Gallery Talk at RTPI

In 2023, I received the great honor to be invited to participate in a major, two-artist exhibition, ”Small Worlds, Betsy Abbott and Spencer Frazer,” at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, NY. The Institute is home to the largest collection of the work of Roger Tory Peterson, famous bird artist and creator of Peterson’s Field Guides. It is “a leader for the study, exhibition and nurturing of art that matters to the planet. Through world class exhibitions and programs, RTPI illuminates the beauty of nature; challenges us to confront environmental issues of regional, national and global concern; and inspires us to preserve the earth’s biodiversity.” (www.rpti.org)

Fourteen of my original quilts plus framed giclées of three others, all featuring birds, were included in this major exhibit, which ran for a full six months from October 21, 2023 through April 14, 2024.

The curator of the exhibition paired me with an acclaimed painter from Seattle, WA, not just because of our subject matter but because, in her words, “Spencer Frazer’s paintings are like tapestries, and your art quilts are like paintings.”  

Here is the text of my gallery talk at the opening reception on October 20, 2023:

—
Good evening.  I am truly humbled to see so many of you here tonight.

Before I begin my talk, I would like to start by saying thank you to Maria Ferguson for offering me this amazing opportunity to join with Spencer Frazer in sharing our artwork with you tonight and in the months to come.  

Thanks, too, to Rachael Kosinski and the entire RTPI staff who have welcomed me so warmly and helped to mount this exhibit with skill and care.

Thanks as well to my husband Don, my fondest supporter, and the several members of my extended family who have traveled long distances to be with me here tonight.

And finally…Thank you, Roger Tory Peterson! For me this exhibit is a kind of homecoming, a chance to circle here from Massachusetts in gratitude for the gift of his Field Guide to the Birds (1947 ed.), which has been my inspiration from my very earliest years.

I have been a lifelong amateur naturalist and an art quilter for just 24 years. As a child I had much unstructured free time to roam outdoors, and I have been blessed by living in two places of great natural beauty: Wareham, MA, on Buzzards Bay close to the Cape Cod Canal; and Monhegan Island, 12 miles offshore of mid-coast Maine.  Both of these places fueled my love of the natural world and of birds in particular. These deep interests were nurtured when I was 9 or 10 years old by the gift from my parents of a used pair of binoculars and a copy of Peterson’s Field Guide, and they have only grown over my lifetime.

It is this passion and my life in the outdoors that I want to share with you, especially with any beginning artists who may be here tonight. I firmly believe that viewers will take notice of your work and feel its “fire” if you create out of your own experience and make art that arises out of your deeply held interests and emotions.

As with most art created in this way, every art quilt here has its own story. But once it is out in the world, viewers often see reflections of their own experience in it and find different stories of their own. This reciprocity is what makes the process of creating, sharing, and closely looking at original art so exciting.

So, what led me to create some of the quilts on the walls of this room?

 

 Wild Ravenworld was inspired by my Monhegan Island muse and by my particular love of the essential wildness of all creatures. Along the New England coast Ravens were almost extirpated as overdevelopment removed the wild lands they need to thrive and superstition led people to kill them as ill omens. Only in places like Monhegan, where most of its rocky shores and inland woodlands are preserved in a wildland trust, can these independent, raucous, opportunistic, and highly intelligent birds thrive. I rejoice in their exultant perseverance!

 

In both Wonder Reborn and Fidelity (displayed here in a framed giclée print) I celebrate the return of the Osprey to our Eastern shores after the U. S. finally banned all use of DDT, heeding Rachel Carson’s dire warnings. My parents, living on Buzzards Bay, loved their return. Ospreys mate for life, and for me they became a kind of symbol for my parents’ long and faithful marriage. Thus, Fidelity was born.

 

Nocturne was again inspired by my experience on Monhegan. I wanted to feature seldom seen Black-Crowned Night-Herons that regularly feed after dark along these rocky shores.  I had never attempted a night scene before, and I didn’t want the birds to be complete silhouettes. By placing them in very calm, luminous, full moonlight, I was able to create enough reflected light—not just on the water but on the birds—to make the colors of their plumage more plausible.  

 

Spring Tide Moon arose out of two quite different and very important personal concerns. First, I wanted to create a mandala quilt to honor my younger brother, Rob, who was living with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis (hence the “crab” symbol). At the same time, I wanted to tell the story of the vital, entwined relationship between  critically endangered Horseshoe Crabs and Red Knot sandpipers, now in grave imbalance.

 

Finally, we come to In the Beginning…with its own unique story. Here, my inspiration came directly from a dream. I have always loved Snowy Owls and have long heard of their occasional winter residency on Monhegan. I also know that Northern Lights sometimes appear over the Island at this time of year. In my sleep I was quite literally instructed to create a dreamscape with a very soft owl backlit by quiet, flickering Northern Lights. But, when I got to work in my studio, both the owl and the lights had other ideas!  They simply refused to be dreamy, insisting that I pay attention to them as wild, archetypal, primal spirits. Sometimes the only thing an artist can do is listen to her own creations and get out of the way!

 

Before I get out of your own way tonight and release you to enjoy the art and Spencer’s talk, I have one more perspective to share. None of us here live in a vacuum. While we have gathered to celebrate art and the natural world, we also carry with us the heavy load of our country and our world at large facing existential threats, both from political upheavals and climate change. Like many artists in these times, I have been doing some wrenching soul searching.  How do I celebrate wonder and beauty now? Are my choices as an artist still relevant in these times?

I would like to share a poem by Stuart Kestenbaum, the emeritus Poet Laureate of Maine, words that give me the courage, indeed the imperative, to continue creating beauty in a broken world as a kind of spiritual resistance. It is called “Holding the Light.”

Holding the Light
for Kait Rhoads

by Stuart Kestenbaum

Gather up whatever is
glittering in the gutter,
whatever has tumbled
in the waves or fallen
in flames out of the sky,
for it’s not only our
hearts that are broken,
but the heart
of the world as well.
Stitch it back together.
Make a place where 
the day speaks to the night
and the earth speaks to the sky.
Whether we created God
or God created us
it all comes down to this:
In our imperfect world
we are meant to repair
and stitch together
what beauty there is, stitch it
with compassion and wire.
See how everything
we have made gathers
the light inside itself
and overflows? A blessing.

Thank you all so very much.