Judith Cerrato

Judith Cerrato grew up in New Milford, Connecticut and has always enjoyed the outdoors and taking photos. She was married a year ago and is forty years old. When not taking photos, Judith works for Toyota in Wappinger's Falls as a customer relations manager. Her photos reflect her great love and appreciation of the outdoors. She dedicates her work to the love of her life Robert Cerrato and in memory of her father,John Bucinsley and the man that was like a second father to her, Paul Gauluski

Abby Ripley

October 4, 2009 through November 14, 2009



Abby Ripley’s Biography

Abby Ripley is happy to claim residence in New Milford, CT. She grew up on a cattle ranch in Montana then moved with her parents and siblings to Arizona. She graduated from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University with degrees in music.

In 1968 she joined the Peace Corps and spent time in Niger, West Africa. It was there that she really became serious about photography and found herself at ease totally immersed in a foreign culture. When all the black-and-white film she had taken in Africa was ruined by a commercial laboratory, she decided to study photography and become adept in every aspect. For that she moved to New York City to attend the New York Institute of Photography, hoping to become a fashion photographer. However, the institute was run by men who told her that only men could do fashion photography. Discourage in that ambition, she pursued a more accessible career as a wholesale travel agent.

On trips to South and Central America and Asia she did take numerous photos but always wondered what she should do with them. After a few more career changes, she decided to return to school for graduate work in anthropology. An exciting part of that endeavor was selecting a group of people to live among in order to study some interesting aspect of their society and culture. An article in the National Geographic drew her attention to Ladakh, a remote region in the Himalayas. Ladakh is populated predominantly by people of Tibetan stock practicing Tibetan Buddhism, though there is also a significant Muslim population. It is administered by India (as part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir) but borders Tibet, China, and Pakistan. Because India has fought wars with both Pakistan and China in this area, it was closed to foreigners for a number of years. It had only when recently opened to visitors when Abby made her first trip there.

She did this in 1982, with encouragement from an Indian educator. She traveled through Amritsar, Jammu, and Srinagar by train and bus, in order to acclimatize herself for the high elevation in Ladakh. However, while in Srinagar she contracted dengue fever. She was therefore delirious as she undertook what might have been the greatest adventure of her life. This was the bus trip over the Zoji pass in the westernmost range of the Trans Himalayas in a blinding snowstorm. The bus slipped and slid around hairpin turns, but she was barely aware of it. She was too weak even to get off the bus for lodging en route. Once in Leh, the capital of Ladakh, a local found her a room in a very primitive hotel where she remained in her sleeping bag for nearly two weeks, recovering from her illness.

Although this was not a very propitious beginning, Abby was befriended by individuals who helped her find a Ladakhi home to live in. She met more and more of these wonderful, generous, happy, and humorous people. Eventually she settled with a charming Christian family in a beautiful village not far from Leh, up a mountain valley above the Indus River and directly in view of the highest peaks in the Ladakhi Himalaya.

She was invited to attend many village functions and photographed them. Several villagers agreed to be her informants and her language teacher (Ladakhi is a Tibetan dialect). They soon realized that she really wanted to know everything about their society and particularly their rituals, e.g., births, marriages, funerals as well as seasonal rituals. She spent many days and nights observing and photographing these events and taking copious notes about everything.

She spent nearly two years studying Ladakhi social rituals that bind the villagers to one another to form a community. When she returned home her life here took over, and nothing was done with all the photographs she took. Unfortunately she had used cheap film that lost its integrity. As a result, now that she has begun to exhibit as a photographer, she has had to restore many of the negatives taken in Ladakh. Still, she hopes they will provide viewers with an informed view of the land and people she has come to cherish.

If anyone has questions about the exhibit or about Ladakh, you may call her directly: (860) 355-4265. If there is sufficient interest, she is available to give a lecture on the subject. There are other images of Ladakh on her Website: http://abbyripleyphotoart.com. All photographs are for sale.

Housatonic Art Gallery

August 23 through October 3rd, 2009

The Housatonic Art League (or H.A.L.) is a non-profit art organization serving the Greater New Milford area as well as many other western Connecticut towns.

Organized in 1971 by a small group of professional and semi-professional artists, HAL has grown over the last 30 years to become a multi-faceted organization. Amateurs, students, Sunday painters, emerging artists and professionals are all equally welcome as members. HAL provides an arena in which artists and craftsmen can socialize, exchange ideas, meet new friends and learn new skills that may enhance their lives and careers.

HAL awards a scholarship annually to an area high school senior winner of a portfolio competition, and provides qualified art show judges free of charge on a regular basis to community organizations.
HAL also sponsors art exhibits for local banks, restaurants, and businesses, monthly art demos ("An Evening with the Masters"), and art classes taught at reasonable rates to area residents.

Sharon Farber Art Show

July 12- August 22nd, 2009



Sharon graduated with honors from U Mass Amherst in 1983, with a BA in sociology. After several years as a social worker she began a twenty year career as a massage therapist and healer. She taught classes in massage and healing, and created the Avon Massage Therapy Center which she sold after fifteen years in order to pursue a full time career as an artist.

Sharon has studied watercolor with Anne Lindsay, Susan Abbot, Tom Lynch, Tony Couch, Brian Colbath, and Jeanne Carbonetti. She studies privately with Laura Eden. Sharon has exhibited in Torrington, Winsted, New Hartford, Barkhamsted, Canton, Avon, Granby, East Granby, West Hartford, Manchester, New Haven, Bloomfield, Simsbury, Farmington, Hartford and Chester. Solo shows scheduled for 2009 include New Milford and Cheshire, CT and Great Barrington, Mass.

Sharon is now teaching watercolor painting. She is a member of the Connecticut Watercolor Society, Avon Arts Association, and the Farmington Valley Arts Center. Sharon is the Education Coordinator and a member of the New Hartford Art League.
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Sheila Tintera May 24th-July llth

In 1969 Sheila began her art studies at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, followed by several years at Silvermine School of Art in Norwalk. She has studied at NY Botanical Gardens, Southern Ct State University, Washington Art Assoc, and Wooster Center for the Arts. Her work has been included in group exhibitions from The Downstairs Gallery at The Firehouse in New Milford, The Firenze Gallery, and Cooley Gallery to The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA to her most recent, at Studio 889, Bronx NY. In 2007 Sheila received Honorable Mention, in the Exhibition A Sense of Place here at Hunt Hill Farm, The Silo Gallery. She is both oil painter and printmaker. In June she will begin The Henderson Cultural Center’s Artist In Residency program and is presently in the prestigious Critique held by Yale School of Art Professor, Barbara Grossman. This show will feature her works in oil of several still lifes and the surrounding New England landscape

Richard Close April 19 through May 23

Missions, Consultant, Writer and Photographer

Richard Close Kenya

Why do I write with images?

All the reasons I write will one day fill a lengthy book. I spent a lifetime searching for God and happiness. Was at the feet of top yogis, work for the top companies, raised a family and watched a very self-centered world that was all about "me". Finally God found me and stopped my life dead in it's track all the way down to living homeless in a Gospel Rescue Mission. There God became my true Father with a walking relationship filled with many miracles and amazing adventures. I will tell you this. That Jesus is real and very alive today. His witness can be seen all through this site. Today I consult to missions, raising a second family and worship in Brooklyn Tabernacle with every nation in the world. I will also tell you that I am nothing special, not even a professional photographer or writer, never had a lesson in either one. This is my witness so that you know that if you let God use you, your life will become an amazing adventure.

Brooklyn Tabernacle Learning CenterI love the people of Africa and Brooklyn. I see the the traditional purity of Godly work ethics and raising of their children. I Love the honest struggle of parents making a living, supporting children and praising God for it all. Something I feel modern America has so tragically lost. When God is in you heart you will fall in love in a new deep way with Him and your life will transform filled with His Grace and Mercy.

The boring details:

Richard Close, CEO The Chrysalis Campaign has 20 plus years as a visionary, strategic planner and consultant to the eLearning industry. He has been an industry consultant, speaker, analyst and author of white papers on: search learning, Knowledge Management and eLearning, NLP, and Best Practices in Healthcare eLearning Methodologies. Clients in the training business include: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and numerous eLearning companies.

Currently he is running webinars for "Best Practices for Healthcare in eLearning" and "Best Practices for Nurse Educators" which are attended by hundreds of Healthcare institutions across the country. Other breakthrough webinars he has co-developed have been attended by over a thousand healthcare institutions.

As a senior consultant, he has developed marketing and learning programs for companies such as: Sun Microsystems, American Management Association, Graduate School USDA, Michigan Virtual University, Catapult/IBM Leaning Services, International Data Corporation, Oracle, Powersoft/Sybase and Global Knowledge (Digital Learning Services), Lotus Development, Microsoft and Symantec. His corporate experience has been with MCI International, GE and Keane.

Richard has been a key player in the launching of several eLearning companies and technology centers in New York. He has published learning white papers and methodologies, in the field of Knowledge Management, Virtual Change Programs, Transformational Learning-NLP and Healthcare Learning Method.

THE CHRYSALIS CAMPAIGN. INC.

ZambianClass

Richard donates 1/3 of his income to The Chrysalis Campaign, Inc. which provides strategic consulting, learning services, training and creative services and resources that support poor urban US and African communities. Current projects are in Kenya, Zambia and Haitte. For more information contact: chrysaliscamp@aol.com

Mountain Laurel Quilters

March 8th through April l8th

This exhibit features a variety of quilts, wall hangings, and framed pieces by members of the Mountain Laurel Quilters. This guild was started in 2000 and is now preparing for its third biennial show - Quilt Festival III - which will be April 25 and 27th at Sarah Noble School in New Milford, Ct.

The exhibit features a variety of quilting techniques, such as a piecing, applique, embroidery, stenciling and hand and machine quilting. There is a range of traditional to contemporary styes showing the individual interpretation of a design by the quilter.

The Mountain Laurel quiliters meets on the third Tuesday of the month at the Richmond Center on Main Street in New Milford and is composed of beginning and experienced quilters who enjoy sharing, learning and donating back to area communities with charitable projects.

Mary Shanley Gates

January 18th through February 28th, 2009

Mary Shanley Gates has spent most of her life in Connecticut, except for two and a half years as a VISTA volunteer in Montana. She worked in the Brookfield school system for thirty two years as a teacher and curriculum coordinator. She co-authored a teacher resource book, Living with the Land, published in 1998. With her husband, Timothy, she has been a New Milford resident for more than thirty years. She recently published a 2009 calendar, Lighthouse Landscapes, from her original paintings.

The strong use of color can be seen in Mary’s work. Two styles of painting that she has always been drawn to are Impressionism and primitive Americana. Some of her favorite artists are Van Gogh, Monet, Grandma Moses, and Charles Wysocki. She is most satisfied when her work makes viewers smile.

Mary works primarily in acrylics, but has used other media such as oils, pastels, water colors, and gouache. Some of her work is currently displayed at Building Block Art Supply and Gallery in Ridgefield, CT.

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