In 2017, I left a full-time position I had held for eight years. As I left, I proclaimed, “I am going to start painting again!” I found that it wasn’t that easy.
As executive director of Young Audiences, I used all of my creativity, so I had not painted since 2009. My concerns with the environment now are paramount. I do not want to accumulate more stuff in order to make more stuff in the world.
My experience visioning and collaborating with artists on making experiences happen for young people was much more interesting, and valuable, than curating exhibitions for galleries. I was pleased that most of our efforts connected with people who might never, or very rarely, visit a place like the Albright Knox.
In 2018, I moved to a home along the Buffalo Creek (less than a mile from where Burchfield lived). My home is surrounded by tall trees, birds, wild life, and native plants.
I document the space around my home with digital photography. I have several bodies within this series: “Wild” “Sun Catching” and “Flow.” I like working digitally, because I am making images that are not taking up physical space or using -much- energy resources.
As a painter, I was interested in movement, and marking my place as a creator. I had been a serious dancer and choreographer, starting at age 4 and continuing until 25, before I turned entirely to visual art.
It is with my past understanding of moving in space to make art, and my interest in truly engaging people in the process of making -my- art, that I started thinking about ways to make work with participants. As I considered the resources on my land, and my interest in buying local, I started thinking about hay.
My chickens are entertained with hay during the winter. I purchased the hay at a feed store r from a farmer, and I often have no idea where or how far it came for me to purchase it. I have lots of tall grass on my land… how would I cut and bundle it? This is when I discovered the beauty of making hay with a scythe and a hand rake.
“Making Hay” is a project that involves people in conversations that hopefully will encourage them to reconsider some aspects of our contemporary life and their choices. This participatory project is long term, public, touching many, and addressing what could be considered systemic problems. These systemic problems include ordinances that make it difficult for an average family in a suburb or urban setting to live and eat in a self-sustaining way. Towns and businesses, and families destroy important components of our natural work with chemical sprays.
The way that grass and hay catch light is well documented throughout time by painters and photographers. There will be documents and an exhibition of the project, the experience of participating will be the most exciting aspect of the project.
cynnie gaasch art work 