The Slow Read

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Ready, Get Set…Slow Read

Q: What is the opposite of a book club on steroids?

A: Reading Willa Cather’s novel ‘My Ántonia’ at the slow pace of six pages per day.

SlowReadWhat is the Slow Read?

The Slow Read is a public literary / art project conceived of and produced by Portland-based artist Barbara Tetenbaum. “After taking a workshop on video mapping, I had this vision of projecting the pages of a novel onto the wall of a building, so people would read together in public. The project has now grow to nearly a dozen public sites and can be accessed by anyone on their personal computers. This means that everyone in America and beyond can essentially read as a community,” says Tetenbaum. “This year is the centenary of a book I’ve been working with for some time, ‘My Ántonia’ by Willa Cather. It made perfect sense to use this particular novel for the Slow Read and a chance to find a deeper connection to her words and the issues Cather was illuminating which are still relevant today. Some readers will stumble upon this novel for the first time, others will be rereading it again, discovering something new in her story. I want to offer a piece of culture in the form of shared daily ritual, to be experienced slowly over time, providing a counterweight to the spectacle-based world we live in.”

During this centenary year of My Ántonia’s publication, readers around the country and the globe can follow along on their cell phones, laptops — or at a public site location – and read closer and deeper than before. From May 30 through August 11th, images of the first edition page spreads will be looped on a dedicated website (www.slowread.org) and offer the first-time reader, or long-time fan, this unusual, slow unfolding of the novel.

Why?

“Cather shows us what it was like to live on the 1890’s Nebraska prairie, a life that was tough and beautiful at the same time.” says Tetenbaum, “Cather herself grew up in Red Cloud around immigrants from Central Europe and Russia. ‘My Ántonia’ reads as a chronicle to their humanity and struggles during the formative years of the American Plains. The immigrant experience is particularly relevant in our current political climate, and perhaps there is a way to find a meaningful dialog through Cather’s story.”

Where?

Public venues such as libraries and museums are hosting the Slow Read, usually through a publicly-accessible video monitor. {At Constellation Studios, 2055 ‘O’ Street, the monitor faces the street and is best viewed in the evening, and runs 24 hours with new page selection added each morning} Individuals who don’t have access to these sites can read along on their own internet-connected devices by going to www.slowread.org and clicking the “Today’s Reading” button.

Barb Tetenbaum will be taking the project on the road in early June to show at outdoor sites. Go to the website blog to find the next screening: https://theslowread.squarespace.com/news/

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When?

The broadcast begins on May 30th and ends on August 11, 2018. If you miss a day, the website has an archive of previously shown pages.

Want to participate?

The Slow Read web-stream is free and available at www.theslowread.org

What else is there?

The Slow Read website links to activities, discussions, exhibitions and lectures organized by Cather institutions and scholars. It also contains a visual concordance of images from eight years of personal artist projects connected to this novel. Explore the website for all this.

Where can I find the public Slow Read venues?

Currently, these sites are hosting the Slow Read:

Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud, NE     willacather.org

Love Library at Univ. of NE-Lincoln   https://libraries.unl.edu

Constellation Studios, Lincoln, NE   https://constellation-studios.net

Jaffrey Public Library, Jaffrey, NH   www.jaffreypubliclibrary.org

Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR   ocac.edu

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR   pica.org

Pacific Northwest College of Art Library, Portland, OR pnca.edu

Working Library, Portland, OR c3initiative.org/working-library.htm

Union College in Lincoln, NE

Check www.slowread.org/abouttheproject to explore additional locations as they are added and to track The Slow Read mobile pop-up on the road.

About the artist/director of The Slow Read:

Barbara Tetenbaum is a visual artist interested in the act of reading. She uses the mediums of books, prints, installation, and animation to explore this subject matter. She founded her artist book imprint, Triangular Press, in 1979. Barb is the recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships, career and project awards from the Oregon Arts Commission, Ford Family Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. She is currently Professor and Head of the Book + Print at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. She holds a B.S. (Fine Art) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

One Book One Nebraska

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Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry

edited by Greg Kosmicki & Mary K. Stillwell

Readings by Invited Poets.

Thursday, June 7th, 5:30 – 7:50

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Pattern Play: Woodcut Print Invitational Exhibition

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Artists play with printmaking solutions that feature graphic patterning, complex play of image making, effects of optical or layered color mixing, all created through carving and printing of woodblocks. There is raw yet elegant mastery in their works and references to nature, science and social commentary.

Inspiring are new prints from Anne Burton (Lincoln), Betsy Best (Seattle) and Jean Gumpper (Colorado Springs), and significant suites of prints from the past by Keiko Hara (Walla Walla) and Brian Curling (Radebeul, Germany), brought to view from the flat files in the Constellation Studios collection.

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Anne Burton “When Ignorance is Master”

 

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Betsy Best “Big Dreams”

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Jean Gumpper “Passages”  (detail)

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Keiko Hara,  print from “Verse from the Sea” suite

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Brian Curling, print from “Homage” suite

Exhibition: Semographics III Monoprinting Collaboration

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April 6 – May 31, 2018

Semographics III Monoprinting Collaboration, is an exhibition that presents the work of 12 printmakers who joined in a weeklong experiment to print together as a team, using silkscreen (the fine art terminology is “serigraphy”, hence Semographics)) and relief printmaking.   The collaboration event took place in March 2017 onsite at the Atlanta Printmakers Studio and the Savannah College of Art & Design – Atlanta, and was a featured event at the annual Southern Graphics Council International Conference. The resulting prints are a cross-disciplinary challenge – even a stylistic and technical mixed media “mash up” – with each unique print showing iterations, beautiful moments and graphic themes.

The group conducted a collaborative protocol involving a ‘Neutral Zone’, where all of the ‘in progress’ impressions were ‘up for grabs’ for anyone to embellish; and the ‘Safe Zone’, where any impressions deemed as ‘finished’ or aesthetically resolved were kept.   Allowing the process to develop, over 150 prints were made with layers from different artists, hand applications of color and drawing, and aesthetic touches and special printing effects. Each work represents collective solutions to enhance and “solve” imagery from what other artists had done. Ultimately, the print series is a critical examination of choices, each artist’s practice, of technical demands, and stamina.

This Semographics III portfolio of 50 selected works is traveling for exhibitions nationally, including the presentation at Constellation Studios.   The project was organized by Professor Timothy High, University of Texas Austin, with co-chair Stephanie Hunder, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN.   The other participants are: Kathryn Maxwell, Arizona State University, Tempe; Sandra Fernandez, New Jersey; Brian Johnson, Texas State University, San Marco; David Newman, Brookhaven College, Dallas, ;  Karen Kunc, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Lenore Thomas, University of Pittsburg PA; Amanda Knowles, North Seattle College, WA; Eric Avery, Pennsylvania; John Hitchcock, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sofia Maria Paz, University of Texas Austin.

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Artist in Residence Jenene Nagy

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Jenene Nagy spent an intense week of carving thin lines onto woodblocks and printing onto silk fabric  with silver and graphite oil base inks to create a collection of “flags”.    Her work plays with the formation of signs from the negative and positive shapes and repetitions, as the flags are grouped to create optical new interior spaces and contrasting “afterimages”.   She is interested in how “the flat graphic print becomes activated in space through the physicality of its material”.   We experienced this visual versatility through the floating of the silks……beautifully flowing as we carefully handled and printed the sensuous fabrics and while looking through and within each.   Jenene will use these printed flags for an upcoming installation/sculptural project to be presented in New York this spring.   We are so proud to have been instrumental in this important production!

Jenene Nagy is a teacher and curator who lives in the Los Angeles area.

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Abstract Botanica: Works by Lauren Kussro & Rochelle Toner

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February 2 – March 31, 2018

This invitational exhibition brings together the unusual forms and inventions that flourish in the outpourings of etchings, drawings, collages of Rochelle Toner, and similarly, in the etchings, screen prints, cut and sewn works of Lauren Kussro.   Both create imaginative worlds and forms that seem to grow from streams of impulse and inspiration, from nature, beauty, abundance, and evolutionary change. Toner’s abstractions grow from her mature visual voice, honed throughout a productive career as an educator and artist in Philadelphia.    Kussro, working in Houston, is an emerging artist and a new force that explodes the print form and questions the “how and where” printing can happen. Both artists exhibit a graphic instinct and naturally address “why to print” that bridges generations.

Rockie Toner is Professor Emeritus Tyler School of Art/Temple University.   She earned her MFA from University of Illinois, Urbana, and BA from University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls.   She has exhibited extensively, including A Survey of Contemporary Prints, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC; Colorprint USA, Museu of Texas Tech University, Lubbock; Arte Della Stapa, Grafiche Originali, il Quadrato Di Omega, Rome, Italy.   She received the 2010 Printmaker Emertius Award, recognizing her art and career from the Southern Graphics Council International, the largest organization of print artists in the world.

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Images by Toner: left:  Pegit, drawing.    right: Seed Exchange, etching

Lauren Kussro is Assistant Professor at University of Houston Clear Lake.   She received her MFA from University of Tennessee, and BFA from Indiana University-Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis.

Recent exhibitions include: Solo show The Reef, at 500x Gallery, Dallas; Metamorphosis, IU Kokomo Art Gallery, Indiana; Atlanta Print Biennial, Kai Llin Art, Atlanta, GA.

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Images by Kussro:  left:  Lush Tangle, intaglio & thread;  right:  Reef, screenprint, thread, beads

Artist in Residence Ayaka Nakamura

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Artist in Residence Aya Nakamura has been in the studio throughout November, working on a  huge painting/drawing on canvas, and enjoyed have the wall and space!   Aya is from Tokyo, Japan, and enjoyed the quiet pace and light in Nebraska.   She also worked on woodcuts combined with painting, and dived into learning about oil-base ink for woodcut methods (the image below is of her woodcut in the drying rack, so an unusual perspective here).  Her works in animation are featured in the programing on Thursdays and Fridays at the CUBE Art Project of Lincoln, in the Haymarket Railyard.  This is our giant outdoor digital projection site, and the art series are by artists from all over the world.   https://www.cubelincoln.com/

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So great to have Aya here, and thank you for joining the Constellation Studios community.

Facets: on etching

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First Friday, January 5, 6 – 8pm

Through January 31

View a spectrum of etching techniques and mixed media prints by Karen Kunc.   Deeply bitten aquatints from her grad school thesis, compare to embossed color line etchings and woodcuts on waxed papers, and to recent mezzotints and small etchings.   All such intaglio techniques capture textures and information “below the surface” of the plate, where the ink is trapped when the plate surface is wiped, and then ink is transferred to paper under pressure through the press.   Each work fits into Kunc’s overarching interest to how lines and gestures are translated and transformed through various printed qualities.   Here her innovative approaches combine  her experience with all print media, her development of personalized vocabulary of color, and challenge scale and detail.

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Picture here are (top)Blue Gem, etching & woodcut on waxed paper, 2003;

(lower) Treatyse, artist book of etching, polymer relief, letterpress on handmade watermarked paper, 2017.

Our Skyline Exhibition

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October 28 – November 30

First Friday Reception, November 3, 6-8pm

Constellation Studios presents Our Skyline, a creative project and exhibition, of hand carved linoleum block prints by over 28 community artists and 20 UNL students.   The prints were created in respond to the historic linoleum block print by noted Nebraska art teacher Gladys Lux created in the 1930’s of the Lincoln skyline with the state capitol building under construction. This print is featured in the exhibition on loan from the Lux family. This creative project is an Official Event of the Nebraska Sesquicentennial, and celebrates 150 years of statehood.

Our Skyline participants were inspired with a myriad of art and design approaches: views of our state capitol, downtown, distant viewpoints of Lincoln, urban construction, iconic Nebraska landmarks, rural settings and structures, our open skies, nature silhouettes of trees, grasses, the prairie, and conceptual ideas. Participants took part in two printing sessions to carve and print with assistants to run blocks and paper through the presses during the sessions. For many this was their first time creating a print, with “printing magic” transforming their mark-making into a striking graphic statement.

48 Artists:

Nora Abdel Monem, Christie Asuoha, Joel Anderson, Anissa Bensen, Abby Birkel, Jeri Brainard , Kristin Brooks, Anne Burton, Keith Buswell, Austin Carstens, Dana Clements , Haley Collins, Sally Cox, Erin Cross, Samantha Evans, Lynette Fast, David Fowler, Amy Groff, Abigail Groth, Justin Groth, Amanda Guenther, Mary Guenther, Emily Heater, Madeline Hinrichs, Michele Hrbek, Kristina Insingo, Brynna James, Carolyn Johnson, Megan Kemptar, Hannah Klemme, Karen Kunc, Rise Lange, Yoojeong Lee, Mariah Livingston, Lisa Mills, Brookely Nitsch, Gail Ogden, Lindsey Pinkerton, Diane Reece, Emily Reiman, Jessica Reiter, Jackie Rogers, Rachel Saniuk, Yria Santos-Torres, Kate Speicher, Kristin Vorderstrasse, Emma Ward Jamaica Wilson

Lux_Capitol_Print  Print by Gladys Lux, 1936

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PR!NT LNK Print Sale

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First Friday, December 1, 6 – 9pm

Saturday, December 2, 10am – 3pm

 

Discover the world of the print with woodcuts, linoleum prints, etchings, intaglios, mezzotints, lithographs, screen prints, digital prints, monoprints, letterpress.

For collecting & gifting. Featuring local print artists and students! PrintLNKlogo

Artists:

Anissa Bensen , Anne Burton, Keith Buswell, Hannah Demma, Amanda Durig, Madelyne Hansen, Kat Hedges, Brynna James, Karen Kunc, Erika Larson, Yoojeong Lee, Hannah Maakestad, Emily Mazur-Mickells, Pecos Pryor, Nicholas Sheldon, Danley Walkington, Stephanie Wright