Earth Day
“Swept Away: Love Letter To A Surrogate”
I was thrilled to participate in:
“Swept Away: Love Letter To A Surrogate
organized by:
Warren Neidich, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Anuradha Vikram and Rene Petropoulos in 2022 to include performances in October 2022 on Long island, NY, and Santa Monica, CA in April 2023.
Swept Away began in September 2022, when 65 Los Angeles County artists sent “love letters” to 65 artists on the East End of Long Island who responded with live performances on East Hampton’s Main Beach in September and October. In April 2023, the reverse took place with 65 West Coast artists creating performances inspired by and in response to their East Coast counterparts’ letters. On April 22 and 23, 2023, up to five simultaneous performances took place during the hours of 8 am-12 pm and 4-10 pm on Santa Monica State Beach in front of Annenberg Community Beach House.
Participating artists included 18th Street Art Center local artists-in-residence Melissa Altshuler, Debra Disman, Lionel Popkin, Susan Kleinberg, Yrneh Gabon, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario and Dan Kwong.
My work, “The Center Will Not Hold” was performed with Deborah Lynn Irmas and Frida Cano on Santa Monica Beach at the Annenberg Beach House.
“Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate/s” is a community oriented artistic project that aims to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. It is hoped that through its combined gestures and performances, a sense of solidarity, so desperately missing today, will emerge with which to confront the ecological catastrophe at our doorstep.”
65 Los Angeles County artists presented live performances over Earth Day Weekend: April 22 and 23, 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House on the Pacific Ocean.
“The Center Will Not Hold” was one of them.
A compilation video of the Santa Monica performances can be seen HERE.
https://youtu.be/hJUOFMVXHE0
Video by Matias Munoz-Rodriguez, Fu the Dog Productions
As Warren said: “I hope we created a transcontinental heartbeat.”
HERE is a video of the East Hampton event.
and links to the 4 videos of the nights of performances:
9/10 – https://youtu.be/Z0pnmpt7P2g (Edited by Joe Brondo)
9/17 – https://youtu.be/Dt3WuqcP7Bg (Footage by Anzhelika Tolstikhina, John Driver, Sutton Lynch, and Joe Brondo. Edited by Joe Brondo.)
9/24 – https://youtu.be/2vxMXWWiJio (Footage by Anzhelika Tolstikhina, John Driver, Bronte Zunis, and Joe Brondo. Edited by Joe Brondo.)The list of East End and West Coast artist pairings was as follows:
9/24 – https://youtu.be/2vxMXWWiJio (Footage by Anzhelika Tolstikhina, John Driver, Bronte Zunis, and Joe Brondo. Edited by Joe Brondo.)The list of East End and West Coast artist pairings was as follows:
EAST END ARTISTS >> LOS ANGELES ARTISTS:
Suzanne Anker > > Margarethe Drexel
Elena Bajo > > Jasmine Orpilla
Lillian Ball > > Dana Berman Duff
Monica Banks > > Jamie Ross
Dianne Blell > > Lisa Anne Auerbach
Scott Bluedorn > > Robby Herbst
Megan Chaskey > > Lionel Popkin
Scott Chaskey > > Kathryn Andrews
Philippe Cheng > > David Horvitz
Andrea Cote > > Nina Waisman
Ivana Dama > > Rodrigo Arruda
Peter Dayton > > Anita Pace
Katrina Del Mar + Chris Jones > > Taisha Paggett + Meital Yaniv
Jeremy Dennis + Beau Bree Rhee > > Debra Disman
Sabra Moon Elliot > > Rochelle Fabb
Carol Edwards > > Pamela Hudson
Eva Faye > > Patty Chang + David Kelley
Saskia Friedrich > > Fran Siegel
Margaret Garrett > > Susan Kleinberg
Veronica Gonzalez Peña > > Cassandra Marketo
Kimberly Goff > > Cheri Gaulke + Xochi Maberry-Gaulke
Jeremy Grosvenor > > Vincent Johnson
Jerelyn Hanrahan + Laura Ross White > > Andrew Berardini
Candace Hill Montgomery > > Anna Joy Springer
Virva Hinnemo > > Sam Shoemaker
Alice Hope > > Krysten Cunningham
Erica-Lynn Huberty > > Sandeep Mukherjee
Terri Hyland > > Joseph Mosconi
Ruby Jackson > > Alice Könit
No Partner > > Carolyn Castano
Nishan Kazazian > > Beatriz Cortez
Carlos Lama >> No Partner
No Partner > > Badly Licked Bear
Christine Lidrbauch > > Sterling Wells
Donald Lipski > > Raul Baltazar
Sutton Lynch > > Yrneh Gabon Brown
No Partner > > Jiayun Chen
Tanya Minhas > > Allison Wyper
Richard Mothes > > Kristin Calabrese
Michelle Murphy > > Sarah Beadle
Jill Musnicki > > Victoria Vesna
Lois Nesbitt > > Lucia Santini Ribisi
Eileen O’Kane Kornreich > > Iman Person
Jaanika Peerna > > Marcus Kuiland Nazario
Dalton Portella > > Ryat Yezbick
Toni Ross > > Sharon Barnes
David Rothenberg > > May Sun
Will Ryan > > Jody Zellen
Sara Salaway > > Melinda Altshuler
Matthew Satz > > Katie Grinnan
Bastienne Schmidt > > Jisoo Chung
Barry Schwabsky > > David Schafer
Christine Sciulli > > Karen Lofgren
Arlene Slavin > > Jenny Yurshansky
Janice Stanton > > Kearra Gopee
Christina Sun > > Catherine Scott
Carol Szymanski with David Adewomi > > Xiouping (Whitworth)
Sara VanDerBeek > > Alicia Serling
Ryan Wallace > > Joshua Aster
Ross Watts > > Justine Harari
Allan Wexler > > Dan Kwong
Nina Yankowitz > > Francesca Gabbiani
Darius Yektai > > Barbara McCarren + Jud Fine
Almond Zigmund > > Marissa Mandler
Swept Away: “The Center Will Not Hold” II
My work, “The Center Will Not Hold” was PERFORMED ON SITE AT THE ANNENBERG COMMUNITY BEACH HOUSE as part of: Swept Way: Love Letters to a Surrogate, organized by
Warren Neidich, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Anuradha Vikram and Rene Petropoulos 2022-23
“Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate/s” is a community oriented artistic project that aims to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. It is hoped that through its combined gestures and performances, a sense of solidarity, so desperately missing today, will emerge with which to confront the ecological catastrophe at our doorstep.”
65 Los Angeles County artists presented live performances over Earth Day Weekend: April 22 and 23, 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House on the Pacific Ocean. “The Center Will Not Hold” was one of them.
Videos from “The Center Will Not Hold” tell our story: gathering the water, stitching the sand, healing the earth, even if The Center Does Not Hold.
Collaborators: Deborah Lynn Irmas and Frida Cano.
All Video Credits: Mick Lorusso April 2023
Our Work is Never Done on This Earth and in This Life
Swept Away: “The Center Will Not Hold” I
My work, “The Center Will Not Hold” was PERFORMED ON SITE AT THE ANNENBERG COMMUNITY BEACH HOUSE as part of: Swept Way: Love Letters to a Surrogate, organized by
Warren Neidich, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Anuradha Vikram and Rene Petropoulos 2022-23
“Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate/s” is a community oriented artistic project that aims to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. It is hoped that through its combined gestures and performances, a sense of solidarity, so desperately missing today, will emerge with which to confront the ecological catastrophe at our doorstep.”
65 Los Angeles County artists presented live performances over Earth Day Weekend: April 22 and 23, 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House on the Pacific Ocean. “The Center Will Not Hold” was one of them.
Stills from “The Center Will Not Hold”: gathering the water, stitching the sand.
Collaborators: Deborah Lynn Irmas and Frida Cano.
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 Three Women Gather Water Working Silently Together
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 Carrying Water to the Blanket of the Four Directions
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 Making Their Way to the Blanket of the Fuur Directions Site
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 Water is Used to Dampen The Sand To Create Mounds
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 Needles Threaded With Hemp Cord Are Used To Stitch
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 Through the Sand Mounds Creating Lines of Connection
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 Hemp Cords Are Threaded Across the Open Circle
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 The Center Is Stitched as is the Sand Around the Blanket
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 The Work of Mending is Completed for the Moment
Image Credit: Mick Lorusso April 2023 The Work is Never Done on This Earth and in This Life
More to come.
Earth Poetry Bookmaking at the West Valley Regional Branch Library!
I was thrilled to lead a bookmaking workshop, (called a “program” in Library parlance!) on April 13, 2023, celebrating the Poetry Month of April through the lens of Earth Day/Nature/The Environment.
This offering was part of my Artist Residency in Bookmaking, “We Write the Book” at the West Valley Regional Branch Library of the Los Angeles Public Library, through the Los Angeles City Department of Cultural Affairs.
The Residency is comprised of a series of bookmaking workshops presented at the Library, planned in close coordination with Library Staff.
For our EARTH POETRY BOOKAMKING program, participants of all ages learned to create a bound book that can be hung on the wall as well as about the 17 syllable technique of creating HAIKU poetry.
Once each maker had bound their book together, they were free to fill it with poetry, stories, illustrations, stickers, drawings and collage! The results were moving and inspiring, as testified to by Branch Manager, Kevin Hasely in this short video! Watch VIDEO.
Exploring the inner and outer POET!
We were thrilled to welcome a group of 8-12 year-olds from a program of the nearby police cadet academy!
Playing with materials.
Mother and son work together!
20-somethings explored their creativity!
Participants worked together and on their own.
E
Employing stickers and origami papers to great effect.
Storywriting!
Utilizing the Haiku poems from the information packet passed out.
Learning about HAIKU poetry.
Classic…
The import of kindness.
Cooperation.
Discovery.
Material abundance!
Sharing.
Friend fun!