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Oxford Dictionary defines "Stillness" as the absence of movement or sound. Stillness can be a moment of solitude, the calm surrender that we feel during mediation, the quiet moment just before a storm, or the tranquility of water. We invite artists to depict the stillness within and around them.

  • Reception: Friday, May 19, 2023, 6:00-8:00 PM
  • Exhibition Dates: May 20 - June 17, 2023
  • Gallery Hours are every Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 – 6:00 p.m.



Our Guest Juror: Claudia Paraschiv

Claudia Paraschiv is an architect, public artist, and educator. Born in Romania and raised in Los Angeles, Claudia now lives with her family in Salem MA, where she started her design practice, Studioful Design in 2016. Studioful takes on a varied constellation of projects for more meaningful living and engages people to participate in the transformation of their worlds as purposeful places of stewardship, democracy, social gathering, self-expression, and imagination. Claudia will continue these explorations as the 2023 Public Artist in Residence (PAiR) on Artists' Row with her project the Tree of Care + Wonder / Árbol del Cuidado + del Maravillas, a large scale sculpture of a whimsical tree featuring migrant stories and a magical canopy!
 
The Tree of Care + Wonder / Árbol del Cuidado + del Maravillas will transform streets in Salem into community spaces of art and friendship to demonstrate the potential of streets to do more than move cars: local artists (poets, visual, musicians, dance, and theatre) will collaborate to produce civic-art events centered on migration stories, food memories, local history, and novel visions of how a future city might take care of and bring wonder to its residents. 

Visit studiofuldesign.com for more information 

Awards





  • “Gypsy Woman” By Joshua Diperri 

    The powerful gaze of this woman caught me right away. Full of ambivalent emotions, layered emotions like her layered fabric, lace and soft folds, revealing layered time. Perhaps I was reminded of my grandmother, who recently died, the feeling of all that we hold in our bodies, all the experiences of a lifetime of memories collapsed into our bodies. I feel the beauty of that weight of experience in this piece.

  • –  Claudia Paraschiv, Salem Public Artist in Residence

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  •  “A Dream of Bah-nah-nah” By Charles Lang

    Yes! this is what the banana dreams of. I felt such joy upon encountering this small painting. It brought to mind a song my four-year-old daughter made up: “Banana, banana, eat your head…” went her surreal refrain. In this case, we see what is in the banana’s head, and it is so much more than we thought. In stillness, the imagination thrives, explodes even.

     –   Claudia Paraschiv, Salem Public Artist in Residence

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 “The Hermit” By James Bostick 

  • Stillness can feel awkward, uncomfortable, somehow even illicit when there is much we could be doing. The intriguing work dares the viewer to contemplate their own efforts to be still. The composition creates an entire world that seems to have been created just so, for this particular moment of stillness. Sometimes we have to bend the world to our needs.

     –    Claudia Paraschiv, Salem Public Artist in Residence

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“Alma’s Buoy”
By Ken Hill

  • The quality of the water in this painting is so interesting, appearing like a veil at first glance, then like concrete or marble. The quality of the light also brings to mind that elation one experiences when moving fast can feel like standing still, whether in a boat, car, or riding a bicycle. 

     –    Claudia Paraschiv, Salem Public Artist in Residence

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    “Native Sun at Home”  
    By David Jaramillo

    • The composition showcases the beauty of each material as an individual element, and as part of the whole. The strength of the wood shown through its lacy quality and also the form of the triangle – the most stable shape. The shell, a circle at the center. The leather to tie the corners just enough. The chosen materials juxtapose textures in a thoughtful way that is not over-wrought. Together, the dialogue between these materials speaks to a deep history.

       –    Claudia Paraschiv, Salem Public Artist in Residence

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      “Pixie Starflower 1”
      By Jessica Murdock  

      • I love the human form’s unique ability to communicate through the language of human gesture. This piece is a classic pose seen here through new eyes. The child’s pose, showing the back and leaving the subject vulnerable as the fingers and toes trail off, and merge with the implied ground, show a compelling fragility, openness, and stillness.

         –    Claudia Paraschiv, Salem Public Artist in Residence

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      “Sunrise in Mallorca”

      By Francois-Xavier De Costerd

      • The palm tree against an ambivalent urban-nature reminded me of my home in Los Angeles. Sometimes there too, in early June mornings, the clouds come down to the ground. This great composition helps me feel the weight of this place, the heaviness of light mixed with clouds, while the spunky palm tree looks on.

         –    Claudia Paraschiv, Salem Public Artist in Residence

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