This fall, the 50th anniversary of the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill has been marked by several group shows celebrating the vast network of artists associated with the center. The current show at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum is the most comprehensive, featuring more than 100 artists.
Presented in salon style, the exhibition includes artworks created in each decade of Castle Hill’s existence. There is no stylistic consistency in the show; the diversity and heterogeneity of the artwork reflects the free-wheeling spirit of the center. Several works in the exhibition were created this year, which speaks to the continued influence of Castle Hill on the creative community of the Outer Cape.
On these pages, five artists who made pieces in 2022 reflect on their work and their connection to Castle Hill.
On her work:
“Margaret Murphy, the former director of the Fine Arts Work Center, and her partner, Lauren Ewing, had a rabbit, Yoyo, that was very much a member of the family. They were so smitten with the rabbit. It lived in their house and would come to meetings. It passed away last year, so this is sort of a tribute to Yoyo. I’m not really known as a woodcut artist, but I love to make black-and-white woodcuts every now and then. My big influence with woodcuts is the Japanese artist Munakata. The thing I found so unusual and wonderful in his work is that there’s this transition where he completely flips the contrast. I love that about his work.”
On Castle Hill:
“The thing I love about Castle Hill is that it’s so community based — there is something for everyone. I am almost always amazed by teaching in the senior program, which is free for senior citizens on the Cape. There are people who are just beginning to make art but also some practicing artists. It was so pleasurable to get to know them as people, not just as students. When I’m doing a demonstration, I’m not thinking about making art. I’m just thinking about the medium and exploring the things monoprints can do. I do things I would never do in my studio. It’s freeing, and I often start things I develop into a body of work.”
On her work:
“I’m fairly new to painting. I’ve been exploring my relationship to rectangles. This painting began as a redo of something. It became a torso, but I wanted to extend it and give it a head and then an arm. When I look at it now, it looks like a gender blur. The head looks male, the body looks female — although the genital area is mostly abstract. That’s a current inquiry in America. That’s of interest to me.”
On Castle Hill:
“I began participating in the Yellow Chair Salon [a discussion-based workshop with artist Michael David]. It pushed me to enter my artwork by putting more of my own emotional presence into my work. It’s a helpful trick to remind myself to not make art. I hope to tap into some place that is beyond derivative. I’m after pre-verbal, pre-visual, pre-me. I want to trick myself into not thinking. Yellow Chair has helped invite me into parts of myself that I didn’t have access to before. It teaches me where I need to shut down.”
On her work:
“In November, I came home from a women’s march in D.C. just after the Supreme Court ruling that allowed Texas’s ban on abortion. I used to come back from those marches feeling kind of empowered and uplifted. This time, I came back feeling not at all clear. I went back to my studio the next day, threw some raw canvas on the floor, and started making this work. I felt like slinging stuff around and making paintings that reflected what I was deeply feeling.”
On Castle Hill:
“I live in Truro half the year, about half a mile up the road from Castle Hill. I have been on the board for eight years, and I was chair of the board for the last four years during the anniversary, which was a big deal for us. I just handed that off.”
On his work:
“I owe a huge debt to the view outside my studio. The strata of marks in this painting tells me something about the hillside, and the dynamic of things growing out there. A lot of it is also intuitive. I like the colors; they please me. I play with them. I use combs and toothbrushes and serrated scrapers to make marks. I’m in a place of pleasure and invention, and stuff just happens.”
On Castle Hill:
“Castle Hill in a way is my art school. It has this unpretentious atmosphere where people who are beginners or serious all work together very comfortably and bring very different experiences to their work. This very supportive and fairly loose atmosphere has been a gift to someone like me who started with some enthusiasm but no particular ambitions.”
On her work:
“This is part of a new series since a wonderful visit to national parks in southern Utah. My spouse and I walked to this arch in Canyonlands. It took our breath away. We sat there and meditated and did tai chi. When I came home, I started these sculptures. This piece has a sneaky little arch or circle through it on the left side. It has a multicolor copper raku glaze. You never know what it’s going to come out like. It could be all blue or all copper or somewhere in between. It came out perfectly — how I wanted it.”
On Castle Hill:
“Castle Hill is a magnificent arts center. I call it my summer camp. I teach a class called ‘Alternative Firings,’ usually once a year. I’m still taking classes because I always want to learn more, and everyone has something to teach. Once I took a class on saggar firing, where we fired ceramics in a container filled with organic material, like salt or coffee grinds. The fuming inside the saggar creates these incredible colors. When I opened my container, I was shocked by the colors. I wasn’t sure if I liked it. I sat with these pieces and got to really love everything about them. I learned to expect the unexpected. I love that. I never know what’s going to come out.”
A Half Century in Truro
The event: A wide-ranging group show featuring five decades’ worth of art
The time: Through Nov. 13
The place: Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 460 Commercial St.
The cost: General admission: $15
