About the Artists
Tova Speter is an artist, art therapist, art educator, and arts consultant based at Gorse Mill Studios. She works with people of all ages and abilities, in a range of settings, and utilizes a number of different modalities and materials. In her studio, she focuses on bringing out the hidden patterns contained in scrap wood to connect us with the inspirational energy found in nature; and in the community, she uses collaborative art experiences to bring out hidden creative sparks to connect us with each other. Tova also has a private practice that offers art therapy and mental health counseling services to clients challenged by various forms of anxiety, utilizing active art making as a therapeutic tool for self expression and healing. She believes that everything and everyone has an inherent beauty that will shine through when the time is taken to shift to a new perspective.
“For the past 18 years, my work has utilized found wood as a conduit for an exploration of the energy found within. The grain serves as my guide on a journey into the lines, shapes, and flow of the composition of the wood. I transform pieces of scrap wood (that others thought as nothing more than trash) into works of art highlighting each piece's natural greatness, with an interest in sustainability as well as encouraging perspective and reverence towards our natural world. When I started painting again after a hiatus, I decided to (literally) add a layer to my work. Designing and creating stencils and imagery connected with seasonal elements allowed me to explore the passage of time through the cycle of the year and the metaphors that nature often gifts us. But this exhibit also highlights the gifts and encouragement we give each other, as my work was passed on to inspire the creation of additional works by amazing women who inspire me daily. Participating in this “experiment” reinforced an ideal that I have long held - that the process and journey are where a richness can be found that is beyond the product or destination. I hope that some element of the exhibit may plant a seed of inspiration in each viewer; and I encourage you all to continue the chain, to create something in your own way and to share your unique translation with the world.”
By day, Maya Bernstein consults to nonprofits on innovation strategies, and teaches facilitation and leadership tools and techniques as a faculty member at Georgetown University's Institute for Transformational Leadership and other institutions globally and across the U.S. By night she juggles, swims (in ponds if possible), parents five kids with her partner, and steals time from the moon to write poetry.
”My first poem struck a bit like lightning, while I was sitting on a log in the woods in summer camp, having escaped, briefly, from the gaggle of girls in my bunk. I watched how the late afternoon sun shone through the trees and illuminated the leaves and something in me was illuminated. I wanted to weave words into the green itself, to talk back to the forest and her beauty; and I’ve been moved and pushed and thrust by life, and particularly by nature, to do so ever since. They say that “constraints drive creativity,” and yet when Tova proposed this incredible idea to me I was worried that I would not be able to write on demand, to force inspiration. In fact, the opposite occurred; Tova’s beautiful work, wrested from nature herself, brought me back to that moment on the log, ignited something in me, challenged me, tickled me, delighted me, and reminded me that poetry, and all art, is a craft. Inspiration, perspiration. Invitation, response. What a joy and honor it has been to inspire and perspire with these women, fellow wide-eyed fairies in the forest, each of us in her own secret spot, seeing, creating. We need just a small opening to be filled with wonder. I hope this exhibit shines light into your forests, cracking you more open, igniting you to dream, share, create.”
Emily Bhargava is the Community Art Director for a creative reuse center called the Beautiful Stuff Project, supports prevention efforts across Massachusetts, and provides organizational development consulting to non-profit organizations as Director of Connection Lab. Emily works in glass, mosaic and any other medium that strikes her fancy, teaching and leading collaborative community art projects that fall on the border between art and public health. She believes that art is a powerful tool for health promotion at both an individual and a community level. Explore her work at www.glassandlead.com and www.connectionlab.org.
”It has been such a pleasure to create these works as part of a chain of inspiration. For me, art is an opportunity to co-create and to be collaborative, and yet it can also be wonderful to make art alone in my studio. This project gave me the perfect balance of the two, making small mosaics alone, but inspired by the beautiful work of other impressive women. I began to make mosaic pendants about two years ago as an exercise in making my own art on a regular basis and to create small works as sketches for future larger mosaics and stained glass. I’ve come to appreciate the constraints that the pendant format provides, and I love the fact that a whole piece can be crafted in the stolen moments between other projects. This seems to be the only realistic way for me to work as a mother, professional and artist simultaneously. As a community artist, I can still create large-scale mosaics, murals and installations, and alone, I can make work that doesn’t overflow my studio. These pendants and all of my found-object mosaics also reinforce the idea of reuse and upcycling, creating something beautiful and meaningful from scrap. I am so excited by the energy that each piece in our “chain” of translations gives to the others, and I hope that we will continue to create together.”
Maria Beatriz Arvelo absolutely loves Nature and is fortunate to have a very musical family. To participate in this project is a complete delight for her. Born in Venezuela, she immigrated to the USA many years ago and currently helps in the effort to ensure that new immigrants are welcomed and treated with dignity.
”Discovery has been the light that this project has given me. Discovery that I was ready to get out of my comfort zone and say yes to my friend’s idea to be a part of this adventure. Discovery of Maya and Emily, who I did not know before, but who I feel I know through their artwork. Many walks in the woods looking for beauty have brought so much peace to me. Many other natural objects for this project have been discovered in unexpected places. And finally, to discover the original paintings, to read the poems that followed them, to see the pendants that were my inspiration and to add my pieces to the sequences - all together it has been humbling and exhilarating at the same time. I love the flow that has surged from this project. I don't want it to end. The beauty of it is that this project is an open invitation for the four of us, and each one of you, to continue the flow!”