Evoking Spring: Catamount Arts is pleased to announce a new StJ Art on the Street exhibition, “Evoking Spring,” which will run from March 7 through May 28. The spring exhibit will showcase the work of Northeast Kingdom artists and is available for free viewing in downtown storefronts and windows on Railroad Street and Eastern Avenue in St. Johnsbury. Seasonal StJ Art on the Street shows promote community celebration of art in an accessible, safe, socially distanced manner.
Artists featured in the “Evoking Spring” show include Bob Manning, Curran Broderick, Frederick and Frances Alger, Arista Alanis, Nanine Beard, Keith and Florence Chamberlin, Craig Harrison, Crystal Matthew, and Carolyn Hawkes, as well as Naomi Bossom, Cynthia Steil, and Carol Lebarron in a special group show. Information about the artists and their work, including purchase details, is available via easily accessed QR codes in the window displays.
Call for Haikus: Community members are invited to contribute to StJ Art on the Street’s downtown beautification project with original haikus. Anyone of any age who wishes to contribute is invited to pick up a paper circle at Boxcar & Caboose, Cosmic Cup Café, or Moose River Lake and Lodge. After writing a haiku on their paper circles, the circles can be dropped into a designated plastic tub at the front door of Catamount Arts at 115 Eastern Avenue. Haiku circles will be pasted to St. Johnsbury storefronts as part of PoemTown St. Johnsbury, a satellite site for Montpelier’s PoemCity, celebrating National Poetry Month every April.
PoemTown St. Johnsbury is a collaboration among Catamount Arts, the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, and the St. Johnsbury Chamber of commerce, with special thanks to Bill Tulp for the PoemTown St. Johnsbury sign. For more information about PoemTown St. Johnsbury, including additional events celebrating National Poetry Month, visit www.catamountarts.org/show-and-events/poem-town.
StJ Art on the Street is a public art collaboration among the Window Warriors volunteers of St. Johnsbury Chamber of Commerce; Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild; Catamount Arts; Caplan’s; the Town of St. Johnsbury; 142 Eastern; Garrett Property Management; Aine Baker; Rural Edge; and Northern Express Care. StJ Art on the Street is brought to you by a Vermont Community Foundation Spark Grant and support from the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Curators Group, and Maple Groves Farm of Vermont. For more information about StJ Art on the Street, including the artists featured in “Evoking Spring,” visit www.catamountarts.org.
St J Art on the Street received a Spark Connecting Community Grant from the Vermont Community Foundation. Spark! Connecting Community grants put building and nurturing community front and center. We aim to support grassroots work that builds social capital—our communities’ connective tissue. Social capital can be described as the value developed from working together, connecting across social networks, and sharing common place-based experiences. The more social capital a community has, the stronger and more resilient those communities will be, providing desirable places for us to live, work, and play.
StJ Art on the Street is featured in Vermont Curators Group – 2020 Vision: Reflecting on a World-Changing Year, showcasing online exhibitions and events demonstrating how 2020 changed our state and our world.
StJ Art on the Street gives a heartfelt thank you to Maple Grove Farms for sponsoring this project! Thanks to their generous support we will be purchasing easels that will be available for artists to use in future exhibitions.
St J Art on the Street gives a heartfelt thank you to Caplan’s for outfitting the Northeast Kingdom for 95 years. Caplan’s has generously donated their front window space for the spring Art on the Street exhibition.
StJ Art on the Street Evoking Spring Artists
Curran Broderick, featured at the Caplan’s Gallery on 457 Railroad Street, was raised in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and introduced to photography when his shop teacher transformed the classroom to a darkroom. Broderick learned by trial and error to expose pinhole cameras and develop paper negatives under red safe lights. The magic of seeing photographic prints appear in developer still fuels his creative process today. Broderick studied English Literature and Photography at The University of Vermont. A year later, he obtained an MFA in Photography from The Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied nineteenth century historic photographic processes. After graduating, he served on the adjunct faculties at RISD and Northeastern University.
Broderick’s work has been exhibited nationally at galleries, in magazines, and on websites. His photographic prints have been shown at: ClampArt, Gallery Kayafas, Tilt Gallery, The Chace Center Museum of Art, The Rhode Island Convention Center, Atlantic Works Gallery, Artistree, and The White River Craft Center. His work has been published by The Best of Burlington, 100 Mile Radius, Ain’t Bad, and Rfotofolio.
Bob Manning’s legacy is honored with a collection of his work at 142 Eastern Gallery on Eastern Avenue. Manning attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1951-1953 prior to entering the United States Army in 1954. Manning finished his education at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and earned a BFA with honors in 1958. He later achieved an MA in Studio Arts from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, in 1970. He founded the Department of Fine Arts at Manchester Community College, developing it over 30 years into the serious and highly program it is today, continuing his legacy there.
Manning had a passion for studying Stonehenge and other Neolithic monuments. His love for ancient stone monuments was not only reflected in his art; he also researched and lectured on the subject in numerous public venues including Dartmouth College, the Fairbanks Museum, and Northern Vermont College. His artwork has appeared in both solo and group shows at countless events such as the Benton Museum at University of Storrs, CT; El Museo del Arte in Lima, Peru; the Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT; the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; and at Catamount Arts and the Artisan’s Guild, both in St. Johnsbury, VT. Manning was a long time, loyal board member and early developer and curator of the Fried Family Gallery at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, VT. He was a vocal and very active spokesperson for the arts throughout his long career.
Cynthia Steil is featured in the Evoking Spring group show at the Garrett Gallery at 462 Railroad Street. Originally from the Boston area, Steil lives in Ryegate with her husband Gil. Steil comes from a family of artists: her grandmother, Florence Bryant, was an oil painter; her great uncle, Franklin T. Wood, was an etcher; Rufus Porter, another great uncle, was a muralist. Her daughter Rebecca has a pottery studio, and daughter Jennifer is a novelist. Cynthia’s first job after college was as a cataloger at Harvard’s Fogg Museum of Art.
Naomi Bossom is featured in the Evoking Spring group show at 462 Railroad Street. Naomi lives in Lyndonville. She graduated with a BFA from Columbia University and is widely known for her expertise in printmaking. Naomi is a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) and has been exhibited nationally. She exhibits regularly at Catamount Arts and the Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild, as well as numerous other venues. Naomi is a contributor to Arts Connect at Catamount Arts, a program that places original artwork in area nonprofits.
Frederick Alger is featured in the Railroad Street Gallery B at Northern Express Care. Frances and Frederick Alger started collecting driftwood washed up on local beaches 55 years ago while on their honeymoon. The Algers continued walking the beaches and collecting until retirement when they started producing driftwood art on a large scale for sale and for charity. Frances and Frederick consider some pieces of driftwood real treasures in their interesting design and history. “The waves, wind, sand, rocks, worms, and sun do the artistic work. We are just the collectors,” say Fred and Fran. They reside in Barnet, Vermont.
Arista Alanis is featured at the Rural Edge Gallery at 418A Railroad Street. Her paintings, drawings, and monoprints are derived from the landscape. Places and experiences take on significant meaning: Vermont’s landscape in all its seasons, the tides on the coast of Maine, or travels to new places with her sister and family. The artwork is not about specific places, but about significant moments that ignite a feeling of being alive in the space. The formal structures of nature directly experienced, or recalled, give her work the solid foundation upon which she improvises abstractions. Alanis’s personal experiences in nature are realized in the medium of the paint, and the intensity of emotion is physically put forth through the movement/marks of the paint. Originally from Texas, Alanis has been on staff at the Vermont Studio Center (VSC) for the past twenty-four years. She received an MFA from Louisiana State University, and a BFA from Texas Woman’s University. She is currently the Community Arts Program Coordinator at VSC.
Nanine Beard is featured at the Rural Edge Gallery at 418B Railroad Street. In 2015, Nanine Beard was introduced to the brush and mentored by a Colorado artist who specialized in encaustics. Upon returning to Vermont from that visit, she supplied herself with the basics for acrylic painting and hasn’t stopped since, going larger and larger as she explores color combinations, paint movement, collage, and texture. Beard is primarily self-taught and enjoys the process of coming to the blank canvas with or without ideas and watching the process unfold naturally without too much thought process. She has been selected 3 times by the annual Catamount Juried show, and had her first solo show at Peacham Library’s Gilmore Gallery.
Beard has lived in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont for the last 15 years where she has been a single parent, raising her daughter while enjoying running her own landscape and gardening business.
Florence and Keith Chamberlin are featured at the Caplan’s Gallery at 457 Railroad Street. Florence grew up in Queens, NY, and spent her early years in awe of her surroundings. Whether hanging out on the block (Turnpike, really), roaming the streets of the City or chilling and working at the beach, photography was a hobby. With her acceptance to Lyndon State College, she hoped to make it into a career of some sorts. As it turned out, her love for photography led her to the love of her life. Married to her instructor for over 40 years, they are a lifetime team, soulmates, business partners and proud parents. Florence has run a letterpress and silkscreen shop, worked in youth services, written grants, helped establish Flek, Inc., in 1997 and Elements Restaurant in 2003. In the meantime she has continued to view the world around her with an eye to the beauty and irony around every corner. Exhibited here are some recent works taken on her iPhone. Keep your eyes open to your surroundings and always be in awe. Keith moved from upstate New York to Vermont in 1973 to attend Lyndon State College. He never left. Since 1977 he has worked as a photographer, graphic designer, writer and marketing consultant. He is a partner at Flek along with Florence and Amy Hale. He is grateful to have been able to carve out a career doing what he loves. Photography remains as much a passion as a profession, now 45 years into his career. In his personal work he concentrates on everyday subjects, often at home: the sorts of things we pass by without a second thought – ordinary beauty.
Carol Dashnau LeBarron is featured in the group show, Evoking Spring, at the Garrett Corner Shop Gallery at 462 Railroad Street.She says, “I am mainly an introvert. While I am challenged to find words to express myself, visual art succeeds in becoming my voice. Expressing myself through art, both practical and aesthetic, also fulfills a need to demonstrate my creative essence. I am an accomplished seamstress, have dabbled in weaving, spinning, dyeing, knitting, rug hooking and braiding, costuming, quilting, silk painting, leather bags and belts, watercolor painting, pencil drawing, ceramics, mosaics and stained glass. Fiber, in its many forms, has consistently been a thread throughout my life and felting with the raw fiber is easily a natural path for me to follow. Its properties are ingrained within my continuing discovery, making its exploration all the more fun. Within the felt medium, I sculpt, make containers, rugs and “paintings”. Both wet and needle felting are incorporated in my pieces.”
Carolyn Hawkes Riley is featured in the Railroad Street Gallery B at Northern Express Care. Hawkes Riley resides in East Burke, Vermont. She is a full time artist and mother to daughters Eloise and Imogene. Growing up in Maine, home was split between Portland and Carrabassett Valley, where she was shaped and influenced by the ocean and the mountains. Hawkes Riley has a deep love for colors, design, and patterns, coupled with an appreciation for the small details of flora and fauna. Her artwork is an outlet to highlight and share those elements. Fish, both saltwater and freshwater are Hawkes Riley’s subject focus, their colors and patterns being vastly diverse and vibrant.
Craig Harrison is featured at the Caplan’s Gallery at 457 Railroad Street. After graduating from Boston’s New England School of Art & Design, Harrison spent the next several decades expanding his creative horizons. He founded the first advertising agency focused solely on the burgeoning bike industry, then moved to Zion National Park in Utah, where he developed a deep appreciation for the unique challenges of tourism-centered communities in naturally wild places. Upon returning to the east coast, Harrison worked in marketing for several bike industry brands before hanging out his shingle as a designer, photographer, illustrator, copywriter and all around creative guy. He currently works for clients as close as St. Johnsbury and as far away as Madrid, Spain.
Since 2011, Harrison has managed the Gilmore Gallery at the Peacham Library, staging new exhibitions of local artists on a regular basis. And he even had time to create the logo for StJ Art on the Street.
Crystal Matthew is featured at 166 Eastern Avenue. Matthew is a painter and author from the Northeast Kingdom. She was born in Vermont but spent most of her adult life in England and Florida. Growing up, she created t-shirt designs for a local screen-printing company, and illustrated a children’s book. She attended Art Instruction Schools while attending high school, and then moved overseas to receive a British Technical Diploma in Graphic Design and Fine Art at Sheffield College in England. In Florida, she worked as a makeup artist at Disney World Resorts, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld. Matthew then moved to Fort Myers Beach, FL, where she worked for a local artist creating murals in preconstruction homes. Upon moving back to Vermont with her family, she continued to do her art as well as writing three books which are now published on Amazon. She operates a karaoke company locally and enjoys writing and creating commissioned artwork for clients.
Do you need more art?
The Frame Dames at 415 Railroad Street are featuring Under the Moon Felting in their storefront windows. Fiber artist Amanda Weisenfeld creates works inspired from nature out of felt, using Vermont-produced wool whenever possible. The Frame Dames are open Monday through Thursday from 9:30-5:30, and Friday and Saturday from 9:30-3:30.
Most of us know that St. Johnsbury is home to an active arts community, which boasts of the regional and national treasure, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. Dominating the gallery from its inception has been the magnificent canvas, ten feet by fifteen feet, The Domes of the Yosemite, by Albert Bierstadt. The Athenaeum is located at 1171 Main Street. Gallery is open Monday through Friday 10-5, and Saturday 10-3. 802-748-8291.
The NEK Artisans Guild at 430 Railroad Street announces an exhibit to welcome the arrival of spring: Poems in Pattern, Light & Color featuring paintings by Alice Kitchel. Kitchel knew from early childhood that she wanted to be an artist, filling her indoor time drawing, coloring, and painting, to capture the spirit of what she saw outside. She grew up on a farm in the Northeast Kingdom, loving the fields, woods, brooks and ponds, the sight, feel and colors, in all weather, at all hours, and in all seasons. She set aside the childhood dream to be a ‘real’ artist, although she did major in art history in college. Alice began working in tapestry and handloom weaving, and working for a drapery and upholstery company in New York City. Working with textiles sensitized Alice to the power of color and the eloquence of proportion and pattern. She then went on to become an art therapist and mental health counselor.
Memory of that childhood desire never left her, and now Alice has returned to her first avocation, taking up the brush to become that painter again, a hunter of beauty in the natural world right here in the Northeast Kingdom. Alice writes in her webpage:
“My work reflects my thoughts and feelings about the natural world around me. I want to convey, with color, light and pattern, the beauty it offers.” Alice is drawn to a scene, which she finds not just beautiful, but which compels her to paint it, to capture the mystery “hidden” in the scene. “I want people to SEE the landscape, appreciate it, and endeavor to care for it.” The Guild follows Covid-19 sanitary precautions for your safety and health. The Guild is open 11-5 Tuesday-Saturday.
Whirligig Brewing at 397 Railroad Street is proud to announce their premiere exhibit with HARLAN MACK. Harlan is a multidisciplinary artist based at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. He employs blacksmithing, steel fabrication, painting, and oral storytelling to build an expanding, constellated narrative that invites viewers and listeners into an imaginary future. This world is generated and inspired by Harlan’s life experience, exploration and thoughts around identity, labor, perception, contemplation, fiction, community, emergence and afro-futurism. Harlan’s recent body of work incorporates brightly painted reclaimed wooden fence and blackened forged steel, constructed into symbolic references depicted within his narrative future. Harlan’s use of forged steel faces and animal figures plays as a distilled reference to the elements of complex individualities within a moment lived. Through this type of distillation and combination, Harlan invites the viewer to contemplate and revive the potential of disuse as a cornerstone to what comes next. Whirligig is open Friday 4pm to 8pm and Saturday 11am to 6pm. Gallery open to the public; only to-go beer at the moment, with sitdown service coming soon. Visit their website https://whirligigbrewing.square.site/ or check their Facebook page for the most up to date hours. Harlan was recently featured in 7 Days! Check out the article HERE.
Check out St. Johnsbury’s newest mural by ARCY at the Three Rivers Path Trailhead Pavilion. The mural was commissioned with the assistance of an AARP Grant. ARCY has been defining his skills for over a decade as a street artist known for his large scale, paint-splashed style. As he travels the globe, ARCY continues to demonstrate his growing desire to leave his mark wherever he goes, giving back to humanity through public art. The Pavilion itself is worth a trip to view St. Johnsbury’s first example of modern architecture. The Three Rivers Path Trailhead is located on Bay Street across from the Ide Building.
Take a moment and head over to Central Cafe and appreciate Shaun Terhune’s stunning photography, including a 72″ Franconia Ridge metal panorama. Shaun grew up in Vermont, home to rolling green mountains, cows, and maple trees and tin sap buckets. He claims it’s hard to sum up his childhood in the Northeast Kingdom, where he was raised and his family still lives in the log house they built there. Many formative happy years were spent on their little homestead. Shaun now lives with his wife Elisabeth and works his craft in northern New Hampshire – their personal idea of paradise. His history with the White Mountains goes back to his teen years, when he regularly hitched rides into the wild places to experience a remoteness and ruggedness he couldn’t find anywhere else in the East. Central Cafe is open 8am-4pm, closed on Tuesday and is located at 418 Railroad Street.
Check out the artwork of Chuck Trotsky at Cosmic Cup Cafe located at 139 Eastern Avenue. Reputed to be the alter ego of a respected realist painter, Charles Trotsky mixes nostalgia with sharp contemporary twist in his paintings. They shift the boundaries of time and space. He has now been a popular artist in the Northeast Kingdom for almost 10 years. His work deals with pop culture and current events, with an interest in context shift and anachronisms. His work can also be seen at The Miller’s Thumb and The NEK Artisans Guild. Cosmic Cup Cafe is open M-F 7am-4pm, Sat 8am-4pm, Sun 8am-1pm.
Bill and Kim Darling are co-owners of Gatto Nero Press in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. They have both taught visual art at St. Johnsbury Academy, an independent high school, for over 20 years. Bill Darling was born in White Plains, New York in 1955. He studied painting and printmaking at The Art Students League of New York. Bill teaches and works in diverse mediums, but intaglio printmaking is his passion. Kim is a visual artist with studio and teaching practices firmly rooted in observational drawing. She has worked in a variety of mediums, including oil and fresco painting and “Moving Drawing” video installations. Her current studio work is mainly in intaglio printmaking. Kim’s educational background includes a BFA from Alfred University in Alfred, New York; extended study at the Art Students League of New York, of which she is a life member; and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont. Teaching is an important part of Kim’s artistic practice. Gatto Nero Press Studio and Gallery host exhibitions, teach workshops and create and publish intaglio prints. In 1996 Bill and Kim founded The Intaglio Society at St. Johnsbury Academy, and for the past twenty years have brought their students to Florence, Italy. Gatto Nero Press located at 190 Eastern Avenue and is open by appointment, contact Kim Darling at kdarling@StJacademy.org.
The Golden Gallery is the studio of Larry Golden, located at 1567 Memorial Drive. The gallery features mostly Golden’s landscapes and plein air paintings. Golden also has a series of paintings featuring the landmarks and buildings of Railroad and Main Streets. Golden, who has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Anselm College and a Master of Arts degree from the Pratt Institute, has also taken classes at the Art Students League in New York City, the Reilly School of Art in White Plains, New York and the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Connecticut. He has participated in the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont and has had numerous shows in the Gallery at Catamount Arts. Golden taught art at St. Johnsbury Academy for 45 years. Golden works primarily in oils, creating landscapes and exploring nature. Hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 10:30-4:30, and by chance on Monday and Tuesday.
The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium presents Inside Out: Hidden Art in Natural History Collections as part of the 2020 Vision: Seeing the World Through Technology, a statewide initiative of the Vermont Curators Group. This exhibit lets you see beyond the surface of our taxidermy collections. This intriguing exhibit is a collaboration between the Fairbanks Museum and Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH) that peels away our surface understanding of objects to reveal what’s inside. This unusual concept combines radiographs of some of our oldest and most mysterious taxidermy with contemporary portraits of the same mount. What’s revealed are the bones, wires, pins, and human touch in mounts created by different taxidermists using different equipment to achieve life-like representations. The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium is open W-Sun,10am-5pm and is located at 1302 Main Street.
For more local art there is the gallery at Artful Eye at 443 Railroad Street open M-F; 10am-5pm and the selection is always changing.