Gulu Artist Alumni

Kayla Brown
January 2012
www.creativehotlist.com/portfolios/224449/portfolio.html

Art from the Gulu Show

Most people find their talent for painting at an early age, I found mine last year. The first painting I ever created was in January of 2011 and I fell in love with the field instantly. When I first started I went for the representational route and even those were difficult to read so now I concentrate mostly on non-representational.

Recently I have started a new challenge for my work. I strive to buy the least amount of supplies as possible and use interesting objects that I find along the way. The overall concentration of it is to not think about the brush techniques and more on how the paint wants to lay itself down.

Karen Hallion
December 2011
Facebook | Twitter | DeviantART | Etsy

Click here to see pix from Karen's current show

Karen Hallion grew up in Nahant, Massachusetts where she spent many summers exploring rocky beaches and swimming in the ocean. Karen began pursuing Art as a student at Swampscott High School and after graduating in 1992 attended Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. She graduated in 1997 with a B.F.A. in Illustration. Karen taught full-time elementary school Art in Swampscott from 2003-2009. Currently, she teaches one day a week at the Hathaway School, also in Swampscott, and is enrolled in a Masters in Art Education program at Salem State College.

Karen currently lives in Marblehead, with her husband Matt, their son Ryan, and their dog, Tolkien.

Click here to see pix of Karen's last Gulu show.

Amanda Dunham
November 2011
www.amandadunham.com | facebook

Art from the Gulu Show

Hanging on November 6th - Art opening on October 17 at 7PM!

I am intrigued with the idea of reflecting the realism of modern culture, while using an Old Masters style, or a technique that was applied to painting around the 13th-17th centuries.

In terms of content, my focus ranges from prostitution and the grotesque, to religion and politics, to fashion, glamour & at times, the elite. I have found that many of my artistic influences are derived from styles reminiscent of the 1940s-1960s, whether they are presented in my paintings or my overall lifestyle. For example, American actresses such as Tallulah Bankhead have greatly inspired my work, simply because of their elegance, sophistication and strong female influences in society.

As a young painter, I try not to put restrictions on my ideas, as I am still developing a sense of self & regularly motivated to ascribe aspects of innovative culture into my paintings.

To name a few, I am greatly influenced by the work of Raphael, Vermeer, Irena Ionesco, Shiele, Sigmar Polke, Patrick Caulfield, and René Magritte.

Adam Miller & Friends - ZOMBIEBOMB!
Mid-October 2011
facebook

Art from the Gulu Show

Hanging on October 18th - Art opening on October 22nd from 4-7PM!

Artist Bio
ZombieBomb! is a comic anthology conceived by Adam Miller and Rich Woodall. The comic features over 200 writers & artists joining forces to bring you the baddest bunch of Zombie stories ever assembled. Full color and undead just for you!

What is Zombie Bomb? Click here!

Mark Reusch
September - Mid-October 2011
www.misterreusch.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

Artist Bio
Freelance illustrator, poster artist, mask-maker, and live-in chew toy for my two Boston Terriers, Frankenstein and Mr. Giles. I teach illustration at Massachusetts College of Art, and have candycorn fangs.

Jackie Musto
August 2011
http://www.daportfolio.com/131371/

Artist Bio
A graduate of Montserrat College of Art, Beverly MA, Jackie is a comic illustrator who also specializes in character design. She has a varied body of work ranging in several styles for any need. She also accepts private commissions.

Her comic, Kay and P is about a musician with a skeleton as a best friend. The first issue of Kay and P is now available here.

Greg Orfanos / Richard Flynn
July 2011
www.gregorfanos.com | Richard Flynn - NS Arthrob Article

Pix from the Gulu Show

Artist Bio
Greg: My paintings are a snapshot of random thoughts and moments in my life composed in to a sort of false narrative. The image represents the distortion of what is frequently recalled. The layers, colors and collage represent the truth of what can not be recalled. The recurring theme being the exploration in to the idea of memory through dream.

Richard and Greg's art opening takes place on Thursday July 14th at 7PM!

Click here to read a recent Salem Patch article featuring Richard Flynn!

Christopher Wood
June 2011
www.artbychw.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

My work is organic, bold, erotic, gritty, and inspired by my mad scientist tendencies. These works are thoughts and, in essence two dimensional sculptures. They are curvy, and you’ll probably have a hard time finding a straight line. I’ve found a secret formula to create these works: get up around 5 a.m., drink coffee, turn on the music, and then I jump and dance around the room as I paint, this gets the art thoughts moving. I paint ferociously; this creates real energy within the piece. My painting style and its looseness makes watercolor an optimal medium for me. I paint very wet, this allows the colors to mix themselves on the paper, and allows little experiments/accidents to create themselves within the piece. Painting to me is a bizarre form of meditation.

I have a fondness for Asian calligraphy sumi-e brushes, allowing me to create elegant lines. With my persistent interest in keeping things fresh, I paint with more non-traditional brushes like palmetto fronds, brushes made of grass, turkey basters, sticks, and lastly a collection of brushes I made from friends who volunteered some of their own hair for my artistic endeavors. With these homemade brushes I’ve been able to create some truly organic and fresh movements on the paper.

I’ve explored many different artistic mediums before hunkering down with watercolor. I’ve been a semi-abstract potter, fanatical wooden archery bow maker, and played around with house paints Pollock style. I have a relatively nonconventional background for an abstract artist. I have a Masters in Conservation Biology, with my thesis studying the feeding habits of American mink (think mink coat). I’ve been a woody plant researcher, and currently I’m a full time fish biologist studying rainbow smelt (think small yummy fish). If I’m not in the studio, I’m outside learning about nature. Nature is truly abstract and offers infinite sources of inspiration for me as an artist.

I had fun creating these pieces. Enjoy!

Andrew Marathas
May 2011
www.andrewmarathas.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

Artist Statement
The hope that I have for my work is that it's received well by people who appreciate my slight and severe nods toward the world around us through portraiture and metaphor. My hope is that the work connects with people, that it stays fresh as one piece lends to the next, that the work, ultimately, allows for a kind of consideration for classic themes and creativity that refreshes and inspires. As it stands, the process is a satisfying and time-consuming hobby that may or may not pay the bills.

Sam Hanchett
April 2011
www.redbubble.com/people/burbury

Pix from the Gulu Show

Artist Statement

I’ve been painting for about fifteen years. Usually the images come from within; but even when using a picture or an object for inspiration, what I end up with is something I couldn’t have conceived of before beginning. The creative process itself proves most exciting for me when I take risks: proceeding more by instinct, much like an athlete does. My hope in letting my intuition lead in the creative process is that those unplanned brush-strokes will blend with the ones that are also intended, thus drawing the chaotic into something solid and contained. As an artist, this approach allows me to directly explore those strange, primitive inklings in opposition within me and presumably, us all. Once this combination of work, paint and energy concludes in breaking through, I become its viewer also, and what I find that this form of expression can do for us is to make possible a way to say or feel something significant that could only be conveyed through this language of paint and the surface it has been applied to.

Daniela DiGiovanni
March 2011
www.danielawenzel.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

Artist Bio
Daniela DiGiovanni was born Daniela Wenzel in East Germany in 1978. She grew up in a small town named Lichte, where she was influenced by the porcelain art that is a local tradition since 1764.

During Socialist times children with apparent talent in sculpting and painting were preselected and supported in extra-curricular activities. It was here Daniela began to deepen her drawing skills and learned to work with clay. She then started oil painting at age sixteen after being given her first set of paints, and still prefers this medium over others.

As a young adult, she attended drawing classes in Munich, learning to depict the human form. Later she followed up with painting classes of the same kind at the MFA in Boston.

Though the political changes and uncertainties of the time lead her to chose a career in the medical field, Daniela never abandoned her passion for art. After immigrating to the United States in 2001, she continued to paint and create. During the past years she created multiple works of mostly abstract character and in combination with figurative imagery. Her work evolves around organic cubism and feminine shapes, as well as childhood memories and her perception of the environment.

About my work
My work is rooted in the relationship between light and movement. I like to explore the feminine softness of natural shapes and the masculine lines of architecture. I create oil paintings of mostly abstract character, but also in combination with figurative content as conceptual pieces.

Much of the imagery for my art reflects on memories and dreams which I weave into a geometric environment. A recurrent theme is the subject of movement as I imagine aesthetic motion like the rotation of the paddle while kayaking, the way the body moves in dance or the trees lean during a storm.

The flow of motion in my paintings often results from a single intertwining line defining the space. By using naive color combinations and blending techniques I am trying to achieve vivid works of art. So just follow the line and see where it leads you…!

Kirsten Eichenauer Borne
February 2011
http://keich.wordpress.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

About my work
I make art because for me it is essential.
I have a desire to make meaning, to create, to see honestly.
It's a high challenge and a good struggle.

Bio
Kirsten is currently studying at Lesley University and the Art Institute of Boston, for an M.Ed in Arts and Education. She has a B.A. in Visual Art from Gordon College. Kirsten enjoys painting on commission for portraiture or anything else, and she especially loves collaborative projects. You can contact her at keichena@lesley.edu.

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 17th at, 7-8PM
Featuring live music by local musicians Adrienne Howard on fiddle and hurdy-gurdy, and Linda Shields Swicker on guitar and banjo; playing traditional music from Ireland, France, Quebec and the US.

Angela Santora
January 2011
www.angelasantora.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

Art Opening on January 13th at 7PM with music by DJ White Widow (rare psych/garage tracks)!

About my work
I spend a lot of my time moving slowly through the roaring streets of New York City. Every inch of the city is exploding with sound and color. Every street a maze of distraction. I pace myself and take it all in, finding myself wide eyed and lost over and over again.

My recent work reflects a search for calm in a sea of over stimulation. Vibrant color, deep layering, and erratic movement define these works; It's everything I see every day, hurtled at a canvas.

Bio
Angela grew up in Lynn MA, spending most of her time at the RAW Artworks studios, where her life was transformed with the passing of a paint brush. She now lives in Brooklyn, NY, pursuing painting, music, and as always adventure.

Greg DuBois
December 2010
www.gregdubois.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

Greg DuBois was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1982. He was always interested in pushing boundaries and thinking outside the norm. He occupied his time in his younger years skateboarding and working at the local skate shop. He was always and artist, and wherever he went the hip-hop beats followed, later in life giving him the inspiration to overcome the traps of Tucson's underbelly. Through all of this, he acquired an extensive knowledge of carpentry from working with his father. Greg now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts; where the colorful, urban characters he creates reflect the experiences he has had along the way. While selling paintings and working freelance, Greg works as a plumber making functional, and sculptural, large-scale pipe installations. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from the University of Arizona, and is an East-coast transplant who brings in some West-coast flavor.

Lauren Minco
November 2010
www.laurenminco.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

After graduating from the The Rhode Island School of Design, Lauren's artwork has charmed audiences of all ages in editorial, children's, and teen markets. Her work is a soup of influences ranging from folk art, animation, street art, graffiti, pop culture, textile design, and comics. She currently teaches in the Illustration Departments at Montserrat College of Art and RISD.

Janelle Forbes
October 2010
www.janelleforbes.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

Hold On To That Feeling

It all started for Janelle in the first grade when she won 1st place in her schools art competition. She knew then that her life would be filled with paintbrushes and color!

She continued her passion for art through her studies of graphic design and has been active in the field for ten plus years. Whether she is creating logos for companies, painting town murals, or painting for pleasure, Janelle has compiled quite the impressive portfolio of works.

Her inspirations come from her personal experiences of love, life, loss and everything in between.

Prints and commissioned pieces are available upon request. Enjoy the show!

Jean Fogle
September 2010
www.jeanfogle.com | Jean's Gulu Show

Marblehead artist Jean Fogle enjoys the creative process through many media and art forms. As a painter, she explores with acrylic, oil, water color and collage to develop imagery that can be figurative or abstract. Her work as a decorative artist, under the name Pigments of the Imagination, features painted furniture and atmospheric wall treatments including murals and faux and fancy finishes. As a theatre artist, she designs costumes and set decoration for several North Shore theatre companies.

Jean has been recognized with awards in all these endeavors and exhibits regularly in both group and solo shows. She is a member of The Marblehead Arts Association and LynnArts. She is a graduate of the Vesper George School of Art, with further study at the Museum of Fine Arts, Kaji Aso Studio and Montserrat College of Art.

Matt Maguire
August 2010
Art Opening on Thursday August 12 from 7-8PM
http://www.visionwalker.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

Over the years I’ve managed to claw my way through the art world from comics to Tattoos and everything in between. Drawing dinosaurs on my grandmother’s living room walls evolved into sci-fi Horror comics for Heavy Metal. In the past I’ve worked for Marvel, Top Cow, Heavy Metal Magazine, Penny Farthing Press, Flesh Rot Magazine and a bunch of other Indi press comic companies. I spend half my time tattooing as a resident artist at Witch City Ink in my hometown of Salem Mass, the other half is spent working on new stories for Heavy Metal or paintings for gallery shows.

Greg Orfanos - Lapin Park Art Box Project
Created - July 2010
Salem Gazette Article

Over two long and hot weekends in July, Montserrat College of Art alumnus Greg Orfanos donated his time and energy to create a public art project in Lapin Park.

The intent of this art project was to transform two of Salem's unsightly utility boxes into unique works of art. The city had approved the basic design of Greg's project and the Gulu paid for Greg's supplies and numerous cups of coffee.

The Gulu hopes that this is just the beginning for public art projects in the city. We believe that projects like this one help to contribute to the vitality and attractiveness of the urban streetscape and defer graffiti.

About the Art
The art on the large box is an interpretation of "The Walrus & the Carpenter" from Lewis Carol's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

The small box features several strange and whimsical creatures. At least one is wearing a tube sock.

Click the links below to see the before, during, and after pix from the project:
The boxes before the art | Greg painting the large box | Greg painting the small box | The finished project

Lucas Custer
July 2010 - Art Opening on Sunday July 11 from 6-10PM
lucascuster@gmail.com | kingdomofthezodiac.com

Pix from the Gulu Show

All material has been retired, rescued and repurposed.
These orphans have been adopted. I have cleaned them and
dressed them in my own clothing. I have encouraged them to
use words from my own vocabulary.

These paintings are my concerns.
They are warnings.
They are reminders that humans share the earth.

We share it with each other.
We share it with the animals.
We share it with our refuse and debris.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Originally from Texas, Lucas Custer graduated from Montserrat College of Art in 2003 where he studied graphic design. Living in Salem over the past seven years has afforded him the opportunity to acquire abandoned artifacts which he gives new life in his work.

Laura Niemi Young - www.lauraniemiyoung.com
June 2010

Pix from the Gulu show

Art Opening takes place on Thursday June 17 at 7PM. Music by The Scott Ouellette Trio to follow.

Laura Niemi Young is a new resident of Salem who has a BA in Studio Art from Clark University, and who is in the process of obtaining her MA in Art Therapy and Mental Health Counseling at Lesley University. The work presented in this show is a collection of images created toward the end of her first-year art therapy and counseling internship.

When creating these paintings, Laura was thinking about the opportunities she has had to be a witness to individuals’ resilience after difficult challenges. In this series, the different paintings either balance each other, or contain their own internal polarities, which speaks to how coping often seems beautiful and contradictory. Like the performers, acrobats, captives, and explorers in these works, we all, at times, are called upon to use our abilities to simultaneously embody both grace and strength, to be intensely conscious and also amuse and surprise ourselves, and generally, to negotiate with our pain and difficulties, and transform them into a more reflective hardiness. Hopefully, these paintings capture a bit of the wonder of the little feats that people achieve against the odds everyday.

Brian Donnelly - http://munkybunny.deviantart.com
May 2010

Art Opening featuring music by Dr. Nemo Spaceman and the Legion of Superclowns!
Thursday May 13 - Art Opening at 7PM | Music at 8PM

Pix from the Gulu show

At birth, my parents named me Brian Donnelly. My father, who was a middle-school history teacher, taught me to read before nursery school. I found, that if I wanted to learn something, all I had to do was read about it. This was much to the detriment of my grade school teachers, who seemed to have dubious itineraries for me. This continued in a steady decline through junior-high, where the "Little Napoleon" in me fought the system by refusing to play their reindeer games. As the dark curtain of wolves and crows descended upon me in the form of bullies, detentions and curfews, I escaped into a world populated with monsters, super-heroes, and naked women. I would surface momentarily to explain my travels to people around me. As time went on I traveled to darker and more mysterious places. Places not written about directly. Places hinted at on stone walls and collective dreams. Still, to this day, I travel and surface, honing my skills of tone in order to communicate these patterns and forms that lie just below our waking life. I am now, as you see me, as I always have ever been- A Searcher For The Infinitely Elusive Truth.

Love,
Brian Donnelly

Dan Nolan
April 2010 - Pix from Gulu-Gulu Show
www.DanNolan.com

Dan Nolan is a self-taught artist based in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. A dabbler in several mediums and styles (yielding work such as his graphic novel – Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy), Dan always returns to oil paints. While most of his time is spent on dog, baby, and grandma portrait commissions, he’s recently been channeling New England’s baseball fever, producing this series of baseball paintings.

More of his work can be seen on his website, www.dannolan.com and he can be reached via email at dan@dannolan.com or phone/text at 857-719-6091.

Cambridge Community TV Interview: part 1 | part 2

Glenn Church
March 2010 - Gulu's Art Show
www.artreview.com/profile/GlennChurch

Artist Statement:
'My work combines a passion for sound and its visual counterpart. I am interested in how these two disciplines combine to create a ‘total’ and immersive psychological experience, both discordant and harmonic. To this end I utilize a multimedia approach to creating art, an expression of philosophical, spiritual, social and psychological reactions to the 'personal' engagement with the world; both the 'seen' and the 'unseen'. My experience of multimedia includes scale models, lighting, installation, graphic design and sound to create the desired immersive psychological experience. I have exhibited both with sound/visual Installation art, video and printed media in London, New York, Europe, Australia, the Far East, and worldwide. As well as a multimedia art project, I also write and produce experimental music under the title of Neophyte Capsule.

The images for this exhibition were constructed using a hybrid of digitally drawn insect anatomy; their intention to highlight the inter-connectivity, interdependence and infrastructure between the human and insect societal systems despite our primal fears of them.

After being born and raised in the UK, I moved to North America in 2006, first living in New York, and then in Salem where I currently live and work.'

Karen Hallion
February 2010
Facebook | Twitter | DeviantART | Etsy

Karen's work has always centered around a general theme of Fantasy, with a specific focus on mermaids. She is heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau movement, and Alphonse Mucha. Lately, she has been painting mermaids on driftwood found on the beaches of north-shore Massachusetts.

Karen currently lives in Marblehead, with her husband Matt, their son Ryan, and their dog, Tolkien.

Click here to see pix of Karen's newest work.

Jennifer Lewis
www.mio.8k.com