallery have that chance," she explained.

The opening reception for the 2008 student/faculty show is Friday, April 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. The show, partly made possible through the financial support of Nantucket Golf Club Foundation, Inc., runs through April 19. On April 6, a special feature will be part of the exhibit. In a National Poetry Month collaboration between AAN and Spoken Word Nantucket, a poetry competition will be held in which on April 4 and 5 the gallery will be open for students from age 19 and younger to choose a piece in the student/faculty exhibition and write a poem about it. The winning poems, chosen by a jury, will be named April 6 at a program featuring poet Jack McCarthy with prizes donated from Bookworks and Even Keel.

The Artists Association of Nantucket holds pottery classes for children, teens and adults. Pictured above are examples of pieces created by students in the intermediate clay program. The terra cotta pears were made by Jo Ann Welch. The three pieces of wheel thrown stoneware were made by Melanie Sabin.

AAN's classes run year-round, starting anew each season, and encompass everything from toddler art to mixed media and clay for middle to high school ages, to adult drawing and painting, painting critique, pottery, photography-related computer courses and various workshops. A schedule of classes is available at the Washington Street gallery or studio/

office at 1 Gardner Perry Lane. I