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By Tom Haushalter
This spring, one section of AVA’s main gallery has transcended, you could say, into a paddock, and in it the majestic and meticulous representations of artist Alysa Bennett’s horses.
In sculptures formed of shimmering feathers, in chaotic charcoal drawings, and in photographs against the backdrop of Bennett’s father’s ranch in Arizona—the horses on display seem to belie their innate power by their very grace.
But that, Bennett assures us, is the point. To straddle a horse is to perceive both its exquisite contours and marvelous strength, and she finds in that spectrum virtually endless room to roam.
Bennett spoke to us about the versatility of her favorite creatures and their core influence on her work in A Change of Horse, her exhibition that runs at AVA through May 25.
What is it about horses—in your life, in your artist’s eye—that makes them an inexhaustible source of inspiration?
Bennett: Horses got under my skin early. As a kid, summers at my dad’s California cattle ranch, I could ride all day alone or with him. I would crawl all over my old paint mare, put tassels on her bridle, pretend she was some elegant Arabian. And I rode bareback often, where you feel the warmth of the skin and the muscles moving under you. I would run my hands over her, moving with the direction of her hair, smelling her all the while. It stays with you for your life.
I studied and then chose to be a figurative artist, but after a while I needed a subject that I had a passion for—and horses came back to me when Dad bought a ranch in Arizona. I spent much time there, and horses were abundant and close. I watched them as they played and interacted with each other, and I drew them all the time.
Horses have the ability to convey all the same emotions that people have, with their body language and the look in their eyes. That is what keeps them such a compelling subject for me. I try to make that come through by being true to both their large and small gestures. The possibilities are endless!
Let us into the process of creating the horse sculptures, and how it differs whether you’re working with feathers or straw.
Bennett: I first started making the straw sculptures then moved to feathers. For both I make a simple wire armature, fill it out with batting or rags, bend it until the gesture is right, and then wrap it in plaster to make it rigid. THEN I add the feathers ONE at a time.
Making the straw sculptures (though none of these are included in my AVA show), I would soak the straw in a medium by the handfuls and then mold them to follow the direction of the muscles. They were tied down and left to set in place and then refined with scissors. (Like a day at the beauty salon.) Both the feather and the straw sculptures have the delicate stick legs that I forage for in the backyard. They have to have the right turns and angles to represent the hock, knee, or just the angle of the leg.
In your drawings, as in the sculpture, I see a kinetic and formidable creature that is also quite delicate. Is this an equine duality you’re negotiating through your work?
Bennett: So you nailed the duality issue. It has been a major mover for me. Just the fragile legs on such a huge, heavy animal really captures it. In life, their legs are always the first part to get hurt and the hardest to heal. Also, their ability to use their strength at will, being a powerhouse under you one minute and then a gentle giant for a child the next—part of that duality and always one of the more intriguing aspects of life.
The kinetics of the horse I address a little more in the drawings. I started by using the chaos of the straw on the studio floor as an inspiration. Just as I tried to create form from chaos in the sculptures, I did the same with the drawings. Starting with a random stroke, then another, then seeing the horse and coaxing it out of the chaos of line. And, of course, going for the gesture. That really is the “overriding” challenge. If I can get that right then I feel I have satisfied my deep connection with horses and humans alike.
Exhibitions Latest News, Previous Events
April 12, 2018
By Tom Haushalter
You could hear violins and the hum of the gathered crowd even before you entered AVA Gallery and Art Center last Saturday, April 7, for its annual Silent Auction Party.
Not much was silent about this year’s auction, nor was enthusiasm in any way subdued among attendees—who included AVA members and volunteers, local artists, and community supporters—plucking hors-d’oeuvres from passing trays and sipping wine while they artfully outbid one another on a range of donated artworks that filled the gallery space.
Violinists Betty Kim and Katie Wee provided the elegant soundtrack to an event that helps to sustain and extend AVA’s mission for the arts in the Upper Valley. Paintings, mixed media works, sculpture, jewelry, and much more went home to the highest bidders, and resulted in over $40,000 raised for AVA.
Those whose walls at home are already full could choose to “Fund A Need” from a wish list of AVA opportunities and initiatives, including sending a kid to camp, hand tools for the new Bente Building, and computers for AVA’s Digital Arts Media Lab. And many needs were funded.
Measured in part by competing bids, the community’s support for AVA seemed only to grow as the night went on. And auction-goers grew less silent about what this arts organization means to them and their experience living in the Upper Valley.
Deborah Sherwood, a ceramic artist in Hartland, VT, is glad to have connected with AVA since she moved to the area two years ago. “This seems to be the place that has the most significant art to offer the area, so I’m very excited about it.”
Casey Villard of Etna, NH, who has taken a handful of art and poetry classes, remembered when he worked next door and could count on a mindful midday visit to AVA to rescue him from a bad day. “I’d come over here and my spirits would be lifted. I’d feel more expansive, the weight lifted off my shoulders.”
Kathy Rines, also of Etna, NH, and a longtime supporter who has participated in AVA silent auctions, she says, “eternally,” reflected on AVA’s place in a community quietly bursting with arts. “I think Lebanon is one of the great undiscovered spots. We have AVA for the visual arts, and for music there’s the wonderful Upper Valley Music Center. We have Opera North in the summers. It’s become an amazing cultural center.”
Roger Goldenberg, an AVA faculty artist who has been integral to the development of the new sculptural studies program, said he moved here from Portsmouth, NH, two years ago because of AVA. “A lot of people will try to tell you that Portsmouth is the arts mecca of New Hampshire,” he says, “but I think it’s the Upper Valley. And I think AVA’s the hub.”
Photos by Michael Seamans
Exhibitions Latest News, Previous Events
February 22, 2018
By Tom Haushalter
Last Friday evening, AVA’s main gallery space quickly filled up with people of all ages. Some arrived by the yellow school bus-full. All came to celebrate the artists whose work was selected for the 10th Annual Best of the Upper Valley High School Exhibition.
Featuring 140 works of art from 139 artists representing 16 different high schools in the Upper Valley, the exhibition is an impressive showcase of the breadth and depth of creative young talent in our region.
The gallery on Friday was tinged with anticipation as the artists, their families, and friends awaited the awards ceremony, announcing the winners and honorable mentions in each of 14 categories, from analog photography and painting to woodworking and wearable art.
Patrick Dunfey, Head of Exhibitions Design and Planning at the Hood Museum of Art, juried this year’s exhibition. In his remarks, reflecting on how much fun he had spending time with “so much great work,” Dunfey encouraged all the artists, winners or not, to “take a moment to think of the accomplishment of being part of this show.”
And because art is an act of sharing and community, Dunfey urged everyone, “Tonight if you see work you really like, find the artist and introduce yourself and share that with them.”
AVA congratulates this year’s High School Exhibition winners in each category:
BEST OF AWARDS
Analog Photography – Ryan Blackden, Newport High School, Grade 12
Black and White – Rachel Xia, Kimball Union Academy, Grade 10
Ceramics – Yuhe Zheng, Kimball Union Academy, Grade 12
Digital Art – Caleb Hazelton, Lebanon High School, Grade 11
Digital Photography – Mina Nguyen, Holderness High School, Grade 11
Digital Photography – Quinter Johnson, Newport High School, Grade 9
Drawing – Hannah Young, Thetford Academy, Grade 12
Best Environmental Message – Ethan Trombley, Newport High School, Grade 10
Mixed Media – Sean Gaherty, Ledyard Charter School, Grade 11
Painting – Tobias Bannister-Parker, Proctor Academy, Grade 12
Portraiture – Camie Rediker, Woodstock Union High School, Grade 12
Printmaking – Jacob Slaughter, Thetford Academy, Grade 11
Sculpture – Olivia Kinnett, Mascoma Valley Regional High School, Grade 12
Wearable Art – Coreen Carley, Kimball Union Academy, Grade 12
Woodworking/Design – Andrew Harrell, Proctor Academy, Grade 11
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Black and White – Artemis Tangalidou, Thetford Academy, Grade 12
Leah Kaliski, Thetford Academy, Grade 12
Ceramics – Eliza Goodell, Oxbow High School, Grade 12
Eric Hazen, Hartford High School, Grade 11
Megan Jette, Mascoma Valley Regional High School, Grade 12
Digital Art -Emma Duranceau, Hartford High School, Grade 11
Lizzy Pierce, Hartford Area Career and Technology Center, Grade 11
Digital Photography – Evaline Huntley, Hartford Area Career and Technology Center, Grade 11
Drawing – Hannah Zhang, Kimball Union Academy, Grade 10
Ingrid Cole-Johnson, Proctor Academy, Grade 10
Neve Monroe-Anderson, Hanover High School, Grade 11
Best Environmental Message – Carley Malloy, Thetford Academy, Grade 12
Emily Surrell, Woodstock Union High School, Grade 12
Mixed Media – Baylie Ordway, Rivendell Academy, Grade 12
Megan Smith, Hanover High School, Grade 11
Painting – Anna Krajewski, Proctor Academy, Grade 12
Annie Zhao, Lebanon High School, Grade 11
Cameron Eaton, Stevens High School, Grade 11
Poppy Tans, The Sharon Academy, Grade 10
Victoria Tillman, Stevens High School, Grade 10
Portraiture – Emily Lyons, Lebanon High School, Grade 12
Megan Graber, Thetford Academy, Grade 12
Printmaking – Bea Green, Rivendell Academy, Grade 12
Falcon Jaacks, Hanover High School, Grade 10
Sculpture – Alden Sawyer, Holderness High School, Grade 10
Odin Mattern, Hartford High School, Grade 12
Sam Wyckoff, Proctor Academy, Grade 11
Wearable Art – Carly Miliken, Kimball Union Academy, Grade 10
Phoebe Altman, Hanover High School, Grade 11
Woodworking/Design – Alex Kaupp, Proctor Academy, Grade 12
The High School Exhibition runs until March 9 at AVA Gallery and Art Center. Here are just a few of the works to discover and enjoy:
“Fissure” by Yuhe Zheng, grade 12, Kimball Union Academy (Photo: Tom Haushalter)
“Dad” by Camie Rediker, grade 12, Woodstock Union High School (Photo: Tom Haushalter)
“Untitled” by Jessica Gravel, grade 10, Mascoma Valley Regional High School (Photo: Tom Haushalter)
“Untitled” by Poppy Tans, grade 10, The Sharon Academy (Photo: Tom Haushalter)
Photos ©Michael Seamans unless otherwise noted
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Lebanon, NH (August 25, 2017) AVA Gallery and Art Center (AVA) announced today that Mila Pinigin has been selected as Exhibition Manager. Ms. Pinigin will officially begin transitioning into the position part-time starting in midSeptember and will assume full-time responsibilities on November 1, 2017.
The announcement came jointly from AVA Gallery Board Chair H. Sloane Mayor and Executive Director Trip Anderson.
“We are elated to have Mila joining us at AVA,” said Mayor. “With her strong background in the arts and exhibitions, combined with her knowledge of the Upper Valley arts scene, we could not have been more fortunate. AVA has such an exciting future ahead, with sculptural programming rolling out in the Bente Building this fall, and new exhibition space in our members’ gallery, the strength of our team is as important as ever. Mila brings the skills to connect AVA with the community through exhibitions that use inventive applications of education, outreach and business associations.”
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Torin Porter’s 12-foot steel sculpture, Astronomer, on view in front of AVA’s Carter-Kelsey Building since April, has been purchased by supporters who wish to remain anonymous and given to AVA for permanent display.
The sculpture was installed last spring in connection with an exhibition of Porter’s work at AVA. While it was created specifically for this exhibit, the artist generously agreed to have it remain on site until October.
Prominently on display near Bank Street, and easily visible to pedestrians as well as motorists, the sculpture immediately drew positive attention as well as requests for it to be exhibited for a longer period.
The donors who acquired Astronomer gifted it to AVA in celebration of the organization’s new Sculptural Studies Building, which is nearing its completion, as well as in acknowledgement of AVA’s Executive Director, Bente Torjusen, who is retiring in December after thirty years at the helm. The gift of the sculpture was announced on October 8 during a special event in the new building, when Torjusen was honored and when Porter, the sculptor who created Astronomer, was present.
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