A Family in Art
Is artistic ability inborn? Is there a gene for talent? “A Family in the Arts,” a retrospective exhibit of the works by Pauline L. Hopkins, James S. Hopkins and their children, John, Anne Barrett and Louise Kalin Asakov presents a strong argument for that theory. The exhibit opens at the Walt Meade Gallery of the Roxbury Arts Group on Sat. July 28, and continues through August 29th; there will be an opening reception on July 28 from 4-6 pm.
John Hopkins, a resident of Andes and a well-known local landscape painter writes about the artistic influences in his childhood home: “When I was very small we lived on a farm at the edge of the Roxbury village. My father would come in from the barn after milking and after bathing, and putting on fresh clothes, he would play the piano, anything from Bach to Pop tunes of the times, but most likely Chopin. He was trained as a concert pianist but had as great a passion for painting as he did for music. He sold the farm in 1945 and we moved into the village, ultimately to the "Malcomson" house.
It was before TV, so we sang--we sang in the car, we sang at parties, we sang at picnics. It was a wonderful childhood in many ways. We were raised by two artistic people who assumed that we would develop our own artistic sensibilities in turn. There were all the normal squabbles and disagreements, often quite heated, but after the air cooled, it was still the home of two people who thought in visual and aesthetic terms.
My mother was a housewife with a background in Art Education. She went back to teaching as soon as my younger sister was in school. Keeping house and being a mom was not her cup of tea. She taught art in Roxbury and then in Gilboa until we moved to Cape Cod in 1957. It was then that her great talent as an art teacher came to the fore and she taught for 20 years in the Dennis Yarmouth School System. Many of her students became artists in their own right.
My parents had very distinct talents, abilities, and sensibilities. This exhibit is an expression of those attributes and of ours as their beneficiaries.
John holds degrees from Swain School of Design and the Boston University School of Fine Arts. He has had many solo shows in the Cape Cod area, in Boston and in the Catskills region. His work is held in several private collections.
Louise Kalin Asakov, who makes her home in Columbia County, also acknowledges her parents’ and the Catskills landscape’s influence on her artistic growth: I grew up in the Catskills when dairy farms divided the valleys and slopes of the mountains into geometries of color: hayfields, pastures with cows, and two hundred years of architecture- settlement s of stone & wood, from early Dutch stone dwellings to stoic white Greek Revival farmhouses. When I was nine my family moved to Cape Cod where we had always summered.
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| Beach plums by Pauline L. Hopkins |
Although I drew and painted with my father who was a landscape painter and a believer in pure color- after graduating from Rhode Island School of Design, I continued printmaking and mixed media, which I'd learned from my mother- my art teacher in high school. I began translating landscape into geometric layers of color, reminiscent of American vernacular quilts and architecture. Borrowing from Amish quilts and the color studies of Josef Albers, I adapted a geometric format for color experimentation. These prints grew into mixed media pieces, with collage and markings, resembling textiles. The outside geometry of the squares sheltered the interior landscape- the more delicate, hand drawn images and fragile collages in the center of each piece. They followed each other, becoming triptychs and series.
A fellowship at the McDowell Colony afforded me a departure from the geometric format; I started doing prints of iron markings. I'd dreamt of my forearms and their likeness to naked wood. These became sculptures of peeled hickory sticks, vertically joined, resembling corn shafts, tied, with crows cawing from the tops. Others were nested, painted with graphite and midnight blue pigment, with wooden spheres within (gold leafed in the phases of the moon). The materials and subjects were so much a part of my childhood. The geometric prints were released from their outside boundaries, becoming asymmetrical and soft- edged.
The discipline of making order and arranging things, combined with new printing techniques and hand made papers, leads me forward.
Anne Scribner Hopkins Barrett is the oldest of the three Hopkins siblings. She and Joseph Barrett met and married when they worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic, he as a scientist and she as a scientific assistant. They've lived on Cape Cod ever since, and there they raised their three boys, all of whom know how to sail, survive in the wild, and have successful careers and families. Since retiring from WHOI, Joe and Anne have made their living from selling antiques, organically grown fruits and vegetables, handcast buckles and belts, and sheepskin clothing. Their gallery and antique shop are housed in their 18th century house in Santuit, where they've happily resided for over 40 years. The quality of all that they do is superb, and they are among the oldest and most respected members of the Society of Cape Cod Craftsmen. They grow and sell the the sweetest strawberries, and "the Barrett's legendary tomatoes" .
During all these years, Anne has explored traditional textile arts: weaving, knitting, quilting, beading and now specializes in selling antique textiles and other fine antiques. Seven years ago she began experimenting with shells constructing "sailor's valentines", a traditional art using shells, arranged and glued in delicate patterns on the interior of six-sided wooden boxes. The earliest form of these were made on the Island of Barbados through the 19th century. Anne's work is recognized for it's extreme care, unusual originality and extraordinary beauty. She has adapted and expanded beyond the normal boxes of this traditional medium to include tabletops and fan boxes. Her work is in numerous private collections and available from her gallery shop and through the Society of Cape Cod Craftsmen.
“A Family in the Arts,” is a rare opportunity for anyone interested in the artistic process to see how it manifests itself in such different ways within a single family devoted to the visual arts.
Gallery hours are Mon.-Fri 10-4, Sat. from 1-4, Sun. from 10 am – 2 pm and by appointment. (607) 326-7908.
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| James S. Hopkins |