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SO Good Submission Deadline FEB. 1

If you've been waiting to submit to SO Good Volume III, wait no longer. The deadline is Monday, February 1, 2010. Full submission guidelines can be found below, or on our Facebook page. Basically, if you were a Chester College of New England student during 2009, you are eligible.

Send your best work from 2009 (Spring, Summer & Fall semesters) to so.good@chestercollege.edu BEFORE the end of the day Monday, February 1. If you are a visual artist, and have a file larger than 100 KB, please use SendSpace or YouSendIt.

Faculty Favorite nominations also are due on Monday, February 1. All faculty members are encouraged to nominate student work from 2009. When you are make a nomination, please inform the student so we do not receive duplicate pieces and so they can send the piece to us.

Good luck to everyone!

So Good now accepting submissions

So Good is now accepting submissions for the So Good volume 3. We accept all forms of art (writing, photography, drawings, paintings etc.). For questions and/or concerns please email us at so.good@chestercollege.edu

INFO WE NEED FROM EVERYONE

• Your Name
• Your Major
• Your Class Year
• Title(s) of the work(s)

WRITERS

Please limit yourself to one (1) submission per genre. You are allowed up to 8,000 words of prose and up to five poems. Email your submission as .doc or .rtf files to so.good@chestercollege.edu. Please put your name and the type of submission in the subject line. For example: Jenn Monroe SO Good Poetry Submission or watch for our editors in the cafe at lunch on Fridays.

VISUAL ARTISTS

Please limit yourself to one (1) submission per medium. You are allowed up to five pieces per medium. Email is NOT the best way to submit images of your work to us. Please put high resolution images (300 dpi or higher, JPG only please) on a CD or thumb drive (labeled with your name and mailbox number if you want it back) and get it to Prof. Jenn Monroe, Dept. of Writing & Literature via campus mail. Please let us know that it is a SO Good submission. You also can watch for our editors in the cafe at lunch on Fridays.

Attention All Artists

Compass Rose is looking for artwork to become the cover of Compass Rose volume 10. We accept photographs, drawings, paintings etc. Please send jpegs or links to compass.rose@chestercollege.edu or leave a cd in Jenn Monroe's campus mailbox.

Christina Pitsch to be Artist- in -Residence

Chester College of New England Professor of fine arts Christina Pitsch will be spending 5 weeks during winter break as an artist-in-residence at the Guanlan Original Printmaking Base in Guanlan, China. She will be working on a new series of large scale prints.

Student Art Sale

On Friday, December 4 from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm Chester College of New England Students will be displaying and selling art in the Wadleigh Library Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

Primary Studios Gallery Show

Between December 3, 2009 and December 15, 2009 Chester College of New England's Primary Studios Students will be showing their work in the Wadleigh Library Gallery. The gallery will be free and open to the public.

"The Berlin Dictionary" is now available

Can you press that, er um, piton? Let me get that mousse off of your sweater. If you know what the words piton and mousse mean and if you have no idea what the words piton and mousse mean, the Berlin Dictionary is for you.

The Berlin Dictionary edited and illustrated by Chester College of New England's Photography and Media Arts instructor Rachelle Beaudoin is now available.

The Berlin Dictionary is a participatory dictionary written by over seventy contributors who submitted their favorite and most memorable “Berlin Words.” With definitions ranging from the Arena to the Yoko and everything in between, The Berlin Dictionary is a must-have for current and former Berlin residents. Featuring over thirty illustrations.

According to Beaudoin, “Considering the changes and challenges facing the city in recent years, the dictionary seemed like a fun way for citizens to take pride in or poke fun at aspects of the community while recognizing and enjoying its uniqueness.” The book is part historical document, part reference and part humor.

With contributions from:

Ken Adair, Justin Aube, Jerry and Jill Aube, Lucille Barr, Beatrice Beaudoin, Claude Beaudoin, Frank Bellefeuille, Dave Bergeron, Rene Bergeron, Rachel Berube, Dan and Darlene Blais, David Blais, Muriel Blais, Susan Boucher, Tim Brannen, Rita Breton, Dan Campagna, Cecile Chabot Wester, Janie Chartrand, Lousie Connelly, Roberta Conway, Eric Cote, Jesse Croteau and Keith Blanchette, Romeo Danais, Clark Danderson, Lisa Dodge, Sister Theresa Dube, Michael Dumont, Jim Duncan, Bill Dyer, Don Fournier, Dr. Barry Gendron, Jeanne Ivory, Shirley Jackson, Rebecca L’Heureux, Louise Lachance, Carla LaPierre, Lucille Lavoie, Tracy Lefebvre, Dan Mackin, Shawn Marquis, Chris Martel, Jasmine Montminy, Rachel Montminy, Theresa Morgan Perry, Roberta Morin Migetz, Lorraine Morin Pasciak, Benita Morin St. Pierre, Sister Cecile Morrisette, Jackie Nadeau, Rev. Gerald Oleson, Linda Paquet, Melanie Payeur, Dick Poulin, Linda Poulin, Dave Ramsey, Kris Richards, Jennie Roberge, Larry Roberge, Susan Roberge, Kelly Ross, Ben Roy, Darlene Roy, Guy Sanchargin, George Stanley, Celia Nicotra Sullivan, Jan Szumierz, Lisa Thompson, Angela Vaillancourt and Becky Roberge, Carolyn Vasquez, Claire Villeneuve Rennison and Amy Welch.

Rachelle Beaudoin is an interdisciplinary artist and professor of art at Chester College of New England and Saint Anselm College. She was born and raised in Berlin NH and is currently living in Peterborough NH. She is interested in video, performance and socially engaged art. This is her first book.

The Berlin Dictionary is available at the Wonderland Bookstore, 10 Exchange Street in Gorham NH, Savoir Flare at 52 Main Street in Berlin NH, at the Berlin Historical Society Moffet House, 119 High St, Berlin NH and online at Lulu.com. It will be available on Amazon.com in 6-8 weeks. The ISBN is 978-0-557-19739-2.

The book is available via the link:

http://www.lulu.com/content/7915941

A book signing will be held on December 19th from 11am-2pm at the Wonderland Bookstore, 10 Exchange Street, Gorham NH.

Eric Pinder Interviews and Book Signing

Chester College of New England's instructor of writing and literature Eric Pinder will be interviewed on Book Swap Café, for Concord TV Channel 22, in a program to be recorded on December 15. He also will be interviewed live on the Arkansas-based internet radio program WeatherBrains on March 29 at 8:30 pm Central Daylight Time (9:30 Eastern).

Eric will discuss his children’s book Cat in the Clouds, his most recent book, Life at the Top, and his experiences working and living as a weather observer on top of Mount Washington. Book Swap Café, now in its fifth season, has been described as “Concord’s literary Siskel and Roeper.” An article about the program recently appeared in The Concord Insider.

On December 19, Eric will sign books at Fox Tale Books in Alton, New Hampshire, from 11-1 pm. That same afternoon at 4 pm, he will present a lecture about Mount Washington's wild weather at the Conway Library.

Eric Crapo Published

Chester College of New England's Library Director and instructor of writing and literature Eric Crapo will have his poem "At the Swimming Hole" published in the fall issue of Organs of Vision and Speech Magazine. The poem will also be anthologized next summer. This poem is an ekphrasis on Thomas Eakins' painting "The Swimming Hole."

Cathe Janke to Exhibit in NYC

Chester College of New England's instructor of interdisciplinary & fine arts Cathe Janke will have work in the Generations 7 Holiday Benefit Exhibition, at A.I.R. Gallery in New York City. The Exhibit will run December 2nd, 2009 through January 3rd, 2010. There will be a receception on Thursday, December 3rd from 6 8 pm and a Holiday Party & Action viewing on Friday, December 4th from 6:00 to 8:30 pm.

Stop by and see some exciting art at affordable prices! 40% of sales support the A.I.R. Fellowship Program for Emerging and Undererepresented Artists and other A.I.R. exhibitions and programs that serve our mission to advance the status of women in the arts. Works purchased for holiday gifts may be picked up from December 19 to 23rd, from 11 am to 6 pm.

Making Things Happen: An Interview with Lana Z. Caplan

Lana Z. Caplan, a Boston-based film/videomaker, photographer and installation artist, visited Chester College of New England this week as part of the Visiting Artist's Symposium Lecture Series. Caplan works with super8, found footage, video, interactive projections, and alterative processes photography in her pieces, which explore relationships, mortality and social issues.

Caplan grew up in a world of photography. When given her first Polaroid at the age of four, it was just a natural progression for a family that took regular snapshots. Although she never considered a career in art growing up, she attended numerous workshops and camps. It wasn’t until her undergraduate work in art history that she learned anyone can be an artist, if you work hard and make art.

When preparing for a new piece, Caplan said she starts with a concept and focuses on finding what the best ways to communicate that, be it through sketches or details within the environment or what works best with the site. Through her heavy use of Polaroids she can see what’s happening, and make decisions as she goes. Armed with research, her camera, and a willingness to experiment, she starts with an idea and keeps kicking it around until figuring out how to approach it.

Caplan’s varied portfolio includes pieces that are experienced, not just viewed. From her videos Love in the Afternoon, and The Waltz to her series on Sites of Public Execution, Caplan’s pieces cover a wide range of compositional interest. "I hope that my audience will give [the work] the time to try to understand, and to see the multiple layers and pieces that make it, as well as the collective meaning of the pieces put in the installation," she said.

Between exhibiting, studio time, researching and more, Caplan still finds time to visit many colleges as a traveling artist/lecturer. She said her biggest piece of advice is to work hard. "Nothing comes easy, so keep working at it," she said. "Take a good look at what came before you and the context of what you are doing, what you might be referencing and what others might be seeing when they view your work."

Caplan encourages young artists to look for inspiration everywhere. She has found it in the work of Pipilotti Rist and Andy Warhols' films. "We can all be inspired by something," she said. "Look at other artists and see what works or what doesn’t work for you and what you can take away from it to incorporate into your own work."

Even with inspiration, Caplan joked that a typical day in the studio consists of "cappuccino and email." On a more serious note, she did have one suggestion to beat procrastination. "On those days you are not in the studio, keep a running list of the things to do next time in the studio and options for those times you just don’t feel like 'it,'" she said.

When work is ready to be shown, Caplan suggested thinking broadly about exhibiting. "Create your own opportunities," she said. "Collaborate with other types artists and make your own events. Hire bands, invite friends, create your own scenes, work out the kinks. Don’t rely on the existing infrastructure --be prepared to show the establishment. By bringing people together things happen."

~Rhiannon Lombard

"Fantasticum" Features Chester College Student Work

"Fantasticum," a group show of Chester College of New England students, is on display now in the Whitherill Gallery at The Coffee Factory in Derry, NH. Works by Jamie Vitas, Maggie Alerding, Timothy Lee, Rachel Deccico, Tahlia Groupil, Peter Isherwood and Fairlee Anderson,--all students in the fine arts professional practices class and the gallery practicum--are part of the show.

Megan McNaught, assistant professor of interdisciplinary and fine arts at Chester College, said the exhibit is "the culmination of an excellent semester and hard work by all involved." It features a range of media from encaustic paintings to printmaking and was planned, managed and installed by the students involved. "It is a fine example of the work produced by students at Chester College of New England."

Unconventional Inspiration: An Interview with George Saunders

On Tuesday, November 16, nationally acclaimed author George Saunders visited Chester College of New England as part of the Visiting Writers Series. Saunders, who has been hailed by The New Yorker as one of the best writers under forty and as one of the top 100 most creative people in entertainment by Entertainment Weekly, gave a question and answer period for students during the day and a reading, that was open to the public, the same evening.

In a time when many writers lament that the art of the short story has passed by, Saunders has published three collections of short stories and two novellas. His stories and essays also are routinely published in magazines such as The New Yorker, GQ, and Harpers. "Do I think short stories are dead? No," he said. "I think people get this idea from bad agents. A bad agent will ask you if you have a novel finished. A good agent wants to know what you write. I've been lucky. One of the things we don't tell young writers, that we should, is that you can't pick what kind of writer you are."

Saunders said he spent his youth reading "less than literary" books and does not count other writers among his top inspirations. When just beginning his career as a writer he studied albums, in particular how musicians ordered the songs on an album, to learn how to put together books of short stories. Other influences? Comedians of course. Saunders said he counts Steve Martin and Monty Python as strong influences on his writing.

Saunders is known for his genre-defying short stories and has a writing process that is in many ways as unconventional as his work. Often spending as many as seven years writing and revising a story, he said that by the end of the process he has only kept about 40 percent of the words he started off with. "Many young writers write a story, revise it, and three weeks later feel it's finished," he said. "I write magazine stories. I need to let a story sit long enough so that when I come back to revise it I'm looking at it just like the reader who flips through a magazine and comes across it for the first time."

Each fall Saunders teaches an advanced fiction writing class in the MFA program at Syracuse University, but workshops are definitely not part of his own revision process. He explained that workshops are good tools for students but not for the seasoned writer. "The problem with workshops is that you get, say, five suggestions. Four of them, you feel, have nothing to do with your story. The fifth one does maybe, but only if it is something you were already thinking of yourself.

"Ultimately you send a story out with your name on it," he continued. "It should be your work. Then if it succeeds you deserve all the credit for it. And if it fails you don't have the feeling that you've been misled."

~Renee Mallett

Chester College Student published in Collective Fallout

Chester College Student Kelsey McCarthy's short story "Coyote Smile" has been selected as a finalist for Collective Fallout's Delfino Prize for Queer Genre Fiction. Her story will be published in the January 2010 issue of the magazine.

Chester College of New England's 2nd Annual Blood Drive

Chester College of New England will be holding their 2nd Annual Blood Drive on Thursday December 3. It will be held between 1 and 6 pm in the Chester Town Multi-Purpose Room. It is free and open to the public.

First 10 students to sign up with Stephanie Ramirez and donate blood will receive a special thank-you prize. All donors affiliated with Chester College will be entered in a raffle for a gift card to Applebee's. All donors will also be entered in a raffle to win a pair of lift tickets to Loon Mt.

Student Art Sale

On Friday, December 4 from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm Chester College of New England Students will be displaying and selling art in the Wadleigh Library Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

They are still looking for interested students to sell work. If you are interested please contact Kara Schulse kschulze@chestercollege.edu, or sign up at the circulation desk.

Primary Studios Show

Between December 3, 2009 and December 15, 2009 Chester College of New England's Primary Studios Students will be showing their work in the Wadleigh Library Gallery. The gallery will be free and open to the public.

An Unfiltered Experience : An Interview with Asley John Pigford

Artist and musician Ashley John Pigford visited Chester College of New England this week as part of the Visiting Artist Symposium Lecture Series. So Good staffer Jen Bailey had a chance to speak to him about his work.

Jen Bailey: How did you come into this unusual sort of work?

Ashley John Pigford: I am a designer by practice and an artist by product. I have a lot of experience in graphic design, and making money for other people. A while ago I decided to stop doing this and apply my creative process to something I cared about. So, in addition to teaching I explore my personal fascination with electronics, programming, and interaction design.

JB: Why do you choose to work with old electronics?

AJP: Because they are cheap and ubiquitous. Plus, they embody a message of reuse and rethinking everyday experiences. They are instantly engaging because people know them--they already have a relationship. This provides an entryway into the work.

JB: About how long does it take to complete a piece?

AJP: Hard to say, sometimes a year, sometimes 30 minutes. All pieces are projects that continue to evolve in materials and my own knowledge of the technology.

JB: Why do you believe interactivity is so important in art?

AJP: Because engagement is what we all seek. Multi-sensory experiences are how we perceive reality and work that provides this is engaging in ways that are greater than the sum of its sensory parts.

JB: What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment?

AJP: Being a father.

JB: What artists do you admire?

AJP: Tim Hawkinson, Conrad Shawcross, Troika, Greyworld; these come to mind right now.

JB: How has being a professor influenced your work?

AJP: It's more like my work influences my teaching, however teaching and creative process are deeply intertwined as an intrinsic human activity.

JB: How has music influenced your work?

AJP: Heavily. My process of making art is very equivalent to making music. Both involve phenomenon, composition, tone, and non-visual experiences. Music is an unfiltered experience, it sinks deep fast.

JB: What advice would you give to aspiring artists?

AJP: Use your work to discover something you are fascinated with, then use the work to share this with other people.

Lana Z. Caplan visits Chester College of New England

Lana Z. Caplan will be Chester College of New England's final visiting artist in the fall semester's Visiting Artist Symposium. Lana's lecture will be held on December 1st at 2:30 pm in the Wadleigh Library Conference Room. The lecture will be free and open to the public.

Lana Z. Caplan is a Boston-based film/videomaker, photographer and installation artist. She works with super8, found footage, video, interactive projections, and alterative processes photography in her pieces that explore relationships, mortality and social issues.

Recent screenings and exhibitions include: MadCat Women’s International Film Festival (San Francisco, CA); "FICCO"(Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, (Mexico City); Festival Cap Sembrat 3, (Barcelona, Spain); Danforth Museum of Art, (MA); National Gallery of Art, (San Juan, Puerto Rico); Gallery NAGA, (Boston, MA); John Stevenson Gallery, (NY, NY); Photographic Resource Center, (Boston, MA); William Benton Museum of Art, (Storrs, CT).

Recent grants and awards include: Puffin Foundation, Individual Artist Grant; Wexner Center for the Arts, Residency Support; Massachusetts Cultural Council, Professional Development Grant; Vermont Studio Center, Artist-in-Residence, Artist Grant; Contemporary Artist Center, North Adams, MA; Polaroid Corporation, Materials Grant. She earned a B.A. from Boston University and an M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art. Caplan also teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA.