'Sameness and difference'

”Reconfiguration #2’’ (acrylic on canvas), by Rupert, Vt.-based artist Jane Davies, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.

She says on her Web site:

“No matter what format or style my work takes, the pivot point of my visual explorations is sameness and difference. I like assembling a collection of visual elements that are markedly different from each other, like putting together a dinner party of people that have wildly different backgrounds and interests, to see what happens. I want to be surprised by the conversations or juxtapositions of my visual cast of characters, and then see how I can relate them to one another formally.’’

Faith and sex in New England

The Congregational Church of Middlebury, Vt.

— Photo by Kenneth C. Zirkel

— Photo by Ms Sarah Welch

“In New England, especially, [faith] is like sex. It's very personal. You don't bring it out and talk about it. “

— Carl Frederick Buechner (born 1926), American writer and Presbyterian minister. He lives in Vermont. He describes his area:

“Our house is on the eastern slope of Rupert Mountain, just off a country road, still unpaved then, and five miles from the nearest town ... Even at the most unpromising times of year – in mudtime, on bleak, snowless winter days – it is in so many unexpected ways beautiful that even after all this time I have never quite gotten used to it. I have seen other places equally beautiful in my time, but never, anywhere, have I seen one more so.’’

In Rupert, Vt.

Too foliage-oriented?

“Nope, Not This” (acrylic on canvas), by Rupert, Vt.-based Jane Davies, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.

Countryside in eastern Rupert.

Rupert is the filming location for the syndicated PBS cooking show Cook's Country. The white country house, known as Carver House, has been used as the show’s set. Christopher Kimball, former executive producer and host of Cook's Country, has a house nearby.