BERLIN — In 1968, at the beginning of the back-to-the-land movement, a small group of people from Connecticut, most of them from the art school at the University of Hartford, bought a 440-acre farm in East Charleston and Westmore, in the heart of the Northeast Kingdom.
The first year they all lived in the main house and put in a communal garden. The next year, they began building their own houses or fixing up dwellings that were already on the property, working together and sharing skills, and eventually starting their own gardens, with some grazing sheep or pigs.
Fifty-eight years later, now calling itself an intentional community, that commonly owned farm has 18 separately owned dwellings and a large barn that serves as a common space. The cabins and once “pretty rough structures” have come a long way, growing into the warm, welcoming spaces in “Portraits of a Community,” the current exhibit at the Central Vermont Medical Center Art Gallery in Berlin by St. Johnsbury artist Andrea Poe.
“The reason I chose this for a project is because so many of the original members are getting older and a lot of them have passed on,” Poe said last week during an interview at the gallery. “I wanted to honor everything the farm has given me in my life. It’s sort of a big thank-you note.”
Poe’s husband grew up in the community, and they lived there together for 25 years, before moving into St. Johnsbury several years ago. To put the show in context, she posted several collages with photos borrowed from albums of the early days; however, she made all the paintings this year.
There are 18 paintings in the show, one from each of the dwellings on the farm, all interiors. Although there are no people shown, each room glows with the personalities and interests of those who have brought life to the spaces. The paintings have simple titles: the names of current and past inhabitants. For their privacy, Poe uses only first names.
She said Pete was the only one who kept his home very rustic, and she was pleased that even after he passed away, his son has kept it that way, as something of a “museum to Pete.” He was a skilled craftsman, and the painting of his house highlights one of his hand-crafted rocking chairs.
Poe wanted to capture the rooms in winter light, when the sun shines in from above while also reflecting off the snow, often brightening the ceiling as well as the floor. Most of the paintings have windows, with the effect of contrasting the implied cold outside with the warmth inside.
Her vibrant colors, abundant light, and the furniture, artwork, books, houseplants, and other personal items bring people into the spaces. Wood is almost everywhere, contributing to warmth and hominess.
“When I saw Andrea’s work, I thought how nice it would be to bring a piece of home into the hospital,” said Kate Arslambakova, the CVMC development and exhibitions coordinator. “To be able to be in these spaces and see these people’s homes is so intimate and personal. … Even though there are no people in these homes, their names are on the labels and you almost know them, without meeting them, by looking at their spaces.”
“I am part of this place,” Poe writes in her artist statement. “These are rooms that I know, spaces that are shaped by the people who live and have lived in them, and by years of use, care, love, sadness, joy, and change. Light, objects, and architecture carry the presence of those who inhabit or have inhabited them. Rather than painting the people directly, I’m interested in how they are revealed through their spaces.”
“Portraits of a Community: Paintings by Andrea Poe” is open to the public at the Central Vermont Medical Center Art Gallery (in the lobby) in Berlin, daily through Sept. 19. The exhibition opening is Aug. 6 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
