JULY 7, 2023:

Courtesy photo.

JULY 5, 2023:

MAY 29, 2023:

In less than two months, the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation will be ground zero for the 9th annual RedCan invitational graffiti jam, the first and only event of its kind in Indian Country. RedCan is scheduled for July 5-8, 2023, and is open to the public.

The Cheyenne River Youth Project announced the names of the 12 featured artists who will paint murals around the Eagle Butte community on July 5-6 and in CRYP’s public Waniyetu Wowapi (Winter Count) Art Park on July 7-8. The grassroots, Native- and woman-led nonprofit organization also unveiled a short film about the RedCan project titled “Changing the Narrative.”

“Five of our 2022 featured artists were Native women, and all five are returning this year,” said Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “We are excited to amplify their voices, perspectives and gifts through this little film, just as we are honored to welcome them back to Cheyenne River for four more days of creation, connection, cultural exchange, and the healing, transformative power of art.”

Those artists are 179, Lucious, Rezmo, TamiJoy and Yukue. Also part of the Redcan 2023 lineup are East, Cyfi, Hoka, Biafra, Wundr, Lawst and Desi Mundo.

During the four painting days, each artist will work closely with a CRYP Lakota Art Fellow or teen intern. These young Lakota art students will be able to learn new skills and practice new techniques as they assist the artists.

“This mentorship is a vital part of RedCan,” Garreau explained. “Not only does it bring Native and non-Native artists from across the country to our homelands, giving our community members a priceless opportunity to engage with the largest art movement in the history of humankind, it also gives our young people opportunities to explore their identities, share their voices and stories, and grow as artists.”

“I’m excited that even more teens are interested in participating in RedCan this year,” said Wakinyan Chief, CRYP’s art manager. “One of our programs assistant trainees completed several teen internships with us, and he’s heading into his third RedCan. Every couple of weeks, he tells me how much he’s looking forward to this summer’s event.”

Most of the featured artists have participated in multiple RedCans, as well; in fact, some have participated since the inaugural event in 2015. According to Garreau, that has deepened the RedCan experience in ways that she and her staff couldn’t have anticipated in the beginning.

“We’ve seen lifelong friendships develop, and the artists often refer to RedCan as a family,” she said. “That is profoundly moving to all of us at CRYP, because relationships lie at the heart of everything we do. And as we strengthen the bonds between us, we also see beautiful collaborative work develop — particularly between our guest artists, local Cheyenne River artists, and our young art students. It’s such an honor to witness this unfold year after year.”

While the artists paint in the community, CRYP and its volunteers will host youth arts, crafts and recreational activities at dedicated community sites. Then, when the artists move to the art park, the action moves with them.

“In the past, our two days in the art park have included DJ music, Lakota exhibition dancing, field day games, arts activities, hoop-dancing classes, and so much more,” said Jerica Widow, CRYP’s programs director. “It’s a joy to see the kids learning and having fun while family members and guests stroll through the park, enjoy the music and dancing, and watch the artists work.”

Community members also frequently gather at the mural sites in town, and not just the new ones. Garreau noted that, last year, CRYP staff witnessed people stopping at the older murals as well and discussing the details of the artwork with their companions.

“Our community really has embraced RedCan,” she reflected. “Throughout each year, as we drive or walk around town, we see all of this art — literally hundreds of murals since RedCan began — that uplifts us and reflects who we are as Lakota people. It is really powerful.

“For me, it’s a centering point,” she continued. “That’s so important, because the work we do here can be really challenging.”

On Friday and Saturday, July 7-8, CRYP will close each painting day in the art park with a free community meal and special performance on the Waniyetu Wowapi Art Park stage. Cheyenne River Lakota and Crow Creek Dakota rap artist, producer and sound designer Bazille will perform Friday night.

The Wake Singers, an Olgala Lakota rock band comprising cousins Douglas, Michael and Reed Two Bulls, will take the stage on Saturday. And, as always, the Cheyenne River-based Wakinyan Maza drum group will open and close each day of RedCan with a prayer, smudging and drum song for all who wish to participate.

In 2022, acclaimed hoop dancers The Sampson Brothers performed on RedCan’s final evening.
Photo credit Cheyenne River Youth Project.

Featured artists paint at mural sites in the community for RedCan’s first two days, then paint in the art park during the event’s final two days.
Photo credit Cheyenne River Youth Project.

INDIANA – Thursday, the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announced it has awarded $3,431,351 to 414 nonprofits to fund arts projects and organizations around the state through the Arts Organization Support and Arts Project Support grant programs.     

During its June 9 Quarterly Business Meeting, the Commission approved the funding recommendations for the two grant programs. Applications were reviewed by 146 panelists from around the state and country with expertise in the arts, community development, and nonprofit management. 

Arts Organization Support grants provide annual operating support for the ongoing artistic and administrative functions of eligible arts organizations. Arts Project Support grants provide funding to Indiana 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations and public entities for a specific arts project or arts activity(ies). Between both programs, 75 of Indiana’s 92 counties will receive funding.   

“The projects and organizations selected to receive funding are strengthening our state,” said Anne Penny Valentine, Chair of the Indiana Arts Commission. “The Commission is excited and honored to invest in Hoosier communities, supporting organizations that are doing exceptional creative work to make Indiana a great place to live, work, play, study, and stay.” 

This year, changes to the AOS program were made to decrease barriers in the application process, increase support to smaller, emerging, and first-time applicants, and provide more meaningful award sizes to grant recipients through a field-driven input process. Learn more about this programmatic review.   

Changes to the program resulted in increased support and access to small organizations and increased average overall award size statewide. The Arts Organization Support program received applications from 36 organizations not previously funded by the program, and funding to smaller organizations and rural communities increased. 

Following are examples of arts organizations receiving Arts Organization Support awards:  

• The Carnegie Heritage and Arts Center of Greene County (CHAC) dedicates itself to providing engaging artistic experiences for the communities in Greene County. Its arts programming includes an art studio space for local artists, art classes and camps for children, and a range of adult activities such as painting, knitting, and pottery. The CHAC also organizes the Linton Fall Arts Festival, which brings the community together through a celebration of regional artisans, food, and music. 

• In Marshall County, Heartland Art Gallery is committed to furthering the arts in Plymouth and its surrounding areas. They provide a wide array of engaging programs and events for the community including two annual art exhibits, an art award for a deserving Marshall County high school senior, art classes for people of all ages, and a gallery that supports local artists.    

View all Arts Organization Support recipients. 

The Commission also voted to distribute funds from the Arts Trust, which is supported by the sale of the Celebrate the Arts license plate. One Arts Project Support grant recipient from every county with a funded application has been designated as an Arts Trust Project. Funding for these projects is supported in part through the Arts Trust Plate funding. Beneficiaries were selected based on exemplary commitment to community, education, economy, and health. 

Following are examples of Arts Project Support recipients selected as Arts Trust License Plate beneficiaries: 

• In Scottsburg, Bree’s Blessings utilizes the power of music and art for children who are undergoing cancer treatment. With the support of the Celebrate the Arts license plate, Bree’s Blessings will be presenting their third annual “Night to Remember.” This event will feature live music performed by children and families and a collaborative art display featuring children’s work. The “Night to Remember” brings the community together and raises awareness of childhood cancer. 
• Central Indiana Powwow Inc. produces a two-day powwow and market, presents Native American art to fourth-grade students through a cultural diversity and awareness program, and offers an artist-in-residence program for secondary school art students to foster cultural awareness of Native American art, culture, dance, language, and music.  

See the full list of Arts Trust License Plate beneficiaries.  

View all Arts Project Support grant recipients.  

“Art and creativity strengthen the fabric of Indiana’s communities.  They promote connection and cohesion, foster the entrepreneurial spirit communities need to thrive and create the kinds of communities where people want to live,” said Miah Michaelsen, Executive Director of the Indiana Arts Commission. “In every corner of our state, public funding for arts and creativity continually proves to be a high-return investment that improves the quality of life of Hoosiers and drives economic development within our state.” 

Goodwin is the owner of Leah Goodwin Creations, an art consultant, a cultural practitioner, a published poet and a newly appointed member of the California Arts Council. She lives in Imperial Beach.

Does diversity, equity and inclusion really exist in the San Diego arts landscape? I often ask myself this question. The easy answer is that diversity in the arts in San Diego has progressed over the last two decades, thanks to the efforts of many, but there is still a long way to go. The real question is, what else can we do to create a truly vibrant, diverse and inclusive arts environment in a future San Diego?

I share this message as a lifelong cultural practitioner, one of the few African American women in this field, and as a current member of the California Arts Council, though all opinions expressed here are mine alone.

For starters, arts funding policies need to change to be inclusive and level the socioeconomic disparities in the arts. The good news is that these days there are more programs and funds geared towards inclusion. Examples include the Cultural Pathways program at the California Arts Council and SDCARES at the city of San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Culture. The sad news is that innovative programs earmarking funds for Black, Indigenous, people of color or African American, Latino American, Asian American and Native American artists have had their funding shut down due to pressure around Proposition 209.

Proposition 209, approved in November 1996 and ironically also known as the California Civil Rights Initiative, amended the state Constitution to prohibit governmental institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity, specifically in the areas of public employment, public contracting and public education. So the argument goes, funds designated for the arts that are from public sources cannot be earmarked for Black, Indigenous, people of color or African American, Latino American, Asian American and Native American artists.

To their credit, many arts organizations have looked inward, created racial equity statements and examined policies and practices that by their nature excluded smaller or newer organizations from participating. They have adopted new policies that don’t require small organizations to have auditors, require matching funds and allow them to use a fiscal sponsor if they do not yet have a 501(c)(3) status.

Allowing fiscal sponsors and partnerships is one solution. Finding new ways to look at the disparity in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic is another, using a tool called the Healthy Places Index. A project of the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, the Healthy Places Index is a powerful and easy-to-use data and policy platform created to advance health equity through open and accessible data. Community leaders, policymakers, academics and other stakeholders use the Healthy Places Index to compare the health and well-being of communities, identify health inequities and propose policy or program remedies. Such a data-driven disparity analysis is also useful in the arts funding arena.

Another approach comes from my experience serving as the public art consultant in the creation of the Public Art Collection at the county’s nearly completed Southeastern Live Well Center. This is the first public art collection in the county comprised predominantly of artists who are Black, Indigenous and people of color. Using the criteria of roots in the community in the call for art, we were able to identify and engage community artists whose works reflect the art statement: “Art at the Southeastern Live Well Center represents and celebrates the history, diversity and cross-cultural experiences of the community while educating, creating beauty, inspiration and healing.”

Right now, the city of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture has embarked upon a true Arts Culture Master Plan. To engage in the cultural planning process, people are encouraged to go to sdcreativecity.com and click GET INVOLVED.

In partnership with the San Diego Regional Arts Coalition, Catalyst San Diego, Conrad Prebys Foundation and the California Arts Council, the San Diego Commission has launched the Far South Border West project with more than 65 multidisciplinary and culturally inclusive artists who are working to create projects focused on social justice, climate change, health and civic engagement. These projects will tie into and hopefully engage with the World Design Capital celebrations in fall of 2024. There is also a new Arts and Culture Commission at the county of San Diego.

Things are looking very promising for our region. But we have to keep moving forward.

We are all artists. Human beings by nature are creative, and I have often said that learning together about each other through the arts is how we will learn to find commonalities and celebrate our differences. This is the beauty of the arts. Art breaks down walls and lets us experience our humanity. Art offers a place where we do not have to agree in order to engage. It brings joy, wonder and, I believe, peace. San Diego is becoming a leader in this area. Let’s keep things going.

A friend asked me to describe the exhibition, “Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass,” currently on view at the Wichita Art Museum. I used one word: “Overwhelming.” This exhibition cannot be adequately taken in with one visit. The show features 115 works by 29 Native American artists and four Pacific Rim Artists. Artifacts which may be presented in other Native American shows, made of clay, wood, stone, woven grass, or leather are here, all rendered in colorful, glorious glass. Various techniques such as sand blasting have been utilized.

Among my favorite pieces were three vessels resembling human heads, one by Preston Singletary of the Tlinget People, and 2 by Marcus Amerman of the Choctaw Tribe. The three vessels were inspired by clay jars found in archeological digs of ancient villages of the Mississippian Culture. One’s mouth open as if in shock, one bearing a toothy grin, and the last staring as if in a deep and soulful trance. Literally every piece in this show left me in wonder. And the work delves much, much deeper than the obvious and incredible beauty. The spiritualism and meaning behind every work in this show simply cannot be described by the likes of someone like me. I think to truly know the real depth of this work one would have to be a blood American, like the very the people who made these pieces–the people who were here for thousands of years before immigrants, like me, hit these shores.

I will go back because I must see it again. The show runs through September 10th.

This event was recorded on July 6, 2023 at Anderson Ranch Art Center during the 2023 Summer Series, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.

Rebecca Morris (b. 1969 in Honolulu, Hawaii, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) is a painter deeply committed to abstraction, her work evolving and developing through an interrogation of materials, forms, processes, and outcomes. A showcase for her extensive arsenal of techniques and ideas, her ambitious large-scale canvases contain a personalized language of forms and compositions in differing manners of mark-making. Her work inventively explores questions of frame dynamics and figure/ground illusions, often within a remarkably shallow pictorial space. The results are enlivened by a sense of painterly improvisation and grounded by an underlying rationale – a combination that imbues the work with a feeling of the contemporary world while referring back to the very foundations of modernist abstraction.

Morris is the subject of a solo exhibition opening this September at the MCA Chicago. The show, curated by Jamillah James, is traveling from the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and looks at the past 21 years of Morris’ practice. Other significant shows include those at the Blaffer Art Museum, (2019); Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Holland (2014); The Renaissance Society, (2005) and 356 Mission Rd. and LAXART in Los Angeles. Her work has been included in group shows at the Wexner Center for the Arts (2018); the Hammer Museum (2016); and the Whitney Biennial (2014). Her work is in various public collections, including The Hirshhorn Museum ; The Hammer Museum; The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Contemporary Art; The Cleveland Art Museum; Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands; and the DePaul Art Museum.

Jenelle Porter is a curator and writer. From 2011 to 2015 she was Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, where she organized Fiber: Sculpture 1960–present and Figuring Color: Kathy Butterly, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roy McMakin, Sue Williams, as well as monographic exhibitions of the work of Jeffrey Gibson, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Dianna Molzan, Christina Ramberg, Mary Reid Kelley, Arlene Shechet, and Erin Shirreff. Her exhibitions have twice been honored by the International Association of Art Critics. Most recently, she organized Kay Sekimachi for the Berkeley Art Museum; Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design for the ICA/Boston; and Mike Kelley: Timeless Painting for the Mike Kelley Foundation at Hauser & Wirth, New York. As Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2005–10), Porter organized Dance with Camera and Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay, the first museum surveys of Trisha Donnelly and Charline von Heyl, and numerous other projects. She has authored books and essays on art and artists including Kathy Butterly, Viola Frey, Jeffrey Gibson, Sam Gilliam, Jay Heikes, Margaret Kilgallen, Liz Larner, Liza Lou, Ruby Neri, Stephen Prina, and Matthew Ritchie.

Porter is curating a survey for Los Angeles performance art pioneer, Barbara T. Smith, for ICA LA, opening October 2023. Among other book projects, she recently completed An Indigenous Present with artist Jeffrey Gibson (to be released in August 2023), a 450-page compendium that presents the work of 60 Native American and Indigenous visual artists, musicians, writers, architects, historians, and more.

This story begins outside Nashville, where country music legend Jimmy Fortune plays and records. Recently the Nelson County native got a call from a fan who wanted to commission a bronze statue in his honor. Woody Greenberg, with the Nelson County historical society, picks up the tale.

“Jimmy said he would allow a statue of him if he did one of Earl Hamner as well, because Jimmy considers Earl his inspiration for the story-telling that he does in his music,” he explains.

Earl Hamner is the area’s best known playwright – renowned for his story of a big farm family living in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the Depression and the Second World War. The Waltons would air on American television for nine seasons, winning an Emmy, a Peabody award and a suggestion from President George H.W. Bush that Americans should be more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons. Each episode began with some lines read by Hamner himself.

“There is something within us that tells us all we will ever know about ourselves. There is a destiny that tells us where we will be born, where we will live and where we will die. My people were drawn to mountains. They came when the country was young, and they settled in the upland country of Virginia.”

But it was likely the ending that Americans find memorable, as each member of the family wished the rest a good night, and the lights in their home blinked off.

The Waltons aired on CBS and was sold to Canadian television and the BBC. It was set in a fictitious community based on Schuyler in Nelson County where Hamner grew up and where Jimmy Fortune started his musical career. Again, local historian Woody Greenberg.

“Jimmy was playing up at Wintergreen, and Lou Dewitt from the Statler Brothers happened to be there, and he heard Jimmy sing. He was about to have surgery, so he recommended Jimmy to the Statlers, and they figured okay, when Lou Dewitt is out, Jimmy can take his place.”

After his surgery, Dewitt decided he would retire. Jimmy Fortune stayed with the Statlers for 21 years, enjoying his own moment of fame and following the fortunes of Earl Hamner.

“Jimmy considered Earl a kind of an idol, because he had made it so big,” Greenberg recalls. “He said when he was touring with the Statlers he would always try to find a Waltons TV show when he was in the hotel room. Jimmy comes from a big family. I think he was number 7 of 9 children, so I think he kind of related to the Waltons.”

This summer, the historical society had planned an exhibit on the musical heritage of Nelson County when Greenberg got a call from the man who commissioned those bronze statues of Fortune and Hamner. Would the organization like to have them? You bet! They’ll unveil the larger-than-life sculptures this Saturday.

“Jimmy’s not a tall person, but this statue looks like he’s about six and a half feet tall!” Greenberg says. “Earl was six feet tall, and Earl is sitting on a bench. Jimmy is standing across from him with his guitar, and it appears that Jimmy is singing to Earl.”

Before Hamner’s death, Fortune did play for the playwright, and he’ll do so again at the historical society on 29 South and at the high school Saturday night where he’ll be joined on stage by many of the musicians he knows from the neighborhood. That show is sold out, but the public is welcome to attend the unveiling of the statues at 11 a.m. and to tour exhibits on Hamner, Fortune and on other musicians of Nelson County. Organizers say Kami Cotler, who played Elizabeth Walton, will be on hand along with six other cast members on Zoom.

Andy Taylor and Dan Young are local landscape artists who have been painting the Roaring Fork Valley for decades. But as much as the two have in common, the artists have their own styles on display at Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt.

Their exhibition, “Andy Taylor and Dan Young: Perspectives,” opens on Friday with an artist reception from 5–7 p.m. and will be on view through July 25.

The exhibition features more than 30 large-scale paintings, plein air studies, and oil pastel studies from the artists.

“Dan Young and Andy Taylor have been represented by this same gallery since 1993, from the The Basalt Gallery to Ann Korologos Gallery, which is quite rare in the art world and speaks to their evolution, freshness, and talent,” said Sue Edmonds, director of Ann Korologos Gallery, renamed in 2007 under the leadership of Ann Korologos. “Each has studied and painted Colorado landscapes for many decades, and each brings his own perspective to what he sees, what he notices, how it makes him feel, and how that feeling is depicted with abstract qualities.”

Carbondale-based painter Taylor has been painting the lower valley and the 200 or 300 miles west of the valley for more than 50 years.

Originally from southwestern Pennsylvania, he said he grew up drawing and painting and that he developed a love of the West from spending summers working on a ranch in Montana while in high school. This influenced his decision to attend Colorado College in Colorado Springs, which eventually led him here.

Throughout the years he has developed a “colorful, gestural style” that conveys the mood of a landscape and reflects the emotions evoked by a moment witnessed.

He typically starts his process by paying attention to fleeting moments that arrive with the dramatic change of seasons we experience in Colorado and has spoken about his passion for what he calls “insignificant scenes.”

“The ‘insignificant’ scenes or unfamiliar scenes can be as rich, as important, as intriguing as those epic, iconic, and monumental places that surround us,” said Taylor. “I like the discovery of finding the beauty or interest in otherwise unnoticed places. In the Roaring Fork Valley, I have found lots of places that are wonderful, unusual, untypical. I can almost always find something to draw anywhere if I just slow down and take the time.”

With pen and ink sketches with marginalia, a process he considers to be the bones of a painting and a form of meditation, he studies what he finds to be important about a scene: light, color, composition. His sketches are visual reminders of a scene but are always left incomplete, leaving room within the process to “invent significance and freedom to make discoveries” as he paints in his Carbondale studio.

“Even though I have always done painting and drawing, I am always working on learning and perfecting the craft of making art — the mechanics of it,” he said. “The challenge is maintaining and nurturing my individual vision or idea of what art can be. I have tried to simplify what’s in front me. However, I hope that the ongoing act of putting paint to canvas has made the work better throughout the years.”

Dan Young is a plein air impressionist painter and native of the Roaring Fork Valley. He has mastered the challenges posed by painting on location regardless of the season, earning a reputation as one of Colorado’s premier landscape artists. 

Young, who grew up in Glenwood Springs and now lives in Silt, says he was a kid who always enjoyed art but believes it was hard work that got him to where he is today.

After a failed stint at automotive school after high school, he moved back to Colorado and went to art school in Denver, focusing on illustration, which led him into a commercial art career for many years. Eventually, he realized all he really wanted to do was be a painter, so he gave up his corporate job and has been pursuing it since 1989.

These days, he spends his time roaming over familiar terrain, lately a private, secluded property close to home, challenging himself to look deeper at the landscapes and wildlife he encounters. He finds joy in discovering new subject matter in familiar surroundings and said he never gets bored no matter how often he’s visited a place.

“When I found this piece of property, I mean, the Colorado River runs through it. It runs east and west so you get sunrises, you get sunsets, it’s got old growth cottonwoods irrigation ditches you know, feel the stuff I love to paint,” said Young.

Quick sketches allow the artist to organize the landscape, translating the design from his mind’s eye to two dimensions, with plenty of artistic license taken along the way. With the composition sketched out as a loose guide, he then paints en plein air, study after study, sunrise after sunrise, working through themes and ideas to develop onto a larger canvas back in his Colorado studio. 

“There’s always danger when you become, I’ll use the word ‘locally famous,’” he said. “You paint one particular thing, and you can make a nice living, but no one knows who you are except in a small geographical area. Well, if suddenly that venue goes away. It’s like starting over. The best stuff I do is the stuff I know, my backyard if you will, because I have a connection and understanding for it. I have spent so many hours in the field whether I’m painting or drawing, just observing or photographing. I know what goes on when, where how it may not be great here today but tomorrow when that sun comes up and this light is reversed this is going to be a killer painting. So you paint what you know, what you understand. And I will never get bored with it. I mean people ask me that you run out of stuff to paint. No.”

He credits the Korologos Gallery, and The Basalt Gallery before that, for really representing and supporting his career as a local artist throughout the years admitting “my local gallery is my bread-and-butter gallery; it’s so important to have that support.”

He admits the new show will be bittersweet without his friend, collaborator, and the galleries namesake, Ann Korologos, who passed away earlier this year.

“This is a tough one. I have done a lot of shows at that gallery over the past 29 years,” he said with emotion in his voice. “The passing of Ann was, to be honest with you, I still don’t know if I have processed that. She was a force. There’s no doubt about it. We were at each other all the time and in a good way because Ann was very set in her ways. I tend to be that way, so we had we had a love-hate relationship. The real goal for me was to do a show that she would say, ‘Oh, you’re getting better.’ That’s all I could really hope for. She was very responsible for where I am today.”

“Andy Taylor and Dan Young: Perspectives” is on view July 7-25 at Ann Korologos Gallery, located at 211 Midland Avenue in Basalt and virtually at korologosgallery.com. To contact Ann Korologos Gallery with questions or comments, please email art@korologosgallery.com or call (970) 927-9668.

ICYMI: Senator Murray Announces $11.6 Million in Funding for Washington State Ferries – MORE HERE

Senator Murray: “Like so many in Washington state, ferries are a part of my commute, so I know first-hand just how important it is that they are running on schedule to get people where they need to be.”

***PHOTOS, B-ROLL OF THE EVENT HERE***

Mukilteo, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to tour the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal and discuss recent efforts to modernize and electrify Washington’s ferry system, which is the largest in the nation. Senator Murray highlighted the $11.6 million in funding she recently secured to improve and electrify the Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) ferry fleet.

On the tour, Senator Murray and Secretary Buttigieg were joined by Governor Jay Inslee, First Spouse Trudi Inslee, Congressman Rick Larsen (D, WA-02), and Washington State Representative Dave Paul (LD 10). During the tour, they heard from Tulalip Tribes Chairwoman Teri Gobin, Washington Secretary of Transportation Roger Millar, and Washington State Ferries (WSF) Chief of Staff Nicole McIntosh, who spoke about the history of the site, the state-of-the-art terminal—which was crafted with support from Tribes and Native artists—and the importance of making Washington’s ferry fleet more efficient and environmentally sustainable. 

“Like so many in Washington state, ferries are a part of my commute, so I know first-hand just how important it is that they are running on schedule to get people where they need to be,” said Senator Murray. “That’s why, over the years, I’ve made it a priority to secure federal funding to help WSDOT expand and improve their service—most recently to help achieve their goal of electrifying the entire Washington State Ferry system, because, with the largest ferry system in the country, electrifying the transportation industry bit by bit will make a big difference as we work to curb emissions and build a stronger clean energy economy.”

“People understand that transportation means trains, planes and automobiles — it also means ferries, and there are tens of thousands of people a day who really depend on facilities like the Ferry Terminal here in Mukilteo,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Thanks to Senator Murray and Rep. Larsen’s leadership in passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re investing big to make ferry service cleaner and more efficient with modern electric ferries. This funding is going to make a big difference for ferry commuters across Washington state — and there’s no substitute for seeing it firsthand.”

“It has been incredibly exciting to watch the progress of our efforts to electrify Washington’s ferry system, which is the largest public ferry system in the nation,” said Governor Inslee. “This level of innovation has been possible thanks to the partnership and support of our local and federal partners, and Washington’s stellar congressional delegation.”

“In the Pacific Northwest, ferries are a necessity – not a luxury,” said Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02), the lead Democrat on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. “Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, states like Washington are making the commitment to cleaner and greener passenger ferry fleets and shoreside infrastructure to reduce pollution, create more jobs, and keep people and the economy moving. I will continue to work with Secretary Buttigieg to fully implement the BIL’s historic provisions to ensure Puget Sound benefits from this movement toward a cleaner and greener transportation network.”

The new Mukilteo Multimodal Ferry Terminal opened in December 2020. It was the first new terminal to open in 40 years and services the second-busiest ferry route in the state—with nearly 4 million passengers each year. Senator Murray helped to secure $4.9 million from the Fiscal Year 2022 spending package to construct an electric charging station on the Clinton side of the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry route through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)’s Electric or Low-Emitting Ferry Pilot Program and the Passenger Ferry Grant Program.

Senator Murray has long fought to prioritize investments into WSF and ferry systems nationwide. In last year’s spending package, Senator Murray successfully fought to increase investments for the Passenger Ferry Grant Program, including a minimum of $5 million set-aside for low or zero-emission ferries. Senator Murray also helped secure record funding for ferries in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included $2.5 billion for ferry boats and terminal infrastructure, including $250 million over five years for low or zero emission ferries and more than $17 billion for port and waterway infrastructure. Earlier this year, Senator Murray announced $11.6 million in funding for the improvement and electrification of the WSDOT ferry fleet.

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A story this big needs artwork this big.

For her solo exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, Raven Halfmoon (Caddo Nation; b. 1991, Norman, OK) debuted her largest sculptural piece to date, Flag Bearer, a three-stacked figure measuring over 12-feet-tall.

“Watching that be put together with cranes–I kind of had a heart attack, I had to leave the room a couple of times–but it went smooth,” Halfmoon told Forbes.com of the monumental sculpture’s installation. “To watch that be strapped in the air 10-feet above everyone’s head was crazy, but it was awesome.”

The bottom portion of the sculpture alone weighs over 2,000 pounds.

Halfmoon started working big early in her career. At the University of Arkansas where she studied art and cultural anthropology, she had access to a 3-foot kiln, so she made pieces as big as it could hold.

“When I was in those anthropology classes, not only was I learning about my own tribe and our histories, but also about the Olmec heads in Mexico and the Easter Island heads and then not only that, but the earthworks that are in America: Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma, Moundville in Alabama, Serpent Mound in Ohio,” Halfmoon explained. “A lot of those earthworks my ancestors made, Caddo ancestors, especially in the Mississippi region, so I was always interested in large scale works and being a part of that, the idea of community being in those works.”

Halfmoon makes each sculpture by hand using the coil method.

As her career progressed and residencies took her around the country where she had access to increasingly larger and larger kilns, her sculptures became larger and larger as a result. Flag Bearer was made at Cal State University Long Beach which has an 8-foot kiln.

That’s a lot of clay!

Halfmoon made her own clay until doing so became too laborious. She remembers hand producing 400 pounds of clay at a time over two days earlier in her career, an amount she’d use up in a week’s time. Now she orders her material commercial, as much as 2,000 pounds in a single shipment.

Connecting to Caddo

“Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers” is the artist’s first traveling museum exhibition. The title pays tribute to Indigenous women and the matriarchs in Halfmoon’s life, including her mother who works in advocacy for the inclusion of Indigenous history in museum and education programs. All of her sculptures depict female figures in a commanding scale, insisting that Indigenous women be seen and heard.

“That is my experience and I try to stick to what I know and what I can talk about, so as of right now, they have been women,” Halfmoon said.

In that respect, Halfmoon’s sculptures can be read as portraits. Their enormous scale and visual power oppose existing stereotypes and biases, creating new monuments honoring the artist’s Caddo ancestors and traditions, including the elders who taught her ceramic techniques when she was a teenager.

She uses a signature palette of bold and symbolic hues: red, cream and black. The colors reference Caddo pottery traditions; Caddo pottery is black and white. Black connects to the natural clay native to the Red River. The Caddo’s ancestral homelands surrounded the Red River where the present-day borders of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana come together.

Halfmoon often glazes the image of the Red River onto her work; river motifs run throughout, one of many traditional icons she incorporates.

“You’ll see a lot of ‘x’s’ and ‘o’s’ and some of these crosses that represent the four directions and stars on the work that represent imagery I’ve seen on (Caddo) pottery,” Halfmoon said.

That imagery was also prevalent in traditional Caddo tattooing.

Her work, however, is not beholden to the customary.

“I’m super into makeup and fashion symbols and so it’s combining all of these elements together to make a more contemporary body of work that speaks to my personal experiences,” she explained.

Halfmoon’s use of red references the Oklahoma soil, where she continues to live and work, and the blood of murdered Indigenous women.

Rough and Tumble

After absorbing their scale, the surfaces of Halfmoon’s sculptures next confront onlookers. Rough, chunky, ridged, non-precious.

“The human experience is important in my work, I really want viewers to get the sense of what I was going through, to see those human fingerprints in my work is important,” Halfmoon said. “I’ve been drawn to artwork myself you can see that in; I remember when I was young, I went to The Met and saw Van Gogh’s work for the first time in person. They’re so thick and you can see the brushwork and it really pulled me in to that exact moment of when he made that. I was like, ‘wow, I’m here with him. I can see his paint brush stroke marks.’ That really had an effect on me when I was younger.”

Caddo pottery, similarly, has long incorporated visible sgraffito marks–scratch marks–used for incising designs and images into pieces.

“I don’t want them to look machine made, they’re supposed to have imperfections,” Halfmoon added. “They’re supposed to show my personal experience, have that human emotion in them. Having that textured feel was important for me.”

The artist’s glazes, likewise, are untidy.

“I never wanted to spray my glaze; something about still painting on these large-scale surfaces was important to me,” she said. “I also like looseness, I like the loose gesturalness of the glaze in my work, and so to me, they still feel like paintings even though they’re sculptural and they can obviously be experienced in the round.”

Halfmoon credits graffiti artists for influencing her technique, an instantly recognizable tribute.

“Flags of our Mothers” will be on view at the Aldrich through January 7, 2024, and then heads to the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, NE May 18 to September 14, 2024. Additional locations are being planned, including one, the artist hopes, in Oklahoma.