Creative Projects: Writing/Art

Prairie Grass Ballet, narrative-generating contributor to Owen William Fritt’s nationally-renowned sculpture (www.facebook.com/PrairieGrassBallet), Jamestown, ND (Oct., 2016)

Prairie Grass Ballet is made up of 60 aluminum grass blades that rise 18-24 ft. above 30 tons of

granite boulders in the Hansen Arts Park in downtown Jamestown. Owen asked me to create a

narrative about the prairie to inscribe in the boulders at the base of the sculpture.

While creating the concept for the sculpture, Owen’s unifying metaphor was that the prairie consists

of many individual grasses that comprise the whole; that the prairie is a community. To continue that

metaphor, I decided to compile a cento from the beautiful individual poems about prairie that

have already been written by local poets, children’s authors and essay-writers, to comprise a new

composition: “Prairie Grass Ballet: A Grassland Cento.”

New World Writing “The Space Between: A Meditation” and “Spacy Thoughts: A Mythology” (Feb., 2016)

Elizabeth Hellstern

Narrow Chimney Reading Series (Jan. 2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgTnnyJUgd8

Grand Canyon Semester, Bruce Aiken Studio (Dec. 5, 2015)

Hung 48 pieces by Grand Canyon Semester students.

It’s Elemental 2014, Coconino Center for the Arts Main Gallery (Nov. 15 – Dec. 20, 2015)

Curated 65 pieces by local craftsmen in glass, wood, fiber, metal and ceramic mediums. Included 21 pedestals, 11 shelves, and 4 fabric pieces hung projected from the wall, with two hand-made hanging implements.

Watch a curatorial tour here.

Foundations: Work by College Artisans, 2014 Coconino Center for the Arts Jewel Gallery (Nov. 15 – Dec. 20, 2015)

NightVisions V, Coconino Center for the Arts Main Gallery (Sept. 21 – Oct. 27, 2015)

Curated over 72 pieces of artwork based on the theme “the beauty of the night sky.” The international show featured paintings, photographs, tapestries, book art, jewelry, sculpture, glass art, fiber art, poetry, prose, and art film.

Sky Black: My Beautiful Friends, Coconino Center for the Arts Jewel Gallery (Sept. 21 – Oct. 27, 2015)

Tina Mion: Memento Mori, Coconino Center for the Arts Main Gallery and Jewel Gallery

Co-curated, with the artist, over 200 pieces of work, forming a retrospective that spanned the artist’s 20 year career. Mediums included oil, acrylics, pastels, and multi-media. Four vitrines with supportive materials were displayed. Contextual objects such as suitcases and telephones were incorporated.

See review in Ultra:Extra here.