Library exhibit previews new art coming to Brookline Art Center

Wicked Local photo by Mark Thomson

Brookline artist Evelyn Berde has her work on display at the Gallery in
Hunneman Hall at the Public Library of Brookline as a part of a group show of
upcoming installations at the Brookline Arts Center.

By Laura Paine/staff writer

Wicked Local Brookline
Posted Aug 26, 2010 @ 06:57 AM
Last update Aug 26, 2010 @ 06:03 PM
Brookline —

A new installation at the Brookline Public Library gives visitors a preview of contemporary
artists who will be exhibiting at the Brookline Arts Center in the coming years.

Emerging and established contemporary artists from eastern Massachusetts have provided
glimpses of their art in a variety of media, from painting, drawing and photography to ceramics,
collage, jewelry and cast metal sculpture in “Attractions: New Art Coming to the Brookline Arts
Center”. Susan Navarre, executive director of the BAC, said this allows for art to become a part
of residents’ everyday lives.
“There are some people who make art each day,” she said. “Many of us do not make art but
enjoy going to see it, and may only get to a museum once in a while. I think it is a terrific thing
that when you are going to the library, you end up being able to see the artwork that’s being
made right now, by your neighbors in the community. It is so neat to see people living at the
same time you’re living and experiencing the world — the same news, culture and issues — and
they’re responding to what they see by making their artwork and communicating something to
you.”

Gerald Shertzer is a watercolor artist who moved to Brookline 10 years ago upon retiring from
his teaching position at Phillips Academy in Andover. He is exhibiting a variety of pieces in the
Brookline Public Library, including a piece he painted a few years ago, entitled “Brick City.”

“It’s a painting of an idea of Boston both as harbor and as a collection, originally of mostly brick
buildings going back to the 17thand 18th century,” Shertzer said. “Behind the brick of the older
buildings are glass and steel. I like that painting because it shows a history as well as a modern
interpretation of the history.”

“Brick City” is reminiscent of a series of paintings on which he is currently working, which was
inspired by his move from the suburbs of Andover to the cityscape of Brookline, which he said is
like coming back home. 

Two other pieces featured in the gallery preview include works that he described as being “very
blue and white.” One is of a winter mist, an image of blue mist lifting off buildings, giving off a
cold feeling between the blue and white colors. The other painting has a similar “icy-cold”
feeling of blue and white, entitled “Cascade.”

“I grew out of what I was doing at the time,” Shertzer said. “I was experimenting with all one-
color backgrounds, and I hit upon a dark blue and blue background to then work on. I hit upon
white to work on the blue and it just turned out that way. It was kind of an experimental series of
paintings based on the backgrounds.”

Evelyn Berde has been a resident of Brookline for more than 26 years and said she has raised
both of her children in a “great, connected neighborhood” in town. She grew up in Boston’s
West End, where she was acutely aware of being an artist from an early age. Her paintings
resemble a mix of her childhood and adult life in the many roles she performs, including artist,
mother, wife and teacher.

“My pieces as the library are a part of a large installation of work called, ‘Leaving the River,’”
Berde said. “The whole exhibit is still developing as a memoir.”

The installation had its premiere at the Massachusetts College of Art in November 2009 in the
Arnheim Gallery. Her piece, “Madonna in Pincurls,” can be seen as a part of the exhibit in the
library. It is a portrait of Berde’s mother, holding one of her babies on her lap. The painting is
done in acrylics with a number of other materials added for the finished worked.
“I chose to paint my mother and brother in the tradition of mother and child,” she said in an e-
mail. “She was totally devoted to being a ‘good’ woman in the ‘eyes of the church.’ She had five
children, the oldest drowned in the Charles River at the age of 9. [The painting] shows a woman
who kept going in life because of her belief system. After my brother’s death, she kept raising
children, hanging clothes, baking cakes, putting her hair up in pin curls, being a ‘dutiful’ wife,
praying and going to church.”

Berde said that despite the show, her mother struggled with sadness, repressed anger and all of
the confusion of being a woman in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. Her own memory of the drowning
of her brother is the focus for the painting “Leaving the River.” It was her art that helped her get
through her pain.

“I have always been aware of being an artist,” Berde said. “When I was a child, I drew on
everything in the apartment. Every lampshade in our living room had my marks underneath the
shade. Art helped me survive all of the challenges of life. My passion is to help people find their
inner creativity and weave it through each day of their life.”

The exhibit is now open in the library until the closing reception on Sept. 30, which takes place
from 5:30-7:30 p.m. The public will have the chance to meet both Shertzer and Berde in addition
to the other 21 featured artists.

Laura Paine can be reached at lpaine@cnc.com.

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