Natania Hume, who teaches art at The Williston Northampton School, is one of seven artists who were invited to create a piece of work for the exhibit In-Dialogue: Poetry of Place at Gallery A3, 28 Amity Street in Amherst. The show runs July 7-30, with an opening reception on July 7, 5:00-8:00 p.m., and a poetry reading on July 21, 7:30-9:00 p.m. The exhibit includes paintings, photographs, drawings, and sculptures that were either created simultaneously or selected to create thought-provoking combinations.

Painting by Natania Hume

The show is a collaboration between members of the art gallery and guest artists who were encouraged to engage in a visual dialogue inspired by poetry. Natania, who is a potter and a painter, was invited by her father, painter Larry Smith. “We both work with still lifes as a subject for our oil paintings, but our styles are different,” says Natania. “We arranged new still lifes with the other person’s style in mind, but did not try to imitate each other’s style.”           

Tim Trelease, currently an artist-in-residence at Deerfield Academy, curated the show. He told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that the theme Poetry of Place was interpreted differently by each pair of artists, resulting in various forms of dialog. A secondary theme, that of lifelong relationship, arose through the invitation process, since many of the artists chose family members as their collaborators. Showing together are a mother and son, a father and daughter, an adult son and his deceased father, a grandmother and grandchild, and a husband and wife.

The poetry reading on July 21 will feature Gita Trelease reading about India, Sue Katz reading about motherhood, and Michael Mauri reading about current economic events and his work as a forester. Tim says the show promises “many poetic interpretations, visual and verbal, of places near and far.”