Capturing a Life on Canvas

Author: Crystalyn Radcliffe

A reception was held from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. last Monday in the Johnson Memorial Building Gallery to mark the opening of the art show entitled, "Mary Smyth Duffy: Retrospective," honoring the artistic work of former Middlebury employee, Mary Duffy.
If there is one word to describe my immediate impression upon walking into Duffy's art exhibit it would have to be simply this: colorful.
Oil on canvas paintings beginning in her graduate school years and continuing into 2002 with her most prolific year occurring in 2001, filled the walls of the Johnson gallery with brilliant peonies, sunflowers, elm trees and rhubarb leaves.
Duffy's later pieces focus on pastoral landscapes, and her Impressionist influences were highly visible in the works selected for the exhibit.
Touchingly personal, some of her paintings, including a beautiful rendering of the porch at her house in Orwell, Vt., sparked light conversations about trumpet vines and house repairs among gathered friends and family, namely the artist's husband, Middlebury English professor, David Bain.
During my visit at the gallery there was a general sense of friendship, appreciation and community support, which added to the positive feelings of celebration of the life and art on display.
Duffy received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson in 1974 and went on to work in book publishing in New York for several years, meeting her future husband, Lecturer in English David H. Bain in June 1981.
Leaving New York City for Shoreham, Vt., in 1987, Duffy worked for a Middlebury law-firm for several years and then for the Addison County Counseling Service until funding cutbacks found her in the position of administrator with the College's Political Science Department.
In 1988, she and her husband had a daughter, Mimi, and in 1992, their son, David, was born. The handprints and footprints of her daughter are visible in some of her paintings.
She became the coordinator of Chellis House in 1997, a job she reportedly loved despite the sometimes long hours.
Opting for an early retirement, Duffy spent the time between September 2000 and June 2002 devoted to her art.
She returned to landscapes, finding inspiration in the hayfields off North Orwell Road, overlooking Plunder Bay on the Lake Champlain shore and her own backyard gardens and porch.
When open-heart surgery led to complications in the summer of 2002, her family brought in some of her smaller paintings to hang in her hospital room.
Duffy passed away on Sept. 17, 2002, aged 46, from a valve thrombosis.
On one wall of the gallery letters to and about Duffy were posted for general viewing. Poems and stories involving the artist were dedicated to her memory.
Duffy's involvement with the Vagina Monologues during her time at Middlebury was referenced fondly by several recent Middlebury alumni. Regan '01.5, recounted a road trip headed by Duffy as part of the experience of participating in the Vagina Monologues.
Regan wrote, "The essence of a road trip embodies Mary's spirit. She approached life as a series of adventures..." Another Middlebury graduate described Duffy as, "...quite literally, the thread of the first Middlebury production of the Vagina Monologues."
Other letters went on to express Duffy's all-encompassing artistic eye, her ability as a listener, her "exotic beauty" and her charismatic, feminist, passionate personality. Virginia Bates, wife of Philosophy Professor Stanley Bates, wrote about Duffy's exceptional eye for color in every day things such as clothing and wall hangings.
She eloquently summarized her impression of the woman and the artist by stating, "Mary Duffy was, simply put, magical."
That magic lives on in the brilliantly bold canvases featured in Johnson as well as in the hearts and memories of the many people she touched throughout her lifetime.
The gallery is open between the hours of 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. through this Saturday, Feb. 22 and is sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Program, Ross Commons and the Pan-African Latin American Native American Center.