2020 Alumni Art Show Program

PROGRAM This event is co-sponsored by the MCLA Alumni Office & BCRC's Gallery 51

2020 Alumni Art Show The virtual exhibit will be open to view from November 18 - December 11, 2020 here: bit.ly/AlumniGallery The curated works included in the 2020 Alumni Art Show span the practices of fourteen artists who graduated from MCLA between 1971 - 2019. Each artist was invited to submit work for the exhibition, from which Gallery 51 made a final selection of the works included in the show.

This exhibit is free and open to the public. Attendees may make a suggested donation of $5 to support The Fund for MCLA by texting FUND4MCLA to 41444 or visiting http://give2.mcla.edu/. Donations support student emergency need, scholarship, and equitable internship access and all gifts are fully tax-deductible.

Thank you for joining Gallery 51 and the MCLA Alumni Office in celebrating this talented group of alumni.

About Gallery 51 Since 2005, Gallery 51 has anchored Berkshire Cultural Resource Center operations on Main Street in downtown North Adams. Gallery 51 exhibits work by a diverse offering of emerging to mid-career, as well as established artists, from across the globe. Its exhibitions and programming expand MCLA’s reach nationally and beyond.

Please note that some of the artwork in this exhibit is available to purchase through the artist. For a list of show works, pricing, and contact information, please click here.

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Artist Biographies Cara Finch '11 Cara Finch is a painter as well as an illustrator and work in acrylics doing narrative and intuitive style art. Much of Cara’s work depicts images that symbolize various social issues including those of gender, race, religion, mental health and politics.

Love of nature is very evident in Cara’s work and expresses my belief that spirituality can be connected to through the "great outdoors" and is often a dominant theme in the work.

Cara has a recognizable style and strive to keep their work unique and personal. By rendering images with heavy line and symbolic subjects that foray into the "otherworldly", Cara attempts to convey a "story" that expresses feeling rather than just rendering photograph-like objects.

Cara is a native of Northampton, Massachusetts and hold a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a minor in Behavior Analysis and a master's degree in Social Work.

Cara has been illustrating and painting professionally for over twenty five years and have displayed work in juried shows, galleries and exhibits across the country from Santa Cruz, California to Northampton, Massachusetts. https://cfinchart.com/

Melyssa Fortini '19 Melyssa Fortini is a visual artist and community collaborator; best known for producing environmentally and spiritually charged visual imagery as a means to communicate and reflect. Through extensive work-study, selfexploration, and international travel, she gathers insight into new ways of engaging with diverse communities. She works in a variety of mediums 3

including digital photography, sculpture, and multimedia, creating her work as a means to generate public initiative and sustainable development.

A graduate from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts with a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Management, Fortini has created work for Figment North Adams, the Berkshire Art Association, and the City of Pittsfield's First Fridays Arts Walk as well as a handful of exhibitions through Gallery 51 and The Green in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Jennifer (Smith) Huberdeau '00 Jennifer Huberdeau is the editor of UpCountry Magazine and the digital editor for the Berkshire Eagle's features department. When she's not writing about the arts and culture of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont, she can be found creating her own works of art. Her work has been shown in local galleries, including MCLA Gallery 51, the Eclipse Mill Gallery and the Whitney Center for the Arts. https://www.facebook.com/jenhuberdeauart/ Christina Kelly ‘98 As someone who experiences a close connection to the Divine through the natural world, Christina Kelly is awed and inspired by the tremendous variety of hues and textures in the flora and fauna, skies and waters, and landscapes of our world. She also enjoys the ways in which human-made structures contrast with and/or blend into nature. Acrylics have evolved into her current favorite medium; there is an exquisite appeal in the creaminess of these paints and the endless palate of beautiful colors. Christina’s eyes are constantly alert to that next visual moment of revelation and inspiration.

Christina currently lives and works in North Adams, MA.

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Alexander Jamal '15 Alex Jamal is a Coder and Graphic Designer from Boston, MA. He explores the essence of culture and being through historical context, analog/digital media, and absurdist reflections of the self. Follow Alex on Instagram.

Makayla-Courtney McGeeney '16 Makayla-Courtney McGeeney, originally from Upstate, NY, is a full time Berkshire County resident working as a digital marketing consultant and taproom supervisor at a local brewery. Photography is McGeeney's visual analysis of life. Her goal is to make the dull and bright moments and areas of the world shine through photos. Often she finds herself walking down a new path, stopping to turn around and catching a view that most would continue to walk by. While still learning to master DSLR cameras, McGeeney frequently uses her iPhone to capture scenes from every day life. Most of these images showcase the beginning of the 2020 pandemic and the beauty of nature. http://mcgeeney.com/

Amy Modesti '14 Amy Modesti, founder of “ALM Fine Art and Photography�, is a multi-media artist, photographer, and photojournalist who resides in Cropseyville, NY. She is an MCLA Alumni, receiving her BA in Art and Arts Management in 2014. Currently as a photojournalist, Modesti's articles and photos have been featured in publications and blogs as "The Eastwick Press", "The Xperience Monthly", "The Spot518", "Nippertown", "The Beacon" (MCLA College Newspaper), among others.

For twelve years, Modesti's work has been exhibited throughout New York and Massachusetts. In addition to her exhibitions, she has made a splash in the Capital Region arts and live music scene through her dedication to 5

promoting and documenting what's happening through her creative lens.

Some of her photographs of area bands were featured in promotional posters for venues as The Rustic Barn Pub (Troy, NY), One Caroline Street Bistro (Saratoga Springs, NY), The Hangar On The Hudson (Troy, NY), The Ale House (Troy, NY), and the Dinosaur BBQ and Brew (Troy, NY).

Like Amy Modesti's page, "ALM Fine Art And Photography" on Facebook to keep updated on Amy's work and to inquire about any of her work and creative services. https://almfineartandphotography.wordpress.com/

Bill Righter ’80 Bill Righter loves painting landscapes with soft pastels. Having spent many summers on Cape Cod, Righter paints landscapes of Dennis and the surrounding towns.

Bill is a 1980 MCLA graduate with a BS in Business Administration. Bill says his favorite classes were his art classes. In 2018 Righter started taking weekly pastel classes called Creating Expressive Art with pastel under the instruction of Jory Mason IAPS Master pastelist.

Righter loves working with pure pigments. He states, “it’s like magic once the soft pastel hits the sanded paper.”

Righter belongs to the following: Plymouth Center for the Arts, Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, Recent Exhibits: 2019 Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod Members online show, 2019 Dakota Arts Emerging Artist Winter Competition, 2020 Dakota Arts Emerging Artist Summer Competition

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Righter currently lives in Carver Massachusetts with his wife Jane a 1981 MCLA graduate. They have a summer home in Dennis Massachusetts.

He owns his family business Nova Sports USA with his twin brother Rob a 1979 MCLA graduate. https://m.facebook.com/Bill-Righter-Art100600294702155/

Theresa M. Terry '71 Theresa M. Terry has always had a love of creating art. For Theresa, making art is playing with colors, shapes, textures and imagination. Working with something before her is always translated into something she perceives.

Theresa enjoys exploring different mediums such as clay, gauche, pastels, acrylics, collage, pencil and watercolor; however, watercolor is her favorite.

Theresa has taken instruction from a variety of accomplished artists. She supports the visual arts and education as a member of the Guild of Berkshire Artists, Art School of Columbia County, and IS183.

Theresa’s art has been shown and sold at the former Artful Mind Gallery in Lenox, MA, and appeared in The Artful Mind September 2018 magazine.

Some of Theresa’s paintings have been shown in juried shows at the Spencertown Academy, Guild of Berkshire Artists, and the Honest Weight Coop.

Theresa says, “I hope you enjoy my paintings as much as I enjoyed creating them.” https://members.berkshireartists.org/artists/?id=TERT

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Stephanie VanBramer '14 Stephanie VanBramer is a born and raised native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Berkshires is the place she calls home and is currently where she lives and makes art today. Focusing on staying local and accomplishing the most she can in her own backyard, Stephanie received her BA in Art from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA. and is working toward earning her master’s degree in Art Education. She currently works as an elementary art teacher in the Pittsfield Public Schools and as a Faculty Artist with IS183 Art School of the Berkshires. She is a current member of the Cultural Development Board and the Berkshire Art Association. Stephanie’s artwork can be seen on the streets as she has created Pittsfield Paint Boxes through Pittsfield’s Artscape. Stephanie has a strong passion for arts education and continues to seek opportunities to promote and make stronger connections between art making, education, and community collaboration.

Ben Warren '11 Ben Warren was born in Springfield, Ma and influenced by the local author/illustrator Dr. Seuss amongst many others. He is a multi-modal artist, creating performance, 2-D, and 3-D art. Ben Warren is a story teller at heart, from early childhood renditions of comics based on super heroes or camping trips with friends to his present day reflections on society and his inner-Self. After MCLA, he moved to the greater Boston area where he has participated in the ‘Play Me I’m Yours‘ project, Shotz Boston, Figment (Boston and North Adams), 48 hour film project (Boston and Providence), and is a member of the Arlington based playback theater troupe True Story Theater.

Always up for a challenge, Ben put his illustrative skills to the test by committing to draw a three panel comic each week of this year. Though a little behind admittedly, he is persevering through to create a combination of various ideas for all 52 weeks of the year. And what a year it has been.

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Isaac H. Wood '17 Isaac Wood lives and works just South of Boston, Massachusetts. After receiving his BA in Art in 2017 from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, he set out to explore, practice, and evolve his artistic vision.

He considers himself an ink and paper enthusiast as much of his works revolve around printmaking, collage, and anything in-between! Wood’s work explores emotional narratives through a lens of abstraction. https://www.isaacwoodart.com/

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