Embodied: Upcoming Solo Show at Gallery MAR + Hurricane Helene Relief
In which I ask for help for Hurricane Helene relief and I talk about my upcoming solo show in Park City at Gallery MAR
I have a couple things to talk about this week, mostly about my upcoming solo show “Embodied” at Gallery MAR which opens November 8th in Park City. But, before we get to the main post. First, I need help.
Natural disasters stress me out, maybe you as well? We have a large fire going nearby and seeing the tower of smoke fills me with dread. Maybe it’s because I wrote a whole book about sustainable housing in the context of natural disasters, so I’ve thought a lot about what it takes to keep homes safe. Maybe it’s my environmental engineering background and frustration with building codes (ahem North Carolina did not set their citizens up for success...). Maybe it’s just my overactive imagination putting me in the hearts and minds of people that live in the midst of a disaster.
I’m heartbroken for everyone impacted last week because of Hurricane Helene.1 I’m especially distraught about the devastation of the River Arts District in Asheville (volunteer cleanup here). I’ve never been there actually, but it sounds amazing, and my best friend from high school lives there. And well, artists have a hard enough time as it is, and I’d like to send them some money.
So I need your help with 2 things this week:
I want to raise some funds to donate to the recovery and rebuilding efforts of the Asheville River Arts District.
I need more subscribers to help choose my 12 images for my 2025 art calendar. So I’m asking for ya’ll to support the Cold Wax project in this last push.
I’m combing the two things together to double my efforts. For everyone who joins as a paid subscriber this week, I will donate all the proceeds to the River Arts District + Match Funds up to $250. I would REALLY like to donate $500 to the organization. Then, you’re included in the rest of the subscribed posts, you’ll be able to vote for the calendar images starting October 14th. AND you’ll get first dibs and a discount to buy the work when it is available for sale on October 28th.
“Embodied” Solo Show
Opening November 8th in Park City at Gallery MAR
For the last couple of months, I’ve been working on my new solo show for Gallery MAR. It will officially open on Friday, November 8th with a little kick off celebration from 6-9pm. If you’re in Park City, please join us. Then the work will hang at the front of the gallery for a couple weeks. If you would like to be on the list to see the work first before the show, please send an email to Gallery MAR - info@gallerymar.com - and ask to be included in the “first look” preview.
My gallery has been pinging me, asking for the show title and what the work is about. It’s a funny thing to name a show, a body of work, a period in your life. Like, what would I have called that dreamy period of travel after college when every week I was somewhere different? Would that have been my “Nomad” period? Or what about that time in 2009 when my plans for work fizzled and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with myself? “Floundering?”
This year has been a strange one. There was Before Kai and now After Kai. And I can look to that exact day we rescued him and say it’s all been different since then. He came into our lives for a reason and I may have railed against it in the beginning, but I’m so grateful he’s here. Literally, he’s laying right next to me on the couch as I type this. He needed healing, but so did we, and I think the act of taking care of a being that really needs help exemplifies what we should be doing to our own beings as well.
What have I learned in the last almost 5 months with this gentle creature at our side? So many things. Love, grief, tenderness, care, compassion, patience. I spent a lot of time pondering the meaning of abandonment and came out on the other side having a greater understanding of its complexity. I spent a lot of time pondering what it means to be myself, and also allowing and accepting all the crazy feelings that can emerge in the course of a day, or even minutes. I learned that some wounds take a long time to heal, that quills come out slowly, that no amount of pushing or prodding will get them out, emerging only when ready.
Perhaps one of the biggest lessons was to just let be, to not try and fix things, and to just sit, even when it was painful, hard, or scary. This dog was for all intents and purposes, abandoned, but he is the most loving creature I’ve met, and he has never let his past stop him from giving his love away. After we got the bulk of the quills out, vaccines, and meds, there wasn’t much we could do for him, but just lay next to him and love him. And I think we forget that’s the best thing we can do for others - be present with them. Sometimes you can’t fix things, but you can always sit by their side. I think perhaps he showed us how to love more fully. He is the embodiment of love. I call him our little zen dog, our doge.
What does it mean to embody something? That’s what I’ve been asking myself lately. How do I just be? How do I allow and let in rather than trying to force things? How do I let the soft animal of my body love what it loves?2
Kai is a master at this, at being, at resting, at loving. Kai is content wherever he goes, and he is happy to be along for the ride, to be in a pack, to be with people. He doesn’t need much, but he has a lot to give. Kai is happy I’m certain of it, but not in the way that Boone is, whose joy is overflowing and spilling out of him as he eggs you to join in the game of life. But Kai’s joy is that much sweeter because when he shows you joy, it shines so very bright.
That’s what the show is about if an art show can really be about anything - contentment, acceptance, being present, listening to yourself, being in your body, and loving what you love. It’s me trying to make what feels right to me, me being unapologetically myself, putting out into the world what I want to see. It’s all still a work in progress - myself that is, and the art, but is it ever supposed to be finished?
**DISCLAIMER** Let’s be clear, there is A LOT to be heartbroken about and we all get to pick our battles and things we support. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time or energy to fight for (or against) every single horrific thing that is happening right now. And I’m sorry if I’m not as passionate about your current cause. Pick the ones you that matter to you the most and do what you can. My selection in no way downgrades the suffering of anyone else, it does not mean my selection is more important than yours, it only means I’m choosing this one because I have a reason to and I feel like there’s something I can contribute.
Is there a more perfect poem than Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese? The Summer Day and When I am Amongst The Trees are also favorites of mine.