LAPHAM GALLERY Hours Mon.-Sat. 10 am-3 pm	PASSAGES featuring Pam Barker, Ellen Haffar, Mary Burk Smith, Beverly Saunders Stop by and Enjoy the Artwork Opening Reception:  free and open to the public, light refreshment Third Thursday Reception:  Thursday, August 16, 5-8 pm Special discount the evening of the opening for art purchased from the Passages exhibition. 5% non-members/15% LARAC members (Non-members may join at the time of purchase)
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	Pamela Barker Riparius, NY Shame Local artist and art educator Pamela Barker’s powerful and emotive grouping of ceramic figures and mixed-media assemblage was designed to help victims of domestic violence discover their own inner strength in recovery from the devastating effects of abuse. The artist’s intention was to create an awareness of the emotional pain of the victims but also to allow victims to feel empowered to change their lives or living situations.  The series runs through the typical steps that domestic abuse victims experience, from innocence of what the perpetrator is truly like, through grief, deception, confrontation, shame, and ultimately victory over the physical and emotional trap that abuse creates.   Ellen Haffar Manlius, NY Haystack Aesthetic events and places in nature are the prevailing themes in Ellen Haffar’s oil paintings.   Most of her landscapes capture Adirondack landscapes through the seasons.   She uses a simply hued palette of colors in a loose style; her paintings impart a sense of the unique qualities of a place in nature.  Ellen resides near Syracuse, NY and has exhibited and sold her work widely throughout New York State.   Beverly Saunders Hoosick Falls Apple Beverly Saunders’ pastel paintings are a constant study in color and texture within the medium. By capturing time and space in landscapes and still life, the artist seeks to create a quality of peace and serenity. Her landscape images are inspired by photographs of places that are special to her. She is inspired to create still-lifes by the opportunity for spiritual renewal and peaceful quietness they afford her. Her strokes are generally loose and painterly and colors gentle. Beverly lives in Hoosick Falls, where she owns and operates her own gallery and frameshop.   Mary Burk Smith Wallingford, CT Shoemakers' Dance Connecticut native Mary Burk Smith’s collage work and box constructions containing grouped found objects were created to show the tension between the dynamic passage of time and the artistic attempt to freeze moments in time.  They involve fragments of time, captured not in linear but in kaleidoscopic fashion, incorporating objects given to the artist over the years by people close to her.  Her pieces have a nostalgic feel, both through the use of older objects and through the combinations of color she uses.