Although this program typically centers on visual art, today we’re zooming all the way out to take in “the humanities.” The poor, unappreciated, probably doomed – in academe, at least — humanities. Dr. William Major chairs the English department at the University of Hartford’s Hillyer College, where I also teach. Recently, he published an essay in the publication Inside Higher Ed that, well, it made me kinda worry about him. As if the decline of the humanities wasn’t disturbing enough, he pairs it with the demise of the planet.
Enjoying Walden Pond while it lasts, Dr. Bill Major and his wife Ginny. And likewise, the humanities in academe.
Although this program typically centers on visual art, today we’re zooming all the way out to take in “the humanities.” The poor, unappreciated, probably doomed – in academe, at least — humanities. Dr. William Major chairs the English department at the University of Hartford’s Hillyer College, where I also teach. Recently, he published an essay in the publication Inside Higher Ed that, well, it made me kinda worry about him. As if the decline of the humanities wasn’t disturbing enough, he pairs it with the demise of the planet.
Enjoying Walden Pond while it lasts, Dr. Bill Major and his wife Ginny. And likewise, the humanities in academe.
Today’s summer encore is a visit with painter and art professor Cat Balco, who is writing a memoir.
The book is shaping up to be about painting, but also about a lot of other things going on in her life. Cat, who teaches at Hartford Art School where I’m proud to say she taught me painting, was my inaugural guest on Open Studio, back in September of 2020, and since then a lot has happened in her life. She says she has a stubborn little muse inside her that’s calling her to write about it in memoir. Painting, writing – well, that speaks my language. I had to invite her back on the show to talk about it.
A few of Cat’s paintings:
Orion’s Belt, acrylic on canvas, 60″x72″, shown in Cat’s studio
Three Green Triangles, acrylic on canvas, 72″x72″,
Today, we diverge from visual art to take up another Art – Art Meyers, more formally Arthur Solomon Meyers, who died in late May at age 85. Art was a hometown hero for not only expertly heading the Russell Library in Middletown for 19 years but also for his leadership on many other fronts, including for presiding over the annual naturalization ceremony the library hosts around the Fourth of July and for creating lunch groups of diverse people to talk.
A plaque hung in his honor at the library says it all: “During his tenure as Director of Russell Library, Arthur Meyers engaged the entire community. His special warmth encouraged diverse populations to connect and discuss issues in the Open Forum style e.g., where the goal was to raise the level of public discourse through the striking of mind upon mind. Art established local groups for discussions on a variety of subjects; many lives have been enriched through his efforts.”
Yes, he was all about raising the level of public discourse well before it had sunken as low as it’s gotten.
The episode, in our continuing summer series of encores, features two interviews I did when I hosted a previous radio show on WESU, Reasonably Catholic: Keeping the Faith. In the first, from 2013, he talks about the Open Forum, a kind of chatauqua in the style of one discussed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; in the second interview, from 2017, he celebrates a groundbreaking priest whose work anticipated the New Deal.
A big thank you to friends and radio guests who answered my call for donations to the radio station’s spring pledge drive. As of this airing, we’re still a few thousand dollars shy of our goal so, not to guilt you, but if you haven’t donated yet and you love community radio, please go to wesufm.org and give what you can. Thanks.
Rachel DeCavage, owner of Cinder & Salt, and a founder of the Middletown Arts Fest, which just wrapped up its second summer season, marks off sidewalk spaces before vendors start arriving.
Today, an encore broadcast of a lively walk n talk along Main Street during one of last summer’s Middletown Arts Fests. If you’ve never been to one of these first Friday events, this episode will give you a taste of what’s in store: arts, crafts, food, music, dance, the works. The upcoming one is on Friday, July, 7, from 5 to 8 pm. If you go, be sure to look for my tent, with the Girl’s Got to Focus Banner, and say hello.
Letting you know, by the way, that WESU is in the final days of its spring pledge drive, and still in need of help to reach its modest $25,000 goal. If you haven’t shown your love of community radio with a donation of any size, please donate and give what you can. Thanks.
Now, a step back into last year’s Middletown Arts Fest, n opportunity to continue my quest to make Middletown an arts destination. Enjoy!
Today’s episode kicks off a summer’s worth of favorite previous episodes! It’s a conversation with two painters who live and work in Provincetown and Truro on Cape Cod, Peter Hocking and Helen Grimm whose work you can on Instagram at @p.hocking and @hgrimmpainter. Enjoy!
Art-relatedly: I want to bring to your attention a fun event that I’m proud to say I’ll be taking part in over Father’s Day weekend, June 17th and 18th. It’s the annual Summer Arts Festival on the Essex Town Green, two days of art and fine crafts by some of the region’s most exciting artists and artisans. We’re talking abstract and representational painters, sculptors, mixed media artists, photographers, and many fine artisans who create with clay,fabric, glass, jewelry design, and more! The festival is hosted by the nonprofit Arts Center Killingworth and its gallery, Spectrum Art Gallery which is a quick five minute drive from the green at 61 Main Street, Centerbrook. Learn more at spectrumartgallery.org. If you go to the festival, make sure to look for the tent with the Girl’s Got to Focus banner and say hello!
One last thing: if you haven’t yet donated during WESU’s spring pledge drive, please do. Remember, it’s you who put the community in community radio. Go to wesufm.org/donate. ThanksOkay, on with our encore presentation of last year’s conversation with two wonderful Cape Cod painters, Peter Hocking and Helen Grimm!
OMG. Painting and Cape Cod. I hope I never have to choose between them, both are such soul food for me. Today I’m honored that my guests are two Cape Cod painters whose work I’ve been following for some years, Peter Hocking and Helen Grimm. Each lives in Truro and is represented by the Four Eleven Gallery on Commercial Street in Provincetown, a gallery which, as you’ll hear, has deep roots in the town’s storied history of supporting art and artists. Both Peter and Helen paint landscapes – in Helen’s case, also seascapes and what she calls shellscapes; when you visit the openstudioradio.org blog, you’ll understand. In our conversation, we got deep into the dunes, as it were, about what it’s like to live on the Cape in all seasons, about why they don’t paint people, and about just what it is that inspires them about the Cape. Talk about soul food. You’re going to totally love these two.
Today’s show — the last of the season — contains an abundance of riches, more than I’d planned on when I invited two expert jewelers – Linda Staphos Wosczyna (left) and Deborah Strano – to come on the program. As you’ll hear, this wise and wonderful pair has been making art together for decades, inspiring each other, urging one another on, taking creative risks together, making treasures out of what others might toss in the cast-off bin. They’ve laughed, they’ve cried — they’re twin sisters of different mothers. You might even say their connection is metallurgical, especially as they helped build the jewelry department at Wesleyan Potters in Middletown, which is how I know Linda. You’re going to love them as much as I do.
Above, a selection of Linda’s work, including the ring and “Puttanesca: Hot and Spicy” necklace discussed in the episode. She’s on Instagram @lindastaphos. Below, Deb’s work. She’s on Insta @deborahstrano1.
Although this program typically centers on visual art, today we’re zooming all the way out to take in “the humanities.” The poor, unappreciated, probably doomed – in academe, at least — humanities. Dr. William Major chairs the English department at the University of Hartford’s Hillyer College, where I also teach. Recently, he published an essay in the publication Inside Higher Ed that, well, it made me kinda worry about him. As if the decline of the humanities wasn’t disturbing enough, he pairs it with the demise of the planet.
Enjoying Walden Pond while it lasts, Dr. Bill Major and his wife Ginny. And likewise, the humanities in academe.
Artists have something people want, says Jeffrey Greene, manager of the Community Partners in Action’s Prison Arts Program, posing with James D.E. Scott’s The Church of Angels, a sculpture made with acrylic paint, soap (Jergen’s), paper, cardstock, toilet paper, and abrasive cleaning pads.
Today, finding freedom and human connection through art. Art that may just change your mind about people in prison.The annual show, up through April 22, is at Eastern Connecticut State University’s art gallery this year; it rotates around the state so it’s convenient for prisoners’ families to visit. Maybe you’re wondering, why would I go to an exhibit like that? What could a prisoner have to tell me? And why should prisoners even get to make art? Keep listening. Jeff has an answer for you.
For information about visiting the exhibit and helping the cause by donating or volunteering:
Top row, l-r: Vernon Haynes, Full Woven Samurai Outfits; Cong Doan, Autarky (materials include plastic from underwear box, floor wax with non-dairy creamer and sugar)
2nd row: l-r: Ryan Carpenter, I Don’t Know Why I Run Away; Nicholas Soucy, Apartment Building, Office Building, and Garage Model
3rd row. l-r: MAC: The World is Mine; Monty the Marlin detail showing hundreds of tweezers, and full view
4th row, l-r: MAC: Hater Blockers, Beads of Peace
5th row: l: Carroll Bumgarner Ramos, Scabagail; center top & bottom: Mark Despres: collection and My Pain; right: Mark Despres, The Otherside (back cover of vol 18 of the Journal of the Community Partners in Action Prison Arts Program)
6th row: l-r, Dean Devon, The Otherside of Jamaica; Roderick Lewis, masterworks
7th row: l (top to bottom): Exhibit overviews and Nina Robinson’s wall of Non-stop Painting!!! and r: Johnnie Arthur’s Mother Africa
Today, we zoom in with Carrie Jacobson who calls herself an Accidental Artist. That’s because she was plying a career in newspaper journalism, not really too happily, when, one day, out of the Prussian blue, she was possessed by the idea of making a painting for her husband of their six dogs. And that was it. With the first swipe of the brush, she fell in love with painting. Fast forward to today, when she’s happily making a living solely from her art.
Carrie lives on the rural DelMarVa peninsula, in a town called Watchapreague, where the mayor is also the lawn guy, and the local doctor owns the general store. Carrie ’s not interested in getting rich; she says she just needs enough to pay the bills by doing what she loves, which is making art. I learned a lot from our conversation. About pricing paintings, for instance, for me, always a tough nut to crack. Carrie prices her work by size: she charges $1.65 per square inch. And because she paints small, many of her paintings can be had for a song.
In another interesting approach to selling, she’ll sometimes post on her blog that she’s going on an art trip to some destination and that she will be painting along the way. Her followers can then buy the as yet uncreated paintings; and when Carrie gets back from her travels, she posts photos of the work on the blog and her followers get to choose, deli style, in the order in which they committed.
Carrie makes the kind of expressionistic but still realistic work that’s my favorite kind. And she uses a palette knife to really get down and dirty with the paint. It frees her, she says, from “the tyranny of detail.” Love that! She’s also just started working in fused glass. Glass is another enthusiasm of mine.
We even have former newspaper careers in common.
Anyway, you get the picture. Trust me, you’re going to love my new art friend and kindred spirit Carrie Jacobson. Kudos to her little brother, Rand Richards Cooper, Open Studio’s go-to movie critic, for connecting us!
Above, in her happy place. Below, a selection of oil pantings done with palette knives on black canvas
Below, her first-ever painting, a Christmas present to her husband, who loved it.
Below, lately Carrie’s experimented with fused glass.
Open Studio 