An Undulating Course features work by Laura Ells, a recent graduate of Gordon College. Whimsy, absurdity, and other things of a jovial nature are a few of Laura’s favorite things. This series is an alternate version of history focusing on the impact of the rocking chair. Laura states, “From an early age we are told to learn from history so that we might not repeat the same mistakes. A few years ago I started writing short stories, satirical retellings of famous historical events postulating that rocking chairs played a major role in the various outcomes. By taking stories with which we are more or less familiar and relating the to each other, I am questioning the importance, the reverence of these epic events. With an insignificant object, such as a rocking chair, acting as a catalyst for these stories, are we led to challenge our opinions of history?”

http://cargocollective.com/lauraells

Our first art opening was a great success! Thanks to everyone who came out to the event!

Special thanks to Kristine Roan for making beautiful things, to Dan Stevens of In the Car and Joel Costanzo for planning the event with me, also to Luke Bowen and Randi Lee Giles for helping with the installation!

Kristine Roan:

Wildly Silent

“I knock on your skin and I am in”-Bjork

These drawings come out of a month-long residency spent on the tiny island of Hrisey, in northern Iceland. I was inspired to explore the magic and ethereality of the country, but was ultimately struck by the solitude I found there.

Through the use of figurative symbols, the work delineates perimeters of the individual. It ponders the surface of, and space inside, another’s imagination. Each of the works contain several disparate aesthetics; the interior often contradicting the exterior. Sometimes the interior of the contained space floods out. Where are the entry or exit points of another human being?

Everyone loves it here

Iceland, for me, represents expansiveness in both its peoples’ beliefs and its landscape. This is the place where huldufólk (hidden people) and gnomes are said to exist. Nature here seems untouched, and maybe it mostly is. I’m at the edge of the world. The Icelanders I’ve met are very proud of their country and respect the mystery of nature, and they know to play by its rules (while ignoring many others).

In Icelandic, the country’s name translates to “Island”. It is The island; a self-contained nation, which has managed to preserve much of its ancient origins.

Icelanders’ openness towards individuality is wonderful! One man who I met at the pool (and who skipped right past small talk), repeatedly told me, “you have to do the crazy thing.”

Though I was initially drawn to the folklore and magic of the country, the solitude is what most inspired me. It is very important here (and not really disconnected from the magic). A new friend from Hrisey has told me that he doesn’t like Reykjavik; too many people there…it’s the smallest capital I’ve ever been to. He also noted that, “in an Icelandic family, if there is no poet…well…” They love their poets and you can visit the homes of many Icelandic literary heroes.

So, I was able to wander in this wildly silent landscape, while wandering through my own head. I’m incredibly grateful for this, as it’s difficult to find the time to really be with yourself elsewhere.

My work has become more representational; bones, stones, and moss. Thematically, it is still concerned with the interiority of the individual. In earlier work, I considered the canvas as a container. The sole fact that I was making unrestrained, expressive gestures said something about my valuing of individualism, spontaneity, and imagination. Now I want to approach these ideas from the inside as well as the outside by depicting elements of the body (the container of these things) and its environment. I’ve become very drawn to hipbones and spinal columns. They are internal structures of the individual, so they had to have a certain silliness in their aesthetic, for me. The spines reach outwards or they contain. The vertebrae stacks become stones and meld with the environment, interrupt it, or attempt to contain it.

Kristine Roan, from Upstate New York, currently lives and works in Beverly, Massachusetts. She received her BFA (2011) from Montserrat College of Art. This past October, she completed a month-long residency at Gamli Skoli in Hrisey, Iceland. Roan is the recipient of the Will & Elena Barnet Art History Scholarship (2010), the Will & Ruth Fusco Artistic Achievement Award (2010), and the Donna Marie Twarog Scholarship (2009).

www. kristineroan.com

Wildly Silent is the newest exhibit at Atomic of works by Kristine Roan. Kristine Roan received her BFA from Montserrat College of Art and is currently living and working in Beverly, MA. She is exhibiting work stemming from a month-long residency spent on the tiny island of Hrisey, in northern Iceland. Inspired by both the country’s solitude and its ethereality she explores the landscape of the island as it is related to the human interior.

There will be an opening reception for Wildly Silent at the Atomic Cafe this Saturday January 14 from 7 – 9 pm! We would love to see you there!  http://www.facebook.com/events/360076790675315/

www.kristineroan.com

Sergiy Barchuk:

In Search of Order

I approach the settings and environments in my life as puzzle pieces that I attempt to resolve in balanced compositions which reveal visual order. This took root during a project in which I explored the suburban landscape and the effects that it has on community development. While photographing the architecture of the North Shore I found myself creating abstract compositions rather than strictly documenting the environment. The relationships between the objects within my frames provoked me to explore connections between all the shapes, colors, and shadows that we encounter in our daily lives.

Sergiy Barchuk spent most of his life moving between Russia and Ukraine. At the age of 15, his family moved to the North Shore and has lived here for the last seven years. Barchuk majored in Social Work with a minor in Fine Art at Gordon College in Wenham, MA.

www.sergiybarchuk.com

I <3 Bagel is a Collaboration Between Jeffrey Newell and Atomic Café Artists

Some customers get artwork in the form of latte foam.

For me, it’s Bagels.  They’re a part of my morning routine.  I park the car, take the 2-minute walk to Atomic Café, pay $3.96 for a bagel with cream cheese and small diesel roast coffee, and head off to work.  I’ve been doing this for over 7 years.  A new element was woven into my Atomic Café experience about 2 years ago when a small message was written on my bagel wrapper in black sharpie pen.  Then another message the next day.  And then it grew to a silly little drawing.  One time color was added.  And then another color.  A new artist took the pen.  Another drawing was created with a different message, over and over again.  It was the start of a new style of communication between customer and barista.

This body of work documents the collaboration of drawings, written messages and scribbles created by Atomic employees documented on my iPhone.  The images drawn can be seen as weather forecasts, happenstances, inside jokes, or even just purely decorative records capturing my morning Atomic Café ritual.

Wait until you see what they do to my Cucumber Cooler.

The Atomic Café is more than a café, it is a community. As a meeting place in Beverly, it has enormous potential.  With amazingly loyal customers and a devoted staff, Atomic represents a true cross-section of the Beverly community.  Along with Atomic’s relationships with musicians and other local businesses, the Atomic Gallery itself is just one of the café’s many outlets for creative discourse on the North Shore.

As a gallery, we are interested in pushing the boundaries of one’s expectations. We feel that bringing together local artists, taking advantage of our proximity to Montserrat College of Art and Gordon College and their galleries, and bringing in artists from Boston and beyond New England, could have a profound effect on the community.

Our three major goals for the space are:

• to push the boundaries and expectations of what “café art” is and has the potential to be,
• to promote a vigorous dialogue around thoughtful artworks within the community at large, and
• to create deadlines and motivations for conscientious emerging artists who are working to sustain a practice despite life’s many challenges.