Exhibit opens at The Gallery at Lighthouse

Dozens of supporters, collectors, friends and family members attended the opening of "Friends" on Friday at the Lighthouse Gallery in Groton.

The exhibit showcases the work of New London sculptor Lori Rembetski and Uncasville painter Don Eccleston. The two met when Rembetski was a student at Waterford High School and Eccleston was her teacher.

As a student, Rembetski says, she had never seen Eccleston's work. As a teacher, he focused on his students' work, never bringing his into the classroom.

Interestingly, says Chris Rose, curator of the Lighthouse Gallery, pieces by Rembetski and Eccleston often appear to be of the same mind and the same philosophy. Both make fanciful, free art.  Rembetski sculpts images of dogs in often funny and always doglike poses, with the same sort of humor that Eccleston shows in his work. Her free-form, hand-built ceramics look like Eccleston's paintings made in clay, Rose says.

Eccleston's abstract pieces are characterized by bright colors and flowing, gestural designs. Often, people and iconic images are embedded in the design. A figure resembling Shakespeare, and something that could be a brush or an asparagus spear can be seen in one painting, for instance.

Rembetski has never had a dog, she says, though her passion in recent years has been making these smooth, warm sculptures of dogs. She fires them all in a small test kiln, not much larger than a microwave.

Eccleston started as a painter at the Hartford Arts School, then moved to California. He returned to Connecticut in 1962, and went to the University of Hartford  and earned his bachelor's degree in art education.

He taught at New London High School, then moved to Waterford High School in 1970, where he taught for 20 years.  Rembetski was in one of his last classes as a junior. She was a senior the year after he retired.

Rembetski graduated from high school, studied ceramics at Alfred University in New York, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in fine arts. She said she tried various odd jobs, then went to hairdressing school. She works at Mystic Clipper Hair & Nail Co., and creates sculptures at her home in New London.

The Gallery at Lighthouse is part of the Lighthouse Voc-Ed Center for People with Disabilities. The mission of the Lighthouse Voc-Ed Center is, in part, to "engage children and adults with hands-on integrated learning experiences... (to) encourage independence, socially appropriate behavior without coercion, and problem-solving skills through actual interaction with the community."

The commission on sales of pieces in the Lighthouse Gallery benefits the Lighthouse Voc-Ed Center. "Friends" continues through the end of the month. The gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. and Saturdays by appointment. For more information, see http://www.lighthousevocedcenter.com/TheGallery.html

- Deborah Straszheim contributed to this piece