Quarantine explosion
“Sunburst Energy (Force of Energy Series)’’ (mixed media), by Jeannine Hunter Lazzaro in her show “Colors, Shapes and Thoughts on Paper,’’ at Galatea Fine Art, Boston, Feb. 5-28. She lives in North Attleboro, Mass.
She says:
"This show contains works on paper done during the quarantine and focusing on – colors, shapes, energy, and time. After working on canvas for a while, I began to create work on paper. I have often vacillated among a variety of surfaces in my work. The truth here though is that I ran out of canvas during this quarantine. The way that various materials I use, react on paper is entirely different than they do on canvas.
“Long ago, in trying to characterize my work in a very brief description, I found myself say-the lines belong to everyone, but the colors are all mine. In some ways my work has its own spirit. What I mean is that the paintings get done with my intervention and manipulation, which is derived from the experiences I have had. Colors mix or simply bump into one another creating a drama all their own.
“I would say the same thing about the shapes that arise in my work. I employ several methods to allow them to create themselves and I embellish or diminish where I feel I need to. I like to say that I have come to know life through my art. Time, for instance is a construct. We often think about time as a concrete thing, a dimension. However, like a shape in one of my paintings it is just there because we say it is. I have heard it said -there is no such thing as time, only words.
“Energy can be good or bad. But what if we think of it as only good? The idea that something good happens out of everything compels me to feel positive at times when it may be hard to maintain a positive outlook. The recent Covid19 quarantine for instance, forced people inside to find ways to cope and be with each other. This was happening at a time when a lot of people were existing in an ‘outside’ media-related existence. We are also learning how important the sense of touch is.’’
This is the weird Angle Tree Stone, an historic boundary marker astride the border of North Attleboro and Plainville, Mass.
The slate marker was built in 1790 by a father-and-son team of gravestone makers. The stone was added to the National Historic Register in 1976. The stone replaced the "Angle Tree" from the 17th Century, which was a surveying landmark for the boundary between Bristol and Norfolk counties. The county border is a straight east-west line coming from Cumberland, R.I., to the site of the tree (now the stone) and then turning at an angle (hence the "angle tree" designation) and running in a straight line from there almost to Massachusetts Bay near Cohasset.
The unexpectedly modern North Attleboro Town Hall