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Recap Week Two: COMPOST POSTCARD MUSEUM

7/31/2012

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Our second week into the residency, and we have sure been busy!  Two new resident artists arrived, along with a special visitor for the weekend, Michelle Murphy who was our first resident artist back in November 2011.  
Our first official field-trip was a success, while new projects have been embarked on and in-progess pieces have been completed.
As our artists leave, we discuss the residency, what they thought they would do and what they did do, and how the space is run.  Constant improvement is the goal here, and we are feeling our growth.  We have celebrated so many small successes here, and I am anticipating more in the next two weeks.

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Amanda Matles came to us from Brooklyn, by way of Detroit.  A Michigan native, born and raised in Traverse City, she now spends part of her year in the Motor City visiting family and working on her documentary video projects about urban agriculture in Detroit.  Her first few days at the studio were spent easing into life here and experimenting with materials.  We set up the ceramics studio and visited a local sculptor who does Raku and pit-firings and got some advice on burnishing.  With the idea of setting up a compost system for Shared Space, Amanda visited the Pentwater farmer's market and connected with the people at Vartian Farms, a small farm and bakery outfit that will take our compost and put it to good use-  feeding chickens.  Amanda began making a ceramic jar that we will collect compost in on the kitchen counter, and she will be repurposing and decorating two 5-gallon buckets to collect the compost for pickup by the farm.
On Sunday evening, Amanda spoke about this project within the context of her other work as a master composter and a geographer interested in food systems.  She shared her research on urban gardening, foraging, and the carbon footprint of imported foods.  We were all impressed by the excerpts she showed of her recent video, Rerouting the Motor City: Notes on a City in Transformation, which was screened at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit in July and will be released later this year.  Amanda also began experimenting with animation while in residence, and made a draft of an animated drawing that will never end, as it is a drawing of everything that could be composted.

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Amanda's slab-constructed compost jar will be decorated with food and chicken drawings that remind us of the compost cycle.
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Marlee Grace also arrived on Tuesday, and seeing as she just finished a BFA in dance, I convinced her and Amanda to join the evening movement class.  They learned a dance to a tune from Hairspray, dubbed themselves the 'Gemini Twins', and recited their moves for the rest of us.  Marlee is also a Michigan native, and current resident of Grand Rapids where she organizes her community to join in on DIY music and art events. She lives at and co-manages the Division Avenue Arts Collective, an all ages venue and art space.
Marlee got to work on crafting small books, redesigning vintage Michigan postcards, and beginning a new polaroid series considering where you stood / how you stand.  Marlee spoke on her work at the Sunday evening lecture, and posed the idea that instead of DIY being 'do-it-yourself', it may be even more about 'do-it-together'.  She shared a bit of Grand Rapids low-brow art culture with us, and reflected on the idea of her poster design being a meditative art of cutting, gluing, and stamping, much different than the process you would experience laying out the same imagery on a computer.

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double-exposure polaroids by marlee
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where you stood / how you stand
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After Linda Kline's inspiring talk on Nuno silk felting last Sunday, she returned on Thursday to teach the process.  Students had a great time laying out their colorful patterns with wool on silk, and a dash of silk on wool.  They had to work hard to felt it all together, rolling their scarves back and forth on a dowel 400 times to laminate the fibers together and finish class with a thing of beauty.

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Elodie Goupil and Mary Rothlisberger teamed up together on their second week in residency.  They finished knitting 35 feet of multicolored cord to construct a net for our bare basketball hoop.  Now we just need a ball to shoot. The pair spent more than one all-nighter together at the studio, spreading out in the workspace with sewing, knitting, and weaving projects.  Mary is constructing a new Hoping Machine, specifically for the meadow homestead she has been building here; The Hoping Machine is a portable textile sculpture that makes good cheer.   She has also managed to acquire scrap pieces of sailcloth from the wonderful makers at Teamwork, a Grand Rapids company that builds knapsacks and messenger bags from recycled Michigan sails.  She is laying out patchwork with the sails to construct a series of regulation-sized wind socks.  Mary's collaborator Paul Richardson shows up this week and we are looking forward to their artist talk this Sunday.
Elodie finished her Shared Space Blanket, just in time to test it out on the desert dunes of Silver Lake.  The blanket fits us all comfortably, and has enough drink pockets to snuggle in a 12-pack of cold ones.  The sand takes on a strangely soft doughy quality underneath this knitted coating; it's really a whole new beach blanket experience.

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Elodie billows her oversized blanket on the sand to make a cozy shared space for the group to gather.
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Josh Kermiet was hard at work this past week, with some assistance from his little brothers who came up from Lansing.  Josh connected with a local printing source and wrangled all of us at the studio into submitting to the paper by his deadline.  We contributed a postcard, a personal ad, a crossword puzzle, and a recipe, all deidicated to the wonders of Michigan.  The layout for the cover is a take on the book Michillaneous, a compilation of obscure facts about Michigan, published in 1982 (the content is both impressive and terrifying).  
Josh continued to be influenced by Swift Lathers, the local legend who published Mears Newz, a one-page paper whose content was entirely from the mouth of Swift and had a subscription list of over 2000 people.  Josh included several of Swift's poems, and he also drew advertisements for local businesses and a review of the sunset.
The resident artists organized a field trip to the Oceana Historical Museum, the former home of Swift and Celia Lathers, to learn more about their new idol who came from the next town over.  To commemorate his years spent roughing it in the dune forest, they climbed the Silver Lake Dunes and explored the strange sights of dune buggies and endless stretches of sand.
Josh shared his newfound knowledge on the history of Swift, along with images of his past work at the Sunday evening lecture.  We were excited to see his psychedelic animations of morphing paint droplets and a Lake Michigan sunset flashing back and forth with an eyeball in stop-motion time.  His youth as a zine-maker and critic has informed his current projects where he explores the possibilities of publications... What if a paper were only one page long?  What do artists make for a satire paper, where they are asked to emulate the trappings of horoscopes, puzzles, and advertisements?  What about a hand-drawn paper placemat, advertising local businesses, with a quirky twist?  How can a paper be distributed for free, and how can it be distributed in personal ways, far across the land?

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A historical society photograph of Swift Lathers at his press / home in the early 60's.
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The residents returned from their afternoon trip in time for the Sunday evening artist talk.  Marlee, Amanda, and Josh presented their work from their time at Shared Space and beyond.  We had a great turnout of engaging locals and out-of-towners for the event.  The talks were very interesting and a great conclusion to both Josh and Marlee's residencies, as they both returned home after the reception.  With our lovely guest photographer, Michelle, we were able to snap a group photo in front of the mural before the sun set and the crowd dispersed.

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Michelle, Amanda, Josh, Eliza, Elodie, Mary, Marlee
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featured resident artist : AMANDA MATLES

7/29/2012

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Amanda Matles is a New York City based artist, educator, and PhD student of Geography at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. There, she studies the geographies of social movements and food justice networks from a feminist point of view. Matles received a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004. Matles was born in Traverse City, MI and graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in 2000. Matles was a fellow of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 2011. She currently splits her time between Detroit and New York, and her video work and visual research practice focuses on exploring human geographies, memory, and the politics of social reproduction. Matles currently collaborates with art, media justice, and food justice groups in Detroit and Brooklyn, including Paper Tiger Television, Center for Urban Pedagogy, and the Brooklyn Food Coalition. Her work has been exhibited in London and Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Detroit, and Washington DC. 

Amanda is a resident artist at shared space July 24th - 31st, and during her stay she is experimenting with materials and setting up a compost system for the studio.  She will be speaking on her work at 7pm, Sunday July 29th.


http://blip.tv/amanda-matles-videos    

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featured resident artist : MARLEE GRACE

7/27/2012

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Marlee Grace is a performance artist, community organizer, improviser, crafter, maker, and all around enthusiast of life. Born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI, Marlee returned after receiving her BFA in dance from the University of Michigan in June of 2010.  
As a part of Dance in the Annex Marlee has had the opportunity to perform at the GRAM, UICA, ArtPrize, Richard App Gallery and RAD dance festival, as well as help organize, teach, and promote classes and create new work for shows at Wealthy Theatre.  Marlee is a board member at the Division Avenue Arts Collective where she books shows, teaches the occasional yoga class, and curates the series ART GEOGRAPHIC with her partner/collaborator John Hanson.  Marlee’s work heavily emphasizes improvisation as a tool for performance, as it creates a platform for chance and risk taking, as well as honors the moment where we make choices and the bravery it takes to push through them.  Marlee also makes zines, cards, flyers, scarves, and other kitschy wares under the name BRAVE HABITS. 
      Marlee is a Shared Space artist-in-residence from July 24th through August 2nd, and will lecture on her work July 29th at 7pm.  During her stay she is creating zines and journals and improvising to the rhythm of everyday life in Pentwater.

marleegrace.com

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featured resident artist : JOSHUA ORION KERMIET

7/24/2012

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Joshua Orion Kermiet was born in Lansing Michigan in 1980. He attended Michigan State University receiving a degree in Painting/Printmaking in 2004. 

Joshua moved to Portland Oregon in 2005, helping to establish the Suite B artists collective studio and experimental living space space. He has exhibited and performed at a variety of venues in the Midwest and Portland such as the Detroit Art Space, Fontanelle Gallery, Nationalle, PICA, Hall Gallery, Valentines, Palace, Worksound Gallery, Stumptown Coffee and others. His 2009 show at Fontanelle Gallery with Midori Hirose was voted Best Group Show by Portlandart.net. While living in Portland he has worked as an Residential Trainer as well as art instructor for adults with developmental disabilites. In 2011 he collaborated with homeless youth on a large scale mural project "Billions and Billions of People" designed by artists Chris Johanson & Jo Jackson. His illustrated work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Yeti Magazine, Tom Tom, and Punk Planet. He has published one book, several zines, and is currently the editor and chief of Free Spirit News, a free local community comic and joke paper. 

Joshua will be a Shared Space artist-in-residence from July 16-29, and will lecture on his work July 29th at 7pm.  During his residency he plans to compile and publish a local edition of Free Spirit News, and he is looking for submissions of all types:

"Free Spirit News: Michigan Edition, will be a short run edition of Free Spirit created entirely in Michigan in conjuction with my residency at Shared Space.  Michigan is my home, where I spent the first twenty three years of my life. Michigan has its own uniquely independent, vibrant and defiant culture and spirit, one which I feel has shaped much of my own approach to art and life.  It is my hope that in some way, Free Spirit: Michigan Edition can embody some of that spirit.  The paper will serve both as my personal drawing diary and travel log and well providing an opportunity for local artists, writers, doodlers, jokers, weirdos ect. from the Pentwater community and beyond to participate and find each other.  Free Spirit News: Michigan Edition, will be distributed around the state of Michigan, as well as in Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Zurich, Stockholm and beyond. "

www.freespiritnews.tumblr.com
www.joshorionkermiet.tumblr.com
www.meltedmountains.tumblr.com

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Recap Week One: KNITTED HOMESTEAD NEWSPAPER

7/24/2012

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One week into our month-long season of visiting artists, and so much has happened already.  The studio has been more active than ever, with resident artists utilizing the classroom, studios and outdoor spaces to work in day and night, and meeting in the evenings to make dinner together.

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   Elodie Goupil arrived first from San Francisco, and saw Lake Michigan for the first time.  After an initiation of boating, beaching, and swimming, she got straight to work on her knitting machine.  During her travels here, she collected yarn from across the Midwest and is using it to knit an oversized blanket dedicated to Shared Space.  The blanket will be big enough for a small crowd to sit upon the beach, or take a communal power nap under at the studio.  She designed her first knittable cursive alphabet to spell out 'shared space' all around the edges of the blanket, and is knitting in pockets that will serve as drink koozies.  (If you don't know what a koozie is, please visit the Midwest.)   She spoke about her romantic yet practical artwork at the Sunday evening artist talk, and gave us an interactive knitting machine demo the next day, where we took turns adding rows to the blanket.
   Along with pitching in at Mary's homestead, Elodie also has plans to crochet a hammock with a boat hook, and weave a beach floatie out of old bird seed bags and pop bottles.  She will be an artist-in-residence through August 3rd, and we are excited to see what else she creates during her stay.

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Elodie set up her knitting machine in Eliza's studio, where her knit panels just keep growing.
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Mary Rothlisberger, from Palouse Washington was our next resident to arrive, just in time to catch our young artist's slide talk and celebrate Elodie's birthday with us.  Another newbie to Michigan and the Midwest, Mary has spent the last month in Grand Rapids working with artists from Cabin Time, a roving and rugged art residency.  She came to us with her cosmic-energy-gathering Hoping Machine, and plans to construct another during her stay.  Her main project this week has been homesteading in the meadow behind the studio.  We have three open acres of sweet peas and brambles, cornered by deciduous forest, where Mary is setting up camp.  Her first task was to repeatedly trudge through the rough grasses, forging a path back to the forest clearing that will become a home made of sticks, a meeting place, a library, a gathering of hoping machines and forts, and a sculpture park.  She has constructed two walls made entirely of sticks found on the forest floor, piled and woven together.  Always the earliest to rise, Mary truly is busy as a beaver.
There is much more site-specific fun to come, as Mary will be a resident artist for the entire season- until August 15th, and will be collaborating with her long-time pen-pal, Paul Richardson, who arrives on August 1st.

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Mary forged a path into the meadow from our parking lot, by trampling the brambles with a sled made from a discarded forklift palette. Follow the rainbow to her homestead.
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Josh Orion Kermiet joined us on Tuesday.  He is coming from his home in Portland OR, but is really from Lansing, our fair state's capitol city.  Upon his arrival we all took a field trip to the neighboring town of Hart to eat at the best taqueria, stock up on groceries, and tour the Shelby Gem Factory.  Josh is making a newspaper during his stay, and Larry at the gem factory gave us a great lead to follow- a local hero named Swift Lathers who published a weekly one-page paper, and homesteaded in the Silver Lake Dunes.  Josh's Michigan edition of Free Spirit News will include his own drawing diary, Michigan curiosities trivia, and submissions by artists and weirdos from around the state.
Along with his research on local towns and their folklore, he is also working on animations, and writing daily reviews of the sunset from Pentwater beach.  Josh will speak about his work at our Sunday evening artist talk this weekend, July 29th, and will be a resident artist through July 30th, when he will release his much-anticipated publication.

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Josh's desk with drafts for his paper and research materials from the Pentwater library.
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We wrapped up the week here with our Sunday evening artist talk, featuring resident artist Elodie Goupil and visiting artist Linda Kline.  
Linda was an excellent speaker, sharing her art-investigating travel stories, slides of her precious metal clay jewelry, and several of her silk-felted scarves in person.  
She will be teaching two workshops on Nuno Silk Felting this Thursday, in the morning and in the evening, and we expect a good turnout of students and the creation of some interesting scarves.  We were happy to see some new faces in the audience, and will keep working to connect local artists and appreciators with all of our amazing visiting artists.

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featured visiting artist : LINDA KLINE

7/20/2012

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Linda has been making wearable art since she was, "Old enough to run with scissors!."  Her life long passion for fiber, finery, and flashy findings have lead her to explore first fashion design, and then jewelry arts and metalsmithing. 

Discovering precious metal clay in 1998, her fascination and expertise with that medium earned her recognition as one of the foremost instructors in that field.  She became Director of Education for PMC Connection in 2010 and  is one of only 16 PMCC senior certifying instructors in the United States. 

Linda’s striking one-of-a-kind creations are strongly influenced by environmental issues and global concerns.  Her work will often incorporate a juxtaposition of “found objects” or organic components, in contrast to gold, fine silver and precious gemstones to convey a message or tell a story.  

It was on an artistic excursion to Turkey in 2011 that Linda discovered nuno silk felting and again altered her artistic course.   Laminating or marrying silk and wool fiber by hand, she transforms organic materials into amazingly beautiful works of wearable art.  Her one of a kind shawls and scarves are produced in a modernized version of a 5,000 year old process.

Linda will be lecturing on her work on July 22nd at 7pm, as well as teaching a special workshop on Nuno Silk Felting.  The workshop is offered in two sessions, 9am-1pm and 5:30-9:30pm on July 26th, all students will make their own silk-felted scarf.

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featured resident artist : ELODIE GOUPIL

7/18/2012

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Elodie Goupil is a maker of things and the hands behind handandmachinemade.com. Along with her knitting and sewing machines, Elodie creates clothing, and objects from recycled materials. 

A french native, Elodie came to the US as a child. The first pair of shoes she picked out on her own were a pair mid-calf high denim boots, with pockets on the sides. She was given her first sewing machine at age 8 and spent a lot of time alone in her room making things, lining up toys for family portraits (wasting film, is what her mother called it), and even creating her own church --a shoebox with a curtain in which she displayed treasured items. More than twenty years later, you can still find her in her room creating toys and documenting them, knitting soft things, and sewing denim everything.

Elodie received a BFA in intermedia studies from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon in 2006, and is now based in San Francisco, California. She has worked with children of all ages in both school and home settings and started making handmade toys, which can be treasured as a response to the commercially made toys which are discarded and forgotten.   Elodie made a promise to herself when she was little to never forget, and she is happiest when she remembers what it feels like to be little.    


After immersing herself in Pentwater and life on the lake, Elodie plans to crochet a hammock with a boat hook, knit beach blankets, and construct a fort in the meadow behind the studio.  As a Shared Space artist-in-residence from July 15 to August 3rd, She will lecture on her work July 22nd at 7pm, and give an interactive knitting machine demo on July 23rd from 3-7pm.

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Young Artists' Slide Lecture & AIR Beach Initiation

7/16/2012

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We kicked off the summer residency season with the arrival of two visiting artists, and a slide talk by two young visiting artists.  Nate, from Chicago, and Lulu, from Los Angles, presented slides of their drawings, paintings, and sculpture to a receptive and chatty audience.  At ages 18 and 16, they were both showing their work to an audience for the first time, and we were all impressed by their talent and insight.
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After the champagne reception (and sparkling cider for the teens), our newly acquainted resident artists were initiated into Pentwater culture by heading to the beach to watch the sunset over lake Michigan- a real tradition around these parts.   Elodie and Mary immediately began to collaborate on knitting a new net for our basketball hoop, and we spent the rest of the night in the studio, knitting, typing, and gathering materials for a fort in the woods.
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Sunday Evening Lecture Line-Up:

7/10/2012

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Let the summer begin!  We will be featuring all of our awesome visiting and resident artists in a series of slide talks, every Sunday evening from 7-9pm, with refreshments of course.  Check out who is coming....

JULY 15  - The first lecture event is a special opportunity for teen artists:
Lucy Baker - Los Angeles, CA
Nathan Pace - Chicago, IL
Maddie May Kroll - Howell, MI

JULY 22
Elodie Goupil - San Francisco, CA (http://handandmachinemade.com)
Linda Kline - Vero Beach, FL (http://www.facebook.com/lindaklinedesigns  )

JULY 29
Amanda Matles - Brooklyn, NY (http://blip.tv/amanda-matles-videos)
Josh Orion Kermiet – Portland, OR (http://joshorionkermiet.tumblr.com)
Marlee Grace – Grand Rapids, MI (marleegrace.com)

AUG 5
Emily Harris – Queens, NY (http://www.emilymharris.com/  )
Mary Rothlisberger – Palouse, WA (http://bangbangboomerang.com/)   
Paul Richardson – Baltimore, MD (http://www.paugey.com/  )

AUG 12
Amy Johnquest – Northampton, MA (http://bannerqueen.com)
+ Amy will teach a mini-workshop, where you will design your personal banner.

AUG 19
Larry Krone – New York, NY (http://www.LARRYKRONE.com)
Eliza Fernand -  Boise, ID  (http://elizafernand.com/home.html)    
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    Shared Space offers visiting artists and artists-in-residence facilities and support in a secluded and beautiful setting with the chance to meet and exchange with other artists as well as the responsibility of engaging the local community.

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