Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

'In the Trees'

At first glance, Missy Dunaway’s paintings of feathers appear to be scientific field guides. Each plume in the composition is different: one long, curving and seemingly plucked from a pheasant’s tail, another small and downy, another shiny and strikingly blue. But the Maryland-based artist organizes the feathers not scientifically but according to personal associations and literary references. In her artist statement she writes, “Scrutinous attention to detail not only reveals the process of painting a feather, but also the process of falling in love with the character of each.” Dunaway’s work is part of a forest-themed group show called “In the Trees,” at Middlebury’s Edgewater Gallery through May 9. Pictured: “Pictorial Encyclopedia of Shakespearean Birds.”