OPEN STUDIOS
OPEN STUDIOS AT MIDWAY ARTIST STUDIOS, FORT POINT, BOSTON 10/16-18
Hiya ... I guess some of you are saying, those Open Studios are over now, right?
True, I should have got this out there before, not after. But there was so much to get done for the weekend. The requested two images for the Midway Group Show — up till the end of November, FYI. My abbreviated Eye/I of the Storm Exhibit continuing in my outside studio hall area. Poetry for Stanzas Under the Stairs Open Mic. And rehearsing a live set of music I performed on Saturday.
Sometimes it’s not easy being a multi-field creative haha. But I do love the balance between things that are totally in the moment for me ... photography, live performance ... and things that are about writing and refining, editing until a story is carved down to its essence. Good to stretch different creative muscles.
With my recent shows in Boston, Eye/I of the Storm Solo Exhibit and Remembrance: 9/11 Anniversary Exhibit and Event (extended to 10/29), I’ve been showing more serious documentary work lately. So for the Midway Group Show, I decided to go a bit lighter with a couple of images from Cow Girls of West Bridgewater, a series I shot when I was doing fashion advertising copy right next door to a classic dairy farm. I’d take breaks from work and hang out with the cows in their barn and field area. I happen to be a vegetarian ... more on that some other time and blog. But some of that more serious tone did somehow surface with the addition of my “take the ow out of cow ... eat sustainably” mini-poster and buttons on the wall for Open Studios viewers to take. I had to replenish the supply multiple times, so maybe those adorable cow faces will succeed in getting the full meaning of that phrase out and about for the good of cows ... and our planet.
Stanzas Under the Stairs Open Mic included Open Studios Captain Petra reading some of her powerful poetry, as well as some poetry translated from the original Chinese from an Open Studios visitor from Seaport ... so much more powerful when he read it in Chinese ... as well as words from Milan, Joan and yours truly. Also spoke to lots of people visiting studios on my floor, as well as playing them CDs. Sold a few of those and a couple of books I’d written the foreword for, too.
And last, but definitely not least, did a 50-minute set on Saturday, with Bristol Studios on sound in a challenging super-bright sounding brick-lined room. Some of these were first time live ... “Allowed,” “How Can It Be” ... many also featured new mixes by Bristol Senior Producer Chris Billias, with his additional synth instruments and keys adding so much to the tracks. For now, I’m singing live to those pre-recorded tracks, that include my late husband, Rick Comstock’s brilliant guitar. So, as someone pointed out recently, I’m kind of still collaborating with him. But maybe up ahead, a new band? Nothing really beats that feeling of coming together to create that sound. (Video soon, some stills in the meantime.)
