Rebecca Lawrence Gallery Entry and Clifford B. West Gallery

In environmental science, the term “understory” refers to the ecosystem that exists beneath a forest canopy. While this term primarily pertains to nature, it can also be used to illustrate metaphorical themes and hidden narratives. Beauty can be a siren, luring us into an adoration of the surface. As we refocus our lens, we may begin to wonder what is truly happening beneath the surface. The four artists featured in this exhibition approach the theme of the understory in unique and subjective ways. Their interpretations offer diverse entry points and invite deeper exploration and engagement. Multiple narratives layer upon one another, encouraging nonlinear thinking and creating space to contemplate. The exhibition provides an exploration into topical subjects around nature, environmental issues, resilience, and the interconnectedness of the natural world with human experience. Some stories overlap, while others intertwine, much like the complex and secret world that exists beneath the dense forest.

Once upon a time, the land where Don Collins now lives and paints was one vast forest. The slow decline in forested areas began here when settlers in the mid-1700s started to clear forests for homes and subsistence farming. By the 1860s, about 55% of the land in New Hampshire had been cleared and enclosed in stone walls built of the rock pulled from the bony soil. After the war, due to a steep decline in wool prices, many farmers abandoned the sheep pastures. They left behind their stone walls and exhausted soil, and not incidentally, big boulders. The boulders were the remnants and reminders of the retreating Laurentide ice sheet that covered parts of North America 19,000 to 26,000 years ago. Pulled from elsewhere, they were deposited willy-nilly as they rolled out from under the retreating glacier. These giants, called glacial erratics, had been an annoyance, but farmers learned to work around them. When farmers abandoned their pastures, the forests reclaimed them. Today, the State is now 83% forested, and these boulders still occupy land under the trees. Glacial erratics and other rocks have become significant elements in Collins’s work. These rocks are a reminder of the permanence of elemental earth and its ability to persevere– as magma, then mountains, then boulders, and eventually, sand and clay. They will continue existing on Earth, with or without humans.

Stephanie Gordon has a deep appreciation for trees, their age and history, their majestic presence, and their diverse forms, shapes, and colors. She is fascinated by how they communicate, interact with us and other species, and contribute to the intricate web of life that includes trees, insects, birds, animals, and humans. Gordon works with encaustic paints, an ancient method of painting with pigmented waxes, layering transparent and opaque paints and mediums. Her artwork exists on a spectrum between realism and abstraction, not necessarily depicting specific locations but representing all the wild places that are cherished. She constructs her paintings by bringing them to life or obscuring elements through layering, scraping, and adding or removing paint, paper, thread, foil, and drawn elements—similar to how leaves, twigs, rocks, and dirt accumulate on the forest floor. In a world facing climatic changes, Stephanie Gordon aims to celebrate our connection to nature and document the rapidly disappearing wilderness. She hopes her work inspires individuals to experience the wonder of walking in the northern woods and fosters a sense of stewardship for the natural world around us.

Marcie Scudder’s installation, Prayer is the Courage to Hope, serves as a profound meditation on the cyclical nature of life and the human spirit. It emphasizes the importance of finding peace amidst our fragmented histories. The foundation begins with a serene photograph capturing the late autumn light reflecting in a pond, which Scudder has meticulously printed, cut, folded, and sewn hundreds of squares into three quilt-like panels, symbolizing the number three in Jewish tradition– which represents the harmony of opposites: Chesed (unconditional love), Gevurah (strength), and Tiferet (beauty and balance). This interplay illustrates how equilibrium between contrasting forces can yield beauty and understanding. The exhibition also features the installation Coat of Many Colors, representing an autumn garden and serving as a blanket, carpet, and shield–conveying safety and security during turbulent times. This coat is a reference to the biblical gift Jacob gave to his son Joseph—a colorful symbol that represents resilience in the face of adversity. In light of the recent tragedy and rise in global antisemitism following the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel. These works speak to the Jewish community’s enduring strength and encourage a sense of unity through the act of sewing and weaving together fragments of life. As a child of a Holocaust survivor, Scudder is compelled to share these narratives, ensuring that the stories of the past are never forgotten. Scudder’s work poignantly reminds us that all humanity shares common experiences of love, loss, and resilience.

Ann Steuernagel is an experimental film and sound artist who uses found footage as her primary source. Most recently, her approach to art-making has expanded to include the creation of non-electronic movies, alternative photography, and sculpture. All of her work accentuates the gestures and quotidian rhythms of her subjects, addressing her concerns about the fragility of the environment and the human body. This approach not only minimizes environmental impact but also fosters a more intimate and thoughtful way of engaging with and documenting her subjects.

Biography | Don Collins is an old man who works close to home. Some of his paintings are pretty nice. Some of them might even match your couch. He encourages you to purchase them because he could use the money to buy more art supplies. He has been painting most of his life and has gotten somewhat better, but his work remains mired in long dismissed and discarded motifs. He was very surprised that he was able to secure a place in this exhibit, his first in a well-recognized venue. Usually, he shows in small out-of-the-way galleries and community art centers.

Biography | Stephanie Gordon has made art her whole life. She is a practicing artist and art teacher who has worked in many media and taught people of all ages. Gordon is from Cleveland, Ohio, where the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art influenced her from a young age. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan College of Art and Design and studied art and culture in France during her junior year. She moved to the Upper Valley in 1979, where she worked as a stained-glass artist, designer, painter, and educator. She taught art for many years at Hanover High. Struck by the beauty and luminosity of the encaustic Fayum mummy portraits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she resolved to master this ancient medium. She took classes at the Penland School of Art, the Maine College of Art, and the NH Institute of Art on painting with encaustics.  Having used the medium for 16 years, she now also teaches classes in encaustic painting. Stephanie Gordon’s work has won awards, appeared in many juried exhibitions, and been collected regionally and nationally.

Biography | Marcie Scudder has an MFA in Visual Arts from Maine Media College and a B.Arch. in Architecture from RPI. Her work has been exhibited in various spaces, including The Wilson Museum at Southern Vermont Arts Center, The Kent Museum: Studio Place Arts, SE Center for Photography, and Davis-Orton Gallery. Her work has appeared in numerous publications such as Lenscratch, Still Points Quarterly, NE Home Magazine, Stowe Magazine, and Catchlight. After decades of managing her Architectural practice, Scudder turned to photography as a means of creative expression. Her recent work marries the two practices together by transforming her photographs into three-dimensional objects that sculpt and shape space. Scudder lives and works in Stowe, VT, where time is measured by the changing length of the days.

Biography | Ann Steuernagel is an experimental filmmaker and sound artist. She works with found materials – old 16mm home movies and audio recordings – as well as original footage and field recordings. Her films have been shown at festivals and galleries throughout the United States well as in Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Ann is the recipient of a Locarno Video Art Prize, a Somerville Arts Lottery grant, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Media Fellowship, and a LEF grant and was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. In 2011, her film The Garden won Best of Festival (experimental) at the 30th Black Maria Film Festival. In 2013, her video Red Boat was included in the permanent collection of the Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, MA. More recently, her work has been presented at the WREN and 42 Maple galleries in Bethlehem, NH. In 2022, Pulsar, her film collaboration with Mexican composer Alejandra Hernandez received an Honorary Mention at the Thomas Edison Film Fest and was screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.