SHORT: The Art of Action Project

by Riki Moss

The Art of Action Project Review Committee has announced the ten Finalists who will receive commissions to realize the projects they proposed. They are Susan Abbott, Gail Boyajian, David Brewster, Annemie Curlin, Phil Godenschwager, Curtis Hale, Val Hird, Kathleen Kolb, Janet McKenzie, and John Miller.

Here's a video of all twenty finalists from whom the ten were selected. This beguiling, utterly generous project asked the question: what is Vermont’s future as interpreted through artists? All the chosen painters - with perhaps one photographer - answer with exquisitely rendered, more-or-less straight forward visual narratives deeply rooted in community or landscape. No abstraction here, or art-for-arts-sake, or heavy symbolism, political angst, fragmented imagery,ugliness or despair.