On Sunday I decided, at the last minute, to go to the SOWA art walk in the South End. During the spring and summer, and into the fall, there is an outdoor market selling everything:
Ok, maybe not everything. It's actually kind of petite as these things go, a few rows of white tents in a parking lot. I spent more time looking at a big, empty brick building that served as sort of a backdrop to the market: it must have once been a factory (most of the old brick buildings here were once piano or canned good factories, or the like) and held rows of cars on the inside, visible through a sort of giant opening in one side of the building, above which were windows with many broken panes; tucked next to the building were two small tents with hot coffee and all kinds of baked things, so that the smell of coffee and cake chased you around the stalls.
Down the street were the galleries and studios: the studios at 450 Harrison were open. This was another reclaimed brick building with rows and rows of artists studios on four floors. You could take the elevator or stairs and the feeling of roaming around the studios was a bit odd, a bit voyeuristic. Each floor had a long hallway down the center, painted white, off of which doors opened; each doorway 'framed' a studio.
So I would peek in the door and see the artist, or a group of people, surrounded by paintings on the wall, or sculptures; one room had an installation with a projector and the artist sitting as still as a statue while the film ran....some rooms were spare, others dramatic, still others were very business-like with paints and brushes and cans and buckets, and all kinds of things lined up along the walls. Some rooms had windows overlooking the city, dramatic skyline views, filled with chairs and couches, like a lounge. One artist had a small sign that said "atelier" at the front. She had black and white paintings (watercolor?) on the walls and sat at a table eating and drinking. She looked up, smiled, but didn't say anything as I looked around. I don't remember her name.
In one of the studios, I saw works by Laurel Sparks: I had taken a class from her at the sfma. I remember she told me she expected to have a show sometime this year, and here they were. I loved this one called "fugue state." Funny, her paintings remind me of something I might see under my microscope, the colors and shapes are that organic, and if I squint my eyes a little I can imagine focusing the microscope up and down so that the shapes change, blur and soften, and then come back into focus...
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