{"id":13322,"date":"2019-06-16T08:25:19","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T22:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=13322"},"modified":"2019-06-16T07:35:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T21:35:56","slug":"artistic-collaboration-forest-ambassadors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/artistic-collaboration-forest-ambassadors\/","title":{"rendered":"Artistic Collaboration: Forest Ambassadors \u2013 Exhibition Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday, I had the amazing honour of being an artistic \u2018Forest Ambassador\u2019 with the very talented sustainability and natural mixed media artist Gloria Florez<\/a> and the very talented video installation artist Alyson Bell<\/a>. Together we created a collaborative exhibition that combined our three very different yet complimentary methods of artistic expression, to reflect the fragility and beauty of nature and, in particular, the Pittwater Spotted Gum Forest<\/a>, a local but endangered ecological community likely to become extinct. The exhibition was kindly launched by our deputy mayor, the lovely Sue Heins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gloria crafted artistic handmade papers that celebrated and reflected the Spotted Gum and taught the process to schoolchildren; I taught those same schoolchildren how to express their love of nature through poetry; while Alyson filmed the entire creation process to construct a reflective video installation. It was fascinating to see how our three different approaches connected so well within a single exhibition, itself therefore reflecting the interconnections of life and nature\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words of poetry entwined with leaves and twigs in the children\u2019s handmade paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alyson\u2019s video was projected in reverse from behind the hung muslin material that carried the children’s paper creations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poem I crafted with the children featured in the video, and was also printed onto the walls. There were pedestals displaying the children\u2019s brainstorms for the words we eventually used in the poem, also backed by handmade paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And all around the main exhibition space hung Gloria’s beautiful papered layers of muslin, reflecting the layered nature of the forest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words, video and artwork combined to make the exhibition an immersive and dynamic experience \u2013 which is currently on display at Eramboo Artist Environment<\/a>. If you can visit, the exhibition is open 10am-4pm everyday until 23rd<\/sup> June. Otherwise, I took some photos to share with you all:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gloria and I<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Deputy Mayor Sue Heins, Gloria Florez, me and Alyson Bell<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Gloria is an incredible artist, and I thank her for having the idea to collaborate with other artists as part of her six-month artist residency at Eramboo<\/a>, sponsored by Northern Beaches Council<\/a>. I find it so rewarding to work collaboratively with other artists, whether they\u2019re writers like myself or visual artists like Gloria and Alyson, as both process and result are multi-dimensional, artistically fulfilling, and inspiring. Art needn\u2019t be segregated by media, it can overlap and entwine, evolve and stimulate, reflect and deepen the experience for viewers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s more on the poetry creation process<\/a>; here’s more about the Pittwater Spotted Gum Forest<\/a>; and here’s a photo of a Spotted Gum tree at Eramboo itself, isn’t it gorgeous!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yesterday, I had the amazing honour of being an artistic \u2018Forest Ambassador\u2019 with the very talented sustainability and natural mixed media artist Gloria Florez and the very talented video installation artist Alyson Bell. Together we created a collaborative exhibition that combined our three very different yet complimentary methods of artistic\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Launch of the artistic collaboration exhibition 'Forest Ambassadors', including me!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[2153,2152,2150,2149,1817,2154,2151,2155],"class_list":["post-13322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-news","tag-alyson-bell","tag-cromer-public-school","tag-eramboo-artist-environment","tag-gloria-florez","tag-northern-beaches-council","tag-nsw-threatened-species-scientific-committee","tag-pittwater-spotted-gum-forest","tag-sue-heins"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Forest-Ambassador-Gloria-Florez-Zena-Shapter-4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13322"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13353,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322\/revisions\/13353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}