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December 19, 2025 – January 31, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, December 19, 6-8 PM
In-person Artist Talk: Friday, January 16, 6:30 PM
Impermanence, transience, the potential of change and the role of chance in its origin and outcome are central themes of my work. Myth oftentimes serves as subject and trace images from the landscape offer inspiration. In my most recent work subject and process have become inseparable: rather than document what has been, my photographic collages and mixed media monotypes give shape to change and are shaped by it in turn. Drawn upon, deconstructed, reduced at times to a line alone or built up layer by layer, the photograph is both palimpsest and ground. My interest lies in the dynamic interplay between residue and mark, evidence and response, memory remade by memory: clarity arrived at through chance and complication.
Rosemary Cotnoir
I began years ago as a landscape painter. Over time I transitioned into abstraction. I still consider myself a landscape painter but focusing more the abstract components of nature. My work explores patterns using aerial views of landscapes, i.e. coastlines, marshes, forests and rivers. I use symmetrical, asymmetrical, and organic shapes that I see around me. I am influenced by indigenous peoples, Japanese wood block prints and the work of Gustav Klimt.
Jessica Fallis
Bio
Jessica Fallis is a Connecticut artist who works in a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, printmaking, and ceramics. She earned a BFA in Painting and BA in English from the University of Hartford in 2012, and an MA in English from the University of Vermont in 2014. Her work is often inspired by poetry, and explores themes of light, time, and place within the landscape. Travel also plays a strong role in her work, and she has carried her sketchbook and watercolors with her from Maine to Alaska to Poland. She has exhibited her work throughout New England, New York, and the East Coast. Jessica is also a full-time high school art teacher in West Hartford.
Artist Statement
My work is ultimately about the spiritual connection I feel with nature. The passage of time, the ephemerality of light through the forest, and cycles of growth and decay are all themes that I meditate on while I’m painting. My work is an attempt to capture the ethereal. These paintings began after a visit to Muir Woods National Monument in California, where I was captivated by the light shining through the canopy and the dreamlike, magical feeling of being surrounded by the coastal redwoods. As a native of New England, I was fascinated by the quality of color and light of the West Coast. To step into that ancient forest was to experience the sublime and a deep inner peace; my paintings became a way for me to revisit that feeling.
Physiologically, walking in the woods has been proven to have healing properties, and nature has always been a place of renewal and healing for me. In my work, I use color to recreate the experience of being surrounded by the ancient forest and to draw attention to places that may often be overlooked, such as fallen trees and moss-covered stumps. For me, these places represent the interconnectedness of the forest, and the cyclical way that new life grows from the old. This regeneration and interdependency of nature symbolizes the healing power of time, whether in the environment, or within ourselves. Just as the trees within a forest are all connected beneath the soil, so too are we connected to each other and to the surrounding environment. These paintings are a reminder of what we stand to lose if we continue to ignore that connection.
Artist’s Statement
My current ceramic works use the covered jar and other wheel-thrown forms as
a mode of expression. Informed by the vessel aesthetic, over my career I have
used the potter’s wheel as the main tool to make an evolving series of sculptural
forms. Each of the parts is made on the potter’s wheel and then is altered and
assembled, creating forms that look alive – growing, twisting, and even wilting.
Over the years, I have cycled back to forms inspired by plants more often than
not, although in the current series the plant-like growths are abstracted to
varying degrees. Unusual surfaces, textures and color combinations are integral to the forms.
There is a certain unpredictability of how a piece may turn out after the glaze
firing; my goal is that uncertainty and experimentation be visible in the final work
while conjuring familiar forms; some easily recognizable and others vague.
Bio
Donna Namnoum is a ceramist who creates sculptural vessels inspired by
plants in which the parts are thrown on the pottery wheel and assembled.
Namnoum received a Masters Degree in Art Education and Ceramics at the
Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford. She worked as an art
teacher and administrator in Connecticut public schools for 35 years until her
retirement. Now a full time artist, Donna maintains a home and studio in
Canton, CT. She exhibits throughout New England and the United States and
her work has appeared in Art Scope and Sculpture Magazines and numerous
times in Ceramics Monthly Magazine.
This series of ten paintings brings together three of my great interests: Painting, Gardening, and Textiles. While the basis of each painting stems from an exotic plant that I found fascinating and beautiful my deep interest is ‘Painting.’ I am not interested in illustrating the plants. So, I’m a painter who loves color, loves to move paint around the surface and create and images that are direct, impactful, strong and that have meaning and lasting value.
This series is painted on Lennox 100 paper. I have sewn support fabric on the back. Each painting has a section of fabrics sewn onto the front that becomes an integral part of the painting. Some of these sections hang off the sides of the paper adding visual interest. Finally, the paintings hang from reinforced grommets.
Specializing in printmaking and serving diverse communities including those with autism. Inspired by family, culture, and tradition, her work incorporates recycling elements and reflects her evolving perspective shaped by personal and environmental influences.
Frustere’s artistic journey is deeply intertwined with her family and surroundings. She often incorporates elements that engage the audience and evoke a sense of reflection on our origins. The printmaking process itself is a metaphor for this journey, with its various stages of layering, proofing, and plate manipulations. Her frequent trips to Italy help her maintain a strong connection with her family, which is a crucial aspect of her work. Her art embodies her family’s visions, ideals, and discoveries.
Her innovative approach to printmaking, which includes exploring fewer toxic techniques has contributed to the evolution of the medium. By demonstrating that printmaking can be both environmentally conscious and artistically expressive, Donna has inspired others to experiment and push the boundaries of their own work.
Frustere believes that we are constantly evolving due to traditional, cultural, and environmental influences, as history tends to repeat itself. She sees herself as a product of her tradition, culture, and environment. Her art reflects her identity, beliefs, and how she processes contemporary issues based on her connections and experiences.
Frustere’s Italian heritage has become increasingly evident in her art, grounding her work and expressing the challenges and triumphs she has experienced over the years. She skillfully combines the tangible with the tactile, exploring a variety of printmaking styles, from monotypes and woodcuts to interpretations of literature an life changes. Frustere’s ability to convey complex themes and emotions through her prints has highlighted the power of art as a means of storytelling and healing.
Donna retired from the classroom in 2018 to focus on presenting workshops, jurying Exhibitions, exhibiting and professional development seminars. Her goal is to emphasize the importance of the arts in providing a voice for everyone. As the founder of the Printmakers Network of Southern New England, Donna exhibits her work both nationally and internationally. She remains actively involved in the arts community through her ongoing contributions to workshops, exhibitions, and professional development.
Statement:
The new series of botanical paintings and drawings was inspired by the many varieties of ferns growing in the Reeves garden. All of these works contain one or more ferns, but since spellcheck was adamant in refusing to accept “Fernature” as a title for all the works in the series despite the intention to play with the pun, the paintings are titled “An Orgy of Saccharine Beauty” and the drawings are “No Longer in the Permafrost.”
“My intention is to lead the viewer over the lush threshold of abstraction and representation.
I see plant life as a forceful, powerful agent and the titles of the series, is meant to negate the normally held concept of a sweet or passive nature and delicate existence that the subject of flowers in art brings to mind.”
Within the span from edge to edge of these imaginary gardens, there are contortions of vegetation that seem to be at play, in conversation or neighborly interactions. The growth may bolster or support each other or be in opposition. In most cases, what is immediately seen may shift becoming richer over time as negative and positive spaces and shapes reveal themselves. An experience of sustained viewing may yield new images maintaining a sense of a story unfolding. The plants come together in relationships infused with the invisible energy as Dylan Thomas wrote, – “the force within the green fuse drives the flower, drives my green age;”- the garden as a metaphor for the human condition.
Statement:
My paintings explore the movement, light, and emotional rhythm of the natural world — the land, skies, trees, and water that surround and sustain us. I’m drawn to how shifting color and form can reflect our inner worlds — moments of transformation, renewal, and balance. Through layered brushwork and expressive color, I seek to convey the atmosphere and energy of place — the quiet motion, the light that changes everything, and the sense of connection that nature continually offers. Each piece becomes an invitation — to pause, reflect, and rediscover the harmony between what’s outside us and what lives within. My creative practice is deeply tied to recovery and the healing process; it’s a visual language of resilience, renewal, and belonging.
I am often asked about what drives my work. To that I can only answer this – I have to create; it is like breathing for me. Art is how I interact with the world. My thoughts, my experiences, my reactions, and my hopes are all mediated through my canvas or my lens, and I find that for me it can’t be any other way. My art is a reflection of my life.
