From construction-paper collages to flat pinch pots, on Mother’s Day we receive and unequivocally adore our children’s heartfelt handmade gifts. But what if our kids actually grow up to be artists? This month, Burlington’s Katharine Montstream and her daughter Charlotte Dworshak present a show with two distinct stylistic voices drawn from the same creative lineage.
Montstream offers nocturnal landscapes that glow with moonlight, fireflies and aurora borealis — aspects of night she said inspire gratitude rather than fear. Dworshak contemplates iconic red flowers, painted large, in her series: Each 4-by-5-foot canvas is a statement about how she was doing on a given day while grieving the loss of her grandmother. These disparate ways of grappling with emotional truths look very different but share a bold, unhesitant approach to palette and composition.
On a gallery visit, Dworshak said Montstream didn’t teach her to paint but did teach her to look at the color of the lake every morning on the way to school. Montstream, as proud and mystified as any mom, put it more bluntly: “She didn’t learn anything from me.”
‘Nocturne: Katharine Montstream & Charlotte Dworshak’ On view through May 30; artist talk, Wednesday, May 27, 6-7:30 p.m., at the SEABA Center in Burlington.
This article appears in May 6 • 2026.
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