• Courtesy of Victoria Blewer
• "Gentleman Farmer"

Victoria Blewer grew up in Manhattan and spent summers in rural New Hampshire. In both places, she and her three sisters were "given free range," she said in a phone interview. Never did her family "go across the country in a station wagon, or go to motels or tourist traps."

Yet classic emblems of postwar Americana inhabit "At a Crossroad," Blewer's current exhibition at Frog Hollow Vermont Craft Gallery in Burlington. Her collages feature big-finned cars, women in 1950s garb, midcentury gas stations, signs and, yes, motels.

• Courtesy of Victoria Blewer
• "Mustang"

Nostalgia has long been a motif in Blewer's work, from the pastel hand-colored photographs for which she is best known to the collages that she began making during the pandemic shutdown. She's not sure why the past is so appealing. "It's like a memory that I don't have," Blewer said.

In her piece "See America," Blewer packs roadside signage — "Wall Drug," "The Last Chance Fuel & Food Stop," "Route 66 Next Exit" — into a 13-inch-square collage, along with such images as a slice of pie, a Frontier Village shack and, incongruously, a dinosaur. This small piece alone conveys Americans' desire to cram as much as possible into a summer vacation. Yet it also subtly skewers the nation's hit-the-highway pastime.

• Pamela Polston ©️ Seven Days
• "See America"

Of the 26 collages in her exhibit, 21 are analog. Blewer favors evidence of the hand. "It's too perfect," she said of digitized work. "With most art, it's the imperfect that you kinda love."

Looking at her works, one can easily imagine the artist happily ensconced at home in Weybridge, collecting images and deciding how to put them together. Some elements are purely decorative, such as wallpaper-esque backdrops in polka dots or checks or squiggles.

There are also references to outer space — a subject that began to enthrall Earthlings during the Cold War "space race," with the obsession escalating after the 1969 moon landing. Blewer pairs the interplanetary and the asphalt-bound, as well as past and present, in "Billionaires Only" — a satirical commentary on today's mega-rich space cowboys. A large image of the moon looms in the 16-inch-square composition; Airstream trailers emblazoned with corporate logos dot the lunar orb.

• Pamela Polston ©️ Seven Days
• "Goldfinch"

Blewer's avian-centric collages — "Cardinal," "Cedar Waxwing," "Goldfinch" and others — are pleasing compilations of nature-based content. In the digital collage "Gentleman Farmer," local viewers will recognize the subject of her photograph: the gardens of Shelburne Farms and Lake Champlain as seen from the inn. Blewer humorously inserted said gentleman, in a bespoke suit and holding a hunting rifle, along with plastic-looking animals. A bright yellow Champ peeks over the hedge.

In stark contrast are Blewer's works addressing contemporary catastrophes. A sepia-toned copy of Grant Wood's "American Gothic" dominates the 16-by-12-inch "Code Red for Humanity." The iconic couple stare grimly at the viewer while, in one corner, a smiling '50s-era woman speaks into a rotary phone. Her anachronistic text bubble reads: "911, I would like to report a code red for humanity. No, I can't hold!" Flames and smoke billow behind her head.

Blewer's vintage imagery can be waggish, suggesting an era that we like to think was more innocent and hopeful about the future. But "At a Crossroad" also underscores what has been lost.