Rx for a Successful Farmers Market

The Art of Agriculture continues on Friday, June 29, at 7:30 p.m. with a discussion led by Jessie Schmidt, coordinator for community and agriculture programs with UVM Extension. Jessie will talk about the challenges faced by rural farmers' markets and the factors that promote their long-term success. She'll also touch on other buy-local options relevant to the Randolph area. Free and open to the public. Come be part of the discussion about small-scale agriculture in our community.

The Art of Travel: Fiesole, Italy

Testa Etrusca

In 1969, after a year of living in Paris, I moved to Florence, Italy, where I got a job teaching English. I rented an apartment in Fiesole, a nearby Etruscan hill village. The next eight months were among the most pleasant of my life. Each morning I would ride my Vespa down into Florence. Each afternoon I would return to Fiesole to stroll through the Roman ruins behind the village, visit my friend the librarian at the Franciscan monastery, or read la Divina Commedia at a café under the lime trees. When I left to return to the United States, my landlady gave me this sculpture of a woman's head. She told me she had found it in the fields around Fiesole when she was a girl, and that it was Etruscan. —Tom Cooch

Tom Cooch, right, at the opening of the Art of Travel.

The Art of Travel, featuring photographs by Wink Willett, watercolors by Bonny Willet, sketchbooks by Susan Abbott and Paul Calter, and souvenirs collected by local globetrotters, is on view until July 20.

An Evening with Club de la Grenouille

A post card collage from a bicycle trip of Holland . . . 

A signed bottle of artisanal tequila . . . 

. . . made by Eliseo Gomez of Oaxaca.

And a man's carry-all from Guatemala . . . 

These were some of the artifacts gleaned . . . 

During a gathering of Club de la Grenouille . . . 

On the eve of the opening of "The Art of Travel" . . .

The Art of Travel: Opening Reception June 8

Girl With Blue Shawl, photograph by Wink Willett

Join us this Friday from 5 to 7 for the opening of The Art of Travel. The exhibit will feature photographs and paintings by Wink and Bonny Willett, reproductions from artist Susan Abbott's travel sketchbooks, and travel souvenirs collected by local globetrotters. We'll display some of the artifacts and put others on the blog, so check back often during the next six weeks to see what turns up. We'll also be scheduling some fun travel-related evenings at the gallery, including a presentation by Karen Kane, a travel consultant who specializes in Paris and Montreal, and a talk with some of the Facebook friends who organized Sara's trip to Paris for Condé Nast Traveler in May.

The Art of Agriculture

Great energy in the room on Friday when some 20 people turned out to hear Fat Toad Farm interns Melissa Hayashida, Lily Baker, and Elisa Mayes explain what drew them to farming as a vocation. Answers ranged from "didn't want to spend my life behind a desk," to "I picked up Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and couldn't put it down," to "I was hooked from the time I visited my first CSA farm when I was eight." Passion, in a word. Other young farmers in the room shared similar stories. For Chip Natvig, owner of Pebble Brook Farm in Brookfield, it was the smell of his grandfather's greenhouse that turned him on. Natvig, who had "zero dollars" to invest as a beginning farmer, got his start with help from retired farmers and "an awesome business plan" that he crafted in the Vermont Farm Viability Enhancement Program. Andrew Stowe, the new manager of Highfields Farm in Randolph, also stressed the importance of business training. All portrayed Vermont as a supportive environment for beginning farmers. The interns, who come from California, Minnesota, and North Carolina, picked Fat Toad Farm out of a variety of internships offered on a list-serve called Good Food Jobs ("satisfying the hunger for meaningful work"). Among the reasons they gave for their choice were the chance to work with livestock, the farm's New England location, its effective marketing and publicity materials, and above all, the high quality of its internship program.

Quote of the Day: How to Look at Art

Gillianchicago for Creative Commons

From art dealer Michael Findley, interviewed by Brian Boucher in the current issue of Art in America: “I teach a course at Christie's, and the students are told to look at a work of art for 15 minutes. Those who do five or 10 are doing well. I suggest it as a way of being extreme. The Louvre has clocked the average viewer at 10 seconds. If you come in somewhere over 10 seconds and under an hour, you're doing a pretty good job. An hour spent looking at one or a couple of pictures is more worthwhile than trudging around a museum until you're bleary-eyed, footsore and thirsty. I think we spend more time reading a novel or seeing a movie, and a work of art shouldn't be given such short thrift.”  Findley is the author of The Value of Art, due out from Prestel this month.

Artist's Reception at Korongo Today

Tree Line, acrylic on canvas, 24x32

Hardwick artist Marie LaPré Grabon has been painting the Vermont landscape for over 30 years. She writes: “As we humans push the land to the brink of disaster, I have begun to think of my paintings as small prayers, small pleas to the world to remember, to love.” "Love Songs," an exhibit of her work, runs through June 3. Join us today for the opening reception from 5 to 7 pm. Hors d'oeuvres by Black Krim Tavern, our neighbors on Merchants Row.

Pati Braun and Carolyn Ann Steward: Opening Reception

Our friend Jack Rowell stopped by Korongo Friday evening and got these shots of the party for Pati and Carolyn. We met lots of new folks, including some from Gifford Hospital and Vermont Castings, a couple who had driven up from Bennington, and some very cute kids who came with their dad from Randolph Center. The show will be at Korongo till mid-April.

A young art appreciator . . . 

 Carolyn's work . . . 

Chips and salsa . . . 

Pati and Patrick . . . 

Patrick and Carolyn . . . 

Pati and friend . . . 

Welcome to Korongo . . . 

Making a sale . . . 

A striking redhead . . . 

Sara with Kevin Harty, of the White River Craft Center.

Pati's laptop slide show . . . 

More cute kids . . . 

Eyeing the snacks.

Pati Braun and Carolyn Ann Steward

Moonlit Birches, by Pati Braun, pen and ink, 14 by 20 inches framed

Spring comes to our corner of Merchants Row with an exhibition by Randolph artists Pati Braun and Carolyn Ann Steward—opening today (Friday, March 16) at 5 o'clock. Come on by, say hello to Pati and Carolyn, and put a red sticker on the wall. Then cross the street to Black Krim and have Sarah pour you an IPA while Emilie makes you some fish cakes or beef dumplings. Next, head down Main Street toward Chandler, where our friend Nancy MacDowell is singing with the Ground Hog Opry. Ten bucks gets you in; show begins at 7:30. (We'll be heading over to Chandler after the gallery closes, then to Black Krim for a late supper.) The reception for Pati and Carolyn is from 5 to 7 p.m. Their work is on view through April 22. Pati's exquisite greeting cards and Carolyn's lovely children's book are available here at the gallery; so is Nancy's new CD.

View of Floating Bridge, by Carolyn Steward, oil on canvas, 20 by 24 inches

Opening February 10: Seth Tracy, Matt Riley, and Travis Dunning

Graffiti, comics, and skateboard culture are among the influences cited by a trio of young artists whose show opens this Friday at the Korongo Gallery in Randolph. The exhibit includes some 40 works in various media and will be on display until March 11. The opening reception is from 5 to 7.

Untitled, by Seth Tracy

Seth Tracy says he doesn’t do art; art does him. “For as long as I can remember, I have been surrounded by art. Nowadays, I am bound by the skateboarder and graffiti cultures,” influences that show in various ways, including the usage of graffiti tools and old skateboards. Seth’s artwork is usually abstract. “Ink is my favorite medium because it drips.”

Untitled, by Matt Riley

“I see things in places where others see nothing,” Matt Riley says: “Dogs in scraped-up paint on old concrete walls, characters in the cracks of the road, and faces everywhere, eyes, noses, jawlines, and teeth.” Matt enjoys things that are where they should not be but that fit in anyway. That’s what he tries to create: “Nonsense with a sci-fi feel. Gizmos and gadgets of a mind-wanderer.” 

Untitled, by Travis Dunning

“I have many sources of inspiration,” says Travis Dunning, “from scary movies, from comics, also from stress and the environment. Most of the time, I just pick up a pen or a brush and start with what comes to my mind.” Travis’s emphasis on black outlines is inspired by comic books. He says that he has been drawing for as long as he can remember, and has taken it seriously for the past five years.