Dates:  June 14 – July 27, 2025

Reception: Saturday June 14, 4 – 6 PM, public invited

Gallery hours: Thursday – Saturday 11:00 – 5:30, Sunday 12:00 – 4:00 and by appointment

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is honored to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Janna Watson. Watson is a conceptual painter based in Toronto, Canada. Poems Without Words is Watson’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery who has included Watson in eight other exhibitions and placed her work in numerous private collections. The gallery has represented the artist since 2017.

Through her practice, Watson works to reframe spirituality into objects that reflect fluidity, agility, and joy. She communicates this through a queering of the painterly process, into one that is diversely applied, gestural, and multi-oriented. Janna intentionally forgoes the use of borders on her paintings to create a sense of the infinite, and the inherent vulnerability of a spirituality that is not contained by a canon.

Janna Watson’s compositions and color choices are both careful and spontaneous, each gesture evoking an unstated emotional response. The paintings are generous passages of vivid color with swooping buttery paint strokes, and calligraphic marks floating on fields of saturated color. They are not spare, but they have an implied economy of language, each gesture gathered towards the others with an unseen gravitational force coalescing into a graceful equilibrium.

Part of the exhilaration I acquire from painting is being able to see shifts within myself manifested into a physical reality. The most truthful form of expression I have found in my life thus far has been the abstract language of painting.  – Janna Watson, 2025

Janna Watson’s work is widely exhibited internationally including in Canada, the United States and Taiwan. Watson’s paintings can be found in significant collections including Google, Air Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, Toronto, CIBC, Toronto, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Toronto, HBC Global Art Collection, New York, to name a few. Watson earned a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto.

Please contact Lani Ming Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Presented by Robert Piazza

Rekindle your creative fire! Poets of all levels, from beginner to advanced, come together to read, write, and recite. During this weekend intensive, we will explore three new strategies for poetry: motion, shift, & contrast. Seeking inspiration in the poetry of Rilke, Machado, Longfellow, Dickinson, and others, we’ll view their work as springboards or launchpads into our own creativity. Join us for a weekend workshop in which we experiment with applying these strategies to our own writing. Bring pencils & notebooks. Poems will be provided. Enjoy opportunities to nurture your inner Muse! 

All meals are included: Dinner on Friday through Lunch on Saturday

The Fantasy Book Club will meet at the Morris Public Library on Friday, June 20, 6:30 PM. The group will discuss "House of Earth and Blood," Crescent City Series, Book 1.

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She'll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he's offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City's underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they'd only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom-and the power of love.

E-audio is available via Libby.

New registrations and book requests: https://morrispubliclibrary.net/library-calendar-event-registration/ or 860-567-7440.

Paint and sip located above Toothpick on Water Street in Torrington!

BYOB! Painting new types of still life's every week.

All materials included in price

RSVP online

On Friday, June 20, at 7:00 2nd Home welcomes back Tom Turci (https://tomturci.com/). Tom is a guitarist, singer and songsmith from central Connecticut whose musical roots stem from bluegrass, blues, folk, rock and country. Tom says his original music echoes sounds from the 70's and earlier. Fingerstyle guitar, downhome strumming, harmonicas singing and a voice all his own to give it life. Great music, drinks, food, and fun!

For reservations (encouraged but not required) call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Join our mailing list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/email-sign-up/

Decades Music Trivia hosted by Kelsey. Trivia starts at 7 pm.

Make Music Day is an international day of free live music. Musicians of all types, skill sets, and ages come together with venues to put on concerts all day. This day is all about bringing live music experiences to our community.

Make Music Day happens every year, June 21st. This year, the event falls on a Saturday. 2025 is the eighth year that Northwest CT is participating. Register as a venue or performer and start promoting your participation in Make Music NWCT!

Register to participate!

Learn more and see performances in the area!

Please join us at the West Cornwall Farm Market on The Wish House Lawn Saturday June 21. 10am-1pm

and meet local author Steven Gleason. Books will be available for purchase and signing ; )

The Seasons of the Flynns

In 1960s America, traditional values are giving way to new perspectives on love, politics, and women’s place in society. Against this turbulent backdrop, The Seasons of the Flynns charts the intertwined fates of Sara Michaels, a college student set on an acting career, and Bob Flynn, a young Bostonian struggling to emerge from the shadow of a domineering father.

Having married and found a home in the suburbs of New York, Sara and Bob seem settled on a conventional course in life. But they soon find their union troubled by unresolved questions about who they are and what they want for themselves. Can Bob stay committed to his young wife and his corporate law job while more exotic possibilities beckon? Will Sara have to trade her dream of a life in the theater for the role of suburban wife and helpmate? As they struggle with these quandaries, their lives are transformed in ways that reflect the changes roiling the society around them.

Steven Gleason

Local author Steven Gleason took up fiction writing after a decades-long career in international affairs. He published a novella, "Carmen's Passion," in December 2022. His first full-length novel, "The Seasons of the Flynns," appeared in March 2024.

A graduate of McGill University and NYU, Gleason lived for many years in New York City while traveling widely for business and pleasure. In retirement he returned to his native New England, where he enjoys reading, cooking and outdoor sports when not engaged in his second career of writing fiction.

Have you ever wondered how handcrafted brooms are created? Join us for this day-long hands-on class taught by Massachusetts broom maker Alan Curboy. Students will learn the basics of broom material selection and layout while using traditional tools and methods to create a hand-crafted finished product. As a group, we will discuss the various aspects of the craft and go step by step, making both a Whisk broom and Cobweb style broom.