“Skylight” in Stillness (top) and in Movement (bottom) showcased at the Stellar Gallery during the preview exhibit. The moving version featured a moon rise in the Sierra high country in real time.
Editor’s note: Visual artist Mari Wahrhaftig participated in a unique way this year during the Sierra Art Trails event. The following is her take on the experience.
“A Soft Landing” displayed on a Canvia digital art display.
To step out of the box and into a new era of my work, I moved to the Sierra Nevada earlier this year and knew I wanted to create something meaningful at the Sierra Art Trails.
I created a small visual storytelling journey with still and moving images that took the viewer on a walk in nature in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to experience the magic from the very same mountain range where the pieces are from.
Set under oak trees and ancient rocks in a private landscape in Ahwahnee, I got to bring something meaningful to life. This was not only my first time showing at the Sierra Art Trails, but was also the first artist in its 22 year history that got to present work in my medium of video, or “art in movement” as I call it.
Three of the featured pieces, two of them are Canvia digital art devices that showcased moving pieces, “Guardian in The Clouds” was a video of moving clouds on Half Dome, “Hope in the Alpenglow” was a still image of the sunrise on Banner Peak, and “A Soft Landing” was a moving piece that featured llamas grazing by a lake seen from within the trees. The idea was to bring video as art to a setting where the viewer didn’t know the images were moving until they were upclose and experienced it.
What seemed like a wild idea, showing videos under trees in an outdoor installation meant to look like framed artworks became a reality in ways only these mountains can explain.
“Memories of Home: The Sierra Nevada in Stillness and Movement” was a coming together of my background in video and media as an artist, producer and storyteller, and the direction I’ve been moving toward. One where visual storytelling becomes a way of honoring nature, giving back to the land and showing the magic that exists in these mountains.
The walkthrough was a sequence of images that told a story of light, darkness, storms, time and safe landings. Cycles of nature, and, inevitably, of life.
It wasn’t until I was looking at the images, finishing the story arc, that I realized it was also telling my own story: through the last few years of my life, the changes that led me here, the mountains that spoke to my soul and where it (hopefully) all leads.
“Memories of Home: The Sierra Nevada in Stillness and movement” welcomes viewers to experience a visual journey centered around “art in movement” pieces. A series of easels along the path display an image telling a story in sequence. The pieces features both still and moving images, with the latter all being displayed on Canvia digital art devices. At the far end of the path a welcoming area invite viewers to an intimate setting that echoes the theme of the showcase creating the feeling of home where visitors step closer and experience the work more intimately. The entire setup flows with landscape, creating a quiet space where the surrounding mountains are the subject and the backdrop to this storytelling experience.
What started as a far-out dream became a reality as I stopped one day in the middle of it coming together when I looked around and realized I was living something special, something that could have only happened with the help of all the people that showed up along the way.
In partnership with Canvia, a digital art canvas company from San Jose, I was able to bring art in movement into a space where video could exist as fine art. The support of a beautiful artist community, friends, a dedicated curator, welcoming organizers, local businesses and even a tech company helped bring life to something that was more than meaningful.
Even through a stressful year, I found myself held by people who care — and surrounded by work that meant something more than art as entertainment. This was a bridge. One that exists in between where I’ve been and where I’m going.
(Every piece had a still and moving version. Two of those were: A Moonrise in the Yosemite Hight Country called “Skylight” that featured a four minute long video of the moonrise in real time, and a still image taken right after about moments where darkness might surround us but sometimes there’s an opening that shows light as a reflection of hope, if we just stopped and looked for it; a sunrise where the Alpenglow starts and progresses reflecting the light on Banner Peak was a real time 20 minute long piece of the colors changing as the Alpenglow reflected the hope that the sun was on the way.)
Closer image of the intimate area that contrasted the environment with curtains, and simple furniture against the hills, trees and rocks, creating the feeling of home within the mountains.
It is true that all art is self-reflective, but I did not realize how much this statement was true until I had put together my first showcase at the Sierra Art Trails this year.
I came into this not knowing what to expect, an idea that felt really magical but too far out from what seemed possible, wanting to create an experience that honored the very mountains that shaped the shifts in my life and work over the last couple of years, a kind of impossible looking pinterest board for this event, and a medium that no one had ever even applied with in the 22 years the event has been alive for.
Mari in front of the final area of the exhibit.
I just kept a light in my heart as I had moved to the Sierra Nevada and didn’t know anyone in the area at the time I knew I wanted to create something special for this.
“Memories of Home: The Sierra Nevada in Stillness and Movement” was the name I gave to my showcase and select works. I wanted people to experience the magic of this mountain range in motion, as one would if they were out there and decided to stop long enough to see the way the land moves.
The moments where stillness is the only way to see movement and experience the magic hides in the seemingly mundane.
What I had imagined was to create a walking experience where each image was a part of a story and when seen in sequence, the story unfolds and moves through stages, of day and night, light and darkness and life as one would experience at some point in time.
The wild in my vision board was that the images all moved and the walking experience was outdoors, in a natural landscape where the setting was the very mountains all the pieces were from.
Since I was new to this town, I let the event organizers help me with a location, and the only thing I mentioned I needed was access to outlets to be able to show moving art, and when I was asked about weather I needed an indoor space or outdoor, I said indoors because it made the most logistical sense to my producer mind.
Somewhere along the way this year in between the ebbs and flows of life where a liminal year meets backcountry journeys, too many stressors than normal and sunset mountain summits with solo nighttime descents. I realized that all of the things I had hoped for but didn’t think would be possible were all happening at the same time when I spent the course of a week going in and out of the Yosemite Gateway Art Center to make adjustments for my video piece for the preview exhibit.
I was able to spend time with the wonderful people who organize this event, a curator who encouraged my vision to come to life, a digital canvas company from California that helped bring my art in motion to life through partnership, and very late nights with my first friend in town who I met long before I even applied and happens to be a very talented artist who also showcased her ceramics and sculptures at the event who stayed up until 2:30 a.m. the day before both of our first showings helping me build easels from wood the best local lumberyard helped me cut to size and figure out dimensions.
In the end, this project was the convergence of the place that changed my life, my art, my purpose; a story that reflects the stillness of nature where I heard parts of my soul speak to me that I had long forgotten, parts I didn’t know to search for until I first came here: light and darkness, life’s storms, hope and the longing after the storms; a deeply self reflective project where four pieces of moving art carried through the last 4 years of my life as I searched for a feeling I have only met twice, and a convergence in my life path.
Responses (0)