Flow-Motion in SoRo
Liquid's Calming Properties Enchant at Vermont Law & Graduate School
July 2024
South Royalton, VT — Photographer and artist Michael Sacca of Tunbridge, VT has installed a soothing and enchanting show of his perpetually timeless motion and emotion-infused photography pulled from the liquid world in the Dean Shirley A. Jefferson Gallery at Vermont Law and Graduate School. This show is free and open to the public between the hours of 8:30 am and 5:00 pm in the gallery situated just off the school’s Cornell Library quad. The artist’s statement follows:
I have been around the ocean since I was very young, mainly in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts. When I was 10 years old, I began surfing and it is an interest that I still enjoy. Over the years a “wave sense” has emerged that continues to entertain and fascinate me.
This group of images descend[s] from a body of work photographing water in motion which began in the 1970’s. Drawn to low light image making, motion, and the chance movements of water captured at various shutter speeds, cameras allow me to step out of a self-centered time frame and into other time frames to witness and capture random natural events, depending on how and where the camera moved with the wave motion.
While making forays into varied ecosystems, I am always on the watch for moments in the natural world that allow interpretation of time and space through the use of a camera. I draw inspiration from the apparent random and chaotic aspects found in nature, especially where pattern, color and form create tension.
Most of this body of work was made from Spring 2017 through Spring 2024 in Gloucester Massachusetts. Other locations include on Cape Cod and Molokai, Hawaii.
For those not able to see this show in person — especially the growing number of Online Hybrid JD students now enrolled at VLGS — a sampling of several of Sacca’s photographs is below.
If you’re reading this and have an interest in exploring an online JD degree program or any of the many VLGS master’s degree programs such as Energy Regulation and Law, Climate & Environmental Policy, Food & Agricultural Law & Policy, Restorative Justice, Animal Protection Policy, Master’s in Public Policy, and others, please reach out to admiss@vermontlaw.edu. Wherever art thrives, so can you! And VLGS is where nearly 9,000 lawyers and policy experts got their start to help change our world for the better. It’s not your run-of-the-mill law school. This one-and-only law and graduate school in rural Vermont is where changemakers are nurtured and propelled to success by people who care. (Photo gallery below. All images of photographs by Michael Sacca were taken by the author with permission.)
Please do stop by, and let me know how you like the show. It’s an aqueous journey that, despite the overabundance of water in Vermont these days, is a relaxing interlude from a busy life. Take a moment to enjoy this refreshingly cool and airy art space on a hot summer day, or any day of the year. Located on the Vermont Law and Graduate School campus in South Royalton, VT. Worth a visit from just about anywhere, this show runs through September 15, 2024.
Dave Celone is vice president for alumni relations and development at Vermont Law and Graduate School. He writes from Sharon, Vermont.