Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Sandra Heller Bissex

As a child growing up in New Jersey, Sandra Heller Bissex began thinking about color and light because her father always pointed out the subtleties of the natural world to her. As an adult, and after moving with her two sons to central Vermont in 1968, she began studying calligraphy and got a job as calligrapher for the state’s department of education. Eventually, Bissex took the leap to making her own art, incorporating photography and sumi brushwork into collages that focus on the very thing her dad once observed: the interplay of dark and light. You’ll find her most recent work at an unlikely Montpelier venue through December 31: the Shifting Gears Gallery at Auto Craftsmen. Pictured: “Sumi Abstraction.”