Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery of Shelburne, will be showing "Simple Gifts: A Show for All Seasons" December 4- January 30, 2010. The exhibit will open with a public reception on Friday , Dec. 4, 6-8 p.m. in conjunction with Shelburne's annual town-wide village holiday stroll.
The exhibit features the work of Matt Brown, along with 15 other artists: Miriam Adams, Annelein Beukenkamp, Joan Curtis, Jeri Lynn Eisenberg, Kevin Fahey, Janet Fredericks,Steven P. Goodman, Alison Goodwin, Kate Hartley,John Lawrence Hoag,Beth Pearson,Gail Salzman, Carolyn Shattuck, David Smith, and Dick Weis.
Matt Brown lives in Lyme, N.H. , and works in the medium of wood block printing using the traditional Japanese hanga method. He describes this intricate process:
"The hanga method is printing from multiple color wood blocks using water. Most Western print-making techniques have used oil as the medium for printing ... Printmaking (as well as painting) in Asia has a history that relies on water.Oil goes well with metal machinery . . . it is its blood! Water goes well with living things that depend on water, like wood, and our own human bodies. So printing with water works best done by hand, using a baren. Emphasis on water as a medium in art and writing, and a tradition of disciplined use of the human body in the production of craft, may have a lot to do with why Japan hosts a strong tradition of printing with water. This is reflected in the term to describe many Japanese prints: ukiyo-e, or floating world."
Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery is located at 86 Falls Road, in Shelburne
Village. Hours are Tue-Fri 9:30-5:30, and Sat 10-5. For more information
please call Joan Furchgott, 802-985-3848, or go to fsgallery.com
image: "Egret"
wood block print
by Matt Brown, 7"x 16".
