Pause: Exhibition Reception September 9, 2023

Saturday, September 9th from 5-7 pm at the Eclipse Mill, North Adams

Please join me and fellow artist/collaborator Debi Pendell on Saturday, September 9th from 5-7 pm at the Eclipse Mill, North Adams, for our exhibit Pause opening reception.

Refreshments will be served. Representatives from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire will be in attendance to share information about the individual artist grants they award every year. We were the 2023 recipients of this award!

Debi and I have wanted to collaborate for years, and finally decided to pause our other work to make it happen. Within this exhibit, we asked ourselves and you the viewer to pause time and consider something larger than our day-to-day selves and to ponder the deeper ideas of our existence.

Time passing by so swiftly that we hardly notice it until it’s gone is a common perennial theme, but time feels even more precious since we lost such a big chunk of it to the Covid pandemic. Feeling unanchored, lost, and having difficulty getting back to what once felt like a solid life, a dislocation in time is expressed by many. How do we pause to appreciate our precious time?

We considered these ideas, as well as A Book of Hours, a Christian devotional book used to pray. Books of Hours inspired several takes on “Books of Pauses,” secular rather than religious but similar in use – a book to pause and consult for ideas to ponder, contemplate, consider.

Working separately, we experimented with no particular outcome in mind and then wrestled together with how our divergent directions might become one cohesive exhibit. Large paper hangings create a sacred surrounding pause in time. Small paper wall hangings are reminder flags to pause and ponder. Prints on paper and works on canvas “picture” a pause, sometimes totally wordlessly. Tables , sculptures, interactive experiences, and lists of ideas to pause and ponder continue to grow and grow and grow.

Nothing needs to be omitted from our lives. All ideas and emotions have positive and negative aspects. There is no need for judgement. Allow it to be what it is. Just listen to yourself.

The exhibit will run from September 1-30. Gallery hours: Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays 12-4 pm.

Pause made possible in part thanks to a generous grant from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, a division of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.