Artist-in-residence relocating studio practice to Hamilton Gallery

The Department of Art and Art History is welcoming Providence-based interdisciplinary artist May Babcock to campus as the University’s 2019 artist-in-residence.

Through Tuesday, Dec. 17, Babcock is relocating her studio practice to the Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery. During this period, she will share her creative process with the Salve Regina community and incite new opportunities for learning and collaboration on campus.

Babcock’s studio techniques combine hand papermaking, printmaking, sculpture, historical photography process and book-arts techniques, creating artwork that addresses place. She teaches and exhibits widely, blogs about papermaking at paperslurry.com, serves on the board of directors for Hand Papermaking Magazine, and is piloting Pawtucket Paper Center, a community papermaking studio.

Since 2017, Babcock has collected seaweeds and pondweeds from Rhode Island waterways, embedding them in pulp during the wet hand papermaking process. First an identification method while exploring invasive and indicator species, this ongoing exploration is now “Rhode Island Herbarium,” a series of more than 100 works that have also inspired “Weathering,” a series that uses river and bay water to patina copper leaf on the seaweed papers.

Babcock will be working in the gallery during regular hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, the campus community and the general public are invited to attend an open studio reception for Babcock from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12 in the gallery.

To see more of Babcock’s artwork, visit maybabcock.com or follow her on Instagram.