ArtSake

Throughout her creative life, Christian McEwen‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’11) encounters in art and literature have taught her a deceptively simple lesson: slow down. The writer, who has worked in poetry, prose, film, and theater, recently published a new book, World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down (Bauhan Publishing, 2011), about how slowing the pace of life can lead to breakthroughs in learning, wellness, and – perhaps most pertinent to artists – creativity.

We asked Christian if we could share a section of her new book, as well as some of the tactics she suggests for expanding creativity through a more measured mode of living.

A TINY STONE, A FISH
When I spoke with Thomas Clark at his home in Pittenweem, I asked if there were any assignment, any special “homework” he might propose for an apprentice poet of today. His answer startled me.

“I would ask the young poet to choose some simple task, something very ordinary and non-utilitarian, and ask them to repeat it at regular intervals. For example, one might climb a hill, pick up a stone, carry it back down, and then take it back up the hill the following day.”

The task would be pointless in and of itself. But doing it would create what Clark called “a continuum,” a context in which small events could resonate: a counter-story to the larger, public one.

Clark’s response sounded a little crazy to me at first. But the more I considered it, the more I came to see it as a kind of koan, one of those wise, unsettling conundrums from which, with luck and diligence, a certain striking revelation may emerge. “To learn something new,” said the naturalist John Burroughs, “take the path today that you took yesterday.” All professions have need of such devoted practitioners, willing to push past their own boredom, their own comfortable familiarity, in order to arrive at something new. As Proust once said, “The true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having fresh eyes.”

One thinks of Goethe, who trained himself to watch leaves as they grew, remembering each stage with such clarity that he could actually “see” their metamorphosis. One thinks of Denise Levertov, in her last years, addressing poem after poem to the peak of Mount Rainier, just visible above the rooftops of Seattle. Above all, perhaps, one thinks of the Swiss zoologist Louis Agassiz, and the extraordinary assignment he once gave a student.

In 1859, when Nathaniel Shaler applied to study at the Harvard laboratories, he was sent to Agassiz for an entrance exam. The first part of this had to do with languages and scientific classification, and Shaler passed with flying colors. He also trounced Agassiz in an impromptu fencing match. The second half of the exam was both simpler and more complicated. If focused on a certain preserved fish.

“I want you to examine this,” said Agassiz, presenting him with a fish in a tin pan. “I’d like you to find out everything you can, without damaging the specimen.”

Obediently, Shaler set to work. He expected Agassiz to return within a couple of hours. But Agassiz did not come back. Not that day, nor even that same week. Shaler kept on patiently, studying the fish, and on the seventh day, Agassiz finally put in an appearance.

“Well?” he asked.

Shaler pointed to all the details he had learned about the fish: its teeth, its jaws, its fins and scales and so on. Agassiz listened carefully. “That’s not right,” he said. And once again he vanished for an entire week.

Shaler returned, disconsolate, to his tin pan. Was Agassiz completely crazy? Perhaps he should have let him win that fencing match? But even while he puzzled over the professor’s methods, Shaler began to recognize how much he was benefiting from them. Each day he was learning more and more about that fish, a hundred times more than had originally seemed possible. And by the time he was accepted at Harvard (after a further two months of disentangling a box of mixed fish bones, and reassembling them into their different species) no one could have said that he was not truly qualified.

Tactics

• Choose any routine activity and allow it to become an end in itself. Pay attention to how this feels.
• Make a list of slow activities: a long train ride, a hand-written letter, gardening, etc. If possible, do at least one such “slow thing” every week.
• Buy a small notebook and carry it about with you at all times. Look and listen, write down what people say.

Christian McEwen, reprinted with permission from
World Enough & Time (Bauhan Publishing, 2011)

Hear an interview with Christian on the radio show Writer’s Life.

Christian McEwen has upcoming readings on November 3, 6:30 PM, with Mark Statman at the Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York, NY; November 10, 6 PM, at Boswell’s Books in Shelburne Falls; November 13, 4 PM, at Grace Church in Amherst (short reading and presentation); November 17, 7 PM, at Sky Lake Lodge in Rosendale, NY.

Christian also runs workshops on writing, creativity, and “slowing down” (those interested in hosting a future workshop should contact the artist). Upcoming workshops: January 27-29, 2012, Rowe Camp and Conference Center in Rowe, MA; February 25, 2012, 10 AM-3 PM, Genesis Spiritual Life and Conference Center in Westfield, MA; March 1-11, 2012, Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, NY.

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Years ago, Mira Bartók‘s work as an artist and writer was threatened when a car accident and subsequent brain injury made even the most basic functions of memory a major struggle. Yet rather than shy away, Mira makes memory a central organizing idea of her memoir about life with a schizophrenic mother; the book is called, in fact, The Memory Palace.

Similarly, the accident complicated Mira’s ability to piece together a life as an artist, making it harder to seek freelance work and grants. But she responded with relentless research, making herself an expert in grants and residencies, and sharing that expertise on her blog Mira’s List.

The Memory Palace was recently released in paperback, and on the cusp of a host of events in New England, we asked Mira about her book, her art, and her life as a multi-faceted, generous, resiliently talented artist.

ArtSake: One of the things I love about your book is its dual portrayal of an artist’s unconventional life and the challenges of living in a family touched by mental illness. Is it possible the same traits that have helped you thrive despite your mother’s schizophrenia have contributed to your successes as an artist?

Mira: Maybe having a certain level of curiosity, optimism, determination, and passion helped me to survive a challenging upbringing as well as thrive as an artist. Possessing those qualities certainly doesn’t hurt these days when the future looks so bleak.

ArtSake: In your interview with Terry Gross on NPR, you mentioned that the largest impact of your traumatic brain injury (TBI) was on your own self-conception as someone with boundless endurance and energy. Did the injury change the way you viewed yourself as an artist, as well? Did it change the way you create art?

Mira: I think that the way I view myself as an artist continues to evolve, but it always did, even before my accident. I grew up thinking I was a painter but that morphed into becoming someone who serves the idea, rather than the medium. There was, however, an earlier post-TBI period when I didn’t know if I had it in me to create anything at all of substance anymore. I was very frustrated because I would immediately forget what I wrote or drew the day after I created it – if I even had the energy to make something worthwhile. I still struggle with that from time to time. But nowadays, I think the biggest change is that I am much more choosy about how I spend my time. I have much less mental endurance now, therefore, I can only take on projects that mean a lot to me. It means saying no to a lot of things. What this injury did was take away the ability to have a day job and also make art.

ArtSake: On The Memory Palace blog, you’ve mentioned your disappointment that some responses to your book have focused on the rare instances of violence in schizophrenia. Have there been other reactions to your book that have surprised you?

Mira: My biggest surprise has been how widespread an effect my book has had on people. I get letters, very positive ones, from people of all ages, genders, races and backgrounds. I have also been astonished how many teens, boys in particular, have read and liked my book.

ArtSake: I’m fascinated by the range of your creative work. You trained as a musician, are an accomplished visual artist, and have written for both adults and children. How does your work in one artistic discipline interact and inform the others?

Mira: Okay Dan, full disclosure – I am not actually trained as a musician. I’ve only taken lessons here and there. But I dare to suck (sometimes). As far as all these disciplines interacting, I feel like they all inform one another. Music informs everything – I write out loud in a voice recorder and the words have to sing or they are not worth putting down on the page. I hear music when I work on certain drawings, like ones I am working on for an upcoming (far down the road) YA novel set in the Norwegian Arctic. I heard music while I was drawing my memory palace images for my book, which is partially why I filmed the drawing of it – so it could be used in a little stop-action animation with a sound track. When I get stuck in writing, I try to draw what I am thinking and vice versa. I think it is not only the way my brain works – one way of seeing overlapping the other – but it is also my way of recycling ideas and seeing what happens to an idea when it is used in another format.

ArtSake: I was interested to note, in your acknowledgements, that you thank Jedediah Berry, who was a colleague in the UMass Amherst MFA Writing Program. Can you speak about how having a community of writers and readers during the writing process has contributed to your work?

Mira: I think having a community of writers and great readers is imperative for an author, at least that is my opinion. We can help elevate each other, champion each other and give each other honest feedback. Everyone needs a b.s. detector once in a while because we don’t always use our most authentic voice. Sometimes we become too much in love with our own language and that doesn’t always serve the project at hand. A good reader can help your best self emerge on the page. And if you are doing muscular reading of good work, it can only help you learn how to edit your own work in a more refined and brutally honest way.

I don’t meet regularly with any writers right now but I think I would like to again in the future, after my book tour is over. And yes, Jedediah was really a godsend during this crazy process of trying to write a book. There were other editing angels along the way too, especially my friend David Skillicorn, who is a documentary filmmaker. I was about to send my book out to my agent until David read it. He made some suggestions that made me rip the book apart again and turn it into the one you see today. I also gave my book to non-writers to read: farmers, teachers, musicians, and others who are not professional writers but who love books.

ArtSake: You’ve moved around a lot in your life, including to some artistically auspicious cities, like Chicago and Florence, Italy. But it seems like you’ve found a home in Western Mass. What appeals to you, as a creative person, about the place you live now?

Mira: I really miss Chicago sometimes, especially being able to go to a major museum any day of the week. But my need to be in the natural world is a much stronger pull. I need to walk out my door and go right onto a forest trail and that is what I have here. I love the silence, the night-songs of coyotes, the stars that aren’t obscured by city lights, and the green, green world that is my backyard and the hills beyond. It is peace – pure and simple. It helps me to create from a quiet, timeless place without the perpetual pressure to be in the world of machines and noise and people.

ArtSake: Shelf Awareness has a cool interview with your editor Dominick Anfuso, who was drawn to the book as an uncommon mother-daughter story. Can you talk about the process of finding and working with your publisher?

Mira: Well, my agent, Jennifer Gates, sent my book out to a bunch of editors at publishing houses in NYC and created a feeding frenzy of sorts. Several editors bid on my book – one was even a pre-empted bid which I turned down because the editor called certain sections of my book ‘artsy.’ That word always makes me cringe. The editor is a fantastic literary editor with an amazing reputation and stable of brilliant authors but I knew she wasn’t right for this particular book. Plus, well, there was that artsy thing.

Anyway, I talked to the editors who interested me and in the end I chose Dominick Anfuso and Leah Miller from Free Press (Simon & Schuster). Not only was their financial offer good, these two editors felt like sensitive, warm, and funny people I’d want to not only work with but also sit down and share a meal. They asked me really smart questions about my work and didn’t try to tell me how they would change my book to fit their needs.

The funny thing is that I assumed that the more independent literary presses would be more innovative in their ideas about how my book could be developed but in this case, the opposite was true. Free Press was open to the most imaginative ideas and loved my unconventional structure, using snippets of my mother’s diary and my own art work to begin each chapter. And working with them was great. Basically, they asked me probing questions on my manuscript, questions that forced me to dig deeper emotionally, and the book you see now is the result of that more intense mining of my past. I would work with them again in a heartbeat.

ArtSake: Your blog has a treasury of superb advice for artists looking for funding (and we re-posted some of it on ArtSake). What’s the most important thing an artist needs to know, going into a funding search?

Mira: Some important things to know are: Where are you in your career? Are you emerging? Mid-career? Established? And what do you realistically need?

Also, it’s really important to know that when you are looking for funding, most larger grants and fellowships have deadlines nine months to a year before the award is actually given. So artists need to plan way, way ahead!

ArtSake: In so many ways, The Memory Palace is the book you were born to write. That’s why I am so fascinated to know what your next writing – or artistic – project will be. Any hints?

Mira: Dan, these days I am all over the map. I have been on book tour since January, except for a brief two month hiatus this summer. And my paperback tour won’t end until Thanksgiving. When I have had a minute or hour or two, I have been working on several things – some short flash fiction pieces and a radio documentary called The Sound of Memory that my husband, Doug Plavin, and I are working on for our new venture, North of Radio. But the project closest to my heart (and one that will take a lot of time which I don’t have right now) is an illustrated YA novel called Nine Valleys in One Twilight, set in the Norwegian Arctic during WW II. It’s based on two true stories but it is more speculative fiction than realism. Also, I am imagining the book as both a print book and something animated for the IPad. I have been thinking about this novel since 2008 and just haven’t had the time to dig in. Hopefully that can happen after this book tour is over! And hopefully someone out there wants to help me fund this thing because my Memory Palace book advance runs out in December.

Thanks for asking great questions Dan. Cheers!

You can experience a reading and/or discussion by Mira:

• Sunday, October 16, 3:30 PM, at the Brattleboro Literary Festival (co-event with Melissa Coleman), Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, VT
• Wednesday, October 19, 7:30 PM, Working Writers Series at Smith College in Northampton
• Saturday, October 22, 9:45-11 AM, “Telling True Stores” panel discussion at the Writeangles Conference (registration is closed but there is a waiting list) at Mt Holyoke College in South Hadley
• Tuesday, October 25, 7 PM, reading and slideshow at Augusta Savage Gallery at UMass-Amherst
• Thursday, October 27, 4-6 PM, Writers Harvest Benefit Reading (for the GCC Food Pantry) at the Library at Greenfield Community College

New York Times bestselling author, Mira Bartók is a Chicago-born artist and writer and the author of twenty-eight books for children. Her writing has appeared in several literary journals and anthologies and has been noted in The Best American Essays series. She lives in Western Massachusetts where she runs Mira’s List, a blog that helps artists find funding and residencies all over the world. The Memory Palace is Mira’s first book for adults. She is also co-founder of North of Radio, a multi-media collaborative that she runs with her husband, drummer and music producer Doug Plavin.

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Highly suggested: Think/Do/Experience one, some, or all of the following things in the next few days:

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12 (tonight) Alice Bouvrie‘s (Film & Video Fellow ’11) film Thy Will Be Done (see a clip, above) screens at the Marran Theatre at Lesley University, 7 PM, free. This documentary tells the story of male-to-female transsexual Sara Herwig in her journey to ordination in the Presbyterian Church. The artist and cast will be on hand for discussion.

THURSDAY, OCT. 13 Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) speaks at the Newton Senior Center, hosted by the Newton Art Association, free, 7:30-9:30 PM, coffee/discussion begins at 7 PM. Nathalie, who was recently featured at the Fuller Craft Museum and was a Global TED Fellow, transmutes weather data into 3D woven structures and musical multi-media art. This chance to get a glimpse into her brain is not to be missed.

FRIDAY, OCT. 14-SATURDAY, OCT. 15 The Think Art Conference takes place at Boston University. The event, which is free and open to the public and is organized by Toni Pepe (Photography Finalist ’11), is an interdisciplinary conference that brings together scholars and artists. This year, the participants explore the manipulation of memory and how the individual (and society) remembers.

SATURDAY, OCT. 15 The Boston Book Festival is a free, day-long schedule of events, readings, workshops, and other bookish happenings at Copley Square. While it’s hard to pick out a favorite happening among the power-packed day, this is pretty super: The Drum, an audio literary magazine founded and edited by Henriette Lazaridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06), is sponsoring PERAMBULIT. PERAMBULIT lets you experience a fictional narrative of the Boston Book Festival by listening to stories as you walk along the festival’s routes. Find out more about how you can hear stories by Ethan Gilsdorf, Jenna Blum, Daphne Kalotay, Matthew Pearl, Steven Brykman, Catherine Elcik, Becky Tuch, and Henriette Lazaridis Power, created especially for the Boston Book Festival’s Copley Square location.

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The Boston Book Festival is a free, day-long schedule of events, readings, workshops, and other bookish happenings on Saturday, October 15, 2011, at Copley Square in Boston. A number of past MCC fellows/finalists are among the presenters, including Jessica Bozek (Poetry Finalist ’10), who joins poets Stephen Burt and Sandra Beasley for the reading/discussion Poetry: Personae, Self-Portrait As….

Here, we super-briefly interview Jessica, a terrific poet and founder/host of the Small Animal Project Reading Series.

What’s the worst day job you’ve ever had?
I’m not sure if this is the worst, but it’s the weirdest. I moved to Barcelona for a year and taught English in my mid-20s. Because I couldn’t work legally, I ended up with a few regular private students who had seen my poster in a bookstore. Two of these students were huge devotees of American self-help. They each had distinct goals that we worked towards. One wanted to be able to give motivational speeches in English, so he read transcripts of self-help texts while I corrected his pronunciation and intonation. He also wanted to co-create an ESL curriculum for masochists, but I politely declined. The other was the Spanish delegate to a Tony Robbins conference in England. He just wanted to be able to have a conversation with Robbins should their paths happen to cross, so we enacted hypothetical situations. Sometimes I was Tony Robbins, sometimes I was Juan Garcia.

Computer, longhand, or typewriter?
All three. My poems start in a notebook, but only about 10% of that ends up on the computer, where I tinker endlessly. The typewriter is mostly for fun – love letters, gift tags.

Do you secretly dream of being a) a pop icon, b) an algebra teacher, and/or c) a crime-solver/writer a la Jessica Fletcher?
Crime-writer for sure. When I was younger, I wanted to be a PI. But now I’d settle for writer. Crime fiction is my word-candy. I love the late 60s/early 70s Martin Beck series by Swedish husband-and-wife team Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall (a poet!), Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books, and Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series. But Mankell gives me nightmares. The villains are such villains – they have no fear, and someone without fear scares me the most.

The unauthorized biography of your life is titled:
“Whenever there’s words on the walls, your face gets sucked into them.” My husband said this to me while we were at Mass MoCA – I can’t not read all the text beside a painting or drawing at a museum, even at the expense of not properly seeing the artwork itself.

Jessica will read her poetry and explore the persona poem as a form of self-portraiture in Poetry: Personae, Self-Portrait As… at 10:30 AM, Boston Public Library Washington Room, Saturday, October 15, 2011.

Jessica Bozek is the author of The Bodyfeel Lexicon (Switchback Books, 2009) and several chapbooks, including Squint into the Sun (Dancing Girl Press, 2010). Recent poems appear in 751, Action, Yes, Artifice, Black Warrior Review, Guernica, horse less review, and Sixth Finch. Jessica teaches writing at Boston University and runs Small Animal Project, a reading series in Cambridge, MA.

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The leaves turn in a bookish Massachusetts autumn.

On Saturday, October 15, 2011, Copley Square in Boston turns from ordinary Square-ness into a temporary monument to the thing we call “book.” The Boston Book Festival is a free, day-long schedule of events, readings, workshops, and other bookish happenings. Among the presentations for adults and kids are these with past awardees from our Artist Fellowships Program: Jessica Bozek (Poetry Finalist ’10) joins poets Stephen Burt and Sandra Beasley for the reading/discussion Poetry: Personae, Self-Portrait As…. Henriette Laziridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) moderates Fiction: Time Is… with Jennifer Egan, Peter Mountford, and Lawrence Douglas, and hosts the Flash Fiction Open Mic. Regie Gibson (Poetry Fellow ’11) hosts Page and Stage: Teen Spoken Word. Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) and Laura Harrington (Playwriting Fellow ’05) read in Local Talent: Readings in the Forum.

Another neato mosquito thing about the Boston Book Festival is the One City One Story campaign, which encourages the city to join together in reading one short story, which you can find at various literary hotspots throughout town. This year’s story is “The Whore’s Child” by Richard Russo.

Then, on Thursday, October 20, 3-5 PM, the Massachusetts Book Awards takes place at the Massachusetts State House. The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Center for the Book celebrates books written by Massachusetts writers or about Massachusetts themes. The event, which will be held at the Grand Staircase, will highlight the winners in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young Adult/Children’s. Find the 2011 shortlists.

Image: Toni Pepe (Photography Finalist ’11), INSTALLMENT TWO (2010), Archival Inkjet, 30×40 in. Toni’s work is included in the New England Photography Biennial 2011 at Danforth Museum in Framinghamsolo show, and her solo show The Gesture of Tradition is upcoming at the University of Notre Dame Art Gallery in Indiana. Also, Toni has organized the Think Art: Memory conference (October 14-15, 2011) at Boston University, bringing together scholars and artists to explore the manipulation of memory and how the individual and society remember.

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In September, past MCC fellows/finalists venture into imagined flora, faraway lands, outer space, the impermanent, the temporary, and the nearly not. (For starters.)

And now, we venture into our monthly round-up of the news of past awardees of our Artist Fellowships Program.

Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11) will be honored by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in a tribute program, on Sunday, September 25, 2011, 3 PM. Read more about the program on ArtSake.

Sally Bellerose (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’04) will read from her novel The Girls Club at Forbes Library in Northampton on Saturday, September 24, 2011, at 3 PM. The novel tells of the complicated, interconnected lives of three working class sisters in small town Massachusetts.

Congratulations to Alice Bouvrie (Film & Video Fellow ’11), whose documentary Thy Will Be Done now has a distribution partnership with New Day Films. The film will be appearing at Heart of England International Film Festival in the UK, September 7-18, 2011. The film, an excerpt of which won the artist an 2011 Artist Fellowship, will also be screening at the North Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Shreveport, LA on September 17 (12:30 PM) and September 20, 2011 (5:30 PM, followed by a panel discussion). Next month, along with a screening at the International Film Festival Australasia in Australia, the film will be shown at Lesley University‘s Marran Theater in Cambridge on October 12, 2011, at 7 PM.

Sarah Braunstein‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04) novel The Sweet Relief of Missing Children was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.

John Cameron‘s (Crafts Fellow ’11) work is included in New Hampshire Furniture Masters 2011. The annual auction is on September 10, 2011, at the Currier Museum of Art in NH.

Cheryl Clark (Poetry Finalist ’10) will read her poetry on Saturday, September 24, 3 PM, at Outpost 186 in Inman Square, Cambridge, as part of the Unaffiliated Reading Series.

Shawn Cody‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’07) new music theater work The Water Dream will have a staged reading as part of Shakespeare & Company’s Studio Festival of New Plays. The performance features Broadway veteran Anthony Rapp and takes place Monday, September 5, 2011 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. Read about the event in Playbill.

Rebecca Doughty (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo show of new paintings, called Nearly Nots, at The Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown. The show runs September 2-21, 2011, with a reception on Friday, September 2, 7-10 PM.

Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ’06, Drawing Fellow ’00) will have an exhibition titled Floragenis at the Rice Polak Gallery in Provincetown from September 1 to September 15, 2011. Opening reception, with the artist, Friday, September 2, 2011 at 7 PM. An interview with Vico Fabbris on his Floragenis exhibition at the Rice Polak Gallery will appear in the Provincetown Banner on Thursday, September 1, 2011, written by art historian and art critic Susan Rand Brown.

Long time organizer of poetry and interdisciplinary programs in Massachusetts, Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) has created a brand new organization, The Temp Series Project, to advocate and promote writing and art in the Commonwealth. Based in culture-rich Lowell, MA, The Temp Series Project will create interdisciplinary events, develop commissions, and host special showcases that highlight Massachusetts artists and promote their appreciation. Projects in the works include a temporary reading series, pocket poetry festival, and temporary public art. For more information, join The Temp Series Project on Facebook. The Temp Series Project was recently approved for fiscal sponsorship by Fractured Atlas.

Brian Knep (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11) is showing Healing 2 as part of the group show Building Expectation: Past and Present Visions of the Architectural Future at Brown University in Providence, RI. The show runs at the David Winton Bell Gallery September 3-November 6, 2011, with an opening reception and curatorial talk on Friday, September 9, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Jesse Kreitzer (Film & Video Finalist ’11) has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for his independent feature film, The Wake. The film, which was recently selected as a finalist for the 2012 Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter’s Lab, is the story of a grief-ridden social worker who cares for a dying woman in secrecy from his wife and two children.

Dawn Lane (Choreography Fellow ’10) will premiere a new work of dance, one potato, two potato, at the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow on September 2, 2011 (8 PM) and September 3, 2 PM and 8 PM. The work draws on aspects of Irish culture & history (i.e. knitting, the famine and Irish dance) to explore perceptions of excess, wastefulness, having enough, or nothing. Dawn’s MCC Fellowship, as well as a Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Creative Development Residency, helped pave the way for the new work. One potato, two potato is presented in cooperation with Jacob’s Pillow Community Dance Programs and Community Access to the Arts. Read Dawn’s post about the development of one potato, two potato, on ArtSake.

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) is among the artists with work in Lift Off: Earthlings and the Great Beyond at the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University in NJ. The exhibition is in the Main Gallery September 1, 2011-January 5, 2012, with an opening reception and catalog launch Thursday, September 15, 5-7 PM. Follow Scott’s new blog for more info on his upcoming solo show at the University Gallery at UMass Lowell, Astronaut: Paintings by Scott Listfield. That show will run November 7–December 2, 2011, artist talk & reception November 8, 3-5 PM. Finally, Scott is featured in a recently released book documenting the great Crazy 4 Cult art shows at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.

Christian McEwen‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’11) new book World Enough and Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down will be published by Bauhan Publising this month. The book reflects on how slowing down the pace of one’s life can have profound benefits, including on creativity.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has two solo shows in Massachusetts, this month: Musical Storms is on exhibit at the Cushing-Martin Gallery at Stonehill College in Easton from September 22-October 31, 2011, with an opening reception October 5, 6-7:30 PM. Another solo show, Changing Waters, is on exhibit at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown September 30-November 30, 2011.

Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo exhibit, Mopang: Recent Paintings on view at Lohin Geduld Gallery in NYC, from September 7 through October 8, 2011, with an opening reception September 8, 5–7 PM. A catalog with essay by Jonathan Franzen (who, incidentally, won our Artist Fellowship in 1986!) accompanies the exhibit.

Congratulations to Marlo Poras (Film & Video Fellow ’05), whose film-in-progress The Mosuo Sisters received a Chicken & Egg Pictures Liberty Grant.

Eric Henry Sanders‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) play Reservoir is being remounted at Theater 89 in Berlin (translated title: Haseks Heimkehr), following a successful production there in May. There was one performance in August, and upcoming performances September 9, 10, 16, and 17, 2011.

Tara Sellios (Photography Fellow ’11) is preparing for a solo show called Lessons of Impermanence at The New England School of Art & Design, this November 2011.

Peter Snoad‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) short play My Name is Art was staged at Artists Exchange in Cranston, RI, August 19-28 as part of their Black Box Theatre’s annual one-act festival.

Julia Story‘s (Poetry Finalist ’10) poetry was recently featured in TriQuarterly literary journal.

Steve Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ’11, ’05) currently has a piece in Night Vision, an exhibition on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City through September 16, 2011.

Frank Ward (Photography Fellow ’11) gave two presentations in Central Asia, in August, first presenting his work in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, followed by a lecture in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Jeff Warmouth (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’05) has a solo exhibition at the SHOW Gallery and Performance Space in Staten Island, NY. The show, called SuperJeffuBurgerMarket, runs September 10-October, 29, 2011, with an opening reception Saturday, September 10, 5-8 PM.

Ellen Wineberg (Painting Finalist ’04) has work in two MA exhibitions this months: she has four pieces in 24 Solo Shows at Bromfield Gallery in Boston, August 31-October 1 (opening reception Sept. 9, 6-8:30 PM). She’s also part of a five-person show, Exquisite Corpse at Deerfield Academy. The show, with work ranging from minimal to real, runs September 22-November 17 (opening reception Sunday, Oct. 2, 2-5), at the school’s Russell Gallery.

Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show at Sanford Smith Fine Art in Great Barrington, running through October 13, 2011.

Past Fellows Notes
Aug. 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
Apr. 2011
Mar. 2011
Feb. 2011
Jan. 2011

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images: Painting by Vico Fabbris, from the FLORAGENIS series; paintings by Rebecca Doughty, from the NEARLY NOTS series; Michael Hoerman’s digital rendering of Storehouse No. 1, a video installation proposed by The Temp Series Project in Lowell; cover art for Christian McEwen’s WORLD ENOUGH & TIME (Bauhan Publishing, 2011); Frank Ward, #3 (2009), Giclee print, 22X33 in.

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We’re excited to announce that the Massachusetts Cultural Council 2012 Artist Fellowships guidelines are now available. The Artist Fellowships are unrestricted, anonymously judged, competitive grants in recognition of artistic excellence.

There are two deadlines per fiscal year, divided by discipline, and applications are now being accepted in Drawing, Painting, and Traditional Arts. Deadline: October 7, 2011.

Beginning December 15, 2011, MCC will accept applications in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry. Deadline: January 30, 2012.

Who should apply? Generative Massachusetts artists who meet eligibility requirements (see guidelines) are encouraged to apply. Read our tips on applying for an MCC Artist Fellowship.

We know artists work in ways that are not always easily categorized. If you have any questions where your work might best fit in the program, don’t hesitate to ask us.

Read full program guidelines, eligibility requirements, and application instructions.

Image: Luke O’Sullivan, SUITCASE (100,000 DOLLARS) (2009), screenprint on wood, 18x13x11 in.

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Comics artists and graphic novelists: submit your stories to Harvard Bookstore’s Comics Contest, and you may just win inclusion in Minimum Paige, a comics/graphic storytelling anthology to be printed on the Cambridge bookstore’s in-house book machine, Paige M. Gutenborg.

Stories should be black and white, between 1-4 pages, and the original work of the artist. Deadline to submit using the bookstore’s online application is August 19, 5 PM EST. Learn more contest details.

By the way, we wrote about Harvard Bookstore’s print-on-demand service on ArtSake, focusing on what the service might offer for local writers. It’s exciting to see those publishing possibilities extend to graphic storytellers, as well.

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You might view the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan story as a key to understanding the scandal-devouring nature of American culture – a kind of tabloid Rosetta Stone. Or you might view it as an occasion to rock. In either case, you’d be right: Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera, returns the the A.R.T.’s Club Oberon in Cambridge for six performances July 18-21, 2011.

In early 2011, ArtSake hosted a conversation between writers Elizabeth Searle and Lise Haines, and Elizabeth discussed how the tumultuous mid-’90s saga of Olympic figure skaters Harding and Kerrigan captured her imagination. It provided the background of her novella-turned-blog-turned-film Celebrities in Disgrace and was the center-stage inspiration for her libretto in two operas – the most recent of which, a rock opera, is about to return to Club Oberon after a successful run in January and February 2011.

Listen to a review of TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA by local poet Richard Cambridge.

The opera is a darkly comic look at two women “going for the gold,” Olympic skaters whose rivalry reached a bizarre apex when Kerrigan (a Stoneham native, incidentally) was attacked on the ice, her legs clubbed by Harding’s ex-boyfriend.

On ArtSake, Elizabeth said of the scandal:

It was one of the first crazy tabloid stories that took over 24/7 news coverage. One of my inspirations for pursuing it was that at that time, the conservative commentator George Will made the comment, “This is a ridiculous story that has nothing whatsoever to do with life in America today.” And I thought, ridiculous story, yes, of course. But it has everything to do with life in America. I thought that back in ’94; I think it even more now. This story just carries for me. It touches on all sorts of themes of American life: jealousy, the glittery surface of these pretty skirts and girls skating, but violence right underneath it, just brutal violence. And this desperation for attention and fame and acclaim that they both in their different ways had.

Public sentiment about the scandal – and the two central figures – seems to fall to extremes. “I’ve been working on this crazy stuff for the last six years, having many conversations with people, and they get worked up about Tonya and Nancy,” Elizabeth said. This shaped how she and her collaborators crafted the show, making it more audience-interactive to invoke an almost “Roman coliseum kind of feeling.”

The opera – and the whole story – speaks, as Richard Cambridge puts it, “to the fleetness of fame, how effortless the rise & fall of our cultural heroes and heroines, how close we skate to the edge of our lives, (and) the soul-barter with our shadow selves.”

Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera, libretto by Elizabeth Searle, music by Michael Teoli, direction and choreography by Janet Roston, returns to the American Repertory Theater’s Oberon Stage in Cambridge, on Monday, July 18 and Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 8 PM, and Wednesday, July 20 and Thursday, July 21 at 7:30 and 10 PM. Presented by Paul T. Boghosian/Harborside Films.

Images: publicity still from TONYA AND NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA; Kristen Lee Seargent as Nancy; photos by Barry Weiss.

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Set off some dazzling fireworks (naturally, I mean safely and legally) – it’s time to celebrate July’s news and notes from past MCC fellows/finalists.

Shakedown, an exhibition at DODGE Gallery in NYC, includes work by Taylor Davis (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’99), Sheila Gallagher (Drawing Finalist ’10), and Laurel Sparks (Painting Fellow ’04). The show also features Massachusetts artists Robert de Saint Phalle, Jane Fox Hipple, and Douglas Weathersby, among others.

Rebecca Doughty (Painting Finalist ’10), Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), Frances Hamilton (Drawing Fellow ’98), and Dawn Southworth (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Finalist ’04) are all exhibiting work in Picture Books, featuring art in all media that pictures, or, references a book within the composition, or, is a book of some kind. The show runs at Clark Gallery in Lincoln through August 6, 2011.

Chuck Holtzman (Drawing Fellow ’06), Joel Janowitz (Painting Fellow ’08) and Harold Reddicliffe (Painting Fellow ’10) join Mary Armstrong, Carol Gove, Conley Harris, and Anne Lilly for an exhibition at Victoria Munroe Fine Art in Boston. The show of drawings, paintings, and sculpture runs through August 20, 2011.

Camilo Ramirez (Photography Fellow ’09) and Irina Rozovsky (Photography Finalist ’09) are exhibiting in a dual show of their recent photography, called Details at a Distance. The show runs at Fountain Studios in Brooklyn, NY, July 9-30, 2011, with an opening reception July 9, 7-10 PM.

An installation of the work of Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11), called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, will be on exhibit at the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville, through July 10, 2011. The exhibition features pastel drawings, sounds, and video from Karen’s final film, Taxonomy, which was completed one month before her untimely passing on May 30, 2011. There will be a memorial tribute to Karen’s life and work on July 10, 2011, 2 PM, at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville.

Sweetgrass, a film by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Film & Video Fellows ’11), will be broadcast on PBS as part of the POV series starting July 5, 2011.

Congratulations to Michele Caniato (Music Composition Fellow ’07) for receiving a Fulbright award. He will be in Helsinki, Finland for four months starting in September, hosted by Metropolia University and will be composing, conducting, and lecturing.

On her blog, Cheryl Clark (Poetry Finalist ’10) added an audio recording of her reading from the Commonwealth Reading Series this past March 2011.

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) has a great interview on the Mass Poetry Festival blog, where he discusses opportunities available at The Frost Place, a poetry education center where he is Director of the Advanced Seminar.

Janet Echelman (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) was recently interviewed by CNN!

Samantha Fields (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11) has a solo show, Ecstasy and Common Sense, at NK Gallery in Boston. The show will run July 6-29, 2011, with an opening reception July 8, 6-8 PM.

Laura Harrington‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’05, ’97) novel Alice Bliss is a People Pick, receiving four out of four stars in the July 4th issue of People Magazine. Laura will join JoeAnn Hart for a reading on Wednesday, July 6, 2011, 7:30 PM, at Gloucester Writer’s Center (call for start time). Laura will also have a joint reading with fellow debut author Rebecca Makkai at the Boston Public Library (Tues, July 12, 2011, 6 PM). And, she’ll have a talk, Q&A, and signing at Stellina’s Restaurant in Watertown, on Wednesday, July 13, 6-7:30 PM.

Gregory Hischak‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’11) new full-length play Volcanic in Origin had its world premiere at the Source Festival in Washington D.C. and runs through July 3, 2011. Read an essay about the play by its dramaturg LaRonika Thomas.

Congratulations to Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’11, ’07), whose A Girl and Her Room series is featured in a same-titled exhibition at The Mosaic Rooms in London, UK (through July 23, 2011). Also, Umbrage Editions will print a book of photos from the A Girl and Her Room series, scheduled for release Spring 2012. Rania’s exceptional work has recently been awarded the Legacy Award by Debra Klomp Ching in conjunction with the 17th Juried Exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography (through August 29); First Place at the Off the Wall Exhibit at the Danforth Museum of Art (through August 7, 2011); First Prize at The Julia M. Cameron Awards: Category Portrait, People and Figure; and Winner in the PDN Magazine Photo Annual 2011 in the Personal Category (featured in the June 2011 edition). Rania’s work is included in a number of group shows: University of Maine Museum of Art Photo National 2011 Exhibition (through September 24, 2011); Photographic Resource Center Exposure 2011 Exhibit (opening reception: July 21, 6:30PM, exhibit through August 21); Beirut Exhibition Center, Rebirth: Lebanon 21st Century Contemporary Art (through July 24, 2011).

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo show of works from her Cities and Shadows Series at Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, July 8 through July 20, 2011. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, July 9 5-7 PM. Rachel’s monoprint School of Pliers in Peril is featured in Crest Hardware Art Show in Brooklyn, NY, a show that features art inspired by and/or involving hardware. The show runs through July 30. Also, Rachel’s work was recently featured in Multiple/Unique at the Washington Street Art Center in Somerville.

Congratulations to Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09), who received a TED Global Fellowship! As part of the Fellowship, she’ll participate in the TED Global Conference, which will be held in Edinburgh (UK), July 11-15, 2011.

Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07) was one of the innovative thinkers invited to speak at the June 2011 TEDxBoston! Read a recent interview with Caleb on the Converse blog.

Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) is among the artists in Shifting Terrain: Landscape Video at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH. The exhibition runs July 2-September 18, 2011, with an opening reception July 7, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Masha Obolensky‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’11) ten-minute Girls Play has been selected to participate in The Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. The festival, now in its 36th year, takes place at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row in NYC on July 19-24. Read an interview with the playwright on the Festival’s blog.

Monica Raymond‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) story Ludd and the Perkadoodles was a runner up for the contestoria contest at HERE ARTS CENTER. Read it online.

Alison Safford (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’03) just completed a solo show at Gallery 303 at the New England Institute of Art.

Katy Schneider (Painting Fellow ’00) is featured in Inside/Out, a dual show with David Gloman of expressive landscapes and interiors, at studio21south in North Adams, through July 10, 2011.

Congratulations to Tracy Heather Strain and Randall MacLowry (Film & Video Fellows ’07), whose Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project won a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts!

Naoe Suzuki (Drawing Fellow ’06) is collaborating with the theatre company Dramahound Productions for a fascinating multi-media installation. Mi Tigre, My Lover at the Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, NY features a play based on Naoe’s paintings, which are inspired by early 20th century female tiger trainer Mabel Stark. The paintings serve as the backdrop for a play by Anne Phelan. The play runs June 25-July 9, 2011, at 306 17th Street, between 5th and 6th Ave, South Slope, Brooklyn.

Rachel Perry Welty‘s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) Rachel Perry Welty 24/7 at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Musueum was very favorably reviewed in Art in America Magazine.

Nine Houses: nine matted archival pigment prints by Maxine Yalovitz-Blankenship (Drawing Fellow ’83, Painting Finalist ’82, ’83), has just been published by Tahawus Press. The prints are in a clothbound boxed folio, limited to an edition of fifty, and are accompanied by text and poetry, written in response to the images, by Alan Lightman, Maxine Kumin, Florence Ladd, John Baeder, Elizabeth McKim, and her fellow Guggenheim Fellows: Morris Halle, Philip Levine, Ann Patchett, and Richard Wendorf.

Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10) will present an afternoon of poetry at The Mount, the historic home of Edith Wharton in Lenox, MA. The reading, presented in partnership with the Amy Clampitt Fund, is on July 9, 2011, at 4 PM. Tickets are $12 and are available online.

Evan Ziporyn (Music Composition Fellow ’11) will present in The Music of Evan Ziporyn on Thursday, July 7, 2011, 8 PM, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center as part of the Rockport Music Festival. The composer will perform along with musicians including “friends from Bang on a Can.” Speaking of: from July 13 through July 31, the tenth annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival takes place at MASS MoCA in North Adams. Evan Ziporyn, who has been actively involved in the festival since its inception, will pariticpate in the Festival, which is dedicated to programming today’s most innovative new music and includes public performances, recitals, and lectures, plus workshops for participants in everything from Balinese music to improvisation, master classes, music business seminars, and more.

Past Fellows Notes
June 2011
May 2011
Apr. 2011
Mar. 2011
Feb. 2011
Jan. 2011

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images: production photo from Masha Obolensky’s GIRLS PLAY, featuring scenic design by Caitlin Fergus; Samantha Fields, Detail of SHE SPEAKS FOLLY IN A THOUSAND HOLY WAYS; Liz Nofziger, PORE; Evan Ziporyn, photo by Kevin Yatarola.

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