For the last few months I’ve stayed really busy curating a group art exhibition in Madison called For the Love of Water with my dear friend, Susan Simensky Bietila. This show brings together six of us artists from the Great Lakes whose collective work seeks to educate and inspire people to work collaboratively to protect the water. We installed the show last Friday and seeing the art fill the space felt so powerful and like such an honor to be able to exhibit my own work alongside artists that I’ve admired for so long.
In addition to the exhibition itself, I’ve also been organzing a few community events in coordination with the show. On Saturday, March 14th we’ll be screening the Bad River Film. If you haven’t seen the Bad River Film, it’s an art piece in itself and features powerful storytelling and breathtaking cinematography to tell the story of the Bad River Band’s continued resistance to the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline and ultimately, colonization.
Then on Sunday, March 15th a few of us are hosting a free Community Screen Printing workshop, also at the Art + Lit Lab. During this free event, we’ll have multiple water protector themed screens to print on fabric or shirts–bring your own shirt if you can!
The For the Love of Water exhibition is even more timely than I had originally thought. On February 24th Enbridge announced that they are immediately starting construction of the 40+ mile new section of Line 5 pipeline through the Bad River Watershed. Already there have been an influx of workers into our area as evident by the local hotel parking lots filled with white pick-up trucks from Michels and Northern Clearing workers. With that, I’ve been even more busy helping to inform folks about what’s happening and coordinating opportunities for people to build relationships and scheme together. I’m also going to be bringing the For the Love of Water show to Ashland at the end of April where it will be on display at Stone Soup Cafe in May and June.
All that to say, if you’re in the position to help support my art and activism by signing up for a membership, your support will be really helpful in sustaining me right now! I’m really excited about the membership as a way to also be in closer touch with a number of you and share some of my more non-traditional and craft-style art. With that, I hope in addition to fighting for justice in your own way these days, each of you is also taking the time to rest and care for yourself and your loved ones–maybe under the comfort of a heavy quilt on these Wisconsin March days. xo