Little jökull, woven fabric and crocheted yarn and fabric, stones, 2012-13

“Our Patient Day’s Allotted Span” show at NEPO House, which  was such a gratifying experience to bring some of the work began in Iceland to closure, to see friends, share my family’s work and share in the hospitality of NEPO House’s Little Treats series.  Paul loved standing on the porch serving Icelandic waffles and glogg and egg nog to everyone who arrived.

No one asked me about the odd title…maybe my odd titles are just par for the course now.  It’s something from the very beginning of the beginning.  As I was writing the first grant proposal for this project in early 2011, trying to coax something concise from the jumble of ideas, I was reading my son my favorite book from my childhood, The Fairy Caravan by Beatrix Potter.

And this one scene struck me in the gullet, a powerful monolog spoken by a Herdwick ewe named Belle Lingcropper, about the strength and tenacity of the sheep, as well as the transitory nature of our time here.  She says

” What though the hailstorms sweep the fell in winter–through tempest, frost, or heat–we live our patient day’s allotted span.”

Both the wisp of legacy and transience, from the mouth of sheep (but of course Miss Potter really).  For  awhile I have been fixated and inspired how Beatrix Potter managed to craft a life for herself as a woman writer of her time, as well a attain a certain independence and ultimately to use her own earned money to become a major conservationist of land, of a way of life, and the Herdwick sheep breed.  She used her patient day’s allotted span well, and I aim to do the same, somehow.

Anyhow, aside from my admiration for her ability to  make a living as an artist, jumping over hurdles, I’m sure, I have never had to deal with — her ewe’s speech seemed to draw me to a place in my mind, not Britian, but to a fantasy of Iceland where things would play out, questions would be met with answers on the wind and stone, if only for a brief time.

See a full selection of images here

But that brief time was wedged in the legacy of the maker, the creator, the individual who has crafted their life’s work from the the air, the land, the water and all that comes with it.  My collaborators –my son, my husband — we went on that part of our journey together, a different but interrelated meaning for all of us.  Something lasting for all of us, but the geologic text written on the small island of Iceland loomed in my mind as a different time table than our own brief human span.

And Potter’s imagining of the mind of her dear Herdwicks seemed to speak of a pride of one’s place in a long span of time, not just what we experience.  I thought the working title would shed itself — and for a while I didn’t think of it all — but once this grouping of work was done, it still seemed to work.

You can also see some of my films from the project here: Films!

Here’s the entirety of little Belle the ewe’s speech.  I was startled by the tenderness I felt for the Icelandic sheep we would encounter, their soft eyes and the intense soft warmness they seemed to radiate in the harsh rocky landscape.  I always imagined them saying this…

Cool is the air above the craggy summit. Clear is the water of the mountain keld. Green grows the grass in droughty days beneath the brackens! What though the hailstorms sweep the fell in winter–through tempest, frost, or heat–we live our patient day’s allotted span.

Wild and free as when the stone-men told our puzzled early numbers; untamed as when the Norsemen named our grassings in their stride. Our little feet had ridged the slopes before the passing Romans. On through the fleeting centuries, when fresh blood came from Iceland, Spain, or Scotland–stubborn, unchanged, UNBEATEN–we have held the stony waste.

I’m so giddy to be showing some of my new Solstenen Project films with some of my favorite Seattle-based artsts/filmmakers during an evening presentation at Seattle’s gorgeous Jewelbox Theater!

“Latent Liminal Improbable Exuberance : Film night with,
Gala Bent, Jennifer Zwick, Britta Johnson, Mandy Greer, Scott Kolbo and Vis-a-Vis Society at Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater,  January 9th, 2013,    7-10 pm

Something old, something new, something odd, something blue.
In-process, foundlings, archived, favorites and brand new films by an exuberant collection of artists:

Gala Bent
Jennifer Zwick
Britta Johnson
Mandy Greer
Scott Kolbo and
Vis-a-Vis Society.

Films will begin at 7pm and cycle throughout the evening until 10pm.

Drop in when you can. Delicious treats by the Rendezvous kitchen!  FREE

I had such a great response to my recycled fiber giant Cowl Making Workshops at last January’s ON/OFF festival – with them selling out in a few hours — I’ve decided to offer them again in Seattle at The Silver Studio (my studio), in Columbia City.  And it’s finally cold enough to wear them!  I’ll have tea and some brunch-like snacks, you are welcome to bring something to share.  Read below the Registration to find out more about the workshops!

FOR COMPLETE BEGINNERS, really!

DATES/TIMES

- Nov. 3, SAT, 2 – 5:30 pm (2 SPACES LEFT)

- Nov. 4th, SUN, 12 – 3:30pm  (SOLD OUT)

COST: $20 per person, ONLY 11 SPACES PER CLASS

MORE CLASSES TO COME LATE NOV / EARLY DEC

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TO REGISTER:

-Choose below the day you want and click the corresponding PayPal button

-Be sure to include your contact email address and name in the “note to merchant” box if different than the email you use for Paypal, so I can send you class confirmation, material list, where to buy them, and the studio address.  If you don’t see the box, send me an email with it.

- If the class you want fills up, please email me your desired day and I will put you on the waiting list and/or notify when I hold another series of workshops.

- 48 hours before your class, workshop fee is non-refundable, but can be transferred to another person.

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NOV. 3, SAT, 2 – 5:30 pm

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NOV. 4, SUN, 12 – 3:30pm   (SOLD OUT)

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The Cowl Making workshop comes out of a a project called “Gleaning, Redeeming, Surviving and Thriving”, where I’ll be facilitating for workshop participants the process of taking discarded cheap materials, investing them with one’s time and creating an amazing wearable piece.

We’ll be investigating slow process, re-thinking use, and re-examining self-esteem via self-sufficiency rather than purchasing power.

You’ll be gathering your own materials, engaging with a site of contemporary gleaning: the bins at the Goodwill Outlet.“  The Bins” are an overwhelming striking visual scene of our contemporary way of life of intense consumption, of using goods for a very short time, discarding them before they are worn out, and the massive amount of energy spent on just what to do with this constant flow of fabric.

Our cultural critics today tell us we have moved from being people who can produce to people who only consume.  During the course of this project, step back and examine this, examine the art of ‘gleaning’ and slowly making something from the leftovers of our over-buying and over-production. Participants are asked to spend an afternoon at “The Bins” before attending the workshop, picking through the mountains of discarded fabrics, choosing about 5-8 garments made of  ‘t-shirt’ knit material.

Using handmade looms that are adaptations of a childhood craft called spool knitting — rake looms from Germany date back to 1535 -  I’ll be leading participants through the gleaning process to creating ‘yarn’ to creating a dramatic handmade wearable work,  a giant cowl scarf.

This workshop is an homage to the anonymous gleaners and artisans who continually make amazing things from the discards of our throw-away culture.

Some Happy Campers!

All photos by Martino Margheri courtesy of CCCS

Last week, my work arrived home from Florence Italy from the ‘American Dreamers’ show at Centro di Cultura Contemporanea at Palazzo Strozzi (affectionately, the Strozzina).  And it made me realize that I have yet to really get any sort of images up about the show on this here blog….I have just been that busy, with a giant performance/installation project that came out of nowhere, and piles of planning for a 5 week residency in Iceland, collaborating with my family.  I’ve spent that last few hours finally looking through all the images I took of this incredible adventure to Italy and thinking how lucky I am to have been invited by Bartholomew Bland, curator at The Hudson River Museum in NY, and what a privilege it was to work with all the staff at Strozzina and director Franziska Nori.

When the inimitable Mr. Bland proposed I participate in the show, he wrote

“…through the current financial crisis—a sense of social and economic safety have increasingly been put under strain.  Today the “American Dream” seems to be in crisis. Yet a sense of optimism, a capacity for creative imagination, and the willingness to believe in positive outcomes remain crucial to the American self-image.   A group of American artists of different generations reflect these impulses in their work, creating a sort of retreat from reality, a refuge in fantastical alternate worlds that are safe and, above all, controllable. These works, often realized with a subtle sense of irony or criticism towards the current society, are based on an aesthetics defined by fantasy and dream images, by fairytale creatures or images taken from the media, as well as actual parallel worlds enlarged or in miniature which refute the real world in favour of other realities, often made of splendour and success, even if just imagined.

For some artists, a fantasy world is their critique of contemporary society. Others, struggling to make sense of the real world, find it easier to create and then cope in an alternative one. A psychic break with reality or the creation of a better counter-reality becomes, for them, a form of agency.

Despite everything, everything, I cling to a sense of optimism, especially boarding a plane to Italy.  Like many American artists, I have long heard of the greater importance placed on artists’ contributions to culture in Europe, and I can attest to being treated so much more like a valued professional than I am in my own city.  Not to mention the creation of a meaty catalog I am still reading with a myriad of analyses of the American Dream mythology, and its crumbling reality (and some really stellar educational materials for young visitors!).

It has left me with still much to think about my role in this ‘dream’ mythology, how I have internalized ‘bootstrap’ fantasy and the resulting imagery in my artwork.  It wasn’t until I was interviewed at the opening that I had even articulate into words what might be ‘American’ in my work; I have never intentionally placed my work in that context. But my hunger as an artist does rely on a sense of making amazing things with what I have around me, what I have available, what is discarded, with a definite reverence for traditional craft based in survival.  There was a subtle thread of this running through the show…the sow’s ear into the silk purse, which seemed to counterbalance other dystopian currents.  I found it striking to have examined parts of myself that I hold dear to be chalked up to my American-ness, particularly because I imagine my work to be grounded in narratives and archetypes that are so much older.  But maybe that right there is the mirror being held up, the good-natured lack of self-awareness that seems to plague Americans and annoy the rest of the world.  It left me questioning a great deal.

The installation I created was a reworking and an expansion of other installations from a 3 year period, giving me the opportunity to bring to the surface other themes in installations I have already done and to see my work as a continuum rather than separate compartments.  In a very long thin gallery in the Pallazzo’s former wine cellar, with crossing masonry arches for a ceiling, I built a meandering path between two opposite states, that of a deep black lunar image and a glittering bright reflective solar experience, with a shadowing earthly pathway of greenery between, like both the cloying jungle and underwater depth of a kelp forest.

I called it “Cynosura” , which I believe is the Greek word for the North Star/Polaris, from when before the star was the pole star.  I named this pathway this because the North Star has been and still is used for Celestial Navigation, which uses both the moon and the sun to navigate around the globe.  ‘Cynosure’ is now used as a word to describe something that is constant, unchangeable, as a contrast to our fast and ephemeral human lives and concerns.  But the pole star actually shifts over time, because like us, the stars are in flux as well, just on a larger scale.  So when ‘Cynosura’ was named so, after a nymph, the star was not the pole star used as a constant, but now it is.  So even when trying to describe something as “unchangeable” we can’t seem to do it.

Cynosura seems apt for this passage experience, which presented two opposite celestial realms, and a journey through a third transitory realm. In actuality, they are not opposite but part of a greater whole celestial realm.  They are only perceived as opposites by human experience because of how we experience them traveling on our little earth.  What we perceive as transitory, the lush greenery of a single season, is actually cyclical, perpetually happening again and again, just as stars are born again and again and cycle and die as well.

I just wanted to share some incredible images shot by filmmaker/photographer Rodrigo Valenzuela of my big project this past spring, another iteration of my on-going process-based community art installation Mater Matrix Mother and Medium.  His images somehow transform the sometimes over-troden Seattle Center into a temple complex.  Rodrigo will be premiering a short film he has made about these 2012 performances titled “Saltus Chori Aevum”, this July 3rd from 5-8pm at the The Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater, in Seattle.

Please join us!  And now a bit of what I had to say about this project and performance from the Mater Matrix Mother and Medium blog:

“Mandy Greer’s ongoing Mater Matrix Mother and Medium project premiers a new multi-media performance entitled “Saltus Chori Aevum”, all words in Latin that mean “passage” but in very different forms, from the passage of time, to a passage in music, to a passage in the landscape.

Led by the three female figures of the Moirai – the Spinner, the Allotter and the Unturnable – this experiential performance delves into how simultaneous and conflicting states of being function in collusion.  Referencing the transformational ability of water to slip between three states, and the spectrum of impact water has on the human drama –from tranquility all the way to devastation– the performance will interweave rites of passage into an investigation of the sometimes-contradictory predicament of being both an individual and a member of a group.

Created in collaboration by Greer, choreographer/dancer Jessica Jobaris, performance artist/vocalist Saskia Delores, harpist/poet Monica Schley, dancer Andrea Ives and video artist Rodrigo Valenzuela.  The performers, working together or apart, traverse the landscape, coaxing out the thin space between manual labor and contemplative practice.  Small acts of menial work  — washing, cleaning, caretaking, spinning, weaving — are revealed as thresholds to states of transformation, exploring the dual role of water in the mundane and the mystical.

Presented by The Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and Commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art.  MMMM celebrates and interprets the splendor of Seattle’s urban watersheds and encourages stewardship, especially as it connects to SPU’s work.  MMMM performance and installation is sponsored by the Seattle Center Foundation’s Next 50 program of events, during Sustainable Futures month. “

Creative Direction, Installation, Costumes: Mandy Greer

Choreography: Jessica Jobaris

Vocals, Mixing, Co-production: Saskia Delores

Harp, Vocals, Arrangement: Monica Schley

Video, contributing sound design: Rodrigo Valenzuela

The Three Moirai: Jessica Jobaris, Saskia Delores, Monica Schley

The Two Supplicants: Andrea Ives and Mandy Greer

The Pelican Goddess

And I’m back. From Italy, and almost un-sick! And already getting ready for two shows that open very soon in my own backyard.  The first is the brainchild of two raven-haired, whip-smart art mavens of the contemporary Northwest scene; independent curator/artist/entrepreneur Sharon Arnold and legendary Roq la Rue gallerist Kirsten Anderson.

RED CURRENT (sweet fruit) has been curated by Arnold to capture a moment of red hot intensity in the Seattle Art landscape, curating 37 artists into a salon-style survey of what is happening right now in this community. I am thrilled to show one of my favorite works, “The Pelican Goddess”, with a group of artists I’m humbled to be a part of.

by Counsel Langley, "Far North"

The line-up, please:

Mandy Greer  Kimberly Trowbridge  Amanda Manitach  Izzie Klingels  Serrah Russell  Saskia Delores  Debra Baxter  Jess Rees  Anne Blackburn  Erin Frost  Lynda Sherman Laura Ward  Jennifer McNeely  Susanna Bluhm  Counsel Langely  Erin Shafkind  Claire Johnson  Klara Glosova  Andrea Wicklund  Gala Bent  Rumi Koshino  Naomi Faith Allyce Wood  Julie Alpert  Crystal Barbre  Deborah Scott  Kristen Ramirez  Allie Manch  Ellen Garvens  Cristin Ford  Gretchen Bennett  Francesca Lohmann  Emily Pothast Bette Burgoyne  Jennifer Borges Foster  Jennifer Zwick  and Stacey Rozich

Amanda Manitach

The show opens on Friday March 23rd from 6-9pm and runs through April 7, 2012 and Kirsten Anderson promises a festive opening with themed ‘treats’, if you will.

Roq la Rue Gallery  |  2312 2nd Ave. |  Seattle  | 206-374-8977

The second show I show up in is “Lavish and Lush”, part of the clay-bombing of Seattle that’s about to happen when the NCECA Conference blows into town this March 28th-31st.  The 2012 theme for the conference is “On the Edge”, which I guess works for me since I’ll be showing photographs…of fiber, and clay and flesh.  If anyone knows my history, it begins in clay.  That beginning still bares a trace in the piles of visceral messy fluidity I bring to the fore in fabric, and most distinctly in the “root room” I made last year at my Roq la Rue show “Honey and Lightening”, which was soaked in latex paint and mud from the foundation of my home.

The Cherry Tree Root Chamber, detail, 2011

The process of making that installation was a sloppy, goopy mess, so full of the pleasure I found in working with clay for years, but without the need to go near a kiln.  It pushed clay back into my work, not as objects or even sculptural material, but time-based sensuality incorporated into some of my performance-based photographs.

The Golden Cage, archival ink jet print, 2011

Curated by Tammie Renee Rubin, artist and assistant professor of ceramics at University of Illinois and artist Erin Furimsky, visiting professor at Illinois State University and Heartland Community College,

“Lavish and Lush” is an exhibition of experimental sculptural objects and small installations that are both excessive and obsessive in concept, composition, and materiality. Each artist in this exhibition possesses a lavish and lush aesthetic, creating prolific works wrought with sumptuous surfaces, ornate renderings, and sensual textures that are both visual and tactile feasts. Like feast on food, one feels comforted and nourished, but if the consumption continues the experience shifts uncomfortably to one of over consumption and repulsion”.

• AWARD: 2012 Arts Innovator Award, Artists Trust/The Dale and Leslie Chihuly Foundation

• SHOW: “American Dreamers: Reality and Imagination in Contemporary Art” , March 9th –  July 15th,  2012,  Centro di Cultura Contemporanea at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence,  Italy

• REVIEW: NY Times Review of “An Exposition in Florence Focuses on American Artists in the City”

• AWARD: 2011 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award Winner

• INTERVIEW: “Mandy Greer: Saskia Delores’ Shut Up Dream Crusher Project”

• INSTALLATION: “Mater Matrix Mother and Medium” on-going process-based installation, performance and community workshops, April 21 – May 31, 2012, Seattle Center’s NEXT 50 Program

• PERFORMANCE: “Saltus Chori Aevum”, the premier of the “Mater Matrix Mother and Medium” multi-media performance, May 5th and 6th, 2012, 7pm, Seattle Center

• INTERVIEW: The Seattle Channel’s ‘Art Zone’; April 27, 2012

I have been in Florence, Italy all week installing a new/remix installation called Cynosura to be part of the exhibition “American Dreamers” at the Centro di Cultura Contemporanea at Palazzo Strozzi!   Curated by the delightful Bartholomew Bland from the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers New York, and also the incredible Franzisca Nori from the CCC Strozzina, the last several months have been a whirlwind of preparation, and intense attention to details, all leading to the opening tonight!

From the CCCS website:

Does the “American dream” still exist? Since 11 September 2011 the United States of America has witnessed the collapse of its sense of invulnerability and security, but the ability to dream and the will to believe in the future have maintained their central place in the idea of “being American”.
The exhibition comprises a reflection on the work of artists who use fantasy, imagination and dreams to build alternative worlds to the increasingly complex reality of life today. Some condense the essence of reality into miniaturised systems while others expand outwards into space, and yet others feed on fantastic, dreamlike images or reflect on such symbolic themes as the home and the family, or the mass media imagery, which play even today a central role in the construction of the myth of the American way of life.

More soon, after the revealing tonight!  The CCCS is a labyrinth in the old ancient wine cellars of the Strozzi Palazzo, this time sending us winding through small sparkling worlds of fantasy made predominantly of humble materials or the detritus of the outside world.  The shapes and forms of the building itself along with the exhibition design vision of Berlin artist/designer Markus Bader, lends to the sense of the entire show being one meandering installation.  I’m thrilled to see what people will think…more soon after tonight!

Paul installing at CCCS, Florence Italy