A Dorchester artist, convinced that “we’re all in transit,” recently took to the T for inspiration.
Kacee Evitts is one of the artists in a local collective that is putting on its first-ever exhibition, “No Where. Now Here.”
The show surrounds “space and place,” Evitts said, and includes an eclectic array of sculptures, multimedia and photography as well as her MBTA oil paintings.
“A few months ago a very dear friend of mine passed away. I started thinking about how we’re only in one spot for a short amount of time,” Evitts said. “On the T, people are on for a stop or two, then leave. Someone else sits down never knowing who was there before them.”
The 29-year-old artists admits that she’s always been a people watcher; and what better place to eyeball your fellow human beings than on the T?
“I often wonder what everyone’s story is. I like watching how they interact,” she said.
Instead of asking T riders to pose for photos, which she used as references, Evitts snapped candid shots of her fellow passengers during her daily commutes.
The paintings show bundled up T riders walking on bustling platforms, and seated stoically on the train.
“Everybody is just focused on what they have to do next rather than being in the moment,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the T said the transit agency is considering an installation of the paintings.
Evitt’s collective is made up of five other female artists who regularly meet to bounce around artistic ideas.
“We’re hoping we can keep it up. Everyone in the group is busy with life, but we try to meet at least once a week,” she said.
The exhibition runs through Feb. 7 at the Harbor Art Gallery at UMass Boston, and is free and open to the public. The artists will be on hand for a reception at the gallery between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Check out one of the T paintings below:
