PRESS RELEASE: Ray Brown at the Vermont Supreme Court, Montpelier

Contact: Tracy Martin, Assistant State Curator

802-828-0749, tracy.martin@state.vt.us

A show of new works by long-time Montpelier business owner and artist Ray Brown is on display at the Vermont Supreme Court through August 30. An opening reception is scheduled for Thursday, July 8, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Brown describes the paintings in the Supreme Court show as his “reaction to places in the real world.” Most were created in response to a recent trip to Tuscany where he and his wife trekked to a different hill town every day. Bold abstracted forms in cadmium red, cadmium yellow, pthalo blue and other evocative colors vibrate off the canvases and the viewer is, most certainly, transported. “I’m inspired by the landscape,” notes the artist, “but I consider myself an abstractionist.”

Brown received his training in art at the Massachusetts College of Art, the Haystack Mountain School, Boston University, MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and the Cranbrook Institute. His work is well-known and well-loved in Central Vermont where it has been shown at venues including, the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, the Dibden Gallery in Johnson, Goddard College in Plainfield, and the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier. Beyond Vermont, Brown has shown work at the National Gallery, the Addison Gallery of American Art, Boston Visual Artists Union and the San Antonio Muse

um and a many other art spaces.

While some may see Brown’s new paintings as a stylistic turn, there remains a strong relationship to his past work. Having retired from The Drawing Board, the Montpelier art supply store that Brown owns with his wife Jody Wilson Brown, he is now painting full-time. He explains, “I needed to change the way I painted for a way that enabled me to continue enjoying the process.” Based on this new body of work, it is clear that he has succeeded.

The Vermont Supreme Court building at 111 State Street in Montpelier is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The building will be closed July 23 and August 27.

image: San Gimignano #1, oil on canvas, 20” x 30”

REVIEW: Harry A. Rich at Skinny Pancake in Montpelier

By Theodore A. Hoppe

Harry A. Rich is not a well-known name among Central Vermont art lovers, but that situation is being addressed by the art-savvy general manager of the Skinny Pancake, Jeremy Silansky. Wander into the restaurant located at City Center in downtown Montpelier and you will find an astonishing collection of modernist abstract paintings to go along with your coffee and crepes.

Rich moved to Sandgate, Vermont a decade ago, where he now paints full-time. His work is better known in Southern Vermont. In fact, except for an exhibition at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes about a year ago, Rich had never exhibited his paintings in Northern Vermont. He was encouraged to bring his art to Montpelier by Silansky, who uses the website "Made in Vermont" to locate art for display in the eatery. "I liked his work a lot and decided to contact him." said Silansky, when ask how he lured the accomplished artist to the capital.

Rich is a graduate of The Pratt Institute (BFA), and Wesleyan University (MA) where instructors included the renowned abstract expressionist Adolph Gottlieb. He was also a teacher and lecturer at various colleges and institutions, and a design director and consultant. His resume includes being a resident artist at The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. "My paintings are children of the New York School. They strive to build on the their heritage while remaining within the tradition of Modernism," says Rich. A painter for fifty years, he now follows the observation of the painter Chuck Close, who quipped, “Amateur painters wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work."

The paintings on display at the small Montpelier restaurant are fine "work" indeed. They are colorfully pleasing and filled with beautiful complexity. The constructed spaces and shapes can invoke architecture, landscape and interior design.

Taconic # 1 is bright and airy, full of details. The various square shapes of greens and light blue define a foreground and background. Pale washes tone down the strong swatch of orange and yellow the way sheer curtains can filter the sunlight. Multi-colored brush strokes argue with themselves in the corners, like friends at a cocktail party. One is easily absorbed into the layers of color-on-color, white-on-white, and textures that emerge from the canvas.

Monument to Mountain Song , is a wavy green landscape motif with a dazzling bright colored painting-within-a painting, reflections of sky and landscape captured in the sunlight on a shimmering pond.

Ode to Frank O'Hara stands out for its swirling energy. Cylinder shapes are projected about on a roller-coaster ride with no beginning or ending point. The perspective of the painting seems to include the point from which it is viewed. The filigree mesh and chain link design seem incapable of holding back the advancing explosion of white arising from the darkened background.

There's an interesting anecdote to this show as well. One of the paintings, Maestro, which appears on Harry Rich's business card, never made it to Montpelier. The artist's journey north took him up and over Magic Mountain with the large 48" x 48" paintings loaded into a small tow-behind trailer. Somehow the door of the trailer opened up, and the Maestro decided to slip out the back of the trailer. An older couple who happened to be headed down the mountain road when Rich was headed up witnessed the painting’s escape. They were able to retrieve the miraculously undamaged work of art and managed to return it to the artist a few days later.

Only in Vermont!

Do stop in to see these fabulous paintings while you have the chance.
To visit Harry A. Rich's website go to http://harryarich.com

Images, top to bottom: Taconic #1, Monument to Mountain Song, and Ode to Frank O’Hara, all Acrylic on canvas, 48x48"

PRESS RELEASE: Lyna Lou Nordstrom and Robert Compton at Art on Main in Bristol

Art on Main announces its July-August 2010 Featured Artist Exhibit, Emerging Textures. The exhibit will be on view in the Gallery through Sunday August 15. Emerging Textures showcases monotypes by Burlington artist Lyna Lou Nordstrom and pottery by Robert Compton of Bristol. Lyna Lou’s one-of-a-kind creations display intense colors and textures using impressions derived from objects from the natural world. Inspired by Jomon pottery, a major focus of Bob’s work is the unique quality of a pot's surface, achieved via the process of wood firing and salt glazing. For both artists the process and journey of creating a piece of artwork is central.

“I have come to understand that life is a journey, not a destination,” says Robert, “and I feel privileged to be making that journey as a potter.” Robert enrolled in the forestry program at the University of Vermont in 1968, and took a class in ceramics in 1969. He began his professional career in clay in 1972. In the 1970's and 1980's his work consisted of unusual objects in clay, and for 20 years he produced unique hanging aquariums and standing fountains. These water-sculptures were sold via hundreds of galleries, as far away as Tokyo. As the markets changed, his work evolved over the years.

Robert’s current work is inspired by ancient Jomon pottery. Jomon is a Japanese word meaning "Cord Pressed.” The texture is derived from rolling a short piece of rope into a freshly made form. Another important element is the quality of a pot's surface, which Robert achieves through the process of wood firing and salt glazing. This exhibit features pots whose surfaces have been naturally “textured” by wood firing and salt glazing—both unaltered clay surfaces and with colored glaze washes, pit firing with flame and minerals, and reduction gas firing which produces variations in the glaze colors. Each pot’s unique look emerges from its particular firing process as well as the touch of the potter’s hands. “Seeing a pot is seeing a moment in a potter’s life,” says Robert. “The potter may make the same shape year after year, but it will not be the same, it will always be changing.”

Each of Lyna Lou’s monotypes or monoprints also captures a series of unique moments in its maker’s life expressed via its own individual process. In 1994 when she had to take a break from producing the hand painted clothing she had been making since the 1970’s, an artist colleague invited her to take a workshop in monotype, a spontaneous, painterly one-of-a-kind printmaking technique. She instantly became obsessed with this kind of printmaking. Her free painting style lent itself to this process. Color again became the distinctive element in her prints. As she developed her style in this new medium, line and energy became just as exciting as color. Her first monotypes were printed with one pass through the press.

A 2006 residency at the Johnson Studio Center allowed her focused time to allow her style to evolve and grow. “Grow it did!” she declares. Tulips appeared in her prints on top of her abstract expressionist backgrounds. In a way her style has now come full circle back to the distillations of natural and floral subjects of her clothing line. Most of her prints now have many layers, going through the etching press multiple times. Natural, collage, and additional drawing or painting elements on the print surface often add to the truly unique quality of each print. With the introduction of silkscreen and solar etching into her repertoire, she hopes to be able to introduce other recognizable imagery into her work and even create “stories.”

The terms monotype and monoprint refer to a form of printmaking whereby an original inked or painted image is transferred from a plate onto paper by means of pressure. Unlike edition printing, each print is a unique work and the final printed image cannot be repeated. One of Lyna Lou’s favorite techniques is to print the “ghost” of ink that is left on the plate to use as the beginning of another print. This gives birth to prints that are like a series because the colors and the energy going into the painting is similar.

Art on Main is open Monday thru Saturday 10am-6pm and Sunday 11am-3pm.
Images: Pilgrim Salt by Robert Compton, Peeking Through, Lyna Lou Nordstrom

PRESS RELEASE: 13th Annual Art Park Exhibition in North Bennington

The Town of North Bennington presents Lucky Thirteen, the13th Annual North Bennington Art Park outdoor sculpture exhibition, opening on July 17th from 4 pm. to 8 pm. The Art Park reception is a free event open to the public.

The exhibition includes sculpture , painting and mixed media artwork from local and regional artists invited especially for this show. For the first time, in addition to the sculpture park, there will be an exhibition inside the Train Station Gallery that will remain open on weekends for the duration of the Art Park exhibit. The show will be up from July 17th through October 10, 2010.

Our thirteenth North Bennington Art Park is going to be one of the most exceptional and visually exciting art exhibits in New England this summer. The show features contemporary artwork by local artists with national and international reputations. The alphabetical list of artists lending work to the exhibition begins with Pat Adams and ends with Phillip Wofford both of whom are long time residents of our community with outstanding reputations for their contributions in the art world.

The original Art Park began with sculpture by Willard Boepple ,who is exhibiting again this year in company with Mia Westerlund Roosen. Faculty from Bennington College are well represented with artwork by Thorsten Dennerline, Jon Isherwood, Mary Lum, Aysha Peltz, Ann Pibal and Andrew Spence. John Umphlett will participate again with one of his Performances that have been extraordinary in past shows.

There are fifty artists in this 13th exhibition, many of whom have exhibited for nearly every year and others who are invited for the first time. The exhibition is made possible by the Town of North Bennington with cooperation from sponsors David Aldrich, Bennington College, Kevin's Restaurant, McGovern Masonry, Sage City Syndicate, The Fund for North Bennington and Whitman's Feed Store. The Art Park is located on Main St. Rt.67 North Bennington, VT. on the properties surrounding the Post Office and in the Train Station.

REVIEW: Charles Papillo's THINGS YOU WANTED TO MAKE REAL at JDK in Burlington

By Janet Van Fleet

I first encountered Charles Papillo’s work when I curated an exhibit on the theme of the circus at Studio Place Arts last year and decided to create a sequestered space in the gallery for a sideshow. There I installed some strange and edgy pieces from three artists that introduced a dark side to the more upbeat acts filling the rest of the gallery. Papillo’s work in the sideshow included desiccated baby birds (some with colored embellishments) and a shriveled racoon hand and wrist, all displayed as specimens in bottles or jars.

These same works, joined by many others, are on display at the JDK Gallery on Maple Street in Burlington in a show entitled Things You Wanted to Make Real, exhibited in great profusion on one long wall. The installation suggests a Victorian museum of curiosities, with drawings, sculptures of ceramic over steel, large clay beads, encasements, and almost a dozen shelves faced with fringe (some holding the aforementioned bottles). Or maybe it’s an anthropological museum of artifacts from a dead civilization, or from an alternate universe.

A rough symmetry is introduced into the installation by the central placement of a huge paper piece with painted wedges like a screwball roulette wheel. This is completely covered (see detail at right) by a stream-of-consciousness narrative called The Red Flame Bird, written in elegant and legible white printing. Fragments of the narrative seem to hint about the installation: “jewel-encrusted tar-feathers” ...“We breathe through free-range cotton stalkings held upright by rusted pulley systems, until we have completely consumed ourselves out of consumerism” ... “not vessels full to the brim with mixed fruit concoctions of emerald and sapphire could rectify his need for more.”

Two large drawings of infants flank this central narrative at a small remove – Anatomy of an Urchin Baby’s Stomach and Anatomy of an Urchin Baby’s Brain. The babies’ bodies are covered with writing presenting what must be sound effects for the multicolored body parts referenced in the titles: GURGLE SLURP (stomach) and PITTER PATTER (brain).

Everything seems made of stuff with a previous life, though the handmade paper and small ceramic pieces are necessarily of the artist’s recent manufacture. Nevertheless it seems old. The drawings and paintings are on paper that is either quite old, yellowed, and weathered, or that has been deliberately stained and scoured. The result is vaguely shamanistic or ritualistic.

Something that kept bouncing around in my brain (that may have more to do with my brain than with the work on the wall) has to do with how art (along with everything else in our culture) is gendered. For example, on the shelf shown here, with Mother Spirit and Tiger Lily Steed, we have (on the one hand) a girl and her horse, which is such a Girl stereotype, and (on the other hand) an image of The Goddess/primitive Venus, which is such an icon of feminist insistence on representing the deity in female form. And those pitter-pattering babies and the pretty fringe. I love that this work was made by a man, but I’m trying to understand (or at least riff on) what it all means. Is it that the toss of the dice or roll of the roulette wheel determines our labels and so it’s all chance, just Maya, the illusion of being? Is it that these dead and artificially-aged creations, full of so much bird imagery, are mileposts on the wheel of time, appearance and disappearance? Stomach vs. Brain, spirit vs. body...? Or maybe it's that duality is not the point.

Whatever it is, it is wonderful – the product of an inventive mind and an able, consistent, and delicate hand. You can spend a lot of time just reading the text in this exhibit, and all of the works are gems of fancy. Go see for yourself, and, in addition to enjoying the work, maybe you too will be inspired to speculate about The Meaning of It All.

PRESS RELEASE: Rock River Artists Open Studio Tour

The Rock River Artists open their homes, gardens and studios to visitors for the 18th year in a row from 10 to 6 Saturday and Sunday, July 17 and 18. The self-guided tour begins with a group exhibit at the historic Old Schoolhouse, at Dover and Augur Hole Roads in South Newfane, where visitors can also pick up a map of studios to help them plan their weekend.

“This tour is unique because it’s so intimate,” said Roger Sandes, the tour’s longtime coordinator. “Nothing could be more different from a gallery opening or a museum visit. We have successful careers as artists, but we are just regular people, living our lives and doing our work. Our visitors say that talking to the artists and watching them work really brings the art to life.”

Many studios feature demonstrations – like Mystic Metallurgy, where Rich Gillis bends steel to his will, creating delicate curves, coils and tendrils in a medium not usually known for its sympathy with natural forms. Visitors can watch Richard Foye make luminous raku pots, a perfectly choreographed display of the aesthetic uses of smoke and fire. Painter Leonard Ragouzeos shows his technique of brushing India ink onto synthetic paper to create larger-than-life portraits and still life paintings.

Whether you like photography, pottery, painting, fabric arts, prints, fine cabinetry, sculpture or something else altogether, the Rock River Artists Tour has something you will enjoy.

And the countryside almost rivals the art. Brooks still take their natural courses; trees still stand; and old covered bridges, grange halls, barns and churches are still very much in use. In a state where billboards are illegal and there are more miles of dirt road than paved, every route is a scenic route.

If there is one drawback to the tour, it’s that even though the artists all live within a ten-mile radius, one weekend is not usually enough time to drink it all in. Most visitors return year after year to visit their favorite artists and see the work of someone new as well.

“The pace here is slower, the scenery is refreshing, and the variety of artistic styles concentrated in such a small area is quite rare,” said Sandes. “Rock River is a different kind of getaway.”

For more information about the Rock River Artists, including directions, maps and nearby food and accommodations, visit www.RockRiverArtists.com.

Image: In Thought, thread-on-fabric, 9.5 x 9", Deidre Scherer, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: Judith Unger Murphy and Kim Darling at Catamount in St. Johnsbury

WOMAN, a show of new works by Judith Unger Murphy and Kim Darling, is on exhibit at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont from July 5 through July 31.

Moving Drawing. projected videos by Darling and Sculptural Vessels by Unger Murphy interact to enliven the Catamount gallery space in a new and surprising way. Please join the artists for a reception on Friday, July 16, from 5 - 7 pm.

Catamount Arts is located at 115 Eastern Avenue in St. Johnsbury.
Gallery Hours: 1 - 6 pm daily except Sunday
Telephone: 802-748-2600

Images: Still Sequence from Moving Drawing BABY by Kim Darling Sculptural Vessel, Untitled by Judith Unger Murphy

CALL TO ARTISTS: Camp Meade Artist Fund Decorative Outdoor Bench Contest

The Camp Meade Artist Fund presents: A Decorative Outdoor Bench CONTEST

Submissions due September 1, 2010

$500 prize for the winning bench. Winning bench to be chosen in a hands-up, heads-down, 4pm vote at the 3rd annual 9/9 free community circus, where it will be ceremoniously installed at Camp Meade. Other benches to be auctioned live, with opening bids set by, and 70% of proceeds to, each artist.

Benches may be found, built, purchased, painted and/or enhanced. They should be suitable for use outdoors, and durable in the rain and snow. A bench is defined as a chair for two or more people. An Artist is: any person who submits a bench by 6pm, September 1 to Nutty Steph’s Chocolate Bar in Middlesex. Exit 9 off Rte. 89

Nutty Steph's Vermont Granola & Chocolate Bar is open Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 - 6:00
(802) 229-2090

Image: Spaghetti Bench, Corten steel and teak, designed by Pablo Reinoso of Paris and created by Carpenters Workshop Gallery of London.

PRESS RELEASE: Third Annual Worldwide Photo Walk in White River Junction

PHOTOSTOP Gallery will be a local site host for the Third Annual Worldwide Photo Walk on Saturday, July 24, 2010 from 5:30-7:30 pm. Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk is the world’s largest global social photography event in the history of photography itself. It takes place on the same day around the world where photographers of all walks of life and skill levels gather together, usually in downtown areas to socialize, learn new tips from each other, and explore their corner of the world through photography.

Last year 30,000 walkers took photographs in 900 cities around the world during the event. The White River Junction Walk will be led by PHOTOSTOP Director Lia Rothstein and will feature a Walk around White River Junction, VT that will explore some familiar and some
undiscovered gems of the Upper Valley. The Walk is designed as a free and fun social event for people to just get out and take pictures together.

For more information about the event go to http://worldwidephotowalk.com/ and find the White River Junction Walk location on the map or go to www.photostopvt.com. The Walk is free but participation is limited to the first 50 participants who sign up through the Worldwide Photo Walk website.

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 2-7:30 pm during exhibitions. 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.

Image: 2009 Honorable Mention by Luke Ling of Pittsburgh, PA, USA

PRESS RELEASE: “Cosmic Canvas” at Green Bean Gallery, Capitol Grounds Café in Montpelier

Cosmic Canvas, an exhibit of ng work on canvas in various media by Missy Cary Storrow, Linda Berg Maney and Robin LaHue, will be at The Green Bean Gallery in Capitol Grounds Café, on State Street in Montpelier Vermont through July 31. Although their styles are very different, the three artists’ work is tied together by the common threads of friendship.

Missy Cary Storrow started her art venture with an audited class at Johnson State College, curious to see if she would like to paint as her father had for many years. From there she was invited to join three other women and paint with Lawrence Goldsmith, watercolor artist, in Fairfax VT, which convinced her that she would. Since moving to Calais she has met some very inspirational artists, including Robin LaHue and Linda Maney, whom she paints with regularly. As members of the the central Vermont Art Resource Association this brings them together with other creative folks in the community. Recently Missy has been exploring spatial unknowns working from the form through the formless spiritual space, with additional playfulness. She loves the motion of painting and its involvement in creation of a painting, which makes the moment. She has a diptych piece in the show, “Glacial Melt Down”, which was begun while painting to Michael Arnowitt playing improvisational pieces at the TW Wood Gallery.

Linda Berg Maney started painting seriously with the encouragement of her good friend, Missy, Studio Place Arts and her late husband. She fell in love with painting. Linda likes action and contemplation both in life and art. Movement and/or being still are themes she conveys in her art. In this exhibit, she uses completely non-representational abstract painting for the movement and the window motif for the contemplative painting. The paintings in this exhibit are all on canvas, which is a surface that she has been exploring for the past few years along with continuing her works on paper.

Robin LaHue has been painting and drawing as long as she can remember. She studied art in Long Island, NY, and in Connecticut, with lots of self-exploration along the way. She did not paint for quite a few years, and then six years ago began to seriously paint and exhibit her work in central and northern Vermont with the support of Linda and Missy. Her favorite medium is water soluble oils, and she has developed her own unique way of manipulating the paint with water. The works in Cosmic Canvas all reach out to our spirituality, as in the painting Daphne, reaching out to heaven but still rooted here on earth.

Image: Silent Space by Missy Storrow

PRESS RELEASE: Laura Heihn at Winding Brook Bistro in Johnson

Mind of Winter:
Landscape Paintings by Laura Heijn

Art at The Bistro will host a show of landscape paintings by Johnson artist Laura Heijn from July 9th through September 5th.

Opening reception : Wednesday, July 14th 4 to 6 pm. Come meet the artist, see her work, and enjoy hors-d’oeuvres prepared by chef Chase Vanderveer. Cash bar is available. Winding Brook Bistro, 933 VT Route 100C in Johnson.

In viewing Laura’s paintings one has the sensation of being alone out in the natural world. In the winter pictures, archetypal natural forms (trees, fields, mountains) reflect an internal experience and invite contemplation and stillness. The expansive views of spring and summer are depicted in wide, horizontal panels that offer pathways for entry into and movement through the landscape.

Laura works in acrylic on paper or panel, largely from the views immediately surrounding her home in Johnson. Her technique depends on the fast-drying quality of acrylic paint itself, which allows for changes in direction as the painting evolves. She is thus able to overlay new marks on old without a mixing and muddying of the layers, responding to the interplay of subject and painting in the moment. This approach began as a practical solution to the problem of painting outdoors in remote places, and out of a backpack on extended wilderness trips.

Though over the years her painting habits have evolved from the snapshot depictions of a traveler on foot in the landscape, to the steadier gaze of an inhabitant of one place, her paintings retain the freshness of the single moment of seeing, even as she paints her most familiar views.

Laura grew up in Massachusetts and studied art and English literature at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at Harvard University in Cambridge. She has lived in Johnson for 17 years, where she runs a small home dairy operation and raises three sometimes-homeschooled children.

PRESS RELEASE: 18th Annual Group Show at Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery in Shelburne

Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery's 18th Annual Group Show, featuring David Maille and

Bonnie Acker
Elizabeth Allen
Adam DeVarney
Jeri Lynn Eisenberg
Janet Fredericks
Byron Geigel
Hal Mayforth
Janet McKenzie
Beth Pearson
Joseph Salerno
Roger Sandes
Dianne Shullenberger
Brian Sweetland
Polly Thompson
David Utiger

July 9 - August 10, 2010

Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, July 9, 6:00 - 8:00

Image: Spring Creek by David Maille 13" x 18 3/8" Oil and gilding on panel

PRESS RELEASE: Anarchy and two other shows at Studio Place Arts in Barre

Studio Place Arts announces: Three New Shows starting June 22

In the Main Floor Gallery: Anarchy - Artists express their views on anarchism in a show that includes paintings, assemblage, photographs, sculptures, collage, video, and stone carvings.

In the Second Floor Gallery: Not Just Childs' Play - Inspiring Art from Barre Students

In the Third Floor Gallery: Detours by Angelo Arnold & Jason Baldwin

Exhibit Dates: June 22 - July 31, 2010
Reception: Friday, June 25, 5:30-7:30 PM

Special Event: "At Work in the Bridal Industry," a poetry reading by Nadell Fishman on Sunday, July 18 (7-8 PM). The SPA galleries will be open before and after the presentation.

Anarchy at SPA
The "Anarchy" show involves 13 artists and a selection of photographs, paintings, encaustics, collage and stone carvings that explore anarchism. For example, Peter Schumann of Glover, leader of the Bread and Puppet Theatre, created a large, mural painting in black latex paint tones called Popul Vu, that occupies the entire wall in the rear of the main gallery.

LALI of West Pawlet carved a slate relief work that honors the feminist anarchists of the Spanish Civil War. Larry Bowling of Charlestown, MA is displaying 2 collage and encaustic pieces: One incorporates Emma Goldman's mug shot taken at her arrest and the other depicts Oscar Wilde's gay rights activism and his roots in anarchism. Heather Pipino of Montpelier assembled
a large-scale painting on layered cardboard that depicts different forms of anarchism.

The "Anarchy" exhibit coincides with Barre's Heritage Festival at the end of July. Barre has a deep connection with the Italian anarchist movement. For example, anarchist Luigi Galeani resided in Barre and served as the editor to one of the most important anarchist newspapers in the country, Cronaca Sovversiva. For a recent article on Galeani by local historian Paul Heller, see The Times Argus website.

While viewing the Anarchy show at SPA, visitors are welcome to peruse books on the topic, graphic art of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies), and historic photographs, which are on loan by the Aldrich Public Library and the Barre Historical Society.

SPA Gallery Hours: Tues-Fri: 10AM-5PM, Sat: Noon-4PM
NOTE: SPA will be closed on Sat., July 3, 2010

Image: Branded, collage and encaustic by Larry Bowling

PRESS RELEASE: Klara Calitri at The Art House in Middlebury

Klara Calitri's love of nature and an irrepressible joy of color is reflected The Enchanted Garden, on display July 9 - August 7 at The Art House in Middlebury’s Marble Works. Calitri's delight in diversity is featured in a selection of monotypes, paintings and sculptures, including her widely-collected ceramic fountains and bowls. One of Vermont's most beloved artists charms us with her vibrant celebration of life.

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY JULY 9, 5-9 p.m. Featuring music by Thea Calitri Martin, principal French Horn of the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra, Meredith Martin, vocalist, and Fred Haas, renowned jazz musician. Complimentary refreshments. Coincides with Middlebury's Arts Walk.

FOR MORE INFO: Contact Mary Swanson: mary@arthousevt.com (802) 458-0464
Visit www.arthousevt.com for additional info & directions

PRESS RELEASE: UnAltered at FLYNNDOG in Burlington

Flynndog presents UNALTERED: A pure unadulterated and non thematic very mixed media group exhibition brought to you by the artists and writers of *Alter(ed) Ego.

Opening Reception on Friday, July 2nd - 6 to 8pm

The show runs July1 thru July 26th. The gallery is open 7am-7pm, 7 days a week

FLYNNDOG is located 208 Flynn Ave. Burlington,Vermont www.flynndog.net

Image: Oil painting by Wendy James

PRESS RELEASE: Dennis Murphy at Blinking Light Gallery in Plainfield

Less is Enough
Blinking Light Gallery to Feature Special Exploratory Chapter in the Art of Dennis Murphy

When longtime Plainfield resident Dennis Murphy suffered a stroke some three years ago that left him unable to create his art in the usual way, he turned to less usual means. The Blinking Light Gallery will present a collection of Dennis’s new oil pastels and digitally enhanced photography from July 1 to August 1, with an artist’s reception Saturday, July 10 from 2:00-5:00.

As Dennis explains, “This is not a standard exhibition of fully completed works. I’ve been very engaged in finding out what I can do, substituting other media for those I used to work in.” He’s ready to show his progress to friends and the community, and to share his vision that Less is Enough – the title of his show.

For Dennis, exploring unusual means of artistic expression is not unusual at all. He may be most widely known as the musician, composer and instrument maker whose fascination with Javanese music led to his role in the creation of the first North American gamelan. (A gamelan is an Indonesian musical ensemble, rooted in the islands of Bali and Java, featuring a variety of xylophone-type instruments, gongs, bamboo flutes, and plucked strings. Locals know that Dennis has hosted The Plainfield Village Gamelan for many years at his farmhouse. The group will provide a bit of live music at the July 10 opening. In addition to his art, photography and gamelan work, Dennis has also composed pieces of chamber and choral music, and he’s written plays -- some of which feature a unique system of language of his own invention.

The Blinking Light Gallery is located on Main St. just off U.S. Route 2 in the village of Plainfield, Vermont. Hours of operation are Thursdays from 2 to 6 P.M., and Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. The goal of the arts organization, founded in 1999, is to promote and sustain the creative work of regional artists through a cooperatively-run, community-centered organization. For more information about the Blinking Light Gallery, call (802) 454-0141 or visit www.blinkinglightgallery.com.

PRESS RELEASE: Annual Exposed! Sculpture Exhibition in Stowe

Helen Day Art Center announces the 18th annual Exposed! outdoor sculpture exhibition. The exhibition is curated by UVM sculpture professor Meg McDevitt, and features over 20 individual works by artists from around the region, extending from the Helen Day Art Center to Stowe Kitchen and Bath and Chittenden Bank on the Mountain Road, and on the Stowe recreation path. A marquee event on Stowe's summer calendar, the exhibition attracts an estimated 75,000 visitors during its annual 3 month run. This year's exhibition includes works by regional and international artists, including Nadine Faraj (Canada), Joel Fisher (England/ USA), Kenji Endo (Japan), among others.

The Opening Reception is Friday, July 9th at 5pm., featuring the artist-led Walkabout tour of Exposed! During the Walkabout tour, the majority of the artists attend and share reflections on their work. This year’s artists include Leila Bandar, Jon Black, Tyler Buswell, Mireille Clapp, Kat Clear, Chris Curtis, Tom Douglas, Kenji Endo, Nadine Faraj, Joel Fisher, Rob Hitzig, Bruce Hathaway, James Irving, Harlan Mack, Jordan Pratt, Peg Smith, Piper Strong, Denis Versweyveld, and Catherine Ward.

Image: Artist Nadine Faraj strength-testing the steel skeleton of Haven, in her studio. (Completed piece is Haven, 2010 steel reinforced concrete, 5'x7'x4' )

PRESS RELEASE: Joseph Chirchirillo at Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester

Joseph Chirchirillo’s kinetic sculptures, inspired by cycles found in nature, will be featured in a show at the Southern Vermont Arts Center – Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum, opening on July 3. The public is invited to a special free opening party on Saturday, July 3, held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. and featuring hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar.

Mr. Chirchirillo says “My work comes out of the spirit of using found objects and creating pieces that are fun to look at and to use,” and visitors to SVAC from July 3 through September 12 will have a chance to enjoy the works in a series of "Sculpture Systems" powered by small electric motors, pumps or sometimes by hand. This series, one that Joe has been working on for 10 years, is inspired by the cycles found in nature: the process of rainfall and absorption, or the impact of wind blowing through branches. All of the sculptures in this show are interactive, engaging the viewer in discovering the inner workings of the process.

Executive Director Christopher Madkour notes “Joe Chirchirillo has exhibited widely and received numerous grants and awards, including an NEA Fellowship. Southern Vermont Arts Center is pleased to welcome this nationally known artist, who makes his home in Bennington County, and to give the public a chance to see his creative and engaging work. We’re also very grateful to the support of Mr. & Mrs. Gilbert B. Silverman for their sponsorship, which has made this exhibit possible.”

The Southern Vermont Arts Center is a non-profit educational institution whose mission is to make the visual and performing arts an integral part of the life of the community and region. SVAC is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am-5 pm and on Sunday from 11:00-5:00 pm; there is free admission on Sunday (closed Monday). While enjoying the art, remember that Café Mamie at Yester House is open for lunch and for Sunday brunch (11:30 am – 2:30 pm), for dinner before performances at the Arkell Pavilion, and features the Vermont-sourced signature dishes by chef Mariah Macfarlane. Reservations are suggested and can be made by calling 802 366-8298. In addition to lunch, dinners will be served during Arts Center events.

Image: Artificial Wind

PRESS RELEASE: Habitat for Artists at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe

Helen Day Art Center is delighted to announce that we will be hosting the Habitat For Artists project this summer in Stowe. Habitat for Artists (HFA) is a site-specific, collaborative exhibition / creation / intervention project that provides artists with a basic 6 ft. by 6 ft. shed to be considered as a habitat/workspace for the duration of the exhibition. Participating artists will inhabit this simple and temporary structure and use the space to create art works or turn the structure into an artwork prior to and during the time of the exhibition. One habitat will be constructed on the front lawn of the Helen Day and the indoor gallery will host an exhibition entitled Recycling the Studio, a collection of works by artists involved in the HFA project over the past three years. It will also include an indoor Habitat as well as historical information and images documenting the project's history and evolution.

Habitat for Artists (HFA) was founded by Hudson Valley-based artist Simon Draper in 2008 after working for years with ideas related to space and found materials in his art practice. He relates a story about a woman contacted by the local authorities to remove her ice house before the spring thaw took hold. She protested the ice fishing shed was not her own. Later after examining the shed she discovered its owner had used her previously discarded paintings to cover part of the shed, allowing the police to confuse it for her own. It was out of this idea of repurposing artwork as a form of community interaction that the habitats were born.

Over the past three years, artists involved with HFA have built and worked in over twenty 6' x 6' temporary, portable studios made of predominantly reused and recycled material and installed on various sites, including a CSA farm, an environmental center, a river park and a parking lot. The studios function as residencies with a modest yet distinct presence that enables artists to explore their art practice and develop a new dialogue with different communities, as well as with other artists. Simultaneously a place for creating work and the work itself, these structures function as both studios for artists and installations for viewers to enter into and engage with. The HFA initiative addresses a number of diverse topics, such as: the creation of communities by artists and the consequent ejection of artists from these communities; matters of sustainability in art; thinking about the artistic process and its private and public manifestations; providing spaces of reflection for the public and asking the question "How much, how little, space is required to create and show art?"

Images: Top: Molly Rausch. Lost and Found, 2009
Bottom: Habitat for Artists Montage, 2004-2009

PRESS RELEASE: Corliss Blakely at Amy E. Tarrant Gallery, Burlington

Corliss Blakely’s “Visions of Nature”

Opens in the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery

BURLINGTON, VT — St. Albans native Corliss Blakely presents Visions of Nature, a new collection of paintings created with innovative computer technology in an artist’s reception on Friday, July 2 from 5:30 to 8 pm in the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery at the Flynn Center. The collection remains on display through Saturday, September 25.

Blakely, a seventh generation Vermonter, her formal art training at Vesper George Art School and The Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston. Corliss paints still-life and Vermont landscapes in a classically realist style. The homes, farms, and antiques of her ancestors in Northern Vermont are often portrayed in her paintings. Corliss is internationally recognized for her work in several media, including watercolor, oil, and egg tempera. Her paintings hang in collections on every continent.

Corliss is now painting on the iPhone and iPad, which has “opened up a new world for artists,” she says. “The world is changing and artists now have a new canvas to create on.” Corliss has translated her meticulous technique in oils to these new technologies. She will demonstrate painting on her iPhone and iPad with ArtStudio, her favorite painting app.

Corliss Blakely’s work is displayed in conjunction with the Flynn’s annual Garden Tour on Sunday, July 11. Corliss will be in the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery on Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm to demonstrate her new painting techniques.

The Amy E. Tarrant Gallery—an extension of the Flynn Lobby—is open to the public on Saturdays from 11 am to 4 pm. Performance attendees may also view exhibits prior to MainStage shows and during intermission. To receive information about upcoming gallery exhibits and artist receptions, update your “My Account” page at www.flynncenter.org.

PRESS RELEASE: Photographers Greitzer and Strong to Exhibit at Photostop Gallery in White River Junction

in.side/out.side with photographs by Andrea Greitzer and Rob Strong will be on display at the PHOTOSTOP Gallery from July 2nd through July 30th. An opening reception for the photographers will be held on July 2nd from 5-8 pm with a gallery talk by the artists at 7 pm.

Both Greitzer and Strong will be exhibiting photographs of architectural elements and locations, both interiors and exteriors, from their unique perspectives. Andrea Greitzer is interested in the areas of museums that surround art, the beautiful spaces we often ignore on our way to look at something else. Her work captures the light, mood and color of museum spaces around the world. Rob Strong’s photographs of parking lots, industrial facades and metal fabricated structures along America’s highways examine the way man and nature have collaborated, sometimes unwittingly.

Andrea Greitzer is a lecturer and professor in the photography department at Northeastern University in Boston. Her photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries across the country and her work is in a variety of permanent collections. Rob Strong is a freelance photographer and founder of the Chiron Photos collective. His work has been published in
a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Valley News.

PHOTOSTOP Gallery is located in Suite 150 on the first floor of the Tip Top Media Arts Building, 85 North Main Street, White River Jct., VT 05001. Gallery hours are Weds. through Saturday from 2-7:30 pm. Other hours are available by appointment. On First Fridays and opening nights the gallery will be open until 8 pm. For additional information, call 802.698.0320. PHOTOSTOP’s website is www.photostopvt.com.

Images:
Top, Andrea Greitzer, Museum of Modern Art 19
Bottom, Rob Strong, Milk Truck, New York, 2007

PRESS RELEASE: Charles Papillo at JDK in Burlington

The JDK Gallery, at 47 Maple Street in Burlington, is pleased to present Things You Wanted to Make Real, works by Charles Papillo.

Papillo’s work is based on the idea of open-ended storytelling, which generates conversation that deals with topics such as identity, reality, and possibility. The subjective manner in which people understand this work is the root of his storytelling. There is not one narrative that corresponds to each piece or series of pieces, nor will there ever be one overarching narrative that is correct. The work becomes more about the number of ways the objects can be considered and how they may fit into the real, or perhaps imaginary, world. Working with materials at hand, both found objects and created forms, he solidifies a unique collection that examines the purpose and function of a group of objects, exploring an ever-evolving personal philosophy of “life as art.”

Papillo, a Vermont native, currently resides in San Francisco. He holds a BFA from Parsons the New School for Design (New York) and has studied in Spain, Greece, and the Galapagos Islands. He's also served as an artist’s assistant for various printmakers, sculptors, and video artists. His work has been displayed in numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York City, San Francisco, and Vermont and can be explored further at charlespapillo.com.

The opening will be held on July 1, from 6 to 9 pm. Regular exhibition hours will be Monday–Friday, 8:30 am–5:30 pm.

PRESS RELEASE: Beth Robinson in Residence at Firehouse in Burlington

Burlington City Arts is pleased to announce its newest Artist-in-Residence, Beth Robinson, who will be in residence on the fourth floor of the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts on Church Street in Burlington from now until July 24th, 2010.

Beth Robinson creates odd dolls, that are not something you will find in a toy store. They are hardly something you would buy for a child. They are mis-proportioned, strangely dressed, and they have a character uniquely their own. Each doll is entirely hand made using polymer clays, vintage fabrics, acrylic paint, and sometimes real human hair or teeth. Each piece is one of a kind.

Robinson is a self taught artist who has been living in Vermont for 15 years. While she has dabbled in a variety of mediums, it was the discovery of polymer clay that allowed her to combine her interests in design, sewing, sculpting, and painting and gave her a concrete foundation of expression in the form of Strange Dolls.

Since 2003, she has been creating macabre and grotesque characters in clay for collectors across the globe. Robinson is currently represented in Berlin/NYC/London by Strychnin Gallery. Robinson's dolls have been featured in the magazines: Art Doll Quarterly, SPIN, "Stuff" in the US, "Maxim UK" and "Maxim Hong Kong," "Rue Morgue" in Canada, "RIP" in Russia, and "Nordic Vision" in Norway.

Robinson’s website is: www.strangedolls.net.

Residency begins June 1st and continues through July 24th. Beth welcomes visitors to the fourth floor of the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts on Church Street on Saturdays from 11-4pm. Additionally, she will also welcome visitors during the Firehouse Gallery main floor exhibition opening reception on July 2nd.

REVIEW: Tess Meyer and Lisa Dietrich at Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington

By Bret T. Chenkin

With the proliferation of self-conscious artists, theoretical discourse, and mega-gallery shows these days, it is always a sense of relief when two young artists present a sincere, ingenuous, but thoughtful and well-executed exhibit. This is just the case with Husk/Hive, a joint showing of two recent Bennington College graduates, Tess Meyer and Lisa Dietrich, at the Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington. The two artists explore different mediums and ideas – Dietrich working mostly with manipulated prints, while Meyer is more of a sculptor – yet their work intersects in how their thematic explorations connect objects to the human experience.

Both artists show much talent, and both are very ingenious with material. Dietrich actually has two projects going: the first is the latest installment of her “True Needs Project”, that incorporates her 361 Facebook friends and their expressed needs for daily living. These needs were defined as those ideas/feelings/objects that one cannot live without. From a list of over 300 words, Dietrich pared it to 50 essential words, which were then printed on beeswax (the size of the printed format is roughly 12x16"). The beeswax exudes a flowery aroma, energizing what is usually a deadened sense, while the tactile quality of bumpy wax stimulates the imagination, creating an art that is malleable, living.

The words chosen are anti-Orwellian; they appropriate a language enervated by advertisers and mass media and attempt to resuscitate their flaccid meanings. And that is the issue: our words as capitalistic property vs. our words as sacred to humanistic expression. Dietrich even quotes Adorno to reinforce her revolutionary bent – and the aim of this piece to escape mindless production. (One even thinks of Shelly’s "Bees of England"). The irony of course is that the nature herself is tyrannical, and the world of bees is structured on oppressive hierarchies. So does one ever transcend oppression?

Dietrich’s other project is a conversation with (and manipulation of) recently-found photographs of her family. They appear to be mostly from the Weimar Era—and the men and women display a content bourgeois bliss, as if all the chaos of post-World War One Germany is occurring in some other nation. These are the men and women that Mann and Hesse feared, if not disparaged: a soldier, a beautiful woman in upper middle class garb, a group of jocular businessmen, a child in a stodgy suit. The silkscreened photographs are enlarged to about two feet and rendered in black and white – almost as if they are drawn from charcoal. But any sense of sentimental reverence is shattered by the inclusion of painted thought bubbles – a la the postmodern pop tradition – depicting an item each figure may by subconsciously fixated on. The soldier has a crimson bubble thinking of a red high-heel shoe; the businessmen (appearing more sinister than satisfied) dream of gold bunnies; and a matronly woman ruminates on a gold cloud. Dietrich acknowledges her intention is to ‘mock’ these photographic images – which is a strong action to take. One wonders why a family member would seek to jeer at her ancestors (an action which would be anathema to many African or Asian traditions). Could it be part of a need to denigrate the Teutonic traditions post-Reich? I think she is caught between deifying and deconstructing: one child is embedded in gold like a Byzantine icon, while a baby, set in the lower left of a composition, stares out at us like a poltergeist, fading on the fuzzy folded felt upon which the image has been mounted.

The second artist in the show, Tess Meyer, recontextualizes quotidian objects in her life and seeks to create “organic, ephemeral landscapes that take on a life of their own.” She uses shredded paper, pins, string, and thread in the pieces at the VAE. The shapes appear organic – shredded paper folded over in flowery shapes and then woven together in serpentine forms become undulating serpents surging in and out of an entire wall of the gallery. This makes a dynamic conversation with the space. Pushpins arranged in a swirling pattern on the floor, become a galaxy or an owl, depending on where you stand. A colony of coiled paper, barely a few inches off the floor, yet spread out for a few feet, becomes wasp’s nest. It is easy to bring natural forms to mind when looking at her arrangements, conjuring the question as to whether or not manufactured goods are ultimately representations of Nature’s blueprint.

Of course, integrating found objects from one’s life is a 20th century fixture in installation art, but Meyer has a sense of rhythm and gesture that takes what would ordinarily be a visual platitude to a more engaging level. Material Study #1, for instance, as it surges in and out of the wall, is a deft piece of handiwork and whimsy. I would say that Meyer might investigate how scale would affect the impact these studies might have on a space. I can imagine the pushpins regenerating themselves all over a floor, as an active presence, rather than the more passive, confined, to-be-gazed-at position they have in the VAE show. Meyer also has several drawings of wax and charcoal, of a sensitive touch, which resemble faint breaths upon the paper.

Overall, a nice poetic showing of two young artists—engendering the hope that we will see more of their process to come. Husk/Hive can be seen in VAE’s Mill Gallery Wednesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment, through June 25.

REVIEW: Darshana Bolt at Nectar’s in Burlington

by Darby Laine Parsons

Works by Darshana Bolt are on view at Nectar’s through the month of June. Darshana describes her intent in painting as creating “juxtapositions that can truly terrify or exhilarate the viewer.” Often using the human form as her starting point Darshana’s paintings move quickly into multi-colored light waves of energy or thought patterns. The abstraction effect is done in earth tones that blend and meld into brighter hues to over ride any sense of disconnection; the energy forms created by the human forms are just as relevant and meaningful a subject to our artist. Darshana quotes Walt Whitman to explain her process; “I sing the body electric”.

Darshana’s works are colorful and psychedelic with a strong deference to grace and form. The mostly untitled paintings move from a few darker pieces to one that recalls Jimi Hendrix composing perhaps, and a very light and bright cherry pie painting.

The current collection is an eclectic and fun ramble through various subject matters fitting such a casual venue as Nectars. Darshana is a young and very active Burlington artist; be sure to get to know her work in this early stage of her career. Works by Darshana Bolt are on view at Nectar’s throughout June.