Meghan Dinsmore’s studio is located on the 3rd floor of the E.T. Write building in Rockland, MA and is a part of the 4^thFloor Artist Association.  She has been an art teacher at Marshfield High for 9 years while continuing her studio practice and showing her artwork at a number of places, including Laura’s Center for the Arts in August 2013.  Dinsmore received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Boston University in Painting and Art Education and has continued her education through workshops and classes at some of the top arts colleges in New England such as Massachusetts College of Art and Design and New Hampshire Institute of Art.  

The first thing you’ll notice when you walk into Meghan Dinsmore’s studio is the huge variety of artwork.  This is in part because she shares her large space with her husband Dan Talbot and friend Shannon McDonald.  That is not the whole story on the variety though; Dinsmore’s work alone could easily be mistaken for the work of multiple artists.  She is not bound by style, which is a liberating idea, although it of course is not quite as simple as that.  I think that there is a certain stigma in the art world about not zeroing in on one style and there is evidence of this in the repeated questions Dinsmore must field relating to this topic.  “Why do you bounce around so much?”, “what is your true style?”, and “you made that too?” are familiar conversation starters for this exploratory artist.  Dinsmore is interested in form and in shattering form, a process which must be fundamentally fluid and diverse.

pen and ink drawing in a 7x12" sketchbook

Dinsmore tells me, “it is important to me that I know the rules before I break the rules.” Look at these beautiful peeks through her sketchbook.  Each done in about 45 minutes, they serve as a daily warm up.  Working as a high school art teacher, Dinsmore says “these daily drawings are great motivators for my students.  When they say they don’t have time to finish something, I can point to these drawings and tell them I only needed 45 minutes, so do they.  At the same time though, these drawings keep my on my toes with their expanding skill level.  Being their teacher, I feel like I need to stay one step ahead of them which isn't always easy with some of the talent in my school. Keeping current with my practice helps me do that.”

Some bird explorations with pen and acrylic wash on wood panel
Approximately 6x6"

Portraits in acrylic
Each approximately 3x4'

These large painted portraits are another example of Dinsmore flexing her art muscles and pushing herself to see what she could do.  After taking about 10 years off of doing “college style paintings,” mainly large scale realistic works, she was questioning whether or not she could still pull it off.  She decided to grab a few of the people closest to her and test it out.  Turns out she could still do it, and do it really well at that.  She was now assured that she “knew the rules,” and was ready to take a jump.

Brayer drawings in acrylic on paper
Each is 22x30"

This next series of pieces was done based off of memories and photos.  Here, Dinsmore is interested in capturing what a faded memory looks like. After a workshop at New Hampshire Institute of Art on passing over brushes and instead painting with brayers, she had the perfect tool for this series.  A tool that could glide paint across a surface while maintaining a hardness to prevent too much detail from creeping in.  This is, in a way, how we experience memories- fluid, changing, and the further away they are, the less clear.  This series was based off of some photos dug up in an old family treasure trove and each have charming stories to go along with them.  The painting of the shirtless man is based off of a photo of Dinsmore’s grandfather, taken while he was stationed overseas in the military during World War II.  He took the photo himself and sent it home to her grandmother with a note reading, “For my honey, to look at and sigh.” We only have this one endearing piece of the story and Dinsmore does not fill in any gaps for us visually.  She likes that, “you can put your own interpretation into these paintings, and they could be anyone’s grandfather in any place.” 

This series of brayer drawings is where I think Dinsmore’s work really pulls together.  And by “together,” I don’t mean that the brayer drawings are her “true style."  What I mean is that I can see the full circle of her process from an important and new angle: time.  You’ll notice, in the daily sketches the viewer gets a quick and clear look at what is directly in front of this artist no matter how mundane it may be.  The drawings are completed in a short amount of time and their closeness to us in time means that they are recent memories and so their depiction is vibrant.  The large scale portraits take us slightly further back in time, as Dinsmore is working from instances that are not quite as immediate as what is sitting directly in front of her.  These paintings are vivid and easily read, but pay attention to the background.  Things get blurred and distorted in the back with a more playful feeling in color and texture.  There is even a bit of work with brayers.  Then we come to the brayer drawings and are pushed further away in both time and in realistic representation.  These pieces give us a peak at what they are about while allowing us to fill in the rest of the information for ourselves.  This is how Dinsmore works intuitively. By looking at her vast body of work we are able to find these connecting threads.

I think a better question to ask this artist is not anything to do with the disconnectedness of her work.  Perhaps a more insightful questions is, "how are you going to explore these ideas next?"

As a staff member in the Fine and Performing Arts department at the Emilson Y, I always take pride in the programming we offer, whether I am involved in said program or not. Recently I had the amazing opportunity to participate in a Cork and Canvas event offered by our Fine Arts Coordinator, Beth Gilmore, and I was simply blown away.

Having known Beth for a number of years, and even sharing an office since the opening of Laura's Center for the Arts about a year ago, I knew that Beth was both an accomplished artists and a thoughtful, articulate educator. Having seen her working with the campers, students and community members that participate in our classes and events I thought I knew what it would be like to be on the other side. My expectations were far exceeded.

If you are unfamiliar with our Cork and Canvas events, the basic idea is wine and painting.  The instructor walks the class through recreating an original painting step by step. I do not have any painting ability and I certainly didn't leave with a museum worthy work, but let me tell you, my mother wants in hanging in her living room! 

During our first break to allow the paint to dry!

One of the most amazing things was walking around and seeing the way the other people in the class interpreted the same instruction. There was no pressure to be right, and when that pressure was eliminated it made it easy to sit back, enjoy a glass of wine, and have a blast.  Beth's cheesy jokes and effortlessly casual demeanor made it feel like everyone in the room had known each other for years, providing the perfect environment to allow our muses to mingle.

The finished product

It was amazing to be on the other side of a class, especially with someone who I have spent so much time working and growing with.  We even had a chance to snap a great picture.

It MAY be good enough for a museum...What do you think?

Last week we had a group of Brownies from Norwell come to Laura's Center for the Arts to earn their Painting Badge.  We had two abstract painting activities for the girls to do and they breezed through it like old pros.

This first painting involved creating a group of shapes on the canvas using tape and then mixing different colors with acrylic paint to fill in the various shapes.  When they were finished painting they pulled off the tape and discovered the unique abstract painting they had created!

The second painting project had a bit of a challenge.  The girls were welcome to use whatever they wished for color and imagery, BUT they could not use a brush!

At the end of the class, we played some games as our paint dried and as parents started rolling in for pick up. I learned a game and taught a game so it was a successful game time by my standards. What a pleasure to work with this group, they were such natural art explorers I do hope to see them again.

Last Friday night we hosted our monthly Cork&Canvas event, and what a spread we had! We always provide the beverages, but this group really went all out and brought a bunch of snacks to make themselves right at home, which we love so much.  As you can see from that picture of our beautiful table, we were making a painting of a steaming hot mug of a beverage of your choice.  Some had tea, others espresso, and I believe there were a couple Irish Coffees in there too.

It's always such a blast running these events, the evening has such a fun and relaxing pace.  We turn up some music and let everybody get settled and hang out a little as they start to get their supplies prepped.

Once everybody is ready to get going, I start letting people know the logistics of how things are going to roll and then we jump in!

This was a fun painting to watch come along around the classroom.  Different mug colors and swirl patterns were happening all over the place.

Barbara and I talked about the pros and cons of doing black outlines along the red pattern of the table cloth.  She was really feeling the line work and went for it, which I was so glad to see.  A unique touch on this painting for sure.

I love the way the blue in Michele's table cloth pulls in the white in different places.  And don't forget to check out that fancy signature tree of her's in the bottom corner! 

Aside from an excellent display of paintings from a mother/daughter duo, this photo is a great example of the space we were in.  Check out the art on those walls; we held the event in one of our gallery spaces which currently has the photography of Kate Hannon on display.

Here is a sneak peak at the next painting we are going to be doing here at Laura's Center for the Arts on December 13th, "Snow Dusted Park."

Painting by Cork&Canvas participant, Meghan Dinsmore

Last Friday we ran our Cork&Canvas event which involves paint and wine.  It's a new painting fad that is all over the place lately because it is kind of a blast.  The whole deal is that it's a take on what Bob Ross was famous for, which is walking people through a painting regardless of the student's painting experience. We've just added music and wine.

Bob Ross, what a gemstone.

We made Sugar Skull paintings in preparation for the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead).  The imagery from these celebrations are so beautiful, I couldn't resist getting going with them this month even though the celebration traditionally takes place on November 1st.  This Sugar Skull in particular is a lot of fun to walk a class through because there is so much space for each person's personal touch.  I show everybody different examples of embellishments they can paint on, like the flowers and some of the swirly shapes, and from there people basically just pop them all over their piece wherever they think it works best. 

I have a lot of fun teaching these classes, but creating the original painting that we work from is a pretty huge highlight of the process.  For the sugar skull, I pulled pretty hard from the traditional Day of the Dead imagery, but I was also sure to take look at some of the artists who inspire me regularly. 

Artist: Quyen Dinh

I pulled the flower layout from artist Quyen Dinh of Parlor Tattoo Prints.  I'm so into her artwork and endlessly impressed at the rate in which she pushes out new pieces at such a solid high quality.  Looking at the above image, I'm realizing now how much I need to purchase that calendar for my office.

Artist: Paula Tamara Hoss

Paula Tamara Hoss has made several amazing Sugar Skull paintings that I've seen, in addition to this triptych, that really get my mind going on the endless possibilities of bling (no, squiggly red line, bling IS a word) that can be added to these skulls.

Next month we are making a painting that will make you feel all warm and cozy on the inside:

More info on how to sign up for this one here

This month we had a fabulous group of participants visit Laura's Center for the Arts from the Marshfield Boys & Girls Club.  During the week of the gallery opening we met twice, once at the B&G Club and once at LCA.  During both visits we talked about some of the staples found in most landscapes like foreground, background, middle ground and horizon.  While at LCA we spend some time looking at all of the artwork on display and talking about things we noticed.

Luke LeWand
Roadtrip, 2013
acrylic on panel 

Luke LeWand's "Roadtrip," was one that caught some of our participants eyes.  The fact that there are cars in it was an immediate pull for some, and for another student it was it's more abstract right half that pulled her back to the piece.  Luke has several diptychs which consist of one panel based more in reality and the second panel focused more on mark making and color.  It was in "Roadtrip," that one of the ArtsReach participants made the discovery of the matching color palettes between the two halves of the piece.  It wasn't something that I had thought to point out to the group, so I was really excited when that discovery was made because she was exactly right.  Luke creates the first, more realistic piece, and then with the remaining paint he has mixed, he makes some loose movements which contrast nicely when put next to the tighter original painting.

Luke LeWand
Thanks For the Energy, 2013
acrylic on panel

After spending so much time looking and talking about art we decided to get outside and make some art of our own.  We made a quick pit stop at the stage and danced around a bit before heading out to the LCA lawn with some drawing boards and oil pastels.  The art is a little hard to see here because of the glare but these participants made some amazing things out on that gorgeous afternoon.

I think this picture might make it into the Marshfield Mariner! I'll post the link to our facebook page (link at the top) once I see it.

real time pose

ride back to Boys & Girls Club