The 2012 Great ARTdoors Festival

The 2012 Great ARTdoors Festival was held on the Hambidge campus on Saturday, October 13. It was a beautiful autumn day filled with 25 inspired performances and curious attractions plus 300 imaginative works of art by 100 artists. Five hundred folks from near and far explored our scenic campus to discover what makes Hambidge like no place else.

A great variety of live music was provided by Christ, Lord, Marie Dunkle and John Oliver & Carmel Ridge. In-residence artists Nate Kamp, Iman Person, Steve Silber, Bethany Springer all gave artist talks in their studios. Nate also gave an excellent printmaking demonstration. Installation and performance pieces were presented by Meg & Mark Aubrey, Peter Bahouth, Helen Hale, Allen Peterson, and Free Poems on Demand (Jon Ciliberto, Zac Denton and Jimmy Lo).

In addition, there was pumpkin painting, face painting, and a bouncy castle for the kids - kids of all ages, that is - hayrides by Ron Sanders, snake handling & reptile education by the Orianne Society, pottery demonstrations at the Antinori Studio, a native plant sale, and a grits-grinding demonstration at our historic Barker’s Creek Mill.

A yearly favorite was U-DO-RAKU where you can choose a pot, glaze it yourself, have it fired and take it home. Special thanks to John Roberts, Randall Moody, Margaret Patterson and the many Chastain & Hambidge Potters for contributing the wonderful pots, and to all of the volunteers that make U-DO-RAKU possible.

The Weave Shed Gallery hosted the opening of the Invitational Show of Pottery and Handmade Objects. Curated by Judy Lampert, this show presented a superb selection of regional potters & makers of handmade objects.

Oh, and we can't forget the delicious food provided by Ishy's Grill, The Good Food Truck, and the Hambidge Kitchen!

Artists

Meg & Mark Aubrey
Peter Bahouth
Jon Ciliberto
Zac Denton
Jimmy Lo
Christ, Lord
Marie Dunkle
Helen Hale
Nate Kamp
John Oliver & Carmel Ridge
Iman Person
Allen Peterson
Steve Silber
Bethany Springer

Project & Artist Descriptions

Interactive Suburban Experience by Meg and Mark Aubrey
The recognizable objects of suburbia: landscaping, sidewalks, trash cans, and brick mailboxes permeate Meg Abrey's paintings. The landscapes contain desperately controlled and perfectly presented elements of an environment created to hold back the engulfing emptiness of a life filled with the effort of living up to expectations. Aubrey investigates neighborhoods full of successful individuals who use outward appearance to express their achievements, yet the reality is that the promise of an idyllic lifestyle filled with beauty, friendship, and security is not always found at the end of the cul-de-sac. The female figure, forty something, well dressed, seemingly without a care, inhabits the environment and searches for her purpose in life. College educated with work experience, she now fills her days with tennis, errands, PTA, car pools, and other activities that are a substitute for the career she might have had. Shown without husbands or children, although they are clearly implied, she has become the stereotype of the upper middle class housewife. This body of work examines and deconstructs this environment, pulling apart the individual elements to tell stories of daily suburban existence. For this piece Meg is collaborating with Mark Aubrey. www.megaubrey.com/index.html

Meg Aubrey is an Atlanta-based painter who was born and raised in Massachusetts. Meg has a MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She has been awarded the Hambidge Residency Award from the Fulton County Arts Council, the Encore Series Award from Savannah College of Art and Design and was selected as a finalist for the Forward Arts Emerging Artist Award for 2011. Meg is a professor of Foundations Studies at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta.

Mary’s Mockingbird by Peter Bahouth
Mary’s Mockingbird is a site specific stereoscopic photography project by Peter Bahouth with an assist from Jamie Badoud and Mary Hambidge. Consisting of 6 stereoscopic viewers on stands, each viewer contains a photograph of Mary Hambidge’s handmade mockingbird cage taken at the location of each viewer. This work responds to Mary Hambidge’s early days as a professional whistler performing with her pet mockingbird Jimmy in New York City in the 20s.

Locations of the viewers: 
• The wire arch near the Spring House 
• The Lodge ruins on the Haunted trail walk to the Antinori Pottery Studio 
• Judy’s Bench in front of Garden Studio 
• The Porch of Mary Hambidge’s log house 
• In front of Mary Hambidge’s log house

Peter Bahouth is one of the few contemporary artists working with stereoscopic images, as technique as old as photography itself. 

Christ, Lord
“With no fewer than six members, the band utilizes upright bass, violin, cello, trumpet, clarinet, accordion and drums. Their first album titled “Magnalia Christi” draws from influences ranging gypsy, vaudeville, folk, and jazz. The band remains beautifully ramshackle.” – Performer Magazine

Violin and Cello Performance by Marie Dunkle
Marie will be performing some Scottish fiddling, and the cello in Celtic style.

Marie is a Northeast Georgia-based musician, writer and storyteller. She has been a member with several symphony orchestras, the Kismet String Quartet, Cherokee Roads Band and currently her band, Caledonia Swing (www.caledoniaswing.com). Marie has provided back-up recording and performing support (violin and cello) to a variety of musicians in the Southeast and performed at many popular Atlanta venues and festivals in Northeast GA and the Carolinas. She has a passion for musical improvisation and collaborates in performance with poets, dancers and songwriters.

Marie is also a storyteller and published author of children’s stories. She was the 2010 artist in residence to teach storytelling for the Tallulah Falls School. Marie lives in Tiger, GA and can be reached through mdunkle@mindspring.com.

Free Poems on Demand by Jon Ciliberto, Zac Denton, and Jimmy Lo
Free Poems On Demand is a pop-up arts experiment where passersby suggest poem topics and receive on-the-spot compositions. Poems composed, recited, and given away are completely free of charge. They have performed at many venues including the Decatur Book Festival, Chomp and Stomp, and Turner Field (during a Braves game). Find out more at www.freepoemsatl.org

Jon Ciliberto (www.jonciliberto.com) is a composer, musician, visual artist, and writer, living in Atlanta, GA. He also attends Georgia State University's College of Law and edits buddhistartnews.wordpress.com.

Zac Denton is a musician and poet – among other things – living in the Atlanta area. He has been involved with Free Poems on Demand since its beginning, and has written perhaps hundreds of poems in that capacity. His non-demanded poems have appeared most recently in "An Atlanta Poets Group Anthology: The Lattice Inside" (2012), UNO Press.

Jimmy Lo is a poet living in Atlanta, Georgia, where he works for a public library. His chapbook 'A Reduction' is available from LRL Textile Series: www.textileseries.com. More of his writing can be found on his website www.jimmylorunning.com.

Sanity Ceremonies by Helen Hale, Artist in Residence
Helen Hale will be performing portions of the movement research for her current work-in-progress, Sanity Ceremonies. Sanity Ceremonies stems from an examination of the ceremonies, large and small, which we (often unconsciously) enact in an effort to orient and center ourselves in a baffling world. The finished work will find form through a marriage of dance, text, projection, costume and prop use that draws from a range of daily rituals, archetypal figures, autobiographical anecdotes, and cultural idiosyncrasies. Sanity Ceremonies is a collaboration with Installation Artist, Amanda Baumgardner, and Motion Designer, Mike Boutté, which is slated to be premiered in Summer 2013.

For the Hambidge Festival Helen will perform three different portions of material with musicians, Christ, Lord at the following locations:

On the lawn by the old barn foundation and silo
On the porch of the Old Pottery building
In the Spring House

Helen Hale is a modern dance choreographer and performer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Helen’s choreographic work has been presented by Dashboard Co-op, Art on the Atlanta Beltline, WonderRoot Community Arts Center, BurnAway, Dance Truck, and The Lucky Penny. Helen received her BFA from Temple University and has danced with companies and choreographers in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and New York including Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, Staibdance, Gathering Wild, Coriolis Dance Inc., Room To Move, Troupe Hellas, Duende Dance Theater, Tahni Holt, Meg Foley/Moving Parts, Makoto Hirano, Cynthia St. Clair, Ground Delivery, Lykion Ton Ellinidon/Troupe Hellas, Corian Ellisor, and Alisa Mittin.

Nate Kamp: Artist in Residence
Nate Kamp is giving a printing demonstration for the Great ARTdoors Festival. He will be pulling relief and intaglio prints on a press and showing all the prep work it entails: proper carving and honing technique, paper selection and handling, registration of multiple blocks, press operation, ink mixing as well as any appropriate printmaking knowledge. www.natekamp.com

Nate Kamp is a working artist living in Atlanta, Georgia. He first gained a degree in illustration, but found printmaking in the process and now specializes in several techniques including relief, photogravure, etching and letterpress. He recently received his MFA in printmaking and is continuing a body of work that explores the macro and micro effects of the recent economic and housing crises.

Iman Person: Artist in Residence
Iman Person is a visual artist in Atlanta GA, who works in mixed-media sculpture and drawing. Her work embodies reactions and interpretations of what she believes nature to be, both in the tangible realm and also how it functions on a metaphysical plane. The source of the work captures the spirit of these individualized concepts and experiences, whether they are animal, mineral or ethereal and the not so invisible tie that binds them. The outcome of her introspective process yields forms and abstraction that are anomalous and bodily in character. www.imancreates.com

Hive Consciousness by Allen Peterson
Peterson will present a piece that began at the 2011 Great ARTdoors Festival. A cast beeswax portrait bust of a young child was presented rising out of a wooden beehive, thus beginning to suggest the complex hive consciousness that emerges when tens of thousands of bees work together within the hive. After the presentation at the Festival, as a collaboration with the Hambidge beehives, the sculpture was placed inside one of the hives on the Hambidge grounds so that the honeybees on site had the opportunity to alter the composition. When the head was removed from the hive in the spring, the bees had rearranged the wax in ways that couldn't be predicted, adding to and subtracting from the sculpture as they saw fit, fully integrating the sculpted face and head with the beehive itself. The Hambidge Hive Consciousness piece will be presented alongside the Kirkwood Hive Consciousness piece, a second wax bust that was placed in Peterson's hive at his home in Atlanta. www.allenpeterson.com

Allen Peterson is an artist who is interested in honeybees, humans and the industrious co-evolution of our two species.

Steve Silber: Artist in Residence
Steve Silber considers both his artwork and his work at the Chulitna Lodge Wilderness Retreat (seen in the above photo) to be integral to his art practice. During the Festival, Silber will be showing and working on “Colab-Draw,” an ongoing project which began in 2007. Here is a link to a video of the work so far, and following is his statement for the piece.

“When I approach a potential collaborator about these videos I explain that anything goes, but there are three essential aspects to the video. 1. We hold the video camera together, each with one hand. 2. With our other hand we should be grasping some sort of medium. 3. There should be a ground of some sort to which the medium is applied.

In most cases the chosen medium and setting strongly reflects the artistic beliefs and desires of the collaborator. The flow of each piece is different. In some I practically bend over backwards to their will, more following their marks in reverence. In others I unyieldingly wrestle for dominance.”

Steve Silber is manager of Chulitna Lodge Wilderness Retreat, and curator of Aspen Alternative Artspaces. He received an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and BFA from University of Colorado, Boulder. He has been a professional ski racer, spent 4 years in the Marine Corps, and is a certified massage therapist. Steve's work is represented by Liv Aspen Art located in Aspen, Colorado and can be seen on his website www.stevesilber.com.

Bethany Springer: Artist in Residence
Statement of current work:
   My work lies somewhere between romanticism and realism, an inquiry into place and identity as influenced by history, heritage, globalization, and the information age. We are living manifestations of our cultural heritage and genetics, but at times it’s difficult to trace what remains and if it matters anymore. Change is certain but not always obvious, which is perhaps why patterns are established to preserve some semblance of control and belonging, as if we could bridle something fleeting. The systems we inherit and affiliate with, the constructs we surround ourselves with, and shifting convictions of progress, purpose, and fulfillment subsequently epitomize our existence.
   If it is true that globalization erases regional identity, then how does an individual’s perception of place and ownership change? If one’s sense of belonging were destabilized, would the tendency to exhibit human territorial behaviors, defending collective long-term interests be lost? In a society that is increasingly connected, is it possible to be lost?
   How place is established, reinforced, and lost is referenced in my work through the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate historical and contemporary images, metaphors that often find ironic commonality through a quick online search. Often, I use search engines as a tool to interpret and inhabit the world beyond my own heritage and environment, pairing a simple word or phrase with a complex network of associations connecting semiotics, historical origin, consumer products, and contemporary fads. Ultimately, I see my work as experiments monitoring awareness in a constantly accelerating world.
bethanyspringer.com

Bethany Springer has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Arkansas Arts Council, Iowa Arts Council, the University of Arkansas Community and Family Institute, and the Center for Digital Technology and Learning at Drake University in Des Moines. Springer has also been in residence at Full Tilt Creative Centre in Newfoundland, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, NE. Selected exhibitions of her work include On the Street Gallery in Memphis, Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore, Boston Center for the Arts, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT, Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, City Gallery East in Atlanta, and the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, AR.

Hosts

Pork-Pie Hat Hosts
Alecia Adair-Foltz & Doug Foltz
Brent Adams /Private Bank of Buckhead
ASD, Inc.
Bonnie Beauchamp-Cooke & George Cooke
Lucinda Bunnen
Melissa Bunnen Jernigan & James Jernigan
Sherry & Jeff Cohen
Susan & Mike Conger
Margaret & Dallas Denny
Dillard Tourist Association
Martha Eskew & Chet Tisdale
First American Bank & Trust
Ed & Judy Garland
Imagers
Judy & Scott Lampert
Liz Lapidus
Elizabeth & David Martin
Michael McGaughey & Craig Kettles
Susan Reed
Belinda & Ken Reusch
Paula & Russ Rogers
Jane Fickling Skinner & Dan Skinner
Claire Sterk & Kirk Elifson
Rosemary & Bill Stiefel
Mary & Sam Thomas
Ruth West & Bob Wells
Barb & Thom Williams

Cloche Hat Hosts
Susan & Ron Antinori
Lyn & Rick Asbill
Annette Cone-Skelton & Robert Hipps
Nena Griffith
Paul Hagedorn
Virginia Hepner & Malcom Barnes
Ann & Tim Johnson
Dorothy Yates Kirkley
Marianne & Dick Lambert
Chris Lewis & John Johnson
Janey Lowe
Marchant & Ron Martin
Jo & Jim McLean
Donna & Jeff Mintz
Michael Rooks
Suzanne Shaw

Bonnet Hosts
Judy & Dick Allison
Alan Avery
Lisa & Joe Bankoff
Lavona Currie
Pat & Jim Durrett
Emily Ellison & Chuck Perry
Clay & Al Battle
Anne & Tony Cochran
Lynn Cochran & Bill Schroder
Lavona Currie
Pat & Jim Durrett
Emily Ellison & Chuck Perry
Louise Gunn
Maggie Hagedorn & Brian Fitzgerald
CeCe Hagedorn
Wanda Hopkins
Christie & Fraser Hudgins
Veronica Kessenich
Rebekka Kuntschik
Katherine Mitchell & Jack Lawing
Margaret & Kin Patterson
Malissa & Bill Peace
Saundra Robinson
Natalie & Blake Shirley
Leckie & Bill Stack
Anne Sterchi
Jackie & David Tatum
Woodie & Steve Wisebram

The 2012 Great ARTdoors Festival

Artists

Project & Artist Descriptions

Hosts

Sponsors