BRATTLEBORO — C.X. Silver Gallery, 814 Western Ave., announces the opening reception and book launch of Liz Hawkes deNiord: Return as Ticket, on Friday, Sept. 29, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Hawkes deNiord's recent paintings “record the distillation of memory, dream, allegory, and emotion into impressions using paint and mixed media,” according to a press release from the gallery. “Her large abstract works represent a reflective response to world events and personal reflections and present a visual interpretation through vivid color.”
She studied fine arts and Asian studies in college and graduate work, and developed what the gallery describes as “her sometimes edgy, sometimes sublime” painting style originally in oils and works now with viscous acrylics and metals. Additionally, she trained as a ceramicist and printmaker, both of which enter into the painting as “different ways of thinking,” the artist says, affecting problem solving and paint application.
The most difficult and exciting part of painting, she says, is paying attention to the inherent message developed in each work.
In an attempt to understand conflicts and social issues experienced worldwide and as close to home as the classroom where she taught art in Brattleboro, Hawkes deNiord frequently writes in journals and sketches her understanding of “art as archeology,” digging through using visual language to an abstracted painted image that she hopes transcends the object and translates one's understanding of where we are now.
The written contributions to Liz Hawkes deNiord: Return as Ticket, in addition to Liz's statement, include Vermont Poet Laureate Chard deNiord's poetry and essays by Michele Burgess, Brian D. Cohen, New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alice B. Fogel, and Bill Kelly.