Embrace contradictions

From Joan Feirabend’s show “Multitudes,’’ at AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon. N.H., Oct. 6-Nov. 4.

The gallery says:

“For thirty-two years, art has been Joan Feierabend’s daily practice, ‘I have long recognized that my paintings are wiser than I am. When a painting tells me where it wants to go, I do my best to follow.’ Working with multiple layers, she tinted each surface with color and removed paint by pressing a crumpled cloth onto the surface, creating a sort of ‘blot’– an interruption akin to the way unforeseen events can imprint a life. Each painting took many days of layering in this way. Materials used include acrylic paint, ink, pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, pastel, and gold leaf. Her tools were brushes, spatulas, pens, stencils, tape, sponges, wadded cloth, paper, and baby wipes.

“Fond of the verse, ‘I contain multitudes,’ in Walt Whitman’s poem, ‘Leaves of Grass', Feierabend believes this to be true of us all. ‘We all contain contradictions…the complexity that every human being brings to the art– including the artist, speaks to our unique selves.’ She recognizes that viewers may experience multitudes of contradictions while making selections as they will no doubt waver between the diverse choices offered.’’

Fountain in downtown Lebanon

— Photo by Artaxerxes

Horsefeathers

"Dive'' (feathers and sticks), by Alysa Bennett, in her show "A Change of Horse,'' at AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, N.H., through May 25. The gallery says her "career inspiration and artistry have been of subjects that bring movement and mystery. Horses have been a core subject for the artist for many years and are shown in multiple mediums of drawings, prints and sculptures. ''

Lebanon is an old Connecticut River Valley mill town, chartered in 1761, that was revolutionized by the routing, in the 1960s, of Interstates 89 and 91 through the town and nearby  White River Junction, Vt. (where Amtrak and freight trains stop), in addition because of the growth of Dartmouth College.
 

That's especially with the expansion of  Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, which is affiliated with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, in Lebanon,  and  with the growth of storied Dartmouth College itself, whose main campus, in Hanover, is just to the north. Dartmouth Hitchcock is the largest medical center in northern New England. The Geisel School is named after Theodor Geisel, aka "Dr. Seuss,'' a member of the Dartmouth College class of 1925.

So the former small-factory town now has a mixed economy based on education, medical services, high-technology and retail. It and White River Junction also have some good restaurants.