One of the standout pieces in the recent Gauguin show at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts wasn't by Gauguin. It was a colorful, contemporary reinterpretation of one of his masterpieces by the kids at Artists for Humanity. They're participating, as usual, in this weekend's Fort Point Open Studios. It's not just that compared to the relatively muted tones of the pro artists elsewhere, their work is a blast of color and pizazz -- though it is -- as that there is a level of emotion in the work that is hard to find elsewhere. Their new building is a bit far out on A street, in the industrial fringes of Southie (the South Boston Open Studios in a few weeks might be a better fit for them, come to think of it), but it's well worth the walk.

By the way, there's a new artists collective on the odd side of Summer Street which isn't on the official map, but has some really nice whimsical stuff. I particularly liked the relief sculptures of Windows dialog boxes -- you don't often see one of those with real beveled edges...