Matt Larson, acrylic paintings & mixed media paintings on plywood, pictured (Main Street Connector, ACC 3)
From the earliest times, we have tried to systematize our observations of the natural world even though we often experience the world as chaotic. For millennia, our very existence depended on interpreting the landscape and living within the rhythms we discovered. This study of the natural world led to the study of relationships, which eventually led to the notion of pattern. In nature, patterns are regularities of form that recur in different contexts and at different scales across the landscape, including symmetries, spirals, meanders, ripples, tessellations, cracks, and bands. These patterns are generated by processes that occur at many different levels, from ageless ecosystem processes (water and nutrient cycles, energy flow, and community dynamics, for example) to the relatively new disruptions that arise from human activity (community fragmentation, loss of habitat, and degradation of connectivity, among others).
As time passes and these processes transpire–sometimes slowly, sometimes cataclysmically–the transformations that ensue are recorded as complex, unpredictable patterns. This framework–the shifting mosaic of ecological patterns that contextualizes our passage through time and place–inspires Matt’s work. He strives to balance randomness and accident with order and reason in a manner that emulates natural processes, altering and obscuring what came before, leaving glimpses of initial conditions visible through the overlaid patterns and juxtapositions of subsequent events, and thereby facilitating the emergence of abstractions of the natural world that embody the connections between ourselves and the landscape.
Julio Desmont, acrylic on canvas (Main Street Connector, ACC 3)
Born in the countryside of Haiti, Desmont used to see a multicolored long tailed bird that seemed to be extinct as he was growing older. They were called Tako in Haitian Creole. In his search for that bird he became an observer and lover of birds. Their pose, flying... it has become the symbol of freedom, peace, love, and also their role in our ecosystem. The birds depicted in his paintings are faceless and mostly in movement, surrounded by irregular patterns of shape and colors. Sometimes they seem to be transforming or evolving. The heavy mark-making is an emulation of his childhood day and night fear. Night, awaking in the dark, he saw an infinite number of images... mostly demons. The moving shadows when staring at his window made him want to scream. Afraid, he could not leave his bed if needed. As a result, he would do what most kids at an early age would do. Day fear, he had to face the harsh consequence of getting his bed wet. One night he thought that was enough. He stood up in the darkness and marched toward his window to face the scary enemy. To his surprise it was the shadow of the tree that he climbed on every day, playing and resting when he needed to escape the sharp blades of the sun. There he met his superpower. All these images stored in his memory become his resources. He can look into chaos and find peace. He can see images through blank spaces.
When painting he gets to play with the universe. Diving into the dark womb of chaos, pulling out structures and order. He seeks to cultivate exactly the right amount of order, leaving much of the initial unstructured work alone. He is unable to undo all the lines, colors and shapes superimposed on the shadowy background, which calls for an exercise in accepting past actions and seeking how to create balance from the resulting composition. As a result, each of his pieces has embodied a soul... He grows alongside his art and each piece feels alive. His pieces often begin without his knowing what to do. Indeed that is the source of his inspiration, offering infinite trajectories, getting lost, seeking the truth, but ultimately one end that feels right and finally settles in, asking for no more. Thus his art is: his encounter, encounter with God and with the universe, between life and death, between hate and love, between lie and truth, between light and shadow, between the seen and the unseen, between the known and the unknown, between the manifest and the un-manifest. His art is his point, his complete encounter.
Jeffrey Pascoe, photographic giclee (McClure 4 & EP2 Healing Garden)
The son of a professional artist, artistic pursuits have been a part of Jeffrey’s life since childhood. Now retired after a career in research psychology, Jeffrey has devoted more of his time to hiking, writing fiction, and taking photographs. Since 2015, Jeffrey has been developing his own techniques for capturing the beauty of frost. Nature does most of the work: Variations in temperature, wind, and humidity produce very different sorts of frost, while backlighting from the sun or clouds often adds color. Just as it is a natural impulse to see familiar shapes in clouds, Jeffrey hopes those who view his frost photos will enjoy whatever images their imagination might conjure.
Sharon Radtke, photographs (EP2)
In 2015, Sharon was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease and began taking pictures of birds as a distraction from the medications and treatments. Her goal was to document different species of birds on her 22 acre pond in Milton, Vermont. To date, she has documented 68 species of birds and continues to take photos most every day of birds and other wildlife at Pond House. 95% of her photographs have been taken in her yard and most others throughout Milton. Sharon uses a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70, a Nikon P900 camera, and Nikon D5600.
In 2016, Sharon created her first bird calendar and Pond House Birds Photography was born. In 2017, she joined the Milton Artists’ Guild and began displaying her work in their art center and gallery. Since then, her photographs have been displayed at numerous libraries throughout Vermont as well as at the Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans; Garden of Eatin Café in Williston and in Burlington’s South End Art Hop and Arts Alive. She has participated in numerous arts and craft shows in Vermont including the Waterbury Art Fair; Festival of the Arts in Cambridge; Vermont Hand Crafters Show and the Vermont Flower Show. Her birds have been featured at the Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge in Swanton and the Birds of Vermont Museum.in Huntington.
Judy Hawkins, oil paintings (BCC)
Hawkins’ paintings are recollections of the rich and inspiring landscapes she sees around her. She tries to capture the mood and feeling she has experienced when seeing dramatic clouds, ultramarine skies and marshy setbacks and reflections. She loves using gestural brushwork and unexpected color and often creates her colors by mixing them right on the painting. She exaggerates and loosely interprets color, conveying passion, excitement, and moments of calm.
Discovering something new whenever she puts brush and color to canvas brings a new perspective and vocabulary to her work. She usually begins a new painting at the top and works her way down, working quickly to establish mood through color and composition. She allows the paint, drips and accidental color combinations to guide her vision. Often, a serendipitous moment happens in the process, inspiring her to expand and explore new ideas. She works on three or four paintings at a time which allows her to have some perspective and keep her work fresh. Her paintings often don’t resemble their beginnings; they go through a continual process of change. This is the joy!
