In which we ask our crushes to do it with us (part 1). By Laura

Ohmanohmanohmanohman! The annual Savage Umbrella fundraiser is SO SOON, and we couldn’t be more giddy. A chance to share our upcoming season, eat some walking tacos, hang out with SU friends and fans AND raise some funds for making good work happen? #blessed.

One important and spectacular part of the fun we have planned is our amazing LIVE ART AUCTION. We got up the nerve to ask a bunch of our local art crushes to make some work inspired by our work. So many talented local folks making such beautiful work THAT YOU CAN TAKE HOME, FRIENDS! Here’s just PART ONE of some of the artists and what they’re making for small bites, BIG IDEAS...

These are the Men by Megan Clark

Megan Clark works with bodies, space, and emotional topography in her art. She writes plays with watercolors and paints with bodies on stage.

Megan has worked with Savage Umbrella as a writer,  performer and consultant.  She is currently working as a dramaturg for These are the Men and has informed her input with her painting process.

The Old Ones (Vinland)
by Mike Elko

MIKE ELKO

Discovered in his wild state by Beth DeLap, Mike has been undergoing a lifelong civilizing process in order to fit into polite society. We won't know how that's working out until we hear from the traditionally conservative outstate precincts. Mike has one son, also amazingly named Mike! Mike and Savage Umbrella are united by a similar need to imagine and create unusual and interesting scenarios.

"The original idea for "The Old Ones" - contrasting personalities - came quickly, but the final visual presentation took its own sweet time coming.  Lots of images and approaches were tried and discarded before the final simplified version appeared. (But don't tell the theater people that.  I'm trying to get them to let me design more posters.)"

Winter Colors #5 By Bryan Grose

BRYAN GROSE

Bryan was born in upstate New York and raised south of Detroit, MI. As a painter, Bryan creatively architects a brilliant combination of soothing warm textures layered delicately amongst rigid raw cooler colors. He currently live and works in Minneapolis MN.


"I began this series over the harsh winter in 2014 as a way to mentally break away from the cold and darkness.  My work usually consists of earth tones and blacks and whites. Images from Savage Umbrella’s production, "the winter adventures of happy" helped inspire this work."

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your heart has to bleed at some point
by Hannah Holman

HANNAH HOLMAN

Hannah paints stories and moments with brushes, bodies, and words. She's interested in making space for conversations and explorations about who we are and how we are and where we live and all the in between. Hannah is a company member (and managing director) of Savage Umbrella!


"This piece was an accident, really. I was just playing around with texture and color, and somehow this mangled/messy/dripping heart shape emerged. When I showed it to Blake (director of PENELOPE), she said, "in twenty years of waiting, your heart has to bleed at some point" (...or something very close to that). It just seemed to fit."

The Women (tryptich: "Pythia", "Antigone", "Jocasta") by Derek Lee Miller

DEREK MILLER

Derek is the Artistic Director of Sandbox Theatre and the Production Technical Director at Bedlam Theatre. He works in theatre as an actor, writer, designer, puppeteer, musician and builder. He was involved in a workshop of These Are the Men. Sandbox is involved in the ARTshare program at the Southern, along with Savage Umbrella.



















"I have a lot of limestone tile in my basement left over from remodeling my kitchen. At first I had it in my head that I was going to carve bas relief images for this, but I discovered that I was pretty inept at that. I went back to my strength in pen and ink, but kept the medium on stone, because I liked the physical weight and rough surface."

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Tim Otte

TIMOTHY OTTE

Timothy Otte's text has appeared in Paper Darts and at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. He is Senior Editorial Assistant at Hazel & Wren, an online literary community, and is a 2014-2015 Loft Mentor Series winner.


"I don't know if we all were friends or collaborators first, but we're all friends and collaborators now. I was on the writing team for the original RAPTURE workshop working with Tanner, Blake, and Lisa in 2012, but my relationship with Savage Umbrella goes back to 2010.





Inspired by X.J. Kennedy's poem "Blues for Oedipus," I knew I wanted to write a blues poem for Jocasta. Once I started working, however, I knew it had to be a fractured blues or a series of blues lyrics to reflect the non-linear nature of These Are The Men. I became interested in the idea that Jocasta may have known what she was getting into with her marriage to Oedipus, but did it anyway; and also in the idea of typical domestic scenes that might have occurred prior to the revelation of Jocasta and Oedipus' true relationship: dinner table banter with the children, pillowtalk in the dark before sleep, the minutiae of day-to-day family life."

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See, enjoy, and bid on the pieces above and more at small bites, BIG IDEAS on Monday evening Oct. 20 from 6:00-9:00 pm at the Casket Arts Building, 681 17th Ave NE.


Want to help SU make new work happen, but you can’t make it? No worries - you can donate online here.

Very jazzed about bidding on some of the art work AND you want to help SU make new work happen BUT you can’t make it? No worries. Email us at info [at] savageumbrella [dot] com, and we can work out some details to bid on your behalf at the event.


See you on the 20th!