Our Mission:
The Arts Collective works collaboratively to ensure that there are
opportunities for artists with lived experience of mental health
challenges to connect, create, and exhibit work. We strive to create a
supportive, non-hierarchical community that fosters mutuality, creative
expression, and empowerment. We value the transformative power of the
creative process on a personal, social, and systemic level, and we
acknowledge that we are stronger when everyone has a voice.
The Art Tribe presents varied impressions on the theme of CONTRAST in this exhibition at FlynnDog Gallery. This work ranges from abstract to representational in a variety of media including watercolor, oil, acrylic, photography, fabric, and recycled and found objects.
The Art Tribe members are Melanie Brotz, Annie Caswell, LaVerne Ferguson, Kara Greenblott, Billie Miles, Lynne Reed, Kelley Taft, and Beth Young: eight women dedicated to supporting and encouraging each other in making art.
“My multidisciplinary work combines object art, visual poetry, ceramics, painting, photography and textile art; developing in the last years installation projects, where the poetic space takes center stage.”
Merche Bautista is a Spanish artist and poet currently living in Mexico. She is also an art teacher in different institutions of the CAM (Autonomous Community of Madrid) and in the UQROO (University of Quintana Roo, Mexico.) She organizes workshops in the Tuukul Art Laboratory (artist’s studio open to the public, to create identity and culture, social transformation through education, art and creativity). Bautista obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, having specialized in Painting. She currently works in several mediums and has exhibited all around Spain, Mexico, France, and the U.S.A. She focuses much of her energy toward female identity within the world of art.
January – February 2017
Larry Ribbecke and Emily Stoneking
Inspirations and Labors
November – December 2016
New Work by Karla Van Vliet
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New Work by Lily Hinrichsen
Coming Out of Darkness TOWARD LIGHT
Artist Statements:
Lily Hinrichsen
To be physically or emotionally in a place of darkness can be daunting, fear-inducing, and rife with anxiety. At least for me.
The inability to see clearly.
The unknown possibilities lurking beyond my reach.
And yet, these are the very attributes I relish in my studio practice.
Sitting with these Unknowns ironically moves me eventually into clarity, definition, and ultimately – completed works of art.
These new works are no exception.
The square has become a boundary for me to work in and around. It grounds and stabilizes the myriad of snapshots revealing themselves as clusters of circles, wandering lines, and dots of French Knots.
Light and lightness tread delicately across the white surfaces in the form of fine lines, hand sewn paths, shades of yellow, and even the spaciousness of the paper itself. The color yellow draws me in . . . and out — much like a Full Moon, a setting sun, a bonfire.
Mystery, Illumination, Warmth
are words that come to mind as I move toward light in these mixed media pieces.
Karla Van Vliet
As a girl I was introduced to the Quaker concept of the light within. I imagined a lit candle burning within me and was greatly comforted by the thought.
The light within, the lit candle, an illumination of the self from within the self. The quiet presence of divine energy, as the Quakers say it. A place of meditation, waiting and what arises there, out of the darkness, into the flickering light of consciousness.
Out of Darkness: Toward Light.
These new pieces have the feel of being uncovered by that light. And also, that they are stepping forward into that light, to be seen at last. They have a kind of ancient feel to them, portraits of women, women who have historically not had a voice, a record; I am making their record, each with her own expression, her own selfness.
I use a technique I call scored painting. I score into a gessoed surface and then through a process of applying thin layers of paint and then lifting them from the surface. This fills in the scoring and creates an etching-type look. The thin layering of many colors gives the pieces their atmospheric feel lending to the introspective nature of the pieces.
Karla Van Vliet
September – October 2016
South End Art Hop – Open all day Friday September 9
Art Educators Unite is a group of 18 Vermont art educators who support each other in their personal art making. We meet monthly to share our artwork and to help each other work through the challenges of making art while juggling busy teaching and personal lives.
The group includes Dorsey Hogg, Jenn Hart, Jenn Volansky, Carol Crosby, Michelle Badji, Barb Crandall, Dee Christie, Julian Bradshaw, Mags Conant, Ann Joppe-Mercure, Anne, Cummings, Deb Mager-Rickner, Lisa Bird, Krista Connolly, Alice Tregasar, Beth Coleman, Dodi Gomez, and Tina Logan.
Curated by Dorsey Hogg
Opening reception: Friday, September 30, 6-8pm
Exhibit through October
Piece #1 – Plastic Ocean (working title)
Piece #2 – Trapped in the Gyre (working title)
Not So Famous Cities Series – Burlington Vermont – Acrylic on canvas $500
A Solo Art Show Celebrating Beauty and Humor in Contemporary Art
Introducing The Not so Famous Cities Series
Spending time painting between Austin, Texas and Calais, Vermont, Azarian has produced a collection of paintings in various stages of completion. Azarian, a Vermont native who now resides in Austin, Texas, likes to describe his paintings as cute, colorful, humorous, a non-conceptual stream of consciousness works of art. All works for this show were painted in 2015 – 2016.
1 August – 1 September
“Oblivious to the art world at large and ignoring current artistic trends Azarian’s atypical approach to art and lack of formal training make for a refreshingly out of touch hopelessly original artist” -Austin Chronicle 2012
https://arteindigena.wordpress.com/2006/12/27/inty-muenala-pintor-kichwa-de-otavalo-ecuador/
Exhibit June 3 – July 29
Opening Gala Friday, March 18th 6-8pm
Exhibit March 1 thru April 30
new work by Thomas Dunn
An exhibition of work created during a recent residency at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson Vermont
“In Retreat” is a collection of over 25 paintings and works on paper completed while the artist was on retreat at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. They include a series of 10 works on paper called the “Full Moon Series”. The series is a monochromatic set of works in white, black, and greys that involve imagery based on prophetic dreams with a mystical feel, complemented by florals that evoke romance reminiscent of the roaring twenties.
The “Full Moon Series” is paired with over a dozen individual paintings on canvas. The paintings are often completed in a square format and range from iconic Vermont architecture such as barn-like structures and churches to waterfalls, florals, village scenes and figures. Most of the paintings were approached from memory or from using on-site drawings, with a few selected works completed en plein air. The paintings vary in color palette, medium and level of abstraction. The common link among all the work is an expressionistic style that responds directly to both the inner world of the artist, and the retreat environment.
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Radical Empathy is an exploration of issues of race through photography by artist, economist, and professor Stephanie Seguino <http://stephanieseguino.com> . In this work, Seguino is moved by a question posed by philosopher Anthony Kwame Appiah, “What do we owe strangers by virtue of our shared humanity?” Perhaps the single most important debt we owe strangers is our willingness to see and respond to their humanity.
And yet, when it comes to black men, stereotypes serve as blinders that obscure our vision. The images in this exhibit reflect on those stereotypes and the underlying humanity of black men in the artist’s life. They include both faceless and frontal portraits, and serve as an invitation for viewers to reflect on their own projections onto people they may not know but feel compelled to judge.
A reflection on the humanity of black men in Vermont ~ (WCAX interview)
Works Both Ways is a unique collection of work by free range artists who are also writers.
Sharon Webster + Roger Coleman + Genese Grill + Marian Willmott + Jon Turner + Merche Bautista + Bren Alvarez + Tina Escaja
Works Both Ways works are inspired by both the visual and literary arts within new and classic media.
curated by Sharon Webster
a preview
1.
Marian Willmott exhibits a new series of luminous, richly colored, oil paintings along with evocative excerpts from her poems. Willmott’s work is landscaped based, and begins in what the artist calls “the place of poetry.” Her sensual compositions are a joyful feast for the eye, mind and soul.
2.
Sharon Webster presents a new collection of many-textured, many-layered assemblages that are sometimes a meditation on language as metaphor, and sometimes an exploration of the nature and suggestive qualities of the tools of language.
3.
Jon Turner exhibits two large 2 feet x 4 feet pieces of handmade, hand-designed paper transformed from fibers that were once something else. He also presents one smaller letterpress print. In addition, he may surprise us with something new!
4.
Genese Grill presents “Almandal Grimoire: The Book as Magical Object,” a room-sized illuminated book/portal that consists of ten large panels, 4 by 8 feet each, inscribed with beautiful, hand-painted essays on the history of the book as a magical object – and contemporary ideas about materiality and the virtual world. It is egg-tempera on paper, mounted on panels and bound with wood and fabric.
5
Tina Escaja works in the intersections of poetry, gender and technology. She presents a work in progress: “Poesía LED/LED Poetry” of a series of voice-activated LED poetry and an installation of the first “Poesía robotica/Robot Poem’
6.
Roger Coleman exhibits new and current mixed media paintings. In the artist’s words,“The surface is a build-up of latex slathered on a recycled cabinet door or other surface. After that I start the painting with acrylics. Many influences go into this part of the process. Radio. Music. Books. Newspapers. Journals. Bird song. Rain, snow telephone interruptions. Lots of things are open. And I use whatever to keep me going.”
7.
Merche Bautista presents new highly personal, hand-stitched fabric art imbued with sensual imagery that reflects the magic and richness of her adopted home in Mexico.
8.
Bren Alvarez revisits Snapshot ~ a powerful installation of black & white portraits of a dozen immigrants whose trajectories transcended diverse international borders in the journey toward home in the Burlington community. A bilingual book is in progress along with an abstract work that reflects hope for more permeable and humane borders than those that currently divide our planet.
painting by Genese Grill
Un Bestiaire á Notre Image A Bestiary in Our Image ~ Masks and Paintings by Anne Massicotte
Observations in Abstraction ~ Steel Sculpture by Gerald K. Stoner
opening reception during the ArtHop
opening Reception Saturday, December 12, 6 to 9 pm
This show exhibits the thesis work of three recent graduates from the RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Jacob Sienkiewycz, Abigail Stoner, and Cameron Breck, whose investigations pull from shared beginnings in Vermont and their individual studies. Through their work they ask the question: how do the traditional ways of making and thinking fit into the modern world?
Abby Stoner
Jacob Sienkiewycz: By demonstrating the force that nature still holds over humans, Jacob is showing a return to an idealized past; one in which human sprawl and needs have not extended too far. It represents a past where people have not destroyed over half of the world’s forests. A time when our fish stocking programs haven’t cross-contaminated species out of existence. It is a pure, natural state. There is a balance of power in which nature controls. Most in the industrialized world lack a fear of nature. They feel too safe and secure in their homes and cities. This work shows that nature can still produce fear in people. It has a grasp on humans and it will not let go.
Cameron Breck: Wood spans between the human realm and the natural world. Trees are organic, living, and intelligent; while human ingenuity can transform the material of trees (wood) into many things, much is lost from the material’s original state. By understanding trees, one can better understand wood, and in turn better understand how to build with it. This body of work is part of a continual investigation and pursuit in understanding material, structure, form, and space all in relation to our human experience. Cameron Breck
Abigail Stoner:
We need stories, as much as the story needs us, the body, to tell of it,
the story is how we exist, a means to express
this is how we give ourselves, pulling out what is in,
here, giving ourselves, sharing,
projecting, sounding.
connecting us, grounding us.
We are held in the world by stories,
we too dance between the known and the unknown.
a beautiful place to be,
there is space here,
But, this has been lost somewhere, this sounding.
There is this obsession with the image,
the perspective, in lines and dots floating in space,
the eye has been overworked, and the hands and the ears,
the nose, the mouth, the body has been forgotten.
This is a project of past, a studying of an archaic part of our being, lost.
the resuscitation of story, to fill the space with story.
Bicycle
The Road to Duchity captures my time working in community development in rural Haiti.
My goal was to show a side to Haiti that wasn’t often portrayed in the media following the earthquake.
The stories that these photos tell are stories of happiness, community, strength, and hope.
Some of my photos also tell a story of Vermont Haiti Project – a local organization working to bring education, clean water, and other community based projects to Haiti.
Remigio & Tiger
With this show I hope to introduce a new group of Vermonters to Puerto Cabezas, Burlington’s sister city on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua.
The Burlington/ Puerto Cabezas relationship was initiated by the Burlington city counsel in 1984.
What we discovered was an extraordinary region whose history and cultures were vastly different from the predominantly Spanish side of Nicaragua.
Many of my photographs show “Port” in those most ordinary locations where people gather, while others highlight poets, artists, and musicians whose works provide unique insights into the character of the place.
The sister city program invites residents of Burlington to connect with their Nicaraguan counterparts.
I’d like viewers from this show to find that invitation irresistible.
For more information, www.uvm.edu/sistercity <http://www.uvm.edu/sistercity>
Video interview with Dan Higgins at FLYNNDOG in January 2016 by Meghan O’Rourke
Opening Gala Friday, March 18th 6-8pm
Exhibit March 1 thru April 30
For humans, the world is a reflection of our consciousness, which is limited by our nature. The world exists beyond us and our knowledge. This exhibition is an experiment that attempts to open a door to the unknown in nature and in ourselves.
Midori Harima will show new sculptures that reflect her experiences in Vermont, where she first visited in 2003 to participate in a show at FLYNNDOG that was curated by Gilbert, and now visits frequently.
“I see things in Vermont which I have never seen in my life in the city. The darkness of a night not lit by artificial light is one of them. As the sun goes down, surfaces disappear and other elements emerge. Trees become pitch black masses and their existence become stronger. I am going to make sculptures such as fallen leaves and small creatures, and putting surface information aside, I will focus on the structure and atmosphere of them.
Emiko Sawaragi Gilbert will show her series of leaf prints.
“The leaves are found in the forest a decade ago, as a fallen leaves around where I live in Vermont. I wished to preserve the beauty of their life without my influence. I choose the newest technology- ink jet printing by computer for that reason. This re-presentation just became possible at that time by developing of computer technology around 15 years ago. The images are high resolution digital print made from direct scans of leaves. I hope they will help us to recognize our limit of understanding and knowledge of the nature.”
see 1.22.14 review in 7Days by Kevin J. Kelley
March 4 – March 21.
Reception Friday March 14, 5 to 8:00 pm
For more information read the SevenDays article.
The HowardCenter Arts Collective is a collaborative art movement where clients and employees of the MHSA (Mental Health and Substance Abuse), a branch of the Howard Center, come together to create and display visual art. This opportunity invites individuals to feel free to engage in a pursuit of self discovery and then create an inspired physical product that represents that journey. Our focus is on healing and recovery while identifying a common ground. In this environment, we make it a point to replace the word “patient” or “client” with “artist.” I am incredibly proud to report that this initiative has been very successful and has engaged many artists and resulted in countless pieces of deeply personal art.
To say that Howard Center clients have benefited from the Arts Collective would be an understatement. Simply put, the collective has changed their lives. One client in particular said that it “gave her mind a break from depression and suicidal thoughts.”
-Bryant Pugh
head chair of the Howard Center Arts Collective
“A picnic. Imagine: a forest, a country road, a meadow. A car pulls off the road into the meadow and unloads young men, bottles, picnic baskets, girls, transistor radios, cameras … A fire are lit, tents are pitched, music is played. And in the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that were watching the whole night in horror crawl out of their shelters. And what do they see? An oil spill, a gasoline puddle, old spark plugs and oil filters strewn about … Scattered rags, burnt-out bulbs, someone has dropped a monkey wrench. The wheels have tracked mud from some godforsaken swamp … and, of course, there are the remains of the campfire, apple cores, candy wrappers, tins, bottles, someone’s handkerchief, someone’s penknife, old ragged newspapers, coins, wilted flowers from another meadow …”
(Roadside Picnic, by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky)
new translation published by Chicago Review Press, 2012. Translated by Olena Bormashenko.
[ISBN 978-61374-341-6] pp.131-132)
“For the last few months, I have been collecting street garbage such as smashed soda cans, coffee cups, cigarettes, and food waste during my daily commute, walking between my home, studio and work place in New York City. As I was collecting, slowly my perspective on garbage changed. I was eager to find good-looking garbage and the streets became full of treasures. The refuse scattered on the street looked like a small universe. I began to see the human beings behind it all.
Later, I cast the trash using plaster and constructed large mobiles. I’m attempting to cast human existence by casting what we discard — to make a portrait of human beings.”
(Midori Harima, New York, March 2014)
“Roadside Picnic, Chapter Two” consists of mobiles, chip bags, also collected from the street, and a paper sculpture of a tree. This exhibition is the next chapter of the “Roadside Picnic” show, with Emiko Gilbert, which was exhibited at FLYNNDOG in January and February of 2014.
an exhibit of new work and tenuous linkage
Lisa Kippen ~ drawings
Ria Blaas ~ sculpture and painting
Susan Smereka ~ mixed media wall installation and sculpture
Art educators from central and northern Vermont come together bi-monthly to support each other in their art making while juggling busy school and personal schedules. This show is the culmination of their efforts over the past 6 months to find the space and focus necessary to make art and follow their passions.
Dorsey Hogg • Jenn Volansky • Dodi Gomez • Carol Crosby • Ellen Montgomery • Tina Logan • Dee Christie • Michele Badji • Krista Connolly • Mags Conant
curated by Dorsey Hogg
Our personal journey through our dreams.
New work by Lily Hinrichsen and Karla VanVliet
Mishky Way combines Kichwa and English to say Vía Dulce in Spanish, Sweet Path in English, an exhibition circumscribing contemporary paintings that reflect the traditional values and culture of the Kichwa of the Ecuadorian Andes and shared here in the Green Mountain State.
MISHKY WAY. (SWEET PATH) KICHWINGLISH.
“THE ANDEAN WORLD IS BASED UPON COMPLEMENTING DUALISMS. THEIR COMPLEMENTARY NATURE FOMENTS TRILOGIES, WHICH CONFRONT EACH OTHER AND RESIGNIFY, CONSTITUTING A NEW PRODUCT THAT ORIENTS, GUIDES, AND RESIGNIFIES ITSELF ONCE AGAIN. IN A CONTINUOUS SPIRAL, IN PERMANENT CHANGES…IT IS PRESENT IN LIFE AND IN DEATH, IN THE CONCRETE OR THE ABSTRACT…” Ariruma Kowii.
The Mishky Way project is about dualism. Of language: on the one hand, the Quechua, or Kichwa, Word, “Mishky,” in a Native American language; and on the other hand, “Way,” in English, a colonizing language. It is the dualism between the spiritual-material, and the fusion between the specific and the symbolic. All are parallel concepts that yield trilogies.
The aural: that syncretization of Catholic prayers with invocations to the Apus (gods)and the Andean mountains; the murmur of animals and of objects, of fears, triumphs, weeping, and dreams.
The visual: colors and symbols that explore the dimension between spiritual perceptions and cultural consciousness. The positioning of acceptance between the material and subjective nature of the textiles, whose recurring patterns express histories as well as contemporary anecdotes.
The installation, objects, rituals, energy stones, male and female, huacas, the action and positioning of constellations along with spiritual gifts that allow the meeting with those Apus, or simply the respect for brother fire, for brother wind, for sister water, or for Pachamama (Earth Mother), all conjoin into the nexus forged within the Mishky Way. Camino dulce. Sweet path. Inty Muenala. Translated by Leonora Dodge
MISHKY WAY. (CAMINO DULCE) KICHWINGLISH.
¨EL MUNDO ANDINO SE BASA EN DUALISMOS QUE SE COMPLEMENTAN, LA COMPLEMENTACION FOMENTA TRILOGIAS, QUE SE CONFRONTAN, RESIGNIFICAN, CONSTITUYENDO UN NUEVO PRODUCTO, QUE ORIENTA, GUIA Y VUEVE A RESIGNIFICARSE. EN UNA ESPIRAL CONTINUA, ES DECIR DE CAMBIOS PERMANENTES….. ESTA PRESENTE EN LA VIDA Y EN LA MUERTE, EN LO CONCRETO O LO ABSTRACTO ….¨ Ariruma Kowii.
El proyecto Mishky Way es el dualismo entre el kichwa ( Mishky ) un idioma nativo y el ingles (Way) un idioma colonizador, es ese dualismo entre lo espiritual-material, la fusión entre lo especifico y lo simbólico, estos conceptos paralelos que dan un origen a trilogias.
Lo sonoro, ese sincretismo entre alabanzas catolicas e invocaciones a los Apus y montañas andinas, murmullos de animales de objetos de miedos de triunfos de llantos y sueños.
Lo visual, colores y símbolos salen para explorar esas dimensiones entre las percepciones espirituales y de consciencia cultural , con posicionamientos de aceptación entre lo material y lo subjetivo de los tejidos, que son recurrentes para plasmar historias como también anécdotas presentes.
Instalación, y objetos, los rituales, las piedras energéticas machos y hembras las huacas la acción y el posicionamiento de las constelaciones junto con los regalos espirituales que permiten el encuentro con esos Apus (dioses) o simplemente el respeto al hermano fuego, al hermano viento, a la hermana agua, a la pachamama Madre tierra son partes de los nexos que se funden en el Mishky Way. Camino dulce. Inty Muenala.
Tina Escaja, poet and professor of Spanish Literature at UVM, will share her latest project at the opening reception:
Alm@ Pérez, cyber alter-ego of Tina Escaja, will present VeloCity, a collection of hyperpoems now translated into English, Galician, Catalan and Basque.
She will read some of her new work with opportunity for interactive engagement with the word works.
January February 2013
an arrangement of unequal things
new work by Anthony Sini 1.11.2013-2.23.2013
This work by Anthony Sini went missing from FLYNNDOG in Feburary 2013. If you have any information, please contact us or Anthony.
ROAD TRIP: ARC IDEOLOGIES.
A site specific installation by Lin Warren
Join us at the Opening Reception for Lin on the first Friday of April to celebrate this work.
Exhibit will stay through May 29
ROAD TRIP: ARC IDEOLOGIES is an installation exhibit of current discoveries
using materials and applications that can innately express the form and line of an arc.
ROAD TRIP represents the spatial flow of FLYNNDOG itself, and the exciting “road” that I am traveling, stopping at this current destination with my work……..Lin Warren, 2013
Dorsey Hogg • Jenn Volansky • Barb Crandall • Dee Christie • Jenn Hart • Dodi Gomez • Ann Joppe-Mercure • Ellen Hsieh • Courtney Reckord • Tina Logan
A mixed media exhibition of work by 10 public school art educators from Central and Northern Vermont united by their passion for creating art in a supportive and like minded community.
Opening Reception June 7th 5-9
September October 2013
“Water Above, Sky Below” now showing for the Art Hop
large scale work inspired by the relationship between water and sky by four Vermont artists:
Homer Wells, New Haven
metal canvas
Rory Jackson, Lincoln
oil on canvas
Ross Sheehan, Vergennes
oil and mixed mediums on canvas
Duker Bower, Charlotte
oil on canvas
“Alfabestiario” by Antonello Borra
We are celebrating the publication of “Alfabestiario,” the first collection of bestiary poems that preceded “AlphaBetaBestiario“. Translated by Blossom S. Kirschenbaum with artwork by Delia Robinson.
Alfabestiario
The Middle Sister, a new series of work on canvas by Delia Robinson will also be exhibited.
The Middle Sister
At 7:00, on November 8th, at the opening reception, Antonello will read select works from Alfabestiario in the original Italian and Actor/Director Mark Alan Gordon will read the English translations.
The exhibition will also feature the Alfabestiario artwork by Delia.
Newly issued first editions by Fomite Press will be available for sale.
Exhibits run from November 1 thru December 31.
Opening on Friday November 8th, six to nine.
