Artists sought to paint 3 more Wellesley traffic boxes

August 17, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley’s Public Art Committee, in conjunction with the Wellesley Police Department, is inviting amateur and professional artists to submit their concepts for a sixth round of traffic box paintings.

Three artists will be selected for the fall 2022 program, with a goal of having the electrical boxes painted during October. Artists will receive a $1K stipend to cover the cost of supplies, transportation, and time.

evelyn electrical box

The deadline for applying is Sept. 16. Complete rules and application embedded below.

This program, ongoing since 2020, is supported in part by grants from the Wellesley Cultural Council Community Fund for Wellesley’s Al Robinson Fund for the Arts.

More: Wellesley Square mail carrier honors local dogs (and 1 cat) with new electrical box painting

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Wellesley arts news: Davis Museum previews fall exhibits; Abstract art welcomes you to the library

August 9, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley arts news:

Davis Museum previews fall exhibits

Wellesley College’s Davis Museum, closed as usual for the summer, will return this fall with a handful of new exhibits open to the school community and the general public.

Among the exhibits, slated to be shown from Sept. 15 to Dec. 18:

Lisa Reihana: in Pursuit Of Venus [infected] The exhibit was shown at Brown University in the spring and was described as offer “a lush land and soundscape, one that reimagines 18th century European exploration of the Pacific as a cycle of colonial reinfection and Indigenous recuperation rather than singular moments of contact.”
Gold, Glass, and Pearls: Ancient Mediterranean Jewelry
Freedom of Expression: African American Printmakers Abroad
Telling Time: Recent Acquisitions

Abstract art welcomes you to Wellesley Free Library

Wellesley Free Library’s hallway exhibit features the colorful, abstract work of self-taught artist Clare Daniels, who lives in Framingham.

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Wellesley summer art round-up

July 24, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

A few arts-related exhibits going on in Wellesley this month:

Photographer Judy Brown is showing her exhibit, Farm Animals in Forever Homes, at the Wellesley Free Library through July. The images in this exhibit are selected from the seven years she spent photographing Boston-area farm animals with the goal of showing their personalities and human-like qualities. She says in her artist’s statement, “This time has enriched my understanding of these animals and heightened my awareness of the cruelty with which farm animals are treated by the food industry.”

Photographer Judy Brown, Wellesley — *Baby’s Breath with Liam*, by Judy Brown

Judy Brown follows her career as Professor of Physics at Wellesley College and Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab with a combination of her long-time passions for animals and photography.

Page Waterman Gallery‘s current featured artist is American Modern Impressionist John Colette (1941-1977). Born in Boston, his interest in art began in early childhood when he discovered the fun and excitement of drawing and painting. Also a talented musician, Colette was accepted as a music major at Boston University, where he also continued to paint, selling his work through galleries in Boston and Philadelphia.

Page Waterman, Wellesley — *Brownstones*, by John Collette, highlights his distinctive hand colored etching technique.

Colette’s work is well-known in the United States and abroad and is included in many private, corporate, and public collections.

“Blue,” an exhibit featuring paintings, photographs, prints, and sculptures, runs through September 24 at the Beth Urdang Gallery, 15 Central Street. Artists include Joshua Jensen-Nagle, known for his evocative large-scale photographs of dreamy aerial beaches, expansive ski scenes, romantic European vistas, and dramatic old-world interiors; JP Terlizzi’s photographs that draw on the the notion of home; and paintings by Carolyn Reynolds, Shawn Dulaney, Michael Abrams, and more.

Beth Urdang Gallery, Wellesley — Joshua Jensen-Nagle, *Sunbathers of Copacabana III (Rio de Janeiro)*, archival pigment print photograph

Beyond Wellesley: Good vibes all around at Levitate Music & Arts Festival

July 12, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Levitate Music & Arts Festival this past weekend made its return to the Marshfield fairgrounds for its first full-blown event since 2019, and the musicians, artists, and fans didn’t miss a beat.

I acknowledge being more a fan of rapid-fire 3-or-4-minute songs than those that meander—the latter a speciality of many of Levitate’s performers. But when organizers invited us to attend, I took them up on the offer with an open mind. Bring on the jam bands, led by legendary Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s ensemble.

The sold-out event attracted a wide range of ages from way back Deadheads to a fair number of little kids, and everything in between. Tye-dye anything was the fashion of choice, though hemp hats, band T-shirts (“Stick Family,” for performer Stick Figure), and other casual wear also ruled.

When we arrived we got scared by a long line to get in, but soon realized the Festival had a system for alternating between allowing those in one line to flood in, then the other. It worked well. We saw few long lines at the many food stations, which ran the gamut from fair food like fried dough to lobster rolls and Filipino fare.

Been a while since I’ve had a Red Stripe, but it was the perfect drink for the venue. Liquid Death sparkling water, however, seemed to be the drink of choice for many.

An artisans’ section in the middle of the fairgrounds attracted steady traffic and sales of items such as gems and services such as face or body painting. Among the more unusual vendors: A provider of plant-based eggs that tasted darn good. Artists in action created murals.

One nice thing about this very chill festival is that you’re allowed to bring in blankets and low-backed chairs that can be located behind certain lines in front of the stages. So the crowds immediately in front of the musicians were large, but you could still find space (the event attracted 15,000 people a day, but it felt just right on the Saturday afternoon/early evening that we attended). People would catch a few songs, then relax in their chairs—a great pacing technique for a long day at the festival.

Bleachers near the main stage also gave fans an option to get off their feet—feet that could get dirty kicking around the fairgrounds terrain. Some patrons brought frisbees and footballs and tossed them around when space allowed.

Among the acts we caught were the versatile multi-instrumentalists of Midnight North, Durand Jones & The Indications (Jones easily had the best moves of anyone on stage), Umphrey’s McGee (they rocked as much as they jammed), Stick Figure (catchy reggae and dub), and headliners Lesh & Friends. About 30 bands performed over the three days.

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We brought our earplugs, but the sound overall was clear and not overly loud. You did have to position yourself near the stage you wanted to focus on, as sound would overlap if you located in between two active stages.

We’d recommend Levitate when it comes around next year. It’s a feel-good gathering, and the Levitate brand organization added to that by unveiling a charitable foundation on the eve of the festival. The foundation’s focus: encouraging music, arts, and outdoors at the community level.

Durand jones — Durand Jones & The Indications

More: Boston Calling sends us into summer

Wellesley Square mail carrier honors local dogs (and 1 cat) with new electrical box painting

July 6, 2022 by Bob Brown 4 Comments

It didn’t take me long to see why Wellesley Square mail carrier Toni Alexander might very well need all the way until “June 31” to finish her painting of an electrical box near the post office. I stopped by to take a few quick photos. An hour later, after a conversation that spanned from her clown friends to vintage belt buckles to clubbing in Boston back in the day…

Alexander took part in the town’s ongoing electrical box public art painting program, the application for which included a deadline for the mythical date of June 31 that I reference above. The town’s Public Art Committee approved Alexander’s proposed design, which features favorite pups from along her route, plus a cat named Rocket who adorns the top of the box, encircled by a compass. The box pays homage to these pets, both living and deceased.

The box location at Central Park, that patch of open space in front of the Wellesley Square post office, couldn’t be handier for Alexander, who dutifully painted for half-an-hour to an hour or so before work and after work, just minutes away. “It’s convenient—and shady,” she said.

The box was nearly done on the afternoon I stopped by, but Alexander wasn’t quite satisfied with a number of critters, who she described in some cases as looking too cartoonish. She kept showing me pictures from her smartphone of the real animals so that I could compare and critique. The paintings looked pretty life-like to me. She relayed the story of one local dog owner stopping by after she heard that her pet Poppy was depicted on the box, and being “over the moon” about it.

Others dogs immortalized include Pi, Nola, Cisco, Cooper, and Sammy. The original plan was to devote the painting to Pi in a “Pi-casso”-style, Alexander posted online, but she figured that approach wouldn’t have been community-focused enough to qualify.

Alexander didn’t get a lot of brush strokes in while I was there. Moments after I arrived, a mom and daughter on the way home from a camp pick-up stopped to check out Alexander’s progress, and were given a tour of the box. The next thing you know, Alexander is sharing videos of herself hand feeding peanuts to chipmunks at her home, egging the kid on to try the same and remarking on her own “awesome” daughter of about the same age. Alexander described herself a a huge animal lover, even of crows, and said despite what you might think from seeing the box, she’s more of a cat-person than dog-person.

dog electrical box painting central park — Rocket lives on

Alexander says she had painting lessons as a kid, but that this would be her first work of public art. She has painted dog portraits as a side gig, and also has taken on other subjects, including rock bands such as Soul Asylum. I heard about her exploits getting into now-defunct night clubs like Boston’s Channel with homemade press passes, and eventually working as a roadie for years, including in California, where she earned her way into handling coveted sound duties at a major club.

Alexander would stop every so often during our chat to ask if she was talking too much. Nope. This post was writing itself…

The hi-jinx continued when Wellesley Police Chief and resident tastemaker Jack Pilicki swung by.

The chief is part of the team that coordinates the electrical box paintings, and he gushed over the doggie box, telling Alexander she was being too hard on herself over any elements or details missing (the shadows!). From there the conversation veered into other matters, including the touchy territory of mail box thefts (maybe those boxes will be the next public painting targets?).

toni alexandar & jack pilecki electrical box — Wellesley Police Chief Jack Pilecki (right) sharing his art theories with Toni Alexander

After getting to know Alexander a bit, I suspected she might just be the type of artist inclined to hide a message or image in her project. She laughed, and said it took all of her willpower not to do that since it was a community project.

Still, I’m going to take another look…

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Suffering for art: Linden Square mural is removed as part of area improvement project

June 29, 2022 by Deborah Brown 2 Comments

A mural on a wall in the Linden Store parking lot that was two years coming in the planning and execution only lasted about that long before the wall—and the artwork along with it—was removed as part of a $7 million improvement project for the entire Linden Square area.

Linden Square mural — The mural was painted during a July 2020 heat wave (talk about suffering for art) by students Allie Wornell, Khansa Khan, and Carson Dobos. (Photo by Alexander Golob)

The art project, after a year of planning, then another year of COVID-related delay, was painted in 2020 by Wellesley High School art intensive students led by Alexander Golob, the principal of Golob Art, and himself a WHS grad.

Golob in a phone interview acknowledges that he was disappointed to learn that the mural, an anthropomorphic imagining of frogs, birds, dogs, and birds enjoying what many in the Wellesley human community had taken up during the pandemic such as listening to music, going for walks, and baking cookies, had such a short life. But there is hope for the future. Federal Realty executive Mark Hebert said in an email, “Throughout all our properties we look for ways to engage with the community through public art and will identify those opportunities at Linden Square when the construction is complete.”

Linden Construction Mural — After getting past a one-year planning process, a COVID delay and a painting process in 90+ degree heat, it was upgrades to the shopping area that finally did in the mural. (Photo by Duncan Brown)

Federal Realty says the demolished wall will be replaced with a new wall and Linden Square sign sometime this summer.

(Hat tip to reader AG for the heads up on this.)

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Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend heats up

May 22, 2022 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

We tried to make the rounds during Saturday’s Wellesley Wonderful Weekend events before the real heat set in, but you know how it goes. Too much fun, too many friends, and the next thing you know you’re dragging your sweaty self home an hour later than planned.

But it was well worth it to see the return of favorite events like town department open houses, and to meet some people we’d only known through emails and Zoom calls.

A steady stream of pancakes, ham, and other breakfast goodies were doled at Wellesley High School by the Key Club, Wellesley Kiwanis Club members, and Whitsons Food Service staff to appreciative patrons.

pancake moorheads — Sofia, Sarita & Geoff Moorhead digging into breakfast

Things were busy at Wellesley High, as the girls’ lacrosse team faced off vs. Franklin (unfortunately falling 6-4).

Pedal power

Then it was over to the Tailby Lot, where Wellesley Police and the Kiwanis teamed up for a bike safety event. We missed out on seeing kids pop wheelies, but WPD members impressed on their wheels. As one officer said to the other: “Would you have believed it if someone told you that you could get paid for riding your bike?”

Wellesley Kiwanis Club bike rodeo. From left, Officer Kathy Poirer and Officer Stan Dunajski, with Kiwanis John and Dwin Schuler in between.

Come on by

From there we headed to Rte. 9, storming the gates of the Municipal Light Plant, Department of Public Works, and Wellesley Fire Departments. Hey, if you invite the masses to stop in for an open house, and you offer cookies, hot dogs, juice boxes, and other goodies, we will pay a call.

MLP and other town officials were sharing information on mobility and other efforts in town.

The DPW had a bunch of things going on at once. DPW Director Dave Cohen was collecting gently worn business attire to pass on to those who might need them for job interviews and other work-related events. The DPW was also filling a truck with goods for the Wellesley Food Pantry. And of course there were trucks, trucks, and more trucks for kids and adults to ogle and climb on. After two years of COVID restrictions on such events, Cohen said it was nice see people have the chance to actually touch the trucks again.

Wellesley DPW. Bob Zani (left) and Mike Murphy.

green DPW gear — The DPW rolls out its latest acquisitions in all-electric equipment.

Rescue me

At the Fire Department Chief Rick DeLorie regaled us with stories about…everything, as kids climbed about a boat, explored the interior workings of the fire engines, and sprayed real water at a phony fire.

Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend, Fire Chief Rick DeLorie — Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend, Fire Chief Rick DeLorie

Hot dog!

Time for lunch. So we visited the Police Department, and snarfed hot dogs fresh off the grill after taking a look at the shiny new communications room. The next police entry exam is coming up June 25, so if you want to join this community-oriented police force, make your move.