Maria Bamford by Natalie Brasington

Maria Bamford started her performing arts career in Duluth, Minnesota at the age of 11 where she starred in the Chester Park Elementary production of How the West Was REALLY Won!  A short number of decades later and look at her now!  Rolling Stone named her one of their 50 Funniest People, and she’s the winner of the 2014 American Comedy Award for Best Club Comic! She is the creator and star of Maria Bamford: the special special special, one of Vulture.com’s Top 10 Stand-Up Specials of 2012, and of the cult hit web series The Maria Bamford Show, which screened at the Museum of Art and Design and was described as a “cold blast of brilliance” by The New Yorker.

Scott Marvel Cassidy

Scott Marvel Cassidy is a Los Angeles based artist working in painting, drawing, collage, and sculpture. He has exhibited in Los Angeles at Las Cienega Projects, Subliminal Gallery, Autonomie Gallery, and nationally with Schmidt Dean Gallery (Philadelphia), and Micheal Cline Marc Jancou Contemporary (New York), among others.

Jim Shaw by Edmond So

Jim Shaw is an artist who, since the 1970s, has mined the detritus of American culture, finding inspiration for his artworks in comic books, pulp novels, rock albums, protest posters, thrift store paintings and advertisements. At the same time, Shaw has consistently turned to his own life and, in particular, his unconscious, as a source of artistic creativity. Recent solo shows have been presented at ICA London, Metro Pictures (New York), Simon Lee (London), and a display of his collection of didactic art at was presented at Chalet Society (France).  “The End is Here” will open fall 2015 at the New Museum in NYC.  Jim is also a founding member of the protopunk band Destroy All Monsters.

Mount Washington vista from Cindy Bernard’s home

View from SASSAS Founding Director and artist Cindy Bernard’s “cabin in the sky” in Mount Washington.

Photos from the event here.