Bravery and bathos

“Intrepid” (oil on masonite), by Lyndeborough, N.H.-based artist Susan Q. Brown, at the Conant Gallery at Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass.

Her Web site says:

Her Web site says her figurative and abstract work … evokes the natural landscape and human forms to explore separation and interconnectedness using color, grids, and unexpected imagery that viscerally stimulates the viewer to perceive/experience something new to them.  While Susan works from her impressions of the natural world, she also draws upon pillars of art history, such as ancient works by Buddhist and Indian artists in the East and Western contemporary masters like Agnes Martin and Hilma af Klint.’’

Lyndeborough Town Hall, built in 1846

Immigration and xenophobia

“Burden,’’ from “Migrant Series’’ (mixed media on canvas), by Mohammed Daoudi, in his show “Finding My Way Around Home: Art in the Times of Xenophobia,’’ Sept. 13-Dec. 16 at the Conant Gallery at Lawrence Academy, Groton Mass.

The gallery explains that the work stems from Mr. Daodi’s experiences with immigration and xenophobia. “Born in Tangier, Morocco, he came to New York to study what he calls ‘money-making subjects’ at Skidmore College and the Columbia University School of International Affairs. Between these experiences and his marriage to a Jewish woman, his background is a rich patchwork of cultural experience, giving him a unique perspective on humanity.’’’’

Lawrence is the 10th oldest boarding school in America.

St. John’s Chapel at the Groton School, founded in 1884 and long a pillar of the old Eastern Establishment. Franklin Roosevelt, among other luminaries, graduated from the Episcopal school.

Lithograph of Groton from 1886 by L.R. Burleigh with list of landmarks

Gibbet Hill, in some of Groton’s beautiful countryside. The area is well known for its apples.

No surprise: A house not necessarily a home in the '50s, or now

"It Was Getting Late,'' by Leslie Graff, in her show "Housed,'' at the Conant Gallery in Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass., through Dec. 18.

The gallery notes say she creates "complicated imagery featuring women in stereotypical gender roles and dress, from the shoulders down.''

"House has a much colder connotation than home does...'housed' creates a feeling closer to being trapped than to being comforted.''

The picture certainly evokes the '50s or perhaps '60s. Note that she's reading the long-dead McCall's magazine.