HERMITAGE ARTISTS PRESENT WORK AT JUNE BEACH EVENT
On Friday, June 24th, the Hermitage Artist Retreat will hold a beach event featuring two visual artists and a writer starting at 7:00 pm. The program begins in the Palm House, 6630 Manasota Key Road, Englewood, where Painter and Mixed Media Artist Lorenzo Segovia and Painter, Sculptor and Greenfield Prize finalist Diana Al-Hadid will show and talk about their work. At approximately 8:00, the program moves to the beach, where Poet, Essayist and Professor Sheryl St. Germain will read from her work. Mother Nature’s sunset ends the program at 8:30. Visitors should bring their beach chairs or blankets, along with any refreshments to enjoy outside. Reservations are recommended, should the program need to move entirely indoors, as space is limited. To reserve, call the Hermitage at (941) 475-2098, ext. 8 or email [email protected].
“What a dynamic trio!,” remarked Hermitage Executive Director Bruce E. Rodgers. “We are very excited to have the community see and hear their work on June 24th. In addition to being renowned artists, the group are also here during the month we devote to artists and their families, so some are here with spouses and children in tow. These residencies began as an accommodation to Greenfield Prize winner Vijay Iyer who asked to have his family with him during a summer residency. Coincidently, around the same time, we learned of a need to include families from the Alliance of Artist Communities, our professional organization that helps many retreats, in the US and around the world, serve their artist constituents better. We are proud to say that the Hermitage was among the first artist retreats to provide this opportunity. As a result, the artists can come and do their work, the children are cared for and evenings can offer quality family time within the extended artist family. It’s a gift in more ways than we could have ever imagined.”
Lorenzo Segovia is a Los Angeles-based artist who also teaches at Otis School of Art and Design. On his website Segovia says that his art “hinges on the tension between convention and innovation. It is rooted in tradition while my expression is contemporary through the use of current references, sources, materials, and scope of ideas. The sources emerge from a range of personal anecdotes, art history, and ethnographic motifs. Although painting is the foundation for my work, the art I make incorporates myriad materials and techniques that often reference my own childhood in Mexico, including beads, embroidery, weaving, paper, and carpentry.” Lorenzo Segovia has exhibited throughout the US.
Diana Al-Hadid’s work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, throughout the world. Of those there were 12 solos in the past four years alone. In May, 2015, the LA Times wrote in an exhibit review, “Known mostly for sculpture, the Brooklyn artist has more recently created wall works in which the paint appears to be floating on air. In nine pieces, including one spectacular, site-specific piece, Al-Hadid filters Renaissance imagery through the lens of drippy abstraction and decay. Her work is beautiful and technically marvelous.” Al-Hadid received her BFA from Kent State University and her MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth Universty.
Sheryl St. Germain has published seven poetry books, a translation of Cajun poet Jean Arceneaux and two memoirs. Her most recent book is an anthology Words Without Walls, Writers on Addiction, Violence and Incarceration, co-edited with Sarah Shotland. St. Germain is from New Orleans and presently directs the MFA program in Creative Writing at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, where she also teaches poetry and creative nonfiction.
Hermitage Program Director Patricia Caswell remarked about the family residences and the upcoming program. “This summer, to date, the Hermitage has hosted five artist families, including twelve children. The artists have valuable studio/work hours and then enjoy the beach with their families. This becomes an idyllic story in their collective memories that stays in their family lore. Join us on June 24th and enjoy the art, as well as meet all who now call the Hermitage home.”
The Hermitage is a not-for-profit artist retreat located at 6660 Manasota Key Road in Englewood, FL. It invites accomplished painters, sculptors, writers, playwrights, poets, composers and other artists from all over the world for residencies on its beachfront historic campus. Artists are asked to contribute two services to the community during their stay and as a result, Hermitage artists touch thousands of Gulf Coast community residents with unique and inspiring programs each year. Hermitage community programs are partially sponsored by the Women’s Exchange and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. In addition, the Hermitage awards and administers the prestigious Greenfield Prize, an annual $30,000 commission for a new work of art, rotating among visual art, music and drama. The Hermitage also partners with the Aspen Music Festival and School to award the annual Hermitage Prize to a composition student during the Festival. For more information about The Hermitage Artist Retreat, call 941-475-2098 or visit the website at www.HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
