ArtSake

For Nathalie Miebach, the mysteries of art and science are best engaged by their individual components: colors and temperatures, reed and wind speeds. Through a time- (and hands-) intensive weaving process, she creates sculptures that visually interpret scientific data. The resulting sculptures - intricately crafted yet curiously natural - invite new understandings of astronomy, ecology, meteorology. Nathalie’s work, recently seen in a solo show Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University, is now on exhibit in 185th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art,  at NYC’s National Academy Museum (through 6/8). Locally, you can see her work in Transformations in Wellesley College’s Jewett Gallery (through 4/4).

Her explorations of art and science go one step further in her latest project, which first translates weather data into musical scores, and then into sculptural forms. The project will reach a peak this Sunday, March 14, 3 PM, at the Lily Pad in Inman Square, Cambridge, when the Axis Ensemble performs “Hurricane Noel,” one of Nathalie’s weather data musical scores, and she’ll present sculptural work from the same score.

We asked Nathalie about this project, the pull of the sciences, and her relationship with music composition.

ArtSake: Your recent works - including those that won you a 2009 Artist Fellowship - are woven sculptures derived from weather data. What sparked the addition of musical scores?

Nathalie: It’s a hard question for me to answer, because I’m still trying to figure it out myself. It has to do with nuances that are embedded in numerical behaviors that scientific instruments don’t pick up, but the human mind does. In that lies an imperfection/perfection of the human mind I find incredibly fascinating and beautiful. I’m becoming more interested in the way humans understand weather as opposed to how instruments record it. Musical notation has been a type of mediator in helping me give these nuanced, idiosyncratic ways of understanding weather a larger voice.

It was, in part, my growing interest in the nuances of behaviors I was observing in weather. After looking at meteorological data collected from weather stations and my own daily observations collected from a specific environment, I began to notice how I was relying and beginning to trust my own observations more than my instruments. Observing weather by looking at a computer screen versus daily observations taken from one’s own backyard yields a completely different understanding of the environmental interactions of weather. While I think both are important, I began to notice that my own observations were a lot more nuanced by the things I was observing in the environment around me. Weather never happens in isolation, but always in the context of an environment. Thus, observing weather is about observing an environment reacting / influencing weather.

That nuanced reading wasn’t coming through in my translations from numbers to sculpture. This is how I came to reach for musical notation, as a vehicle to allow me to integrate and give voice to that little glimmer of nuance that was creeping into my observations. Just like a composer can tweak and shape the notes of a melody, I can use tempo and rhythm to nuance the musical translation of the data into musical notes. The notes themselves are still based on actual numbers I collect.

I am beginning to realize how important it is to me to feel a little naive about what I’m working on. I seem to constantly gravitate towards that stage in learning where you don’t really know what you’re doing, cross your fingers and somehow intuitively hope for the best. I certainly feel that way about music and have been lucky enough to work with such patient (and polite) musicians who are both very forgiving and honest about my musical inabilities.

ArtSake: The sound clips from the project you’ve posted on your website are fascinating. What has surprised you about the musical performances? And how have you found the process of collaborating with musicians?

Nathalie: The biggest surprise to me is how it all comes back to sculpture. I got into musical notations because the sculptural language I was using was no longer reflecting the way I was interpreting and understanding the data. Translating scores into sculptures and listening to musicians interpret the data has made me rethink sculpture in so many ways. After sitting in on a rehearsal with the Axis Ensemble, I went back to my studio and just stared at my sculptures for two hours. I was blown away by the ease at which music can express so elegantly nuances of behaviors. Rather than feeling discouraged, I feel my respect for sculpture has been deepened because of music.

There is something very liberating about inviting other voices into the translation process. When I give musicians the score, I tell them what it’s about, what portions of the score are flexible and those that aren’t. Then I pretty much withdraw and give them lots of freedom in determining rhythm, tempo, number of instruments, etc. For me it’s important that they make it their own, for this is the whole purpose of inviting others into the translation process. It gives me other examples of interpretations that I can then use to reevaluate my own sculptural translations of the same score.

ArtSake: I’m curious about your background in the sciences. What drew you to weather in the first place?

Nathalie: I don’t have a background in science in that I was never formally trained, aside from a few continuing education courses I took / am taking at Harvard Extension School. However, I love science and the fact that the whole premise of it rests on doubt. I’m learning about the ocean right now and can’t get over the fact of how amazing barnacles are!

My first sculptural interpretations of data began with astronomy. Weather came into the picture in 2006 when I had two consecutive artist residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center. Zach Smith, a climate educator from the Wright Center for Science Education, knew of my work and approached me about a project on climate change. At the time I knew I wanted to figure out a way for me to collect my own data to see how the sculptural translation process would change. Until then I had relied mainly on data sources from the web. I was to field-test one of their instruments for the Wright Center on the beaches of Cape Cod, while I would be tutored on how to collect science data. I knew very little about weather and only the most basic Climate Change 101 information. I soon realized that if there was any hope for me to truly understand the complexity of climate change, I had to first understand weather. That’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since.

ArtSake: What is it about weaving that allows you to access and explore such complicated material?

Nathalie: Weather is not really complicated when you break it down to its components. It gets messy when you draw back and watch this cacophony of variables interact. And even worse when you look back in time as well. That’s what meteorologists do on TV with their complicated models. I stay safely in the realm of just a few variables, so that things never get too complicated.

Weaving is incredibly versatile and allows you to pretty much build anything you want. As a Lego fanatic, there is nothing that brings me more pleasure than building something with my hands. Weaving is the next best thing to that. Weaving also takes time, which allows the questions I am addressing to evolve and change over time.

ArtSake: This is a question we sometimes ask in our nano-interviews, and I always find the responses interesting: what artist do you most admire but work nothing like?

Nathalie: Since I barely play the recorder, this should qualify. My biggest visual influence has actual been classical music, particularly Minimalism. I’m particularly drawn to Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Arvo Paert and John Adams for creating music that has always felt to me extremely sculptural. Incidentally, it is also the kind of music I reach for when I am trying to figure out some structural problem I am facing or when I am looking at data and trying to discern behavioral patterns. I guess it helps me think.

Spending time with these composers for days and days in my studio has also made me very aware of the very act of listening and how important it is in sculpture. So much of understanding sculpture and weather seems to be the act of simply listening - for materials, for behaviors, for structure, for meaning. And there is nothing simple about that.

When music finally did enter the process, I had this keen sense that it was this presence in my studio that had been sitting there for a long time, asking itself what took me so long.

Nathalie Miebach is the winner of the Blanche E. Colman Award and a 2009 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Sculpture/Installation. Her work is included in the upcoming book publication of Data Flow 2: Visualizing Information, from the Germany-based publisher Die Gestalten Verlag. Nathalie will give artist talks at Salem State College (March 22nd, 11 AM) and the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly (April 22, noon), and will participate in “The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft” at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, May 29, 2010 – Feb 6, 2011.

Images: all work by Nathalie Miebach; detail of URBAN WEATHER PRAIRIES - SYMPHONIC STUDIES IN D (2009), Reed, wood, data, 16×15x15 ft; SHOULDER WEATHER THROUGH NEW URBAN FRONTIERS (2009), Wood, data, reed, 45×45x27 in; score for STORMY WEATHER, INTERNAL STORMS; EXTERNAL WEATHER, INTERNAL STORMS (2009), Reed, metal, wood, data, 33×40x60 in; URBAN WEATHER PRAIRIES - SYMPHONIC STUDIES IN D (2009), Reed, wood, data, 16×15x15 ft; score for HURRICANE NOEL.

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Of Interest to Public Artists: NEFA’s next brown-bag lunch topic for artists is called An Insider’s View on Image Submissions. This session will focus on preparing images of your work for public art submissions. Art and architectural photographer Charles Mayer will share tips and suggestions on how to get the best photographs of your work. December 10, 2009 from 11:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M. at The Cellar, located at 319 A Street (in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood of Boston). Space is limited. RSVP to ljohnston@nefa.org

Photographers: Smithsonian magazine’s seventh annual photo contest. Contestants may enter photographs in five categories: The Natural World, Americana, Altered Images, Travel, and People.
Deadline: December 16, 2009

Hamptons International Film Festival – Screenwriters’ Lab. The Hamptons Writers’ Lab pairs established writers with up-and-coming screenwriters. The mentors advise in a one-on-one laboratory setting while additional daily events bring the participants together with board members, sponsors, the local artistic community, and other friends of the festival. They are seeking a broad selection of screenplays addressing a wide subject matter including works that explore science, technology, mathematics, invention, and engineering. Fore more, contact the Hamptons International Film Festival – Screenwriters’ Lab, 3 Newtown Mews, East Hampton, NY 11937, (631) 324-4600, programming@hamptonsfilmfest.org
Deadlines: December 23, 2009 (regular); January 8, 2010 (late)

Call to Cambridge area artists to exhibit  in the CAC Gallery
Cambridge Open Studios Preview Salon Exhibition. For more information contact Jeremy Gaucher, Public Art Administrator, at jgaucher@cambridgema.gov or 617-349-4388.
Deadline: Registration due December 31, 2009

Image credit: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/anta0050.htm
Photograph of An Antarctic fur seal pup and a Gentoo penguin. Image ID: anta0050, NOAA At The Ends of the Earth Collection. Location: Antarctic Peninsula. Photographer: Dr. David Demer, NOAA/NMFS/SWFSC/AMLR. From NOAA Photo Library.

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On December 5, at 5 PM, a tobacco shed in Amherst will transform with light.

Shedding Light is a public art project conceived and created by artist/architect Erika Zekos and supported by, among others, the Town of Amherst, the Amherst Cultural Council, and the Swartz Family Farm, where the project will be on display December 5-31. Erika’s past projects include Greetings from MY City, which plays off the familiar concept of the tourist site postcard to allow young artists to engage and depict their own communities. Similarly, Shedding Light starts with a familiar sight of the Pioneer Valley - an aging tobacco shed - and illuminates it with a new vision.

We asked Erika about the origins of the project, her background as an artist and architect, and the makings of a truly public work of art.

ArtSake: How did the concept behind Shedding Light, lighting up a tobacco barn from the interior “like an architectural lantern,” first occur to you?

Erika: When my family moved to Amherst five years ago we would drive around to explore back roads and hidden places. The very first thought I had when I saw the tobacco sheds for the first time was, “We grow tobacco here?!” and the second was, “Wow, these buildings are so beautiful!” Seeing the sunlight streaming into a shed through the long, vertical panels I knew immediately that I wanted to switch it up and let the light stream out and into the landscape at night.

As with much of my work, the idea is to call attention to the environment (both built and unbuilt) and create a forum for the questions that arise as a result of the work. The more I’ve learned about the uniqueness, simplicity, and single-use design of the tobacco sheds the more intrigued I’ve become. It’s not my intention to celebrate smoking, but it’s certainly an interesting history. Believe it or not, Connecticut Valley shade-grown tobacco is among the best in the world and is used as the wrapper layer of fine cigars. In the peak growing years of the 1920’s to 50’s 30,000 acres were planted… now it’s more like 3,000 acres. It’s no surprise then that the sheds built to dry the crop are quickly vanishing as they fall down or the land is developed into shopping malls and housing. I wanted to do something that would highlight the distinctiveness of this architectural vernacular and the vision of the shed filled with light in a winter landscape was a clear idea from the very beginning.

ArtSake: How does your use of a tobacco shed on the hydroponic Swartz Family Farm relate to the core premises of the project?

Erika: Shedding Light is about appreciating the ingenuity and sustainability of our farming history while simultaneously looking ahead to the future. These sheds are 150 year-old examples of the kind of simple, sustainable design that everyone is talking about today; they harnessed the wind to naturally ventilate and dry the tobacco.

Collaborating with the Swartzes is perfect really because it conveys both sides of the coin. Joe and Sarah Swartz are third generation farmers dealing with the realities of bringing their product to market and working 24/7 to make a living. This doesn’t leave much for preserving aging tobacco sheds (and the shed that I’m using for Shedding Light is in pretty rough shape at the moment). But at the same time the Swartzes are very forward-thinking farmers themselves: leasing much of their land to neighboring farms and growing lettuces and herbs year round in their greenhouses, using only 1/10th the water that conventional farming requires for the same product. They also operate a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that invites the community to participate in the success of the farm and share in the harvest.

While the physical aspects of illuminating the shed (light and shadows) will be the easiest to understand, it’s the underlying connection to the community (farming, local history, etc.) that I hope keeps this project in the memories of those who experience it.

ArtSake: Nora Maroulis of wunderarts called your project “public art at its best/most impactful.” Both Shedding Light and your Greetings from MY City project use artistic creation to enhance and build awareness of one’s community. Is it this interaction between art and community that appeals to you, as a public artist? And is it the same appeal that drew you to architecture?

Erika: Absolutely! The interaction between the cultural and physical landscapes is such ripe territory for exploration in both architecture and art. Architecture is about designing a better built environment, but ultimately, it’s about the experiences of the people who live in it… my public art projects deal with the architectural too, but tend to be more hands-on with regards to the interaction. They invite you in and ask you to think. Greetings from MY City (a collaboration with my great friend Gretchen Schneider) is a perfect example of that. We invited kids from neighborhoods in inner city Boston and Holyoke to create photo essays of the places and spaces that are important to them. Ultimately we create postcards with a selection of those photos, creating a document of their stories for the wider community.

ArtSake: The Shedding Light project has become a community event, in every sense. The December 5 shed lighting includes a book event, a panel exploring sustainable living and green architecture, and a concurrent art exhibit including your photos of the shed and drawings by Scott Tulay. Can you describe how the project built to this exciting level of public involvement?

Erika: Well, every project that I’ve ever done as an architectural designer, teacher, or public artist has invited collaboration and the sharing of ideas.

In the case of Shedding Light, the conception of the piece was the easy part; actually seeing it to fruition has been an incredible journey. As soon as I talked with Terry Rooney, the chair of the Amherst Public Art Commission, it was clear that this would blossom into something bigger than the original idea. Terry suggested the idea of offsetting the energy used by the lights with a solar array, which was a perfect fit with the original concept. I then began the work of finding a shed to work with, talking with a professor at UMass Amherst about involving his students in the photovoltaic design, to a lighting designer, electrician, historians, etc. I’m also working with the Amherst Young Artists Coalition to have students document the installation in photos and film.

We were just about to go ahead with the photovoltaic panels when the state ended its rebate program (two years earlier than anticipated due to high demand) so at this point we won’t be installing solar array, but we’re optimistic about bringing this to the farm in the spring.

All that said, a public education and exhibit component has been a part of the project from the beginning. Scott’s drawings are gorgeous and compliment the installation perfectly.

This is Amherst’s 250th birthday year and it’s a great opportunity to bring a celebration of agriculture and architecture and art to the public in this way.

Shedding Light will be on display at the Swartz Family Farm, evenings from December 5 through December 31, 2009. There will be numerous events on Saturday, December 5, at the Nacul Center in Amherst. At 2 PM will be a lecture by Dary Purinton and Dale Cahill, co-authors of Tobacco Sheds of the Connecticut River Valley; at 2:45 PM is the panel discussion “Living Green from the Past to the Future;” 3:30 is the opening reception of a concurrent exhibition of new drawings by Scott Tulay and Erika’s photos of Shedding Light. At 5 PM at the Swartz Family Farm, the shed will be lit up for the first time.

Erika H. Zekos is an architectural designer, teacher and artist committed to projects in public art, education and architecture. She has completed numerous public art installations in Boston and western MA, as well as practiced residential, institutional and educational design. She is currently the western MA Program Coordinator and master teacher with Learning By Design in Massachusetts, a non-profit design education program. Erika has also taught architecture at Roger Williams University, Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also a dedicated community member, serving on the boards of the western MA chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Amherst Education Foundation and the parent organization of her children’s school.

Images: photo from a test lighting of SHEDDING LIGHT by Erika Zekos; Scott Tulay, BARN INTERIOR (2009), ink, pastel, charcoal, 22X30 in; Scott Tulay, SHED AT NIGHT (2009), ink, pastel, charcoal, 30×40 in.

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It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving. Shopping malls are abuzz. And so are the arts! (In a much different way but, still.) Here are some interesting links from around the art-o-webs.

For artists of all disciplines
Last week, the National Endowment for the Arts held the Cultural Workforce Forum, a daylong discussion of how art works as part of the real economy. An archive version of the event, with video and slideshows, is now online.

At North Shore Art Throb (which, by the way, you should read if you make, enjoy, or are in any way curious about the art scene in the North Shore region), Dinah Cardin has a thoughtful post on online arts writing and where it’s headed.

Film
The documentary film The Way We Get By, featured on our blog here, received an IFP and Fledgling Fund Grant for Outreach and Community Engagement. Up top, TWWGB!

At the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery in Charlestown, a group of Massachusetts filmmakers will screen film & video works as part of Art Gone Green, an arts program exploring environmental issues. On Tuesday, December 1, 2009, at 6:30 PM in the A300 Lounge, there will be a screening of short films by eight filmmakers, including Kristin Alexander, Tim Geers, and Michael Sheridan. On Friday, December 4, 6:00 PM, is a screening of Talking to the Wall: The Story of an American Bargain. The film, by Western Mass. filmmaker Steve Alves, takes a critical look at the effects of chain stores on communities. Both events are free.

Writing
In the Porter Square Books blog, Cambridge author Matthew Pearl discusses why his book reading events include surprisingly little reading from his books. (And he shares details, some historical, some imagined, of Charles Dickens’s reading at the Tremont Temple in Boston).

Sadly, bidding is closed, but check out the original postcards from Grub Street’s Postcard Auction. The Boston-based writers’ service organization sent 29 blank postcards to writers and auctioned off the resulting creations. I especially like the slogan on Pagan Kennedy’s card: “Drink the Kool-Aid of your own invention. Write.”

On the Valley Poetry blog, Allegra Mira looks at seven female poets who light her way as she considers her future on poetry (one is recent MCC Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow D.M. Gordon!).

In the WomenArts blog, Northampton novelist Susan Stinson writes movingly about the ways the arts have sustained her in hard times.

Twenty-five years ago, when I was in college, my father warned me that a livelihood as an artist would be hard to come by, especially for a woman. I spent the next couple of decades throwing everything I had into making the strongest art I could, working around practical constraints – like jobs—as necessary. Now, four published books and one wandering manuscript later, during a year in which individual, national and global economies are all shaky, I’m facing the unpleasantly specific realities of being close to fifty and far from financial stability. My father was right.

He was right, but so was I.

Read the full post.

Performing arts
The Explore Boston Theatre blog features a host of voices from the theater community with its lively Proust Questionnaire. Example question/answer… Q: “Which historical figure do you most identify with?”
A: “Scheherazade and Bugs Bunny.” (from writer/performer John Kuntz).

Berkshire Creative notes that the American Airlines in-flight magazine profiles playwright Julianne Hiam as a way to highlight the creative heritage of her region: the bucolic (and artistically prolific) Berkshire Hills.

Visual arts
In the Boston Globe, there’s a great description of photographer Cary Wolinsky’s solo show Fiber of Life, at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset. MCC connections: Cary is a member of the artists collective TRIIIBE along with Alicia, Kelly, and Sara Casilio; TRIIIBE received an Artist Fellowship in Sculpture/Installation in 2009. Also, the article is written by Robert Knox, a past finalist in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction. (For other fellows/finalists news, read our monthly Fellows Notes).

Finally, Boston Handmade opens its Downtown Gallery in Boston’s Downtown Crossing today. The gallery features handmade work of artists and artisans - a great way to de-Black Friday your artistic consciousness.

Image: Matthew Rich, WALL (2006), mdf, latex paint 25×34x1.5 in.

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The above video was sent our way by artists involved with Second Nature, currently on exhibit at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

The show, recently explored on ArtSake, features art of the natural world, by Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ‘06), Susan Lyman, Michael Mazur, and Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09).

‘ course, there’s no substitute for seeing the work in person, but this clip (shot and edited by Bill Warner) offers a lively sample of the art and artists. (I especially dig the piano music based on Nathalie’s weather patterns.)

Second Nature is on view at PAAM through November 29.

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This month, Second Nature opens at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. The exhibition, conceived by participating artist Susan Lyman, features work by past Artist Fellows Vico Fabbris and Nathalie Miebach, along with Susan’s paintings and sculptures and woodcut prints by Michael Mazur. The artists grapple with the natural world, bringing “nature” into works of art in arresting ways, such as Vico’s lushly detailed botanical drawings (of completely invented plants and flowers) or Nathalie’s reed sculptures derived from scientific data. We asked Christopher Busa (founder and editor of Provincetown Arts and the curator of the exhibition) about the exhibition’s origins, its artists, and its parallels to the natural world.

ArtSake: Each artist’s work, despite being thematically linked, is so stunningly unlike the others’. Was that kind of diversity the intentional result of your curation? The natural outcome of putting these four artists together? Some of both?

Christopher: Diversity is simply the recognition of individuality. As Robert Motherwell said, “The only thing I have over any other painter is that I’m the only one who can make Motherwells.” I had an initial title suggestion that suggested global positioning, with the four artists coming from the four quadrants of the planet. So, yes, there was an initial desire to represent diversity in the selected artists.

ArtSake: Michael Mazur agreed to participate in this show in July, shortly before he passed away. Can you talk about his woodcut prints in Second Nature: how were they selected? And how do they speak to his greater body of work?

Christopher: I have written two detailed articles on Mike Mazur that deal with his complex understandings of nature (ed. note: articles appear in the 2006 and 2008 issues of Provincetown Arts). He was working on a final series of nature pieces when he passed away, and those were not available to us. So we took eight works that we could group in pairs.

ArtSake: In the show’s catalog, you note that Vico Fabbris was highly influenced by the 19th-century artists of the Hudson River School, who wanted to record their impressions of the American wilderness before it disappeared. Do you think that same danger - the natural world at risk - is at play in Second Nature?

Christopher: Vico is certainly raising the question you note, and he does it remarkably with his fiction of “extinct” plants, asking how we could know that they never existed. The poet Mark Strand has a poem in the September 24 issue of the New York Review of Books, “The Golden Frogs of Panama”: “And the polar bear and the whooping crane, / And soon the panda and gorilla will be go down, One by one, never to be seen again, / Not by us, not by anyone.”

ArtSake: I was fascinated by the Hans Hofmann dictum you quote in the catalog: “The creative process lies not in imitating, but in paralleling nature - translating the impulse received from nature into the medium of expression, thus vitalizing this medium.” What surprised you about the way these artists “paralleled nature” with their creative visions?

Christopher: Regarding Hofmann’s centrality in accessing nature: remember what Hofmann said to Pollock when he first saw his paintings. Hofmann told Pollock, “You don’t paint from nature.” And Pollock replied, famously, “I am nature.” Hofmann encouraged artists, “not to imitate nature, but to imitate nature’s processes,” as he put it in another statement. My father worked with Pollock, and I’ve heard a lot of stories.

ArtSake: The original idea for the exhibition came from participating artist Susan Lyman, in 2006. Can you talk about the path Second Nature has taken, from then to now?

Christopher: When we were deciding on a name for the show, last spring at Susan Lyman’s tree-top living room, Susan had created a list of about thirty possible titles. We came to agreement quickly that “Second Nature” had special resonance in that each artist was mature and had absorbed her or his formative years and created a unique signature, a natural way of doodling that is unmistakably one’s own.

Years ago, I curated a show called Crosscurrents: the New Generation, which included Susan and five other artists. It was an important show. Helen Wilson, Tabitha Vevers, Jim Peters, Susan Lyman, Bert Yarborough, and Richard Baker were in the show, and their works were exhibited at the East Hampton Center for Contemporary Art. Some of the artists and I journeyed there for the opening and a panel talk on the situation, then, in painting. My father was an artist who had a house in East Hampton, and I spent some time there. Jim Peters drove us in his van Bert, Susan, Richard, and myself. We visited Pollock’s grave, and Jim’s young son sang “Impossible Dream.” Susan’s husband, Doug, carried me down the stairs as part of the rescue squad when my back went out from stress of doing the publications that had jammed up and come out in rapid secession. So Susan is dear, and this new encounter of four friends is very life affirming, which nature always shows us.

Second Nature will be on exhibit at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, October 16 through November 29, with an opening reception Friday, October 16, 2009. There will be a free gallery talk with the artists and curator Christopher Busa on Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 12:20 PM in PAAM’s galleries.

Images: Susan Lyman, KEEPER OF CRANBOURNE CHASE (2009); graphite and oil on board, 16×16 in; Vico Fabbris, NAUTILUSITUM, watercolor and graphite, 22×15 in; Nathalie Miebach, TEMPORAL WARMTH: TANGO BETWEEN AIR, LAND, and SEA (2008), Reed, wood, weather data collected on Cape Cod, 36X38×32 in.

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Call to artists: Wounded in Action: An Art Exhibition of Orthopaedic Advancements. The exhibition will be a tribute to injured troops, civilians, and the orthopaedic surgeons who are caring and have cared for them as they served and/or serve our country in time of crisis. This exhibition is open to all artists with an interest in this theme. Artists need not have been military personnel, orthopaedic surgeons, or personally injured in war themselves.
Deadline: October 15, 2009

HarborArts: Large-scale outdoor sculpture on loan at Boston Harbor Shipyard call to artists. Eligibility: Open to all artists/designers/teams in the US and internationally. Students welcome. HarborArts seeks to implement an outdoor artwork loan program for a limited number of large-scale, 2D, and 3D works at Boston Harbor Shipyard in East Boston, Massachusetts. Works will be exhibited on a rotating schedule lasting a minimum of 3 months to several years, depending on availability and feasibility.
Deadline: Monday, November 9, 2009

Calling all furniture, lighting, product, interior, or environmental designers.
Modern Painters Magazine and Louise Blouin Media invite designers to participate in the inaugural competion Re:Vision Design Awards. First prize is $10,000 and two finalist awards are $2,500 each. Submissions from across the design spectrum that thoughtfully explore new ways to live, work, play, and interact in the domestic environment are encouraged.
Deadline: November 17, 2009

Image credit: Photograph of Bessie Colman courtesy of NASA (NASA, GPN-2004-00027). Additional biographical information on Ms. Colman courtesy of NASA: Born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas to a family of sharecroppers, Bessie Coleman grew up in poverty. Her father abandoned the family when she was nine, and her elder brothers soon left as well, leaving her mother with the four youngest of her thirteen children. While taking care of her younger sisters, Bessie completed all eight available years of primary education, excelling in math. She enrolled at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma in 1910, but lack of funds forced her to leave after only one term.

Five years later, she left the South and moved to Chicago to join two of her brothers, Walter and John, where she worked as a beautician for several years. An avid reader, she learned about World War I pilots in the newspaper and became intrigued by the prospect of flying. As a black woman, she had no chance of acceptance at any American pilot school, so she moved to France in 1919 and enrolled at the Ecole d’Aviation des Freres Caudon at Le Crotoy.

After returning briefly to the United States, she spent one more term in France practicing more advanced flying before finally settling back in her birth country. She did exhibition flying and gave lectures across the country from 1922 to 1926. While flying, she refused to perform unless the audiences were desegregated. She was test flying a new plane on April 30, 1926 when it malfunctioned, killing both her and the mechanic who was piloting it. Her career as the world’s first African American pilot inspired many who followed.

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Red: It’s more than a color
Cambridge Art Association call to artists and all media. Juried by Carl Belz, Director Emeritus, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. Prospectus available on Web site or send SASE to 25 Lowell St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Deadline: October 16, 2009

Art Gone Green
The Art Gallery at Bunker Hill Community College is looking for Massachusetts artists, Boston-area artists in particular - painters, photographers, printmakers, sculptors, digital video, installation, mixed media artists, etc. - whose subject is the environment, climate change, and sustainability. A broadly interpreted exhibition theme inclusive of varied media e.g., mixed media, 2-D mediums, sculpture, collage, installation, constructions, & printmaking, including computer applications and digitally based works. Send your information to: artgallery@bhcc.mass.edu
Deadline: October 21, 2009

Yo Soy Latino Art Contest
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Sociedad Latina is sponsoring a citywide art contest to showcase the diverse talent of Latino artists in Boston. Accepted submissions will be featured at their celebration on October 15h at White Hall at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Written, visual, 3-D, and video are all accepted. Application instructions: submissions and questions can be sent to Lydia Emmons at Lydia@sociedadlatina.org
Deadline: work accepted the week of October 1.

Image credit: Library of Congress via pingnews. Lee, Russell, 1903- photographer. Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

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Put on your wetsuits and dive in.

Call for entries for HarborArts, a large-scale outdoor sculpture on loan at Boston Harbor Shipyard. Eligibility: open to all artists/designers/teams in the US and internationally. Students welcome to apply. HarborArts seeks to implement an outdoor artwork loan program for a limited number of large-scale, 2D and 3D works at Boston Harbor Shipyard in East Boston, Massachusetts. Download the HarborArts international call for entries here.
Deadline: November 9, 2009

Funding available: The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s Grants Program provides cash awards to cultural organizations and local artists engaged in projects that help creating a strong, stable, and diverse arts and culture industry on Cape Cod, and contribute positively to the quality of life and economic vitality of the region. Preference is given to proposals that enhance the arts education of learners of all ages on Cape Cod, and to collaborative efforts within the arts community. The AFCC does not award grants for general operating expenses. Complete guidelines for grant applications are available here.
Deadline: October 9, 2009

8th Annual Female Eye Film Festival has an open call for films and screenplays. Films must be directed by a woman. The Script Development Program is open to men with the provision that their screenplay feature a female protagonist. Entry Forms available here.
Deadline: September 30th, 2009

Image credit: Photo above public domain Web site database. For more on the history of surfing, check out Bruce Brown’s documentary film The Endless Summer (1966).

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The second annual Art in the Park exhibition kicked off last night in Worcester’s Elm Park. The Worcester Cultural Commission’s exhibition (with funds provided by the Massachusetts Cultural Council) features 15 artists who created 20 large-scale contemporary sculptures. The exhibit runs through the end of September. Artists include Lisa Barthelson, Rutland; Michael Frassinelli, Holliston; James M. Kitchen, Chesterfield. Watch this interview of them discussing their work.

Be sure to see today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette as well as this video for more on the show.

Learn more about the MCC’s Local Cultural Council Program.

Photo credit: Image of Lisa Barthelson’s Nest from Worcester Cultural Commision

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