Early in March I asked Kit Rebecca and Lauren Audette if they would be interested in collaborating with me to build a large, mechanical dragon. Equipped with a few books on automata, some YouTube videos on mechanical transmission, curiosity, hubris, and many friends who came through at every stage of the project, we have made the journey and arrived here, ready to share our creation!

Maximena Alice Lee – MAL – is making her first public appearance this weekend on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. For FIGMENT Boston 2019

I hope you’ll come see us!

Thursday, January 3 – Sunday, January 27
Opening Reception: Friday, January

To make art involves a push: tools on surfaces, hands on materials, minds on ideas. As artists we push into next steps and unknown territory, we push against deadlines and push ourselves to make a thing we haven’t seen before, then push to bring it forward to be seen by others. With these concepts in mind, the Kingston Associates present Pushing Forward. Kingston Associates are members of Kingston Gallery who meet regularly throughout the year, extending the breadth of the gallery community through meaningful engagement and contributing to the exhibition season with high-quality contemporary art and their annual group theme-based exhibition. Associates exhibiting in Pushing Forward include: Jamie Bowman, Steven Cabral, Anthony Falcetta, Jane Lincoln, Brian Littlefield, Rachel Mello, Rachel Sevanich, Rachel Thern, and Anne Sargent Walker. The artists are exploring, discovering, responding, and transmitting thoughts onto paper, canvas, and into the gallery space. Experiencing these works, viewers feel how “push” can be sustained as a resistance against pressure, whether from our own lives or from the wider world with its always-breaking news. The action of pushing can be explosive, a force opening up potential in a process that has stalled. It can be curious; lifting corners, investigating edges, quietly determined to find something of value. A push, at its simplest, transmits energy. Make a thing, make a change, make a decision, make another change. The clock is ticking and it moves in one direction, so push on, push ahead, find a way to stay in motion. Pushing forward can be exhausting. It can also be exhilarating.

I’m gallery sitting today at Kingston Gallery until 5pm. Come down and say Hi! That’s my piece, She Works the Lines, there on the right. I’m enjoying all the attention it’s getting today.