Festivals and Culture

"The artist’s mother taught her to crochet in the 1960s. Pepe discovered women artists working in America who were a generation or two older and associated with the feminist art movement — Lynda Benglis, Eva Hesse, and Nancy Spero — as a crucible to launch her sculptural investigations. Those women responded to the fury of the Vietnam War and became agents of activism for Pepe who overturned hoary assumptions by responding to gender, identity, and civil rights. She also questioned the materiality in sculpture, so closely linked to gender. Pepe radicalized the grandmotherly constitution of crochet into a paradigm of feminist action." more »

Ferida Wolff Ponders: "Well, the bushes are beginning to flower again and Bebe is back! It seems to have even more energy than last year. It is there when I open the door but it isn’t threatening. It keeps its distance as I watch it discourage any other bees that seem interested in the bushes. The strange thing is that I don’t see any nest in the bushes. What is it protecting?"     more »

Julia Sneden Wrote: My mind’s eye can still see the face of the Children’s Librarian, although I have long since forgotten her name. We will be wise to continue to back up our knowledge of history and literature and art and science with hard copy. She kept up with my reading level, suggesting writers and books that she thought I might enjoy, feeding my curiosity and interests. I believe that curiosity is genetically programmed into every child. The first way a child explores the world is through direct, sensory experience. Later on, the mastery of spoken language (oh, those questions!) provides information, but ultimately, it is learning how to read that opens a child’s mind to the endless possibilities of a world of literature and science and history and human thought." more »

‘A dried flower holds time. A fresh flower holds a moment, and both are equally special. The beauty of a dried flower is being able to revisit it and observe it as a preserved object of the earth, a perfect form of nature that holds onto its fragility.’ Since 2003 Law has been collecting every flower and every remnant of dust left by flowers. She now has a collection of over 1 million preserved flowers exhibiting in the USA, 250,000 flowers exhibiting in Asia and Australia and a collection of over 500,000 flowers exhibiting in Europe. This body of material keeps growing and with each new exhibition an extra layer of flowers is added to the existing material. Any recent installations have utilised the artist's vast collection of materials, amassed since the start of this pioneering practice, alongside locally sourced materials." Editor's Note: Pua: What is Pua in Hawaii? The federal government's CARES Act provides a separate program for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that extends eligibility to individuals who normally do not qualify for traditional unemployment benefits. more »