You’re Invited: Artist Talk with Alana Garrigues for RE•CLAIM Exhibit at New Dawn Arts Center

Saturday, November 23 at 4 pm

84 Main Street in Ashburnham, MA

All are invited to an Artist Talk about the RE•CLAIM solo show currently on view in the Grassroots Gallery at the New Dawn Arts Center on Saturday, November 23 at 4 pm. The show runs through November 30.

The show includes 28 pieces of original artwork and the stories behind them.

It’s a full afternoon of art and community at New Dawn, with a closing reception for the Women’s Caucus for Art Massachusetts chapter participateion in the 6000 Circle Project, from 2-4 pm in the upstairs gallery, followed by my talk in the downstairs gallery. Sure to be a great time!

From the marketing email that went out via New Dawn Arts Center announcing the talk:

‘Art Stories’ accompany each artwork in RE•CLAIM.

Artist, Alana Garrigues, describes the found & reclaimed building materials, wood, & tree parts, as the substrates for her work.

“Each scar and divet and gouge seems to carry a silent story and an energy that I can lean into as I make. Often times, I honor the wood by painting in stories of tree rings, but other times I paint the land, the body, the life that comes forward through the history of where the wood or other building material has lived. There is often a sense of reverence, of honoring, of celebration, and of mourning in the work.”

In RE•CLAIM, used objects are given new life and story as art. 

Lot corner sticks become peace poles. Used plywood becomes fine art—revering tree rings and mourning shrinking forest. Tea bags become seed banks. An old book becomes an ode to the interior lives of women. Cast-offs become wall sculpture. Cotton paper is embraced as an alternative to wood pulp. A window frame becomes an invitation to create together. And a mirror-shaped piece of wood from the 1700s becomes a window into the dressing room of a woman from a bygone time.

“I listen in to the tales older than time: the stories of nature that existed long ago and is working to reclaim the paved over and abandoned spaces to create a vibrant future… the stories of human connection… the stories of an earthbound ancestry that was interspecies and cooperative… the unwritten stories not of a dystopia, but of a utopia: a reclamation of deep relationship to the land beneath our feet and all who inhabit this space.”

Many thanks to Gallery Director Abigail Abbot and the entire New Dawn Arts Center community for hosting my show!

I’m working on a virtual exhibition here on my website to share with those unable to see the show in person. Stay tuned.

Grassroots Gallery Hours:

Tuesday – Saturday 9 am – 6 pm
Sundays 10 am.- 2 pm
Closed Mondays and holidays.

84 Main Street in Ashburnham, MA

RE•CLAIM show runs October 1 – November 30, 2024.

All are welcome; no RSVP required. However, if you would like Facebook to remind you, you may RSVP at the event invitation here.