100 Years of Inspiring Art Series of Alumnae Exhibits

100 YEARS OF INSPIRING PAINTING

MARCH 26, 2010 – MAY 1, 2010

As part of the ongoing celebrations marking Westover’s Centennial year, the exhibition "100 Years of Inspiring Painting" that showcases the works of alumnae painters will be on display through May 1st. The following artists have generously loaned their work for the exhibit:

A beloved Westover maid

Nancy duPont Cooch ’37

Nancy duPont Cooch has had a professional career as an artist that includes a long list of accomplishments.

Nancy’s work has been exhibited in a number of institutions, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Corcoran Gallery, both in Washington, DC; the Society of Fine Arts in Wilmington, DE; and the National Academy of Design in New York City. For her artistic achievements, Nancy was the recipient of the 1974 Westover Award.

“I have gone through periods of trying many media,” Nancy said. “Early I did a great many charcoal character portraits and worked in etching. Then, missing the excitement of color, I moved to oils and watercolors.” Still later, Nancy began working in various sculpture media. Her most recent work has been primarily bronze and acrylic sculpture. She resides in Greenville, DE.

Helen Hatch Warner ’39 (1921 – 2009)

The late Helen Hatch Warner, who passed away December 3, 2009, was a gifted artist who is remembered by family and friends for assembling an impressive portfolio of oil paintings over the course her lifetime. Helen was active with the Lake Wales Art Center in Florida for many years.

Jane Garvey Adriance ’49

Jane Garvey Adriance paints still life to ground herself “in what is exotic in my daily existence. Vibrant, translucent color becomes the path for me to create light and space, texture and rhythm. I enjoy startling contradictions between everyday life and the unknown. Sometimes the results are unexpected, bizarre compositions, even to me.”

Jane has exhibited her work in a number of solo shows and group juried shows. Jane has taken watercolor workshops in Maine, Massachusetts, Morocco, Turkey, and England, and painting workshops at Princeton Art Association and with local art teachers. She resides in Princeton, NJ.

Varick Katzenbach Niles ’57

Varick Katzenbach Niles strives to portray the “essence” of her subject matter, whether it be the vibrant color of roses, orchids, and daffodils or serene marshes at dawn and sunset.

Once a feeling is instilled, Varick said, she tries to capture not just the transitory moment, but the unchanging underlying “essence” or mood of the subject. Her brushstrokes are fluid and her colors expressive, sometimes high-keyed, sometimes softly muted in watercolors and oils, as well as acrylics.

Varick said her art teacher at Westover, Ethel Swantees, provided her fundamental training in art. She said her art studies at Smith College, where she received a B.A. in 1961, and her subsequent work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, provided the fundamentals for her artistic training. After a long career in ceramics, Niles began painting in 1991. She has attended many workshops and paints in her own studios in Westport, MA, and Naples, FL. Her work is shown at the Amy C. Lund Studio & Gallery in Tiverton, RI.

Louise Munson Herring ’58

Louise Munson Herring is exhibiting oil/mixed media paintings inspired by nature – specifically, the landscape of Pennsylvania’s endless mountains.

Louise’s “Vespa Memories” series explores her recollections and feelings of summer’s walks through a section of particularly beautiful farmland. “In these six paintings memory, whether whole or fragmented, initiated the art process,” Louise explained. “The finished piece is often a composite of these memories and often a line or ‘thread’ travels through the work.”

Louise lives in Narbeth, PA, and works in her studio in nearby Philadelphia. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout Pennsylvania. Her recent work has garnered a number of awards.

Anne “Mimi” Sammis ’59

Anne “Mimi” Sammis is represented in more than 300 public and private collections worldwide by both her paintings and her bronze figurative sculptures. After painting watercolors early in her career, Mimi expanded her artistic vision to bronze sculpture.

Mimi hosts “Love to Paint with Mimi,” a weekly PBS painting and fine art appreciation television show, which is aired in 20 states. The show brings to its viewers fine art painting techniques, insight into the creative process, conversations with other artists, and new ways to see the world around us.

While she demonstrates techniques in acrylics, watercolor, and pastels on the show, Mimi’s aim is to draw her audience into the creative process, sharing her joy in art and in the world around us. Mimi lives and works in Narragansett, RI.

Debbie Edmonson Drake ’71

Debbie Edmonson Drake is an accomplished painter whose work has been featured in a number of solo and group exhibitions and is a part of several corporate collections.

“I am fascinated by the patterns and colors that are part of our daily lives,” Debbie notes. “I hope to portray this in my landscapes or in portraits. It is this abstract realism that captures me.”

A resident of Carefree, AZ, Debbie has studied at the University of Denver, the School of Visual Arts, the Washington Art Association, the Silvermine Guild Arts Center, the National Academy, and the Scottsdale Artists’ School. Debbie’s Westover relatives include her sisters, Mary Edmonson White ’69 and Anne Edmonson Kerr ’76; her grandmother, the late Dorothy Kelley Keresey '24; two great-aunts, and two cousins.

Dru Frederick ’74

Raised in East Hampton, NY, Dru Frederick developed a deep appreciation for the light, sky, ocean, and farmland vistas of the eastern end of Long Island. Living and working in the village of Southampton as a painter and art conservator, she visits the ocean every day.

The focus of Dru’s work is the natural environment. Created in oil or gouache and watercolor in an expressionist manner, her paintings seem to exist on their own abstract visual plane. The paintings are bold interpretations of color, light and form seen in the underlying nature of her subjects.

Dru earned a B.F.A. Degree an Studio Art and Graphic Design from Ohio Wesleyan University and the University of Michigan School of Art. She also studied painting at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Master Art Workshops at Southampton College, and the Les Cerqueux sous Passavant Landscape Painting School-Atelier Sans Frontiers in the Loire Valley of France. She has spent summers painting in the countryside of France. Dru has exhibited locally and nationally and her work is in numerous private collections.

Wendy Stout ’80

Wendy’s paintings come to her as the brush touches the canvas. She moves fast with layers, marks, and colors. This process of layering, covering, writing, and re-exposing turns into a rhythm and balance.

Wendy uses a combination of various media and materials in her work: acrylics, oil stick, pastels, watercolor, pencil, marker, crayons, ink, photography, sculpture, stickers, and found objects.

A resident of New York, Wendy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Art from Simmons College and a degree in Advertising Photography from the Portfolio Center. Wendy worked extensively in the field of advertising photography before forming her own company, One Peace Puzzles, Inc. in 2001. Wendy’s work appears in private collections in the United States; she also has been commissioned to do several large-scale paintings for corporations.

Alicia Sterling Beach ’87

Recent watercolors created by Alicia Sterling Beach developed out of her definition of painting as a vehicle for the soul: “Abstractions of reality, paintings are two-fold mirrors, reflecting both the artist’s soul and the outer world simultaneously.” A mini-retrospective in 2008 at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, CA, featured a number of her watercolors, along with an array of earlier, two-handed works, including two-handed rose drawings exhibited in Westover’s Rice Gallery in spring 2007.

A resident of Los Angeles, Alicia began to show her work extensively in galleries in 1989 in California, Texas, Arizona, and Oregon. Reviews of her work have appeared in such publications as Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, Artscene, ArtForum, and Art/Text. Her work is included in a number of Los Angeles art collections. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California at Irvine.

Mary DeStefano ’01

Born and raised in Arkansas, Mary DeStefano now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. At Westover, she studied with art teacher Tilde Hungerford and photography teacher Michael Gallagher. She received degrees in Art and Psychology from Yale University in 2005.

Mary has shown her work in Arkansas, Washington, DC, and Brooklyn. Motivated by an appreciation for the beauty in one’s everyday life, she hopes that people, after viewing her work, will look more closely at the simple moments in their own lives. Mary has a great interest in the environment, urban agriculture, and city planning practices. This fall, she plans to begin pursuing a master’s degree in Urban Planning.

 

 

100 Years of Inspiring Sculpture - October 25 - December 5, 2009

Illuminated Sculpture by Susan Hersey '55	Ibis sculpture by Gill Page '52

Sculpture by Mimi Sammis '59	Construction by B.Z. Reily '70	Sculpture by Marcia Lynch '74

“100 Years of Inspiring Sculpture”, an exhibit of alumnae work, will be on view in Westover School’s Schumacher Gallery from October 25 to December 5. The exhibit is the third in a series of Centennial alumnae art exhibits at the school.

The exhibit will showcase sculpture by five alumnae including: paper pulp forms by Susan Terbell Hersey ’55, bronze sculpture from an “Amphibious Jazz” series by Marcia Neidley Lynch ’74, sculptures of animals and figures by Gill Thomas Page ’52, found object wall sculptures by B.Z. Reily ’70, and bronze sculpture by Anne “Mimi” Sammis ’59.

Susan Hersey ‘55 will exhibit illuminated sculptures of handmade paper on bamboo frames and wall hangings of handmade paper and mixed media on bronze screen.

She started her career in two-dimensional painting, and in 1985 became influenced by the Japanese use of rhythms in nature after a study trip to Japan. For the last 15 she has worked in the medium of paper pulp that has expanded her work into the third dimension.

“From painting, I found my way to papermaking in the late seventies, and have found it the most versatile and sensuous vehicle for the exploration of my ideas,” the artist says. She notes that the paper medium “offers endless opportunities for innovation in technique as well as the certainty of being surprised by the unexpected. The work I do reflects my sense of continuity in the flow of creative life, the layers and textures of life over time.”

A resident of California, Susan has participated in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions of paper art and fiber art over several decades throughout the U.S. Among the galleries and museums which have shown her work are Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA; Fiber Art Center, Amherst, MA; Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA; Contemporary Craft Museum, San Francisco, CA; and Farmington Valley Arts Center, Avon, CT, among numerous others. Her work has been commissioned by several businesses, including her sconces and hanging pendants for an inn in Santa Cruz, CA; a lobby wall hanging for a senior citizen’s apartment building in San Francisco, and an outdoor sculptural canopy in The Art Garden, San Francisco.

Marcia Lynch ‘74 will exhibit a series of bronze sculptures that she calls her “Amphibious Jazz Series.” In a whimsical and engaging manner, the sculptures portray frogs creating jazz riffs on a variety of instruments.

“Every human emotion is worthy of artistic expression. These frogs and their instruments are not intended to portray what jazz looks like, but how it feels,” the artist says. “They are created in a spirit of child’s play and celebrate the uninhibited joy of make-believe. The squeezed and bulging forms are created in a rapid, sketch-like style that is deliberately evocative of jazz rhythms – playful and surprising.”

Marcia says she focuses on the spontaneous, give and take aspects of jazz. “Jazz is inherently conversational. The musicians and the audience participate with each other in a willing loss of self-consciousness. My Amphibious Jazz series captures the joy of self expression,” she notes.

Majoring in sculpture while a student at Mt. Holyoke College, she was a teaching assistant there to sculptors Leonard DeLonga and Ibram Lassaw and managed the college’s bronze casting facility. She spend a successful career as an editor at Davenport Films, and her films garnered numerous awards, including Best Documentary, Kenyon Film Festival, OH; Directors Choice, Black Maria Film Festival, NJ; First Prize, Chicago International Children’s Film Festival; and Blue and Red Ribbon Winner, American Film Festival, among many other awards.

After more than two decades of filmmaking and volunteer work in fundraising and the arts, the artist says she is returning to sculpting in bronze, “her first love.”

Gill Page ’52 will exhibit bronze sculpture of animals and figures, as well as wax reliefs. The artist says she enjoys participating in the casting process by always reworking the waxes after casting and doing some finishing work also. She is in her studio almost every day modeling, carving and constructing her forms.

“Art at Westover has had a great influence on my thoughts and choices of subject,” Gill says. “Mr. Schumacher’s Art History Class was where I first saw European Art and the great work of sculptors such as Michelangelo, Donatello and Rodin. His class was exciting and a favorite among us all because of his wit, intellect, humor and great enthusiasm. Greek myths and religious references have always inspired me as recently has amazing nature and endangered species.”

Gill studied sculpture at the Art Students’ League in New York City, the San Francisco Art Institute, the Portland School of Art in Maine and has taken sculpture workshops at Vermont Studio School in Johnson, VT and the Sculpture Workshop in Dorset, Vermont, among others.

She holds a B.S. in Art Education from the University of Southern Maine and has taught in schools, given workshops, and served as a docent for the Rhode Island School of Design and the Portland Museum of Art. Her sculpture has been exhibited in numerous juried exhibits including the 1996 International Sculptor’s Association Exhibit in Providence, RI, and the Connecticut Women in the Arts shows at John Slade Ely House in New Haven, CT from 1990-93. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and at the Providence Art Club. Gill shows her work at Mast Cove Gallery in Kennebunkport, ME where she is one of ninety members.

B.Z. Reily ’70 will exhibit found object wall sculptures that are constructed with weathered and worn objects, antique wood, metal scraps, Raku clay, bits and pieces from the natural world, and bits of consumer castoffs.

The artists says “I am drawn to combining ordinary objects, organic and the man made, whole and fragmented and to then puzzling them back together in new ways. I am intrigued by mysterious objects from our past and to human made things eroded by time and the weather.”

Her work has been exhibited in a number of galleries in Massachusetts including The Fiber Arts Gallery, Amherst, MA; the A.P.E. Gallery, Northampton, MA, and Artspace, Greenfield, MA.

A resident of Shutesbury, MA she currently serves as program supervisor in Art Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, and as a visual arts teacher in Shutesbury Elementary School. She has designed and coordinated a number of community art projects over the years. She has designed outdoor sculptures for a community memorial garden and coordinated an outdoor mosaic mural with Shutesbury residents. In 1992-1995 she designed and supervised the construction of a family community tile wall for the school lobby at Shutesbury Elementary School that included over 350 relief tiles.

Anne “Mimi” Sammis ’59, whose work is represented in more than 300 public and private collections worldwide, will display bronze figurative sculptures.

After painting watercolors early in her career, Mimi expanded her artistic vision to bronze sculpture. She hosts “Mimi’s Art Studio”, a weekly PBS painting and fine art appreciation television show, which is aired in 20 states. Mimi lives and works in Narragansett, RI, and San Miguel De Allende, Mexico and has given two bronze sculptures, “Embrace of Life” and “Ascension” to Westover.

"It is my hope that my sculpture touches, inspires, and validates the peace that is within each one of us. I feel strongly that love is the healer of everything,” the artist says. “When people come into contact with art, if love and joy are represented, the response and interaction with it can raise the consciousness of the world. My art comes through me when I hold the wax in my hands. The joy, the dance of love between ourselves and others that I feel, comes out in my work," she noted.

Ms. Sammis supports the global work for peace with her artwork entitled One Thousand Years of Peace, an exhibition of 30 bronze sculptures. This body of work was exhibited at the United Nations in 2001. It was previously shown at the United Nations in 1999 and following that at The Hague, Netherlands, in conjunction with The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference. Ms. Sammis has received a commission from the Archbishop of Canterbury for Lambeth Palace, England to honor Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, June 2002.

A reception for the artists will be held on December 4 from 6 to 7:30 pm preceding an alumnae cello concert by Lane Summers Moorman ’93 and Yoonie Choi ’97.

The exhibit may be viewed from 12 to 5 pm Monday through Friday and from 1 to 5 pm on Saturday. The exhibit will not be open from November 20-30 when classes are not in session. Further information is available by contacting gallery director Michael Gallagher at 203/577-4525, or mgallagher@westoverschool.org. Visitors should access the Schumacher Gallery from the school’s main entrance on the Middlebury Green and are asked to sign in with the school’s receptionist. More information is available at www.westoverschool.org.

View slideshow of exhibit and reception for artists.

100 Years of Inspiring Design - September 6 - October 15, 2009

Textiles designed by Debra Gartzman Gottlieb '77	Shoes designed by Lubna Abu-Osba '89

As Westover begins its 100th year, Alumnae Artists and Performers will help celebrate the Centennial in a year-long series of events!

A year of special alumnae performances and art exhibitions will fill Westover's Performing Arts Center and Schumacher Gallery beginning Friday, September 25th, at 6:30 pm. Our first fall exhibit features seven alumnae designers from the East and West coasts: Debra Gartzman Gottlieb '77, Lauren Caldwell '76, Marissa Jacovich '01, Charlotte Strick '91, Lubna Abu-Osba '89, Shawn Alshut '74, and Alice Roche'91. The Schumacher Gallery is filled with their designs ranging from jewelry, textiles, designer shoes, interior architecture, style design, chainmail objects, and book jackets. A light reception with several of the artists will be held at 6:30 pm in the Gallery on September 25th.

At 7:30 pm, immediately following the reception, recording artist Nadia Birkenstock '92 will present a program of Celtic harp and voice. Based in Germany, Nadia has released 5 internationally distributed CD's. She taught herself to play the Celtic harp at age 16 and received her first vocal training at Westover. She studied voice at the Music Conservatory of Duesseldorf in Germany and has since performed to great acclaim at festivals, concert halls, and castles around the world. This program is made possible by the generosity of the Walker Fund.

The public is welcome to enjoy this free event. Please call 203-577-4535 to make a reservation. Parking and entrance to the Performing Arts Center for the Friday performance and artists' reception is available on South Street.

View slideshow of the reception for the Design Exhibit and the celtic harp and voice concert by Nadia Birkenstock '92 which followed

Click here to view a slideshow of work from the exhibit.

Alumnae to Exhibit Photographs in Schumacher Gallery- April 1-May 23, 2009  

"Magnolia" by Mari Hill Harpur '67	"Grackle" by Jeannie Pearce '72

The Schumacher Gallery will exhibit the work of six alumnae, all of whom are professional photographers, from April 1 through May 23. The exhibit will coincide with Founders/Reunion Weekend which will be held on April 24 through 26.

A reception with the exhibiting artists will be held from 3 to 4 pm on Saturday, April 25 in the Gallery.

The work of the photographers, who are listed below, will offer an extensive range of subject matter and technique.

Victoria Blewer ‘78 works entirely with black and white film, and hand-colors the images. Her work has been featured in full-length photo essays in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Vermont Life, Vermont Magazine and Yankee Magazine.

Ms. Blewer has won many national and regional awards for photography, including: First Place for Photography, Washington Square Art Show, New York, NY; Distinguished Artist Award for Two Dimensional Art, The Stratton Arts Festival, VT; Most Promising Young Artist from the Virginia Beach Arts Center, VA; Award Winner for Women in the Visual Arts at the Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT

A graduate of Smith College, she has taken classes at the New School in New York City, the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY and the University of Vermont. She lives in Lincoln, Vermont with her husband and daughter. Her work may be viewed at www.victoriablewer.com.

A resident of Canada, Mari Harpur ‘67 has had two parallel careers, one as a photographer and the other as a businesswoman in the fields of forestry and farming. Ms. Harpur and her husband operate five farms, four of which raise European Red Deer.

Her photographs have been in more than 30 exhibits in Canada, New Zealand and the United States, including shows in St. Paul, Minnesota and Portland, Oregon. She has produced seven calendars from her photographs of her own herds and the photographs have appeared in a number of books and magazine. Her emphasis is primarily on black and white, silver gelatin prints and may be viewed on the website of www.keziagallery.com.

Johnna MacArthur '90 received her B.A. in Psychology and Photography from Bennington College in 1994, and her M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts' Photography and Related Media Department in 1996. Johnna has been a member of the Art Media Studies faculty at Syracuse University since 2000.

Johnna MacArthur's video, installation, and photographic work has been exhibited internationally and has been included in exhibitions at such institutions as Apex Art C.P., the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, all in New York City; I.C.A. in London, England; the IMPAKT festival in Utrecht, Netherlands; Hallwalls in Buffalo, NY; and P.S.1 in Long Island City, NY. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Wheaton Bullock Mahoney '89 is a fine art photographer who graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1993 with a B.F.A. in photography. Her work is a study not only of the subject but of herself. The images portray a deep haunting as well as a patient and delicate approach from behind the lens. Her work encompasses series of Thread and Game Board photographs, to delicate floral compositions with delicate tones, to monochromatic landscapes. Wheaton lives in Tequesta, FL, with her husband, Patrick. To see more of her work visit Wheaton's website at www.wheatonmahoney.com.

Jeannie Pearce ‘72 is an Adjunct Professor on the faculty of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia since 1983. She received an MFA degree from the University of Delaware and a bachelors degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Ms Pearce has taught all levels of photography including summer technical workshops for faculty, primarily focusing on digital imaging.

From 1997-2005 Ms Pearce acted as Corporate Relations and Development Officer for the Society for Photographic Education. She formerly served on the boards of The Print Center, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and the Mid Atlantic Region chapter of the Society for Photographic Education. In the early 80s she was the director of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia. Her work may be viewed at www.jeanniepearce.com. She lives in Philadelphia.

Abigail Pope '93 is a freelance photographer based in New York City who specializes in portraiture. Abby studied photography for four years at Westover School and then went on to Boston University, where she majored in French. 

After graduating from Boston University in 1997, Abby continued to experiment with photography by attending Speos Institut de la Photographie in Paris for a year. Subsequently, she assisted Pamela Jones, a luxury boating and interiors photographer in Miami, and worked in New York City worked under master color printer, Carol Fonde, and attended the Maine Photographic Workshops during two summer workshops. Valuing the craft of photography, she likes to work with negatives and does all of her own printing. Her work may be viewed at www.popephoto.com.

Abby lives in New York City.

The exhibit may be viewed Monday through Friday from 12 to 5 pm and on Saturday from 1 to 5 pm. The Schumacher Gallery is located in Westover’s Performing Arts Center that is accessible from the school’s main entrance at 1237 Whittemore Road (Rt. 188) on The Green in Middlebury, CT. For further information call Gallery Director Michael Gallagher at 203/577-4525.

"Winter Afternoon" by Julie Hickcox

"My Point of View, " Acrylic Paintings by Julie Hickcox

"My Point of View," and exhibit of representational, acrylic paintings by well-known New England painter Julie L. Hickcox will be on view in Westover School's Schumacher Gallery from February 6 to March 6, 2009. Students will have a chance to meet the artist during an art assembly on February 12.

The longtime Woodbury resident, who now resides in Watertown, specializes in bucolic New England landscapes, often depicting barns, streams, rivers, meadows, rolling hills, and winter scenes.

Her impressionistic works create dramatic landscapes that beckon entrance into a world of filtered sunlight and dancing shadows. The vibrant and colorful body of her work captures a dynamic interplay of color, light and space.

"As an artist, connecting to nature energizes and fulfills me in a way that can only be described as ‘joyful.' My favorite time to paint are early morning and late afternoon, primarily because of the long shadows and intensified contrasts that happen," the artist states.

"Across the Fields," by Julie Hickcox

Having worked in and won awards for her watercolors for many years, the artist started painting in acrylics three and a half years ago. She has said acrylics are more forgiving than watercolors and that she has fallen in love with her new medium.

Her award-winning artwork in both acrylic and watercolor is collected throughout the United States and Europe. In 2000, Ms. Hickcox was the featured artist in the annual benefit auction of Flanders Nature Center.

A graduate with honors from Pratt Institute, NY, she has taken further classes at the John Slade Ely House in New Haven, the University of Connecticut, and studied with Betty Lou Schlemm of Rockport, MA.

She has been elected as a member to The Connecticut Watercolor Society, Allied Artists of American, and the Hudson Valley Art Association, among other groups.

Her work has been shown by the Salmagundi Club in New York, New Haven Paint and Clay Club in New Haven, the Connecticut Society of Women Painters, New Britain Museum of Art and by the Hudson Valley Art Association, among other groups.
Her work has garnered more than 50 awards in shows in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. She is represented by Devon House Gallery in Stonington, CT.

Ms. Hickcox's granddaughter Rachel Hickcox of Watertown is a senior at Westover School.

The exhibit may be viewed Monday through Friday from 12 to 5 pm and on Saturday from 1 to 5 pm. The Schumacher Gallery is located in Westover's Performing Arts Center that is accessible from the school's main entrance at 1237 Whittemore Road (Rt. 188) on The Green in Middlebury, CT.

Further information is available by contacting gallery director Michael Gallagher at 203/577-4525, or mgallagher@westoverschool.org.

"Maine Women: Living on the Land" Photography Exhibit Opens Dec. 7

 "Maine Women: Living on the Land," an exhibit of photographs by Lauren Shaw, will be on view at the Schumacher Gallery at Westover School from December 7, 2008 to January 31, 2009. On December 10 at 9:45 am students will attend an art assembly when they will meet and hear from the artist and have a chance to view the exhibit.

The show features 10 Maine women who have lived most of their lives deeply connected to the land, living and working and building community. In black-and-white photographs, the exhibit documents the working lives of farmers, herbalists, timber harvesters and sheep breeders.

Ms. Shaw, who spends part of the year in Maine, says "it is my objective to bring to a broader audience these women's joy and satisfaction that has come from a life lived on and from the land. By looking at other people's landscapes, we can begin to ask questions about where we live and how our space affects us and consequently those around us."

The exhibit also includes a documentary video and a series of triptychs that superimpose photographs of the women and their landscapes onto topographical maps. The video that accompanies the exhibit has been created to give the viewer an opportunity to interact with each woman's landscapes and stories by hearing their voices and seeing moving images and panoramas of their land.

The exhibit premiered in 2005 at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, and has traveled to a number of other galleries in Maine and throughout the country. In conjunction with the Farnsworth exhibit, a catalog was published that includes an essay by noted art critic and activist Lucy Lippard.

Lauren Shaw is head of the Photography Program at Emerson College where she has taught for 33 years. She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Georgia State University and a Masters of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design.

Her photographs have been in numerous one woman and group shows in museums and galleries throughout the country.

Further information is available by contacting gallery director Michael Gallagher at 203/577-4525, or mgallagher@westoverschool.org. Visitors should access the Schumacher Gallery from the school's main entrance on the Middlebury Green and are asked to sign in with the school's receptionist.

View slideshow

"Two Friends" Exhibit at Westover

An exhibit of stoneware and porcelain ceramics, “Mathilde Hungerford and Robin Johnson: Two Friends,” will be shown at the Schumacher Gallery at Westover School from October 5 through November 29, 2008.  A reception for the artists was held on Sunday, October 5 from 3 to 5 pm.

Having both taught at Westover School, Ms. Johnson and Ms. Hungerford met each other and became friends through firing their work together.  Both artists have been influenced by Asian ceramics and their work reflects two approaches of the aesthetics of ceramics from China, Japan and Korea. Ms. Johnson is intrigued by early Neolithic ceramics from Asia which she infused with a Zen-like quality, while Ms. Hungerford is fascinated by porcelain vessels with intricate carving and raised relief forms.

“Sculpture retaining the vessel form” is how Ms. Johnson describes her work, which she creates through a combination of wheel and handbuilding techniques. In her ceramics she aspires to capture the forms, textures and sense of timelessness found in nature. Many of her pieces are earthen-colored, with rich color variations provided by flashing created in a wood kiln which is fired for eight days. “I first search for the essence of the problem and the simpler solution, the more powerful,” Ms. Johnson says.

Ms. Johnson received her Masters of Arts from Columbia University, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, and taken workshops and classes with master potters. She is a frequent speaker and workshop educator, and illustrations of her ceramics have been included in “The Best of Ceramic Art,” published in 1996, “Best of Pottery” in 1997 and Ceramics Monthly. A three-time recipient of the prestigious Excellence in Clay award, granted by the Society of CT Crafts, her work is in the permanent collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.

Her work has been exhibited in many  invitational and juried shows including Dai Ichi Arts, New York City; Society for Connecticut Crafts; Seton Gallery, New Haven; Silvermine Guild Arts, New Canaan; San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum; Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA; Vermont Clay Studio Gallery, Fenn Gallery, Woodbury, and Minor Memorial Library Gallery, Roxbury;

Ms. Hungerford describes her work as “functional,” and focuses on the connection between form and use, and the fine craftsmanship needed to create “teapots that pour well, jar lids that fit precisely, and handles that are well balanced.” She works in both stoneware and porcelain clays, and finishes her pieces with the decorative techniques of carving, painting and sgraffito of forms found in nature.

Ms. Hungerford received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at West Surrey College of Art and Design in West Surrey, England, and was influenced there by Japanese ceramic traditions brought back by master potter Bernard Leach. Since returning to the states, she has taken workshops and classes with master potters who have continued and expanded on the functional pottery tradition started by Leach.  She has taught ceramics at Westover School, Brookfield Craft Center and Washington Art Association.

Her work has been exhibited at Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT; State House Gift Shop, Hartford, CT; Mattatuck Museum Gift Shop, Waterbury, CT, Gibson Gallery, White Sulphur Springs, W. Va, Atelier Gallery, Mystic, CT. and Christie Gallery, Lewisburg, W.Va.

The exhibit may be viewed Monday through Friday from 12 to 5 pm. The Schumacher Gallery is located in Westover’s Performing Arts Center that is accessible from the school’s main entrance at on The Green in Middlebury, CT. Further information is available by contacting gallery director Michael Gallagher  at 203/577-4525, or mgallagher@westoverschool.org. Visitors to the gallery are requested to check-in at the school’s front office.

Click here for a slideshow of a student assembly for the exhibit

Student Art Exhibit in Schumacher Gallery

May 23, 2008

Art works that have been awarded an Ann Huidekoper Brown '41 Art Award, selections from the Final Portfolios of students in Advanced Placement Studio Art, and a photograph from the Independent Senior Project of Emily Mitchell will be on exhibit in Westover's Schumacher Gallery on weekends from May 25 to June 6. The artists were recognized on May 21 when assembly was held in the Performing Arts Center and students had a chance to view the exhibit.

Works include the best drawing, painting, photography and ceramics created by students in the 2007-08 year.

Works that have received the Ann Huidekoper Brown '41 Art Awards are chosen by Westover's art teachers and are recognized at the end of the year in the School's Orchard Award ceremony. The Ann Huidekoper Brown Awards include: ceramic Pre-Columbian inspired coil-constructed forms by Melissa Pereira '08 and Jillian Silver '10; an acrylic painting by Elizabeth Foltz '08, oil paintings by Alana Vogel '10 and Haley Rowland '10, and a pencil drawing by Caitlin MacGinitie '10; digital photography by Hillary Zeiss '09 and Diamond Howell '08, and a silver gelatin photographic print, "Pam Cubed," by Amelia Fox '08. "Pam Cubed," won a prestigious Gold Award for Photography in the 2008 National Scholastic Art Competition.

Exhibited work also includes photography from the final AP Studio Art portfolios of Alex Fonseca '08, Amelia Fox '08, Sarah Lapin '08, Hillary Zeiss '09, Diamond Howell '08, and Kit Nottke '08, who are in Advanced Placement Photography, and drawings from the portfolios of Alana Vogel '08, Elizabeth Foltz '08, and Judith Wilson '08, who are in Advanced Placement Drawing.

The Huidekoper Brown Art Awards are given in honor of Ann Huidekoper Brown, Class of 1941, for outstanding individual works of art. Recipients are encouraged to donate their award-winning work to Westover's permanent collection. Only 10 students are selected by the Art Department to receive this prestigious award. Works are professionally framed and then are displayed at Westover until the students' 5th Year Reunion, at which time the alumnae may take the work home, or may donate it to Westover's permanent collection.

The exhibit may be viewed on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Visitors may access the Schumacher Gallery from the School's main entrance at 1237 Whittemore Road (Rt. 188) on The Green in Middlebury, CT.

 

Alumnae Artists' Works in Ceramics, Metal to be Exhibited

March 20, 2008

Works by two alumnae artists - Lilla Matheson Ohrstrom '83 and Marla Stelk '88 - will be featured in Westover's Schumacher Gallery from April 6 through May 18. Among the pieces on exhibit are  a glazed stoneware piece by Lilla entitled Expectant and a metal sculpture by Marla entitled Satori. The exhibition will help mark Westover's Alumnae Weekend celebrations and events May 16-18, which will include a gallery reception and a gallery talk by the two artists, who will be celebrating reunions this year.

To help mark this year's upcoming Westover Alumnae Weekend, the works of two alumnae artists - Lilla Matheson Ohrstrom '83 and Marla Stelk '88 - will be featured in the School's Schumacher Gallery from April 6 through May 18. The exhibit will include a number of Lilla's ceramics and Marla's metal sculpture.

During Alumnae Weekend, a reception with the artists will be held in the Gallery on Friday, May 16, from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. and the artists will give a gallery talk on Saturday, May 17, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Although Lilla works in various artistic media, she prefers clay for its malleable nature and for its elements of surprise. A physical and visual conversation between the artist and the medium are always part of the process, Lilla noted. Currently, Lilla is exploring an expressionistic exploration of emotion in clay.

Lilla took ceramics classes at Westover and received a B.S. in sculpture from Skidmore College's University Without Walls. She continued to work in clay, sometimes taking the clay through a casting process into plaster or bronze and other times exploring the possibilities of firing. Over the years she has experimented in Raku, wood fire, soda kilns and gas reduction, but presently she is relying on the effects of her Skutt electric kiln.

Lilla's work can be found at Youngblood Art Studio in The Plains, VA, where she teaches classes, hosts life-drawing groups, exhibits artists' work, and creates her own art. Her work has been shown at The Smithy Pioneer Gallery in Cooperstown, NY; The Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France; The Washington Home in Washington, DC; and The Plains Art Show in The Plains, VA, among other exhibition sites. She has created commissioned works, most notably for the Wilsey Collection in San Francisco, CA. Lilla has made handmade tile installations for various clients in Virginia and in September she will show her work at The Sumner Gallery in Washington, DC.

Marla creates her metal sculptures in the tradition of the age-old art of repoussé. Using the same techniques of 1700's colonial craftsmen, she sculpts each creation from flat copper sheets. Hammers, chisels, and a torch are her tools of the trade, which she uses to bring form, texture, and life to each work of art. Since no molds are used, it is a time- and labor-intensive process. 

As an undergraduate student, she studied art at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, and at Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, CO. She graduated cum laude from Colorado College in 1992. After graduation, Marla pursued a career in environmental studies until, she said, she couldn't resist the calling to get back into a studio.

Marla started making weathervanes in June 1999 as an apprentice to the late artist Travis Tuck of Martha's Vineyard, MA. Tuck was renowned worldwide as a master weathervane maker and was called "America's premier weathervane maker" by Conde Nast Traveler. Stelk moved quickly through her training and within one year was designing and fabricating from start to finish some of Tuck's most valuable pieces.

Marla opened her own studio, MJ Stelk Designs, during the winter of 2000-2001 and has continued to create weathervanes, as well as several other types of fine and functional work.

Her client list includes hotels and restaurants on Martha's Vineyard, as well as many private clients on the Vineyard and across the country. Marla moved to Maine in April 2006 and has reestablished her studio in Scarborough.

Reviews of her work have appeared in publications such as Martha's Vineyard Times, Vineyard Home and Garden Magazine, Martha's Vineyard Magazine, and The Boston Herald.

Inquiries about Marla's work can be made through MJ Stelk Designs, (207) 883-8608.

 

Printmaker Nancy Lasar to Exhibit Prints at Westover

January 30, 2008

A night garden of scribbly stalks, frail blossoms, and fingerprint buds can describe the work of Nancy Lasar, who will have a Retrospective Print Exhibition of her monotypes, etchings, and multi-media prints in Westover's Schumacher Gallery from Feb. 10 through March 29.

The artist works with scenes observed from nature and creates compelling images through drawing, layering and erasing to create a sense of movement, transformation and the passage of time. She will exhibit still-lifes, landscapes and figures, with some prints over 5 feet long.

A Washington, CT resident, Nancy has exhibited her award-winning images widely throughout New England and New York for more than 30 years in both public and private museums and galleries. Her work has been in one-person and group shows in the Mattatuck Museum, the Bruce Museum, The New Britain Museum, the DeCordova Museum, and the International Print Center in New York City. Her work is held in many public and private collections, including the Pfizer Corporation, the General Mills Corp., Aetna Life and Casualty, and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, and she has received commissions to create unique works for private homes and offices in Connecticut and New York.

Recently, Nancy's work has been in one and two-person shows at New Arts Gallery in Litchfield, CT, in 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007, at VanDeb Editions in New York in 2007, PaperWorks Projects Open Studio in Chelsea, NY, in 2007, at Silvermine Guild Gallery in New Canaan, CT, in 2003, Amy Simon Fine Arts in Wesport, CT, in 2007, and at the Washington (CT) Art Association in 2003.

"Whether in drawing, painting, or printmaking, the process for me is about layering and energizing space in such a way that things are fluid and interrelated," Nancy explained."I try to use a variety of lines and marks to suggest both stasis and openness to possibility and transformation. It is a process of precise and deliberate choice as well as playful spontaneity."

Nancy's work has garnered awards and prizes in exhibits of the New Haven Paint & Clay Club, the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, and Art of the Northeast, among others.

The artist has received two individual artist fellowships from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and maintains studios in Washington, CT, and Brooklyn, NY. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and has taught at Westover and at the Washington Art Association; in addition, she runs West Wind Studios, an archival and custom-framing studio.

Enhancing the show will be extravagant dried branch and flower arrangements by her daughter-in-law, Sarah Abanor, of In Between Greens of New York City.

The exhibit may be viewed daily from 12:30 to 5 p.m. whenever school is in session or by appointment by calling 203-758-2423. The Schumacher Gallery is located in Westover's Performing Arts Center, which is accessible from the School's main entrance at 1237 Whittemore Road (Rt. 188) on The Green in Middlebury, CT.