Burlington Literary Festival

Mark your calendar for this: http://www.sevendaysvt.com/bookfest/raquo-schedule.html

Contemplation

The twin objective in life is to look in while looking out, look out while looking in.

Pop Acrylics

I saw some fantastic paintings at 1/2 (the tiny, intimate bar nestled into the first block of the Church Street Marketplace). They are gorgeous little slice of life paintings to me. You can almost sense what the subjects are thinking. Though the brushstrokes are quick and denote movement, there is a sense of contemplation taking place as well. This may be a stretch of aesthetic identification, but they made me think of something Liechtenstein would do were he armed with acryclic paints. What do you think??

Material Girl

Nancy Dwyer's latest show, "Entitled to What," showing at the Firehouse Gallery critiques our contemporary material culture: our desire, urge and need to collect material objects to express our identity. Surely the possession of items codifies our existence, but in an age of such decadent excess in which the gap between those who possess and those who don't is ever-widening, what, as Dwyer questions, are we really entitled to?





The most impressive piece Dwyer offers is a wall of "stuff." Objects are offered to the viewer on multicolored paper plates. One instantly gravitates to those things she identifies with or those things she actually possesses herself (yes I do own a Jane Fonda aerobics video!). My eye was attracted to shoes, a book by Camille Paglia, eyeglasses, treats, a mirror. Once the viewer has latched on to things of personal significance, she starts to question other objects on the wall. Really you could stare at this piece for a lengthy chunk of time and have a lot of fun with it.

Journey to the Past

Me as a 1950s housewife at the 1950s House at the Shelburne Museum!!

Flower Power