PRESS RELEASE: Nancy Taplin at Amy Tarrant Gallery in Burlington

New Work by Nancy Taplin will be on exhibit at Amy E. Tarrant Gallery at the Flynn Center, 153 Main Street Burlington, from April 2 - June 26, 2010. There will be an Artist Opening Reception on Friday, April 2 from 5:30 - 8:00 PM.

This show is replacing that of the artist James McGarrell, whose son was tragically killed in the recent earthquake in Haiti. Taplin writes, “I have done a painting in response to that catastrophic event, titled Haiti, Jan 12, 2010, 4:53 PM. At the time of the earthquake, I happened to be at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, enthralled with the fabulous retrospective of Kandinsky, completely unaware of what was taking place in Haiti. Kandinsky said, 'The more frightening the world becomes . . . the more art becomes abstract.’”

“The immediacy of that moment is actually what this new work is about. I call it gestural painting. The works on paper could be likened to calligraphy or a tree falling, the act of its falling with tremendous energy, vertical to horizontal, its impact creating an upward movement of its parts in a weightless moment. The works on canvas are more precise, creating microcosms within the larger whole. There is a vulnerability to their structure as there is in all nature."

Nancy H. Taplin studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1960-1965 and is currently affiliated with Carol Craven Gallery in Vineyard Haven, MA and BigTown Gallery in Rochester, VT.

The Amy E. Tarrant Gallery is an extension of the Flynn Lobby and is open to the public on Saturdays from 11 am to 4 pm and during the First Friday Art Walk. Performance. Attendees may also view exhibits prior to MainStage shows and during intermission.

PRESS RELEASE: Entropic Restructed at Borough Gallery

Opening reception: March 27th, 5pm-9pm

March 27th - May 1st, 2010

BOROUGH GALLERY & STUDIO

180 Flynn Avenue (through the SEABA entrance), Burlington

Borough Gallery & Studio presents their most recent exhibition Entropic Restructed. The exhibition features ten artists from Burlington, greater Vermont and New York who display work focused on varying manifestations of deterioration and transformation. Entropic Restructed challenges the idea of traditional beauty and pushes the limits of aesthetics. Featured artists utilize deteriorated materials and subjects, whether a rusted lock or memory, to fashion works that are both compelling and full of disquiet, if only for the crumbled past they hint at.

An opening reception with DJ Turkey P and singer/songwriter Jenn Guay will be held on Saturday, March 27^th from 5 to 9pm. Artists in the exhibition include: Andrea Becker, Eleanor Brennescholtz, Shawna Cross, Diane Gabriel, Michael Heeney, Brent Johnson, James Juron, Raychel Severance, Stanley Trela and Adam Wimble. Simultaneous events in our 180 Flynn building include the opening reception for Sidney Eley's photo exhibition in SEABA's gallery and open studios of Vintage Inspired and Miss Pickles Attic in Whistle Stop Antiques & Co.

top image: Raychel Severance “No Screaming” Archival digital print, 24″ x 36″

below:James Juron "Head 6" Oil on canvas, 16"x20"

PRESS RELEASE: Advanced Sculpture Student Exhibit at UVM

PRESS RELEASE: NEW EXHIBIT SHOWCASES WORK OF TWO VERMONT ARTISTS

Mary Lamboley and Glynnis Fawkes will be exhibiting new work at 215 College Gallery in Burlington this month.The exhibit- " After Images" features recent drawings by Mary Lamboley. These exquisite atmospheric drawings of interior and exterior spaces use paradox and ambiguity to play between the familiar and the unfamiliar so that through contemplation, they can suggest the universal in common places and the conditions that create them. The exhibit- " Before Troy" -includes paintings by Glynnis Fawkes. These delicately rendered depictions of archaeological sites are peopled by characters from mythology in modern dress. These contemporary landscapes of ancient sites serve as a stage for both mythological and lived human comedy. The exhibit is curated by gallery member, Kate Donnelly and runs from March 26 through April 18 , 2010. An opening reception will be held on March 26 , 5-8pm, with an artsits' talk at 5:30.

Mary Lamboley is an artist who draws inspiration from her experiences living, working and traveling in the US, Europe, and Africa, as well as from her studies of the relationships between eastern philosophy, science, art, and creativity which inform the practice of being in the world in ethical and sustainable ways. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally and is currently working as the Founder’s Assistant with a year-long staff artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson.

Glynnis Fawkes grew up in Portland, Oregon. Her studies have taken her all over the world including the Middle East, where she worked as an archaeological illustrator on many excavations, in Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, and Syria. Ms. Fawkes has taught Archaeological Illustration and Comics at UVM and various courses at Burlington City Arts. She works and lives in Burlington with her music-archaeologist husband and two spirited young children.

The mission of 215 College Gallery is to explore visual art in all mediums: to build a network for connecting and communicating with one another, other artists, and the community at large. We promote excellence and diversity in the arts with monthly openings of new work by members, and curated shows of guest artists presented in our professional gallery space. This space provides a venue where artists control both the curatorial process and pricing of their work. Proceeds from sales go directly to the exhibiting artist.

PRESS RELEASE: Linda Marcille's Silk Paintings at Latchis Theater in Brattleboro

Eighteen paintings on silk by artist Linda Marcille will be on display at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro for the month of April. Linda is an award winning artist whose paintings on silk have been sold internationally. Her silk paintings are created using steam set French dyes from Europe, crepe de chine silk from China, and a one of a kind resist made only in New Zealand.

The Spring 2010 (Issue 61) of the Guild of Silk Painters Journal is showcasing Marcille’s silk paintings. Linda’s silk painting "Jazz Duet" is featured on the cover and inside there is a full-color, glossy, two page spread with photos of six more of Linda’s paintings on silk.

WALKABOUT: Art in Bob's Sunoco in Montpelier

This may be a good time to remind readers about WALKABOUT articles for Vermont Art Zine. The idea is to take a camera with you as you do an Art Walk, visit a new town, or find yourself unexpectedly in a place where art is being shown. Let us see it through your eyes! Send us a photo, share your impressions, and take us with you. -- Editor

By Theodore A. Hoppe

Anyone in the surrounding areas of the capitol city of Montpelier who's needed a jump start or their auto towed is probably familiar with the famous blue and yellow landmark known as "Bob's Sunoco." What, you might ask, does a refueling station, where they still repair cars, have to do with art? Well, if you ask multitalented artist Michael T. Jermyn, he'll tell you it's the perfect place to show photography.

There, amid a stack of replacement car batteries and in the reflection of the Pepsi sign, Michael has a small exhibition of seven well-framed photographs: a snow scene of a lonely naked tree, a colorful barn scene with glorious autumn foliage, a beautiful photograph of an unfrozen river winding its way through some snow-laden birch trees and four others.

About a year ago Vermont Art Zine featured some opinions about "art in non-traditional venues." Artist Colleen McLaughlin observed at the time, "I...appreciate those 'non-traditional venues' that recognize and value the role of art in society." and added, "I PREFER art in common places." Folks that have spent time on the sofa at Bob's while waiting to have a tire changed will find it hard to disagree with Colleen.

PRESS RELEASE: Alex Bottinelli and Kathy Stark at Catamount in St. Johnsbury

Alex Bottinelli and Kathy Stark will be showing New Work at Catamount Arts, 115 Eastern Avenue, St. Johnsbury from April 2-30, 2010. The public is invited to an opening reception on Friday, April 2 from 5-7 PM.



Images: Top: Kathy Stark, Sound of One Hand Clapping, group I-IV, encaustic on wood panel, 2010; Bottom: Alex Bottinelli, Freida and Oak Leaf

INTERVIEW: Stephen Orloske Interviews Emily Wilson at SPA

In this video, Stephen Orloske interviews Emily Wilson at Studio Place Arts. Wilson's exhibit in the Third Floor Gallery (through April 17, 2010) is entitled Springing Through Space. Emily is standing in front of a site-specific piece she created to connect conceptually with Give Us Some Blues, the SPA exhibit in the first floor Main Gallery.

Here's what Stephen had to say about how he came to produce this video interview:

Despite six hundred years of print replacing the orator as creative narrative's common medium, the written arts are still instinctively not visual. Perhaps writers are just too fidgety, the all-encompassing patience needed to elicit the subtle powers of sculpture or painting outside our realm, so when I find myself sharing space with visual artists how can I not ask endless questions?

Such is the torment I inflicted on Emily N Wilson over the past few months as she crafted her current gallery show "Springing Through Space." When our mornings crossed paths she was pelted with such astute interruptions as "what's this?" or a "why's that?" But, eventually, my questions grew incisive and Emily's answers more profound and the relationship, I pray, mutually insightful.

First, I must tell you, Emily's preparatory notes are themselves painstaking constructions. The schematics for each project could fill a slim book with architectural drawings and script that is the antithesis of the chicken scratches that I seem to fill notepads with. So if your first experience with her art is when it's complete and all those colors, pattern and motifs seem cacophonous, know that intention lies behind it all. An intention not only to create a pleasurable intensity, but to draw the eye through different works, to highlight repetitions and follow interwoven threads like a narrative. You can feel a conscious pull to and fro, inward and out again, affecting, unexpectedly, a three dimensional story that flows from the minutia to whole works, series and the entire gallery.

Which brings me to my greatest insight while questioning Emily: her work is conscious of the gallery. She plots out her projects using the dimensions of the space it will hang in. Writers rarely consider where their work is read (but we wish we had that control over you). The only dimension we play in is the claustrophobic universe of inner monologue, so to consider things like stairwells, windows, noise, what work is in the field of view of another, etc... when crafting art seemed superfluous until Emily convinced me otherwise. And you can feel how aware she is of space, because the same intensity that makes a square inch seem like an explosion also bleeds into adjacent works, around corners and to opposite ends of the gallery, such that you begin to feel it in the air you move through, which might not be far fetched considering the amount of color bouncing around. You can't help feeling like you’re flitting, but it’s a delightful experience I recommend you have because it’s enlightening to be privy to Emily’s work, to be ensconced in a conscious network of patterns and hues, permeated by an energized air when most of your day involves the linear march of letters.

See Emily N Wilson’s show “Springing Through Space” on the top floor of Studio Place Arts in Barre before it leaves April 17^th.

PRESS RELEASE: SHANE WATT MAPS AT LANGDON STREET CAFE

Outsider Artist and Semi-fictional Mapmaker Shane Watt will be exhibiting new selected works in accociation with Geek Week 4.0 in Montpellier Vermont March 24th-30^th at Langdon Street Cafe. Watt has been exhibiting his cartographic work over the past 2 years and producing commissions for the past 7 years. He has exhibited both in Canada and the United States and created project specific commissions as far afield as the UK and Greece.

Shane creates thematic maps featuring parts of actual cities, people , symbols and objects in order to create a story. “I hide secrets in the maps as well,” he tells us.

“The country exists (sort of) in a geographical location on planet earth. I basically changed history a bit – traveled back in time – and moved some things around. The location is secret. It’s encrypted in the maps. There are riddles and secrets in all of my maps. I never disclose the secrets – I want someone to figure it out.”

from Juxtapoz online

CALL TO ARTISTS: Carving Studio And Sculpture Center Annual Members' Show, West Rutland

The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center announces their Annual Members' Show, May 15-June 13, 2010 at the Gallery, 259 Marble Street in West Rutland. All Studio members have the opportunity to show their work in this popular exhibition. An eclectic mix of techniques and media are always represented and artists of all levels have the chance to exchange ideas after the often-solitary winter.

There will be a reception for the artists, open to the public, on Saturday, May 15, 5-7 PM. Earlier in the day, from 2-4:30 PM, the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center will host the Spring Thaw Sculptors' Forum.

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, April 25, 2008. Membership must be current to exhibit, please phone (802) 438-2097 or email carving@vermontel.net to renew or become a member.

PRESS RELEASE: Carol Golemboski at Pine Street Art Works in Burlington

Can things tell stories about themselves? If so, what stories do they tell? Colorado photographer Carol Golemboski explores this question in a series called Psychometry which will be at Pine Street Art Works from April 2 to May 1 and at Healthy Living Natural Foods in May. There will be an opening reception at Pine Street Art Works during First Friday Art Walk April 2nd from 5 to 8. The artist, who lives in Colorado, will not be in attendance.

The series of black and white photographs explores issues relating to anxiety, loss, and existential doubt. The term “psychometry” refers to the pseudo-science of object reading, the purported psychic ability to divine the history of objects through physical contact. Like amateur psychometrists, viewers are invited to interpret arrangements of tarnished and weathered objects, relying on the talismanic powers inherent in the vestiges of human presence. These images suggest a world in which ordinary belongings transcend their material nature to evoke the elusive presence of the past.

Golemboski is an assistant professor of photography at the University Of Colorado at Denver. Images from her Psychometry series have been published in notable photographic journals and magazines such as LensWork, Contact Sheet, Photo News, and AfterImage. Golemboski has been awarded numerous grants including individual artist fellowships from Center in Santa Fe New Mexico, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and Light Work.

Describing her artistic process, Golemboski says:

“I infuse my images with tension and mystery by combining photography with drawing, scratching the negative, and incorporating text and photograms. The objects I photograph, discovered in flea markets, auctions, estate sales, and antique shops, have their own unknowable histories. They range from ordinary items, such as doll houses, bird cages, and Christmas ornaments, to symbolically charged objects that relate to the human figure, such as dress forms, leg braces, and wigs. Once photographed, they form a visual language that hints at the lives that once surrounded them. Ironically, these metaphorical arrangements only reinforce the idea that the secrets of the past are forever lost.

“The success of these images relies upon the viewer's expectation of truth in the photograph, expanding upon age-old darkroom "trickery" to suspend belief between fact and fiction. The romantic ideas suggested by these photographs are enhanced by the nostalgia that accompanies historic photographic imagery, the process of traditional printmaking, and the magic of the darkroom.

“Pervading the work is a sense of melancholy for the past, and a mounting dread that comes with the realization that our own stories will suffer the same fate. These images are designed to create a tension between beauty and decay that expresses anxiety over the passage of time, the inevitability of death, and a fascination with the unknown.”

Images: Top: Graphology Bottom: This Must Be Your Lucky Day

PRESS RELEASE: Children's Book illustrators at Chaffee Art Center in Rutland

The Chaffee Art Center will be holding an exhibition of Children's Book Illustrators entitled When the Wind Bears Go Dancing. The exhibit will include the artwork of: Woody Jackson, Phoebe Stone, Tracey Campbell Pearson, Bert Dodson, David Macaulay, Jasper Tomkins, John Stadler, Mary Crowley, and Christine Mix. The exhibit will run from March 27 through April 25, 2010.

The exhibit will open with a "milk and cookies" reception featuring several of the artists doing book signings and demonstrations on Saturday, March 27 from 2 until 5 pm. There will be an Artist Talk by Christine Mix at the Rutland Free Library on Saturday, April 10 at 2:00 pm. There will be a Story Walk in collaboration with the Rutland Free Library every Saturday during the exhibit from 11 until 4:00 pm. This will be a special walk to the Rutland Library and back enjoying the pages of familiar story books.

Gallery hours will be Wednesday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday 12 noon until 4 pm. The Chaffee Art Center will be closed on Sunday, April 4 for Easter. Contact the Chaffee Art Center at (802) 775-0356 to be sure you are on our email list to receive event reminders and notices of new events as they are scheduled.

CALL TO ARTISTS: Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville

Over the past months, Bryan Memorial Gallery has published a number of CALLS TO ARTISTS for its 2010 Exhibition Season. Forms you need to participate are posted at www.bryangallery.org throughout the year. We encourage your participation and are here to answer questions you may have about any of the shows: 802-644-5100.

Land and Light is a juried exhibition with cash prizes, including the Alden Bryan Medal for Best in Show. The deadline for applications is May 7.

The Second Annual Jeffersonville Festival of the Arts, presented by the Cambridge Art Association, will take place August 14, 2010, though the deadline is coming up soon: March 15.

Inspired By Nature, a collaboration among The Vermont Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, The Bennington Center for the Arts and Bryan Memorial Gallery is a juried exhibition of artwork painted at any one of over 100 nature preserves in Vermont. Application deadline is May 10.

The 14th Annual Small Picture Exhibition takes place in the fall, and this year there is a recommendation for submitting your work in pairs.

CALL TO ARTISTS AND CRAFTERS: Queen City Craft Bazaar

The Queen City Craft Bazaar, Vermont's Alternative Craft Fair, is looking for unconventional indie crafters, artists. and DIY designers of locally made goods for our Spring event being held on May 8th at Union Station in Burlington.

The Queen City Craft Bazaar is a juried show and supports crafters and artists who appeal to the "indie art and craft scene". This is NOT a fine craft show. Customers of the QCCB come to this show because it has a reputation for having a unique collection of vendors and a mix of products not normally found at most "fine art and craft" shows.

Applications are being accepted now through March 26th. Find out more about the event and get your application at www.queencitycraft.com

PRESS RELEASE: Diane Bell at Village Wine and Coffee in Shelburne

Diane G. Bell is the featured watercolor artist this month at the Village Wine and Coffee in Shelburne, VT. There will be an opportunity to meet the artist at a wine tasting with live music on March 20th from 1 to 5 pm.

Everyone needs a passion and Diane has found hers painting the Vermont landscape, beautiful in every season. The ever-changing light offers unlimited inspiration for her along with the challenges associated with the medium. The paintings exhibited in the Village Wine and Coffee are an interpretation of the places she visits and the vistas she captures around her home and beyond. She recently returned from a plein air trip to southern France and has included a couple of these works as well.

Bell says, "I try to stay in the moment, giving myself a chance to experiment with color, placement, balance and all the rest, while celebrating the happy accidents. This process is what gets me up in the morning and keeps the creative juices flowing all day long.”

Diane earned an art degree from Iowa State University and has taken watercolor workshops over the years from some well-known watercolorists including Judi Wagner, Pat Weaver, Tony Van Hasselt, Frank Francesse and Tom Lynch. She holds a signature membership with the Vermont Watercolor Society and is a member of the board of directors. You can view more of her work at http://dianebell.org/watercolors.htm.

Village Wine and Coffee is at 5288 Shelburne Road. (902 985-8922).

Images: Top: East Wallington Buckets, Bottom: Cirq Lapopie

REVIEW: Mark Chaney at Capitol Grounds in Montpelier

Theodore A. Hoppe

Anyone who has played around with 35 mm cameras has probably created a double exposure at some point. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence to create one by accident when getting to the end of a roll of film and trying to squeeze in one more picture. Triple exposures, however, rarely happened by accident, so it may surprise some to learn the term "triptography." Wikipedia defines "Triptography as "an automatic photographic technique whereby a roll of film is used three times (either by the same photographer or, in the spirit of Exquisite Corpse, three different photographers), causing it to be triple-exposed in such a way that the chances of any single photograph having a clear and definite subject is nearly impossible."

“Creativist Christopher Thurlow is often credited with discovering the technique when his urge to continue taking photographs was suddenly challenged by the fact that he had run out of un-exposed film,” according to Wikipedia.

Digital artist and photographer Mark Chaney of Redmark Design in South Burlington, has redefined the term for multiple imaging in the digital age. Chaney says Tritography™ is the exploration of a digital collage art form that mixes more than one original digital image to render "unreal realities". The rational and irrational appear if one gazes at the image long enough for the mind to relax. New spaces and places appear in the depths of the image, much like an optical illusion.

He attributes his process to the "surrealist notions of the early 20th century, related to photomontage and cut-ups." His influences include the Bauhaus and Russian Constructivisim of the 20's and 30's, and the Beat Generation of the 40's and 50's.

Often, with the use of film, the overlapping of images would make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine where one frame stopped and the next started. It was up to the photographer to determine what to print from the images captured on the film. Digital photography has added more control to the process. Digital impressions are layered on top of one another to form a collage. Each image is intentionally chosen by the artist with respect to composition, color, scale, shape, shadow, light, and content. The effect is like seeing a lap-dissolve (sometimes called "cross- fading") power point image that’s frozen in time.

Chaney's current Giclee prints, Vermont Visions are on display at Capitol Grounds in Montpelier until the end of March.

For more information visit these websites: http://www.mc-studio.net/content/tritography and http://www.redmarkdesign.com/content/tritography

Image: Rolling Fog Sunrise

PRESS RELEASE: A Very Hungry Rabbit Should Be Fed

Release: Immediate

Date: February 25, 2010

Contact: Cecily Herzig, 802-765-4941 ceweasily@gmail.com

Cecily Herzig’s exhibition of new paintings and prints titled A Very Hungry Rabbit Should

Be Fed will be on view in the Vermont Supreme Court building, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont from March 4 – April 30, 2010. Herzig’s exhibition is part of the Court’s ongoing

Art in the Supreme Court series.

The artist’s reception will be hosted on Friday March 19, from 5:00 – 7:00 PM and is free and open to all. The Supreme Court gallery is open Monday – Thursday, 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM and Friday, 12:30 – 4:30 PM. The gallery will be closed on March 12 and April 2.

Cecily Herzig graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Studio Art and a second degree in Environmental Studies. Since her undergraduate days, she has avoided labels and endeavored to evolve ever forward with her work. To maintain a fresh perspective she has worked in a diverse range of mediums including prints, watercolors, oils and felt. She began exhibiting with a series Crayon Creature drawings and oil paintings.

In her new watercolors you will often find cryptic phrases and odd bits of text placed very deliberately throughout the work. One is overtaken with the impression that these words have real meaning at real moments in her life experience. By pairing the carefully rendered creatures with the interspersed phrases the viewer is provided with a license to create the moments for themselves. Thereby, producing a challenging truthfulness that is rarely seen outside of representational or even photorealistic styles.

“While creating and looking at art I am fascinated by the little moments: the 1” square filled with an intricate interplay of color, the periwinkle smudged with white melting into orange, the approach of yellow in the middle of the night, the sudden jag or subtle curve of a line... overheard conversations, bits of text.... All those vignettes of sight & sound adding up to present something unexpected.”

Cecily Herzig’s work currently hangs in the headquarters of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund in New York City and has been sold in fundraisers by the Human Rights Campaign. Her work hangs in many private collections throughout the United States including New England, New York and Monterey California.

For more information contact Cecily Herzig at 802-765-4941 or ceweasily@gmail.com or visit her website www.usedlipstick.com

CALL TO ARTISTS: PHOTOSTOP Gallery

CALL FOR ENTRIES FOR UV PHOTOSLAM 2010 AT PHOTOSTOP GALLERY
Wanted: Students, Pros, Amateurs, & Photo fanatics!

PHOTOSTOP Gallery announces a call for entries to its “UV PhotoSlam 2010”, which will be on exhibit at the Gallery from April 30 - May 22, 2010. The PhotoSlam will be a community-wide photo happening for residents of the Upper Valley. Photographers of all ages and experience levels are encouraged to enter. PHOTOSTOP is hoping to create a unique exhibition for the Upper Valley, showcasing the wide variety of photographs residents of all ages from the area are making and to provide a way that photographers can share them with each other.

Each photographer who enters work in the show will have at least one image printed and displayed. An Opening reception is scheduled for May 7 and a Closing party will be held on May 22 from 5-8 pm. At the Closing event, photographers will have a chance to talk about their photographs, meet other photographers, and trade images if desired.

Entry is by the submission of digital files and the Gallery will print the submitted photographs. The standard entry fee is $15 and $10 for photographers 17 and under, which will help defray the cost of the printed photographs and other exhibition expenses. For an entry form and details go to: www.photostopvt.com and download the application form or e-mail the gallery at photostopvt@gmail.com. The deadline for entries is April 9.

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.

REVIEW: Three Exhibitions at the Fleming Museum in Burlington

by Stephen Orloske

In the past month and a half three exhibitions opened at the Fleming Museum. Andy Warhol: Fahionistas and Celebrities, Views and Re-Views, Soviet Political Posters and Cartoons and Storied Objects: Tracing Women's Lives in Vermont. These exhibits span a century, from the 1960s back to the 1870s, of pop, politics and gender. The effectiveness of each exhibition, however, is not equal.

Andy Warhol: Fashionistas and Celebrities presents encased photographs of Versace, Muhammad Ali, Georgia O'Keefe and the like. Part of the display also shows Warhol taking the portraits, which look small and their process laborious compared to our cell phones, with a Polaroid Big Photo. And, unlike a cell phone, a Polaroid only produces one facet of celebrity, one snapshot to be added to their "aura," while today celebrity is produced with such rapidity that John Mayer can talk crassly in Playboy, Twitter an explanation, apologize on stage and thus YouTube, spanning mediums so quickly that public opinion runs through its outrage, criticism and forgiveness – a celebrity soured, sweetened and declared edible again – faster than it took Warhol to arrange one of his instant portraits. Warhol's ruminations about how it’s impossible for celebrity to cease generating itself are still relevant, but they're starting to look quaint, especially tacked under glass. The exhibit simply lacks the oomph to connect with now.

Re-Views: Soviet Political Posters and Cartoons is a propaganda vacation to the other side of the Cold War zone that separated capitalism from popular communist thought. Every artist in the exhibit is well documented, adding just enough information to expand, but not distract, perspective. And the overt nationalism of a bygone nation soon turns numb, allowing global 20^th century political conflicts to come to mind, like women’s suffrage and civil rights. Even the movements of design can be seen as some posters turn modern, others a bit dada. The cartoons employ a familiar wit when lambasting capitalists, similar to American satire directed at noble soviets. It’s entertaining to see familiar characters – stockbrokers are still corpulent, pig faced and enraged by impotence – decimated by steely workers. Even the proletarian heroes look like ancestors of the contemporary Do It Yourself movement. At times you forget these cartoons are Soviet thoughts. Some posters even beg the question, from where did pop culture gobble up anti-capitalist meaning? Was it Hooverville or theGulag? Are we the egg or the chicken?

Storied Objects: Tracing Women's Lives in Vermont, unfortunately lacks much of the promised story. Plenty of feminine and domestic objects adorn the small room, each labeled and their function described, accompanied with a letter, diary or audio excerpt from the women who owned them. But the story between the woman and the object rarely goes beyond how they used it. At best we learn the item was passed along to later generations. Sometimes any connection at all is tenuous, the accompanying letter only mentioning an activity in passing, or, like a manufactured flatiron, the item just sits there, impersonal. The exhibit would still be interesting if it wasn’t such a short trip, plunking you into the museum’s permanent collections feeling teased. And you have the chance to comment on scraps of paper. Near a feathered hat, complete with a parrot’s head, someone remarked, “Doesn’t say if the bird is real.” Another wondered, “Why was it important to her?” Many, it seems, left hungry.

Andy Warhol is on display until 4/12, Soviet Posters until 5/23 and Storied Objects until 9/3.

PRESS RELEASE: Karen Dawson at Back Room Gallery in St. Johnsbury

The Back Room Gallery at the Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild in St. Johnsbury presents Color Moves, an exhibition of Karen Dawson's oil and acrylic paintings. On view from March 9 through April 26, these spirited, energy-filled images give new meaning to "landscape painting." The subjects are familiar local scenes, far away places, and intimate close ups of the natural world, interpreted in vibrant color and lively forms.

There will be an artist's reception on Saturday, March 13 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. The public is invited.

Karen Dawson says "Color leaves language and theory in the dust! Color is arresting when it is right."

She credits her mother, an art teacher, for her wonderful color observation and color use. She says, "a little bit of all colors in every color became part of the fabric."

Dawson lives and works in Burlington, and exhibits throughout Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire She says, "for the last 18 years I have been operating a visual art studio in the Lakeside Neighborhood, in Burlington, Vermont, with 30 to 50 paintings in the works at any given time. During the warm months I paint outdoors. Studio refinement takes place in the winter, and in the run-up to exhibitions! I wish to 'be the kind of person on whom nothing is lost,' as John Keats once advised. Everything feeds my art, not the least of which are the 4 art classes a week I have been facilitating at the local correctional center since 1998. Through all of my work I hope to promote empathy, and a world view in which entropy and emergence can coexist; and most of all, HOPE. We need an injection of sanity into our lives, and art can do that for us all.

Among her favorite artists are Emily Carr, Wayne Thibaud, Friedenreich Hundertwasser, and Frank Gehry.

The Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild, 430 Railroad St., St. Johnsbury VT 05819
802-748-0158 www.nekartisansguild.com
Open Monday - Saturday, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm

Image: Yesterday at Lake Willoughby, oil on canvas, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: Art at the Bistro

Art At The Bistro Presents;

"Through The Window" New Paintings by Liz Kauffman

Winding Brook Bistro 933 Rte. 100C, Johnson, VT info: 802-635-9950 Show Dates March 10 – April 30, 2010

Local Johnson Artist, Liz Kauffman, is the featured artist at the Winding Brook Bistro from March 10- April 30.

The opening reception is on Wednesday, March 10 from 4-6pm. Hors-d’ouvres served and cash bar provided.

Liz uses the combination of color, texture and line to create her abstracted landscapes. Liz’s imagery is taken, in part, from her most immediate environment, the Vermont landscape. From the ever- changing beauty she pulls fragments of the color, horizon and geographical masses to create her own landscapes... “the sensual, fragile figures are the foundation throughout my drawings and paintings”. This vocabulary remains the source of her energy to create vibrant, moving paintings.

Over the past four years Liz has worked as a resident staff artist at the Vermont Studio Center. In addition to working at the Studio Center, Liz has been teaching local children’s art classes as well as teaching classes at the Helen Day Art Center. She was born in Allentown PA, lived her childhood in Northeastern Ohio and received a B.A. in Fine arts from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.

WALKABOUT: S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington

by John Andrew Cipriano

Having just recently moved to Vermont from New York City, where I spent much of my time working in the art world from museums to Chelsea galleries, I must admit I was uncertain I’d ever be in a crowded art gallery on a Saturday night surrounded by people sipping on white wine intelligently discussing the artwork in front of them. I wasn’t even certain that Burlington had any significant art galleries or people who truly appreciated them.

Well, I was proven wrong after my experience at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery located at 266 Pine Street, just seconds from downtown Burlington. Once the home of Dorn’s Venetian Ginger Ale, the so-aptly named Soda Plant has had a history reaching back nearly a century. Once simply an empty soda warehouse, converting the space into an artist collective environment was the brainchild of Christy Mitchell, a Vermont native for the past 5 1/2 years. Before the move to Vermont, Christy lived in Savannah, Georgia, where she attended The Savannah College of Art and Design studying Metals & Jewelry. One day back in April 2009, after staring into the recently abandoned warehouse, Christy dreamed up the gallery and studio collective that is now the S.P.A.C.E. and it has grown in popularity and success ever since.

That Saturday’s festivities included the Release Party of est & burly bird, a set of literary and visual art zines, and the closing of the immensely successful Small Works show which originally opened On December 4, 2009. The S.P.A.C.E. Gallery’s next show, Love in 2010, presents a select group of artists’ perspectives on love in honor of St. Valentines Day.

Christy is not simply satisfied with the occasional exhibition or party, however, and has great plans for the Gallery in 2010, so stay tuned for more amazing exhibits and wholly creative performance pieces. Most every studio space has been rented by an amazingly talented group of young artists and the gallery/exhibition spaces are to be expanded in 2010.

By the end of the evening, I forgot I was hundreds of miles from New York and I think I’ve found a new home in the ever-changing S.P.A.C.E. Gallery.

REVIEW: Sabra Field at Chaffee Art Center in Rutland

By Peter S. Wallis

Since 1969, Sabra Field’s passion for the Vermont landscape has led her to a rich exploration of printmaking in her studio in East Barnard. She is one of the most compelling contemporary printmakers presently working in the medium here in Vermont, and her exhibit, Cosmic Geometry and Other Recent Prints, is at the Chaffee Art Center from February 12-March 21, 2010.

After completing a degree from Middlebury College and earning an M.A.T. from Wesleyan University she was awarded an honorary P.H.D. from Middlebury College, where a permanent collection of her work is housed. Field teaches printmaking workshops in Tuscany and shares the work with the Vermont community. Her subject matter evokes muses of Italian and Greek art history but is steadfastly grounded in a certain sense of place here in Vermont. Field’s strong connection to the Vermont landscape allows her to express the subtle beauty of the state. Her bold graphic elements create an allegory of pastoral moments with an economy of mark and accuracy of gesture Her style is distinctively her own. In an era where digital mediums are taking over many art practices, Sabra’s careful meditation with printmaking materials continues the thoughtful tradition of block printmaking with a deep reverence for the Vermont landscape.



Throughout the ages artists have had a tremendous impact on the political, social, and environmental constructs of the world we live in. Individual artists have dissolved political systems, created social dialogs, and have been a voice for the oppressed. Artists of many different practices have fostered messages of peace and prompted social change. Singular minds and gestures have been a voice for human suffering in a world overwhelmed by environmental degradation, as well as political and social injustices. Artists find themselves often wondering how they can inspire change and social awareness through their work.

In that same vein Sabra Field’s Pandora Suite series exercises the artist’s role as activist and continues a thread of thoughtful protest in her current work. She works in a long tradition of artists dealing with overcoming human suffering and war through visual art.

This current body of work reflects her own contemporary take on the Greek Myth of Pandora’s Jar. The piece entitled Suffering, included in this series, invokes the mother and dead child of Picasso’s famed Guernica mural. The work also alludes to Goya’s Horrors of War series, with echoes of Mary Cassatt’s tenderness, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s monumental flowers and landscapes.

This work reminds us how deeply suffering and war are ingrained in the human experience that we all share. Pandora Suite digs deep into our collective consciousness to engage the viewer with the difficult issues of warfare, inequality, and suffering. Eventually themes in this series are overcome by compassion, culture, love, hope, and wisdom and leave the viewers to draw their own associations with the contents of Pandora’s Jar. This is a very powerful series, with large expressionistic figures whose earth-toned palette suggests they mayhave been carefully carved and rendered from Pandora’s Jar itself. The work is as bold as it is charged with a compassionate sensibility.

Also in the show is a series titled Cosmic Geometry, interconnected moments, subtly suggesting Fibonacci’s golden ratio and forms in nature as well as architecture. This work is an interesting departure from her depictions of the Vermont landscape, expressing an interest in relationships and similarities through patterns and symbolism and offering up some interesting juxtapositions. This body of work certainly connects the microcosmic world with the macrocosmic. Sabra Field’s work at the Chaffee ranges from moments of quiet contemplation of the Vermont landscape, to patterns and similarities in natural and man-made systems, leading to Pandora’s Jar brimming with human experiences of war and love we all share.

I asked Sabra Field some questions about her artwork and her thoughts about artmaking in Vermont.


P.W. Who are the printmakers that most inspire you?

S.F. Leonard Baskin and Carol Summers

P.W. What effect do you feel individual artists have on fostering and transmitting messages of peace in the world?

S.F. Only a few greats like Picasso and Goya rise above the level of amateur propaganda to depict human tragedy. The rest of us try to make images, which will separate ourselves from violence and identify ourselves with the good guys... failing to understand that both are part of human nature.

P.W. In a time when younger artists are making a mass exodus to larger cities in hopes of better opportunities and jobs, what advice do you have for younger artists who have chosen to stay here in Vermont and are struggling with a state with very little opportunity for artists and craftspeople?

S.F. Truthfully, I wasn't aware of this "mass exodus". I would say it's always been a struggle. One must make one's own opportunities as well as take advantage of what exists. For instance, when I arrived I began doing craft fairs. I also made friends with another artist and together we put on exhibits to benefit non-profits.

The advent of the internet kind of negates the necessity of being one place or another, doesn't it?


The show is on view at Chaffee Art Center from February 12-March 21, 2010

Art Hop Reception: Featuring Music by John Spencer, Friday, March 12, 5-8 pm

Closing Reception: Gallery Talk and Tour with Sabra Field, Saturday, March 20, 2-5 pm

Chaffee Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 10-5, Sunday: 12-4 pm

www.chaffeeartcenter.org
www.sabrafield.com