Fall Northampton • Directors’ Picks

The 220 artists who are accepted to participate in the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton, MA on October 7, 8 & 9 are the “best-of-the-best” of America’s independent painters, sculptors, and craft makers from every corner of America. Each season, Paradise City introduces dozens of exciting new artists who will exhibit their work in the Northampton show for the first time. 

We are pleased to welcome an outstanding crop of brand-new exhibitors to the show. From those artists making their Paradise City Northampton debuts, we have selected four as our Directors’ Picks. They include a New York jeweler whose scuba diving informs her jewelry, a Massachusetts artist who paints landscapes and seascapes filled with boats and reflections, a Connecticut maker of outdoor benches that celebrate a dog’s life, and a Rhode Island glassblower of sculptural, nature-inspired forms. Please welcome these four and many more new artists to Paradise City Northampton this fall!

Brooklyn, New York jewelry maker Jinbi Park is a Korean artist who has lived in both Japan and the United States and creates jewelry that would feel right at home in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. “My jewelry is inspired by nature’s organic structures — especially those of the ocean, such as coral reefs. When I scuba dive, I draw inspiration from the ocean’s beauty,” says Park. Her earrings, necklaces, rings, and more are inspired both visually and ecologically by the natural structures of reefs; the irregular connective tissues and swirls of connected tubes evoke the shapes of coral itself.

But Park is also dedicated to sustainability, in part to honor the ocean landscapes that have so inspired her. She uses only recycled metals, including silver and gold alloys, and sources her gemstones exclusively from ethical sources. “With global warming, pollution, and overfishing, reefs are dying all over the world. So it is my passion to create art with reef-like motifs to share that beauty with others, some of whom will never see a living reef,” says Park. 

Massachusetts painter Logan Kirkpatrick thinks of the expressive buildings and ships often featured in her oil paintings as portraits, using colors and textures to shape their personalities and emotions. She says, “Painting is a language. It allows me to speak in the void where words are no longer tangible. The physical reflections depicted in my paintings lead me to explore the idea of self-reflection – as if the reflections in the water are showing what the buildings and ships are thinking of themselves, at a moment in time.”

Kirkpatrick’s waterscapes and cityscapes fuse impressionism and abstract art, frequently paired with bold expressive color schemes. The graphic shapes of pastel-colored buildings, evoking a Mediterranean dream, reach for the sky. But the reflections are the key to her work. The wavy, translucent repetition of the architectural forms in water hovers just below the surface, as small boats float gaily above the reflections along the waterways.

Dogs may be a person’s best friend, but as rambunctious children often find out, they do not appreciate being sat on, and will not, no matter how generous their temperament, act like a horse. Connecticut-based Adele Cutrali-Valovich has solved this age-old conundrum in her studio, with The Bench Dogs. She creates elegantly curved two-seater benches of hand-ground welded steel. 

The back rests, though, are crafted of laser-cut 10-gauge steel in the form of any of four dog breeds, cut out almost like a Jack-o’-Lantern. “What makes my benches unique is that I seek to make them realistic, whimsical, portraits of the breed,” says Cutrali-Valovich. Her benches are available in the form of the golden retriever, German shepherd, Labrador retriever, and French bulldog – but she would love the opportunity to collaborate with you on your custom project. She will also engrave the aluminum bone which hangs on the front of each bench with a commemorative inscription. The benches are designed for both indoor and outdoor use, as their steel frame and outdoor cushions can handle the abuse of both the weather and children with ease. In fact, you will find this new exhibitor outdoors, along the Sculpture Promenade.

Shane Dorey is a glass artist who began his career at Thames Glass in Newport, Rhode Island. He has traveled from Hawaii to North Carolina and Corning, New York to work and study glass sculpting. His current focus is “on skulls, shells and animal forms. “Nature, Biology and the interconnectedness of all life has always fascinated me, and my work reflects that,” says Dorey. “I strive for each piece to embody the grace, beauty, complexity and balance found in nature.”

Dorey spent more than ten years becoming adept and successful at making traditional blown glass. Eventually he realized that he “had more in my head and heart than what could be created in my spare time”. He began to focus his glassmaking on sculpture and art. In 2020 he built a glass studio at his home in Little Compton, Rhode Island. There, he creates unique one-of-a-kind sculptures. He states, “My work is crafted with a keen eye for detail and a neurotic dedication to perfect technique.” The influence of his home by the sea is evident in his work, which often features colorful glass conch shells, whales, sea horses, and horseshoe crabs.