"Vestments"

Charcoal on paper

25" x 19"

2005

"Damsel"
Acrylic paint on board
9.75" x 18"
2005

"The Sleeping Monk"
Stained glass window
16" x 8"
2005

"Drapery in Window: Continent"
Oil on canvas
4' x 4'
2005

"The Garden Gates"
Oil on canvas
5' x 4'
2005

Artist's Statement and Curriculum Vitae

CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

2011
Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), Boston, MA.
M.F.A., 2-D Media.

2007
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.
Post-Baccalaureate, Studio Art.

2006
Boston University, College of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
B.F.A., Painting.

 

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

 

2012      

• Brookline Public Library, Brookline, MA. Brookline Arts Center. Juried faculty exhibit. 
• Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA. CHARTS,Juried exhibit of employees’ artwork. Awarded first place, “Best in Category: 3-D / Mixed-Media.

 

2011     

• Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, MA. UMass Lowell Faculty Invitational Exhibit.
• 808 Gallery, Boston University. Boston Young Contemporaries Exhibition.
• Paine and Bakalar Galleries, MassArt. M.F.A. Candidates Thesis Show.

 

2010       

• Brant Gallery, MassArt. 5/8's Show, Preview exhibit of MassArt M.F.A. Candidates.
• Paine and Bakalar Galleries, MassArt. 21^st Annual Benefit Art Auction, Preview exhibit.
• The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY. 2010 Juried Art Competition.

 

2009

• Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, NY, NY. New Work by Kara Waxman. (SOLO)

 

2008

• Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (2002 European Museum of the Year). (SOLO)
• Fulbright Exhibition: New Work by Kara Waxman.
• Opening Reception Speaker: Colleen Dube, Director of the Irish Fulbright Commission.

 

2007       

• Back Loft Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. Selection Box.
• La Catedral Art Studios, Dublin, Ireland. Dublin Culture Night: Open Art Studios.
• Spingold Dreitzer Gallery, Brandeis University. Prospect 1.
• 808 Gallery, Boston, MA. Arches Student Print Show.  
• Bethlehem Chapel, Brandeis University. (2006 - 07)
• Rubin-Frankel Art Gallery, Boston, MA. Juried exhibits, second place award. (2006 - 07)

EMPLOYMENT AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE

 

2012       

• Adjunct Professor, UMass Lowell, Drawing I.
• Spring semester, introductory course in drawing fundamentals.
• Faculty, Brookline Arts Center, Oil Painting, Exploring Drawing Materials and Still Life, 2-D Mixed Media Art, Assembled Landscapes, Summer Camp: Painting & Drawing.
• Spring, summer and fall semesters, introductory art courses for teenagers and adults.
• Artist-in-Residence, Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston, MA.  (2010-12)
• Individual art instruction for patients, designing and leading collaborative art projects.
• Education Assistant, The Discovery Museums, South Acton, MA.  (2011-12)
• Painting decorative murals; assisting with educational, hands-on activities for visitors. 

 

2011       

• Adjunct Professor, UMass Lowell, Art Concepts I.
• Fall semester, introductory course in 2-D design fundamentals.
• Teaching Assistantship, MassArt, Sophomore Painting, Professor Nancy Friese.
• Fall and spring semesters 2010-11, introductory course in oil painting techniques. 

2010

• Teaching Assistantship, MassArt, Visual Language II, Professor Jane Marsching.
• Spring semester, introductory course in digital media processes.

2009

• Teaching Assistantship, MassArt, Freshman Drawing, Professor Greg Mencoff.
• Fall semester, introductory course in drawing materials. 
• Sales Associate, American Folk Art Museum, NY, NY. (2008-09)

2008       

• Museum Education Volunteer, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland. (2007-08)
• Designed coloring book activity for children, attended training sessions. 

2007

• Teaching Fellowship, Brandeis University, Intro to Drawing, Professor Sean Downey. 
• Spring semester, introductory course in drawing materials.
• Administrative Assistant, Boston University, Visual Arts Department and Catholic Center.
• Maintained computer-based inventories with M.S. Office applications.

 

2005       

• Apprenticeship in Exhibition Design, Hirsch and Associates, New York, NY.
• Assisted with art-handling, preparing artworks for display, art courier services, inventories.
• Internship, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, ArtSense Program. (2004-05)
• Head Intern and art teacher’s assistant for children and teenagers ages 7-16.

 

2001       

• Internship, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NY, Summer Internship Program.
• Tour Guide for children’s camp groups, research project on Gauguin.

 

HONORS 

2010       

• Nomination, Dedalus Foundation M.F.A. Scholarship.

 

2009       

• Beker Award, Merit scholarship from MassArt.

 

2007       

• Fulbright Student Award to Ireland 2007-2008 
• Field: Painting and Printmaking.
• Host Affiliation: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland
• Project Title: A Resurrected Tradition: Catholicism and Painting
• Nomination, Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship.

2006       

• Merit Scholarship from Brandeis University. 

2005       

• Dean's Scholar Award, $10,000 Merit award from Boston University (Received 2004, ‘05)

 

PUBLICATIONS OF ARTWORK

2012

• Brookline Arts Center Catolog, Brookline, MA.  Featured "Hostess," mixed-media artwork.

2008   

• Annual Fulbright Scholars Pamphlet, Dublin, Ireland.  Cover image.
• Embrace Album, Patricia O’Toole, Dublin, Ireland.  Cover image of CD jacket.
• Dubliner Magazine, The Month Ahead, May issue, Dublin, Ireland.  Featured New Work by Kara Waxman, solo exhibition at the Chester Beatty Library.

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Recent technologies – particularly digital devices -- give us access to previously inaccessible information and imagery and allow communication with distant relatives.  But they also remove a level of more intimate, interpersonal contact and threaten to replace contemplative, physical experiences. This tension informs the depictions of digital devices and LCD screen technology in my recent work.      

 

There is a remarkable interplay between the physical touch characteristic of digital touchscreensand creating sensually textured, two-dimensional artwork.  Intriguingly, they both involve fast-paced to meditative processing of visual information. Exploring these connections has led topieces in my submitted portfolio like “Streetviews.” Here I counterintuitively depict a blue laptop screen with just as much handmade surface texture as its surrounding room interior.  I useembroidery fabrics and traditional cross-stitching to give it a more comforting, homelike feel than a flat LCD screen typically projects.  

 

In other pieces like “Blazars,” my use of computer printing technologies to render the screenactually heightens, rather than counteracts, the screen’s flatness, particularly in contrast to the dense needle-felting surrounding it.  I have experimented with appropriating these “deep space” images in my work since I am interested in how the most distant images of the universe appear pixelated due to the limitations of current technology.  The unexpected similarity of their pixelation with cross-stich patterning makes something very distant and sublime appearaccessible and even domestic.  This reversal of scales is fascinating and is something I eagerly wish to explore in my future work.  

 

In a somewhat different area, my interest in family connections and the way we build a “family heritage” informs works like “Skyping,” where the focal point of the piece becomes the bright light surrounding the computer screen, with a younger woman resting her hand on an elderly woman’s back.  The fabrics are all taken from my grandmother’s fabric scraps, and the gaze of the younger woman into the darkened mirror evokes another layer of interior reflection andrevelation.  There is a foreboding quality to the scene that hints at the growing primacy of digital communication over more interpersonal forms.  

 

The overall goal of my recent work is to bring viewers the contemplative sensation of lookingand seeing as a balance to the very fast-paced nature of contemporary Western society.  While digital devices are a contributing factor to these issues, I do not simply want to critique them, butI wish to communicate a warning about the impact on our visual perception and communalrelationships when they are used in excess.  I think that the meditative experience of pausing to look at my artworks can be a small escape from these more hectic and distracted modes of being, and will help to enhance the viewer’s intimacy with the tangible sights and sounds of the world around us.