I shared a little look-back at the past year in my most recent email newsletter:
I feel like I’ve come a long way in the past year. Here’s a few highlights and things I’m grateful for:
- Became a third Co-Chair of the Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota exhibition committee in the spring to assist Alis Olsen and Joan Seifert, and was elected as a WARM Board Member in December. Look, I even have a fancy bio.
- Poured a lot of energy into coordinating WARM’s annual member show “Temporality” in March, and was blown away by the quality of work our members exhibited and the great turnout at the reception.
- Channeled a bit of my inner sillypants while writing about my “art babies” and won a 2012 NEMAA Membership for my Local Artist Interview
- Coordinated a feminist art discussion group on Open Field hosted by WARM
- Selected as a Placemaking Artist for Springboard for the Arts‘ Friendly Streets Project. I collaborated with some amazing theater & drama therapist artists Talia & Jen to create the pLaYMaGinAtiON sPaCE. Photos from our block party events are here (warning: may cause you to wish it was summer, as if you weren’t doing that anyway). Talia & Jen have recently started a great new art org called Arts in Action; check them out.
- Got a great new side-gig managing social media for the Irrigate project – Springboard’s much, much larger next step into the world of creative placemaking funded by ArtPlace. Interested in public art, creative placemaking, urban planning, news from the Central Corridor, neighborhood & community organizing, or just want to check and make sure I’m doing a good job? Like our Facebook Page or follow Irrigate on twitter. I also highly recommend attending one of their free placemaking workshops for artists.
- Developed an excellent professional skills trade with Suzanne of Suzanne Shaff Photography, who not only created amazing professional artist portraits for me but also acted as my own personal paparazzi at my solo show opening in November. Suzanne is having a special pet portrait deal this weekend only, in case you have a photogenic furry friend (and from what I can tell, all animals are photogenic once they get in front of Suzanne’s camera).
- Was touched by incredible support from friends, family, and colleagues through the good parts, and the rough stuff. I really dug my heels into the Twin Cities community this year, decided to jump into the life I wanted to live, still feel like most of the time I have no idea what I’m really doing, but know that it’s worth it.
In addition to all these wonderful things, I had two major exhibitions of the largest body of work I’ve put together so far, first at the Minnesota Women’s Building with Deb Splain followed by the current solo show at the Baroque Room.
So, what’s next? Lots is in the works for 2012. Not much of it is ready to be talked about quite yet. I am planning to park myself somewhere at Art-a-Whirl for the first time this year. Feedback from several people about the science-y, biological nature of my work seems to be nudging new works in progress even further in that direction. Also contemplating a strange new fascination with the artistic potential of zippers, but that’s all I’ll say about that for now.
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