118 Elliot open gallery hours: Thursdays 3 to 6 pm, and during 118 Elliot events
Open Discussion with the Artists, Thursday, January 15, 3 to 6 pm.

An experimental exhibit “Work in Progress” is open at 118 Elliot Street in Brattleboro. The exhibit features the work of six painters who make up the 118 collective of artists: Tina Olsen, Ellen Cone Maddrey, Gayle Robertson, John Loggia, Liza Cassidy and Mary Therese Wright. The exhibit invites visitors to enter the studios of these six artists and share the process of creation. Each artist will hang work in progress on a section of the walls of 118, changing the pieces throughout the month.

The artists hope to engage visitors in discussion: How does an artist begin a painting, and what are the steps of layering paint? How does an artist tell when a painting is finished? What does the artist do if there is a section of the painting that doesn’t work? The artists will share their own thoughts and queries about the work with each other and with visitors, with the goal of learning from each other and building creative energy together.

The exhibit will be open on Thursdays from 3 to 6 pm, during all 118 events, and by appointment. One or more of the artists will be present each Thursday. On Thursday, January 15, all the artists will attend the 3 to 6 opening hours, and host a group discussion. Refreshments will be served!

For those who view the exhibit during 118 Elliot events, a “comment box” will be provided to share thoughts and ideas with the artists.

Please stop by 118 Elliot on a Thursday in January to view Work in Progress, and participate in musings about the process of creation!

Gayle Robertson has been artistically active all her life. Her experiences in the fields of lighting design, computer graphics, 2D and 3D traditional media, spirituality, end of life and bereavement, mix to bring different lenses to what happens in her studio. She uses her art as a way to engage with the moments of life and a tool for exploring all its meaning, calling upon her materials to bring her interests to light. She lives in Southern Vermont where she enjoys being part of the vibrant arts community.

Tina K. Olsen has been painting and working therapeutically in the expressive arts most of her life. She moved to Brattleboro in 2006 to live near her daughter and found a community of artists at the River Gallery School and 118 Elliot. Olsen’s works in oil and watercolor bring life to the healing light of nature.

Ellen Cone Maddrey came to painting later in life after careers as a lawyer, an elementary school teacher and a parent of three. Her artistic inspiration is deeply embedded in the mountains and waters of Seattle, her childhood home, and the natural world of Vermont. Her paintings express the comfort and thrill of nature through color and shape. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and has a second home in Wilmington, Vermont.

John Loggia has been painting and working in the arts since 1979. He has maintained a practice of drawing and painting while working in film as a production designer and producer. In 2015 John opened 118 Elliot, an arts and education center in Brattleboro, Vermont that he runs with his partner. John, a jazz musician, feels that playing music and painting are two sides of the same coin with each practice informing the other and encouraging experimentation, risk, and unexpected revelations.

Mary Therese Wright’s artwork and community based projects have been shown throughout the United States. Wright has a keen interest in materiality whether painting, printmaking or metalsmithing. Her current work is a response to the vibrant colors and dynamic shapes of nature. She lives in Jacksonville, Vermont, and draws inspiration from her deep relationship with the trails and water of Lake Whitingham.

Liza Cassidy is a visual and performing artist with a long time studio practice in Brooklyn NYC, and for the last seven years in her home town of Brattleboro, Vermont. Her focus is on large scale abstract mixed media collage utilizing discarded materials, mostly receipts, to convey human experience, and plein air landscapes in oil. She teaches Sequencing at River Gallery School as well as painting, studio art, and community mending/sewing sessions. She is also a long time collaborator with Theaterlab in NYC as a writer, director and performer.