Friday, April 30, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: Flynndog show


You are invited to our first Friday, May 7th, opening gala for a group portrait, in vignettes of those characters (real or imagined) in our lives from six to 8 at
F L Y N N D O G
208 FLYNN AVENUE
BURLINGTON VERMONT VERMONT O5401

EXHIBIT THRU MID JUNE...... & FOLLOWED BY
UNaltered a group exhibition by those characters (real or imagined) that exhibited in this one
the UNaltered opening reception is planned for first Friday, July 2nd

Thursday, April 29, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: Art Reception at Synergy Fitness



You and yours are invited to an Art Reception at Synergy Fitness, Saturday, May 1st 7-9 pm to view my recent body of energetic abstract paintings. Come partake in some food for the soul and tour this beautiful new gym that redefines the fitness experience!

These dynamic oil paintings, filled with texture and color, explore spheres of personal and political relations. They are linguistically driven and I begin writing on the canvas in graphite and follow with the application and removal and reapplication of paint. A symphony of color, line and form emerges.

Reception is at the new Synergy Fitness in Williston, VT: White Cap Business Park, 426 Industrial Avenue.
Directions: From Burlington (10-15 mins) head East on Main St. It turns into US-2/Williston Rd and continue to take a slight left at Industrial Avenue (light here). Take 3rd right into White Cap Business Park, veer to right and follow signs to back of park for Synergy.
Info: Maggie Standley: 802.233.7676
Synergy Fitness: 802.881.0553

Many thanks for your interest and support! Maggie

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

PRESS RELEASE:Borders, Boundaries and Creative Approach to the Unfamiliar


Where: Allen House Multicultural Art Gallery at University of Vermont, 461 Main Street, Burlington, Vermont.
When: April 27 through May 6, Weekdays 8am to 4pm, Weekends by appointment -- (call 865-1208)
Who: Group show includes Marc Awodey, Elise Burrows, Michelle Colling, Karen Dawson, Kimberly Drasler, Marie Lapre' Grabon, Jen Kristel, Mr. Masterpiece, Polly McMurtry, Rita Murphy, Michiko Oishi and Dennie Work and more.
Opening Reception Thursday April 29, 3-5pm. Music and food. Free and open to the public! Please come!

Description of show: Multicultural experience has been shown to have a strong influence on creativity. Artists have often found inspiration in people, places and things that are not from their everyday environment. Whether it is an apprehension of “The Other,” or an enhancement of the connection between one’s own “Tribal Roots” and universal meanings, we can be deeply touched by an experience with the unfamiliar.

Responses to this theme by participating artists give not only a remarkable range of interpretation, but also together produce an exciting aesthetic experience for one's contemplation.
Parking: he lot directly behind the Allen House is a bit tricky-- there are some 30 minute meters, and handicapped spaces. Otherwise it is by permit only. Parking in the street is suggested: Main, Maple, College, and South Prospect on southern end.

PRESS RELEASE: Mark Moffett: The Sun Ain’t Stable (Skeleton Makes Good)

The Brick Box at the Paramount is pleased to announce the opening of “The Sun Ain’t Stable (Skeleton Makes Good)”, an exhibit of encaustic paintings by Mark Moffett. Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. For Moffett, “working in wax I have aimed for a method to preserve my tracks as I go, to work backwards in a sense, and have found that the encaustic technique, best known for its freeze-dry, opaque qualities, actually affords transparency. By carving into and re-filling a built-up surface, I am in theory at liberty to layer as many effects and images as I please.”

Through layering of specific yet competing imagery, Moffett’s work presents coincidental mergings and the distracted abstractions that result. While selective about the imagery I use, chance and intention are in play. Although one may point to this or that meaning, such as the traditional use of skeletal imagery as a caution against vanity, the disparate representational elements are meant to support and distract from one another. There is no single meaning, but an urge to coax some hint of elegance from a variety of meanings and a confusion of means.”

The opening reception will be held on Friday, May 7 from 5:00 until 8:00pm at the Brick Box, 30 Center Street, Rutland, Vermont. “The Sun Ain’t Stable (Skeleton Makes Good)” runs through June 8. The Brick Box is open 11am - 6pm Thursday - Friday and Saturday 10am - 2pm. and during Paramount Theater performances. For further information, please call Beth Miller @ 235-2734 or Wendy Fannin @ 235-2412

PRESS RELEASE: The Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild exhibition



The Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild Welcomes Bert Dodson and Zelma Loseke

"Watercolor and Willow" opens on April 29 and runs through June 17.

There will be an artists' reception and book signing on Saturday,May 15th, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. The public is cordially invited to meet the artists and enjoy wine and cheese. In addition, Bert Dodson will have copies of his most recent book,, Favor Johnson: A Christmas Story. This beloved tale by Willem Lange is always read by the author on Vermont Public Radio at holiday time. In addition, Dodson will have at the reception his best-selling Keys To Drawing, and Keys to Drawing with Imagination.

This exhibition will display the work of a husband and wife team who work in different, but complementary media.
Zelma Loseki's freeform sculptures of paper and vine incorporate paper made by a process she developed, using willow readily available by her home near the Connecticut River. She has exhibited widely and has been selected for the prestigious annual craft shows in Philadelphia and at The Smithsonian in Washington DC. Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Americas in Washington, D.C., among others.

Bert Dodson is a talented and prolific draftsman, painter, teacher, author and illustrator. He has illustrated over 80 books for children, and is the author of the best-selling Keys To Drawing, Keys to Drawing with Imagination, and NUKE A Book of Cartoons, among others. He was animation designer for the four part PBS television series Intimate Strangers (1998). He illustrated over 30 opera stories for children, a series commissioned by the New York Metropolitan Opera. His work appears in Vermont Life, Northern Woodlands, and Dartmouth Medicine. He regularly exhibits his watercolors and drawings.

The Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild, at 430 Railroad St., St. Johnsbury , is open Monday - Saturday, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm. 802-748-0158 or on line at www.nekartisansguild.com.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

REVIEW: Considering Nature at 215 College Gallery in Burlington


By Darby Parsons
Considering Nature is a dual artist show with digital photographs by Shayne Lynn and acrylic paintings by Elise Whittemore-Hill. The show is ongoing at the 215 College Gallery until May 16.

Shayne Lynn's archival digital prints are subtle and surreal renderings of our human perception of the natural world. Each individual piece is a poetic nature shot with slight alterations that are accomplished subtly. The effect is to create scenes that appear to have been captured and frozen by your own wandering eye. The digital photos are titled in similar ways: Walking Past Spring (green leaves so sunlit that they seem to blur), Abandoned (thick brambles of a fruitful apple tree left to rot), Indian Summer (bright sun through curved birch trees). The colors are natural, brilliant and subdued all at once. Each digital photo expresses an emotion or evokes one.

Elise Whittemore-Hill's acrylic paintings compliment the digital prints as an intensive study on trees by a rapt pupil. Several of the acrylic paintings render thick, bare trunks and branches into emotional states that will be readily understood by the viewer. These trees seem to serve as guides through someone's life with titles such as When it Happens, Our Hard Winter and Breaking Clearly. Cathedral's blues and blacks give an impression of a cloister produced by the trees and air surrounding them. Shayne Lynn's fine prints are complimented by the fast, articulate motion in Elise Whittemore-Hill's paintings.

The 215 College Gallery (at 215 College Street) is a comfortable setting with a lot of natural light pouring through the windows. It's a beautiful art space open Fri 12-8, Sat 12-6, And Sun 12-4. The First Friday reception for Considering Nature will be held on May 7, 5-8pm.

Image: Abandoned by Shayne Lynn

Friday, April 23, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: Justine Cohen at Colburn Gallery at UVM







Dicks-y Land
, the Senior Honors Art Thesis exhibit by Justine Cohen will be at the Colburn Gallery from April 26-30, 2010.

An opening reception, to which the public is invited, is on Thursday, April 28, 6-8pm.

FREE HOT DOGS, MUNCHKINS, AND CARROTS! (Generously provided by the artist)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

CALL TO ARTISTS: Bi-Annual Furniture and Wood Products Design Competition

CONTACT: Erin Sheridan, 802-747-7900, info@vermontwood.com

The Vermont Wood Manufacturers Association (VWMA) announces the 2010Bi-Annual Furniture and Wood Products Design Competition. The competition is open to anyone who lives and works in Vermont and produces wood products in any of the following categories: Production Furniture, Custom or Studio Furniture, Production Woodenware, Custom Woodenware, and Carvings/Sculptural.

The competition will be held at the Union Arena in Woodstock, VT, in conjunction with the 7th Annual Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival on September 25-26, 2010. The hands-on nature of the design competition will stay in effect where woodworkers will bring their piece to the competition and the judges will be on-site at the fine furniture and foliage weekend. Each piece entered will be viewed and evaluated based on quality of craftsmanship and integrity of design. Woodworkers who are exhibiting at the Festival may display their entries in their booths. Others will be displayed in a Design Competition booth on the exhibit floor.

Each will receive a custom wooden plaque to be displayed with the piece whenever it is exhibited. The VWMA is also working with our industry suppliers for product contributions (i.e., lumber, tools, equipment, etc.) to be awarded to first place winners in each category. Berkshire Products, Alderfer Lumber, Fine Woodworking Magazine, Vermont Natural Coatings, Super Thin Saws, and Duluth Trading Company are donating gift certificates and
products for the first place winners in each category.

There is also a student category for Vermont students that are either 18 & under enrolled in a public/private school, technical center or home school (those that graduate in June 2010 are still eligible), or a Vermont woodworking student/apprentice that is over 18.

For more information and to download entry forms visit www.vermontwooddesigns.org and submit no later than Tuesday, September 7, 2010. The fee for each on-time entry submitted is $35. The fee for late entry is $45. There is no charge to enter into the student competition.

PRESS RELEASE: New England Plein Air Painters Paint Vermont at Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville

Featuring T.A. Charron, Robert Duffy, William P. Duffy, Michael Graves, William Hanson , Stapleton Kearns, Barbara Lussier, Christopher Magadini, Margaret McWethy, Dianne Panarelli Miller, T.M. Nicholas, Tom Nicholas, N.A., Stefan Alexis Pastuhov, Caleb Stone, Don Stone, N.A., Eric Tobin

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 2, 3-5 PM


Artist's Rountable at 2 PM. Exhibit continues through June 27.

Image: Caleb Stone, Along the Falls

PRESS RELEASE: Fiona Cooper Fenwick at Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville

Work by Fiona Cooper Fenwick will be exhibited in the middle room at the Bryan Memorial Gallery through June 27, 2010.

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 2

Artists Roundtable at 2 PM. Fiona will be one of the featured artists at the Roundtable.

Image: Tansy Hill Tree by Fiona Cooper Fenwick

PRESS RELEASE: husk / hive at Vermont Arts Exchange in Bennington

Recent Bennington College graduates and local artists Tess Meyer ’08 (left) and Lisa Dietrich ’07 (below) exhibit a new collection of their work, husk / hive, at Vermont Arts Exchange’s Mill Gallery, at the Sage Street Mill. The exhibit opens with a reception on Wednesday, May 5, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Dietrich’s print- and photography-based work combines content from a cache of old family photographs with screen print and textile-sculpture elements using felt, beeswax and gold leaf to describe warmth, connectedness, collaboration and preciousness.

Among this new work is an iteration of Dietrich's "True Needs Project,” an exploration that incorporates social media (namely Facebook) as a content-generating tool in the art-making process. “The ‘True Needs Project’ grew out of an interest in creating a shared vocabulary to describe the things that we (collectively) feel we cannot live without,” Dietrich says. By virtually inviting all of her 361 Facebook friends to an event entitled “True Needs,” and asking all attendees to note on the event wall — “a brief list (no more than five) things/ feelings/ states of being that are essential for your personal survival” — Dietrich generated a list of over 300 words. The list was then distilled into 50 representative “Needs” that are installed at the Mill Gallery in an interactive wall piece that asks visitors to rank the needs according to their preferences, thus incorporating another layer of collaboration and input.

Meyer’s drawings and installation-based sculptures are born from an investigation of her own perceptual habits, ruts and the tendency to disregard the familiar. The work is constructed from recycled materials such as shredded paper, push pins, string and thread; Meyer is drawn to materials that have served a particular utilitarian purpose — paper is for writing on, thread is for sewing, etc — and seeks to re-contextualize the oftentimes negligible objects that surround us into organic, ephemeral landscapes that take on a life of their own. Through principles of repetition and reproduction, Meyer builds a sense of movement and growth within her work via an improvisational and site-specific approach.

“The highly repetitive nature of my process provides me with an intimate knowledge of the material, allowing me to make compositional choices that grow more specific and precise as the work evolves,” Meyer says. “It is a direct conversation with the material, a practice of seeing the familiar anew.”

Small details morph from one segment to the next, and the evolution, multiplication and growth of detail create a visual landscape that shifts and refocuses depending on the proximity of the viewer to the work. This visually malleable quality allows the work to come in and out of focus — from a distance all of the parts merge into a whole, while up close the whole separates into a collection of parts.

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. For more information about Vermont Arts Exchange, exhibits and summer arts camps for children, contact VAE at 802-442-5549 or visit www.vtartxchange.org.

PRESS RELEASE: PhotoSlam 2010 at Photostop Gallery in White River Junction

The first Upper Valley PhotoSlam exhibit will be on display beginning April 30th at the PHOTOSTOP Gallery. An Opening reception is scheduled for May 7th (a White River Junction, VT First Friday) from 5-8 pm and a Closing party is scheduled for May 22nd, also from 5-8 pm. Both events are open to the general public.

Gallery Director Lia Rothstein put out a call for photographers of all ages and levels of experience to submit their photos for this first-ever photo event. Over 130 photographers aged 5 to 91, 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 will be nearly 240 photographs with diverse imagery on display.

Color, black and white, and digitally manipulated images will all be shown.

At the Closing party on May 22nd, attending photographers may choose to say a few words about their photographs and trade their unsold images with other photographers, if desired. The PhotoSlam event is a celebration of the incredible richness and variety of photographs being taken by Upper Valley residents.

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 Wednesday 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: Julie Ireland, What Can I Get For You 'Lil Lady?

Sunday, April 18, 2010

REVIEW: Jerome Lipani at Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier

By Theodore A. Hoppe

Experienced any Dada lately?

The Dada movement of the early decades of last century originally emerged as an anti-war movement, but in many ways it became an anti-art movement, which helped to shape Modern Art for the rest of the 20 century. Duchamp's Fountain, a urinal signed R. Mutt, submitted in 1917 to the Society of Independent Artists, was intended to confront the viewer and engender emotions of shock or outrage, but it can be said that it is nonsensical to the point of whimsy.

Assemblage, collage, photomontage and the use of ready made objects all gained acceptance due to their use in Dada. The concept of Dada does not lend itself to being considered a movement or an -ism. The term itself is thought to have been randomly chosen from a French dictionary.

Jerome Lipani's Assemblages and Cinematic Photography: Political Deconstruction (in all its phases) has been enjoying a lengthy run at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier. Rooted in Dada, Jerome Lipani's artistic expressions seems to reject logic. It appears chaotic and irrational, because it is not art, it is anti-art, and that is its triumph.

"I am trying to indicate the possibility of the self-creation of a state of mind," says Lipani, "which can transcend (through a deliberate attempt at "undeniability") the very political miasma which it is encountering."

C. G. Jung's observation of Dada was, "It's too idiotic to be schizophrenic." Dada has but one rule, to never follow rules, and therefore there is nothing to critique, and one must refrain from a review of it, or describing it. It exists only in the experience and interaction, to and with it. The Kellogg-Hubbard Library is one of Montpelier's premier locations for art exhibits and the library is to be applauded for presenting this avant-garde exhibition. Usually, exhibits of such a progressive orientation are limited to coffee houses and colleges.

Get there soon. It may or may not be there when you are, but it won't be the same without you.

OPINION: Children’s Art

Readers are invited to respond to this opinion piece with reflections of their own about children’s art and what values it holds for the viewer and the community. Send your writing to one of the editors, listed at the top of the right-hand column of this blog. – Ed.

By Theodore A. Hoppe

Announcing the beginning of spring, construction paper cut-out tulips are sprouting in the stairwell leading to the children's library at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, some two dozen or so, lining the winding steps.


They made me wonder if others that saw them would consider this an art display, or merely as a form of children's art. Certainly, Matisse's simple paper cutouts are among the most admired and influential works of Matisse's entire career.

As a critic of art I question whether we have a certain attitude toward the art work of children; do we miss the simplicity and interpretive beauty it holds? More importantly, do we focus on the value of the finished product, and overlook the value of the process?

In "The Art of Teaching Art to Children," Nancy Beal, who has taught art to children at the Village Community School in New York for over 25 years, focuses in part on how to speak to children about their artwork to encourage their creative expression. Adults need to respect
children's ideas and honor their creativity. What can children do when they have the support of a caring adult? I think the answer is "more", they can create more, express themselves more, do more, with art and in life.

This also leads me to reflect about the differences in ways that we view the performing arts as opposed to the visual arts when it comes to children. We frequently hear of a child that can successfully perform a classical piece on the violin or piano and we are eager to use the word prodigy. What word comes to mind when a young artist performs Van Gogh's, "Starry Night"?


The artist, Avery, is four years old.

Friday, April 9, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: “It’s Not What You Thought” in the Julian Scott Gallery of Johnson State College



Karen Rand Anderson’s
MFA thesis exhibit

March 29 – April 17, 2010

“It’s Not What You Thought” in the Julian Scott Gallery of Johnson State College


“What is the nature of meaningful relationship?” This is how Karen Rand Anderson’s artist statement begins. Her work currently in the Julian Scott Memorial Gallery of Johnson State College from March 29 – April 17, 2010 exhibits carefully broken chairs, dangling rocks, dream-like imagery, and a crib-sized bed filled with moss and stacked stones.


Her installation of drawing and sculpture pulls our attention toward a surreal world where things are familiar yet disturbed – through them, we see the internal workings of metaphor and thought. In the realm of her draftsmanship (her drawings are based on her sculptures), Karen Rand Anderson underscores the importance of objects as metaphors.



“What does a chair represent? A bed? A boat? Chairs are safe places to rest. We sit in them to contemplate, or share conversation with others. Beds are for sleeping and

dreaming in, alone or with another. A bed offers a place for recovery and healing, as well as the ultimate place to share intimacy, sex, secrets and the safety of sleeping with another person. Boats are vessels in which to journey; journeying leads to discovery of the unknown. A relationship is a vessel in which we are journeying with another. Cairns—piles of stones—are used as waypoints on a journey, and as markers for burial sites.”


In the words of poet/psychologist/writer Daphne Rose Kingma (again from her artist statement), “A relationship is a configuration of connection. It is the container in which we mix ourselves with others, the container in which, together with them, we hold ourselves in a certain way.”


“Ultimately,” Karen says, “the underlying element [of a meaningful relationship] is trust. This extends to objects as well: when we sit down, we trust the chair. When we lie down, we trust the bed. When we are in relationship with another person, we trust each other. For a relationship between two people to develop and flourish, trust is paramount.”


“Thematically, this body of work is an exploration of relationship: between self and another, self and self, and self and the relationship; the relationship as object. Instability and danger are visually present; text as markmaking inks in emotion and question. Symbols, metaphor and conceptual nuance reference tension, emotional paradox and irony. It is up to you, the viewer, to create your own story around this work, discovering that perhaps “it’s not what you thought.”

website: www.karenrandanderson.com

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

REVIEW: Sally Linder at the Firehouse Gallery in Burlington



By Darby Parsons


Sally Linder’s exhibit at the Firehouse Gallery, Pilgrimage: Remote and Inner Landscapes, gives the viewer an opportunity to understand a local, yet internationally renowned artist’s talents and passions. On display at the Firehouse Gallery from April 2 to May 1 are various acrylic paintings, ink drawings, and multimedia works. The chosen pieces are divided into two groups and rooms: the inner landscapes and the remote landscapes. All of Linder’s work serves to remind viewers of their personal bodily life and/or their physical relationship to and presence on the earth.


Sally Linder may be best known for her Ark of Hope. The Ark is on display in the center of the Firehouse’s main room. A large trunk made of light colored wood, The Ark is painted in aboriginal style with animals and vividly colored natural themes. It houses The Earth Charter, a document calling for worldwide cooperation and peace focusing on the earth and our environment. The Ark is filled with homemade books of every hue and color. Wherever Sally Linder has gone -- from children’s classes in Europe to villages of Africa -- she has taken the opportunity to show the local culture the Ark and ask for a contribution of art to add. Each book is to be opened and enjoyed in its own right. The Ark itself has multiple stories to tell as many of its books show.


The rest of the remote landscapes surround The Ark. From the Pelvis Series there are two large ink drawings painted over in subdued greens and pinks, emotional portraits of an intimate bone. In several multimedia pieces from the Manifest Destiny Series, Linder employs drawing, paint, and cloth to wrap Native American spirituality with

the American flag. A large acrylic painting called Patches on a Shamans Cloak abstractly melds the rear skeletal view of a human form with that of a bird in flight. The piece pulls you in from afar and holds you close as you distinguish more and more detail in the abstracted forms.Three large paintings show South African settlements nearly dissolving into their surrounding natural landscapes.


The inner landscapes include a cluster of acrylic paintings on twenty-six small to medium sized canvases called Skipping Stones. Each individual abstraction uses earth tones layered with more vibrant colors to evoke a sense of something familiar lurking just beneath the surface: two fish, a face winking, a familiar staircase from childhood. The overall effect is emotional and personally touching, and we easily see ourselves in these paintings. Even the titles have a personal, intimate quality: Whirligig, Bartholomew Cubbins, Wink. There are two large acrylic abstracts from Linder’s Metamorphosis Series: Transference and Winged Migration blend and meld colors together into vaguely familiar images. The large triptych Homage to Shostakovich Opus 110 is less abstract than the other inner landscapes, and the colors are softer. Very loose, flowing lines build into more complex images that suggest the inner process of this composer.

Sally Linder's compassion for the earth and its many inhabitants is conveyed in the most human of expressions in both her abstract and realistic renderings. The rich stories Linder tells in this exhibit are impressive and truly awe inspiring. Don't miss this show.


Images- top: Skipping Stones

middle: Luminous Beings

below: Diepsloot, South Africa

CALL TO ARTISTS: Stowe Street Arts Festival in Waterbury

Revitalizing Waterbury invites artists to exhibit at the 9th Annual Stowe Street Arts Festival, to be held July 17, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Visual artists and craft and design artists in all media are invited to exhibit and sell work at the festival. The Festival is promoted heavily throughout central Vermont.


This community arts festival takes place on historic Stowe Street in the heart of downtown Waterbury and exhibition spaces are available in the tented area or adjoining the tent.

EXHIBITOR FEES:
$55 under the tent - space under the tent is limited to 18 artists, so reserve now!
$30 outside the tent

Go to www.revitalizingwaterbury.org/ssaf.htm for exhibitor information, including a registration form.

Monday, April 5, 2010

CALL TO ARTISTS: Exposed 2010

Helen Day Art Center is seeking applications and proposals for Exposed 2010, the 17th Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS APRIL 9TH
Please see website http://www.helenday.com/exposed for details

Thursday, April 1, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: Emily Johansen at Blinking Light Gallery in Plainfield

Here and There, an exhibit of watercolor paintings of rural Vermont and coastal Maine by Emily Johansen, will be on exhibit at the Blinking Light Gallery, 16 Main Street in Plainfield, Vermont from April 1 - May 2, 2010.

There will be an opening reception on Saturday, April 17 from 4-6 PM. Gallery hours are Thursday 2-6 PM and Friday-Sunday, 10 AM - 6 PM.

After many years of living elsewhere , Emily Johansen chose to live in the beautiful state of Vermont. It is here, and at her summer cottage on the coast of Maine, that she finds her inspiration. The colors, forms and textures of these two places form the backbone of her paintings and instill each one with a profound sense of place. Emily has grouped the paintings on exhibit here into two categories; Here (around Marshfield, Vermont) and There (Brooksville, Maine). The work depicts familiar and intimate views from home and is a celebration of her life in Vermont, her yearly experience on the Maine coast, and her deep appreciation of New England's gift of seasonal change.

Emily Johansen moved to Vermont and began painting in watercolor in 2001, starting with classes at Studio Place Arts in Barre, Vermont. For nine years Emily has continued to attend classes, residencies and workshops in Vermont, Maine, and in Italy.

The Blinking Light Gallery, located in the Historic Village of Plainfield, is the retail outlet for the Central Vermont Artists Marketing Cooperative. The goal of this arts organization, which was founded in 1999, is to promote and sustain the creative work of regional artists through a cooperatively-run, community-centered organization.