August Show - underGROUND

Now showing through August 27, 2009

by Beverly Naidus

Earlier this summer (June 2009) I had the privilege to work with dancers, composers, writers, performance and visual artists at Earthdance in western Massachusetts. While being introduced to the ways that these artists exposed ecological issues in their work, I was offered a deeper connection with the dance form, “contact improvisation.” One dancer described the form to me as a process of sharing weight. I participated in a Dance Jam that included a man in a wheel chair and people of different ages and sizes. Once I moved from sketching in my journal onto the dance floor, I was hooked. Excited by the liberating aspects of creating meaning through movement, something I had understood in an earlier chapter in my life, I was compelled to bring this energy back to my studio on Vashon.

Instead of approaching this new body of work with strategies that are well known to me, I decided instead to move through my tiny studio space, and the adjoining woods, trails and garden, like a dancer, scavenging weight, form and texture within my local environment. At times I was reaching in many directions, seemingly at once, drawing, sewing, gluing, sculpting, tearing, rummaging through drawers, picking things up and moving with them, tying things together, in very unfamiliar rhythms. At other times, I found habitual gestures provided a comfortable launching pad for deeper work. The tactility of found materials and a constant shifting of weight were necessary to deal with often challenging sources of inspiration: the things that are underground, under the radar, most easily avoided, but need attention. My process allowed me to be more fluid in my emotions and less self-censoring as I unearthed imagery and metaphors that would not have been discovered through a more intellectual approach.

The results of this improvisation are a series of wall hangings and sculptures, often inhabited by small, sculpted heads and figures, animating each piece. Mulberry bark and translucent paper became skin-like forms to be pierced and sewn with stories about nuclear weapons and toxic dumps. When the difficult material became too weighty, I shifted poses and perspectives, opening up to humor and a reconstructive vision of the world, where gardens transform the muck swept under the rug for so many years. Both soft and sharp, the work has an anthropological quality, like artifacts of this moment.

Some of my early work (from the late 1970’s and through the 1980’s) dealt with nuclear nightmares, and were audience-participatory, inviting the community to share their stories about nuclear war. During the Reagan presidency, when a “hot war” seemed very close to the surface, many audience members were eager to share their fears, anxieties and hopes. My site-specific installations, exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, London, and Minneapolis offered visitors the possibility of moving beyond our despair into communities empowered to dismantle the nuclear arsenal. Now, post-Bush, with a worsening plethora of social problems, from economic to environmental, I continue to use my art to confront what is sick in our society and to remind myself of what is whole and possible, just around the corner from our fears. Ultimately my art is a meditation on the paradox of living in this time with an open heart and a sense that the future has not yet been decided.

Biography:

Beverly Naidus has lived on Vashon since 2003, when she took a position teaching interdisciplinary arts (with a focus on art for social change) at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She has shown her work internationally and it has been written about in several significant books about contemporary art.

She is the author of the recently released, Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame (New Village Press, 2009). Her website is www.artsforchange.org.

She is the mother of Sam Oak Naidus Spivey (age 14) and the life partner of Bob Spivey, founder of SEEDS (www.socialecologyvashon.org).

Johnny Depp Rumor

Johnny Depp is not headed to Vashon, officials say

By LESLIE BROWN

Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber Editor

The rumor has been circling the Island like a gull at KVI Beach: Johnny Depp, word has it, just bought Tom Stewart’s spectacular 525-acre estate near Paradise Valley.

How great is the speculation? Great enough that someone has stated it as fact on Wikipedia: “Johnny Depp, world famous actor, now owns the former Misty Isle Farm property. Has been spotted driving on the Westside Highway,” according to an entry in the user-generated, online encyclopedia under the “people of note” section for Vashon Island.

But according to a spokesman for Stewart’s company, Services Group of America, there’s nothing to the rumor.

“We’ve not been in contact with Mr. Depp regarding this property or any other property,” said Brad Parker, from the company’s Scottsdale, Ariz., headquarters.
Told of the Wikipedia entry, he said he’d go online and make a change to it.
“I have no idea how it would have gotten onto Wikipedia,” he added.

Stewart’s Misty Isle Farm has been for sale for nearly two years, listed initially at $125 million. The sprawling, ranch-style home is small by multi-millionaire standards — a mere 6,500 square feet. But the expansive property boasts a number of other amenities that set it apart from other parcels in the luxury home market, including an airstrip, a helipad, 10 additional residences, botanical gardens, a putting green, bridle trails and a three-acre pond annually stocked with 500 pounds of rainbow trout.

The demand is soft for luxury homes, however, and the property, initially the subject of a focused marketing effort, is no longer being actively peddled, said Hans Youngman, who manages the ranch.

“There’s no marketing campaign currently under way,” he said. “There had been, but it got put on hold because of the economic conditions and lack of interest.”

Youngman said he, too, has heard the Johnny Depp rumor several times and, like Parker, said there’s nothing to it.

“Jack Sparrow,” he said, referring to Depp’s character in “The Pirates of the Caribbean,” “won’t be the next owner of Misty Isle Farms.”

Stewart, a stalwart Rep-ublican known for the conservative celebrities he used to bring to his estate, enjoyed the Depp rumor, Youngman said. In fact, he thinks that’s possibly how it began to spread.

“When a friend asked him about it, he sort of led him on for a moment,” Youngman said.
Johnny Depp’s publicist, Robin Baum, did not return repeated telephone calls or e-mails requesting comment.

The Johnny Depp rumor is not the first one about a Hollywood star snatching up the largest private parcel on Vashon. For a while, Tom Cruise was the purported buyer; then John Travolta; then Cruise and Travolta together, with an eye towards making it a Church of Scientology retreat.

Many have heard the rumors and have called or e-mailed The Beachcomber, asking if they’re true. Most were curious, some skeptical. A few said they thought it just might be true that Depp had indeed purchased the property or, at the very least, was poking around.

“I have some good sources who have confirmed that there has been interest from him,” said Melinda Songterath, owner of The Hardware Store Restaurant. “I don’t think it’s a completely fabricated rumor that he’s interested in the property.” She added, however, that she’s not seen “any concrete evidence. ... It’s really all rumors, as far as I’m concerned.”

Emma Amiad, a buyer’s broker on Vashon, also said she’d heard from “a reliable source” that Depp had bought Stewart’s place for $75 million, $50 million less than the asking price. “You might want to watch for it,” she said in an e-mail.

As for Youngman, who some say was the source of the Cruise/Travolta rumor, he said he doubts Depp would find Vashon Island particularly compelling.

Noting that the movie star recently bought his girlfriend a French estate, he added, “He likes France. I don’t think he’d spend much money on a cattle ranch here in Washington state.”

Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber Editor Leslie Brown can be reached at editor@vashonbeachcomber.com or 206-463-9195.

Chamber Looks to Tourism to Lift Island Economy

Our goal is to tell Vashon's story, through visuals, graphics, audibles, and positioning. It'll be a call to action to come to Vashon, to shop on Vashon.

Amy Herbig, President

Blonde Ambition

Treasure Discovered?

Yep, it's true. Two young treasure hunters converged on the buried treasure, almost simultaneously. In the end, they agreed to split the fortune.

The winners may become Treasure Masters and are eligible to help develop next year's hunt. Thanks to everyone that participated!