July - September 2024

Rachel Mirus is a STEAM teaching artist, nature writer, and lifelong learner. Her passion is to inspire observation, experimentation, and creativity in students of all ages through her visual art, writing, and teaching. Originally trained in biology, she has worked in research labs and museums across the country, including the California Academy of Sciences and the Harvard Museum of Natural History. She actively practices the skills of learning by pursuing hobbies she’s bad at, including Celtic harp, rock climbing, and belly dance.

Rachel's Exhibit Statement for her show at NBNC:
Nature provides so many fascinations that my artistic curiosity frequently pounces on new subjects. But some themes do recur in my work: I really like spiders, and lichens… the small things that are underfoot, or overhead, everywhere, every day, that are easy to disregard, but that contain whole worlds, should you pause to reflect on them. So, here is a collection of things that caught my curiosity, I hope they will catch yours.

Visit Rachel's website

April - June 2024

Nick Neddo has been making art since he could first pick up a crayon. He grew up exploring the wetlands, forests, and fields of his bioregion and developed a profound curiosity, respect, and love for the community of life around him. As a youngster, Nick identified primary focuses that would become life-long pursuits: study of the natural world, Stone Age technology (popularly known as primitive skills), and creating art. Trusting the inherent value of these skills, he continues to embrace their pursuit with a ravenous appetite fueled by a genuine love of the living world and the creative process.

Nick works with art media that he crafts from raw materials he forages from the landscape. He transforms these fibers, furs, berries, beeswax, muds, sticks, and stones into pens, paintbrushes, crayons, charcoal, inks, paints, paper, inkwells, and sketchbooks. He is the author of two guides to making your own art supplies from nature: The Organic Artist and The Organic Artist for Kids.

Most recently, Nick illustrated former NBNC Director of Education Amy Butler’s book Educating Children Outdoors: Lessons in Nature-Based Learning. His show at NBNC was made up of pieces from that project, three quarters of which were created specifically for this book. 

Visit Nick's website

by Jennifer Davey

January - March 2024

This group show included felting, knitting, weaving, basket making, hooked rugs, and more from fiber artists across Vermont. About half of the work was from a project organized by Kimberly Hagen to promote the use of felted wool as an attractive, sustainable, and sound dampening option for restaurant decor. The remaining work highlighted the wide variety of other styles and techniques used by fiber artists in Vermont.

The felted portion of the show was funded by a 2018 grant from the American Sheep Industry Association and was previously exhibited at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival and the Hildene Estate in Manchester, VT.

Artists:

Alison Forest, Bradie Hansen, Chelsea Clarke Sawyer, Eve Jacobs-Carnahan, Jenny Brown, Jennifer Davey, Katelynn Latz, Kerry Wood, Kim Goodling, Kimberly Hagen, Kris McDermet, Laurie Curtis, Muffy Grolier, Neysa Russo, Pamela Wilson, Robin Courtney, Sheri Schenk, Suzanne Taylor.

By Lindsey Benton

September - December 2023

This mushroom-themed juried group show included painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, fiber arts, ceramics, jewelry, poetry, and more by artists from across New England! It was timed to coincide with our Fungi Fest event featuring mushroom forays, presentations, and activities.

Artists:

Alanna Facchin | Amanda Ann Palmer  
Ashley Strobridge | Bethany Farrell
Carole Hass | Caroline Weaver | Emily Seiffert Frances Cannon | George Seiffert | Grace Hopkins | Hannah Regier | Heather Ritchie | Kasandra Reid |Kelly Finan | Lacretia Flash | Linda DiSante | Lindsey Benton | Lynnette Hesser | Margarete Immel | Meg Madden | Micah Lynch | Patrick McAllister | Rachel Mirus | Rick Powell | Shelby Perry | Simon Schreier | Stephanie Vaus | Susan Bull Riley | Susan Sawyer

July - September 2023

Patty Meriam is a painter, research-based multimedia artist, and conservator who is exploring and documenting the harmful effects of environmental exploitation while also celebrating nature’s ability to recover and reestablish itself. Her work invites conscious awareness of the position from which nature is observed, from close examination of details and pattern to unique points of view, and questions the implications of the human imprint on the land and commodification of it. Patty is driven by a protective response to the places she lives, her concern for the survival of biodiversity on the planet, and the collective power of art and nature to heal.

Patty grew up in Nyack, NY on the Hudson River with proximity to New York City. She took a circuitous route around art and is currently living her dream as an MFA candidate in Visual Art at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She earned a BA in Art History and Premed from Boston College and worked postgrad in medical research. A short stint in archeology in Cyprus directed her toward an MS in Historic Preservation at Columbia University and a career in architectural conservation and project management. She is now fully engaged in developing a meaningful art practice.

Visit Patty’s website

April - June 2023

Hilary Ann Love Glass is a Printmaker, Tattoo Artist and Illustrator. She has been drawing her whole life and uses this practice to feel grounded and purposeful in the world. She draws flora and fauna from local woods as well as imaginary creatures from other worlds entirely. She uses pen and ink, graphite, colored pencils, watercolor, and gouache as her primary illustration tools. Most of her printmaking experience is in intaglio etching but she intends to incorporate more letterpress, woodcut and silkscreen methods into her work as she continues to learn and create. 

Much of Hilary’s work explores the nature and relationships of creatures both real and imagined, all rendered with lots of detail and narrative in their postures and expressions.  Studying the world around her has often revealed what kinds of other worlds exist in her own imagination. For Hilary, it is nourishing to work on both the inventive drawings as well as more literal, realistic types of illustrations. It is a balancing act. The realistic work has an emphasis on technical detail which is a really meditative process, while the imaginative work opens up many layers of possibility for an emotional attunement. Each practice deepens the other.

Visit Hilary’s website

March 2023

This exhibit presented three-dimensional collages and shadow boxes created by collagist Gabrielle Dietzel as a visual response to literature about birds. These include poems, haiku, historic and scientific documents, memoirs, and quotes collected by writer Howard Norman for an anthology. The project was initiated by Howard and Gabrielle in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.

About Howard: Howard Norman is the author of novels, (including The Bird Artist), memoirs, books for children, radio dramas, and the episodic graphic story Detective Levy Detects. He was awarded the Lannan Award in Literature. His forthcoming novel is Come To The Window, and he is working on a collection of ornithological travel diaries, A Theology of Birds, for Yale University Press. He lives in East Calais, Vermont.

About Gabrielle: Gabrielle Dietzel started to cut out images and glue them together at a very young age, much to the consternation of her family members, who found that their books and magazines had provided her with source material. This is to say that she has been refining the art of collage ever since. Gabrielle moved from Germany to Vermont in 1979. She is a member of the “Collagistas”, a group of collage artists that meets and exhibits in Central Vermont. Her collages have become predominantly three-dimensional, considering space, depth, light and shadows, layered in found boxes or constructed frames.

January - February 2023

About Phillip: Phillip Robertson is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and printmaker, living in Vermont since 1994. Phillip is inspired by the natural landscape, using his imagination and memory to look beyond realism to make a statement about the pastoral landscape tradition in the 21st century. He earned his BFA in Painting with a Minor in Art History from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1989 and earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College in 2008. Robertson currently teaches printmaking, drawing, painting and art history at Northern Vermont University (Johnson Campus) and the Community College of Vermont. He is the Director of the Julian Scott Memorial Gallery on the Johnson campus of Northern Vermont University and has been involved as a volunteer at the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier, Vermont since 1997.

Visit Phillip’s website

About Ed: An artist and musician all his life, Ed Epstein started drawing very early, like most kids, but he stayed with it while most others moved on to other things. Music and art have been the throughline for his life. From childhood, Ed was always drawing the world around him and filled many sketchbooks with his observations. Over the years he made woodcuts, lithographs and etchings. He seldom exhibited his artwork, but used his skills as an artist to earn a living through courtroom illustrations, technical drawings, and engravings on granite. 

When Ed returned to Vermont in 2010 after living in Trinidad for 10 years, he focused on painting portraits. In Trinidad, he had discovered black sketchbooks in which you draw light on dark. This opened his eyes to a completely new way of seeing and renewed his interest in drawing. 

Visit Ed’s website

October - December 2022

Robin Crofut-Brittingham’s large scale watercolor paintings address themes of nature, extinction, and mythology. Originally from Western Massachusetts, Robin received her BA from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York with a focus in Poetry and Art History. She completed her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute. She was the recipient of the Murphy Cadogan Award from the San Francisco Foundation and a Martha Boschen Porter Award through the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. Her work has been featured in Juxtapoz, Novella, Frankie, My Modern Met, Hi Fructose and on Booooooom, among others, and has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US and Canada.

Visit Robin’s website

July - September 2022

Amy Hook-Therrien grew up in a small Vermont town, where she formed deep connections with the forests surrounding her. She went on to study art at the University of Maine in Orono, where she earned her BFA in painting. After graduating, Amy returned to rural Vermont to immerse herself in nature and painting. She has since been featured in multiple publications as well as gaining representation in galleries throughout the state. She was awarded the 2019 Abenaki Artists Association’s Artist of the Year Award, and is the 2022 Artist in Residence at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. She is currently working on a series of watercolor paintings portraying the tranquility and fragility found in nature.

Amy also painted the backgrounds for NBNC's Nature Connection Trail.

Visit Amy’s website

Art Resource Association Group Show: In the Light of Spring

April - June 2022

The Art Resource Association was started in the early 1970s as an organization that supports visual artists of all mediums. They work and inspire one another as a collective, to encourage and support growth and self-expression in the arts. Since the early days the ARA has evolved, grown in membership, and continues to enroll artists hailing from around the state. The show at North Branch Nature Center revolved around the theme In the Light of Spring.

January - March 2022

You may know us as teachers, naturalists, trip leaders, newsletter writers, invasive plant removers, administrators, and more – but did you know that many of NBNC’s staff members also have an artistic side? This show explored how eight of us connect with nature through the arts, from photography and painting to woodcarving and wire sculpting. Meet flora and fauna ranging from tiny snails and lichens to enormous bison and towering trees as you tour this gallery of NBNC staff artwork and see what inspires each of us.

The show included photographs by Sean Beckett, Amy Butler, Emily Seiffert, and Emily Sloan; wood carvings by Ken Benton; drawings and fiber art by Chelsea Clarke Sawyer; paintings, drawings, and ceramic sculpture by Braden DeForge; and wire sculptures by Jenna Plouffe.

June - December 2021

Susan writes “These paintings reflect my desire to translate the intensity of my feelings for the natural world into images that speak to others. Sometimes it’s easier to use watercolors to communicate what I need to say, and sometimes oils work better. I am still trying to decide if I prefer one medium over the other, but at least it’s clear that for most of the subject matter in this exhibit, watercolor is my preferred medium because of the ease of rendering detail and its capacity for both translucency and opacity.”

Visit Susan’s website