73See Gallery—A Happening Place in Town for the Arts

I felt the positive energy while still in the courtyard in front of 73See Gallery on Pine Street in town. It was Labor Day weekend, an interesting assortment of used books were for sale there, and community members were browsing, chatting, feeling at home.

Let me go right to it: In the few months since its April, 2011 opening, 73See Gallery has become many things to many people—an outstanding exhibit space for leading area artists, a design studio, a performance space for music and poetry. It is soon to include poetry workshops as well. By design, 73See keeps evolving.

Or—simply put—73Gallery is a treasure.

It’s a treasure with a compelling back story, too. Artist Mary Z was living overseas and her adult children in Manhattan wanted her back. “They suggested my coming to Montclair,” Mary  Z said.

Fast forward to gallery co-founder and executive director Stan Stepney, who contacted her for graphic design work. Stepney is a 2007 transplant to Montclair and, like Z, has diverse experience—his in management, the arts, grant writing and more. “Mary used to paint everyday of her life," Stepney said. “I try and free her up from the business side of things.” But, after even a few minutes speaking with the pair, you see the constant cross fertilization between them.

From their initial commercial meeting grew a joint community project: “Stan was running the neighborhood laundry; both Stan and I enjoyed interacting with the children on the street,” Mary said. “I started art classes there, and then we ran a local talent show for kids.”

The response was terrific and, while Mary resisted, the landlord of 73 Pine Street nearby kept making offers she ultimately could not resist. “At first I thought of the space as my studio and a place to hold classes," Mary said. "I can’t even tell you the day I realized it was going to be a gallery.”

Lucky for us it became a gallery, as through Sept. 30, 73See is showing two unusually compelling and accessible artists. Their work has been flying off the walls; a print of one of those piece just landed on one of my walls, too.

The gallery is now open six days a week, Tuesday through Sundays. “We recently added Sundays so people can come in a relaxed way,” Mary said. That means you have 13 days to see Jennifer Anne Moses’ “Waking Visions” and Jo Bradney's ”Everyday Illuminations.”

Their styles differ, but there are these commonalities: Both Montclair’s Moses and Morristown’s Bradney came to the visual arts later in life and each speak directly to the viewer. Moses visual word poems will grab your heart and bury deep within. Bradney’s quiet still life’s reveal beauty in two lemons, a wedge of cantaloupe, the deep blue of some berries.

Moses' “Waking Visions” have been haunting my days and nights. Untrained as a painter (she often shows in galleries devoted to outsider art) and an experienced, much published writer, Moses marries direct, perfectly cadenced language with a gorgeous sense of color and design.

Everything you need to know about life, love, loss, community speak directly from her canvases—the shoes of life, the deaths that really hurt, your mother celebrating her birthday in heaven.

“There is no sophisticated art commenting on art, no semantics,” Moses said. “I am listening to my less self conscious side, an inner voice pouring out, straight forward, no tricks.”

Bradney, 30, is a Brit with a degree in the classics who worked largely in administrative jobs before coming to the United States on a wife’s visa. “I wasn’t allowed to work so I took a drawing class at the South Orange Adult Class,” Bradney said. That was a few years ago and she’s been drawing hours a day ever since.

Next, she fell in love with oil painting, “I love the smell, the tubes, the brushes—all the tactile things,” Bradney said.

Her works—tumbling tomato wedges, a congress of grapes, a sliced red onion--are the everyday as objects of contemplation, meditation.

“I have the privilege of spending four hours looking at an onion—the structure, the colors,” Bradney said. “Most people just chop it, but the image carries me into real life, cooking dinner,” Bradney said.

There is a Meet the Artists—Q & A reception with Moses and Bradney on Sunday, Sept. 25 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. You can count on Stan serving food home cooked by women in the neighborhood.

In addition, Mary Z will lead “Resurfacing” art classes in painting and drawing for women on Tuesday nights from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. starting Sept. 20 for $30 per class or $240 for all 10 sessions. Artist Thomas Somerville begins eight weeks of a painter’s workshop this Wednesday, Sept. 21 with critique of works in progress—$30 per session. Class sizes are limited, so call now at (973) 746-8737. Scholarships are available.

There is music and poetry the second Saturday evening of the month as part of the gallery’s “Sight and Sound Series.” See the website for more information about performers and for information about the new poetry series. www.73seegallery.com

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays and Tuesdays through Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays, noon to 6 p.m. on Saturdays; closed Mondays.