Gorse Mill Studios, Needham, MA 
Gorse Mill Studios, Needham, MA
Local art studio Gorse Mill Studios, rents studio space to a variety of local artists representing a variety of work including paintings, mosaics and ceramics. On Dec. 5 the studio will host its seventh annual open studio event where the public will be able to visit the studios and purchase work by the three-dozen artists participating. The Needham Times met with three of the studio’s newest artists to learn about their work.
Having grown up in a family of artists stretching through multiple generations, Alejandro Fischer always knew he would be an artist. After graduating from high school, Fischer traveled to Boston from South America to study art in college. Self described as a figurative artist, Fischer has been at Gorse Mill Studios for a few months. While he has tried “a little bit of everything” Fischer loves to paint portraits. As an extension of his work Fischer offers private painting and drawing classes, registration is available through his website www.alejandrofischer.com.
Q: What can people expect to see from your art?
A.F.: A lot of people search for art that they can see the techniques behind it, they can value something, so I always work hard on that, on creating something of really good quality. I make a huge distinction between good art, or art that you can tell the artist studied art or has gone through the process of learning about the trade. They can expect to see something that I carefully created. Most people are usually surprised when they walk in, they see something different because not many people do portraits for example, and so I like portraits a lot, they’re just a challenge.
Q: How long does it take you to complete on something?
A.F.: It varies a lot. Some are very loose like sketches [and they] take me one afternoon. Because you never know when it’s complete, there’s a little sketch and then I’m happy with it and then it’s over. But of course it took me 20 years to get to the point where I can do it in one afternoon. But there [are] other things that I get into them and they have a lot of realism and there’s parts of the painting that I will spend weeks and weeks and weeks building it, so it really depends, it varies a lot.
Q: What is one thing you’d want one people to know about your art?
A.F.: Even if it’s like a landscape, art is a self-portrait. Artists always work on their inner worlds so if you’re a person that has a rich inner world experience and you’ve done a lot of things in your life somehow it enriches what you’re creating. When people see my work they can identify themselves somehow. There’s a little series I have of some portraits, they’re very distorted faces, they’re making grimaces, and so they liked them because somehow those people can relate to them, maybe it’s because they make that face in the mirror, maybe they’ve felt that way somewhere, tired, or bored, or angry, or screaming. There’s a way when I connect to my inner world, and I try to seek something; people can identify those emotions and that’s sometimes they don’t know why but they feel that they like it or they’re funny. So it speaks to different people in different ways. I leave it up to the art to do it. I don’t like a lot of philosophy behind my work, I don’t like to explain my work to people, its better if people look at it before they know about me, just spend longer time in front of it, looking at it.
NEEDHAM TIMES, Dec. 2, 2015
Article by Emma R. Murphy