BELLOWS FALLS — Canal Street Art Gallery, 23 Canal Street, presents “Charles W. Norris-Brown: Distant Thunder Studio,” on view from Friday, April 21, through Saturday, June 10. Join the Gallery on 3rd Friday Gallery Night in Historic Downtown Bellows Falls on April 21 from 5 to 7 p.m. to celebrate the opening of the show. All Gallery events are free and open to the public.
All the original artworks from the late artist's unfinished graphic novel, Thunder Basin, will be on view within a recreation of Norris-Brown's studio as an interactive exhibition, including artmaking for the public and digital cataloging of the graphic novel, and culminating in the launch of a Thunder Basin website. Finished works along with drawings, storyboard frames, studies, and writings are all included.
“I call my studio Distant Thunder,” Norris-Brown once wrote. “Sometimes I have a real studio. Other times Distant Thunder Studio is within me.”
Visitors are invited to interact with the show through exploring Norris-Brown's notebooks, plein-air studies, sketchbooks, brushes, and palettes. Art supplies and a space to create are provided as part of the exhibit. Those who are inspired may write, draw, and paint with watercolor or ink, to make their own artwork and writing about Thunder Basin.
Fans of the artist may become further involved through volunteering and assisting in the digital cataloging of all works pertaining to Thunder Basin to be available during the Distant Thunder Studio show, including artworks, sketchbooks, and notebooks, and help bring one artist's vision to life by developing his graphic novel into a Creative Commons licensed work to be accessible for community-based projects worldwide.
Thunder Basin is the artist's third book and unfinished work. Here a girl loses her beloved cell phone in the forest. Trickster Coyote picks it up and runs away with it, leading her to explore the forest, and ultimately, herself. This quest unfolds in the Thunder Basin along the west flank of Vermont's Mount Mansfield.
Select artworks in the show which are not for sale are available as pre-ordered, full-sized archival pigment prints on cotton rag paper. These reproductions are available only during the show. At the end of the exhibit each edition is closed, and then printed.
Canal Street Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information go to canalstreetartgallery.com, call Mike Noyes by phone at 802-289-0104, or email artinfo@canalstreetartgallery.com.