Scott Cahaly is a Stone Sculptor and Painter living and working in the Boston Area. He never made any art before the age twenty-one while a student at the University of Vermont during the mid-nineties. While a lot of artists add to get results, Scott's is a natural reductive mind. The idea that the image is already there and that the Artists job is to reveal it is his motto! Scott can be found most days carving away at marble/alabaster or teaching others how to..
The New England Sculptors Association, organized in 1948 and one of the oldest sculptors associations in the United States, represents a diverse membership of nationally and regionally recognized sculptors.
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Please view our Member Galleries and Exhibitions pages. Contact a sculptor directly from the Member Gallery, or go to the Contact link to request information about pricing information and availability of sculpture.
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Hello and happy spring to everyone. It is that time again when over three hundred visual artists in Somerville throw open their doors to the public. This is my eleventh open studio.... I've been embedded in this studio for a decade making art and being an artist. I knew from my first art class in college that art was no casual thing for me! My drive to produce beautiful things has been almost in full steam this spring. I have been carving Butterflies out of stone since my return from the Tropical Mecca of Costa Rica. I always look forward to helping new and past collectors in acquiring and owning my work. On that note I have a repository of about twenty older paintings that I have priced at five-hundred dollars or less (20%) off and as always during open studios I honor a (10%) discount on all works purchased throughout the event! This will be the first year I will also be opening up my little carving studio across the hall so people can get a feel for my carving! process! I do hope you can find a little time in your busy spring weekend to see some of my art.
I hope this note finds you well and the sun shining above you.....
I just recently had a photographer over to the studio named Peter Paradise! I have been a big fan of his work for years. So much so that I maid a painting after one of his portraits of a Belly Dancer named Sara Wood! Peter has been a guy I see at community gatherings all the time and has a great rep. as a photographer of local musicians, dancers and hoopers. His work is very clean and very distinctive. He actually told me during the shoot that he hopes people won't like twenty percent of the work he does, this really caught me off guard. Peter arrived around three and it was a clear sunny day and the sun was shining bright in my studio as he detected with his light meter! I am still amazed by the way he brought me out of my familiar facial expressions and set a tone for the kind of pictures he wanted to take. He told me to stop frowning and exude confidence which I think I did in the end! I really appreciate the way he took the image of me that I see all the time and changed it into the image he saw with his camera. I just wanted to take time to post some of the pics here as they are quite good.............
It has now been several weeks since my return from the land of infinite paradise, Costa Rica. I wish I could sum up in feelings and sensations the way I still feel because of this land I visited for fifteen days including my birthday. Since I am blogging I will try to do some justice with words. Paradise, faith, the reward of trusting in self, just to name a few..... To have gotten out of the US and to a new country for the first time in twelve years is EXACTLY what I needed! It took so much emotional, psychic and physical inertia for me to take this trip, I still can't believe it did it. The land itself is like Jurassic park without the dinosaurs. As you are flying into the airport you fly right next to a volcano and arrive onto a land, half mountainous and half coastal! The land itself is like VErmont, Colorado, California etc. all rolled into one! My time was divided up between the Diamante Valley and Dominical, sea side town! Vista after vista of beautiful trees, valleys, sunsets, Trees, waterfalls not to mention some very large spiders and Scorpions. One night while using the bathroom I noticed a huge tarantula spider on the door, so I decided to go elsewhere. This time on the farm was incredible and filled with friends from back home and new friends. After a week here we all emerged into the ocean town of Dominical. This fit me perfectly cause it was my first real taste of the culture of the country. The locals and visitors there, which there are many as it is a big surf town have an expression "Pura Vida" Pure Life which they say and almost wish to each other as they walk down the street! It was in the recognition of this custom that I totally understood and begin to wake up to the blissfull feeling of life these people live each and every day. It was like being born again in the joy that is "Pura Vida." Not that life is not pure everywhere, but in this place, the set is fraught and filled with characteristics of paradise like the temperature, and it was hot, to the sunsets, ocean waves, puffy clouds and all the trappings of the tropics. One of my favorites was the cold coconuts chopped with a large knife and drunk using a straw! I also had the pleasure to experience many "vortexes" while on the coast. Beaches of such beauty and magnetic power, I felt them lifting my own vibratory energy field. On my birthday four of us hired a taxi to take us to a special beach "las Ventanas" the windows. Upon arrival to the beach our friend Jake scaled one of the many coconut trees there and cut down fifteen coconuts from which we drank from the rest of the afternoon into the sunset. They actually put a candle in one and sang me happy birthday. It was the best Birthday ever! We explored to caves within a cliff from which the ocean was whipping into and making a frightening noise. In no other beach in my life have I ever felt such raw power and mystery. We stayed for the amazing Pacific sunset and quickly got off the beach and back to the taxi before it got to dark! IT's funny, this whole day was so amazing and went past in the blink of an eye, like I knew it would. I'm still sitting with the lessons and beauties I learned from this incredible place. I also think I re-met myself, a part of myself I had forgotten about not having taken a trip like this in so long. I know this was the first of many and hope to journey to Peru next to check out Machu Pichu and some of the other temple sights. My trip to Costa Rica taught me how to really trust in myself and the universe......................
Artist Reception: Friday November 20, 2009, 6-8 pm
MunroeCenter for the Arts
1403 Massachusetts Avenue
LexingtonMA02420
781-862-6040
Scott Cahaly: “I am a Lexington native who never made any art until I entered the University of Vermont.As a student there in the mid-nineties, I saw a Picasso exhibit at UVM’s Fleming Museum. This is my earliest memory about art. I just kept going back to that show over and over again, absorbing its artistic inspiration and energy. Today, my modest hope for Blackest Light is that an Art Span student finds his or her way into the gallery, sits on the bench or relaxes on the floor, and absorbs some of the creative energy that I’ve poured into these works in stone, paint, charcoal, and photograph.
"I am both a sculptor and a painter. Even when I paint, I feel that I am dealing with sculptural form. When I tone down color and allow it to fade to black, I’m left alone with form and space, whether I’m working in two dimensions or three. I begin each new work with an open mind and a hopeful heart; no piece is ever planned at the outset.
"Blackest Light is an intimate show that includes work from my earliest art-making days to the present. The common thread among these pieces is their darkness. Yet within each of these dark works, there is light. In some cases, the light is literal, represented by lighter paints. In other cases, the light is provided “off-stage” by the flash of the camera, or is expressed only metaphorically within the content of the piece.
"Two charcoal drawings date back to the mid-nineties and have never before been exhibited; even then, when I was just starting to make art, I took charcoal to white paper and carved away the white space to create figures. At the time, this process was utterly mysterious and completely inspiring to me; I had no conscious idea of where this visual information was coming from. These pieces, although primitive, are filled with visionary figures that emerged unbidden out of my creative subconscious, foreshadowing the reductive process and imagery that were to become hallmarks of the next thirteen years of my sculpture and painting. Lastly, the show also includes a Paul Weiner photograph, taken using a flash in my Somerville studio, of me and a large marble statue I carved by hand from a 5000 pound block of marble.
“I am very pleased with the way this show emerged, and am most grateful to the MunroeCenter for hosting it.”
I planted my Dharma seed deep into fertile Vipassana soil. A ten day silent retreat and almost a hundred hours of sitting meditation. Equanimity and Attention my wings, mindfully soaring into and releasing some deep rooted, extraneous patterns. Very grateful for this ~Crystalline~ chapter in the big book of my life. Please contact me with any questions about this empowering process.
12TH ANNUAL INVITATIONAL OUTDOOR SCULPTURE EXHIBIT June 21st-October Reception: Saturday, June 27th 2-4 (rain or shine)
Michael Alfano, David Borrus, SCOTT CAHALY, Jeffrey Cooper Barbara Danser, Murray Dewart, Zach Gabbard, Dorothy Garlo, Gints Grinsbergs, Michael Guadagno, Peter DeCamp Haines, Al Jaeger, Wendy Klemperer, John Lacz, Rob Lorenson, Madeleine Lord, Andy Moerlein, Joseph Montroy, James Rappa, Kim Rachodia, Joy Raskin, Derek Riley, Karl Saltier, Antioinette Prien, Bob Shannahan, Joseph Wheelright, John Widman, Joe Wheaton, Jere Williams
-Music by Sylvia Miskoe and Bruce Cobb
236 Hopkington Road Concord, NH 03301 Tuesday - Sunday: 11-5, and by appointment themillbrookgallery.com
"Ganesha Protector of Boundaries and Bringer of Abundance" 2009
Scott Cahaly is a Boston based artist(stone sculptor/painter)who was raised in Lexington MA. He portrays stylized figural and abstracted forms, bringing a sense of fluidity yet power to his art. His artistic inspiration is largely drawn from nature,spirit and the unknown. He never made any art until he was twenty-one years old! He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Vermont, teaches art at the Decordova Art Museum and regularly exhibits his artwork in Boston, Rhode Island and New York City. Scott is currently represented by Diamond/Newman Fine arts in Boston. His work will be included in a half dozen group shows this spring and summer. For more information please see http://www.cahaly.net
* ARMORY ART START Armory Center for the Arts 191 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA Friday, April 3, 5 PM - 7 PM (Opening and dedication of Center!) April 3 to April 24, 2009 http://www.artsatthearmory.com/
* ROBOT DEMOGRAPHICS Out of the Blue Gallery, 106 Prospect St. An exhibition of painting and sculpture occupying our imaginations inspired by an emerging population. Opening reception on Saturday, April 25th from 4:00 - 7:00 PM. (Cambridge Science Festival) http://cambridgesciencefestival.org/Home.aspx
* SOMERVILLE OPEN STUDIOS 2 Bradley st.(Mad Oyster Studios) Somerville MA 02145 May 2 + 3, 2009 Saturday + Sunday, noon - 6pm http://www.somervilleopenstudios.org/
* ARTISTS CHOICE EXHIBITION The Somerville Museum 1 Westwood Rd Somerville, MA 02143 April 17 through May 15 at Opening Reception Thursday April 16, 6 - 9 pm
* SOUTH END ART WALK 560 Harrison ave. Boston, MA May 16 + 17 Saturday + Sunday, eleven - 6pm http://www.sowaartwalk.com/
* MILL BROOK GALLERY AND SCULPTURE PARK Invitational Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit 236 Hopkinton Road, Concord, NH 03301 June 21st - Oct 18th: Artists’ Reception: “Champagne and Music Reception” Sunday, June 21st 2-4 pm http://www.themillbrookgallery.com
But rarely is the change of the magnitude lived by Somerville artist Scott Cahaly. When he started out as a biology major, Scott was in a dark place. Caught in the grip of depression, he managed to find some relief from an unexpected source: an art course taken to satisfy curriculum requirements.
What started as a form of therapy evolved into an entirely new direction for Scott. He described the experience as “opening a valve” that taps straight into his creativity. And now “it’s my job to let it well up from inside,” he said.
The change was so profound that metamorphosis remains a common theme in his work. One of his favorite quotes is, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly,” by Richard Bach.
By the time he left the University of Vermont, he had already had his first one-man show. Some of those pieces decorate the halls outside the studio where he has been for the past several years. The colors in his paintings are bold and vibrant, with a style that emulates stained glass windows or a form of mosaic. As both a sculptor and a painter, Scott said he conceptualizes all of his projects as three dimensional. As a result, the subjects in his paintings -- however abstract -- have crisp and well defined edges.
Scott draws inspiration from historical greats, such as Pablo Picasso and Michelangelo, as well as whatever is going on in his own life, he said. That includes everything from travels to relationships to adventures on his brand new bike.
And he is not one to meticulously map out every inch of the canvas before he begins.
“Each piece has its own spirit and destination,” Scott said. “It always just takes me. I never know what I’m getting into.”
Preparing himself for work typically means first allowing for a period of quiet meditation. That helps Scott avoid “over thinking” the work, so he can “go with how it feels” instead, he said.
“It’s a process of getting out of the way,” Scott said. “It’s so easy to get away from a creative path.”
HIS FIRST TIME
Scott was only 9 years old, and had been watching his older brother make paper airplanes. He learned a particularly successful design, and proceeded to make over a dozen of them.
“It was the first time I could feel my hands going to work,” he said. Scott took the finished planes to school to share with his friends -- a move that provided nearly instant and positive feedback on his work.
HIS WORST TIME
During his high school years, Scott had a sketch pad he used to illustrate comic book characters. The fun of the experience led him to consider taking a class to explore art further.
One of his friends, however, squashed that idea. After Scott showed his drawings to the friend, the friend replied, “Those aren’t good. You won’t be happy in art class.”
-story and photo by Jeff Haynes http://web.mac.com/jeffhaynes
I am calm and centered. I gather my energy within me, and it fills me with a golden glow. I open my connection to my higher self and feel the deep intention that lies there. I bring that intention down and into me, so that I am filled with who I am..
I feel my own power burning within me, calm and true, resolved and purposeful. I am strong and capable and can accomplish whatever I choose to do. I am relaxed and deeply aware and open to the wonderful new information and opportunities that flow to me minute by minute. I am power. I am peace. I am a deep connection to all that is... I am! -Lightworkers
The wheel has turned and light has returned. Please come visit our vast artistic community here in Slumerville USA and enjoy the diversity of artwork by hundreds of creative people. I am still in the Mad Oyster building at 2 Bradley st. #16 on maps Along with my stone work, paintings, plants, fish etc. I will be playing my didgeridoo intermittently throughout the weekend. *This event is kid friendly, animal friendly and collector friendly. -peace, ScOtT
Saturday-Sunday, May 3-4, noon-6pm each day, Mad Oyster Building 2 Bradley st. Somerville MA 02145 http://www.somervilleopenstudios.org -781-258-9530
