March News

This month Sign of the Dove Gallery features works of

Mary Eng, Donna Karl, and Sholeh Regna.

Celebrate coming of spring, and enjoy %10 discount on the works of our three artists of the month.

Mary Eng

Mary Eng produces mugs and cheese plates, covered casseroles and small pots in functional stoneware. Their soft colors are appealing, and they call out to be used. “My passion,” she explains, “is creating pots suitable for everyday use that are expressive and beautiful.” 

Drawn to pottery decades ago when she saw a turquoise vase in a shop, Eng works at home in her basement and at Mudflat Studios in Somerville. She says that pottery has taught her patience, planning and persistence, “and it is so much fun.” Working in a very different second medium, Eng also does paper collage, using paper from magazines and tissue paper, paint, pencil, leaves, straw, and similar materials. She offers her designs as note cards.

Donna Karl

Donna Karl makes stained glass and has been doing so since 1997. She is not sure what drew her to this craft. “It wasn’t my childhood in rural Illinois,” she says. “It wasn’t college where I became a nurse. And it wasn’t the 25 years I worked as a nurse practitioner at Boston Children’s Hospital caring for newborns and their families.” It was most likely her love of art as a bold or sometimes muted representation of color and light. This is the magic of stained glass. These two elements work together. They never compete, but their combined beauty and spark can free emotion from the furthest reaches of the human spirit.

She began with lead came because her first teacher at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education made and repaired church windows. For years she worked in lead, however, more recently she has diversified into copper foil technique. “It is more versatile and less weighty than lead came,” she says. “My stained glass is light and contemporary. I have begun using more wires to create three dimensionality and detail. This unique technique is seen in the feet of the Delaware hen and the black markings/small branches in the birch forest panel. One new panel that I’m excited about is a 9-inch-square grid of leaves in various colors and textures. The current series of vegetables and fruits, flowers, and fish can be seen on my Instagram tag, cambridgeglassroots.”

Sholeh Regna

In addition to sculpture, Sholeh Regna paints, makes prints, and creates jewelry. She feels completely free to move between all the media, traditional and new, to pursue an idea.  Her work aims at evoking a sense of connectedness with, and reverence for the natural world. She exhibits her jewelry, ceramic bird sculptures, and bird monotypes at Sign of the Dove Gallery. You can find the full range of her artwork at her Vernon Street studio during Somerville Open Studios.

Her porcelain jewelry draws significant inspiration from the landscape of Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Western Newfoundland. Her reversible marbled birch earrings are as light as a feather, featuring an abstract painting on each side.

The bird sculptures are ceramic wall reliefs, or freestanding.  Though not an exact likeness of the feathered creatures, they aim to capture the spirit of the bird they represent.  They are hollow, allowing for a positive message to be nested inside them, thus making them a keepsake.

You can find reproductions of her monotypes, as well as her cards of various birds at the gallery.

Receiving degrees from Harvard University Extension School in Information Technology, and from Boston University In biology , She has been working as a visual artist in Somerville at her Vernon Street studio. She has been teaching sculpture in the Boston area since 1993. You can sign up for her basic sculpture, portrait, and ceramic classes at: Sholeh Regna Studio

Website          http:/sholehregna.com

Blog                http:/sholehregna.com/wordpress

Instagram     http://www.instagram.com/sholehregna_art

Facebook        http://www.facebook.com/sholeh.regna

 

Exhibition Announcement

Susan Tornheim, one of our members, has two of her felt hats and a felted scarf  in a show, “Artful Nature,”  at the Belmont Gallery of Art. The show continues through April 10. The opening reception is on Friday, March 13, 6-8:30 p.m.  She will be at the gallery Saturday, March 7th from 2:30 to 4:00 pm.