Please follow the Contemporary Pastoralism project by subscribing on blogspot. There you will find stories about the small farms collaborating with the studio, as well as witness installation progress and video performance.
Why government should support the arts
This is a wonderful article by Nick Paleologos about the role of art in society. Read it Here.
Contemporary Pastoralism: Blue Star Equiculture
Trading studio for farm: Blue Star Equiculture, a working horse rescue and sanctuary farm in Palmer, MA. will, for part of this year, be the studio for Nancy Winship Milliken's Contemporary Pastoralism Project
Contemporary Pastoralism
Contemporary Pastoralism is a process-oriented, investigation of the human, animal and land contract of the small rural farm. Trading studio for farm, I will collaborate with a variety of farmers and their animals, employ agrarian materials, and pastoral landscape, resulting in site-responsive installations and process documentation.
More Before the Storm
More Studio Sketches before the storm tomorrow. Clay, sisal rope, horse hair and steel wool. All thinking out loud preps for a residency at Westminster School this spring.
Studio Sketches
The exploration of materials continues into this new year as I muck about in the studio. Thinking in 3D means sketching in 3D as well. Here are a few examples of thinking out loud. Research trips this month include a duck farm in Connecticut for feathers and a horse barn in Vermont to measure horses for theater set. At night I have the pleasure of reading Platero and I, by Juan Ramon Jiminez.
New Materials in the Studio
Horse hair, cobb, hardware cloth, paper, and intestines almost ready for Peru. With this series of sculptures and drawings I wanted to investigate line, openings, grid and material, such important parts of the architecture in New England and Peru.
Heading to Peru!
I wish I were heading to Peru!
But this year it will be my sculpture heading down to Qorinkancha Museum in Cusco Peru for a show in February. Several members of The Boston Sculptors Gallery along with Peruvian artists join together at Qorinkancha Museum for Vision/Visiones, curated by Argentinian artist Nora Valdez. I have provided a little video of my idea gathering, inspiration, and research for several pieces traveling to South America..
Something Unique
Consider something unique for the holidays this year!
For the first time there will be several opportunities to purchase work from the studio. There is a new and easy online store on my website, www.nancymilliken.com/studio-store and Boston Sculptors Gallery online store. On December, 14th from 5 on, the studio will be participating in Eastwork's Holiday open studio sales/artwalk. On December 17th through the 22nd my work will be in the Boston Sculptors Gallery Winter Holiday Pop Up Sale. How about an ornament you have never seen before, note cards, mono prints, or even prints of unique outdoor installations. And of course, there is always sculpture or a site-specific installation to consider wrapping!
Casing, brass grommet, salt, 12x8x2, 2013
Exciting News!
We have a new online store! Check it out at Studio Store, and find wearable art, digital prints, small sculpture, and much more!
Wool Glass ornament
Double Edge Theatre Interns
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair
Last Week at The Lighthouse
Today's visit to The Lighthouse in Boston brought out heartfelt emotions on this gunmetal grey day. I am grateful, to be sure, for the viewers, the photographers, the staff and even the weather being gentle. It has been a wonderful ride these past six months to witness the public's response to an unfamiliar material, form, and light at the Plaza. I have developed favorite angles everytime I visit, and today I found a new one. She keeps on teaching me to look.
Flight
video
Here is a wonderful little video about The Lighthouse at Christian Science Plaza in Boston. If you have not seen this groundbreaking show, Convergence, you can still visit until November 1st. The studio is currently researching a new venue for this illuminated wooly and industrial installation.
big hearted
Bear Heart
A little view of what is happening in the studio these days. Childhood friends of mine, who happen to be respectful hunters and farmers, recently presented to me moose and bear heart. Here are some beginning prints
Bear Heart, ink on paper, 11"x11", 2013
Moose Heart, ink on silk, 29"x20", 2013
Video of The Lighthouse
This video shows the process of making The Lighthouse
Your Statement is Inside, June 23 through August 4
Both a show of artifacts and
sculpture woven throughout the gallery, Your
statement is Inside, showcases materials and spatial considerations that
are used in the outdoor public art The
Lighthouse, in the group show Convergence, now showing at Christian Science
Plaza.
For these two shows I collected raw wool from New England farms, which I then wove and felted into sculptural forms. Pairing an ephemeral, textural, organic material such as wool, with industrial components such as steel, is an ongoing dialogue in my studio. One piece, titled Penelope’s Sail, is made from silk and merino wool which I felted and then used it in Double Edge Theatre’s summer production of The Odyssey, where I collaborate on set design. Night after night Penelope (Odysseus’ wife, played by Hannah Jarrell) and the wind and rain opened the felt into a beautiful lacy material. I then worked it into what I think Penelope’s sail would look like if she ever had made one to sail away from Ithaka.
The Lighthouse, a 72-foot tall site- specific installation employs scaffolding to create an industrial platform for me to weave over 150 feet of wool, fishing net and rope. The flowing, airy and textural natural materials with dramatic openings lights up along its length and provides a contrast to the surrounding static concrete and stone buildings. In the gallery, Lighthouse Ladder highlights elements of this outdoor installation.
Thought I would share a rare moment
Well, there's always a wonderful side to all of the rain this June.
Great double rainbow image by Maureen Mckenna
