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Brooke Burgee’s ‘Community Project’
On Saturday, May 31, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. the community is invited to join nationally-known artist Brooke Burgee, for an intriguing live sidewalk demonstration of her unique style of sculpting with acrylic paints. Burgee, who grew up in Randolph, is part of "Imagining the Future," the show opening this weekend at the Chandler Gallery on Main Street in Randolph. In addition to work by Burgee, the show, which runs through June 22, will feature work by artists Paul Calter and George Lawrence. Burgee is known for involving the community in each of her pieces. She recently finished a residency at Randolph Elementary School and a four-panel art piece that the kids were instrumental in creating will hang in this current show. Burgee’s work is very colorful and her technique of using palette knives instead of brushes is unique. "My life as an artist began when I threw away my paintbrushes," she notes.. "In 1993, under the mentorship of internationally known artist Wosene Kosrof, my brushes were taken away and replaced with palette knives. I haven’t used a paintbrush since. My work has evolved over the following 15 years, from painting thinly on paper to covering custom gallery-wrapped canvases with thick explosions of texture and color. Texture is my way of inviting viewers into my paintings...to feel as though they are within the three-dimensional surface. Each color in a painting has its own voice, its own purpose." Burgee’s idea for involving the community began as The Neighborhood Collection, then grew into The Community Collection, as she traveled across the country last summer to art shows. In Randolph, as in all the places she creates, the public is invited to come and be a part of Burgee’s "color choice" for her latest project. As part of this event, her "portable" art studio will be set up to truly bring the studio experience alive. Complete with her color wall, photo booth, digital recording arsenal and diary, the painting that will be created Saturday will be yet another addition to her collection. She envisions this series as culminating in "a slew of paintings," in addition to a video-documentary set to music to share the art, stories and inspirations with the communities that she embraces. "My art career started early with Jim Sardonis and Rebbie Carleton, the latter who, now, 20 years later, recently hosted me as an artist-in-residence at the elementary school," Burgee says. "My career and life have been very serendipitous, somehow things just unfold in the most unexpectedly delightful way." After studying at four different colleges, she graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and says, "My professional resume also reads like a travel-log—each stop has a story. From politics, map editor, artist, corporate event planner, to fast-tracking a self-started concierge business due to media blurbs in the N.Y. Times and on NBC Nightly News. I haven’t found the ride dull and also can’t predict what lies ahead, because my ‘career track’ could take me anywhere." What Burgee likes about her Community Collection is that "It gets people talking, involved, interested, laughing... I’m not an artist who goes to the studio and shuts the world out. I prefer and want my studio to have an open door and to always be filled with people. I find it to be quiet and lonely when I work by myself... it’s people that inspire me to do my work, and through paintings, photographs and my writings I’m a storyteller." Burgee says her career is "an adventure. I have four shows lined up already, a website soon to come, and all the hope in the world!" ____________ |
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