PLACE: Healthy Living Natural Foods Feed

JOAN LOVELL AT HEALTHY LIVING NATURAL FOODS

I first saw Joan Lovell's prints when I was jurying the Burlington Vermont Art's Alive Show. I loved them, even on the power point. I thought no more about them until a few days later a woman walked into the gallery and introduced herself as an old high school classmate.  It was Joan, who had married and changed her name so I didn't recognize it in print. Wow. What fun.

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Jasmine and Sienna in front of Joan Lovell prints at Healthy Living, South Burlington, VT.

Last week Joan and I hung some of her prints  at Healthy LIving Natural Foods in South Burlington, VT. They look terrific. Oh, and the Richard Gombar paintings that were at Healthy Living last month are now up at Pine Street Art Works for July.

Here's what Joan says about her work:

"My prints are about roadside weeds: the way they jockey for position, explode with life, gracefully perish; the strains of their visual music intensified by random off-beat elements. My work says, "Explore Your Wilderness. Let old paths yield to fresh and natural harmonies.

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Joan Lovell, Red Squirrel.


"I hand-burnish limited edition prints using a baren and wooden spoon onto tissue-thin Japanese papers. My studio home on a forest road in southern Vermont is critical to my work. Immersion there and and solitude has heightened al my senses and creative energies.

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Joan Lovell, Spring's Up.

If you will be near South Burlington in July, get over to Healthy Living  at 222 Dorset Street to see Joan's work, and have a great shopping experience.

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Joan Lovell, Runners and Their Companions



RICHARD GOMBAR AT HEALTHY LIVING

 The Richard Gombar exhibit is now up at Healthy Living, Natural Foods, at 222 Dorset Street in South Burlington, and it looks great.


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Melaney with Richard Gombar Paintings at Healthy Living Natural Foods.

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Melaney and Amanda in front of Richard Gombar painting at Healthy Living Natural Foods

The paintings will be at Healthy Living until July, when they move over to Pine Street Art Works. There will be more Gombar paintings at PSAW than there were room for at Healthy Living, so please, if you are in the neighborhood, stop into Healthy Living for this great preview, and then join us a Pine Street Art Works in July for the full exhibit.


CARA BARER AT HEALTHY LIVING

Cara Barer is one of my favorite photographers. She has had two solo shows at Pine Street Art Works in the past two years and now I have the pleasure of introducing her work to shoppers at Healthy Living Natural Foods. As some of you know, I curate exhibits at Healthy Living, which is  a great place to buy all fabulous foods, local, regional and imported, as well as totally groovy accessories.

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Melaney and Scott at Healthy Living with Cara Barer photos.

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Cara Barer, Butterfly 2. Available through Pine Street Art Works

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Cara Barer Roget's available through Pine Street Art Works

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Cara Barer, Flurry, available through Pine Street Art Works

Cara has a new blog  -  yay! Cara, so be sure to check out her blog and stop in to say "hi" in a comment.

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Cara Barer, Winston's on the cover of  Bound To Please, essays on American Writers and their books.

Cara's exhibit will be at Healthy Living until June 6th. The next artist will be Richard Gombar, for the rest of June, after which his work will go up a Pine Street Art Works.


RETAILING FOOD AND ART TOGETHER!

I hung the first show at Healthy Living Natural Foods in South Burlington on Monday, and it looks swell. If you are in the neighborhood, go over and check it out, buy some great food or products, and tell me what you think.  I'm so excited to have this new adventure in retailing. Brilliant, if I do say so myself, to combine art and food retailing. I wonder if it will become a trend.

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Melaney and Megan at the customer service counter at Healthy Living Natural Foods .

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information counter at Healthy Living

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FAKE! on the long wall at  Healthy Living. The one on the right, Liza Leger Woman With Vase is a print of my original painting. I had it done on water color paper and it looks amazing. Best of all, it only costs $200 unframed, so if you want one, send me an email (liza@pinestreetartworks) or call. 802 863 8100. I don't have a paypal widget but I'm happy to wait for a check, or take a credit card over the phone. the rest of the work is for sale as well, at slightly higher prices because they are originals.

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Megan on the phone in front of my two Picassos. The one on the left, Portrait of Jacquline,  is on a mirror. In the back Portrait of Marie Therese, is a reverse painting on an old window.

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Amanda at the coffee bar.

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Head Chef, Jaime Eisenberg.

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Cosmetics counter, Healthy Living

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Cup display at Healthy Living

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Display at Healthy Living. Seriously good visual merchandizing  by Rhoby throughout the store.


Food and Art Together? Naturally.

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Pink Tulips, photo by Liza Cowan

I'm thrilled to announce that Pine Street Art Works will soon be opening an annex at Healthy Living Natural Foods, on Dorset Street in South Burlington. For those of you who don't live in these parts, Healthy Living is a locally and independently owned, ethically operated, and now rather large, retail provider of food and related products. HL started 20 years ago with a staff of two and now employs over 100 people.

I'm a fussy shopper and HL meets all my criteria. It's locally,independently and ethically owned and operated- by a dynamo of a woman named Katy Lesser. It is beautiful, it sells local organic produce and foods (thereby supporting local agriculture and artisinal food crafters), provides prepared food and baked goods  (I'm a pretty big fan of take out.)  The staff is great, and it functions as a Third Place, with it's restaurant and coffee bar, where people can sit and read the paper or run into old, or new, friends.

Here's the deal with Healthy Living. I will curate shows, small shows, in the store at the information/welcome center lasting up to two months. I estimate that between five to ten pieces can go up for each show. I will choose some of the artists who show at PSAW  but others will be coming in first to Healthy Living, and then maybe ending up later at PSAW.  So far, Cara Barer and Richard Gombar have agreed enthusiastically to showing at HL, which is two for two.

Best of all, this is a win -win -win situation. I get to show and sell my artists work to many more people than show up at my gallery, which is situated in a section of town I fondly call New Siberia.  Shoppers at HL  can view gallery quality art in an enhanced shopping experience. And HL gets to offer this visual treat to their customers. It's kind of the visual equivilent to being served a cup of free  coffee while you shop. This actually happened to me one morning at B*rns and N*ble bookstore a few weeks ago, and it was such an unexpected treat. The fact that they have a St*rbucks cafe in the store was not lost on me, but it didn't diminish my pleasure at being served a coffee. Such is the nature of marketing.

I'm starting the Healthy Living exhibition series with my own Fake! series because it's ready to hang and quite frankly, I can't resist the thrill of seeing my fake Matisses and Legers hanging in a grocery store. I can't even explain why I find this so exciting and amusing.

And here's a funny coincidence. It turns out that I used to live right next door to Katy's sister Elizabeth Lesser, in Woodstock, New York. My dog Alice, a beautiful German Shepard mix, used to trot through the small woods that separated our houses, sneak into Elizabeth's kitchen and steal food off her table. Apparantly Elizabeth isn't a major dog lover, but she was always gracious about it.