Art
A Readers Response to Life at the Vermont Studio School
To the Readers of the Rail,
This letter is written to correct a false impression, which might emerge from reading the article “Life at VSC” in the November 2003 issue.
It appears from the article that VSC is some sort of “art ashram.” It is no such thing. It is instead a gathering of all kinds of artists and writers, a few with an interest in Eastern religions, but most of them caring more deeply about their artistic development than anything else. VSC is an intense place, attracting intense participants, but the smoke of incense does not hang in the air, and the lights in the studios at night are evidence of work being done after hours, rather than meditation being practiced.
It is, perhaps, that the daily practice of one’s art is itself a striving for transcendence, so that no other disciplines are needed.
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Blythe Bohnen: Process is Life
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Mostly large canvases (up to 6 by 10 feet) painted within the past three years, in the midst of the pandemic, the works on view in Francine Tint: Life in Action appear as luminous and effervescent as any she has made. But within the parameters of the visual vocabulary she has established over decades, Tint reveals a highly nuanced range of emotional statesfrom exuberantly euphoric to introspectively pensive.
Michael Brenson’s David Smith: The Art and Life of a Transformative Sculptor
By Brandt JunceauDEC 22–JAN 23 | Books
This artists life stares back at the would-be biographer, like a gorgon. The author turned a mirror on it. The tale is made to tell itself, witness by witness, snapped off in an unblinking chain of hard short chapters, almost voice by voice. By conscientious decision, maybe a matter of self-preservation, Brenson is a laconic guide rather than interpreter and thankfully, no explainer.
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