Visual arts and poetry will play an important part at the Fiddlehead Festival on Saturday, May 5. Area artist and festival planner, Bonny Willett will be gathering children of all ages together to craft a labyrinth from painted stones. Willett will also help in the creation of sculpture from recycled materials. These works will be displayed at the festival in honor of Green-up Day. In addition, murals about farming and our food will be painted.

Artists, with a familiarity of their media, are invited to participate in a landscape painting workshop with Ludmila Gayvoronsky from 2-4:30 p.m. A native of Odessa, Russia, Gayvoronsky studied classical oil painting in Moscow before coming to the U.S. in 1980. She teaches on the faculty at Lebanon College in New Hampshire, and is known for her dynamic instruction and personal work.

Of her painting, Gayvoronsky says, "I never worried about what style I am painting, whether it's expressionism, abstraction, or realism. When you have the option of going from one extreme to the next, then you can consider yourself a master. I like to fuse the abstract and real connected by one feeling or imagery into one painting. My persistent goal is to say more with less."

Artists are encouraged to bring their own materials to this free outdoor session, which will be held on the VTC Green. Gayvoronsky will be working in oil, however, others are invited to paint or draw in any media familiar to them. Those not painting are encouraged to stop by, listen in, and see what issues are considered in the creation of a "plein air" landscape.

If words are more your strength than the language of color and form, there is a poetry dialogue on "The Working Landscape" with Eileen R. Growald gathering in Old Dorm Lounge from 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Growald is a poet, writer and venture philanthropist. She and her husband, Paul, have raised their two college-aged sons on a farm in Shelburne. They grow most of their own vegetables, plus chickens, and have three Morgan horses, which they ride and drive. When their sons were eight and 10, they spent half a year doing an experiment in simple living, framed in the 1840's. Today they are actively working to reduce their carbon footprint by half over the next two years. Growald is writing a book about living simply and taking pauses in life. She has founded five non-profits at the forefront of their fields, including mind/body interactions, social and emotional learning, roadscape and farmland conservation and collaborative philanthropy.

Joining Growald, in dialogue with all present, will be area farmer and poet/writer Stuart Osha. Together, with the convened group, they will explore ways poetry can truthfully embrace and communicate our relationship with the land we live in, and related issues.

These events are open to the public free of charge, as part of this year's Fiddlehead Festival, Saturday, May 5. See next week's Herald for the Fiddlehead Festival Guide with a complete listing of all the free fun in store to celebrate area farms, the arts, and our new growing season.