Arts Archives - Page 5 of 15 - Neighborhood View

A Dragon Hugs the Corner: Wah Lum Academy Embraces Unity Amid a Pandemic

August 23, 2020 Amanda DeRosa 3

By Amanda DeRosa Sifu Mai Du of the Wah Lum Academy in Malden often tells her students, “Under every roof there is a story.” So, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to close her martial arts studio on March 10, at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Ferry Street, and board up the windows, Mai Du knew she had to do something to continue to tell the story of Wah Lum. “A boarded-up corner didn’t sit well with me,” she says. She and some of her artistically talented students hatched a plan to transform the more than 400 square feet of blank plywood into a radiant message of solidarity. Beginning on July 19, a group of artists and volunteers began painting a mural on the boarded-up windows. Today, a dragon snakes around the corner, embracing Guardian Foo Dogs, Lion dancers, and a community united. The work is ongoing. Wah Lum Academy is not simply another school, Wah Lum is a communal space where members look forward to visiting on a regular basis; it’s an intimate place where […]

Perle Fine: Painting Through Barriers

July 26, 2020 Sky Malerba 3

By Sky Malerba In a world of male artists and curators, Boston born, Malden-raised Perle Fine never quite got the acclaim owed to her. An abstractionist and a constructor of collage, Fine was shaped by the avant-guard scene of the early to mid 20th century in New York City. Fine is the selection for Week Four of Malden Arts Mondays, a two-month long celebration of artists and figures who have lived in Malden. Fine’s career arguably picked up steam in May of 1943 when two of her paintings were entered into and featured in Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century museum. Two years later Fine would enjoy her first solo exhibition in 1945 at the Willard Gallery. Gradually, Fine integrated herself into artist communities where she socialized with other expressionists in clubs like the Betty Parsons Gallery, in 1948 — an atmosphere not unlike the enlightenment groups in 19th century French salons. She congregated with the likes of Clyfford Still Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and others. By the 1960s Perle Fine was a lecturer and associate professor and is cited as […]

Humble Words From an Abstract Artist: “What You See is What You See”

July 21, 2020 Sky Malerba 4

By Sky Malerba Malden Arts Mondays is a two-month long celebration of artists and figures who have been born in Malden. Week Three of Malden Art’s Monday features renown artist Frank Stella. A Malden native and New York resident, Frank Stella tricks and pleases the eye with his abstraction and minimalist work which stood out in the art scene of the ’50s and ’60s. As an accomplished painter, sculptor and printmaker, Stella left his mark on pieces both in two-dimensional works and in three-dimensional space. His work includes the set and costumes for Scramble, a dance piece by Merce Cunningham in 1967, and a series of pieces called Protractor, which play with the intersection of geometric shapes and interplaying colors. In 1966, in a much quoted remark, he said, “What you see is what you see.” Testing the boundaries of his understanding of shapes and mass, he delved more into sculpture starting with using canvases of irregular shapes, and then pasting free-standing metal pieces on them with paint. This experimentation would lead to increasingly more ambitious […]

His Parents Were Slaves, He Became a Leader: Herbert L. Jackson

July 14, 2020 Sky Malerba 1

By Sky Malerba Malden Arts launched “Malden Arts Mondays” earlier this month with a celebration of esteemed Malden natives. First up was illustrator, Ed Emberley, who was born in Malden in 1931. This week Malden Arts celebrates the first African-American state representative in Massachusetts, Herbert L. Jackson, with a suggested walking tour and other activities. A child of parents born into slavery, Jackson was the first African American ever elected to the Malden City Council. He was first elected as a councillor for Ward 7 from 1945 to 1947, and in Ward 5 from 1947 to 1951 and as a City Councillor-at-Large from 1965 to 1975. He served as president of the Malden City Council four times. He was elected as a state house representative, serving from 1950 to 1954. Herbert L Jackson was born in 1908 to John T. Jackson and Araminta Jefferson Jackson, who owned a tailoring business. Jackson was one of seven children and it seems as though his political career started in grade school. Always breaking barriers, he ran as class president […]

Ed Emberley is the first Malden artist celebrated for “Malden Arts Mondays”

July 11, 2020 Sky Malerba 10

By Sky Malerba “Anyone who likes my books are like me in some way.” –Ed Emberley Malden Arts kicked off a new program “Malden Arts Mondays” on July 8-9 with a celebration of the illustrator, Ed Emberley, who was born in Malden in 1931. Activities included a walking tour to see his childhood home and the local mural dedicated to his art, as well as a list of fun arts, reading and discussion activities. Known for writing and illustrating educational children’s books with bright colors that awaken the senses and a rare type of charm accessible to both children and adults, 88-year-old Ed Emberley has delighted audiences for more than 50 years. Notable successes include his first book The Wing on a Flea, which educated children on shapes in a narrative format. It not only made the New York Times list of best illustrated books of 1961 but was an ALA Notable Book. Ed Emberley’s A.B.C, is a fine example of Emberley’s identity as an author and artist. It is an interactive book in which […]

Storyteller’s Café featured stories, reflections and a “Cat and Barbie” show

June 29, 2020 Sky Malerba 1

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear a cat talk? How would a sassy Barbie doll speak? Have you ever wondered what they might be thinking? A chatty cat and talking Barbie were part of the June 10 “Stories Only You Can Tell” virtual “Storyteller’s Café,” presented through MATV (soon to be UMA, Urban Media Arts). The hour-long event featured short personal narratives, poems and reflections presented by attendees of the “Stories Only You Can Tell” workshop run by author and musician CD Collins at UMA/MATV back in February. With Collins and the talking cat named Scarlett Lee as emcees, these local storytellers came together via Zoom to share their works. Collins, described as a “front line toe-to-toe artist, defender of women, children and the natural world,” began the night by presenting a custom-made Barbie constructed in her likeness. The doll’s blonde hair was cut short and melted down with a blow dryer, worry lines were drawn on her face and she was bitten up and down the arms to resemble actual scars on Collins’ […]

Teens bridge time, culture and language through film

May 29, 2020 Ose Schwab 1

By Ose Schwab It’s 1:30 a.m. in Chile and Malden and 1:30 p.m. in Shanghai. Fourteen-year-old Finn Sedan in Malden, Javiera Paz Valenzuela Rodríguez, 15, in Santiago, Chile, Isabella Zhu, 14, in Southborough, and Anny Wang, 13, in Shanghai, are laughing nonstop while making final editing touches to a short film that they have been working on together all week. “We were up late – well, not for me because it was 1:30 p.m.,” said Anny. “I guess we did not start editing until that last day. We worked for five hours on Zoom. But it was not painful. It was chill. We were joking, editing, and talking about ourselves. Our mentors, Avion and Sophie, made us feel so comfortable and we had become friends. I was sad this was the last working session together.” The teenagers’ short film titled “Isolation” would be screened later that day (the next morning for Anny) as part of an international filmbuilding workshop for 13 teens from China, Chile, and the United States, sponsored by MATV (UMA) and Zoom-In Zoom-Out, an […]

For Malden artist, nature’s beauty endures even in a pandemic

April 25, 2020 escorsello 3

Another in a series of stories on how Malden residents are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. By Elizabeth Scorsello Malden artist, Peg, dreamed about spending a week in May in Turin, Northern Italy, at the International Center for Ceramics to mark the year of turning 80. She had planned to take classes with potters from all over the world. Now, she wonders when – or if – she will ever get to make this trip. Peg, a resident of Malden for 14 years, paints and draws, does ceramics and teaches art. She taught kindergarten in the Boston School System. Retired and living in senior housing, she was teaching ceramics. And then the coronavirus appeared. “About a month ago the management (of senior housing) tried to get on top of it,” Peg told Neighborhood View. “We received a mailing describing the virus and (tell us to start) washing hands, etc., to get ready for the coronavirus.” Two weeks ago a notice went up and a robo call started telling residents no visitors allowed except for family […]

Encounter Haiti, hope and love in multimedia exhibit by Nicolas Hyacinthe

April 21, 2020 joanneelie 1

“When I put a piece of art on the wall it’s no longer mine anymore. The viewer sees it and resonates with a truth within it and walks away with it. It is my kaleidoscope experience and their human experience colliding; and at that point it belongs to them,” says Hyacinthe. Hyacinthe was born in Haiti and immigrated to America at the age of 10. Bringing with him the cultural background and history of the island, he was then immersed in the new narrative of American culture. As he watched films and television, he developed a passion for photography and filmmaking, which he began to study at Emerson College, where he graduated in 2001 with a degree in Visual Media Arts. His experience of living in two countries revealed a universal truth about the world: pain and love. These truths unified the human experience to a young Hyacinthe, convincing him that pain and love transcend any surface differences among varying cultures. Hyacinthe expresses this truth through mediums such as photography, abstract paintings, and film. With […]

Participatory art project lets us touch hands in a time of COVID-19

April 4, 2020 annedr 0

By Anne D’Urso-Rose Hands are designed for touching. You reach out a hand. You lend a helping hand. You create. You greet. You comfort others with your hands. But these days, our hands are viewed more as dangerous carriers of disease. “Our hands used to be these things that we did everything with and now they’ve become these things that we’re not supposed to do stuff with,” said Karyn Alzayer, an artist currently based in Malden, MA, in an interview with Neighborhood View. Her new participatory art project “Healing Hands” sets out to change that view, safely, in this era of COVID-19. Anyone from this community or around the globe is invited to trace their hand on a piece of paper, decorate and write words of encouragement on it, scan, and send it electronically to Alzayer. “I’ll print every hand and message I receive, cut them out, and make a giant interlocking paper chain of all of our hands and all our encouragements,” writes Alzayer in her blog describing the Healing Hands Participatory Art Project. […]