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.

PRESS RELEASE: Chicks and Ducks and Geese . . . Oh My! at Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild in St. Johnsbury

From June 22 through August 7 the Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild will host a multi-media exhibition celebrating the diverse world of poultry. The public is invited to meet the artists and enjoy wine and cheese at a reception on June 26 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. The Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild (802-748-0158) is located at 430 Railroad St., St. Johnsbury and is open Monday-Saturday from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm.

Artists from the Northeast Kingdom and across the state will express their joy and delight in chickens of all shapes, colors, and sizes, as well as ducks and geese domestic and wild . . . and maybe even emus, guinea fowl, and wild turkeys. Here a chick, there a chick captured in ceramic baking dishes, felted place mats, block prints, paintings in watercolor and oil, hooked rugs, and sculpture. Some of our best photographers will present stunning photographs of wild ducks and geese. If you love to watch the antics of your back yard chickens, if you have ever had your socks nipped at by a couple of domestic geese, if you thrill to see a flock of wild turkeys grazing in an open field, if a raggedy ribbon of honking geese makes your heart skip a beat, this is a show you won't want to miss.

Image: Strutting by Kitty O'Hare

PRESS RELEASE: Annette Lorraine at the Governor’s Office, Montpelier

Release: Immediate

Date: June 3, 2010

Contact: Tracy Martin, Assistant State Curator

802 828-0749

tracy.martin@state.vt.us

Annette Lorraine, Mixing it Up: a land conservationist blends watercolor and work at the Governor’s Office for June and July.

A show of watercolors by Annette Lorraine will be on display at the Governor’s Office on the fifth floor of the Pavilion Building in Montpelier, through July 29.

A real estate attorney by day, Annette Lorraine works to conserve rivers, farms, woodlands and trails. She is passionate about the sky, water, soils, and the people who keep Vermont’s land-based economy alive. An artist by night, Lorraine resides in Peacham, where she uses the same waters that run through our rivers to moisten her palette. “Earth’s minerals” she notes, “become my pigments.”

This dual life, reminds the artist “that diversity is good: in ecosystems and society, work and play. I splash color, a little light, and a lot of hope for our fragile yet resilient state.”

Annette Lorraine will donate 10% of all sales from this exhibit to the Vermont River Conservancy, “protecting exceptional lands along our waters.” www.vermontriverconservancy.org. She encourages support of all Vermont nonprofits dedicated to protecting our special places.

The Governor’s Office gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A photo ID is required for admittance.

REVIEW: Hall and Stohlberg at T.W. Wood Gallery and Arts Center in Montpelier

By Janet Van Fleet

The T.W. Wood Gallery and Arts Center space, located on the campus of the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, is the biggest and most elegant exhibition facility in central Vermont. However, shows there have often not looked their best because the historic building’s owners insist that nothing be affixed to the walls, so paintings have to be hung on long wires hooked to picture rail. Why is this a problem? Because it doesn’t allow framed work to sit tight to the wall, the tops lean away from the wall and there are always those distracting wires sprouting above every work. But the current exhibit at the Wood is one of the best I’ve ever seen there, in part because panels (left in place following the annual high school art exhibit) are suspended from the rail to allow wall-mounted work to actually be affixed to the wall; this is a clean, beautifully hung show.

Of course the work itself is the primary concern, and it is top-notch. Catherine Hall’s wax-covered objects and Axel Stohlberg’s constructions are extremely compatible. Each artist has half the large gallery space, and all the work is confident, perfectly executed, engaging, and beautifully arranged. Interestingly, both artists’ three-dimensional work is figurative (Hall: faces, Stohlberg: houses), while their two-dimensional work is primarily abstract.

On the gallery’s east wall Hall shows ten wall-hung cases of faces in plaster, gouache, and encaustic wax, titled with reference to their colors (Turquoise Faces, Yellow Faces, etc.). At the end of the row, Spotted Faces draws us across to the west wall, and what Hall describes as her most recent work, eight encasements of faces in black, white, and subtle earth colors. This is a series of pieces called Fossil Faces and Broken Faces that seem to me her strongest work, primitive in feeling, that suggest early human works of plastic art in clay and stone. The surface treatment employs lines, dots, and craquelure.

Fossil Faces I, in particular, with its tight grouping of small and large heads (many mottled, as though with pox) is particularly powerful, a display thick with dotted faces in a splendid variety of textures and varieties of black, white, and grey.

On the south wall of the gallery, Hall shows two pieces that are much more lighthearted, like a trip to the toy store – Menagerie (2007-2010) and Doll’s Clothes and Cabinet (undated).

Axel Stohlberg's side of the Main Gallery is dominated by two large structures, including a set of accordion panels with a profusion of 33 pieces he calls Marquettes (below). These gems are for sale at $65 each, and many had already been sold when I visited shortly after the opening. Which brings me to another need to digress: Why is it that three-dimensional work is always priced relatively lower than drawing and (especially) painting? Is it because people are more inclined to buy something that doesn’t take up much room? Do people think it takes more skill to make paintings than sculptures? Is it the notion that only painting is “real” art? I don’t know, but I keep seeing this disparity, for example in Stohlberg's pricing in this exhibit...


But back to business: In the northeast corner of the gallery Stohlberg has created a dramatic installation called BIG HOUSE (at right), constructed of wood, windows, and screen doors. On the inside, the words HOME, HOUSE, NEST, and SHELTER are inscribed with china marker. This wonderful construction is monumental in size and concept, while at the same time delicate and fragile, much like familiar childhood memories of home.

In other medium-sized pieces mounted on pedestals, houses teeter precariously on wobbly structures, are studded with nails, or scoot away on wheels. Stohlberg has a genius for finding and using found objects, making them (with the addition of wire, tiny plastic figures, or odd bits of hardware) achingly tender statements of psychological truth with a side helping of humor and playfulness. That’s not something that many artists can pull off.

In this same corner, all Stohlberg’s two-dimensional work also employs the House theme, grouped by media, including reworked monoprints, acrylic and graphite, china marker on black paper, oil pastel, and charcoal. Houses tumble, multiply, and drift out of focus. In Yellow II and Night Light, a house actually appears to be acting as a beacon, radiating light. Again, Stohlberg dishes up some profound stuff about home-and-hearth (and what they refer to, such as the self, stability, “home is where the heart is”, etc.) in a subtle sideways fashion, without preaching or over-determining. Other 2-D works, on the west wall, are from his series of boats, canoes, and vessels.

The South Gallery, a smaller room behind the large Main Gallery, contains nine mixed media pieces by Stohlberg, two on the theme of the four seasons, while Hall’s 14 pieces called Icons use oil, glass beads (such as are used on reflective signs), and gold leaf. These works are loose grids of intense pigments with incised lines and a subtle sheen from the glass beads. Six small vertical icons make a pleasing grouping, emphasizing the soft vertical bands of color. Also holding them together as a group is the inclusion of a rectangular area of cadmium red in each image, which causes the eye to flit around from one red spot to another until it comes to rest in the lower right piece, where the red is softened and sweetened by an overlay of the ground glass beads.

This is a great exhibit to move through in whatever order you please, and the journey will be decidedly worthwhile. Catherine Hall and Axel Stohlberg’s work will be on exhibit at the T.W. Wood Gallery and Arts Center in Montpelier from May 25th to July 18th 2010. Hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 12-4. I’ve found that sometimes on weekends the gallery may be closed, so you might want to call 828-8743 to make sure before traveling a distance.

Images: Top (visitor viewing Catherine Hall's encasements) and bottom (The exhibit artists, Catherine Hall and Axel Stohlberg) courtesy of Kevin Beauchamp. Remainder: Janet Van Fleet

PRESS RELEASE: Fleming Museum Summer Opening Reception, Burlington

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 5:30 - 7:00PM

Director Janie Cohen and the Board of Advisors of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont invite you to the Summer 2010 Reception celebrating our three special exhibitions: A Centennial Celebration: The Art of Francis Colburn and Ronald Slayton Storied Objects: Tracing Women's Lives in Vermont Picture Yourself: The Photobooth in America, 1926-2010 This reception is free and open to the public and features free hors d'oeuvres and cash bar. Regular Admission. IMAGE: Francis Colburn (1909-1984). Charlie Smith and his Barn, c. 1939. Oil on canvas, 29" x 34", Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vermont 2004.67

PRESS RELEASE: "Art from Life" to Open at Feick Fine Arts Center, Poultney

POULTNEY - In her art, Vermont artist Linda Durkee seeks to "celebrate the power of beauty and communicate the energy of joy." "Art from Life," an exhibit opening at Green Mountain College's Feick Fine Arts Center May 24, features her mixed media collage. The opening reception is June 4 from 5 - 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

Linda, who returned to Vermont in 2001, has been a painter for 29 years. She studied art privately in Washington D.C. while juggling work as a journalist at the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington D.C. She also served as a speechwriter at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and from 1998 - 2000 led a global communications effort at the U.N. Environment Program in Geneva, Switzerland.

Linda's work is included in private collections in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. She has been featured in solo and group shows at venues across Vermont and in Washington D.C. and Chicago.

"In my paintings and collages, I combine vibrant colors with dynamic shapes to capture landscapes and mindscapes," she says in her artist statement. "My pen and ink drawings speak to intellectual and emotional journeys. I am engaged in projects to combine my art and writing."

The Feick Fine Arts Center is open from Monday - Friday from 1 - 5 p.m. "Art from Life" will be on display through June 25.

PRESS RELEASE: S.R. Wild at SEABA Office Gallery in Burlington

Work by S. R. Wild will be on exhibit at the offices of the South End Arts and Business Association (SEABA), 180 Flynn Ave, Burlington from June 1 - August 30, 2010.

There will be an Artist's opening on Friday, June 18th. 5:30 to 8:30 PM at the SEABA Office Gallery.

S.R. Wild primarily works in collage and assemblage. Much like the medium he works in, the subject of his work is a combination of experiences, failures, and observations presented in a self-deprecating, irreverent, contradictory, and humorous way. A collector of the damaged, decayed, and rejected; his materials are mainly found objects and ephemera gleaned from gutters and trash bins.

As a lover of language and typography, which stems from his career as a graphic designer, words and letters often appear in his work.
art + graphic design + junk www.srwild.com

PRESS RELEASE: Diane Gabriel and Sally Bowring at 215 College Gallery in Burlington

215 COLLEGE GALLERY in Burlington is pleased to announce a new exhibition titled, PLEASURE, by Vermont artist and photographer Diane Gabriel and painter Sally Bowring of Richmond, Virginia. The exhibition will open Friday, June 18th, 2010, and will continue through Sunday, July, 11th, 2010. All are invited to attend an opening reception on Friday, June 18th from 5 through 8 pm.

Ms. Gabriel and Ms. Bowring first met thirty-five years ago when they mounted an exhibition of their work in Moscow, Vermont. Soon after, Ms. Bowring relocated to Richmond, Virginia where she teaches painting at Virginia Commonwealth University. Despite the separation of several hundred miles the two friends, both graduates of Vermont’s Goddard College, have maintained a close relationship during the ensuing years. While never working in the same medium their current two-person exhibit is a celebration of lasting art and friendship.

For the current exhibition, PLEASURE, Ms. Bowring will be showing saturated, abstract paintings loosely inspired by food. Ms. Gabriel will be exhibiting archival pigment ink digital prints from an on-going series, titled Dreaming.

215 College Gallery is located at 215 College Street, in Burlington, Vermont. Gallery hours are Fridays from noon through 8 pm, Saturdays noon through 6 pm, and Sundays noon through 4 pm or by appointment.

REVIEW: Hugh Joudry at Gallery In The Woods, Brattleboro

by Arlene Distler

The sculpture and drawings of Hugh Joudry will be at Gallery In The Woods during June in a show titled “Visionary Art and Sculpture.”

Joudry has been going about the business of sculpting for many years, but staying under the radar, living a life more like a monk than a scion of the art world. He would not have it any other way. But it is also an exciting time for the artist. His work is getting attention from the “Outsider Art” movement, and soon will be featured in Raw Vision magazine.

Joudry is a mystic and a mathematician (in the winters he teaches math at the Mount Snow Academy), as well as artist. This multitude of beings somehow fit into a short but stout frame, topped by a shock of white hair. Although he’s in his 70’s, and complains he can no longer move logs as he once could, he nevertheless moves massive hunks of wood into and around his studio. He happily accepts the logs that people leave at his home. “People just bring me these great pieces of wood. A short time ago the Town of Stratton had to cut some Elms. They brought me the logs…I was thrilled because Elmwood is the hardest of woods, and lasts forever. Henry Moore used only Elmwood.”

The winter months are for sculpting as summers are taken up with the forestry work. There is the house’s porch, but most of the sculpting takes place in a yurt just outside the door. Clear plastic over a wood frame keeps out the elements. He’s kept warm, he says, by the heat created in just wielding the chisel and mallet against the hardwood.

When Joudry talks sculpture it’s just as likely to bring up the mathematics of the Golden Mean and Fibonacci harmonics, as Brancusi. In fact, he has written a book on the subject of these mathematical and mystical equations. But, says Joudry, “for me, it is constricting to think too much about this – in truth, as a sculptor, it is something I’d wish to arrive at, intuitively. If you pre-calculate it you’re dead.”

Joudry’s sculpture is far from dead! Dancing, lunging, striding, contorting, they inhabit their space with an assertive presence that seems as ancient as the shaman and modern as Giacometti. The “Great Cackler”, with its undulating lines and mass of smoothed and glistening birch, seems to be lifting its head right off its shoulders, reminding me of “the trickster,” that can be found in the myths of tribal cultures.

“Horus”, Joudry’s sculptural interpretation of the falcon-headed god of ancient Egypt, looks totemic but liberties are taken, especially with the lower half, an elongated spherical form with the middle carved out. These negative spaces, prevalent in many

of Joudry’s sculptures, he describes this way: “The holes serve as background to the resultant shape that forms around them, and there is a metaphysical reason too - that matter has the power to condense out of nothing except pure energy.” For this reviewer, the “holes” create a dance with the space…the pieces become ethereal, as if they are being formed before our eyes and can disappear just as easily.

He says he is especially fond of spirals in the wood, which many pieces take advantage of, such as “Wave,” “Warrior,” “Dancer,” or “Liberation,” the form wrapping around itself. He adds that the spiral has the added attraction of “a whole cosmology of rigorous mathematical thought behind it.” It is also an ancient symbol of the goddess, continual change, the life journey, and evolution of the universe, showing up in Celtic, Native American, Japanese art and culture, to name a few. Carl Jung calls it an archetypal symbol representing cosmic force.

In addition to the sculptures there are a selection of drawings in the gallery. Joudry’s drawings have elicited quite a bit of excitement recently, by, among others, the editor of “Raw Vision.” I am especially taken with the older black and white drawings. They have the muscularity and inventiveness of a Picasso, and are possessed of a stark and haunting presence. The artist compares them to “automatic writing,” writing that comes from the subconscious. But the newer ones, employing color, are intriguing for other reasons. Joudry says he is just “discovering color,” and the drawings are giddy with it. These newer drawings sculpt the flat plane bit by bit, as if the repeated shapes were marks of a chisel. They surround an embedded figure, the background as alive as the page’s protagonist. The artist works on them repeatedly, relating them to the sculptures he has in mind.

Straddling, like one of his long-legged sculptures, two worlds –– tribal-shamanic, and modern, Joudry’s work does not fit easily into a “school” or gallery-ready label. And yet they are valued for their originality and power, a vision that is untainted, as some see it, by art school training. This description of African sculpture well suits Joudry’s ouevre: In these carvings there is no mistaking the energy and playfulness with which the human body is turned, by confident distortion, into such a gallery of wonderful creatures.

It is a rare thing to have a show in town devoted to sculpture. Joudry’s work is not in the mainstream of the current cultural take on sculpture, which in recent years has been all about installation. Installation art can be cold and antiseptic and intellectual. Not that I have anything against intellectual. But I think we are very thirsty for the human factor – even bird-human, the fantastical human! These “wonderful creatures” say something about potential, about transformation, suffering and freedom. Joudry may not be in the mainstream but clearly he swims comfortably in the ancient ocean of soulful human expression.

Arlene Distler is a freelance writer on the arts, based in Brattleboro, Vt. Contact arlene@arlenedistler.com for more information. Review first appeared in the Brattleboro friday gallery guide “Gallery Walk.”

PRESS RELEASE: 100 artists at Penny Cluse Cafe, Burlington

One hundred artists will participate in WATER, a group show, at Penny Cluse Cafe, Burlington, for the month of June.
The art show is curated by Laura Green and Karyn Vogel, both Essex residents. "We had been talking about organizing a show for years," says Green. Green and Vogel gave each artist one 6"x6" wood panel on which to create their piece. "Artists were free to use the medium of their choice, including paint, pencil, charcoal, photograph, fiber, or mosaic. We love the range in a group show like this. One artist is submitting stained glass which will hang in the window," says Green. The project was inspired by Jordin Isip and Rodger Stevens' Panorama Project and Dime Bag 3 art shows, which brought together large, diverse groups of artists with a unifying device (the Panorama Project utilized a horizontal line running through the entire body of work). In WATER, artists' work is connected by the small square format and the topic. "Water is such an important part of our lives," says Vogel. "and a finite resource on our planet. We drink the same water the dinosaurs drank millions of years ago. It's something to celebrate and protect."

The majority of participating artists live in Vermont, but other geographic locations are represented as well, including New York, California, Pennsylvania and Ohio. An artists' reception will be held Friday, June 4 from 7-9pm at Penny Cluse Cafe.

The show will travel to the Brownell Library in Essex Junction for the month of July, to coincide with their summer theme: Water.

A list of artists is available at http://karynvogel.com/water. Artwork will be viewable online in June.

PRESS RELEASE: Steve Hogan at VCAM in Burlington

On exhibit at VCAM, 208 Flynn Avenue 2-G, from June 1 - August 30, 2010:

HOGIE GOES BANANAS:
The Lowbrow Art of Steve Hogan

Opening on Friday, June 18th, 5:30 - 8:30 PM.

Can art be fun and in your face at the same time? Drawing from a misspent youth, Steve channels hazy memories of Goofy Grape drink mix, Saturday morning cartoons, second-hand sixties mod, Japanese monster movies, old album covers and supermarket package art (His Dad worked at A&P) to try and create pieces that redefine their surroundings in a more playful fashion. "Cartoony art for cartoony people" is his motto.

Self taught, Steve has spent the past 12 years as an animator and commercial illustrator, creating art for children's educational software, books, magazines, newspapers, t-shirts, concert posters and other media. Steve also makes comics, with work appearing in alternative anthologies and on the internet. His strip "Acid Keg" was nominated for a Cartoonists' Choice award and was selected by The Webcomics Examiner website for its "Best of 2004" list. Strips from it were included in the Barron's educational book Webcomics: Tools and Techniques For Digital Comics. Slathering paint on canvas is his newest thing.

PRESS RELEASE: A 10 Year Retrospective: Sage Tucker-Ketcham

Event: A 10 Year Retrospective: Sage Tucker-Ketcham

Where: The S.P.A.C.E Gallery, 266 Pine Street, Suite 105 Burlington, VT 05401

When: Opening June 4 5pm-9pm

Contact: Sage Tucker-Ketcham: Phone: 802 578-5763 Email: sagetk@hotmail.com

Website: www.SageTK.com, www.spacegalleryvt.com

Fine artist Sage Tucker-Ketcham will be displaying her work at The S.P.A.C.E gallery in Burlington, Vermont June 4- June 26. The work will be a selection from the past ten years.

“Her new works reveal her increasingly sophisticated process: Tucker-Ketcham works and reworks her surfaces with sanding, scumbling and glazing and applies paint in varied consistencies to build dynamism. Her bold use

of flat color in background fields is balanced by subtle passages of layering in the biomorphic forms that populate those spaces.”- Marc Awodey, Seven Days May 2010

Sage Tucker-Ketcham is a tenth generation Vermonter who has her BFA from Maine College of Art and her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has exhibited work at venues such as The Amy Tarrant Gallery, The Firehouse Gallery, Shelburne Museum (all in Vermont), ICA Portland of Maine, Hudson Walker Gallery, Provincetown Art Association Museum and Berkshire Community College of Massachusetts. These works and others have been reviewed in a variety of publications such as Art New England, Seven Days, artscope, The Burlington Free Press and community newspapers.

artwork:

above: Left VS Right 2000 Pen and oil on canvas 24 inch By 24 inch

below: Detail Field Study 7 2010 Pen and oil on Wood Panel 18 inch x 24 inch

Sage Tucker-Ketcham www.sagetk.com

PRESS RELEASE: Works by Gregory Gomez

The Brick Box at the Paramount is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit of work by Gregory Gomez on Friday, June 11. The exhibition brings together relief works, and charcoal drawings representing two themes that Gomez has been interested in for the last several years. Graphic images of Early World Maps and the footprints of old world Fortifications have each been translated to heavily-textured cast bronze with a dark patina. The charcoal drawings are of potential sculptural images and are created to explore the graphic weight of the found designs in contrast to the spaces between and around the imagery held in sculptural form. "What these images share is the genesis and evolution of their designs as determined and influenced by multiple factors, including: their function; human ordering and imagination; and the shape of the landscape in which they reside. They are each fantastic speculative intentions of an unknown world as well as designs in the landscape as protection from the unknown."

Gregory Gomez has recently been selected by the Vermont Arts Council as part of their Public Art mission to permanently install his work at the newly built Vermont Fire Academy Training Facility in Pittsford. Gomez worked in partnership with the Arts Council, Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services, the architects, building occupants and the local community to provide work that is responsive to the use of the buildings and its occupants. This project is expected to completed and installed at the Fire Academy in November of this year.

The opening reception will be held on Friday, June 11 from 5:00 until 8:00pm. The Brick Box at the Paramount is located at 30 Center Street in Rutland, Vermont. Exhibit of works by Gregory Gomez runs through July 5. 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: "Bailout" Ice and Penny Art Installation on the Vermont State House Lawn

Quint Welters will put his art piece "Bailout" on the State House Lawn on Thursday May 27th, 2010 starting at 8:00am. This installation is one of his projects that he has created as part of his education towards a Masters in Fine Arts in New Media from TransArt Institute. The medium used for this project is ice and 10,000 pennies and will be on display until it is completely deconstructed.

After growing up in Cabot, Vermont he moved to his parents/ homeland to attend college. After receiving his Bachelors in Fine Arts from ArtEZ in Enschede, the Netherlands in June 2009 he enrolled in the Masters degree program at the TransArt Institute. It is based on independent learning with two week residencies in Berlin and New York City. Last fall he returned home to Vermont and throughout the winter experimented with ice and snow to create his art pieces. "Bailout" is one of the works he created during this time.

"Bailout" was inspired by the current economic environment. Pennies are passed on the street on a daily basis and rarely picked up or saved. Quints piece shows that pennies may have more value than their reputation may suggest and the mere volume of pennies show their value from a different perspective. In this piece he has suspended 10,000 pennies in a block of ice. The public location was chosen because the core of Quints work is based on initiating narratives. As much as the actual ice is the artwork the reaction of the people that observe the meltdown of the ice is just as much part of piece itself.

Quint will be with "Bailout" until deconstruction is completed to be able to observe and engage with observers.


Contact:
Quint Welters, artist
QuintWelters@gmail.com
(802) 563-2462

REVIEW: Gregg Blasdel and Jennifer Koch at 215 College Gallery in Burlington

Panda’s Exercise
Collaborative Prints by Gregg Blasdel and Jennifer Koch

By Janet Van Fleet

There are 14 large collaborative block prints mounted in this exhibit at 215 College Gallery, six in the front room and 8 in the gallery’s larger inner room. Happily only one of them is framed, which allows unimpeded visual access to the rest of these engaging works.

In every piece, Jennifer Koch’s organic form (tooth? skeins of yarn? siamese cocoons?), carved on a large block of Shina plywood using traditional Japanese knives and a Dremel, appears in the same spot in the lower half of a sheet of Sommerset Heavyweight paper. Gregg Blasdel’s image (gem? router drill? head?), is printed on the upper half of the sheet using 38 pieces of cut birch plywood, each individually inked and then assembled in a custom tray for printing.

In each print the color used for printing the bottom image is also used as one of the colors in the faceted figure above. The challenge (and fun) for the artists was to decide which colors to choose and how to distribute those colors. In some pieces (such as Kansas Raspberry and Emerald Buddha) they used only one or two inks, creating further variation by inking one block with undiluted color, then inking a second (and even a third) block without picking up any more ink, creating progressively lighter values of the original color. In other cases (such as Untitled #11, shown at right, and Anthropology 1 and 2) that use completely inked blocks, they cruised magazines, exhibit cards, and artwork by interesting artists to assemble a palette of from 2-6 colors.

One of the pleasures of the exhibit is comparing pieces that use similar colors but employ the two different inking systems described above, such as Banknote (shown at left) and Silver, both of which are in the black/grey/white range, or several pieces using a variety of blues. Though similar in hue, very different effects are created, ranging from crisp to cloudy and evanescent.

It’s also interesting to compare the feeling-tones created by different color combinations. In most of the prints the bottom figure is printed in a dark pigment, creating a bit of a ponderous, serious tone. But in the few that are warmer and brighter – such as Untitled #11 (above) and Cherry (below right) – the feeling created is much bouncier. Cherry, which I found to be the most top-bottom integrated piece, is printed with only one color (modulated by the inking series method), also has (for unknown reasons) more white edges around the blocks, which recapitulates the striped red/white of the lower figure.

Another pleasure is speculating about what’s going on in these pieces. For example, what does the title, Panda’s Exercise, mean? One starts thinking about all the opposites and polarities in these prints: Panda ... black and white ... organic and angular, monochrome (below) and polychrome (above), male and female ... It’s hard to avoid focusing on the penetrating aspect of the top figure and the receptive quality of the one on the bottom. But wait, maybe the bottom figure is actually ejecting (or birthing) the upper one in a puff of crystalized breath? These works are the visual equivalent of an extended musical riff, and those shifting rhythms encourage the viewer to get into the act and play a little too.

Koch and Blasdel, who married in 2006, have been making visual music together since 2004, in a series of print collaborations collectively called The Marriage of Reason. It is comforting to know that they will continue to do so: During the course of printing Panda’s Exercise, the blocks began to break down at their points and, not ready to abandon the Panda project, Gregg turned them over and prepared the reverse sides of the 38 small blocks. They made one print with the refurbished blocks (if you look closely, you will find it in the exhibit), and plan to continue using them for a new series – tentatively entitled Panda’s Backside!

PRESS RELEASE: Garden Inspired at Art on Main in Bristol

Celebrate spring with an exhibit of artwork inspired by and created for the garden

Exhibit dates: May 15 - June 30
Reception: Friday May 28, 5-7pm

Featuring regular exhibitors and special guest artists as well as living art in an intimate, indoor garden space created by guest curator alena botanica, waterbury

alena botanica, tabbatha henry, nick mayer, raegan hough, sarah green, stacy bocskor, robert compton, laura gabert, cal williams, bethany farrell, aurora davidson, hannah roberts, jennifer ranz, heather stearns

Art on Main
25 Main Street
Bristol VT 05443
802-453-4032
www.artonmain.net

PRESS RELEASE: Bishop Street Artists Sale at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in St. Albans

Art in a church basement?
Yeah, right.

If that's your take, you're going to miss an opportunity Memorial Day Weekend, when the Bishop Street Artists (St. Albans) are holding their almost annual Art Show & Sale.

This is a beautifully informal and fluctuating group of artists who come together every Thursday morning to work. No Robert's Rules, no Board of Directors, no officers, no business meetings; just watercolor, acrylics, oils, collage, and on-going experimentation in an atmosphere of curiosity and passion. Except for Thanksgiving, and maybe an occasional Christmas, they are always there, in the basement, the door of which opens onto Bishop Street. The synergy of the group and dedication of the members results in a show with a wild variety of styles and subjects--enough for everyone. Definitely should be on your list if you are in the area:

St. Luke's Episcopal Church (top of the Park in St. Albans)
At the Side Door on Bishop Street
Friday & Saturday, May 29-30, 2010, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Artists' Reception: Friday, May 28, 2010 6 - 8 p.m.
(Lots of food -- no wine; hey, it's a church!)

Image: Dream House by Beth Maginn

PRESS RELEASE: Helen O'Donnell at 7 The Square in Bellows Falls