In which we ask our crushes to do it with us (part 2). By Laura

Are you ready for more art? Check out the small sampling below and get ready for our live auction tonight!

Baba Yaga Moves to the Suburbs
(similar to the work Johanna
created for the live auction!)

JOHANNA WINTERS

“A Midwesterner tried and true, I grew up in Minneapolis and currently live in Green Bay, and am fond of carbohydrates, living at sea level, and observing the native critters of the Upper Midwest. Upon graduating form the University of Wisconsin in 2007 with a B.A. in studio art, I have competed on an Olympic-development cross country ski team, worked as the Education Manager at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and most recently taught as an Associate Lecturer in Printmaking at UW-Green Bay. 

I know Laura through her younger sister, Kit Leffler. Kit and I met at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and I've enjoyed keeping tabs on all of the art-making projects that Kit is involved with in the Twin Cities. Those Leffler sisters are a talented pair! 

In creating the intaglio print Dirty Pillows, I was interested in the idea of hubris that is embedded in the Oedipus mythology and reinterpreted in These Are the Men. I was also drawn to the detail regarding the origin of Oedipus' name. It is derived from the Greek word for swelling — at birth, Oedipus was bound at his feet and ankles by his father and left to perish, and thus when he was later found by his adoptive parents his feet were swollen. The image that I etched into copper and printed with an etching press hints at some kind of bodily misfortune, yet the sufferer accepts his/her/its fate to carry an ambiguous burden without resignation.”

---

PAIGE TIGHE

Paige Tighe is an artist, just moved from LA to St Paul. She is interested in energy and the connections of body, mind, and soul. I know Savage Umbrella through my artist friend Andrew Young, who has introduced me to almost all of Savage Umbrella. 

“Creating the House Party piece I thought about groups of people meeting, I thought how many people are looking to hook up at parties, and I thought about the energy that we emit while we talk and interact. Two bodies talk in my drawing. My work is influenced by textiles, you can see that in this drawing.” 

CARL ATIYA SWANSON

Carl Atiya Swanson is company member of Savage Umbrella, as well as writer and visual artist. He holds a BA in Studio Art from the University of Southern California and lives and works in the Twin Cities. 

“I love the story of Penelope weaving and unweaving Odysseus' burial shroud as a trick to keep her suitors at bay. It wraps up mortality, determination, humor and faithfulness all at once, and has a great visual element. With Note, like Penelope, I am just trying to hold it all together.”

Note
by Carl Atiya Swanson

JAMIE HARPER

Jamie lives in Winona, Mn. and I paint with reclaimed materials.  He began painting 5 years through working with elementary students at the school he works at, Riverway Learning Community.

“I am only moderately familiar with the story of Oedipus.  I am currently reading “Around the World in 80 Days”   with students to prepare to go to a production at the Commonweal Theater in Lanesboro, Mn.  The red umbrella is probably obvious.”

Oedipus in the Rain
by Jamie Harper

ALEX NEWBY

Alex Newby is an artist/designer/craftsperson and currently an adjunct instructor in the College of Design at the Univ. of MN. Regardless of content, her drawn work regularly ends up as a repeat pattern printed on fabric. Alex regularly attends Savage Umbrella workshops to learn about stories told through multiple lenses and to become more informed by how the same audience can respond in such different ways.

“Fabric, which is often an externally exposed surface expressive of a personal identity, is printed for this project with drawings of what are imagined as Jocasta's experience. A variety of illustrated gestures of the female form are representative of her experience, expressing both fleeting and constant emotion. Jocasta's story can be only imagined and perhaps sympathized with. This fabric is printed with the thought that her internal, unknown world can now be remembered as we can imagine it. This fabric is the expressive medium that is yet to be constructed into something new, but that holds a free will by which to create identity and remembrance of stories untold.”

small bites, BIG IDEAS is tonight 
from 6:00-9:00 pm at the Casket Arts Building, 681 17th Ave NE.

Oh, and our super awesome stage manager friend Jessica Spivey is making red wine chocolate truffles, so. There’s that. (omgomgomgomg nomnomnomnom)

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 tonight!