Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Local artists pictured above are (L to R) Barbara Shafer, Maurine Skroskie, Sue Pearson, Anders Shafer, Bruce Warren, Mary Elworthy.
A Water Journey
Local Issues
Ken Szymanski (left) and Sean Hartnett (right) spoke on January 29. Sean revealed the bathymetric details of the run of the Chippewa River from Eau Claire to the Mississippi. Ken talked about river trips as therapeutic summer fun (sometimes work, if the wind was pushing upstream). About 130 people attended this event in the Riverview Room of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.
Regional Issues
Sarah Vitale (left in photo) is the UW-Eau Claire representative to the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin. The organization works to “ensure that Wisconsin’s water systems are healthy and reliable for generations to come.” Ingrid Lyons (right), spoke on behalf of “Save the Boundary Waters,” an effort to preserve the integrity of the lakes and streams of northeastern Minnesota.
Introducer Ella Fossum is in the middle.
The Global View, Arctic Norway
Pictured are Norwegian writer Synne Borgen with Norwegian-born Ager President Ivar Lunde. Borgen offered views of the grandeur of giant ice bergs and glaciers and the contrasting layers of gravel found across the Svalbard Archipelago. What she found in the Far North was mountains that “look porous, caught in the middle of disintegrating.” Her residency on an explorer ship led her to realize that “a landscape is a text that slowly becomes legible.”
Hmong History: The Water Story
True Vue (left), Executive Director of the Hmong Mutual Aid Association, told the story of Hmong history as revealed in the story cloth. Even though the creation of story cloths was initially a money-making, artistic enterprise, it was clear in the imagery that Hmong culture and history are tied to bodies of water such as the Yellow River in China and the Chiplpewa in Eau Claire. Tim Hirsch (right) introduced Vue.
Hmong History: The Water Story (cont’d)
To the left is a story cloth depicting warfare and escape. The Mekong River bisects the work at a point where past meets present and future.
Hmong History: The Water Story (cont’d)
Vue discussed other Hmong fabric arts at the table of exhibits she brought to the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.