WEST BRATTLEBORO — Artists can be loners; craftspeople, too. But sitting in a meeting of the Brattleboro-West Arts (BWA) recently I was struck by the collaborative spirit, a palpable egoless camaraderie.
With tea and fabric artist Kris McDermet's killer cookies, we gather in the warm living room of a Federal-period home well-supplied with impressive art and craft. In the air is typical Vermont kindness.
There's no particular leader - synergy drives the conversation. But McDermet steps up with a list to guide the final stage of planning the group's big annual event.
In fact, this camaraderie is what has spawned the Brattleboro-West Arts' Fine Art and Craft Sale coming up at 118 Elliot in Brattleboro from Friday, Nov. 30 through Sunday, Dec. 2.
Featuring original works - paintings, pastels, photography, botanical etchings, pottery, textiles, woodworking, jewelry, glass - the event highlights 15 BWA members: Stephen Lloyd, painting in watercolor and acrylic; Kris McDermet, braided and hooked rugs; Greg Moschetti, landscape painting; Jen Wiechers, encaustic painting and sterling silver jewelry; Naomi Lindenfeld, colored clay; Chris Lann, sterling and gemstone jewelry; Matt Tell, pottery; Bobbi Angell, copper etching/printmaking; Walter Slowinski, pottery; Julia Eva Bacon, oil paintings of animals; Marta Bernbaum, glasswork; Josh Bernbaum, glasswork; Jason Breen, fine woodworking; Lesley Heathcote, pastel paintings of animals, birds, and landscapes; and Gene Parulis, photographic prints and cards.
For most, this is their primary work, and all have been honored in one way or another, by awards, publication, or exhibits, local and elsewhere - even in the Smithsonian, which procured one of Matt Tell's pieces years ago.
BWA formed in 2009 by artists and craftspeople who recognized the vibrant creative community in which they live. Since then, membership has grown to some three dozen professionals, many who regularly share their knowledge by teaching classes, leading workshops, and taking on apprentices.
BWA also sponsors occasional public forums - billed as Making It in the Arts - that tap the wisdom of successful local artists.
Most notable, though, is that members gather socially each month to share a meal and explore ways to enrich both their own art and the artistic climate of southern Vermont. I imagine the potter sheds light on the fiber artist's textures, the photographer informs the painter.
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Colored-clay artist Naomi Lindenfeld is testimony to the power of such influence. “Crafts were a big part of my upbringing,” she says, recalling her first pottery training at age 12.
Impressed throughout her life by the work of her mother, a Black Mountain College–trained fiber artist who experimented deeply in collage, Lindenfeld talks softly about her work.
In the light of her studio window, plying the edges of a piece with nimble fingers, she muses: “I'm always discovering.”
Her work in myriad layers of colored clay is “very geological,” she says.
“Many things in nature are made of layers or patterns created by wind and water,” Lindenfeld says. “In these pieces are associations with wood grain, rock striations, the flow of water. I'm inspired, too, by my love of dance and movement.” Movement is vividly expressed in every Lindenfeld creation.
Fiber artist Kris McDermet's work is an intricate, textured, richly-colored blend of braided and hooked materials. Each reflects a theme on which McDermet expands with crisp imagery and unique perspective.
Currently, for instance, she's working on a woodscape from a ground-up view, showing tree trunk, branches, and the undersides of leaves - the nature that captures her attention in so much of her work.
McDermet's work is not your grandmother's braided rug. Her pieces end up on more walls than floors with 3-D elements and scenes that draw us in.
“I like to continue to be creative, thinking up new designs that are more challenging, more colorful, and have meaning to the world,” she says.
Potter Matt Tell fell in love with clay in high school and from there went on to Marlboro College, where he majored in ceramics and art history.
Tell's work is inspired by organic forms, nature, and Asian ceramics. The fluted edge of a vase, the lotus imprinted at the base of a bowl, the glazes he favors, and even his wood-firing techniques all reflect this fusion of influences. Tell, who hikes daily in the woods outside his tucked-away studio, calls himself an introvert, yet his affable warmth belies that.
Julia Eva Bacon claims John Singer Sergeant as her hero, and that's evident in every brushstroke. First into portraiture, she felt stagnated and compelled to ask, “What makes me feel alive?”
The answer? Animals.
She now does what she loves: With rich light and color, she renders myriad animals and birds as if they, too, were posing for portraits. She ventures out into landscapes to capture images of animals which she then deftly brings to life on canvas with subtle gestures and strokes.
Bacon grew up in nature eyeing deer and bears in awe and developing respect for every living creature, even those that instilled fear.
“I'm driven by my soul purpose more than anything, and that's capturing the spirit of these animals,” she says.
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Jason Breen has been working wood since childhood, first helping to build his childhood home.
“I turned my attention to building instruments at Marlboro College, then to timber framing and cabinetry,” he says.
Now in his own business, he crafts primarily furniture and bowls, plates, boxes, and mirrors from local wood using classic techniques such as handcrafted joinery and hand-worked surfaces. Each piece reflects the inspiration he finds in the restrained lines of Shaker and Federal woodcraft. Each has an elegance.
Chris Lann is a jewelry artist fascinated with technique. Working always in silver - with some gold - he delves into intricately knit and woven chains using a process he gleaned from the Vikings. Or you might notice basket-weave twining, into which he'll work a gemstone. He'll cast silver, molding the influence of natural elements.
Lann uses leftovers and found materials when they surface and works them often with primitive methods: “fire and molten metal, hammers, and saws to create pieces one at a time. I'm led by technique and out of that comes the aesthetic of what I'm making.”
Walter Slowinski is a bit of a Renaissance guy. A doctor by training and vocation who left medical practice in 2010, he's an accomplished musician and now a potter: “My wife says I'm an artist who happens to be a doctor, not a doctor who happens to be interested in art,” he says.
“I had my hands seriously into clay well before high school,” he recalls. “In college I joined the pottery co-op, marveled at firing with wood, and was smitten.”
His work is rich in texture and nuance - as if it's seen generations.
Slowinski credits the BWA artists, who were starting to gather regularly as he moved from medicine to art.
“Appreciative of their encouragement, guidance and companionship, I refined my designs, explored, and developed viable marketing approaches, and did what I needed to do to morph into a professional craftsperson,” he says.
Slowinski's colleagues echo his appreciation.
Tell, an original member of the BWA as well as of the neighboring Rock River Artists, also values deeply that “community of serious artists.”
Lindenfeld describes monthly meetings as “unusual.”
“Many arts groups get together around an event or tour, but we offer regular workshops offering exposure to our mediums,” she observes. “It's stimulating. It's empowering to be connected. It opens up the world.”
As the meeting closes, Breen canvasses his peers.
“I'm wondering if anyone objects to my selling some of my syrup this year,” he asks. “They won't be in glass that Josh [Bernbaum] blew, though. Maybe next year.”
Meeting over, these creative forces disperse to their studios - each tucked somewhere in the Whetstone watershed - always knowing that other artists are behind them as buoy and ballast.