Was everything better way back when? In the news pages of this end-of-year issue, we asked reporters to look closely at the towns they cover, delving into the sources of […]
Art
PRISMATIC
Mike Sullivan Wears Many Masks
An artist in multiple disciplines moves inward for the winter
When you step into Mike Sullivan’s winter studio in the grand living room of the house he’s renting in Provincetown’s East End, three things hit you right away. The first […]
IN PROGRESS
Jenny Humphreys Gets Away With It
Inside the painter’s winter of whimsy
In the center of a melancholy Norwegian landscape — with its brown mountain, cold sky, and rows of huddled evergreens — stands a massive chicken foot. It looks extraterrestrial, exploding […]
CASTOFFS
The Scrap Heap Is His Palette
Terry Catalano’s graffiti-inspired assemblages are built to last
Terry Catalano moves one of his 50-pound found-wood sculptures across his Pearl Street apartment’s sunroom to make space for a six-foot Christmas tree, decorated with a collection of toys from […]
ARTISTS
Mark Adams Is Most at Home in the Dunes
Science and adventure color the artist’s vision of our place in the natural world
It was just after 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, 1977, when Mark Adams and four other firefighters from the National Forest Service spotted a lightning storm coming in off […]
SCREAMING COLOR
The Delicious Surrealism of Naya Bricher
The artist creates nostalgic, feel-good fictions from found imagery
On a rainy November morning, Naya Bricher arrived at the Wellfleet Adult Community Center wearing dangling cherry earrings, a pea-green shirt, and pants the same hue as Barney the purple […]
ARTISTS
Through Romantic Dunescapes and Stormy Seas, Anne Packard Paints Nostalgia
Still painting at 90, the artist has put her gallery up for sale
PROVINCETOWN — The light still blazes in artist Anne Packard’s blue eyes as she fixes her gaze on Long Point. She can see it through the wide windows in the […]
DECADES
Jo Sandman Brings the Body to Bear
A master craftswoman’s experiments in abstraction find a home at PAAM
Jo Sandman wanted a more progressive art education than Boston could offer her. Born in Newton in 1931, she had studied art since she was a young girl, but it […]
FINGER PAINTING
Benji Weinryb Grohsgal Illustrates a Universe All His Own
After a diagnosis, an artist learns left-handedness, picks up an iPad, and draws
In a waiting room at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Benji Weinryb Grohsgal sits, drawing on an iPad. It’s a new process. He’s used to using […]
AN ART LEGACY
Sal Del Deo Carries On
A solo exhibition at PAAM charts the development of an adventurous career
In one of Salvatore Del Deo’s paintings now at his solo exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, the town is framed through a pair of binoculars — a […]
ARTISTS
Daniel Ranalli Records the Drama of Stranded Whales
A 31-year project culminates in an exhibit at the New Bedford Whaling Museum
NEW BEDFORD — The whaling museum here celebrates bigness. Two whale skeletons hang from the lobby ceiling. The centerpiece of the museum is a three-story replica of the whaling vessel […]
ARTISTS AND WRITERS
New Kids on the Block
20 fellows arrive at the Fine Arts Work Center
On Pearl Street in Provincetown, the Fine Arts Work Center’s new fellows are settling into their apartments and studios. For now, the spaces are all but empty. The white, unadorned […]
LOOKING BACK
Reflecting on Creativity and Community
An alumni show at FAWC this summer brought 22 former fellows back to Provincetown
Since its founding in 1968, the Fine Arts Work Center has hosted more than a thousand fellows. Twenty-two former fellows returned to Provincetown this summer for an alumni group show, […]
PORTRAITS
The Many Faces of Eastham
Smiling, smirking, in the open air, and in outer space
“The Faces of Eastham,” at the town’s public library (190 Samoset Road) through Oct. 31, consists of approximately 50 portraits, all of them by Eastham residents of other Eastham residents. […]
WRITING LIFE
Margaret Shepherd’s Approach to an Ancient Sensual Text
Her calligraphic treatment of the Song of Songs reveals a lifetime of devotion to the artform
Margaret Shepherd’s calligraphy, now on view at the Wellfleet Public Library through Nov. 3, looks like it was created with ease. The lines of text, which are taken from the […]