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"Moose Spirit", Solo performance, George Roberts Gallery, University of Idaho, October 22, 201411/24/2014 "Moose Spirit" honors a five year old male moose that died from natural causes on Moscow mountain, Moscow Idaho. This performance, in the George Roberts Gallery, honors the moose and its spirit with its skull, jaw bone, moose hair brushes, natural tree driftwood and two other antler sheds collected from the mountain side.
The large brush necklaces, deer hair mask, sumi painted canvas jacket and pants allow me to become bonded ritualistically with moose body and wheat fields of the Palouse, Moscow Idaho region. I have made hundreds of moose hair brushes over time and these brushes, included in this performance, pay homage and my gratitude for the moose giving me its hair and visual energy to express my art. I have always thought the ceramic raku firing process had the essence of performance with fire, air, body movement and smoke coming together to form an amazing visual presence.
This upper division raku class, at the University of Idaho, allowed me to encourage students to present the final raku fired object with the body using photography and video as the final visual presentation format. The images below are works made by students during this class. I look forward to teaching this class again in the future and exploring similar experimental presentation methods in my own art work. During September and October of 2014 I was a visiting guest and resident artist in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. From September 22-26 I collaborated with artist Jane Brucker, students and arts community in a two person public lecture, Marking the Future, Unraveling the Past, Jane's performance, Unravel my performance, Marking my Life and a duel performance with Jane entitled Moving. These following images, from Marking my Life, document my body as brush in a painting representing to me the cycle of life, 400 ceramic tea bowls; a large scroll book of childhood drawings; a large horse hair brush; jewelry & sound making instruments and still images captured from the public performance . For the first time, I presented a brushmaking workshop as a performance, resulting in students ritualistically presenting their brushes and sumi ink marks along side my own. I will be posting on my performance page, of this site, video and additional photos of this performance. The last three photos are during the clean up of the walls that resulted in the most amazing ghost like marks and tracings of what had taken place in the gallery. |