From mid November 2006 until early January 2007, Kristine Taylor ’01 displayed select pieces throughout the first and second floors of The Club. According to the artist, “My work gives breath to geometric-sign-based painting by pairing diagrammatic imagery with explosive mark-marking as a metaphor for simultaneous control and realease, stillness and chaos. The forms in each painting come from sources such as cirus tents, tantric drawings, mathematical diagrams, atmospheric observation, and memory of physical experiences. I then manipulate these sources and shapes so that they unfold, explode, or dissipate out of saccharin stability into imaginative uncertainty.”

Taylor grew up in Southern California. She received a BA in Studio Art from Williams College in 2001 and an MFA from Rutgers University in 2006. As an undergraduate, Taylor won NCAA titles in springboard diving and started for the varsity volleyball team. In 1999, she won a Wilmers Memorial Travel Fellowship from Williams, was a printmaking resident at the Santa Reparata Graphic Arts Center in Florence, Italy, and in 2001 received a Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship Award in Art from Williams to provide financial support for her artistic endeavors over eighteen months. During this time, she worked in North Adams, MA, and was featured in a handful of group shows as well as a two-person show, Heliotrope, at the Spencertown Academy, in Spencertown, NY.

While at Rutgers, in addition to receiving Teaching Assistant Competitive Pool Fund Awards in 2005 and 2006, Taylor participated in the MFA Biennial at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE and a group show at the Kunsthochshule fur Median, Cologne, Germany. Taylor was a 2007 Resident at the Vermont Studio Center, made possible by an artist grant from VSC.

At the time of the exhibit, she was working on series of small (25 x 21 in) paintings of unwinding geometric forms that yield, via the liquid properties of paint, into dissipative chaos.

From early September through mid-November 2006, Kathryn Wasson Pritchard displayed select pieces throughout the first and second floors of The Club. Kathryn is an award-winning international painter who works with oils, pastels and watercolors. Exhibitions of her work have been held in London, Bermuda, Mexico City and the United States. Kathryn has studied at the National Academy of Design, Williams College, the University of Belgrano in Argentina, and was an art major at the University of Colorado. She has also studied with renowned artists Lee Hershey, Ed Epping, and Karen Bokert, and also served as a docent for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Clark Art Institute. Her paintings can be found in private collections throughout the world. Her studio is located in Williamstown, MA.

She writes that, “Williamstown and environs have provided endless possibilities to explore in my paintings. In particular, flowers have provided an entry into the natural world, with field and town an integral part. The title of this exhibition, “Looking Out, Looking In,” represents my approach to painting what I see: the physical reflecting the spiritual. What do we all see when we really look? Painting the flower reveals the spirit of life that is within everything. There is more than just the flower, the field, the town... we look out to look in. In Williamstown, it seems easier to look out and in because change appears to move at a slower pace. The past is a part of the present. I can see the whole picture. The light and color in the paint itself helps me to connect to the inner world of whatever I am painting. After traveling the world, I can honestly say, Williamstown has it all.”

Barbara Ernst Prey is considered one of the foremost painters active in the United States today. She graduated from Williams College in 1979, writing her honors thesis in art history with Lane Faison. She earned a masters degree from Harvard University and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, enabling her to travel, study, work and exhibit extensively in Europe and Asia. Her artwork is included in prominent collections throughout the world.

NASA commissioned her to do her Discovery painting, unveiled at the Club in January, to celebrate The Discovery Shuttle’s Return to Flight this summer. This is her fourth NASA commission. Her painting ‘Columbia Tribute’, was unveiled at the National Air and Space Museum Tribute Dinner. A print of the painting with a quote from the President was presented to the astronaut’s families. She was commissioned by NASA to paint the International Space Station, which is currently on exhibit with her painting of the Columbia Tribute, at the Kennedy Space Center. She joins an elite group of American artists who have been invited by NASA to document space history including Norman Rockwell and Robert Rauschenberg. Dr. H. Lester Cooke, former National Gallery of Art Curator who guided the NASA Arts Program comments, “future generations will realize that we have not only the scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age but artists worthy to keep them company.”

She was invited by the President and First Lady Laura Bush to be the official artist for the White House Christmas card. In Talk of the Town, The New Yorker wrote, “Barbara Ernst Prey may be, at this moment, the most widely viewed painter in the world.” Her painting was made part of the permanent collection of the White House and her card was on display at The White House this December. Barbara is an artistic ambassador for her country, having been chosen in 2005 to participate in the United States Arts in Embassies Program, which promotes national pride and cultural awareness by presenting the work of influential American artists to a broad, international audience. Her paintings are on exhibit at the United States Embassies in Paris, Madrid and Oslo.

Barbara was honored by the New York State Senate with the Senate’s “Women of Distinction Award”. She joins previous honorees Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt. The Women of Distiction program was created in 1998 as a tribute to outstanding New York women. In addition to historic figures, the Women of Distinction program also recognizes present day women whose achievements merit them special tribute.

Pam Jennings ‘78 is an artist and practicing Psychoanalyst who was born and raised in New York City. She moved to DC in pursuit of her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, which she received in 1984, and she completed Psychoanalytic training in 1994. In 1995, Pam started studying art at the Art League in Alexandria, Virginia. Her four years of study at the Art League focused on figure and landscape painting. Past exhibit sites have included The Rock Creek Gallery in Washington, D.C., The Limner Gallery in New York City, The Art League Gallery in Alexandria, The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, The Smith Farm Center for the Healing Arts, The Washington Hospital Center Cancer Institute, The Department of Human Services in Washington, DC., The YWCA of the National Capital Area and the Yellow Barn in Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Jennings works primarily with the human figure, though her paintings include landscapes and still lifes as well. The themes of her portraits emphasize the importance of art, culture and individual achievement in helping men and women establish self-mastery. Specifically, the selves described by her work show their victories over the helpless and scary elements of the human condition. Her passion for strong color and her use of light bring life to her paintings.

The exhibit included “Splendor in the Berkshires”, a title which plays on the name of the famous poem and movie Splendor in the Grass. The painting expresses the exquisite nostalgia that the artist felt following her 25th college reunion, and was originally shown in an exhibit that focused on reclaiming or recreating lost moments, opportunities or people.