by Brian Slattery
Connections and networks run through artist Rita Hannafin’s work on a few different levels.
First literally, as her chosen medium is the art quilt, which deploys thread itself in complex ways. Hannafin’s art for decades has also drawn strength and inspiration from the networks and communities of artists around her, as she finds advice from friends and fellow practitioners helps guide her work. Finally, in Hannafin’s latest show — “Whispering Forest and Other Conversations,” running now at City Gallery through March 30 — she has chosen as her subject the book Finding the Mother Tree, which details the science behind trees and how they cooperate and communicate through fungal networks running under the forest floor.