Clip from Mater Matrix Mother and Medium Short Film on Flickr….

A film still from the short film that Ian Lucero is working on based on the MMMM performance.  I have seen about 3 minutes of a promo, and am so thrilled, and so truly truly grateful to have had the chance to work with such incredible artists, Ian, Morgan and Zoe (and Juniper Shuey and Paul Margolis).  All so generous and humble and so full of vision….

The film will premier at Ohge Ltd. Gallery in Seattle in January 2010….stay tuned….

The 3 minute promo will be showing at Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College….I am here in Atlanta installing the river as part of “Still Water”….

Clip from Mater Matrix Mother and Medium Short Film on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

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MMMM Performance gets a mention on “Pacific Standard” blog

A great mention on Pacific Standard

Pacific Standard: Rivers Arms.

Go see “Waterlines” !! (Stranger review)

Go see Stokley Towles’ piece “Waterlines”, one of the other “Water Calling” projects.  Great Stranger review!

It’s the Water – Theater – The Stranger, Seattle’s Only Newspaper.

 

 

“Water Calling” Public Art – Temporary Projects

Ack!!! Just realized I did not have a direct link to “Water Calling” information on this blog, the series of temporary public art projects that MMMM is a part of.  I have been truly swamped this past month.  But literally two more days of install…

“Water Calling ”   Public Art – Temporary Projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all make art

I found this environmental fiber/community fiber-based art practice by Iranian artist Atefeh Khas on another friend’s website (another amazing environmental/fiber/community-based writer artist, Abigail Doan).  I came across these images just as I was beginning to work my river into the trees, and just as all the storm of the Iranian election was beginning.  I, of course, feel a great deal of kinship to the work I am seeing on Atefeh’s website, and am reminded of the freedoms I have to do and share what I love.  I am also reminded by her work of how patterns, materials, impulses and desires for beauty, kinship and meaning span all cultures, and art can shorten the distances between us.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Staring at trees and chalk on the sidewalk: the last events! …. for now…

 

buzzzzz, getting polinated

I am a busy busy  bee trying to finish up the wearable element for Zoe to rehearse with, as well as the planning for moving myself into the landscape of Camp Long , but there are a few remaining crochet events, beginning tomorrow.  I will be crocheting the afternoon away under the trees near my site, further getting to know the shapes and spaces.  I always forget this important part of my process…it feels like wasting time, but I’ve come to realize sitting and staring at my work, in-process, is very valuable.

working out of the studio.....ahhhhh

 Usually in the studio, I have armatures in-process that I STARE at forever while I sew or crochet, etc.  With the armature here a living environment, as much as I wish this were possible, I haven’t been able to sit for hours under these trees that I will soon get to know very well.  Perhaps this can happen for the next outdoor works….

grass and silk

 

earlier in the spring at Discovery Park

Then later Thursday evening, I’ll be coming home to my beloved neighborhood Columbia City, with the generosity of the Columbia City Gallery hosting me from 6-8. I know there are many art events thursday night, but if you are in the neighborhood, please swing by, even just for a bit. (and whoa!  check out the jurors of their latest call for art!!, Jeffry Mitchell, Suzanne Beal, and Lisa Harris)

Columbia City Gallery

 

 

Then, this weekend I’ll be at the Morgan Junction Festival in West Seattle for a bit, with Camp Long.  It will be my first chance to visit the new interactive public art piece by SuttonBeresCuller at Morgan Junction Park…

Salon, a series of museum-style frames stamped in the sidewalk that borders the neighborhood park. Artist trio SuttonBeresCuller etched and color tinted the “picture frames” that invite the public to create their own works of art. Make a masterpiece and meet the artists! 

The guys will be there at the new park, for it’s dedication from 10am – 11am.  These guys are doing all sorts of thrilling community-based art right now, I’m inspired!

My schedule w/links!

• 11th of June, Thurs, noon – 4 pm, Camp Long, 5200 35th Ave. SW at Dawson   
• 11th of June, Thurs, 6 pm – 8 pm, Columbia City Gallery,  
4864 Rainier Ave S.     

• 13th of June, Sat, 11 am – 2:30 pm, Morgan Junction Community Festival with Camp Long, 6401 California Ave. S.W.

best of: Water!

best of: Water!.

Joey Veltkamp writes about all the watery SPU temporary public art projects happening this summer!

 

 

 

 

This weekend…SCULPTURE PARK!

 

celebrate those flowers

Back into the sun I go! Hopefully this slight cooling will hold tomorrow as I head to the Olympic Sculpture Park to participate in Seattle Art Museum’s family programs “Celebrate Wildflowers” event. Back in April I took part in “Climate Day for Kids”, had a blast, and I’m sure this event will be just as fun.  Here’s a quick look at all the activity stations for tomorrow:  
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, King County Noxious Weed Board, Seattle Art Museum, Skokomish Tribe, TASTE Café, University of Washington Botanic Gardens Education, Washington Native Plant Society, Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation.

 

Please come join me!  And also, a huge thank you to writer/artist/curator Sharon Arnold for her continued enthusiasm for MMMM (and help crocheting AND yarn donations AND cheering me on in this last leg of this art marathon!)  

Thanks Sharon!

She has been posting about the project, including tomorrow, at her blog “Dimensions are Variable”.  Check it out and her posts about art – writing, making, viewing and loving.

 

 

 

SUNDAY!  I’ll be back at the Sculpture Park on my own, inviting you to join me in a little handwork, amazing views and hopefully cool and sunny weather.  I’ll be in the Cafe if another windstorm blows through.  10 am – 2pm.

MONDAY!!  You can catch up with me on Monday, of all days!  During lunch 11 am – 2 pm, I’ll be back under Leo Berk’s conference room cloud in the 4Culture conference room.  All my blue looked so good under his blue, and I forgot my camera last time, so Tina Hoggatt made it happen for me again!  If you work downtown, hope you can stop by, bring your lunch!

Leo Berk, "Low Ceiling"

Inspiration for MMMM at Columbia City Gallery: Another performer collaboration and another crochet event

This Saturday May 30th from 5-8pm at the Columbia City Gallery , I have work in a group show called “5280; Ten Artists Living Within a Mile of the Gallery”.  I’ll be showing a little bit of inspiration for MMMM — another product of a collaboration with an incredible performer. Last summer and fall, I collaborated with the luminous performance artist, Haruko Nishimura.

the Slug Princess

 

dusk at Smoke Farm

 Together we created a hybridized mythological creature, the Slug Princess — an arion slug goddess —  with my work as the lumbering undulating skin and Haruko’s work with Butoh as the mercurial spirit of this creature of appetite.  We then worked with filmmaker Ian Lucero to create a short film called “The Silvering Path”, shot at Smoke Farm in Arlington Washington.

 

filming

 

 It was an intensely inspiring experience for me, watching my work, shredded fibers and yarns crocheted and beaded, pulsing and lumbering through tall grasses, twisting around rocks, picking up dirt, moisture and life.  

 

little creature on my creature

I believe the three of us together created something really beautiful and unsettling, and I wanted more.  More collaboration, and more of seeing fiber breath to life, not just because it was wrapped around a body, but because it rubbed and caressed the natural environment.  I knew I wanted to do work that didn’t just use the natural environment as a site for action, but would become entwined, enmeshed with all the processes, however minute, of the environment.  I wanted to push my work with a performer further away from “costume” & literally interweave the body into the landscape using stones, trees and flowing water interacting with changing fabric. I wanted to explore using the environment as material not simply backdrop, to create an installation that is in & changed by the elements.  

an early sketch

Then this SPU project came up, and of course those desires and ideas from the Silvering Path directly inspired what I am trying to accomplish now with MMMM and the interaction with the landscape at Camp Long.  So, at the Columbia City Gallery I’ll be showing the slug wearable element as well as these giant magic crocheted cabbages from the film.  It’s a group show celebrating 10 years of the Gallery, as well as celebrating this little hub of artists down here in the south end.  More about “The Silvering Path”…

And the Gallery has also generously offered to host a crochet event on Thursday June 11 from 6-8 pm, so you can come crochet,see the show,  catch dinner at Tutta Bella and head to a movie at Columbia Cinema.  Columbia City has it all!!  The Columbia City Gallery is at 4864 Rainier Ave S | Seattle WA 98118 | 206.760.9843

“5,280” runs from May 27 – July 5th, 2009

Ballard coming and going; This weekend and last

 

working in the gutter

I have such a glut of images of all the events and people who have been joining in with MMMM! The weekends seem to coming at me faster and faster as this phase of the project, the community art events, move into their last month.  From June 15th till the performance, I will mostly be full time working at building the river in Camp Long, so this last month I will really be trying to get everyone involved with the project who would like to be.  So…if you are one of those people who have been telling me how excited you are about this project but haven’t been able to attend an event yet, get out your calendar and pick a day!  We all know how fast a month goes by…….and I hope you can make it!

 

So back to back weekends I will and have been crocheting in Ballard.  Last weekend, it was at another of the CAN “Seattle Summer Streets” events, this time hosted by Cascade Bicycle Club as a way to celebrate “Bike to Work Day”.  Bikes everywhere!!

bikes , bikes!!

 

 

  Sadly, I did not bike to work that day because I had so many crocheting supplies, but if I had a Bakfiets Bicycle  from Dutch Bike, Co. of Seattle, perhaps I could have!

I want one!

Dutch Bike, Co. also had another CRAZY bike that kept going up and down the street past me, each time I tried to run after it taking a picture, because it reminded me so much of what I was trying to do at the time — gather people in a circle for a little unusual creative connection with people they don’t really know.  I give you the Conference Bike!!  I enjoyed my

crazy , giggling mass of people!

there it goes again!

early evening in Ballard and had quite a few lingering loungers, a few returning friends and new acquaintances!

Here’s Diem Chau (new Ballard business owner, artist!) taking my picture as I take her picture!

 

Diem!

 

 

Now this coming weekend, on Saturday from 12 – 4:30pm, I will be back in Ballard, this time at the lovely green-roofed public library.

And then sunday, I’ll be at the Beacon Hill Library.  Please come, even for just a bit as you get out of the sun!

• 23rd of May, Sat., 12 noon – 4:30pm, Ballard Library meeting room, 5614 22nd Ave. N.W.  206-684-4089 , directions

• 24th of May, Sun, 12:30 pm – 4:45 pm, Beacon Hill Library meeting room, 2821 Beacon Ave. S.
  206-684-4711, directions

Four Cultr and SOIL on Monday!!

 

Knitted Soil

Monday is going to be really fun for me, two organizations who have been my bread and butter in one way or another will be hosting me and my crocheting habit this coming Monday!  4Culture has supported me in countless ways, including at my show at the then ‘King County Cultural Arts Authority Gallery’ back in 2003 which really feels like one of my first installations in the vein of what I am doing now.  And since then, I believe 4Culture has been a part of every major show I have had.  I am truly indebted and so am thrilled to come hang out with the people who work so hard to make so much art and culture happen.  Thank you Tina Hoggatt for setting this up!  And anyone else downtown on their lunch break should come on in! Besides, you get to hang out under Leo Berk‘s  lovely “Low Ceiling”.

 

Leo Berk, "Low Ceiling"

 I’ll be there from 11am – 2pm.  Then later on in the day at 5:30 – about 7pm, I’ll be at All City Coffee with several of the members of Soil, thanks to Etsuko Ichikawa for organizing the meet -up just before their monthly meeting.  Come by!

Mark your calendars for the MMMM performance and residency at Camp Long, this summer

After much planning, The Performance…..

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium will culminate with a site-specific performance by Seattle-based and internationally-recognized choreographer and dancer Zoe Scofield.  Come join in this one-time experience on July 16th, 2009 at 6:30 pm at the pond at Camp Long in West Seattle, 5200 35th Ave. SW.  

This River, made up of thousands upon thousands of tiny moments and movements of individual citizens, integrated, linked together and interwoven into the natural environment, will itself embed Scofield in an exploration of how we ourselves are both literal and metaphoric manifestations of the living essence of water.  Our experience of water is both one of ultimate intimacy and also of civic structure.  This artwork, a unique blend of community engagement and personal inquiry, site-embedded installation and performance, embodies the ancient human practice of acknowledging our own physicality rooted in the cycles of water and how this forms the very foundation of human community.  Water, both mundane and miraculous, mirrors the everyday meeting of strangers and the tiny moments that begin to bond us together.

An outdoor studio for myself, Artist-in-Residence at Camp Long….

 

deep in the urban forest

The River of Mater Matrix Mother and Medium will be created on site at Camp Long, as I integrate all  the fiber parts created over these many months into one form based on the topography and structure of the trees of the park.  Please join me, from June 15 – July 9th, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 am – 2 pm, and watch as this brilliant blue line begins to accumulate and grow in this tiny patch of urban forest.  You can watch me work, join in with more crocheting and also explore the trails of this hidden gem of a park in the Longfellow Creek watershed.

 

 

Zoe Scofield, Jennifer Zwick and the amazing postcard collaboration

I’ll continue to add more of the stunning images that artist/designer Jennifer Zwick shot for my postcard and blog and general publicity.  And of course, our subject Zoe Scofield, is a natural at conjuring up an elemental mystery.  Please check out the sites of these two endlessly talented Seattle-based artists.  

 

 

Zoe Scofield