On exhibit at the Chelmsford Library August 2010:

Oils by Jin Rwei (Tracey) Chen
Photography and Woodcarving by John Pepe
Photography by Paul Wilson

Opening Reception:
Saturday, August 7th, 2010, 2-4 p.m.
Music by: Siyuan Ma, Fangru Jiang, David Chen and Grant Guan

ARTISTS' BIOS:
Jin Rwei (Tracey) was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States in 1985. She has been a software engineer since 1995, and has worked for Nortel Network and several other computer companies. She currently works with Paul Wilson and John Pepe at Gomez Inc, the web performance division of Compuware. Jin Rwei is a self-taught painter and has exhibited at the Chelmsford Library and the Nashua Library in 2008; this is her second exhibit at Chelmsford Library. Jin Rwei’s style has evolved over the years. Currently she is working in multi-media on oil.

Paul Wilson has been a life long Massachusetts resident though he’s traveled extensively in North America and Europe. He has no formal training but photography has been both a vacation and avocation in many generations of his family. He has studied both film and digital photography extensively and uses both mediums as often as possible. Paul holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He currently lives in Chelmsford Massachusetts with his wife Basia and daughter Keely and works as a software engineer at Gomez in Lexington, MA.

John Pepe grew up in Wilmington, Massachusetts. From a young age he took an interest in drawing and painting. John has a degree in art with a concentration in Photography from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He also has a degree in Computer science from Suffolk University in Boston. For the past five years John has worked as a software Engineer with Gomez, Compuware in Lexington Ma. John and his wife Dawn currently live in Pepperell, MA with their three children.

ARTISTS' STATEMENTS:

Jin Rwei (Tracey) Chen
Do you believe in Karma? Do you think it’s silly for a person to decide to join a company because the company’s color is her favorite color? Well, that is how I joined Gomez Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. When I interviewed with Gomez, I was surprised to see the office walls painted in sap green. And the offer package I received was also in green. So I said to myself, “Maybe this is the company I should work for.” This was where I met my fellow artists, John and Paul.

John showed me some photos he had taken. One was of a bee resting on flower petals. It was very “O’Keefe-ish.” It was a great subject to paint. And so I did.
Whenever I walked by Paul’s cubicle I noticed a photo of his daughter. She was all dressed up to go to a party, and she was peeking from the bathroom window. The first image that came to my mind was Salvador Dali’s painting, “The person at the window.” One day I finally had the courage to ask Paul for permission to paint this photo. That is how this exhibit got started.

One of my best friends once told me to paint my own thoughts, not just the photos. “But,” I told him. “I am painting my thoughts.” When I painted the bumble bee on the flowers, I thought of “Karma”; when I painted Paul’s photo of his daughter, I thought of “the inner child.” It is the karma that brings us all together for one reason or another. I do think this exhibit was meant to be. There is an inner child within each of us. She is peeking out, eager to come out and explore.

Abstract paintings are not easy for ordinary people to comprehend, but realism seems to lack creativity. I used to paint landscapes that were purely visually appealing, but gradually over the years I started to use materials such as sand mixed with color to create a grassy feeling. I dip sewing threads in color and hang them from trees to create willows gliding through the wind. Different materials create fantastic effects that oil alone cannot convey. I now paint a series of paintings on the same topic or on the same scene. I have four paintings of the cranberry bogs of Carlisle, Massachusetts-each in a different season. I also have a series of paintings about Karma.

Two years ago when I first exhibited at the Chelmsford Library, I said that when I first came to United States I never imagined that I would do oil painting. Two years ago, I never thought I would put fabric, laces, foams and furs on my paintings. That is the fun part about painting; it will surprise you more than you can imagine.

John Pepe
For this exhibit I have chosen to display a series of close-up nature photographs. These images are part of a series that I photographed several years ago. I have always been fascinated by how there is a whole other macro world all around us, and right under our feet, that goes largely unnoticed. This series of photographs has never been printed for display before with the exception of one image (Honeybee on Celocia) that has been published on the inside cover of a children’s magazine.

In recent years I have concentrated most of my artistic energies on woodcarving and sculpture. I have chosen one of my most recent works for display in the library display case. I completed this wood spirit carving last November. It was carved from part of an ash tree that was brought down in an ice storm the previous year.

Paul Wilson
For this exhibit, I am displaying photographs that are mostly about texture visually but also about how time affects what humans create. The effects of time and nature on the things we build has always interested me. In particular, the dichotomy between how visually interesting that deterioration can be versus the difficulty it can create in people’s lives. More recently, with the birth of my daughter, I’ve become a portrait photographer and I’ve tried to portray the renewal a young child represents. In that light I’ve included portraits of my daughter that I particularly enjoy.