Weaving Other Peoples' Memories

I'm counting down the days until I show my collection of "woven memories" at The Blue Sage and then at the library. I'm hoping to capture as many stories as I can before this time. I've been really enjoying spending so much time with each memory, imagining it, weaving it, printing it, and thinking about the memory-holder. Here are some photos that show the result of silkscreening on the warp of my loom and then weaving it up:

Hats hearts and halos

I seem to weave in and out of creating here at Elsewhere. Not only do i change hats as residency director, carpenter, dreamer, mother and sometimes as fellow artist in resident, but have recently re-organized the costume closet and added my personal collection of hats to the mix!

The sky is white with millions of angels today, and I am moving out after haveing an extraordinary and healing month in the gingerbread house.  This month has been focused on painting a commission, and well... painting, and painting, just the act of painting.... picking up the brush and putting color on it, not doing the dishes, the computer up dates, the broken heart...

I became sensitive to my oil paints two years ago and have been transiting from being an oil painter to being a water colorist, to not really painting.  Being here this month has eased open a wall in my heart, and color seems to be allowed to spill through once again.  Nothing physical has changed, no new paints, or tricks, just an energy has shifted, a magic.  New eyes and an open heart.  A soft knowing.

My 10 year old daughter Riven Sky was here this month as well. We would peek out the gingerbread window in the morning before getting ready for school to see if “grandmas restaurant” (my mother, Karen, the Residency manager who lives in the basement as well as the pottery studio) was open for breakfast, and it was a lot of the time!  Riven spent most evenings after school putting her music on in the studio and choreographing dance routines, or watching Lane weave on the loom, completely immersed.  She did a couple dance performances here during this month for artists and friends.

This is my commission finished! (not the best pics though)

This is my painting in progress...

Happy new years, welcoming 2013!

Autumn Colors/Winter Mountains

It has been an extraordinary Fall this year around Elsewhere. How effortlessly beautiful Nature can be and I am so grateful to have landed/grounded/fallen into this divine scene. Events around Paonia are keeping us so busy it is hard to track them. With the ArtLibrary merging with the Blue Sage, getting ready for winter, the influx of residents and their glory, haunted houses, and Sheep walking in the road...

how could we ask for more excitment.

Just as the seasons change from abundance to stillness, from colors to the blanket of snow-- we will try to post the many pigments of Elsewhere.

love,Lauren

Collaboration with the Heart and Soul Project!

Collaboration with the Heart and Soul Project! 

Hello! I'm Lane, one of the residents here at Elsewhere Studios. I've been here for a month and have been working on some fiber based sculpture, drawing, sewing, and weaving.

One of the projects I'm working on is in collaboration with the North Fork Valley Heart and Soul Project (http://www.northforkheartsoul.com/index.html). The project has received a grant to research what makes the NFV unique, what people like about it, and where they want to see change. All of this research will help inform future decisions about the towns and will serve as a guide for better communication and community planning.

It just so happens that before arriving I had planned on doing a multi-media project inviting community members to tell personal stories about Paonia. So I've joined forced with the Heart and Soul project and am now in the process of experimenting with ways to print writing onto the the warp (vertical threads) on my loom. I will invite community members to write their stories, which I will print onto the threads. Participants will be invited to weave up the fabric with their stories embedded in the fibers. No previous weaving experience necessary! The "woven stories" will then be displayed in public spaces around town, as close to the location of the original stories as possible. I will guide walking tours to these locations and provide maps for independent exploration.

This is what the words look like after they're silkscreened onto the warp and before they're woven. I'm still in the process of figuring out the best way to make the words clear.

 

The fabric after it's been woven.

I've also been doing a lot of brainstorming about specific questions that I can ask community members about their memories of Paonia. I originally wanted to collect previously unshared memories, but realized that it's really hard to think of a specific memory or story that you've never shared. Above is a chart of a bunch of questions that I thought might help people access specific memories of Paonia.

I decided that I'd better test these questions out for myself to see if I could answer them and to see which ones most inspired me. My most recent home is Portland, OR, so this is the location of my most recent "home" memories.

Hopefully I'll find just the right printing technique pretty soon here and then I'll be ready to start talking to people around town and inviting them to weave up their memories. If you live in Paonia and are interested in telling a story, let me know!