Artist Statement
In youth my penchant to discover places and people began, National Geographic, my guide; for forty years with wanderlust and curiosity I covered the continents photographing cultural landscapes. I’ve come full circle—traveling the world not leaving the state. The Bay State: A Multicultural Landscape, supporting MIRA (Massachusetts Immigrant Refugee Advocacy Coalition), is a collection of informal, environmental portraits of ethnic diversity in Massachusetts. 400-plus photographs that represent over 180 countries are touring the state; a companion book for donation to schools and libraries will bring awareness to our cultural diversity: subjects of various stations, foreign-born, naturalized U.S. citizens residing in the Commonwealth. Prompted by the 2010 Census, the seed was planted earlier on assignment at Ellis Island for a 1978 essay by mentor, Charles Kuralt. Unlike my candid street photography, this is a straightforward approach: individuals looking into the camera, telling stories through expression, place and pose.
Mark Chester has been a professional photographer since 1972. He was director of photography and staff photographer at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, in New York City. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the museums in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Cape Cod, Denver, Portland (Maine), San Francisco and Washington, DC, among other communities across the country.
Emily O’Hara – Level 1 Display Case
Emily O’Hara of Silver Labyrinth Design is a self-taught metalsmith and fiber artist. She maintains a metals studio at Island Street Studios at 50 Island St in Lawrence, MA and a weaving studio at home in Andover. Her interest in weaving was sparked in childhood after seeing a floor loom in the home of a family friend. At age 25, she took her first weaving class at East Lansing Community Education in East Lansing, MI. After returning east, she took classes in color theory and design and tapestry weaving at Harrisville Design in Harrisville, NH. She was a member of the Hudson-Mohawk Weavers Guild in upstate NY and Weavers Guild of Boston. Upon reading a brief article about weaving with metal in Handwoven magazine, she became increasingly curious about metal weaving and found her first course in metalsmithing at Cambridge Center for Adult Education where she has taken classes for the past fifteen years. Additionally, she has studied at Metalwerx in Waltham. There, her Fold-forming course with Charles Lewton-Brain and Micro fold-forming course with Cynthia Eid truly informed her creativity. Emily has been featured in Bliss Boston, on-line publication, in Daring Spirits blog, The Andover Townsman, collectively with Island Street Studios in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune and Rumbo. She has participated in The Weavers Guild of Boston annual show and sale, The Holly Fair in Cambridge, Crafts in the Park and various local craft shows and fairs. She had a piece in the Celebrating Women Gallery Show at Island Street Studios in May of 2017.