River Street Art Project

05/03/2026

Doing some free writing and gallery sitting at FLG today (1pm-5pm) Read about the Lozano family in the today. If you are enraged and want to talk about how to protect our neighbors come on down.

Also check out some great art by Matt Bernson, Casey Albert and Patricia Simons-Powell .

05/01/2026

Please sign and share.

“"The law has spoken to the 43 seconds inside that bedroom. It is now the responsibility of this community - its elected officials, its institutions and its residents - to speak to everything that came before."

— Dr. Dennis Powell, NAACP Berkshire County Branch President

Justice for Biagio: Demand an Independent Investigation & Mental Health Crisis Reform

04/21/2026

Yummies. Big bucket of beaten garlic stem pulp for my next collaboration with .

04/20/2026

Kerala (Momordica charantia) or bitter melon vine. Harvested in the fall of 2025 and patiently waitied to be made into paper.

12/31/2025

Opening Friday Jan 2nd, All Member Show at Future Labs Gallery North Adams MA

The Tempest Triptych 2025-The Light, The Dark, The Tales That Survive

In this triptych, layers of overbeaten abaca are combined with cotton linter and black denim pulps to reflect her tempest. These works were made in August 2025, during the growing storm taking place in the United States and all over the globe. They reference the unstable atmosphere and strong winds that have blown our social structure to pieces. The dark and light foaming and frothing show the ocean’s fury. At the center are inclusions of knitted fiber and yarns that may survive to tell the tales.

10/29/2025

How the public can help:

Call your federal congressmen and senators. Thank them for pressuring the USDA to release SNAP contingency funds immediately.

Donate to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts or a local food pantry or meal site. Every contribution helps the Food Bank and its partners respond to this crisis. The Al Nelson food pantry is an excellent local choice.

Join the 16th Annual March for the Food Bank as a marcher or sponsor, with the largest fundraising goal in the event’s history of $650,000.

Support local grocers and farmers. Buying locally strengthens the local economy. buylocalfood.org

Share accurate information. Let people know where to find food assistance at foodbankwma.org, and follow the Food Bank on social media for updates.

https://www.friendshipfoodpantry.org/give-help

10/14/2025

Garden cleaning. My neighbor had a lovely and very prolific karela (Momordica charantia) vine this year. She asked me if I would try to make paper from it. Lets find out 😂

Cut vine and leaves in short sections, next step is cooking.

10/08/2025

Last weeks to see

Robot Painting - An Art Treat and
2025 Unbound

AND this very special garden Installation

Friends In The Garden
2024-2025
Gloria Caldéron-Saénz and Alicia Canary
Linoleum Cut Prints on Garlic Stem Paper

The garden beds along River Street have been an ongoing community for both of us, where we have met neighbors, made friends, and shared in joys and sorrows. We come together every Saturday at 9:30am in the spring, summer, and early fall to dig in the soil and tend to the very public vegetables. It’s about more than growing some food – it’s about making friends and rolling up our sleeves for a common purpose.

This installation is a celebration of the work we do in the gardens of River Street, and we conceived of this project to capture and honor our special garden community. Gloria created images of our group planting garlic bulbs, planting seeds, harvesting kale, and finally harvesting the garlic heads. After the grown garlic bulbs had dried and cured, their stems were gifted to Alicia, who made sheets of paper of different sizes and shapes.

We have a rotating band of friends and neighbors who come and garden with us when they can, but the center and heart of the group, and the person who truly grows and tends to North Adams as a garden, is Jennifer Trimarchi Munoz 💚🌱

10/01/2025

Very excited to show off 25 new works in this show.

2025 UNBOUND
Handmade Paper by Alicia Canary

Making abstract work is almost always autobiographical, meaning that whatever you are feeling and thinking pours out of you into your work. This year started off very uncertain and dark, and I felt unmoored. I needed time to look at the world and at my art in a slower way.

These works were specifically made very slowly using a reverse pulp painting method, which forced me to slow down and think with my hands. Each work in this collection contains about 20 thin layers or partial layers, each of which drained naturally for an hour or so before the next layer could be applied.

This method forces me to slow down, think with my hands, and intentionally place each layer. Sometimes papermaking can be quick and automatic, almost devoid of thought. My technique this year has been the opposite.

I use plant and found fibers that I process into paper pulp, primarily Dó (a Vietnamese fiber) and flax. I have been making handmade paper since 2020 and have spent much of that time working with what many consider to be invasive plants – Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, and honeysuckle bush.

I also incorporate antique beads, reaching deep into my personal history in which my great aunts were embroiderers in the early- to mid-1900s in NYC. I remember visiting their richly bead-encrusted living rooms, and recall how they depended on one another to succeed in the world at a time when women’s work was not valued.

Let’s take time to slow down and contemplate the world around us. The world is still dark but we’ve started making connections and building community. Each work in this series is a page in an unbound book that I started writing when chaos was abundant, and I’ve continued to work on through the year.

09/21/2025

Two new exhibits are coming to Future Labs Gallery in October!!

2025 Unbound - Alicia Canary - Handmade Paper

and

Robot Painting - An Art Treat - Ricky Darell Barton

Opening Friday October 3rd 6pm-8pm

09/12/2025

Participated in this lovely swap. You can see the rudbeckia lacinata swatch on page 7. Collected from the garden bed in front of the UNO community center in the spring.

Also if you are in the UNO area the
cosmos on Houghton St have started to seed. Bring a small container and
collect some to put in your
garden for happy pops of color next year!!

Handmade Paper made by Donna Lilborn from locally foraged invasive plants and agricultural byproducts in Western Massachusetts.