November 22, 2024—January 4, 2025

In the Small Gallery: a solo-exhibition with Best in Show 2023 winner Josy Wright

PRINTS: NATURALLY INSPIRED  
A Retrospective of Etchings and Woodcuts 

The annual Members’ Show features artwork created by the talented artists in the JAC community and beyond. This is a community-driven exhibition where first-time artists, emerging, and established artists exhibit alongside one another.

GUEST JUDGE

Conor Moynihan, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the RISD Museum

Moynihan states, "As a curator, it’s always an honor to be invited to review and comment on art, especially that made in Rhode Island. Making selections for this exhibition was challenging—I was blown away by the breadth and depth of the submissions that just underscore the creativity of the Jamestown Arts Center community."

BEST-IN-SHOW
Margit Burmeister
1973 #6, 2024
Acrylic Mixed Media

HONORABLE MENTIONS 

Molly Kugler Dickinson, Rock No. 1 (Primal Places), 2024.

Kristie Gardiner, Colors of Gooseneck Cove, 2023.

Nina Gozzi, Plant Me After Reading, 2023.

Meagan Hepp, FIRE | Ignis, 2023.

Paul Housberg, Lonely Lighthouse, 2024. 

Christopher T. Terry, Delphic Disco, 2024.

Please note: the Members’ Show is open through the holidays this year. Artwork pick up will be held on Saturday, January 4.

Josy Wright

PRINTS: NATURALLY INSPIRED  
A Retrospective of Etchings and Woodcuts 

ARTIST STATEMENT: “I took an etching class when our youngest was in kindergarten and from then on spent any spare time I had on painting and printmaking.

When my parents built a house on Mason's Island (near Mystic, CT) in 1935, we were close neighbors of Y.E. Soderberg, a well known artist who made beautiful etchings of notable sailboats in that New England area. Many years later I was happy to take an etching class near where we lived. I loved all the intricacies of etching: preparing the plate, drawing and aquatint, the acid baths, timing, the printing. Eventually I figured out how to get color involved (which often involves another plate). The lab printing was lots of work but I enjoyed it and made many etchings. It wasn’t until I found other methods though that I really found my stride.

When woodcuts came along, printmaking was much easier and became even more fun. No lab was required, which meant no toxic fumes for etching plates either. I could do everything at home with wood and linoleum, and the ideas for layering color were limitless. In both etching and woodcut printing methods I found outlets for personal expressions of my life and for the natural world. My prints mainly express my love of being near the water – above it and underneath – my love of raising plants (as well as kids!), our New England rocks and land, and making use of the lively and subtle colors of these environments.

My working time is divided into painting outside in summer and printing in my studio, where I have a small press, in winter. Since I live on an island, my paintings mostly incorporate water. My prints are more subjective and technically diverse, since I find it exciting to mix mediums and to experiment with new printmaking processes. I have used mixed etching, woodcut, collograph and monotype techniques. As I read and research the subject matter for my work I will often find images that produce something entirely different from my original focus. The printing process initiates more changes in concept; pulling a print off the press is always a surprise.” 

—Josy Wright, November 2024

ABOUT JOSY:

Josy Wright was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., 1929, in Brooklyn Heights, a small area with great views of NY Harbor. She attended RISD in Providence, RI and majored in Illustration – learning the building blocks of design and how to organize them. She graduated in 1952 and moved to Cambridge, MA where she spent 5 happy years teaching art to children in Concord, MA.

After her marriage to Harry, a historian, the two moved to PA where he began teaching African History at Swarthmore College. Babies came along quickly after that. They brought their children on all of his sabbaticals to England, Ghana, and several times to Cape Town, South Africa where they made many fast friends. They spent summers in Jamestown and found deep joy in traveling the world together.

The two retired to Jamestown, still surrounded by children and grandchildren nearby. They enjoy their friends, the sea, and many of New England’s artistic offerings. An active member of the creative community, Josy Wright continues to create paintings and prints in her home studio. In 2023, she won “Best in Show” at the Jamestown Arts Center’s Members’ Show for her piece “Fog Lifting,” yielding a retrospective solo show in 2024.