Mattoon Street, Art in the Orchard and other News

It's been a long time since I managed to write, and so much has happened.  I'll share what's coming up first, and then fill in the gaps.  This weekend, Sept 12/13 is Mattoon Street Arts Festival in Springfield. This is always my favorite fall festival, and this year it is probably the only one I'll do, (though you'll still be able to find my work in a variety of local shops, and on etsy). Stop by and visit!

 

Want to melt some glass with me? You can sign up for fall glass beadmaking classes through the Yellow House in Palmer on October 17 and 24th.  Also, please get in touch if you'd like to set up a welding class.  I have a few people interested already and we can work together to schedule it. 

Another event that is definitely worth checking out is Art in the Orchard in Easthampton. I built a large outdoor sculpture- Empty(v)- for AiO, and am thrilled to join a team of 28 fabulous artists who contributed to creating this awesome sculpture trail.  This will be open through October 31, so you have plenty of time to get over there.  

I also completed 2 new projects- one dealing with blood and how we see it, which I showed to its first audience at Vermont College of Fine Arts Summer Graduate Residency, and the other about the historic practice of Water Cures, presented at Historic Northampton, and supported by Northampton Cultural Council.

Blood Imag(in)ed is an interactive installation that uses blood as a site of inquiry into our feelings about disease and the body. The installation offers a playful, interactive space in which people can imagine then create their own blood sample using cast wax cells. As a point of refrence, viewers refer to a blood vessel collaged with blood cell images of varying diagnoses. When complete, viewers document and share their blood portrait, adding to a collective, creative conception of blood imaging. Drawing on the visual language of both art and science, the space incorporates a 'lab' environment with a cell replication station and a specimen collection. 

Water as Cure and Transformation was a show of contemporary artwork at Historic Northampton inspired by water cure treatments popular in the mid- 1800s, especially Northampton's own Round Hill Water Cures. The exhibition included 1850s medical artifacts from the museum's collection, and an homage to the four humors and their associated temperaments. A hanging sculpture of steel and paper incited viewers to consider vulnerability and intervention into the body. Also on display were a series of small resin castings paralleling water cure diagrams, and a large abstract steel sculpture evoking the flow of water through an ailing body. 

Artifacts from the collection

Homage to the Four Humors

Untitled (Flow)
Steel

Shower Bath, Wet Sheet Pack, Cataract Bath
cast resin, text from Water Cures Journal

There's lots more on the horizon, but that's all I can wrap my brain around today! Happy Labor Day!

Mucky Boots? Spring Treats!

It's been a long winter, and I'm thrilled about all things spring beginning! Beyond enjoying the warm weather for hiking, biking and not freezing in my studio, this means new projects, events, and a spring sale.  Read on...

I'm working with the Royal Frog Ballet crew again to put on a new show called the Muck Boot Banquet on April 17 and 26.  Performers, chefs, musicians, sculptors, dancers and farmers will converge to stage an outdoor performance and eating event at Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton, MA.  Part spring celebration, part dance theater, part kinetic sculpture installation and part feast, the piece is a celebration of season and place. Vibrant, vivid, sharp, comic and tasty, it takes the audience through a walking feast of sensations. Song, scrumptious spring victuals, flowers, extravagant hats, lusty stories, and frolicking nonsense are all on the menu!

My theme is frivolity and I'll be making a maze of sorts, speckled with opportunities to play and enjoy each other's spring energy as the show wraps up. For tickets, visit the fancy shmancy ticket reservation page NOW! Tickets are selling out quickly.

I'm excited to share that I'll be teaching a Women's Welding Workshop on May 17/18 at my home studio. If you've ever wanted to experiment with steel fabrication, here's your chance!

I mentioned Local ARTery: Arts and Crafts Demonstration Day in my last post, but want to make sure you remember because its going to be fabulous!  Artisans of WMASS is putting on Local ARTery at Yankee Candle on May 3, and it promises to be a really fabulous event.  Over 30 artisans will be there demonstrating how they make their work, including jewelry,  glass, ceramics, weaving, knits, painting, tie dye, shoe making and more. Come learn and support the many talented local artists!

Other quick notes:

• "Spawn", the large piece that I built for last month's show at APE Gallery, will now reside at Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton. So... if you didn't get a chance to check it out, go sample a beer from Easthampton's first microbrewery and look it over. 
  
• To share my spring enthusiasm,  I'm offering 20% off my steel spiral mobiles between April 14- 20, and 20% off vegetable earrings and pendants between April 21- 28.  Order through etsy and use the coupon code SPRING20. 
  
• Save the date, May 31, for Hadley Creates, an afternoon of craft workshops with local artisans Heather Beck Designs, Lou's Upcycles, 230am Studio, and Katie Ray Arts. This will be an affordable opportunity to try your hand at various crafts. More info coming soon. 
• I'm painting a mural with my students at SMK Elementary School in Ware over our spring vacation.  I'm so excited to see the childrens' energetic and colorful drawings take over the entrance to our school! Here's a bit of the design in progress. 
  

• An interesting event you might want to check out (I know I will) is the new Alchemy Fair in Holyoke on April 26/27. Craft, Food, Workshops and Entertainment all brought together at by AWM member Malea Rhodes Pottery at Gateway City Arts Complex, Holyoke, MA.