Lynne Bond: finding her voice in art

Lynne Bond loved crafts as a child, but she never considered herself an artist. “I wasn’t one of those kids who could draw something that looked like something and that’s how art gets defined,” she said. Instead, Bond focused on a career in psychology, but while getting her doctorate in Boston, she found time to reconnect with her artistic side by taking courses in silversmithing and weaving.

Bond went on to teach at UVM, where she enjoyed an almost four-decade career, becoming the first female psychology professor to earn tenure, receiving two teaching awards and having the UVM Engaged Outstanding Service-Learning Faculty Award renamed in her honor. She retired in 2014.

“I’m really fascinated by people,” Bond said. “I have great respect for human capabilities.” The focus of Bond’s work, which includes numerous publications, was on ways to promote healthy human development. She gravitated to social psychology and then the emerging field of community psychology. Bond chaired the Vermont Conference for Primary Prevention and served in various capacities at UVM including Dean of the Graduate School, Director of Graduate Training in Psychology, and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Psychology.

One of Bond’s three sons, Ethan Bond-Watts, became a glass artist and sculptor. Roughly a decade ago, he was part of a show at the Flynn Dog Gallery which also included Bob Babcock, a local stone carver. Bond decided to take a class with Babcock through CVU Access and soon began to reenter the world of art by taking courses at UVM and other venues in sculpting, welding, drawing, and printmaking.

“I’m still discovering what draws me,” Bond said. “There is something about fabric – actual and contextual – that has both fragility and strength.”

Five years ago, Bond was part of juried outdoor sculpture exhibit at the Helen Day Gallery in Stowe. Her entry was three abstract welded female forms with fabric. “The forms were similar,” she said, “but also different. Over the summer the fabric faded so they began to share more and more similarities.” Bond noted that although she had a strong vision for what the sculpture represented, she recognized that not everyone saw the same thing. Now she deliberately makes her art somewhat ambiguous so it can be interpreted in different ways. That is one of the reasons none of the 21 monoprints she currently has on display at UVM’s Davis Center have titles.

“They’re all non-representational,” she said, “and I love the different interpretations.” Bond’s work has been shown beyond the boundaries of Vermont. She currently has a piece hanging in a juried show at the Manhattan Graphics Center in New York City.

Bond believes that with both people and art, one needs to take the time to focus, watch, and listen. “If we find someone boring it’s probably because we’re not listening enough,” she said. “Likewise, you might walk past a piece of artwork and say ‘ugh’ but if you make yourself sit there and focus on it, you’ll find interesting components.”

Bond is interested in the intersection between community and identity. Her Davis Center monoprints include multiple layers of varied forms that are designed to relate to one another.

“Each one of us has many identities which are prioritized at different times,” Bond said. “I’m fascinated by the way these layered identities come in and out of focus. Those that take priority depend on context – both in art and in research.”