Peace … “surrender remembers, and fear forgets”

Elizabeth Lind

North Kingstown, RI

Pink alabaster

5” x 11” x 7”

$1,500

This self-portrait speaks of the peace found from non-compliance and non-participation with the stress of the immediate world. Carved directly, using simple, primitive hand tools, it portrays, in an ancient medium, a woman in a salt bath within an oyster – a world within a timeless world. It is inspired by the peace found in surrendering and letting go. Quote from Michael Singer.

Turbulence

Stacy Latt Savage

Mattapoisett, MA

Aluminum and wood

58” x 48” x 38”

$4,500

This sculpture portrays our turbulent times and the cultural anxiety felt across the globe. Human beings have the power to do ultimate good for our future – for our planet, our climate and for all living things. Yet, our global cultural does not appear to be moving uniformly in this direction. There is an undertone that values are askew, disjointed and at times, out of control. It is difficult to assess what is real, what to trust, and this nagging uncertainty has fixed itself in our everyday life.

Bell and Arch

Larry Elardo

Groveland, MA

Ceramic, wood

94” x 12” x 36”

$8,500

This piece is a symbol of strength through mediation and tranquility which are at the heart of non-violent dissent.

Witness

Liz Sibley Fletcher

Mason, NH

Stoneware clay

54” x 30” x 20”

$1,500

Witness is formed from a fallen tree whose beautiful growth pattern is recorded by clay slabs pressed onto its surface and joined together.

Though consumed by fire, Witness stands resolutely, bearing evidence that it remains unbowed in its being, continuing to reach for the sky. A tree spends a long life steadfastly witnessing the decades pass. Whatever horrors may unfold, its life force remains. Even in death, trees sustain new life.

The Birds Fly Through Us

Elizabeth Lind

North Kingstown, RI

Gilded clay

9” x 9” x 5”

$400

“Silently the birds fly through us. Oh, I, who long to grow, I look outside myself, and the tree inside me grows.” – Ranier Rilke

This sculpture is a reaction to the seeming urgency and importance of our cultural climate. It honors timelessness and life to flow through one’s self, unimpeded by self-importance. The self is a balanced witness, part of an endless process. The face is the artist’s, cupped by engraved branches that appear frequently in her work since the loss of her mother. The birds fly through, as they always have, and always will, no matter what goes on the world.

Returnings

Douglass Gray

Plymouth, MA

Steel

22” x 22” x 18”

$3,200

Many times, we have to make difficult decisions as we live in a world that has changed almost all beliefs that were instilled in us as children. There is a slow, eroding, process of the foundations we were taught by our parents, schools and churches. It isn’t that all change can’t be good. However, for most of us, the diminishing of our core beliefs is easier than relying on our intuitive senses and, as difficult as it may be, going back and taking positions for what we know and feel to be right is essential. In other words… Returnings.

Metamorphosis

Elisa Adams

Concord, MA

Alabaster

10” x 17” x 8”

$6,500

This piece is asking, “What do we want to change into?” It is our choice.

Exhortation

Freedom Baird

Cambridge, MA

Copper wire, steel mesh, electrical tape, fiberglass

39” x 20” x 14”

$1,800

This installation is designed to activate a communication space by placing in close proximity a person and a text. The visitor is invited to witness, become more aware, declaim and exhort. The installation is comprised of an Exhortation pod which contains the book “Journey to Earthland: The Great Transition to Planetary Civilization” by Paul Raskin. Visitors are welcomed to download the book (available for free in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese as a PDF), and find a passage that speaks to you. You are then encouraged to read that passage aloud where you are, either to yourself or to those sharing your space, or to those you connect with online. In the book, Raskin exhorts the reader to shift awareness and allegiance beyond state, nation, continent, and to start thinking and living as citizens of a planet-wide proto-country. Part of taking a stand in 2020 means seeking opportunity to engage with meaning. Research has demonstrated that one’s brain absorbs information better when it can cue from features in one’s surroundings. By interacting with Raskin’s text in association with an image of the Exhortation pod, visitors are offered an opportunity to more fully absorb the messages in the text and be transformed by their meaning. In this way Exhortation offers the visitor a space, both physical and virtual, in which to be transformed, and to transform others.

Worlds Whirling Apart

Douglass Gray

Plymouth, MA

Steel

56” x 14” x 37”

$7,400

This sculpture represents the systemic breakdown that the artist believes is happening in the world, our nation, our communities and becoming more prevalent in our families. We hear but don’t listen. We visualize but don’t see. We watch but don’t act. We comment but don’t care. Our vision is becoming increasingly myopic. As individuals, we can help change this in small ways every day.

Touchstones

Claudia Flynn

Wakefield, RI

Black granite

Each tablet: 10” x 14” x 2”

$300 each

This installation is a modern-day call to arms, in thought and deed. The words inscribed on each piece of cut and polished granite recognize the potential of a positive human trait.

Boundaries

Cassie Doyon

Bradford, MA

Clear glass stringers, tinted resin, pigmented thin set on ceramic substrate

16” x 7” x 3”

$750

Boundaries represents a fable by Arthur Schopenhauer; describing a group of porcupines trying to keep warm in the winter.  As they get too close to one another, they are jabbed by their quills.  My sculpture symbolizes the struggle to maintain boundaries in any relationship.  In the current political climate, boundaries have become increasingly blurred.  What does it take to establish boundaries in this day and age?

Never Again

Liz Sibley Fletcher

Mason, NH

Porcelain clay woodfired

8” x 13” x 8”

$800

Two hollow heads, one younger, one older, crying out. They can lie in different relationships to each other but must always touch.

Unraveling

Michael Alfano

Hopkinton, MA

Cast Resin

26” x 16” x 7”

$1,600

This piece portrays the need for balance in politics, and more generally, in life. The two people appearing to be made of coiled wire are engaged in a tug of war on a see-saw. But these are not child’s games – as each figure struggles to pull the opponent across the middle, their own makeup is coming apart, and they are slowing destroying themselves. The see-saw is precariously balanced atop a pyramid engraved with the Eye of Providence, which is based on the imagery on the reverse side of the American dollar bill, and implies the basis of the struggle. Ultimately, if either side “wins,” the balance will be upset and they will both fall. “If you win at the cost of everyone else, we all lose.”

Still Standing

Madeleine Lord

Dudley, MA

Welded scrap steel

66” x 36” x 26”

$3,800

This piece, a figure balancing, is a metaphorical depiction of Constitutional Democracy under assault.

Nurtured

Michael Alfano

Hopkinton, MA

Cast Resin

20” x 12” x 10”

$1,000

This sculpture presents two sides of one individual, each with a very different feel. On one side, the woman’s arms are thrown back in an exuberant dance, while on the other side her arms are thrown open in a gesture of nurturing benediction. The dual, contrasting emotions presented in the figure speaks to graciously accepting all sides of our personalities and society in general. In an increasingly divisive society, this piece embraces both sides and is welcoming to all. “Not seeking, not expecting, she is present, and can welcome all things.”

Boxed In 1

Joshua Ruder

Greenfield, MA

Marble and wood

16” x 6” x 8”

$1,000

We live in a society that forces us to label others and ourselves, and almost everything encountered in the world. These boxes are limiting and never completely describe their contents. We are all so much more than the stereotypes that society has constructed about us based on where we came from or how we choose to present ourselves to the world. We are more than our boxes. And they have been used to divide us from each other for so long, because of their ability to distract us from the truth that we are more alike than we are different.

Chanelle

Anthony Alemany

South Berwick, ME

Resin mounted on African black wood

9”x 6” x 5”

$450

For this artist, portraits are impressions of an individual’s life and character; their values and struggles. They reveal an inner voice subjects are not aware of. So many African American girls have to grow up in a world that wants to shut them up and hold them back. Portraits of real people like Chanelle force the viewer to stop and look and question who they are and why they matter.  

Proud To Be

Cindy Journey

Manchester, MA

Silk wrapped paper with metal paints

20” x 11” x 11”

$1,000

The definition of to “take a stand” according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary is to express one’s opinion. The flat cap became the symbol of the working man in the 14th century when an Act of Parliament in Northern England imposed a rule that all males over the age of six must wear woolen hats on all Sundays and holidays. The order applied only to those who were of so-called lower class. In this piece, instead of letting the cap stigmatize this man’s worth, he wears his flat cap proudly. He unashamedly takes a stand, embracing who he is without any apologies.

Samantha

Anthony Alemany

South Berwick, ME

Bronze

18” x 13” x 11”

$3,800

This work is a portrait of Samantha, a Puerto Rican photographer trying to make her way in the world. The artist has captured her inner strength and deep emotional reflection. Puerto Rico has been devastated with an unbelievable number of earthquakes and people are suffering. This piece has something to say in a cultural context where Hispanics and Puerto Ricans feel marginalized and ignored.

My Beautiful Wall

Robin Tost

Mill River, MA

Mixed metals and wire

24” x 30” x 1”

$4,000

This metal quilt, sewn with wire, refers to the border wall. The chain barrier is broken, allowing each side to flow into the other, enriching both.

WHAT SHE HELD CLOSE: Refugee Women Series

Ruth Rosner

Watertown, MA

Wire, ash clay, found wood, rusted metal, found branch

22” x 17” 16”

NFS

This sculpture is a response to the separation of children from parents by the United States government at the border, and in the universal sense, to forced separations across history and across all geographic regions. She is a guardian figure, a voice raised to embrace the children, to reconstruct family and recreate home. She holds together the remnants of what once was whole–to make whole again, perhaps in a new way, in a new place.

The artist’s remarks apply to both of her works.

WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? Guardian of Children on the Journey: Refugee Women Series

Ruth Rosner

Watertown, MA

Wire, ash clay, found wood, metal, dried plant matter

29” x 13” x 9”

NFS

Follow the Leader

Madeleine Lord

Dudley, MA

Welded found steel

13” x 60” x 10”

$1,800

This piece represents mute followers behind frenetic leader.

The Queen

Alan Weinstein

Newton, MA

Marble

27” x 6” x 6”

$2,950

When sculpting stone, the artist often doesn’t know what is being made until well into the process; the stone often makes the early decisions. This piece became a queen-like image, with royalty signifying power. The image is faceless, reflecting the ironic inability of power to take a stand on occasion. This contemporary piece reflects on the negative effects of Brexit in England and the spineless behavior of politicians in this country not taking a stand against the abuse of power.

The World Weighs Heavy

Barbara Fletcher

Lowell, MA

Paper clay, cement and found objects

52” x 21” x 28”

$3,000

This sculpture is literally taking a stand. The world is weary of all that is happening with environmental and political concerns.

Evolution III #6

R. Douglass Rice

Stonington, CT

Powder coated steel

48” x 24” x 24”

$1,500

This “Evolution” series takes a stand for science-based decision making and against the anti-science bias of those currently in charge of policy.

The artist’s remarks apply to both of his works.

Evolution IV #5

R. Douglass Rice

Stonington, CT

Powder coated steel

22” x 9” x 9”

$525

Floating Elongata

Anne Alexander

Windham, ME

Cherry and steel

85” x 6” x 18”

$4,800

Although this sculpture is inspired by seaweed floating vertically in the ocean, it also suggests a standing figure with uplifting arms. Although our oceans are threatened, the seaweeds remain strong, standing up to pollution, while protecting our coastal environments.

Leaf Fossil

Anne Alexander

Windham, ME

Beech

14” x 16” x 2”

$850

The artist wishes to make the viewer aware of their body and size in relation to one’s surrounding natural environment. In this time when the environment is threatened from development and pollution, the intent is to foster a spiritual and physical connection between humans and the natural world.

Manga Pig

Mara Sfara

Farmington, CT

3d Printed

4” x 3” x 5”

$490

Pigs are extremely intelligent and sensitive animals.  Pigs and other animals are continuously abused and devalued as living animals. In many cases, the abusers abstractly view pigs to remove any resemblance of an animal.

Queen Anne’s Lace

Gints Grinbergs

Dedham, MA

Welded steel and found objects

99” x 48” 40”

$8,900

Queen Anne’s Lace is an example of nature taking a stand. The exaggerated scale and potentially dangerous materials attest to this. The natural world has been abused for far too long. As the TV commercial once warned us – “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”

Ballad

Jane Estella

Pembroke, MA

Found Objects

22” x 7” x 4”

$275

Our society doesn’t value useful products. If something breaks, we merely throw it away. Objects that don’t necessarily fit together are re-purposed in an entirely new way. Thus, products, no longer found useful, can be recycled, re-purposed, re-imagined, and given new life–as art.

Father and Child

Linda Hoffman

Harvard, MA

Bronze, wood, found object

44” x 12” x 12”

$2,400

A kneeling male figure holds an infant in his arms atop a WW II steel helmet. A tree grows below and is stopped by the war. We need to ‘take a stand’ for future generations. We need to stop harming ourselves as well as the earth. We need to show how much we care.

Stepping Down

Zvi Goldman

Trumbull, CT

Clay

23” x 11” x 5”

$1,550

This sculpture uses leaves in foliage to reflect on stepping down, the experience of a generational shift in power, and accepting it.

12 Scarf E

Stacey Parker

Worcester, MA

Paper, reed, sewing patterns, light

36” x 15” x 12”

$600

The surface is created by layering sewing patterns used by the artist’s grandmother. These patterns represent the domestic structure that women have been raised on. There have been times when women have risen up and thrown off that structure and times when they have embraced it. Here they are used in a new way to illuminate them, and show them for what they are, simply patterns that we can choose to use, choose to follow or not. People are not controlled by patterns, or paths chosen by those before. People choose our own way, take what they want from the past and make it their own.

Transfiguration

Valerie Mahuchy

Bethlehem, NH

Stone, Italian Agate

12” x 22” x 9”

$950

A stone form changes into a woman.

Vulpes

Shawn Farrell

South Hamilton, MA

Steel

42” x 10” x 10”

$2,250

With women’s rights in today’s headlines, the artist felt it important to focus on their right to control their bodies. Vulpes is made to resemble the female form in all its strength and sensuality.

Eve

Melanie Zibit

Shirley, MA

Bronze on black marble base

26” x  8” x 7”

$2,400

This piece is a catalyst for discussion about the role of women through history and in modern society, striving for independence, respect, and a voice. Eve calls viewers to connect with the beauty of the female form as well as the harsh realities of the unfinished spaces symbolizing what it takes to achieve recognition and respect. It is inspired by ancient and modern sculptors, demonstrating artistic freedom using classic forms and material in a modern way.

Resist. Rust.

Tone Ørvik

Maynard, MA

Ceramic on metal base

16” x 15” x 9”

$2,750

The Bread and Roses strike among textile workers in Massachusetts in 1912 inspired this sculpture. Many of the factories in the United States are rusting, but the theme is timeless – women standing together to protect what they love and what they have fought for.

Girl vs. Gust

Bette Ann Libby

Chestnut Hill, MA

Mixed media

36” x 24” x 1”

$3,600

Take a stand against the wind, against adversity. Be strong and persevere. This piece imagines the girl who is struggling against the gust of wind and the against the inverted umbrella. While the huge raindrops of the impending storm begin to fall, her little dog holds on to help with the struggle. Her reflection is seen in the puddle below. The mythology the artist creates of strong women by using broken ceramic and glass shards are a testament to making whole what was once broken.

Fight Girl Fight!

Andrea S. Olmstead

Maynard, MA

Earthenware, wax, paint

21” x 11” x 10”

NFS

The artist’s subject matter has always been the plight of young girls and the challenges they face becoming women. Whether surviving trauma, such as sexual assault, physical or mental abuse, discrimination, sexualization or objectification, growing up female is fraught with danger. Women are vulnerable. However, they are also resilient, fierce, and courageous. Fight Girl Fight is a portrait of a young girl on the verge of puberty. She folds her arms protectively over her chest, shielding a clenched fist from view. She has learned the world expects her to be sweet and pretty, but underneath the surface hides an inherent power that all women carry, and that she must learn to use.

Eve in the Tree Harp

Linda Hoffman

Harvard, MA

Bronze, wood

19” x 21” x 9”

$3,600

This sculpture uproots the traditional portrayal of Eve as a fallen woman, unable to resist the tantalizing offer of the serpent and condemned for thousands of years because of this transgression. The artist believes a different story about Eve. She thinks our sister Eve wanted to know the truth about who she was and the meaning of her life. Eve tasted the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil for her own self-discovery. Eve is empowered, a seer and a mystic, a woman transcending the confining roles that two thousand years of history has assigned us. In this piece, Eve is taking a stand.

Ossuary Barbie

Derrick A. Te Paske

Belmont, MA

Doll heads, modeling paste, padauk

26” x 22” x 4”

$8,500

Ossuary Barbie is related to a series of reliquaries the artist is working on, which reference and spoof “sacred” relics, representing the enshrinement of archaic ideas, such as The Patriarchy, Filthy Lucre, Out of Africa, and Sang de Boeuf. This piece references the skull walls of European “bone churches,” with relics of a mass-produced and sexist product of popular culture. Even now, Mattel claims that two Barbies are sold every second somewhere in the world, more than a billion in total.

William Bloomfield

Lexington, MA

Blue mist alabaster

14” x 9” x 7”

NFS

The artist’s carving process is primarily organic and free-flowing and took place while listening to blues music. The artist started The Blues right before his own cancer diagnosis and finished it after recovering.

The social commentary of the piece comes from blues music — specifically, its social and economic origins. Blues began as the unaccompanied vocal music of poor black laborers who were still standing despite the brutal conditions of slavery. The African American work songs sung in the south were the precursor to the modern blues; often dated between 1870 and 1900, coinciding with the emancipation of the slaves and the transition from slavery.

Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!

Gints Grinbergs

Dedham, MA

Welded steel, found objects and bluestone

87” x 45” x10”

$7,500

As the title implies, this sculpture takes a stand against police violence. Its steel arms are raised and drilled holes from the quarry allude to bullet holes.

American Roulette

Barbara Fletcher

Lowell, MA

Printed paper, cast paper

28” x 28” x 6”

$1,500

American Roulette is a twist on the name Russian Roulette. Roulette is a game of chance, in this case, not knowing where the next gun violence will occur and feeling bound to your house as protection. The eagle is a symbol of freedom and strength.

Case Closed: No Further Action Required

Allen Spivack

Jamaica Plain, MA

Mixed media

72” x 30” x 16”

NFS

Despite the unbearable level of gun and family violence in the United States, and the unrelenting number of mass shootings, nothing seems to change. While some states have made efforts to restrict the purchase of the most lethal weapons, we are a country awash in military-style rifles and high-powered handguns that continue to rein terror on all of us. When these events occur, we may experience a momentary sense of despair, sympathy, even anger and perhaps wonder why our leaders are such cowards. Then most of us turn back to our lives and just go on.

Case Closed – No Further Action Required reflects on the carnage of 20 acts of gun violence in the United States and the unwillingness of many leaders to protect our children, our houses of worship and our streets. Violence certainly didn’t start with us, and unfortunately, will not end with us. The tragedy for all of us is that for the innocent victims, the case is closed with no further action required.

Here is a sample of the text used on each of the file box plates:

MASTER CASE FILE: Sandy Hook Elementary School

TOTAL NUMBER OF MURDER VICTIMS:  Twenty-seven (27)

DESCRIPTION OF MURDER VICTIMS: Twenty (20) elementary school students; 6 adult staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School; perpetrator’s mother.

NAME AND AGES OF VICTIMS: Nancy Lanza, 52, perpetrator’s mother (shot at home); Rachel D’Avino, 29, teacher’s aide; Dawn Hochsprung, 47, principal; Anne Marie Murphy, 52, teacher’s aide; Lauren Rousseau, 30, teacher; Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist; Victoria Leigh Soto, 27, teacher; Charlotte Bacon, 6; Daniel Barden, 7; Olivia Engel, 6; Josephine Gay, 7; Dylan Hockley, 6; Madeleine Hsu, 6; Catherine Hubbard, 6; Chase Kowalski, 7; Jesse Lewis, 6; Ana Marquez-Greene, 6; James Mattioli, 6; Grace McDonnell, 7; Emilie Parker, 6; Jack Pinto, 6; Noah Pozner, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Avielle Richman, 6; Benjamin Wheeler, 6; Allison Wyatt, 6

DATE OF EVENT:  December 14, 2012

LOCATION OF EVENT: Newtown, CT

NAME OF PERPETRATOR: Adam Lanza

WEAPONS USED: .22-caliber Savage MK II-F Bolt Action Rifle and Bushmaster XM-15 Semi-Automatic Rifle

DISPOSITION OF CASE:  Case Closed – No Further Action Required

Below is a list of the 20 cases included in this sculpture:

Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012), Newtown, CT

Columbine High School (1999), Columbine, CO

Eric Garner (2014), Staten Island, NY

Michael Brown (2014), Ferguson, MO

Aurora CO Movie Theater (2012), Aurora, CO

Freddie Grey (2015), Baltimore, MD

Sandra Bland (2015), Waller County, TX

Dallas TX Police Ambush (2016), Dallas, TX

Cain Kills Abel (unknown), Outside of the Garden of Eden

Charlestown SC Church Shooting (2015), Charlestown, SC

Virginia Tech Shooting (2012), Blacksburg, VA

Jonesboro AK Middle School Shooting (1997), Jonesboro, AK

Baton Rouge, LA Police Ambush (2012), Baton Rouge, LA

16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963), Birmingham, LA

Sikh Temple Shooting (2012), Oak Creek, WS

Sutherland Springs TX Church Shooting (2017), Sutherland Springs, TX

Annapolis MD Capital Gazette Shooting (2018), Annapolis, MD

Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS  (2018), Parkland, FL

Pittsburgh, PA Synagogue Shooting (2018), Pittsburgh, PA            

El Paso, TX Walmart Shooting (2019), El Paso, TX