Galaudet Gallery Sense of Place THERE: Song of Myself Art Exhibit Catalog

Galaudet Ga Gallery Presents

Sense of Place: THERE: Song of Myself Art Exhibit Catalog

Part Two of the Sense of Place Art Series

I answer that I cannot answer, you must find out for yourself —Walt Whitman

Song of Myself 46

Sense of Place: THERE HERE Song of Myself Art Exhibit Catalog New Art Proposing a Partnership of S Sight Presented by Galaudet Gallery

Galaudet Gallery

Part Two of their Sense of Place Art Series:

presents

Sense of Place: THERE Song o off Myself

Galaudet Gallery Published by Galaudet Gallery Publishing 2223 West Hubbard Chicago, Illinois 60612 & 618 South Farwell Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 715-513-9994 galaudetgallery@gmail.com @ http://galaudetgallery.wix.com/ggllc Galaudet Gallery copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Organized and Designed by Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski Most of the works in this exhibition are for sale. Interested persons may obtain information by contacting Galaudet Gallery.

Published for Part Two of the Sense of Place Art Exhibit: Sense of Place: THERE Art Exhibit Song of Myself Held at Galaudet Gallery, EC, WI June 18—September 9, 2019 Participating Organizations Galaudet Gallery Mike’s Building and Construction Jules Heffe Inc Memorial Nature Fund, Inc. Galaudet Gallery Publishing Participating Individuals Michael Milewski Milewski—Eau Claire Victorian Mansion Tour Galaudet Ga Gallery Sense of Place: THERE Participating Artists:

Liz Alcyone Denise Antaya Thomas Asher Banksy Rock Bear RR Beinm Noreen Betten Lesley Bodzy Buddha Babe Mia Cinelli Francisco Crespo David Culver Anne Darby Parker Jan Dougless

Eandu Karen Esteves Margarita Fainshtein Eleanor G R . Hendrickson Dana Jeizmatz Craig Jobson Patty Q. Johnson Andrea La Morte Schaffer Maivoz Mike Milewski Vicki Milewski Sarah Suzanne Noble T Oa

Toma Obstein Isabell Peters Lenora Price Q Stefano Regola Marc Rinzleman Veronica Schimdt Florian Schulz S Erin Shalk Lorre Slaw Zametki Starshina Jo Van Cleave Anne Wedler Kristen T. Woodward Harry Wysocki

Partnership of Sight: the artist, the artwork and the viewer all work in partnership to elicit an aesthetic experience.

Art Theory proposed by Galaudet Gallery co-owners and curators Michael Milewski & Vicki Milewski

Curatorial Intentions for the four year art series Sense of Place Galaudet Gallery’s intention in the curation of our Sense of Place Art Series is to display art that has the power to create new frontiers in art an and d place where viewers may discover new frontiers inside and outside which can aid in self discovery and discovery of worlds and ideas beyond our day to day lives.

Galaudet Gallery believes g great reat art transports the viewer to another place and time, another space and moment, a new way of seeing life life,, an affirmation of life.

Our second year of Sense of Place looks at THERE with a title of Song of Myself the curators worked with the poetry of Walt Whitman in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of his birt birth.

The curators continued to research and build upon their Partnership of Sight art theory which proposes that the artist, the artwork and the viewer all work in partnership to elicit an aesthetic experience.

Sense of Place: THERE Song of Myself Art Exhibit Catalog

The Artists New Politics Liz Alcyone Banksy Eandu Margarita Fainshtein Craig Jobson Michael Milewski Isabell Peters Lenora Price Florian Schulz Anne Wedler Kristen T. Woodward

New Rules

New Self

Stefano Regola RR Beinm Andrea La Morte Schaffer Denise Antaya Anne Darby Parker Erin Shalk Karen Esteves T Oa Maivoz David Culver Dana Jeizmatz Vicki Milewski Rock Bear Sarah Suzanne Noble Patty Q. Johnson Marc Rinzleman Thomas Asher Buddha Babe Harry Wysocki Lesley Bodzy Noreen Betten Lorre Slaw Zametki Starshina Mia Cinelli

Sense of Place: THERE Song of Myself Art Exhibit Curation by Michael Milewski & Vicki Milewski

Galaudet Gallery The Essay New Politics + New Rules = New Self

By Michael Milewski& Vicki Milewski

Introduction Liberate Thru Aesthetic Experience + Liberate means Community The Future Is Preparing For You

Conclusion “We” is Revolutionary + “We" are our History "We" create Future Magic

New Politics Lilacs are Resistance + Revelations create Community Communication

New Rules Laws Unto Ourselves + Conversant Corners Beyond Abstraction

New Self “We” is Revolutionary + “We" are our History "We" create Future Magic

For Your Consideration: Sense of Place THERE: Partnership of Sight By Michael Milewski

For Your Consideration: Sense of Place THERE Art Exhibit Exhibit: Song of Myself Catalog A Partnership of Sight Galaudet Gallery’s Sense of Place There: Song of Myself (SoPT) was another extraordinary exhibit that continues to move art forward through the curation of juried, juried talented artists. This 2nd installment of Galaudet Gal Gallery’s 4-year Sense of Place series exceeded even my expectations by this exhibit being a part of the living moment prompted from events that are swirling around all of us. Each curated room were almost a stand-alone full-blown blown exhibit by itself. To say yyou ou had to be There is an understatement, but second best is having this catalog to bring you There.

There These gifted artists’ new interruptions inspired by Walt Whitman’s poetry like “Song of Myself” enlisted lasting experiences from every art viewer. A Partne Partnership rship of Sight (PoS) was experienced from Florian Schulz Schulz’s Migration or Sarah Suzanne Noble’s Noble re-imagined photographs transporting you from a familiar urban alley to one that is more felt than just seen. Sights, smells, and touch were all curated in SoPT to bring you There.

Art and society have always been reflections of each other, but now we live in a world that can change in an instant with nothing but art to remind us where we have been and to forecast where we are going. The tools, and technologies may change but it is the skills of these SoPT artists that can truly take you There,, by utilizing PoS guided by the curators, a viewer does not have to have a background in art or even an appreciation of art to have an experience from any of these SoPT ar artt pieces and by just viewing an art piece contribute to the art piece’s growth on its endless road to toward completion. An artwork nears completion as it is viewed and once critiqued and reviewed it continues to grow. PoS recognizes that anyone can become a part of something larger than themselves and be able to conn connect with others by just viewing art.

So now it is time to enjoy the catalog Sense of Place: Song of Myself which has been as carefully and thoughtfully curated as the exhibit itself, and be prepared pr for new insights, creative impulses, and wide ranging experienc experiences just a page away. away Some of the art in this catalog may still be available please contact Galaudet Gallery if you interested in purchasing any piece and we can make that happen. Thanks to all those who have purchased art and those who support Galaudet Gallery in other ways our shared vision is embracing. As good as the Song of Myself exhibit was and as good as this catalog is always remember with Galaudet Gallery the best is always yet to come.

Have a Gala-day!

Michael Milewski, Curator and Co Co-Owner of Galaudet Gallery

I celebrate myself,

and sing myself —Walt Whitman Song of Myself Part 1

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay:

New Politics + New Rules = New Self Introduction: Liberating the Aesthetic Experience By: Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

4 Years Creating the Connection

My Medicine Art Series

4 Years Turning on the Current

Sense of Place Art Series

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay: New Politics + New Rules = New Self

Introduction: New Politics, New Rules, New Self

By Michael Milewski and Vicki Milewski

Galaudet Gallery Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Liberating the Self Thru Aesthetic Experience Galaudet Gallery continues their four year art series Sense of Place in 2019 with an internationally juried art exhibit of 43 artists showing over 80 artworks. The first four year art series was called My Medicine and looked at art as medicine. The current four year series explores place from different perspectives: the first year looked at HERE, this second year investigates THERE, the third year will be EVERYWHERE and the fourth year, NOWHERE (NOW HERE). These four year art series held during summer have at their core Galaudet Gallery’s efforts to revitalize the Arts and Crafts Movement for the 21st Century. i The curators wish to thank the artists who made up this wonderful exhibit for taking the time to think about place and self, to sing self and bring place to different levels of meaning. The curators also wish to thank the jury for Sense of Place:

THERE (SOPT) who sought art that deals with the overarching exhibit theme of “place” while also using ideas developed from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Galaudet Gallery chose Walt Whitman to inspire their entire 2019 art season, as a celebration of Whitman’s 200th birthday.

Whitman’s ideas were used as a lens for selecting and curating by the judges and curators of SOPT bringing Whitman into the 21st Century. Whitman’s ideas on individualism and unity, nature and soul and the importance to honestly experience these truths assist in understanding the current times and their force upon artists.

Whitman’s ideas assisted in understanding the art being made today from new viewpoints. Last year Galaudet Co-Owner of Galaudet Gallery Michael Milewski Gallery saw disruption and “texturized paints Hope on the rounded tower of the Galaudet Gallery building anarchy” working with the words of Ed Abbey; this year they see a unification of natural forces which includes the individual self and the unified communities which both seek understood expression. Last year Galaudet Gallery looked to Ed Abbey for inspiration and guidance and his revolutionary conservationism and stalwart support of wilderness places brought forth art with a similar standing. Sense of Place: HERE: We Are Here paraphrased Ed Abbey’s idea of past cultures creating rock art and leaving behind traces of their culture as a way of saying “We were here.”

This year Whitman supports the same ideas with a gentleness and an understanding that only when everyone is accepted for who they are and hopes and dreams are respected can we then move forward with a unity of individualism to embrace ourselves, each other, the natural world and what lies beyond HERE to move to THERE and say, “We are THERE”.

In a sense we are returning from Abbey’s Ab “back of beyond” with last ast year’s year Sense of Place show saying “We were HERE” and this year we say ““We “We are THERE”. To paraphrase Whitman, looking you may have missed us so we show you that we are not only here but we are also there— there wherever we choose to be. Each artist in SOPT uses their materials and ideas to persuade us to look at the world differently, to look at the world that holds such beautiful, inspiring and interesting artworks and within these to see ourselves, to understand ourselves on new ne levels, to enjoy ourselves with color, line and shape and to unite with others in something we believe in. This year is also about hope since the curation of SOPT began outside Hope on the rounded tower of Galaudet Gallery when artist Mike Milewski put Bansky’s there is always hope on the rounded ttower ower of the Galaudet Gallery building. Hope took on many meanings for the curators and each guest to the exhibit as well as passer passers-bys bys that often stopped to take a selfie.

Milewski also created a version of hope on canvas. It is hope that is still there, re, there is always hope and the curators thank Banksy Banksy, and Milewski inspired by him, for showing us that hope is HERE and THERE. These ideas of “Hope” continued the liberation forces found last year in freeing forms and structures which now enable identi identity ty and personhood to flourish. Ties to place were also liberated and in doing so new frontiers of place were found through an art theory Galaudet Gallery curators created while working with the Sense of Place artworks called a “Partnership of Sight” (PoS), ), which will be continued this year year. Last year PoS was seen as a relationship between the artist and each viewer of their art redefining aesthetic experience by broadening it to include any reaction a viewer has

Artwork

Partnership of Sight

Artist

PoS

Art Viewer

to an artwork. The viewer’s personal history, personal geography and other such ideas bring heightened meaning to each artwork. This ends the exclusivity of only having an experience with art if the intention, method or history of an artist or artwork is known. PoS is inclusive since anyone can have an experience with art. This year during their work on SOPT, the curators recognized that the artwork itself should be added as a full partner in PoS dealing out equal shares to all three—the artist, the viewer and the artwork—as partners in eliciting an aesthetic experience.

For the purpose of eliciting an aesthetic experience the curators asked questions based on three main areas of the exhibit that were identified with the jury through reading Whitman, discussing place and thinking about aesthetic experiences. These questions were part of the call for entry for SOPT and elicited the three main curatorial themes: Do your politics and art intersect?—elicited—New Politics Do you make your own rules for art making?—elicited—New Rules Does your art sing a song of yourself?—elicited—New Self (Portraits) The artists answered with their artworks and statements. As the curators worked with each selected piece individual stories of self started to take form—a story that began with others in a political sense and moved into finding out about self through the rules we follow, break, create and abandon and then to how we see ourselves. Within a short time of working with the juried artworks it was clear the subtitle for SOPT should be Song

of Myself. And just as Bansky’s hope continued the liberation of art, in their work with self, the curators see this liberation continue as it frees each person to view art as they choose, interpret it as they want to and if they desire to learn more about the artworks they are interested in then they are free to do so. Liberating art last year assisted in the liberation of self this year.

This work with self then became curatorial statements for SOPT: New Politics—as seen as—identification of the self with others New Rules—as seen as—freedom to know self New Self (Portrait)—as seen as –relationships artists have with nature and the universe; self and soul New Politics = The Vision New Rules = The Experience New Self = The Outcome New Politics + New Rules = New Self These three ideas were curated in the three main rooms of Galaudet Gallery elucidating the idea of Song of Myself, “To celebrate myself, and sing myself” as Whitman begins his poem. Each of these themes connect to form this celebration of self, of artwork made by individuals alone and in community. Artists used and merged genres like realism, abstraction, expressionism, botanicals, surrealism, photography, architecture, fiber, artist books and other ways to explore Song of Myself assisting in the identification of aesthetic experiences. If the last four year art series culminated in liberating artistic frontiers, then this year for Song of Myself we find ourselves liberating self and celebrating in that liberation.

This also added to PoS since in the act of creating, artists are liberating the moment of creation and encouraging viewers to discover this liberation inside and outside themselves, their worlds and in the artwork itself—this is the next evolution of the aesthetic experience.ii

The Four Main Rooms of Galaudet Gallery Eau Claire  The Tower Room displays Political Artworks which explore the politics of governing, the politics of legislation and the politics o off living. The Political Artworks identify self with other selves knowing kn that we all live on the same planet and we all work separately and together to embrace freedom and ethical uses of our planet while also working to make this a reality for everyone.

Diagram of the Tower Room which SOPT curators used to plan exhibit

 The Bay Room connects New Rules artworks made after the rules of p place have been broken open to form a new relationship with place redefining it with the idea of self and the artworks made from new rules rules, known rules and no rules.

Diagram of the Bay Room which SOPT curators used to plan exhibit

 The Studio Room displays The New Self Portrait artworks informed by artist relationships ps with the elements of nature and the universe—a a new way to interpret self portrait. Artists create a new way wayss to experience self portraits as more than a resemblance to our physical appearance but also express their personal metaphysics Diagram of the Studio Room which SOPH curators used to plan exhibit

 The Center Sh Shop op connects each of these three ideas with jewelry and other handmade items.

Jewelry made from historic and current materials and techniques from around the world was created to connect places and their histories. Each of the three types of artworks is found ound in the Center Shop

Diagram of the Center Shop which SOPH curators used to plan exhibit

Liberation Calls for a New Way to Communicate Song of Myself and the art theory PoS is building a new lexicon for experiencing the visual arts. This is a lexicon that attempts to define the vision, the experience, the outcome from having been a part of the PoS, the outcome of having witnessed the intersection of the realities of physical, metaphysical and mental senses of place and seeing Sense of Place as geography and the geographical machinations of time; subsequently, Sense of Place is about being THERE—where the artist is found, where the artwork is significant. It’s not about saying the artwork is hanging on a wall but instead saying, “How does art take us THERE to this new reality or maybe visiting the THERE of our known realities and having new experiences THERE?” In Song of Myself the curators are suggesting that place may not only be a physical destination since any given physical place can have profound effects on a person’s geography as they chart their lives. How we sense a place is our encoded response based on that identity forming moment we perceive abstractly from that geographic place or we choose to involve ourselves and form our identity thru experiences with place. Through PoS we can choose how to define place and in doing so redefine the aesthetic experience we might have with place.

Through Partnership of Sight (PoS) we can choose how to define place and in so doing redefine the aesthetic experience we might have with place.

It is like the moment the curators found the right place for Margarita Fainshtein’s Self Portrait was when they saw how a physical place, on a high table in the rounded tower of the Tower Room under a spotlight, contributed and enhanced the presence of Self Portrait. This small, 3D printed Plexiglas suitcase etched with passport information from another time and physical place creates another place—the place where each viewer can achieve an enhanced knowing of their self, the artwork, history, light

and other personal knowing. Even thought situated inside a room, Self Portrait could be seen outside thru a window and it looked like it was floating, creating other new experiences by the viewer just standing in a different place. If situated in a different physical place the experience of Self Portrait would be different. The placement of Self Portrait between the curatorial moments of individually showing ideas on physical place and the curatorial moment of groups working together created an alchemy of movement since the Fainshtein’s ancestors had to move and leave a physical place because a group of people causing disruption— now we as a group say “No.” to this kind of disruption. It is in this alchemical work of curating that bring to life physic concepts of multi-verses, multidimensionality and other ways of speaking about the various known realities today showing they are insufficient since there are many more ways to know reality, art and self. Only the future will show these ways more fully. Whitman said it best, “the future is preparing for you.”iii Galaudet Gallery now asks, “how are we preparing for us in the future?” Each time we are able to view art we take a chance upon the possibility of having an aesthetic experience we are also creating upon the opportunity to Self Portrait floating in a tower window prepare for the future. at Galaudet gallery

It is in this alchemical work of curating that brings to life physic concepts … showing they are insufficient since there are many more ways to know reality, art and self.

The Future is Preparing For You The future is also preparing for the 43 juried artists with over 80 original artworks. Whitman writes, “You must habit yourself to the dazzle of light of every moment of your life�. The dazzle from these artists and their embrace of each moment in their lives brings hope and liberation of self into the light. The Song of Myself artists dazzled with the light of their artworks shining forth a moment of their life as we spent a moment of our life with them. These artists shared how THERE is both past and future since it is the past intersecting with the future which creates the present moment: Sense of Place: THERE Artists: Liz Alcyone Denise Antaya Thomas Asher Banksy Rock Bear RR Beinm Noreen Betten Lesley Bodzy Buddha Babe Mia Cinelli Francisco Crespo David Culver Anne Darby Parker Jan Dougless

Eandu Karen Esteves Margarita Fainshtein Eleanor G R . Hendrickson Dana Jeizmatz Craig Jobson Patty Q. Johnson Andrea La Morte Schaffer Maivoz Mike Milewski Vicki Milewski Sarah Suzanne Noble T Oa

Isabell Peters Lenora Price QA Stefano Regola Marc Rinzleman Veronica Schimdt Florian Schulz Erin Shalk Lorre Slaw Zametki Starshina Jo Van Cleave Anne Wedler Kristen T. Woodward Harry Wysocki

A curatorial movement with these artists which affected many visitors occurred in the Tower Room. A section of the Tower Room was used for artworks urging everyone to help protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and prepare for a future without oil and gas development THERE. This unaltered and complete ecosystem was shown with the aerial photographs of Florian Schultz and the abstract longings of Vicki Milewski.

The curatorial story leading up to this area started with a sense of frustration with the current government as voiced in the mail art inspired

artworks by Craig Jobson who brought forth both the sense of watching as mistakes are repeated if we allow an emperor to replace a president while using a heightened method of media Jobson choose to illustrate this idea by showing a path toward a liberated democracy. In using postage stamps made with historical precision of typography and treatment, Jobson uses his freedom of speech to show how a democracy works through the intellectual and visionary acts of its individual citizens. The curators recognized this flow expressed in mathematical form:

+

Lilacs are Resistance Revelations create Community Communication

The curatorial storytelling in the Tower Room then moved to the story of individual cultures reaching out to communicate their resiliency and hope through use of traditional materials and images. The first part of this story spoke of individuals before moving into artworks which spoke of community working together and making dynamic changes.

It was with this kind of hopeful narrative that the political part of SOPT: Song of Myself ended with the works about the Arctic. One visitor commented that it is like our “last stand in hope” as she looked over the tops of the birds flying into the refuge to have their young during the springtime there and then flying back to many different areas on the earth.

Another visitor said, “They must know somehow that we are working together to save this place, not just for them but for us, for our future selves.”

The partnerships formed by visitors with the Song of Myself artworks and artists were many. There were hard decisions about which artworks to purchase and almost all the artworks on display were a part of those decisions. One visitor who came back several times, trying to decide between several different artworks before purchasing one of the Arctic pieces said “I hope this one works with the stories my other artworks are telling, I found that many of my pieces speak of breaking, or rebelling and I

thought it a good idea to introduce the idea of working together to that story.” It is people like these and many other visitors who are preparing for the future that give us hope that the future is certainly ours and that the present SOPT: Song of Myself exists for moments like this and for people like us.

Curation For Song of Myself

Partnership of Sight

Conversant Corners

Encouraging Fortification

Revelations

New Self

Beyond Abstraction

Individuals

Communication

New Politics

Communication “We” is Revolutionary

History is Us

New Rules

Magic in Reality

Communication

New Politics + New Rules = New Self

Community

I give you joy of your free and brave thought. —Ralph Waldo Emerson in his letter to Walt Whitman

The Political Artists Artists exploring the politics of governing, the politics of legislation and the politics of living

Liz Alcyone, South Dakota Artist Artwork Narrative As my usual dying medium is paper I chose to dye glass and create other worlds with my “Dyed Beads� Using the Viennese Millaflora beads from the late 19 th century as inspiration I worked to created abstracted evil eyes in the milleflora construct.

I like to think of the eye bead as watching out for me to protect me from thinking negatively about myself and encourage myself to keep working toward my goals.

Artist Statement All the materials I use I create from nature or recycle. The dyes and glass for these beads are from the sand and plants that are ever present around my home in South Dakota Bio Liz Alcyone is a formally trained artist who has traveled throughout Asia to learn traditional paper-making techniques, bead making techniques and glass blowing techniques.

Milleflora Eye Beads

Liz Alcyone Milleflora Eye Bead Study Blown Glass Sculpture 20” X 40”

Banksy Interpreted by Michael Milewski Artwork Statement There is Always Hope is a Banksy stencil, not sanctioned by Banksy, done by Banksy or made by Banksy. As an interruptive artist I am inspired by Banksy’s approach to art making and display. I incorporate time into each piece I make and so the graffiti painted on the outside of Galaudet Gallery will be there until the time is right for it not to be. Graffiti is usually something people want to clean up or paint over; instead with Banksy pieces people now are trying to sell them. I’ve thought on what the red balloon means more than anything else with this piece since I am either letting something go or reaching for something—both are a chance for change which is the central theme of my interruptive art style. I have changed some of the elements in this piece, starting with the stencil and then adding ideas like the crying hearts and making the girl more generalized and less detailed.

Bio Michael Milewski is a Contemporary Artist working in a genre he has labeled

Interruptive Art—art which interrupts our daily lives to make a space for us to see things in new and fresh ways. Some of Milewski’s work involves archival materials that he has sourced or held onto with the intent of making Interruptive Art, other artworks are environmental in nature. Part of his Interruptive Art process is the use of time as one of the elements. Milewski held onto a graphic design piece from the December 2001 Daily Herald issue first having it framed in his studio as an inspiration to honor those who have come before and as an acknowledgement of an “interruption” in our daily lives which occurred on 9/11/2001. Milewski then noticed the flag was fading and so put it into his archival storage a few years back.

Michael Milewski is a fifth generation artist steeped in creating works of functional beauty and helping people to express themselves. Since the age of 13, Milewski has worked alongside his father, Lenard Milewski a master craftsman and his artist mother, Elizabeth Galaudet. Currently, Milewski is breaking away from the confines of working strictly on commission to express someone else’s dream and has begun creating works that he says, “have always been inside me.”

There is always hope

Banksy Interpreted by Michael Milewski Outside Street Art on Galaudet Gallery Tower 67” X 45” Acrylic Paint

Banksy Interpreted by Michael Milewski There is Always Hope 30” X 40” Acrylic Paint ON cANVAS

Eandu Lagos, Nigerian Artist Artwork Statement As a boy I would look to the sky for a better understanding of my reality. In my youth, the skies were filled with stars and I would wonder about them all. As I grew, the cities grew also and now the sky has few if any stars due to the ambient light from the cities. I used a traditional pigment process I learned from my father, who learned from his father…This process makes the sky look like it does today—filled with city light. I wonder if the sky had looked this way when I was a boy how such a blank canvas would have changed my perception of reality then and now…

I also see now that I am the star I was looking for in my youthful night skies which is why I chose a super gloss paint for the by in the painting. In this realization I also remember how runaway slaves in America saw what we call the Drinking Gourd and called it the Big Dipper using this constellation to guide them to freedom. My sky looking seeks out freedom en today—freedom from prejudice and economic hardships.

Bio Eandu’s works are in the collections of museums, private collectors and art centers. He learned to paint from his father who showed him only traditional painting methods.

After graduating with a Masters in Fine Art, Eandu found his voice in merging the traditional ways with 21st Century ideas. It is this merging which enters into the themes of his work as he contrasts what was with what is.

oju ọrun n wa (sky looking)

Eandu oju ọrun n wa (sky looking) 34 ½” X 12” Painting with natural minerals

Margarita Fainshtein Nova Scotian Artist (by way of Ukraine) Artwork Narrative In Self—Portrait familial documents (Communistic party ticket; Former USSR passport, Jewish Identity card) were used to etch the suitcase form to question how they inhibit, control, or otherwise determine one's identity when region, locale, or nationality are suspended because of a Jewish identity in the early 20th century. The work points to the notion of a self-portrait via the image of a suitcase referencing those in the former USSR region who were without homes as a result of being culturally different in their own country and asks several questions. What do we carry with us as representations of ourselves? Who gets to have a home? What does belonging mean?

Artist Statement Through our lives my family and I were characterized and categorized by our nationalities and were treated accordingly. Here, in Canada, Nova Scotia, for the first time in my life I open my passport and see “Canadian”, with no other national adjectives.

I am very interested in motion of Time, History, Memory and Erasure. My work explores what happens at the intersection of these concepts when applied to cultures and generations crossing, looking for a safe space. What motivates people to immigrate?

How these cultural notions are interacted with political-social-cultural infrastructures?

How political movements are connected to individual’s history, forming the global one?

I collect my multi- generational family identification documents from around the world, and reproduce them by sorting out into the groups, printing, layering them down and fusing them into the paper, fabric or Plexiglas. During this process I am loosing patterns of official papers and erasing details by obtaining new vibrant and unified identity, mixing languages and cultures where my family lived.

Reproducing the prints I make them monumental, telling not just my personal story, but reaching out to those who have also lost their identities, during the process of changing countries and looking for the safe place.

Self Portrait

Margarita Fainshtein Self Portrait (2019) 7.9” x 11” x 4” Etched acrylic

Craig Jobson Chicago Artist Artwork Narrative Stamp one and two are the first two Imperial Commemoratives ever Issued by the United States Post Office (allegedly). With a commander-in-chief, like our current president, is it possible for him to resist the siren call of an even greater position than president of one of the greatest countries in the world? Emperor Donny the 1st is on the docket and I’m prepared. Both stamps are letterpress printed in two colors on two different colored sheets of paper.

The POTUS stamps are, to the best of my knowledge, the first ever issue of a US Imperial Stamp. It’s because we need one. ( Please note the Italian fasces. ) Also, just so you know, the font design by Carol Twombly circa 1953, is called “Trajan,” and is based upon the Trajan column, Rome AD 300, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan’s victory in the wars. Just in case you were wondering. Though the text is in Latin, I’m convinced every 12 year old grasps the meaning and importance.

Mr. Trump shouts “Fake News” repeatedly and loud. I think “Fake Governance” is a likely and more accurate response. This stamp is letterpress printed in two colors and uses Myriad Pro Condensed type which allows a large font in a small space for maximum readability.

Artist Statement I generally print handmade books although in this submission, I’m sending only faux postage stamps as part of book art’s mail-art genre. I am guided by my feelings, my intellect, and my abilities as a word-smith and designer. First I define the focus of a story/stamp with an economy of words, and the hoped for “ah-ha” by the reader. As the designer I use my visual skills and letterpress abilities to support the concept and print handcrafted faux stamps. I begin and end the process where my mind, my heart, and my hands shape the small but intense communication of a stamp. I draw sketches, set type by hand, create visuals, choose a paper, and print a 50 to 100 copies of a two color stamp, where all efforts attest to the credibility of the stamp’s story. My aspiration is to craft a perforated sanctuary for each stamp, a place that recognizes the story’s dignity, and power, as well as create a forceful memory made of ink on paper for each reader.

Bio Craig Jobson’s love for literature and design started his career early on as an art director in a Dallas, Texas ad agency. Then he worked as an art director at an educational publishing house, Steck -Vaighn. Then at Holt Rinehart and Winston, and finally as a design director at McDougall Littel Houghton Mifflin in Evanston, Illinois. Jobson then became a full-time, Associate Professor at Columbia College Chicago for 17 years. In 2001 he founded Lark Sparrow Press where he promises to make handmade books that concentrate on contemporary short fiction, broadsides, and faux stamps.

Fake Governance

Craig Jobson Fake Governance (2019) 11” X 8 ½” Mail Art

POTUS Deceptus

Craig Jobson POTUS Deceptus (2019) 11” X 8 ½” Mail Art

POTUS Bogus

Craig Jobson POTUS Bogus (2019) 11” X 8 ½” Mail Art

Michael Milewski Chicago Artist Artwork Narrative There is a past, present and future piece. The past “There” is an old newspaper with an American flag printed with all the people who perished in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The present “There” is the newspaper flag with the colors and names faded away and forgotten as the country’s priorities change along with its demographics. The future “There” is the confluence of the past and the present which gives the viewer the opportunity to reimage a future American flag. My artwork There not only asks us to remember what happened on 9/11 but to also see what has happened since, to see how different our country has become and yet remains essentially the same. Using the symbol of the American Flag and 9/11 as a touchstone to link the past with the present as we hurdle toward the future affords us an opportunity to honor all those who sacrificed so that we can be who we are today and create a future where all are accepted and where all can prosper.

Bio Michael Milewski is a Contemporary Artist working in a genre he has labeled

Interruptive Art—art which interrupts our daily lives to make a space for us to see things in new and fresh ways. Some of Milewski’s work involves archival materials that he has sourced or held onto with the intent of making Interruptive Art, other artworks are environmental in nature. Part of his Interruptive Art process is the use of time as one of the elements. Milewski held onto a graphic design piece from the December 2001 Daily Herald issue first having it framed in his studio as an inspiration to honor those who have come before and as an acknowledgement of an “interruption” in our daily lives which occurred on 9/11/2001. Milewski then noticed the flag was fading and so put it into his archival storage a few years back.

Michael Milewski is a fifth generation artist steeped in creating works of functional beauty and helping people to express themselves. Since the age of 13, Milewski has worked alongside his father, Lenard Milewski a master craftsman and his artist mother, Elizabeth Galaudet. Currently, Milewski is breaking away from the confines of working strictly on commission to express someone else’s dream and has begun creating works that he says, “have always been inside me.”

There

Michael Milewski There 39 ½” X 27 ½” 2011 Newspaper, foam, acrylic paint

Vicki Milewski Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative From an Iceberg 2 is a view of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the Arctic Ocean. As the summers grow hotter, the ice in the Arctic Ocean all but disappears allowing the Northwest Passage to be open for travel and allowing oil companies passage to go to the Refuge and drill for oil. The foreground shows two icebergs I stand on to watch over the refuge's coastal plain a place I have worked for decades to protect from drilling and attain wilderness designation. The curving skies are part of my ethos that we are all connected and we are all a part of this world.

Dazzle of Light Is a framed Artist Book/Altered Book honors Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday in 2019. “You must habit yourself to the dazzle of light in every moment of your life” is a line from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass Song of Myself (part 46) which has inspired 8 different artworks, a folk song and a short film. This series is called To the Beyond!

Me n’ My Country—Who’s Leaving Who? Is a framed Artist Book/Altered Book from a collection of lines from a book of poetry by Vicki Milewski called American Doorways.

The line repeated throughout this piece: “to remain still, to remain silent is there more to this melody or do the rests hold all we need? we all communicate by various means.”

Bio Vicki Milewski is an American Abstract Experientialist who sees no boundaries between the visual arts of oils, drawing, fiber, photography and film and the other arts of music and writing. Vicki utilizes the arts that work best to express direct experiences in each piece created.

In addition to her work in the visual arts, Vicki composes music for choirs, soloist, piano and orchestras. Vicki is also a published writer of articles, essays and poems. The artist has studios in Chicago and on her family’s ancestral farm in central Wisconsin.

From an Iceberg 2

Vicki Milewski From an Iceberg 2 11� X 14�

Watercolor, Pencil on Strathmore Paper

Me n’ My Country— — Who’s Leaving Who?

Vicki Milewski Me n’ My Country—Who’s Leaving Who? 12” X 15” X 2” Paper, Paint, Adhesive in White box frame

Dazzle of Light

Vicki Milewski Dazzle of Light 8” X 6” X 2” Pages from Leaves of Grass, Paper Paint, Adhesive in black box frame

Isabell Peters Wisconsin Artist Art Objects Narrative My Coral and Turquoise Collection connects my history with my future placing me in this moment that I see as “there”. Coral has always been a choice for the jewelry artists in my family. My grandmother gave me a coral and turquoise necklace and it has inspired me to primarily make coral and turquoise pieces. I think the coral means family and energy and the turquoise means the earth and protection—together they are a powerful pair!

Bio Isabell Peters is an artist currently residing in Wisconsin. Peters merges her Native American heritage with the skills she has learned from being a welder to putting herself through school for jewelry design. Many collectors are finding Peters and raising the value of her work.

From the

Coral and Turquoise Collection

Isabel Peters Coral and Turquoise Necklace Energy and Grounding 21�

Red Coral, Turquoise and red glass beads on silver findings

Isabel Peters Red Circle Earrings: Dancing Sterling Silver hoop earrings with red glass on silver lver rings

Lenora Price Navajo Artist Artwork Narrative The Yei bei chai dancers perform different ceremonial dances like the winter curing ceremony which is used for both healing and initiation. Children are initiated during the Winter Curing Ceremony by showing them the secret of Yei. We participate in initiation ceremonies four times during life.

The Yeis are part of a thinking that is called the Nightway. Many curing ceremonies involve the night and its ways that help bring healing which is to find balance between ourselves and the universe My sand painting, Yei Bei Chai Winter Curing Ceremony, was inspired by the winter ceremony initiating my first born daughter into the wealth of her family.

Bio Lenora Price is a Navajo artist from New Mexico. She is a generational artist of the Price family being the 6th Lenora Price to make sand paintings of Navajo rituals. Price’s artworks are held by museums, private collectors and organizations. Price also lectures on the importance of ritual in our 21st Century lives, distilling her family’s history into a tincture that can assist other families in building traditions and rituals to mark the evolution of each member.

Yei Bei Chai Winter Curing Ceremony

Lenora Price Yei Bei Chai Winter Curing Ceremony 14� X 17�

Sand Painting in hand made frame With turquoise eyed owl

QA Algerian (Hope to be American) Artist Artwork Narrative MAGA For ALL is a wakeup call that other people have not only used this slogan but possibly have used similar tactics as President Trump currently uses. This artwork is not in support of any candidate or party it is to open American citizens’ eyes to the history of this slogan and what that history might show for other shared areas of politics.

The ‘swamp’ Trump claimed he wanted to drain may have hidden past politicians’ actions and in doing his crimes out in the open has Trump effectively ‘drained the swamp’? Did Trump mean in that draining that he wasn’t going to stop criminal political actions but instead allow them to be done out in the open?

I wrote Whitman’s poem America on the inside bill of a MAGA hat to transform this symbol. The words in Whitman’s America try to make all this right in my head: America Centre of equal daughters, equal sons, All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old, Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich, Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love, A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother, Chair’d in the adamant of Time.

--Walt Whitman In her presentation, ‘Moving Beyond Diversity and Intercultural Management”, Dr. Robinson-Easley traces the stuff change is made of to “help organizations and their leadership move away from a ‘managing diversity’ mindset and towards a ‘valuing humanity mindset’ while concomitantly privileging the personal lenses, cultures, and micro-cultures of people across the globe.” This is part of what I’m up to there.

Vicki Milewski’s Poem America part 1 also inspired this piece but she has to be reading it jumping around and trying to figure it all out that’s the best.

Bio I use to like the letter Q but Trump started using it as a nomenclature for spreading disinformation so I am now QA. Q was always for “questioning” all things now the A is for seeking “Answers”

MAGA Means Make America Great for ALL

for

All

QA MAGA Means Make America Great for ALL Cloth MAGA hat with Walt Whitman poem written on it

Florian Schulz Artist Artwork Narrative A Refuge in the Arctic shows the Brooks Mountain Range to the south and the coastal plain to the north where thousands of Caribou have migrated. Towards the end of June Caribou start to form larger herds on the coastal plains north of the Brooks Range. With warmer temperatures the tundra greens but also produces myriads of mosquitoes.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaskan Arctic.

Legend of the Gwich’in "In a Gwich’in creation story, the original people of the Arctic used to be caribou. When they separated, the caribou kept a bit of the human heart and the human kept a bit of the caribou heart. They made an oath that the caribou would always take care of the Gwich’in as long as the Gwich’in would always take care of the caribou."

— text by Eugénie Frerichs Bio Florian Schulz has dedicated his life to documenting the natural faces of our planet.

Aiming his cameras at Earth’s last wilderness areas has led him to the farthest reaches of the globe. Using his talent for visual storytelling he hopes to inspire action to preserve Earth’s wild virtue. He is constantly striving to meet the next challenge, to embark upon the next adventure. Ultimately seeking to transport his viewers into nature, acting as an ambassador for the natural world.

Specializing in wildlife and conservation photojournalism, the quality of Florian’s work is reflected in the widespread recognition he has received. His photographs have been published in magazines such as National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, and GEO, and he has won numerous awards for his photography, including ‘Environmental Photographer of the Year’. But these prizes have never been his motivation. His tireless efforts to document and protect wilderness areas are fueled by an honest commitment to our environment and a love for the natural world.

Florian is a devout advocate for wildlife corridors, coining the phrase “freedom to roam” and founding the Freedom to Roam project. He aims to expand the new conservation movement for wildlife corridors, just like the creation of Yellowstone as the first national park – he envisions the establishment of national corridors as an idea to spread around the world.

A Refuge in the Arctic

Florian Schulz A Refuge in the Arctic Framed at 24” X 36” Photograph

Florian Schulz Artist Artwork Narrative Winged Migration shows snow geese returning to nest in the high arctic, as the snow is just beginning to melt away.

In our modern, hectic world we all seek a place of refuge. In the northeast corner of Alaska, there is such a place – the Last Great Wilderness – otherwise known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Far away from the busy cities it is like a window that allows us to travel back in time and explore a land largely unaltered by western civilization. For thousands of generations, the Gwich’in people have lived off the Arctic Refuge, what they call “the Sacred Place Where Life Begins.” For hundreds of thousands of caribou, for polar bears, muskox, wolves, arctic foxes and over 200 species of migratory birds it is exactly that, a birthing ground. These Arctic species are dependent on the Arctic Refuge for their survival.

Bio Ever since Florian Schulz has explored the Arctic Refuge for the first time nearly two decades ago he was fascinated with this enormous wilderness. From the Mountains of the Brooks Range you can look in any direction as far as the eye can see without coming across anything man-made. No buildings, power lines or roads disturb this untouched land.

Unfortunately many attempts have been made to turn the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge into an oilfield. Politicians have called the Refuge a “flat, white nothingness” or “a barren wasteland.” Together with his brother Salomon Schulz, Florian set out on a mission to document the Arctic Refuge in the course of the season to create an authentic documentary about the “Last Great Wilderness” to help with its permanent protection.

It was extremely exciting for the Schulz brothers, when President Obama recommended the Refuge coastal plain for wilderness protection, using their film material.

Winged Migration

Florian Schulz Winged Migration Framed at 18� X 24�

Photograph

Anne Wedler Minnesota Artist Artwork Narrative Riders is an oil painting from my newest body of work. It tells a story of how objects, or people give a sense of home to a place, but can also be a burden while they are a comfort. The complicated duality of things we hold dear.

The objects in our lives can be a security or burden, make us feel at home or clutter our lives. The figures navigate extreme places with the help of a group, or go it alone, take their homes on their backs or leave it all behind. Objects left behind become markers of our personalities, identities and of time and place. Wood panel as indexer, color pallets as signifiers.

Bio I grew up in the Midwest, receiving my BFA form Missouri State University and my MFA from Indiana University. I am inspired by travel and relocation. I have taught in Detroit, Michigan the Deep South, Juneau, Alaska, and now live and teach in remote Minnesota. Being a new resident in these extreme places has made me sensitive to the visual and cultural elements that make these places interesting. I have a background in observational drawing and painting. I frequently create images that are narrative or figurative in content. I make work that reflects my background with a contemporary approach grounded in visual literacy.

Riders

Anne Wedler Riders 24” X 24” Oil Painting

Anne Wedler Minnesota Artist Artwork Narrative Group Dynamics shows my contemporary sense of place created through color palette, objects and environments. Warm greens for the Deep South, and cool blues for the arctic, home and summer in saturated palettes.

I am an observational painter interested in narrative and visual metaphor. I find figure painting to be a natural fit for story telling. The extreme can feel so real and unreal at the same time. My drawings and paintings are a result of a composite of sources, though most of the elements are from observation they function in a way that is much richer than any one observed source. I am currently exploring the theme of travel, relocation, and exploration as transformative experiences with the power to change our sense of identity and how identity can be tied to place.

Bio I grew up in the Midwest, receiving my BFA form Missouri State University and my MFA from Indiana University. I am inspired by travel and relocation. I have taught in Detroit, Michigan the Deep South, Juneau, Alaska, and now live and teach in remote Minnesota. Being a new resident in these extreme places has made me sensitive to the visual and cultural elements that make these places interesting. I have a background in observational drawing and painting. I frequently create images that are narrative or figurative in content. I make work that reflects my background with a contemporary approach grounded in visual literacy.

Group Dynamics

Anne Wedler Group Dynamics 24” X 18” Oil Painting

Kristen T. Woodward Pennsylvania Artist Artwork Narrative Dominion is a mixed media painting on wood panel which includes the silhouette of an early frontiersman, looking off a precipice. My encaustic paintings primarily explore people and animals in metaphorical relationships. These paintings examine dominion in the physical and spiritual sense, and express ideas of stewardship, companionship, and loss. Our journeys, and how we get from HERE to THERE are often only clear in hindsight.

Bio Kristen T. Woodward received her BFA in Printmaking from Syracuse University, and her MFA in Studio Art from Clemson University. Her mixed media works combine painting and print processes, and often utilize found collage materials. Woodward is currently a Professor of Art at Albright College in Pennsylvania, teaching painting, printmaking, and interdisciplinary courses on Latin American graphic art, and gender and the visual arts.

Her own artworks are in numerous permanent collections including the Federal Reserve Bank, Sexton Industries, The Shearwater Corporation, The Cottonlandia Museum, Wachovia Bank, Adams State College, Cooper University Hospital, and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics of Los Angeles.

She is the Resident Curator for the Artists2Artists.net.

Dominion

Kristen T. Woodward Dominion 9 ½” X 11” Mixed Media on Wood Panel

I too am untranslatable

— from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself Part 52

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay:

New Politics + New Rules = New Self Part One: New Politics By: Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay New Politics + New Rules = New Self

Part One The New Politics

Galaudet Gallery’s Tower Room Installation view of SOPT Looking Southeast

Lilacs The first room visitors enjoy in Galaudet Gallery’s Song of Myself is the Tower Room so named for its rounded three-story tower. For this year’s Sense of Place show the Tower Room holds politically inspired works with Whitman’s When Lilacs acs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d Memories of President Lincoln guiding the artists, judges and curators. Some artists responded to the current circumstances of the United States by looking toward the future to chart a way forward away from the divisiveness ss and embracing a "We the People" experience, while other artists like Craig Jobson examined the political reality he is experiencing with the current president on a literal and symbolic level.

The works in the Tower Room move from individualism to creating

As Whitman grieved the passing of President Lincoln, are we now grieving the passing of how we defined democracy, how we defined society, even how we define self?

new communities working together. The artworks show local, national and global artists seeing in a similar way.

Last year’s Sense of Place displayed Wilderness artworks in the Tower Room utilizing ideas from last year's exhibit muse Ed Abbey by proposing new ways to experience place-making and way-finding. In a sense this year we are in an unknown political wilderness which needs new paths found and expressing placemaking in new ways so that we can all explore the new political landscapes and come back from sharing our experiences to unify the country. As Whitman grieved the passing of President Lincoln, are we now grieving the passing of how we defined democracy, how we defined society, even how we define self?

Whitman’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d Memories of President Lincoln describes how Whitman mourned the death of Lincoln. The lilac symbolizes Whitman’s sacred acceptance of death—not only Lincoln’s and eventually his own—freeing his soul to roam elsewhere—being able to draw strength from the renewal of the “ever returning spring trinity sure to me you bring”. The “drooping star in the west” is Lincoln whose train passes Whitman as it moves west toward Lincoln’s burial site in Illinois during its 3- week from Washington D.C. allowing the nation to pay their respect to their former president. And the “shy and hidden bird” is Whitman trying to make sense of the loss of a huge symbol for his life and his knowing that it would create profound change in this country. Whitman gives the sprig of lilac he tore from the bush by his door to the passing train carrying Lincoln’s body, then sees “the drooping star in the west” before it sets understanding that Lincoln’s soul is no longer on the train and becoming distraught after the train passes Whitman runs through a swamp and into a forest filled with cedars and pines seeking solace:

Whitman created a sense of place in his poetry …a definite there is where this happened or he takes us there with him as it is happening.

Yet each to keep and all, retrievements out of the night, The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown bird, And the tallying chant, the echo arous’d in my soul, With the lustrous and drooping star with the countenance full of woe, With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird, Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well, For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands— and this for his dear sake, Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul, There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim.

--Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d Memories of President Lincoln, Part 16 Whitman ends this poem with a line stating "There in the fragrant pines and cedars…” because it was there at that moment that Whitman found his voice to write the poem and his voice as an artist. Due to the conflict Whitman experienced in losing a President he who respected for giving him faith in himself, Whitman was able to take this experience to move his poetry forward.

Does the political landscape of today offer such experiences? Does our government incite artists to create art whether in approval or disapproval of it? What symbols are there in the political landscape of today or tomorrow? What do artists have to say about this landscape? Whitman created The political a sense of place in his poetry and most of the time artworks in the the place was there, not here or everywhere, but a definite there is where this happened or he takes us Tower Room there with him as it is happening. The political artworks in the Tower Room create a sense of place create a sense of that is THERE.

place that is THERE

Resistance Two artists start off the Song of Myself exhibit by activating resistance in their unwillingness to accept a government that is not a true representation of the people it serves. In resisting current government structures these artists do not dismiss the positive power governments, communities and individuals can exert onto our world; instead, they resist in order to make these structures stronger and better.

Turning the placing of a stamp on mail into an act of rebellion is Jobson’s mail art and it sparks an experience bringing each viewer into a participatory role—creating community through art.

Craig Jobson looks at the political landscape of today and sees empires that have crumbled in the past. Embedding typefaces and languages of the past Roman empire with what he perceives as the current US empire in his art assists in communicating his resistance to the current President of the United States’ (POTUS) actions and consequences. Jobson chooses mail art to make his statement recognizing the old fashioned way of applying postage stamps to envelopes by using glue is a symbol for how our democracy changes, innovates, evolves—while losing parts of how things were done. Jobson also visions that the ability to send physical mail may also be lost as he foreshadows the demise of the United States of America as we know it using an everyday object like a postage stamp to mount resistance. Jobson writes in his artwork narrative of two of the three stamps in Song of Myself,

“Stamp one and two are the first two Imperial Commemoratives ever Issued by the United States Post Office (allegedly). “The POTUS stamps” use “Italian fasces” and “the font design by Carol Twombly circa 1953, is called ‘Trajan’”, and it “commemorates Roman emperor Trajan’s victory in the wars.” These “Imperial” stamps say “POTUS Bogus” and “POTUS Deceptus” Jobson uses Latin for the text of those two stamps to state his displeasure with POTUS; however for his third stamp in Song of Myself he simply

states, “Fake Governance” to make sure his intent is clear. This trio of stamps are a strong rebellion against the current government which Jobson finds fault with. Putting a stamp on an envelope and mailing it to another person is a singular act done by an individual. Turning the placing of a stamp on mail into an act of rebellion is Jobson’s mail art and it sparks an experience bringing each viewer into a participatory role—creating community through art.

for All

QA’s MAGA Means… above one sheet of Craig Jobson’s stamps created friction and unease while also sparking conversation and realization

The curators chose to place another form of resistance close to these provocative stamps from an artist formerly from Algeria but who is currently seeking citizenship in the U.S.A and who goes by the letters QA. QA’s artwork titled, MAGA Means make America Great for ALL, began as a Make America Great Again (MAGA) red baseball cap which he then wrote on the back “President Reagan, President Clinton and President Trump” because all three of these presidential candidates used the MAGA slogan. The shock many people had at even seeing the MAGA hat, placed innocently on a bench as if someone had left it there overpowered the intent QA had in making the piece as QA explains:

“MAGA For ALL is a wakeup call that other people have not only used this slogan but possibly have used similar tactics as President Trump currently uses. This artwork is not in support of any candidate or party it is to open American citizens’ eyes to the history of this slogan and what that history might show for other shared areas of politics. The ‘swamp’ Trump claimed he wanted to drain may have hidden past politicians’ actions and in doing his crimes out in the open has Trump effectively ‘drained the swamp’? Did Trump mean in that draining that he wasn’t going to stop criminal political actions but instead allow them to be done out in the open?”

QA also wrote on the inside of the cap words to Whitman’s poem America: Centre of equal daughters, equal sons, All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old, Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich, Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love, A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother, Chair’d in the adamant of Time.

--Walt Whitman

Revelation Michael Milewski works thru resistance to create a sense of revelation with his piece There (you had to be there) which takes in America’s current demographics, the attacks on America on 9/11/2001, a farm in Wisconsin, his family’s history in America since 1711, Pop Art and Interruptive Art. Milewski was influenced by Jasper Johns and Henri Matisse in making this piece which uses a newspaper printed flag called “Remembering the victims of September 11” as a foundation for entrance to his type of art, Interruptive Art— creating art which interrupts our daily lives to make a space for us to see things in new and fresh ways.

Michael Milewski’s There opens the Song of Myself show with a powerful revelation about the current history of America. Also shown is R. Hendrickson’s Suffragettes, Craig Dobson’s three sheets of resistance mail art and QA’s hat

The source material for There is as important as what time did to that material and how Milewski interpreted both.

The Daily Herald newspaper had placed an American flag covering a full sheet of newspaper.

The graphic design listed the names of those who had perished in the attacks on 9/11 (as of Dec 2001) inside the stripes as well as lyrics of patriotic songs.

But as happens with newsprint, the piece had not only faded to brown but all the names had disappeared! The patriotic songs were still

“Using the symbol of the American Flag and 9/11 as touchstones linking past and present …affords us opportunity to honor all those who sacrificed so that we can be who we are today and create a future where all are accepted and where all can prosper.”

present as well as the bottom tagline denoting the Daily Herald and the graphic designer, Maria Chroronzecki’s (sic), signature after the title of the piece “Remembering the victims of September 11”.

Milewski saw the fading and remnants of this Daily Herald piec piecee as another way to look at not just 9/11 but the American flag and the evolving American experience as he writes in his artwork narrative:

“There There is a past, present and future piece. The past “There There” is an old newspaper with an American flag printed w with ith all the people who perished in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The present “There There” is the newspaper flag with the colors and names faded away and forgotten as the country country’s ’s priorities change along with its demographics demographics. The future “There” is the confluen confluence ce of the past and the present which gives the viewer the opportunity to reimage a future American flag. My artwork There not only asks us to remember what happened on 9/11 but to also see what has happened since, to see how different our country has beco become me and yet remains essentially the same. Using the symbol of the American Flag and 9/11 as a touchstone to link the past with the present as we hurdle toward the future affords us an opportunity to honor all those who sacrificed so that we can be who we aree today and create a future where all are accepted and where all can prosper.”

Community Seven artists in Song of Myself examine the cultural strength of community. Individuals which make up these communities establish strong ties to each other by their ir cultural mythos and rituals. Specific, ancient rituals lead to new consumeristic rituals Eandu’s sky looking gazes across the large window at what may be the remnants of United States symbolism with h Michael Milewski’s There, R. Hendrickson’s Suffragettes,, Craig Dobson’s three sheets of resistance mail art and QA’s hat

by acknowledging the influences of manifest destiny and the closing of the frontier. These cultural moments build on the strength these individuals have as members ers of diverse communities as the curation of these politically inspired artists moves toward the rounded tower of the first room.

Lagos, Nigerian artist Eandu changes the political extrospection with a quiet painting called oju ọọrun run n wa (sky looking) of his younger self looking skyward in the present. This time shifting adds to Eandu’s realization that he is the main star he always looked for in the night skies which is why his painting has no stars. Eandu also references the looking skyward by runaway slaves in America who identified the Big Dipper as their Drinking Gourd and used it to guide them to the North and to freedom. The Big Dipper represented a chance to drink of freedom. Even today people of color look skyward looking ing for that drink of freedom. Done with oil paints and traditional mineral paints, Eandu moves the story to one of an introspective individual representing a larger community contrasted by the extroversion of the first three artists. The brilliant shine to the individual contrasted to the matte white background leads to many different interpretations and reminds each viewer of the PoS that is at work each time an artwork is viewed. The curatorial triad of artist, artwork and viewer of PoS opens up multitudes udes of possible aesthetic experiences.

Lenora Price continues this introspective narrative with her Yei Bei Chai Winter Curing Ceremony a stunning sand painting done on wood panel and inserted into a weathered tree branch with a turquoise owl watching from f an empty knot. Price brings her Navajo history into the 21st Century with this anachronistic piece. Having learned sand painting from her mother, Price brings wonderment into history, delivering a ritual moment which shares wisdom from her tribe aboutt the balance needed to navigate our universe. Price writes in her artwork narrative:

Lenora Price’s Yei Bei Chai Winter Curing Ceremony begins the movement through the rounded tower of the Tower Room with Michael Milewski’s There and R. Hendrickson’s Suffragettes in the background

“The The Yei bei chai dancers perform different ceremonial dances like the

winter curing ceremony which is used for both healing and initiation.

Children are initiated during the Winter Curing Ceremony by showing them the secret of Yei. We participate in initiation ceremonies four times during life.

The Yeis are part of a thinking that is called the Nightway. Many curing ceremonies involve the night and its ways that help bring healing which is to find balance between ourselves and the universe.”

The curation of Price’s thinking into the narrative here is to suggest a balance needs to be found in our current political climate, healing needs to take place for many.

The curation of Price’s thinking into the narrative here is to suggest a balance needs to be found in our current political climate, healing needs to take place for many.

Banksy’s image of the girl reaching for a red balloon is next with Michael Milewski’s version of this famous graphic. Naming the girl Hope as he worked on this piece the red balloon became symbolic for more than hope lost or let free, but also whether starting a business in this economic uncertainty should be set free also, or that our government may be out of reach from the hands that hold too tightly to the past. But in the end the title Banksy gave to this image prevails—there’s always hope.

At this point the curatorial storytelling recognizes the essentialness of community.

After smelling the lilacs with Whitman we experienced extroverted resistance and revelation through reconstituting cultural symbols in postage stamps, trucker hats and the American flag. Then we contemplated evolutionary progress seen in merging universal rituals with contemporary ethos. Now in the third part of the New Politics curatorial narrative these communicable experiences create communities. First individuals need to communicate with others about their experiences which can form communities in agreement with the need for resistance and the revelations attained who move out into the world to state their case for the New Politics.

The transitional piece chosen for this important curatorial movement between individuals to community is Margarita Fainshtein’s Self—Portrait an etched acrylic suitcase with working hinges and closures. The transparency of this piece worked well under a spotlight in one of the rounded tower room windows reflecting the outside world and the inner gallery world as contribution Margarita Fainshtein’s Self—Portrait is in the center with Michael to the strength of the Milewski’s Hope on the left and Anne Wedler’s Riders to the right artwork’s presence.

From outside the transparent suitcase appeared to float in mid air. Many viewers enjoyed just looking at it and thinking about it without even reading Fainshtein’s artwork narrative; but those that took the time to read it were entranced by the piece even more. This suitcase placed atop a tall table that was covered with a Native American Fancy Dance Shawl of Dakota heritage in black material and long, red fringe curated together to speak about the displacement of peoples in their homeland, communities dislocated, and how that displacement is now part of the self portraits of their ancestors alive today. Fainshtein says it best in her artwork narrative: “In Self—Portrait familial documents (Communistic party ticket; Former USSR passport, Jewish Identity card) were used to etch the suitcase form to question how they inhibit, control, or otherwise determine one's identity when region, locale, or nationality are suspended because of a Jewish identity in the early 20th century. The work points to the notion of a selfportrait via the image of a suitcase referencing those in the former USSR region who were without homes as a result of being culturally different in their own country and asks several questions. What do we carry with us as representations of ourselves? Who gets to have a home? What does belonging mean?”

It is those three questions that led the curators to place Anne Wedler’s Riders next in the tower. Welder’s piece held many conversations with

viewers about the importance of stuff in our lives and the need to hold onto pieces which connect us to each other and to a place. Just as Fainshtein created a suitcase etched with the passports and other identity documents as a connection to those who came before her, Welder’s piece continued the questioning of what stuff builds into identity, what things keep us connected to each other. Riders also shows the movement of items—not enclosed in a suitcase—but strapped to the backs of bike riders. Both these artists wrestle with the duality of identity and place as found in objects, with both of them questioning the importance of these objects and what really connects us. Welder writes in her artwork narrative: “Riders is a medium scale oil painting done from direct observation and is from my newest body of work. It tells a story of how objects or people give a sense of home to a place, but can also be a burden while they are a comfort.

The complicated duality of things we hold dear.”

Woodward writes that her painting, examines “dominion in the physical and spiritual sense, and expresses ideas of stewardship, companionship, and loss.”

Kristen T. Woodward’s Dominion continues this movement toward community and the questioning of what we value and how we came to value it. This encaustic painting shows the silhouette of an early frontiersman, looking off a precipice. A gun is slung over one shoulder as questions of manifest destiny, loss of habitat and homelands as well as the promise of a better future for others winds through the thick mixed media with deep colors. Woodward writes that her painting, examines “dominion in the physical and spiritual sense, and expresses ideas of stewardship, companionship, and loss.”

Woodward places her frontiersman in the 21st Century with these ideas, challenging the historical formation of the idea of frontier tied to the domination needed to create the very cities, towns, communities and places we live in today.

Frontier mythos is forever tied to closing of the frontier as wilderness is evacuated to create our current way of life. Woodward’s Dominion leads into the last part of the New Politics curation with her fundamental questions.

Communication

From left to right is Florian Schulz’s aerial photograph Winged Migration Anne Wedler’s oil painting Group Dynamics and Vicki Milewski’s watercolor From an Iceberg

Environmental metaphors of ‘stewardship’ and ‘natural capital’ lead to the last part of the political artists of Song of Myself. The dynamism of these artists paves the way for the second part of Song of Myself which contains the mystical storytelling of the artists who are making New Rules after the New Politics have begun. Visual communication is much the same as vocal communication, in the sense that people sometimes hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see. In this part of the Tower Room are artworks telling the story of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s, located in Alaska at the U.S.A’s most northern point, struggle between maintaining a vital ecosystem or the intrusive development of extracting oil and other “natural capital” resources. Florian Schulz’s aerial photograph Winged Migration taken over the Refuge shows “Snow geese returning to nest in the high arctic, as the snow is just beginning to melt away.” Winged Migration shows the contrast of the river the geese follow and the ice on one side creates a seemingly black and white moment of understanding about the importance of the arctic and its need for stewardship. At first glance it is barely perceptible that there are geese gliding through the air, but once fully seen they become the focal point of the photograph transforming a seeming photograph of a black and white barren artic that one sees at a glance. This photograph demonstrates the problems in understanding that the refuge is not a vast uninhabited wasteland of snow and ice, but a natural resource teaming with life. Just as the geese become the focal point of this photograph after taking the time to look, so too the

In this part of the Tower Room are artworks telling the story of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s…struggle between maintaining a vital ecosystem or… extracting … resources

fragility of the Refuge is better understood and how extracting “natural capital” could destroy it.

For years Schulz has worked to communicate this complete ecosystem with amazing photographs like Winged Migration providing an entry into the inner secret of our planet—its fragility.

Anne Wedler’s Group Dynamics is placed next to Winged Migration because of its arctic theme and use of colors as symbols and meaning. By communicating with its colors of red clad Arctic explorers, blue skies and white icebergs Group Dynamics shows ideas about being separate but connected with a wellspring of symbolism patriotic and questioning. There is a feeling that the explorers, the sky and the ice are all part of the dynamic group Welder is portraying. The patriotic red, white and blue in this grouping is not lost on even the casual observer; however, what the colors might symbolize Welder leaves for each viewer to decide. Continuing the Arctic theme is Vicki Milewski’s From an Iceberg which communicates a view of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from an iceberg floating in the Arctic Ocean with rays from a hopeful sun streaming across the horizon line etching out the Brooks Range as a first quarter moon and star nestle into the curve of the sky. The Arctic narrative ends with another transportive aerial photograph from Florian Schulz called A Refuge in the Arctic showing thousands of caribou who travel over the Brooks Range to arrive on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain to give birth and utilize the nutrients only this plain provides for the new mothers and their calves. The Brooks Mountain range dwarfs the caribou on this plain and like his Winged Migration, once the caribou are seen it is impossible not to see them. Just as once the needs of the refuge are known it is hard to believe any type of gas or oil extraction should take place there. All these artists communicate that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a vital living habitat that should be left to its own devices. It should be left separate but connected because of its inherent fragility.

Closing the narrative of the political artists is a homage to Walt Whitman

by Vicki Milewski. Two artist books are contained in two separate frames.

The first is called, Dazzle of Light which is a phrase from Whitman’s Song of Myself, “You must habit yourself with the dazzle of light in every moment in your life.” Milewski used books containing this poem which had fallen apart, she dyed the pages green and cut the lines out to look like the grass Whitman used as a metaphor for his Leaves of Grass. A faceted rock crystal hangs above the scene to add a certain “dazzle”. The second artist book is a called Me n’ My Country—Who’s Leaving Who? from a collection of lines from a book of poetry by Vicki Milewski called American Doorways. As part of her writing process she cuts up past drafts of her books and collages them together. The line repeated throughout this piece: “to remain still, to remain silent is there more to this melody or do the rests hold all we need? We all communicate by various means.”

Curation of Tower Room Individuals

Resistance Turns into Revelation Revealing what we want

Individuals

Individuals working together Will keep culture alive

Community

Working together Legislatively, Ecologically and Symbolically To sustain life

Communicating thru resistance

Communicating thru culture

We all communicate by various means

New Politics + New Rules = New Self Lilacs +Resistance = Revelations +Community = Communication

I find the courage of treatment which large perception can inspire —Ralph Waldo Emerson in his letter to Walt Whitman

The New Rules Artists Artists breaking the rules of place to form a new relationship with place and redefine it

Denise Antaya Ontario Artist Artwork Narrative for Puddles Along Mersea Rd in Leamington, Ontario sits a farm with a weathered barn, overgrown with weeds and a rutted driveway. The puddles drew me in reflecting the sky and trees.

Despite its neglect the quiet, serene feel drew me to it, it somehow felt like a place I could call home.

Puddles was selected as an ARC finalist as well and juried into the NOAPS online show

Bio Denise was born in Windsor, Ontario and now lives in Kingsville, Ontario. She can’t remember a time when she wasn’t drawing or painting. Antaya had her first serious art show when she was 14. She recently achieved her Associate Living Master Designation through Art Renewal Centre and is working towards her Living Master classification.

For Antaya, every hour, every day and every season, brings its own personality and challenges to the landscape artist. Capturing the beauty and subtleties that nature provides is a never ending source of inspiration for her. A plein air painter has to capture the essence of place with the ever changing light, subtleties of colour, shape and shadows, only keeping what is necessary to tell the story. Antaya strives to take the everyday scene that is often overlooked, and present it in a new light. If the artist can draw the viewer in, make them feel the warmth of the sunshine, the coolness of the shadows, the dancing of the light across the fields or the heaviness of the air with the impending storm, then she has succeeded. If she can make the audience feel the magic, then this journey is all worthwhile.

Puddles

Denise Antaya Puddles 12” x 21.25” Oil on birch panel

Denise Antaya Ontario Artist Artwork Narrative for Spring Greens Spring Greens is in an area near Huntsville, Ontario. The rocks and the green plants pushing through, catching the sun on this spring day captured my attention. The contrasts of the darks and bright greens glowing with the sunlight was a promise of the warm weather to come. It’s a testament to the resilience of nature and of myself as an artist to push through the tough times and despite the hardships to keep coming back stronger than before.

Artist Statement I was born in Windsor, Ontario and now live in Kingsville, Ontario. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing or painting. My first serious art show when I was 14. I recently achieved my Associate Living Master Designation through Art Renewal Centre and am working towards my Living Master classification.

Every hour, every day and every season, brings its own personality and challenges to the landscape artist. Capturing the beauty and subtleties that nature provides is a never ending source of inspiration for me. A plein air painter has to capture the essence of place with the ever changing light, subtleties of colour, shape and shadows, only keeping what is necessary to tell the story. I strive to take the everyday scene that is often overlooked, and present it in a new light. If I can draw the viewer in, make them feel the warmth of the sunshine, the coolness of the shadows, the dancing of the light across the fields or the heaviness of the air with the impending storm, then I have succeeded. If I can translate the magic I feel to the audience, then this journey is all worthwhile.

Spring Greens

Denise Antaya Spring Greens 20” x 16” Oil on birch panel

Buddha Babe Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative This Necklace has semi-precious gems associated with the 7 chakras.

Since ancient times people have recognized the power of beautiful gemstones and have worn them for health benefits as well as for their natural beauty.

The 7 Chakras have become well known as meditational aides and yoga goals. This necklace will help with both. Understanding them better can assist you in living to your fullest potential and gaining more enjoyment from your life.

The special pendant bead is a handmade glass bead with gold designs for each chakra made by Tibetan monks in the Himalayas.

Artist Statement I make Chakra inspired jewelry because of the personal healing and transformative experiences I have had with the Chakras.

As metaphysical energy centers, the Chakras are not in any special place or perceived by any sense but instead they bring you to another way of being.

Chakra Bead Necklace

Buddha Babe Chakra Stone Necklace Red Garnet, Orange Agate, Green Aventurine, Rose Quartz, Blue Aquamarine, Turquoise, Lapis, Amethyst, Golden Rutile Quartz, Freshwater Pearl, White Jade, Monk painted Chakra Bead

Buddha Babe Wisconsin Artist Artwork Statement I draw each piece of jewelry I make before deciding on how to create it. I look into each stone to make sure it will work with the others.

Amethyst (Purple) Third Eye Chakra Amethyst brings wisdom, helps in meditation Clear Quartz Crown Chakra Clear Quartz aides in realizing your spiritual self Lapis (Blue) Throat Chakra Lapis aides in being a strong speaker Garnet (Red) Root Chakra Garnet aides in feeling connected to the present moment Agate (Orange) Sacral Chakra Agate is one of the oldest healing stones balancing Aventurine (Green) Solar Plexus Chakra Aventurine harnesses positive, healing energy Freshwater Pearl Sacral Chakra Pearl is used for good digestion of energy and ideas Jade (White) Heart Chakra Jade is considered a 'dream stone' that directs your passion Chrysoprase (Green) Heart Chakra Chrysoprase aides in attracting love.

Aquamarine (Blue) Throat Chakra Aquamarine helps inspire you by bringing clarity Turquoise (Blue) Throat Chakra Turquoise is a powerful healer.

Rose Quartz Heart Chakra Rose Quartz is the stone of love and fulfillment.

Chakra Bead Necklace

Buddha Babe Chakra Stone Necklace 11� X 14�

Pen and ink on paper

RR Beinm New MexicoArtist Artwork Narrative Mesa Rains is about an experience I had in a downpour that changed my life. I had been trying to decide where to live and work as an artist. I loved new Mexico, the high country past Taos, and the mesas were always calling me. There was something that held me back and caused me to not take the need to paint the mesas seriously. Then one afternoon as I was wandering through a particular grouping of mesas I love on my way home the very sunny blue day became dark in an instant. Then the rains came down forcing me to pull over to wait it out. I then could see the mesas through the rain and I started drawing them. The sun started shining though the rain and that is Mesa Rains.

It is now a series of 12 paintings. I now live near that grouping of mesas. I am now happy.

Artist Statement RR Beinm has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute Chicago. His works are held by museums, private individuals and organizations and embassies.

Mesa Rains

RR Beinm Mesa Rains 24� X 36�

Watercolor, paint, metallics on paper

Lesley Bodzy New York Artist Artwork Narrative Creating the tension and anticipation that comes from being where you are to the moment right before the decision to move from here to THERE. With the three paintings I am submitting I have created three different states of THERE. INFINITY explores the THEREness of unlimited time, space or quantity. While we always remain in the here and now, there is always THERE in the future, in the vastness around us and in the hope of something else.

Artist Statement Amid the chaos of life you encounter a bit of peace. It could be a face, a sunset, or someone’s overwhelming kindness, but it stops you in your tracks and a moment of equilibrium is achieved. Providing these moments in paint is my goal as an artist.

The most exciting moment is when conflicting shapes and colors form serenity amid the chaos. This reminds us we are alive. Moving, breathing, full of stresses in our life, yet for a moment, we can stop and feel the mystery of life.

Bio Lesley Bodzy is a painter who lives in Houston and New York City. She is currently a 2021 MFA candidate at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Lesley is fascinated with luminosity and the interplay of light and color. Working with oil, acrylics, encaustic, resin and mixed media, she paints both abstract and representational art. Lesley recently had work in shows at The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT and at Guild Hall in Easthampton, NY. Her work has been shown in New York City, Houston, Philadelphia, Connecticut, Sonoma, and Los Angeles. Lesley has a BA from Mount Holyoke College and also studied Studio Art at Hunter College.

Infinity

Lesley Bodzy Infinity Framed at 24” X 18” Mixed Media on Aluminum Panel

David Culver Minnesota Artist Artwork Narrative I live in an area along the Mississippi River, sometimes called "Bluff Country'.

Above, on the flat Midwestern tableland, most everything has been tamed put to the plow and even the ditches mowed like golf greens by relentless producers. But once you drop down towards the river, in the forests of the bluffs. it's lush, verdant, thick underbrush and a tangled world of really varied vegetation. I always wish that I was in "Some Dark Hollow", more often, regret not finding more time to hike it, bushwhack to some seclusion, and paddle through it on a creek in the smallest craft possible.

This piece was painted early in October, that Great Month of change when I was ruing my omissions.

Artist Statement The work should speak for itself, but: So, I am trying to translate a vision into an image. Something in my mind ( I may have got it "out there", but it's mine now) that wants expression.

It is a message and in a sense, a greeting, a shot at something.

I am a bold sculptor and a timid painter.

Bio (In A Nutshell) I have probably always been an artist, encouraged by my mother and aunt, tutored by great high school teachers, mentored by some wonderful and generous fellow artists and instructors. I have studied at Mpls. College of Art and Design, U. of Minn., and San Francisco School of Art. I took to public art under the mentorship of Siah Armajani and Tom Attridge. I have projects and pieces at Ohio State Univ., U .of Minn., Faribault State Prison Mn., Lakewood Cemetery, Mpls. Mn., Sahara West Library, Las Vegas NV.and lots more.

I am in the collections of; Walker Art Center, Mpls. Mn., Weisman Museum, Mpls.Mn., Amhad Jamal, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, Regis Corp. Mayo Center Rochester Mn., Federal Reserve Bank Mpls. Mn., and Robert Zimmerman.

I live in Bay City Wi. in an old Post Office on the Banks of the Mississippi River.

I am just getting started.

The Late Eden

David Culver The Late Eden1 23 ½” X 9 ½” Oil Painting on Canvas

The Spear

David Culver The Spear 55” X 12” X 8” Cedar with Polished Granite

This Year

David Culver This Year 14” X 11” Oil Painting on Canvas

Vicki Milewski, Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative Moving beyond abstraction means to increase the relevancy of abstraction while creating a new way to look at art. This is not the abstraction of the expressionists who advocated that the artwork be of itself, be non representational; instead, this abstraction is seeded with experience in our shared reality but the growing matrix is the awareness of other ways to view reality, possible other dimensions other placements of time and space, other ways to understand the physics of reality.

The first round of images created are of a confluence of two rivers—the Chippewa and the Eau Claire. At this junction where one river spills into and merges with another an opportunity is presented to see this reality through experiences like the rivers lifting up into the skies as an ecological realization that our water quality issues need to be examined through the entire water cycle. The skies have rivers flowing above our heads and confluences of those rivers.

So I’m talking about beyond abstraction with the sky and I’ve come to realize through this conversation that I am merging tenants of abstraction, experiential education and conceptualism in order to create beyond abstraction. Beyond abstraction means that I am extracting an experience to a visual, physical form so that others may view it and have an experience. Now the experience could be similar or connected to my experience or a wholly other experiences a unique one as unique as each viewer. Either way I’m taking something metaphysical like an experience and I’m abstracting it to put it into a visual, physical form so that other people may view it and have a possible metaphysical experience.

Bio Vicki Milewski is an Abstract Experientialism working with oil paintings, paper, photography, film, words and music. Her art is internationally collected and exhibited and her music compositions are performed by choruses, symphonies, soloists and d.j.’s..

She is a published writer. Her films are screened internationally.

Milewski is creating a diverse body of work that defies easy categorization. Her work can be one piece of art or many as diverse as trance music, artist books, paintings, drawings, sculpture, film and using words in traditional and new ways. Originally taught by her mother, artist Elizabeth Galaudet Milewski, she was also mentored by Ivan Albright, Ed Paschke, Tom Forsythe, Sharon Ott, Margaret Hillis and certain Rotten Belly Society members which explain her diverse repertoire.

Grand Avenue Bridge

Vicki Milewski Chippewa and Eua Claire Rivers Confluence with sky and land (as seen from the Grand Ave. Bridge in Eau Claire, WI) 14” X 11” Watercolor and Pencil on Paper

“Now What?”

Vicki Milewski Chippewa and Eua Claire Rivers Confluence with sky and land (“Now What?” The two rivers ask me.)

14” X 11” Oil Painting on Paper

a better view of my choices

Vicki Milewski Chippewa and Eua Claire Rivers Confluence with sky and land (“Or lift off into the sky for a better view of my choices?” the sky responded.)

14” X 11” Watercolor on Arches Paper

Sarah Suzanne Noble Chicago Artist Artwork Narrative Are Alleys a place of beauty and wonder? They are to me. I see the backside of the building, the face that tells the story. The face that has layers upon layers. It drips with water and floods with light. It draws a line to the sky. Pierced with a golden glow till the sun retires.

Bio Sarah Suzanne Noble is an accomplished Architect, Writer, Photographer, and Painter.

Her most recent works have been showcased in several galleries in Chicago. She is currently an artist with storiestoart.com, SOTA, Fortunate Discoveries and Bucktown Gallery. Sarah’s Lament: A Divine Appeal for Healing a book of poems and art will be released this summer as her first publication. Sarah received her Masters of Architecture from Ball State University. She practiced in the field for seven years before having her two children, Ruthie and Jacob. Sarah seeks what is noble, lovely and pure in all fields.

She recently recovered from a back injury that led to her being bedridden for over a year. That year more than 25 stories were written, 100 poems, 100 pieces of fine art.

Alley of Wonder

Sarah Suzanne Noble Alley of Wonder 10” X 10” Mixed Media on Wood Panel

Sarah Suzanne Noble Chicago Artist Artwork Narrative I witness the bricks flake, another coat of paint. Some structures loved others left to urban decay. Either way beauty is uncovered. It chips character, the molding a mixture of color, a story for another time. Beauty in the Renewal, in the juxtaposition of structures in the city, can you see it?

Bio Sarah Suzanne Noble is an accomplished Architect, Writer, Photographer, and Painter.

Her most recent works have been showcased in several galleries in Chicago. She is currently an artist with storiestoart.com, SOTA, Fortunate Discoveries and Bucktown Gallery. Sarah’s Lament: A Divine Appeal for Healing a book of poems and art will be released this summer as her first publication. Sarah received her Masters of Architecture from Ball State University. She practiced in the field for seven years before having her two children, Ruthie and Jacob. Sarah seeks what is noble, lovely and pure in all fields.

She recently recovered from a back injury that led to her being bedridden for over a year. That year more than 25 stories were written, 100 poems, 100 pieces of fine art.

City Renewed

Sarah Suzanne Noble City Renewed 10” X 10” Mixed Media on Wood Panel

T Oa Metis Artist Artwork Narrative Four Languages is about communication as much as it is about being there for others— being present. The four languages represented in this piece are English, Braille, Morse Code and Paper Birch. My grandfather use to read the paper birch bark like a newspaper about the weather, the natural communities and life within our universe. I did not think it important to learn that language from him and wish now that I had.

After hearing Vicki sing Translating Trees at a gathering of conservation minded peoples I approached her and began a long conversation that has gone on for years now about our natural world of which we are but one part. I surprised her this year with this piece and she urged me to submit it for this show and I am honored the judges chose it for display. If you decide to purchase it all proceeds will be directed to the planting of trees through Vicki and Mike’s not for profit the Memorial Nature Fund here in Wisconsin and through my Metis tribe’s efforts in Canada to keep the paper birch from extinction.

Artist Statement All living things store genetic information using the same molecules—DAN and RNA. Written in this genetic code is compelling evidence of the shared ancestry of all living things. Many mystical peoples feel that even the seemingly inorganic things share in this ancestry. I collage to make connections with ideas, materials and feelings.

Trained as a traditional Metis leather craftsman, I have found that many things inspire me to show how we are all connected. Being a Particle Physicist has only enhanced this thinking. Each tree, each horse, each deer, each human—we all contain within us the same building blocks that make up life—DNA in a double helix. The way we treat our environment is mirrored in how we treat one another—as if we are not all connected, we are all relations and I hope my artistic works help to bring people closer to seeing that and supporting those who already do.

Four Languages

T Oa Four Languages 11” X 14” X 3” Paper Birch Bark, Handmade Paper, Pins

Marc Rinzleman Wisconsin Artist Art Objects Narrative My grandmother left me a jewelry box filled with what I thought was antique ivory. I was unsure what to do with it so I took it to the Bell Museum of Natural History in St Paul to find out an ethical way to honor my grandmother’s gift. They told me the large beads are from the Tagua Ivory Tree which produces nuts that are hardened over several years and then used instead of ivory for jewelry and crafts. I have created several pieces from my grandmother’s gift which I gave to members of my family. They love them so much and wear them so much I decided to buy some Tagua Nuts and make more. I only want to use antique nuts since those were hardened with a specific process more current nuts do not go through. The leather spacers and wooden beads are from another antique find when I was traveling in Wyoming.

Bio Marc is an antiques dealer focusing on pre-Columbian artifacts and ritual items. His most recent work has been with the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He has sometimes been referred to as a 21st Century Indiana Jones because of his use of high tech hardware and software in his work locating specific items of interest.

Antique Tagua Ivory Nut Necklace

Marc Rinzleman Antique Tagua Ivory Nut Necklace Tagua Ivory Nut beads, wooden beads with leather spacers Hook and Eye Closure

Erin Schalk, California Artist Artwork Narrative The phenomenon of finding oneself interlinked with another across time and geographic location — albeit a rare occurrence — is of great importance to me.

Through visual art and poetry, I examine a constellation of human concerns including interculturality, an external environment’s impact on a person’s internal world, inherited traumas, and the communicative power of time, transition and silence. In moments of silence and reflection, I ask the viewer to consider what truly is absent, to delve deeper into what cannot be immediately seen, and to examine and question the templates which have been imprinted on each of us.

Bio Erin Schalk received her MFA in Studio from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017. Today, she is a visual artist, writer and fine arts educator based in the greater Los Angeles area, California. She exhibits her artwork throughout the United States and internationally, and she publishes her art and creative writing in regional, national, and global journals.

Last Outcrop

Erin Schalk Last Outcrop 12” X 12” Mixed media on wood panel

New Bloom

Erin Schalk New Bloom 13” x 11” Mixed media on wood panel

Remnant Thought

Erin Schalk Remnant Thought 12” X 12” Mixed media on canvas

Not I, not anyone, can travel that road for you, you must travel it for yourself. — from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself Part 46

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay:

New Politics + New Rules = New Self Part Two: New Rules By: Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay: New Politics + New Rules = New Self

Part Two New Rules

Galaudet Gallery’s Bay Room Installation view of Song of Myself looking South

Laws Unto Ourselves The second room visitors enjoy in Song of Myself is the Bay Room so named for its cantilevered bay windows with beveled, leaded glass above.

This year the Bay Room holds curated artworks defining New Rules for new communication to exist. These artists see place as an integral element in their work and the new rules they are creating assist in redefining relationships with themselves, others and place. Their sense of place is not an outer element of a landscape but more as an inner element of understood from experience. It is this experiential self making new rules which curators saw as a connective theme for the Bay Room artworks. In the call for entry this type of art making was referenced as the “Future THERE” since any rule making or breaking is for the future since the moment of the breaking or making is the present. It was also seen as the “Future Their” by the curators once they started to work the Song of Myself artworks.

The Whitman poem which works best with these ideas is For Him I Sing which asks for artists to think about their art—where it comes from which leads to where it is going and what rules may need to be created during this process. Whitman speaks of making the artist a “law unto himself” as Whitman states simply it is for the future artists that he sings his songs of self: For him I sing, I raise the present on the past, (As some perennial tree out of its roots, the present on the past,) With time and pace I him dilate and fuse immortal laws, To make himself by them the law unto himself --Walt Whitman, For Him I Sing For Him I Sing looks at THERE as an immediate present based in the past—a present that is happening. For Him I Sing is an exhortation to make up your own laws, make your own art. The greatest movements in art come from artists who change the rules and make a new art.

RR Beinm’s large scale Mesa Rains creates new rules in his strong watercolor and ink brushstrokes layered to show mesa formations in the background and pink and purple rains glowing with gold in the foreground.

The movement of the water and the mesas is slanted and continues off the large paper. Beinm uses some of the tenants of abstraction to conceptualize this scene while also creating new rules as seen in the shimmers of gold and silver that only appear at certain angles bringing a new depth to the piece by placing the viewer inside the rainstorm and creating new experiences from each place Mesa Rains is viewed from.

Installation View of RR Beinm’s Mesa Rain. In the background is Michael Milewski’s There, Craig Jobson’s mail art and QA’s MAGA hat

Ontario Artist Denise Antaya creates a law unto herself by merging realism with abstraction.

Her two oil il paintings look almost photographic while also having places where abstraction lingers.

In Puddles the smoothness of the oil paint on birch panel makes the scene glisten while the main puddle is beyond abstraction pushing the bounds of 21st century realism ism and abstraction by creating a scene of what nature might experience being reflected Installation View of Denise Antaya’s Spring Green and Puddles by that main puddle mirroring the sky and tall grass growing along the road. The grass also shows an unnatural sense of abstraction while bringing a certain movement to t the st scene which embodies a sense of 21 Century realism. In Spring Greens, Antaya makes use of a forest scene with its natural abstractions of light and shadow on leaves and bark while also looking like a photograph. Antaya was inspired by the “contra “contrasts sts of the darks and bright greens glowing with the sunlight” acting like “a promise of the warm weather to come.” There is also a promise of a new type of realism inherent in these pieces.

Four Languages is about communication as much as it is about being there for others—being present.

Conversant Corners Traditional Metis artist T Oa inspired the curators with his piece Four Languages.. The curators saw how three other artists were also entering into conversations with the places around them and so curated a meeting of two walls, a corner, as the Conversant Corners space in the Song of Myself exhibit. bit. The four artists that used different languages to converse are T Oa, David Culver, Sarah Suzanne Noble and Lesley Bodzy.. Each of them has created their own rules and broken a few too while also entering into conversations with the natural forces around ound them by creating unique languages and deciphering ancient ones.

Oa describes such a conversation: “Four Languages is about communication as much as it is about being there for others—being being present. The four languages represented in this piece are English, Braille Braille,, Morse Code and Paper Birch. My grandfather use to read the paper birch bark like a newspaper about the weather, the natural communities and life within our universe. I did not think it important to learn that language from him and wish n now ow that I had.

After hearing Vicki sing her song Translating Trees (which has words from Whitman’s Song of the Redwood Redwood) at a gathering of conservation minded peoples I approached her and began a long conversation that has gone on for years now about our natural world of which we are but one part. I took this collaborative song and translated it into the four languages, the paper birch trees we all plant to stave off their extinction helped greatly with their translation as Vicki has come through the year years to sing Translating Trees to a grove of them and with their first bark offering I sat with them in order to see if they had heard the song. I think they have.”

Translating Trees (Song of the Redwood) Words by Walt Whitman and Vicki Milewski Joys of the life befitting me and brothers mine, our time, our term has come come.

The white snows of night and the wild winds were a joy to know and experience.

O these great patient rugged joys!

Myy soul’s strong joys unwrecked by man for I know, I hear, the soul bef befitting me I too have consciousness!

I too have identity!

You can chop me down But I will live on For my roots are deep They embrace its glow I will live again!

Paper Birch from T Oa’s Four Languages

David Culver’s The Late Eden

David Culver’s sense of conversation is directed by his experiences of the natural world as both of his pieces, This Year and The Late Eden, show.

Culver’s lexiconic abstractions texturize an inner and outer conversation into becoming one and the same. Deep hues of color merge into wordless statements on light, nature and life. Culver pushes the representation of a landscape along the Mississippi River further toward an idea of the landscape, until representation is suspended altogether and he is no longer making a painting about a landscape; instead, he is incorporating the experience of the landscape and its resultant effect on him directly onto the canvas.

Installation View of one part of the Conversant Corner clockwise from left to right David Culver ‘s This Year and Late Eden; Sarah Suzanne Noble’s Alley of Wonder and City Renewed; T Oa’s Four Languages.

Architect and Photographer Sarah Suzanne Noble has similar conversations but instead of traditional nature inspiring communication, the built environment suggests a living form within buildings and alleys filling them with color and breaking photographic rules to produce pieces that are dripping with hallucinogenic colors while staying straight and true to each environment portrayed. In her City Renewed she offers a glimpse into one of these conversations: “I witness the bricks flake, another coat of paint. Some structures loved others left to urban decay. Either way beauty is uncovered. It chips character, the molding a mixture of color, a story for another time.”

Noble’s use of color is enmeshed with the understanding of architecture she brings to the fore. Asking questions and suggesting that each viewer might have different answers is one way to start another conversation as she does with her Alley of Wonder: “Are Alleys a place of beauty and wonder? They are to me. I see the backside of the building, the face that tells the story. The face that has layers upon layers. It drips with water and floods with light. It draws a line to the sky.”

Sarah Suzanne Noble’s Alley of Wonder

The new rules these artists are using in creating languages that are understood on multiple levels and in multifaceted ways have connections with place, nature and self.

Installation View of another part of the Conversant Corner in foreground is Lesley Bodzy’s Infinity. Behind is David Culver’s Spear and Denise Antaya’s Spring Green and Puddles and further back is Maivoz’s Dreaming of Home with Thomas Asher’s Spring in the Valley and Winter in the Valley on either side.

Turning the corner from these warm blasts of color from Noble the curators also recognized another type of conversation happening in Lesley Bodzy’s extraordinary work of art Infinity. The mixed media shine on an aluminum panel is offset by tonal harmonies of grays, tans and whites speaking a language of timelessness and its alchemical variety of choice Bodzy explains some of her thinking returning us for a moment to that sense of Hope Banksy offered from the very outside of this exhibit: “Infinity explores the THEREness of unlimited time, space or quantity.

While we always remain in the here and now, there is always THERE in the future, in the vastness around us and in the hope of something else!”

These four artists were curated together because their artworks converse with one another while using different languages. The new rules they are using in creating languages that are understood on multiple levels and in multifaceted ways have connections with place, nature and self.

The conversant corner of Song of Myself started many conversations with visitors. One exhibit guest saw how the colorations of each piece were harmonious with the others—just as any good conversation can be. In this sharing of color palette another fertile field exists for rule breaking and creation. We just might need to talk about it a little longer!

Beyond Abstraction The last two New Rules artists are Erin Shalk and Vicki Milewski. Both these artists work beyond abstraction creating new rules through their continued experimentations with exploration. Shalk experiments with, “the templates which have been imprinted on each of us.” These templates might be culture, time or maybe personal geographies. The fascinating textures in Shalk’s work build up these ideas to release them with color and shape. There is a hieroglyphic quality to the embedded lines and forms that create a new language with which to understand these Abstract pieces.

Shalk has pushed past abstraction and in her explorations is creating something new and unknown something beyond abstraction.

Shalk describes her process as one of connection and communication with others and self in her artwork narrative: “The phenomenon of finding oneself interlinked with another across time and geographic location—albeit a rare occurrence—is of great importance to me.

“Through visual art and poetry, I examine a constellation of human concerns including interculturality, … inherited traumas, and the communicative power of time, transition and silence.” Erin Shalk

Through visual art and poetry, I examine a constellation of human concerns including interculturality, an external environment’s impact on a person’s internal world, inherited traumas, and the communicative power of time, transition and silence. In moments of silence and reflection, I ask the viewer to consider what truly is absent, to delve deeper into what cannot be immediately seen, and to examine and question the templates which have been imprinted on each of us.”

Shalk’s artwork titles led some to see things within this non-objective art. Last Outcrop had many viewers looking for a rock overhang within the grooves and colors.

But after looking most said, in not finding any shape that looked like a last outcrop,

that their minds then went to thinking about a last outcrop based on Shalk’s narrative—how the grooves could be the imprints of life on each of us, how the colors could be emotive to releasing trauma or in letting it teach us.

The depth of conversations about the different paintings was great.

Remnant Thought led many to imagine how their past thoughts might visually appear, how a painting might have it’s own thoughts to tell about.

The presence Shalk’s paintings creates a sense of independence. She understands her internal world and turns it inside out for viewing and revelations.

PoS opportunities happened frequently with Shalk’s work. The partnership between the artwork and the viewers and Shalk took on new meanings for the curators as people worked with her narrative, the artwork and the curatorial placement of Shalk’s artwork next to the Conversant Corners curation which assisted people in having conversations with each artwork while also seeing that these artworks were more about the true nature of abstraction which is to see a painting as a thing unto itself—non-objective and representing itself. Perhaps abstraction like this is one of the hidden goals of seeking ourselves and understanding our lives.

“Beyond Abstraction” so named by artist Vicki Milewski is a new perspective on abstraction. Merging her experientialist practice with her theories about nature “reaching toward abstraction and sometimes grasping it”, Milewski is moving beyond abstraction. After several years of painting minimalistic works inspired by the quiet of rural Wisconsin, Milewski is now back to her colorful ways with shapes as individual as her.

On display for Song of Myself are four oil paintings on paper depicting experiences she has had with the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers. The twists and turns of these rivers merge easily with a similarly twisting sky in Milewski’s works as she shares experiences with this confluence, the water cycle and her sense of our ecosystem’s needs.

Milewski explains the beginnings of this new type of art:“I began thinking about Beyond Abstraction while visiting the Lascaux Cave complex in France. When the tour guide simulated a flaming torch upon the cave walls’ prehistoric drawings the images began to move under the flickering of the flame. It was then that I could see beyond abstraction—that abstraction could include an individual’s experience as well as a shared experience. I also thought of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which posits that many people are content with watching shadows play upon a cave wall and that even when they are told there is another reality, they resist leaving the

comfort of what is known even if it is not real they lack faith in what is beyond their known world. The Art World has resisted the inclusion of Visionary Art and other works depicting other realities just like the people in Plato’s cave, although the recent acceptance of Hilma auf Klint’s work is encouraging. My Beyond Abstraction wo works rks move beyond Abstract Art through integrating a shared experience in viewing art, understanding art and enjoying art. When I was an inner inner-city city teacher, I had many students like the people in Plato’s cave but I found that experiential education was a pathway thway to open their minds to another reality reality—one one where they could be successful and control their own life. As an Abstract Experientialist I know that abstraction is my pathway to the same idea with art.

The first round of images created are of a confl confluence uence of two rivers—the rivers Chippewa and the Eau Claire. At this junction where one river spills into and merges with another an opportunity is presented to see this reality through experiences like the rivers lifting up into the skies as an ecological realization ation that our water quality issues need to be examined through the entire water cycle. The skies have rivers flowing above our heads and with confluences of those sky rivers. This confluence is also symbolic for me since the South Branch of the Eau Clai Claire re River runs through my home on my family’s ancestral farm.”

Installation View of Vicki Milewski’s Confluence Artworks. In background is Michael Milewski’s Banksy Interpretation Hope

These Beyond Abstraction pieces present a new lexicon for abstraction, churning as it has for hundreds of years on canvas and possibly over millennia on other media. A twisting cloud is no longer sky but a river of meaning or just a nice curved line; a rounded hill could be the curvature of the earth as overpopulation shrinks it every day smaller or simply an expanse of green undulating in hue and emotion. Beyond Abstraction moves into the “beyond” of shared experience of this reality and other realities while also moving “beyond” the idea of abstraction as generalization or non-objective visuals. It is like laying back on soft grass to notate cloud shapes as the wind pushes them into new shapes. When looking at the Beyond Abstraction pieces, thoughts of abstraction in science conjure questioning; how even a precise mathematical equation is only an abstraction of the physical reality it touches upon.

Coupled with PoS these When looking at colors and shapes create new experiences for each viewer and create a new the Beyond experience with each viewing from the Abstraction same person. The green curve does not exist out there somewhere beyond our pieces, thoughts knowing; it exists within each viewer and in finding this existence within it rises of abstraction in like a 21st Century kundalini until it meets with the green curves being viewed to science conjure produce a PoS aesthetic experience.

Milewski’s pieces forge new rules behind as does. Merging her background— enmeshed in communicate new her work in moves Beyond adds certain Conceptualism by experiences as the any idea that the concept.

questioning; how even a precise mathematical equation is only an abstraction of the physical reality it touches upon.

Beyond Abstraction rules and leave old each New Rules artist experiential education where students are experiences to ways of thinking—with abstraction Milewski Abstraction. She then tenants of using specific concept but discards artwork is less than the

There is also a similar curatorial flow as in the Tower Room as Individuals are encouraged, as seen in Denise Antaya and RR Beinm’s work. These individuals then form conversant groups which share experience, insights and more as they begin communicating the New Rules they are creating as seen in the Conversant Corner artists. Then the curation of the New Rules artists moves to seeing the individuals within groups and groups as individuals this is important because it is the start of communicating identity and considering a New Self as seen in the works by Erin Shalk and Vicki Milewski. All the New Rules artists understand that existing rules were once new rules.

Choosing and creating rules is determined by fortification of an artist’s voice. Experience shows different rules interact with us differently at different moments in our life which leads us to create new rules or renew existing rules as needed. These ideas bring the New Rules part of the curation of Song of Myself to not an ending but to the beginning of a new art form nestled There in a sense of place. New Rules make New Art.

All the New Rules artists understand that existing rules were once new rules.

Curation of the Bay Room: New Rules Individuals Being encouraged thru fortification Finding voice = New Rules

Communicating Support

Groups Having conversations, sharing experiences, insight, joy and ideas on New Rules

Communicating New Rules

Individuals within Groups Seeing groups as individual and as each individual like a blade of grass in a field

Communicating Identity

New Politics + New Rules = New Self

It has the best merits, namely, of fortifying & encouraging —Ralph Waldo Emerson in his letter to Walt Whitman

The New Self (Portrait) Artists Artists create a new way to see self portraits as more than a resemblance to our physical appearance but also a view into our personal metaphysics

Thomas Asher Artist Artwork Statement The thrill of seasonal change is subtle but once recognized it is like a wave washing over you. When I do pastel drawings like Winter in the Valley I think of the nuances of each season and then try to create that wave to wash over each person who takes time with the picture. I walk the same road for decades now and somehow, each day it is different.

Is it I that am different or the road or both? This road and the scenery around it have become a part of my identity. I am the road; the road is me. Simplistic but true.

Bio Thomas Asher is an accomplished artist from a long line of artists that originated out of the Hudson River Valley. His famous ancestors made him think to change his name and so he did—taking a first name of a favorite great, great uncle of his as his last name.

Asher’s work is widely collected and can be found in museum collections and private holdings.

Winter in the Valley

Thomas Asher Winter in the Valley Framed at 11� X 14�

Pastels on Arches Warm Press

Rock Bear Winnebago Artist Art Objects Narrative I carve little bears in different rocks that all mean a certain place to me. Jasper is Wisconsin, Basalt is Lake Superior and Sunstone is Sedona. Each Bear Necklace has a circle with it to remind us that we are all related.

Artist Statement While out walking I see rocks I want to work with. I ask the rock if it wants to be fashioned into a new shape. Some say “yes” others say “no” I only take the ones that say “yes”. I leave tobacco where the rock was to honor its acceptance of transformation.

Bla Black ck Bear Necklace Rose Bear Necklace

Rock Bear Black Bear Necklace 17� Hand carved basalt bear on silver chain with silver circle

Rock Bear Rose Bear Necklace 17� Hand carved rose quartz bear on gold chain with brass circle and two rose quartz beads

Noreen Betten Artist Artwork Narrative Isle of the Skye is about the land and sky done in the open air of Isle of the Skye Scotland. The soft hues are as it is at daybreak and the use of watercolors brings out the ever present sense of water in and around this island.

Artist Statement Each landscape I do enters me, becomes me in a way that I cannot explain. Maybe I walk or talk differently after each work is finished. Imperceptible changes to anyone but me. I can hear the lilt of the Scottish hills in my vernacular now as I never heard them there before. It is as if I did a self portrait of myself only seeing it as such when I was done. It is like looking in a mirror that reflects back parts of yourself you have been seeking.

Isle of the Skye

Noreen Betten Isle of the Skye 11” X 14” Watercolor on Strathmore Paper

Mia Cinelli Kentucky Artist Artwork Narrative Now, more than ever, I feel there is a collective nostalgia, an overwhelming desire to “go back” to a time we perceive as comfortable or safe. The architecture of our lives sets the stage for the experiences for which we want to return. Nostos (homecoming) and Algos (pain), the Greek words at the root of Nostalgia, speak to the overwhelming desire to go home— and the consequential realization that we cannot. Engaging with the archetypal form of a house as a metaphor for home, I aim to explore the physical manifestations of yearning.

The house I used to live in still stands and looks the same, but everything has changed— the people, the furniture, the dishes in the cabinets. I find myself missing a place which no longer exists. I wish I could open the door and step into that house for just a moment the way it used to be. As it Was is a 3D printed model of the house I lived in with smaller, nested houses inside. Those tiny houses contain smells of the house the way I remember it— aromas that instantly transport me back to to a place that is forever gone.

Artist Statement Mia Cinelli is a multidisciplinary artist and designer. Her practice encompasses an eclectic span of investigations, including conceptual products, sculptures, installations, garments, and graphics, ranging from poetic to pragmatic. As a designer of experiences, interactions, and dialogues, her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. With an inquiry-driven practice, she is passionate about—and continually excited by— the possibilities of visual communication and human-centered design.

Bio Mia Cinelli is an Assistant Professor of Art Studio and Digital Design at the University of Kentucky. She has exhibited internationally during Salone Satellite at the Milan International Furniture Fair as a part of Milan Design Week, The Works International Arts Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, Typoday 2018 in Mumbai, India, as well as at the Port Moody Art Center in conjunction with the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. In 2016, she was selected to present a TED talk titled ‘A New Type of Superpower’ on typography at TEDxUofM; Subject to Change. Her work in typography is included in the collection of the Griffiss International Sculpture Garden, in Rome, NY, and her digital typeface Fayette is a 2018 Graphis Silver Award winner. Mia’s sculptural works have been featured through Design Milk, Core77, Fast Company, Dezeen, Daily Mail, and People Magazine, to name a few.

As it Was [Memory Vehicle]

Mia Cinelli As it Was [Memory Vehicle] 8” x 8” x 6” (smaller nesting houses variable; miniature) 3D-Printed Plaster powder, smell sources, Bondo, metallic paint, interior house paint

Anne Darby Parker South Carolina Artist Artwork Narrative Anne Darby Parker’s painting titled Transparency is a work of simple shapes. Parker used texture to build up the figure essence and chose a limited palette to express an overall sense of serenity.

Artist Statement As an artist, I think about the legacies left by women before me, legacies of hard work, mindfulness, strength, change, and progress. I work with intention to influence the present but ultimately, I work with the knowledge that every doodle, sketch, photograph, and painting influences my legacy. My consistent work to establish, develop, and grow my business does more than earn dollars. Each day I express resilience and faith in myself and trust in others because I believe they will see value in my art.

When painting, I frequently use a combination of graphite, acrylic, and oil. My movement is gestural and expressive. I immerse myself in the same environment the model is in and express this through choices of color and brushwork. A series usually begins with a modeling session in a natural environment and I finish each piece in my studio. With careful intention, I trust my instincts, experience, and intuition to make connected choices that support the feel of my vision.

Bio The characteristics natural to Anne Darby Parker are the outdoors, femininity, and spontaneity. Growing up, women working to maintain their beliefs, cultural rituals, and daily way of life surrounded her. For Anne, life in the Lowcountry was, and still is normal.

Growing up on Sullivan’s Island, a barrier island in South Carolina, made areas where sand meets water Anne’s preferred place. Her expression often reflects the spontaneous and rhythmic movement of island life. She was surrounded by a culture of making, creating, and expressing; her first medium was yarn. Sometimes, while painting, thoughts of knitting help her translate thoughts of connecting lines and color.

Returning to her roots, Anne and her husband raised their children on Sullivan's Island.

Anne’s studio immerses her in the island environment and allows family and friends to see women consistently using art to express and explore strength.

Transparency

Anne Darby Parker Transparency Canvas size 16” X 20” Framed at 28” x 30” Acrylic and Oil

Karen Esteves Florida Artist Artwork Narrative Swiss Alps - As we climbed up the mountain, the view over my shoulder was of this, a solemn stone house on a bare, monumental stone. Then, a cloud – a CLOUD passes below! I lost my sense of reality there.

Bio Karen Esteves has an MFA in Graphic Design and works in multiple artistic mediums like photography and artist books. She exhibits widely.

Swiss Alps

Karen Esteves Swiss Alps 8” X 11” Photograph

Dana Jeizmatz Wisconsin Artist Art Object Narrative I’ve always believed jewelry is art. This Lapis and Eye Bead Necklace is from my Protection Services Collection which has many pieces incorporating amulets and talismans like the blue glass eye beads in this necklace which are thought to protect the wearer against the “evil eye” or people who want to gossip about you. Eye Beads are also thought to increase the positivity you have toward yourself so that if you gossip or talk about yourself (usually in our own minds)then the eye bead reminds you to think good thoughts about yourself!

Artist Statement The powerful nature of natural materials like stones and metal has intrigued me since I was a child. At first I combined broken jewelry into something new which I called collage while attending the Art Institute of Chicago where I received an MFA in Studio.

After leaving school I sought to enlarge my artistic practice to include the wonders I had learned but always found myself happiest when working with jewelry.

Now my jewelry is seen as art! Several museums have purchase pieces for their collections and art collectors purchase my pieces to wear as art. I have always believed jewelry is art but I do think that the usual tenants of art should also be applied to the making of jewelry. Considerations of aesthetics, experience and meaning are part of my design philosophy. When I seek materials to use I want authentic stones, natural and not synthetic, and precious metals as much as possible. I believe there is a health benefit from wearing jewelry that is made as such and I attempt to continue a 1000’s of years practice of making healing jewelry.

Lapis & Eye Bead Necklace

Dana na Jeizmatz Lapis and Eye Bead Necklace 26� Lapis Pendant, blue white heart glass beads, blue eye beads with gold filled heart and chain with two rosary crystals

Patty Q. Johnson Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative Time speaks to all. Time wins its own resolve and while it speaks, we hear in our own colorful path. Time wins; time waits; time secures; time is harsh but thorough. Why time is placed is the recipient’s and only thoughtful placement wins. Painting the soft voice of time is why we speak always. We ask and receive without harm.

Artist Statement Art speaks through roads of diverse culture and ancestral paths. We allow for lengths of discovery to create our destiny. While we move with culture and ways of beliefs, we begin to understand our own way of life that begins to shine through and become reality.

Meaningful art awakens the full meaning of why a piece has been created, and what it speaks through allowing final creative motion to capture its entirety.

My art fills my soul with color and love. There is never a move that is not to be.

Thankful for the world’s way of conversations.

Bio I have had the luxury to grow as an artist and spiritual being with the love and support of my husband, who gives me the strength to move through and provide my medium to those needing calm.

My art career has just begun but has inspired me to become a better person and allow for closer relationships with those I love. It calls to my soul and excites the creative flow that speaks – it is always showing that simply painting is never one sided.

The purposeful relationship between art and the flow of energy surrounding, can be the difference in making meaningful art. Creation flows through each of us with ease. What that means is up to interpretation.

Call to your own connectors and discover ways you will speak – there is never a wrong way to create your calm.

Be well is to be happy. This is my new calm.

Time

Patty Q. Johnson Time 24” X 36” Arylic on Canvas

Andrea La Morte Schaffer Wisconsin Artist Art Work Narrative: The pastel entitled Waiting with Luggage was done from a photo that was taken when I was 11. I travelled with my parents for 3 months in Europe while my father was on sabbatical. This photo was taken in Paris. The lack of cars indicates to me that it was perhaps a Sunday morning. We were waiting for a cab but my parents were several feet away consulting a map or a tour book.

A friend of mine saw herself in this painting because it recalled to her the train trips she took every summer to visit her grandparents. I am happiest when my work can become personal to the viewer, triggering a memory or planting an idea.

My memory of this morning was that it was cool and quiet. Beyond that, I hope whatever you see here is something that belongs to you.

Bio I grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, NY. Orchestra was my extracurricular, playing cello in the pit for school musicals, attending music camp and other camps in the summer. I went to Davidson College in North Carolina and spent my junior year in Norwich, England. I moved to Boston after college and worked for a consulting firm. I met my husband, a graduate student, in Boston and we moved when he began teaching economics. I took art and art history classes at the colleges where he taught, and I developed a portfolio to apply to graduate school. I have an MFA (with a concentration in sculpture) from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College, a multidisciplinary MFA program that includes visual arts, writing and music. We moved to Eau Claire, WI when our children were little. I taught art and then writing in the Altoona School District until I retired in 2013. My time now is spent volunteering, teaching cello and practicing my own art.

Waiting with Luggage

Andrea La Morte Schaffer Waiting with Luggage Framed at 40” x 23” Pastel

Andrea La Morte Schaffer Wisconsin Artist Art Work Narrative: Pigeon in Chicago was done from a photo I took on a family vacation whenour kids were in middle school. Years later, my daughter lived in Chicago after she graduated from college. I associate pigeons with big cities. My friends refer to them as “Sky Rats” butpigeons belong to the same family (Columbidae) as doves. They are monogamous and have been domesticated for thousands of years, often performing jobs. They recognize their own reflections and recognize the letters of the alphabet.

Pigeons can be viewed simply for who they are but, for me, they are always a reminder of the places I have encountered and interacted with them. When I was teaching, I passed a house each morning that had a pigeon loft. The loft (coop) was built onto the house so the pigeon keeper could feed the birds through the window. I also have a vivid memory of feeding pigeons when I was 11. They strutted around waiting for my next toss of bird seed. One landed on my head.

The images evoked by pigeons range from crowded, dirty cities to emergency errands carried out by the birds to the sweet cooing sound they make as you walk down the street. Don’t we all carry that range of value and connotation?Aren’t humans a mixture of good and bad too, of beauty and the repellent?

Bio I grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, NY. Orchestra was my extracurricular, playing cello in the pit for school musicals, attending music camp and other camps in the summer. I went to Davidson College in North Carolina and spent my junior year in Norwich, England. I moved to Boston after college and worked for a consulting firm. I met my husband, a graduate student, in Boston and we moved when he began teaching economics. I took art and art history classes at the colleges where he taught, and I developed a portfolio to apply to graduate school. I have an MFA (with a concentration in sculpture) from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College, a multidisciplinary MFA program that includes visual arts, writing and music. We moved to Eau Claire, WI when our children were little. I taught art and then writing in the Altoona School District until I retired in 2013. My time now is spent volunteering, teaching cello and practicing my own art.

Pigeon in Chicago

Andrea La Morte Schaffer Pigeon in Chicago Framed at 33” x 26” Pastel

Maivoz Zuni Artist Artwork Narrative Dreaming of Home is a collection of images that have collaged together into a coherent scene. The soft colors and moderate use of color is in keeping with how I remember the first part of my life. I dream of home as if it is a part of me—physically, literally and spiritually. I could not be who I am today without the experiences of home I have had.

Artist Statement My lifeway has taken me on adventures and given me my art. I thank the spirits who watch over my way and help keep me on the right path. There are many times I disparage myself for being an artist and it is at those moments the spirits who manage my lifeway make themselves known and in that knowing I know I will remain an artist always.

Dreaming of Home

Maivoz Dreaming of Home 24” X 36” Oil Painting on Canvas

Stefano Regola Italian Artist Artwork Narrative Wilderness Wavelengths shows a moment in the forest when everything is in tune and questions about place or who we are just dissolve into the shimmering moment and we are allowed to just be. It is in those moments we know it is more than the concept of everything being related, we know then it is about everything is us and we are everything. Each time I have one of these moments I try to capture it in my art and know when someone looks at it they are looking at a self portrait I have made and may not even know it.

Bio Stefano Regola has an MFA in Studio Art from Studio Arts College International Florence, Italy. He is a fourth generation artist who is continuing to produce oil paintings in the same studio as his family.

Wilderness Wavelengths

Stefano Regola Wilderness Wavelengths 16� X 20�

Oil Painting on Canvas

Lorre Slaw Artist Artist Statement Love making art.

Have taught in public schools.

Have taught computer in private industry at Royal Zenith in Rosemont.

Taught at Oakton Community College for 15 years.

Got my Master’s Degree in Printmaking.

Rose's Chair is in My Garden

Lorre Slaw Rose's Chair is in My Garden Framed at 10 ½” X 8 ½” Original Computer Art

Zametki Starshina Teke Haliq Charwa Kazakhstan Artist Art Object Narrative My ancestors were Charwa Haliq (nomadic tribesmen) and in learning the craft of jewelry making from my grandmother I want each piece to contain something that pays honor to those who came before me. The lapis and carnelian come from the steppes of my ancestors. The shape of the pendant is a spear or a heart—both give life.

Bio Starshina is a classically trained pianist who has performed and recorded with international symphonies. He has been trained in making traditional jewelry by family members who are passing down a long tradition of jewelry making. His art objects can be found in museums, in private collections and in art exhibits around the world.

To My Ancestors Carnelian Necklace

Zametki Starshina To My Ancestors Carnelian Necklace 27�

Natural carnelian with agate cylinder beads and sea glass beads on silver necklace with a Silver Carnelian Asyk Pendant

Harry Wysocki Artist Artwork Narrative Singing Plants is a tonally similar collage that is widely varied in techniques. There is the handmade paper dyed in different ways. There is the embossing of certain pieces and places of the paper. There is a wonderful wash as a background.

Artist Statement As a practicing artist I know one day I will get it right, or right enough that I will be satisfied. That day has yet to come.

Singing Plants

Harry Wysocki Singing Plants Framed at 16� X 20�

Embossed Collage of handmade Papers

It is not far, It is within reach Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know.

--Walt Whitman, Song of Myself 46

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay

New Politics + New Rules = New Self Part Three: New Self (Portrait) By Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay: New Politics + New Rules = New Self

Part Three New Self

One wall in the Studio Room of Galaudet Gallery’s Song of Myself Art Exhibit. From left to right Thomas Asher’s Spring in the Valley, Maivoz’s Dreaming of Home and Thomas Asher’s Winter in the Valley

“We” is Revolutionary The Studio Room displays artwork from the New Self (Portrait) Artists who are creating new ways to interpret the idea of self. These New Self (Portraits) are more than just a resemblance to physical appearance; instead, they are a view into the artists’ metaphysics, which interprets Sense of Place: There from a new perspective. The New Self discloses relationships artists have with others, nature, the universe, self and spirit.

These artists are connecting to realism through other artistic genres. Last year the Studio Room held Sense of Place Revolutionary artworks with Abbey’s idea of “practical magic” which was used to communicate and create Galaudet Gallery’s Art Theory of “Partnership of Sight” (PoS).

Abbey’s “practical magic” could be found in record keeping and communication which uses history and connection. This year the studio room’s New Self Artists used magical realism to contribute new ideas to the time honored tradition of portraiture. They merged Abbey’s ideas on “practical magic” with their use of magical realism to create a New Self

(Portrait). This convergence of ideas and methods in these artworks prompted the curators to consider how curation operates over time and how some of the tenants from last year’s Studio Room—like the changing of artist studio spaces by using new technologies, new materials, and new artist work habits—push artists to break new ground and portray themselves in their artworks in new ways.

“The revolution begins here, in our farm fields, our shopping experiences, in our computers and in our art.”

The curators also discussed last year’s art installation from the Galaudet Gallery trip to Bentonville, Arkansas to pitch Wal-Mart on a new way to sell art. The experience led them to consider new ways for Galaudet Gallery to sell art, but it did not lead to a partnership with Wal-Mart because in the end the values and identity of these two businesses don’t match. This trip did help round out a statement of beliefs that Galaudet Gallery unveiled during the Song of Myself exhibit which includes:

“The revolution begins here, in our farm fields, our shopping experiences, in our computers and in our art.”

Whitman’s poem Song of Myself has a revolutionary cry to all who listen.

The poem asks each reader to sing a song of self, to live their life fully in the dazzle of each moment and to not forget to help others on this path. These ideas guided the curators in their selections for the New Self (Portrait) Room The part of the call for entry which garnered these artworks asked artists to think about the literal and figurative roads artists travel, those roads that have assisted in creating artworks which sing a song of self.

Whitman wrote in his poem Song of Myself Part 46: My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public road.

Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself It is not far, It is within reach Perhaps you have been on it since you were born and did not know.

One wall in the Studio Room of Galaudet Gallery’s Song of Myself Art Exhibit. From right to left Andrea La Morte Schaffer’s Waiting with Luggage, Francisco Crespo’s Found in Fondon; in the background is David Culver’s Spear and 3 works by Vicki Milewski

The road Whitman points to is an inner and outer road which leads to the practice of being an artist and creating a partnership with others through sharing and communicating. These ideas are directly linked to the PoS which posits that we all walk on roads which lead to greater self-awareness so creating partnerships in order to communicate with others about our travels and awareness enables artists and art viewers to be a part of creating art. In the PoS theory the artwork is not completed until it is viewed, until it is experienced. Just as Song of Myself artist Andrea La Morte Schaffer shares memories of her 11 year old self in an eloquent pastel drawing enables others to experience memories and experience her artwork. Through her sharing we can share of ourselves as well. Schaffer writes in her artwork narrative for Waiting with Luggage: “My memory of this morning was that it was cool and quiet. Beyond that, I hope whatever you see here is something that belongs to you.”

Schaffer’s drawing of a girl with luggage waiting along a street pulls us into a magical realism where abstraction in plaid creates an otherworldly sense of place. It is There that this abstraction of a memory of an artist is exposed and communicated making Schaffer’s Waiting with Luggage more than a snapshot of a past experience; instead, it tells the story of who this young girl became.

“We" are our History

Simply put our past, our history, is part of who we are today Three other artists in the New Self (Portrait) Room communicate history and memory in a different way. Their exposition connects viewers to their own histories as well as a greater, shared history. Simply put our past, our history, is part of who we are today . In viewing our histories from the distance imposed by time we see how our past experiences coalesce to create our present selves.

Present day experiences don’t just occur in a vacuum; instead, they become pieces that build into who we are at this moment and who we will be in the future. This section of the Song of Myself exhibit also shows “one of a kind jewelry” as a being a part of self-portraiture, the curators move this historic fashion accessory into a new light—moving it to fit more firmly into selfexpression and into becoming a New Self (Portrait). The sense of smell is also a part of this section reinforcing us to connect to a place, to a memory and offering us a New Self in the process.

Zametki Starshina and Veronica Schimdt are two jewelry artists who make one of a kind pieces filled with meaning, history and self. Starshina creates ornate silver pendants in Kazakhstan as they have for centuries. The inclusion of his To My Ancestors Necklaces were quickly purchased and so the gallery had to ask for more to which Starshina replied, “It will take a few months to make.” Starshina’s Art Object Narrative added to the powerful experience of the pieces: “My ancestors were Charwa Haliq (nomadic tribesmen) and in learning the craft of jewelry making from my grandmother I want each piece to contain something that pays honor to those who came before me. The lapis and carnelian come from the steppes of my ancestors. The shape of the pendant is a spear or a heart—both give life.”

And like Starshina, Wisconsin jewelry artist Veronica Schimdt looks to history and past understandings of amuletic wisdoms to create her pieces, breaking rules

along the way in order to free her spirit to create anew. She writes of her Love, Truth, Wisdom Necklace “A Triangle with its apex upwards symbolizes Good. The three triangles in this necklace are about the Trinity that exists in many religions: in India, China, and Japan its three angles represent Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva: the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer or Regenerator; in the Christian Church the Holy Trinity. The meaning of the three Triangles interlaced, is the triumph of spirit over matter using the three virtues of Love, Truth and Wisdom.”

Mia Cinelli works with a more recent past to inspire the creation of art that is truly 21st Century.

3D printed and interactive, Cinelli’s As it Was [Memory Vehicle] was a delight and question for many exhibition guests. Cinelli rightfully refrained from describing the smells her 3-D printed nesting houses held so that each participant could imprint their histories and ideas onto what they were smelling. As compact as this piece looked it held a powerful message for many—that smell is attached to our sense of place and that our memory of history may “Greek words be influenced by odor at the root of as well. Having this piece look like a home Nostalgia, with the smaller nesting houses filled with speak to the smells that could be Installation View of Mia Cinelli’s perfume or curry or As it Was [Memory Vehicle] overwhelming whatever your personal history says.

But in desire to go smelling and conversing about what they were home— and smelling visitors told stories of home as well as their longing for home. This is what Cinelli is exploring as the she describes in her artwork narrative for As it Was [Memory Vehicle]:

consequential realization that we cannot.”

Mia Cinelli

“The architecture of our lives sets the stage for the experiences for which we want to return.”

Mia Cinelli

“Now, more than ever, I feel there is a collective nostalgia, an overwhelming desire to “go back” to a time we perceive as comfortable or safe. The architecture of our lives sets the stage for the experiences for which we want to return. Nostos (homecoming) and Algos (pain), the Greek words at the root of Nostalgia, speak to the overwhelming desire to go home— and the consequential realization that we cannot. Engaging with the archetypal form of a house as a metaphor for home, I aim to explore the physical manifestations of yearning.”

The house I used to live in still stands and looks the same, but everything has changed— the people, the furniture, the dishes in the cabinets. I find myself missing a place which no longer exists. I wish I could open the door and step into that house for just a moment the way it used to be. As it Was is a 3D printed model of the house I lived in with smaller, nested houses inside. Those tiny houses contain smells of the house the way I remember it— aromas that instantly transport me back to to a place that is forever gone.”

And like the smells within these 3D printed aspects of home her ideas fragrant the air going out into the world to become physical in their manifestation within each viewer of her artwork, each sniffer of these spices.

"We" create Future Magic Five artists shared the magic they find in reality by exposing the linkages between self and nature/place putting a mirror to the universe in creating these selfportraits. Each artist is an individual voice singing in the world’s chorus a song about connection. These artists situated near the end of the curation of Song of Myself bring the curatorial ideas of place and self to the edge of the known world using magical realism. Positioned on that edge the next frontier is more clearly seen and communicated.

Stefano Regola brings this idea of magical realism as a part of the new portraiture in his Wilderness Wavelengths. The rays of sunlight shafting through a dense forest to create a magical moment is captured in this exquisite oil painting which changes when different lighting is introduced around it. At first the forest seems dense and dark but when the afternoon sunlight sneaks into the south side of the studio room, Wilderness Wavelengths captures light across the room on the north wall by showing a brighter and more detailed forest with glowing sunlight on water. Regola writes in his artwork narrative: “Wilderness Wavelengths shows a moment in the forest when everything is in tune and questions about place or who we are just dissolve into the shimmering moment and we Installation View of One wall in the Studio Room of are allowed to just be. It is in those moments Galaudet Gallery’s Song of Myself Art Exhibit. From left we know it is more than the concept of to right Stefano Regola’s Wilderness Wavelengths, everything being related, we know then it is John Marin’s Four Wheeled Buggy and Harry Wysocki’s Plants Singing about everything is us and we are everything.

Each time I have one of these moments I try to capture it in my art and know when someone looks at it they are looking at a self portrait I have made and may not even know it.”

Wilderness Wavelengths assisted the curators to have a better understanding of the New Self (Portrait) and it was after working with this painting they decided to put the “We” of each subsection title for this part of the essay into quotation marks to show it is more than just humans that are at work here. Just as place enters into an artist’s lexicon for their definition of “self”, so too place symbolically stands in for an artist physical self in these self portraits. Going back to that algebraic math the curators use to express this essay’s ideas for this section it looks like:

“We” is Revolutionary + “We" are our History "We" create Future Magic

It is that sense of being “allowed to just be” which describes the idea of the New Self. It is found in these moments when something magical imparts a new way to see reality and ourselves. Karen Esteves captures just such a moment in her photograph Swiss Alps which shows a lone house on top of a mountain.

Esteves adds to this splendor with her description of the moment: “As we climbed up the mountain, the view over my shoulder was of this, a solemn stone house on a bare, monumental stone. Then, a cloud – a CLOUD passes below! I lost my sense of reality there.”

The cloud Esteves captures transforms the Installation View of a wall in the Studio Room of rugged stone of the mountain and the stone Galaudet Gallery’s Song of Myself Art Exhibit. From house into arbiters whose presences influence a left to right sense of place which defines a sense of self.

Karen Esteves’ Swiss Alps and This magical realism exists for a moment only Anne Darby Parker’s Transparency and Esteves captures this moment and capitalizes on it with an adept framing of both cloud and stone. Aztec artist Maivoz extends such an idea in telling how a place can become part of identity: “Living in the white sands of the Southwest was an open and free childhood surrounded by ancient buildings that we lived in. It was like a surreal juxtaposition of the present and the past building into my future self.”

Maivoz’s painting Dreaming of Home (Sands of the Southwest) holds both the freedom of those white sands of his youth while showing us two of the ancient buildings. Like Schaffer’s Waiting with Luggage, Maivoz uses memory to tell his story of how those white sands and buildings built into who he is today. To think of how a place can become a part of us is easy in such a silent, tonal image. Artist Anslem Keifer describes some of Van Gogh’s work in a way that also speaks to this white sand picture:

Despite the simplicity of the composition, the picture speaks to us. And we feel that our own uncertain approach to the world has been laid bare.”

--Anslem Keifer

“Despite the simplicity of the composition, the picture speaks to us. And we feel that our own uncertain approach to the world has been laid bare.”

This comment could also be applied to Anne Darby Parker’s painting titled Transparency which shows a ghosted figure sitting in a muted space. Darby suggests the choice of a “limited palette” was used “to express an overall sense of serenity.” This limited palette also brings on a simplistic vision of portraiture which not only agrees with Kiefer’s “uncertain approach to the world” but also to a reason behind this uncertainty—a movement toward serenity and peace. Thomas Asher and Noreen Betten’s works also have this same quiet hand in communicating places that have laid a mark on their identities. Both of these artists chose to apply their colors in such a lightness and halting way to create otherworldly magical places to appear and pronounce their selves as us.

It is in these “simple” pictures that the curators were most excited when designing the flow of artworks for the New Self Portrait Space. The lightness and almost absence of color in certain images and places within the images seemed almost readied to have each viewer fill in their own impressions and identity. Upon closer inspection though, each of these pieces held no actual empty spaces just places that were softer and almost imperceptible but still there. This led the curators to place some of the New Self (Portrait) jewelry artists inside white boxes to offset the ghostly magic of the simplicity while also showing the absence of color in and around each jewelry piece.

Or in the case of Dana Jeizmatz’s Lapis and Eye Bead Necklace the white box heightens the awareness of the eye beads used which were made of dark blue with very white eyes and dark blue pupils. Jeizmatz sees her work as amuletic and brings a sense of the ritual of self-portrait creation:

Installation View of a frame filled with jewelry by Dana Jeizmatz

“This Lapis and Eye Bead Necklace is from my Protection Services Collection which has many pieces incorporating amulets and talismans like the blue glass eye beads in this necklace which are thought to protect the wearer against the ‘evil eye’ or people who want to gossip about you. Eye Beads are also thought to increase the positivity you have toward yourself so that if you gossip or talk about yourself (usually in our own minds) then the eye bead reminds you to think good thoughts about yourself!”

Another jewelry artist contained in the white boxes was Winnebago artist Rock Bear who delighted many visitors with his Rock Bear Collection of small carved bears in “…the eye bead wonderful different stones. Rock Bear explains his process as one of a true sense of place: reminds you to “I carve little bears in different rocks that all mean a certain place to me. Jasper is Wisconsin,

think good thoughts about yourself!”—Dana Jeizmatz

Basalt is Lake Superior and Sunstone is Sedona. Each Bear Necklace has a circle with it to remind us that we are all related.”

These necklaces were quite popular reminding their buyers that not only are we all related but that art can be fun and wearable! Which was a good place to complete the New Self (Portrait) curation since Galaudet Gallery is known for saying “Fine art is fun.” Just like a fun carved bear necklace. The artists showed a sense of joy in their work on depicting who they are and what they see. It was that joy that made one of the exhibit visitors comment, “It seems like this whole room is singing.” A song of myself, Walt Whitman would be proud of.

Installation View of a corner in the Studio Room of Galaudet Gallery’s Song of Myself Art Exhibit.

From left to right Patty Q. Johnson’s Time, Karen Esteves’ Swiss Alps, Anne Darby Parker’s Transparency and works

by Lorre Slaw surround the larger Andrea La Morte Schaffer’s Pigeon in Chicago

Curation of the Studio Room: New Self (Portraits)

Individuals

Revolution begins here Each individual choice changes our world

Communicating how to make positive change How to create the world we want

Groups

Linking individuals throughout time Ancestors, family, friends, like minds

Communicating how the past is a foundation to work from, gain perspective from and move beyond

Groups As Individuals

Connection as our next bridge t frontiers just now being seen

Communicating the next frontier

New Politics + New Rules = New Self

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

--Walt Whitman third line of Song of Myself

The Sense of Place: THERE Essay

New Politics + New Rules = New Self Afterward By: Michael Milewski & Vicki Milewski

Afterward New Politics + New Rules = New Self

“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

Line 3 in Song of Myself by Walt Whitman Sense of Place: THERE: Song of Myself was an art exhibit which pushed against what is to open up what is to be. New art created mathematical equations that brought about a new way to look at self. New art created by living artists who continue the forward motion of art and culture and the investigation of self. Muse for the exhibit, Walt Whitman, shone a light on art that spoke about the need for New Politics during a time the world is falling away from unity. Whitman also revealed the impulse of certain artists to create New Rules in which to make art, see art and interact with art. Whitman also wrote extensively about a New Self—wondering how to attain it and looking for it throughout his life. In the end Whitman said he could be found under our feet in the grass, just one of the leaves of grass but instead his spirit shined forth a new way to understand self and a formula for reaching it.

The experience of art is something we can have fun with, while it can also add to our self knowledge.

The art theory created by Galaudet Gallery curators Michael Milewski and his sister Vicki Milewski “Partnership of Sight” (PoS) was enlarged to contain not only the artist and viewer working together but it now includes the artwork as an equal partner in the endeavor of having an experience with art. The experience of art is something we can have fun with, while it can also add to our self knowledge. For thousands of years people have debated what the experience of art is all about.

Philosophers and historians named the experience of art an “aesthetic experience”. Until about 40 years ago this translated to an experience with beauty but modern art and contemporary art have fooled around with making artworks that are not beautiful and so the definition of aesthetic experience has been changed to roughly mean the reaction we have to a work of art—good or bad, beautiful or ugly –the experience of art has now become a reaction.

Galaudet Gallery thinks about aesthetic experiences with each exhibit they mount. Our current working definition is that aesthetic experience is not based upon any one person’s education, knowledge, past experiences or sensitivities; instead, an aesthetic experience can arise from simply viewing art and having a response. And while

Galaudet Gallery would like that response to mainly be a positive one, we recognize any heightened response to an artwork is a valuable experience.

Creating an aesthetic experience is more than simply hanging art on a wall and inviting guests to view it. Curating an art exhibit means trying to get a reaction from a viewer, an aesthetic experience. Curation has been defined as “telling a story with art.” Another definition pushes curation into the metaphysical practice of alchemy since it transmutes baser artworks into highly valued ones much as the alchemist transmutes base metals into pure gold. Or the alchemy could be the combustion inside someone when a piece of art or a well curated moment “clicks” with them. Some people see curating as working with individual pieces of art as if they are links in a chain that when correctly connected can create a chain reaction. Art critic Jerry Saltz writes these “chain reactions are thrilling and uncanny.” Once any reaction is achieved there may be a waterfall of ideas, sensations and pure enjoyments that can befall any viewer experiencing a well curated art show.

“If curators can embrace alchemy, uncertainty and chaos,” then art shows create the pleasure of art viewing and these shows can “produce pleasure, tension, surprise and revelation.”

When having an aesthetic experience “One is actively engaged and conscious of the world's effect on one but at the same time appreciative of one's possibilities for acting on the world.”—John Dewey

Thomson Gale traces the more recent history of aesthetic experiences: “Aesthetic experience involves more than preference, encompassing a variety of emotional responses ranging from beauty to awe.”

“John Dewey argues that aesthetic experiences are the most complete, the richest, and the highest experiences possible. One is actively engaged and conscious of the world's effect on one but at the same time appreciative of one's possibilities for acting on the world.” It’s mind blowing that there is an experience that could show you how to act upon your world in new ways—how to change your life in ways you had not seen before—this can be seen as the beginning of a revolution in aesthetic experience.

PoS Partnership of Sight the next revolution in art—a statement from Vicki PoS involves an opening up of experiences with art. At this point in our cultural history everyone should be encouraged to view art and look at art in their own personal way.

PoS posits that the artist, viewer and artwork all work together in partnership to produce an experience.

Art moves culture forward, assisted by a network of curators, art historians, art theorists, art critics and art collectors who support artists doing such work, art has the ability to move culture forward. I use to think that it was the artwork and artist who did the movement of culture—that it was their work and their presence which made the advancement of our way of life possible but I have discovered that is not the whole story.

It is almost like the completion of culture is tied to all these artworks in that culture is nearing completion but never completed, so artworks in this category only move nearer to completion with each viewing.

It is the viewer of art who moves culture forward. It is the very network of support for each artist that assists in moving art forward but in a greater sense it is each individual who takes the time to view art and have some sort of aesthetic experience who moves art forward. Since each viewer who sees a piece of art and allows or understands or by accident sees the art as it was intended that person then moves out into the world with at least a new way of seeing something if not an enlarged perspective or an advancement in their own thinking. Moving out in to the world thus moves culture forward. Each individual art viewer moves culture forward. That is why in PoS the artwork nears its completion each time it is viewed. But like a line with an arrow representing a continuation, each viewing of an artwork makes its completion just a little bit nearer but never to completion.

This is how artworks like Michelangelo’s David, Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and countless other pieces which assisted in moving culture forward are still not completed because each time someone new views the artwork and has an aesthetic experience then the completion of the artwork only moves toward completion. It is almost like the completion of culture is tied to all these artworks in that culture is nearing

completion but never completed, so artworks in this category only move nearer to completion with each viewing.

This is why we see online viewing rooms for our Sense of Place art exhibit as a chance to move culture forward exponentially because of the amount of people who will view each artwork and possibly have an aesthetic experience.

The artwork that is unseen reaches completion. It is in the concealment of an artwork that is the completion of it. Any artwork that has the possibility of being viewed is not complete, each viewing brings it nearer to completion.

And what I assume you shall assume Line 2 in Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

Galaudet Gallery takes you THERE with this catalog where you can experience local and global artists exploring questions about politics, rules and self with some invigorating art that answers and sometimes asks more questions! Paintings, drawings, sculptures, jewelry and more in realism, figuration, abstraction, surrealism, conceptualism and other genres are there for the experience and some may still be for sale simply contact Galaudet Gallery to find out.

This second year of our four year art series exploring sense of place finds inspiration inWalt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass focusing selection and curating on three poems:

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d Memories of President Lincoln Inspired the New Politics Asking: Do your politics and art intersect?

For Him I Sing Inspired the New Rules Asking: Do you make your own rules in making art?

Song of Myself Inspired the New Self Asking: Does your art sing a song of self?

Whitman urged us to explore self through politics, rules and by looking at our self.  The New Politics Artists understand it is about communicating our experiences with life in order to share and connect with others enabling a shared, lived experience where everyone is respected, supported and free seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Tower Room  The New Rules Artists understand the existing rules were once new rules.

Choosing and creating rules is determined by enablement of an artist’s creative life force voice. Experience shows different rules interact with us differently at different moments in our life which leads us to create new rules or renew existing rules as needed were seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Bay Room  The New Self (Portrait) Artists understand history from the vantage point of time which causes present day experiences to become elucidations of who we are and who we will become were seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Studio Room Galaudet Gallery aspires to not only recognize how the world acts upon us but to also understand that we have the power to produce the world we want. It is a movement inside a viewer of art that tells the viewer their actions upon the world will be met with success. Poet Walt Whitman said it best, “the future is preparing for you”. We add, “how are we preparing for us in the future?”

So with these ideas we offer some graphics. One is about the Partnership of Sight which shows how the artist, viewer and artwork partner to create an experience. Also shown is Galaudet Gallery’s theory on Multilevel Dimensionality in Exhibit Planning. All Galaudet Gallery exhibits are connected in some way and all are planned at least three years out. This graph shows a way of charting our course as we move through time and space, speeding up and slowing down as we attempt to use art like Einstein’s relativity ideas but instead of gravity bending space we want art to bend some minds.

First Year Sense of Place: HERE The Back of Beyond Partnership of Sight Artist

Viewer

Second Year Sense of

Artwork

Place: THERE Song of Myself

Artist

Viewer

Partnership of Sight is between the artist the artwork the art viewer

NOWHERE

Partnership of Sight as seen over the four years of Galaudet Gallery’s Sense of Place Art Series Partnership of Sight is broadened when the present is brought into the experience of viewing art by all three—the artist, artwork and viewer

Art Viewer Partnership of Sight is broadened when the future is brought into the experience of viewing art by all three—the artist, artwork and viewer

HERE

Artwork

Partnership of Sight occurs when the artwork is brought to a greater meaning through these three working together and bringing something to the experience of viewing art Partnership of Sight is broadened when the past is brought into the experience of viewing art by all three—the artist, artwork and viewer THERE

Artist

EVERYWHERE

Partnership of Sight is broadened when the present is brought into the experience of viewing art by all three—the artist, artwork and viewer

EVERYWHERE

Art Viewer

Partnership of Sight is broadened when the present is brought into the experience of viewing art by all three—the artist, artwork and viewer

THERE

Visit the rest of our virtual world: Our main website: http://galaudetgallery.wix.com/ggllc Our One of a Kind Jewelry website: https://oneofakindhandmade4.wixsite.com/home Our publishing website: http://galaudetgallerypub.wixsite.com/ggpub Our Victorian Mansion in Eau Claire Wisconsin website: https://ecwhitehouse.wixsite.com/ecwhitehouse Our landing page for Issu publications: https://issuu.com/galaudetgalleryllc Some of the music that has been performed in our gallery: https://soundcloud.com/galaudetgallery

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Galaudet Gallery wishes to thank all the art collectors and art lovers who attended this exhibit.

A special thanks to those people and organizations who purchased art works from this exhibit.

It is all of your support which is amazing and sustaining in our work of holding fine art exhibitions Sincerely, Galaudet Gallery owners

Endnotes i

The digital revolution has similarities to the industrial revolution which inspired the original Arts and Crafts Movement. Each year judges and curators will move toward the last year, NOWHERE, inspired by the founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement in 1850 William Morris and his novel about a utopian society News from Nowhere st read with 21 Century thinking. ii

Galaudet Gallery’s working definition is that aesthetic experience is not based upon any one person’s education, knowledge, experiences or sensitivities; instead, an aesthetic experience can arise from simply viewing art and having a response. Many philosophers feel that response should be a positive one, but conceptual art has taught that aesthetic experiences can also be negative—it is heightened response to an artwork.

A response to art can also be seen as a heightened awareness of an experience one is having at a specific time and specific place that can carry on after leaving that time and place or be recalled through imagery.

Galaudet Gallery does not discount the space where an artwork is viewed as intensifying an aesthetic experience and that is one reason they have worked tirelessly to curate art exhibits within a Victorian Mansion that can produce its own aesthetic experience and so then lend itself to the artworks exhibited.

The idea of an aesthetic experience has only recently been articulated as such; however, the idea of this experience has been around since the beginning of recorded history and was thoroughly discussed in ancient Greece.

In December’s 2013 edition of Frontiers in Neuroscience Edward A. Vessel, G. Gabrielle Starr and Nava Rubin discussed the current neuroscience research being done in aesthetic experience in their essay “Art reaches within: aesthetic experience, the self and the default mode network” saying, “In recent years, we have learned a considerable amount from brain imaging studies about the neural correlates of aesthetic experience and how they relate to sensory, reward, and emotion neural processes.”

In a 2006 rendition of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy Thomson Gale traces the more recent history of aesthetic experiences beginning with his definition: “Aesthetic experience involves more than preference, encompassing a variety of emotional responses ranging from beauty to awe, sublimity, and a variety of other (often knowledgebased) emotions.” But it is the ideas from a major influence of Galaudet Gallery curator Vicki Milewski that will suffice for this endnote as described by Gale, “John Dewey (1958), for example, argues that aesthetic experiences are the most complete, the richest, and the highest experiences possible. One is actively engaged and conscious of the world's effect on one but at the same time appreciative of one's possibilities for acting on the world.”

It is that movement inside a viewer of art that Galaudet Gallery aspires to, not only is it a movement produced by artwork but it is a movement inside a viewer of art that tells the viewer their actions upon the world will be met with success. iiiiii

Walt Whitman Song of Myself The “you” can be seen here as the artist, the viewer of the artwork and the artwork itself.

You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light in every moment of your life --Walt Whitman Song of Myself Part 46