Pursuits : Elizabeth Thomsen

Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

In 1976, I went to the Brockton Art Center. I don’t remember what the specific occasion was, but my then-husband, a musician, was playing there that evening, and I remember being excited to go with him. We had a baby and I didn’t get out much at the time.

I wandered around alone looking at the exhibit, Michael Mazur, Visions of a Draughtsman and remember being struck by the dark, powerful prints and studies from his Closed Ward series. And when I say struck, I don’t mean I thought “oh, how interesting.” I mean I was dumbfounded, shocked, dismayed, fascinated. These prints and drawings were based on Mazur’s observations of patients when he volunteered at a state mental institution, as I had done at Worcester State Hospital when I was in high school. His works brought back the emotions I had felt there: fear, sorrow, helplessness and just a little pride for forcing myself to come back week after week and act like it didn’t bother me. Looking at the patients in Mazur’s prints, I experienced the same surprising sense of tenderness toward these fragile, vulnerable men and women, and felt myself torn between not wanting to look at them, but being unable to look away. I bought the exhibition catalogue that night, and and have looked through it many times through the years. I still see the sorrow but also the humanity in the patients whose images he captured.

Since that night, I have followed Michael Mazur’s career through books, articles and exhibits, feeling connected to him by what I rather illogically think of as our shared experience. Michael Mazur died on August 18, and though I never met him, he touched my life, and I’ll miss him.

• Michael Mazur; artist reinvigorated monotype; 73 — Obituary by Bryan Marquard from the Boston Globe
• The Art of Michael Mazur — Sideshow from the Boston Globe
• Michael Mazur, 1935-2009 — Obituary by Lloyd Schwartz from the Boston Phoenix
• Artwork from the Late Michael Mazur — Slideshow from the Boston Phoenix
• Michael Mazur — Official website

The Democratic National Convention is about to open in Denver, and I feel like I have a role in the event…not politically, but artistically.

A couple of years ago, I was at a conference in Denver, and I stepped outside between meetings and took a couple of photographs of “I See What You Mean,” Lawrence Argent’s sculpture of a big blue bear that peers through the window of the Convention Center. Not great photographs — I was rather disappointed at the time that the blue came out looking darker and duller than it really is. But I posted them on Flickr anyway. Good librarian that I am, I included the name of the artist and the sculpture in my description, with a link to the Denver city government’s page describing the work.
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Last Tuesday I participated in a professional meeting at Tower Hill Botanical Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts. It’s a beautiful place, and I enjoyed walking around outside during the breaks to take a few pictures of flowers and statues.

But after the meeting, I headed off on a quest to get the picture I really wanted, a shot of Chet’s Diner in nearby Northborough. I have been wanting to get this one for my collection, but I seldom seem to be in that part of the state.
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I’ve started a new Flickr group for photographs of the work of American sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt, 1867-1917.

Pratt’s best-known works include the statues of Art and Science outside the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, the statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne in Salem, Massachusetts, and the statue of Edward Everett Hale in the Boston Public Garden.

Bela Lyon Pratt — Here’s the link to the Flickr group

Bela Lyon Pratt Links

• Bela Pratt — Wikipedia article
• Bela Lyon Pratt — Artcyclopedia article
• Bela Lyon Pratt: Overlooked Designer of Two Underrated Coins — Article by Ed Reiter on the Professional Coin Graders website