In this series, we highlight two of the many artists who contribute to the deep creative culture of Concord. Across town, many organizations are dedicated to uplifting the visual arts and artists through exhibitions, educational programs, performances, and workspace.
Joan Kocak
Through the eyes of artist/photographer Joan Kocak, the everyday landscape of New England is a place filled with memory and mystery—the lone tree standing in the field, the wildflowers and grasslands that grow and fade with the coming of the seasons, so diverse and yet one. They create a complex environment to house the many creatures that inhabit this land. The wonder is ceaseless if you pause to look and listen.
“As former graphic artist, I’ve always found photography to be the focus of my interest,” Kocak writes. “From the analog days onward, I’ve watched the medium change and embrace both the old and the new. I search for shapes, lines and patterns in nature that are simple, interesting and instantly attract me. I strive to evoke a sense of place in my images and hope the viewer can perceive the mood of each piece.”
Kocak creates her work using encaustic photography, a process that combines her printed photographic images with layers of heated beeswax and resin, resulting in images that evoke a misty dream. The medium of encaustic dates to ancient Egypt and Rome, where murals or portraits were coated in a layer of beeswax and resin to aid in weatherproofing or sealing a work behind a protective layer. In addition, the coating would create a skin-like realism, especially in portraiture. Encaustic wax essentially served as an early form of framing behind glass.
One of Kocak’s favorite subjects is the conglomeration of flora and fauna that inhabit the meadows and marshes of the area around Carlisle, where the artist resides. The activity there is both meditative and alluring, a true escape from the daily commotion of life. A scenery that seems to stand still at times with the haunting memory of the past and cautious anticipation for the future.
Kocak’s work has been exhibited in galleries and shows in the Northeast and published in several photography magazines.
Cindy Crimmin
Cindy Crimmin can’t remember a time when she wasn’t painting or drawing. As a little girl in love with everything pink, she copied the ballerinas on her bedroom wallpaper with joyous enthusiasm. This love of form and color seems to have never left the artist’s spirit, expressed in both her vivacious personality and illuminated through her work. Crimmin’s pastels are much like colorful jewels that refract light outwards to their viewers, inspiring endless fascination.
A resident of Acton, Cindy became a full-time artist in 2015 after a career as a Spanish instructor and school administrator. During her own student years, Crimmin spent time in Madrid, where she majored in art history and spent many happy hours sketching in and around the Prado. The light that master painters such as Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Sorolla captured with such intensity astounded her. However, it was not until many years later that she realized that she had also internalized an awareness of composition and color. Joining the classes of master pastelist Jeanne Rosier Smith crystallized her perspective as she took up painting full time.
Cindy Crimmin, Friendship’s Gift, pastel
Crimmin writes, “My goal is to explore the interaction between representational and abstract art. Like poetry, what the artist leaves out provides the opportunity for the viewer to join in the creative process.” Leveraging the principles of simple shapes and lines with varied marks to imply a sense of movement and life, the artist depicts her scenes with an abstract approach to landscape painting. As a native of New England, she is also drawn to the quintessential coastal scenery of waves and local gardens as her subject matter.
More recently, she has begun to capture interior scenes characterized by her impressionist style, that leave the viewer with the sense of belonging or the curiosity of who might inhabit them. We all know that moment as we look up from our preoccupation and notice the light falling so gracefully along familiar walls, or the sheer curtain as it disperses the soft light and kisses the colors within.
Kocak and Crimmin are represented artists at Three Stones Gallery. Their work is featured in the show “Eternal Equinox,” which runs from September 4 to October 12. Visit Threestonesgallery.com for more information.
