A simple roll of baling wire ... Ocean Dreams and Whale Songs Part II

ORIGINAL OCEAN DREAMS PROJECT LINK:
http://asiascudder.blogspot.com/2018/11/sea-dreams-and-whale-songs-one-artists.html    
I ventured a 10-day journey to see what if simple wire art was utilized as the conversation piece, a vector,  to build a larger-than-life sea turtle in a public space while engaging in conversations that I hoped would happen between environmental groups (Clean River Project), the general public and other artists (Richard Sheppard, John Craig Freeman).    

This post is about what ensued and what concerns were shared.  *Updates to this post are forthcoming*
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My original question was put forth as I wore a hat as an environmental activist, an artist and curator of other projects related to a plastic-free, clean environment.   This more specifically relates to a futurisitic work for an AR/VR project,  "Flotsam and Jetsam: Plastic Gyre on Main Street" which hopes to address the largess of concern re: plastics. That project is in motion and in collaboration with John Craig Freeman.   

Locally speaking, this blog post mainly pertains to the Merrimack River with an underlying curiosity about what can we do to reduce local pollution in our waterways.  That is, as I seek local input,  we are further wondering can we track what we do locally to the larger global perspective of plastic gyres and the die-offs of marine life due to ingestion of micro- and macro-plastics?

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When:  July 2019.

Location: Newburyport, Massachusetts which is the mouth of the Merrimack River, the end of a two-states long journey from its source in Franklin, NH.  Wikipedia: 
 "The Merrimack River is a 117-mile-long river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Gulf of Maine at Newburyport."









Here is one of several Youtube introductions prior to my sculpture being created with Clean River Project:  https://youtu.be/0A-rYRXu-9o

Here is a video with live performance by Richard Sheppard who very kindly provided

complimentary celebration of creativity, including creative solutions for a sustainable environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRUFh1QK68&feature=youtu.be


According to Amercian Rivers website: 

   The health of the 125-mile Merrimack River and its 11 tributaries is of great importance to two million residents and an abundance of fish and wildlife species.

   Currently, 600,000 people depend on the river for drinking water, including the six communities of Lowell, Lawrence, Tewksbury, Methuen, and Andover, in Massachusetts and Nashua, NH. Two more cities in New Hampshire, Manchester and Concord, plan to do so in the near future. In addition, the Merrimack is historically important as one of the birthplaces for industrialization, with the river powering textile mills and other factories. The region, “was then to industry what the Silicon Valley is today,” said Theodore Steinburg, author of Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England. Today, 847 dams harness the river and its tributaries, and some are candidates for removal to help restore river health and fisheries.

MANY CONCERNED PEOPLE SHARED IN THE CONVERSATION:

"Meeting lots and lots of people who are interested in clean-water for ourselves and for all living things! Interesting to listen a lot about increasing levels of plastic pollution on the shores of Plum Island, Hampton Beach all the way up to Camden Maine including issues with sewage improperly being released from cruise ships, small vessels, issues with livestock farms releasing fecal matter into the waterways as well as stubborn plastic that just won't go away! It's been great to get feedback from so many people based on this one week of taking notes and listening to people's stories."   - Asia Scudder.   YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/0yJssm2y0_c

I want to thank everyone who weighed in on the conversation on plastics, pollution and sewage outflows along the Merrimack River.  Here are many of the comments that I received and were either posted or communicated directly about suggestions, thoughts, concerns (other than 'thumbs-up' to keep up the good work)!  Key words: Power, priviledge and alternate, respect.  I'll continue to add to this !

___________________________________________________________ > Dave Raynolds  dialog1@msn.com said: Companies, corporations which produce so many non-recylable, non-biodegradable products, have to have a built-in program (mandated by law) for buy-back and/or recyling of their product - BY THEM.  They made it, they're making money (profit) on it, egro, they must be resposible for initiating and managing the products. 

> Put our resource money cleaning up the Merrimack instead of the money going for walking paths and for trusts. A clean river attracts all!  

>  What if it was you and yours?  Everyone  should be concerned with the filth being dumped in the beautiful Merrimack River.  The second dumping killed our golden retriever Rusty. Who infection could not be cured    CaroleAnn Martin Mcpherson.Newburyport, MA.

> Let managers at restaurants know your concerns.  Also if you are an employee at a restaurant, let your employer know that you want them to do better. 

> USE BAMBOO STRAWS!

> Finding broken glass, needles, more and more trash on Plum Island!  

>  How do we clean up needles?  (Police stations have free depositories for needles)

> 4 Oceans.  Bracelets sold to support clean-up efforts. 

> If sewage overflow is too expensive for towns along Merrimack, then have other NH/MA towns pitch in!

> Encourage Starbucks coffee chains and restaurants to utilize compostable plastic-free to-go cups and utensils!

>  CHECK OUT:   Free Range Initiative  @freerangeinitiative  #gogreen

> Can we make plastic from corn? soy? Hemp? seaweed? 

> CONSTRUCTIVE DISTURBANCE!   Our river is sick! We need collaboration!

>  The river is like a body. When there is a clog in an artery we do what we can to clear it. Same with river.  It is like a body and needs to be healed.  All arteries are connected. 

>  Reintroduction of clamming!  

> Prayer as explained in Christian Science can span the way to see solutions and how to go about implementing them.  - Virginia McCullough  vrgn2005@yahoo.com

> The monarch gardener.  Katie Banks Hone.  

> www.runawaydandelion.com  (http://amzn.to/2pacwxp)  Jill Regensburg

Visual Art Performance with Richard Sheppard of Ameranouche

What: Wire Sculpture, Story Teller, Wire Wall Art

With: performance by Richard Sheppardof Ameranouche https://ameranouche.com/

When: May 11 2019   7 to 9 pm!

Where: Three Sisters

1074 Hope St Providence, RI 02906

Contact us-(401)273-7230

  http://www.threesistersri.com/

`Richard “Shepp” Sheppard, Guitar, comes from southern New Jersey. He attended the Berklee School of Music, studied guitar and composition with Pat Martino in Philadelphia, studied composition and aesthetics with Dr. Frank Haas in Vineland, NJ and studied guitar with Attilla Zoller in Southern Vermont. He has taught guitar, composition, and music theory as a faculty member of Bennington College (Bennington, Vermont) and Pittsfield Community Music School (Pittsfield, Massachusetts). He has performed and done shows with many different artists. Among these are John Jorgenson, Ritary Ensemble, Rick Danko, Taj Mahal, Hot Tuna, and Vassar Clements, to name just a few. His passion for Gypsy music and love for the guitar in general are what drew him to form Ameranouche. He has written hundreds of compositions and continues to invest his time in the evolution of Ameranouche. Shepp is an endorser of Dell Arte guitars, Wegen picks and John Pearse strings.

TOOLS of the trade...








Asia (ARTIST)  in performance mode

Event Page Facebook: ://www.facebook.com/events/429252064299523/

Artist Statement

   As a visual artist I have spent many hours creating a unique language - communicating ideas in  wire and steel. These works are renditions of my life experience, added hours in research. Some of this is research about place, or , some is the realization that art has an opportunity to set in motion ideas, ideas that become a collaboration between the viewer and the maker.  To be clear, I spend a lot of time listening, my hope is to extend a deeper understanding in my art in a way that can become a vector to simply sharing our commonalities rather than our differences. In this way I enjoy the process as much as the outcome of building art in my metal wall hangings and 3-dimensional sculpture.  My line work is often thought out in a ​wire sketch - ​ as I put every line in place this allows me to communicate an idea in both line and form prior to committing that form to a larger project.

 When I am creating for a theme or an exhibit I put my assumption around outcome aside and let - as many artists do - the materials speak to me.  It is a quantum co-creative process when those opportunities arise.

  I also enjoy working with groups and/or individuals to assist them in visualizing and creating their vision in sculpture.  When I am working with commissions, what I enjoy primarily is hearing what people are seeking and bringing that as best as I can to the forefront for a professional presentation.  My aim is to bring that more often to an open-space, public audience. Collaborations are key to this process as I grow and evolve my work for public spaces.

   My resume reflects 26 years experience as an artist with multiple references to participation in exhibits, with collectors, successful completion of multiple grants and a long-standing studio practice.  (See link: ​asiascudder.blogspot.com​.)

     I have been honored to participate in the Venice Biennale (2001)  added I have created several themed art exhibits in Oklahoma, as well as participated in countless group art shows around the country.   I have sold works in London, France and Denmark additionally.

   Because I have been consistent in pursuing new concepts I have created 100’s of sculptures - both large and small.  After 25 plus years, I still retain a passion for creating inspired work in metal. I do feel a deep gratitude to have this ability to vision and then to create in wire and steel a completion of an artwork that is well received in both style and vision.  

    As a result of my landscape design practice I also have the experience of working with contractors on installations following project guidelines routinely established by my role as designer, yet I also have worked with many clients who I relate to - co-creating a sense of balance

Self Portrait.  This piece is copper and is about 4 feet high and 3 feet wide. 

The 'self' is intended to be on the interior of the piece while the divine, or larger self

Ocean Dreams and Whale Songs: One Artist's View on Climate and Plastics

PATREON SITE TO SUPPORT PROJECT FOR AS LITTLE AS $14/MONTH:
http//www.patreon.com/asiascudder 

INDIE GOGO: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/plastic-islands-interactive-mobile-app-art#/

Inn Street Artisan's Revival #yankeehomecoming event pages:  https://www.facebook.com/events/861681570862300/

When, in the Fall of 2018, 190 sea turtles succumbed to frigid water temperatures off the coast of Cape Cod,  I felt as an artist that I wanted to do something!  

This paralleled a time after a red tide in Florida in 2018 Summer where numbers upon numbers of sea animals died of suffocation due to lack of oxygen, toxicity... or ...we didn't know what was causing. and truly continues to cause,  a massive die off of sea animals around the planet.  

________________________________________

As both artist and curator, I decided I would take on a project to create the same number of 190 sea turtles;  representing the initial loss of the flash-frozen corpses of sea turtles found off the coast of Cape Cod soon after the  
dramatic freeze event in Fall 2018. 

Note:  It is a common occurrence for sea turtles to lose their lives in annual freeze events, but last year was very surprising to researchers because of the larger number of sea turtles that perished.  Those numbers were unprecendented according to the
 Cape Cod Audubon Society's, Jennifer Young.  


SEE SPONSORS BELOW
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July 2019

I determined to initially create an interactive performance sculpture - that is just 1 larger-than-life sea turtle public sculptural work during the annual Artisans Revival Exhibit - as part of Yankee Homecoming - in Newburyport, MA. 2019. 

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PRESS RELEASE
Art as action-oriented platform for change.
Scudder brings the conversation of pollution and plastics with a sculpture performance.

CONTACT: ASIA SCUDDER  asiascudder@gmail.com

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Based on her concern for the environment: climate change but added the very serious nature of watershed and plastics pollution drifting to our waterways Scudder more specifically chose to relate one sculpture, it is a larger-than-life sea turtle which people can use to throw cast off plastic and other debris into, indicating how quickly trash accumulates. The proximity of this event takes place at the mouth of the Merrimack River which opens to the wide open ocean thus it brings poignancy to the heightened concern of plastic pollution and what we as consumers can do to change our habits. Kids and families are invited to participate by making their own smaller sea turtle designs. 

Key words:  #Plasticpollution, #Climatechange, #Citizenactivists, #Politicalartaction, #Environmentalart, #artandtheenvironment #asiawireart #artistasiascudder  

The sea turtle project is the focus of this event but feeds into a much larger project: Plastic Islands on Main Street, which also brings about inspired action brought about by global impact of plastic pollution.  Never before has there been so much death due to the toxity of our own waste.   The sculpture means to visually bring focus to the topic of the fragility of a collapsing ecosystem.  In this way art becomes a vector to share information, while building awareness, on how plastics are impacting our health and our environment.  This truly is happening now. It is not futuristic!

  Materials: 

Copper builds the body of the sea turtle as it shows the visibility of the problem.  The re-bar used reminds us of the practical mystery of how to solve the complexity

the issue of Earth's permanence inspite of addition of plastic pollution.   

Questions asked during week-long exhibit will include:  

What new strategies are needed & can be employed?  

How can we as consumers make a difference? What about shifts in policy?

 Social  media sharing is a major part of this project.  As well as a working table for visitors to create a smaller version of the sea turtle to put on display. 

Resource articles 

(A few recent examples): https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/05/world/microplastic-pollution-turtles-study-intl-scli/index.html

https://psmag.com/environment/baby-sea-turtles-are-full-of-plastic

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/science/sea-turtles-plastic.html

 

The materials connect enriching the conceptual framework of our Earth having longevity, and juxtaposed that is time, an urging to pay attention due to the Earth's  fragility to a collapsing ecosystem.  As a way of gaining awareness that this is really happening now and proof of numbers is no longer speculation or futuristic in other words.  The copper represents 'hope' while the re-bar represents the darker mystery to 'how to' cause strategies to resolve this highly complex issue. 
  

Sponsors are encouraged. 

                                   Portions of proceeds to go to one of of the following non-profit organizations listed below chosen by individual donor (33% of each full sponsorship)

*Sponsors will be recognized in multiple social and print media platforms*   
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Individual sponsors include: 
Aimee Scudder
                             Andy Fersch and Chelsea Scudder
Neil Wilson, ReMax Reality
Blackburn Energy, Andrew Amigo

www.whale.org

**Previous lecture with Ocean Alliance:  https://www.whale.org/blue-wave-gallerys-oceans-exhibit-supports-features-ocean-alliance/

FPMT Social Services Fund: Protecting Environment and Living Beings. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains, “There is cause, karma – and then there are conditions. The earthquake and so forth is not coming from outside, it is coming from the mind. This is according to the view of all four schools of Buddhism. What Shakyamuni Buddha said, ‘You are the guide to yourself, also the enemy of yourself.’ That is reality, because every day whether you have problems or happiness it is because of what you do with your mind. Which way you make your mind think. If you make your mind to think positively, you have peace. If you make your mind to think negatively you have problems.//fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/social-services-fund/protecting-environment-and-living-beings/

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Clean River Project.  Methuen, Massachusetts. 
http://www.cleanriverproject.org/








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Massachusetts Audubon Society. WellFleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.  
https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/wellfleet-bay

This will be the next in the series of these awareness-building projects: Artist,/Curator, Asia Scudder, is taking on a project to create 190 sea turtles; a number that represents the initial loss of the flash-frozen corpses of sea turtles found off the coast of Cape Cod soon after a recent dramatic freeze event in Fall 2018. Though it is a common occurrence for the sea turtles to lose their lives in these events this time of year, this year  was unprecedented in numbers according to the Cape Cod Audubon Society's, Jennifer Young.  See article link here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/190-sea-turtles-found-frozen-death-along-cape-cod-n939551

This caused Scudder to want to do something... but what?  As visual artist she has determined to create 190 sea turtles to be completed over one year's time.  The sea turtle sculptures that she is making are 22 inches in diameter approximately and are offered to sponsors of this project.  Not only will sponsors receive recognition, but they will be able to take part in several online conversations or in-person round table discussions to be held over the course of 1-year.  The sea turtle is representation of a serious concern that if we don't take radical action we are destined to cause further, possibly irreversible damage to our Earth, impacting our health as well as the health of animals around the world. 

Sponsors are encouraged. The creation of these turtles, *each with a sponsorship purchase price of $150*  will become the emblem of this project.  ______

                                   

*Sea Turtle wire sculpture* - This is not just an "art project", it is a people project. A time for awakening - shedding old habits and stepping forward.  
For all of beings on this planet!

Ocean Dreams' Facebook Event:     https://www.facebook.com/events/345402162677248/

                                        Ocean Dreams Patreon Link:     https://www.patreon.com/asiascudder

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UPDATES WILL BE POSTED BOTH HERE AND 

ON FACEBOOK AS PROJECT EVOLVES: 

Artwork for sale!

Email: asiascudder@gmail.com to order

Also, commissions available for holidays!

Mayan Mask on stand.  22"h x 9"w x 4" base.

                                      This is an original artwork - only 1 available! 

                                                                                                $120.00   

                                                         

 Mermaid on driftwood base.  15"h x 29"l x 5"w.                                                                    This is an original artwork - only 1 available! SOLD.  $300.00

 Wire Stallion on Oak base (base not shown in picture).  

                                                             23" h x 18" w x  5"d.  This is an original work.  $500.00

                                                     

Puppy leash hangers.  SPECIAL! 20% off ! 

                                                                                                                    6" h x 3" w.  Aluminum.

                                                                                Normally $32 each @ (20% OFF!) = $25.50 each! 

                                                                                                                 Only 8 available at this price! PLUS Lobster Wall decor doubles as trivet. 

Steel with enamel red! SPECIAL!  20% off  18" l x 10" w x 2" d. 

Normally $52 each @ (20% OFF!) = $41.00 each!  Only 3 available at this price. 

EXAMPLES OF (PAST) COMMISSIONS:

 This piece currently resides in Paris, France.  a 3-d Rooster in wire. Stands about as tall as a rooster would.  SOLD

 This piece currently resides in London, England. Angels and Masters.SOLD

 Fabrication into steel, copper, or aluminum for any design adds $300 design/set up fee plus materials cost - these works in aluminum as originals were closer to $850. SOLD. Replicas available upon request.

 Wire cats in all kinds of poses.  $135.00 each depending on size. These were 28"l x 18"h approx.SOLD

  Wire stick figures with big stories to tell. this one was titled "World's First Architect" SOLD

                Human Angels.  On Display at Colby's in Portsmouth, NH thru December 1, 2018 SOLD

                                                Mayan elder passing on of ancient wisdom resides in Oklahoma City SOLD

Mayan Mask in steel -welded with patina . Currently resides with a buyer in Thailand.SOLD

Golden Thread Gallery. Inclusion in Anthology. 2018.

As part of this contemporary exhibit my work has been included. Not only am I proud of this achievement but I'm also glad to know of the curator's point of wanting to make sure that the idea of spirituality and art connect in this literary publication. I hope you Enjoy!  

  http://www.goldenthreadgallery.org/

"8395 Days in Oklahoma" Exhibit in Lawton [Exhibit 2012]

"8395 Days in Oklahoma" Exhibit in Lawton  [Exhibit 2012]

Asia's exhibit, "3895 Days in Oklahoma," will show in Lawton's Leslie Powell Foundation and Gallery until the end of August. Read John Brandenburg's review of the show here:

Exhibits at Lawton gallery feature metal sculptures, prints

BY JOHN BRANDENBURG | Published: July 15, 2012

LAWTON — A show of wire and metal wall sculpture by Asia Scudder is nicely complemented by the graphic and line qualities of a printmaking exhibit at the Leslie Powell Foundation and Gallery.

 

Spirit Horse, a wire sculpture by Asia Scudder. Photo provided

Both Scudder's “8395 Days in Oklahoma” exhibit and the “Impressit: Printmaking in Oklahoma” show will run through Aug. 29.

Works made with the mundane but flexible material of baling wire have the most lively and expressive qualities in the “8395 Days” show, whose title refers to the 23 years Scudder has lived in Oklahoma.

Music provides the theme for the Oklahoma City artist's whimsical, serendipitous side view of “Miles Davis,” holding his horn in front of him, pointed up, as he seems to shuffle forward, between jazz riffs.

A female performer gestures skyward, even more broadly, with winglike arms, near a much more earth-connected man, hunching over a percussive instrument, in Scudder's “The Drummer and the Dancer.”

A couple shares a steaming pot of tea or soup with a heart shape between them, and rabbits woven into the latticework of their bodies, in a lyrical work called “In Love in Oklahoma.”

Also taking an upbeat view of family and romantic relationships is a large baling wire depiction of a kneeling, stylized man and a kneeling woman with a child behind her, “coming together in prayer.”

Scudder, who plans to move to Boston during the next few months, said these male and female icons represent “a balanced vision of heart and mind to create a new dynamics for healing themselves.”

A bit more static and less animated than her baling wire flights of fancy, but pleasing in their own way, are Scudder's aluminum and painted steel creations in the show. Rich color adds a welcome note to “Purple Pony,” and surface buffing, plus an exaggerated, galloping gait, lend interest to her portrayal of an “Unbridled” aluminum horse.

A hard-pressed rider clings to the back of a “Spirit Horse” in another aluminum work, which Scudder said relates to her struggle to keep up with her multiple tasks as single parent, artist and landscaper.

Horses also figure prominently in a superb woodblock print by Adrienne Day, curator of the “Impressit” show of “hand made or hand pulled” images by some 19 Oklahoma artists.

Silhouettes, chess pieces, a tree, a seashell and a birdhouse supply the background, with some of them seen through the body of the standing “Redhorse,” over running black and white horses, in Day's woodblock.

Two birds seem to be talking over “A Decision” between bird houses, in front of rolling fields, in a delightful, deftly executed stone lithograph by Lawton artist Katherine Liontas-Warren.

Green letters interact with the flight of a “Mockingbird” in a monotype by Norman artist Michael Wilson, and rocklike shapes form a precarious “Stack” in an etching by Cushing artist Betty Bowen.

A small dinosaur battles a rooster in a cock fight in a black-and-white linocut by Kjelshus Collins, while two potato people pour over a magazine and a map of the “Red Planet” in a sight-gag silk screen by Rob Smith.

Other artists in the print show include Mark Sisson, Betty Wood, Michelle E. Himes McCrory, Dewayne Pass, Michelle Martin, Marwin Begaye, Cindy Pauchey and Stacey D. Miller. Also represented with prints, one per artist, are Rebecca Lowber-Collins, Curtis Jones, Kimberlea Springer-Smith, Marc Barker and Steven Rosser.

Both the Scudder exhibit of wire and metal sculpture, and the print show are recommended viewing during their run through August 29 at the Lawton foundation and gallery.

— John Brandenburg

Read more: http://newsok.com/exhibits-at-lawton-gallery-feature-metal-sculptures-prints/article/3692102#ixzz20ozjh7Wq