by Lin Stone

As featured in the current issue of Vermont HomeStyle Magazine

Artists often revile the thought that someone would consider purchasing a painting to match a sofa; understandably, they would rather that someone love the painting and act on their desire to have it simply for all its compelling emotional resonance and artistic merits. Translated, artists generally prefer that the art speak to the person and not necessarily to the couch. Ideally however, homes should have comfy chairs and couches as well as very personal displays of art.

Perhaps not surprisingly, two Vermont artists, Jackie Mangione and Laurel Fulton, have integrated aesthetics and ethics to create something new. Vermonters don't have to fret to match or to choose between their passion for a painting, coordinating a room's décor, and their social values. Mangione puts cheeky nostalgic paintings on recycled chairs and Fulton paints dazzling landscapes on old cupboard doors and hangs them on the walls as finished framed art. A concern toward the future of the environment and an appreciative glance at the past places these Vermont artists in the midst of a burgeoning trend of artists and designers that hold a holistic view of art, home, and the environment.

Chairs for canvas
Burlington artist Jackie Mangione has taken a lighthearted and painterly approach to the "does the artwork goes with that couch and chair" dilemma. "It started in with an intriguing moment and chair that I saw at Recycle North," she said. "I thought that it would be fun to move from painting in two dimensions on stretched canvas to painting in three dimensions on the rounded textured surface of a sweet little worn upholstered chair. It was rather liberating I thought, I'm reclaiming this piece, what do I have to lose if I choose to paint a chair with a little pink or purple?"

In less adept hands, this spontaneous gesture might have been liberated, but not necessarily practical nor beautiful; in Mangione's hands, the results are practical, playful, and most certainly painterly. Mangione is a skilled and delicate colorist who traditionally paints florals and Vermont land and cityscapes with watercolors or acrylics on paper and canvas. However, she also juxtaposes her daubs of Impressionist-like pastel colors and loose brushstrokes with images from the lush garden scenes of the romantic Rococo period and the ever-so-slightly scandalous historical paintings of Jean-Honore Fragonard. His paintings were popular in the French courts of King Louis XV and XVI, and were favored by Mme. DuBarry, King Louis the XV's beautiful mistress.

It is clear that Mangione likes to mix things up a little, and she does so in a most appealing and lighthearted manner-form and function-chair as canvas-past and present. She claims that part of the appeal of "mixing it up," (materials, images, and eras) is to explore and expand ideas about what is timeless, beautiful, and remains useful. In terms of Mangione's homage to the 16th century Fragonard-inspired chair, Mangione simply said, "I see parallels between Vermont's lush landscape today and the centuries old French countryside. However, from the twinkle in her eye, there is a sense that Mangione enjoys one other little timeless element: the satisfaction of making something beautiful, and well, just a little bit saucy. Now, how's that for recycling!

Doors for paintings 
Shelburne artist Laurel Fulton paints her exuberant Vermont landscapes in oil on local vintage or refurbished materials, such as kitchen cupboard and wood-paneled doors. Canvas paintings are only available upon request!

She explains, "I came to Burlington as a new graduate and was just so excited by all of the creativity and by all of the environmental awareness, recycling, and salvaging efforts that were present in this community. And I was struggling with the issue of framing my canvases and my finished art without benefit of a wood shop. One day I was wandering around Recycle North looking at their architectural salvage and building materials store when I saw some interesting paneled doors, and there was my aha! moment. I could put my paintings directly on the doors and hang them right up on the walls-fully framed." Voila!

A recent custom project included a witty display of laundry hanging on a clothesline on the wood-panel doors in a customer's laundry room. Another one of Fulton's custom projects is a collaborative effort with Craig Farrow, an art historian and reproduction furniture maker from Ferrisburgh. Together they are working on a project that involves incorporating Fulton's painting on a panel embedded above one of Farrow's reproduction Colonial fireplace mantles.
Fulton's oils render many familiar Vermont landscapes with the lyrical wild brushwork and saturated colors reminiscent of the early 20th century modern Fauve painters, such as Henri Matisse. Her undulating bright sunset skies roll over golden green hills as easily as the wind blows through hayfields. And not one glorious moment of Vermont's earth, lake, and sky seems to have escaped her lively and appreciative eyes.
Repurposing art

So, this is the power of creativity and of art: to dream and discover the potential in jettisoned castaways, and with observant eyes and talented hands render a new beauty and purpose once more. Recycling redefined.