Description

A special exhibition of recent work by Jeffrey Marshall. Using a variety of materials including oil, pastel and conté, ink and grease pencil, Marshall works out of a studio overlooking the Morse Sibley Wharf in East Gloucester. It is one of the few remaining wharves from which Gloucester’s dwindling number of day-fishermen continues to work. At the site, he has discovered a world littered with the detritus of the working waterfront: buoys and nets, twisted cables and rusted engine parts, bright-blue plastic barrels, dumpsters, storage containers, and, of course, pickup trucks of all shapes and sizes. Parked on the old wharf, the trucks seem out of place and time. And yet, there they are, serving as mobile offices, a warm spot to enjoy a cup of coffee, a quiet place to pass the time of day. The scene and in particular the trucks have inspired Jeff who has a talent for creating beauty out of the most unlikely of subjects. An art educator as well as an artist, Marshall holds a BFA in painting from Cornell (1991) and an MFA in painting and printmaking from Massachusetts College of Art (2000). His New Orleans Drawing Project, done between 2006 and 2013, documented in drawings and sketchbooks the destruction caused by hurricane Katrina and the city’s recovery process. In 2015, an exhibition of Marshall’s work entitled Knots was shown at the Cape Ann Museum featuring intricate and colorful drawings of the flotsam and jetsam that wash up on the shores in this area.