‘Ten Mile River’ and ‘Of Breath and Dust’ opens at the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance

The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA) invites the public to two new exhibitions in its Narrowsburg, N.Y., galleries.

“Ten Mile River” by Richard Aakre and “Of Breath and Dust” by Kaitlyn Danielson will be on view through August 1 and are free and open to the public.

‘Ten Mile River’

The local freshwater creek known as Ten Mile River has long fascinated Minnesota native Richard Aakre.

“That region of the Upper Delaware, where two rivers meet, where I have found small shells, gone fishing and spent hours observing the wildlife, is an inspiration to me,” he said

“Ten Mile River” consists of six-inch square collages incorporating objects found in nature such as shells, seeds and lichens, along with items not found naturally: postage stamps.

“Many stamps came from my uncle, who lived an exciting, intriguing life even though his official occupation was accountant,” said Aakre. “As a result of his work during World War II, and his travel, he amassed stamps from European countries. I admired the quality of the engraving and was haunted by some of the images. Since the stamps are small, the collages that contain them are small. Each collage contains one or more stamps, often repurposed by slicing, or tearing, or being painted over, but on occasion they are so beautiful, they speak for themselves.”

Aakre grew up in the northern lakes region of Minnesota. He earned an MFA from the University of Iowa and has exhibited his work at galleries in Minnesota and New York City where he lives. He has spent the last 25 summers in the Narrowsburg, N.Y., area.

To learn more about Aakre, visit richardbaakre.net.

‘Of Breath and Dust’

Narrowsburg resident Kaitlyn Danielson views photography as a lasting portrait of the ephemeral.

“In ‘Of Breath and Dust,’ I seize the moment of my fading breath and directly address the legacy of the photograph as memento mori,” she said. “Multiple breaths balance precariously on each other in sculptural forms; the notion of the photograph as a permanent object, balanced precariously on the temporal nature of the body.

“The images of this series are printed as ambrotypes, a 19th century photographic process named from the Greek ambrotos, meaning ‘immortal.’ Clung to glass through light and silver of the colloidal process, the breath becomes a nebulous glow, an organism, a cosmic landscape.”

To learn more about Danielson, visit kaitlyndanielson.com.