John R. Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director of the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, will host a conversation with the artist Tom Fels, discussing the work in his exhibition: Cyanotypes, Drawings, and Watercolors.

Tom Fels: Cyanotypes, Drawings, and Watercolors | Rebecca Lawrence Gallery Entry and Elizabeth Rowland Mayor Gallery | Fels has long been a writer associated with the history of photography. For a little over a decade now, he also has been showing his own artworks. His work in cyanotype began in an experimental spirit that bore delightful results. The medium, which was developed in the late nineteenth century, is noted for the sparkling detail achieved when an object is left directly on the paper. Notable examples would be the famous fern images created by Anna Atkins. Eschewing the basic tenet of the medium—the direct contact of the object and the paper—Fels took to the trees in his back yard, held the paper near to the leaves and branches, and through this novel approach achieved compelling images that capture both the structure of the flora (loosely) and the essence of movement caused by obliging breezes. In this way, Fels embraces classical modernism by adding an element of motion—and hence time—to the images. In his drawings and watercolors, Fels relies on careful observation and subtle draftsmanship to create images both recognizable and mysterious. We can readily acknowledge the scene—or type of scene—we see, but Fels avoids just enough detail to emphasize evocation over scrupulous representation.