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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center announces its upcoming fourth wildfire commemorative exhibit “All That Is Now.”
This year, the MAC has invited artists from all over the Northern California region to participate with work that explores the breadth of the wildfire experience, its aftermath, ongoing recovery, and the acceptance of what Is now.
There is still time to submit work. The exhibit will open with a reception on Friday, Sept. 13, from 6 to 9 p.m. and runs through mid-November.
Each year since the devastating Valley fire of 2015, the MAC has hosted a commemorative exhibit and poetry reading to honor our collective experience, memorialize loss, and celebrate our healing.
About half of MAC's 60 affiliated artists at the time lost their homes and studios or place of work in the Fire.
The Valley fire of 2015 still burns in the fabric of everyday life in south Lake County, and that loss is reinforced each year with more fires.
Since 2012, more than 50 percent of Lake County has burned, and Lake County shares the wildfire experience with communities throughout the region.
“Making and viewing art has the capacity to heal and reframe trauma by giving expression to the experience through materials, color, and form,” said Lisa Kaplan, director of the MAC. “We are honored that artists from neighboring counties of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte and the rest of California are submitting work. We continue to encourage artists who have responded to the experience in their work to join us for what is sure to be a very compelling exhibit.”
Artist submissions close on Wednesday, Aug. 21, with accepted work delivered to the MAC on Monday, Sept. 9.
For information on how to submit, visit www.middletownartcenter.org/artists.
Samples of work from previous commemorative fire exhibits at MAC can be viewed at www.middletownartcenter.org/exhibits.
Middletown Art Center is an arts nonprofit located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29 in the heart of Middletown.
To stay up to date on classes, exhibits and events, and support this valuable Lake County arts and culture resource visit www.middletownartcenter.org.
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- Written by: Middletown Art Center
There are so many delightful poems by Faith Shearin that it can be difficult to select just one to show you.
This one is from her sixth book, “Darwin's Daughter,” published in 2017 by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Faith Shearin lives in West Virginia.
Blue Elvis
It was August 1977 when Elvis Presley fell
face down on his Graceland bathroom floor;
by the time paramedics arrived, he was
cold and blue. I knew this because I was with
my grandmother, Belle, who called her sister,
Geraldine, who came over at once so we
could watch the news. My grandmother knew
Elvis liked peanut butter on white bread
with American cheese, eaten in his jungle room
which had Tiki chairs, fur lampshades,
a waterfall. Other neighbors arrived:
women in short skirts, women who
brought with them more of the food Elvis
loved: coconut cakes, fried chicken, bacon.
Elvis was dead, and summer had been so
hot the things we touched burned our hands:
handles of garden hoses, car doors,
the metal swing set my grandfather
built for me on the back lawn. I listened
to the sound of southern women's voices
expressing disbelief; they said I swan
and I pictured something rippling
and solitary; they said Well, shut my mouth and
I saw blue Elvis, falling.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Faith Shearin, "Blue Elvis," from Darwin's Daughter, (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Faith Shearin and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
