Blue: The Celebration of a Color
Berkshire Artist Sarah Sutro Pariticapates at Somerville Museum
By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 25, 2023
Blue: The Celebration of a Color
Somerville Museum
One Westwood Road, Somerville, MA
(617) 666-9810 | info@somervillemuseum.org
September 21 – December 2, 2023
A Community Curator exhibition curated by Martha Friend
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 21, 6pm–8pm | $5 admission fee; free to Museum members and visitors 12 years of age and younger. Tickets can be purchased at the Museum.
“A certain blue enters your soul.” (Henri Matisse)
The color blue has existed for millenia, influencing great works of art as well as ordinary, but treasured, household objects. It carries many associations including calm, sadness, royalty, and peace. Even the many different words for the color blue evoke emotions–turquoise, indigo, cerulean, periwinkle, cobalt, aquamarine. It lives in our world all around us in the blue sky and ocean waves.
Martha Friend, local curator and collector of all things blue, fell in love with the color early on in her life. As a result she’s spent years building “Sapphire City,” an art installation outside her home on Highland Avenue in Somerville, which many in the area would recognize as an unofficial community landmark. Her work has garnered media attention and her vision for this exhibition is translated through artworks by local artists, installations of found objects, music, and creative workshops. Friend invites visitors to explore the many different meanings and uses of blue and leave with a newfound appreciation for the color’s history and influence on art and culture.
Could blue be everyone’s favorite color? What does blue mean to you?
Participating Artists:
Alexandra Rozenman, Anne Randolph, Bekka Teerlink, Bess Paupeck, Daniel D. Coughlin, Dave Palmquist, Deb Peeples, Emily Falcigno, Gary Duehr, Gina Halstead, Heather Balchunes, Hilary Scott, Iku Oseki, Johanna Schulman, JT (John) Bullitt, Karen Molloy, Kerri Kemperman, Laidy Saenz, Laurinda Bedingfield, Marcella Stasa, Martha Friend, Matt Carrano, Michael Robbins, Nathaniel Devarie, Pauline Lim, Rachel Mello, Resa Blatman, Richard Curran, Robin Hazard Ray, Ron Kopreski, Ruth Faris, Sarah Sutro, Sholeh Regna, Soozie (Suzanne) Lubeck, Susan Strauss, Wilhelm Neusser, Zainab Sumu
Statement by Sarah Sutro
“Blue Landscape,” watercolor, 7.5x11,” 2012 $450.
Sarah Sutro’s work captures light on water, in marks and color that capture luminosity and shifting space. She paints images of nature with a degree of abstraction, where undulating bands of color dominate yet co-exist with minutely observed details of land. Living in Asia for several years and now painting the south coasts of MA and VA, she is drawn to vast expanses of ocean and rivers.
A graduate of Cornell University, she has an MFA from the University of the Arts in London, and has taught at several colleges and Universities including Emerson, Lesley, UMass Boston, Mass College of Art, and Union Institute and University. A recipient of a Pollock Krasner grant, she has had residencies at many art colonies including MacDowell, Millay, Ossabaw Island, American Academy of Rome and Blue Mountain Center. She has shown in the Boston area, New York, Oakland, London, the Berkshires and internationally.
Website: www.sarahsutro.com
Instagram: ssutropaints