RiverStones Custom Framing

05/20/2026

Due to a doctor's appointment, we will be opening a bit later today. We apologize for any inconvenience. See you at noon!

05/08/2026

Now on exhibit during May at The Franklin Gallery: Small Pieces, Big Stories, featuring the work of quilter Susan York.

In Small Pieces, Big Stories, Susan J. York’s vibrant quilts reveal how simple pieces of fabric, thoughtfully arranged, can carry powerful stories of connection, family, and change.

“My quilts begin with color and structure,” says York. “By arranging small pieces of fabric into geometric frameworks, I explore how pattern and color can create harmony from many individual parts.”

Quilting first entered her life as a shared family experience. York’s earliest quilt was created collectively for her grandmother, designed by her mother and stitched by family and friends gathered around a frame. That experience shaped York’s understanding of quilting as both artistic expression and communal language.

“Although I now work primarily alone in the studio, quilting still feels collaborative. The fabrics themselves carry the artistry of the designers who created their surface patterns, and by incorporating them into my compositions I enter into an ongoing conversation with other makers.”

The quilts in this exhibition explore themes of connection, identity, and hope. Some pieces reflect social ideas—such as Love Marches On – Love is Love, inspired by the Pride movement and the continuing struggle for equality. Others, like Rothko’s Garden or Sowing Seeds of Change, explore how color relationships and repeating forms can evoke growth, balance, and transformation.

“Across these works I return to a simple idea: that many small pieces, thoughtfully arranged, can come together to create something whole,” says York. “In that sense quilting becomes both metaphor and practice—an act of bringing fragments into relationship to form patterns of meaning, community, and belonging.”

Susan J. York is a multidisciplinary artist based in Shokan, NY. Working across painting and textile, her work explores paradox, social dynamics, and the emotional landscape of contemporary life. York frequently uses animals and natural forms as symbolic figures through which to examine themes of identity, power, resilience, and connection.

A Maine native, York holds a B.F.A. with honors from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Northeast and is held in private collections in the United Kingdom, Ireland, New England, Florida, Tennessee, California, Hawaii and New York. Her projects often combine visual storytelling with social commentary, inviting viewers to reflect on the narratives that shape both personal and collective experience.

The Franklin Gallery and RiverStones Custom Framing are open Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Unless otherwise indicated, all exhibited Franklin Gallery artworks are available for purchase. For information about this and future Franklin Gallery exhibits, contact Kris Ebbeson at [email protected] or 603-812-1488.

04/21/2026

RiverStones will be closing at 1:50 tomorrow, Wednesday, April 22, due to a medical appointment. I apologize for any inconvenience.

04/08/2026

RiverStones will open at noon today (Wednesday, April 8th).

04/01/2026

April's exhibit, An American Story: the Phasianidae Family & Friends, at The Franklin Gallery is up!! The exhibit features the work of artist Susan York. The public is encouraged to view this exhibit during April anytime that RiverStones Custom Framing is open: Wednesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The series of paintings in this exhibit began with a simple observation. “Wild turkeys began gathering beneath my window to eat birdseed, allowing me to see the iridescent colors in their feathers up close for the first time,” says York. “Their plumage reminded me of the peacocks I had photographed over the years, and research revealed that both birds belong to the same biological family: Phasianidae. Despite this shared lineage, the two birds occupy very different places in our cultural imagination. Peacocks are admired for their beauty and appear in fashion, decoration, and advertising, while turkeys are more commonly associated with hunting or food.

This contrast became a lens through which Susan began to think about the social tensions unfolding in the United States at the time she was creating the work. Questions of power, privilege, race, identity, and belonging filled the national conversation. In these paintings the birds function as symbolic figures through which to consider those dynamics. By placing them within shared visual narratives, York explored how perception, status, and cultural stories shape the way we value one another.

Ultimately the work asks a simple question: What story is our country telling us now?

Susan J. York is a multidisciplinary artist based in Shokan, NY. Working across painting and textile, her work explores paradox, social dynamics, and the emotional landscape of contemporary life. York frequently uses animals and natural forms as symbolic figures through which to examine themes of identity, power, resilience, and connection.

A Maine native, York holds a B.F.A. with honors from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Northeast and is held in private collections in the United Kingdom, Ireland, New England, Florida, Tennessee, California, Hawaii and New York. Her projects often combine visual storytelling with social commentary, inviting viewers to reflect on the narratives that shape both personal and collective experience.

02/04/2026

February exhibit is up: Wicky - Wacky - Woo...and Some Wild Artworks, too. This is a peculiar assemblage of mix-and-match images. One never knows what will erupt from the volcanic mind of Berwick Arts Multiple Ross Alan Bachelder, and yet he clearly likes it that way.

But now, for the month of February at RiverStones Custom Framing and the Franklin Gallery you’ll have a golden opportunity to see – and most likely scratch your head in puzzlement – at some of his latest eruptions.

On Thursday, February 5 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., the Franklin Gallery will host an opening reception for the exhibit, which will include paintings, drawings, photographs and found object assemblages, some from as early as 15 years ago, others created only recently. With this mixture, you’ll be able
to see evidence of an artist evolving during nearly 30 years of productivity, all-the-while making unpredictable, often engagingly playful turns along the way.

Bachelder, a genuine Arts Multiple, has traveled extensively in the service of all things creative, attending concerts and plays; performing solo recitals; acting, producing and directing; playing in pit orchestras; reviewing plays for area newspapers; and touring galleries and museums in England, Scotland, New Zealand, Canada, Reykjavik, Paris, and Amsterdam. He’s also visited museums in
Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo, New York City, Indianapolis, and many other American cities.

Among his many experiences in the fine and performing arts, he’s exhibited frequently in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, appeared as a musician in New Zealand, and performed in the Afternoon Tea Series at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Bachelder is also an author and musician, whose latest book, Growing Up Blue-Collar: An Uncertain Beginning, will be available for purchase at both the February 5 opening and all of February.

02/04/2026

My physical therapy appointment was changed from this morning to this afternoon. So RiverStones will be closed from 1:30 to 2:35 today. Sorry for any inconvenience.

01/21/2026

We will be closed today from about 1:30 until 2:30. I have a physical therapy appointment for my wrist. I need to get back to full strength. Sorry for any inconvenience.

12/31/2025

Riverstones will be open today, but because I have a PT appointment at 10:20, I’ll be a bit late.

12/25/2025