Thursday, November 24, 2011

REVIEW: Delia Robinson at Flynndog in Burlington

by Janet Van Fleet

One of the things I love about the Flynndog (on Flynn Avenue in Burlington’s South End Arts District) is that Bren Alvarez, who curates the space, seems to have an impulse to combine the presentation of visual arts with music, dance, literature, and social issues. The current show is an example of this inclination. The exhibition offers Delia Robinson’s illustrations of AlphaBetaBestiario, a new collection of poetry by Antonello Borra (originally written in Italian), translated by Blossom S. Kirschenbaum. The reading by Borra at the opening reception on November 4 was dedicated to Kirschenbaum, who was known to be seriously ill, and in fact died that same night (see obituary).

Delia Robinson’s illustrations, displayed down the length of one long wall at the gallery, were originally hand-drawn and painted, then scanned and digitally altered, and finally printed in pigment-based inks on heavyweight archival paper. The exhibit is beautifully mounted, with each of the illustrations (a framed print, one of a Limited Edition print run of only 10) mounted next to a book open to the poem being illustrated. The poems appear in both the original Italian and a facing page with the English translation. The poet’s elegant signature races across the bottom of the black mounting board under each book.

It’s a good thing that the framed prints are mounted with the books, since the illustrations as they are printed in the book are extremely disappointing – a mushy, muddy grey, lacking the punch and contrast of the images as they appear in the limited run prints. There must be a way of avoiding this problem. Perhaps a coated stock (though possibly more expensive) might hold the image better?

On the opposite wall of the gallery are Robinson’s paintings, many of which are painted and/or mounted on insulation foamboard that is covered with fabric or paper and carved into shapes that suggest architectural finials.

This body of work is called Captive. It includes three large puppet-theater pieces with multiple holes where puppets might appear (but don’t, in this exhibit), as well as paintings with a variety of sizes and subjects.

A wonderful piece that demonstrates Robinson’s highly-tuned sense of humor is Professor in the Ivory Tower. (He finds the artifact needed to complete his history of the potato masher). The Professor is depicted in front of a soaring and packed bookshelf, with wisps of clouds passing overhead, clearly delighted by adding the missing link to his historic collection.

Another fine example of narrative painting is Blame it on the Yellow Car, a larger piece showing front and center what looks like the artist herself, with her heart on her sleeve. There is much going on in this piece, and it’s fun to imagine scenarios in which the yellow car (and the other characters in the painting) might figure.

This exhibit will run through December 29, 2011 and, in Flynndog fashion, there will be another literary event on December 2 at 7:00, with Antonello Borra, Greg Delanty, Tina Escaja, Barbara Krohn, and Carmen Pont reading from their work in the original languages in which they were written and in English translation , all against the backdrop of Delia Robinson's paintings and drawings.

Images: photos of Antonello Borra and detail of book by Sandra Sonntag. Remainder by Janet Van Fleet

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Beth Barndt at the Emile A. Gruppe Gallery in Jericho Center


The Public is invited to the opening of Beth Barndt's new show Winter at the Emile A Gruppe Gallery in Jericho Center, on Sunday, December 4 from 2 - 4 pm. Winter is based on a collection of hundreds of collaged postcards, made by Beth and sent out over the past 20 winter holiday seasons. Hundreds of cards are on loan for this project and have been temporarily reconfigured into panels of varying sizes. Several new larger works as well as postcard seconds will also be on display and available for sale. Pictured is the Winter X postcard panel.

The gallery is also exhibiting a Festival of Fine Arts for holiday giving by other Vermont artists. Gallery hours are 10 am - 3pm Thursday through Sunday. (802) 899 -3211 www.emilegruppegallery.com

PRESS RELEASE: Board Art at Darkside in Stowe

Ghettogloss Presents: Epic-Original art of Dogtown and custom decks of iconic artists of our time

Fiora Boes owns a gallery in Los Angeles called Ghettogloss -- for the past decade a haven of local subculture that has been exhibiting artwork by some of the most beloved artists working today. While Ghettogloss is still running strong in Los Angeles, for a variety of reasons that will no doubt make a great movie someday, Fiora has been based in Stowe, Vermont lately. But as the saying goes, you can take the girl out of Ghettogloss, but you can never take Ghettogloss out of the girl.

Fiora's current project is curating an exhibition that opens December 10 and will be housed at Darkside, a snowboard/skateboard shop located in the heart of Stowe on Mountain Road. This show of original 1970's Dogtown art by Wes Humpston will include his own original drawings and hand drawn decks along with customized decks by a crew of iconic artists that are his friends, contemporaries, and colleagues. Wes Humpston is largely recognized as the first to put a graphic on a skateboard, at the dawn of Dogtown. Part of the proceeds from the show will go to local indie businesses that have been devastated by Hurricane Irene.

Opening Reception details: December 10, 2011
Cocktails will be poured from 6pm-11pm at Darkside, 2160 Mountain Road, Stowe, Vermont

The line up: Wes Humpston, Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Aiko (Faile), Tony Alva, Mark Mothersbaugh, Tommy Chong, Clive Barker, Allee Willis, Darren Le Gallo, Loic Zimmermann, Yarrow Earth Hock, Jon Todd, Brendan Grasso, Craig Grasso, Sue-Ling Hyde, and Kenton Parker

About the venue:
When I walked into Darkside, I felt compelled to tell the history of the icons that inspired its colorful merchandise. I decided to put together a line-up of artists that could visually seam together the past, present, and future of where merchandise graphics came from and where they are heading. I chose a simple canvas for all of the artists to customize that would make sense in the skate/ snowboard venue where they would be displayed -- a blank skate deck. All of the artists will be exhibiting a custom piece that will be for sale and on display for at least one month.

Images: Deck by AIKO, Deck by Kenton Parker

PRESS RELEASE: 2011 Portfolio and Holiday Show at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River Junction

Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River Junction is pleased to announce its fourth, limited-edition portfolio of prints which have been made by 26 artist members and faculty from around Vermont and New Hampshire. 2011 marks the studio's tenth anniversary as a cooperative print studio offering classes, lectures, and world-class printmaking facilities that have attracted artists from around New England. Two Rivers Printmaking Studio is located in the Tip Top Media Building at 85 North Main Street in White River Junction, Vermont.

The exhibition opening and anniversary celebration will be held on Friday, December 2, from 6-8pm. The exhibit will continue through January 31, 2012, and the studio will be open most days from 11am - 4pm. Call (802)295-5901 or visit our website at www.tworiversprintmaking .com for more information.

Image: Untitled etching by Judy Lampe, an artist member since 2001

PRESS RELEASE: Montpelier Art Walk



Enjoy the most festive Montpelier Art Walk on Friday, December 9th! Twenty-eight venues feature fine art, photography, sculptures, posters, handmade ornaments and more!

This Art Walk will feature Hal Mayforth, a nationally recognized humorous illustrator, at The Skinny Pancake. His 30 year career as an illustrator has established him as a distinctive, original painter of watercolors and acrylics.

The cover art for the December 9th Art Walk guide, Boustrophedon to Mecca (at left), was provided by S.B. Sowbel. Sowbel's distinctive and sensual boustrophedons explore an ancient form of writing that travels back and forth, "as the ox plows," in deeply colorful wax, oil and gouache, at Adorn.

In time for the holidays, Artisans Hand has handmade ornaments on display and available for purchase; ornaments made from glass, clay, wood, paper, pewter, fabric and felt.

The Art Resource Association also pulls out all the stops for a two-site, fifty-artist annual show. Come see Vermont's finest artists at both City Center and the T.W. Wood Gallery.

These are only a few of the highlights of the December 9th Art Walk. For more information, please call 802.223.9604 or go to www.montpelieralive.org/artwalk. We're also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/montpelierartwalk.

Art Walk is from 4-8 pm. It’s free and open to everyone. We’ll see you downtown!

Image: Boustrophedon to Mecca, S.B. Sowbel

PRESS RELEASE: 20th Annual Winter Show at Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery in Shelbune

20th Annual Winter Show:
A group show featuring
Elizabeth Nelson
and Miriam Adams, Elizabeth Allen, Matt Brown, Betsey Garand, Kate Hartley, Karen Henderson, John Hoag, David Maille, Janet McKenzie, Lynn Rupe, Dianne Schullenberger, Adelaide Murphy Tyrol and more

December 2, 2011 - January 21, 2012

Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, December 2, 5:30 - 7:30
during the annual Shelburne Holiday Stroll

Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 9:30 - 5:30, Saturday 10:00 - 5:00

Image: Ice Curl by Elizabeth Nelson, acrylic, 40" x 30"

Friday, November 18, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Printmaking Exhibit at the Mill Gallery in Bennington



The Vermont Arts Exchange (VAE) presents I Will Try to Put Down on Paper, an exhibition by seven advanced printmaking students from Bennington College, in the Mill Gallery, located in VAE’s Sage Street Mill. The show opens with a reception on Wednesday, November 30, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The exhibition is on view through February 25, 2012.

In Bennington College’s Advanced Printmaking course, taught by faculty member Thorsten Dennerline, students Rebeca Baudille ’12 Hannah Callahan ’12, Elliot Cash ’13, Farhad Mirza ’12, Ellen Bogen ’12, Amelia Vottero ’12 and Lauren Hamilton ’12 proposed and executed projects of their own design.

Working in a basic structure of critiques and discussions, the students focused in on a variety of printing techniques and ways of handling materials to execute their ideas. The work featured includes photopolymer intaglio, wood cuts, screenprints, artist books, handmade paper and copper plate etchings.

Mounting the final prints as a group show in a community venue both reinforces the community spirit and collaboration of printmaking, in which artists share a printshop and equipment, and often ideas and techniques. It also offers an important challenge to the student artists.

“It’s part of my teaching philosophy,” Dennerline says. “The students benefit a great deal from interacting with the world outside the campus. You give them this real-world, hands-on opportunity that helps build up their confidence as artists, and it gives them the chance to engage with the outside community. It’s a nice way to start a conversation between the academic community and the real world.”

He adds, “From a teaching standpoint, it broadens their audience and makes them work harder — there’s more pressure, more people seeing it.”

It’s also a lesson in organizing a group show in a not-for-profit space, an invaluable experience as the students continue their career as artists. In addition to creating the work and curating the show, they have created artist statements, determined price lists for the work available for sale and helped publicize the exhibit.

Image: Top: Elliot Cash, Bennington College junior, Advanced Printmaking student
Bottom: Lauren Hamilton, Bennington College senior, Advanced Printmaking student

PRESS RELEASE: Corey Armpriester at Elliot Street Café in Brattleboro


collage: the archetype

Opening reception December 2, 2011
5:00pm to 8:00pm

Elliot Street Café, located at 134 Elliot Street in Brattleboro, Vermont, will exhibit the photographic collage works of new transplant artist (from Philadelphia) Corey Armpriester, December 2011. This series of 15 photographic collages are concerned with the archetype as complete sentence, using the visual vocabulary of angels,the Pineal Gland and Kundalini. The organization of this trinity should be understood in the same way one would view a crop-circle.The exploration of duality runs deep within this work,guiding the viewer on a mythological tour of both good and evil. The mystery of this work forces the viewer to contemplate the legitimacy of right and wrong along with the esoteric powers of the human brain. Questioning god and the devil as perhaps being one in the same expression. The artist makes it clear he doesn't fully understand the symbolic language pulled from his imagination, but this does not make the work any less purposeful. Local painter Jessica Cooper helped collaboratem, painting on a few works in the series. All photography and collage designs are by the artist, Corey Armpriester.

PRESS RELEASE: Edgewater Gallery opening and birthday bash, Middlebury

Join us on Saturday, November 19, from 5-7pm as Edgewater Gallery celebrates its second anniversary with a birthday bash and the opening of its second annual small works show, SHORT STORIES.. With cupcakes catered by Otter Creek Bakery, SHORT STORIES. opens with a narrative installation throughout the main exhibition space, featuring over twenty gallery artists and their collection of small paintings, drawings, photographs, assemblages and mixed media pieces; all under $500.

Edgewater Gallery has been pleased and excited to play an inspiring role in Middlebury’s charming downtown, and Vermont’s artistic culture as a whole. The overwhelming support received by the community is endlessly appreciated, and Edgewater is happy to look forward to a bright, full and creative future.

SHORT STORIES. remains on view through December 31. For more information call 802.458.0098, email info@edgewatergallery-vt.com or visit our website, www.edgewatergallery-vt.com.

PRESS RELEASE: Art Resource Association (ARA) Annual Exhibit at T.W. Wood Gallery and Arts Center in Montpelier




The Art Resource Association
is presenting its annual Members’ Exhibit in Montpelier at the T.W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center. The exhibit will be on display from November 20 - December 18, 2011.

The Art Resource Association is an organization of Central Vermont artists whose goal is to promote and support its member artists, and the work of more than 50 of those artists is on display, with styles ranging from abstraction to realism.

The exhibit contains more than 80 pieces of two- and three-dimensional artwork, filling the Wood's elegant exhibition space, with its high ceilings and beautiful windows.

The public is invited to an opening reception on Sunday, November 20, from 4-6 PM. The gallery will also be open during Montpelier’s Art Walk on Friday, December 9, from 4-8 PM. Otherwise, gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday, noon - 4 PM.

ARA will also mount an exhibit of members' work at City Center in Montpelier during the month of December, and that exhibit will also be open during Montpelier’s Art Walk on Friday, December 9, from 4-8 PM.

Images: Top: Jack Sabon, Susan Batchelder, Ray Brown. Bottom: Annie Christopher, Sarah Munro, Deborah Fillion. Photos by Linda Maney.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Neal Rantoul at Photostop Gallery in White River Junction

Neal Rantoul, a career photographer and director of the Photography Program at Northeastern University in Boston, will be showing his photographs in a show titled Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, (Oh My!) at the PHOTOSTOP Gallery from December 2nd through December 22nd. An opening reception for the artist will be held on December 2nd (a WRJ First Friday) from 5-8 pm with a gallery talk at 6:30 pm. There will be live music by Laura Simon and Julie Velie and the public is invited to attend.

Rantoul previously exhibited his wheat field photographs for PHOTOSTOP’S inaugural show, and returns with Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, (Oh My!), comprised of photographs taken in 17 different Cabela’s stores since 2004. The Cabela's photographs contrast fact and fiction with both beauty and humor. They are both too real to be fake and too fake to be real. The taxidermy and the enacted displays of animals in their habitat comment on the current state of our natural environment and our management of the resources we have.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Rantoul will be doing portfolio reviews of photographers’ works by appointment on December 3rd from 10am - 4pm. For registration information, contact Lia at PHOTOSTOP.

Rantoul’s work is held in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Fogg Museum at Harvard, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris, and many others. He has had numerous one-person exhibitions, judged many photography competitions, and served on the Board of Directors at the Griffin Museum of Photography and the Photographic Resource Center in Boston, MA. A monograph of his photographs, “American Series”, was published in 2006. Currently a 30-year retrospective of Neal’s work is on exhibit at Northeastern University through Dec. 5, 2011.

PHOTOSTOP Gallery is located in Suite 150 of the Tip Top Media Arts Building, 85 North Main Street, White River Jct., VT 05001. Gallery hours beginning Dec. 2nd will be Weds. through Saturday from 12-5 pm. On First Fridays and opening nights, the gallery will be open until 8 pm. Other hours are available by appointment. For additional information, call 802.698.0320. PHOTOSTOP’s website is www.photostopvt.com.

PRESS RELEASE: Heidi Broner at Central Vermont Medical Center


Heidi Broner grew up near New York City in a family of artists, immersed in an atmosphere in which drawing and painting were a natural, delightful part of daily life.

Her interests have led her to work in a wide variety of media: in addition to painting, she has illustrated books, designed and painted murals, created masks and puppets for the opera Frida and huge outdoor pieces for the band Phish, and worked for many years with Bread and Puppet Theater.

Since 1999 she has worked in the Vermont granite industry, hand engraving drawings onto black stone. In 2003 she began her At Work series of paintings, which formed the basis of a solo exhibition at the Vermont Governor’s office in 2009. Heidi’s work, currently on exhibit at Central Vermont Medical Center, is of part of her At Work series.

“For the past ten years I have been painting people at work. I am moved by the unselfconscious grace of someone absorbed in a task. Recently I was invited by CVMC to paint people at work in this hospital. This was a new world for me, and the surgical teams in particular impressed me as a close-knit crew moving with a casual, assured choreography,” said Heidi. Five paintings in this exhibit resulted from that invitation.

“Heidi truly caught the spirit and dedication of a surgical team at work,” noted Judy Tarr Tartaglia, CVMC president and CEO. “This is an astounding exhibit – the colors, the artistic talent, the subject matter – it catches the eye of virtually everyone who walks through our lobby.”

Broner has exhibited at Studio Place Arts, T.W. Wood Gallery, and Artpath Gallery. Her work has been collected by both private individuals and corporations. For more information on the artist visit www.heidibroner.com

This exhibit will remain on display in the Central Vermont Medical Center hospital lobby through December 30, 2011.

CALL TO ARTISTS: Regional Arts Gallery at the Bennington Museum



The Bennington Museum is calling for regional artists to participate in the Regional Arts Program during the Spring and Summer of 2012. The Regional Arts Program is an ongoing series of juried exhibits, selected by a jury composed of local arts professionals. The museum welcomes applications in all media, from photography, illustration, and sculpture to traditional crafts and oil paintings. The jury is open to any and all art forms and styles. If you have submitted work before and have not been chosen, you are encouraged to re-submit as some exhibiting artists have been selected on a follow-up review. The panel will evaluate these submissions the week of December 19, so entries need to arrive at the museum by December 16.

A regional artist is defined as one who lives or works in southern Vermont or the adjacent areas of New York and Massachusetts. Artists must submit samples of their work either in slides, digital images, prints, or originals, an artist’s statement, and a one page proposal for gallery use. Successful applicants are given a six week showing in the Regional Arts Gallery of the Bennington Museum. The first show from the most recent group of selected artists will open February 4, with other sessions to follow. Applications can be picked up at the museum or by calling 802-447-1571.

Image shows a previous exhibit in the Regional Arts Gallery at the Bennington Museum.

REVIEW: Phyllis Chase at Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier

By Theodore Hoppe

Being an artist is a curse, or so I've heard. While I consider myself artist I don't make a living as one. My art is little more than a hobby. It is difficult to be an artist. An artist needs to be prolific, producing a body of work in order to be recognized, but even this does not guarantee success. Struggling and starving for appreciation and acceptance of ones work is a lifelong struggle. The image of the struggling artist might well apply to Phyllis Chase, a local Vermont artist for the last thirty years, but she doesn't view being an artist as a curse at all. She welcomes the challenges and struggles that creating art for a living can present. When I spoke to Phyllis to ask her about the current exhibition, Vermont: Inside & Out, at the Kellogg Hubbard Library in Montpelier, she told me, "I am delighted I get to be an artist in this lifetime. I love to paint and do silkscreen more than I can say."

Success in the art world can depend on the many moments of tedious labor; organizing showings, loading and unloading art work, the hours spent hanging exhibitions, and self promotion, as much as artistic ability. Chase seems to have forged the right balance.

Saturday mornings in the summer and fall months one can find Phyllis at the Montpelier Farmer's Market hawking her wares: prints of her paintings and silk-screens. The business of art is arguably the less rewarding, but the financially necessary side; the long hours of setting up and standing around in the hopes of earning some money, enough to pay the bills and to buy more art supplies. This is the struggle. But there is a positive side to the marketing and selling. Phyllis gets to hear first hand from the people that admire her art, and about how they are as moved as she is by the Vermont landscapes that has been preserved around us. She gets to share stories about the creative moments when, standing in a sun-drenched field, this deep sense of place that eases itself out of her brushes and paints form a red barn and field of golden grasses on the canvas. The ultimate compliment to how well she has captured this unique place we live in is when someone buys a painting or a print.

Her current exhibition at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library is a retrospective of both familiar and some unfamiliar landscapes, interiors and still-life. Chase has included over fifty pieces of art in the exhibition, an ambitious number for the space the library provides, but presentation is well laid out, thoughtfully display and does not feel crowded.

Chase, who started out forty years ago silk-screening, has included a small grouping of seven silkscreens in the Holmes Room that are an homage to the evening hours. Ranging from twilight to early morning, they depict simple landscapes: sliver of a moon rising, maple trees at sunset and sunrise, and moonlight on white birch. All contain a five pointed star somewhere in the print, a signature of Chase's silkscreens.

There are thirteen prints from the collection of Chase's paintings. All are landscapes that define the four seasons. Some of the prints, such as Autumn Afternoon, Mt. Mansfield, and Kent Corners Spring, will be recognizable to the viewer, but others are more personal and universal; Winter Sunset, moonlight shadows stretched across the snow, Boulder Creek, Autumn"reflected light on the moving water.

The paintings are the main body of work in the exhibit and the include several themes. Among the landscape paintings there is a strong sense of light in each. More than red barns and white houses, the paints capture the light of a time of day, or time of year. This is easily detected in the winter landscapes where the approaching spring light casts a more promising brightness on the snowy scene, as in the painting Kent's Corner, Winter, or in the pale mid-winter mood of the blue-gray sky and orange-pink sunlight of the painting Stan and Elaine's. One may also want to note the unique differences between painting and print, as both versions of Kent's Corner, Winter are part of this show.

All of Chase's paintings have an impressionistic style that employs a liberal use of paint and suggestive strokes that blend together in a seamless fashion. The Copper Beech is a fine example of Chase's plein air technique. The red barn with its seamed metal roof is carefully detailed with white window sill framing, yet the beech tree mentioned in the painting title is only hinted at with ochre and burnt sienna brown, vaguely outlining a large tree that is dotted with copper-orange to imply leaves that held on past autumn. Purple shadows of trees not depicted fall in the foreground on the blueish-violet snow of a late afternoon in winter.

The highlight of the exhibit is prominently displayed on the second floor, a painting titled The Kellogg Hubbard Library. It is a interior scene of an antique couch in the sun-drenched new addition to the library where the atrium is. The detailing in the painting, such as the eleven delicate squiggles evoking the words in a open dictionary are just exquisite. Chase lovingly paints in over one hundred and fifty single brush stokes of various colors that chain together to form the books that line the rows of shelves. It is a painting that belongs in the library and perhaps a benefactor will come along to see that remains at the library.

As much as I admire the landscape paintings, it is the still life and the interior paintings that demonstrate Chase's growth as an artist in an intimate and emotionally compelling way. Painting like Autumn Still Life and Winter Still Life stand out as classic exercises in traditional painting in both subject matter and style. My personal favorite is among the interior scenes located in the Louis P. Peck Foyer, Slice of Montpelier with Coffee. It is simple yet elegant: two empty parlor chairs set in front of a window. Chase's eye has knowingly selected a particular setting both warm and inviting in its detailed appointments of blue on blue. The blue printed drapes and sheer curtains, the stripes of the upholstered chairs, and the way the light dances on the edges of the wood chair makes the painting come alive.

Returning again to the business of art, Chase's success left her with a need to give back to the community she has been a part of for so long. "This year, I conceived of the idea of partnering with institutions whose work I admired, and mounting exhibitions that would in part benefit those institutions by donating 20% of the sales to them." Chase explains. The exhibition at the Kellogg Hubbard Library is the second institution Chase has selected to benefit from this arrangement. The first was the Vermont Law School this past summer.

Additionally, the library has arranged an event titled "An Evening with Artist Phyllis Chase" on Tuesday, November 29, 2011, at 7:00 P.M. The evening will be an interview with Phyllis as she discusses plein air painting, her hand-cut silkscreen process, and what it's like to be an artist in Vermont. The event is free and Open to the public.

Phyllis Chase – “Vermont Inside and Out” is on exhibit from November 1, 2011 – December 21, 2011. 20% of all sales benefit the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.

Photographs by Theodore Hoppe

PRESS RELEASE: Harriet Wood at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury




Harriet Wood:

New Painting

On exhibit at Catamount Arts during the month of December

Reception December 2, 5-7 PM

The exhibit, which occupies the entire gallery, contains six large scrolls that are 6' to 8 ' long by 42" wide. Additionally, the artists is exhibiting other works on canvas, as well as three clay pieces that she did while in Alaska last summer.

Image: detail from one of Harriet Wood’s large scrolls. Photo by Perry Heller

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Holiday Show at Studio Place Arts in Barre

Celebrate Local Arts at Studio Place Arts

Whether you are looking for an original painting, a curvaceous, fringed scarf, flying fabric roosters, a crocheted orange carrot, or hand-thrown earthenware mug, the annual holiday season show called Celebrate at Studio Place Arts (SPA) offers a broad choice of options - and many great values.

This year, there are more than 75 artist members of SPA involved in the show
who, according to SPA Executive Director Sue Higby, "set the pace for imaginative, locally-made crafts and fine art." Like previous years, visitors are urged to explore the nooks and crannies of all 3 floors of the historic art center through the end of December to find special gifts for
family and friends.

On the first floor of SPA, visitors will spot a variety of functional and decorative pottery, jewelry and other wearable crafts, baskets, sculptures, and a variety of 2-dimensional works. Upstairs, the array of paintings,
drawings, collages, and encaustic works is extensive, and one could easily imagine redecorating a neighborhood of homes several times over. In some cases, artists who normally work on large canvases offer smaller sized works that fit into more gift giving budgets.

Come December, the SPA galleries will add hours, including late night hours on Thursdays and hours on Sundays to encourage visitors who have day jobs, and SPA will add more space to the show when the first floor Classroom becomes part of the show.

Celebrate takes place from November 16-December 30, 2011. The public is invited to the Opening Reception on Saturday, November 19, 4:30-6:30 PM. For more information and gallery hours go to: www.studioplacearts.com

PRESS RELEASE: Jolene Garanzha and Dana Dale Lee at Vintage Jewelers in Burlington



Loonatic Tales and Other Happy Omens:
Jolene Garanzha, Prints and Dana Dale Lee, Paintings

Months of December and January
Vintage Jewelers
125 College Street Burlington VT

Opening reception on Friday December 2nd,
5:00pm-8:00pm with music by Astrocat.

About Jolene Garanzha:
Jolene, who received the MA and MFA in Painting from the University of Iowa, has exhibited her work locally and regionally. She teaches Art at the Community College of Vermont.

About Dana Dale Lee:
Dana has had several exhibitions in New York City and Montreal, as well as nationally. Born and raised in the Midwest, he received his MFA from the New York Academy of Art, and currently manages the Art and Graphic Design department at the Community College of Vermont.

The exhibition will run through the end of January 2012.

Images:
Dana Dale Lee, Kraken, 2011, oil on sized paper, 8 x 13 inches
Jolene Garanzha, Coyote Witch, Drypoint Etching, 7x5 inches

PRESS RELEASE: Sebastiaan Bremer Lecture at UVM in Burlington

The Department of Art and Art History’s Mollie Ruprecht Fund for Visiting Artists and Scholars presents: Sebastiaan Bremer, on Wednesday, November 30 at 5:30 PM in 301 Williams Hall.

Sebastiaan Bremer has developed a unique process that involves the direct manipulation of photographs, while they alternatively alter, transform and elevate specific familial imagery. A veteran of over twenty solo exhibitions, his work has been exhibited in many prominent museums and galleries including Air de Paris in Paris, France, and LACMA in Los Angeles, California. His work has been featured in publications including October, Harpers, and Artforum. Bremer hails from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, but has been based in New York since 1992.
Image: Egmont # 11, 2011, inks and acrylic on c-print

PRESS RELEASE: Cynthia Crawford at Zollikofer Gallery in White River Junction



Creature Kinships & Natural Affinities
:
A Photographic Journey through the Upper Valley
Artist: Cynthia Crawford
Show Dates: Nov. 18, 2011-Jan. 18, 2012
Location: Zollikofer Gallery, Hotel Coolidge, 39 Main Street, White River Junction, Vt.
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, Dec. 2, 5-7 PM (First Friday)

Artist Statement:
In the 30+ years I have lived in the Upper Valley, I've grown to love its ever-changing landscape and native flora and fauna. I started taking photographs about 5 years ago and haven't stopped since! I want to share with you, in this show, those special moments when the fox suddenly appears, the loon calls, the little red eft emerges and the birds sing, or are silent.
My photography is an evolving art-some of my prints are straight from the camera, and some are what I call "photo-paintings". My background as a watercolorist has led me to experiment with digitally "painting" my photographs.

The results are unique – neither strictly photo nor brush and paint. All the prints in this show were made with the finest archival inks and papers for maximum longevity. Some are limited editions. The show also includes some of my watercolors. Enjoy!

Images:
Hairy Woodpecker, Flight
Red Fox, Alert

PRESS RELEASE: The Mill Children at the Bennington Museum



The Mill Children – Child Labor Explored through Art at the Bennington Museum

What was it like to be a child worker in the Eclipse Cotton Mill in North Adams in 1911? This is the question that will be explored in The Mill Children, on view November 19 through December 31 in the Regional Artists Gallery of the Bennington Museum. The exhibit is a distillation of an exhibit previously held at the Brill Gallery at the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. It features responses by Realist Painter William Oberst and Abstract Painter Dawn Nelson to the photos taken in August 1911 by Lewis Wickes Hine at the Eclipse Mill for his child labor project.

Composer/Musician Matt Hopkins created original music for the original exhibition which will also accompany this exhibit. The art and music talk to the moods inside this Mill 100 years ago. “It's a centennial of sorts.” states Jamie Franklin, curator of collections at the Bennington Museum. “This exhibit is uniquely different than those previously installed.” In addition to the images from the Eclipse Mill, photos from the Bennington Museum collection reflecting mill housing on Benmont Ave. (formerly Mill St.) taken by Hine, as well as an image of the interior of the Bradford Mill taken around the same time by Frederick Burt are included in the exhibition. These provide local visitors with a sense of the conditions of the local mills at that time. On December 10, an Educational Presentation at 1:30 pm is scheduled to be given by artists and guests. This is followed with the Artists’ Reception at 3:00 pm.


History of the Mill Children at the Eclipse Mill
“From the mid 1800’s to the early 1900’s as American society was morphing from a rural agriculturally based one to a more industrial urban one, it was the poor parents and their children that were among the mix of workers in most of the large mills. Many of the workers in North Adams during this period came from the farms in French Canada. Children as young as 6 years old were a part of the mix in this country’s Woolen Mills, Cotton Mills, Canneries, Tobacco Plants, Coal Mines, Glass Works, etc. The Child Workers in front of the Eclipse Mill in 1911 were a part of the 2 million under 16 years of age children that were a part of the American work force – many working at least 12 hours a day in rough conditions with lots of injuries and lack of schooling. Most had to work to keep their families from starving. Records show that a typical family got paid about $30 a week: $12 for the father, $9 for the mother, $5 for the girls and $4 for the boys.”
– Text from Brill Gallery Productions, Ralph Brill, Director. Studio 109, Brill’s Gallery, has taken over the space that was the Boiler Room of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams.

A Bit about Lewis Wickes Hine
In 1908 the National Child Labor (NCL) Committee retained Lewis Wickes Hine to photograph child labor practices in the various mills, factories, canneries, etc. around the country. Between 1908 and 1917 he crisscrossed the country taking approximately 5,000 photographs, mainly of young workers, which were used to bring the ills of child labor into the public consciousness. Over time, many of Hine's most powerful images became American icons, including his photograph originally known by the caption scrawled on the reverse of the photograph as, "Addie Laird, 12 years. Spinner in North Pormal [i.e., Pownal] Cotton Mill. Vt."

In the summer of 2002, noted author Elizabeth Winthrop saw this image of Addie Laird at the Bennington Museum. Winthrop was struck by the beautiful little girl, and the haunting photograph inspired her to write a fictional account of Addie's life, "Counting on Grace." After finishing her novel, Winthrop felt impelled to track down the identity of the real Addie. The child’s identity was uncovered, in part, by researching archival materials and enlarged reproductions of Hine’s photographs from North Pownal that are included in the Bennington Museum collection. A vintage photograph of mill housing in Bennington by Hine, taken in May 1909, and a first edition of the book "The Bitter Cry of the Children" by John Spargo, the founding Director of the Bennington Museum, an ardent social advocate, and a friend of Hine are among the other items relating to this powerful subject. It is the images captured by Hine that are the basis for the painted responses by Oberst and Nelson.

The Responding Artists
William Oberst holds an MFA in painting from Stony Brook University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Claremont Graduate University. He taught painting and drawing at Stony Brook for more than a decade and is the recipient of many awards, including the university’s Distinguished Faculty Service Award in 2002. He maintains a studio-residence in downtown North Adams, Massachusetts.

Dawn Nelson was born outside of Chicago in 1951 and grew up in the mid-west. Nelson received a B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL, and attended graduate school at Lesley College in Cambridge, MA, where she received a degree in Expressive Therapies. After college she moved to Boston, and for 10 years worked in human services, both as an Art Therapist and as a program administrator. Following this, Nelson worked for 25 years as an Art Teacher mostly at the middle school level. She has also taught graduate level summer courses to Art Teachers at Northeastern University. In the fall of 2009, Nelson extended her reach by getting a studio at the Eclipse Mill in North Adams, MA.

Images:
-Mill Girl, Oil on Canvas, 2011, © William Oberst, All Rights Reserved.
-Row of mill houses belonging to Holden, Leonard Co., woolen mill, Bennington, VT.
May, 1909, Photo by Lewis W. Hine
-The Mill Children Exhibition Print, © Brill Gallery Productions. All Rights Reserved
-Grungy Vibrating Cathedral, Oil on Loose Canvas, 2011, © Dawn Nelson. All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Corrina A. Thurston at Blue Cat Cafe, Burlington

Corrina A. Thurston, an artist working out of Central Vermont, has a display of her artwork at the Blue Cat Cafe and Wine Bar in Burlington, VT, from November 15th to January 31st.


Showcased are a selection of Corrina's colored pencil pieces, for which she is known. Her vibrant detail and unique style make her artwork easy to recognize, and although her pieces are drawings, they resemble paintings and most admirers are shocked when they discover the medium used. With every piece Corrina tries to push the window of what colored pencil can do, and one of her goals is to bring colored pencil into the spotlight and have it be recognized and treated as the fine art medium it can be. Come see for yourself what colored pencil can do.


Corrina is an emerging artist, only 21, and began drawing after she was diagnosed with a chronic illness in 2010. She is self-taught, and although she cannot draw full-time, she spends what good time she has making art.


Come to a wine tasting or have a delicious dinner at the Blue Cat Cafe and Wine Bar on Lawson Lane in Burlington, VT, and view the artwork! They use many local foods, specialize in steak and seafood, as well as vegetarian options, and have over 300 different wine options. All art on display is for sale.


If you have questions or are interested in buying prints or greeting cards made from Corrina's art, visit her website:

www.CorrinaThurston.com.

Friday, November 11, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: River of Light Plans for procession in Waterbury

The streets of Waterbury will once again be filled with music and light with the second River of Light Lantern Procession, planned for Saturday December 3, from 5 to 6 p.m. Starting at the Vermont State Complex, the parade will make its way up Main Street, down Stowe Street and across Railroad Street, ending at Rusty Parker Park for the Waterbury Rotary’s annual Tree Lighting.


This year the procession will feature light and sound with Burlington’s 20-person street samba band, Sambatucada in the lead. Students from Thatcher Brook Primary School and Crossett Brook Middle School along with artists, volunteers, and community members from Stowe, Montpelier and Waterbury will literally form the ‘river of light’ as they walk carrying handmade lanterns.

Aside from the lanterns made in school, Montpelier artists Gowri Savoor and Angelo Arnold will be holding two community lantern-making workshops at the TW Wood Art Gallery, Montpelier, and the Helen Day Art Center, Stowe. In addition, a special two-day workshop was held in Waterbury for artists creating larger-scale luminaries. All will aim to depict the theme of this year’s parade – flight.

Procession sponsors are Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, the Vermont Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Thatcher Brook Primary School PTO. Organizers hope it will be a particularly festive celebration bringing together the residents of Waterbury and its neighbouring communities after the extensive damage caused by August’s tropical storm.

Spectators are encouraged to line the parade route and join in celebrating the season with this evening of light, music, creative arts and community spirit. For more information, contact Thatcher Brook School art teacher, MK Monley, mmonley@wdsdvt.net or visit our website at: www.ariveroflightinwaterbury.wordpress.com

Photograph by Gordon Miller

PRESS RELEASE: Pat Musick at Equinox Village in Manchester Center


The Gallery at Equinox Village's featured artist for November is particularly special. Unlike the other artists we've featured, Pat Musick is an Equinox Village resident. She's also an accomplished sculptor. The beginning of November took her to Arkansas, where she celebrated the opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where her work is featured. The museum, which was founded by the heiress of the Wal-mart fortune, is widely regarded as the most influential American art museum to open in a generation.

Equinox Village is pleased to invite the public to view Musick's work from 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily November 19, 2011 - January 9, 2012. The exhibit opens with live music and hors d'oeuvres at 5 p.m. on Friday, November 18 at Equinox Village.

Please see Musick's professional website for insights into her artistic development and her work.

Image: Earthnest 6, steel, bronze, alabaster, 7" x 10" x 10"

PRESS RELEASE: Winooski Holiday Pop-up Art Market


Grand Opening on November 12th from 5-7PM

In November and December 2011, a vacant space on the circle in Winooski has been converted into a vibrant art market. The Winooski Holiday Pop-up Art Market features art, fine craft, and other locally made products. All of the vendors were juried by market organizers. A series of events and activities will be planned in the space. People are invited to visit www.winooskiwelcomecenter.com for details.

A Grand Opening Celebration of the Winooski Holiday Pop-up Art Market will take place on Saturday, November 12th, 2011 from 5-7PM. The general public is invited to stop by to enjoy music and food and a beer and wine bar provided by McKee’s Pub.

The market will be open Wednesday to Saturday from Noon to 8PM and on Sunday from 10AM to 3PM. It is located on the top right side of the circle in Downtown Winooski. While the address is 25 Winooski Falls Way, Suite 317, the entrance to the market is on Main Street/US2/US7.

Free on-street parking in downtown Winooski is available for 2 hours. Over a hundred 2-hour free parking spaces are available in the municipal parking garage which is located in the interior block across from the Champlain Mill. Car access is via Cascade Way; pedestrian access is via East Allen and Main Streets and Cascade and Winooski Falls Way. Take the elevator to Level 3 and exit onto Main Street.

Image: Work byJude Bond, from her new line of one-of-a-kind and limited edition hats and fascinators.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Fred Tomaselli lecture at UVM in Burlington

The Department of Art and Art History at The University of Vermont, though the Mollie Ruprecht Fund for Visiting Artists and Scholars presents: Fred Tomaselli on Wednesday, November 16, 5:30 PM in 301 Williams Hall

Fred Tomaselli is best known for his meticulous, seductive paintings made with unorthodox materials suspended in thick layers of clear, epoxy resin. These materials have included medicinal herbs, prescription pills and hallucinogenic plants, and images cut from books and magazines: flowers, birds, butterflies, arms, legs and noses, and are arranged in busy, carefully-crafted mosaic-type patterns. Tomaselli sees his paintings and their compendium of data as windows into a surreal, hallucinatory universe, “It is my ultimate aim”, he says, “to seduce and transport the viewer into space of these pictures while simultaneously revealing the mechanics of that seduction.” Recently he has also written that his investigations may be seen as an “inquiry into utopia/dystopia – framed by artifice but motivated by the desire for the real – (which) has turned out to be the primary subject of my work”. He is represented by the White Cube gallery in the UK and the James Cohan Gallery in the USA. His paintings have been the subject of museum and gallery exhibitions world-wide.

Image: Echo, Wow and Flutter 2000; leaves, pills, photocollage, acrylic, resin on wood panel Collection: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Copyright the artist/Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai

PRESS RELEASE: Jeanette Fournier at Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville

Bryan Memorial Gallery presents The Art of Nature in wild life watercolors by Jeanette Fournier of Bethlehem, Vermont. Fournier's work is inspired by the mountainous areas of northern New Hampshire and Vermont. Her exhibit continues in the Bryan's Middle Room through December 23.

Growing up with family ties in both the White Mountains and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Fournier spent a great deal of time in and around the woods observing and drawing nature. It was during this formative period when she began developing her artistic skills.

She is a self-taught artist and specializes in watercolor paintings of animals and nature, which reflect a distinct and original style not commonly found with this medium. Her meticulous attention to detail is one of the hallmarks of her artwork. While she concentrates on close up, intimate portraits of animals, the background is no less interesting or compelling.

Jeanette's work hangs in private collections throughout New England and beyond, and has been accepted in the "Art of The Animal Kingdom", the Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors" and the "North East Watercolor Society International Exhibition". In addition to these three prestigious national art shows in New England, her work has also been juried into a Society of Animal Artists show. She has won a variety of awards over the past several years.

Fournier's one person exhibition in Bryan Memorial Gallery's Middle Room is the 9th and final exhibit in a series of tributes to individual members of the Northern Vermont Artist Association who are also members of Bryan Memorial Gallery.

Bryan Memorial Gallery is at 180 Main Street, Jeffersonville, VT, 802-644-5100. The gallery is open 11 - 4, Thursday - Sunday, and by appointment at other times. A preview of the work in this exhibit is available at www.bryangallery.org. There is no admission charge at Bryan Memorial Gallery.

Images: Comfort Zone, Taking Flight

PRESS RELEASE: Joy Huckins-Noss at Vermont Supreme Court in Montpelier

You are cordially invited to:
The Texture of Light

Oil paintings by Joy Huckins-Noss

Vermont Supreme Court
111 State Street
Montpelier, VT

November 2-December 29
building hours 8-4:30 M-F

Opening Reception
Thursday, November 10, 5-7 pm.

Friday, November 4, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Robert Black at Gallery-in-the-Field in Brandon


Editor’s Note: This description and photographs of Robert Black’s
Memory Chamber, on exhibit at Gallery-in-the-Field was sent to us by gallerist Fran Bull. This is the final exhibit of the gallery’s Encore Season, after which the galle
ry is expected to close. It is a space that has always presented interesting exhibits, mounted in an elegant space. The run of the show has been extended through December 23

These are some photos of the Memory Chamber installation (measuring about 8’ by 21’ by 7’) by Robert Black at Gallery in-the-Field. This show will continue through December 23rd. The show has two segments now: The Memory Chamber and Photographic Memory. The latter is an exhibition of photographs by people of all ages, some of them children, some professional photographers, including Don Ross who took these shots. Robert invited a number of people to submit photos and short essays on the question Why are we here? The photographs (not reproduced here) all address that question in a variety of ways.


The Memory Chamber is a large structure, designed and built by architect and artist Black, that occupies a good part of the gallery space. Viewers are invited to walk through it. Inside are three main chambers, the first being a space that evokes an experience of water, and suggests beginnings, the fluid from which we emerge when we are born, etc. The second chamber contains a beautiful slide show of images set side by side designed to provoke comparison, surprise, and contemplation. In this chamber there are images on the walls suggesting the ancient caves – Lascaux, Chauvet.


The third chamber is awash in light and bright reflections. There are objects arranged to suggest some unnamed ritual or prayer space. My own sense is that Black wishes to remind us of the dimension of human experience often overlooked in today’s world--the soul dimension, the poetic sensibility, the interior realm from which creativity springs.


Black provides art supplies and invites viewers to leave a “mark” on one of the outer walls of the Memory Chamber. I have no photo of this wall, but it’s getting filled up with art, writing, graffitti--a wide range of expressions left by those who have walked through the Chamber.

Gallery hours are 12 to 5 pm Friday through Sunday and by appointment. Robert leads groups through the Memory Chamber (also by appointment; contact info@galleryinthefield.com) and will hold small workshops , hands on sessions for those interested. His interest is in assisting people, artists or not, in reawakening the creative impulse.

Images: Details from Chambers 1, 2, and 3

PRESS RELEASE: Mr. Masterpiece and (michael smith) at Dostie Bros. In Burlington



In celebration of November, fallen leaves and the waning colors of Autumn Dostie Bros. Frame Shop & Art Gallery at 308 Pine Street Presents: MASTERPIECE & (smith), an exhibition of four vibrant paintings by two of Burlington's most enduring artists. Mr. Masterpiece is known for sunny dispositions, humorous and rather enigmatic paintings…watch out!

(michael smith) is the Vice President of Art's Alive and its senior board member. His paintings offer a whimsical façade which often give way to a deeper magic.

This First Friday Artwalk, November 4, 5-8pm, The Dostie Bros. invite you to join them for an Artist’s Reception, with some hot cider (spiked with rainbows) and cookies!

MASTERPIECE & (smith) runs November 1-30, 2011. Regular gallery hours are Mon-Fri 10am - 6 pm.

For more information regarding this exhibition please contact: Alex Dostie 802.660.9005 email dostiebros@gmail.com

Images:
Mr. Masterpiece, Clowny Clown Clown, Acrylic on Wood, 2011
michael smith, the king and i, Acrylic on Cardboard, 2011