April exhibits and a gallery presentation by artistic wood turner

Edgewater Galleries in Middlebury continue to exhibit “Tools of the Trade,” a group exhibition featuring Tom Dunne, Kate Gridley, Duncan Johnson and Peter Kirkiles.

Ways of seeing: My year of the Rabbit

In my painting studio, next to the window, hangs an image from an old art calendar that my mother passed on to me: Albrecht Durer’s 1502 drawing of a young hare.I use this drawing when I teach. Kids love it for its realism (and cuteness). Adults marvel at … (read more)

Review: A ‘Candide’ like no other

I have just emerged from a screening of Opera Company of Middlebury’s (OCM) brilliant retelling of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide.” The signature tune from the overture filling my head, I cannot get over the feeling of giddiness from two hours of sustained … (read more)

Ways of Seeing: Pandemic shrouds family’s loss

Six years ago, at 5 o’clock in the morning on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my dad died. He was in his bed at home at the edge of the woods, five miles outside a northern Connecticut town. Outside: five inches of fluffy snow. A muffled world: with no b … (read more)

Ways of Seeing: Pandemic pops the artistic ‘bubble’

Someone asked me to talk about what it’s like to paint in a “bubble” during the pandemic.  A bubble. My studio? My white privileged life? Vermont? Outside the north window of my studio is the new vegetable garden we have been eating out of for a month now … (read more)

Ways of Seeing: Finding hope in this scary time

I was a child in New York City. Have you seen the pictures of the white tents in Central Park across from Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC? The tiny humps of rock, where I used to run and play with my best friend Susan in sight of our mothers, but far enough a … (read more)

Ways of Seeing: An animacy of language

I remember a conversation that I had with my father when I was about ten. I asked, “Why doesn’t anyone remember what it was like to be a baby inside the womb? It’s not like it was that long ago, and we were all in there once…” His reply was something I ha … (read more)