Esther Maschio
Artist, Mentor and Friend
by Monice Morenz Grabowski

Esther has built an impressive career in the visual arts. She is known to many in the Boston arts community as an innovative artist and a dedicated teacher. For the past twelve years she has held the post of master instructor of printmaking at the South Shore Art Center, replacing her good friend Berj Kailian in 1993.

Esther is a graduate of the School of Practical Art (now called the Art Institute of Boston). She spent thirty years in the commercial art industry as a medical illustrator for the New England Medical Center and as a designer for an electronics firm. During these busy years she raised three wonderful daughters and still managed to find time in the evenings to study life drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She also took classes in oil painting, pastel, and watercolor with artists Clement Micarelli, Connie Pratt, Michael Keane and Charles Mahoney. While Esther mastered many traditional techniques and mediums she continued to explore her knowledge of fine art.

A turning point in Esther's artistic development was the moment she discovered the etchings of Rembrandt at a special exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She says she was stunned by the beauty of Rembrandt's work. The display of copper plates, state proofs and prints made such an impact on Esther she remembers feeling as if "a light bulb [was] going off in my head." From that moment on she resolved to learn more about etching and printmaking. She pursued studies at the Experimental Etching Studio in Boston, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and Bridgewater State College. It was Berj Kailian at the SSAC who introduced Esther to monoprinting - a form of printmaking she found less tedious and time consuming than etching.

As a busy parent and artist, Esther found monoprinting a fluid and versatile medium which enabled her to apply her honed drawing skills in addition to using color and imagery to convey her unique vision.
Monoprinting also gave Esther the opportunity to explore image making in a direct and personal style. "I feel it is important to work from the inside out to alter realism and fashion it to my liking, to work in an honest and direct way. Esther's innovative approach utilizes an array of techniques and tools she has developed over the years.

In the Williams Studio at the SSAC Esther teaches beginner and advanced printmaking. Students learn the fundamentals and the multimedia aspects of photo transfer and chine collé using oil and water based inks. As a teacher Esther enthusiastically says, "It is just as thrilling to see someone pull a print as it is for me to pull my own. I am not tired of teaching nor of doing my own monoprints, so I must be in the right place." She approaches her beginning and advanced students with an open and informative dialogue encouraging personal exploration. Many former and current associates regard Esther as an artist, mentor and close friend, as well as a fabulous cook. I recall Esther bringing in a bowl of warm pesto pasta, complete with Italian ceramic bowls and napkins, to an evening printmaking class. In addition to exhibiting and teaching, Esther contributed her talents to help develop the gallery, art workshops and the summer arts festival for Scituate Arts Association on Front Street at Scituate Harbor.

Esther also has planned exhibitions for the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, the University of Massachusetts and Medical Center at Worcester and was a board member of the Monotype Guild of New England.

In 2003 and 2004 Esther studied a 4 color non toxic photo etch process called Eco Resist at Studio Camnitzer located in the Tuscan Village of Valdottavo, Lucca, Italy. Also in 2004 she learned non toxic acrylic ground etching at the Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, Scotland.