Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Eric Nelson

Repetition, variation and layering are key to the Middlebury artist's dual exhibition, "365: An Idea and the Reality" and "Three Years Passing," showing through November 7 at the Jackson Gallery at Town Hall Theater. For “365,” Nelson created a 2-by-2-by-4-inch mahogany sculpture each day for a year. Some are abstract, others look like slightly humanized household objects, like a voluptuous pair of scissors. Still more are miniature hybrid animals. "Three Years Passing" is composed of photographed patterns the artist observed in the manmade and natural world, zeroing in on repeated units and their variations. Shown here: a detail from “365.”