Combining Passions
One of the most memorable experiences of my summer was getting to work at a small music festival in Wisconsin at the end of July. It's run by a good friend of Liz and Gabe's, Sima Cunningham, a brilliant musician and an all around awesome person. She's one of the hardest working people I know and her projects and responsibilities are too many to list, but one them is her band Homme. They only have one song out so far, Fingerprints, but yeah it definitely deserves a listen--or two, or three.
Hoofprint does posters, t-shirts, and on-site installations for the festival, and I was more than thrilled to be a part of that process. Something I don't think I've discussed on here is my involvement in the small music scene at Wooster. I'm not a musician, nor do I know much about music, but I do love it and I love being involved in making live music happen--and making it an awesome and immersive experience. It was a dream come true to be a part of this festival and to see that it is indeed possible for a small group of hard working people to make something amazing happen.
Gabe and I screenprinting the poster. We printed about 200 copies of a four layer image, a process that took us four 8-hour days.
Our mobile screenprinting set-up at the farm. Here I'm printing images onto pennants, which were then strung up around the property. Hundreds of them! That's my fellow intern Mary in this photo, she was fantastic to work with and get to know all summer.
On Saturday morning Liz taught a linocut workshop and I got to teach a cyanotype workshop. It was so fun.
Here, some participants are placing plants onto a plexiglass sheet. After they placed their objects, we put paper on top on them and another sheet of plexi to make a sandwhich.
Exposing the paper to sunlight. It turns from yellow to bright blue, which you can see beginning to happen here.
In the past I've done a lot of art-related teaching with children, but never with adults. It was really fun to see people go from reserved and nervous about being creative to super excited about experimenting with the process. The workshop was only supposed to last an hour, but everyone was so into it that we just kept going and going. While I think I've found that teaching agility isn't quite my cup of tea, I do love teaching in general and this in particular was right up my alley.
Art, music, and the fusing of the two together, all while camping out at a beautiful farm. It was absolutely fantastic. Of course Panic got to come along as well. People I never even met knew Panic by the end of the weekend..."Oh hey Panic, what's up?" He became particularly famous (or infamous, perhaps) for his unique enthusiasm for the water hose.
In addition to Homme, I have to plug Marrow, who has the other half of Homme in it (Macie Stewart) as well as Sima's brother. Big things are coming from these guys soon. I can't emphasize enough what a lovely community I was immersed in this summer between the art and music communities. The hard work, passion, and support of all these people is something I will carry with me forever.
All photos by Liz Born.