MassMusings

Isabelle Crawford is a visual artist and muralist from Akron, Ohio. She recently obtained her bachelor of arts degree in studio art from the University of Akron. Isabelle has a passion for community engagement and fostering positive social change through the arts. She has participated in many public mural projects including the Parsons Avenue Mural Hop, Akron’s Art Bomb Brigade, and collaborative mural projects in the Canton Arts District.Isabelle is currently working full-time as a Registered Behavior Technician. Isabelle wishes to honor her commitment to working in healthcare and incorporating art into her practice. She is eager to share how visual art can be a form of therapy. She believes that the arts play a vital role in healing our psyches.Isabelle’s exhibition “Pure Potentiality” can be viewed in Studio M through April 26, 2026

Susan Snipes is an interdisciplinary artist based in Cleveland, Ohio, whose media installations respond to the anxieties and disconnection of the digital age. Working with video, sound, digital devices, and often incorporating interactive elements, she creates spaces that invite reflection and dialogue.Susan holds a masters of fine arts degree in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a bachelor of art degree in Art History from Case Western Reserve University. She has exhibited nationally and regionally, with highlights including exhibitions in Texas, California, and CAN Triennial in Cleveland, Ohio. An active advocate for her community, Susan founded NEO Art Opportunities to connect Northeast Ohio artists with exhibitions and other resources. She also established UNDERSTORY, a contemporary art space in Cleveland dedicated to showcasing emerging conceptual and media artists.

Cleveland-based artist Katy Richards focuses on the materiality of paint and representation, exploring themes of life, death, and desire.Katy earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a master of fine arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her artwork has been exhibited in numerous group shows, and she has had three solo exhibitions at HEDGE Gallery in Cleveland. She also attended the Vermont Studio Center Residency.  Richards is a recipient of the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council and the Waterloo Arts Trustee Prize in Painting from Waterloo Arts Gallery. She received second place in the realism category of the Paul and Norma Tikkanen Painting Prize from Ashtabula Arts Center.In the interview, Richards mentions a few artists who have inspired her, including Jenna Gribbon, Ambera Wellman, and Corrie Lynn Tetz. Listen to the complete interview to hear more, and to learn all about Katy's painting process! 

Eric Anthony Berdis is an artist and educator from Erie, Pennsylvania. Their Studio M exhibition, Bugs That Crawl, Flowers That Bloom includes hundreds of quilted bugs created by community members, embellished and assembled by the artist on and around large quilted panels. Some of the bugs were created by participants in a Do the Mu workshop in 2024. Do the Mu is a free intergenerational drop-in art session held at MassMu on the first Saturday of each month. Berdis is a member of Grounded Printshop, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, and the lost artist-run space Little Berlin, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has shown artwork at numerous galleries and museums, and has held residencies at Waterloo Arts, Bunker Projects, and the Inner-City Neighborhood Art House. With a BFA from Slippery Rock University, a post-baccalaureate degree from Tyler School of Art’s Fibers and Material Studies Program, an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an MEd in Early Childhood Education from PennWest Edinboro University, Eric is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Art Education at Penn State University.

Greg Martin is a Cleveland-based artist who incorporates a wide variety of mediums in the creation of 2D and 3D works. He explores the unique polarities found in the natural world, industrial history, and the digital age with a focus on the seen and the unseen. A Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, Martin has exhibited in duo and group exhibitions, and in solo exhibitions at Fabrica de Arte Cubano in Havana, Cuba, as well as SHED Projects and the Cleveland Foundation, both in Cleveland, Ohio. Greg is a three-time recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, most recently in January of 2025, as well as numerous other awards and grants. His artwork is housed in a wide variety of public and private collectionsHis exhibition is a reflection on the impermanence of life, a reminder of the transitory nature of mortality and its role in society. This artwork is a meditation on the fleeting nature of not just our mortal selves, but of literally everything that makes up life.Greg’s exhibition "Memento Mori" will be on display in Studio M August 16, through September 28, 2025.

Maxmillian Peralta is a painter from Cleveland, Ohio. In his most recent artwork, he alludes to an atmosphere of tension, insecurity, and fear experienced personally, but also collectively by his generation. The artwork takes the form of highly exacting acrylic renderings of spaces, both tense domestic spaces and impossible exterior spaces.Peralta received his bachelor of fine art in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2021. In 2022, Massillon Museum selected him as a Collective Artist Network Triennial award exhibition winner. Peralta’s honors include a National American Visions Medal and the Anne Gund President’s Traveling Scholarship. Peralta was also commissioned by LeBron James to paint the cover of the inaugural issue of his magazine, The Program, in 2022. Peralta currently resides and works in Cleveland.His Studio M exhibition Flat Affect is on display through August 3, 2025

Tom Bartel spoke with MassMu staff recently. His exhibit "Figure as Memento: New Ceramic and Mixed Media Artwork" is on display through June 8, 2025.Tom Bartel has exhibited his ceramics internationally in more than 375 solo, group, juried, and invitational shows. He maintains a studio in Athens, Ohio, where he is a professor and the ceramics chair at Ohio University. Bartel’s artworks are constructed to refer to both the body and charged, stylized, surrogates for the body such as dolls, toys, and figurines.Learn more about Tom Bartel's exhibit on our website:https://www.massillonmuseum.org/home/exhibits/detailpage/figure-as-memento-new-ceramic-and-mixed-media-artwork-by-tom-bartel

MassMu staff sat down with Emily Olszewski before her exhibition was installed to talk about her studio practice.  Her Studio M exhibit "Playdates," is on view through April 13, 2025.Olszewski is a figurative painter based in Akron, Ohio. She earned her bachelor of fine art in painting from The University of Akron in 2019 and her master of fine art from Kent State University in 2024. Her artwork draws from pop culture and themes of feminine communication and community. She has had solo exhibitions in the Akron and Cleveland areas, and recently she participated in the SPRING/Break Art Show in New York City.

Today, we have a conversation with Mario Arteaga, our current Studio M artist.  His exhibition is titled Heated, and it is displayed through March 9th. Mario has a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising with a minor in Accessories. In 2024, he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in Jewelry, Metals, and Enameling from Kent State University, and currently teaches in that department. He also works as a CNC (computer numerical control) machinist apprentice at Kennametal in Solon, Ohio. In the exhibition Heated, Mario relays the emotional connections between his family, fear, and his own world view.The Massillon Museum appreciates operating support from the Ohio Arts Council and ArtsinStark, marketing support from Visit Canton, and the support of the citizens of Massillon. This exhibition is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.Views and opinions expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the museum.

On today’s episode of MassMusings, we interview current Studio M artists Grant Ederer and Stephen Tornero about their exhibition A Fair Trade, which is on view through January 5, 2025.A Fair Trade features ceramics by Grant Ederer, and weaving by Stephen Tornero. To create the exhibition, the artists traded artwork over several years to inspire one another. The result is like an elegant improvised duet expressed through repeated shapes, textures, and colors in the gallery space. Learn more about the artists below, or click here for further exhibit information.Grant Ederer is a ceramicist living and working in Akron, Ohio. He studied industrial design at Pratt Institute (2016), which cultivated his interest in functional, sculptural, and tactile characteristics of clay. He uses a wide variety of techniques in his studio practice including wheel throwing, hand building, mold making, and slip casting. He is inspired by biomorphic forms and how they interact with architectural lines and elements.Stephen Tornero is a textile artist and art teacher from Canton, Ohio. His weavings focus on using color with dye and resist techniques to create patterns on the surface of the cloth. Using a mixture of traditional techniques with nontraditional methods, he creates artwork that pushes textiles as an art form while maintaining their connection to the past. Stephen teaches art to middle school students and art education courses at Kent State University.The Massillon Museum appreciates operating support from the Ohio Arts Council and ArtsinStark, marketing support from Visit Canton, and the support of the citizens of Massillon. This exhibition is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.Views and opinions expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the museum.

Through the Looking Glass is an exhibition of porcelain sculpture by Ohio-based artist Kimberly Chapman.Chapman works through a female lens, exploring the lives of fiercely independent women who lived on the fringes of respectable society. Tiger trainer Mabel Stark and sideshow performers Myrtle Corbin and Kittie Smith are among the women portrayed in the Studio M exhibition.Chapman focuses on what women endure, shedding light on dark subjects, including insane asylums, silencing women, the worldwide refugee crisis, and domestic violence. Her creamy white objects force the viewer to contemplate universal cruelty and injustice through the female lens.“It’s in my DNA to heavily research past and present offenses and find creative ways to make something solid that says, 'This really happened and is still happening today,’” Chapman explains. “I like to think that I’ve joined the ranks of feminist artists that stepped beyond their comfort zone and used art to amplify women’s issues.”She employs hand-building, slip-casting, and press-molding techniques. She stretches the clay to create an “otherworldly” appearance, using clear glaze and luster to avoid obscuring the essence of the clay’s natural beauty.  Since her 2017 graduation from the Cleveland Institute of Arts, where she won the school’s most prestigious award, Chapman's work has been featured in more than 50 solo and group exhibitions in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Before that, she used her marketing degrees from Cleveland State University and Ashland University during three decades of marketing corporations and colleges.The artist’s article “Out of the White Cube” was published in Ceramic Monthly in October 2022. Other feature stories include: The Cleveland Arts Network Journal, March 2021, Cleveland Magazine’s Community Leader, February 2020, Northeast Ohio’s Canvas, Spring 2019, and Ceramics Monthly, December 2018.A member of numerous arts organizations, Chapman serves as co-chair of the Cleveland Institute of Art Advisory Council and is a member of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Women’s Council.

Massillon-based artist Emily Bartolone explores, through her artworks, the intersection of shape and color and how those elements can express human experiences and relationships encountered in daily life.  Emily Bartolone obtained her BFA from the University of Dayton, and her MFA from Kent State University.  Her artwork has been shown at Project Gallery V, New York; the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati); Abattoir Gallery(Cleveland); the Galleri Urbane (Dallas); the Oceanside Museum of Art (San Diego); and the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, among other venues.  Her paintings have been featured in publications such as Art Hole (London) and Okay Cool Magazine (New York).  Bartolone was awarded first place in the 2024 Miami University Young Painters Competition for the William and Dorothy Yeck Award. 

Raw Material is a solo exhibition by Katie Davis that explores themes of feminism and domesticity.  Davis is a mixed media painter and installation artist.  Her color choices and visual language have a direct relationship with her materials, which are sourced from retro interior design trends and textiles.  The artwork uses formalism and abstraction, held in tension with whimsy and playfulness.  Her rich surfaces combine layers of paint, lace, buttons, old curtains, or clothing.  Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, and her artwork has been published in New American Paintings, Archer Magazine, and INPA 10, among other publications.  She is represented by Sarah Gormley Gallery, and is also a faculty member at Columbus College of Art & Design.

On view in Studio M from April 6–May 19, 2024Portrait of US  is an evolving audiovisual archive of intimate stories told by ordinary people. The artists Monica Jane Frisell and Adam Scher create the audiovisual portraits in their Nomadic Photo Ark, a roaming black-and-white darkroom and art studio, as they weave across the United States.Frisell and Scher visited Massillon with the Nomadic Photo Ark from September 25 through October 6, 2023.  Their Studio M exhibition will include audiovisual portraits of Stark County residents whom they interviewed, along with other portraits from the project.  

McDonald creates large-scale oil paintings that are tied to reality, but exist in a different place. In Another Life: A Tale of Love, Loss, and Living explores the artist's inner world and how it has been affected by her experiences.  She is influenced by religious texts, mythology, and pop culture. In her paintings with vivid colors, she depicts women in environments where they are free to be themselves. In other, more realistically-colored paintings, her self-portraits face the viewer, reflecting the constraints of expectations placed upon her as a woman in contemporary society. Themes of feminism, love, loss, freedom, and heartbreak are present in all of the paintings. The artist, who works and lives in Massillon, received her BFA in painting from Kent State University in December 2023. She has been making art since she was a child, when she often visited the Massillon Museum. While she was working on her degree, bands invited her to paint during their performances. Her live music paintings were featured in the exhibition Frequency of Color in September 2023. McDonald paints large-scale oil paintings in her Massillon studio. Her new body of artwork explores the hidden aspects of love.

Elena Masrour, an Iranian artist now based in Birmingham, Alabama, works as a visiting assistant professor at Birmingham Southern College. She received a master of fine arts in painting from Kansas State University in 2022 and a bachelor of fine arts in fabric and textile design from the Tehran University of Art in 2013.Drawing inspiration from her homeland, Masrour’s artistic vision centers on the profound impact of religious propaganda over the past four decades, particularly after the Islamic Revolution. Through her art, she sheds light on the social transformations that have ensued, with a specific focus on the experiences of modern Iranian women.

Set the Twilight Reeling is poised to be an emotional experience for visitors. Carlson (1954–2020) communicated using a language of line, colors, space, form, contrast, and gesture to express narrative, and above all, feelings. The artwork draws in visitors and reminds us to recognize the experiences of others and find ways to connect.  Carlson wrote of his own work, “It is important to me, to paint my conviction about the subject, the spirit and less of the details. I choose the most barren, perhaps most brutal way to say what I want strongly and with the fewest possible things necessary.” The artist was dedicated to creating and to the creative process, working constantly in multiple media.Alexandra Nicholis Coon, MassMu’s executive director, noted “John channeled the weight of his emotions into a creative process.” She explained he had so many stories to tell and were it not for his life being cut short, would undoubtedly have continued to impact the Northeast Ohio art scene, and the country, with his powerful paintings and expressive artistic voice. “Massillon Museum is honored to represent a portion of John W. Carlson’s prolific career in the form of this exhibition and full-color catalog.”This exhibition and the accompanying catalog introduce the complexity of Carlson’s artistic life. The exhibition’s aim is to create an atmosphere of connection, a goal aligned with that of the Massillon Museum’s mission. Set the Twilight Reeling includes videos, sketchbooks, and items from Carlson’s studio to communicate his intention, thought process, and working environment.  The studio objects function as the record of a process. Carlson makes it clear through the videos in the gallery that he is speaking directly to his audience, acknowledging them in a direct, informal manner that creates a connection through the screen. Although not present in person to experience audience responses and people responding to one another at this exhibition, the spirit in which the artist created, and lived, will undoubtedly be alive in the gallery space. 

Born in 1982 and raised in the Midwest Rust Belt, Ish Ishmael is a documentary-style photographer, an installation artist, and a vagabond. Infatuated with exploring the diverse approaches that humans take in late-stage capitalism, Ishmael traverses the arteries of the USA in her Toyota minivan, seeking disparate threads of commonality through the collective American dream. Ishmael weaves together conflating experiences between the lines of her vastly constructed boundaries. She holds a BFA from Seattle University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. 

Hilary Gent, a Cleveland artist who works with oil and latex mediums, is inspired by the urban and natural landscape. She earned her BFA from Kent State University in 2003. Gent’s paintings are included in public collections such as The Cleveland Clinic, Summa Hospitals, Sherwin Williams, cARTa, Hilton Hotels Corporation, and numerous private collections.Gent has spent the last fourteen years staging public art exhibits, launching art walks, and planning elaborate receptions for individuals and organizations, all of which have transformed the way residents and visitors view the Northeast Ohio Region. She was one of the first visionaries to plant roots at 78th Street Studios, where she curates art events through her HEDGE Gallery, which now represents 20 regional artists.Gent has served on the board of SPACES Gallery and volunteered with the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Association and ARTneo. She currently serves on the board of The Print Club of Cleveland. Gent’s paintings begin with inspiration from the extensive color palette she sees in reflections of light, landscape, and other objects in and on the water. Touch, sound, and sight conjure a personal connection with the water’s surface. Layers take shape through pouring Sherwin Williams latex paint onto the canvas while it’s flat.The artist says water's movement and energy is ever-changing, similar to the cycles and patterns of motherhood. She translates these unpredictable, turbulent, joyous, and blissful moments with imagery inspired by the temperament of Lake Erie.“Becoming a mother is an emotionally charged experience, like waves on the water, both wild and wonderful, Gent says. “In this specific series I have imitated some of the extremes felt in motherhood such as exhaustion, euphoria, anxiety, and tranquility by experimenting with a variety of different pours and colors. Sinuous strands represent blissful and sleepy movement, while thicker layers of and darker color hues represent heaviness and strain. Water ebbs and flows. It carves paths, can be peaceful or violent, and is a symbol of resilience.”

Sarah C. Blanchette is a photo-based fiber artist who works out of the Detroit area. Through repetitive acts of hand and machine sewing and physical manipulations of the self-portrait, she documents her coming of age in a digital world while embarking on a journey toward growth and autonomy in womanhood.Since establishing her studio practice in 2015, Blanchette has exhibited nationally and online in galleries, museums, zines, blogs, and artist-run spaces. Alongside her practice, Blanchette is the co-founder of the artist collective, Critical Stuff.Blanchette holds a BA in journalism and studio art photography from Oakland University (2015) and an MFA in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2017). She is a Juried Artist Member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) and a member of Embrace Creatives.About her Studio M exhibition, the artist writes: “Moving through grief, time, and the end of a transformative decade, I explore my origins in an effort to grasp this new life.”

The exhibition analyzes "shadow selves” and their relationship with the “seven deadly sins” and how each is necessary in coming to terms with true balance, even though the process may cause internal conflict.Davon Brantley reflects on personal narratives and experiences to shape his body of work. Using an amalgam of materials, he heightens meaning erratically in self-portraits that convey heightened emotional states. Childhood trauma and life experiences—a motif throughout his artwork—allow him to tackle multiple issues through development into adult life and maturity.Through larger-than-life portraits, Brantley leads viewers through his mind as if they were watching a play, utilizing dramatic compositions, absurd realism and characters that act out certain emotions and themes in which he plays all the roles.Brantley earned his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in drawing. He has exhibited in and curated shows at Bay Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art, CAN Triennial, Morgan Conservatory, the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, and the Museum of Creative Human Art, all in Cleveland, as well as Indianapolis Arts Center.The artist has worked with community organizations in Cleveland such as the Museum of Creative Human Art and Graffiti HeArt. He furthered his investigations in printmaking with DeepDive Art projects and the Cleveland Institute of Art. He has participated in mural activities and advocated for younger artists.

Prairies to Peaks features detailed watercolor paintings, and pen, ink, and graphite drawings recounting the artist’s 1,000-mile solo bicycle trip from Cleveland to a summer job, where she worked and lived on Mt. Elbert—Colorado’s tallest peak.  Viewers are invited to contemplate women in adventure sports, the beauty within stranger interactions, the country’s magnificent nature, the horrible destruction America has faced due to colonization, and other complexities that are associated with outdoor recreation.Alison Alsup, born in Delaware, Ohio, is currently studying drawing and painting at theCleveland Institute of Art, having also completed a semester abroad at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Palestine.

“Imagine walking into a space dominated by tactile and juicy paintings, surrounding the viewer in an immersive paint and process experience,” says Jordi Rowe of her Studio M exhibition, Blueing of the Light: The Gloaming. A dozen of her paintings are on view from February 4–26, 2023.Rowe is a painter, pathologist, and mother who alternates between creating artwork, practicing medicine, and parenting. She is a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Her artwork primarily focuses on nature, sky, and water, creating spaces approaching the sublime. She often integrates elements of growing up in the Canadian Rockies and Big Sky Country.

Coty Giannelli’s photography has been seen previously in Massillon Museum exhibits Massillon Tiger Football Boosters and Tiger Legacy: Our Tiger Football Family, both in 2012, and the 2019 Stark County Artists Exhibition, when he was awarded an Honorable Mention.Giannelli earned the “Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio” honor in the 2013 Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar. That year he also earned two awards of excellence: “College Photographer of the Year’s Portfolio Category” and "College Photographer of the Year’s International Picture Story Category.” He was honored for “Individual Excellence” by the Ohio Arts Council in 2017 and 2019.Having lived with his grandmother for much of his life prior to military service, Giannelli moved back in with her when she was 92 and needed help taking care of herself. He made images of her daily life to have as a remembrance of her, and the exhibition, Days with Delsie, evolved over time.  “The daily stress of being a caretaker with little natural support started to get to me,” Giannelli said. “I started dealing with some depression, anger, and guilt issues.”  Days with Delsie turned from a celebration of his grandmother's life to a way to vent about his life as a caregiver. By sharing this intimate view with others who are going through the same thing, he hopes it brings others comfort to know that they are not alone.  

Get to know current Studio M artist Barrie Kaufman on a new episode of our MassMusings podcast! Her exhibition, A Fragile Environment, is on view through November 30, 2022. In the exhibition, Kaufman interprets the natural world with a sense of wonder while addressing its fragility.Barrie Kaufman is an award-winning, international artist from West Virginia working in print media, painting, glass, and ceramics. She has been creating art for thirty-five years, making personal statements about the environment and social consciousness. Her background as an art therapist and art educator has informed her work.This year, the artist received a Folk Arts Grant from the West Virginia Department of Culture and History and a grant from the National Endowment for The Arts for a one-person show and residency at The Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, WV. Previously, she has received residencies in Virginia, Quebec, West Virginia, Georgia, and France. Honored as West Virginia Artist of the Year in 2014, she has twice received the Taipei (Taiwan) Mayor’s Award at the International Print Biennial.Kaufman’s artwork is in the public collections in Taipei Taiwan; Trois Riviers, Quebec, Canada; Charleston and Huntington, WV; Marietta, OH; Rutgers, NJ; and New York, NY.

Amber N. Ford is an artist and freelance photographer based in Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Her work explores Blackness, identity, and culture while questioning the accepted idealized conceptualization of “truth."Ford's images are featured in "Missing History of Massillon: Unheard African American Stories".

Get to know current Studio M artist Daric M. Gill on a new episode of our MassMusings podcast! His exhibition, The Absolutes: Big Small Stories is on view through September 21, 2022. Gill holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Cincinnati in sculpture and interdisciplinary art, and a bachelor of fine arts degree from Columbus College of Art and Design in sculpture and painting. He is a former adjunct professor at the Columbus College of Art and Design. The Absolutes is a series of oil paintings on reclaimed wood. The subject matter is intentionally minimal, full of symbolism, and often blends the line between artifact and narrative display.  The series has been exhibited in Galerie Raskolnikow (Germany), Lolo Taller Galleria (Cuba), Czong Institute for Contemporary Art Museum (South Korea), the John F. Peto Museum (NJ), the Edward Hopper House Museum (NY), George Billis Gallery (Los Angeles and Chelsea, NYC), Center of Science and Industry Museum (OH), and the Columbus Museum of Art (OH). Gill’s metal sculptures and portrait paintings have been exhibited alongside the works of Warhol, Picasso, Calder, and Lichtenstein. He has displayed and sold his work internationally.  Gill received the 2019 Artist Exchange in Dresden, Germany; a 2019 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award; and a 2018 Visual Arts Fellowship from the Greater Columbus Arts Council. 

In this episode of MassMusings, we interview current Studio M artist Steven Mastroianni about his exhibition, Scurograph, on view from June 11 through July 27, 2022. Mastroianni’s current work explores the intersection of drawing, printmaking, and photography. Scurograph, according to the artist, is evocative of watery depths, imaginary galaxies, and mysterious maps. These luminous images create an immersive dimension with their own logic and rules of scale and space.

 Our MassMusings podcast season 2, episode 2 features a conversation with photographer and educator Gary Harwood alongside the Museum's Curator of Football Heritage Bailey Yoder, and our Archivist Mandy Altimus Stahl. Gary Harwood worked with the Massillon Museum on the original Tiger Legacy exhibition, which opened in November of 2012, and the subsequent version in 2015 which coincided with publication of an award-winning catalog. The current iteration of the project, Tiger Legacy: The Story Continues is a continuation of the original project. This exhibition is on view through July 10, 2022, in the Paul Brown Museum.  

Welcome to season two of MassMusings! In this episode of we interview current Studio M artist Michael Gill about his exhibition "The Grownups Keep Talking/Nobody Knows Why" which is on view through June 1, 2022. 

"Alex Vlasov: I Promise to Make a Fabulous PTG Tomorrow" is on view in the Massillon Museum's Studio M gallery from February 5 through April 6, 2022. Vlasov is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Cleveland Institute of Art with a Major in Painting and a Minor in Art History. The Museum presents this university student exhibition in Studio M to provide a venue for an emerging artist.

Join us for a special conversation with past Studio M artist, Carole d'Inverno. Carole exhibited "Transumanza: Massillon, Ohio" in the Museum's Studio M gallery from December 7, 2019, through January 26, 2020. "Transumanza" is an Italian word that loosely translates to crossing the land. “As a child growing up in Italy, each Spring during the full moon, I was awakened by the passage of shepherds driving their flocks of sheep to the upper reaches of the Apennine Mountains. The sounds of hooves, bells, dogs barking, and low whistles seemed magical,” d’Inverno said. “Transumanza is, for me, both an action and a metaphor that can be applied to the historical changes that have shaped the United States: our shared history of crossing lands, breaking boundaries, accessing and losing territories, our comings and goings.” The New York City-based artist delved into the history of Ohio and Massillon—glacial-age fossils, native mounds, the beginnings of the state, the story of Massillon’s founders and their legacy of abolitionism, the Ohio and Erie Canal, football, and the steel industry. “Everywhere I looked there was a story to be told. The work I produced for this show is, then, a kind of visual storytelling,” she said.

"Susan Byrnes: The Viscosity Series" is on view from December 11, 2021, through January 26, 2022, in the Massillon Museum's Studio M. "The Viscosity Series" includes vividly colored artworks inspired by landscapes that are made from transparent and opaque polyurethane cast into a shallow mold, a process of the artist’s own invention. Although the artwork is presented as wall-mounted, two-dimensional works, they have depth, weight, and density because they are made by pouring pigmented layers of viscous liquid into a shallow, flat mold.

Amy Swartelé: Supernormal is on view in the Massillon Museum’s Studio M from October 16 through December 1, 2021. Amy Swartelé lived in five countries before the age of 18, a nomadic experience that evolved into her love of travel and the strange. She learned early that what was considered normal or valuable in one place, was strange or devalued in another.Swartelé envisions a group of characters—imaginary friends and alter egos—as carnival sideshow performers. “Where people break out of the little boxes of what is considered normal, is where I find people being most human and genuine, and that is more fabulous and interesting than the polite masks we so often wear to fit what we perceive to be society's expectations. I think we are all ‘other,' I think we are all supernormal, and I think we should embrace and celebrate that fact,” Swartelé says. The carnival, she explains, was a place where all members of society, no matter how different from each other, could mingle and interact, and traditional norms and expectations were put aside for a time.Finding connections and dialogue and emphasizing the value of difference and discourse seems paramount to the artist. Her paintings playfully merge a range of styles and media because that process, for her, reflects the range of human possibilities. She sees how very different things can fit together without taboos. This family of sideshow characters melds species, genders, the animate, and inanimate.

Learn all about "Hoard Couture: Where Art Meets Fashion", on display in the Massillon Museum's Studio M until October 6.  Judi Krew's ongoing wearable art series uses clothing design to creatively display a collection of items, explore contemporary social issues, and works with unconventional materials as textiles.  

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of speaking with Carlos Jones from Carlos Jones & The PLUS Band for a new episode of our podcast, MassMusings! We had such a wonderful conversation, and are excited to share it with you.

This episode of MassMusings features a conversation with internationally acclaimed artist John Chang.  Born and raised in Shanghai, China, the artist is currently based in Southern California. His solo exhibition in MassMu’s Studio M runs through August 11, 2021. In Ink—Transformation of Calligraphy  accentuates the visual and human aspects of the characters, the mark, and the gesture, transcending the text and the medium, extracting from language meaning beyond its surface value. 

Join us for MassMusings Podcast Episode #3, our in-depth conversation with CAN Triennial Exhibition prize winner and current Studio M artist Rebecca Cross.  Cross exhibits her artwork nationally and internationally, including in New York City, Sweden, Paris, Budapest, and Nagoya, Japan.  Cross is fascinated by mining the ephemeral potential of transformed materials, where line is made by shadows and delicate forms hold the memory of solid objects.  Her exhibition is on view in Studio M through June 16, 2021.

Join us for a conversation with our current Studio M artist Andrea Palagiano!  Palagiano's exhibition "Self-Conscious" is on view in Studio M through April 25, 2021.  Her exhibition reflects the relationship between introversion and projected self. Palagiano’s references to mythology dovetail with MassMu’s 2021 NEA Big Read, which is based on "Circe" by Madeline Miller, a book that reimagines the life of a sorceress in Greek mythology.

Studio M Coordinator Emily Vigil and Administrative Assistant Anna Young from the Massillon Museum interview photographer and current Studio M artist Alana Cartwright. Cartwright speaks about her new exhibition, Clothed in Resilience, on view from March 6 through March 28, 2021. Please note this episode contains discussions of sexual violence.