Catamount Arts is pleased to present Stone Songs, an exhibition of painting, paper sculpture and handmade books by artist, educator, and poet Sharon Kenney Biddle in the Rankin Gallery. A special artist reception will be held on Saturday, September 16 from 5-7 pm with artist talks beginning at 5:30 pm. All are welcome to attend.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: Sensitive to the rhythms of the natural world, artist Sharon Kenney Biddle finds inspiration in landscapes full of rock and stone. Going beneath their hard surface, she imagines them bursting with color, song and remembered history. At the heart of this exhibition is Kenney’s handmade book Stone Songs, in which the artist uses a mix of hand-decorated paper, calligraphy and collage to expose the essential character of her chosen subject. A skillfully crafted binding combines an accordion fold and sewn tab binding, while the cover and interior pages display various examples of painting and marbleizing technique. Inside the book, shaped cuts of charcoal paper that reference prehistoric stone circles in Avebury, England and provide shelter for the poem Kenney has inscribed.
Stone Songs, by Sharon Kenney Biddle
The stones have songs they sing at night
Of northern lichen-covered cold
And south side’s warmth that meets the earth
To shelter early opened blooms.
They’re songs that only stones can sing
Of moss and men and chiseled oghams
Of runes and Latin long incised
So worn it can’t be read or known.
When slow-eared moderns touch the stones
To feel the surface carved in signs,
The stones seem still and solemn then
Mere granite made for walls and tombs.
But stones at dark remember songs
Revealing ancient histories,
Until the sun calls up the crows
And silences stones’ harmonies.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Artist, arts educator, and writer Sharon Kenney Biddle graduated with a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and has made her living as both artist and teacher. A former Artist-in-Residence at St. Johnsbury Academy, she taught in the Danville public schools for many years before retirement. Active in her community, she has served on numerous boards and is currently a member of the Catamount Arts Education Committee. Biddle’s studio practice includes painting, drawing, sculpture, and hand made books. She now lives and works from her home in East Ryegate, VT.