On Sunday, January 21, at 1 p.m., the Latchis Gallery will host "Meditation & Creation-A Duet of Sound and Color," rescheduled after being postponed on Jan. 7 due to weather.
Artist Julia Volodina and percussionist/gong specialist Stephan Brandstatter will combine their talents to create both an improvised soundscape and an original, abstract-impressionist work of art. Volodina will create a painting while working within the sound environment created by Brandstatter.
This improvised event will take place in Theatre 4 of the historic Latchis Theatre complex, a performance space connected to the Latchis Gallery.
Before working on a painting, Volodina relaxes into a place of active meditation. She finds energy by shedding the chaos of daily life to clear her mind before putting paint to canvas. With this event she invites attendees to enter that space with her, and follow the evolution of an artwork brushstroke by brushstroke.
Simultaneously, Brandstatter will create a soundscape, combining gongs, bells, tuned brass bowls, drums, chimes, rainsticks, and his voice.
"The effect the artists intend is for people to enjoy a time of peace and beauty, to join them in meditation and calming of the mind, to detach from the everyday and enjoy a moment of tranquility, creativity, sound and color," Latchis Arts Executive Director Jon Potter said in a news release.
For 25 years, Brandstatter has been an advocate for the spiritual and medicinal powers of the gong. He has assisted in healing sessions, celebratory events, weddings, memorials, sacred rituals, yoga practices, and gong baths. He espouses how sound and the power of the gong can help create health and well-being for people and the planet.
It took almost 25 years for artist Volodina to break from the strictures of the Soviet Realism School of art in which she was trained to embrace Intuitive Abstract Impressionism as the reflection of her artistic vision, she says. In her studios in Vermont and Spain, she explores the interplay of line, color, and form and the practice of removing herself from the process and allowing the painting to develop on its own. She is currently the featured artist at the Latchis Gallery.
"This spontaneous invention of meditation, painting, and soundscape recalls the importance of chance in the moment of artistic creation that was espoused by John Cage and others in the 20th century," say the artists in a news release. "All that occurs in this event is part of the artistic and spiritual whole, between artists, audience and the surroundings, with the form and results unplanned."
Audience participation in the soundscape is encouraged as part of the creative process.
The Latchis Gallery, 50 Main St., is next to the Latchis Theatre. For more information, call 802-689-6596 or visit facebook.com/juliartvt.
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.