Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

The Art of Words With a Poet Turned Painter

The Art of Words With a Poet Turned Painter
BELU by Sally Van Doren Photo courtesy the artist

Sally Van Doren is the Walt Whitman Award-winning author of three volumes of poetry whose carefully chosen words tempt readers toward interpretations, but as an emerging painter, her work is purposefully inscrutable.

“All of my work relates to asemic drawings, that’s the source I draw from,” Van Doren said during a phone interview from her home in Cornwall, Conn.

Free from linguistic context, asemic writing is an avant-garde expression of movement and writing without communication. This illegible form of calligraphy invites us to rethink the relationship between writing and drawing and has been used by artists like Mirtha Dermisache, Brion Gysin, and perhaps most famously by American painter Cy Twombly. Asemic writing in art has often been about capturing the frenetic movement of the pen in hand, leaving the viewer with motion, but not meaning.

For nearly 20 years Van Doren has started her day with this meditation on paper. “I do it every morning, so I now have thousands of pages of this asemic writing. I have always written in journals, but at a certain point I no longer cared if I could read them, and as my handwriting became increasingly sloppy, I began to like that my writing was illegible. Eventually, what I realized is that I was not writing, I was drawing.”

Well-known in the area as a poet, in 2017 Van Doren unveiled her visual work to her New England community at a gallery show held at The Cornwall Library. “That show was the first time I liberated this asemic drawing from the pages of my notebook and put it out into the world. I was nervous about it then, a few years later now I’m much more comfortable and confident in this artistic exploration.”

Since the library showcase, Van Doren’s work has been seen at Cornwall’s annual Rose Algrant art exhibition and at the Longview Farm House Art Gallery in St. Louis, Mo. She enrolled in an undergraduate art program at Hunter College in New York City and now has a dedicated art studio in West Cornwall.

“Having a studio space  has had a big impact on both the work I have been making and my increased visibility as an artist. It has enabled me to have studio visits with artists, collectors, curators, and sometimes lost tourists. I’ve done commissions for private collectors and just finished a large public print commission.”

New works by Van Doren will be unveiled at her upcoming solo show at Furnace - Art on Paper Archive in Falls Village, Conn. Curated by gallerist Kathleen Kucka, paintings in “Tangled Language” combine Van Doren’s signature scrawling with blocky, stenciled letters reminiscent of Cecil Touchon, floating out of order as shapes to be seen, but not read.

“My art is a liberation from the poet’s pressure of being specific with the use of words. In my painting I look for a freedom I don’t have in poetry.”

 

"Tangled Language" opens on Feb. 11 at Furnace - Art on Paper Archive in Falls Village, Conn. Van Doren will also read from her upcoming collection " Sibilance," and will be joined by Cornwall, Conn., author Roxana Robinson reading from the 2020 edition of "Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life." For more information go to www.furnace-artonpaperarchive.com

Latest News

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notice

BOND RESOLUTION DATED JUNE 15, 2026 OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE WEBUTUCK CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT AUTHORIZING NOT TO EXCEED $429,327 AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS AND/OR INSTALLMENT PURCHASE CONTRACTS TO FINANCE THE ACQUISITION OF A SCHOOL BUSES AND VEHICLES AT AN AGGREGATE ESTIMATED MAXIMUM COST OF$429,327, LEVY OF TAX IN ANNUAL INSTALLMENTS IN PAYMENT THEREOF TAKING INTO ACCOUNT STATE-AID, THE EXPENDITURE OF SUCH SUM FOR SUCH PURPOSE, AND DETERMINING OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THERE-WITH.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tenmile Distillery is making history the old-fashioned way

Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.

D.H. Callahan

In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.

Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.

Keep ReadingShow less

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

Belinda Sinclair

Dean Chamberlain
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.

Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.

Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

Renée Fleming, Andris Nelsons and Thomas Hampson.

Hilary Scott

On Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” The piece, performed earlier this year in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, is a highlight of a program that also includes “Meditations on Grace” (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, and the melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry, as well as for her advocacy for the powerful impact of the creative arts in health. Hampson has long been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time and has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. Both performed in “Nixon in China” earlier this year at the Paris Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano.

Keep ReadingShow less
Local playwright revisits Revolutionary moment in “Rebel Town”

The cast and crew of “Rebeltown: The Musical.”

Jack Sheedy

John Alan Segalla was working in Boston a few years ago, giving historic tours at the site of the Boston Tea Party. Now, as America celebrates 250 years as a nation, the Canaan native is about to debut a new version of his original musical, “Rebel Town,” inspired largely by the Boston Tea Party, the protest that helped launch the American Revolution.

“It wasn’t until I got to Boston and learned the Tea Party story that I fell in love with this moment in history, and I saw the story as wildly compelling and very important, and really a story that was very misunderstood, mistaught in schools,” Segalla said at a recent rehearsal in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ahead of the show’s July 10 opening.

Keep ReadingShow less
An invitation to paint a community mural in Torrington

Community mural design by Macayla Muzzulin will be painted by volunteers on July 11 in Franklin Plaza in Torrington.

Provided

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, Five Points Arts in Torrington will host a community mural project celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Volunteers of every age and artistic ability are invited to help paint a 20-by-6-foot mural designed by artist Macayla Muzzulin. The mural will be completed in one day, transformed from a numbered outline into a permanent public artwork along the river in downtown Torrington.

“We firmly believe art is for everyone,” said Five Points founder and executive director, Judith McElhone. “It’s so great to be able to do this with such talent, and with Launchpad artists, volunteers and staff there to help.”

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.