Harvest Gold Gallery is excited to present to you the work of local textile artist, Kimberly Crichton. Formerly from Portland, Crichton moved away from the rush and bustle of the city to set up a studio in Bridgton. Crichton is one of our first abstract artists in the Gallery, and it is engaging to view her modern designs set against a backdrop of traditional art. “I am a self-taught artist, and advocate, and a strategist who is drawn to the power of relationships, the written word, and art and craft as vital tools of social change,” Crichton says. “I am most interested in processes of transition and transformation.”

            Crichton’s work is a long and slow process, most frequently undertaken as a meditative pastime during the slow winter months. The rice paper that is the base of each piece easily tears, so Crichton’s creative process forces her to slow down and work carefully and contemplatively. The rice paper is stamped with color on hand cut linoleum blocks, and then measured and marked in one-inch square increments. Each dot is made to represent a person as a solitary individual, and the thoughts and processes that that person feels when on their own.

            The dots are then connected through a carefully hand-sewn web of threads. The threads, made of various different fibers, seek to emulate traditional painting styles and blend the threads into the print beneath them. For instance, the fluffy mohair thread spreads out over the paper and looks like bleeding ink: thus merging both thread and paper. The web symbolizes the relationships and connections linking people and communities, and explores how a person’s internal patterns and thoughts shift and warp when reaching out to interact with another person.

            Crichton is not a formally trained artist: she has never attended an art school. However, she has taken several classes on traditional embroidery techniques. These techniques must be adapted to work on the medium of rice paper: many of the tight stitches and knots that can be worked on cloth will tear and crinkle the rice paper. However, that adaptation is what drives Crichton’s interest in art. Crichton desires to explore the relationships between men and women, past and present, traditional and modern craft. Crichton wants to use tools and methods that are traditionally feminine (such as embroidery) to mimic, critique, and challenge the large, abstract, and highly-praised work of 20^th century male painters.

Kimberly with her work "Sweetest of Bridges" 

 

We are changing our official Gallery contact email from our Fairpoint address to harvestgoldjewelry@gmail.com. Please make note of this change in your contact books! We will be sending out several notices about this change, and we apologize if this causes any inconvenience to you. Thank you!

Hooray! Local carpenter Brent Legere, owner of Lovell Box Company, has built us a push for our front door! A long time pet peeve of ours has been that we have no pusher or stopper on our screen door. Brent has solved our problem by making us a beautiful custom door push, with a gorgeous mountain cutout in the center! No more popped out screens for us! 

Brent has also done several other projects for us, all of which we adore as well. From a custom card rack, to new garden boxes and raspberry trellises for Bill, Brent's work is always well made. 

Stay tuned for an update on Bill's garden soon!

(Bill's new Brent-built box!) 

We have been busy rearranging the Gallery for the past few days! From fitting in new paintings, to completely rearranging the furniture and style of the back rooms, setting up the whole gallery for the summer season is like a giant game of tetris!

What goes into our setup? Well, you have to think about many different attributes of the work that you are showing. First off is physical size. Can we actually fit all the beautiful paintings, sculptures, glass work, and furniture into our rooms? With a little finagling, we usually can. Second is color and style. We try to make the art all look pleasant to the eye, so that you can consume and appreciate a whole wall of art at once, while still being able to move up close and enjoy individual pieces. We want the eye to glide from one room to the next, perhaps by following a wash of a similar color through several paintings, or by following a similar subject matter. And thirdly is flow and vibe throughout the gallery as a whole. We want all of the artwork to look its best, so we have to try hanging it usually in several different places to see where it can truly shine. Does the subject matter of the painting suit the wall it is hung on? Is it getting enough light? Does the piece suit the amount of traffic that will go through that area? We take all of these things into account when we are trying to hang such a large show.

Our wonderful Thea (who also exhibits several paintings here!) is the mastermind behind our summer setup. She has a brilliant eye for color and flow, and this job would be ten times harder without her keen eye.

Even though summer setup is a long and sometimes arduous process, it is all good fun that everyone in the gallery takes part in and lends an opinion towards. Even Captain joins in! If a happy blind dog with a wagging tail can navigate through our halls, then we know we have done a good job.