GPL Art Gallery
Upcoming exhibits
in 2008
- More information to come
The Owen Smith Shuman Art Gallery opened on March 15, 1999. Located in Sibley Hall, the Gallery was named in honor of the Library Director in appreciation for her dedication to the Town of Groton. The Gallery is supported by the GPL Endowment Trust, and is open to the public during regular library hours.
| Botanical Inspirations a multi-media exhibition of artwork inspired by botanical themes April 5 — June 14, 2008 |
 Merill Comeau. Integration, 2007, hand painted and printed recycled fabric, commercial fabrics, net, paper. |
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Art has been inspired by the natural world for as long as there have artists. This exhibition presents a wide variety of styles and media. Nature is unquestionably diverse and so is the range of artistic response to its marvels.
Linda Dunn, in a love affair with fabric, creates art quilts that are subtle and sure. In Through the Woods, there is an architectural interplay of trees, light and soil recalling a cubist response to the world. Unlike the Cubists, Linda’s constructions are alive with bright color and she plants bits of text like hints of operating instructions into her images. The visual impact of Merill Comeau’s quilts is huge and at first it didn't seem like they would share the space nicely with the other works. It was like some lovely concerto music suddenly overpowered by the Dave Matthews Band. Comeau says that the two panels of Twila are a call and response. She first created the right hand panel, but in some way she felt it was too clearly delineated, not enough the way life really is. In the left hand panel the forms begin to dissolve into disintegration and renewal. There are oranges and purples, greens and golds and glitter. Even the leaves seem to transform before your eyes becoming wild forest moths or flickering fairies in your peripheral vision. Flowers, of course, are a constant source of inspiration to artists. Glenn Szegedy brings a delicate yet unsentimental pointillist touch to his Daffodil, Tulip and Gladiola. Regina Milan unerringly depicts eggplants, ladyslippers, and a sunflower with a mastery born of long practice. Both follow in a tradition of botanical illustration.  Regina Milan. Eggplants, watercolor. With all the insouciance of Georgia O’Keefe, Jim Dunham has taken flowers and petals and made them large. Odes to light and form, these photographs lure the viewer in and make them really see the shapes and textures of the petals; the gorgeous intimacy of flowers that we so often walk by. By the time we get to Gillian Frazier’s multi-tree series, the rules have changed. Gone are direct allusions to the specifics of genus and species. Here we have the essence of trees stripped to their bare essentials. Perhaps the wide swaths of dripping blue paint in Blue Multi-tree Series #1 are the wind and the rain. The undulating branches are echoed in the tactile sgraffito lines etched into the surface. The physicality of paper is visible in the raw edges of the paper that crackle with dried paint. What these artists have in common is an attunement with the natural world and an infatuation with artistic processes. From Gillian’s dripping paint and glazes, to Jim Dunham’s attentive darkroom technique and Linda Dunn and Merill Comeau’s obsessive cutting and stitching, each artist absorbs botanical form and infuses it with their own inner workings, creating something new and inviting the patient viewer to share. There will be a reception with Merill Comeau and Gillian Frazier on Saturday, May 10, from 12:30-2:30 PM. This event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be provided. Children are welcome too! This exhibit was made possible by the Groton Public Library Endowment Trust.  Linda Branch Dunn. Tree, hand-dyed cottons, printed and painted with acrylic inks. |