Now that Massachusetts has made it into phase 3 of the covid reopening, I’m pleased that our new cases are remaining low and that, perhaps in light of what’s happening elsewhere in the country, more folks seem to be wearing masks, outdoors.

I’m also pleased that, of late, no one has cursed me out (and vice versa) and that those who do call me names now use positive terms. Yesterday, someone actually called out “genius” and the day before, “creative! ” Sometimes, I hear people chuckling as they pass by.

That’s been true for a few weeks, now–ever since the Christmas Tree Shop reopened and I was able to buy a pool noodle which I sport to maintain social distance of almost six feet when running on Fresh Pond or the Charles.

It wasn’t really my idea (a friend told me he’d seen people doing that in New York’s Central Park) but, hey, I’m willing to take credit if this becomes a Cambridge fashion trend. (And I hope it does).

I’d also like to thank some folks and organizations for helping me through the pandemic—in what has not been an easy time:

Ranger Jean, of Fresh Pond, who listened and commiserated when I told her about the maskless covidiot who called me a motherFxxxr when I told him masks were required; she told me not to interact, that people should feel happy on Fresh Pond.

Heidi M. of Evolve Fitness of Cambridge and Framingham, whose Zoom Zumba class, smile and joy lifted my spirits on Saturday mornings before the covid reopening.

Jennifer Miles, whose City of Cambridge online yoga classes continue to provide me with peace, calm and a regular schedule. https://www.facebook.com/huronvillageyoga

Heather Cox Richardson, whose biweekly lectures on political history have taught me ever-so- much about the situations we are facing today .

-The good-natured helpful people at Trader Joe’s and CVS, and the nice older Star Market checkout clerk (I don’t know his name) who offered that he went to Boston College, not BU; and the Starbucks barista who wished me a good day as I walked out the door with my half -caf .

-Virginia and Maya (in the photo below)and Sheldon at the newly reopened Henrietta’s Cafe, at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, whose spirit, joy , encouragement and coffee (!) give me great energy to complete my book-in progress.

And Sarah, for taking the photo of me with the pool noodle, and for adding that cinnamon to my coffee!

–Anita Harris

Anita M. Harris is an author, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

This past weekend, I was ecstatic to attend my first gallery opening since March, when shelter in place restrictions began. I was equally ecstatic that this was at Lacoste, in Concord; that it featured the work of a 20-something Newton native, female artist; and that. in keeping with the Lacoste tradition of sponsoring diverse and female artists the gallery will be donating 18 per cent of sales to the Black Lives Matter cause. And also: that I learned a lot.

The exhibit.
The exhibit, “In Response to George Ohr,” features the work of Newton, MA ceramicist Lily Fein, who. in January 2020, traveled to Louisiana and Mississippi to to study the work of George Ohr -an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed “Mad Potter of Biloxi.” ^[1] 

Ohr, born in 1857, died largely unknown in 1918. For decades, his pots sat in a garage behind his sons’ gas station in Biloxi.  But “his work is currently viewed as ground-breaking and a harbinger of the abstract sculpture and pottery that developed in the mid-20th century. His pieces are now relatively rare and highly coveted^,,” according to Wikipedia.

Fein writes that she “was attracted to how Ohr inverted the metaphor of the vessel–what one would expect to live in the inside of the hollow object manifests itself on the exterior of the pot. In turn, as much as a pot references the human body, Ohr put the insides of human bodies on the outside of his pots. He made the underlying connection between the vessel and the body overt: putting excremement in teacups and making vulva piggy banks. [This is Anita: Ew…sounds gross]. He was not shy, which posthumously gave other clay artists permission to play.”

Fein went South thinking that seeing Ohr’s work in the stacks at the New Orleans Museum of Art and at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum in Biloxi would bring “revelations and new approaches” to her own work. As she moved through the stacks and and “made work” in the South, she realized that that she needed to claim her relationship to Ohr apart from him and the objects and persona he created–asserting her own narrative through repeated motifs and gestures–“in conversation with Ohr’s signature twists and folds, but continuing to change.”

Whereas Ohr used a pottery wheel in creating his vessels, Fein’s work begins with coiling the clay, and pinching it. She then alters the pieces and changes their form. Often pushing out from the inside of the vessel, creating rib-like features, she squeezes parts of the exterior to create folds, and sometimes uses a needle to methodically poke holes in the surface and create a new texture. “I am continually reminded of how Ohr claimed his clay gestures in his lifetime while I continue to develop my own, in mine, ” she writes.

Unaware of any of this upon entering the gallery, my friend Chrissie and I did not know quite what to make of Fein’s work–but found it beautiful, intriguing, and sometimes humorous. For example–I probably shouldn’t admit this– one vessel looked to me like someone’s legs sticking upside down out of a wine jug. Chrissy discovered an image of a corresponding Ohr vase on the site of the Museum of Metropolitan Art, below.

Lucy Lacoste, the gallery founder and owner, explains that “Ohr’s pots have a flamboyant sensuality often bordering on the erotic. They can have a visceral, direct sexuality, as can be seen in his famous money bank—the front is a vulva and the back, a breast.”

I couldn’t readily find an image of the money bank online–so will leave that to your imagination. But here’s one of Ohr’s pieces that one might perhaps, consider sensual/sexual:

Lacoste explains that “Lily Fein’s sensuality is intuitive, organic, implied—naturally reflecting the outer female sex organs.  This is evident in her Vulva series.  The edge is important. The clay reflects the way she touched and pinched the clay—as if it were skin. ” Link to video

In Fein’s show, I found one work especially interesting. It was roughly shaped, with shiny royal blue glaze on the inside–and a flat-finished outer surface that Fein said she had stuck many times with a needle–and was meant to look “bruised.”

Commitment to Diversity
Regarding the gallery’s commitment to diversity, Lacoste writes on her website:”Like many other businesses in the arts, we are searching for ways to fight the injustices that remain prevalent in this country.  

“Now more than ever, it’s important to go beyond saying we stand with oppressed communities. We must take measurable actions.  We do agree that if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. 

“Out of regard for the important protests occurring across the country, we postponed the Fein opening June 21. To amplify voices less heard, Lily Fein and the Gallery are committing 18% of sales from this exhibition to the Boston chapter of the Black Lives Matters organization. 

“Our statement is brief out of respect for those with lived experiences who are leading the way to human rights for all.”

Earlier, Lacoste presented $2,500 to Emerson Hospital for its  COVID-19 Relief fund. The money was raised by the sale of work by Montana ceramic artists Beth Lo and Adrian Arleo and by Lucy Lacoste Gallery.

Numerous recent Lacoste exhibits have been devoted to the work of women from a multitude of backgrounds.

The current Lacoste show will be on view through June 27, 2020 at 25 Main St., Concord, MA. Link to Website

–Anita M. Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

Once again, the Lacoste Keane gallery in Concord MA presents a stunning new show–in which ceramicist Ani Kasten uses the concept of visual poems to reflect on issues such as environmental collapse, social collapse, and inner and outer strife. 

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In the show, Kasten creates sculptural compositions from fragments and debris. While some vessels are quite large, other, smaller pieces Kasten calls “poems,” are three-dimensional objects which she likens to written verse. A poem, says the one-time literature major, ” shears away everything but the most essential, evoking an emotional response through the sparest communication, constructing concepts and feelings into a hewn verbal form, without engaging narrative or logic.”

Kasten uses earth materials like clay and rocks as a metaphor to explore ideas of decay, disintegration and renewal. “Working in clay is about the search for balance between the natural tendencies of the materials and the craft that is brought about by contact with the human hand,” according to the gallery writeup. “Faced with monumental forces of nature and entropy, a sadness and feeling of futility is provoked with the notion that human hubris seeks to create lasting structure and survival in the face of decimation by forces outside of our control—earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornadoes, violence and war. “

In this work, Kasten “reveals emerging structures and constructs under stress, made by the human hand but fighting against collapsing infrastructure. They show the cracking, warping and erosion that are natural expressions of the material, and explore the beauty and sadness in building from wreckage, such as a little robot made from scavenged shards of something former, with two little ears made from fossilized hornets’ nests.

Kasten says that “In the act of scavenging, building and creating the visual poems, ” she is “searching for beauty and harmony in the act of piecing back together what may seem like meaningless detritus of a collapsing world, reclaiming a tenuous and fragile feeling of meaning and purpose.”

In my view, she is successful in doing so. The pieces look delicate–as if they could fall apart at any second. But with their pastel colors and seemingly -haphazard-yet-powerful shapes reaching out in many directions, they exude tremendous energy–inviting the viewer to enter into Kasten’s exploration and expression of the tenuous-yet-enduring relationships of natural and human forces.

At Lacoste Keane Gallery, 25 Main St Concord MA 01742, through February 8, 2020.

—Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and digital marketing agency, also in Cambridge.

It’s not every freshman writing instructor who stays in touch with a student for more than 50 years, but Cornell University Professor Emeritus James McConkey was one who did…and I was the lucky student.

McConkey was my freshman writing instructor in 1967–I used to go out to his farm to exercise his horses–and he helped me through the student takeover of Willard Straight Hall, from which 130 black protestors emerged–several of whom brandished rifles.

(Jim told me recently that he sat with Dan Berrigan during the Barton Hall Takeover; also counselled University President Perkins–and tried to be a voice of reason throughout all of that). We stayed in touch for some 50 years; he and I held a joint book-signing in the Cornell Store during my 45th college reunion.

I am glad I got to seem him just before he passed away. 

In early October, Jim, his son Larry and daughter-in-law Diane McConkey were on their way back from visiting another of Jim’s former students on Northern Maine ( some 9 hours from Ithaca) and invited me to dinner at the Publick House, near Cambridge, , where I live, and where they were spending the night.

At 98, he told a few funny stories about his mother, who lived to 100 at least…and I  joked that his social life was better than mine. He was still driving–and told us that he would be driving the ten miles from his farm to lunch with friends several times the next week. He seemed frail–but sounded fine when I called to thank him a few days after our dinner.

Anyway, I’ve posted an obit Larry wrote at http://ithacadiaries.com. The Cornell obit is at https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/10/writer-emeritus-professor-james-mcconkey-dies-98 . And here’s a link to tributes from Diane Ackerman, Brad Edmonson and Robert Wilson that appeared in the American Scholar .  https://theamericanscholar.org/remembering-james-mcconkey/#.XdMM61dKg2w   .  —

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. Her books include Ithaca Diaries, a memoir and social history of her undergraduate years at Cornell; and Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity. She is currently working on a creative nonfiction book tentatively titled “Harrisburg,” which is about her experiences founding an alternative newspaper in Pennsylvania, during the trial of the Harrisburg 8.

Our friend Chamelia Sari–a lawyer from Weymouth, MA and Jakarta, Indonesia– recently took what sounds like a trip of a lifetime–spending Thanksgiving in Point Barrow, Alaska, on the North Pole. Before she left, when I asked her if she were going for work or fun, she said it was a mission: she wanted to find out what it was like to be in a place where the sun did not rise.

Chamelia’s travel companion was Arjun Banerje, of india, who has lived and worked in Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa. Currently, he is working on a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Chamelia originally posted the following report on Facebook; I thought it was well worth sharing further.

–Anita M. Harris

I’ve been to North Pole
before. Yes, that North Pole where Santa usually drives his snow cart and gives
Christmas presents to good and nice kids – if they behave all year.

But Point Barrow? Never knew such place existed, not until my evil twin texted me two weeks ago when I was still in Taipei–crying desperately, saying that he needed someone to company him. He knew my endless love for Alaska and so he trapped me with it.

Point Barrow is the
northernmost part of the US – “Top of the World”, they say. It’s located at
71°23’20” N 156°28’45’W.  By air, it takes
16 hours from Seattle to get there. There are no direct flights. We needed to
stop three times: in Juneau, Anchorage, and Prudhoe Bay –before landing at Dead
Horse Airport at Barrow. We left at 6 AM – and arrived around 7 PM local time.

Since it is the northernmost
part of the world, the weather is extremely cold. The temperature was -18° Celsius
when we got there but it felt like like-28° Celsius. But we were eager to visit
Barrow, especially in the wintertime. A friend of mine, a native I had met in
Juneau looked me in the eye – he still couldn’t believe when I told him was
going to visit Barrow, and wished me luck.

Barrow will have no sunlight
for almost two months. The last sunset was on November 18th at1.49 PM. The next
sunrise in Barrow will be on January 23, 2020. It’s a phenomenon called “polar
night”. Which means that the people who live in Barrow will lives in dark for
two months. Morning, noon, afternoon – night – all dark.

Considering the cold weather, we stayed at King Eider Inn, a hotel located 100 meters from the airport. Yes, we stayed right across the airport (yay!!!). Don’t imagine the airport is be like Changi in Singapore or Hamad International in Doha, Qatar. It is small and simple. But one thing for sure is that the people who work in Deadhorse Airport are very dedicated and professional. And punctual.  

When we woke up the first day and walked around to see the city at around 10.00 AM, we it was amazing. Dark all over. Thick snow everywhere. No trees. Only tundra can survive there – even during the summer. We looked at one another in disbelief that we that we had actually made it to Barrow. We laughed to ourselves like Carey and Daniels from Dumb and Dumber.

A friend in Juneau had warned me that there would be no restaurants open during Thanksgiving. I had brought some frozen food but we really craved hot soup, that day. So, while we were busy taking pictures, we walked all over like lost children and hoped for a miracle: that  that we would meet some generous  local people  who would feel sorry for us and invite us to eat at their place and celebrate the Thanksgiving with their family.

Did you know that God is always good all the time? We did not have to wait too long for our prayers to be answered. He led us to wonderful Inuit people who celebrate Thanksgiving with their local community. I met and interacted with native people!!!! I almost cried with happiness and felt so blessed with this opportunity.

We got invited to serve local people – Inuit whose ancestry in Barrow goes back more than 1,100 years. We helped Jim, his wife and his community distribute fish, geese and caribou meat to their people.

Jim is a sea captain who successfully caught a whale this year with his five team members. It was such an amazing feeling to be able to interact and make friends with this community. To see their sincere and loving faces. To get to know Jordan, a little rascal that stole my heart – and his lovely family.

Inuit people are known as whale hunters. They have a tradition of hunting whale every year, with the catch distributed to people in the community. All of it. Even though only five or six people risk their lives to catch the whale (sometimes people get killed while hunting) – they willing to share it equally with all members of the community. I saw it with my own eyes. I even experienced it myself. They distribute the whole catch. If only politicians in the city would think and act like the Inuit people how wonderful life would be. No corruption, no unfairness.

Our amazing journey ended with another surprise. We were finally be able to reach Point Barrow, the place that is extremely cold.  Not even my five Columbia Omni with heat layers could help me this time. Herman, a new local friend, lent us his Itaga – the traditional Inuit winter jacket made from Mouton fur. You can see in the picture what it looks like.

By snow mobile, Herman led us to Point Barrow. We rode the snow mobile for an hour and a half. I kept praying to God during the trip…

First, because my evil twin does not know how to drive, and there was a big possibility that we would be thrown from the snowmobile and get into the cold Arctic Ocean.

Second, a hungry Polar bear might eat us alive. Herman had to carry a weapon in his backpack while riding the snow mobile, just in case we saw a Polar bear on our way.

I remember reading a story on the internet:  If three people are chased by a bear, they have to sacrifice the slowest person in the group. I was the only one in our group with short legs. And my heavy, bulky winter jacket and layers underneath it made it difficult for me to move. That meant they would have to leave ME if a hungry bear found and chased us. Not good. Not good at all.

While we were enjoying the cold – with an unreal view in front of us – Herman pointed his fingers and said “Hi, look – there are polar bears there!”.
“ What ???!!! Polar bears??? “
“Yes, it is a polar bear!!! And not only one – but three of them!!! “
We saw a mama Polar bear and her two cubs playing in the freezing Artic ocean. Herman looked at the two of us with his small eyes, smiling and said, “The two of you are very lucky.”

We did feel lucky. My happiness in Barrow was complete when we had a chance to taste the delicious Chinese foods – right in Barrow. I missed my fluffy blueberry pancakes and yogurt– but I got so much more on this trip. And I will always remember a handsome, smart husky that we met when we walked back to our hotel.

Juno, I love you and hope to see you again someday :). We’ll never forget this wonderful journey.

I like quotes. Sometimes, they do make sense.

 It is true, life is an adventure. As Lori Deschene has said,

Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most exciting moments in life take us completely by surprise.

Camelia Sari, Point Barrow, November 2019.

It’s not often that I walk through a gallery with a smile on my face, but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday, at the opening of Lacoste Keane’s “Vessel Re-imagined,” a ceramics exhibit in Concord, MA, curated by Brooks Oliver, of Dallas, Texas.

The show includes pieces by five artists, each contributing new insight to the vessel. As pointed out on the gallery website, a vessel is “a hollow container, especially one used to hold liquid, such as a bowl or cask–and a fundamental and important form connected to human civilization.” The first known clay pot, found in China, is 20,000 years old.

The first installation to catch my eye (immediately above) looked, from a distance, like a quilt but it was, in fact, a set of 12 plates made by Margaret Kinkeade of Kansas City– exhibiting the interplay of art and function. According to Kinkeade’s Web site, her work often focuses on American folk art and traditional craft…and on “the domestic object as souvenir, the collection as identity and community connection through shared work–especially that of women.

The idea of community connection through shared work came through clearly in Kinkeade’s second installation, (below). At the opening, attendees were encouraged to eat bread and butter off of small clay salad plates, and then hang the used plates on the wall to form a grid. The inclusion of visitors in both using and hanging the objects both exemplified and questioned the utilitarian aspect of vessels–because when hung on the wall, the plates were transformed into objects of art and decoration.

I was quite taken by the work of Lily Fein,  a Massachusetts based young art graduate, who approaches the vessel through the pinching and coiling method. According to a Lacoste writeup, “her works are painstaking and time consuming to make as each vessel is coiled and pinched to form. Using the challenging medium of porcelain, she creates each vessel from the base and builds the work up by pushing the walls from inside and outside. The abstract qualities are revealed by each fingerprint and mark making. The stippling on her works is meditative as the continuous application of dots on the surface involves complete focus and involvement from the artist. Each work holds special memory of the artist and her energy.”  The work below is called “Twisted Figures.”

Heesoo Lee‘s ethereal vessels (below) are inspired by nature and landscape and “combine the painterly with the sculptural. Her poetic imagery is created by using layers of underglaze and china paint on scenes built up and sculpted on clay. These works are reminiscent of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Newcomb Pottery. I found the detail amazing.

I found wonderful surprise in the work of Zak Helenske, (below) who is interested in the development of form and the exploration of pattern.  He looks to industrial and architectural examples as points of reference using the language of geometry as his path of communication.  According to Lacoste, “One sees in his work a connection to architecture and geometry in which the haptic—the sense of touch is important.” I especially liked his combination of architecture and “pots,” and was intrigued by how his seemingly “puzzle-like” pieces were put together.

Finally, curator Brooks Oliver, who  obtained his MFA from Penn State and is a ceramics educator at the University of North Texas, endeavors to “reimagine and reinterpret the familiar functional vessel”. In doing so, according to the gallery Web site, “he challenges the viewers to examine the grey areas in art and craft, form and function and mass production versus handmade. On the surface his works are sleek and industrial, but closer examination reveals the maker’s marks such as seams that have not been sanded smoothly or glaze applied by hand.  All leaving slight unevenness on the object’s surface. Oliver’s minimalist work never ceases to question the public’s perception of the vessel. One can treat them as beautiful works of art, yet the void within the object renders them functional in some instances. “

The show will be at Lacoste Keane Gallery, 25 Main St. Concord, MA, until September 28, 2019.

Photos–except for the first one, in chartreuse, c. Anita M. Harris

–Anita Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

On Chance and Materiality: sculptor Rafa Pérez’s first East Coast exhibition

I’m looking forward to East Coast solo exhibit of the Spanish sculptor Rafa Perez–to be held from 3-5 pm at the Lacoste/Keane Gallery, 25 Main Street, Concord, MA, on August 3, 2019.

Born in 1957 in Haro, La Rioja, Spain, Perez studied ceramics at the Massana School of Art and Design in Barcelona. According to a gallery press release, he has been making abstract sculptures for over 30 years.

Though prolific and well exhibited in Europe, Pérez has been largely under represented in the United States –his only previous US solo show was at Minnesota State University in 2018.

Perez’s work is the result of two important factors – his masterful handling of the clay body while letting the unpredictability of the firing be an active participant in the process. This is achieved by mixing his own clay body and experimenting with firing temperatures. It is the element of surprise that motivates him to continuously tests materials until he is satisfied, he wrote, “I try to keep a balanced relation with the fire. I mean the fire has to work by its own as I do, but finally we are a team.” In the work Untitled #8, 2014 (pictured), Perez applied his own special formula of glaze on wire mesh which crawls during firing, giving the piece a dramatic affect.
Lucy Lacoste, the founder of our gallery surmises, “I have been watching Rafa Pérez’s career for some time and to me, he is exciting because of his handling of the materials which is innovative and unorthodox much like Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns.”

Born in 1957 in Haro, La Rioja, Spain Perez studied ceramics at the Although prolific and well exhibited in Europe, says Lacoste/Keane founder and co-owner Lucy Lacoste. “He has been largely under represented in the United States –his only previous US solo show was at the Minnesota State University in 2018.”

Lacoste describes Pérez’s work as the result of two important factors: “… his masterful handling of the clay body and the unpredictability of the firing, which becomes an active participant in the process. This is achieved by mixing his own clay body and experimenting with firing temperatures. It is the element of surprise that motivates him to continuously tests materials until he is satisfied. “

Perez writes “I try to keep a balanced relation with the fire. I mean the fire has to work by its own as I do, but finally we are a team.”

In the work Untitled #8, 2014 (pictured), Perez applied his own special formula of glaze on wire mesh which crawls during firing, giving the piece a dramatic affect.

Lacoste says, “I have been watching Rafa Pérez’s career for some time and to me, he is exciting because of his handling of the materials which is innovative and unorthodox– much like Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns.”

An opening reception with Rafa Pérez will be held on Saturday August 3, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, with an artist talk on Sunday August 4, 2:00-4:00 pm. For details call 978-369-0278 or email info@lacostekeane.com.