STUDIO ARTISTS
Since opening our Art & Design Studios in March 2019, we’ve seen the positive impact of accessible and affordable artist work spaces have made for Outer Cape artists.
The Commons artist studios are designed to host a diverse spectrum of artists as part of our mission to support the creative economy of our community.
The mission is to foster the growth of local artists, engage our art community through educational programming, and make art accessible. We prioritize first time local emerging artists while celebrating more seasoned artists as well.
JIMMY LEE CURTIS
My artist name is jimmyleecurtis but the kids call me momma lee . I studied painting watercolor art history and textile design in Michigan, Atlanta GA and London England. I also do collage and photography as well as a bit of sculpture 100 years ago.
I am excited to be working out of The Commons to explore new avenues of creativity as well as hone in on my passion for painting and textile design .
Among my greatest achievements in the fashion world was having supermodel Christy Turlington wear one of my hand painted silk scarves for a fashion spread in British Vogue .
Here in Provincetown I have had great success with an annual art show at LOVELAND every Labor Day weekend showing my painting photos and silks .
Photos by WILD WEST OF THE EAST
MICHAEL JOSEPH PHOTO
Amy Ford
Amy Ford is a mixed media artist whose primary focus is the human form.
She has studied figure drawing for over twenty years, beginning in 2001 in the studio of Italian artist, Maestro Silvestro Pistolesi. As a student of world-renowned Pietro Annigoni, Pistolesi instilled in Ford the classical Italian sensibilities and discipline so apparent in his own work. Ford valued this formative time in her artistic career, but was inspired to persue her own more expressive, emotion-driven creative voice.
BETH FAHERTY
iim into joy.
im into spark and chance.
im a noticer
who is motivated
by the audacity of bloom
and the bravery of flight.
I grew up in Chapel Hill NC, and will talk basketball with you until you politely leave the room.
I am wild about the energy light and landscape of nantucket island and Provincetown, Massachusetts, where I’ve spent the last 13+ years making art and exploring the holy spirals and brilliant tangles of each town. my work basks in these deeply established and arguably inappropriate crushes.
i am inspired by color and texture and am influenced by faded original wallpaper, fashion, and flowers.
in my mind i time travel.
i make song requests.
i tell jokes to friends who arent there.
they always laugh.
https://www.bethfahertyartist.com/
Jaime desousa
Some of the mediums I work in are design, performance, and music. I’m still finding out what art means for me - still trying to figure out the difference between an idea and a feeling.
FRAN O’NEILl
Fran O’Neill Paintings on Wood
After freelancing as an illustrator for over 14 years, I began painting abstract art in the early 2000s, drawn to Mid Century Modern shapes and their simplicity. The clean lines and bright colors energized my creativity. Painting on wood, with its visible grain, added appealing texture and dimension. For over 20 years now, with time spent recently at The Commons, these wood paintings have matured and progressed. My first show called “Simillimum," connects to my study of homeopathy and its principle of similar energies coming together to heal. The boomerang forms recall childhood magnet toys, each magnet radiating unique energy. The wood has its own energy, once living as a tree. Everything is energy - we are energy. I aim to infuse each painting with healing energy through color, texture, and form.
mary gallagher
My work is mostly hand carved in wax using traditional methods and recently I have learned 3d modeling programs to create more mechanical and precise models. I also create custom engagement jewelry working closely with clients to create pieces that are representative of their individual style.
In 2013 I took an intro to metalsmithing class my senior year at Parsons Design school and have beenmaking jewelry since. I became full time in 2016 focusing on sculptural silver jewelry and custom engagement rings.
I am a jewelry designer and maker where I create pieces in silver and gold by either wax carving or 3d modeling- sometimes a combination of the two. My pieces are often inspired by vintage works and the natural land formations that surround us.
https://marygallagherjewelry.com/
cassandra levine
My work is the telling of my history, using a lexicon of iconography that I am constantly generating. When I work it is with an immediacy, energy, and urgency. It is the same sense of improvisation and the capturing of the fleeting ,that excites me about working from observation.I make paintings and drawings every day, the consistency of daily working is very important to me. I enter the studio each day make my “warm up” work,and then I begin working on the paintings.My mindset is “make what I want to make as though I am going to die that day”. My work is autobiographical, with the belief that the personal is the most universal of languages. I’m making bridges to connect to others, not working in shadow. I want the work to be generous.The work is not just autobiographical of my life; it’s subject is life—life lived with the constant awareness of death.
STUDIO ARTIST ALUMNI
Aaron Korch• Amy Ford• Anastasia Egeli• Benjamin Weinryb Grohsgal• Benwa Kramer• Beth Faherty• Caroline Carney• Carolyn Wenning• Cassandra Levine• Cody Sullivan• Daniel Marandola• Daniel Trotter• Daniel Wagner• Donna Pomponio• Fran O’Neill• Grace Carney• Jaime Desousa• James Ryan• Jimmy Lee Penteres• Joey Soloway• Mallory White• Maria Negelescu• Mary Gallagher• Maura Cunningham• Mike Sullivan• Paul Rizzo• Richard Pepitone• Scott Haag• Stephen Strick• Tess Knowles-Thompson• Thor Jensen• Tyler Wood•Zoe Lewis• Wylie Burrell•
CAROLINE CARNEY
CAROLINE CARNEY
Behind the scenes glimpses, views from walks at odd hours, compositions seen from a bicycle inspire me: in restaurants, side streets, early in the morning at a beach or in the dunes. I learned to paint in classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Growing up in Philadelphia, I spent my time after school looking, wandering, and taking photos all over the city or at my parent’s workplaces, an antiques auction house and an architecture firm. These contexts developed my sensibility for composition, understanding of space and objects, and picture making. After visiting Provincetown almost every summer of my life, I moved here in 2020 to broaden my painting practice amidst the exceptional light, architecture, and natural landscape of this area.
https://www.carolinecarney.com/
wylie burrell
My creative work takes the form of an endless repetition of simple shapes combined in endless ways to create monsters of all kinds. My work is fundamentally about intersecting patterns and forms in the name of an idealized perfection akin to the work by Keith Herring, who I think of as having created a perfect simplicity. I have always been interested in the macabre and the morbid, and have been drawing monsters avidly since I was 7. In 2016 I began painting the drawings in my notebook and became obsessed. My work is compulsive and constant. The creatures I spawn are not intended to be frightening nor comical, rather they are a demonstration of control and creation. All are borne from a single expressive shape, usually the mouth, around which I impose rightness and order. The aim of my work is to captivate and hypnotize viewers and to expand peoples conception of fine art. My work is all about a soothing finality and solidness found in color and shape that I hope to extend to others.
TESSERA KNOWLES-THOMPSON
I am a collector of tiny beautiful things. It is rare that I return from a walk without finding a bone or claw or some other little treasure in my pocket. Raw beauty – found in both the mundane and the extraordinary – drives me to create and continue along my exploratory path. Growing up home-schooled in rural Vermont, I spent much of my time roaming around outside with my five siblings. Art was woven into every subject we studied, and drawing was a tool we used to understand the world around us. The ebullient curiosity my family nurtured has remained with me to this day, and has deepened my appreciation for the simultaneous fragility and resilience of nature.
Although I am currently focused on creating two-dimensional illustrations, I enjoy working in a variety of mediums, and will adapt my process to the available materials and subject matter. When I sit down to draw or paint one of my found objects, rarely do I have a plan in mind. I observe the patterns, colors, and textures, recalling what it was that initially caught my eye. From there, the process is both experimental and meditative. My hope is to remind people to look closer, dig deeper, and ask questions; to seek meaning beyond the surface layers; to examine the spaces in between – the forgotten and overlooked, seemingly minute details – and above all else, to pay attention.
MAURA CUNNINGHAM
I have worked in many mediums over the years, beginning in film and later moving into sculpture until eventually becoming a painter.
In my recent work, I am exploring the internal sensations that arise from encounters with external phenomena. I am intrigued by the energetic alchemy and resulting vibrational residue of a given place, person, experience or situation.
Provincetown and The Commons are a bountiful source of inspiration and I am so grateful to get to be a part of this community.
PAUL RIZZO
Paul Rizzo is a painter and sketchbook filler who lives and works in Provincetown Massachusetts. He works with and from 70s gay porn, portraiture, abstraction, houses, and text. His work is also about a nostalgia both for a time he lives in and a time he has not technically lived through. He is obsessed with the past, specifically old Hollywood and the 1970s. A process painter, he loves getting lost in documenting and/or the making of art.
ruby t.
My work is an experiment in translating fantasy to reality, and I am fueled by anger, desire, and magic. Rooted in drawing, my practice has offshoots in painting, performance, comics, fibers, and video. Since 2016 I have been creating a sprawling multidisciplinary project called Mansion Rug Liberation Network (MRLN). MRLN is a very unhinged simulation of a fictional wannabe leftist paramilitary organization turned multi-level marketing wellness business. I play Chloris, their ego-maniacal leader from the future who used to be serious about carrying out terrorist acts against the US political and corporate elite, became distracted by maintaining the collective and worshiping rivers, and now gives TED talks, sharing her tender and inspirational memories of corporate team management in the aftermath of total climate catastrophe and collapse. Through the fiction of MRLN, I produce sculpture, drawings and paintings, cartoons, zines, video and performance (some of it collaborative). In recent years I (while performing as Chloris in the studio) became preoccupied with drawing moving water—particularly the impossible act of representing it. Following the initial obsession, I began marbling paper and silk (essentially creating a print of moving water), and drawing water imagery on the marbled patterns. This action forces a power struggle between the fiction of my lines and the physical trace of water. Sometimes I dominate and sometimes I submit; multiple planes emerge, and I become trapped in the trifecta of reality, representation, and caricature.
DONNA POMPONIO
From a large, hospitable Boston Italian family whose genetics include a propensity to blindness (I have been spared), I grew up aware of the precious gift of sight, and the importance of aesthetics when relating to blind people. Being with them makes you see and explore the world differently.
I started to paint seriously in the 1990s when recovering from cancer, desperately wanting to imprint something of my life’s journey. Possessed almost, to leave a mark behind. My work is rooted in the tensions created through my observations of the human condition.
I had been coming to Provincetown since the early ‘70s and began taking classes in the ‘90s at the Provincetown Art Association & Museum with the late Lillian Orlowsky, one of Hans Hoffmann’s New York/Provincetown students. Other teachers included Jim Peters and Ilona Royce Smithkin. After a ten year period of independent studies, I enrolled at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting & Art History with Distinction & Departmental Honors.
The works of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit, in addition to something like a simple carton of eggs, have all provided equal inspiration for some of my most compelling canvases relating to the elements of human nature. Finally, I would be remiss not to include my love for portraiture in my study of the complexities behind the human mask; lessons learned seeing beyond the surface as observed by the precious vision of blind family members.
RICHARD PEPITONE
Born in Brooklyn in 1936, Pepitone became an apprentice to sculptor Alfred Van Loen in Greenwich Village at age 20, opened his first studio in the East village, studied in Florence, Italy and has been working in Provincetown for over 30 years. Through these years, he has sought variety in creating sculptural forms, working in polyester resin, bronze, raku and copper from recycled pipes.
During the 70s and early 80s, Pepitone created female figures of life size dimension and form in polyester resin in his “Negative Dimensional Form” series, sanding and polishing them to perfection. He moved to bronze in the mid-80s, discovering classical bronze fragments of the female figure more lovely to his eye.
In the late 80s, Pepitone began to think about the pollution generated from his work. Wanting to make his process more sensitive to the environment, he began creating abstractions of the human figure assembled out of found objects.
Finding three weathered oars at the Provincetown Harbor, Pepitone leaned them against the wall and one day they spoke to him. He was led to contemplate abstract figures and images akin to Native American iconography, shields and totems. His highly praised, Homage to the Fishermen, now stands in the park at the foot of MacMillan Wharf in Provincetown.
DANIEL WAGNER
Daniel was born in a small town in northeastern Wisconsin. He remembers always having an interest in the arts. He went on to graduate with a degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota. Daniel worked as an architect for over 25 years, many of those years focused on commercial high rise projects creating many major architectural wonders that dot the skylines of London, Shanghai, Barcelona and Chicago.
In 2008 Daniel retired from being an architect so that he could devote himself to painting. In the first couple of years he did several group shows and then a number of solo shows. By 2012 Daniel had moved to Provincetown on a part-time basis, splitting his time between Chicago and Provincetown. In Provincetown he immersed himself in painting, he saw this as a quest to better understand the art, the artist, and how he could best redefine himself. In 2016 he moved to Provincetown as a full-time permanent resident becoming a member of the local art community. Since 2018 he has been represented by Sarah Jessica Fine Arts Gallery of Provincetown. In 2019 he was one of the inaugural studio artists juried into The Commons. He is a longstanding member of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) as well as The Chatham Center for the Arts.
In spite of all of his training in the Arts and Architecture, Daniel considers himself to be a self-taught artist. His first love and greatest early focus was in Abstraction. When he first started to paint on a full-time basis his works were architectural in nature. Eventually he started to depart from some of the constrictions and limitations of the architectural form, and discovered the human form as a subject matter. He found the human form to be a hierarchy of structures, but believes painting starts with a gesture re-inferring some of the symmetry and nuance of his original training.
BENJI WEINRYB GROHSGAL
Since moving to Provincetown 2-3 years ago, my work has continued to become a mashup of surreality and sexuality. while it's always bordered on that, living here has let me further that pursuit. i work across media, but thus far mostly drawing, painting, cut paper, as well as photographic portraiture (that often combines with elements of paper and drawing). my first art show this last summer here sums things up well: a collection of 20 paintings, under the name 'landscapes' that were surreal moments, sometimes phallic, imbued with emotion and memory and symbolism from my youth and observant religious upbringing. my photography and paper work pursues a goal of 'strange thirst' - creating images that are cartoonish, ridiculous, and weird, but also still sexual and sensual and meant to create desire. i like to oscillate between these extremes of naive cartoonishness and heavy queer themes.
EMMANUEL JACKSON
Emmanuel- who goes by E-man for short, is a visual artist based out of Provincetown, MA. He specializes in pour paintings and digital portraits, through his artistic interests don’t end there.
”I work with mediums such as oil paint, acrylic and software, Clip Studio for painting portraits on my computer, I’ve been making art for the past 8 years, and going strong!”
Emmanuel prides himself on being a self taught artist. He continually experiments with his craft, incorporating a diverse selection of mediums to work with that come together and create the beautiful collections you see here.
Looking for more from Emmanuel? Find his artwork on instagram @EmanPaints where he posts daily.
TYLER WOOD
I'm a 27 year old artist! I spent my first summer in ptown in 2020 and am in love! I would love to create in ptown instead of creating work about ptown, elsewhere. My current thesis came into fruition in the last few months. I was working on two very opposite projects that suddenly seemed incredibly similar. My first series is titled 'Fluids'. It depicts the liquidity of emotions. Each painting is an exact moment to which these emotions (water) flood and rapidly change their shape, willingly giving themselves over to their surroundings, thus creating a new "form" or "structure". This is an expressive series, painted solely with oils and a palette knife on canvas. Conversely, the second series is titled 'Solids'. From recent travels, and being tuned in with nature and its architecture, I began translating what I saw outside into very structured geometric paintings. These paintings are depicting the physicality of nature's architecture. This series is acrylic on canvas.
ANASTASIA EGELI
Anastasia Egeli began painting portraits when she was only seven, making her debut as a painter at a Cape Cod street festival. Educated from childhood in the technical discipline demanded by classic portraiture, Anastasia began painting professionally in 1990 when she was a college student. She came by her talent naturally. Her artistic lineage can be traced back three generations and includes her late grandfather, renowned portraitist and sculptor Bjorn Egeli. Her parents, each a respected and well-known painter, have been her most influential teachers.
Egeli spent numerous summers studying color and light technique in both pastels and oil at the famed school of impressionism in Provincetown, Massachusetts (now the Cape School of Color). She refined her skill for interpreting form and her drawing techniques at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and studied the techniques of oil painting with accomplished artist and teacher Daniel Greene in New York.
“I love the experience of portraiture,” she comments. “Each time I meet a person I have an opportunity to get to know him or her-to sense the individual’s uniqueness and to observe the light-play on the subject and surroundings. This allows me to tell a story on canvas about the person.”
MIKE SULLIVAN
MALLORY WHITE
Artist Statement
I’m a painter because I’m fascinated and I have to explore what I’m seeing, remembering or imagining and then present my discovery. What I observe may not be “noticed” by the casual viewer but I see little “stories” or themes and feel compelled to bring those into my paintings.
My work ranges from representational to abstract. My subject matter is “eclectic” and everything is fair game. My chosen subject matter is often simple in composition and almost portrait like in presentation. Although eclectic, I’m told that the look and feel of my paintings seem to tie together regardless of the subject. I strive for clean hues and my work is very direct or in your face so to speak. I paint figures with mudhead faces, portraits of animals and humans, flowers, still lifes, water themes, the occasional journey to the abstract with a possible touch of humor imbedded here and there. My favorite tools are brushes and palette knives and techniques may include layering and texturing. My materials are oil, acrylic, mixed media, micah flakes and gold leaf usually on Canvas/Linen.
I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of my life in two historic “Art Colonies”, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Provincetown, Ma. The influences of the great painters in both places have been enormous in my life as a painter. The teachers, mentors and artist friends I’ve had have been fabulous. I thank them all for their wisdom and help on my journey.
Contact information: malwhitesf@gmail.com
Phone – 505-660-4222
Web site – paintingsbymallory.com
Mallory
July – October Studio A at the Provincetown Commons
JAMES RYAN
James Ryan is an artist based around New England working in 2-d drawing, collage, and found object arrangement. Interpreting universal symbols through intuition, repetition, and dreams, Ryan creates compositions designed to please the picture plane.
DANIEL MARANDOLA
I am happy to share the skills and talents I possess. I lived in NYC running Queer nightlife for 5 years in a large 3 floor club space and then ran events for a large scale event production company. I can assist in coordinating and creating creative events and shows in this community. My specialty is making an impactful event on limited resources. I'd also be happy to give an introductory class on nail making. If I possess any talent or skill that can be utilized to make this community better, please know that it would make me very happy to donate my time.
SCOTT HAAG
After decades working a full-time corporate job, I started painting again. I began with my passion for the figure. I had been reading Buddhist teachings of the “Hungry Ghosts.” In this realm of life, there are people who are riddled with desires they can never satisfy.
These desires are for safety, bonding and a sense of equanimity. When unmet, human desire contracts and fixates on substitutes. These substitutes can take the form of substance abuse, perfectionism or approval of others. They create tremendous pain and suffering and prevent one from living with greater presence of the moment and love. Because they are ghosts, no matter how much they consume or acquire, they are never fulfilled and are left wanting for more: a leaky vessel. These concepts resonated with me, igniting a desire to visually portray these “Hungry Ghosts.” My paintings try to capture the spectral, gossamer figure haunted by consumerism, loneliness, greed, desire, lust and addiction, just to name a few.
THOR JENSEN
Thor Jensen, a yoga teacher and reiki master with degrees in marine biology and agricultural science, is working towards exploring sculpture more professionally instead of as a hobby. His spiritual practices are pushing him to artistically express that science and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. In addition he is driven to create spiritual tools, jewelry, and objects to help others deepen their spiritual work. His aesthetic focuses on marine life, the microscopic, symbiosis, and evolution juxtaposed with human artifacts, robotics, and the decay of modern and ancient architecture. Combining art and science he creates sculptures and embellishes found objects through processes called electroforming and electrotyping.
BENWA KRAMER
Benwa is thrilled to join The Commons following years of varied creative pursuits. Classically trained in Musical Theater (University of the Arts) and sketch/improv (Second City Chicago), Benwa's time in Provincetown has led to a rediscovery of his love for painting. He currently works in watercolor and acrylic, deriving inspiration from gay mysticism, sexuality, night life, and Provincetown itself. Additionally, he enjoys creative costume construction and prefers to work with up-cycling and found objects.
Instagram: @brotherbenwa
MARIA NEGULESCU
Maria Negulescu is a printmaker / painter draftswoman. She has tracked and worked at various studio in Canada and Europe after receiving her BFA from Mass Art. In 2013 she received the Pollack Krasner Foundation grant for a residency in Woodstock NY. She currently shows prints at some popular book fairs and at Farm Projects in Wellfleet!
STEPHEN STRICK
Stephen Strick is a landscape/seascape painter. Originally from Cleveland, he is self-taught and paints from imagination inspired by the Cape and other coastal places.
CAROLYN WENNING
Carolyn Wenning is a painter, printmaker and mixed media artist living in Pittsburgh, PA. She exhibits nationally and internationally; most recently at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Edgewood Farm Residency in Truro, MA and at the Obras Residency in Estremoz, Portugal. She has been included in exhibitions at Sweetwater Center for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Museum, and The Mattress Factory. Her work has won numerous jurors’ and special recognition awards and is included in both private and corporate collections. As well as producing her own work, Carolyn is a dedicated art educator. She has taught in the public school system and at various universities including Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Chatham University, and the School of Education at Carlow University. She holds an MFA in painting and print media from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. Carolyn Wenning is represented by Boxheart Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA and by The Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland, OH.
CODY SULLIVAN
Saltine is a world renowned lecturer, biologist, ingenue and former financial advisor to the Ford Administration who now spends her time performing her hermit Godson, Cody Sullivan’s, written work. Sullivan is a writer, improviser and painter. Saltine and Sullivan are currently in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Sullivan is in residence at The Provincetown Commons, working on a novel, live film, improvisation and doing watercolors. Saltine is hosting a radio show, My Weekly Release on WELP radio. Cody Sullivan is a contributing writer for Cards Against Humanity. While in Chicago he performed at the iO Theater on the Harold team Roundabout from 2015 to 2017 and later on Dreamboat, the all queer team from 2017 to 2019. In Winter 2019, Saltine completed a five week run of her art history lecture IMPRESSIONS at the Frontier Theater in Chicago. The show had it’s west coast debut July 18th in Portland, Oregon at the Headwaters Theater.