Reader's Art 12: Barbara Milman

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home


Barbara Milman- I work primarily in two media: prints and handmade artist books (either in very small editions or unique). The books all have a message or story that is told both by the books as art objects and by their text and images. 

The message, for the past several years, has been about climate change.  My specific concerns have been with the fate of coral reefs, the warming of the oceans and the Arctic, the effect of climate change on different environments and species.

My books are experimental in form.  Most recently I have been making books out of old cigar boxes, which I alter and into which I put smaller books, or texts and images.  The books are multi-media, incorporating monoprints, linocuts, solar plate etchings, hand stamped type, decorative paper, digital photography, and digital design.  At times I use some traditional bookmaking methods, such as accordion books or Coptic bindings, but for the most part techniques are developed for each book to fit the design and the message.

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home

March 16- April 26, 2012

Opening Reception June 17

Carolyn Halliday uses the vocabulary and skills of textiles to sculpt forms that often reference body and/or nature. She hand knits wire and other nontraditional materials into forms that often grow from simple elements of nature and life’s daily debris. With her work, she magnifies nature,and references concepts of the feminine through the female form and domesticity.

My Father’s Religion grew from her experience growing up with a father who loved the woods. Her father’s religion was in the woods. The family spent all of their free time in the Northern Woods. At the time Carolyn would have preferred to stay in a hotel. Nonetheless, her father passed his religion onto her.

My Father's Religion is an installation that explores the calligraphic nature of a knit line, pays homage to the sanctuary of the woods, and questions if art, as in the Byzantium, can transform life. This installation is laid out like a Byzantine church(cross shape)The reference to the Byzantine church comes from her fascination with the idea that the images created for the church, during the Byzantium, were allegedly so powerfully beautiful that they converted people to Christianity. Can art or the beauty of nature transform one today?

Opening Reception, June 17, 7-9pm

shown in conjunction with:

ars domestica- COMING SOON

Gallery Musings

Today was spent on promo for the Wool Market, yawning from lack of sleep, evaluating the results of the current show in the gallery, updating the website, interviewing several people for the potential new position of gallery associate in January, photographing fiber and recording dye results.

The work day flew by, with both Zach and I smiling as we we realized our work responsibilities were waning. He has finished 2 of his three jobs before grad school and I am almost to the sabbatical date! We are both waxing philosophical/nostalgic even though we will be working together another 2 months!

Leslie Sobels' show comes down after Memorial Day, but we will maintain our Monday hours, getting caught up on gallery admin and planning, web restructure and repair, generalized computer stuff! Our Fridays, which may occasionally become Thursdays or Wednesdays (call before you come), will be spent dying and cleaning out the basement cracks, crannies and crevices to make a fuller functioning lower studio.

More Rust Belt to Artist Belt info

The conferences started in CLeveland. You can read about the most recent conference and watch powerpoints at this link. This is way cool stuff! Artspace, who is very active here in the Twin Cities, was one of the presenters.

http://www.cpacbiz.org/business/CreativeCompass.shtml

From Rust Belt to Artist Belt

Leslie Sobel, here tonight in the gallery, is involved in the Rust Belt to Artist Belt conferences and was instrumental to bringing the conference to Detroit. http://www.detroitmakeithere.com/article/20100405/DM01/304059989

April 2010...

"Wayne State University's TechTown led the city's bid for the conference, working with a number of other local organizations, including The Heidelberg Project, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design and WSU College of Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts.

The group should know in the next couple of weeks when the conference will be held, said Julie Brock, development director for TechTown.

TechTown has hired Leslie Sobel, an independent artist from Milan and president of the Milan Area Arts Council, to help plan the conference and to expand participation of arts organizations beyond Detroit to those in other Southeast Michigan counties, Brock said.

“The conference is centered on the idea that rust belt cities are the perfect breeding ground for new artists, with low-cost living, industrial spaces and open land you can't get in New York or (Los Angeles,)” Brock said.

“Because it's been so successful in Cleveland the past two years, they wanted one of the other rust belt cities to take it.”"