Выставка «Being Held» в Уако посвящена теме поддержки и личного опыта через искусство трех художников

By Arden Berry | Arts & Life Editor What began as a personal project for Naomi Canale, Baylor library information coordinator, expanded into “Being Held,” a collaborative exhibit between her and artists Ellen Mote and Spencer Welch. The exhibit’s opening reception will be 5-7 p.m. this Thursday at Art Center Waco and will be open through Oct. 17. Canale said the idea originated as she painted a commission for a friend’s wife. “She was preparing to host a party and ring the bell after defeating cancer, and he wanted to give her a piece of art to celebrate that incredible milestone,” Canale wrote on her Substack. The painting brought Canale to themes of support, which led her to another project. As part of the Baylor Libraries staff, Canale was familiar with artist books. She began to create her own, titled, “Being held: a ritual.” “Spencer saw what I was working on,” Canale said. “And then it was like this ‘aha’ moment, and then Ellen joined in. And then we’re all thinking about what being held means in our respective lives.” Mote said that bringing three artists together led to “nonstop ideas.” “This was one of my favorite parts was working with Spencer and Naomi and how their ideas would feed into mine and vice versa,” Mote said. “And even though we made the work alone, because we all work in our own studios, the way that I could feel their presence in the studio when I was working and the way that all the work has come together on its own is just one of the most special, magical things.” For each artist, the idea of being held has a different meaning. Canale said she thought of literary artists whose work helped her through her dyslexia. Accordingly, she did portraits of David Foster Wallace, Mary Oliver and Zora Neale Hurston. “That’s how I felt held, is through books and artists and people who’ve been willing to really sit and share themselves, which has made me vulnerable and has made me feel brave, to then pass down holding others through books and through art,” Canale said. Among their other works, each artist also created an artist book. Canale created a sculpture piece artist book with her legs on a chair, titled Lost at Sea. “And then the papers that come out of it represent the body, and written on those papers are all of the words of the portraits I have up of David Foster Wallace and Zora and Mary Oliver,” Canale said. “And all those ideas are together in the pages … And it’s the idea that, as artists … you’re having the willingness to sit down and share a piece of yourself and feel a little lost and feel vulnerable.” Mote said being held made her think of her Norwegian ancestors. “When I was first exploring what this idea and theme meant to me, I thought about acts of care and acts of devotion, and also the feeling of light and warmth and a glowy feeling,” Mote said. “So I really explored what being held means to me through light and presence and ancestors, stories and, as I said, acts of care.” She created an artist book made up of cyanotype handkerchiefs, each representing a woman in her family. “So I was thinking about the women in my family tree and how they immigrated to the United States,” Mote said. “And when they came, they couldn’t bring very much. But what could they bring to represent their mother or their cousin or their aunt that they left behind? And I thought of these hankies. Each one has the initial embroidered in the corner for the woman they represent, that they could pull this hanky out and hold on to it to remember, this is Matilda, and this is her story, and this is her life in Norway.” Welch focused on the emotional feeling of being held. “To me, it’s really just creating space for living, honestly,” Welch said. “I mean, for all the things, for joy, for trouble, for hardship, for suffering, for trauma. I mean, it’s creating a space for yourself and for others to just experience life.” She said her artist book is a collection of materials surrounding her process of creating art for the exhibit. “Throughout this past year, taking all of this, these notes and poems and sketches and just everything that I had created during the process of building my collection for being held, I realized that all of that was already a book,” Welch said. “And even the embroidery fabrics that I made in practice before I did it on my canvas, all of that just became a collection. And I just ended up putting it all together and creating.” Welch contributed 11 oil paintings, two of which are also acrylic and embroidered. “They’re figurative works, and all of the paintings depict people that are sleeping,” Welch said. “It is a combination of kids, babies, my husband and my daughter is in one of them, multiple parenting, very domestic-type scenes.” Canale said the three artists have also held each other through the process of trying new things for the show. “[It] has been really fun because we each have been trying new mediums together as artists and bouncing off ideas and really building off one another,” Canale said. “… We are all trying something new together. So Ellen is incorporating lamps. I’m incorporating a little bit more sculpture and raw canvas that I’ve soaked the paint into. Spencer is trying, we’re all trying an artist book for the first time together.” As the artists share their vulnerability through the exhibit, Canale said she hopes it can be a sanctuary for the community to examine their own lives. “I hope it helps them to think about their own story on what being held means to them and how they can share that with others and extend that to others,” Canale said. “Just to understand their stories more and how and what that looks like in their life.”