In this series, we highlight some of the many artists who contribute to the deep creative culture of Concord. Across town, many organizations are dedicated to uplifting the visual arts and artists through exhibitions, educational programs, performances, and workspace.

Brenda Cirioni

As a child, Brenda Cirioni loved to roam the woods around her house in Rhode Island gathering small treasures that others might overlook—a pretty rock, a colorful flower, or an unusual bug. This time in nature developed her ability to see color and detail. That, in turn, led to an interest in art.

Cirioni pursued her art studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After graduating, she stayed in the city then moved to the suburbs and married. She and her husband now live in Stow where she has a studio in the historic Gleasondale Mill. In addition to painting, she loves to garden and is planning to install a shade garden at her home this summer.

To that end, Cirioni’s paintings are largely inspired by a garden growing wild or the way light shimmers on the water. Her colorful, free-form compositions, rooted in the tradition of Abstract Expressionism, capture a feeling of being dazzled. Dabs and swirls of colors on her large canvases or wood panels evoke a garden in full bloom or dappled light shining on a pond and the flora around it. The dried flowers, fragments of cloth, and other found objects she applies to the surface add a sculptural quality that literally lifts the colors off the canvas.

“My process unfolds as a kind of dance across the surface that builds pale veils of color, drips, and poured paint. I squeeze paint directly from bottles, allowing lines to loop and tangle,” says Cirioni. This summer, she will study the art of papermaking and paper sculpture and hopes to incorporate it into her mixed-media work.

Cirioni has exhibited in many New England venues, including the Danforth Art Museum, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and the Fitchburg Art Museum. Cirioni’s work is also part of the Art in Embassies Program through the U.S. Department of State, and her paintings are held in national and international collections, both corporate and private. One of her pieces is in the collection of Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts. 

Says Cirioni, “My work holds a record of touch, accumulation, and time.”

Natasha Dikareva, Six Gestures of Destiny, stoneware with glazes and stain

| Courtesy of Three Stones Gallery 

Natasha Dikareva

A sculptor for over thirty years, Natasha Dikareva creates surrealist work that captivates audiences everywhere it’s shown. Faces and figures emerge from her large and small stoneware sculptures like mystical, dreamlike characters imbedded within colorful glazes and stains. Dikareva draws on ancient Greek mythology and Eastern philosophies of transformation to create pieces that touch deep layers of emotion and dreams.

One of her recent works, Six Gestures to Destiny, is composed of six exquisite life-sized hands each holding an object: an apple, a dragon, a sailboat, an old key, a sea creature, and a tiny egg. “These objects express temptation, courage, adventure, hidden truths, the depths we dare, and the promise of rebirth,” Dikareva explains. “Together they form a sentence the fingers know but the tongue cannot speak—that every destiny is a thing we carry waiting to be recognized.” 

Growing up in Ukraine—part of the Soviet Union at that time—Dikareva showed a passion for visual art at a young age. She studied at the Kiev State Academy of Art and Design, earning a BFA with highest honors. However, she felt restricted by the control the government had over artists, part of which required that all art must be optimistic, easily understood, and supportive of the Communist Party. As her artistic voice matured, she developed her own symbolic visual language that allowed her to express herself within government constraints.

Seeking to pursue art in a free environment, Dikareva immigrated to Minneapolis where she earned an MFA. After graduating, she moved to San Francisco and then to the East Coast where she now divides her time between New Hampshire and Florida. 

In addition to teaching, Dikareva exhibits nationally and internationally, and her work appears in many public and private collections, including those of the Yixing Ceramics Museum in China and the Kamm Teapot Foundation in North Carolina. Her sculptures have won widespread recognition, and she has been interviewed on public radio and television about her artistic process and her reflections on events in Ukraine.

“Clay transforms through fire,” says Dikareva. “We transform through living. Dive in.”

Both Cirioni and Dikareva are represented artists at Three Stones Gallery in Concord, MA.

 All photos courtesy of Three Stones Gallery