Kelly Birkenruth, the winner of the Best of Show award in the West Hartford Art Leagues 2013 CT+6 exhibit, didn't always want to be an artist. Birkenruth earned a degree in business from Penn State and moved to Los Angeles after college where she modeled and was sent on assignments in exotic locations such as Japan and Europe. She credits the museums in Paris with piquing her interest in painting, so when she returned to California she enrolled at the Otis Art Institute where she took foundation and anatomy classes. She then studied under LA artist Lance Richlin in his Atelier Program where she honed her skills over a period of two years.    You can view Kelly's award winning piece, Duality, above,along with 103 other works of art juried into the sixth annual CT+6 exhibit, in the West Hartford Art League's two galleries at37 Buena Vista Road in West Hartford.   Gallery hours are Thursday - Sunday from 1-4 p.m. www.westhartfordart.org CT+6 is on exhibit in both galleries through May 19th. (860) 231-8019 "Uptown" at City Gallery, New Haven: City Gallery, 994 State St, New Haven, CT, 06511. Thursday – Sunday, 12-4 pm or by appointment.  Free.  www.city-gallery.org.  203-782-2489. “Uptown” is a photography exhibition by Tom Peterson, April 4, 2013 through April 28, 2013.  Artist Talk, Sunday, April 28th, 2-3 pm.  For further information contact: info@city-gallery.org. Uptown is a photographic exhibition of new work by Tom Peterson.   Tom’s latest portfolio focuses on New York’s upscale store displays.  They present the viewer with today’s use of unique mannequin figures to market store apparel.  The use of architectural reflections and angles provide an uptown vantage perspective.  The juxtaposed images are open to evoke viewer emotions and interpretation. City Gallery invites the public to view this free exhibit.  City Gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from 12 to 4 pm, call 203 248-3175 or email tomp45@sbcglobal.net for a private showing, interview or questions.   Silver Circle presents: NO RULES: COLLABORATIVE WORKS BY BUD COOK & JP JACQUET Hosted by Middlesex Community College in the Pegasus Gallery, Middletown CT   On Display April 10-May 10 "No Rules" is a series of collaborative paintings produced by Bud Cook and Jean-Paul Jacquet. For this project each canvas was exchanged multiple times between the artist's studios as they were gradually worked toward completion. Successive steps of addition, erasure and thematic reinterpretation resulted in works that blend and expanded on the works that Cook and Jacquet make as individual artists. Figurative, animal, and graphic imagery were derived from a broad range of influences. Film, literature,... photography, comics and musical content initiated and further directed each stage of image transformation.