LOCALS NO. 1

Larry Daniels 

Larry Daniels is a self-taught artist who came to painting as an adult and received guidance and help from long time local artist Donald Wilhelm who kept a studio in the Canal Building across from Pulp.  In 2018, Larry had his first show - ’Inside-Out’ at the Art For The Soul Gallery in 2018 in Springfield, MA.  Recently Larry had a large show of his paintings in Northampton, MA at the New England Visionary Art Museum.  

Born in North Carolina, Larry paints exclusively in oils and maintains a studio in Holyoke, MA.

Hannah Brookman 

     Hannah Brookman, born in Denver, CO, now lives in Marlboro, VT. She is the President of Looky Here in Greenfield, co-director of The Lovelights tv show, and illustrator of The Children's Page in The Montague Reporter. She is a graduate of Bennington College, where her student works have been acquired in the permanent collection. Her work has been shown in sculpture parks, galleries, schools and swamps including The Franconia Sculpture Park: MN, PINK CUBE Gallery: Oslo, Anchor House of Artists: Northampton, Stonleigh-Burnham School: Greenfield, and Swamp Show in the Connecticut River Oxbow

Binda Colebrook

Images would come to me that were full of rooting and myceliating, full of celestial bodies in a rotation dance, full of connectivity. I could see myself nested among many other kin, and all of us nested within a much larger design.

A friend shared with me a table of elements that was a launching pad for visually expressing the fact that we are all made of the same basic elements, and affirming the magical story (also based in fact) that we are made of star-dust. All things and beings on this planet share that commonality. 

I am both an artist and a psychotherapist. I feel most awake when in deep relation to others, and when I make things. In those moments, there is a deep connection to thecollective "red thread of aliveness" we are all a part of. A thread that is always complex, ever evolving, at times ugly and pain filled, and at others beautifully, sensationally juicy and moving.

Maricella Garcia 

Free-range Vandalism” the pieces you have are part of it and I will have more work up next month from the same series at Barn Door gallery in Noho. I don’t have individual names for each piece but was thinking of just going with the name of the original painting and artist, for example: “Hopper’s New York office”.   

Maricela Garcia is an urban artist based in Holyoke, MA who utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach in her creative practice. With a deep understanding of art history and a keen eye for the vibrant and ever-changing city landscape, Garcia's work explores the intersection of urban culture and artistic expression. Through the medium of collage, she repurposes materials, creating striking visual narratives that reflect the diverse stories and voices that exist within the urban environment. Influenced by street art and graffiti, Garcia's work boldly challenges traditional notions of fine art to capture the raw authentic essence of the city and its inhabitants. Through her unique storytelling abilities, Garcia's work serves as a powerful reflection of the urban experience and the rich tapestry of humanity within it.

Sean Greene

I paint without trying to imitate the visual world outside of the studio, but that world inspires how I work with color on a surface. I respond to color. It can move me as forcibly as a musical melody, and opens a door to my sense of human-ness.

 With a focus on color relationships, much of the work that I am doing takes place on the palette where I mix intervals of shifting hue, value and saturation. I apply the paint in a very direct way, avoiding any flourish, sense of decoration or virtuosity, because I want to keep the experience of the color relationships as prominent as possible.

The way I am painting is the result of removing as many obstacles and distractions of process as possible, so that I can more easily access an open mental-emotional state. The noises of my mind go quiet, and the possibility of discovery becomes elevated.

Massachusetts-born artist Joanne Holtje has been painting for her entire adult life, unencumbered by a formal art education. 

She explores a wide range of sensibilities, from pure abstraction to representation, without worrying about the labels, 

instead focusing on the physicality of oil paint and the emotional, energetic content of the images.  Since 2006, Joanne’s work has hung in galleries and small museums throughout the Bay State

Amy Johnquest

In 2014, at a collage party hosted by Stacy Waldman , a respected vernacular photo dealer, gave us a treasure trove of discarded pictures to work from.  Among the photographic goodies were boxes full of original cabinet cards from the late 1800’s.  Those long dead souls peered out from their frozen moments and cast a spell on me. 

 In a sense, I let them speak to me.  Using these discarded portraits as my jumping off point, I let each photo dictate which direction to go.  The subject is greatly considered (as well as the original photographer).   I look carefully into their face, posture, chosen attire, backdrop etc.  that’s why I rarely paint over the face.  I want the human in there to remain with us, even though they were lost or forgotten.  Though they may be dosed with heaps of peculiarity, I have much reverence for them.  They speak to me of time, the limits of time, love, family and relations.

Tekla McInerney

My paternal grandmother (Holyoke, born 1899) was not shy about expressing contempt for her early 20th-century domestic existence. She witnessed growing opportunities for women that often remained out of reach for mill workers in fading industrial communities. Her modest scrapbook illustrates this discontent with three, small, mutilated family portraits. Carefully cutting herself out of each one, she was momentarily liberated from her deeply unfulfilled personal narrative. 

Tekla McInerney is an artist and graphic designer living in Florence, Massachusetts. Towns along the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts have always been her home. She makes prints and books and exhibits them throughout the U.S. Her work is in many private and permanent collections including the New York Public Library, University of Washington Library, and Yale University Library. In 2020, she received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship/Finalist Award in drawing and printmaking. McInerney is a member of The Boston Printmakers and Zea Mays Printmaking studio in Florence, Massachusetts.

David Moriarty 

I live in Ashfield, Ma. with my wife Lili Dahlqvist. We are both artists, I paint and make sculpture and she is a weaver/ textile artist. After leaving N.Y.C. in late 2019, just before the beginning COVID, we settled full time in Western Ma. 

 As a painter I have exhibited on the local scene here in New England as well as nationally and have work in many private collections. I came to sculpture relatively recently with the move to the country. We live on a very wooded lot and one day after what must have been some serious contemplation I simply set at carving a figure. I was turned on to the big, broad, direct and aggressive strokes I was able to cut with the chainsaw. The process conveyed something primal and contemporary and the results were instantaneous. I moved on to other pieces to include figures, plant forms and hybrid figure / abstractions with a nod to the modernist spirit  and associations to cubist and surrealist styles. I introduced color to distinguish forms and add a pop appeal to the overall character of the pieces. 

Kelly Popoff

My grandmother was Russian Orthodox and had many icons in her house that I wondered about as a child. I grew up Catholic surrounded by corporeal images in states of both ecstasy and torture. Though I have been deeply influenced by both worlds of imagery, I am neither Orthodox nor Catholic. Still, I have a yearning for a practice that fills a void that religion seems to fill for other people… a time and a place to contemplate what is unknowable, to sing with each other, to give thanks. 

 This is what making art has become for me. Like prayer, painting gives form to something that I do not understand. In some way making sense of the mystery and stalling it in time to further contemplate. Painting is an act of love and faith. Painting is a kind of prayer and protest that says, I am here and remain hopeful while evil prevails. 

 This new series uses form to sum up a collection of reoccurring feelings of my personal history as well as the desire to connect with something beyond what I can comprehend. I hope the paintings create a space for reflection of a shared human experience.