'A Month in Brittany' by Alexandra Sheldon

Please join us in celebrating this profound body of work, which bridges continents and cultural eras through color and form. Opening Reception on Friday, March 5th, 6:00 – 8:30 PM.

“This work was made in a month in Brittany. I was involved in a project called Ex-Libris Exchange in which 12 artists from the US and 12 artists from France were asked to respond to an 18th c illustrated journal created by a young soldier named Georg Daniel Flohr. Georg was French but made his journal in the US while fighting in the American Revolutionary War. His journal is filled with his writing and drawing and painting. The first thing I did was practice his handwriting before going to Brittany. I was interested in the beauty of his writing and the feel of history and a long gone era. I liked the stains and marks of time on the pages. I was interested in how Georg responded to everything with words or images. When I got to Brittany I worked long days on these paintings, either in the house or outside. I walked and did drawings and sometimes painted from my rental car because the weather was unpredictable. The writing I did was in a stream of consciousness style and because I had recently lost my stepfather much of the writing is about life and death and absorbing the rebirth and intense beauty of that time of year: early spring. My intention was to respond to this small patch of countryside with all of my senses and to stay aware of a young man almost two hundred and fifty years before who had done the same in my home country. It was a beautiful experience to be braided up with another person from another time and century.”

Alexandra Sheldon is a member of the Bromfield Gallery. She lives and works in Cambridge and specializes in teaching mixed media and collage. She is a graduate of the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston and among other awards has received a scholarship to live in France for a year, attended Skowhegan and made an appearance on Oprah.