Over her decades-long career, artist Suzanne Rexford-Winston has exhibited her work in more group shows than she can count. “Change: An Exploration Through Collage,” her new exhibit at the Central Vermont Medical Center Art Gallery, is her first solo show. From the large turnout at the Feb. 5 opening, it is clearly something many people have been waiting for.
Rexford-Winston has been at the heart of the central Vermont art scene since she joined the Art Resource Association in the 1970s, and she and her then-husband Jon Winston opened the Drawing Board in downtown Montpelier. Although they sold the art supply and framing shop in 1983, her work as an artist and art teacher continues.
Rexford-Winston’s interest in art began as a child, and she credits a high school art teacher with inspiring her to pursue it. From the start, collage has been a favorite medium.
“Over the years, I’ve spent significant time working on a vast body of work in soft pastels, printmaking, bookmaking, paper mâché , and, of course, collage,” she writes in her artist statement. “I am drawn to color, pattern, and texture, and enjoy adding a bit of whimsy or daring to my work.”
Color, pattern, texture, and whimsy abound in the 27 pieces in this show. Her most recent works are collages on top of painted, decorative surfaces. In “Flamingo,” a formally dressed couple — a man in a tuxedo and a woman in a bright red dress — dance on a large pink flamingo curled around enough so they both fit on and in front of it, creating a striking image on the leafy, blue and reddish-brown background.
Rexford-Winston said one of her favorite works in the show is “Yellow Dress.” A statuesque Black woman in a flowing, partly translucent yellow dress stands on a brightly lit street, one leg forward and a full moon behind her head, in front of a turbulent black and brown background.
On the whimsical side, at least a half-dozen works include a seated Abe Lincoln look-alike in a white shirt and black pants, reading a book. Rexford-Winston said she and several fellow artists have a group they call the Collagistas that created a literary-themed show at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, and those whimsical works were made for that show.
In addition to creating art, teaching it has been a passion of hers since the 1980s. For almost 20 years, she taught art (and occasionally language arts) in central Vermont public schools, including the Cabot School, Northfield Elementary School, Northfield Middle and High School, and Spaulding High School. She loved working with children, and also that it exposed her to new media.
She has also taught at four colleges, including Community College of Vermont and Johnson State College (now Vermont State University), and she currently teaches at the Montpelier Senior Activity Center. At the exhibit opening she said it is a joy to teach adults; she appreciates their enthusiasm and how much fun they have.
On top of all this, Rexford-Winston is now an employee at the Drawing Board, the shop she opened 51 years ago. Calling it her “social time,” she said she enjoys talking with customers, helping them find what they need, and sometimes giving advice.
“Change: An Exploration Through Collage” is in the art gallery (in the main lobby) of Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin. It is open to the public daily, and will run until March 14, 2026.
