Worth Their Salt

Local artists receive Ontario Arts Council Grant

Local artists Linda Wiebe and Karen Melady are the successful recipients of an Artists in the Community grant from the Ontario Arts Council. The $7,500 research and development grant will help support their arts project, Worth Their Salt, which will focus on the themes of human and natural resources. Collaborative artist Karen Melady says, "I was really pleased to see that, not only had we received the maximum funding, but we were one of the few small town recipients; over two thirds were from Toronto. When I read the list I was very proud to see it in print: Worth Their Salt, Goderich!"

Artists in the Community projects include the participation of a non-arts community organization. The partner organization for Worth Their Salt is Women Today of Huron. "We are thrilled to partner with local women artists." said Pam Hanington, Executive Director. "As a women's centre, we're always exploring possibilites and community relationships in our work with women and youth, so this partnership is a natural fit for us."

Worth Their Salt will start with research by the artists, followed by experimental sessions with community participants exploring themes of personal and natural resources, and working with different media. “I always look forward to the creative discovery that occurs while sharing stories, and making with art materials, says collaborative artist, Linda Wiebe. “This project is special because of its link to people in our community whose creative response is integral to our research.” The discoveries from this project will be the seed materials for possible larger public arts events in the future. As the community partner, Women Today of Huron will provide a charitable receipt to any individual, organization or business that would like to support this innovative community arts project.

We are using art processes to explore our resources in workshops called Salt Blocks.

Salt Block #1:

The Gem I Am

with G.D.C.I. Gurals

April 24th, 2006

Authentic

Gural Gems

Salt Block#2 Mothers: Past Present Future

Saturday, May 13th, 2006

You know la mer, la mère, mother - it all comes back to the sea. An ancient sea gave us this subterranean layer of glistening white salt, left over from Paleozoic birthwater. We all have a relationship to mothering – as daughters, as friends, as caregivers and caregiven. So much of mothering is underground.

Mother Images

Photo transfers, fabric paint, embroidery on cotton.

Pat a Cake!,

An Afternoon with my Grandmother, Mother and Daughter,

Crazy Me, © Jesse Potte

Five Generations, © Carol Casey

My Great-Grandmother
In the
old country
when my grandmother
was a baby and cried a lot,
the family needed to hide in the woods because
the Russian soldiers were coming. My great-grandfather
said, “we must leave the baby in the house or her crying
will give our hiding place away. The soldiers will
not harm an innocent baby.” My great-
grandmother would not leave
her baby and stayed with
her
alone in the
house until the soldiers passed by

(an excerpt from Carol's Mother Art)

Mother, © Shannon Potter

Lots Wife/Daughters © Carol Casey

I am Lot’s wife
I had my own name, once,
but it is lost in the
grains of salt
that I am:
a million grains of salt
from a thousand tears
burnt dry by
the hot desert sun.

I start to follow him
across the plain.
The man I thought I knew-
the righteous man
who offered my beautiful, trusting
daughters
to be raped.

And I know I can no longer
walk with him because
I understand that
nothing I say
matters
nothing I feel
has meaning to him, or the future
I follow him into.

The life
I had before I knew this much
is burning up behind me.
Already
I am tired of living
the new formed lie
I am tired of seeing
the new revealed truth.

I want my daughters
to know
that this path
is not mine
I want them to
know that
there are choices.

I hear the cries
of those who knew me
burning up
behind me.

I turn
and cry with them

I am salt.

I am Lot’s daughter:
he is a righteous man.
My Mother is salt
I eat with Her every night
She makes my food
come alive.
I feel Her in my
blood.
She is everywhere.
Especially, She is in my
tears
and with my tears I remember
Her
the warmth of Her
the smell of Her
and I miss the hearth
where I laughed and played
beneath Her smile.

I am the daughter of a
righteous man
and a pillar of salt.

I do not have a name.

Salt Block #3: Salt of the Earth

The Women of Goderich Place

Saturday, June 3rd, 2006

You are the Salt of the Earth. Your stories are sustenance for generations to come. Is your story an unmined treasure? Bring it into the light and let it sparkle.

We are grateful to the women of Goderich Place for sharing their stories with us.

Salt Block #4: Women Returning

Saturday, July 15th, 2006

As Women Returning we mine our personal resources, create from these resources, and then share them with our community, all the while forging a place for ourselves in the world. We return to a practice of inward discovery and outward creation. Participating in a day of creativity, we follow this creative cycle in the context of community, celebrating how community is sustained by individual effort - the mining and processing of unique resources – and the formation of the larger, group expression.

At Serendipity: The Gardens of Sandy and Frank MacDonald

Bluewater Beach, Goderich

Art displays by women artists.

Opportunities to create and celebrate

Copper engraving and treatment

Individual nature installations and community mandala.

A Sampling of Individual Nature Installations

Spiritooal

© 2006

Spirit Creature

© 2006

Home, Roots, Body

© Susanna Reid, 2006

The Forest

© Jakov Marinic, 2006

Copper Leaf

© Liz Nesbitt, 2006

© Pam Hanington, 2006

Worth Their Salt is grateful for funding from the

Ontario Arts Council and Women Today of Huron.

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