Richard Marshall Opera and Photography

Yesterday I had an appointment in North Adams with a member of the North Adams City Council who will be in my book. Then I went to the nearby Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA, but it was closed for the day. Fortunately there was an adjacent building that had studios, places where artists could work for a specified number of weeks under the auspices of the museum. I took the elevator to the second floor where each studio door had a window so you could see inside. I opened one of the doors to find a charming lady from Pakistan, who now lives in Brooklyn. On the wall was a large cut out of a group of women created in the wonderful near eastern tradition. It was beautiful. I introduced myself and asked if I could photograph her work and then the young lady herself. She was already an accomplished artist. I can't send the photo of her work without her permission but here she is in two versions. Her name is Hiba Schahbaz.