Great Ice 2022

Planning continues for the Feb 18, 19, 20 events!

Schedule includes many things - please check the website for details: www.greaticevt.org

Friday activities include fireworks, skating and bonfire; Saturday has snowshoeing at Camp Ingalls, chili cook-off, lighted rink, and (new this year) a barn dance with the Tenderbellies at the Community Hall; Sunday is the Over & Back trek to Knight Island and more skating...

All of course is weather dependent and at your own risk, so please be responsible, stay safe, and have fun.

The Islander Interview

Michael Frett of The Islander interviews the artists now at GreenTARA. Thank you for your insights into the show and interest in what we do!

January: Color and Light

In the bright light of January we are welcomed by Scott Brown’s highly painted wood panels of primary colors and Kristian Brevik’s play of illuminated life. This show is up through mid-March and viewable on F, S, S 12-6pm during Kraemer & Kin’s hours of operation. More details to follow.

Scott Brown’s panels are designed by hand, drafted on a computer, send to a cnc shop in Bristol, then returned to Grand Isle for painting and assembly. Each panel is a geometry of puzzle pieces, a variation of pattern and shape. The triptych Planet Series reaches across the boundary of space as the yellow orb revolves from one panel to the other; in Dancing, a more urban inspired panel, the dancers are contained yet breach the black grid of city streets; and in Migration, the largest piece (yet) to be installed, we see rotating rhythm of color and sound.

Kristian Brevik’s works in art and science combining them into forms that help us question the relationships between us, humans, and life-other-than-human. His whale sculptures (humpback, sperm whale, and red whale) hang and move in the Gallery air as if this were still the Champlain Sea, of 13,000 years ago, when Charlotte, the whale, was still swimming around. The narwhal and grey whale are on lamp bases, yet freely move and float through time as well.

Kristian says: I create illuminated sculptural lanterns representing the breadth of biodiversity in the living world. When lit, these lanterns reveal skeletons, colors, and patterns of the creatures they represent - they cast a warm glow, drawing the viewer in. These works encourage the consideration of these beings, their role in ecosystems, and their wellbeing in the world. www.kristianbrevik.com

Added to these “linen stretched over a metal frame” creatures are two delightful pollinators. Again reminding us of our interconnected life within the natural world.

Winter, a time of mystery.

Winter brings out a whole new sets of activities, practices, and behaviors in and around us. But not everyone gets to have winter, so it is special, here. The intricate patterns of ice on window panes, the new light that begins after the solstice, the beaver trails on frozen rivers, the green of lichen in a black & white landscape — all enliven our daily moments. This a time for reflection and thought as we move into the deepening cold and wait for the spring of life to rebound with the sprouting of our tomato seeds,… but thankfully that is still a ways off.

I am only now remembering the drama of last January in our Capitol, as I wait for ice in City Bay to form. Perhaps our community celebration of Great Ice 2022 — Feb 18, 19, 20 — will offer laughter and healing for this coming year.

2021 - a year in review

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
It feels like a long year with many ups & downs -- for some illnesses, for others new family -- but altogether it seems we have the strength to face a new year, i.e., the coming Chinese "Year of the Tiger." This is one about courage, a sense of justice, exorcising evils, and maybe a little arrogance! I can't wait.

The images below highlight 2021 at GreenTARA, but in one sentence, the Gallery showcased some impressive Vermont artists over the year and continues to be home to Kraemer & Kin, our local micro-brewery and community hub.

Other tidbits: the North Hero Town Library now has a collection of Stave Puzzles. We donated about 24 of these hand-cut, non-linear, wooden jigsaw gems made in Norwich, VT for you to borrow. If you don't know about them, check out the website! www.stavepuzzles.com

First show of 2022 will be Scott Brown from Grand Isle with his primary colored constructions. Each piece is designed, cut, painted, then pieced back together to create interlocking geometries. And Kristian Brevick with his illuminated world of fishes and whales from Burlington:

I create illuminated sculptural lanterns representing the breadth of biodiversity in the living world. When lit, these lanterns reveal skeletons, colors, and patterns of the creatures they represent - they cast a warm glow, drawing the viewer in. These works encourage the consideration of these beings, their role in ecosystems, and their wellbeing in the world. www.kristianbrevik.com

Don't forget on Great Ice 2022 -- Feb. 18, 19, and 20. There will be events from snowshoeing and skating, to skiing and dogsledding... more is being planned as we go.

Happy winter to you all, Diane

CON EL MAR POR TESTIGO

CON EL MAR POR TESTIGO (With the sea as our witness) is a virtual gallery and photographic show created by EFCH photography school in Havana, Cuba. Several of us made a trip via the Cuban American Friendship Society (CAFS) which included a visit to EFCH in March 2020 right before the pandemic closed down travel. GreenTARA hopes to one day host a gallery event with EFCH, but this virtual event will have to suffice in the meantime. To view the video, please click on and scroll around: www.efchgallery.com

Portrait of US - North Hero, VT

These photographs and interviews by Monica Frisell and Adam Scher were part of Carole d’ Inverno’s gallery mural project in September. Together the two are creating an evolving and living document of our country in their ongoing project “Portrait of US”. They are back on the road again, but have left this collection of photographs and interviews for us to view online or at the Town Library and GreenTARA.

TRANSCENDENCE

TRANSCENDENCE that moment of higher consciousness that comes from moving through obstacles, seeking out the light, and becoming independent of the material universe.

We live in a time of conscious of change. Things are shifting and we can feel it on three levels from the personal and community to the global. We are trying to find a path through this world, and to transcend what it before us. To help us see this world, painter Catherine Hall’s “tapestries” of fluttering textures, changing colours, and glittery gold remind us of the transitory illusions of our daily lives.

While Shelley Warren’s carved Buddhist and Hindu inspired sculptures help to focus the mind and heart as we travel through this samsaric world into Oneness.