Cambridge Street Gallery

Gallery Comes Alive with Installation from Michela Giordano

6/7/2022

Michela Giordano

Artist Statement

Looking towards my future, I was left reminiscing about moments in my childhood, and my love and passion for art as a kid. For me art wasn't just about creating, but a way to make my imagination come to life. Over time however, I have found that these imaginative qualities we have as children begin to fade, especially in a society that attempts to fit different shaped minds in a single mold. Because of this, I wanted to create an art installation for my community that not only allows me to re-explore my imagination, but also encourages others to do the same and, and rethink what is possible.

Based on one of my favorite books growing up, Where the Wild Things Are, I wanted my installation to portray the same idea of walking into an imaginative world. As a child, I spent most of my time using my imagination in my backyard amongst a variety of insects and small creatures, so I decided to recreate this experience. To do this, I made large scale insects that had a playful twist, and transformed a space using colored lighting, paints, and other sculptures of nature. Afterwards, I Invited community members to draw on the walls and express their own imagination, to finalize this piece.

Senior BHS Student Anna Perl

12/21/2021

"Ducks" Oil paint, 24" x 48"

"Book Reading in 1662" Acrylic Paint, 18" x 24"

The Cambridge Street Gallery is thrilled to have the artwork up of senior Anna Perl. Anna is enrolled in AP Studio Art and Architecture. Her show includes many works of art in a wide variety of materials.

Artist Statement
Like a painting’s first sketch, we are all born with a set of immutable guidelines, known to the human body as genes. When I was in elementary school, I genuinely believed that the left side of my body was Caucasian and the right Chinese. It made sense before, if my father is one ethnicity and my mother another, I must be the perfectly balanced result of them, fifty-fifty.

But an art piece’s initial sketch rarely stays the same, as external factors often come into play. Spending each summer in Beijing with my mother’s side of the family made me realize two things. One, my brother and I will always stand out in China, whether that means unique privileges or secret snapshots in the subway, that extra special attention will remain as long as the vast majority of their population is native. And two, I didn't like feeling different. I wanted to feel just as close to my grandfather as any of my other cousins were, no matter our physical differences.

As I grew up in the US, a country known as a melting pot, it never really felt like all the ingredients were cooked evenly. Never a mention about my white side but always persisting questions about Chinese culture with a hidden smile, masking their mockery with curiosity. Subtle, but nevertheless always there. And just like that, my outside influences have shifted my composition, the arrangement of my identity.

Regardless, the paint eventually makes its way to the canvas, and the colors fight each other for attention. My Chinese side and my white side are seemingly opposite, like photo realism and nonrepresentational art, directly contradicting each other. In China, I am considered loud and unlady-like. I know this because people will tell me and make sure I know if I gained too much weight or laughed too loud. On the contrary, in the US, phrases like “be wild” and “be intimidating” are ones that lead me out of my childhood.

I was not sure which one I fit into. Should I have met both standards in the middle? Switch back and forth until my head is dizzy? I often felt like I was being forced to mix water and oil into one homogenous mixture.

But, even the direct contradiction of photorealism and nonrepresentationalism can be used together. Like a photo depicting a grouping of seemingly familiar objects, on a deeper inspection, you can’t really recognize any of them. Art was what made me learn the truth about my identity, through its process and problem solving and said “rules”. I am allowed to be influenced by others. Some say that every single piece of art you will ever produce is inspired by everything else you have ever seen. But I am also free to look away from everyone and create my own path. There are no instruction pamphlets to tell me how I must live my life, no equation where I can plug in the different factors that can predetermine my future for me. As a matter of fact, I think rules defeat the very purpose of art.

I do have different cultural and ethnic backgrounds but they do not define me. So while I am physically made from two separate, completely different mediums, each with their own social expectations and history, I am my own person, and I am mixed media.

"Lost & Found" Mixed Media, 19" x 25"

"Decapitation", Watercolor, 18" x 24"

Milisa galazzi

9/4/2019

Asemic Journey

Artist Reception
September 12, 2019
6-8pm
Cambridge Street Gallery
Artist talk on September 25, 2019

ARTIST BIO - Milisa Galazzi
Artist, Milisa Galazzi, is best known for her three dimensional hand sewn shadow drawings, her printed and drawn works on paper, and her richly layered abstract paintings all of which explore the very nature of being human. Her work is held in private international collections as well as public collections in the United States such as Women and Infants Hospital and the Women's Medicine Collaborative in Rhode Island. She exhibits nationally in solo and group shows in both galleries and museums. Galazzi presents talks at national and international conferences such as the International Encaustic Conference and the National Art Education Association Conference in New York City and teaches classes at universities such as Clark and Yeshiva. Her artwork has been featured and reviewed in Surface Design, FiberArts and ArtScope magazines as well as in books such as, "Contemporary Cape Cod Artist: On Abstraction," and "Paper + Wax, Techniques in Handmade Paper and Encaustic” as wells as, "Encaustic Art in the Twenty First Century." Galazzi was 'boat schooled' as a child while she and her family traveled and lived aboard their thirty-one foot trimaran sail boat hand built by her father. She received an MA with Honors from the Rhode Island School of Design were she exhaustively researched the educational effectiveness of community-based art education settings and her findings are published by Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Project Zero Press, 1999. In addition, Galazzi holds a BA from Brown University where she studied Studio Art with minors in Women’s Studies and Cultural Anthropology. She attended and graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover. Her broad education directly informs the content of her art making. Galazzi works full time in her studio in Providence, Rhode Island.

Special thanks to Burlington Education Foundation for funding this project.

Graphic Design work on display created by the digital publishing team

5/15/2019

Mr. Mistler runs a program titled the Digital Publishing team, which is a full year course where students design graphics for the community and the school.

The team consists of 11 students from grades 9-12 working together (often collaboratively) to come up with advanced design solutions.

Some of these students have come to the class with much graphic design experience, and some have just began their journey into digital arts.

The Digital Publishing students have their designs and work for clients on display in the gallery. it is great to see the wide array of graphic design projects for the community.

Check out Mr. Mistler's blog for more information about the course

Bren Bataclan

10/19/2018

Thanks to a generous grant from the Burlington Education Foundation the Cambridge Street Gallery is exhibiting the work of artist Bren Bataclan. Bren is displaying work from the "Kulap" series that is about his immigration to United States from the Philippines and his personal story.

Bren Bataclan is a Cambridge-based artist who was born in the Philippines and grew up in the San Francisco area. Prior to becoming a full time artist, Bren taught design and computer animation at UMass Amherst and the Museum School.

In the early 2000s, Bren began giving away paintings in public spaces with a note saying, "This painting is yours if you promise to smile at random people more often." Since then, he has given away 3,000 paintings in 70 different countries and to all 50 U.S. states. Schools began to ask Bren to give presentations about his kindness-related street art project. His presentations led to 150 mural projects for schools, hospitals and businesses. Heinemann Press published an elementary school textbook entitled, "The Smile Artist," about his artwork. And in 2017, he gave a TEDxTalk about his street art project. Bren received his BA in design at UCLA (summa cum laude) and his MA in computer animation at the Ohio State University.

Digital Publishing Team Exhibits Community Art

5/15/2018

The Digital Publishing Team consists of a group of students in grades 9-12 working together to create and design artwork for the school, the Burlington community, and beyond. Under the instruction of their teacher Mr. Keith Mistler, the class learns design principles, marketing and business techniques and runs much like a professional design agency.

The Cambridge Street Gallery exhibit showcases this year's winners for a multitude of design projects including the BHS yearbook, the school musical, the BEF road race, and even a logo for a local company. Students listened to clients' artistic needs, and used their design skills to create the works in this show.

The Digital Publishing Team is made up of the following students:
Mitchel Adamson, Rayan Azad, Allie Bonanno, Shannon Borbee, David Centoni, Christopher Dalton, Brady Doherty, Luke Lord, Ravi Patel, Julia Putney, Alec Rollins, Kosta Stamides, Nicholas Storlazzi, Ariella Tucci, and Madison Wareham.

BPS Faculty and Staff Exhibtion

3/6/2018

Elana Snyder, Oil on Canvas

We are please to showcase the work of BPS Faculty and Staff who are also Artists,
Elana Snyder, Kate McMahon and Catherine McCarthy.

Each artist has a distinct and beautiful style.

The exhibit will be open during our Open House/Art Exhibition next Thursday night, March 15, 2018 from 6:30 - 8:30.

Catherine McCarthy, Works on Paper

Kate McMahon, Tole Painting

Quilts by Marie Chesnick

12/14/2016

Marie Chesnick is employed as a certified speech-language specialist at Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington, Massachusetts. Working with the students at the middle school always brings a challenge and one that she greatly enjoys!

"Quilting is my escape from the day. Selecting different fabrics and then transforming it to create unique patterns and designs is magical. Each step of the process brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction."

October 12th, 2017

6/26/2016

Italian Teacher and Painter Ilaria Hoerle

3/9/2016

We are fortunate to have Italian teacher Ilaria Hoerle exhibit in our school gallery. Her student senior Nina Nguyen had this to say about her work:

" I knew she was a painter because she has us do art assignments in class, but I didn't know what a talented painter she is. I'm in awe of her work. I really enjoyed the subject of her work, her family, a corner of a room in her house, I now know more about her as a person".

Thank you Ilaria for sharing your talents with us!

Ilaria Hoerle
Artist Statement

Art for me is a language, a way to communicate my feelings, emotions, and experiences through light, colors, and shapes. I believe that, like music, art develops one’s humanity, and it “speaks” to every individual in an intimate, immediate, and personal way.
I have been exposed to art all my life. In Italy, where I grew up, art is found everywhere, and the contemplation of beautiful things is a way of life. As a child, I learned to value art. My mother named me after a statue (Ilaria del Carretto by Jacopo della Quercia), and some of my fondest childhood memories are of her and me drawing and painting together. Through middle and high school, art history and technical drawing were compulsory. When I moved to the United States at age 18, I fell in love with the artistic process, first in my art classes and then on my own. I still consider myself a student of art, perpetually curious about and fascinated by its possibilities. For me, painting is like embarking on a great adventure.

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Michela Giordano

Asemic Journey​Artist ReceptionSeptember 12, 2019 6-8pm Cambridge Street GalleryArtist talk on September 25, 2019

Asemic Journey

Artist Reception
September 12, 2019
6-8pm
Cambridge Street Gallery
Artist talk on September 25, 2019