A big two days of installation and then a week of alterations. Mother nature jumped into the mix using forty mile an hour winds to influence the sails! In the first week! The alterations continue, and soon I will be performing with these Stonehengesque meadow forms.
Photo by Marshall Webb
Sometimes you just need a break from weaving! Here, studio assistant, Jacob Lumbra performs "sail" with different materials.
Trial run for both sails and dogs. At Shelburne Farms, in Shelburne, Vermont, for Burlington City Arts' Of Land and Local exhibition opening October 10th.
One, out of a hundred of my favorite things about the residency at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont is talking with the visitors who come to the Breeding Barn, a place where I have called studio for the past two months. People from all over the world visit this extraordinary farm. I get several visitors a day and some tours coming through with many questions about what I am doing. Is that fur? Why would you put sails out in the fields? Then I get the memories of their grandmother weaving or their father's farm. I love it when I get helpers along the way, because the meditative process of weaving of materials together with others is a bit like a quilting bee, and the conversations are priceless.
University of Vermont professor, Cami Davis and her Environmental Art students were a wonderful part of this. We wove and talked about aspects of contemporary art. It was great to have inquisitive, engaged young artists. Thanks to all for their help.
Cami Davis, Professor from University of Vermont and her students in the Environmental Art class.
I'm happy to announce that Jacob Lumbra will continue on to be my studio assistant in August. Welcome Jacob!
And I love it when friends visit! (missing photo: Artist Wylie Garcia and her son Asa)
Mima Tipper has some great stories!
Steering Committee member for my Contemporary Pastoral project, Charles Tipper, and his son, budding architect, William Tipper (soon to be an intern here with me).
Vermont artist, Kath Monstream and her family.
Sharing a studio can be tricky business. Your mate may play music you can't stand or interrupt a thoughtful morning. Other times they inspire through their own actions and work. I think me and my studio mates are going to get along just fine. I love their music! Don't worry, soon I will show you the land that inspires breath.
Contemporary Pastoralism Steering Committee:
I am grateful for this supportive committee comprised of farmers, artists, writers, entrepreneurs and art historians who are guiding the vision of the Contemporary Pastoralism project.
Sarah Bliss
Sarah Bliss is an artist and filmmaker who explores the relationships between body, place, language and memory. Her work engages both personal and social history, examining in particular the experience of religious faith and the consequences of both its demands and its absence.
Rosalyn Driscoll
Rosalyn Driscoll is an artist living in Western Massachusetts whose sculptures, installations, collaborations, research and writing explore sensory, embodied perception and somatic experience. She is a core member of Sensory Sites, an international collaborative collective of artists and writers based in London.
Stephen Kiernan
Stephen Kiernan is an author, musician and father who lives in Vermont. His most recent book is The Curiosity
Karen Kurczynsk
Karen Kurczynski is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her book The Art and Politics of Asger Jorn: The Avant-Garde Won't Give Up will appear with Ashgate in 2014.
http://www.umass.edu/arthist/kurczynski.htm
Nicki Robb
Nicki Robb is the Director of The Land Stewardship Program at
The Hartsbrook School, in Hadley, Massachusetts
Charlie Tipper
Charlie Tipper calls himself the idea broker. He helps manifest big dreams through ingenuity and clear insight and vision. Tipper’s specialty is redevelopment and is currently working on the Moran plant in Burlington, VT
contact: nancy@nancymilliken.com
