Featured Artist of the Month

December 2023: Emily Davis

“Ecology Through an Artist’s Lens”

Artist Emily Davis of DEERHILL Studio is on display this month, with mixed-media pieces which draw attention to the natural world.

MV Times article here: https://www.mvtimes.com/2023/12/20/emily-davis-ecology-artists-lens-exhibit/

DEERHILL Studio website here: https://www.deerhillstudio.com/

collage of artwork

 

August 2022: James Jennings

Art opening Tuesday August 16th from 4pm-6pm. 

James W. Jennings, 41, is a renaissance man most know by “Coach”. Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, James teaches at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School and works at School of the Future in NYC. James is an educator, a painter, novelist, essayist, athlete, speaker, and, when not in the classroom or workshop ( or studio ), he’s creating spaces for creatives. His students have come to call his paintings “portals”. From his own words James aims to communicate one simple truth. “There is an invisible bond connecting us all,” he says. “Once you can stand still long enough to recognize it. I try to evoke that stillness and illuminate the bond when painting. I try to remind us there is good reasoning in being calm and open and nurturing those connection. The paintings are definitely portals.” James can be found on LinkedIn, FB, and IG @jameswjennings. Commission requests or inquiries can be sent to 49thhour@gmail.com.

James attainted a masters in fine art at Brooklyn College in 2008 and an undergraduate English degree in creative writing from Emory University in 2004. James’ recent activity includes 30 for 30 Impact Hub cohort, Wework Creator, executive board member of Martha’s Vineyard branch NAACP, board member of AAHT, A5 scholarship fund President and Co-founder, Callaloo and La Porte Peinte alum, 49th Hour Masterclass and Inspirations Tour, and over a decade of coaching public high school basketball. James’ novel Wings of Red will be published in 2022.

July 9th–23rd 2022: Destiny Arianna

Beauty in Remembrance is a weaving of works that are reminiscent of the beauty that lies within the act of carrying memories and one’s legacy with pride. To learn more about the artist, please visit her website: destinyariannastudio.com

Opening show is Tuesday July 12th at 4 pm. 

May/June 2022: Liz Durkee

Come into the library to view the bright and beautiful photographs of Liz Durkee from Oak Bluffs hanging in our Meeting Room. Liz has been photographing the simple beauty of the town for years, including many sunrises, and her photos are often featured in the Town Reports as she was the previous Conservation Agent for over two decades. During the pandemic, Liz began taking close-up photos of the architectural lines found in the nooks and crannies of the colorful cottages in the Campground. 

Nov/Dec 2020: Jennifer Langhammer

Jennifer Langhammer (Vineyard Haven) is a ceramic sculptor whose work is informed by the growth and evolution of organic material. Jennifer seeks to abstract the patterns of nature by removing them from their original contexts. Many of her works explore how the same pattern can be found in flora and fauna, the mineral and the ephemeral. Using paper clay (an amalgam of dried clay, water, and paper) like a glue allows her to create textures of many repeating miniature elements. Her pieces are either entirely hand-built or slip-cast in her self-made molds and then altered. She lives and works on Martha’s Vineyard with her family and shows her work nationally.

Obsolescence series: life sized ceramic pieces of obsolete technologie, mostly from the 80s when I was a teenager, being covered or consumed by a natural element that typically grows on other surfaces such as barnacles, moss, lichen, and mold. This work is personal & narrative, it ties into my undergraduate degree in Industrial Design, my love of nature, and my own feelings about aging after turning 50. To others, this is a meditation on a post-covid world.   

Motor Oil with Fungus, 8x6x4, ceramic, 2020.
Cassette Recorder with Mushrooms. Ceramic 5x10x4, 2020. Obsolescence Series. Do you remember the first time you heard your own voice? Recordings don’t sound anything like my own perception of myself. Can we every really see ourselves as others see us? We are always backwards in the mirror.
Diskette With Fan Fungus. 3x3x3,ceramic, 2020. Part of my obsolescence series where nature consumes outdated technology. I’m sure you’ve seen the joke where a teenager thinks that a diskette is a 3D printed save icon. I think it speaks to the ubiquity and now total disuse of this object. I’m sure somewhere in a box I still have short stories and term papers saved in this format. Practically irretrievable but still kept as remembrances and proof.
Polaroid with bracket fungus. 6x6x6. Ceramic, 2020. Technology never seemed more magical than watching a Polaroid picture develop. Although shaking the photo might damage it, it is irresistible, the urge to participate in something developing.
Barnacle Camera, 5x4x3, ceramic, 2020.
Push Button Analog Phone with Barnacles. 6x6x8, ceramic, 2020.
The first piece in the Obsolescence series. When I was 13 I had my own phone line, not so much as a special privilege but so that other family members could receive calls. I remember the button phone as being so much easier to use than the old dial phones. I had one with a long cord so I could walk around my room.
Joy Stick with Coral. 4x4x4. Ceramic. 2020.
Obsolescence series. In the 70s my Aunt gave us one of the first Ataris for Christmas. I can still remember the beeps and bloops of Pong, my introduction to digital sound.
Transistor Radio & Slime Mold, 6x4x3, 2020.
Obsolescence series. I think these pocket sized transistor radio might be the first personal electronic. We have such an intimate relationship with these objects that are ours alone.