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Art Resource Association: Local artists strut their stuff

By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff – Published: November 20, 2009
For more than a decade, the Art Resource Association has been showcasing the work of its membership – a diverse bunch of central Vermont visual artists – often at Montpelier’s T.W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center.
“I think that this is the best ARA show that [...]

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Southerly Exposure: Cutting a riff: Rural art and human anxiety

Once in New York City I had a conversation with an art therapist about the nature of visual art from rural areas versus that of cities. My theory, at the time, was that art born of constant cultural clash, of societal grit, of the rage of the human spirit against concrete — that is, born of the city — often had more of a touch of dynamism and immediacy. I argued that prevailing trends in city galleries could be counted on to have continuing relevance because they inform our understanding of culture’s evolution on different levels. Even if there’s an aesthetic distaste in the eyes of the work’s spectator, the work will have the undeniability of exploration — whether the phenomenon being explored is in the artist’s head or arising from a cultural pastiche.

In contrast, rural galleries often seemed fraught with the mellow remnants of an inconsequential dream: hazy landscape paintings, sculptures of animals, and semi-functional decorative bits offered to an already-cluttered universe.

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Osher learning

The Rutland Area Osher Lifelong Learning Institute’s fall lecture series is held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Friday afternoons at the Godnick Adult Center, 1 Deer St. (off Woodstock Avenue) in Rutland.

“American Art Since 1900 – The Rise to International Dominance” continues with Russell Housman presenting “The Abstract Expressionists — New, Fresh, Exciting, Imposing, Rising astride the World of Art” on Friday. Growing out of the previous 50 years of American art movements come the Abstract Expressionists. The new New York school looms over the world of Art and a new world of art business is born and thrives today.

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Photographer featured at Brick Box

The Brick Box at the Paramount will host the opening of an exhibit of manipulated Polaroids by Lowell Snowdon Klock on Friday.

Polaroid manipulation is one of a number of alternative photographic processes used by photographers. After photographing the ordinary and often mundane, Klock’s final image is achieved by manipulating its slow setting emulsion and creating unique and varied results. This technique blurs the lines of traditional photography. Delineation is diffused and often expresses more of a feeling rather than structured composition.

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Osher learning

The Rutland Area Osher Lifelong Learning Institute’s fall lecture series is held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Friday afternoons at the Godnick Adult Center, 1 Deer St. (off Woodstock Avenue) in Rutland.

“American Art Since 1900 – The Rise to International Dominance” continues with Dr. Russell Housman presenting “Post World War II and Manhattan – The New York Explosion of the Arts” on Friday, Nov. 6. Following World War II, New York City, with its great museums and private galleries, becomes the Mecca of the Arts and spawns numerous artists.

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Chaffee marks parade’s 50th anniversary

Published: October 22, 2009

The Chaffee Arts Center in Rutland will host a special exhibit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rutland Halloween Parade

The Chaffee has developed an exhibit that pays tribute to the parade and Tom Fagan, who introduced the superhero theme that immersed Rutland into the world of comic books as the setting for various superhero activities.

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James Gahagan celebrated at Johnson

JOHNSON – “Crazy Acres: An Homage to an Artist and Teacher James Gahagan” opens Saturday and closes Nov. 21 at Johnson State College’s Julian Scott Memorial Gallery. The public is invited to an opening reception on Saturday, 4 to 6 p.m.

In the summer of 1971 a small group of young artists arrived in the Woodbury area to begin their studies in painting and drawing with James Gahagan. Some came from New York City (many were students from Pratt Art Institute) to live in tents in the wilderness. They set up their easels in a geodesic dome, and shared their meals in a screen tent. In the woods they were to draw from nature, swim in the pond, and attend life drawing sessions in the dome each weeknight.

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Sover Scene: Tis better to shop Main Street

In our current economic spiral and with the holidays upon us, it is human nature to gravitate toward the discounts, clearance sales and brand name bargains that populate the papers, airwaves and ether. Hip ads on TV, pithy jingles on the radio, coupons in the dailies and pulsating banner ads online all beckon us to save, save, save yet spend, spend, spend.

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Middlebury College displays collection of Chinese art

MIDDLEBURY — One scroll bears a simple picture of a section of bamboo, the leaves each rendered in a single brush stroke.

Another holds a series of intricate landscape paintings telling the tale of a woman kidnapped by nomads.

“Artists and Ancestors,” a private collection of work by Chinese artists on display at the Middlebury College Museum of the Arts, will remain on display at the museum through Sunday.

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