Alexandra Bottinelli

For 35 years I have been making art from cut outs and found objects, integrating them with natural materials such as oil paint, beeswax, and encaustics. The themes that motivate are memory, iconic events, and the natural world, along with the everyday mystery of being human.

Wall-mount at solo show at The Front in Montpelier, March, 2024

art is process

beeswax and encaustic in 3- & 2- dimensions

Influences:

My mother’s family are multi-generational Vermonters who farmed and worked in the clothing industry.

My father’s parents immigrated here from Italy through Ellis Island, and went directly to Hurricane Island, Maine where they lived and worked in the granite quarries.

I was born during WWII in 1942.

Except if sick, I played outdoors every day of my childhood in Connecticut; all the kids in our rural neighborhood “lived” in the woods and on, in or around the saltwater river.

Catholic grammar school, Catholic High School, and one year of a Jesuit college was my early education, forever imprinting on me the images of saints, burning incense, and Latin chants.

I lived close to New York City. Had an older brother who loved jazz and a beloved sister who lived in Italy.  Knew a granite worker who made modern sculptures. Loved the music of Joan Baez and Dylan.

With the campaign for nuclear disarmament, freedom rides, and pro Castro demonstrations I became an activist.

In the 80s, I returned to college and felt at home in the art department.

The adventurous life of being with my very large family.

All the artists, known and unknown, who have gone before me.

In making art I do what I did as a child – get out doors, collect things, cut up magazines, visit museums, spend a lot of time alone, and live in community.

Art principles I stand by: drawing upon iconic memories, not always needing to know what I am doing, finding enough of nothingness in the work, ceating serenity amidst chaos.

Shows 2024 - 1997

The Front, Montpelier, Vermont (artist owned cooperative gallery)

Solo show March 2024 / member shows bimonthly

Vermont Open Studio, Spring, Memorial Day weekend (yearly)

Caspian Arts, Studio Tour in July & summer show at Greensboro Grange (yearly)

  Sheltering in Place Project, Summer 2020, Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, Vermont

ReVision, Kent Museum, invitational, Calais, Vermont, September 2019

Studio Place Arts (juried /invitational shows), Barre, Vermont

What's Cooking 2024

Beacon of Light 2023, Now You See It 2022, Strictly Sedimentary, Scorched, 

Black & White, Encaustics, Small Point Artists, 30 Year Conversation on Art

Sterling College, New Work 2017, Craftsbury Common, Vermont

Poetry City, Collaboration PULSE, Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, Vermont

Chandler Center for the Artis, Randolph, Vermont

Changing Seasons – Innovations After 70, 2021

Art of Place 2014

70+ Gereotrancendence, 2019, Rutland Gallery Space, Rutland, Vermont

Christine Price Gallery, 2nd Tuesday -- New Work, Castleton State College, Vermont

Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, Vermont

   New Work, show w/Kathy Stark

   Life & Death

T. W. Wood Art Gallery, Four Today (with Tari Swenson, Beth Pearson, Deborah

   Hillman), Montpelier, Vermont

Sullivan Museum, Inspired by Stories, Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont

    (Summer 2009)

Artpath Gallery, Four Score (w/Harriet Wood, Susan Russell, Ann Young),

  Burlington, Vermont (Summer/2006)

Barre Opera House Gallery (w/ Philip Robertson), Barre, Vermont (Winter/2006)

Lazy Pear Gallery, Adding Dimension (Spring/2008). Montpelier, Vermont

AVA Gallery, Second Tuesday, Lebanon, New Hampshire (Spring/2008)

Tamarack Gallery, East Craftsbury, Vermont

Elan Gallery, Jewels, Rockland, Maine

Leighton Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine

Doll-Anstadt Gallery, Burlington, Vermont

    Early Memory as Icon (11/1999)

    Ruins: History Without Dates (2/1998)

    New Works (Fall/2001)

New O’Farrell Gallery, Small Point Artists, Brunswick & Eastland Gallery, Portland,

   Maine (Fall/2002)

Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, In Depth: 7 Vermont Artists, Johnson, Vermont

EDUCATION & RESIDENCIES

Connecticut College, BA, New London, Connecticut

Vermont Studio Center “Vermont” Residencies, Johnson, Vermont 

Morse Mountain, Small Point Residencies, Maine (1997-2024)