BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Canal Street Art Gallery presents “Charles W. Norris-Brown: Distant Thunder Studio,” on view from April 21 – June 10. Join the Gallery on 3rd Friday Gallery Night in Historic Downtown Bellows Falls on April 21 from 5-7 p.m., to celebrate the opening of the show. All gallery events are free and open to the public.
“Charles W. Norris-Brown: Distant Thunder Studio” exhibits all of the original artworks from the late artist’s graphic novel “Thunder Basin” within a re-creation of Norris-Brown’s studio as an interactive exhibition, including art-making for the public, digital cataloging of the graphic novel, and culminating in the launch of a “Thunder Basin” website.
About his studio, Norris-Brown said, “I call my studio Distant Thunder. Sometimes I have a real studio. Other times Distant Thunder Studio is within me.”
The Distant Thunder Studio show reveals the entire body of work from “Thunder Basin,” an unfinished graphic novel by Charles W. Norris-Brown. Finished works, along with drawings, storyboard frames, studies, and writings are all included. Visitors are invited to interact with the show through exploring Norris-Brown’s notebooks, plein-air studies, sketchbooks, brushes, and palettes. Art supplies and a space to create are provided as part of the exhibit. Those who are inspired may write, draw, and paint with watercolor or ink, to make their own artwork and writing about “Thunder Basin.”
Fans of the artist may become further involved through volunteering and assisting in the digital cataloging of all works pertaining to “Thunder Basin” to be available during the Distant Thunder Studio show, including artworks, sketchbooks, and notebooks. Help bring one artist’s vision of developing his graphic novel into a Creative Commons licensed work, to be accessible for community-based projects worldwide, to life. The goal of the digital cataloging process is to bring Norris-Brown’s “unfinished” work back to being a “work in progress,” and published on a “Thunder Basin” website.
Thunder Basin is the artist’s third book, and an unfinished work. In “Thunder Basin,” a girl loses her beloved cell phone in the forest. Trickster Coyote picks it up and runs away with it, leading her to explore the forest, and ultimately herself. This quest unfolds in the Thunder Basin along the west flank of Mount Mansfield, the highest mountain in Vermont.
Select artworks in the show, which are not for sale, are available as pre-ordered, full-size archival pigment prints on cotton rag paper. These reproductions are available only during the show. At the end of the exhibit each edition is closed, and then printed.
Canal Street Art Gallery is located at 23 Canal Street, in Historic Downtown Bellows Falls, Vt., and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more information about “Charles W. Norris-Brown: Distant Thunder Studio,” or Canal Street Art Gallery, go to www.canalstreetartgallery.com online, call Mike by phone at 802-289-0104, or send emails to artinfo@canalstreetartgallery.com.