Hera Gallery

#FoodforthoughtCreativeQuarantine An offering from Hera Board member Wendy Wahl Today this video arrived in my email at just the right moment to lift my spirits during these challenging times. It was forwarded to me from one of my dearest friends and amazing artist Rene Stawicki. We met at Hera Educational Foundation and Gallery in the 1990’s and it’s a relationship that I treasure. We don’t know who to credit this awesome work but I’m delighted to share it in the hopes that it brings you joy through laughter and/or tears.

#FoodforThoughtCreativeQuarantine From Hera member John Kotula A Virtual tour of Gates of Heaven and Other Stories My exhibit titled Gates of Heaven and Other Stories opened at Hera Gallery on March 7th and was scheduled to be up until April 4th. Well… life is what happens while you’re making other plans. Of course, the gallery had to close well before April 4th. On the other hand the show is still on the walls, because subsequent events were also put on hold and it is unclear when things will get back to normal and Hera’s always excellent programing will get going again. It maybe that my show and its companion exhibition, Chad Amos Self’s WE TIED HOTDOGS TO STRINGS AND MARVELED AT OUR DISCOVERIES: FINDING FORMS IN LOCAL WATERS, will stay up until Hera reopens, allowing some time for things to get reorganized. Perhaps there will be a public event to celebrate Hera being back in business! In the meantime, I want to present this blog entry as an alternative means of shar...

#FoodforThoughtCreativeQuarantine Hera artist Molly Kaderka installed her solo exhibition at the Jamestown Art Center right before social distancing and school, institution and business closures happened. Today she is sharing images from the exhibition. Enjoy! You can find information about the exhibition below the photographs. A Mythic Pause  Jamestown Art Center, Jamestown RI https://www.jamestownartcenter.org/exhibitions   March 5- April 25 Artist: Molly Kaderka  (IG handle @mkaderka ) Contributing Furniture: Kit Howland (IG handle @kithowland ) Short Blurb A Mythic Pause  creates an immersive environment with large-scale, site-specific paintings laminated directly to the walls. Using a combination of printmaking, drawing and painting, Kaderka depicts two different realms: the celestial and the terrestrial. Framed by a tactile printed rock surface, the circular compositions ac...

#MeetHeraartistJohnKotula  "I have been drawing continuously, at times obsessively, for more than fifty years."   Tell us your artist story, some biographical info, when did you decide to be an artist? Why do you make art? Where did you study? Etc.   I have thought of myself as an artist since third grade when my classmates started asking me to draw things for them.  For a while, maybe it was only a week, I spent every recess drawing pages of airplanes, aircraft carriers, and battleships.  My friends would then play war by covering the drawings all over with arching lines that indicated a shot had been fired and scribbles that showed a hit.  I missed getting to fight the battles myself, especially making the sound effects, but I loved being recognized for drawing the best armaments. I have been drawing continuously, at times obsessively, for more than fifty years.  My choice of materials comes and goes and c...

#MeetOurArtistsMonday Meet Roberta Richman, one of the founders of Hera Gallery, Roberta's landscape inspired imagery is now on View June 15-July 20, 2019 in our current Exhibition, Something Between Us. Opening reception is June 22, 6-8pm. Tell us your artist story, some biographical info, when did you decide to be an artist? Why do you make art? Where did you study? Etc. I was about 13 when I first discovered how much I loved painting and drawing when I started taking classes at the local Y. I majored in art at Brooklyn College and discovered etching, spent two years at Pratt Graphic Art Center using their workshop and got my MFA in printmaking at Indiana University. At Brooklyn I got to take classes with artists supplementing their work with teaching, notably Ad Rhinehardt, Jimmy Ernst, Philip Pearlstein. What do you want people to walk away with after experiencing your work? I don't think much about how others respond to my work. Making art satisfies s...

Hera Gallery is pleased host Further on Down the Yellow Brick Road, an exhibition highlighting the work of Hera Members Jack Massey & Michael Yefko. We invite the public to join us Saturday, May 16th from 6:00 to 8:00pm for the opening reception. "The Market is a Snake" - Michael Yefko  "Further On Down The Yellow Brick Road  is an art exhibition at Hera Gallery that will feature works by Jack Massey and Michael Yefko. The two artists will exhibit Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional works that explore temporal aspects of geometry within an entropic reality. As if that was not enough, they will exhibit works that also reveal the humor that comes from a modernist’s utopic sensibility meeting a great wind of change blowing across, through, and against creative freedom. The fear is always that audiences will either read too much or too little between the lines. Both artists admit that one reason for coming together to create this exhibition is that they are w...

With Dave Prescott of Save the Bay's South Coast Center in Westerly. Dave will be providing a 45 minute presentation with opportunities to discuss local water issues in South County. Fresh and salt water bodies will be discussed. David Prescott is the South County Coastkeeper, a role that provides a visible on-the-water presence and works in the community to protect, restore, and promote stewardship of the unique and magnificent waterways of Little Narragansett Bay, the Pawcatuck River, and the South Coast.  Dave conducts water quality monitoring, mobilizes community action on stormwater and wastewater pollution, investigates and responds to pollution incidents, and advocates for public access to the shore. He is a proponent for new strategies for communities that are dealing with climate change impacts. Join us in meeting with our South County Coastkeeper! Light refreshments provided!

Joe Cory: "Enlightened Witness" (15"x20") - Joe Cory Joseph Cory is an artist and associate professor in the department of Visual Art at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. He received a BA from Central College (IA), a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from the University of Chicago. He exhibits his work nationally, and is the recipient of a number of grants, awards, and workshops including: "The Whale and Star Summer Workshop in affiliation with the Anderson Ranch" in Miami with the artist Enrique Martinez Celaya (2011), and the "Project R5: A Visual Arts Workshop and Studio in South Africa" (2013).  Check out his work at Hera! WATER ends May 9th.

Sabrina McLaughlin: "Of The Despair" (16"x28") - Sabrina McLaughlin Sabrina McLaughlin is a Painting Major at Kendall College of Art and Design. Most recently her work has been displayed at th e West Michigan Regional Art Competition at Lowell Art Center and Art.Downtown 2014. Sabrina was born in Canton Ohio and currently lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her awards include: Krylon's Clear Choice Scholarship, Beyond Mythologies Scholarship, Akron Society of Artists Scholarship, Canton Artists League Scholarship, Kendall College of Art and Design's Portfolio Scholarship, and Kendall College of Art and Design's Academic Scholarship. Check out her work at Hera! WATER ends May 9th . 

Ben Anderson Just a reminder that the Birdhouse fundraiser is tomorrow! Join us at The Farmer's Daughter at 716 Mooresfield Rd.  More information about Farmer's Daughter can be found on their website  here .  Here are some examples of what we've received so far! James Brown Kristin Lamb

Kerry Kolenut: "Swimming Pool 3" (24"x16") - Kerry Kolenut Her Statement: " Most individuals participate in the collection of images, sometimes represented as an album, a scrapbook, a frame, or a filled shoebox.  Images of families and friends become a personal history; it gives both a family and an individual an identity.   We get a sense of who we are and where we come from, whether or not there is someone there to tell us who or what is in the image.  We get a sense of what has come before us.  Snapshot photographs are often connected to ideas of identity, memory, and relationships. Often how we remember and what we think we remember is fragmented.  Without a reference to a specific person or place what happens to the photograph? Does it still tell us something about our family history or ourselves? I have gathered images from family albums, enlarged them, and covered a portion of the image information with graphite. All that is left are parts of...

Barbara Simcoe: "Montserrat" (15"x20") - Barbara Simcoe Her Statement:  " The world is largely pre-occupied with itself on a level that excludes spirituality. In the culture's violence, its unrelenting dedication to the exterior to the exclusion of the interior and its fascination with spectacle, is there a place for contemplation.  The figurative imagery I use in my work is exclusively of women and it is in the area of feminine archetypes that I am most interested in woman as vessel of creativity, as intercessor, as of the earth, as mother, as primal aspect of the feminine/masculine dichotomy, as the complement of masculine divinity. These are the subtexts of my work. In designing my pieces I direct my actions to subconsciously access archetypes to create works that function as metaphor. They are not meant to be overtly narrative, though there is an undercurrent of a non-linear kind. In this regard the works are associative and referential. My...

David Mangels: "Frozen Mosaic no.1" (12"x12") - David Mangels Mangels lives in Massachusetts, and can be found hiking about New England or the Four Corners Region with his wife, Wendy. He is a member of the  Cambridge Art Association ,  Concord Art Association , and  One Percent for the Planet .  In 2013, Mangels was awarded the Frances N. Roddy Prize by the Concord Art Association for my work 'Clearing Storm, Whitman County #1 and #2'. His Statement: " The edges of the nature are filled with beauty. A storm clearing at sunrise creates a glowing landscape that makes your heart fill with joy. The overlap between two climates can create unique ecosystems that give spark to the imagination within all of us. Extremes of desert or arctic wilderness offer moments of stark wonder that might remain unknown simply because so few people have the opportunity to see them. In the rhythm of spring, summer, fall, winter and spring again, each season has it...

Birdhouse Donations need to be in by  Friday ! Bring them to Hera or South County Art Supply business hours. Hera Gallery is open from 1pm - 5pm Wednesday through Friday and 10am - 4pm on Saturday.  South County Art Supply is open from 11am - 6pm Tuesday through Thursday, 11am - 7am Friday, and 11am - 6pm Saturday.  Here are some examples of those already submitted! David Dawson Rob Cagnetta Jack Massey Remember to have fun with it and we can't wait to see the outcome!

John Francis: "Refl ections of Bruneau Dunes" (36"x36") - John Francis John Francis graduated Magna Cum Laude with BS in Graphic design from University of Cincinnati (1974) and an MS in Communications with an interactive technology emphasis from Florida State University (1995). John has worked professionally in the public and private sectors on a diverse range of projects including corporate identity programs, multimedia, signage, publications and books. His clients have included a wide spectrum from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to a performance artist. John has won several awards for his design work and was one of four national nominees for the Graphic Arts Guild’s Walter Hortens Distinguished Service Award in 2001. Check out his work at Hera! WATER ends May 9th. 

Holly Lay: "Spend All Day" - Holly Lay Holly Lay is a photographer who focus in film and polaroid forms, while shooting with the subjects of landscapes and portraiture. Through these subjects, she finds aesthetic beauty.   Her Statement: "At a certain age one realizes that life is short and age is inevitable. The sense of immortality begins to fade and this realization really hit me at one specific moment. I had a dream to go to my childhood home and search in a closet for something. In this closet I found a box labeled “Wendy”. Wendy, my mother, passed away when I was at the age of seven from breast cancer. I only knew her from what memories I had and old Polaroids I found of her. In this box under old get well cards I found documents from the hospital she was visiting. These documents stated that her cancer had gone undetected for years and in her early twenties it had started to form. This of course scared me; she was my age when she had developed it. I s...

David Roon: "Liquid Interface" - David Roon David Roon learned the basics of ceramics through coursework at the University of Minnesota and the University of Idaho. He was heavily influenced by a series of courses taken with Minnesota artist Steven Hemmingway, who works with a similar mosaic-style approach to Raku. He has been refining his own unique vision and technique part time since 1994, opening his own private studio in 2010.    David works with a technique called ‘Raku mosaic’. All of his work is wheel-thrown, but most of his wares (such as water features and lanterns) are assembled from multiple elements. He etches stylized natural and mythological designs into his wheel-thrown greenware- the carved lines are sealed with wax, and the interstitial spaces are hand-painted with various Raku glazes. Each piece is kiln fired and plunged into a closed chamber filled with combustible materials, where the carved lines are smoked black, and the glazed sections take on m...

William Nieberding "Le Reve" 11"x15" - William Nieberding  William Nieberding is an assistant professor of Art Education at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. His photographs include traditional silver-based black and white portraits, landscapes, and figure studies as well as digital work. The image presented here is from a series exploring physical and intangible relationships to water. William also writes about art, photography, and the discourse of vision. This work takes a focus on phenomenology, and how different ways of seeing offer insight into contemporary understandings of photography. William holds a Ph.D. in Art Education from The Ohio State University, and masters in photography from Purdue University. His statement: "As beings of mostly water, we are continually drawn to contemplate our relationships with it. Le Rêve is part of a larger series of photographs that indulges in this contemplation through the pictu...