Thank you to all those participated, some of whom included:
Darlene Charneco
Kelly Dennis
Jeremy Dennis
Josh Halsey
Molly Joyce
Hugh Ryan
Kira Alker
Kendra Mace Clark
Valley Bak
Ann Coppola
Kimberly Goff
Patti Robinson
Kerstin Cott
Pierre Cote
Nathaniel Cote
Susan Ruocco
James Maroulas
Elizabeth Maroulas
Audrey Kurz
Jason Kurz
Ethan Kurz
Evan Kurz
Grant Kurz
Caleb Kurz
Giancarlo Biagi
Sarah Halsey
Emily Halsey
Gail Orenstein
Mercedes Charneco
Nestor Charneco
Heather Dune
Josie Perl
Patti Robinson
Kendra Pedersen
Jennifer Hartman
Tom Oleszczuk
Heide Rain
Denise Silva-Dennis
Brnet Timbol
Jerome Liggon
Tyus Gholson
as well as many other community participants
Special thanks to Amy Kirwin & Emily Dowd who made the project happen.
*****
Some thoughts on inspiration…
I savor those moments when fragmented elements and impulses wiggle themselves into formation. The Radiance Project fuses together ideas that have been percolating from past art endeavors, including my studio practice, community work, and as an educator, dancer and multi-media artist.
I am passionate about arts education as a platform to explore the creative process. For over 25 years, most recently at The Watermill Center, I am fortunate to have collaborated with other artists, teachers, and community leaders to propose innovative approaches to arts education. I envision myself as a weaver and synthesizer among diverse bodies.
As a practicing artist, I was drawn to work outside the studio & in the community after having my son and moving to Eastern Long Island. Over time a parallel practice both inside and outside the studio emerged and I developed multimedia projects that were “collective portraits” of towns through the intimate stories of individuals: “Eyes on Main Street,” for Riverhead, 2013, and “A Port of Views” in Greenport, 2015. After relocating to Hampton Bays, I was further drawn to engage with the Town of Southampton.
The movement of my body has always been at the source, and what I return to endlessly. I have a history and love for tribal and folkloric dance as a Mideastern dancer, teacher, and choreographer. While dancing on the streets of NYC I experienced the joy of collaborating with dancers, musicians and dancing together with the public.
Finally, I am fascinated by art of printmaking, an obsession shared with others crazy enough to be seduced by its process-intensive nature and the collaborative space of the printshop. As I create prints with my body I trace the journey of a mark transferred from surface to surface – body to paper, paper to plate, plate back to paper and returning to the body again. Eventually the mandala form emerged where patterns of parts, fragments of body, reunited to create a sense of wholeness. These artworks grew large enough to incorporate my whole body – I enacted a kind of dance, a score, on the floor of my studio.
I’ve long wanted to take these playful gestures and pleasures and share them with others, and eventually the Radiance Project emerged as a grand embodied vision. I hope it resonates and spawns new artistic endeavors for participants and viewers.
The Radiance Project 