Taking Flight Opens at the Jackson Gallery at Town Hall Theater June 19

Taking Flight, the current exhibit at Town Hall Theater's Jackson Gallery, depicts birds in various media by Vermont artists, including Susan Raber Bray, Ray Hudson, Carol E. S. MacDonald, Liza Myers, Gary Starr, and Adelaide Tyrol. The work will be on exhibit through June 19. The gallery, on Merchants Row, Middlebury, is open Monday - Saturday noon - 5:00 pm, and during theater events.

Susan Raber Bray, a longtime ceramics teacher and artist from Charlotte, creates decorative and functional pieces incorporating perching birds. Appealing in form and natural coloring, these birds are also represented in miniature form along with painted images and bells in Bray's large mobile entitled "Joy and Wonder."

Middlebury artist Ray Hudson creates woodblock prints with a technique that is more diverse than the traditional. "The carved block becomes the brush and each print has a life of its own." His bird prints are rich in detail with interplay of text and image.

Carol E. S. MacDonald is an accomplished printmaker living in Colchester and exhibiting across the U.S. and Canada. Her monotypes display a fine sense of color, texture and composition. Her bird images are often metaphoric and "address issues of human and environmental development, evolution, relationships and healing."

Liza Myers has been called an "artist of the Natural World." Her paintings speak to a fascination with the intricacy of light and shadow; color and texture; fur and feathers. She exhibits her acrylic paintings and watercolors widely, while maintaining a gallery and studio in Brandon.

Local artist Gary Starr carves basswood into dozens of species of birds in his studio in Weybridge. Renowned for his fine craftsmanship and well travelled for many years, he states that his style evolved from his father's influence and reflects the clean lines of traditionAl Hunting decoys.

Adelaide Tyrol of Plainfield has spent a good part of her professional life as a botanical and natural history illustrator, as well as a scenic artist. She paints bird images in a variety of media, including the sumi ink on paper creations included in this exhibit. Her birds in flight appear like dancers caught in mid-choreography.

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