Shelburne Farms

Windscape-Westport is up and sailing

Windscape-Westport, 2015, at Dedee Shattuck Gallery in Westport, MA

Windscape-Westport, 2015, at Dedee Shattuck Gallery in Westport, MA

New placement of Windscape for the summer in an installation called Windscape-Westport. Salt and wool, field and stone, cedar and hay, coastal breezes: heaven. Up through October 2015. @Dedee Shattuck Gallery in Westport, MA. Many thanks to Jim Wood for the loan of his field, to Richard Sisson and his crew, Charlie McElwee and Olivia decker, and the Shattuck Gallery crew for their help in the installation of 16 meadow sails.

Heartfelt thanks for community


Burlington City Arts’ Of Land and Local curated by DJ Hellerman is an ever expanding local cultural event that combines food, art exhibitions, film (to name a few happenings), into a statewide, several month long dialogue, celebrating the land we love. I am proud to have been a part of this conversation. Windscape was de-installed on Thursday. The weather had played with them hard and sculpted the wool into ways that I never could have, enhancing their expression in the environment. They danced and swayed, and I joined them.

I would like to express my gratitude for all of the people and institutions that have become a part of this collaborative installation. The studio has been blessed with community. My heartfelt gratitude to Shelburne Farms, Marshall Webb, Tre McCarney, DJ Hellerman, Ashley Jimenez, Mima Tipper, Charlie Tipper, William Tipper, Marley Tipper, Cami Davis and her University of Vermont Environmental Art class, Jacob Lumbra, Charlie McElwee, Mark Thermansen, Judson Browning, Stephen Kiernan, Ian Ray, and sponsors Seven Days, Leunigs Bistro, and Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing.

The wonderful part of social media for installation artists is that now we have a way of seeing how the viewers see the work. I have seen beautiful images of Windscape from Val Kuster, Beth Humstone, Stephen Mease, Stephen Hoffsis, Joanne Hekkers, Kath Monstream, to name a few. My favorite is of an anonymous male couple kissing in front of a sail, impassioned.

Look for a catalog of Windscape coming out next month.

Blessings on the land, lake and sky,

Nancy

Video of Thought Process for Windscape

This summer, Cami Davis' Environmental Art class from University of Vermont worked with me on the Windscape installation at Shelburne Farms, in Shelburne, Vermont. One student stayed on and worked as a studio assistant. He is an incredible weaver! He also is a talented videographer. Please check out Jacob Lumbra! This video has a unique take about the process for Windscape.

 

"The goal of "Peace Comes Slowly Now" is to explore the artistic process through the lens of Nancy Winship Milliken's work on "Windscapes" for BCA's 2014 exhibition, Of Land and Local, at Shelburne Farms. This is coming from my time spent as her studio assistant for a month of her residency. This illustration of the artistic process is also a document of the setting and mood that accompanied Milliken's residency during the time I spent with her. I see art here as a meditative process that involves time, patience, and exploration. The time spent renders a physical manifestation of thought. The video begins by taking the terrestrial inspiration of the woods, landscape, lake, land, sheep and wool, then forwards into Milliken's work with ambient shots of the process, surroundings, and conditions of work.  This leads into a thought space that involves clouds and the sail form. The video transitions into the materiality of the work in its outdoor space as it interacts with the elements—particularly light and wind.  The final clip offers a snapshot of the completed installation with interaction from sheep and sheep herder." Jacob Lumbra

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