News
Fractured Visions at Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, VT
03rd August 2015
03rd August 2015
I am showing 22 collages at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vt August 7- Sept 13. Link to Catamount: http://www.catamountarts.org The post to my show has expired, but if you visit the area the Arts Center is worth a visit.
Included in the exhibit is Moss Glen Falls photographed in Stowe, Vermont, about an hour west of St. Johnsbury.
SOLD to a Vermont collector
Included in the exhibit is Moss Glen Falls photographed in Stowe, Vermont, about an hour west of St. Johnsbury.
SOLD to a Vermont collector
VCCA Moulin a Nef, France Anniversary Exhibit
10th July 2015
10th July 2015
A collage completed in Auvillar, France while I was in residency at Moulin a Nef will be included in the retreat's anniversary exhibit organized by the Virginia Center for the Arts. The exhibit will be displayed in the Chapelle Sainte Catherine du Porte (8th-9th C), which appears to the right of the red shuttered home (see below). Sainte Catherine is the patron saint of the boatmen who operated on the Garonne River (far left). The show will travel to other exhibition spaces in France.
"In My Memory, Auvillar" was shot a few yards from the Virginia Center's retreat compound (far right). The road passing in front of Saint Catherine is part of the pilgrimage route (El Camino) that runs from Northern France to the Cathedral of Santiago in Northwestern Spain.
In My Memory, Auvillar France 2012 photo collage
Another image shot at this location is below, titled "Pilgrim Walking." Here is a view of the front of the Chapelle Sainte Catherine, where the VCCA exhibit will be hung. Although I was in Auvillar late in the pilgrimage season, I would occasionally see and hear pilgrims pass below my window on their way up to the town center of Auvillar. The tapping of walking sticks would alert me.
This photo collage is my projection of the possible desires of a pilgrim on this voyage. I can imagine that while making this solitary walk I would be hoping for some shift in my outlook, some message to be received, some gift from above...
Pilgrim Walking, Auvillar 2012 photo collage
"In My Memory, Auvillar" was shot a few yards from the Virginia Center's retreat compound (far right). The road passing in front of Saint Catherine is part of the pilgrimage route (El Camino) that runs from Northern France to the Cathedral of Santiago in Northwestern Spain.
In My Memory, Auvillar France 2012 photo collage
Another image shot at this location is below, titled "Pilgrim Walking." Here is a view of the front of the Chapelle Sainte Catherine, where the VCCA exhibit will be hung. Although I was in Auvillar late in the pilgrimage season, I would occasionally see and hear pilgrims pass below my window on their way up to the town center of Auvillar. The tapping of walking sticks would alert me.
This photo collage is my projection of the possible desires of a pilgrim on this voyage. I can imagine that while making this solitary walk I would be hoping for some shift in my outlook, some message to be received, some gift from above...
Pilgrim Walking, Auvillar 2012 photo collage
Mark Feeney Boston Globe Review - Differing visions of photography at Danforth Art
21st April 2015
21st April 2015
Review by Boston Globe Photography critic Mark Feeney. Below reprinted are excerpts from the larger review which also includes a review of Elizabeth Ellenwoods' show "Of Light and Line." For the full review use link: http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2015/04/20/differing-visions-photography-danforth-art/ELoP0O8P3LJjjftJflnshN/story.html
Differing Visions of photography at Danforth Art
By Mark Feeney GLOBE STAFF APRIL 21, 2015
Prilla Smith Brackett and Amy Ragus’s “Fractured Visions,” which also runs through May 17, is a kind of conversation. Brackett does landscapes that variously combine drawing, acrylic, woodcut, oil, stencil, and other formats. She loves layering — of picture planes as well as media. What she really loves, though, are trees. They figure throughout her 16 works here.
Ragus likes trees too. A pair of them frame the cascade in “Yosemite Falls.” And, yes, a line of bare trees fills the background of “Freight Train.” But what you notice with the latter is how Ragus has visually exploded the interior of her Ford sedan. At once alarming and humorous, it’s as if Lee Friedlander’s “America by Car” series has crashed into one of David Hockney’s “joiner” photo collages. Like Hockney, Ragus takes multiple exposures and arranges them to form a larger whole that’s jagged and jazzy. Sometimes there’s more collaging, sometimes less: so subtle as to be all but unnoticeable in the magnificent emptiness of a Newfoundland landscape; almost Cubist, the picture can look that fragmented, as in “Freight Train” and four other car interiors.
Freight Train
Yosemite Falls
Ragus’s and Brackett’s images don’t so much resemble each other as rhyme. The visions may be fractured, but they speak to each other. This is one case where compound fracture is preferable to simple.
Differing Visions of photography at Danforth Art
By Mark Feeney GLOBE STAFF APRIL 21, 2015
Prilla Smith Brackett and Amy Ragus’s “Fractured Visions,” which also runs through May 17, is a kind of conversation. Brackett does landscapes that variously combine drawing, acrylic, woodcut, oil, stencil, and other formats. She loves layering — of picture planes as well as media. What she really loves, though, are trees. They figure throughout her 16 works here.
Ragus likes trees too. A pair of them frame the cascade in “Yosemite Falls.” And, yes, a line of bare trees fills the background of “Freight Train.” But what you notice with the latter is how Ragus has visually exploded the interior of her Ford sedan. At once alarming and humorous, it’s as if Lee Friedlander’s “America by Car” series has crashed into one of David Hockney’s “joiner” photo collages. Like Hockney, Ragus takes multiple exposures and arranges them to form a larger whole that’s jagged and jazzy. Sometimes there’s more collaging, sometimes less: so subtle as to be all but unnoticeable in the magnificent emptiness of a Newfoundland landscape; almost Cubist, the picture can look that fragmented, as in “Freight Train” and four other car interiors.
Freight Train
Yosemite Falls
Ragus’s and Brackett’s images don’t so much resemble each other as rhyme. The visions may be fractured, but they speak to each other. This is one case where compound fracture is preferable to simple.
Fractured Visions Catalog on Line
15th March 2015
15th March 2015
The catalog for my show can be viewed by using the following link to the PDF document. Courtesy of Danforth Art, 2015, All rights reserved.
Fy15 Da Se Brackettragus Fractured Visions Exhibition Catalog 2mb Email
CLICK ON THIS LINK ABOVE TO VIEW CATALOG
Or you may access it via the Danforth Art website
Fy15 Da Se Brackettragus Fractured Visions Exhibition Catalog 2mb Email
CLICK ON THIS LINK ABOVE TO VIEW CATALOG
Or you may access it via the Danforth Art website
Fractured Visions at the Danforth Museum March 14- May 17
27th February 2015
27th February 2015
Show Dates are March 14- May 17, 2015 Updated info 2018:
www.danforthart.org. The exhibit travelled to Catamount Arts in Vermont Fall 2015.
Note: Danforth Arts/Danforth Museum School has moved from the downtown Framingham site to Framingham State University and the website has eliminated detailed information on previous exhibits. For a copy of the catalog follow this link or in previous post: https://images.on-this.website/userfiles/25140/fy15dasebrackettragusfracturedvisionsexhibitioncatalog2mbemail.pdf
The exhibition was curated by Michele Cohen and is accompanied with a catalog which will be available on line. Essays by Michele Cohen and Danforth Museum curator Jessica Roscio focus on how our work uses painterly and photographic approaches.
I am showing 19 photo collages ranging in size from 20 inches to 60 inches. The show is an eclectic sampling of various series including landscape panoramas, woods collages, and my car series. I include works that have been scanned from 35mm negatives along with digital capture. I also include images that are seamless collages (from multiple shots made continuous in Photoshop). Below is a car view collage "IMU (Earth Oven, Hawaii)" originally shot in 1998 and completed with multiple C prints as a cut and paste collage. In my current 2014 version I have scanned the negatives to complete a digital collage that closely reproduces the original.
Also included is a simple 3 frame collage "Max, Gros Morne Newfoundland." I have called this type of image a "whimsy" as it is a fast and fanciful combination of distinct images. Here I am working in the tradition of the Surrealism and strongly influenced by Georgia O'Keeffe, Man Ray, and Picasso. This is the smallest image in my show at about 20 inches.
Imu (Earth Oven, Hawaii)25x46" - This image was shot on the Big Island of Hawaii while I was on an extended visit. I was staying in a remote retreat and on the second night I experienced my first earthquake. Kilauea had erupted and I eventually hired a guide to take me out near the site where I saw the lava tubes and red molten streams flowing into the ocean. My shots of the lava were combined with a view from my rental car. A large portion of the Island is a field of cooled lava (as seen here), not the tropical paradise we all imagine. The clouds are clouds from the volcano site that can be seen for miles.
Tablelands, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland 35 x 52" This image was shot with film while I was an artist in residence with Selma Bromberg at Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. Tablelands is an extensive field of much studied archeological formations. Walking into the Tablelands is a sobering experience and we rarely encountered other visitors. This piece combines over 85 separate photo frames (35mm film) that I scanned recently to complete this piece as a digital file. I left one collage element in the foreground.
Max, Gros Morne, Newfoundland
www.danforthart.org. The exhibit travelled to Catamount Arts in Vermont Fall 2015.
Note: Danforth Arts/Danforth Museum School has moved from the downtown Framingham site to Framingham State University and the website has eliminated detailed information on previous exhibits. For a copy of the catalog follow this link or in previous post: https://images.on-this.website/userfiles/25140/fy15dasebrackettragusfracturedvisionsexhibitioncatalog2mbemail.pdf
The exhibition was curated by Michele Cohen and is accompanied with a catalog which will be available on line. Essays by Michele Cohen and Danforth Museum curator Jessica Roscio focus on how our work uses painterly and photographic approaches.
I am showing 19 photo collages ranging in size from 20 inches to 60 inches. The show is an eclectic sampling of various series including landscape panoramas, woods collages, and my car series. I include works that have been scanned from 35mm negatives along with digital capture. I also include images that are seamless collages (from multiple shots made continuous in Photoshop). Below is a car view collage "IMU (Earth Oven, Hawaii)" originally shot in 1998 and completed with multiple C prints as a cut and paste collage. In my current 2014 version I have scanned the negatives to complete a digital collage that closely reproduces the original.
Also included is a simple 3 frame collage "Max, Gros Morne Newfoundland." I have called this type of image a "whimsy" as it is a fast and fanciful combination of distinct images. Here I am working in the tradition of the Surrealism and strongly influenced by Georgia O'Keeffe, Man Ray, and Picasso. This is the smallest image in my show at about 20 inches.
Imu (Earth Oven, Hawaii)25x46" - This image was shot on the Big Island of Hawaii while I was on an extended visit. I was staying in a remote retreat and on the second night I experienced my first earthquake. Kilauea had erupted and I eventually hired a guide to take me out near the site where I saw the lava tubes and red molten streams flowing into the ocean. My shots of the lava were combined with a view from my rental car. A large portion of the Island is a field of cooled lava (as seen here), not the tropical paradise we all imagine. The clouds are clouds from the volcano site that can be seen for miles.
Tablelands, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland 35 x 52" This image was shot with film while I was an artist in residence with Selma Bromberg at Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. Tablelands is an extensive field of much studied archeological formations. Walking into the Tablelands is a sobering experience and we rarely encountered other visitors. This piece combines over 85 separate photo frames (35mm film) that I scanned recently to complete this piece as a digital file. I left one collage element in the foreground.
Max, Gros Morne, Newfoundland
Invitational Show at Three Stones Gallery, Concord, Ma. through March 26, 2015
15th January 2015
15th January 2015
I have four photo collages in a group show at the Three Stones Gallery in West Concord, Ma. The images are from my New England series and include sites at Walden, Fruitlands, and Dudley Pond in Wayland. The show dates are Jan. 7 - March 26. The opening is Saturday, January 31st from 6-9 pm, postponed one week because of the blizzard here in New England. This will be a lively event as the owner Jennifer Johnston is dedicated to showing local New England artists. Gallery address is:
115 Commonwealth Ave, Concord, MA. Phone is 978 399 8611 or contact Jennifer at wildflower3477@comcast.net. The Gallery is open Mon-Sat 9:30-5:30. Contact Jennifer for specific times she will be on hand.
Fall Promises, Fruitlands
Along the Old Road, Fruitlands
SOLD!!!!!!
Tracks, Walden Pond
At Dudley Pond, Wayland
115 Commonwealth Ave, Concord, MA. Phone is 978 399 8611 or contact Jennifer at wildflower3477@comcast.net. The Gallery is open Mon-Sat 9:30-5:30. Contact Jennifer for specific times she will be on hand.
Fall Promises, Fruitlands
Along the Old Road, Fruitlands
SOLD!!!!!!
Tracks, Walden Pond
At Dudley Pond, Wayland
Work at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art LACDA
20th September 2014
20th September 2014
Freight Train, Walpole is currently on exhibit (Sept 2014) at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. This image was shot in my driveway after another January snow storm. I enjoy the passing freight train as I warm up my truck.
Highfield Hall Exhibit July 9- Sept 7
18th July 2014
18th July 2014
Highfield Hall is a historic estate in Falmouth, Ma. The Programs Director Annie Dean fills the mansion with a variety of art with an emphasis on highly crafted work. Along with my show of 17 photo collages is a show of images from the American Guild of Paper Cutters and an environmental art and sculpture exhibit called Portals and Passageways on the grounds surrounding Highfield Hall. One of my collages "Gypsy's Staircase" is included in this show as well and is used for the back cover of the brochure.
In my larger show Into the Woods: Photocollages by Amy Ragus I included 5 images that I shot on the Highfield grounds and the surrounding Bebe Woods.
Gypsy's staircase
Brochure for Portals and Passages
Magic Wand, Beebe Woods, Falmouth
In my larger show Into the Woods: Photocollages by Amy Ragus I included 5 images that I shot on the Highfield grounds and the surrounding Bebe Woods.
Gypsy's staircase
Brochure for Portals and Passages
Magic Wand, Beebe Woods, Falmouth
Artist in Residence Hermitage Artist Retreat, Florida
05th March 2014
05th March 2014
This winter I spent several weeks at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood, Florida.
I went to the Hermitage to escape the New England Winter, if only for a while. One goal was to find "Old Florida" growth forests. I found good material along the Myakka River at Myakka State Park in Sarasota. I also embraced the classic beach scenery with hopes of transforming it.
I went to the Hermitage to escape the New England Winter, if only for a while. One goal was to find "Old Florida" growth forests. I found good material along the Myakka River at Myakka State Park in Sarasota. I also embraced the classic beach scenery with hopes of transforming it.