ART ON VIEW
Anne Sargent Walker: “Out on a Limb” & Resa Blatman: “Trouble in Paradise” at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury
April 22-June 8, 2018
As part of the 48th anniversary celebration of Earth Day, Catamount Arts presents two exhibitions with special related programming, including gallery talks and film screenings scheduled throughout the course of the show.
Anne Sargent Walker: “Out on a Limb”
Anne Sargent Walker’s semi-abstract paintings in oil, acrylic and mixed media explore the beauty, complexity and fragility of the natural world and our complicated relationship with it. Her work often incorporates layers of vintage wallpaper, something “man made” that references a pastoral inclination to bring nature inside. Birds, flora and other creatures rest uneasily on a surface that can degrade by peeling back or dissolving to reveal multiple layers beneath: a reminder of planet warming, the loss of habitat for humans and other species, and growing threats to the environment itself. Sargent Walker attributes her concerns about nature to summers spent in her family home Norwich with her naturalist father, where she returns to continue her long-standing engagement with the landscape in rural Vermont.
Resa Blatman: “Trouble in Paradise”
Resa Blatman’s work is proof that eco-activism is not limited to the scientific community. In “Trouble in Paradise”, the artist offers up 17 paintings as a visual commentary on climate change and its increasing threat to migratory birds and other animal species. Inspired by the decorative traditions of Baroque, Romantic and Victorian art, Blatman combines paint, assemblage and intricate laser-cut forms to create beautiful, yet unsettling microenvironments. Scintillating Swamp and The Ultimate Whorl show flora and fauna bursting from the confines of the picture frame, which give evidence to the dynamic vitality of nature. But within this abundance of life, we are faced with a clear threat. Tangles of thorny branches leave little room for migratory birds to rest comfortably. The scarred earth and ominous skies in such paintings as The Fall and Heed force viewers to go beyond poetic beauty to consider what happens if nature is stressed beyond her ability to recover. While Blatman’s small worlds are undeniably lovely, they also acknowledge and warn about troubles in our natural paradise.
(adapted from the venue’s press materials)
INFORMATION
Catamount Arts
115 Eastern Avenue
St. Johnsbury 05819
(802) 748-2600
Hours:
Monday-Saturday, 11AM-8PM
Sunday, 1-8PM
Images (top to bottom):
from “Out on a Limb”
by Anne Sargent Walker
from “Out on a Limb”
by Anne Sargent walker
Heed
by Resa Blatman