Event features a special artist discussion with Margot Voorhies Thompson
PLAYA at Summer Lake invites the public to join PLAYA Presents, on Saturday, May 20, 3-4:30pm. The free monthly open house is an opportunity to meet the current residents and enjoy open studios, readings and a celebratory reception.
This month’s event includes a special interactive discussion by Playa resident and artist Margot Voorhies Thompson, a calligrapher, painter, printmaker and designer. Thompson will lead a lively session titled “Earth Bound,” about the power of place in the arts. Her presentation will center on “the artist’s eye, the poet’s ear, and the scientist’s methods,” and will address how the artist’s and scientist’s direct engagement in this landscape might be reflected in his or her work and in this community.
Thompson’s 2016 exhibition at the Russo Lee Gallery in Portland, Ore. titled “Bound to the Land” evolved out of a 2015 residency Thompson had at Playa. Her work is in collections including the Portland Art Museum, the Stanford University Hospital, and the Printmaking Workshop in New York. Thompson has completed several collaborative book commissions with Kim Stafford, Pattian Rogers, and Wendell Berry for the University of Oregon’s Knight Library Press.
This special program is made possible, in part, thanks to a grant from Oregon Humanities, a statewide nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Thompson is the second of six artists who will give special presentations through December 2017 thanks to the support of Oregon Humanities.
In addition to Thompson, current residents include Laurel Anderson, Anita Feng, Kathryn Maxwell, Ellen McMahon, Mary Murphy, Emily Silver, George Thompson, and Emily Wortman-Wunder.
Laurel Anderson is a professor in the Department of Botany & Microbiology at Ohio Wesleyan University. Her expertise is in plant physiological ecology, with current research interests in invasive plants and plant interactions with global environmental changes.
Anita Feng’s major writing awards include a National Endowment for the Arts grant, an Illinois Arts Council grant, a Washington State GAP award and the Pablo Neruda Prize. Publications include a new novel “Sid,” a genre-bending retelling of the life of Siddhartha, and two books of poetry.
Kathryn Maxwell takes to heart the E. M Forster quote, “only connect,” in her artwork exploring the many forms of human connections to each other and the universe.
Ellen McMahon has been working as an artist and designer and teaching and publishing about the social, cultural, and environmental dimensions of art and design since 1990.
Mary Murphy is a historian who teaches and writes about gender in the American West. She is currently immersed in a history of foodways in the northern borderlands between Montana and Canada, examining the politics and culture of food through the lens of hunger, war, work, and gift.
Emily Silver creates map-like abstract paintings which explore watercolor’s miraculous ability to describe ephemeral sensations.
George Thompson is a Portland, Oregon based writer who, with his wife Margot Voorhies Thompson, founded the Neskowin Valley School, a private school with an emphasis on joyful learning. He is working on a novel.
Margot Voorhies Thompson is a calligrapher, painter, printmaker and designer inspired by nature, conservation, poetry, diverse languages and music.
Emily Wortman-Wunder is a place-based literary essayist and fiction writer whose work explores the emotional resonance of place by drawing on history, ecology, landscape art, and folklore.
Free Bus from Lakeview! Reserve your spot today. Call 541-947-6019.
About Our Supporters
PLAYA is grateful to the following organizations for their support: The Ford Family Foundation, Libraries of Eastern Oregon, National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Cultural Trust and Oregon Humanities.
PLAYA at Summer Lake
On the edge of the Great Basin in Oregon, PLAYA provides space, solitude and a creative community to residents working in the arts and sciences, encouraging dialogue to bring positive change to the environment and the world. PLAYA is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. PLAYA is located at 47531 Highway 31, Summer Lake, Oregon 97640, between mileposts 81 and 82. For more information about PLAYA and PLAYA PRESENTS, call 541 943-3983, email info@playasummerlake.org or visit www.playasummerlake.org.
Playa
47531 Highway 31
Summer Lake, OR 97640
541-943-3983
www.playasummerlake.org
On the edge of the Great Basin in Oregon, PLAYA provides space, solitude and a creative community to residents working in the arts and sciences, encouraging dialogue to bring positive change to the environment and the world. PLAYA is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.