In “Sanctuary,” a woodblock print by Kait Armstrong P’23, monarch butterflies fill the frame, their orange wings edged in black against broad green leaves. Below the image, in her handwriting, she numbers the print 2/39. Armstrong carves each design into Shina plywood. To print, she lays paper over the inked block and rubs the back of the sheet with a handheld baren until the image transfers. Stand close and Armstrong’s initials, KWA, appear inside the image, carved and printed along with the monarchs.
“Reflections on Nature,” an exhibit of woodblock prints by Armstrong and Marliese Baer, hangs in the Lovejoy Library.
In the Brown Gallery, photographer Becky Field’s “Finding Home: Portraits and Memories of Immigrants” gathers photographs and stories of immigrants and refugees who now call New Hampshire home. Both exhibits run through December 18. Field visits campus Thursday, October 1, to speak at assembly and meet with students and faculty about her work and the people in her photographs. An artist reception that evening, from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, is open to the public.
Close looking pays off, according to Daisy Fancourt, a Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology at University College London who studies how the arts affect our health. On an August episode of Hidden Brain, “What Art Does For Your Brain,” she explained that art we take in passively is beneficial, but full attention changes the experience. “When we give it full attention, all of our emotional responses are heightened,” she said. Both of this fall’s exhibits hang in busy spaces, where it is easy to walk past without looking. Engaging with the arts activates the brain’s reward networks, including the dopamine system tied to feelings of pleasure, Fancourt explained. People who engage with the arts regularly, she said, tend to have higher happiness and life satisfaction. Making art brings benefits of its own, but her research finds that for many mental health outcomes, looking and listening help as well, in slightly different ways.
Fancourt also encourages people to put exhibitions and performances on their calendars, because new experiences bring novelty and, sometimes, a sense of awe. Art curator Molly Leith has rotated exhibitions through campus since 2017, which builds that kind of novelty into our daily life and environment.
Kait Armstrong P’23 and Marliese Baer: “Reflections on Nature” (Lovejoy Library)
Artist reception: Thursday, December 3, 6:00-7:00 PM
On Display Through December 18
Armstrong earned a BFA in textile design, with an emphasis in color theory, from Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia. A 2017 printmaking workshop at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine cemented her love of woodblock printing, which has been her primary medium ever since. She draws inspiration from the natural world and uses her prints to confront social and environmental issues. Proctor has shown Armstrong’s work before: in 2020, her genetics-themed alphabet series of block prints hung in the Brown Dining Hall Gallery.
Baer grew up in Elkins, New Hampshire, and now works as a conservation biologist and statistician in Salt Lake City. An avid outdoorswoman, she draws on her love of wildlife and her New England upbringing. She first explored printmaking as a child and continued studying it in college. Her favorite techniques are wood-carved relief prints and intaglio. She is most drawn to black-and-white prints, where varying textures and patterns convey shades of gray and depth. For Baer, the long, multi-step process feels intentional and mindful, and she values how it puts part of herself into each piece.
Becky Field: “Finding Home: Portraits and Memories of Immigrants” (Brown Dining Commons)
Artist reception: Thursday, October 1, 6:00-7:00 PM
On Display Through December 18
In one of Becky Field’s photographs, hands reach in from the edges of the frame to settle a pink, embroidered veil over a smiling bride. Field’s caption reads: “Muslim Bride, Burundi, Manchester, NH, 2014.” As Molly Leith highlighted in a recent assembly, it is one of Field’s favorite photographs, “partly because of the beautiful Burundi bride, but also because of all the hands surrounding her and all of the people present in that moment supporting her.”
Field earned a Certificate in Photography from the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She also holds a doctoral degree in ecology and, earlier in her career, worked as a research ecologist and university professor. Since 2012, Field has photographed people who resettled in New Hampshire from other countries. Families have welcomed her into their homes and invited her to their cultural celebrations and religious services. “My photographs show the beauty, strength and economic contributions of immigrants in New Hampshire,” Field says. Field’s first book, Different Roots, Common Dreams: New Hampshire’s Cultural Diversity (2015), collects more than 100 of her photographs of New Hampshire’s new Americans. Her second, Finding Home: Portraits and Memories of Immigrants (2020), pairs portraits of immigrant families with their stories of resettlement and lends this exhibit its title. During her October 1 visit, Field will share the stories of the people in her photographs.
Both receptions are open to the public. To view either exhibit or attend a reception, contact art curator Molly Leith at leithmo@proctoracademy.org.
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