Cape provides CFA student with ideas and support
For Abraham Storer (CFA’07), inspiration for his art comes from his childhood on Cape Cod.
For College of Fine Arts student Abraham Storer, inspiration for his work as a graphic artist comes from the culture and landscapes of his childhood — Cape Cod and the New England seashore. The land has become his muse and has helped finance his career as an artist.
In July, for the third consecutive year, the master of fine arts student received a Davenport Foundation scholarship, given to people from the Cape studying the arts. Other local institutions helped Storer (CFA’07), an English major with little academic background in art, “to take the plunge to pursue art at the graduate level,” he says, when an MFA was just a dream.
The South Yarmouth library awarded him a $3,000 Cecelia Siemen Scholarship in the Visual Arts, and twice he has won scholarships from Shellfish Promotion and Tasting (SPAT), a Wellfleet, Mass., organization that provides grants for projects related to the shellfishing industry.
“It has been really encouraging to know that others recognize my potential and stand behind me in my pursuit of an MFA,” Storer says.
Storer’s father is a commercial fisherman on the Cape, and he grew up connected to the sea. His SPAT project explores the images and culture of the industry through a series of paintings and works on paper, which were shown at SPAT’s 2005 Oyster Fest. In the process, Storer discovered a subject that proved fertile in the development of his work. “Since then,” he says, “my work continues to deal with my familial and cultural background as well as the symbolism, beauty, and spirituality found in nature.”
After graduation, Storer hopes to become a professional artist and teacher. The intensity of CFA’s program, he says, makes him “confident it will be a place where I can grow and further develop ideas that have begun to emerge in my work.”