PRESS RELEASE: Emily Johansen at Capitol Grounds in Montpelier

Showing the Month of May:
Here and There
Watercolors by Marshfield Artist Emily Johansen

Throughout the month of May, Capitol Grounds in Montpelier will feature an exhibit of Emily Johansen's water color paintings. Whether it's tin sap buckets snugged to a roadside stand of maple trees, or the view from within the graceful embrace of a seaside cottage porch, Emily Johansen's watercolor scenes of Vermont and Maine take idyllic elements to a place of her own making. It's as if the components of the scene were first unbundled and then put back together with a bit more oxygen than nature gave them. The sense of air as a conveyor of mood, place and seasonal change, is as pleasing as the solid forms in her paintings. Go. Breathe. Enjoy.

After a long career in the business world, Emily is relishing the time she devotes to her art. She began painting in watercolor in 2001, starting with classes at Studio Place Arts in Barre, Vermont. For nine years Emily has attended classes, residencies and workshops in Vermont, Maine, and in Italy. In August, 2009, Emily was "artist of the month" at the Brooksville Library, where she showed a series of her Maine inspired watercolors. She is a contributing member of Central Vermont Artists' Marketing Cooperative and a member of the Art Resource Association. You can find her work in the Blinking Light Gallery in Plainfield, Vermont and The Gallery at Caterpillar Hill in Sedgewick, Maine. She has exhibited at Studio Place Arts Gallery in Barre, the Barre Opera House and at the T.W. Wood Gallery at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

DEDICATION: Montpelier Alive Donates SculptCycle To The City of Montpelier

Dedication To Be Held April 22

Montpelier Alive is proud to announce that it has purchased and donated a sculpture made by Sofia Shatkivska to the City of Montpelier. Shatkivska created the sculpture, titled Communication, as part of Montpelier SculptCycle 2009, a summer-long city-wide public art event in which twenty SculptCycles, sculptures made with bicycle parts, were on display throughout the downtown. Shatkiska’s sculpture was on display in front of The Inn at Montpelier on Main Street before being purchased and moved by Montpelier Alive and friends of the City. It is permanently installed at Washington County Court House lawn at the corner of State and Elm.

Made with two large, rough cut slabs of granite, bicycle parts, and found metal pieces, Shatkivska has etched intricate drawings on the front and created a piece that evokes the sense of a conversation between old and new, both in the aesthetic and human sense.

Sofia Shatkivska is a native of Ukraine, who now resides in Washington, VT. Sofia's art has focussed on graphics, painting, and texile design and since 1993, she has worked as an artist in Barre's granite industry. Her art has been exhibited in Vermont, Ukraine, Canada, New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.

To celebrate the inclusion of this wonderful work of art into Montpelier’s community, Montpelier Alive will host an unveiling ceremony at the Court House during the Montpelier Art Walk on Friday, April 22, 2010 at 5:30 featuring both the artist and Mayor Mary Hooper. SculptCycle was a public art project of Montpelier Alive. For more information: www.sculptcycle.org.

PRESS RELEASE: Human = Landscape at the Chaffee Art Center in Rutland

The Chaffee Art Center is proud to be the host of an exhibit created and exhibited by Burlington City Arts in 2009, Human = Landscape: Aesthetics of a Carbon Constrained Future. This exhibition begins with an Earth Day reception featuring music by Mihali Savoulidis, from 5-8pm on Friday, April 22 at the Chaffee Art Center, and runs through June 18th. The first 50 guests to arrive at the reception will receive a special Earth Day inspired gift.

The selection of Human = Landscape that will be exhibited at the Chaffee Art Center will include work by 10 of the original 23 artists. Within the gallery, visitors will experience the beauty and spectacle of energy through kinetic art and sustainable energy technologies. Artwork includes Vermont artist and UVM professor Nancy Dwyer and Caroline Byrne’s Future Furniture made from Styrofoam packing materials, Burlington artist R. Elliot Katz's Valvoline Portraits, oil industry portraits in cast plaster, and New Mexico based media artist Andrea Polli's Queensbridge Wind Project, a proposal to re-ignite the Queensboro Bridge.

Human = Landscape is made possible through the support of Burlington City Arts and is sponsored by Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), Casella Waste Systems, Inc, and Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS). For more information about gallery exhibitions, special events, classes and workshops, please call 802-775-0356 or visit www.chaffeeartcenter.org.

Image: Ted Montgomery, Hale Hibiscus Project

CALL TO ARTISTS: City Hall Plaza Banners in Montpelier

Montpelier Alive seeks proposals for a set of banners or banner-like works of art to be hung on the light poles in front of Montpelier City Hall from June 1 through October 15, 2011. City Hall Plaza is a highly visible location in the heart of Vermont’s bustling capital city that has displayed a variety of solid color and photographic banners over the past eight years. The successful new design will be a creative response to the plaza, the city and its surroundings. Designs will be judged on their creativity, visual impact from the street, and durability.

The plaza has six light posts, each with two sets of horizontal banner arms. The twelve pairs of arms are 43.5” apart (from the top of each arm to the bottom of each arm) and are each 18” wide. The new work of art should fill the available space on all six light poles (individual arms may be removed) and must be able to withstand summer weather conditions for five months. It may be mechanically reproduced or hand-crafted. The design must not include any words or graphic references that can be construed as advertising and must be appropriate for a public place. Montpelier Alive can provide information on dimensions of past banners and on past mechanical reproduction methods upon request.

One winning artist will receive $800 fee for materials and honoraria, and have one month to complete and install the new work.Completed project will be on display from June through October 2011

DEADLINE: 12 noon, Friday, April 29, 2011.

GUIDELINES: Proposals should include written description, visual design, brief production timeline, and artist resume, along with a $10 entry fee. Mail or deliver to:

Montpelier Alive
39 Main Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
Please make checks payable to “Montpelier Alive”

Submissions may be sent by email as long as the entry fee is also mailed and received by deadline. Send to: director@montpelieralive.org.

Winner will be notified by 5:00 pm May 9, 2011. Installation (with assistance from the Montpelier Alive Design Committee) shall occur by 5:00 pm on Friday, June 9, 2011 (flexible, suggest alternate date in submission). Winner will be announced on or before June 9, 2011.

All entries become the property of Montpelier Alive, and may be displayed publicly at the organization’s discretion. The winning artwork becomes the property of Montpelier Alive and may be reproduced for non-profit, publicity purposes including on posters, on web sites, and in newsletters. The artwork may be used in following years at the discretion of Montpelier Alive.

For more information or questions: Phayvanh Luekhamhan, Montpelier Alive Executive Director, at director@MontpelierAlive.org or 802-223-9604.

PRESS RELEASE: Student Artwork at Colburn Gallery, UVM, Burlington

Colburn Exhibit: Schooled: Work from the Public School Classrooms of UVM Art Education Student Teachers
Dates of Exhibit: April 11-15

Opening/Reception Date: Monday April 11 4-6pm Colburn Gallery Williams Hall

Participating student teachers: Samantha Baigelman, Kristin Bell, Catherine Chadwick, Allison Geisinger, Kelly Nyhagen, Elisa VanBuskirk, Elizabeth Wendler

Teaching art to children from Kindergarten through 12th grade is complex and demanding. A teacher of art in the schools must have many abilities that are attained through study and experience. The seven student teachers represented have studied studio art, art history, educational psychology, current art education theory and practice, and have spent many hours in school classrooms observing and teaching.

The artwork in this exhibit was done by Kindergarten through 12th grade students who come from Burlington, South Burlington, Essex, Essex Junction, and Shelburne public schools. In these lessons, the student teachers encourage personal expression, problem solving, critical thinking, and artistic growth.

PRESS RELEASE: Photoslam at Photostop in White River Junction

The second Upper Valley PhotoSlam 2011 exhibit is on display beginning April 1-22 at the PHOTOSTOP Gallery. An opening reception, open to the general public, was held on April 2 from 5-8 pm.

Gallery Director Lia Rothstein put out a call for photographers of all ages and levels of
experience to submit their photos for this second annual photo event. Over 100 photographers of all ages, amateur to pro and everything in-between, shared their photos for inclusion in the PhotoSlam.

The Gallery had pledged to print at least one image from each photographer and, as a result, there are over 175 photographs with diverse imagery on display. Color, black and white, and digitally manipulated images are all shown.

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 are Weds. through Saturday from 12-6 pm during exhibitions. Other hours are available by appointment. For additional information, call 802.698.0320. PHOTOSTOP’s website is www.photostopvt.com.

Image: Judith Hertog, Rooster in Window

Call to Artists: River Arts 3rd Annual Open Studio Weekend, Morrisville

Contact: Dominique Gustin

(802) 888-1261
dominique@riverartsvt.org

Call to Artists - River Arts 3rd Annual Open Studio Weekend

May 28-29th, 2011

River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville, VT

River Arts is putting out a call to artists for its' 3rd annual juried Open Studio Weekend event May 28 - 29th, 2011, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Lamoille Valley visual, craft, and design artists in all media are invited to exhibit and sell their work, with the goal of bringing an anticipated 16 artists under one roof! Open Studio Weekend is a statewide celebration of the visual arts and the creative process in which Vermont artists and craftspeople invite the public to visit them in their studios during Memorial Day Weekend, May 29 - 30. More than 236 sites will be open during this event, with more than 300 artists and artisans participating. The River Arts space provides an opportunity for artists without a suitable studio to participate in this statewide event.

Interested artists should mail at least 5 samples of their work to: info@riverartsvt.org and/or send a link to their website. Spaces are limited, exhibitor fee of $45. All submissions must be received by April 25, 2011. Name, address, media and a short bio for jury purposes should be included. Call River Arts at 888-1261 for more details about participating in the River Arts hosted site.

River Arts is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching our community life through the arts by continuing to provide high-quality arts classes and creative events programming to the residents of the Lamoille Valley and beyond.

Press Release: "Curves in Motion" Fiber Art by Judy B. Dales Gallery at River Arts, Morrisville

Gallery at River Arts Presents:

"Curves in Motion"

Fiber Art by Judy B. Dales

April 28 – June 10, 2011

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 28th, 5-7 p.m.

River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street, Morrisville, VT

For most people, the word “quilt” evokes images of repetitive geometric patterns and memories of warm bedcovers that grandma stitched. Although Judy Dales often uses the same word to describe her work, the wallhangings she creates are full of undulating curves, subtle shifts of color and multiple layers of texture and meaning. She will be exhibiting many of her fiber pieces at an exhibit titled "Curves In Motion" at the River Arts Center in Morrisville, VT, April 28-June 10, 2011. There will be an opening reception on April 28 from 5 – 7 pm and the artist will give a slide presentation and gallery talk on May 14 from 1 – 3.

Ms. Dales’ work is emblematic of the fiber revolution that has overtaken the humble quilt. Her early work consisted of intricate geometric patterns, but the incorporation of curves into her designs transformed the work into something more personal and unique. The designs are full of sensuously curved shapes that undulate across the surface, vibrating with energy and a liberating sense of movement. The surfaces glow with intense color, featuring combinations of commercial and hand-dyed fabrics that create an elaborate tapestry of color. Ms. Dales’ career spans 40 years during which her work has won many awards, the most prestigious of which is having a piece designated as one of The 100 Best Quilts of the Twentieth Century. She has work in The First Permanent White House Craft Collection, The Newark Museum in New Jersey, The permanent collection of The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY and other prestigious private, corporate and museum collections, both here and abroad. She has taught color and design courses extensively throughout the world, been featured on the Lynette Jennings Design and Simply Quilts television shows, curated Fine Focus, a 2002-2008 juried and invitational traveling exhibit, and is the author of Curves In Motion, the definitive text for designing and sewing curves. She has served as juror and judge for prestigious national and international shows and runs her own annual seminar for serious students of textile design.

The Gallery at River Arts is located at the River Arts Center, 74 Pleasant Street in Morrisville, VT. For regular gallery 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: W. David Powell at VCAM/RETN, burlington

VCAM/RETN

208 Flynn Ave, Suite 2G

Burlington, VT 05401

Sunday-Friday 10am - 10pm, Sat 10am - 5pm

Everything Must Go 2.0

March 4th - May 31st

'Everything Must Go 2.0' is a retrospective of work by W. David Powell, the artist responsible for the iconic logo "Eat a Peach" (The Allman Brothers Band). The exhibit includes paintings, drawings, prints, collages, computer generated work and mixed media pieces, spanning the 40+ year career of this artist who is now an Associate Professor at SUNY Plattsburgh. This show presents the rare opportunity to see first hand, a wide sampling of David's work and to understand the many influences and sensibilities by which it was inspired. Nevertheless, the work always was and remains original and fresh.

artist statement: Everything Must Go 2.0

W. David Powell

As an artist showing work from many different phases of a varied career, I am challenged to write coherently about a body of work that has assumed many various forms, from traditional painting and collage, to digital works, as well as works that are hybrids of both old and new methods of working. I can talk about influences, but they are so diverse and varied that they add no clarity to the visual diversity that the work presents to the viewer. A laundry list of artists I admire must include Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol. Talking about Ed “Big Daddy” Roth in the same sentence with Max Ernst accurately reflects two strong influences on my work, but what are the connections between the two? That one influenced me in Junior High and the other much later, is perhaps of no consequence, though the cut-and-paste sensibilities of the latter would be more easily traced through the work. What is it then that I have found to admire in these artists that also runs through my work in all its variety? I think that with Roth it was the sheer freedom of expression and his ability to let his imagination run free, whether he was working in airbrush on sweatshirts or building outrageous free-form hot-rods. With Ernst it is his free association and the notion of putting images together from disparate sources to create new meanings that I find most intriguing. These are the qualities of these artists I admire and hope can be seen throughout my work. The pop sensibilities of Ruscha and Warhol, in their distinctively West and East coast variations, are also important in informing my own sensibility about not making distinctions about high art and low art, but drawing from all sources with a disregard for labels. Both Ernst and Warhol gave permission to appropriate images for my own ends without guilt. This becomes increasingly important in more recent work, both in digital montage and old-school, cut-and-paste collage.

I continue to make art that investigates a place where I cannot go through a formal or rational approach to working. I can only go there through a curious combination of image research, assembly and arrangement that owes more to my imagination and ability to free associate on a page or panel, than to any historical movement or personality. I am compelled to continue this quest and follow it where it leads, looking neither forward nor backward, but living in the moment of making.

Press Release: Carolyn Letvin at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury

On display April 1 - 30, 2011

Edgewater Gallery

One Mill Street, Middlebury, VT

Carolyn Letvin first began painting the ancient, biblical breed of Jacob's Sheep while attending a painting retreat to focus on cows. She found the sheep's intricacies, textures and negative spaces fast became endlessly inspiring, eventually becoming her primary subject matter. Trained in Flemish Old Master techniques, studying the sheep allows her to explore application, composition and surface texture in an entirely captivating, satisfying manner.

"The act of painting is a series of constant surprises – an experience that is always exhilarating and, at times, even magical. Bringing composition, color, surface and light quality together is my continual struggle and challenge. " - Carolyn Letvin.

Carolyn’s Featured Artist exhibition will be on display at Edgewater throughout the month of April. For more information please visit www.edgewatergallery-vt.com or contact us at 802.458.0098.

image: Carolyn Letvin, "Single Sheep #14" 22" x 30" (triptych), oil and metal leaf on wood panel

Press Release: Kate Emlen and Frances Wells at BigTown Gallery Rochester

BigTown Gallery has opened its 2011 exhibition season with a tandem showing of recent work by the accomplished landscape painters, Kate Emlen and Frances Wells. Emlen is a longtime Vermont and Maine Coast resident. For an equal span of years, Wells has lived and worked alongside the Hudson River. Now in their mid-careers, the distinct path each has taken to an unwavering focus on landscape results in work that transparently registers the artist's direct response to what is seen, but speaks, too, of our relationship with the natural world we inhabit, succinctly expressing how life lived in a particular region accumulates by its year-in, year-out, cycles of life, work, and season; it becomes part of us, and we carry it forward.

Press Release: Flying High at Studio Place Arts, Barre

As the long winter relinquishes its harsh grip on New England, Studio Place Arts presents Flying High, a multimedia show guaranteed to provide a spirited launch into spring. Running through April 16, Flying High is an exhibit that explores the dynamics of flight. Comprised of 39 works from 22 Vermont artists, the exhibit features fabric, metal and papier-mâché sculptures that hang from the ceiling, clay sculptures that propel off pedestals and clamber up walls, oil, encaustic and acrylic paintings that showcase varying aspects of flight, and photographs that celebrate an athletic twist on the theme.

Steel sculptures such as Soar by James Teuscher of East Hardwick, and Marshfield sculptor Steven Bronstein’s

copper and steel (with attached springs) Dragonflies and Ladybug each reveal different qualities of airborne movement. John Brickel’s quirky ceramic and found object Bat Bots furtively climb up one wall of the gallery, while Nicholas Hecht’s papier-mâché She Spirit seems to glide gently upwards, dancing on air like wisps of smoke or feathers in the breeze.

Anne Davis’s Flock of Birds, a series of 6 brightly colored mixed media paintings, gaily flitter down the hallway wall, and Montpelier artist Kristen Schuyler’s fanciful purple, orange and gold hued Flying Horse fabric sculpture springs forth at full gallop, held aloft by invisible string.

A series of 6 black ink on white vellum drawings by Plainfield artist Adelaide Tyrol elegantly depict a variety of flying creatures at distinct moments of action. Flight portrays a dark raptor hovering in the air, wings extended, as if contemplating its next move, whereas Avatar features a similar bird with legs down and wings in an upward V-shape, dropping in for a landing from a side angle. In her drawing Emergence, a dragonfly carefully extracts itself from the faded shell of its naiad case. In her darker drawing Echolocation, a delicate gray bat navigates the night sky, using its sharp senses to find its tiny white fluttering prey.

Flying High achieves a sense of lightness, buoyancy, and energy through an interactive display of movement, color and texture that is sure to grant a winter weary audience a welcome breath of fresh air!

Images from top: She Spirit by Nicholas Hecht. Flying High – Sculpture by Rob Millard-Mendez (front, right) and drawings by Adelaide Tyrol on wall.Painting, Sister Immaculata and Einstein ascend to the 4^th dimension at the end of the Newtonian Universe by Robert Towne, flying insects by Steven Bronstein.

REVIEW: Fran Bull at Christine Price Gallery in Castleton

“In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below”
- In Flander’s Fields
- John McCrea

By Liza Myers

Fran Bull’s epic installation In Flanders Fields: a meditation on War is an experience not to be missed. The scale alone is extraordinary, particularly because it is offered to us as a single, monumental artwork rather than a collection of individual pieces. The viewer enters fully in, treading upon the shadows of the floating birds above, walking between silent, haunting figures. The steadfast, blank gaze of soldiers who perished in the tragic battles of WWI interlace across the gallery with the mournful, accusatory stares of the women of Lysistrata, creating a piercing gauntlet of sorrow.

Entering the softly-lit gallery space, the viewer is immersed in an elegant visual and intellectual exploration. Ms. Bull refers to the work as her “silent scream in response to all war,” powerfully addressing the tragedy of man’s inhumanity to man over a two thousand year span.

The exhibition draws a line of human connection from Aristophanes’ Lysistrata to the renowned poem by WWI soldier and Field Surgeon John McCrea from which Ms. Bull takes the title of the show. In Lysistrata, Aristophanes’ comedy from 411 BC, the women of all Greek city-states withhold sex from their soldier spouses until the men sign a treaty of peace. While humorous, the play is about the Peloponnesian War, a horrendous, brutal 27-year battle between Sparta and Athens. In Flanders Fields, McCrea speaks to us from the battlefield, spattered by the tragedy of war, yet hearing bird song, seeing windblown petals.

Immediately upon entering the gallery space we are greeted by four larger-than-life white figures. Two elongated soldiers dangle in mid air. Are they ascending to heaven or falling, blasted out of their foxholes? Beneath them, two stately Greek women gesture awkwardly, bewildered, stunned, beseeching us to behold the tragedy, to stop.

While the work speaks to war, it is not visually gory or brutal. Ms. Bull’s color is stark, dramatic. Bloodless white figures and faces are interspersed with the intense red of gracefully drawn poppies. Black larks are elegantly printed on diaphanous, ghostly gauze. These symbolic colors are a relief. They offer balance and serenity: an austere abstraction which allows us to distance ourselves (slightly) from the horror of war. Here and there, the simple beauty of flowers or birds become a respite. A single, relatively comic, brightly-colored print depicts the faces of women interspersed with skillfully drawn birds.

The scale of Ms. Bull’s work is extraordinary. Twenty or more life-sized busts of the women of Greece mounted on simple, bare-wood pedestals, speak to us of ancient battles from groupings placed around the gallery. These sorrowful figures gaze upon 126 shrouded death masks: the faces of the dead from a more recent, 20th century war field. We observe them as if we are gazing down from above, floating with the flocks of abstracted bird forms that dangle in the air, casting eerie shadows on the walls and floor.

Bull states: “I have created an aesthetic and meditative environment in which viewers are led to contemplate the nature of War as it weaves through human history. My hope is that viewers will be inspired to examine afresh the paradigm of War as a response to conflict.”

Artistically, Ms. Bull fearlessly combines and experiments with media demonstrating an astonishing breadth of ability: innovative sculptural techniques and materials, traditional and experimental printmaking, lithography, painting and more. She generously explains her technical explorations in a didactic display tucked into an alcove.

And she invites us to participate. As the show progresses, more and more splotches of red paper punctuate the figures. Ms. Bull has provided small squares of poppy colored paper, asking viewers to write a comment and place it somewhere in the installation.

In Flanders Fields: a meditation on War, a touring installation by artist Fran Bull, will be on exhibit at the Christine Price Gallery at Castleton State College from February 28th through April 1, 2011.

Photographs by Don Ross

PRESS RELEASE: Arcadia Now at Christine Price Gallery in Castleton

The Christine Price Gallery at Castleton State College explores the idea of "the country"—our actual and ideal relationship to the natural environment, in harmony (or at odds) with society—in Arcadia Now: Contemporary Art in Country, on view from Monday, April 11, to Sunday, May 15.

Combining photography, painting, sculpture and video, Arcadia Now is a collection of works that invokes the idea of the pastoral past and asks the 15 featured artists—each with a unique perspective—to envision what that pastoral idea, or an idyllic place of remove, might look like in the present. The exhibition addresses issues of nature and human consequence on nature, beauty and banality, and the ideal and the real in both abstract and figurative terms.

An opening reception on Wednesday, April 13, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., features a talk with three of the artists on art in relation to the rural environment: sculptor and installation artist Alisa Dworsky of Montpelier; photographer Sally Apfelbaum of Bennington and New York City; and sculptor and performance artist Nathaniel Lieb, of upstate New York and Brooklyn. The reception, free and open to the public, welcomes visitors to contribute to the discussion on how we "see" the country.

In creating the exhibition, Curator and Professor of Art Tom McGlynn says he reflected on his move to Vermont from the New York City metro area in 2007, and the tranquil imagery the state invokes with visitors and residents alike.

"In an almost uniquely rural state like Vermont, there has grown a complex web of interrelationships with the landscape—utilitarian, recreational and contemplative—which are most often utilized by the tourist industry so important to the state," McGlynn says. "There is, however, a deeper ideological relationship to the natural environment in harmony with society, which is a recurring theme in much contemporary art. Many of these artists seem to access a deeper, more complex relationship to the natural world, which might include an ancient longing or a symbolic reality that we may all feel at certain times."

"There is a long history of human society projecting idealistic intentions (with mixed results) upon the country landscape that go back to the ‘earthly paradise’ of the Garden of Eden. Do we see a need to return to this origin or do we need to reshape a newer utopia on the ruins of our previous intentions? ‘Arcadia Now’ leaves this as an open question."

The 15 artists featured in the exhibition are photographer Sally Apfelbaum of Bennington, Vt. and New York City; New Jersey-based painter and printmaker Tim Daly; multi-media artist Alisa Dworsky of Montpelier, Vt.; painter, performance artist and curator Bill Doherty of New York; Japanese sound artist Ken Ikeda of New York City; New York photographer Justine Kurland of New York City; sculptor and performance artist Nathaniel Lieb of upstate New York and Brooklyn; painter Mary McDonnell of upstate New York and Brooklyn; painter Rebecca Purdum of Ripton, Vt.; sculptor, printmaker and installation artist Kiki Smith of New York City; Swedish sculptor Frederik Strid; Canadian photographer and philosopher Scott Walden, of Newfoundland and New York; black-and-white abstract photographer Tenesh Webber of New York City; photographer James Welling of Los Angeles; and mixed-media artist Aaron Williams of Brooklyn. For more information on the artists, visit arcadianow.net/artist-bios.

Images: Justine Kurland, Peach Tree (2002); photograph: c-print; 17 3/4" x 22 ½ Sally Apfelbaum, Green Pathway (1994); photograph: e-print; 30" x 40"

PRESS RELEASE: Grace Weaver at S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington

Thin-Skinned
April 1st - 30th
First Friday Opening, April 1st 5-9pm

Thin-Skinned is a solo exhibition of new paintings, drawings, and objects by Grace Weaver. The work examines the surfaces that separate the body from the external world—a straw, binoculars, a sock. Figures are isolated in tense predicaments—straining to smell, taste, or touch the undefined realm beyond their bodies. The works range from delicate line drawings to larger works, in which Weaver stains paper and stretches thick "skins" of paint, creating images which are at once goofily physical and mysterious.

Image: Binoculars, 24 x 18", Oil and Enamel on Paper, 2011

REVIEW: Lowell Snowdon Klock at the Brandon Artist Guild in Brandon

By Liza Myers

Manipulated Polaroids by Lowell Snowdon Klock

The Brandon Artist Guild is currently featuring an exhibition of Manipulated Polaroid images by photographer Lowell Snowdon Klock. The intimate size of these images compels the viewer to approach closely and examine the world through the photographer’s eye.

The images are diverse. Landscapes, interior scenes, pastoral settings, still lifes and motorized vehicles – trucks, trains, and antique cars are united by dynamic composition and saturated color. Delicate, slightly wavy diagonals inform us about light and shadow, venetian blinds, truck radiators.

In an era dominated by digital photos, Ms. Klock puts her SX-70 Polaroid Camera to good use. Invented in 1972, the camera features a unique, hermetically sealed packet of liquid photo-chemicals. This chemical soup produces a fixed photograph approximately one minute after exposure to light. Klock must work quickly to achieve the desired alteration. Using her fingers, a bone folder or other un-sharp object she presses and prods the emulsion, creating a painterly effect as the emulsion squishes within the packet.

Klock states: “Delineation is diffused and often expresses more of a feeling rather than structured composition. One has no idea where this will go and where to start. This mystery is what makes the process so enjoyable and addicting.”

While the viewer might anticipate a smeared mess, the delicate effects accomplished in this process are quite lovely. Klock’s manipulations are deft and intentional, resulting in a finely detailed, almost watercolor effect, transforming the literal into a magical, new reality.

Artists such as Lucas Samara seized upon this new technology in the mid-70’s, developing methods to alter the emulsion and distort the image, enhancing it in the process. Klock follows in this tradition. It is important to note that without a finely composed photograph as a starting point these manipulated images might be gimmicky. But this is not just about technique. Klock’s skillful photographer’s eye captures dynamic compositions in everyday images: vegetables on the kitchen counter, the brightly lit radiator of an old truck, a beckoning pair of Adirondack chairs. Klock's eye discovers subtle visual relationships in pattern and color. In MG Grill, the almost zebra-like pattern of the metallic radiator grille is punctuated by spherical forms which reveal themselves as multiple reflective headlights. In Coffee Exchange, the ribbon-like ripples in a simple water bottle echo the linear shadows of a venetian blind.

This show is definitely worth a slow perusal. It will be on display at the Brandon Artists Guild at 7 Center Street (Rte 7) in Brandon, VT until April 30.

Hours are 10-5 daily. Phone: 802-247-4956 http://www.brandonartistsguild.org

Images: MG Grille, Coffee Exchange, Under the Umbrella, all Manipulated Polaroids

PRESS RELEASE: Cartoon Show at T. W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center in Montpelier

T. W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center Presents
In the Main Gallery
Drawn From Vermont: The Cartoon Show

Featuring the creative, insightful, thought provoking and humorous work from four of Vermont's best known Masters of the graphic visual arts: Jeff Danziger, Ed Koren, Hal Mayforth and Tim Newcomb.

This unique and exciting new exhibit will be shown from Tuesday, March 29 through Sunday, April 20th. Meet the Artists at our Opening Reception on Thursday, March 31st from 5-7 in the Gallery.

T. W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center is located on the first floor of College Hall -Vermont College of Fine Arts Campus - 36 College Street - Montpelier Vermont
Hours of operation are: Tuesday-Sunday, Noon - 4 pm
College Hall and the Gallery is Handicapped Accessible
For more information Call (802) 828-8743 or visit www.twwoodgallery.org.

Images: Top: Tim Newcomb, Bottom: Hall Mayforth

PRESS RELEASE: Lynne Barton at Studio Place Arts (SPA) in Barre

Closer: Stony Details
An exhibit by Lynne Barton

Lynne Barton of West Rutland is exhibiting a new body of work in the Third Floor Gallery at Studio Place Arts (SPA) that was inspired by a trip to a beach located on Malin Head in the Republic of Ireland where she impulsively filled her pockets with stones that would make the journey back to Vermont to serve as her creative muse. The exhibit showcases 20 works, including charcoal and pastels on paper, mixed media on paper, and monoprints. “Closer: Stony Details” is on view at SPA through April 16, 2011.

She recalls in her artist statement, “I began to think that what was notable about these stones was not how pretty they were, but what their existence in this place might mean. I wanted to know the story of why so many differently colored but similarly shaped and sized ones were here. Where did they come from? How were they formed?

“This work is a result of my initial foray into the study of rocks and attempts to address my interest in penetrating the surface of stony aesthetics. It is also an exploration of texture, form and the random partnerships of earthy materials motivated by this new curiosity. It reveals that despite a deeper scrutiny, I remain spellbound by the mysterious beauty of rocks - from texture, color, and form, to the metaphoric partnerships suggested by placement.”


Images:
Eroded Inclusions; Left and Right, Charcoal & pastel on paper
A viewer gets Closer to the Closer exhibit!

PRESS RELEASE: Mary Zompetti Lowe at 215 Gallery in Burlington

215 College Gallery’s current exhibition, and then..., features work by Mary Zompetti Lowe. The opening reception was Friday March 18, from 5-8pm.

This collection of work is an exploration of living spaces – our homes, outside and in, where inanimate objects become animate and we lose ourselves in their stories...

The exhibit will be on view from March 18 - April 17, 2011 on Fridays 12-8, Saturdays 12-6, Sundays 12-4 or by appointment.

CALL TO ARTISTS: Carving Studio and Sculpture Center Annual Members’ Show in West Rutland

The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center announces their Annual Members' Show, May 21 - June 26, 2011 at the Gallery, 259 Marble Street in West Rutland. All members of CSSC have the opportunity to show their work in this popular exhibition. This is a great opportunity to show work and mingle with other artists after the involuntary solitude of winter.

Space in the exhibit is limited, so members who plan to participate should let the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center know of their intentions as soon as possible. The deadline to receive works is Friday, May 13, 2011. Membership must be current to exhibit, please phone (802) 438-2097 or email info@carvingstudio.org to renew or become a member.

REVIEW: Frances Wells and Kate Emlen at BigTown Gallery in Rochester

This review was first published in the March 24 issue of the Randolph Herald.

Maine Coast to the Hudson River to Rochester, Vermont

by Dian Parker

Landscape painting in oils has a long tradition in America. One of the most famous groups is the Hudson River School, a mid-19th century American art movement of landscape painters whose vision was influenced by romanticism. Their zeitgeist was to emphasize aesthetics, an appreciation of beauty and emotions – a reaction contrary to the celebration of the machine in their day, at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution. These artists lived and worked alongside the grand Hudson, attempting to replicate the beauty and majesty of this river.

Today, we have Frances Wells painting the Hudson River in all its glory, as represented by her work currently showing at the Big Town Gallery. Her palette is more subdued than the old painters, displaying an impressionistic view in muted tones. Painting on panel board, she dispenses with the heavy gold ornate frames of yore and chooses to outline each painting with a delicate gold trim which serves as an understated border for her work. The result is a mysterious blend of realism and impressionism. Moody woodlands, dreamy marshes, or a lush autumn afternoon. Her paintings are peaceful and graceful meditations, slowing the viewer down to appreciate the beauty and grand scope of the river, mountains, a barn, or a pasture at dusk.

One painting, Grove of Trees (pictured), 20" x 36", portrays a field with a line of trees in the distance. The light is tranquil, perhaps a sunset, glowing in the distance. The grass is long and flowing. Perhaps the day is humid, as is so often the case during summer in the Hudson River valley. Hook Mountain, Tappan Zee, 14 3/4" x 23 3/4" has the quality of a dream: the mountain casting a misty reflection in the river, the soft turquoise of the water with the dusky chalk-like look of pastels. Even though her paintings are small, these are big landscapes. Wells said of her work, “Painting navigates me with myself.” It is an inward journey of outer beauty, reflecting her generous and loving view of nature, which takes us inside her view.

The second artist in the current show at Big Town is Kate Emlen, another landscape oil painter, altogether different in feeling, color and tone. Her paintings come out to you, bold and forceful, full of movement. Emlen paints the Maine Coast. Big trees, rivers and glens. She doesn’t try to realistically paint the landscape; instead she manages to get you to live inside it, to feel the light on your skin, the texture of the bark, the sweep of the sea. One painting, Spring Woods II, oil on canvas, 20" x 16", shows a grove of small trees with sunlight angling through the trees. Try looking at the painting from afar, at an angle, and see how expertly she slants the light onto the blue forest floor. Another is Spring Thaw (pictured), 36" x 36", also showing trees in a forest, except you aren’t certain if it is mist hovering around the base of the trees or if it is late winter snow. Emlen’s landscapes evoke the sensation of being right there, on the soggy soil, feeling the cool air and smelling the sap on the rise.

Morning, 42" x 47", is a large landscape that greets you when you first enter the gallery. It is a view from the sea looking at the distinctive rocks of Maine along the shore, the great stones reflecting in the water, a mirage of color. A pine tree towers above and the sky is a delicate blue. Emlen said, “I like painting large. It is a physical activity, like running a mile.” She also likes painting the same subject over and over to “get it in my bones”. Her paintings get into our bones too. They sweep and curl, filled with movement and light.

The current show of these two dynamic painters runs through May 1. Their pairing is wonderful -- Wells’ meditative and subtle; Emlen’s dashing and active. What rich ways to capture the changing seasons in such diverse ways. This show is a perfect springtime excursion.

Images:
Frances Wells, Grove of Trees, 2010, oil on panel, 20" x 36"
Kate Emlen, Spring Thaw, 2006, 36" x 36", oil on canvas

PRESS RELEASE: Betsey Garand at UVM's Colburn Gallery in Burlington

Betsey Garand:
Proof of Existence – Drawings and Prints

Visiting Artist Exhibit at the UVM Colburn Gallery

March 28th – April 8th

Gallery Talk and Reception at 5:30 on April 7th

Betsey Garand grew up in New Hampshire on a small, self-sufficient family farm. She received her BFA in Printmaking from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in Printmaking from Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Betsey is presently Resident Artist at Amherst College in the Department of Art and the History of Art, where she is head of printmaking.

Artist Statement:
The recent prints and drawings represent themes and interests of continuum, balance, and growth, elements existent in physical and psychological life. Seemingly familiar objects are layered beneath and above biomorphic and geometric shapes. Garand has numerous influences, one of which is a childhood spent in the woodlands and fields of New Hampshire:

The seed to my work was planted in Hancock, New Hampshire. Growing up surrounded by nature, I made countless hours of observances of natural forms and spectacles from static frogs’ eggs suspended in gelled encasements, plump spider bellies in dew laden webs, a maple leaf, a fern, the pattern of birch bark. This infinite variety of form, color and change inherent in nature has continued to significantly impact my prints and drawings.

In my work, I observe and invent. A source of inspiration is evident in the symbology of shapes utilized in pictographs and petroglyphs by indigenous peoples from the Anza-Borrego Desert to the Chauvet Cave. This combination of observed and invented shapes to create imagery and a form of written, visual language is paradoxically narrative and symbolic as well as representational and abstract. It interests me that two horned goats are adjacent to a quadranted circle or the head of a feline is adjacent to a dot pattern. The significance of this imagery is ever present and powerful, an entwinement of nature and geometry.

We’re only ever seeing part of something larger, a glimpse, a section, a fragment of a whole. An ever-expanding vision quest of recognition, for the past and the future. My imagery moves between the imagined and seen, the miniscule and vast, the microcosm and macrocosm. All are connected, with the beginning and end unknown. The simplicity of complexity and complexity of simplicity.

Image: Hark II, 2010, Two zinc plates: lift-ground aquatint monoprint and monotype

PRESS RELEASE: Sterling College Artists at Art House Gallery in Craftsbury

Sterling College Artists
Friday, April 1
6:30-7:30

Artists Katie Connor and Ira Powsner and adjunct faculty in Northern Studies at Sterling College Dick Smyth open their mixed media show with a First Friday Art Talk. We will see slides of work not hanging in the show, and hear about the processes and influences of this eclectic group of artists. The show will include digital photography, wood etchings, and graphite sketches.

The exhibit will be up through April.

The Art House Gallery, Studio & School is at1146 North Craftsbury Road, Craftsbury Common

Image: Photograph by Katie Connor

PRESS RELEASE: Liza Myers at Green Mountain College in Poultney

Promises Kept
An exhibition of Current Paintings, Sculpture, and Clay Drawings
by Liza Myers

March 18 - April 15, 2011
Opening March 25, 5-7 pm
Feick Art Center
Green Mountain College
Poultney, Vermont

Promises Kept, a multimedia exhibition by Brandon artist Liza Myers, is now on display at Green Mountain College's Feick Fine Arts Center. A reception for the artist will be held at the Feick on Friday, March 25 from 5-7 p.m.

Myers refers to herself as a citizen of the western hemisphere, having lived, studied and traveled on both continents and beyond. "Visionary realism" is the term she uses to describe her paintings, using information from acute examination of the natural world to create a personal reality. Light, color and shadow inform us of a complex world of mystery and beauty. Promises Kept features lushly colorful acrylic paintings and ceramic sculpture.

Myers received her BFA from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., and her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Md. She is an adjunct professor of art at Castleton State College and has shown her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the country and internationally.

Feick hours are 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and Tuesday and Thursday from 12-6 p.m. The Feick is open to the public and there is no admission charge. "Promises Kept" will be on display from March 18-April 15.

Originally a carriage shed barn, the Feick Fine Arts Center has been renovated into a climate and light-controlled exhibit space, which serves as the main campus gallery. The gallery displays 8-10 exhibits per year, primarily drawing from the best regional artists in the Vermont and New England area. The gallery strives for diversity and has featured exhibits of painting, sculpture, environmental found art, photography, and mixed media including international exhibits from Wales and Korea.

The Feick continually seeks potential exhibits and welcomes artist inquiries.

Image: Jimson Weed with Towhee Nest. 40" x 56", acrylic on canvas

PRESS RELEASE: Robin LaHue at Gifford Medical Center art gallery in Randolph

Paintings by Robin LaHue of Northfield Falls will hang in the Gifford Medical Center art gallery from March 30 to May 25.

An accomplished artist, LaHue's work has been featured on publication covers and in solo and juried exhibits around Vermont.

An artist since her early years, LaHue has taken art classes at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, N.Y., Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn., the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon, Conn., and Studio Place Arts in Barre, where she is a member. She is also a member of The South End Arts and Business Association of Burlington and is on the board of the Art Resource Association in Montpelier.

LaHue primarily works in water-soluble oils of late. "I have found them to be a remarkably forgiving medium," she says. "I paint on layers, scrub and wash them off and play with the results. Sometimes I put a whole painted canvas in the sink or bathtub, or even outside in a summer rainstorm, and let the water drops work their magic."

Watercolors, collages and mixed media will also be part of her Gifford show. LaHue calls her paintings "a spiritual path" and "a journey of discovery."

"Trees play a major role," she notes. "I admire the way their branches reach out to heaven while their roots are firmly entwined into the earth. They sway and bend with the wind, going along with the flow of life."

Gifford Medical Center is located at 44 S. Main St. (Route 12 south of the village) in Randolph. The gallery is just inside the main entrance to the left. The show is free and open to the public. Call Gifford Volunteer Coordinator Julie Fischer at (802) 728-2324 to learn more.

LaHue's work is also on display at O'Maddi's Café and Deli in Northfield this May.

Image: October Crossing, water soluble oils, 2009