Tom Brooks
Silent Refuge.
It looks like classic New England; it could be in Vermont or New Hampshire. But New Haveners with a keen eye will know it’s from East Rock Park, that the photographer has just stepped off the covered bridge spanning the Mill River at the dam at the Eli Whitney Museum, and is just heading out on the trail that circles the water. The photograph, Silent Refuge by Tom Brooks, won the People’s Choice award in photography in “The Art of Aging,” the annual art exhibit hosted by the Agency on Aging.
In the past, the exhibit has graced the walls of the agency’s offices at Long Wharf. This year, due to the pandemic, the exhibit, featuring dozens of artists, is running virtually — making it, in some ways, that much easier for New Haveners to see these artists show their take on what it is to age creatively.
Brooks relates in his accompanying notes that his “photographic journey started with a diminutive non-adjustable box camera and those photos of family and friends are still some of his most cherished possessions.” He entered a photography contest after a trip to Italy, with the encouragement of his wife. “One of the great things about living in this part of the country is the changing seasons. A blanket of snow can completely change the feel of a place,” he writes. His image offers ample evidence. East Rock is an urban park, bordered by busy streets, but a good snowfall amplifies how much it is also an oasis from those streets.
Wanda Little
Lillies.
In the category of painting, the People’s Choice award went to Wanda Little, for Lillies. According to the accompanying notes, Wanda is “a retired educator. After recovery from her first battle with breast cancer over 10 years ago, her family gifted her with art classes. She continues to enjoy painting as a wonderful and calming therapy. This painting is her ‘first stab at watercolor.’” Would that all first attempts in a new medium were so successful. She created her painting from a photograph; as the result shows, through her craft, she also enhanced it.
Alpha Coiro
Penguins.
Alpha Coiro’s Penguins snagged second place for photography. A world traveler, her photographs in the exhibit range from Botswana to Dubai, from India to Antarctica. She writes in her accompanying statement that she trains her lens often on capturing some aspect of local culture — even when there are no people around.
Often the lives of the artists themselves, as revealed in their accompanying statements, are as inspiring as the artwork. Alexandra Ballough, a career commercial artist who got into photography in the past decade, entered the exhibit with an arresting photographic portrait of a man at a Renaissance fair. She wrote that “it exemplifies my artistic ability with software to create a detailed dramatic black and white composition,” revealed that she taught herself to use said software in the past year — “proving you are never too old to learn and be inspired.” Nancy Batory used a new technique for her painting, Serendipity: “It was created by pushing paint with an old credit card, only using brushes to apply paint to the canvas,” she wrote. Bonnie Sprague retired from work and “discovered yoga, tai chi and a love for painting at her local senior center.” She had always been a writer, but when she paints, she wrote, “my mind seems to create whimsical visions.”
Elsie Benjamin
Fishing Boats.
Elsie Benjamin’s Fishing Boats took home second place in the painting category of the exhibit, a fitting testimony for the 93-year-old self-taught artist. “She has always painted for pleasure,” the accompanying note states, and the canvas in the exhibit conveys just that — not only the scene itself, but a sense of atmosphere and movement, realism dashed with a little humor.
Taken collectively, both the art and the artists creating it have a powerful message to impart as it appears that the changes wrought by the pandemic are likely to last. Many people find their lives altered almost unrecognizably from what they were before March. Many are contemplating having to reinvent themselves, to move in different directions. Many are facing an enforced time out. The pandemic and the economic devastation wrought by it are both deep hardships. But the day-to-day aspects of getting through it can be marked by some moments of joy, chances to try something new, and it doesn’t have to require art classes or disposable income. As Susan Stackpole writes in her accompanying statement for her photograph, Mirror Image, “all I have to do is look around wherever I am and the beauty presents itself.”