Visual Art Alumnx Artist-Talk

The VCFA MFA in Visual Art program continues its Alumnx Artist-Talk Series—conversations with alumnx about their work and centered on a specific theme, idea, or element of artistic practice.

For our summer event on Friday, August 13, alumnx panelists Renée Bouchard (’21), Michelle Hagewood (’09), and Zach Stephens (’18) discuss the artist as parent, on how being a parent informs oneself as an artist, as well as thinking about collaboration with, and representation of, children in their parent’s artwork. This event is free and open to the public. RSVP to receive Zoom details the day of the talk.

Renée Bouchard

Renée Bouchard is a painter and mother living in Vermont. She attended the Phoebe Flory Watercolor School, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and graduated from the Maine College of Art in 1999. In January 2021, she finished her MFA at VCFA. Also in 2021, her essay “Artist/Mother/Quarantine” was published in Isele Magazine and she was nominated for the Dedalus Foundation Fellowship. Her recent collaborative painting with her eight year old was featured in Art New England’s review of an exhibition titled Unmasked: Artful Responses to the Pandemic. This painting was part of a series of paintings where her young child traced her body. They’ve also exhibited paintings at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York, the Vermont State House, and Southern Vermont College when she was teaching there as a visiting artist. Other honors include the Power of Art Award by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Vermont Arts Council Individual Artist Grant. In 2014, Bouchard named Maine College of Art’s Scholarship Fund the beneficiary of $10,000 as an Emerging Artist, raised by Down East magazine along with other artists, including Angela Adams, Eric Hopkins, Alex Katz, and William Wegman. Her recent exhibits include #mydearmaine at the University of Maine at Danforth Gallery and Reimaging Family at the Cordial Eye Gallery in Hyannis, MA. Her solo exhibits were held at the Bennington Museum, McDaris Fine Art in Hudson, NY, and The Interchurch Center in New York. In addition, her work was in group exhibits at Big Town Gallery in Rochester, VT, MCLA’s Gallery 51 in North Adams, MA, Storefront Artists Projects in Pittsfield, MA, UMass Amherst, and at the Maine Center for Contemporary Art. Renée has been an artist-in-residence at the Cooper Union, the Kate Millett Art Colony for Women, and the Vermont Studio Center. She is involved in the Jessica Park Project, and spent three years on the teacher’s advisory committee at Kidspace at MASS MoCA. Bouchard’s work was reviewed in Folk Art Messenger’s article “Inside the Outside: Reconsidering Our Views About Art” by Tony Gengarelly, PhD. She has lectured on her art practice at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Union College, the University of Southern Maine, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art, the Bennington Museum, the Learning Disabilities Association of America, and in Big Town Gallery’s conversation exploring questions of life, work, family and creativity in conjunction with the exhibition Seven Women Artists. She is a single mother who intersects daily life with her studio practice.  She works in spurts on several paintings simultaneously in a journalistic manner, documenting clusters of language, media, and collaboration with memory and the present act of painting. Photo courtesy of R. Bouchard

Michelle Hagewood

I create imaginative worlds and explorations of human, mineral, animal, and plant forms of architecture. I was born in Nashville, TN, and have called many places home including Baltimore, New York, and Seattle. I completed my BFA at Maryland Institute College of Art and MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts and have participated in residencies, exhibitions, and artist collectives across the country. I juggle being an artist, parent, and arts worker in Port Townsend, WA. I work in whatever obsessive or fluid medium feels right for the project. This has included painting, drawing, installation, animation, and digital media. My work is informed by children’s literature, magical surrealism writings and films, animation, and studies in the built environment. Drawing is present in everything I do, and for me it is a way to think through intangible landscapes, memories, and realms beyond language. I write about my work and share videos and deep dives into my process on Patreon. I invite you to join this community and have access to digital downloads, prints, and my brain. My patrons help support the costs of a studio practice and enrich the work with their feedback and love. Photo courtesy of M. Hagewood

Zach Stephens

Zachary P. Stephens (b. Brattleboro, VT, 1983) is a visual artist and educator specializing in photographic processes. He received his MFA in Visual Art from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and a certificate in professional photography from the Hallmark Institute of Photography. Before dedicating his life to art and arts education, he was a professional photojournalist with work appearing in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, USA Today, The Burlington Free Press, Vermont Life Magazine, The Brattleboro Reformer, and many more. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with the Photographic Exploration Project in Berlin, Germany, Gabba Gallery in Los Angeles, CA, Candela Gallery in Richmond, VA, Woody Gaddis Photographic Arts Gallery in Oklahoma, Kayafas Gallery in Boston, MA, Dianich Gallery in Brattleboro, VT, and the Snyder Gallery in Marlboro, VT. Stephens was also recently named a finalist in Photolucida’s 2020 Critical Mass and awarded the A.R.T. Fellowship from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. Currently, he is an adjunct professor of photography at Springfield College and Franklin Pierce University. Additionally, he has taught at Keene State College, Landmark College, the Community College of Vermont, The Putney School, and the In-Sight Photography Project. He is an active member of the Society for Photographic Education. Photo courtesy of Z. Stephens