Mary Spencer and Sara Fine-Wilson Gaze and Extension

October 2 – November 2

Reception October18, 5 – 7 PM 

Spencer’s drawings investigate gaze as an extension of the heart and a porthole to the past; Fine-Wilson’s sculptures explore visual history and expand a sense of reach.

Sara Fine-Wilson, From the Core,
mixed media Sculpture

Sara Fine-Wilson’s current body of work explores the idea and process of breaking things down and rebuilding them multiple times, as way to create history in visual form. Evidence of where things may have been connected through smudges, smears and stains indicate the passing of time. Material like wax, plaster, epoxy and construction adhesive are raw, oozy, chalky and refer to what lies under the surface of constructed forms. Part of the process of making this work was to crack, drop, and deconstruct various elements and use the resulting detritus as raw material which the artist then reassembled, combining materials in a visual and directional flow.  In this work she is particularly interested in sculpturally mapping time and creating a sense of reach.

Mary Spencer, Jack Singing in the Wind,
charcoal on paper

Mary Spencer’s drawings provide what the glance of an eye cannot….a porthole into the past, a means of more fully understanding the present, and an inspiration for meditations, fantasies. Drawing conveys an emotional quality, a feel beyond the capture of a camera lens; the hand charges an image with energy, beauty or ugliness. The human gaze is the extension of the heart and mind. The face can gape, glare, and gloat. Emotions filter through a face. For this series Spencer has chosen to limit her subject to eye-engaging men from various occupations, as a way to have a conversation with them. What are they silently saying?

About the Artists

Sara Fine-Wilson is an artist and teacher who works primarily in sculpture and also in photography and painting. She earned a  BFA fromThe Maryland Institute college of Art with a Major in Ceramics, a Master of Science in Art Education from Massachusetts College of Art and a MFA in Ceramics at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.PA.  She was a resident artist at The Worcester Center for Crafts. She Her work has been shown at The Concord Art Association, Fitchburg Art Museum, Danforth Museum of Art, Gallery 540 at Urban Outfitters World Headquarters. She is an associate member of the Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery in Framingham Ma where her work is represented regularly. She currently teaches Ceramics and painting. She works from her studio in Millbury, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband Bruce and her dog Arlo.

A Natick, Massachusetts resident, Mary Spencer received her BS from Nazareth College of Rochester, New York and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She taught at Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Spencer has received an ART Grant, a Natick Cultural Council Grant, and a Massachusetts Artists Fellowship in Drawing, the Blanche E. Coleman Award and Fellowships to Yaddo, The Millay Colony for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.  Her work has been shown throughout New England, New York, the Mid-West, Cuba and South Africa. Her work is in the collections of the Boston Athenaeum, the Decordova Museum, the Boston Public Library, and numerous corporate and private collections.