Vermont Art Zine

PRESS RELEASE: Women’s Art at The Chaffee Art Center in Rutland

2012-01-29T14:10:00.004-05:00

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Vermont Committee wishes to highlight the work of Women in the Arts in the State of Vermont by holding events around the state that feature and promote the work of creative women in Vermont. The Chaffee Art Center and Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre have created 2012: Women in the Arts, a month long series of events featuring exhibits, performances, and a workshop by Vermont women artists.

Events will kick off with an opening reception on Friday, February 17 from 5 until 8 pm. There will be an introduction to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Vermont Commission on Women by Wendy Love and Billi Gosh. The reception will also include a performance by The Unpredictables, a female a cappella group from the Rutland High School at 6 pm.

The exhibit features the works of eleven women artists: Miriam Adams, Betty Atwood, Anna Ayres, Linda Durkee, Susan Farrow, Juliana Cassino Fechter, Kerry O. Furlani, Lois Macuga, Hilary Neroni, Athena Petra Tasiopoulos, and Karla Van Vliet. These artists come from all corners of Vermont and their work is varied in mediums. The exhibit will be at the Chaffee Art Center through March 17, 2012.

Image: Leaves III, Lois Macuga

PRESS RELEASE: Three New Shows at Studio Place Arts (SPA) in Barre

2012-01-29T13:54:00.003-05:00

There are three news shows up at Studio Place Arts (SPA) in Barre, running from January 24 - February 25, 2012.

In the Main Floor Gallery:
Weathering It Out: Rain or shine, snow or sleet, this group, multi-media exhibit explores how we are weathering dynamic weather patterns.

In the Second Floor Gallery:
Vermonters in Italy - Works by Jeneane Lunn and Jim Lund

In the Third Floor Gallery:
What Lies Beneath - Multimedia works by Maggie Neale

PRESS RELEASE: Bruce M. MacDonald at the Regional Artists Gallery at the Bennington Museum

2012-01-29T13:35:00.004-05:00

The only thing I've found similar between nature in the landscape and the nature of the human condition is that light falls alike on each. I can't resolve the madness of mankind on Earth and its utter absurdity; I include myself in this observation. The beauty of "artistic philosophy" is that it's oxymoronic and can change. – Bruce MacDonald

On view in the Regional Artists Gallery at the Bennington Museum are satirical paintings of Bruce M. MacDonald. The artist has divided ways to visualize, one being influenced by the 15th century Dutch landscape painters, and some of the 20th century American realists. The other, portrayed in this exhibit, is a form of social realism using cartoon-as-art to depict the artist’s expression of the twenty-first century human condition. He has become known for his unique style of copper plate etchings combined with the subtleties of water color which he developed. Much of his work is based in the history of social satire and commentary from Goya, Hogarth, and Daumier. This exhibition opens February 4 and is on view through March 18. Visit with the artist on Saturday, February 4 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm.

MacDonald is a self-taught artist who was born near Boston in 1944. Educated through self chosen courses of art and philosophy at several colleges, he hones his skills working with mentors such as Shelly Fink. He began exhibiting formally in the late 1960s with major shows locally in the Highpoint Galleries, the Barrington House, and the Art Union. During the 1970s he was a contributing artist for Up Country Magazine, the Berkshire Eagle, Sports Illustrated, Ski Magazine and also created murals for Westbridge Associates and a variety of Berkshire sites.

He operated his own gallery, The Art Orphanage, in Lenox for a decade beginning in 1973 during which time he continued to work as a contributing artist for area advertising companies, Time Life, and Biography Records. MacDonald also exhibited his work in art shows across the county at locations including the NY Racquet Club, Philadelphia Prices Gallery, and several galleries in San Francisco. Locally, his work was on view in the Tyringham Gallery, Welles Gallery, Joy of Art, Train Station Gallery, and the Becket Arts Center. He currently lives and works in his studio in Adams, MA. Some of his most recent works include a series of children’s books for Richard C. Owens Publishers, Inc.

The Bennington Museum is located at 75 Main Street (Route 9), Bennington. Regular admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students over 18. Admission is never charged for younger students or to visit the museum shop and café.

Images:
The Ball of Gold, 24” x 30” oil on canvas
The Mask Family, 16” x 20” watercolor/ink

VIDEO: Tina Escaja at Flynndog in 2010

2012-01-29T12:42:00.002-05:00

The traditional method for documenting exhibits is the printed catalog, but there are more options out there now, including video documentation. --Ed.

Tina Escaja, Ph.D. is a professor in the Romance Languages Department The University of Vermont. She was involved, as a poet and artist, in the show called Alter(ed) Ego (organized by Bren Alvarez and Marie Davis) at Flynndog in May and June, 2010. Escaja created a series of videos about that exhibit. This one looks at her part of the exhibit. Two other videos treat Bren Alvarez’s installation and the exhibit as a whole.

ESSAY: A paintbrush is a tool. A computer is a tool.

2012-01-29T12:05:00.005-05:00

We are delighted to publish this essay by Kim Darling, an artist and art teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy, whose work you can see on her website, This essay deals with the sometimes controversial question of whether computer-generated or -enhanced work is “art,” and brings to us the important perspective and experience of a teacher working with the upcoming generation of visual artists. - Ed.

By Kim Darling

Years ago, when I had recently finished my study of painting at the Art Students League of New York and was working hard in my studio to further develop my skills and voice, I had a conversation with my father that has stuck with me through the years. My father is a physicist who worked for the navy, programming and using computers from the time that they were gargantuan machines, filling large rooms. Those computers were programmed using punched cards of heavy paper, and my first drawings were made on discarded punch cards. I wish I still had some of those drawings. They would be interesting artifacts of the early days of the technology that I use today.

The conversation - or rather, argument - that my father and I engaged in had to do with painting and computers. He said that someday computers would be able to paint. I said that no, they wouldn't - painting is a uniquely HUMAN activity - and while a computer might be able to be programmed to make certain kinds of marks and designs, it could never PAINT in the full sense of the word. It was a heated argument, and remained unresolved. I stuck to my side and he stuck to his. Now, as my own artwork and my work with students becomes increasingly involved with technology, the memory of this argument is never far beneath the surface of my thinking. The fact that, despite my own use of new media, I have never changed my position, informs my work with students every day.

Art-making is a human endeavor, whether using a piece of charcoal, a brush and paint; clay; a camera and darkroom; or computer hardware and software. It is in the interface between human intention, tools and materials that ideas are manipulated, and it is the artifacts of that process that are shared as "art". With some tools, such as a brush, the interface between human brain, hand and artifact is fairly direct, seemingly simple to understand - and innately human. We humans have been making marks with intended meaning for a long time. With complex technologies, the tool itself sometimes influences the form of the artifact to such an extent that its very hard to know how much of the work can be attributed to a specific artist's ideas, and how much of what we are seeing is that which a program was designed by someone else - or by numerous other people - to do. When I first began employing complex programs, like Photoshop, in my work, I would see all those names of the developers of the program come up when the program was opening, and I felt like they were all unknowing collaborators in my work. I've stopped noticing that - this complex arrangement of digital switches has become like a piece of charcoal to me in some sense - and I'm not sure what that means.

If simple mark-making with a stick is innately human, and effectively communicating with more complex technologies involves a complicated learning process, it makes sense to think of the simple media as being in some sense foundational to the more complex media. In my experience with students, it is in the simple encounters between idea and writing stick and paper that important compositional elements and ideas are most effectively explored, and the language of visual communication is worked out. As more complex technologies are employed as a means of expression, these basic elements of composition and expression are adapted and used, so I consider the idea that drawing is a foundation for other forms of visual communication to be valid. However, we can look at the idea of "foundation" in more than one way. Are traditional, hand-driven forms of art-making foundational in the sense that they should come first in the unfolding of an educational progression, and then they will lose their usefulness as a student becomes adept at more complex art-making forms? Or, do they function more the way the foundation of a building functions, or the way that learning to walk is foundational to the understanding of one's place, and knowledge of, the physical world? We don't discard the foundation once the house is built, or stop walking once we become oriented in the world.

The changing admission-portfolio requirements of post-secondary schools over the past ten-or-so years reflect an evolving understanding of the relationship between traditional art media and "new" media. Ten years ago drawings and paintings included in portfolios might be made from observation of life - but work that was copied from a photograph or traced and filled in was just as acceptable to schools, as was an image produced entirely from the imagination. A variety of media - sculpture, collage, pottery, and photography - was acceptable and encouraged, for showing a student's diversity of experience. A few years ago most schools began to require the bulk of a portfolio to be drawings made from direct observation, which seemed to be evidence of a growing understanding of the importance of drawing as a foundation for other visual work, as well as a response to the large number of works schools were receiving that had a technology-derived finished quality to them, making it difficult for evaluators to understand how much of the production of the work was due to the student's own efforts and abilities, and how much was due to technology. Over the past few years, schools have required evidence of highly developed visual problem-solving skills through drawing, and they have discouraged technology-created artwork - even for entry into computer-design related programs. However, from talking to students in these schools, it became obvious that, after entry into the programs, very little emphasis was placed on drawing itself. The attitude seemed to be: you've got that as a foundation, now we'll teach you the real, important stuff.

This year I've noticed a shift in post-secondary education toward an increased focus on work made with the hand, while, at the same time, art and design programs are asking for either a student's "best work", regardless of the medium, in application portfolios, or a combination of drawing from observation and digital work - as well as work in other hand mediums. Artisan programs and craft schools are proliferating, MFA programs in drawing have appeared, and the ideal students entering a computer graphics or game design course of study will both be able to draw, and have computer design skills. Schools are expecting more from their applicants than they used to - and I think that this is because, as animation and game design has become such a huge part of visual culture, the need for strong drawing skills has entered the public consciousness. With animation software so available, to retain a relevant position within the culture, visual art schools need to keep the quality of what they are turning out a step or two above what anybody with a computer and a little knowledge of drawing can do. They are asking for evidence of a high level of combined skill in application portfolios. They ask for these things because they can, they know that students with these skills are out there, and they need to keep ahead of the game.

Here is the way I see these changing cultural positions in relationship to art and technology playing out in my high school students. When planning individual projects and exhibitions, students increasingly want to use sophisticated technologies - particularly video and digital photography. I encourage this, but almost always find that the students know less than they think they know about creating quality work with digital media. Programs like iMovie that are designed for ease of use with minimal involvement with learning about the how and why of the way they work lead students into a false sense of proficiency. They can make a video that their friends think is great and, with a keystroke, upload it to YouTube, but they know almost nothing about video production and editing. They commit themselves to complex projects, then they realize the unbelievable amount of work that is ahead of them. They lose hard-earned video clips because they don't understand what exporting a file is - and they have little sense of how to adequately save and back up their work. They crash their computers because they have no conception of the size files that they are working with - and that in the process of editing they are duplicating those huge files over and over again.

A couple of years ago I was questioning the value of teaching complex technologies within a high school art program. Our place seemed to be more in developing solid foundation skills - and particularly, drawing skills - that would place our students in a strong position for continued work in whatever medium they chose, as well as keep them competitive in the college admissions process. I think that our job has recently become harder. While solid traditional art-making skills are more important than ever, so is a working knowledge of technology. And as popular image manipulation and video editing software increasingly provide easy templates for maneuvers that simulate professional work, we need to be sure that students are gaining a basic understanding of file handling and sharing, and we need to provide real professional software to students to learn and to use, so they aren't confined to the moves that are built into popular software programs.

Again -

A paintbrush is a tool, and so is a computer.

Images:
Mannequins withTV heads, by Yemaya Briggs-Guzman
Projected video, which included a video including interviews with the St. Johnsbury Academy kitchen staff, by Hanley Chu

PRESS RELEASE: Sam Thurston presents Christian Art and Images at the United Church of Christ in Craftsbury Common

2012-01-29T11:41:00.002-05:00

The Art House and the United Church of Christ on Craftsbury Common collaborate this February and March to bring you a winter speaker series focusing on sacred images in art. These talks will take place at the Church on the Common. For more information on this collaboration, please email Sarah Mutrux at vtarthouse@gmail.com.

Sam Thurston will present Christian Art and Images: History of Christian Art and Imagery from the Earliest Times

Friday, February 3, 2012
At United Church of Christ, Craftsbury Common
6:30 - 8:00 pm

Artist and art historian Sam Thurston of Lowell, Vermont, explores the evolution of Christian images from the 3rd century AD through the 20th century. Thurston will show a selection from some of the earliest works of art through the Renaissance into the modern, speaking about symbol, meaning, and expression.

This talk is hosted by The Art House and the United Church of Craftsbury on Craftsbury Common. The talk will be in the sanctuary of the church, with a reception and refreshments provided by the Deacons of the Church after the talk.

PRESS RELEASE: Julia Shirar in Gallery II at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson

2012-01-22T13:01:00.006-05:00

People in Places is a collection of Julia Shirar's most recent paintings and drawings, on exhibit from February 11th through March 10th in Gallery II at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson. Gallery II is located on the side of the Wolf Kahn Studio Building at the Vermont Studio Center, 80 Pearl Street in Johnson.

Shirar says, “In the tradition of the 19th century itinerant painter, I’m recording a small part of our time through portraiture and landscape, depicting people and places. It is an on ongoing documentation, a subjective partial record of right now. The Gallery II exhibit has work from New York, Oakland and Los Angeles, California and a little bit of Vermont.

Julia Shirar received a BFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA and an MFA in Painting from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland,CA . She lived in Oakland for 17 years, where she was a Senior Adjunct Professor in the Film department at California College of the Arts and a Sound Designer for feature films to support her painting.

She started thinking about documentation through portraiture and landscape as a reaction to her close work with the simulacra of film, and the isolation of her profession. She saw anew the value of human interaction as a means through which to collect history and started documenting Oakland. In 2008 she was a resident at Vermont Studio Center, where the work began evolving into a collaboration with the sitter, involving props and symbolism, a loose narrative of our time with hints of the apocalyptic. She relocated to the East Coast recently as a caretaker for a funeral home in Queens, and returned to VSC to make one of the portraits in the show of Dan Allen. Because of the scale of the more narrative paintings, this is the first chance she’s had to show them.

Images: Top - Dale; Bottom: Mick

PRESS RELEASE: Jude Bond and Michelle Saffran at Vintage Inspired Lifestyle Marketplace in Burlington

2012-01-22T09:44:00.003-05:00

Vintage Inspired Lifestyle Marketplace on Flynn Avenue in Burlington is pleased to announce an exhibition in February of work from Vermont artists and photographers Jude Bond and Michelle Saffran. This exhibition featuring black and white and color photography will open on First Friday, February 3rd with a reception from 5-8pm, and runs through February 29th. Also in the month of February, Vintage Inspired will feature art work from the community at The Lodge at Shelburne Bay. Vintage Inspired, A vibrant new marketplace for antique dealers, artists and craftspeople, is located at 180 Flynn Avenue, and is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10am to 5pm, Sunday from 12pm to 4pm and closed Mondays.

Artist Jude Bond’s silver gelatin prints entitled Yours Till Niagara Falls; Brides and Grooms and Honeymoons are a photographic celebration of love, marriage, honeymoons, waterfalls, smooches, pools, geysers, rocks, rivers, caves, carnivals, and attractions – both tourist and otherwise. The series is an ode to both the vernacular candid snapshot and the vintage cabinet card, a posed studio-style portrait genre with atmospheric hand-painted backdrops. Taking something old and something new -- in this case old and new photographs, and old and new technology -- Jude has created faux snapshots of happy couples as they traverse the USA visiting such familiar locales as The Carlsbad Caverns, Mount Rushmore, and Marine World. These silver gelatin prints are intimate little treasures presented to accentuate their object-ness. They provide a glimpse of romance that is tender yet archly amusing. Jude has exhibited her work all over Vermont for over 15 years, and facilitates the Early Arts program at Burlington City Arts. www.judebond.net

Michelle Saffran creates photographs that deal with issues of gender identity, loss of innocence, passage of time and our temporal existence. In her artist statement, Saffran states that she “looks to the tradition of still life painting for inspiration, and is particularly provoked by the dark moodiness and heavy symbolism of the Dutch and Spanish still life paintings of the early 16th Century.” Michelle holds a BFA in photography from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and exhibits her work throughout the area. She is a photography and design teacher at Burlington City Arts and is currently pursuing an MFA in Visual Arts from the Art Institute of Boston. www.michellesaffranphotography.com

Vintage Inspired Lifestyle Marketplace on Flynn Avenue in Burlington, VT is a funky & accessible source of vintage goods for inspired lifestyles. It is a delight for shoppers wanting to combine a love for antiques, curious goods and art. Owner, Mary Heinrich Aloi has a truly inspired eye and her shop is a destination for in-the-know pickers, collectors, and art lovers. For more information and directions to the Marketplace, please visit www.vintageinspired.net

Images
Jude Bond, Gorilla, Bride & Bug, Silver Gelatin Print, 2008
Jude Bond, The Deep End, Silver Gelatin Print, 2008

PRESS RELEASE: All Aboard at Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville

2012-01-22T08:48:00.006-05:00

Bryan Memorial Gallery presents

All Aboard: an Exhibition of Trains

as its featured exhibition Friday, February 3 - Sunday, April 1, 2012. This exhibition in its East Gallery includes model trains, toy trains, historical train objects and an extensive presentation of the train in fine art and videos.

The opening reception is Sunday, February 5. At 1 PM: An Artists Roundtable will feature four artists in the exhibition. A reception in honor of all the artists is from 2 - 4. There is no admission charge for the roundtable or the reception.

Curated by Fiona Cooper Fenwick, with assistance from Marclay Davis, All Aboard amasses a vast cross section of railroad culture and imagery, from actual objects from the earliest days of the railroad in Vermont, to model trains and toy trains, and a significant collection of the train in fine art and photography today.

Among the lenders to the exhibition are the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury; the St. Albans Historical Museum, The St. Johnsbury Railroad Heritage Society and Stowe Historical Society. Among the artists on exhibit are David and Line Tutwiler, Gary Davis Lang, David Plowden, Jim Shaughnessy, Kevin Fahey, Christopher Jenkins and 20 Vermont artists juried into the exhibition from among Bryan Gallery members.

Among the collectors who have loaned to the exhibit are Shaun Phillips, Bill Sander, Jim Murphy, Bob Jones, Ramsey Yoder, Wayne Senville and Nancy Engels. Many more lenders in each category contributed over 500 objects to this exhibition.

The exhibit will also include a selection of videos on demand from such video artists as the late Charles and Ray Eames (Toccata for Toy Trains,) and Jim Jones of Vermont.

The gallery is open Friday - Sunday, 11 - 4 and by appointment at any time. Bryan Memorial Gallery is at 180 Main Street, Jeffersonville, Vermont. 802-644-5100. www.bryangallery.org. There is no admission charge.

Images:
David Tutwiler: Steamin' Round The Bend, oil on linen
Mary Bryan: Night Trains, watercolor
Kevin Fahey: Railyard at Sayre, PA, oil on linen

PRESS RELEASE: Kevin Fahey at Galleria Fine Arte in Stowe

2012-01-22T08:43:00.002-05:00

Galleria Fine Arte, at 6 Sunset Street in Stowe Village, will Feature Artist Kevin Fahey, A Painter's Voice, from January 27 - February 26, 2012. The show will open on Friday Jan. 27, from 5pm to 7pm.

Kevin Fahey was born in the small town of Sayre , in north central Pennsylvania. His first exposure to the art world was in his teens, when he studied oil painting with his Dutch neighbor, Lily Belle Isle. He went on to studies in advertising design at Mohawk Valley College in Utica , New York.

After moving to Vermont in 1981, he started cooking and eventually worked with Arthur O'Connor (Bourbon Street Grill and Mona's in Burlington VT) and Albert Lattanzi, owner of Lattanzi's, on Martha's Vineyard, MA. He has worked as a private chef for 23 years with international clients.

Painting off and on through the years, the decision to paint full-time came and cooking went back burner..literally. Fahey paints in a realistic style,seeking the beauty and mystery in his subjects.

Image: Home Hill 12x36"

PRESS RELEASE: Art of the Chair at Chandler Gallery in Randolph

2012-01-22T08:16:00.003-05:00

An innovative exhibit opens at Chandler Gallery in Randolph, Vermont Saturday January 21. The subject is the chair. The focus is process, history, personalization, and personification beyond the limits of sitting. The exhibit Art of the Chair: Process and Possibility will open with a gallery reception on Saturday, January 21 from 5 – 7 p.m. The show runs through March 6.

Works include two and three-dimensional pieces in a variety of styles bringing twenty artists together from all corners of Vermont.Two-dimensional works include pieces by Rona Cohen, Jan Fowler, Lisa Kippen, Ken Leslie, Marjorie Ryerson, Arthur Schaller, Cameron Schmitz, Ronnie Solbert and Stephanie Suter.

Three-dimensional works were created by artists Angelo Arnold, Ria Blaas, Paul Calter, Michael Cunningham, Christine Hartman, David Hurwitz, Antoinette Jacobson, Karolina Kawiaka, Michael Tulloch, Maxwell A.Van Pelt and Wouter Zwart.

The show is curated by Kirstin Quick and Janet Cathey. A cash bar and light refreshments will be available at the opening reception.

Surround events include a chair-painting workshop on Saturday, February 4 from 9 – 1 p.m. A gallery talk will be given by some of the exhibiting artists on Saturday, February 18 from 1 – 3 p.m. Admission is by donation.

Chandler Gallery hours are Thursdays 4 – 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 – 3 p.m. For more information please call 802-431-0204 or contact Betsy Cantlin at outreach@chandler-arts.org

PRESS RELEASE: Opening of gallery at Phoenix Books in Essex

2012-01-22T08:07:00.003-05:00

Art fans are invited to meet the artists at The Gallery at Phoenix Books' art opening on Sunday, January 29th from 3:00pm through 5:00pm. Light fare will be provided, and the reception is free and open to the public. Featured artists will include Paige Dunbar, Rick Evans, Eric Fitzgerald, Brittany Foster, Donna McDermid, and artists of the Essex Art League.

As at their first official gallery exhibit, Phoenix has chosen to feature a range of local talent. Rick Evans, a graphic artist hailing from Underhill, takes commissions for pen-and-ink drawings of page 100 of (almost) any book. Donna McDermid creates sculptural images with felted wool. Brittany Foster and Paige Dunbar are high school students from Essex and Hardwick, respectively. Foster works primarily in acrylics. Dunbar is a photographer, as is fifth-generation Vermonter Eric Fitzgerald.

The exhibit will stay up through the beginning of March. The gallery (along with the associated bookstore and cafe) is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am through 7:00pm, Saturday from 10:00 am through 7:00 pm, and Sunday from 11:00am through 6:00pm. For more information, please visit our website or call 872-7111.

About Phoenix Books:
Phoenix Books was established in 2007 on the principles of social responsibility, community, and sustainability. Phoenix Books is a locally-owned, independent bookstore, gallery, and café, and a proud member of Local First Vermont and Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. Whenever possible, Phoenix Books sources eco-friendly products from Fair Trade/Green Certified companies.

Images: A Piece of the Story by Donna McDermid; Photograph by Eric Fitzgerald

PRESS RELEASE: Joelen Mulvaney presents slides at Seminary Art Center in Waterbury Center

2012-01-22T07:52:00.001-05:00

Seminary Art Center will be hosting a series of artist slide show & talk series this Winter & Spring. They are free events to help connect local artists and the community. The first show will be on Friday February 10th from 6:30-8:30 pm. Joelen Mulvaney of Barre will be presenting her slides of paintings and installations. Mulvaney describes her work, "I do three types of work. One is the empty mind approach and is entirely extemporaneous, the second involves deep research in a particular subject matter and the third arrives like a dream which is then interpreted. Sometimes the expression is painting, other times some kind of construction or installation, whichever suits the occasion."

Seminary Art Center is located on 201 Hollow Road in Waterbury Center.

PRESS RELEASE: Ian and Saskia Reinholt at Townsend Gallery at Black Cap Coffee in Stowe

2012-01-22T07:34:00.004-05:00

For the month of February Townsend Gallery at Black Cap Coffee will feature the work of two Maine artists, husband and wife, Ian and Saskia Reinholt.

Ian Reinholt is a master furniture maker who focuses on creating contemporary heirloom furniture that melds the natural beauty of wood with the elegance of traditional techniques. Ian is also owner of Lucid Skis a small alpine ski company in Phillips, Maine that produces hand crafted custom skis. Emphasis is on high performance and unique wood veneer top sheets.

Saskia Reinholt is an oil painter, water colorist, stained glass artist, and owns an art gallery in Kingfield, Maine. Currently her work focuses on the beauty of winter light reflecting off of snow and ice.

To see the art, furniture, and skis please come and meet the artists on Saturday February 25th from 4-7 pm at the closing reception. Live music and refreshments provided.

PRESS RELEASE: James Vogler at Left Bank Home & Garden in Burlington

2012-01-22T07:19:00.005-05:00

Left Bank Home & Garden, Burlington’s newest home furnishings boutique, is currently featuring an exhibit of paintings by James Vogler, through February 29th. A store opening reception will be held on February 3rd from 5-8pm in conjunction with Burlington’s First Friday Art Walk.

Vogler describes his work as follows: “Overlapping color and suggestions of line and light are used to create space between forms. The forms range from geometric to nearly amorphous, their function always being repositories of color. Color interacts with itself, creating light and depth. Through the intentional act of painting, heavily provoked by coincidence, the chromatic forms battle for dominance on the surface. Through this dynamic but sensitive interplay between transparent and opacity and through the suggestion of emerging and receding forms, the foreground and background become interchangeable. Time becomes marked and space becomes limitless.”

The exhibit at Left Bank Home & Garden is a diverse selection of Vogler’s work, ranging from 2009-2011. As such, the viewer can see his expressive progression of color, form, and line quality.

James Vogler received his BA in Painting from Kean University and Masters in Art History from Rutgers University and Kean University. He then worked as an art installer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York while he continued to paint and develop his style of color field abstraction. Since returning to painting in 2007, Vogler has exhibited works widely in New England, working largely in the oil and wax media.

Left Bank Home & Garden is located two blocks west of Church Street, at 127 Bank Street in downtown Burlington. It is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am-6pm and Monday by appointment. Visit www.leftbankhome.com for more information.

Image:
Corner Lot - 30"x24" oil/wax on canvas, 2009
Needs A Washer - 40"x30" oil/wax on canvas, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: Clark Derbes at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe

2012-01-18T10:36:00.001-05:00

Clark Derbes' Shapescapes are in the East Gallery of Helen Day Art Center from January 20 - February 26, 2012

Opening Reception: January 20, 2012, 6 pm

Derbes uses a multitude of materials and surfaces to create paintings, sculptures, and installations, ranging in size from the miniscule to the monumental.

PRESS RELEASE: Art on Burton at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe

2012-01-18T10:32:00.001-05:00

The Art on Burton

January 20 - April 15, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday January 20, 6 pm

The Art on Burton examines the profound role of art and design on the culture of snowboarding through the lens of Vermont's Burton Snowboards.

Snowboarding's reputation as a counter-culture lifestyle enables companies like Burton to visually push the envelope, collaborating with artists on product design. Not only does this positively impact the experience of the rider, it also supports the artist by increasing visibility of their work. There are few other examples where fine artists' work reaches the public so directly and extensively - consumed and viewed by thousands.

The Art on Burton focuses on designers and artists who have contributed to the design and image of Burton, highlighting significant moments and innovations. Original artwork, sketches, board graphics, and videos by: Basquiat, Thomas Campbell, Kevin Cyr, Futura, Mike Giant, Greg Gossel, Maya Hayuk, Andy Jenkins, David Kinsey, Andrei Molodkin, Michael Montanaro, Jari Salo, Lance Violette, Andy Warhol, and William Wasden.

PRESS RELEASE: Cool It Now at Colburn Gallery at UVM in Burlington

2012-01-18T10:14:00.002-05:00

Cool It Now

An exhibition of recent Ceramic Sculpture and Pottery
from UVM Art Faculty and Alumni

Artists included in the exhibition :

Hoyt Barringer
Steve Carter
Nick Earl
Jenn Galusha
Ian Winsemius

Closing Reception is on Wednesday January 25 at 6:30pm
Music by percussionist Andrew Mallon

PRESS RELEASE: Natural Wonders at BigTown Gallery in Rochester

2012-01-18T09:57:00.006-05:00

At BigTown Gallery, 99 North Main in Rochester, Vermont

Natural Wonders
Main Gallery: John Udvardy and Marcy Hermansader
Center Gallery: Anda Dubinskis

January 18 - March 19, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 21, 5-7 pm

This exhibition brings together the work of three singularly distinctive artists: Marcy Hermansader, Anda Dubinskis, and John Udvardy—a grouping that serves as a study in juxtaposition, of energetic contrasts and potent evocations of spirit inhabiting nature, here expressed in painting and sculpture.

Marcy Hermansader has characterized her work as a response to a pervasive “mystification,” an ongoing self-inquiry that asks: How does meaning emerge from art? Hermansader’s deeply personal, richly imagined drawings emerge from the provocations of real-life stimuli, be it literary or musical, from travel, out of memory, or fantasy; the trigger can be personal circumstance, or a social setting, it might even be political. The works are composed by combining mixed media—pencil, acrylic, foils, fabrics, thread, sequins—diverse materials that disappear into the exquisite figurative abstraction. Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Senior Curater of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA, said of this suite of drawings when it was exhibited there in 1990, under the title Belief in the Underground: The Art of Marcy Hermansader: "They [the drawings] should be seen as imaginary maps of states of being, or feeling, in which objects from daily life assume magical properties."

John Udvardy's sculptural assemblages of found wood, paper, metal, plaster, and parts peer directly into a face-to-face encounter with Nature, and especially into its intersection with Time. His deft reappropriations and repurposing of selected natural materials confer a meaningful and expressive afterlife as Art, on what otherwise had been discarded, post-function. Udvardy’s work exudes a precision of balance and proportion that seems of a piece with the near boundless elaboration of organic forms found in Nature, but it argues its aesthetic, and seats any claim for meaning, strictly within the particular and specific; Udvardy works from a physical sense of merging with the heft of his objects, so to discover how things, in sculpture, find each other. The balance objects seek—in weight and form, and in color—when they are brought into proximity, placed in combination, is the initiating principle animating his work.

Anda Dubinskis’s work for this exhibition is selected from three of her series in gouache: Flora and Fauna, Little Poems, and Let’s Talk. The graphic and design elements, as well as the aspects and attributes of the figuration, combine into set-like stagings that insert the highly-charged immediacy of acute psychological states into the structures and confines of an enduring, natural world. An omniscient clarity suffuses each piece, as with an Audobon-like precision, Dubinskis transforms space into habitable environment by sparely (never sparsely) furnishing detail—salient, succinct, personalized—fit to that figure's life, be it animal’s, plant’s, or person’s.

Marcy Hermansader, Putney, VT; Anda Dubinskis, Philadelphia, PA; and John Udvardy, Bristol, RI; have widely exhibited throughout the northeast. Both Hermansader and Dubinskis have shown at the Fleisher-Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia. Dubinskis has taught at Swarthmore, the University of Pennsylvania, Moore College of Art, Arcadia University and Tyler School of Art, and is currently on the Visual Arts faculty of Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. Udvardy is retired from a long teaching career at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Images:
Marcy Hermansader, After, 1988, colored pencil, acrylic, spray-paint, and foil on paper, 20.25" x 20"
John Udvardy, Spiritwalker / Muse, 2011, glazed earthware, painted cardboard, wood, 25" x 8" x 10"
Anda Dubinskis, Civita, 2010, gouache on rice printed rice paper, 26" x 19"

PRESS RELEASE: Janet Wormser at Vermont Arts Council’s Spotlight Gallery in Montpelier

2012-01-13T19:56:00.002-05:00

The Vermont Arts Council’s Spotlight Gallery is currently hosting an exhibit of paintings by Cabot artist Janet Wormser, through February 29th. A reception will be held on February 10th from 4PM to 7PM in conjunction with Montpelier’s Art Walk.

Wormser began painting in the early ‘80s after seeing an exhibit of work by Fairfield Porter. She sees herself as an artist who is "interested in creating an immediacy, a presence on canvas that feels like a natural wholeness, a mood of beauty and emotion that comes from [her] passion for form and color."

She explains further: “I love the aesthetic vitality of painters such as Bonnard and Matisse, the quiet of Morandi and Vuillard, and the anonymous marks of Hodgkin. My goal is to create paintings that aspire to incorporate the beauty, feeling and sensitivity that these painters impart in their work. In living a contemplative life close to nature, I have wondered how I could dig into my imagination and with paint create the equivalent of tone poems.”

The Spotlight Gallery is located in the Vermont Arts Council offices at 136 State Street in Montpelier and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 4:30pm.

Image: Landscape, oil on canvas, 24 x 24" , 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Robyn Osiecki and Róbert Herold at the Gallery at Lost Nation Theater in Montpelier

2012-01-13T19:46:00.004-05:00

The Gallery at Lost Nation Theater is excited to announce that the international, award-winning iPhoneography show Distortions will light up its space in concert with Lost Nation Theater's Winterfest! 2012. Exhibiting artists are Robyn Osiecki (Middlesex, Vermont) and Róbert Herold (Pécs, Hungary).

The exhibit will run concurrent with LNT's Winterfest! (Thursdays through Sundays, February 2nd through February 26th). During this period the show/gallery will be open 1-1/2 hours before curtain time. Alternatively, interested folks may call the theater at 802-229-0492 or email robyn@lostnationtheater.org to arrange a special viewing appointment with the artists.

The Gallery at Lost Nation Theater is located in City Hall Auditorium Arts Center (second floor, in the lobby space of the theater), 39 Main Street, downtown Montpelier, Vermont.

What is iPhoneography?

iPhoneography is an approach to the art of photography that - as with all prior forms - embraces new tools and techniques as part of the creative quest. This emergent medium challenges the artist to use the iPhone as the sole tool for capturing, processing, and publishing photographs.

There is something inspiring about shooting with a simple fixed lens and few physical controls, all on a device that fits in the pocket and serves a wide variety of other purposes. One also discovers the highly personal aspect of doing all the editing in the palm of the hand. It is an intimate and highly satisfying journey that in many ways transcends the darkroom or Photoshop experience. Add the simplicity and the social aspects of posting from the same device, and this all-in-one package for capturing, processing and publishing makes the iPhone a compelling platform.

About the Artists

Robyn Osiecki (unruly-e) Robyn was named one of the top 50 mobile photographers of 2011 by iPhoneogenic, had one of her images chosen as a best-of 2011 by lifeinlofi, and is currently in the semi-finals for the 2011 IPA Mobile Art Award Grant. The artist has been featured at P1xels At An Exhibition, iPhoneogenic, and iPhoneart; appeared in the "Style without Boundries" gallery show at the 2011 London Design Festival; has had several works chosen for accolades at iPhoneography (UK), Eye’em (Germany), LifeInLofi (US), Bickr (UK), PixelsAtAnExhibition (US), and fotoigriPhone (Italy); and teaches advanced iphoneography techniques at iPhoneographyCentral. Most recently, Robyn won the "Filterstorm" category of the 2011 International Mobile Photo Awards (MPA) with a post-Irene image, which will travel as part of the MPA exhibits.

Róbert Herold (_HerRo) Róbert is a Hungary-based mobile photographer. He carries great pride in taking and editing all of his works exclusively on an iphone. Róbert's images have been exhibited throughout the United States and he currently has two works in the Miami iPhoneography Exhibition. Róbert was tagged one of the top 50 mobile photographers of 2011; he was named featured artist on both iPhoneogenic and P1xels At An Exhibition; several of his images were showcased at PixelsAtAnExhibition, fotogriPhone, iPhoneogenic, Life In LoFi, and Eye'em; and he has had multiple works appear in print media. Most recently, Róbert won the "Digital Art & Collage" category of the 2011 International Mobile Photo Awards (MPA) and two of his images will part of the traveling MPA exhibits.

Images:
Robert Herold, The Visitation of Mr. Horatius, from Véménd, Hungary
Robyn Osiecki, Until the bricks started to melt in the rain, from the (now-former) state office complex, Waterbury, Vermont

PRESS RELEASE: Elinor Steele at the Jackson Gallery at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury

2012-01-12T10:48:00.004-05:00

Elinor Steele: The Art of Tapestry

January 6 - February 26, 2012
Opening Reception Friday, January 13, 2012

Award-winning designer/weaver Elinor Steele combines a strong sense of color and composition with meticulous craftsmanship to create her contemporary hand-woven tapestries, on exhibit at the Jackson Gallery at Town Hall Theater at 68 South Pleasant Street in Middlebury until February 26.

Exhibiting nationally for over 30 years, she has been commissioned to create numerous works for corporate, healthcare, and residential settings. This exhibit features examples from several of her series, including abstract and impressionistic images, landscapes, and geometric compositions, along with information on the art and history of tapestry making.

The design process for the recent Reconstruction series involves deconstructing shapes and images until they are no longer recognizable, and then reorganizing them in a new composition which has strength and balance - a metaphor for rebuilding the fragments left by an act of violence. The Barns series combines abstract composition layered with representational images of hay barns, perhaps in an effort to preserve these images as they are disappearing from the landscape.

Working from a small scale printed color drawing and a full sized "cartoon" or line pattern, Steele interprets her designs while weaving by hand on a high-warp loom using traditional tapestry techniques. Combining several strands from a large palette of wool yarns to achieve the desired colors and gradients, she takes full advantage of the rich tone and texture that are inherent in the medium.

Steele studied Fine Art at the University of New Hampshire and Tapestry at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. With creative interests in music and theater as well as art, she currently directs the Jackson Gallery and is the Box Office manager at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury, Vermont.

The Art of Tapestry will be on exhibit at the Jackson Gallery at Town Hall Theater from January 6 through February 26, with an opening reception on Friday, January 13, from 5 - 7 pm. Gallery hours are Monday - Saturday from noon - 5:00 pm, and during theater events. The Gallery is located on the lower level of Town Hall Theater on Merchants Row, Middlebury. All exhibits are free and open to the public.

Images: Reconstruction and Autumn Leaves, Winter

PRESS RELEASE: David Kearns at Gallery II Vermont Studio Center, Johnson.

2012-01-11T22:35:00.003-05:00

"OUT OF THE WOODS", recent acrylic paintings on a variety of supports by David E. Kearns
Now through February 10th, 2012 in Gallery II @ the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT.

Gallery II is located on the side of the Wolf Kahn Studio Building at the Vermont Studio Center, 80 Pearl Street, in Johnson, VT.

"In January 2011, I embarked on a cross-country road trip with my dog, Seamus. After an extended stay in the Bay Area, including a month-long studio residency at the Last Avenue Studios in San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood, we found our way back to Vermont. "OUT OF THE WOODS" is a show of work made during and immediately following this trip. After a dozen years painting in, and inspired by, the Vermont woods, I found new inspiration in the landscape of the American Southwest, the Pacific Coast, and the hills of the East Bay, as well as the various urban locales and long-deserted ghost towns we explored."

PRESS RELEASE: Sculpture at FLYNNDOG in Burlington

2012-01-06T11:21:00.001-05:00

Join us this First Friday, January 6th at FLYNNDOG 6 to 8 pm for

Fluid Dynamics: New Sculpture by
Ethan Bond-Watts, Homer Wells, and Chris Cleary

The exhibit will be up through February 25th

Image: pieces of the three artists work

PRESS RELEASE: David Smith at Claire’s in Hardwick

2012-01-06T11:08:00.004-05:00

Paintings by David Smith
Claire's Restaurant, Hardwick, VT
January 9- March 11, 2012
Reception:
Monday, January 16, 4-6 PM

Image: Entrance, 22 x 36"

PRESS RELEASE: Isaac Wasuck at Dostie Bros. Frame Shop & Art Gallery in Burlington

2012-01-06T11:02:00.003-05:00

Dostie Bros. Frame Shop & Art Gallery Presents The Figure of It Is, mixed media explorations of the human figure by the person called Isaac Wasuck. There will be an Artist’s Reception at Dostie Bros. Frame Shop & Art Gallery in the Historic Kilburn & Gates Building at 308 Pine St. in Burlington during the First Friday Art Walk on January 6 from 5-8pm featuring Hot Cider and Cookies! This reception is free and open to the public. There are regular gallery hours Mon-Sat 10am-6pm.

Image: Woman on Red

PRESS RELEASE: 30/30 Print Project at Amy Tarrant Gallery in Burlington

2012-01-04T20:15:00.003-05:00

The 30/30 Anniversary Print Project is an exhibition and silent auction supporting the youth education scholarship programs of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts and Burlington City Arts, in honor of the Flynn Center and BCA’s 30th anniversaries. Prints by the 30 artists can be seen here.

Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 5pm, CASH BAR
Closing Reception: Saturday, February 18, 5pm

Participating artists, lead by artist/project coordinators Gregg Blasdel, Jennifer Koch and Sumru Tekin, created prints in BCA’s Print Studio at 250 Main Street, as well as the studio of Jennifer Koch.

Prints created by the artists will be part of a silent auction, beginning during the opening reception on January 6th at the Amy Tarrant Gallery. Bidding will continue during regular gallery hours, and end during the closing reception.

Image: print by Gregg Blasdel

PRESS RELEASE: Bryce LeVan Cushing and Rik (Wave) Kapler at BLCARTGRP Gallery in Chester

2012-01-02T15:22:00.006-05:00

Bryce LeVan Cushing (Sculptor, Performance Artist, Chef, Garden Designer & Curator) has been busy for the past two decades working in the arts across a multitude of disciplines coast to coast in the United States and in Europe. He is thrilled to announce his latest undertaking, opening a modern art gallery in the new capital of contemporary art for Southern Vermont: Chester, VT. The gallery will feature cutting edge work from artists around the U.S. and abroad and is called BLCARTGRP Gallery. It is located at 297 Main Street in the MoonDog Cafe Building. The first show to open in the space is titled: Contempo-Take-O and features the dynamic polaroid transfer prints of Rik (Wave) Kapler and the mixed media sculptures of curator Bryce LeVan Cushing. This show opens with a gala event on January 22nd from 3-9 PM and runs through March 15th.

BLCARTGRP is proud to host Provincetown, Massachusetts - based fine artist Rik (Wave) Kapler for our inaugural event showcasing a retrospective of his polaroid transfer prints of Provincetown Carnival imagery. It is rare to see this type of groundbreaking work in a rural setting. "This body of work began with the hand-manipulation of images that have worked through the Polaroid transfer process and culminates with Poetic Prints that are made with Archival Pigmented Ink,” says Kapler.

This venue will offer an art experience not available anywhere else in Vermont with legendary NYC performers bringing their far left edgy grit to the pastoral New England countryside. The first in a series of performers coming to the gallery offering performance art during our openings are Needles Jones and Moonfire Tower. Needles has been a regular at the NY Times critically acclaimed Pussy Faggot perf art marathon as of late and he has been on the scene since the late 70's when he graced the stage of the Pyramid Club. He also hosted the Monday Night Club for several years in Philadelphia in the past decade.

MoonFire Tower is best knows for his work with "The Goddess" Joey Arias and has produced an homage to Joey including his underground hit single: "The Night I Fell For Joey Arias." MFT helped give rise to the gender-bending performance art style which flourished in the early 90's in Philly and other urban centers while he worked with artists such as Earl Dax, Raven O, Sherry Vine and John Kelly. These groundbreaking performers are now the impresarios of the genre.

At the opening of Contempo-Take-O MoonFire Tower will debut his new live guitar act of original songs as he opens for the fantastic local trio: The Break Maids. The Break Maids will play an extended set of rural carnival punk to round out the evening. Please join us for a night full of art, song and celebration.

Visitors to the BLCARTGRP Gallery, in the rear of the MoonDog Cafe Building at 297 Main Street in Chester, Vermont will experience a true modern art experience. The gallery will be open to the public Wednesday thru Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM and by appointment. For more information please visit www.brycelevancushing.com, or call 802 843 1162. Contempo-Take-O runs from January 22nd to March 15th.

Images: Bryce LevanCushing, Blackbird; Rik (Wave) Kapler polaroid transfer prints

PRESS RELEASE: Student Photography at Gallery 160 in Richmond

2012-01-02T09:29:00.002-05:00

Young Visions, an exhibit of photographic works by students from Champlain Valley and Mount Mansfield Union High Schools, will be offered at Gallery 160 in Richmond from January 7th through February 15th.

Open House Hours are 10-4, January 13 & 14. The Artists’ Reception will be held Friday, January 13th from 5-7 pm. Gallery 160 is located at 160 East Main Street, Richmond.

Hours are by chance or appointment. Contact Scott & Kelly Funk at 434-6434.

PRESS RELEASE: Robert Gold and Tami Crupi Zeman at Ilsley Library in Middlebury

2012-01-01T07:51:00.005-05:00

Portraits: Different Points of View
Work by Dr. Robert Gold and Tami Crupi Zeman
Ilsley Library, Middlebury
January 3-29, 2012
Opening reception January 8th from 2-4pm.

Portraits: Different Points of View is about two photographers who use very different styles working in different mediums but showing similar subject matter.

Tami Crupi Zeman and Robert Gold met in 2009 while neighbors sharing a porch. They became friends because of their mutual interests in being artists and eventually shared a studio together. Tami uses a film camera and works in Black and White photography while Dr. Gold digitally manipulates his photographs and enhances them with acrylic paint.

The two have also collaborated on portraits. Tami would often borrow Dr. Gold's digital camera and leave photographs on it for Dr. Gold to manipulate.

Tami Crupi Zeman has a Master's degree in fine art and Dr. Gold has been self taught for the past 50 years. Dr. Gold feels his work has grown because of the interaction between the two artists while Tami feels Dr. Gold's productivity encourages her to produce and create more work.

When Tami and her husband Bruce moved there was a lapse in Tami and Dr. Gold's collaboration and it has recently been rejuvenated by the show. Portraits: Different Points of View evolved from this recent collaboration, the juxtaposition of Tami's black and white photographs with Dr. Gold's digitally manipulated, acrylic enhanced photographs.

Dr.Robert Gold lives in Middlebury and Tami Crupi Zeman resides in New Haven, Vermont. Artist websites at tamicrupi.com and robertgoldart.com

Images: Top: Tami Crupi Zeman, Now What; Bottom: Robert A. Gold, Self Portrait

PRESS RELEASE: Laura DeCapua and Geoff Hansen at ArtSpace at the Tunbridge Public Library

2011-12-31T17:36:00.003-05:00

ArtSpace at the Tunbridge Public Library presents Our Town: A Snapshot of Tunbridge Residents in 2011, by photographers Laura DeCapua and Geoff Hansen. Over 30 framed photographs will be on display from Jan. 15 to Mar. 10, 2012. An opening public reception will be held Sunday, January 15, from 2-4 PM.

The photo show celebrates the people who call Tunbridge home. Taken in the fall of 2011, the environmental portraits include farmers, artists, students, hunters, business owners and retirees. A collection of scenics of the town -- in its 250th year -- are also included in the show.

Laura DeCapua is the youngest of eight children and hails from a small town in the Midwest. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and her Master’s Degree in Visual Communication. Laura’s photography career began 15 years ago and her work has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers internationally, nationally and locally. Laura and her family have called Tunbridge their home for 10 years. More information about Laura's work can be found at her website.

Geoff Hansen has been a photographer and editor at the "Valley News" for the past 22 years. His photography has appeared in a dozen books, including "The Joy of Keeping Chickens" and "Living with Pigs." He is proud to be part of the Tunbridge community, where he has lived with his family since Oct. 2000. More information about Geoff's work can be found at geoffhansen.com.

The library is located on Route 110 in Tunbridge village, across from the Post Office, about five miles north of Route 14. Library hours are Monday and Wednesday, 3-8 p.m., Thursday and Friday, 3-6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call librarian Jean Wolfe at 802-889-9404 for more information.

Images: Top: a portrait of Tunbridge, Vt., organic dairy farmer Rob Howe by photographer Laura DeCapua; Buttom: a portrait of Tunbridge, Vt., artist Joan Feierabend by photographer Geoff Hansen

PRESS RELEASE: Aldo Mersui at Chaffee Art Center in Rutland

2011-12-31T11:52:00.002-05:00

Locked in Time: Photographs by Aldo Mersui

Locked in Time is back at the Chaffee Art Center for a second exhibit of photographs by Aldo Merusi. The first exhibit took place in January 2010, and because of the popularity, a second exhibit was scheduled. This second Locked in Time exhibit features over 100 new photographs selected by Dr. Richard Brown. Aldo Merusi was the chief photographer at the Rutland Herald from 1937-1974 capturing images of Vermont individuals and events across nearly four decades and virtually the entire state. The Merusi Archive at the Rutland Herald consists of nearly 30,000 photographic negatives, and this exhibit represents a very small percentage of his life's work.

The photos in the exhibit were made from the original negatives which were scanned into digital files, and then printed. Except for adjusting the contrast to make a "readable" image, the photos have not been manipulated.

Locked in Time will open on January 13, 2012 and will be on display through February 11. There will be an opening reception on Saturday January 14, from 4-7 PM, at the Chaffee Art Center, 16 South Main Street, Rutland, VT. Photos in the exhibit will be for sale. The Locked in Time exhibit is sponsored by the Rutland Herald.

PRESS RELEASE: Fiber Fun at Catamount in St. Johnsbury

2011-12-31T11:34:00.001-05:00

The Catamount Fiber Arts Group invites you to share our Artistic Baggage

View our exhibit downstairs at Catamount Arts and Join our hands on an event from 6-8 pm in the gallery on First Night, where you can work with recycled materials as well as yarns, fabric, and plastic bags.

We'll supply materials, patterns, and ideas. Make a bag to hold your old baggage then leave it behind! Create a new bag to carry your hopes and essentials into the new year….

Image: Bags made by crochet artist Nancy Lewis

PRESS RELEASE: Goodman, Pearson, and Salzman at Select Design in Burlington

2011-12-31T11:28:00.002-05:00

Select Design, in collaboration with Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery in Shelburne, will be showing Variations in Abstraction: Steven P. Goodman, Beth Pearson, and Gail Salzman from December 27-February 17, 2012. There will be an opening reception on Tuesday, January 10, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Select Design is located at 208 Flynn Ave. in Burlington. Hours are Mon-Fri 8:30-6. For more information call 802-864-9075 or contact FS Gallery at 985-3848, mail@fsgallery.com, or visit the website at www.fsgallery.com

Image: Gail Salzman, Orison, oil on canvas

PRESS RELEASE: George Bouret at Equinox Village in Manchester Center

2011-12-31T11:12:00.002-05:00

The Gallery at Equinox Village is thrilled to host Photographer George Bouret for our first Gallery Opening of 2012. He both graduated from and taught for the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. He has shot extensively in the American Southwest and in Alaska. His work can be previewed at www.bouretphotography.com.

Gallery at Equinox Village Opening Event: 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 19, 2012

PRESS RELEASE: Glen Coburn Hutcheson at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier

2011-12-28T11:01:00.005-05:00

'People,' a show of drawings and paintings by Glen Coburn Hutcheson, upstairs at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library from January 3 through February 28. Opening reception on Thursday, January 5 from 5-7 PM.

Drawings and paintings of gods, saints, locals and the artist's mother, among others, will be exhibited in the Fiction Room for the first two months of the year. Some are pencil on paper, some homemade gouache, and some oils over gouache on canvas. Sizes range from small (5" x 3")

to large (54" x 48"). Included are a few free-spirited transcriptions of works by Renaissance masters, including Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Titian.

Glen Hutcheson studied drawing, sculpture and painting at the New York Studio School and Haverford College. He grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Montpelier, VT. The human figure informs all his artwork, from plein-air landscape to abstract sculpture. His work can be found

on the web at www.gchfineart.com and drawpaintsculpt.blogspot.com.

images: Berry Picker, 54" x 48", oil over gouache on canvas,

2011; Blame (after Leonardo), 22" x 29", pencil on paper, 2011

www.gchfineart.com

drawpaintsculpt.blogspot.com

PRESS RELEASE: Frank Woods River Arts, Morrisville

2011-12-27T15:55:00.003-05:00

The Gallery at River Arts Presents:

Topographies by Frank Woods

January 19 – March 02

Opening Reception January 19, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville, VT

The Gallery at River Arts is pleased to present "Topographies" by Frank Woods at the River Arts Center in Morrisville, VT, January 19 – March 02, 2012. There will be an opening reception on January 19, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. "Topographies", featur landscapes and kimono in various degrees of abstraction, painted in oil on canvas and panel, and ranging in size from small (11 x 9) to large (60 x 36).

Frank Woods is a painter who was born in Vancouver and grew up in Montreal. He has a BA in Economics and Political Science from McGill University and a Master's degree in Library Science from Simmons College in Boston. His serious engagement with visual art began when he attended drawing classes taught by Bill Flynn at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He moved from Boston to Moscow, VT in 1975, and then to Montpelier in 1980. Until his recent retirement, Woods worked for the Vermont Department of Libraries, where he served as the film librarian and later as the director of the Talking Book Library for the Blind. For the past thirty five years, he has spent virtually all of his free time painting and drawing.

Although he is best known for his landscapes and Adirondack chairs, he also has a long-standing interest in the figure and in abstraction. For the past three years he has expressed this interest with paintings, drawings and mixed media work centering on abstract representations of kimono. For Woods, the kimono is a starting point giving way to exploration of surface design, with color and line never very far behind. In his landscapes, abstraction is likewise always just around the corner. In this respect there is a close relationship between kimono paintings and their landscape cousins. Each slides easily from the ‘real’ to an alternative, but structured, reality, akin to a schematic or an aerial map-like view.

The Gallery at River Arts is located at the River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street in Morrisville, VT. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10:00a.m.-2:00p.m. For off hours, please call River Arts: 802-888-1261. Admission is free. For more information, call or visit their website at www.riverartsvt.org.

PRESS RELEASE: Phillip Robertson at River Arts, Morrisville

2011-12-27T15:45:00.003-05:00

The Common Space Gallery Presents:

"Prints and Paper Construction"s – by Phillip Robertson

January 19 – March 01

Opening Reception January 26, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville, VT

River Arts is pleased to present "Prints and Paper Construction"s – by Phillip Robertson in the Common Space Gallery at the River Arts Center in Morrisville, VT, January 19 – March 01, 2012. There will be an opening reception on January 26, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Phillip Robertson an interdisciplinary artist and printmaker, living in Vermont since 1994. Inspired by the natural landscape, Robertson uses imagination and memory to look beyond realism to make a statement about the pastoral landscape tradition in the 21st century. He earned his MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College, teaches art at the Community College of Vermont and works at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

The Common Space Gallery is located at the River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street in Morrisville, VT. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10:00a.m.-2:00p.m. For off hours, please call River Arts: 802-888-1261. Admission is free. For more information, call or visit their website at www.riverartsvt.org.

"December" by Phillip Robertson

PRESS RELEASE: Mary Byrom at Galleria Fine Arte in Stowe

2011-12-22T22:03:00.002-05:00

From December 9, 2011 - January 11, 2012 Galleria Fine Arte' is pleased to present Mary Byrom's Day & Night: the Moods of Nature. a collection of new paintings of peaceful, luminous landscapes of New England in daytime, afternoon, dusk and night light.

Mary Byrom, well known for her sensitive, elegant interpretations of wild, beautiful places, can be found any the day of the week painting in the great outdoors. Her true love is painting in nature, capturing fleeting moments of light and beauty. She paints outdoors in every season, capturing plein air paintings of the landscape that are brought back to the studio where they become the inspiration for her large landscape paintings.

"New England is a beautiful area with rich subject matter. I paint ocean along the seacoast of Maine, mountains in New Hampshire and Vermont and lovely old farms in the Berkshires and along the river valleys in the Green Mountains. I've been wandering and painting in this region for several years and still have not seen all of its treasures," says the artist.

PRESS RELEASE: Carrie Bagalio at Black Cap Coffee in Stowe

2011-12-22T20:28:00.004-05:00

Townsend Gallery at Black Cap Coffee proudly presents the oil paintings and prints of Carrie Bagalio for the month of January. She paints using brilliant colors and energetic patterns to express a positive visual statement. Bagalio aspires to draw attention to the seemingly insignificant moments everyone experiences that make life beautiful, uplifting and significant. Come meet the Stowe based artist at the exhibition reception to be held on Friday, January 20th from 4-6 pm at 144 Main St Stowe.

Artist Statement: With oil on canvas I express my perception of life and energy in the spirit of my generation. The essential connections I've had with other people, the emotions they have evoked in me, and the moments I've shared with them intrigue and inspire me.

My images come from photographs I've taken of present day people in everyday life, focusing on pop culture in small towns. I paint using brilliant colors and energetic patterns to express a positive visual statement. I aspire to draw attention to the seemingly insignificant moments everyone experiences that make life beautiful, uplifting and significant.

PRESS RELEASE: 2012 Barbara Smail Award Winner Announced

2011-12-14T06:34:00.003-05:00

Burlington City Arts is proud to announce the recipient of the 10th annual Barbara Smail Award, Vermont artist Gregg Blasdel.

Artist and BCA Gallery Committee member Sally Linder, who nominated Blasdel for the award, writes, “His art is imaginative, thought-provoking and expertly executed. Moving from sculpture to printmaking and presently exploring new mediums, Gregg constantly challenges himself and the viewer's comfort zone. While many artists of Gregg's caliber are promoting their art and their career, he has been supporting the Vermont community of artists and art students through his associate and assistant professorships at St. Michael's College and the University of Vermont respectively.”

Gregg Blasdel has been a part of the Vermont art scene since the 1970s. He received his MFA from Cornell University in 1967, and taught at the Whitney Museum in New York City soon after. He relocated to Vermont in the 1970s to teach art at the University of Vermont and then St. Michael’s College in the 80s. Blasdel has lectured around the country about art and architecture and his drawings, sculpture and prints have been exhibited around New England and in New York City.

Gregg Blasdel lives in Burlington, Vermont with his wife and frequent collaborator Jennifer Koch, owner of Frames For You And Mona Lisa Too. Gregg and Jennifer are currently participating as artists and project coordinators along with artist Sumru Tekin in a joint project between Flynn Center and Burlington City Arts, called the 30/30 Anniversary Print Project, opening January 6th at the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery in Burlington.

As the recipient of the 2012 Barbara Smail Award, Blasdel will receive $1,000 and use of Burlington City Arts’ facilities for one year, which include the Print and Clay Studio at 250 Main Street and the BCA Community Darkroom. Friends and family of Barbara Smail, a well-loved and highly respected artist from the Burlington area who died in the fall of 2001, established the Barbara Smail Award. The award is given to a mid-career Vermont-based artist who has a desire to expand his or her creative experience and has displayed an enthusiastic support of his or her peers. Previous award winners include Carol MacDonald, Jennifer Koch, Diane Gabriel, Catherine Hall, Lynn Rupe, Peter Gallo, Jude Bond, Anthony Sini and Kat Clear.

PRESS RELEASE: Patricia Lyon-Surrey at Marilyn’s in Burlington

2011-12-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

Patricia Lyon-Surrey
Romancing the Art of Photography:
A photography exhibit portraying montage, panning and color play.
December 3 - 31 at Marilyn’s, 115 College Street, Burlington, Vermont.
Store hours: Sunday 12-5, Monday thru Friday 10-7, Saturday 10-6.

patrcialyonsurrey.wordpress.com

PRESS RELEASE: Adam Putnam at the BCA Center in Burlington

2011-12-07T17:07:00.003-05:00

Adam Putnam - Magic Lanterns
December 9 - February 25, 2012

Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Friday, December 9, 5-8pm

In this exhibition, New York-based artist Adam Putnam offers three surprising and evocative explorations into the experience of physical space. His Magic Lantern installations use a 19th-century theatrical technique of projecting light through painted slides. By using bulbs suspended in translucent boxes Putnam projects ethereal architectural interiors on empty gallery walls; complete with doors and endless corridors. Putnam's meticulous graphite on paper drawings of abstracted cathedral-like sculptures feature erotized cavities and protrusions, including arches, buttresses and crenulations. In photos of his startling contortionist performances, Putnam implausibly folds his six-foot-eight-inch frame into tiny spaces, including cabinets and bookcases. As the everyday experience of space is challenged by the synthetic environments of the online world, the cumulative effect of Putnam's work is to capture and question our disorienting and mutating sense of physical space. Putnam's work was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum, NY.

PRESS RELEASE: Evie Lovett photographs on the Second Floor of the BCA Center in Burlington

2011-12-07T17:04:00.003-05:00

Evie Lovett: Backstage at the Rainbow Cattle Co.
December 9 - March 24, 2012

Artist Lecture: Why Should I Care About Drag Queens?: Wednesday, February 8, 7pm

Drag Show with The Ladies of the Rainbow Lounge & Reception: Friday, February 17, 8pm

In this exhibition, photographer Evie Lovett offers visitors a unique and highly personal portrait of drag queens in rural Vermont. Lovett offers a rare glimpse into the spectacle of drag by documenting backstage preparations for the monthly shows at the now defunct Rainbow Cattle Company in Dummerston. The photographs of participants-grocery store workers to nuclear power plant operators-reveal the power of personal transformation. This collaborative project, between the Vermont Folklife Center and The BCA Center, combines Lovett's photography with audio interviews of past performers at the Rainbow Cattle Co.

PRESS RELEASE: Geri Taper and Ronald Braunstein at WalkOver Gallery in Bristol

2011-12-06T08:39:00.004-05:00

The WalkOver Gallery has the unique opportunity of showing a series of paper works and drawings by the late Geri Taper. These works will be presented alongside recent paintings by her son, Ronald Braunstein, the orchestral conductor and painter.

This show, entitled Portraits, presents two artists, mother and son, and is not to be missed. It is a rare opportunity to view Taper's work locally and to view Braunstein's new artistic directions.

The Portraits show will run from December 10, 2011- January 13, 2012. There will be an opening on Saturday December 10, 2011 from 5-8pm. The WalkOver is open Monday to Friday 9-4 or by appointment (802) 453-3188.

Geri Taper's work is a passionate amalgamation of line and tone. Displayed will be a series of moody, inky self portraits and a series of playful "Paul Klee-esque" watercolors. The works are intimate and captivating. Taper has been collected by such greats as Alice Tully and Agnes Gund. Approximately 50 of her large "Red and Blue" series were collected by the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Art. Ms.Taper painted in New York during the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s she suffered several hospitalizations due to bipolar illness that slowed her otherwise illustrious and productive career.

Ronald Braunstein, Geri Taper's son is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied music composition and conducting, receiving a Bachelor of Music in conducting. Mr. Braunstein spent four years working with Maestro von Karajan in Berlin. He has conducted a huge array of orchestras and held many prestigious titles all throughout the world. He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of ME2/orchestra, a classical music ensemble created for individuals with issues maintaining mental heath and those who support them.

In addition to his music career, Braunstein studied 2-and 3-dimensional design at the Pratt Institute of Design in New York, where he later taught on the Master's level. Recently, he has been using his visual intelligence to express himself in painting as a counterbalance to his experiences conducting.

The WalkOver will show several of Braunstein's large paintings created on recycled materials. His paintings speak through a language of space, rhythm, and gesture.

Images: Geri Taper, watercolor and ink on paper, 1990
Ronald Braunstein, paint on cardboard

PRESS RELEASE: Kari Meyer at The Green Bean Visual Art Gallery @ Capitol Grounds, Montpelier

2011-12-05T22:01:00.002-05:00

Kari Meyer, an up-and-coming artist, presents a collection of acrylic on canvas landscapes. Her work inspires us to change our perspective by evoking the philosophies of wabi-sabi within her landscapes.

She communicates, thru visual stimuli, to reflect on our relationships of body, mind and spirit. Kari’s work will be exhibited at The Green Bean Visual Art Gallery @ Capitol Grounds from November 30^th to December 31^st.

Please join us during the Montpelier Art Walk on Friday, December 9^th to view ‘Play of Light: Contemporary Landscapes’.

For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Fans-of-Green-Bean-Visual-Arts-Gallery/176207625774864 or email curator@capitiolgrounds.com

CALL TO ARTISTS: Vermont Crafts Council Seeks Participants in Open Studio's 20th Year

2011-12-03T19:49:00.005-05:00

The Vermont Crafts Council announces an open registration period for Vermont visual artists interested in participating in its 2012 Open Studio Weekend, May 26 & 27. This statewide event will mark its 20th year with a celebration of the central life of the studio in the lives of working artists. During Open Studio Weekend, artists open their studios to the public for the exhibit and sale of their work.

The intent of Open Studio Weekend is to provide visitors with an experience of an authentic studio/working environment for the purpose of informing them of the added value of hand made artwork. The Vermont Studio Tour Guide containing maps and directions to studios, is available to the public in advance of the weekend, as a hardcopy map and as a pdf available from our website.

Those artists interested in more information, or for registration materials, should visit our website at http://www.vermontcrafts.com/links/open.html. The deadline for registration is January 6, 2012.

Images: Mantle Clock from Blackthorne Forge
Pottery by Becca Van Fleet Webb and Nathan Webb

PRESS RELEASE: Ruth Hamilton at Brandon Music in Brandon

2011-12-01T16:09:00.005-05:00

New work by Ruth Hamilton, A Walk in the Woods and Other Favored Spaces, is on exhibit at Brandon Music, both in the gallery itself, and in the Music Cafe, from now until February 29th.

An Opening Reception will be held on December 11, from 2-4 at the gallery and tea room. Works may be viewed at the Brandon Music website.

Image: Adirondacks from Orwell, oil, 36" x 12"

PRESS RELEASE: PechaKucha Night at the Fleming Museum in Burlington

2011-12-01T15:07:00.003-05:00

Thursday, December 1, 6:00 PM
Fleming Museum's Marble Court

PechaKucha Night (PKN) returns to the Fleming Museum of Art this Thursday at 6:00 PM. This edition of PKN will be hosted by Mitch Wertlieb of VPR's Morning Edition. Our featured presenters for this volume are:

Judith Chalmer, Hannah Dennison, Rob Druyff, Paul Hennige, Valerie Hind, Kate Longmaid, Hal Mayforth, Michael Nedell, John Thomas, and the UVM Community Design Studio

PechaKucha Night (PKN) is a worldwide phenomenon that began in 2003 in Tokyo. It offers the opportunity for a broad range of participants to present their projects, ideas, and passions at a fun, informal, and fast-paced gathering. Drawing its name from the Japanese word for the sound of "chit chat," PKN uses a quick and concise 20 x 20 presentation format that allows presenters to show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. Presenters describe their project as the images forward automatically.

Join PKN BTV for a take on our community's creative pulse! Drinks and snacks will be on hand. Learn more about PechaKucha at their international website.

The ticket price is Adults: $5, Students: $3

PRESS RELEASE: Tausha Sylver and Joan MacKenzie at Art on Main in Bristol

2011-12-01T14:49:00.005-05:00

Art on Main announces its holiday season Featured Artist Exhibit Festive & Fanciful. The exhibit features embossed velvet by Tausha Sylver, of Fairfax, and paintings by Joan MacKenzie, of Essex Junction. The community is invited to meet the artists at a celebratory reception on Friday December 9 from 5-7pm in the Gallery at 25 Main Street, Bristol. Both artists will be on hand and light refreshments, mostly chocolate, in keeping with the Bristol Downtown Chocolate Walk, will be served. The Gallery will be open until 8pm following the reception.

Self-taught artist Joan MacKenzie loves animals and bold colors—the combination prompted her to learn to paint. Since the first time she was surprised by a pika in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, she has been fascinated by them. While her husband and friend couldn’t wait to rock-climb on their trips west, Joan says, “I looked forward to patiently pika watching.” In painting pikas, Joan has had to exaggerate the colors in their natural habitat to satisfy her own color passion—greys, browns, greens become reds, purples, and turquoises. The world of Joan’s pikas, and their friends, is partly real and partly a product of her colorful imagination.

Over the years, Joan has spent many happy hours photographing pikas in their mountain homes, moose in the woods near her home, zebras and giraffes at the zoo, and horses in the Italian mountains. Back at home, she captures their personalities in acrylic paints. Bright colors are used in unusual ways to jazz up the animals or to enhance their habitats.

Native Vermonter Tausha Sylver is also self-taught in her craft, saying “once I had been exposed to embossed velvet, I couldn’t help but try it myself, and now I can’t stop!” She started working with velvet about ten years ago and has been constantly developing her technique and designs ever since, including designing some of her own stamps which are then crafted by a friend. The luxurious look, texture and feel of velvet is hard to resist, and the contrast of the embossed designs catching the light makes these pieces particularly magical. “It’s so luxurious, it’s just impossible to not want to feel it once you see it!” Tausha offers. “In fact, the number one initial comment I hear when people stop by my booth at a show is ‘I just want to touch them all!’ And of course, I tell them to go right ahead.”

The embossing is achieved by using heat and rubber or polymer stamps, and also, Tausha relates, “a lot of patience (and trial and error!).”

The exhibit will be on view in the Gallery through Friday December 31st. Art on Main is open Monday through Saturday 10am-6pm, Thursdays and Fridays in December -8pm, and Sundays 11am-3pm. Art on Main is a non-profit, artist-cooperative gallery with over 115 member artists from throughout Vermont; celebrating ten years this holiday season!

PRESS RELEASE: The Decembering Tide at Dostie Bros. Frame Shop & Art Gallery in Burlington

2011-12-01T14:39:00.001-05:00

Dostie Bros. Frame Shop & Art Gallery present The Decembering Tide: Drawings and Paintings of Mysterious Pedigree by the duo Franglais! The exhibition runs Dec 2-31, 2011.

There will be an Artist's Reception at Dostie Bros. Frame Shop & Art Gallery in the Historic Kilburn & Gates Building at 308 Pine St. in Burlington during the First Friday Artwalk on December 2 from 5-8pm featuring Hot Cider and Cookies! This reception is free and open to the public.

Regular gallery hours are Mon-Sat 10am-6pm. Regular Gallery Hours Mon-fri 10am-6pm.

Image: The Winter Painting

CHANGES: The Drawing Board in Montpelier takes on Liz Walsh as a New Partner

2011-12-01T14:15:00.001-05:00

The Drawing Board in Montpelier, locally-owned and operated by Ray and Jody Brown since January of 1983, started the next chapter in its long history in October of 2011, when Liz Walsh, the art materials manager and buyer, became a co-owner The Drawing Board.

Ray Brown has retired from the business and is pursuing his love of painting, though he stops in to visit with customers and to pick up supplies. Jody, an expert in archival framing, still works full time, managing the business and framing. Jody and Liz will continue The Drawing Board’s tradition as one of the best independent, locally-owned art shops in Vermont.

PRESS RELEASE: River of Light Lantern Parade in Waterbury this Saturday

2011-12-01T13:59:00.000-05:00

Gowry Savoor writes: The time is nearly upon us for the second annual River of Light Lantern Parade in Waterbury, taking place this Saturday December 3rd 2011, 5pm to 6pm.

This year's event will be bigger and brighter than before, featuring Burlington’s 20-person street samba band, Sambatucada in the lead and amazing lantern creations made by the students from Thatcher Brook Primary School, Crossett Brook Middle School, artists from Central Vermont and community members from Waterbury, Stowe and Montpelier. There will be some spectacular structures on show, including "Smog" a 16ft willow and paper dragon and a few more surprises.

The parade will leave the Vermont State Complex on Main Street at 5pm, and 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 event is absolutely free to attend. Please show your support and join us in celebrating the season with an evening of light, music, creative arts and community spirit.
For more information, please visit our blog at: www.ariveroflightinwaterbury.wordpress.com

We hope to see you there!

PRESS RELEASE: Day of the Dead Celebration by St. Johnsbury Academy Art Students

2011-12-01T13:33:00.004-05:00

This video is about a FABULOUS project that Kim and Bill Darling did with about fifty of their students, who were later joined by many more. The video shows the process used by St. Johnsbury Academy Anatomy and Figure Drawing and Printmaking 1 Students to create over 40 4' x 8' "Day of the Dead" woodblock prints, using a steamroller as a press. Bill Darling, Printmaking Instructor at St. Johnsbury Academy, directed the project, and Kim Darling, Anatomy and figure Drawing Instructor, was assistant director.It also shows the parade, on November 10, 2011, in which these prints, as well as other works by Academy Fine Arts students, were displayed to the town. Various other Academy clubs and groups also participated, and the St. Johnsbury Academy Jazz Band provided music.

REVIEW: Delia Robinson at Flynndog in Burlington

2011-11-24T10:33:00.023-05:00

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

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

2011-11-23T16:27:00.003-05:00

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

2011-11-23T14:21:00.004-05:00

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

2011-11-23T13:39:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-23T09:06:00.004-05:00

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

2011-11-23T09:00:00.002-05:00

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"

PRESS RELEASE: Printmaking Exhibit at the Mill Gallery in Bennington

2011-11-18T17:27:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-18T17:07:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-18T15:06:00.007-05:00

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

2011-11-18T08:00:00.004-05:00

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.

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

2011-11-17T18:42:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-17T18:34:00.003-05:00

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

2011-11-17T17:41:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-17T17:17:00.005-05:00

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

2011-11-17T16:53:00.003-05:00

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

PRESS RELEASE: Holiday Show at Studio Place Arts in Barre

2011-11-16T12:42:00.004-05:00

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

2011-11-16T08:57:00.004-05:00

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

2011-11-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-16T08:45:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-16T08:43:00.005-05:00

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.

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

2011-11-12T16:08:00.004-05:00

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.

PRESS RELEASE: River of Light Plans for procession in Waterbury

2011-11-11T14:44:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-11T08:21:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-11T07:58:00.002-05:00

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.

PRESS RELEASE: Fred Tomaselli lecture at UVM in Burlington

2011-11-08T17:30:00.004-05:00

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

2011-11-08T17:19:00.003-05:00

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

2011-11-08T08:33:00.001-05:00

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.

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

2011-11-04T08:32:00.005-04:00

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 gallery 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

2011-11-04T07:46:00.007-04:00

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

PRESS RELEASE: Reception and Exhibit at Flynndog in Burlington

2011-11-04T07:21:00.005-04:00

We are celebrating the publication of AlphaBetaBestiario, a new collection of poetry by Antonello Borra, translated by Blossom S. Kirschenbaum, with art by Delia Robinson.

Opening Reception for the Artists and Book Launch is Friday, November 4, 6:00 to 8:30. At 7:00 (ish), Antonello will read from the original Italian and Delia will read from the translations.

Newly printed First Editions will be available and a percentage of books sales will be dedicated to Green Mountain Animal Defenders http://gmad.info/ .

The exhibition of AlphaBetaBestiario artwork and Captive, a series of new paintings by Delia Robinson will run from November 4 thru December 29, 2011.

http://www.fomitepress.com/FOMITE/AlphaBetaBestiario.html

Images: book cover; Jacob Wrestles, 2011, Delia Robinson

PRESS RELEASE: Vermont Artisan Festival at Smugglers' Notch Resort in Jeffersonville

2011-11-04T07:10:00.002-04:00

Presenting The Vermont Artisan Festival at Smugg's. The Vermont Artisan Festival is a 2 and a half day long festival and tradeshow featuring the most talented and the most unique Vermont artists, craftsmen, musicians, performers and chefs. The event takes place at the fantastic Smugglers' Notch Resort in Jeffersonville, VT, Friday, May 25th, 2012 through Sunday, May 27th, 2012.

Spaces are now available in the Vermont Artisan Festival! Visit www.vtartisanfestival.com for vendor information. The weekend's festivities will include a two and a half day artisan tradeshow with up to 64 unique crafters showcasing each day. Tradeshow hours are Friday, 5/25 from 3-6pm and both Saturday and Sunday, 5/26 and 5/27 from 9am-4pm. Events also include a live auction, several musical performances by accomplished Vermont bands, and a vaudeville-style variety performance courtesy of The Real McCoys. On Sunday, a professional grilling competition will take place on the Village Green at Smuggs. Contestants include a number of Vermont farmers, caterers and restauranteurs serving up the finest of Vermont products. Visit www.vtartisanfestival.com for schedule and information.

PRESS RELEASE: Gabriel Tempesta at River Arts, Morrisville

2011-11-03T21:49:00.004-04:00

Gabriel Tempesta - "The Dynamic Vermont Landscape and Figurative Works”

November 9 – January 12

Opening Reception – November 17, 5-7pm

River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville, VT

River Arts is pleased to present "The Dynamic Vermont Landscape and Figurative Works"- paintings by Gabriel Tempesta, in the Common Space at the River Arts Center in Morrisville, VT, November 9 – January 12, 2012. There will be an opening reception on November 17, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

   The upcoming exhibit, "The Dynamic Vermont Landscape and Figurative Works", will feature new charcoal landscapes and figurative work by Gabriel Tempesta, a visual artist living in Craftsbury.   Tempesta has developed a process of painting with charcoal-powder & water to "capture" his vision of the Vermont Landscape.
   Tempesta grew up in Wolcott, VT and graduated from Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA with a BFA in Illustration in 2002.  After moving back to Vermont in 2005, he has worked commercially in illustration as well as in the fine arts.
   The Gallery at River Arts is located at the River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street in Morrisville, VT.  Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10-2.  For off hours, please call River Arts: 802-888-1261.  Admission is free. For more information, call or visit their website at www.riverartsvt.org.

PRESS RELEASE: Victoria Blewer at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury

2011-11-02T00:00:00.010-04:00

Featured Artist of the Month: Victoria Blewer will be on view at the Edgewater Gallery through November 30. Victoria Blewer grew up in Manhattan, but bolted for the quiet hills of Vermont. She works entirely with black and white films (sometimes using black and white infrared film), and then she hand-colors the images. Her hand-tinted photographs have been featured in full-length photo essays in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Vermont Life,Vermont Magazine and Yankee Magazine. In addition to winning national and regional awards for photography, Ms. Blewer’s photographs have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines and books. She lives in Lincoln, Vermont, with her husband and daughter.

For more information call 802.458.0098, email info@edgewatergallery-vt.com or visit our website, www.edgewatergallery-vt.com.

PRESS RELEASE: Small Works at Gander Gallery in Manchester Center

2011-10-30T18:16:00.006-04:00

Gander Gallery, 4716B Main Street, Manchester Center, is pleased to announce our first annual Small Works exhibition on view from December 9, 2011 through January 8, 2012. Work of current gallery artists will be represented. An opening reception will be held on Friday, December 9. Please come in and join us for hot chocolate and cookies from 4 pm to 6 pm. All are welcome.

Gander Gallery is a recent addition to the Manchester, Vermont art scene but has much deeper roots that go back to our family art gallery, the Bittersweet Gallery, which was an exciting place to find emerging artists in Montauk Long Island during the 1970s and 80s. At Gander Gallery, we continue our dedication to showcasing the work of established and emerging artists of Vermont, and elsewhere, who have been selected for their creative passion and excellence in their chosen genre.

Our purpose is to sell original fine art to clients who will enjoy their selection for years to come. We believe that when you bring a piece of artwork into your home you also bring home your connection with the artist. During the year you will have opportunities to meet our artists and discuss their work, background and viewpoints.

General Information: Gander Gallery, 4716B Main Street, Manchester Center, Vermont 05255 Tel: 802.768.8396 E-Mail: Gandergallery@gmail.com Web Site: www.gandergallery.net Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 12 pm - 6 pm; Sunday 12PM - 4 PM.

Image: Dale Sherman Blodget, 5 Lemons, Oil on Panel, 6x6

CALL TO ARTISTS: Holidays in America

2011-10-29T17:18:00.004-04:00

Art's Alive will present a 2 month group exhibition from Dec 1, 2011 until Jan 31, 2012 in both galleries at Main Street Landing's Union Station and Wing building of artwork representing Iconic images of the Holidays in America with a focus on the relationship between commercialism and belief.

We need at least 40 pieces! This exhibition will run for 2 First Fridays and have a closing reception tba in late January.

Artists who are interested in contributing to this exhibition should email:artsalivevt@yahoo.com Intake is Sunday, November 27, 2011 at Union Station from 12:00-3pm.

2d or 3d mediums - ready to hang (must have wire and be able to be hung on s-hook and chain); 3d pieces must be delivered with pedestal - 2d pieces no larger than 40" x 60" - 1 piece per artist.

REVIEW: Janet Fredericks “Minute Particulars” at Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery

2011-10-28T18:32:00.007-04:00

by Jocelyn Grayson

While visiting refugee camps abroad with her husband Tom, who founded the organization "Magicians Without Borders”, Janet fills her sketchbooks with elaborate observations of places seen on her travels. When she is at home in her quiet garden and studio, she spends time observing what she calls the most common of plants, becoming increasingly attuned to their amazing intelligence.

For the past 15 years Janet has been drawn to water as a subject and motif for her work. Early on she drew hulls of boats and ships, which especially in her ' burning boats' series became metaphors of universal human experience, which took on an epic quality in association with symbols taken from classical myth and allegory. The more she has become fascinated by what she calls the “language” of water itself, the more intimately engaged she has become, not only with the mapping of those things that can be seen on the surface, but also with those things that “lie beneath”, that cannot be defined in literal ways, but can only be sensed on a deeper level. Water combines aspects of the ephemeral and the eternal which affect us in different ways. In its randomness, Janet has also allowed herself to discover what she calls " a regulatng force" which unites the dissimilar and the disconnected in its ever moving flow.

"For me," she writes,"drawing is about discovery, recording with marks on paper the language of my environment."

Her current exhibition is entitled Minute Particulars after a line from visionary poet and artist William Blake,"He who wishes to see a vision, a perfect whole, must see it in Minute Particulars." And it is, interestingly enough, this rare combination of passion and patience, to see things large that are writ small, that distinguishes Janet's work, and makes it memorable.

These new drawings and paintings explore her increasing absorption in the life of insects and what this life has to tell us. This interest began when she started to go outdoors to draw plants in her own garden, discovering what she describes as "common plants in disturbed soil.” Her attention to the plant itself was arrested by the quantity and variety of insect life that were being drawn to them, pollinating, eating, mating, living... and she became aware of a kind of Indra's Net of interdependency and diversity. "One cannot sit quietly and observe these creatures without pondering some big questions, like what intelligent force drives this miraculous activity, and what role do we as humans play in all of this?"

In a recent waking vision, Janet was visited by her brother who died when he was ten years old. He appeared to her with a swarm of bees hovering over him, one speaking by his ear. It was as if this was a signal to pay attention to what the bees could be saying and Janet has since been alerted to the language of the smallest of creatures and what they might have to say concerning the seismic shifts which are beginning to affect us on this planet. As Joanne Elizabeth Luce said, she is beginning to hear "the voice of the infinite in the small."

These paintings of insects and the world of plants depict the beauty and the fullness of life ascending, spiraling upwards with a rich, ripening fecundity. Her palette has changed from the more subdued colors of some of her earlier works, and they shimmer with rich ochres, brilliant blues, golds and reds, as if dazzled by the beauty of butterflies (the symbol of Psyche or the soul in classical myth). But there is a disturbing radiance. These paintings celebrate the miraculous bio-diversity of the world, while combining the sense of fear and wonder. Words not completely heard carry messages to us on the wind.

Like most great art, Janet's finest works ask questions rather than providing answers...What are the insects prophesying to the wind? Yet the predominant sense of her works still remains one of beauty, intimate and rare, which is captured lingeringly, intricately in the spell of the moment.

Minute Particulars will be at Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery through November 29.

Images:
Luminosus, 2011, 48 x 48"
Of the World in its Becoming, 2011, 30 x 40"
Psyche's Ascent, 2011, oil on canvas, 28 x 39.5"

Press Release: Robyn Pierce and Jennifer Palkowski at Green Bean Visual Arts Gallery, Montpelier

2011-10-28T17:06:00.008-04:00

Robyn Pierce and Jennifer Palkowski have traditionally exhibited together at the Green Bean Visual Arts Gallery. Their work complements one anothers in a simple child-like demeanor.

While Jennifer’s watercolor paintings offer an imaginative storybook theme, Robyn has a mix of media that evokes raw instincts of a child-like happiness.

Robyn and Jennifer’s art creates a balance of playfulness. Come view, “Origins and the Species” at Capitol Grounds starting November 1^st to November 29^th.

Closing reception is held on Tuesday, November 29^th. 4-6PM. Cupcakes provided.

For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Fans-of-Green-Bean-Visual-Arts-Gallery/176207625774864 or email curator@capitiolgrounds.com

PRESS RELEASE: New Work by Carol Boucher, River Arts, Morrisville

2011-10-25T23:40:00.002-04:00

Gallery at River Arts Presents: New Work by Carol Boucher November 10 – December 23, 2011 Opening November 10, 5-7pm Artist Talk 6pm River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville, VT

The Gallery at River Arts is pleased to present New Work by Carol Boucher at the River Arts Center in Morrisville, VT, November 10 – December 23, 2011. There will be an opening reception on November 10th, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m, with an Artist Talk at 6p.m. The exhibit will feature oil pastel paintings created from imagination, memory and personal photographs this year.

Carol Boucher has been a professional artist for over 20 years, selling her oil pastel paintings, oils, acrylics and monotypes at juried art shows across the US. Boucher is represented locally by Burlington City Arts, and in Stonington, CT by Devon House Country Collections Gallery, and has won numerous awards. Please see www.carolboucher.com for gallery and news.

The Gallery at River Arts is located at the River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street in Morrisville, VT. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10-2. For off hours, please call River Arts: 802-888-1261. Admission is free. For more information, call or visit their website at www.riverartsvt.org.

Press Release: Nicholas Heilig at 2 Burlington locations

2011-10-25T23:10:00.002-04:00

Epic. Classic. Grand. Ambitious… This could be a description of Andy Warhol, but it also happens to sum up the theme of Nicholas Heilig's latest series of images. Pop star & stencil inspired, this shows have something for everyone. Subjects span the gambit from G.I. Joe to Marilyn Monroe and back again. Each image consist of three colored layers of card stock which were hand cut and combined to form patterned silhouettes and symbols. The resulting work is minimalistic, meant to mimic, and mainly a movement for the masses. The series can be seen at Nunyuns, (139 North Champlain Street, Burlington VT), and Speaking Volumes, (377 Pine Street, Burlington VT), for the months of October, November & December. Visit http://www.popuppeople.blogspot.com for a sneak peak at some of the images.

Call to Artists: Blinking Light Gallery in Plainfield

2011-10-25T23:02:00.001-04:00

Call to Artists: The Central Vermont Artists' Marketing Cooperative, which operates the Blinking Light Gallery in Plainfield, VT, invites area artists to join the Cooperative and sell their work in the Gallery. The Cooperative is a ten-year old non-profit, community-focused organization whose mission is to help market and promote the work of area artists, authors and musicians in Central Vermont and neighboring areas. Work is offered for sale in the Gallery. Commissions are structured according to what category of work you are selling and the hours worked in the Gallery. Art exhibits, receptions and author readings are held throughout the year. The Gallery is operated entirely by members and volunteers and is open Thursday through Sunday. There is a simple jurying process for applicants. To inquire about

joining, call Helen at 802-454-7119 or e-mail info@blinkinglightgallery.com.

To learn more about the Gallery and view the work of some of our current

members, please go to www.blinkinglightgallery.com.

PRESS RELEASE: Lisa Forster Beach at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe

2011-10-22T06:25:00.004-04:00

Lisa Forster Beach is an award-winning artist living in Stowe, Vermont. She is widely recognized for her drawings, acrylic and watercolor paintings. They represent her responses to her environment experiences, impressions, and perception, both seen and felt. Her work includes representational landscapes and vibrant abstractions.

Her abstract and experimental works grow from her representational studies, and this link to reality anchors strong compositions. Her layered use of paint represents the layers within her own consciousness and those in others.

Beach earned a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Rochester Institute of Technology and a BS in Art Education from Edinboro Universtity of Pennsylvania. She is acclaimed for her teaching, and her classes have produced numerous promising painters. She was selected as a signature member on the National Watercolor Society in 1986.

Lisa Beach will teach a workshop on Technique and Composition on Saturday, November 5th from 9:30-3:30 at Helen Day Art Center. Registration is available online at helenday.com

She will give an artist talk about her work on Friday October 28th at 6:00pm just prior to her opening reception.

William Tortolano of St. Michael’s College will give a talk on Thursday, November 10th at 6:00pm on the subject of the Group of Seven, an early 20th century group of influential painters from Canada. This talk is made possible by the Vermont Humanities Council.

Images:
Cultural History, acrylic on paper
Mountain Streambed, collage

REVIEW: Watercolor Exhibit at Chandler Gallery in Randolph

2011-10-21T18:19:00.006-04:00

WET: Washes, Energy & Technique at Chandler Gallery

by Dian Parker

Chandler Gallery’s current juried exhibition is a showing of watercolor paintings, all by members of the Vermont Watercolor Society. The society was founded by a small group of painters in 1995 and today there are over 200 members. The Vermont Watercolor Society’s mission is to promote the awareness and appreciation of watercolor to the membership of all levels of ability and to the community by providing opportunities and venues for participation, education, fellowship, and exhibitions.

An entire exhibit of watercolors can be problematic, especially with the title of show being WET, which didn’t exactly lure me to see the show. Watercolor demands a sure hand, otherwise the medium can come across as insipid and weak; airy pastels, dripping washes of sky and field, hints of a scene or a figure not well defined. Fortunately Chandler Gallery has chosen some strong watercolors that express bold statements; well done and arresting.

One of my favorites is Moonglow by Cheryl Johnson. The yellow glow of the moon is reflected in a pool of dense cobalt blue. The painting’s rich color rings on the wall. Another wonderful painting is by Jane Harissis, titled Grande Marche. It is a delightful composition of an old French food market with orange and red fruits arranged on a stand, under hanging lights that cast down a golden glow. Windows ensconced in iron grillwork give the painting its expanse. The colors are exciting.

One of the most detailed paintings is by Harold Aksdal. In Willow in the Harbor Aksdal uses pen and ink with subtle washes of color to create intricate details. The combination works well; the grand, fallen willow lies in the water, still alive, still vibrant. Wise One, by Jeanne Maquire Thieme, is of an old cherry or apple tree with its delicate pink blossoms shimmering, drawing the eye across the painting.

Painted Bush by Rebecca Gottesman is a riot of red, blue and yellow density, the light shining through a labyrinth of leaves. Two snow scenes are lovely: Maurie Harrington’s Glades, with skiers swinging out of the forest, the trees laden with wet snow, and Gene Parent’s Snow Season with a lone figure in a pink wash of sunset.

One of the few abstracts in the show is Rocky Shore by Marni McKintrick. She uses blocks of color stroked with feathered edges that looks almost Japanese. Inn at Shelburne Farms by Claudia Carl with its ochre buildings and turquoise roofs is striking. The shadows of the tree branches across the buildings is a lovely touch.

The show runs until November 12.

Images: Moonglow, Cheryl Johnson, watercolor
Grande Marche, Jane Harissis, watercolor, 14 x 10

This review was first published in the Herald, Randolph on October 20, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Members' Juried Theme Exhibition, Trees, at Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville

2011-10-21T17:40:00.002-04:00

TREES is the subject of Bryan Memorial Gallery's 2011 biennial theme exhibition. The exhibit opens to the public on Friday, November 4. The Reception for the artists is Sunday, November 6, from 3 - 5, preceded by the Artists Roundtable at 2 PM. Work by Jeanette Fournier will be featured in the Middle Room. The exhibits continue through Sunday, December 23. Gallery hours are 11 - 4, Thursday - Sunday and by appointment. The gallery will be closed on Thanksgiving.

The Family Ties Exhibit, also at the gallery, continues through Sunday, October 30, 2011.

Image:
Philip Letiecq: White Tail, oil

PRESS RELEASE: Sally Linder at The Gallery at Main Street Landing in Burlington

2011-10-21T17:32:00.006-04:00

Approaching a Threshold: A New Exhibition of Paintings by Sally Linder
The Gallery at Main Street Landing
60 Lake Street, Burlington, Vermont

Exhibition November 4 – 12, 2011
Artist Reception Friday, November 4, 5 – 7PM

“The polar bear may be just the canary in the coal mine… If we can save the polar bears, we will ultimately save ourselves.” Theodore Roosevelt IV

Roosevelt’s statement succinctly reveals with emotional accuracy global warming’s effect on our planet and the entire Earth family. Sally Linder’s most recent painting series from the last two years explores climate change and its effects on the Arctic landscape, specifically the polar bear. Blending representation and abstraction the paintings are both evocative and beautiful. Concern for and love of Earth along with command of the craft and process of painting is readily apparent in the deeply worked surfaces. She turns to oil based products for the painting surface (Mylar) and the mediums (tar and wax along with oil paint and oil stick). Through intensive research into the Arctic, polar bears, and global warming the paintings respond to issues such as oil exploration, extraction and transport, coal mining, species adaptation and cultural relocation. At the forefront is the magnificent polar bear in full regal attire and presence.

Wanting the paintings to deepen reflection, create a larger space around the climate crisis and to hopefully promote involvement, the Burlington exhibition will be multi-disciplinary with related events at the gallery throughout the week. At the opening reception on November 4, Gus Speth, cofounder of NRDC and a professor at Vermont Law School will give remarks. At 7 PM, award winning filmmaker David Wright will present his National Geographic film Realm of the Great White Bear and his new trailer An Uncertain Future from his recent filming on Cooper’s Island, Alaska.

On November 11, 7-9 pm in the gallery, Amy Seidl, author of Finding Higher Ground, and Joe Roman, author of Listed: Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act, will give readings and hold a conversation with the audience about species extinction, climate change and navigating an uncertain future. For the full list of events during the exhibition week and to see the paintings go to www.sallylinder.com

Linder is collaborating with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Immediately following this exhibition selected paintings will go to NRDC’s headquarters in New York City for subsequent exhibitions. Sally exhibits and has won numerous awards nationally and internationally. Her work is collected in the United States and abroad. She lives and paints in Burlington, Vermont. For more information, contact Sally Linder , 802-734-7344, sallylinder@gmail.com, www.sallylinder.com

Images: Gossamer, Taking Control and Custody, Sentient Being

CURATOR'S ESSAY: Creating the Inaugural Exhibit at the Gallery at Phoenix Books in Essex Junction

2011-10-21T17:06:00.007-04:00

We welcome essays by exhibit curators, describing how they came to choose artists and work for a particular exhibit, placing the work in context, and saying what they hope audiences will experience and enjoy. – Ed.

Curator's Essay:
Creating Our Inaugural Exhibit at the Gallery at Phoenix Books

by Kristin Eaton

When Mike DeSanto, the owner here at Phoenix Books and Cafe, announced that we were officially launching The Gallery at Phoenix Books, I was thrilled. What could be better than spending my working hours surrounded by books and fine art? We all chimed in on which artists we’d love to see on the walls for our Grand Opening, with Mike making the final calls. We wanted our inaugural exhibit to showcase the quality and range of artistry in our community, and ended up with an exhibit featuring Cubism and photography, graphic art and Impressionism, pen-and-ink on paper and oil on canvas.

Rick Evan's Page 100 Comics are ideal for a gallery-cum-bookstore. Rick takes commissions for these black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings based on page 100 of (almost) any book. A few samples hang on our wall, along with some of his other work. I'm a big fan of their clean lines and bold panels, especially in Page 100: Sabriel. Rick has a brilliant knack for expressions: Sabriel's as she contemplates climbing a seemingly-endless stairway, a dragon's combination of serenity and ferocity in Page 100: Dealing with Dragons, the grandson’s full-body grin of victory in Page 100: Northern Borders. These are beautiful and evocative pieces in themselves, but it’s intriguing, too, to see how Rick adapts the written material to a visual medium: which actions and bits of dialogue he keeps, which images predominate.

Jonathan E. Russell's pieces range from a Cubist landscape (Mother Nature's Wild West) to an extreme close-up of a rose (Pink Rose), to his almost Futurist Elements series. Bold color choices and dynamic shapes are present throughout; those shapes invite your eye to roam throughout the piece and appreciate the painstakingly-executed color gradations.

Jonathan - in his own words - "uses abstraction and focus to help people really see the natural world:" "Mother Nature's Wild West" depicts a sunset behind rolling hills, but also a reclining woman. Pink Rose focuses so intently on the spiral formed by the petals that I'm drawn in by this innocuous but alluring painting. Fire, Water, Ice, and Light (members of Jonathan's Element series) use simple color schemes to emphasize repeated curves or angles that evoke the element in question. Fire and Water would work beautifully as a pair, as would Ice and Light.

Karen Dawson's landscape paintings share Russell's bold palate, but her works are all swirling lines that almost look as though you could dip your hands into them and come up with your fingers streaming paint. Tall Grass Orange Sky II is a perfect example of this, particularly the namesake tall grass in the foreground and the green-blue-purple trees in the midground. Her color choices are vibrant and - delightfully - a tad surreal, as in Wells Beach with Surfers, where the much of the sand is bright yellow and pink. My particular favorite is RT 2, Fishing Access Area, in which a gnarly tree dominates the foreground, its red and orange branches shooting up like flames.

To look at Joshua Mower's photography, you wouldn't know he's a student at Essex Middle School. His work in this exhibit includes both landscapes and closeups - of , say, a monarch butterfly or a Polyphemus caterpillar. The latter, bright green against the mottled browns of a stone and what looks to be a forest floor, is particularly charming. You almost expect the little guy to to light up a hookah! Blue Dragon depicts a dragonfly on silver fabric. The dragonfly’s body cuts across the frame on a diagonal, head down, the texture of the wings playing against the texture of the material. Joshua exhibits a true natural talent and a keen eye for capturing the moment.

Daphne Tanis paints with a loose brush and a pallet that includes a lot of blues and purples. She depicts peaceful, almost contemplative, country and waterside themes. The latter are my favorite, especially when water dominates the foreground. In Morning at Perkins Cove, for example, those trademark loose brush strokes mimic the motion the water's surface beautifully. Her other landscapes are equally charming: Mount Mansfield from Irish Settlement captures both the clean lines of the snow-capped mountain and the soft green landscape below. These scenes are lovely reminders of New England’s capacity for timeless moments.

This exhibit opened on Foliage Open Studio Weekend, and will be up through the holidays. We also have up an exhibit featuring the imaginative work of Kristin Richland and Karen Witt, as well as a rotating exhibit by members of the Essex Art League. With this wide variety of subjects and styles (not to mention prices, with many original pieces between $50-$150), we hope our inaugural exhibit will serve a triple purpose: to give Phoenix’s wonderful patrons a taste of original local art, to welcome the area’s art fans into Phoenix, and to expand the reach of the artists themselves into a new community. Selfishly, meanwhile, we’re thrilled about the way this artwork enhances and energizes the physical space here at Phoenix. As Mike has said, “It is quite transforming.”

Images: Page 100 Sabriel by Rick Evans, Pink Rose by Jonathan Russell, RT 2, Fishing Access Area by Karen Dawson, Polyphemus by Joshua Mower

PRESS RELEASE: Free Halloween Party at the Bennington Museum

2011-10-21T16:49:00.003-04:00

Come if you dare! Come to the Bennington Museum for a frighteningly good time at the Halloween Party on Sunday, October 30 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. when admission is free! The day offers events throughout the museum that provide excitement for children and adults of all ages. Come in costume and join the fun with spooky crafts, ghoulish games, scavenger hunts, and see if you are brave enough to enter the giant spider web. There will be cemetery tours, guessing contests, gallery hunts and goodies to eat. At 3:30 p.m. join the costume parade through the museum. This event is free to all, so bring friends and enjoy a day at the museum!

The Bennington Museum is located at 75 Main St. (Route 9) and is open daily in September and October from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museum is just a short ride from Manchester, Williamstown and eastern New York. For more information, visit the website at www.benningtonmuseum.org or call 802-447-1571.