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Palone Flynn at the MFA, plus "Icons + Altars" and Brickbottom Artists
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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One of the things photography does best is to record a singular instant in time, capturing what French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson famously called "the decisive moment." This snappy quality distinguishes photographic portraits from those laboriously rendered in oil paint, yet the element of time and the related depth of the relationship between artist and "sitter" in photographic portraits is in fact a lot more complicated than a simple click of the shutter, as revealed in the intimate portraits of young people by Ranee Palone Flynn, this year’s winner of the Museum of Fine Arts’ coveted annual Maud Morgan prize. Her mesmerizing work is on view in the MFA’s Lower Rotunda through November 30. Palone Flynn moved to New England in 1996, following years as an art director in New York, where she worked with top flight designers and photographers, including Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber. Leaving all this for a job in New Hampshire, Palone Flynn admits she experienced some culture shock and found herself driving back and forth to New York, not quite able to embrace New England as home. "I was really floundering," she says with a gentle intensity, on the phone from her home in Wenham, "but I think that pushed me into the ‘art’ arena here. I needed a way to express my inner turmoil." She found her subject matter when a local high school student came to intern in her commercial studio. "I would go to pick her up, she would be there with her friends. I started photographing them; I responded to the point of life that they were at." For Palone Flynn, photographing these young people is not simple or quick. "It’s being in the car, looking, waiting, making appointments, a whole process of meeting people in their own environments, which involves people really letting you into their lives — and me having the nerve to do it!" Her photographs aim to capture the unguarded moment when her subjects feel comfortable enough to reveal themselves. "There’s a responsibility that goes with that," she acknowledges. "It’s an intimate moment, I can’t just walk away from that. It’s an involvement." An involvement that engages the viewer, as well. ‘Tis the season when opportunities to buy art-full holiday gifts while supporting worthy organizations start popping up like Christmas lights at Walgreens (right next to the deeply discounted Halloween candy). Kicking things off, the 10th annual, always wonderful "Icons + Altars" Holiday Benefit Exhibition at the New Art Center in Newton opens with a big party on November 14; purchasing a $200 ticket guarantees you an artwork out of the exhibition. Whether you get your first choice or one a bit further down on your list is determined by raffle on December 14. But don’t worry: there are lots of great works, by more than 100 artists including Gerry Bergstein, Megan Cronin, Clara Wainwright, and Lucy White, so you can’t go wrong. In Somerville, artists are setting up for the 16th annual "Brickbottom Open Studios," with more than 60 artists opening their doors on November 22 and 23. To get things off to a hot start, on November 21, the new, happening Toast Lounge in Union Square will host an evening of art and burlesque to benefit the Brickbottom Artist Association. Enjoy the open bar, good food, and a chance to rub shoulders with the creative denizens of Brickbottom, all for a $25 donation at the door. "Ranee Palone Flynn: 2003 Maud Morgan Prizewinner" is at the Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, through November 30; call (617) 267-9300. "Icons + Altars" is at the New Art Center, 61 Washington Park, Newtonville, November 14 through December 14, with an opening reception on November 14, 6 to 8 p.m.; call (617) 964-3424. Brickbottom Open Studios, at the Brickbottom Artists Building, #1 Fitchburg Street, Somerville, takes place November 22 and 23, noon to 6 p.m., with a benefit party "Toast the Arts!" at the Toast Lounge, 70 Union Square, Somerville on November 21, 7 to 9 p.m., $25 at the door; call (617) 776-3410.
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