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Art and Photography for a New Year

By

The theme of this end-of-year art and photography edition is “The Divine Comedy,” after Dante Alighieri’s epic poem written in the first years of the 14th century. Its three sections are titled Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. As Dante is led on a tour of the nine circles of hell by the ghost of the poet Virgil, the spirit tells him (in John Ciardi’s translation), “Your soul is sunken in that cowardice/ that bears down many men, turning their course/ and resolution by imagined perils,/ as his own shadow turns the frightened horse.” Later, with his eyes opened, Dante responds, “O sun which clears all mists from troubled sight,/ such joy attends your rising that I feel/ as grateful to the dark as to the light.”

We are grateful to the 15 artists and photographers who have reflected on paradise, purgatory, and hell for these pages and helped us create a New Year’s message to the Independent’s readers. We send you our heartfelt wishes for sunshine, courage, and joy. —The editors.

Inferno by Felipe Ortiz

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 58 x 44 inches.

 

The Journey by Barbara E. Cohen

Florescent life jackets, now lifeless, still floating on seas, traces of the many who did not make it and the many who did, all just to escape their hell and to sail to some paradise.

 

Thank You, Norma by Mary DeAngelis

 

By Edward Boches

This page is dedicated to the many volunteers of Cape Cod, those who give tirelessly to feed the hungry, fight for housing, care for addicts, and protect the environment. Top, left to right: Sarah Naciri, Truro Children’s Garden volunteer; Gerry Beetham, volunteer, Association to Preserve Cape Cod. Middle, left to right: Janet Buckley, environmental volunteer; Florence Seldin, volunteer for housing, abused women, and education. Bottom, left to right: Sophia Easley, food equity volunteer; Kim Powers, harm reduction volunteer.

 

By Traci Harmon-Hay

 

And So It Goes… by Ellen LeBow

 

Get in Line by Sian Robertson

Mixed media collage, 16 x 10 inches.

 

Highland Lighthouse Emerges by Nancy Bloom

I have always enjoyed photographing lighthouses. Living in Truro, I found myself drawn to Highland Light while it was being restored. Ventilation problems caused by the 1996 moving of the lighthouse 453 feet away from the shore resulted in rapid deterioration of the structure, and major repairs began in July 2020. I watched the scaffolding being installed, the men making repairs, and the wrapping and re-wrapping of the structure during my daily visits. Maybe because the long-awaited restoration took place during the pandemic, photographing the lighthouse often left me with a feeling of hope and reassurance. Repairs to the ventilation system and masonry and recoating of the facade are complete. Electricians have been busy working inside. All that remains is a door and window installation planned for February. Tourists and locals can look forward once again to visiting and photographing one of Truro’s treasures. —Nancy Bloom

 

From an Outer Cape Village, 2021 by Marnie Crawford Samuelson

First photo: Zoë Lewis, home, Provincetown. Second photo: Mike Tuck and Nat Bull, rebuilding Thalassa, the Province Lands. Third photo: Along the jeep road, the Province Lands.

 

Dante’s Inferno 2021 by Laura Shabott

The Divine Comedy takes us through the rings of Hell and back, an apt metaphor for living through a pandemic. Collages made of ripped and cut-up drawings and magazines take my past art mistakes and transform them into something raw and wild. —Laura Shabott

 

Girl Dancing, Fermanagh by Rachel Brown

This photograph was taken in Ulster in 2003 during my years in Ireland. My mother, the daughter of Polish Jews who came to the U.S. around the turn of the last century, became a modern dancer and was a member of the Martha Graham company. I was often exposed to dance through her work, and I love to dance myself, but I don’t think dance was an important influence in my photography. As I told the journal Transatlantica in a piece about my Irish photographs, this is the only dancing picture I made. —Rachel Brown

 

By A. Crock


 

By Mark Adams

 

After Dante (The Inferno) by Daniel Dejean

 

The Beginning of Always by Marian Roth

Digital image made inside a horse barn using a camera obscura.
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