ESCAPING
TO THE “FOXHOLE OF THE
MIND”: SECRET PLACES OF CHILDHOOD
The Windham Art Gallery is pleased to present The Secret
Places of Childhood in the front gallery, featuring the work
of gallery members Amy Boemig, Stuart Copans, Carolyn Nelson
and Susan Wadsworth as well as that of invited artists Joanne
Finkel and Margaret Shipman. An All Members' Small Works'
Exhibition will be on display in the back gallery. These
exhibits run Friday, December 5-28, with an opening reception
on Friday, December 5, 5:00-8:00 PM during Gallery Walk.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Noted children’s book illustrator John Gurney will
draw caricatures of children and/or their parents during
Gallery Walk on Friday, December 5 in exchange for a donation
to the Windham Art Gallery.
Windham Art Gallery and Write Action invite writers to
an Open Reading Wednesday, Dec 17 from 7-9PM. The theme
is "The
Secret Places of Childhood." Sign-up of readers will
be the evening of the open reading (please note: readers
are asked to limit themselves to seven minutes). For questions,
please call 802-254-9595. Refreshments. Free.
Paper-cut artist, child psychiatrist and curator, Stuart
Copans, has said the impetus behind Secret Places of Childhood
came from the idea that “Many of us learn to hide,
in the words of Harry Truman, in "a foxhole in our mind." Children
growing into adults must find their own safe spaces in which
to undergo their transformations. For some, it is their room,
a chair, a secret place off in the woods.” “When
I was a child,” Amy Boemig—whose paintings draw
the reader into mysterious and surreal narratives—said, “I
was a daydreamer and didn't always feel connected with the
real world. However, I felt very connected with the places
I would see and the characters I would meet in my favorite
pictures. When I made things myself, I'd be lost in my own
world, telling myself nonverbal stories. . .” Margaret
Shipman’s work, which also engages the narrative imagination,
began after she worked as a portrait artist at an amusement
park over several summers and her ten-minute pastels grew
into a “fascination with the face.” She began
collecting nineteenth century photographs and to imagine
the lives of the people in the photos, “presumably
long dead,” she began “adding embellishments
strengthening my ideas about the people; butterfly wings
to a woman with a happy face, flowers, weeds, frames and
words to others.”
For Joanne Finkel, “The secret places of childhood” connotes “both
safe and scary places where our fantasies, fears, dreams,
and magical lives exist and flourish. A closet can offer
a clever hiding place to play in but can suddenly turn into
a one-way claustrophobic jungle.” Collage artist and
painter, Carolyn Nelson, also recalled the fragility and
vulnerability of childhood and how “there are always
monsters in the lives of children. I lived close to the sea
and so that has always been an important place to me. The
ocean, both mysterious and wonderful. . .where the Gods and
nature rule.” Susan Wadsworth has said of her recent
work that it is about the mother’s view of childhood, “How
to create a warm and loving childhood, how to support one’s
children’s interests and explorations into the world.” For
this exhibit she will include images of her children learning
to ride, bike, ski and kayak, travel adventures and what
she calls the “Sofa and Bed Series,” because
we spend a great deal of time cuddling on beds and sofas,
doing homework on the large king bed, and reading and watching
TV on the large blue sofa.”
Susan
Wadsworth, Sofa Cuddle
Stuart Copans, The Green Fort in the Forest
Amy Boemig, Eagle
Joanne Finkel, The Sea
