BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Canal Street Art Gallery presents Kim Grall’s “One Artist Bound To Earth,” and Kathleen Zimmerman’s Solo Spotlight, on view from Aug. 18 – Oct. 14. Join the Gallery on Third Friday Gallery Night in historic downtown Bellows Falls o, Aug. 18, 5-7 p.m., to celebrate the opening of the shows and meet the artists. All gallery events are free and open to the public.
Kim Grall, in the artist’s first solo exhibition at Canal Street Art Gallery, titled “One Artist Bound to Earth,” shows both two and three-dimensional mixed media encaustics. Created with foraged and harvested materials, Grall’s work typically uses gourds as a primary form. Most recently, the artist is exploring encaustic with mixed media on wall hanging wood panels. The artist uses techniques such as pyrography, painting, collage, and cordage making, with materials including vines, leaves, seedpods, handmade pigments, and papers. Through this intimacy with her materials and knowledge of Native American and ancient materials and techniques, Grall’s work presents utilitarian objects, sacred objects, mixed media sculpture, and fine art.
Says Grall, “I’ve always worked with mixed media, whether on paper or gourds, and now with encaustics on wood panels. Color, texture, and natural images inspire me. When I begin a piece, I have a general idea of subject matter and direction, but am always led on by what is happening as materials get layered and accidents happen. I have consciously moved towards working as much as possible with materials that are natural, making my own encaustic medium with beeswax and damar resin, cordage from plant materials I forage and harvest, growing gourds, collecting and growing plants for seed pods, dyes, seeds, and leaves, foraging vines and harvesting bamboo…the list goes on. People often ask me why I do what I do, and the best answer I can come up with is: ‘Why do you breathe?’”
Kathleen Zimmerman shows new serigraph prints on paper in Canal Street Art Gallery’s Solo Spotlight exhibit. The artist works in series and pairs, creating mythical and surreal characters, both human and animal. These figures interact within harmonious shapes and lines, and explore titles such as “Cosmic Series,” “Global Series,” and “Dance Series.” Zimmerman is currently specializing in the printmaking techniques of serigraph, or silkscreen, which is a stenciling type of printmaking, and intaglio, or metal plate printmaking techniques.
Says Zimmerman, “My art is the way I explore ideas concerning both day-to-day life, as well as more profound ideas surrounding relationships, the environment, and culture. It is a meditative practice of sorts that helps me stop and think about life. Over the years, I have developed a personal visual language that uses symbolism and surrealism to transform my subject matter into archetypal images.”
Canal Street Art Gallery is located at 23 Canal Street in historic downtown Bellows Falls, Vt., and is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more information about the Kim Grall “One Artist Bound To Earth” show, the Kathleen Zimmerman Solo Spotlight show, or Canal Street Art Gallery, go to www.canalstreetartgallery.com, call Mike by phone at 802-289-0104, or email artinfo@canalstreetartgallery.com.