We’re headed back to Vermont for our next installment of Showcasing the GIFted. In the spotlight today is Jonah Nigro, a Burlington based artist and designer. He graduated from Bennington College in 2016, but had his first freelancing animation job with Perrier when he was only a sophomore.

Nigro’s work connects the visual and visceral, and Variety included him on its 110 Students to Watch list in 2015. Since then he’s gone on to do work for clients such as MTV, CÎROC, and even tried his hand at directing a music video.

Take: Do you use a particular moniker for your GIF art?
Jonah Nigro: My moniker for this particular project is Popsicle Illusion!

via GIPHY

T: Where are you from?
JN: I grew up in the Putney/Brattleboro area of Vermont.

via GIPHY

T: What got you started making GIFs, and why GIFs rather than something else?
JN: The GIF format of continuously looping frames is very appealing to me. It allows you to take a single instance of animation and turn it into its own complete work of art. Growing up watching animations I was always blown away by the small details that are just on screen for a couple of seconds and GIFs finally allowed for those moments to be celebrated.

via GIPHY

T: What do you do when you’re not creating GIFs? (i.e. other jobs)
JN: I just finished my first directing project doing a music video for Flux Pavilion. I also do live visuals for shows when I can and dabble in software development on the side.

via GIPHY

You can follow Nigro on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr or his website.

Top image: Leg Flower Pattern. All images courtesy of the artist

The post Showcasing the GIFted: Jonah Nigro appeared first on Take Magazine.

If your idea of an exotic ice cream choice involves chunks of cookie dough embedded in vanilla, then Andrew Burke’s work will really freeze your brain. The co-owner of three Scout & Co. ice cream and coffee cafes in Burlington and Winooski, Vermont, comes up with combinations that few others would dare to marry. He pairs strawberry and lovage in one current selection. Rhubarb and star anise in another. Rocky Rose is an unorthodox twist on the classic: chocolate, marshmallow, and walnuts as expected, but also a strong dose of rose.

Those may sound strange, but they taste inspired. Sweet Potato Frozen Yogurt evokes a cold, tangy version of the same root-vegetable pie popular in the South. Cranberry, Buttermilk & Szechuan Peppercorn balances a light tartness against the rich buttermilk, with just a hint of the Chinese numbing spice that turns the dessert more zesty than peppery.

To develop ideas, Burke looks to the seasonal, local bounty of his surroundings. When strawberries start exploding, he’ll use them in abundance. An early-summer favorite is Strawberry & Hops Sorbet. For spring, his first batch of berries with lovage leaned too green, overpowering the subtle sweetness. He planned to do it again using fresh-strawberry jam to boost the fruit.

In the winter, Burke improvises with readily available currents, beets, or grapefruit. Vanilla Oak, for which he steeps oak chips in milk, is a staple. Most of the year, Scout also serves its signature Smoked Maple & Sea Salt. Burke gets all his milk and cream from the grass-fed cows of Kimball Brook Farm in North Ferrisburgh, Vermont. “When you think of ice cream, you don’t usually think of farm-to-table flavors,” Burke says.

Danielle Rochford, a ministry student and regular at Scout in the Old North End neighborhood of Burlington, reminisced on a recent afternoon about one of her favorites: Blueberry Cheddar Cheese. “I’d never had a cheddar cheese ice cream before,” she says. “I think I came back for some more the next week.”

At first, Burke had trouble blending in the cheese. When he poured it into the hot ice cream base, it turned goopy like Mornay sauce. Adding it after freezing the ice cream caused the cheese to chunk up. Ultimately, he used a blender to get it smooth.

Ice cream innovations involve as much chemistry as creativity. For herbs or vegetables, Burke juices them first, which increases the water content, requiring more cream to offset it. When he works with apples, the fruit bursts its cell walls as it freezes and loses its crunch. “That’s always one of the biggest challenges is to get the texture right with things you wouldn’t normally add to ice cream,” he says.

Burke trained at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. After kitchen stints in Portland, Oregon, he returned to his native Vermont to work for Misery Loves Company, a bastion of creative cuisine in Winooski. He and colleague Thomas Green left to launch Scout in spring 2014. They wanted a fun, lighthearted way to apply their gastronomic talents and flavor fanaticism without a full-fledged, fine-dining menu. Scout offers brewed and pour-over coffees from four small-batch roasters, including two based in Vermont; doughnuts and pastries from the similarly flavor-twisting Miss Weinerz bakery in Winooski; and Savouré sodas made in Bristol, Vermont, with funky combinations such as apricot and saffron.

Andrew Burke–co-founder
Scout & Co. ice cream
Burlington and Winooski, Vermont
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Top image, Andrew Burke scooping ice cream, photo courtesy of Andrew Burke

The post Here’s the Scoop appeared first on Take Magazine.

Puking Princesses, Soul Eaters, Madonna Whores! These strange creatures and more are among the Strange Dolls that comprise Vermont artist Beth Robinson’s unique collection. Robinson created her beloved Strange Dolls in 2003, after a close friend opened her eyes to the art of Japanese doll making via a twisted fairytale-themed exhibit. “The doll artists were creating characters, and capturing moments and expression in certain environments,” Robinson says. “But the environments were played down. I felt like it was more about the interaction between the characters. It was the first time that I had seen a childishness that was paired with the grotesque, so that really clicked in place for me in terms of where I wanted to go with my own work.”

A self-taught artist, Robinson played with several mediums before realizing doll making united all her artistic loves. “When you’re doll making, you do bring them all together because you’re sculpting, painting, sketching, designing, sewing,” she says. “That’s another way that everything clicked into place. I could explore all these different things that I loved to do and combine them into one art form that made sense.”

Robinson’s dolls are made of polymer clay, vintage fabrics, acrylic paint, and—yes—sometimes real human hair or teeth. While some might find her use of human body parts repulsive, others find it endearing in a seemingly absurd and eerie way. Robinson has a personal connection with each and every Strange Doll because she molds human-like qualities directly into their characters and expressions, she says. “My work is pretty intense, emotional, and self reflective.”

Beth Robinson, Gator Girl

So where does the inspiration for each Strange Doll come from? “It could be a conversation with a friend, or it could be something that’s going on in the world,” Robinson says. “It could be my own memories and reflections. It could be current relationship stuff that’s going on with me, or I could just be driving or doing laundry, just doing something really mundane, and then it’s almost like in the quietness of my mind that it all just comes together in my head.” Robinson’s art does not try to make a statement about a controversial political event or create the next movie monster directly. Instead she feels that, “artists are introverts so I think that we process things in a different way than most everybody else. I feel like this artwork is a way for me to process whatever that is.”

Beth Robinson, Hooks

After moving around a lot, Robinson finally settled in the Green Mountain State at the age of 18. She and her Strange Dolls live in the quaint town of Essex, Vermont, where she has built a bit of a cult following. The influence of New England on Robinson’s work is especially clear in a new exhibit at Burlington’s S.P.A.C.E. Gallery called Conjuring: She Rises. In the exhibit, Robinson and 12 other women artists will use their art to reflect on the 325th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials relative to the current political and social climate. “I really feel like, as an artist, we filter all of that external world into our artwork,” Robinson says of the dolls that will make their debut there. “It is everything around me and the way that I process it all that makes my work.”

Beth Robinson–artist
Essex, Vermont
Website
Facebook
Twitter

Top image: Persephone by Beth Robinson

The post Annabelle’s Got Nothing on These Strange Dolls appeared first on Take Magazine.

After leaving New York City in 2013 for Burlington, Vermont, cartoonist Rachel Lindsay, like so many young artists, found herself stuck behind a cash register at City Market. Ironically, this job at the local co-op would lead to more work in the world of comics and eventually empower her to scribble a unique path to a book deal.

“Weston the Vampire,” Seven Days 10/26/16, Pen and Ink, Digital coloring

Lindsay moved to Burlington to finish the graphic novel she’d been working on since 2011, though she tabled this project almost immediately after moving to town in favor of a more pertinent one—a blog called Rachel Lives Here Now. It was this comic archive of her observations of daily life in Burlington that won her notoriety, a bit of celebrity, and more opportunities to escape the register and put pen to paper.

In addition to the popularity of her blog and key coverage from the local alternative newspaper, Seven Days, Lindsay credits mentorship by other local cartoonists with helping her find success. “I was fortunate enough to befriend some of these people who are, what I consider to be, some of the best cartoonists in the world.” says Lindsay. “They really motivated me to keep going and pursue more challenging projects.”

Relatable characters and witty jokes are not the only reason Lindsay’s work resonates with readers. Her comics work because she takes full advantage of the medium. A good comic, Lindsay says, creates tension between the words and images on the page, “There’s so many comics that are completely reliant on narrative and are essentially just an anecdotal image or an image that’s just an illustration,” she says. “It has to be a partnership. My favorite jokes are visual jokes, and it’s getting harder and harder to find people who do that.”

Rachel Lives Here Now, 53, Seven Days 1/18/17, Pencil

This layered tension and added meaning exists in all of Lindsay’s work, whether she’s re-imagining stoners buying snacks at the co-op or depicting a protester reckoning with their inadequate activism. Lindsay’s Hats of City Market series is just one of many pithy yet detailed showcases of the artist’s illustrative prowess, sharp comedic sensibility, and subtle political commentary.

Lindsay’s book, to be released September 2018, will marry all these sensibilities to tell a very personal story about mental illness. At age 19, Lindsay was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and, after working in advertising to help pay for her medication, “I ended up as a closeted mental patient being promoted to the Pfizer account [to] help advertise antidepressants,” she says. “I became manic as a result of my frustration with having to work this job I hated and being behind the curtain of this machine.” Lindsay was hospitalized by her parents.

Rachel Lindsay, Rachel Lives Here Now, Seven Days 9/7/17, Pen and Ink

“The second I got hospitalized, I was like ‘I’m going to make a graphic novel about this.’ And I am. And I win,” she says. “”Don’t get me wrong, I loved working as a cashier at a grocery store, but I’m ready to have a bestseller.”

Rachel Lindsay – Cartoonist | Blogger | Graphic Novelist
Burlington, Vermont
Website
Facebook
Twitter

Photos courtesy of Rachel Lindsay

The post Cartoonist Rachel Lindsay Still Lives Here appeared first on Take Magazine.

The connection between song and literature is a long and complicated one. Look to Bob Dylan’s winning of the Nobel Prize and all the hand-wringing and chin-stroking that prompted. Many say that literature sprang from song—that rhyme, melody, and meter allowed the first bards to flesh out their material into longer forms. Cricket Blue, an acoustic folk duo from Burlington, Vermont, explore that place where literature, short stories, folk tales, mythology, poetry, and song all swirl together.

I spoke to the two—Laura Heaberlin, 27, and Taylor Smith, 26—by phone from their home recently. Heaberlin had just finished her shift working at a local bookstore. “I’ve got both feet in dying industries,” said Heaberlin with a laugh, referencing my comment about book selling and music making in the age of streaming and online sales.

Both Heaberlin and Smith studied literature in college. The literary bent of their material can be seen from the titles alone. The duo’s most recent EP is called Io, which you might remember from reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and there’s a song called “Angela Carter,” which is what Heaberlin calls a tribute to the style of the English author of novels that are like graphic feminist fairy tales at their core. Another song features a reference to Niobe, another tragic figure from Greek mythology.

The duo took shape after Heaberlin and Smith had shared some bills together as solo artists. Sometimes they’d do a couple tunes together, work on a cover, or practice an arrangement to stretch out their time on stage. “There were all these two-hour slots to fill and neither of us had that much music or stamina,” says Smith. The sessions made them realize that they liked playing and singing together more than being separate solo acts. Both Heaberlin and Smith write. They each harmonize on the other’s songs.

They do a lot of shows around the Northeast, heading out from their Burlington home base and fitting all their equipment into a Prius.

Like the myths and stories that Cricket Blue draw on for inspiration, the duo’s songs have a vaguely old familiar sound to them, but with unexpected turns and twists. It’s folk music in the sense that it is acoustic music, with stories that draw on a tradition, but it’s not the Carter Family. For one thing, Cricket Blue doesn’t seem to be especially fond of repeating choruses and refrains. Both songwriters convey the sense that they’d prefer to wedge more lyrical details into a song instead of spending valuable time going over words that have already been covered.

“I feel like if you’ve already said something, and you can potentially say something new, why say the same thing again?” asks Heaberlin, posing a question that many poetically inclined songwriters have asked themselves before.

Smith echoes the sentiment: “If left to my druthers, I’d have tons and tons of lyrics with no chorus.”

If many songwriters in their 20s find the experience of making their way in the world, navigating adulthood, relationships, work, independence, and the emotional and psychic ruffles that come with that to provide sufficient depths of feeling to mine for songwriting purposes, Heaberlin says that she tends to focus on narratives and characters outside herself for their songs.

“You can only really write so many songs about your life,” she says, “especially when nothing really changes in your life.”

Laura Heaberlin and Taylor Smith – Cricket Blue, Acoustic Duo
Burlington, VT
Website
Twitter
Facebook

Top photo by Sue Bibeau

The post Singing the Writing Life in Vermont appeared first on Take Magazine.