Song in the Bone: Sound Lost and Found
It all begins with an idea.
Over the past year drawing has been a discovery process of dynamic beings. Through my limited human perception and touch, considering what it is like to live as air or water, or as land is a fool’s errand. The breaks and bonds of molecules and forces of thermodynamics might not be perceived or memorialized by a brain, and I have no desire to anthropomorphize or patronize the winds or oceans with human definitions of consciousness. Yet our own cells and neurons move and metabolize under the same laws of physics. We are just a slower version of air, desperately attached to a form. Would a body of air experience these boundaries? Is it connected to everything? Is air a series of hyper-rapid attachments and losses?
Percussive Forest, 2024, graphite on paper, 210” x 110”
These questions along with the immediate contact and idiosyncratic movement (my earth bound hand trying to keep up with the air) of drawing have begun a series of works related to connection and loss across imagined spaces and forms. They may be held, by rhythms or patterns, choreography or the connective tissue that is sound. There are few solid forms, though most of them hold a story I can hardly bear to tell.
The exhibit will be up by appointment through May 31. Please DM @sarahvaleriart or email at weightofwordsforming@gmail for an appointment.
May 31 from 12-6, closing open house event.
Alida, Aidan, and Tatianna Sing to the Forest
It all begins with an idea.
Since the connectivity of sound was a large impetus for the work that was created during my residency this year, I invited a few musicians/sound artists to respond to the works.
Alida Torres and Aidan Scrimouge play acoustic guitar and accordion. They often perform traditional songs of love and revolution from Central and South America and I highly recommend catching them in Brooklyn sometime. Follow them for more at @alidablue
Alida and Aidan were joined by Tatianna Overton to play songs and share a song written in response to Percussive Forest at the gallery. We were incredibly fortunate to have them here in person. They have always provided solace and strength and reason to keep finding ways to protect and care for the most vulnerable beings.
Sound Response by Frank Schellace
It all begins with an idea.
Frank Schellace sent a composition in response to works from Song in the Bone. An unassuming set of headphones will be hanging in the show. You can find the composition inside them.
A long shout through history, 2025, graphite on paper, 50” x 38”
Growth, 2024, graphite on paper, 38” x 50”
These are two of the images Frank incorporated into his work. Every time I listen to it the layers split in a different way. Throughout this time of drawing and listening, I have been strongly reminded how much time it takes to experience something by touch or sound. To touch something completely is a dedicated journey. John Hull, a professor from Oxford who lost his sight later in life described the time it took to know sculptures through touch and always returning to them to find something new. There is an uncertainty that you have always found everything there is find, which is very different from the arrogance of sight that assumes you’ve “seen it all” in a quick swipe. Learning something from sound seems never complete. Every molecule is connected through these vibrations.
In the same way in my drawings I have little concern for proportions or genres or golden means or any human made scope that pretends to give meaning or context to a form or texture or symbol. The acknowledgement that we are unaware of most of what is living, what keeps us alive, and what life actually might be, what laws of physics keep our eyes open and thoughts forming, is part of the process of drawing from memory for me. The lost and unknown sensations sink in along the way.
Listening to Frank’s composition reminds me of this.
Also please consider the bees. Frank is an expert on bees and bee keeping and bee ecology things. Agribusiness is trucking bees around in trucks to pollinate crops because they have killed too many bees with their pesticides. This is horrifyingly destructive to the bees culture and community and purpose. This process also spreads diseases and creates intense competition for the struggling bee hives that are left. They are not here for your profit. They are here for their community and the benefit of the plants in general.
Did you know bees vote through dance? When they need to find a new hive, scouts will seek out a new home, MEASURE IT and come back to the hive to dance a description of the dimensions and location. Bees in favor of a particular site vote by imitating the dance. Once enough bees are dancing in unison, they take off together. So much intelligence is beyond our sight.
Please don’t rake up your lawns until after it’s warm enough for hibernating bees to come out. Plant delicious native flowers for them. Build bee houses. Stop spraying everything with weedkiller, even if only to not give yourself cancer.
Follow Frank’s work @studiomilksmith and @traveling.hive
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.