community art projects

community art projects

The Brandon Artist Guild has held community wide art projects for 5 years now. The original goal was to create a space in which the guild members could bring their art to the public and support eachother in the process ... proceeds from these events help the BAG realize its mission of nurturing the arts in their community.

Brandon has now been coined the "art and soul of Vermont" .

Here are my donations to these events.

Nebula Stardust Cloud c.2009 Up for auction October 2009
Stars begin as the offspring of a giant cloud of gas and dust, a cloud up to 300 light-years across. Such a cloud is known as a nebula. A nebula (from Latin: “mist”) is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. It is the first stage of a star’s cycle. Interstellar dust (Stardust) is not like the dust that you might find under your bed; it is made of very different substances. These dust particles are extremely small, just a fraction of a micron across, which happens to be approximately the wavelength of blue light waves. The particles are irregularly shaped, and are composed of silicates, carbon, ice, and/or iron compounds.

This Nebula, (Stardust Cloud), is fabricated with some of my very favorite art glass. I embellished with a Swarovski star crystal and faceted glass stones from Germany; zipper cut bevels, beaded copper wire and cobalt blue marbles. There are accent pieces of an antique fruit bowl and vintage glass bottles. I added shells and sea washed chunks of beach glass from the shores of Alaska.
The piece is wrapped with wire and hung with chain. approx. 18"x22"

In the Pig-ginning...was pigs. 40 life-size fiberglass white pigs...

Perennial c.2003 (sold at auction)

Sally Foster painted the fantastic verde antique marble for this fiberglass pig.

Coliene Moore fabricated the intricate copper vines and support for the birdbath

Laura Rideout (that's me) contributed a 22 inch mosaic birdbath to sit elegantly atop our pig.

Year 2 Brandon was "For the Birds".

Charm of Hummingbirds c.2004 (sold at auction)

I designed and fabricated this hummingbird conservatory after receiving divine inspiration from a trip my husband, Scott and I took to the Botanical Gardens in Montreal. The doors open up to draw you inside to see moss, silk orchids and blossoms. Miniature porcelain fishermen are perched on bridges and hummingbirds fly free in a zen- like walking garden. There is a tiny bronze dragonfly on one edge and a bronzed salamander peering inside on the other. A beveled hummingbird graces the back wall,and large faceted stones reflect rainbows in the eaves. I loved to watch peoples first reaction as they gazed in. This project was all heart...and I owe so much to Scott for his encouragement to do the garden inside as well as his advice to first build it out of paper and then to add heavy guage wire for rafters and plexiglass for the foundation.

The wrought iron hummingbird weathervane perched on top was made by Dick Kirby, another local artist specializing in wrought iron lamps.

details add to the charm

Ride The Wave c.2006 (sold at auction)

year 4 was state-wide and the theme was Palettes. I chose to fabricate in glass instead of painting on a wood palette. I added my pallette colors in glass stones traditionally aligned .

My design was a curling wave. I used the colors of the ocean and added a foamy white for the spray on the curl. the background is a clear on clear baroque and I left the opening for the artists thumb open...I wrapped in a chain to add to the curling effect.