Port Townsend

Thanks to the support of many, we're here in Port Townsend, the show is open, and word is beginning to spread. I'm specifically grateful for the support of the following people:

• Steve and Elaine Bailey, who invited me here, and are providing our accommodation, as well as helping with the various needs of installing the show. We have found kindred spirits in Port Townsend!
• Kate Burke, at Fort Worden State Park, who facilitated our use of the space for the show.
• Phil and Brent of Coast Lumber, in Burlington, WA, who donated the wood for the stands, including milling to to perfection and helping load it on our vehicle while the kids happily watched.
• Lena at the Bowen Building Centre, on Bowen Island, who, when border regulations prevented her donating wood for the show, happily donated the many nuts, bolts and washers needed for the stands, instead.

The Peninsula Daily News did a front-page story about the installation. It has quite a few inaccuracies, but I was glad to have some exposure. Already 2 women came by today, saying they'd come because of the article. Read it here.

Some photos:

Picking up the wood with help from Brent at Coast Lumber.

Fort Worden, Building 204.

...up the stairs...

The show is installed in an old dorm room, where we can make use of beautiful light from the many windows.

Breakfast in the Bailey's house!

The children spent many hours exploring Fort Worden while I set up and hosted the show. The Castle on the right is Alexander Castle, built by a Scot for his wife, who then decided she couldn't handle the isolation, and they moved back to town...

I haven't had many visitors, yet, and have only conducted one interview so far, but among the beautiful comments I've received about the show was the following:

"Lovely and Real! i enjoy the rawness of it - the complication and complexity of this special relationship. it has a similar feeling of realness and rawness as a Glenn Close portrait exhibit I saw a few years ago. Thank - very palpable exhibit." -- Elizabeth, Port Townsend

Gratitude

The Fort Worden Installation is coming up in 2 weeks, and I have so many people to be thankful for. Kate Burke, of Fort Worden, has been helping me coordinate the event; Phil Simmons of Coast Lumber in Burlington, WA, has not only donated the lumber for the installation-stands, but also given travel advice, and most of all Steve and Elaine Bailey - the couple who initially invited me to Port Townsend - have not only made this event happen, but will also provide us with accommodation for the 6 nights we'll be in Port Townsend.

These gifts are enormous, but the feeling of gratitude comes also from having spoken to many people who have tried - and often been unable - to help. Friendly souls searched their lumber yards for me, inquired into the legal ins and outs of bringing lumber and art one way or the other over the border, advised on travelling, etc. and just generally been supportive, kind, and helpful as I have been running on empty with the management of this project.

Thank you all!!! I'll definitely post photos of the Fort Worden Installation, when I'm back.

The Next MAMA Project Interviewing Tour

The tour has been planned for months, already, with a few interviewees already selected, but I'm now full-swing in the management process for this.

From May 26 - June 18th I'll be traveling the length of the US Pacific Coast, interviewing as I go, with at least one partial MAMA-presentation along the way. Depending upon where I can find accommodation sponsorships, this may change, but for now this is the list of major stops (with a few day-stops, elsewhere):

Vancouver/Portland
Crescent City & surrounding communities
Mendocino
Mill Valley (where my mother lived as a child!)
San Francisco
Monterey
Ojai
Los Angeles
San Diego

If you are a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, or mother-to-be, live somewhere along this route, and you would like to be interviewed for the MAMA Project, please don't hesitate to contact me: themamaproject at gmail dot com. An interview normally takes between 1 and 2 hours, and all portraits, voice-recordings, and painted quotations used in the MAMA installation are anonymous. There is no financial remuneration for interviewees, but there is the knowledge that you have added your feeling and voice to a wonderful, progressive symphony of mothers.

*As well as interviewees, I am looking for complimentary lodging for myself, my husband, and two children, at each of the locations listed. If you have a spare room to offer, or know of someone who does, we'd be happy to hear about it! Sponsors are listed on my website, as well as in media pertaining to the trip, and any hotels, inns, or B&B's that offer complimentary accommodation will be reviewed on my parenting blog, Rickshaw Unschooling.

Going to Washington!

I have been invited to display the MAMA Project at Fort Worden State Park (Port Townsend) over the coming Mothers Day weekend, 2011. They have a busy Mothers Day picnic, there, so it's bound to be a lovely event. Very pleased.

A couple of thoughtful and generous Port Townsend citizens saw the show in Victoria, last year, and spoke to me about bringing it across the border to their hometown. They came through on their aspiration, arranged an invitation from Fort Worden, and have even offered accommodation in their home, and help setting up. Now I just have to find some funding/sponsorships to help get me and the show down there. I do love it when things work out as hoped for!

UNIFEM

Today I spoke to the incredibly friendly and thoughtful Almas Jiwani (President of the UN Development Fund for Women in Canada (UNIFEM)) about the potential for the MAMA Project to make a difference in the world. Ms. Jiwani said she feels passionate about the importance of mothers in the world, specifically the power that we yield as nurturers of each new generation, and she has given many speeches to that effect. She told me she is proud of me for the work I am doing, and frankly I was overjoyed to receive such validation from somebody I look up to. Indeed, as conscious mothers we can create any change in the world, and it is also so important that we support each other in our endeavours.

flickr group

In my opinion, the ultimate experience of art is that of the viewers, so it follows that the ultimate photos are those taken by the public, as opposed to people really involved with the work. This is the unfiltered public view of the work. Especially with a moving, interactive project like this one, where the public is a vital part of the installation, each participant will see and record it in a different way. I rejoice in witnessing the many ways people have joined and experienced the installation.

A few people who saw the Victoria and Colwood installations have sent me photos, and some others promised on the day of to send me their flickr pages. So I have created a flickr group specifically for photos of the MAMA project, taken by the public.

Here it is: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mamaproject/

If you have photos you'd like to include, please either email them to me, or put them up on flickr and ask me for an invitation to the group.

Victoria Photos

MAMA in Bastion Square Public Market -- click to see full-size

beautiful backlighting, courtesy of the sun

SuperMAMA performance in Bastion Square -- photo by Markus Roemer

MAMA at the Coast Collective Gallery -- click to see full-size

that is indeed a very large tortoise you see, between the sheets...

I did a few pieces from the SuperMAMA performance (solo) in the space created by the sheets at both Bastion Square and the Coast Collective. This is "SAHM: Stay At Home Mom", one of the pieces I did at the Coast Collective, and was filmed by Markus.

This is Markus -- my husband, and, of course, the reason this project is possible.Yes, he actually took vacation days to come help me set up the installation. Thanks are not enough for the gift he gives to me.