
'Cosmic center'
River makes up in beauty what it lacks in miles
"September on the Lieutenant River'' {in Connecticut} (watercolor mounted on linen), by NANCY FRIESE, in her show "Encircling Trees and Radiant Skies,'' through May 3 at the Newport Art Museum, represented by Cade Tompkins Projects.
Gorgeous, but at this time of the year we'd prefer to visualize May on the Lieutenant River. That's even though September is perhaps consistently the prettiest month in these parts.
The Lieutenant River, best known as a venue for painters and photographers, is a 3.7-mile-long tidal river in Old Lyme, Conn. It joins the Connecticut River in the estuary, just above the point where that river flows into Long Island Sound. This is a gorgeous part of the Nutmeg State. I'm surprised that the hedge funders haven't bought much of it yet.
-- Robert Whitcomb
William Allen's 'poem-paintings'
Some of the work of WILLIAM ALLEN, in his "Here Today...'' show at Cade Tompkins Projects, in Providence.
The gallery tells us that he ''has been working in the world of words and interpretation of visual language and literal language for the past three decades. Allen brings together his wide view of the meaning of words and bright colorful paint to create signs that remind the viewer of the relationship between words and images. Bringing words to the forefront has been Allen’s longtime focus and fascination.''
In the package above, he uses words associated with Rhode Island. (Yes, we know that Cuttyhunk (Island) is in Massachusetts.)
The gallery calls Mr. Allen's work in the show ''poem-paintings.''
Dazed on the coast
"Later that Day at Second Beach'' (intaglio with chine colle, screenprint), by ALLISON BIANCO, in her show "The Baby Powder Trick'', at Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence, June 20-Aug. 2.
I saw some young mothers this morning taking their little kids swimming on one of our almost-officially-summer warm humid days. As I saw the kids scampering along, and the mothers following behind, already fatigued, the years peeled away and I was one of those kids seeing the summer spread out to beyond the horizon.