Shelburne Farms

Sometimes the landscape can take your breath away- like a lover. You walk the hills and valleys, the woods and crawly places, and one turn of the trail, you look up and there it is, that quick intake of breath for the reverence of this land and its relationship to the sky. I used to joke that I work on farms so that my office/studio will have the best views around. But now, I think it's true. I have placed myself to work on land I love, with people who have the most important jobs on the earth, to grow food that sustains our life. Who care about the earth and their community.Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont, a place that I will call Studio for the next four months, is all that and more.  I am an artist-in-residence at the farm for the state wide show Of Land and Local curated by Burlington City Arts. The show opens in October, but my work will be building up all summer long as my project Contemporary Pastoralism launches. Today, I delivered materials and tools to one heck of a beautiful studio; the breeding barn at Shelburne Farms.

Printing on the Farm

I have been thinking about printing an animal for the longest time. When I attempted to print our chocolate lab, he would try his best to help, and squirm around in delight in his big hearted way; the cat, forget about it! While being still for naptime snuggles 16 hours a day, as soon as something that could potentially be played with comes along (a paintbrush), she wants to catch it in those lightening fast paws of hers; Chickens, well I’ll let you image that scenario.  I always thought I would need to get a print after an animal has died, perhaps like the tradition of a death mask. In Japan, this practice of nature printing has in some fashion, been around since the mid-1800's. This artform called gyotaku, or fish printing, of inking and rubbing the print onto paper may have been used by fisherman to record their catches.

Photos by Jill Greenberg

At Blue Star Equiculture, a horse sanctuary in Palmer Massachusetts collaborating with me in the Contemporary Pastoralism project, a light bulb turned on as we groomed Katie!

Meet Katie, a gentle lady of distinction, full of spirit, 33 year old, partially blind, work-horse who lived longer than her owner. She has found a loving home here at Blue Star Equiculture with her sister and devoted boyfriend Buford.

Four of us (myself, Barn manager, Christina Anderson, farm intern, Brittany Furtado, and art assistant and photographer, Jill Greenberg), set up a salon for Katie, grooming her shedding winter coat (to be saved for another project). She got her nails done (picked her hooves) all the while she told us all of the paddock gossip. We crooned and whispered to her how beautiful and good she is. Coconut oil for her mane and tail; she looked lovely. With non-toxic ink, we did a test print of her leg, which was all just a part of the doting, love fest. And it worked! Next time, with her permission, I will get a full print.

Christina Anderson

On a side note, while massaging the print of her leg onto silk I thought of my late childhood friend and artist, Bryan Nash Gill, who, among other things, created stunning prints of woodcuts. He once printed from wood of the Ming Dynasty. His care and respect of the wood while he printed showed his love of nature.  I can only hope the human love for animals; the landscape and life we find ourselves sharing with them is present for you to see, as I explore Contemporary Pastoralism in this studio to farm exchange.

Why Mud Season Is My Favorite Season

There is something so satisfying about working with earth. Still shaking hands with the land and horses at Blue Star Equiculture, I spent the day experimenting with cobb, an old building material using sand, clay earth, and in this case, horse hair and manure hay. Thanks to Christina Anderson and assistant Jill Greenberg for their help today (photos by Jill Greenberg and Zoe Milos).

 They were so interested in what I was doing with their manure and hair we had to move into the next paddock so I could get some work done!

 Tex, kept playing with the cobb. We were trying to get him to walk through it!

Guest Writer, Pamela Rickenbach

A message from Pamela Rickenback co-director at Blue Star Equiculture.

Tex has a job. A real job, real work in a productive partnership. He is Nancy's partner in creating art. It all sounds so simple and ordinary and that is the paradox. 

Their partnership is not simple or ordinary by any measure. They are both world travelers and experienced explorers of the heart. They both look for things that shine in an extraordinarily ordinary way. Tex cannot and will not handle intensity or hardness but he will melt and surrender to Nancy's softness. Nancy loves all the smells and mud and fluid beauty that Tex is immersed in and they celebrate it all together.

The result is something we can all experience as well. Beautiful, earthy and honest art. An art that reminds us and connects us to what we all share. The earth and all it's messy, gorgeous, life giving power. 

This is the job for Tex, that only Tex can do. A job made for him with an artist who recognizes his true nature. Nancy can and will trace Tex's steps and share them with the world and in that way they will both provide something immeasurably valuable for our lives. They will help remind us of who we are and where come from. 

This is the job that Tex has been waiting for and all we had to do was give him the space to find it. Thank you Nancy Winship Milliken for finding your way to us and him and for helping put him and his kind forever on the map of our hearts. — at Blue Star Equiculture.

Photos by Doug Anderson

Steering Committee

Contemporary Pastoralism Steering Committee:

I am grateful for this group of farmers, artists, writers and art historians who are providing guidance for the vision of the Contemporary Pastoralism project.

Sarah Bliss

Sarah Bliss is an artist and filmmaker who explores the relationships between body, place, language and memory.  Her work engages both personal and social history, examining in particular the experience of religious faith and the consequences of both its demands and its absence.

http://www.SarahBlissArt.com

Rosalyn Driscoll

Rosalyn Driscoll is an artist living in Western Massachusetts whose sculptures, installations, collaborations, research and writing explore sensory, embodied perception and somatic experience. She is a core member of Sensory Sites, an international collaborative collective of artists and writers based in London. 

www.rosalyndriscoll.com

Stephen Kiernan

Stephen Kiernan is an author, musician and father who lives in Vermont. His most recent book is The Curiosity

Karen Kurczynsk

Karen Kurczynski is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her book The Art and Politics of Asger Jorn: The Avant-Garde Won't Give Up will appear with Ashgate in 2014.

http://www.umass.edu/arthist/kurczynski.htm

Nicki Robb

Nicki Robb is the Director of The Land Stewardship Program at

The Hartsbrook School, in Hadley, Massachusetts

Charlie Tipper

Charlie Tipper calls himself the idea broker. He helps manifest big dreams through ingenuity and clear insight and vision. Tipper’s specialty is redevelopment and is currently working on the Moran plant in Burlington, VT

What is Missing?

If you ever want to know what guides an artist’s visual thoughts, look at their walls in their studio; not at their work, but the images of others’ art, or magazine clippings of current events. I want to bring your attention to one print that has occupied my studio walls since grad school and has been catching my attention recently.

 Pablo Picasso, Boy Leading Horse, 1906

In this earth-toned oil painting, Pablo Picasso depicted a boy and his horse walking together. The right leg of both boy and horse are positioned forward and sized similarly, the left leg of the horse and left arm of the boy are mirroring shapes. It is not these technical decisions that catch my attention when I look at the painting; it is what is missing in the painting that reminds me to pay attention.

Recently, I went to a lecture given by artist, architect and memorial designer, Maya Lin. She emphasized her work that has an overall environmental theme, and spent a good 1/3 of her time talking about a new online memorial she is currently working on called, What is Missing? . On this site she illustrates our rapidly changing earth and creates a virtual environmental memorial of places and events that have changed or gone missing. Please visit and add your memories of your environmental experiences that have gone missing because of changes on our earth.

The current NYC carriage horse ban that Mayor de Blasio has proposed has got me wondering what will be missing if horses are banned from our cities. Edward Chamberlin wrote a beautiful article in the opinion pages of New York Daily News, citing facts of man’s relationship with horses that initiated some 6,000 years ago. His well- crafted words do this man/animal covenant justice. Why remove horses from our city lives? Why segregate, and only experience our relationship to animals in rural environments? Blue StarEquiculture, has been fiercely vocal and true ambassadors about the need for horses in our urban and rural lives. As I venture deeper into the Contemporary Pastoralism project that I have developed, these two, social practicing, artist and farmer help me understand the deep-seeded reasons of why I bring natural materials to my sculptures.

 The Japanese have the phrase, "natsukashii furusato," meaning, an old memory of my hometown; a memory that is felt. In our slick world of florescent lights and computers I strive to bring back a memory of texture and smell that is a part of our collective past. Only one or two generations ago, sheep, horses, cows, were a part of our lives helping build cities, clothe and nourish ourselves and communities.

So what did Picasso leave out in his painting that has me looking up at my studio wall? The subtle gesture of holding reins that are not there illustrates connection; innate communication and an understanding between the boy and his horse. If horses are removed from the city, if our childhood memories of the environment are only witnessed through a virtual world because they have gone missing, we start to forget that we are a human animal, and become isolated and alone in the world.

Human and Farm Animal Covenant

Here is an incredibly poetic and beautifully tender film about the human and animal covenant that takes place on farms.

....When we become responsible for an animal's life, we become responsible for an animal's death....

Links:

Covenant, by Michael Mercil

Meet Tony the Farrier

Paul Moshimer, Farrier Tony Diemand, and Pamela Rickenbach talk about the fate of carriage horses in New York City.

at Blue Star Equiculture.

One of my favorite parts about the Contemporary Pastoralism Project, is meeting tradesmen who come to the farms to help care for the animals. On Wednesday I met Tony Diemand, a wonderfully eccentric farrier who works with some of the largest hooves I have ever seen, belonging to the beautiful work horses who live at Blue Star Equiculture in Palmer, MA.

I learned a little bit about his trade. For example, after having his foot in the wrong place (ouch!) he told me that it is not good to have steel toed boots because the steel can not handle the weight of these horses and would...well you can picture, what might happen. I arrived with ink and paper hoping Tony could aid me in using all that weight and get monoprints from a living and breathing press! Please visit HERE for more pictures.

Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry is interviewed by Roger Cohn for Yale Environment 360 about Berry's thoughts on small farming and the importance of caring for the land. It can be read in full HERE.

Here is an excerpt:

e360: You’ve had four careers, really — writer, farmer, activist, and teacher. How do you see those parts of your life fitting together?

Berry: A question I’m often asked is, “How have you balanced these various pursuits?” And the word “balance” always implies that I have balanced them, and of course I haven’t. It’s been difficult and sometimes a struggle to keep it all going.

e360: Difficult in what way?

Berry: Well, to find time for it all. I’ve known writers — I think it’s true also of other artists — who thought that you had to put your art before everything. But if you have a marriage and a family and a farm, you’re just going to find that you can’t always put your art first, and moreover that you shouldn’t. There are a number of things more important than your art. It’s wrong to favor it over your family, or over your place, or over your animals.

Blue Star Equiculture

Blue Star Equiculture, a working horse rescue and sanctuary farm in Palmer, MA., will be my studio for a month this fall.

Photo by Doug Anderson. Meet Tex and Mark, gentle giants between 2000 and 2,700 pounds each. 

Co-founders Pamela Rickenbach and Paul Moshimer, along with writer/photographer Doug Anderson, recently spent the afternoon introducing me to the 35 big-hearted inhabitants of Blue Star Equiculture. Each horse has their own story, some as loving carriage horses from Philadelphia or farm draft horses; some are recovering from injuries and others are being harnessed up for work. Full of personality and wanting to work, these beautiful horses are going to be incredible collaborators and teachers during our time together this year.

Blue Star Equiculture could also be called Blue Star Sapie(n)center. Many volunteers come to work with the horses and organic farms. It is a horse/human community center thriving on hard work. At risk youth find important and grounding work as well as, a large number of elderly volunteers come to groom and massage the large beings on the farm. It is an epicenter for rural Palmer, MA

Photo by Doug Anderson. Pamela Rickenbach from Blue Star Equiculture talking with me about the history of the farm's land and rescue horses

Photo by Doug Anderson.  So Tall!!

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for Contemporary Pastoralism a new project from Nancy Winship Milliken Studio. You will find here posts of projects and collaborating farms for this multi-year, trading studio for farm, endeavor. Like the studio on Facebook for related articles and pictures.

Immersed in the wave of the back to the land, local and organic food movement, this project is an investigative process and response to the materials, animals, environment and small farming practices that shape the pastoral landscape. Of particular interest to me is the birth and slaughter, give and take contract between humans, animals and how that is reflected in the farming practice and the land. As the small farms and rural landscapes, both nationally and internationally, become my studio, I will engage with the elemental nature of farming as well as re-invent that engagement.

Living and working on various small farms will allow me the time and space to be more than a witness, steeped in the materials, beating hearts and mud of the farms. The agricultural rhythms, textures, smells and sounds of each farm all inform the resulting installations, sculptures and prints. The authenticity of materials will present a textural sensory antidote to our increasing separation from nature. Working in collaboration with farmers and animals, non-utilitarian art will co-exist with essential crafts of the small farm. This artistic collaboration and process itself is a performance to be documented and as a result so will the character of each farm and it’s humans.

In the tradition of rural art, the local community of the small farms will be engaged. The site-responsive sculpture, prints, performance documentation and resulting book will be brought out of its rural context through gallery/museum tours, and employing social media and web-based video