Autumn 2020 Exhibition - Catamount Arts

StJ Art on the Street Autumn Exhibition, a celebration of the arts and artists who live in the Northeast Kingdom.

We are so lucky to have such talent right here in our community. Six artists, Benjamin Barnes, Naomi Bossom, Tara Goreau, Laura Heijn, Anni Lorenzini, and Trenny Robb are featured. Anni Lorenzini coordinated several of these artists. The Community COVID Discovery Quilt is also on display as well as our inaugural free Scarecrow Competition beginning on Saturday, October 24th with great prizes. For more information go to stjhalloweenparade.com. The Autumn Exhibition will be showing until November 18th; at that time our Winter Exhibition, NEK Starlight, will be installed.

StJ Art on the Street is a public art project to bring beauty by filling available storefront windows in downtown St. Johnsbury. This project involves collaborations between the community volunteers who make up the Window Warriors, part of the St. Johnsbury Chamber of Commerce; Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild; Catamount Arts; the Town of St. Johnsbury; 142 Eastern; Garrett Property Management; Aine Baker; and Rural Edge. STJ Art on the Street was designed by Craig Harrison, who is based in Peacham.

Benjamin Barnes is from Colchester, and lives in St. Johnsbury, where he works as a librarian at St. Johnsbury Academy. He has a bachelor’s in fine art from the Massachusetts College of Art and has been a painter of Vermont for decades. His work can be seen at The Miller’s Thumb, The Craftsbury General Store, and The NEK Artisans Guild. Charles Trotsky is an imaginary person. 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 be seen at The Miller’s Thumb and The Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild. Ben’s work is featured at 418 Railroad Street.

Naomi Bossom 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 SAGA, Society of American Graphic Artists 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. Naomi’s work is featured at 446 Railroad Street.

Community COVID Discovery Quilt sponsored by Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury Chamber of Commerce, and The Yarn Bank. Community members of all ages were invited to craft a square that answered the question, “What have you discovered or learned while staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, something that brought you joy, inspired you, something you may pursue after life goes back to ‘normal’?” 16 squares were submitted and assembled into a “quilt”. Participating creators were: Judith Cesari, Newbury; Misty Colby, Lunenburg; Sally Crocker, St. Johnsbury; Nola Forbes, St. Johnsbury; Midi Ana Franklin, Lyndon; Wisteria Franklin, Wheelock; Indigo Griffith, Lyndon; Jess Griffiths, Bethlehem, NH; Janice Halpin, Newark; Judith Hutchinson, Kirby; Alyssa Korol, St. Johnsbury; Linda Palmer, Lyndon Center; Jo-Ann Reed, St. Johnsbury; and Cindy Robertson, St. Johnsbury. The quilt is on display at 142 Eastern.

Tara Goreau is a large-scale artist whose vivid murals have inspired and reflected communities locally and abroad. A graduate of St. Johnsbury Academy, Tara traveled extensively before returning to Vermont. She studied ecology and sustainability at the University of British Columbia, volunteered to help build a school and to engage children in mural painting in Swaziland, and studied at The Design and Arts College of New Zealand. After earning a BFA at Johnson State College, she focused her attention on the Vermont landscape, its societal trends and concerns, to create pieces she considers funny, poignant, or interesting. Tara, in collaboration with students at St. Johnsbury School, Concord School, Newark Street School, and Walden School, and sponsored by Catamount Arts, created the 16-panel “Musaic Project” mural, depicting four seasons and four genres of music. Fall panels from “Musaic” are featured at Shatterbox, 166 Eastern Ave.

Laura Heijn grew up in Massachusetts and studied art and English Literature at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at Harvard University in Cambridge. She came to Johnson for a Vermont Studio Center residency in 1993, returning there for a staff artist position the next year, and has lived in Johnson ever since, raising three children, running a small dairy operation, and painting the scenery surrounding her home. Laura’s work is featured at 446 Railroad Street.

Anni Lorenzini lives in Waterford and graduated from Northern Vermont University in Johnson. She went on to study at the Vermont Studio Center and received a Resident Artist Fellowship. Recipient of Grants, Juror, and Popular Choice awards, her work is found in museums and private collections. Anni’s work is featured at 418 Railroad Street.

Trenny Robb left the New York area in 1970 and bought a place in Sutton. She handcrafts one of a kind copper and brass lighting. Lampshades are created using real leaves, petals, mica, fabric, parchment and more. She began work in 1980 with Victorian reproductions and restoration work, and now takes inspiration from the Arts and Craft era, and everything in between, creating period lighting and design work of all types. Trenny’s work has been exhibited in shows and galleries in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. Trenny’s work is also featured on our locally created banners showcasing local artists’ work that reflects a variety of visions and traditions. Funding for printing the banners was secured through a community grant program from ShareYourself.com and Front Porch Forum. Trenny’s prints can be seen at 452 Railroad Street.

Do you need more art?

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. If you haven’t taken a moment to tour the gallery now may be the time to take a pause. The Athenaeum is located at 1171 Main St. Open M, W, F 10-4, T, TH 12-4, Sat. 10-2. 802-748-8291.

The Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild joyfully presents About What Remains: Works by Sharon Kenney Biddle, October 1–November 21, 2020 In their Back Room Gallery. The work in watercolor and othr media explorers “…remnants, ‘Old Stuff’ and all the things we seem to leave behind.” Many people in the Northeast Kingdom know Sharon Kenney Biddle as their elementary or high school art teacher at Danville School. Many others throughout New England know her also for her professional work as a teaching and exhibiting artist and workshop presenter and her extensive gallery exhibitions. Her decades of community work, with Catamount Arts and local education and marketing committees, is part of her far reaching influence in the art of living and giving. The exhibit pairs the paintings with assemblage and handmade books, “structures I’ve used over decades to extend and vary surface effects in my work. The pieces that come out of this process seem to naturally pair with the watercolors. Sometimes even short poetry takes its part.” The Guild is Open Daily W-Sat from 11am to 5pm at 430 Railroad Street.

Whirligig Brewing 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 Fri 4-8pm, Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 12-6pm and is located at 397 Railroad St.

Check out St. Johnsbury’s newest mural by ARCY unveiled at the Grand Opening of the Three Rivers Path Trailhead by Town Manager Chad Whitehead. 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 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 Emma McGuire’s lovely artwork at Cosmic Cup Cafe – Good Coffee/Good Art. Emma McGuire is a self-taught visual artist from the Barrio of Tucson, Arizona. Emma’s love for art and animals began at a very young age. Her passion was nurtured by the arts-rich curriculum at Flagstaff’s Pine Forest Waldorf School. She then continued to refine her skill in the advanced placement art program atSt, Johnsbury Academy. Her favorite things to paint are predators such as wolves and foxes, capturing their soft and innocent, yet occasionally unsettling appearance. She says, “To see the beauty in everything is a wonderful gift, and i believe we should all strive to do so.” Cosmic Cup Cafe is open M-F 7am-4pm, Sat 8am-4pm, Sun 8am-1pm and is located at 139 Eastern.

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 Fairbanks Museum & 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 M-F,10am-5pm and is located at 1302 Main Street.

Please consider purchasing art as one of the many ways we can keep this incredible vibrancy alive in St. Johnsbury! Contact information for artists is available at all of these locations.

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.

Thank you for the donations of sap buckets from Pearlmont Farm and corn stalks from Ben Gates to decorate downtown.