Starting Friday, May 19, Manchester artist Juni Van Dyke will be featured in an exhibit close to her heart, "These Beautiful Hands," celebrating in gestures the personal lives of a series of local elders on Cape Ann. The exhibit runs through June 4 at the Jane Deering Gallery in Gloucester.
The exhibit includes sculpture forms of models' hands and accompanying paintings that are gestures to the stories these models tell from their long, rich lives. One participant described her life's challenges as being akin to horse jumping. Another described a busy and fulfilling life, but one also in constant search of a nap. Still another spoke of his life as a firefighter. These details—some small, some funny, others profound and important—have been translated and expressed by Van Dyke in a series of hands cast as sculptures to their counterpoints in individual paintings on board.
"I wanted to honor elders with a project involving their hands—hands which have been worn smooth as gems from years of loving, caring, toiling, living. Hands wrinkled and calloused, arthritic, spotted, veined. Beautiful hands of time."
Van Dyke is an award-winning artist and the art director of the Rose Baker Senior Center in Gloucester. These Beautiful Hands is a project that she began decades ago as she connected with seniors in her life.
An opening reception will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Jane Deering Gallery on Pleasant Street in Gloucester.
