Over the past few months the Store at the WaterFire Arts Center has grown, showcasing local companies and artists, many of whom work right across the Woonasquatucket River. Here’s a selection of artists that recently started to display work in the Store. Stop by the Store in the WaterFire Arts Center (475 Valley Street Providence, RI | Hours info) to see their work in person and you may find a piece that you’d like to call your own!
Jenna Goldberg
Jenna Goldberg works primarily making furniture and Jewelry Boxes. She received her BFA in Illustration from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and got her MFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been shown in numerous solo, group, and museum shows around the country. It can be found in the Fidelity Corporate Collection as well as the permanent collection of the Mint Museum of Art and Design in Charlotte, NC and the Renwick Gallery in Washington DC. She has also participated in several artist residencies and received multiple awards, including the Rhode Island Council on the Arts award for Crafts. Goldberg now teaches part time at Rhode Island School of Design in the Industrial Design department and runs Milkcan Industries.
e: [email protected] | ig: milkcanindustries
Jewelry Boxes and Graphic Wares
Influenced by her time in the Middle East, Goldberg crafts expertly made and colorfully ornamented boxes and more. These intricately patterned and gorgeously shaped jewelry boxes feature several compartments and removable pieces. She also runs Milkcan Industries, making fun and funky graphic tees, mugs, and magnets.
Dan Trottier
Dan Trottier studied Fine Arts at the Community College of Rhode Island, and Furniture Design at the Maine College of Art. He has had work featured at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York and in Metropolis Magazine. Trottier currently operates out of a small woodworking studio in Central Falls, RI and works for WaterFire.
e: [email protected] | ig: d.p.trottier
Phage Cabinet
Phage is the first in a planned series of “curious cabinets.” A twist on the Renaissance era Cabinets of Curiosities, used to theatrically display indefinable objects, the furniture itself is the oddity here. Irreverent and playful, but still useful. It was titled retroactively after numerous people commented on its resemblance to the bacteriophage virus.
Jenny Rachel Sparks
Jenny Rachel Sparks received a BFA, with Honors, in Sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design and a B.A. in Geological Sciences at Brown University through the Brown/RISD Dual Degree Program. She centers on a place-based artistic practice, influenced by her travels and study of geology. She is the Client Relations Manager and Art Production Manager Assistant for the Steel Yard and an artist of many mediums. Sparks has been featured in many exhibitions and has received multiple scholarships for her work.
e: [email protected] | ig: jennyrachel_clay
Ceramics
These ceramics feature a range of functions, from mugs to jars to flower pots. Gorgeously designed, each ceramic object is richly painted and colored, carefully formed by hand, and perfect for daily use and admiration.
Laura White Carpenter
Laura White Carpenter is an Artist in Residence at the Steel Yard, Providence, R.I. She holds a degree in art therapy and works daily as an occupational therapist, using art to connect hospitalized patients with their individual healing journeys. She is highly involved in the intersection of art and healing and serves as the chairperson of the Visual Arts sub-committee of Butler Hospital’s Art+History and Healing Arts Committee. She also focuses on formulating artistic responses to the organic and built materials available within the cultural experience, often incorporating found materials. White Carpenter has been recognized and honored with awards in a variety of media: sculpture, mixed media decorative and functional pieces, painting and photography. In recent years, her work has been accepted into many nationally-recognized competitive and juried exhibits throughout the country.
Sculptures
These pieces, ranging from metal and ceramic sculptures to found assemblages, display White Carpenter’s love of found materials and form.
Cathy Catudal
Cathy Catudal is an Artist in Residence at the Steel Yard in Providence, R.I. working in ceramics. She typically uses the wheel, but also hand forms uniquely shaped objects that push the limits of form. Her playful piggy banks and abstract vessels alike display her talent and eye for creating delightful and elegant objects.
ig: cathylovesclay
Ceramics
These lovely ceramics take on a number of uses, be it for dips and veggies, hot drinks or soups, or for displaying objects. They are stunningly painted and formed pieces, perfect for adding a touch of sophistication to any home.
Jerry Oliveira
Jerry Oliveira is an Artist in Residence at the Steel Yard in Providence, R.I. He typically works with metals, wood, and found objects and is constantly searching for the next, the new, and the provocative. His work is excellently designed and finished, unique in form and aesthetic. He makes furniture, decorative, and practical objects, including elaborate cat trees.
e: [email protected] | ig: alleycatforge
1920s Gear Coffee Table*
This steampunk gears coffee table reuses an incredible set of found 1920s gears from Brooklyn, N.Y. and features a hand-forged steel base, perfect for spunking up any home.
*SOLD! This wonderful piece was sold at our Holiday Pop Up shopping event!
Brijette Marie Jewelry
Brijette is a local Rhode Island jeweler with her roots in agriculture. As a fourth generation woman farmer, the earth, farming, and metals deeply influence her jewelry. She prioritizes wearability and craft-womanship and attempts to capture the precious unfolding of plant and human life with each piece of jewelry. Brijette believes that the earth’s precious minerals and materials connect us with a power beyond ourselves, and her goal as a jeweler is to create pieces that reflect and honor that.
e: [email protected] | ig: brijettemarie
