Rebecca Doughty creates a complex and evocative world through deceptively simple imagery, touching on our fondest as well as our most painful memories through friendly, even humorous drawings and paintings that reflect the layered workings of memory and experience. In Going, Doughty's one-person show at Allston Skirt Gallery, the artist draws and paints on materials ranging from postcards to peanuts to small wooden panels, and introduces a cast of psychologically-charged animal characters, drawn in her unique style, through whom she explores the various journeys and other undertakings of modern life. Doughty's painted animals are simply going about their business: some are poised on the edge of diving boards, some have fallen off their bikes, and some stand with suitcases in hand. The characters, who remind us of storybook characters, childhood companions, or perhaps alteregos, go through an imaginative assortment of the trials and adventures that life presents; wise or innocent, funny or scary, we identify with the seriousness with which they approach their activities, knowing that life will not hold still or remain predictable for anyone. Further exploring ideas of motion -- of moving toward and fleeing from, and the desire to move forward despite obstacles or adversity -- Doughty has created a series of drawings using found travel postcards, on which she inks little images, accompanied by deadpan handwritten messages on the back. A selection of these was recently included in "The Drawing Show" at the Boston Center for the Arts, guest curated by MIT List Visual Art Center curator Bill Arning. A series of faces painted on peanuts continues Doughty’s enchantment with nature and our relationship to the world of plants and animals -- we anthropomorphize and befriend this world, yet there is something skull-like and foreboding in the little faces that smile back at us.

Doughty's work has been exhibited widely in galleries and museums including the DeCordova Musuem, the Fuller Museum, Massachusetts College of Art, Mills Gallery at Boston Center for the Arts, and the Drawing Center in New York City. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the DeCordova Museum, Fidelity Investments, the Ritz-Carlton, and numerous private collections. She has illustrated several books for children, including "Friends Stick Together" and "39 Uses for a Friend."

Ann Steuernagel is an experimental video and sound artist who has also made several films in collaboration with postmodern dance choreographer Caitlin Corbett. Steuernagel's film "Skip" deals with physical, emotional and visual experiences of motion; how memory resides in motion, and how visual fragmentation reflects and interacts with our physical recollections of actions such as running as fast as we can, or of throwing a rock or learning to skip or flying off a diving board. We are pleased to be premiering this film at Allston Skirt.

ALLSTON SKIRT GALLERY is located at 450 Harrison Avenue, #303, Boston, MA. We are open Wednesday - Saturday, from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. For more information, please call Randi Hopkins or Beth Kantrowitz at 617-482-3652.

www.allstonskirt.com