Past Exhibit
Linda Butler - Meditations on Simplicity
Runs through June 15, 2008
Shaker Vision Endures
56 Avenue A at Second Street - Downtown Turners Falls, Massachusetts
"Meditations on Simplicity", a photographic exhibit by Linda Butler, opens at Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography Gallery 56 on March 20, 2008. Butler's poignant black and white images draw on the beauty and deliberate simplicity of the architecture and objects of the Shakers, a communal religious sect that flourished in the eastern United States over a century and a half ago. "Meditations on Simplicity" continues at Gallery 56, Turners Falls, Massachusetts, through June 15, 2008.An Artist's Reception with live music and hors d'oeuvres will be held at Galleries 52 and 56 from 1-5 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. The museum will be open extra hours on this date until 7 p.m. An Illustrated Artist's Talk will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the lecture hall at the Hallmark Institute of Photography Educational Center, 27 Industrial Boulevard, Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Doors open at 6:45 p.m.; seating begins at 7:15 p.m. Refreshments will be served before seating, and during a brief intermission at 8:15 p.m.
"In all but two communities, there are no living Shakers. Yet how strongly these people speak in the things they left behind! The buildings have an undeniably spiritual quality, and, a century and a half after they were built, they show evidence of a clarity of mind and vision" writes Butler.
The artist captures the meditative play of sun and shadow over the remnants left behind by the well-ordered, industrious Shakers, who lived full and fruitful lives in their spiritual communities. Butler photographed in Hancock, Massachusetts; Canterbury, New Hampshire; Pleasant Hill and South Union, Kentucky; Sabbathday Lake, Maine; and, Old Chatham, New York. The artist writes, "As I study the delicate curve of a spiral staircase or the fine handwork in a silk kerchief, I can only conclude that many of these now nameless Shaker craftsmen knew a greater peace of mind than most of us ever attain."
Butler received her MAT from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan, and, her BA from Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. An independent art photographer for over 25 years, Butler has had more than fifty one-person exhibitions in the United States, Canada and Japan. Her photographs are housed in private, corporate and museum collections across the United States and in Japan. Among Butler's recent awards are Kiriyama Prize 2005 Notable Book Award; Cleveland Arts Prize 1999; Northern Ohio Live 1999; and, Gund Foundation Annual Report Best Photography.
In addition to "Inner Light: The Shaker Legacy", Butler has published "Yangtze Remembered: The River Beneath the Lake"; "Italy: In the Shadow of Time"; and, "Rural Japan: Radiance of the Ordinary".