BAYOU BEACON

Best way to procrastinate unpacking after a three month artist residency away? An art show — hooray! Beautiful to see Falon Mihalic’s latest, Bayou Beacon, at Sawyer Yards last night. I can’t do the concept behind the work justice, but suffice it to say, she’s managed to turn the visualization of flooding data into an aesthetic experience.

What I can comment on with authority is that it’s always lovely when coming home is as wonderful as getting away.

THE PASEO PROJECT

The Paseo Project was a dense presentation of numerous public art projects over the first weekend I was in Taos. Had I not heard an offhand reference to it, I would have likely not even known it was happening from the central, yet secluded location of the residency. I’m pretty sure I experienced a fraction of the pieces on view, and photographed even fewer. Take my word for it—there was a lot going on in addition to the Telepoem Booth (instructions for how to use a rotary dial included!) and this interactive projection dance-a-thon.

Major thanks to fellow AIR, Rebecca, for capturing the moment just as the dialed poem got into stamens and the loudest motorcycles I’ve ever heard revved at the light at the corner.

An earlier, unexpected highlight of the evening was a stop at the Harwood Museum where there is an exhibition of Judy Chicago fiber art on view. The Birthing Project is a collection of pieces from the early 1980s whose subject matter takes on birth from the physical to the mystical and was made by scores of collaborating needleworkers.. I took these snapshots for myself, not intending to share them, but keep coming back to the color and extraordinary textural and imaginative detail for inspiration.