LIBRARY EVENTS: May 2008

Literary Liasons

Saturday May 17, 2008

6:00 – 7:30 pm: Gala reception to meet the authors
8:00 pm: Dinners honoring each author in private homes. All host houses designed by Alfredo Taylor

Reception and Dinner: $150 per person
Reception Only: $25 per person

Please call for details (860) 542-5075.

THE AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS:

Away Amy Bloom	Scottsboro Ellen Feldman	Fire in the Lake Frances Fitzgerald
Frankie's Place: A Love Story James Sterba	Bones of the Barbary Coast Daniel Hecht	Timothy: Or, Notes of an Abject Reptile Verlyn Klinkenborg
The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq George Packer	Emperors of Rome David Potter	Black and White Dani Shapiro
Chasing America: Notes of a Rock ‘n Soul Outlaw Dennis Watlington

Watch! Read! Learn!

Scholastic BookFlix

Scholastic BookFlix is a new online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning. The engaging way to link fact and fiction, BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.

To use Scholastic BookFlixlick, locate your 14 digit library card number on the backside of the card and click here to begin: Scholastic BooFlix

May Calendar

Please call the library (860-542-5075) for additional information or to make reservations for programs.

Susan Dorazio

May Exhibit

During the month of May, the Norfolk Library will exhibit the works of artist Susan Dorazio. Nationally renowned, Dorazio, is a master of capturing light, spirit and mood. She is equally accomplished in the use of oils, watercolour or pen and ink. Her horses cavort along the beach, thunder towards the finish line or prance with anticipation of the steeplechase amidst energetic hounds that circle the riders in landscapes that beckon the observer to jump in. Dorazio’s light shimmers and dapples, her shadows are darkly palpable; her subjects are immediate and present, deftly caught in the spirit of the moment. An uncanny spark of life flickers from the paintings and Dorazio herself admits it is "an intangible, spiritual thing" that she cannot explain, except by saying that "it is part of what comes out when I am using all my senses to observe- touching, seeing, talking. I grasp a moment in time. This is my calling, something that is God given." And one gets the feeling that Susan is a horse whisperer who compels her horses to whisper back from her canvases.

Many of Susan’s paintings have been featured on covers of national publications such as The Chronicle of the Horse, Equine Journal and Arabian Horse World. Her work hangs in galleries around the country and in numerous museums including the International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington and the Wildlife Experience Museum in Parker, Colorado. An elected member of the American Academy of Equine Art, Dorazio shares her expertise by teaching watercolor workshops for the Academy, and through painting classes at her Colebrook, Connecticut studio. With many local and national awards to her credit, including numerous "best in shows," she has gained national recognition for the quality of her work.

When working on commissioned portraits, Dorazio feels it is important to visit animals in their own setting. "My inspiration lies in recreating the whole feeling of a scene – both subject and environment are equally important. My goal is to express the subject’s inherent emotion and to engage the viewer’s senses." Beautiful landscapes are an integral part of Susan’s paintings. She is fascinated with atmosphere, weather, scenery and light - everything from misty mornings to bright sun with deep shadows.

In addition to animal portraiture and sporting art, Dorazio does 18 and 19 century oil painting reproductions, editorial illustration, and Rail Talk, a monthly, nationally recognized cartoon. Whatever her subject, the spirit of the moment shines through her art. The opening reception for the artist is Sunday, May 4, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. Susan may be reached at her studio 860 379-5557 or through her website: www.susandorazio.com

The Queen of Fats by Susan Allport

Lecture/Booksigning

On Saturday, May 10, at 5:30, the Library welcomes author/lecturer, Susan Allport. The Queen of Fats by Susan Allport (University of California Press, 2006) has been called “the silent spring” of nutrition books. Weaving together the stories of scientists in Europe, Greenland, Africa, Australia and the United States, the book gives a very human face to one of the most important dietary stories of all time: how populations in Western countries like the United States came to be deficient in an essential nutrient, the fats popularly known as the omega-3s. It makes clear the enormous health consequences of this dietary oversight (not just heart disease but also cancer, diabetes, and obesity) and dramatically portrays how scientists have learned that the two families of polyunsaturated fats, omega-3s and omega-6s, one derived from the green leaves of plants and the other from seeds and both of which are essential to human health, compete for positions in cells but affect cells in very different ways. From the beating of a hummingbird’s wings to the humming of a human brain, omega-3s have been selected for life’s speediest tasks. We run into trouble when we ask a different fat – the omega-6s that crowd our foods and our tissues -- to do their job. The book suggests ways for reintroducing omega-3s and makes compelling, even juicy, reading out of fatty acids and double bonds.

Allport’s talk and slide show presentation on The Queen of Fats conveys the gist of her book and leaves listeners with the important new understanding, essential for making sense of all the conflicting information about fats, that the two families of essential fats, omega-3s and omega-6s, are markers of the changing seasons. Once incorporated into animals’ cell membranes, they enable animals to prepare for future, for periods of activity and reproduction when the fats of leaves are abundant and periods of hunkering down and survival when the fats of seeds are more plentiful.

Art Lecture by Susan Galassi

Whistler in Venice

On Saturday, May 24, at 5:00 pm, curator Susan Galassi will give an art lecture entitled "Whistler in Venice." Whistler won his famous libel suit against John Ruskin but was awarded only a farthing, and the legal costs left him bankrupt. With a small commission from the Fine Arts Society, he left for Venice in the fall of 1879 to carry out a set of 12 etchings and restore his reputation. He returned a year later with fifty remarkable etchings and 100 pastels of his own "Venice in Venice," having endured poverty and the coldest winter on record. His 1880 London exhibition of the 12 etchings -considered masterpieces of graphic art- won him acclaim and helped to turn his situation around. The set in The Frick Collection as well as some of his Venetian pastels and four full length portraits -all acquired by Henry Clay Frick in the early years of the century- are the focus of this talk.

According to an archived Frick press release, Ms. Galassi has organized an impressive program of focused scholarly presentations and coordinated many of the Collection’s traveling loan exhibitions. She also founded the museum’s Education Program, which engages young audiences in the pleasure of looking at art while sharpening their observational and analytical skills. Ms. Galassi received her Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and holds an M.A. from Wellesley College and a B.A. from Finch College. Her book, Picasso’s Variations on the Masters: Confrontations with the Past, derived from her dissertation, was published by Abrams in 1996. She has contributed to numerous other publications and exhibition catalogues on Picasso in the U.S. and in Spain, as well as to a variety of publications on The Frick Collection for scholarly and general audiences. She also has intitiated the "Artists, Poets, and Writers" series of lectures, which brings to The Frick Collection well-known practitioners to reflect on its masterpieces or aspects of its history.

Please call for reservations at 860 542-5075.