In August 2012, John was introduced to photographer Vivien Goldman while her exhibit “Left and Let Be” was on display at the Jacob Edwards Library in Southbridge. The exhibit featured stark, high contrast, black and white photographs of abandoned structures in North Dakota – shot on film, with her 4×5 view camera. Goldman, a native of San Francisco and longtime resident of Brookline, MA, was intrigued when John posited that his portrait paintings and her desolate interiors could work well together. By joining their works, John felt, they could infuse a specific human presence or character, which is left to the imagination in Goldman’s work, and create entirely new works from amalgamations of the two.
The groupings were undertaken with the goal that neither photograph nor portrait would be the dominant element rather that each artist’s contribution would become fused with the other to create a new image. John took several months modifying, grouping and composing these original images from a selection of pre-existing works of each artist. The two then reviewed the results and collaborated on final modifications to their collection which will be debuted at the Jacob Edwards Library. The exhibit will open on February 2, 2013 and be on display through the month. See some photos below from February 7th artists’ reception. Go to Southbridge News to see more.
John’s pastel, watercolor and ink
portraits of selected characters from Edgar Lee Masters’ 1915 classic Spoon
River Anthology is captured in this new beautifully designed book by Irma K. John’s Spoon River
Portraits reveals the faces described in Masters’
collection of free verse epitaphs portraying the inner hopes, ambitions, dreams
and heartbreak of the citizens of this fictional American small town. Click the
thumbnail to view the digital version online which includes a foreword by
John’s son Jeff Ferrara.
John L. Ferrara's sculpture titled “Metaphor in Wood,” made of salvaged organ pipes from the Universalist Churchin the former town of Dana in the Swift River Valley. The organ was recovered during the building of the Quabbin Reservoir. Read more in Telegram Towns (An Edition of the Telegram&Gazette), April 20, 2012.
