This month's exhibit will feature works by local artists and family, Aubrey Feliciano, Jill Butcher, William Butcher Jr. and William Butcher III! Head to the Hoxie Gallery from 5-7 pm Wednesday, December 3rd for an opportunity to meet the artists and enjoy light bites. Works can be viewed in the Hoxie Gallery through the month of December during library hours.

About the artists:

Aubrey Feliciano: "A dancer’s beautiful lines and gravity-defying grace require incredible strength. One cannot exist without the other. This juxtaposition is the message I strive to communicate in my work, capturing fleeting moments within the choreography and bringing to light the powerful strength and control it takes to sustain them; an ability achieved through years of hard work and passionate devotion. My figurative work is a celebration of those who have dedicated their lives and bodies to achieving such a level of artistic excellence. When I am sketching an individual dancer, the focus is always on capturing the lines created by the body and a powerful solo moment within the choreography. When I’m focused on a moment in Pas de Deux, or of two dancers, I consider it a very intimate image and strive to capture the merging of the bodies, highlighting the complex shapes they create and the relationship they have with each other under dramatic lighting. This type of intense contrast, like that of strength and gracefulness, occurs in many other aspects of life as well. Organically in the natural world, in architecture, even in everyday design. I was inspired in 2021 to explore this further through imagery of marine life. As a lifelong admirer of the vastness of the ocean and its incredible creatures, it felt natural to apply the drama of my technique. In doing so I’ve gained an even deeper appreciation for the intricate design of the oceans’ ecosystems. While incredibly beautiful, gracefully buoyant and powerful, there is collective purpose to each creature from Moon Jelly to Orca. As my work progresses, I am very interested in exploring this concept of balance between contrasting elements even further."

Jill Abele Butcher: "Over the many years I have been a painter, I have acquired experience, skill, and knowledge. My work is ever-evolving and is based on inspiration and visionary thinking, and not confined to a single style, color palette or purpose. Beginning with a search for a strong composition based on line, form, design and movement, I seek to bring strength and mystery to my work at a level beyond ordinary. My paintings are made up of a series of relationships knit together with light, shadow and color. The physical surface of the canvas, the picture plane, is flattened by pattern and only slightly concerned with perspective. Simultaneously, my paintings work as a whole in both traditional and contemporary ways. I seek to inspire and excite the mind and heart of every viewer."

William C. Butcher Jr. is a graduate of the Drake University School of Fine Art where he earned BFA and MFA degrees in painting. He studied painting and drawing with internationally recognized artists Cornelis Ruhtenberg , Jules Kirschenbaum and Gaylord Torrence. William went on to teach visual art including drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture at Suffield Academy in Suffield Ct. where he chaired the Visual Art Department for nearly forty years. In his Time at Suffield Academy William oversaw the design and construction of new visual art studios and a sculpture workshop that doubled as a technical theater workshop. William also did extensive theatrical set design and construction and served as a technical director for school productions. As a prolific painter and sculptor William has exhibited widely, received numerous awards and has art work in private collections in New York, Boston, Kansas City, Phoenix Arizona, Suffield and New Haven Connecticut, Cologne Germany, London England, Jamaica, Bermuda and Japan.

William Butcher III is a graduate of the Hallmark Institute of Photography receiving high honors for portfolio and high creativity at graduation. Since then William has pursued a professional career as a freelance and contract photographer in New York City and Brooklyn New York. William has also pursued his own photographic artistry involving portraiture and studies of still life, landscape and the human figure. He has also pursued his interest in painting and various other forms of visual expression on a large and expanding scale. William resides in Brooklyn, New York.