Open Door Gallery

Brush Works - Lauren Geraghty and Emily Malin

April 25 - July 18, 2014

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by Nesya Sloane and Leia Resnick of the Binah School

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Reception and ArtWeek Event:
April 25, 2014, 4pm to 7pm. Sumi-e demonstration and workshop by Lauren Geraghty at 6pm.

The Open Door Gallery presents an exhibit of Sumi-e ink painting and watercolor created by two emerging contemporary artists.

Artist's Statement: Lauren Geraghty

I work mostly in acrylic paints. I enjoy using rich colors. Color is important to me. I feel like it is clay when I paint. I like to sculpt and mold my images until the image has its own personality. Currently I am working on several series: birds, women, and what I call tattoo or swirl people. I also work in pastels, watercolor, oil craypas and charcoal.

Corporis Artificium was my most recent exhibit of several series where the body image is the subject matter. The line of the body fascinates me. How we move and go is like watching lines flow on the surface of water. People don’t realize the grace and movement of their everyday actions. Simple movement becomes beautiful. I'm able to capture that elegance with lines color. The color should be rich as the spirit that I am trying to portray.

I think women should remember how beautiful we have always been. I hope my paintings remind people of the inner beauty that can come outwards that give women their radiant glow of life. We must take care of that spirit life within us by remembering to be simple.

Emily Malin

Emily is a remarkable watercolor artist working out of Arlington, Massachusetts.

Through her watercolors, Emily provides insight into the lives of fruit, flowers, trees and animals that most of us cannot imagine. Through Emily's artwork we find a way to let a vegetable cheer us up ("Beet"ing the Blues); see the wonder of a piece of fruit (Magnificent Mango) and enjoy the simple beauty that surrounds us. All these things Emily sees, feels and puts into her art for us to enjoy.

Emily's artwork is more remarkable still given that she produces it despite a severe neurological impairment. At the age of 11, when, for most of us, the future holds nothing but promise and the days hold only leisure and an absence of worry, Emily began to show signs of the illness that would eventually lead to a life confined to a wheelchair.

Unable to speak, and with little control over the right side of her body, Emily has, for more than two decades, faced challenges that would overwhelm the best of us. Not content to survive, Emily sought out her passion and early on found that she had a talent (at the prodding of an insightful art teacher); a talent that manifested itself when she picked up a brush.

For more than 20 years now (about as long as she has been living on her own), Emily has been painting. Her work has hung in coffee houses, in galleries and at exhibits. She founded Emily Enterprises (which she operates with the assistance of her mother, Diane Malin) in 1998. Emily Enterprises produces, markets and sells her artwork in the form of Iris prints and note cards.

The most remarkable thing about Emily, however, is Emily herself. While she spends her days as a watercolor artist, she also is something of a weaver. In her presence, you are drawn into laughter, challenge and joy; the laughter is usually at your own expense, the challenge in trying to keep up with her wit and flashing fingers (as she signs her words), and the joy is what we feel when we allow ourselves to succumb to the rich tapestry of the life of Emily Malin.

The Open Door Gallery promotes the work of artists with disabilities and shifts our community's perceptions of ability while enjoying quality art.