We invited artists to submit work for our June Fisher Gallery exhibition, "The Life of a Garden", celebrating the richness and diversity of garden life - from plants, vegetables, and fruits to birds, insects, and other pollinators. The Life of a Garden explores the beauty, complexity, and quiet interactions within these living ecosystems, offering a closer look at the natural rhythms that sustain them.

On view at the Fisher Gallery through June 26

Cathy Doocy creates from visual memory, allowing random images to materialize on paper or canvas. Through a few marks, brushstrokes, or stains of color, she evokes fields, clouds, shifting skies, and fleeting moments in nature. Her work reflects a fascination with the transformative power of simple gestures—a line becoming a tree, a wash of blue turning into sky, or a single brushstroke suggesting wind. Vast landscapes unfold within intimate surfaces, inviting viewers to imagine the imagery extending beyond the edges of the canvas or frame. For Doocy, less can often become more.

Painting and drawing have remained central to her life, even as other pursuits and professions occupied her attention over the years. She has maintained studio spaces in a variety of historic industrial settings, including the Fuller Brush Factory, the Colt Factory, and the Mill in Tariffville. Today, she works from a studio located in the old railroad station in Windsor, Connecticut. Her early training focused on figurative drawing and painting at the University of New Hampshire and Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven. While completing her master’s degree at Wesleyan University, she began exploring night landscapes painted from memory—an approach that became foundational to her practice. Since then, she has exhibited her contemporary landscapes throughout New England.

Travel has also played an important role in Doocy’s artistic life, including a month studying in Normandy, a residency at Weir Farm National Historical Park, and a six-week residency in Bulgaria. Yet the imagery in her work remains deeply rooted in the fields and hills of New England. Raised in South Windsor, she has lived in Windsor for nearly four decades with her husband, Chuck Drake.

We invite artists to submit work for On the Road, an exhibition celebrating travel, discovery, and a sense of place. From scenic landscapes and roadside views to the people, architecture, and cultures encountered along the journey, this exhibition explores the experiences that shape our understanding of the world.

We encourage diverse creative responses that capture the character and atmosphere of destinations near or far. All media are welcome, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, printmaking, ceramics, fiber art, and mixed media.

Sumbission Form

Submission Deadline: September 2, 2026