Perspectives

Such an amazing opening reception, juror's words and all around amazing exhibition by @wisconsinvisualartists

So grateful to have not only one but 2 pieces accepted to this exhibition. So humbled to have my installation taking up the middle of the space on the second floor connecting the space and letting the work speak to each other. I made this installation in 2021 without fully realizing how it might evolve in other spaces or welcoming comfort and conversation.

People received welcoming thoughts and heard awards announced while gathering both within and around my piece. I just don't really have words.

Having my friends there supporting me and witnessing other people step close to my woodcut or interact with artwork in general is just such a profound gift to share with others. This exhibition is one of the best I have ever been in or seen. I'm so proud of us Wisconsinites!! 💕💕

Thank you to all the artists, juror's, curators, WVA folks and all those folks who do behind the scenes work. We appreciate you 💓

Views of installation " What Connects us" and "Refinement Artists" on view at Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac. Exhibition runs through April 16. Don't miss it!!

Photos 1, 2, 8 & 10 taken by @artdosemagazineweekly

Photos 3 & 4 taken by @mary_jane_connor

Photos 5, 6, 7 & 9 taken by @lalajean_g

Exhibition opening recap

What an amazing reception for TMA Contemporary at @troutmuseumofart

Incredibly proud to be among such a diverse array of artwork from across WI.

Thanks to all jurors, preparators and museum staff! Shout out to @samantha_timm for taking the time to chat with me, talk a bit about the jury process and making me feel so welcomed in the space. A future visit to Saint Kate Arts hotel is definitely in the cards 😊

After a very rough week, my husband arranged to have our kids watched so that he could be at the reception with me. I got to see many friends and many artists I've never met in person. I teared up several times hearing directly from people what my work and my words have meant to them. @ritayannyart 😉

Hearing people reflect that my installation felt like an embrace, a cocoon, a nest is deeply satisfying. I'm so glad so many people could interact and connect with this piece once again. The opportunity to exhibit What connects us again is all I could have hoped for.

I'm going to make arrangements to go back and see everything all over again. I hope you visit, the TMA Contemporary Exhibition is up through August 15th.

An added note: After many years of wearing a mask nearly everywhere, I took a chance not wearing a mask around so many people. It was nice to say fuck it but I'll likely continue to mask up for awhile because it felt strange to leave my health in the hands of so many people. I will be taking home tests in a few days. I don't feel judged by not masking for 1 night but I do still feel responsible for the care of others and it is important to me to continue to do that

TMA Contemporary Opening

TONIGHT!!

TMA Contemporary Exhibition reception 5-8pm
The Trout Museum Appleton WI

So happy to be included among 100+ cutting edge WI artists.

So excited to see how my installation" What connects us" is installed. It's the first time I have ever had anyone beside myself install an installation piece which is very freeing.

My family has decided to stay home but I'm hopeful to make new connections with artists and see artist friends.

Can't wait!!

If you're hanging out in Madison please stop by Communication for the Meaningful Connections exhibition reception 3-8pm featuring artwork centered around themes of connection. I had a sneak peek of most of the exhibition and it's fantastic.

It is not lost on me that my installation being shown at the Trout Museum and the works being exhibited at Communication are all about connection and community.

In a world, within systems that categorize, compete, or make it seem like consumption will solve the problems of discord, connection is our antidote.

Selected to be part of TMA Contemporary

Super stoked his installation " What connects us" is going to the Trout Museum of Art in Appleton for the TMA Contemporary Exhibition.🎉

It's such a warm feeling to have my most abstract conceptual work included in one of the most competitive juried exhibitions in WI among amazingly skilled colleagues and friends.

To pick up on a sentiment I mentioned earlier this week
This is not the first time I have entered work into this juried exhibition and it's not the first time I have even entered this installation into a juried exhibition. There are many factors that lead to either acceptance or rejection and most of it has nothing to do with your work or you as a person. It has everything to do with timing, how your work speaks to other submitted work, if there is space AND the subjective tastes of the jurors themselves.

If I have learned anything in the past decade of being an artist it is to accept rejection gracefully, to not take it personal. I have also learned not to make artwork I think will get into exhibitions or I think will sell. ( it is totally fine if you do this) I make artwork I want to make because if I don't those thoughts and ideas will consume me.

I say all this because it's important to celebrate these moments and also keep this space here transparent and real. I tell you all of this because I wish someone had talked about this stuff with me and in general artists need to talk about all the hidden elements.

This installation is about all of the patterns in nature and our bodies that overlap and connect. Transparency always invites conversation, welcomes our imperfections and our complex intertwined connection.

Congrats to all accepted artists and to those that received a " no for now" please continue to make the art that opens you up and sets you alight.

Photo from Interconnected an exhibition at Wisconsin Lutheran College last fall depicts 2 of 4 panels of this installation

Sneak peek "What Connects Us"

Another sneak peek

Here's the view from inside the installation " What Connects us" out through the gallery entrance.

The deeper you dig and the farther you expand roots the more encounters of reciprocal relationships can be found. Everything really is intricately connected. Life on this planet is chaotic and yet ordered all at once.

This installation is a practice of entanglement.

The install is representative of intertwining of mycelial networks as much as it is about any other seemingly random ( but not) pattern of branching.

The process of creating this work was also a practice of connection, as well as of letting go and trusting. I did not plan how this would look I just started and let the materials guide me.

When you see it I hope it reminds you of life full of complexity and patterns. We can listen, let go and trust that the patterns that this piece represents will bring lives closer together.

Hope to see you at the opening this Friday 5-7pm at Wisconsin Lutheran College Schleuter Art Gallery

Image Description: 2 yellow earth tone branching patterned art panels with holes hang on either side of glass doorways. In between the panels there are shadows with holes that look nest- like. There is a figure reflected in the glass ( me)