 Hello, welcome to CTN Member Highlights. I'm Leslie McVane, and today my guest is Jessica McCarthy, the gallery director, manager at Green Hat Galleries. Hi, Jessica. Hi. Now, you've done something special here. We're at the gallery for the Union of Main Visual Artists, and you've curated this show. Tell us a little bit about it. It's called Monsters. Yes. Well, initially, the idea had been somewhat political to have a politically themed charged show, which I can get behind, but what I really wanted was to have a few breaks in the show. I wanted to open it up to bring in other pieces that make you feel monstrous, that have this creepy quality to them. Sort of make your skin crawl a bit. Exactly. Something that also gets into the feeling of Halloween in addition to the elections. Which makes October a perfect month to have the show up. So you've chosen from among many artists, not just the Union of Main Visual Artists, but some of the Green Hat artists. You want to tell us a little bit about some of the artists who are in the show. Maybe not about them, but why you chose them. Sure. Well, we got a flood of submissions, which was really fun to sort through. A lot of great work came in. But I did open it up to more than just Union of Main Visual Artists. Just because of the theme of the show, not every artist does monsters or anything that might fit in with that theme. So I did have to widen my scale a little bit. Of course, working at Green Hat, I do have the opportunity to work with a number of very wonderful artists, and some of those fit in perfectly with the show. One person's monster isn't necessarily another person's monster. So the range and just looking around here, it's amazing. Yeah, you get quite a range. A lot of different things. But I think that's what makes the fun show is to have a variety and to have all those different visions. Well, terrific. Let's go look at some of these wonderful pieces and talk about them. Well, this piece, Eating Lobster by Nancy Barnes, is, I love this piece. It's one of my personal favorites. Oh, is it? Yeah. Tell me why you chose this. Well, I love Nancy's work. She's gotten familiar with it over the years working at Green Hat Galleries. This one in particular, I think just is perfect for the show. It's got that ominous feeling about it. She's about to bite into this lobster, or maybe the lobster is going to bite into her, you're not sure. But plus it's so quintessential main, but mostly it was about the feeling and the humor. It feels like when they're interrogating you under the spotlight. Absolutely. Then the main thing that the way the shadow is cast over the figure in there, it almost looks like the Lobsterman's yellow rain gear that they wear. You can't forget the deer in the corner. Just watching. There's a lot of, who's the monster in this? Yeah, that's a great question. Who is the monster? Who knows? I think it's the artist to tell, but it could also be the viewer who makes that decision. Another notable thing about this painting is the surface texture. It's really gorgeous, and this particular artist, she adds medium into the paint so that you get that interesting. It is wonderful, and you look at the tablecloth, and you just want to touch it. Don't touch it. I love it. This is one of my, I just adore this piece. And the first time I saw it, it was just in the window, and people were going by and stopping, and little children just looking at this piece. And then when I walked into work the next day, it was hanging on the wall, and I'm like, oh my goodness. It looks like it could come alive. That was part of the reason why I hung it here, was that coming around the corner, I wanted that surprise to be right there. So, and it's a beautiful piece, really. Getting up close, seeing all sides of it. Each side has something completely different, and unfortunately we can only see this side, but that's why you need to come to the show. That's because you can look under it. You can. It's amazing. It's gorgeous. And there's a lot of different aspects to this piece. A lot of different materials used. There's a violin that has been incorporated into this piece, all different pieces for the teeth, for the eye on this side. So, this is really a creative, beautiful piece. And every time you look at it, you see something you didn't see the last time. And I, trust me, I look at it every day. And tell us the artist. So, the artist Rich Entell does beautiful work, and he was a little concerned, saying, well, my work isn't really monsters. They're, you know, more spiritual animals. And, but I love this piece so much, I just really wanted to have it for the show. And again, it's not necessarily monsters, it's a feeling. And I thought that this achieved a different part of that feeling. And also, along with the feeling of monsters, is dealing with those, facing those monsters, and seeing that they're not really as scary as you might think. Yes, they might not be a monster at all. They might be a beautiful part of you, Gator. Well, when I first saw these, I thought they were going to start crawling all over everything. I mean, they are amazing with that little eyeball. And they just look like they're ready to start coming after me. I know, you can picture how they might move. And they were really a lot of fun to set up, too, because, you know, they're individuals. And you can make the arrangement however you see fit. And, yeah, I think they fit perfectly in with the theme, as well. Oh, yes. And I like the way you arranged them, because they look like they're going to just scatter all over. And that's kind of a creepy feeling. Yeah, yeah. And the title, Infestation, is just perfect. That's a fear that I think a lot of us have about what if there's cockroaches in my house or any other small, terrifying beast. And these are one of the more terrifying, I think. Right, with that eyeball looking at you. I mean, they look so real. People need to come in and see this show just to see the eyeballs. They're a lot of fun. And the artist, Tony Joe. Tony Joe Coppa, yeah. I just met her myself. She does great work all along the same line. She works with foam and prosthetic eyes. And also, there's a lot of repurposed animal fur in her work. And they're all very interesting, creepy. I look forward to seeing more of her work, because this is fascinating. Yeah, I love it. OK, let's look at one more piece. Well, this piece by Alan McGee, you chose as the postcard and the advertisement for the show. Tell us why. Well, I actually had the opportunity to get this piece in person, go to his studio, visit him, see where he works. And so it was the first piece that I really got my hands on. And I thought black and white, it would just be graphic. And it touches on that political aspect that we haven't really talked that much about. But it doesn't. It's not taking sides. So I thought it would be nice for the postcard. It's amazing. And it's got everything in there. You can look at different kinds of monsters and nightmares and see it in this one picture. You've got that corporate fear thing going on there. It's in the air. It's in the air right now. I mean, there's so much about it. It's just amazing. Yeah, it's definitely something I see in my nightmares. And I thought that, yeah, I wanted this to have a prominent place in the show. Well, and I think using it to advertise the show has been great. It really catches your eye. And I think the black and white makes it even a little bit stronger in drawing people in. Well, if people want to see this, they need to get down here. We have a month. It's going to be up until the 30th. And this is the UMVA gallery at CTN 516 Congress Street. And we just touched on this show. There's a lot of great pieces to see. Oh my gosh. It's sculptural pieces. And it's just amazing. So thank you so much for curating this. It's going to be on our list of favorite shows. Thank you.