Hello there,
Please mark your calendar:
The Weight will re-open at The Putney School on Friday, January 10th, 2025!
The Weight is a soft sculpture show I created in 2022, funded by a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council. Since then, the central piece, SlipCover, has made her way into a magazine, across the country and back, and up and down Vermont a few times. She was recently featured in an excellent group show called Wild Pink at Mad River Valley Arts in Waitsfield. I’m happy with SlipCover’s success, and eager to pull out the other sculptures that have been disassembled in storage for over two years.
In my studio, I made new work and struggled to write about it.
I have tried to share this piece with you for months, but every draft of this newsletter devolved into doom screeds, furiously listing the war crimes and horrors that pour from my phone screen every day. I have not known how to promote my art on the same internet as videos of razed neighborhoods, limp and lifeless children being pulled from rubble, refugee camps on fire, and on, and on.
Absolute Sucker was born from the intense grief and shame of watching the U.S. send billions of dollars of aid and weapons to enable Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It is about the decades of propaganda that twisted antisemitism into carte blanche for Israel’s occupation and war crimes. It is about the social preference for civility over justice, and the U.S.’s long history of manifesting destiny with violence and nationalist rhetoric.
My artwork is about feminism, justice, and culture. The best I can do, I think, is make my work with integrity, and offer it as a portal of connection to those willing to look.
Thank you for looking.
My favorite art experience of the year was teaching at the Governor’s Institute on the Arts (GIA) in Castleton, Vermont this summer. I spent two thrilling, immersive weeks on a college campus, teaching two classes a day to Vermont high school students, alongside an incredible array of arts faculty who became my good friends.
In my Fiber Art Class, we spent the first week learning to use a sewing machine and hand embroider by making tote bags. For the final project, students made Power Quilts, inspired by a series of videos about indigenous embroidery traditions such as the Mola of Panama, and the deep cultural power of fiber work like the quilts of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Their creativity and curiosity were amazing, and I learned so much about teaching and seeing.
Another major part of this summer was helping my husband, Ian Goodnow, run for and win the State Representative seat for Windham District 9! I am very proud!
He knocked on an unbelievable number of doors and had countless conversations with our neighbors about what they need as Vermonters. My vote in our local primary in August counted for a great deal more than the one I cast for President in November.
If you are feeling small and helpless in the face of gruesome national politics, please consider getting informed and voting locally.
Another nourishing political act is looking at art in person.
Once again, please come to my show at The Putney School, opening January 10th -March 1st, 2025.
I am a real person and live close to the gallery. If you email me, I can meet you there.
Though I attempt reform every year, I am a recalcitrant Grinch. You have my permission to have unhappy holidays, if you need it. I wish you the bracing calm of a snowy walk, when the cheer gets to be too much.
Thank you for your continued support of my work,
Ruth
Ruth! congratulations on the new show *and* by wild coincidence I'll be in southern Vermont that weekend!!!