Marblehead exhibits its artistic side

MARBLEHEAD — The Festival of Arts held an awards ceremony for local artists at Abbot Hall last week.

The showcase featured sculpture, mixed media, painting, photography, drawing, and other mediums.

Artist Nicole Alexandrou won the Don Howard Award in the category of mixed media for her piece, “Nature Anthology.”

Alexandrou also had a piece in the art show titled “I’m Just a Girl” which was sold at the art fair.

Her piece, “Nature Anthology”  was a collage from years of inspiration from poetry and language.

She said she “infused text with visual imagery” which showcased how the two can be linked, or how one can be inspired by the other. She added this theme is at the center of a lot of her art

Her print “I’m Just a Girl” was the first piece of artwork she ever sold, Alexandrou said.

The print is inspired by female figures such as Princess Diana and Avril Lavigne, who she said have inspired her throughout her life.

She said she took the phrase, “i’m just a girl,” which has recently gained popularity over social media, and used it to portray the dichotomy between strong female icons and being a simple girl as a way to give power to the phrase.

“It’s a completely different feeling when someone who doesn’t know me and someone who I don’t know is responding to my art. It is really exciting, especially because I’m pretty new to the art scene,” Alexandrou said.

“It’s exciting to start to feel a little more like a professional in the world, and see that people have a response to [my art] and that it’s a good response and people want to see what I have to make.”

She said winning the Don Howard Award in the Marblehead art community was “very honoring to me because I have grown up here my whole life,” adding she took art classes at Acorn Gallery when she was younger.

Emma Oliver won the Honorable Mention for her work “The Ram.”

Oliver said she grew up in Marblehead, and the Festival of Arts influenced her love for art and creating.

She said she tries to submit to the contest every year. For her award, she was inspired by a trip to Iceland where she saw a lot of sheep.

She said winning the award was “awesome. It was kind of like a childhood dream.”

Bradley Rogers who received the Outstanding Work award for black and white photography said the photo was a picture of his father on the last day that his shop was open, which was Bruce Rogers Jewelry on Atlantic Avenue.

The shop was open for about 40 years and closed this past October.

“I was there helping him close the shop. That was actually the last day, and I had put up that sign in the morning, and the light coming through was just really nice,” Rogers said.

“It was sort of an emotional day. At some point, he just stood by the door and looked out,” he said. “The way the light was coming in and the way he dressed, in all black, and the way his black clothes made a silhouette against the light coming in, It was just a nice moment,” Rogers said.

He added because his father “was a character on Atlantic Ave,” he decided to submit it to the festival. “I had never submitted to any photography shows before,” he said.

Rogers added, that winning the awards felt “particularly special” because his wife, Katie, also won two awards at the same festival.

Katie Rogers won first place in Adult Poetry in the Literary Awards for her piece  “Mud Season.”  She said this piece reflects the “monotony and difficulty of having very young children.”

She also won an honorable mention in poetry for her poem titled “Let Me Begin Again.”  This poem was the third edition of a series that offered a “female perspective” to include in a conversation among other poems that were written by men.

She said she draws inspiration for her poetry from her experiences. For the last three years Katie has been running writing workshops which has helped her develop her poetry alongside other writers she added.

Winning the awards “made me feel really proud, and it made me feel very included” in the Marblehead community.

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