I’m cross-posting this from my Fieldguide blog….

For the month of August 2022, I’m showing work at Wellfleet’s Adult Community Center — 715 Old Kings Highway, Wellfleet, MA (directions at the bottom of the post). I was honored to be invited to show in the space by Robert Rindler, who directs the gallery, and really delighted to see the work installed this afternoon (thanks, James!!)

My first show was in my hometown library back in 1985. I provided a huge boost of confidence for me as an emerging artist, and helped me to ‘explain’ what I was doing at art school to my friends and family. While the gallery at the Wellfleet Adult Community Center is very well programed, it’s also an integrated community gallery — with all kinds of public programming happening in parallel to artworks. I’m a big believer in this kind of community-based exhibition space, and very happy to be part of the Center’s community life this month.

I rarely get to see my work in a large space with a lot of room to either see the work collectively or allow distance from the pieces. It was a revelation to see the work this way — and even if no one else comes to see the work I’m content in knowing that I’ve seen it in a new way. 

There will be an opening later in the month — we’re still confirming dates and times — and I’ll update this to include it when we’ve figured it out. The Center is open Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 4 PM for drop-in viewing (although I’m told it might make sense to call ahead to confirm the space is open when you want to visit — 508-349-2800).

I’m posting about this on the Fieldguide site because the artworks in the show largely emerged from this project and relate to the themes (as my artist statement suggests). 

If you’re on the Cape in August, I hope you might stop by to see the show!

Where I Can Feel It On My Own: Recent Work by Pete Hocking

Cape Cod’s Outer Shore has long been a place of both solace and inspiration. The elemental forces that shape and re-shape our coastline, the vast indetermination of the ocean, and intrepid austerity of the plants that cling to the land all remind me of life’s fragility and possibility. Against that backdrop I spend innumerable hours hiking and meditating on both the topography of this place and the transformative process of witnessing forces larger than myself. 

Pete Hocking is an interdisciplinary artist, activist, and teacher who lives and works on the Outer Cape. His artworks are concerned with both spatial poetics and one’s emotional connection to place. He’s interested in the ways that individual human identities are inscribed into human and non-human landscapes, and ultimately in the ways that the non-human world defies human intervention. 

Pete teaches at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Gratz College. From 2003-2021 he taught in Goddard College’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. He was director of RISD’s Office of Public Engagement (2007-11), and Associate Dean of the College & Director of the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University (1988-2005). He’s a founding board member of Provincetown Commons, an economic development center for the creative economy.  He’s represented by Four Eleven Gallery in Provincetown, MA.

All of the works included in this exhibition can be purchased via Four Eleven Gallery’s website.

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Directions to the Adult Community Center (Council on Aging)

From: Eastham – Follow Route 6 approximately three miles from the Eastham/Wellfleet border.  Turn right onto Old County Road.  Follow Old County 1.7 miles.  The Wellfleet Adult Community Center driveway will be on your left.

From: Truro – Follow Route 6 into Wellfleet.  After the second set of traffic lights (Main Street), take your next left onto Cahoon Hollow Road.  Follow Cahoon Hollow Road for 8/10 of a mile.  Turn right onto Old Kings Highway.  The Wellfleet Adult Community Center is the first right on Old Kings Highway.