Gallery Seven | Frame Shop & Fine Art Gallery | Maynard, MA

Kate Gardner studied drawing and painting at Boston University under the tutelage of Arthur Polonsky, David Aronson, Reed Kay, and others of the Boston Expressionists. She then began a restless lifelong exploration of mediums that combine the evocation of emotion, with story telling and imagery without benefit of words: To MIT CAVS (Center for Advanced Visual Studies) with Harriet Casdin - Silver (Holography), to Poland to explore dark, moody Eastern European animation, and finally to digital mediums as the field grew and diversified. Once again at a cross-roads: Kate is returning to the physical mediums of paint and clay: hoping she can apply what she has learned along the journey.

Dave Griffinʼs parents gave him his first camera at age 9 and he has been photographing the world around him ever since. He considers himself a storyteller who uses visual imagery, sound, and the written word to connect people to the water, landscape, and animals which surround us. An avid kayaker, he has spent the past 10 years photographing the Assabet River and its tributaries. Dave practices “conservation photography” - a photojournalistic ethic which strives to retain a level of authenticity by never altering the essential content of the images.

Edward Hastings grew up in Concord, MA and the surrounding towns. Art in some shape or form has always been a part of the Hastings family. As a child Edward dabbled in pastels and oil, but found watercolors were the most rewarding. He has vacationed in the Pemaquid, Maine area for the past 40 years. He has always been inspired by the beauty there, from the rocks the Pemaquid light is perched upon, to the spectacular sunsets on Johnʼs Bay. It has been the subject of many of his paintings. Edward and his wife Theresa lived in western MA for five years which is the inspiration for some of his most recent work. He now resides in Maynard, MA.

Wilson L. Hunt, Jr. describes his work as being abstract. It comes out of his imagination. Many works are on paper, which he tapes to a painting table, sometimes wets the paper, and lays down the first strokes of paint, one stroke being a response or complement to the one before it. He looks to build up a dynamic structure and a strong form. There are many analogues to music in his process. He has listened to much modern jazz in his life, and his work mirrors the improvisation in jazz. He is enamored of color and it is extremely important in his work. He believes his work has an organic look, which comes from an appreciation of the sometimes chaotic beauty of nature. As well as nature, he has been influenced by the history of painting in the 20th century. Abstract expressionist painters like De Kooning or color painters like Wolf Kahn are inspirational. He has a B.A. in psychology from Harvard with additional coursework in fine arts, visual studies and literature. He has also studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Nick Johnson has been a fine art photographer for over 30 years and he has been teaching photography at the New England School of Photography in Boston for the past 16 years. He has an extensive exhibition record including pieces in the permanent collections of the Danforth and Fitchburg Art Museums. This work has been created in the studio using rocks and flagstones. The flagstones are often cut into shapes, chiseled and sanded, and all of the stones are painted to remove color variations. The light source is one light bulb shining through a white sheet, stretched over a wooden frame, giving the feeling of natural light. The idea to build his subjects grew out of a difficulty in finding things to photograph that looked and felt like what he could see in his mind. The motivation behind this work is the belief that there are new levels of dimension and harmonies to be found within the formal visual language.