Director's Note 2/1/19
Our thoughts were naturally full of winter in the lead-up to the Winter Carnival, and we were grateful for all the snow. It made it possible to build a quinzhee and a snow labyrinth, and the blinding white that sunny morning set off Jordan Rosenow’s deep orange grid as well as the performers clad in warm hues. It was cold, yes, but without much wind it felt peaceful outdoors. Those who came to the carnival could move back and forth between indoors and out, and warm up with wild rice horchata: there are plenty of wonderful pictures on our Facebook and on Instagram for those who couldn’t make it. Only the parlous state of the ice remained as a reminder of our quixotic weather: a mid-week thaw followed by wind created mini-mountain ranges across the surface of the small pond, rendering it unskateable.
What followed last week was perhaps more than we had expected, both in terms of snow and cold. It seemed as if all one could talk about was winter. Yesterday morning, before the melt began, the light passing through a layer of frost on the patio created a hyperreal surface: a high definition image of the irregular bluestone tiles lay across the actual stones. Alexander Liberman’s Orbits was still half-buried, its curving, red lines projecting randomly through the snow, the inner logic buried beneath. It was the moment of transition, and we have now emerged—at least temporarily--into a soggier, greyer universe.
Does this bode well for ice-skating? Stay tuned to our Facebook page for news about weekend skating. We fully resume normal operation this week, and we hope to offer a combination of winter distractions and promises of spring over the next few months. We start the week with a little bit of both: artist-in-residence Jenna Knapp invites you to join her for two prairie workdays as she prepares to construct a labyrinth in Lynden’s back acres. We’ll be removing buckthorn and dreaming about sowing prairie flower seeds. (All volunteers receive a founding membership in the Labyrinth Society of Lynden Sculpture Garden.)
Some of you may have heard Pam Jenoff on NPR Saturday morning, talking to Scott Simon about her new book, The Lost Girls of Paris. The Women’s Speaker Series will be presenting Jenoff on Thursday evening in a very early stop on her book tour—be sure to turn out for some socializing over snacks, reading, and signing. Next weekend you can build your own cutting board on Saturday and visit the Self-Care Studio on Sunday when Jenna Knapp offers one of her most poetic workshops, Dear Self, With Love. In this informal workshop you write a letter to your future self, sign and seal it, and deposit it in a sealed box to have it sent back to you at the beginning of 2020. Who says February is too late for New Year’s resolutions? Or that February 17 is too late for a Valentine’s Day present: Leslie Perrino is back mid-month for a jewelry workshop focused on fused silver loop earrings.
Clement Meadmore: The Models remains on view in the gallery, and we are delighted to announce that Ellen Goldberg and Hugo Rivera of Meadmore Studios, and Jonathan Lippincott, author of Large Scale, will be at Lynden on March 23 to talk about the work. You can still volunteer for Project Feederwatch, which involves sitting indoors, or you can bring snowshoes or skis and explore the outdoors as long as the snow lasts. Registration for our summer camps is live on the web and camps are beginning to fill.
I would like to offer one more shout out to the participants in Jeremy Stepien’s weekly art drop-in, who made such a terrific showing in the 2019 Scholastic Art Awards. You can see their work at the Milwaukee Art Museum through March 17.
Finally, let me leave you with a memory of summer: here is a short film, created by Reggie Wilson and Aitor Mendilibar, of last summer’s performance of Citizen.
