artscope magazine: January/February 2010 Welcome Statement: Brian Goslow, managing editor Letters to the Editor roundtable - Three Professionals. One Question. cornered: a conversation with an art exhibition attendee FEATURED ARTIST GEORGE NICK - Reflections of an impermanent world Not Your Typical Photo Place - PHOTOPLACE GALLERY TARO SHINODA: LUNAR REFLECTIONS ODDLY PRETTY PAINTINGS - HANNAH COLE TANGIBLE EXPERIENCE: BRIAN KEITH STEPHENS Belonging and Longing - Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Works on Paper FIXED CHAOS at Montserrat SILENT CIRCLES: THE HEALING - Barbara Gagel FEATURE - Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David Driskell FEATURE - Historic Japanese Kiri-E and Contemporary Tibetan Thangka GOLDEN LEGACY: Original Art From 65 Years Of Golden Books DECEIVINGLY SIMPLE - Charles Duback: Collages EMMA AMOS: HEROES AND FOLK GHOSTS OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE: ZUGUNRUHE wanderlust - The (Right) Brainpower Triangle: The Finest Free Art in Somerville and Cambridge community - THE KATE: A Little Gem With A Movie Star Name industry focus - BUY WHAT YOU LOVE education - SPACE TO DISCOVER: MASSART/FAWC LOW RESIDENCY MFA Capsule Previews

cornered: a conversation with an art exhibition attendee Brian Goslow A conversation with Barbara Hadden: artist, member, co-owner and gallery attendant, Oxbow Gallery, Northampton, MA Dec. 27, 2009. What show is this? “Landscape: Quilts & Paintings,” works by Amy Grabel and myself. Luckily, you’ve caught me here. We all switch around the schedule for sitting. There are 35 of us. How did you join the Oxbow community? I saw a sign at an open studios event at the Brushworks Arts & Industry Building. Another painter from the group here encouraged me to apply; some of the other artists have studios there. Is your studio here in town? I was based in Northampton but I’m in the middle of moving my studio to Greenfield to be closer to home. I just bought a place up there. Have you ever felt compelled to buy some of the art after staring at it for a five-hour shift? No, but I think about it. I’ve traded and swapped work with other artists, but not with anyone here yet, although I’ve talked about it. What's it like being a member here? It’s great. It’s a lot of effort to be a member of any gallery co-op (The Oxbow is collectively owned and operated by its members). It’s a little bit of money, it’s meetings; but it’s also you get to be a part of a community. How is it watching people look at and discuss the merit of your work and whether or not to buy it? It’s happened today. When I first started doing open studios in Boston, I wanted to sell stuff because that’s what everybody was doing. But then, as I kind of went through it, it got to be a stressful day having that idea. The last time I did open studios at Brushworks, I completely let go of the whole ‘I want to sell’ attitude. I didn’t even fix up my studio that much and just left things kind of as they were, with food out, and I had a much better time not thinking about selling things. Do you enjoying going through your work piece by piece with gallery visitors? I do, I do. Because it makes more sense of the making of art. Who knows why anyone makes art but I do enjoy getting feedback. And encouragement. Your show opened at the start of December; have sales been better than usual because people were looking for Christmas presents? Everyone said there was (better sales) but I don’t know if that made a difference. My experience is anytime I’ve sold anything — which hasn’t been a lot — it really doesn’t have to do with the time of year, it is they just really like the painting. In the instance of my works that have sold, I think it’s a sequence of people seeing my work over a period of time and finally finding one they wanted. The same artist that encouraged me to come and apply here bought a painting at the opening that she had seen at the open studio at the Brushworks Building. A woman who bought two of these works had come in when I had a show here about a year and a half ago; she looked for a long time at a little painting but didn’t buy it. So I think it’s an accumulative thing, which is why being in this gallery is a good thing. Has anyone looking for the Beer Can Museum next door accidentally wandered in here thinking this was it? It's never happened. Read the entire article in our magazine pages...