E-Mail This Article to a Friend Postcards from the edge Watercolors at NESAD, radio in Dudley Square, and poetry at the ICA BY RANDI HOPKINS

There must be a great thrill in packing up your paints and brushes and heading outside to paint from nature, whether it’s your back yard or a more exotic destination. Three members of the graphic-design-department faculty at New England School of Art & Design chose the latter path, and they’ve returned with the inspired new work of "Postcards, Snapshots & Souvenirs: Jennifer Fuchel, Laura Golly and Wallace Marosek," which opens at NESAD this Tuesday.

Fuchel, Golly, and Marosek all found their creativity sparked by journeys abroad: Fuchel’s ceramic work had its origins in her 2001 visit to Cuba, Golly’s watercolors were made during time spent on sabbatical last year in England and Ireland, and Marosek views the watercolors he’s showing as travel journals recording his experiences in Italy. Golly explains, "We’re three graphic designers, all doing crisp, hard-edged stuff. But we all love to travel, and we love using our art to capture the wonderful things we see and experience."

Not that doing it on the road is all sugar and spice. "One of the biggest challenges in drawing in England and Ireland was the weather," Golly continues. "You’d be hiking on a beautiful day, and suddenly the dark clouds would come! Watercolor needs to dry, you can’t just pack it up wet, so I’d throw my poncho on the drawing, or do whatever I could do to give it an extra moment to dry. If anyone saw me on the moors or in the hills doing this, they would have thought I was nuts!"

And traveling with artist materials now has its own, 21st-century drawbacks. "Especially in this era, it’s hysterical," says Golly. "At the airports, tubes of watercolor — neat metal tubes all in a row — look like bullets. Now, I’ve learned to just unpack my whole kit in a separate tray, so security can see exactly what it is!" A concern that well-traveled "plein air" painters Monet and Renoir never faced.

NEWS FROM DUDLEY SQUARE. Other trials confronting the modern-day artist include building-code violations, the kind that can put you out of your studio even when you hadn’t made any travel plans. The artistic folks at the Berwick Research Institute have been having their own such licensing problems with their space, after a temporary shutdown by Boston’s Inspectional Services Department in mid July, but they’ve bounced back. The Berwick continues to support area artists at various off-site locations, and it’s hosting an unusual artist-in-research program with John Osorio-Buck, who is studying bees and urban planning in Dudley Square while inviting the public to broadcast its own material from one-watt radio transmitters he has set up there. The project, which he calls "Transtation," has been extended through September; tune in at 87.5 on your FM dial, or visit the Berwick Web site and sign up to do your own broadcast.

THE INNER JOURNEY is at the heart of poet and physician Rafael Campo’s upcoming talk "The Poetry of Healing: A Physician’s Personal Journey through Art and Medicine" at the Institute of Contemporary Art next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Campo explores the power of creative self-expression to heal the body, adding poetry to what he calls "the doctor’s cold and passionless ‘biomedical’ narrative of illness" in order to humanize and, we hope, improve our care of our bodies. Campo will also read from his own poetry and prose, which deal with the experience of illness. The talk is presented in conjunction with the ICA’s exhibition "Pulse," which is up through August 31.

"Postcards, Snapshots & Souvenirs" is at New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University, 75 Arlington Street, August 26 through September 30; call (617) 573-8785. John Osario-Buck’s "Transtation" can be heard on WRFR 87.5 FM through September; visit www.berwickinstitute.org. Rafael Campo will speak on "The Poetry of Healing: A Physician’s Personal Journey through Art and Medicine" at the Institute of Contemporary Art, 955 Boylston Street, August 28 at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free; call (617) 266-5152.