Yesterday we got plants at a local nursery. We focused on native perennials because the yarrow @rebeccawillhoft gave me last year was the only thing to survive the winter.
The experience felt totally different from big box stores where you can buy a plant, paint, and patio furniture that you then self check out. Convenience has replaced care.
I stopped shopping at Amzn and Trgt last year. This year I added HD to my list of places not to go. I’ve learned how to buy less more thoughtfully. When possible, I trade or get what I need used directly from people. I make fewer impulse purchases and I spend more intentionally. I like knowing my money supports the kinds of systems and people I believe in.
I think a lot about systems related to my art practice, and I'm noticing them more in everyday life. Bucking systems geared for the few has changed my outlook for the better.
Thanks @gardenheights
Side note: I'm rereading Pearl S. Buck's, “The Good Earth.” Absolutely timeless.
I’ve been reflecting on how care continues traveling through friendships, mentorship, and shared creative histories long after moments have passed.
I’m deeply grateful that, through the efforts of many people, artwork by my dear friend and mentor Lindsay Obermeyer now has a permanent home at Washington University in St. Louis.
The hat in the first image is one I bought from Lindsay years ago. Hats became a central part of her practice and a way of connecting people through participation, performance, humor, vulnerability, and touch. I later commissioned her to create work for ART MAKES PLACE in Nashville. Laumeier Sculpture Park and the Art Museum of the University of Memphis incorporated her participatory hat works into their programming. Lindsay understood deeply that art could create relationships between people, not just objects to be viewed.
I first knew Lindsay as a student at SAIC, helping fabricate her beadwork pieces while she fed me lunch and played loud experimental music that I hated.
Lindsay lived with cancer for much of her life, yet still built an extraordinary practice, adopted and raised a child, collaborated generously, and mentored artists along the way. She taught me a tremendous amount about care, about the importance of connecting deeply with others, and about the impact art can have when it becomes a vehicle for those connections.
I’m thankful to everyone who helped make this placement possible, and especially moved that Lindsay’s work continues to create connection among the people who loved and learned from her. There’s something beautiful in that continuity.
Lindsay passed away 6 years ago. I still miss her and often think about the impact her art and actions continue to have.
Today I felt the circularity of care.
I woke up to a thoughtful review of the Red Gate show. A middle schooler sent me a well-crafted note about my artwork. My new friends at Bullivant Gallery took me to lunch at Egg, which is exhibiting my work in honor of my work with Earth Week. The woman who took our picture told me how much she enjoyed my work.
What strikes me is how little of it I saw coming. The journalist who understood and thoughtfully communicated the community we're building at Red Gate. The student who took the time to write. Neighborhood business owners who gather together and support each other.
This is the part of being an artist that doesn't make it into the grant and exhibition applications -- the way care moves between people when you've planted and nurtured the seeds. It is the part that keeps us going.
Today makes me think about what we're actually building when we make things with meaning that build relationships. Robin Wall Kimmerer says it best: "All flourishing is mutual."
@aishasultanstories
stlpostdispatch
@eggstlmidtown @stlouisearthday
@bullivantgallery
@robertbullivant
@lassaadjeliti Jeliti
@robinwallkimmerer
@wydownart
@theredgategallery
@midtownalley
#StLouisArt
#AllFlourishingIsMutual
One of my favorite sightings today. Great Guy. How can you have an Earth Day Festival without the Lorax?!?
See you tomorrow @stlouisearthday Day 365!
Can't wait to see you today @stlouisearthday! We had such fun building the domes. We made little doors for kids, bigger doors for adventures and larger, handicap accessible and stroller friendly doors for families! Which one is your favorite?
If you take pictures, tag me and #DoubleBloomSTL for your chance to win prizes for the best photos!
Thank you to all the Community Partners and participants who made this work possible.
@stlouisarts
@sabrinarobbstlrealestate
@straightupsolar
@repstl
@stldancetheatre
@centralwestendyoga
@matistlouis
@breaphotographystl
@eggstlmidtown
@stlouisearthday
@stlouiskwikdry
@vianneystlart
Join me this weekend at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival!
Forest Park • Muny Grounds • Near the Pagoda
Saturday & Sunday, April 25–26 • 11 am–5 pm
Share your time in and around the domes!
Post a photo or video
Tag @adrienneoutlaw
#DoubleBloomSTL
Try one of these approaches:
💃 Find movement
🔆 Follow the light
🖼️ Frame a composition
🧘 Feel the space
Prizes include theater, dance, and festival tickets, yoga classes, solar chargers, and more thanks to the Double Bloom Community Partners
@stlouisarts
@sabrinarobbstlrealestate
@straightupsolar
@repstl
@stldancetheatre
@centralwestendyoga
@matistlouis
Selected posts will be featured.
Prizes announced next week.
Private account? DM me.
Double Bloom programming is live for this weekend at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival in Forest Park!
Storytime, music, movement, conversation, and open access throughout both days—drop in anytime and stay as long as you like.
All events are free and open to everyone.
While you’re there, capture your experience and share it:
@adrienneoutlaw
#DoubleBloomSTL
With programming by @stlouispubliclibrary, @urbanforesttherapy, @stephplant, and more!
So excited for the @stlouisearthday, this weekend on the Muny grounds in Forest Park. It's free and open to everyone!
I’ll be presenting Double Bloom, two 10′ × 17′ walk-in domes made from community-collected, post-consumer plastic.
Thank you to all the Community Partners and participants who made this work possible.
@stlouisarts
@sabrinarobbstlrealestate
@straightupsolar
@repstl
@stldancetheatre
@centralwestendyoga
@matistlouis
@breaphotographystl
@eggstlmidtown
@stlouisearthday
@stlouiskwikdry
@vianneystlart
I’ll be speaking this Sunday at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville as part of The Nashville Arts Ecosystem, Then and Now.
In conversation with a group of women who have shaped the city’s visual art landscape across generations.
3:00–4:00 PM in the auditorium.
Hope to see you there.
@fristartmuseum
@saturnsamantha
@redarrowgallery
