All College Book Club:
“Solomon Northup was a free man, the son of an emancipated Negro slave. Until the spring of 1841 he lived a simple, uneventful life with his wife and three children in Upstate New York. Then, suddenly, he fell victim to a series of bizarre events that make this one of the most amazing autobiographies ever written.
Northup accepted an offer from two strangers in Saratoga, New York, to catch up with their traveling circus and play in its band. But when the chase ended, Northup had been drugged, beaten, and sold to a slave trader in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, he was shipped to New Orleans, where he was purchased by a planter in the Red River region of Louisiana. For the next twelve years Northup lived as a chattel slave under several masters. He might well have died a slave, except for another set of bizarre circumstances which enabled him to get word to his family and finally regain his freedom.
Originally published in 1853, Northup’s autobiography is regarded as one of the best accounts of American Negro slavery ever written by a slave.” –LSU Press
Pick up a copy at either library and join us in the Library conference room in Randolph or Williston. You can also read this title online here. Contact Bonnie (bonnie.lord@vtc.edu) for details about joining us online.
Interested in more information and reminders about the book club? Need a copy sent to your site? Email Veronica: vgolden@vtc.edu
Hartness West Gallery:
Frank Woods
Biography: Frank Woods is a painter who grew up in Montreal and earned a BA degree from McGill University before moving to Boston to complete a Master of Science in Library Science degree at Simmons College. He worked first as a cataloguer at the Harvard Business School library, then as Slide Librarian at Harvard’s Fine Arts Library, at the Fogg Museum. While in Boston, he attended drawing classes taught by Bill Flynn, at the Evening Division of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He moved from Boston to Moscow, VT, and then to Montpelier where he still lives. Until his retirement, Frank worked for the Vermont Department of Libraries, serving as film librarian and later as director of the Talking Book Library for the Blind.
Artist’s Statement: My interest in landscape painting began with plein air sessions in the Gaspé region of Québec. A gradual shift over time has moved my representations of the landscape in the direction of geometric abstraction and exploration of tone, texture, and composition. My landscape painting now alternates between the two poles of more or less faithful depictions of the natural world and abstract problem-solving. These works are examples of the latter. They begin and end in the studio without the direct influence of the observable landscape, but could not exist without much time spent outdoors each summer, observing my emotional experience of the land, sea, and air.
He is represented by the Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery, Shelburne, VT, and by the Main Street Gallery, Manasquan, NJ.
Frank’s work is on display through mid-February, 2019. For more information: http://www.frankwoodsartist.com
Hartness East Gallery:
Ross Lieblappen
Dr. Ross Lieblappen is an Assistant Professor in the Science Department at VTC, teaching physics, environmental biology, and chemistry. He received a B.A. in environmental studies and chemistry from Middlebury College, a M.S. in mathematics from The University of Vermont, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College. Currently, he also does research with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) located in Hanover, NH. Ross researches the microstructure of snow, ice, and other geologic samples from Antarctica to the Arctic. Some example recent projects have included studying the structure of saltwater channels in sea ice, designing a cooling device that maintains ice cores with their natural temperature gradient, examining dust in snow and the microbrial communities they contain, and identifying volcanic particles in ice cores
Ross’s work is on display through mid-Feburary, 2019. For more information: http://lieblappen.vtc.edu/
Art Under Glass Series:
Hasso Ewing
Message from Hasso: It is exhilarating to let the image emerge as I work. Whether on paper or sculpturally, I search using my hands and simple tools to find the human story from within my subject.
The human figure – dressed or nude – in all its glorious detail, emotion, mass, appears and disappears in a visual dance as I work. The main purpose of my work is to find the story within the form. A body reveals clues of the past, sits with its emotional history, walks or tilts the head in idiosyncratic ways that appeals to my search for the story beneath. The human form always has more to teach me. Nothing I can imagine holds as much power as working from life and through observation I find more than I could have imagined.
Things really great exciting when I work between form and non-form: when the charcoal, clay or plaster starts to disappear into chaos yet still holds a glimmer of natural order. By looking closer at the interaction of form and non-form I find energy, marks knocking against each other – as atoms do – in the dance that forms our world. I want my work to reflect that interaction. Each figure brings forth an inner conversation, but no conversation is without context. By creating context I can delve deeper, finding further relevance for me and for my audience. My installations create a context within which one can project more complex meaning in the characters I create and the space they inhabit. It complements their story and expands my search artistically between reality and the abstract.
Hasso’s work is on display through mid-February, 2019. For more information: hassokewing@gmail.com/ hassoewing.com/ Instagram: hasso.ewing
Ongoing Events:
Contact the library with any questions or for more details on any of these events.
