Of late, I've been exploring their public galleries.
The Trustman Gallery at Simmons College is a teaching gallery --- it's part of their arts program, and is used to teach the students how real-life artists work and grow --- but it's open to the public and free. http://www.simmons.edu/trustman/
The artist whose work is current on display is Nona Hershey.
You can explore the above links for more info, but these four images show an interesting evolution in the style and content of her work.
In this, one of her earlier works, she's superimposed weather symbols on a large print of clouds; a weather map as an abstraction of nature.
As her work progresses, the weather symbols become less defined, more stylized, and more integral to the weather itself.
Later on, her work reaches a level of delicate abstraction only hinted at in the first image in this series.
I really like that one.
From there, she cuts loose and loses the last vestiges of weather symbolism, instead placing random shapes and markings on the clouds.
There's more to the exhibit; and more to the gallery. One of the things I liked was seeing the teaching implements left near the artwork --- french curves and drafting templates, for example --- that a teacher much have used to show the students how Hershey constructed her artwork. It made the gallery seem very vital and alive --- not a stuffy museum, but a living classroom.
Nice venue!
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