Trees and rivers and words and pictures, and an ask

Hello, friends. It's been a minute, but I'm so glad to be in touch. I have a few thoughts to share, and a request of sorts.

First, I have been kicked off of Facebook. I was hacked back in October, and booted from the platform. While I miss my daily interactions with people I don't bump into at the post office and grocery store, and I miss having an easy “bulletin board” to post events and happenings and favorite causes and fundraisers and the like, I am truly ambivalent about the whole social media thing, and in large part not missing the platform. So I am sitting with being off for a little longer before making a new account, to make sure I actually want to be back. But in the meantime, I need a way to stay in touch with you all because…..

Second, I need your help! When I lost my FB account, I had a post all cued up and ready to go, about this arts project I've been talking about for a few years now. What arts project, you ask? The one in my head, of course! Some of you have been with me since my earliest pre-pandemic schemings, when I asked (Facebook again) "Why is art important?" and so many people answered with so many great reasons.

Some of you joined me the January before the earth shifted for a day of visioning, farm tromping, and thinking together. A few of you have come out to the farm to make art of your own, and a few of you have just listened to me say, "there's this thing I want to do...." and listened or offered your thoughts and enthusiasm. So thank you for being with me!

And now, I think it's high time we take the next step.

I'm still figuring out what all the pieces will look like, but I know that I want to make some art, and I want to bring you here to make it with me!

I want to learn and explore in community, and I want to sit at this wild intersection of field, forest and river, and see what comes up. I want to explore the past of this place, and capture the changes taking place here now and coming years.

I want to make art about trees and rivers and eagles and salmon. I want to make art about cows and canary grass and barbed wire fences and irrigation canals. I want to make art about trains and tractors and silos and barns. I want to make art about conservation and climate change and rain and clouds and people and the land.

I want to make art about this incredible place we call home, with words and pictures and music and dance. I want to explore what art means, why it matters, and how we can use it to communicate the things most urgent in this moment.

And by “I” I mean “we” and by “we” I mean “you”. As in, do you?

That Facebook post I was about to send was going to ask what you want to learn, and what you might have to teach. It was going to ask if you wanted to think with me about creating an arts program, or if you just wanted to be invited to participate. It was going to pick up a strand I started spinning before the pandemic, and weave it into this new version of the world we are living in.

So far, in addition to inviting individual artists out for an afternoon on the farm, I have hosted Armin Tolentino, Clark County’s very own Poet Laureate, for a small poetry workshop on the porch of the farmhouse, and Jennifer Engkraf of Vault Books and Brew and Jenny Carroll of Studio 117, both in Castle Rock, for an afternoon of mindfulness and collage making. But I want to do so much more!

I want to learn about:

Printmaking

Natural pigments, dyes, and inks

Cyanotypes

Painting

Drawing

Poetry

Nature writing

Paper making

Papier mache

Book arts

Music

Movement

Site specific sculpture

Recycled art

Clay work

Chainsaw carving

Sound recording

Map making

Filmmaking

and

and

and...

So, all this to say, I miss you, I need you, I hope to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment here, or email me at abbyb@pnfarm.com