"Seeing the Forest" is the title of the first local show in five years by artist, owner of Livingroom Gallery owner, and former Kingston alderman Chris Gonyea. Balancing his political work and his art for the past several years as alderman of uptown Kingston's Second Ward was never easy, says Gonyea, although he managed to continue to paint. Come November, he says, and as election season determines whom will be elected to fill his shoes, Gonyea feels it is a "good time to release a new body of work." A well-known abstract painter and collagist, Gonyea says that his new body of work marks a "stylistic switch." Using charcoals and full color oils, Gonyea has been studying nature in a new way, finding "abstractions that are analogous to geometry, and creating landscapes that aren't just representational, but have an edge to them." Gonyea's show, which opens at the Livingroom Gallery on Saturday, November 5 (opening reception 6-9pm) and runs through December 31, features 25 such "edgy" landscapes that were shown to acclaim at Galerie Roessler in Munich, Germany, earlier this year. (845) 338-8353; artguy38@aol.com.