We had a beautiful tropical Cuba sort of humid summer evening with a breeze like the night we all went to the Fort for the cannon firing. It was perfect for an opening of the remarkable work of Dale Bradley and his daughter Sarah.
Dale is the inventor of the massive large scale platen press originally built in the Beaver Mill in North Adams, around the time of the building of Mass MOCA. He was originally an anthropological illustrator for Williams College and went on in his early career to become an accomplished etcher, working with wildlife images. As time progressed he became a contemporary artist creating experimental ways to use printmaking.
In the last four years he has created three state-of-the-art pneumatic presses that allow him to vacumn seal large works, often wood cuts, to canvas, so they do not have to remain beneath glass. His subject matter is related to Cuban culture, magic, animal spirits and the Haitian culture in the Dominican Republic. His daughter who created art alongside her dad for thirty years has become a mixed media sculptor in Santa Fe.
The evening was beautiful, with our Cuban music playing. Marie Canaves, our art history professor from Cape Cod Community College, who did a show with us three years ago about her childhood in Havana Cuba, came to the opening with homemade flan--in fact it was a very special flan whose magical qualities I can't articulate; "nectar from the Gods," she says.
So Cuba seems to be with us in a big way still. We hope it has remained with all of you.
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