Ashley Barbour was born in Boston, MA in 1994, and joined Gateway Arts in 2016.

Barbour loves to draw and paint, and is artistically informed by women from the world of entertainment and history.  She is fascinated by heroines in such musicals as The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, and Matilda.  Barbour is very involved in the arts community at Gateway, and is actively involved in promoting herself as an artist.

Ashley Barbour’s product line includes items reproduced from her designs, some of which have been stocked by the Peabody Essex Museum gift shop. Barbour’s work has been exhibited in the Gateway Gallery.

Amy Caliri was born in Melrose, MA in 1976 and now lives in Watertown, MA.  She has been working as an artist at Gateway Arts since 1995.

During her career Amy Caliri has developed a unique painting and drawing style that is heavily reliant upon line work. Caliri is very observant, a quality which is reflected in her art.  She enjoys the creative process, and constantly explores new ideas and techniques.

Caliri’s work has been shown at the Gateway Gallery in Brookline, the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, and the Mall at Chestnut Hill in Chestnut Hill, MA. Additionally, Caliri’s fiber work has been written about in the Boston Globe by esteemed art critic Cate McQuaid.

Mimi Clark was born in East Greenwich, RI in 1990, currently lives in Westwood, MA, and joined Gateway Arts in 2018.

Clark loves to draw, work with fibers, and make jewelry. Clark is involved in her community through volunteering and she is passionate about her family. She is always growing as an artist and seeking to learn new technical skills. Clark is artistically informed by pop culture brands and memories from her youth, and chooses bright colors and bold lines in her designs. Her animal imagery, smiles, and bright forms are delightful.

Clark has exhibited her work at The Gateway Gallery and in The Gateway Store.

Born in 1985, Alexis Cofield lives in the Boston area. She began working in the Gateway Studios in 2018.

Cofield loves making art, and has already begun developing a colorful, unique style across mediums. Her happy positive demeanor finds expression in Cofield’s favorite subject matter, abstracted rainbows and heart motifs. Some of Cofield’s works can be pleasantly simple, while others are layered and complex. She creates drawings in colored pencil, as well as multilayered mixed medium paintings. Color is a very important aspect of her work.

Cofield’s work has been exhibited in the Gateway Gallery, and at The Beehive in Boston.

Alison Doucette was born in Concord Hillside, Massachusetts. As an adult she now resides in Brookline, MA and began working at Gateway Arts in 2013.

The studios have been a new and fascinating place for Doucette, and she has worked diligently to build an impressive inventory of her work.  Doucette works in many studios and enjoys different processes such as weaving, embroidery, pottery, drawing, painting, and jewelry.  Doucette has a strong understanding of color, and creates visually engaging pieces that keep the eye moving over the entire image, regardless of which medium she chooses.

Doucette has exhibited her work at the Gateway Gallery in Brookline, MA.

Claude Fourel was born in Boston, MA in 1937.

While an artist at Gateway, Fourel worked productively and creatively, with abundant color and diverse media, until her retirement in 2019. Fourel produced decorative, functional and fine artworks in her definite, distinctive style. Birds, butterflies, fish, flowers, and other figures are common themes in her very colorful work. This beautiful imagery adorns hand-painted and hand-embroidered articles ranging from pottery to large canvas and handbags to silk scarves. Claude also produced lovely jewelry, and is an avid singer. Working mostly among other artists, Claude’s defining characteristics have been care, creativity, focus, and never capable of idleness. After so many years as an artist, Claude became a quiet mentor to many.

Joe Howe (1930-2019) was a longtime resident of Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood and one of Gateway’s original artists.

Howe’s work was characterized by repetition, refinement, and frequently a striking grasp of composition. Howe spoke little but worked with unwavering dedication.

Those who got to know Howe learned of his desire to fly on long trips, to go “far far.” Sometimes, Howe’s friends would make him cards and drawings, laminating them with packing tape for him to carry in his wallet. These would say and depict whatever Joe asked for – pictures of airplanes, the words “1,000 miles”, lists of jobs and activities he enjoyed (“Lock up. Sleep over. Peel potatoes.”). The topic of travel figured into his work, though it is not immediately apparent. Sculptures that appear abstract may in fact depict airplanes or windows. Other pieces represent sofas or chairs, while still others remain inscrutable. The totality of Joe’s inner life remains mysterious, but like all good artists, he hinted at the possibilities with his work.

Howe’s work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery; White Columns Gallery in NYC; Drive-By Projects in Watertown; The Mall at Chestnut Hill and Copley Place Mall; and the Brookline Public Library.

Robert Kirshner (1955-2009) lived in the Boston area all of his life. He began drawing in the early 1960s after seeing the Prudential Center construction site in Boston’s Back Bay.

Kirshner used drawing as a means of communication in part due to a language deficit. Drawing was a way for him to record and share his awareness of the fluctuations in the weather, seasonal transformations, the upheaval and reconstruction of the urban landscape, the expansion of the public transportation system and the ever changing fate of the Boston Red Sox and Celtics. He was very curious, and could be found daily, coffee and bagel in hand, perusing the newspaper and asking for explanations of the phenomena taking place around him.

Kirshner’s work has been shown and acclaimed nationally and internationally at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston; the Fuller Museum of Art in Brockton, MA; and the Outsider Art Fair, Margaret Bodell Gallery and the Phoenix Gallery in New York. He has won awards from MENCAP in London, England and the Edensburg Center in Pennsylvania. His work has been reviewed by Christine Temin in the Boston Globe and Stacy Soave in Art.

Johann LeRoux was born in 1955. He currently resides in Framingham, MA. LeRoux has been attending Gateway Arts since 2004.

Interested in landscape, animal life, and abstraction, his art is as multi-faceted in its subject matter as it is obsessed with detail and small moments. Most of LeRoux’s art represents the nature that he loves: birds, animals, flowers and scenery. He has always been close to nature, and from early youth has enjoyed hiking and camping. LeRoux was an avid bird watcher. By reproducing live creatures through art, he gets to know them better – it brings him nearer to them and he is able to share his love of nature with people around him. LeRoux also enjoys drawing old and interesting buildings. He loves the balance, perspective, interesting lines and details, and the way these man-made creations blend into the environment. Because of his engineering background, LeRoux is detailed and exact, yet he also loves the range of interpretation that is possible with color. By working creatively with color, LeRoux is able to express the feeling things evoke in him. By using unusual colors, LeRoux challenges his viewers to look at old things through new eyes.

LeRoux has exhibited his work at the Gateway Gallery, in Brookline, MA and at the Mall of Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Hill, MA.

Joanne O’Connell was born in 1968; she began working at Gateway Arts in 1992 and retired in 2018.

Since childhood, O’Connell noted her observations through drawing and painting. During her prolific career, she incorporated her love of rock and roll music and respect for life and other people, into her two dimensional work.  Drawn from her active imagination and observational skills, O’Connell’s enigmatic paintings and writings are layered with abstracted imagery and text.

O’Connell’s work has been exhibited throughout Massachusetts at numerous galleries including the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, and the Fuller Craft Museum. Additionally, her work has been shown extensively out of state including at the Goldhaber-Fend Fine Arts Center Gallery in Johnstown, PA and Bridges & Bodell Gallery in New York, NY.  She has received awards for her artwork from MENCAP in London, England and the Ebensburg Center in Pennsylvania.

Gilberto Palacios (1954-2015) was born in Cuba, and grew up in Havana.

His single mother worked hard to raise Palacios and his eight siblings.  As a young boy, the music and festivals of Havana captured Palacios. He would draw the festivals on anything he could find. Palacios said, “In Cuba, they sold no art supplies, so I just drew on paper bags with a pencil.” The limited acceptance and oppressive dictatorship forced Palacios to say goodbye to his family and leave Cuba for the United States in 1980. Palacios would spend the next twenty years of his life struggling to fit into a new culture that was foreign and daunting, faced with language barriers, lack of jobs, discrimination, depression, and homesickness.  The peer pressure to substance abuse by fellow Cuban-Americans left Palacios feeling alienated.  He decided to take a bus to Boston to start anew.  Upon arrival, he was referred to Saint Francis House, sleeping at the Long Island Annex shelter. Palacios also used the Art room at Saint Francis to explore with paper and paint his childhood passion for the festivals and music of Cuba.  Loving memories of his mother also play a dominant role in his work.  His passion for painting flowed into his hopes of becoming a hair dresser, but after studying at LIBS school, he decided that visual art was where his interests lay.

Palacios’ work has been shown at the Gateway Gallery and at Martha Richardson Fine Art in Boston, MA.

Jordana Simpson grew up in Jamaica before relocating to Boston. She has been working in the Gateway Studios since November of 2015.

Simpson’s artistic interests lie in jewelry making, drawing, embroidery, and painting. She has recently begun exploring both hard and soft sculpture. Simpson’s choice of color and texture is most remarkable in her jewelry design, a medium that highlights her artistic vision. Bright colors and bold lines mark her pictorial work in both fiber and traditional painting and drawing media.

Simpson has exhibited at the Gateway Gallery.

Jane Tarlow was raised in Brockton, MA.  She has been working at Gateway Arts since February of 1996.

Tarlow remembers enjoying drawing ever since early childhood.  When she began working at Gateway, Tarlow was primarily a decorative craft artist.  Since then Tarlow has spent considerable time focusing more on fine art.  Tarlow’s work deals with the themes of nature, human relationships, and emotional conflict, and her “Roots” series explores the connections between the past and the present.

Tarlow’s work has been in many exhibitions at the Gateway Gallery, and she has also shown at the Lincoln Gallery at Beaver County Day School, Chestnut Hill, MA, The Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA, and The Sherrill House, Boston, MA. She also contributed to an art/fashion show at Avalon, Boston, MA, and participated in Brookline Open Studios, Brookline, MA.

Kathleen Wells was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1964; grew up in rural Michigan, and settled in the Boston area in the late 1980s; and began working in the Gateway studios in 2005.

Wells’ childhood was marked with traumatic experiences, and a spirit of creativity carried her through difficult times. Throughout her life she has struggled with a number of health and psychological challenges, and making art has been a central part of her healing process. Wells works in several styles and media (acrylic paints, pastels and printmaking), always with bold use of color, line, and texture and with emotional intensity. Her art can be characterized by a spirit of experimentation and resourcefulness. In her paintings and drawings, Wells explores psychological states by using the human figure, landscapes, and resonant objects to create magical worlds, ask questions, and tell stories. Currently she is investigating working in series.

Wells’ work has been exhibited at the Gateway Gallery and TILL Wave Gallery, and her works are held in private and public collections.