Lisa Kippen, Jan 1996

For Immediate Release

3 January, 1996

For out of old fields, as men saithe,

cometh al this new corn from yere to yere.
And out of old bookes, in good faithe,

Cometh al this new science that men lere. —Chaucer

And out of these old fields has come, into our midst, a Traveler, a Teacher. From the old fields of Books and Academic Politics has come a Never-Ceasing Student.

Wonderful it is to survey the products of interesting minds as they parade along these Gallery Walls. Wonderful indeed if the products are home-grown, art made by Local People living and working beside us, eating at the Polka-Dot restaurant, standing beside us at the checkout counter at the Grand-Union grocery store.

Lisa Kippen is one of these. A long jour�ney has brought her to her Art and to Vermont. She puzzles at her large pieces and shrugs. “They draw me, I dont draw them.”

From 20 January to the first week of March, 1996, The Museum will present the large scale charcoal and pastel drawings of Ms. Kippen, a scholar as familiar with the Tao te Ching as she is with welding steel. We are proud to present to the public the thoughtful draftsmanship of an admirer of William Wiley who has spent many a chilly morning milking the famously “contented” Vermont Cows. Nothing fancy here. Just some of the most impressive examples of Contemporary pas�tel and conte work we have seen in quite some time; and all from a former Hazen Street resident now living in North Tunbridge.

The Canadian born Literature critic Northrop Frye has said, in his essays on his natal country, that “Rustic is not the opposite of Culture.” We hope we are doing a Little to dispel the myth that Art cannot flourish outside urban areas. We rather think we are. And we are heartened to see a Manhattan born artist who grew to love the Hills of Vermont more than the cement of the City or the Golden Opportunities of the Far West, where she was educated in Philosophy at Berkeley. She also at�tended Carleton College and received a mals degree from Dartmouth. She moved East in 1986 and has been a Vermonter ever since, and we are proud to say a Vermonter who is also an “Ultra-Modern,” and an Ultra-Modern who hasnt an ounce of self-importance, who isnt too serious, who isnt a conceited bore.

And Ultra-Modern she is. And represen�tative of that peculiar set of Eyes and Minds unique to Our Time, described variously as “Gen-X,” or “Deconstructed.” What comes to mind when viewing, from our shattered vantage points, the dissolving focus, the slow fade of Art-As-We-Know-It from our culture? Can we, at the end of the Century go on churning out pictures from our Mills, or words from our keyboards, anymore than profoundly disillusioned artists and writers, the World over, could go on writing poetry, painting, and creating in Post-War period? And yet, we do create, we do paint and draw on large slabs of thick paper and nail them to Walls. But what a difference from the angst of 40 years ago; these walls are crumbling, they are human like us, these drawings are personal, engaging, they reflect not the pain of Beckman or Grosz but shifting planes of reference. They tantalize us. These drawings are ambiguous at a very basic level, like the photos of Cindy Sherman. Like the best writing of Salinger, Burroughs, Norman O. Brown, or Henry Miller the voice here is not Everyman, but specific, directed at us, engaging, though ultimately profoundly aware of the mean�inglessness of personal, declarative statements and therefore more gripping-ly focused on the micro�cosm—the fragment that when propounded simply multiplies fractures upon fissures, shredding itself into ever smaller pieces as we watch the detritus disperse in mist-like vapor.

But wait, thats not all. These pieces are cheerful, there is no sense of despair displayed. George Orwell described Henry Miller in an analogous way: “the thing has become so unusual as to seem almost anomalous but [Tropic of Cancer] is the book of a man who is happy...With years of lumpenproletarian life behind him, hunger, vagabondage, dirt, failure, nights in the open, battles with immigration officers, endless struggles for a bit of cash, Miller finds that he is enjoying himself. Exactly the aspects of life that fill [Louis Ferdinand] Céline with horror are the ones that appeal to him. So far from protesting he is accepting.”�

So come and see this pleasant, warmly welcoming works; and be assured, Ms. Kippen has left her angst at home. Artists today really do not have any more angst left, although most successful ones wear the mask, pretending to be in pain; their play angst only misnamed boredom that arises from being spoiled.

So come, come and enjoy these new pieces of our life. They have come to us from the Old Fields, the Fields of Cows, the Fields of Book Learning. We are lucky to have her with us.

“Works on Paper” by Lisa Kippen will be at the

THE MAINtSTREETtMUSEUM

42 South Main Street, First Floor White River Junction, Vermont, 05001

From 21 January til the First Week in March; with an Opening Reception for the Artist Sunday, 21 January from 2 til 5 pm 802.296.7955; E-Mail: mattbucy@sover.net