BRATTLEBORO-How does landscape painting intersect with environmental conservation? Two experts explore the possibilities at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m. Moderated by BMAC Curator Emerita Mara Williams, the talk will feature visual artist Ilana Manolson, whose exhibit, "The River Between," is currently on view at the museum, and Connecticut River Conservancy Executive Director Rebecca Todd.
Manolson is a painter, printmaker, and naturalist based in Concord, Massachusetts. She lives beside a river and creates artwork that she says considers the impact humans have on the environment, especially waterways. Todd grew up and raised a family in the Connecticut River watershed, and, as an attorney, has for years advised individuals, organizations, and businesses on environmental matters. The two women share a passion for, and a professional commitment to, the health and significance of rivers.
Manolson allows her images to cascade in layers down and around the walls of whatever gallery she is exhibiting in, say organizers, using both the paint and the space in unexpected ways. "Her complicated and richly colored compositions are both abstract and representational, tapping into the viewers' senses in an almost visceral way to seemingly evoke the warmth of dappled sunlight, the dampness of a river bank, or the scents of water, earth, and trees," they say.
"Water holds the power to heal and also to destroy," Manolson says. "When we live beside bodies of water, we experience both its life-giving and life-threatening force." Her paintings point to "the constancy of change in nature and the human role in that change," she adds. "What we, as humans, do upstream will affect what happens downstream."
"The River Between" is on view at BMAC through Oct. 19.
Admission to the talk is free and walk-ins are welcome, but registration is recommended at brattleboromuseum.org or 802-257-0124, ext. 101. For accessibility questions and requests, call or email office@brattleboromuseum.org.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.