FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2014
Contact: Tamar Russell — 718.974.3328
Two Inspiring Central Mass Artists Discuss the Life of Art
and the Art of Life at ART Sundays event July 6
Painter, teacher and arts administrator Iphigenia Gossios Burg teams up with cutting-edge cartoonist and painter Jen Hemenway to talk about their lives in the arts on the first Sunday in July at the studios of Sitka Creations in Shirley.
Ms. Gossios Burg’s European background — her childhood in Greece and her teen years in Vienna, Austria — contrasts with her accomplished arts career in the United States. After completing her art education at UMass Boston, she lived the life of an arts professional with the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, Calif., also teaching art to middle school and high school students. Her training in such media as oil-pastels, charcoal, and oil and acrylic paints led to her expansion into other media, notably the tapestries, murals and other large-scale projects that are still on display in her old stomping grounds in California.
Returning to New England, Iphigenia branched out into new methods of painting as well as to a new field for her, art jewelry. She has also come into her own here in Central Mass as an arts administrator, currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Leominster Art Center & Gallery.
A native Bostonian, Jen Hemenway began cartooning at an early age and first came to public notice during her days in Minneapolis in the ’90s. Coming of age in the “zine scene,” Jen created her own comic book, 55407, and launched her own small business, 55407 komix. She published her cartoons and distributed her comic book in Minnesota and other states.
Like her colleague Ms. Gossios Burg, Ms. Hemenway also came home to Massachusetts, where she began to exhibit her work at such venues as Roslindale Open Studios in Boston and galleries in Melrose and Provincetown. She really hit her stride with the founding of her custom skateboard company, Upside Skate Decks. Though she continues to paint
on metal, recycled wood and canvas, perhaps her most popular painting surface is the skateboard. The mayor of Leominster famously bought a longboard that Ms. Hemenway had painted “live” on a busy street in town, then raffled it off to a local art aficionado. A local orthodontist displays her work at his offices in Gardner and Leominster, testifying to this artist/entrepreneur’s continuing popularity in Central Mass.
These two charismatic creators will display their work and give their audience an inside view of their always interesting lives in the art world at this installment of ART Sundays.
The event will be held at the studios of Sitka Creations at The Phoenix Park, 2 Shaker Road, Suite D101, in Shirley, Mass., on Sunday, July 6, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
For more information, please call 978.425.6290 or send an email to: . Find us on Facebook.com/sitkacreations, on Twitter.com/sitkacreations, and at sitkacreations.com.
