Elise Whittemore, BCA’s 2017 Barbara Smail award-winner, has made important contributions to the vibrancy and excellence of Vermont’s arts community as an artist and arts advocate. In her beautifully designed prints, Whittemore is drawn to the physical labor of art making and how it challenges her to pursue different ways hand and material can create meaning together. The artist’s use of pattern develops a narrative that explores the physicality of printmaking as well as formal constructs that are inherent to the natural world.