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WaterFire Arts Center Store Featured Artists

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

 

 

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Exciting New Product Development

There are so many wonderful artists and organizations that share their love of WaterFire within their product line. We have selected two of these companies to begin new collaborations with this season. My Méz and ChemArt,  two local Rhode Island companies, both of whom share the love of WaterFire and create fun and unique products. Together we are designing new WaterFire inspired products and we need the help of WaterFire’s fans in the design process!

Here is quick preview of these new items and some ideas.

It’s not just a table, it’s My Méz – “Practical art, not just for the walls!”

WaterFire Providence My Méz

These stylish and functional pieces of art are produced and sold by local husband and wife team Samir Dhamija and Akanksha Aga. My Méz combines a beautiful full color photograph of WaterFire with a hand-made birch table. The photo is coated with a high-gloss finish making the table durable and attractive. If your space is limited and you’d like the piece to adorn your walls, My Méz table can be quickly and easily converted to become an attractive piece of art; ready to hang on any wall in your home. You can read more about My Méz and see other examples of their product on their website. Please contact us at [email protected] for information on different image and finish options.

WaterFire Providence My Méz Wall Art

ChemArt WaterFire Inspired Ornament

Ornament City Skyline

WaterFire Gondola Ornament

Lincoln, Rhode Island based ChemArt has been making unique handcrafted keepsakes since 1976 and are famous for their collection of White House themed ornaments. ChemArt’s ornaments are all designed and manufactured here in Rhode Island by an etching process in either plated silver or gold or even with a color overlay, the options are endless! This year’s WaterFire design team, Laura Duclos and Roger Williams University intern Becca Quigley, have been working closely with ChemArt’s design team to create a unique WaterFire themed keepsake ornament. The images above are some sketched ideas by Becca Quigley, that feature popular WaterFire scenes. What’s your favorite WaterFire element or scene?

Let us know what you think and if you’d be interested in purchasing these pieces. Thank you!

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