VENUS poets and fiber artists reflect

Today begins an amaz­ing cross media col­lab­o­ra­tion in of all places…our frozen North! Actu­ally, Duluth, MN and its’ sis­ter city Superior,WI have a very active art com­mu­nity on the shores of the great­est muse of all Lake Superior.

My dear friend Erika Mock is not only an amaz­ing fiber artist but also very devoted to bring­ing art to every­day peo­ple which as it hap­pens is one of the Major goals of this site and the pro­grams I am devel­op­ing through it. An inter­est­ing aside the pho­tos you see on this site of weav­ing looms, hands knit­ting thread and yarn bins are all Erika. Begin­ning in ‘4 Erika, our mutual friend Brenna and I col­lab­o­rated in a cou­ple year long project we dubbed Persephone’s Voice. Over the span of a year I pho­tographed them as they worked and as they exhib­ited their work. The goal was to doc­u­ment the cre­ative process in a way that they as artists could use to share with their patrons. The year cul­mi­nated in a gallery show that was noth­ing short of amazing.

So the rest of this post comes from Erika who will be pro­vid­ing me with updates and news dur­ing the course of the show…take it away Erika!

Yes­ter­day we hung a  huge tapes­try loom  (5ft X 13 feet tall) that we are invit­ing any­one who wishes, to weave into.  The loom project will be ‘unveiled’ at the recep­tion. This inter­ac­tive weav­ing is to invite the com­mu­nity to have an oppor­tu­nity to

The Venus Loom for collaboration

add voice and hand,  to cre­ate  with tex­tiles and poetry  in har­mony with the theme of  the exhibit.…..Venus…
(planet.  Morn­ing Star.  Evening star.   God­dess.
The fool.  Spon­tane­ity.  The abil­ity to laugh at self.  The aha moment.  The energy present in com­mu­ni­ca­tion and cre­ative process that trans­forms and engages in new ways.The abil­ity to expand view­points.  Life force.  Beauty.)

In the spirit of the exhibit, we are tak­ing a broad approach.….par­tic­i­pants can use the mate­ri­als pro­vided or bring some­thing per­sonal or worldy to include… whether it be tan­gi­ble, fiber or not, a wish, a hope, a state­ment.
As well as fiber: fab­ric, grasses, wire,  plas­tic bags, etc, we invite words, wishes, poems also.  These can be writ­ten on fab­ric strips of paper and woven in.  We are telling peo­ple the fol­low­ing things:

• since the begin­ning of time our tex­tiles have held our stories
• com­mu­nity is that which you wish to share
• col­lab­o­ra­tion is will­ing­ness to work together.

Please invite.…. your cre­ative imag­i­na­tion,  a sense of play, and an open heart

Wednes­day nite the Duluth Knit­ting guild (an off­shoot of the MN Knit­ters guild with an office in the Tex­tile Cen­ter) lended their hands and spirit and patience to help fin­ish the warp and prep mate­ri­als.  A knit­ting group.… you are ask­ing.  I was thrilled with this because it  was a won­der­ful stretch and oppor­tu­nity to bridge worlds for all of us!  I look for­ward to hav­ing them back.
below is a quote from their guild leader:

Thank you so much for open­ing up this oppor­tu­nity. I, like you, believe that we all have an artist within and projects like this help to legit­i­ma­tize the art — work women have done for centuries.

Poster for the Venus col­lab­o­ra­tive event

North End Art Gallery and Red Mug Cof­fee­house cor­dially invite you to join us for a dynamic col­lab­o­ra­tive exhibit and 7 weeks of events, fea­tur­ing 20 renowned poets and 20 regarded fiber artists.

Venus: Poets and Fiber Artists Reflect
Thurs­day Sept 11 -  Thurs­day Oct 30

• Sat. Sept 20:  Round table con­ver­sa­tion… 2-4pm Recep­tion…  5-8pm (music by Geor­ganne Hunter, harp and  Kevin Ostedahl, ham­mer dolcimer)

• Sat. Sept 27:  Eclipsed… 7pm  Patrick Eller, Kathy McTavish, Sheila Packa  Mul­ti­me­dia Performance

• Sat Oct 4: Poetry Night … 7pm Bar­ton Sut­ter, Liz Minette, Rebecca Par­adis, Con­nie Wanek, Cal bennson

• Sat. Oct 11:  Inter­twined … 7pm 2 Writ­ing Groups

1.  Rachel Mock, Jen­nifer Der­rick, Tera Freese, Kyle Elden
2.  Deb­o­rah Cooper, Ann Niedring­haus, Can­dace Gins­berg, Anne Simp­son, Ellie Schoenfeld

• Fri. Oct 17:  Signs Out of Time …  7pm Belili Pro­duc­tions doc­u­men­tary film the story of archae­ol­o­gist Mar­ija Gimbutas

• Sat Oct 18:   Poetry After­noon…  3pm Louis Jenk­ins, Jim John­son, Yvonne Rut­ford, Bob Mon­a­han, Richard Gruchalla

• Sat Oct 18:   Beauty:  The Invis­i­ble Embrace  10am –3pm Fiber Work­shop with Erika Mock .… call to reg­is­ter  715.392.1150

• Sat Oct 25:  Clos­ing Recep­tion .… 5-7pm (music by Kathy McTavish, Cello)

Exhibit coor­di­na­tors Erika Mock, Ellie Schoen­feld, and Jo Wood have arranged events to fos­ter artis­tic expres­sion, invite com­mu­nity con­ver­sa­tion, and  raise imag­i­na­tive energy in all of us.  Col­lab­o­ra­tion was inten­tion­ally cho­sen  to unleash pos­si­bil­i­ties The par­tic­i­pants reflect the diver­sity of poets and fiber artists cre­at­ing work in Wis­con­sin and Min­nesota.  The activ­i­ties sched­uled offer an oppor­tu­nity for artists and the com­mu­nity to come together, share thoughts, and enrich one another.

Events are free and open to the pub­lic. (work­shop offered on a slid­ing fee scale)
Funded in part by grants from the Com­mu­nity Oppor­tu­nity Fund of the Duluth Supe­rior Area Com­mu­nity Foun­da­tion and the Wis­con­sin Arts Board.
.….….….….….….….….….….….….…
For more infor­ma­tion con­tact:
Arna at 715.392.6007 or
info@neartscouncil.org
Erika Mock at 715.392.1150
www.neartscouncil.org
.….….….….….….….….….….….…..
“This col­lab­o­ra­tion has cre­ated fer­tile ground for the imag­i­na­tion to soar…“
Kit East­man,  com­plex sur­face design
St. Paul, MN

“Artists and writ­ers spend a large part of time work­ing in soli­tude.  I am glad to col­lab­o­rate with visual artists because their images trig­ger my own cre­ative work.   This project inspired me to put together a chap­book just for the exhibit, “Love’s Cloth.”    I hand col­ored the cover of my chapbook…it’s avail­able as a lim­ited edi­tion.  “
Sheila Packa, poet
Duluth, MN

“When a poem arrives full grown, the result is a delight like no other.  I crave those mys­ti­cal vis­its of the muse, who­ever she is, when­ever she comes.

But there is another ecstasy which I expe­ri­ence on occa­sion in the writ­ing of poetry, an expe­ri­ence which is rep­re­sented in this show.  That is the spark cre­ated by col­lab­o­ra­tion — col­lab­o­ra­tion between emo­tion and nature, between idea and expe­ri­ence, between word, form and music, and, in this show, the col­lab­o­ra­tion between fiber artist and poet.

Leslie Williamson White shared with me her sense of an aging woman’s body — in a self-portrait fiber torso and in her words.  She also shared a book she loved about the mythol­ogy of Aphrodite or Venus.  I responded from my own expe­ri­ence as a woman older than Leslie and with my knowl­edge of poetic forms that could order images — both those from Leslie’s fiber cre­ation and from the earth.

I believe, work­ing alone, Leslie and I could not have cre­ated works with the res­o­nance which came from the echoes between us.  I am con­vinced this com­plex cre­ativ­ity is a mys­ti­cal expe­ri­ence which is no less mirac­u­lous than my hoped for visit of the poetic muse.  “
Ann Flo­reen Niedringaus, poet
Duluth, MN