Catamount Arts

Saturday, December 6, 9:00am-noon

Catamount Arts Center 

Instructor: Gnaomi Siemens

Where do we go from here? The way forward requires a revolutionary re-animation of our meme-dulled imaginations. In this hybrid art and writing workshop, the queer practice of making sense with the senses and the necessity of fantasy in the face of ecological emergency will be explored as pathways towards image making. We will look at works by artists who create alter-egos and avatars to question history and imagine futures such as Kent Monkman and Serwah Attafuah, and artists, such as ORLAN and Saya Woolfalk, exploring figures in the context of chimera, hybrid, and more-than-human forms. We will consider the artistic practice in the context of a magical praxis. We will forget everything we thought we knew about poetry and explore our own anti-poetics with literary devices that transgress and disrupt. In learning how to tell new stories we will begin to expect the unexpected, we will surprise ourselves with our adaptability and associative image-making and stop taking ourselves too seriously. Where do we go from here? We’ll make it up! This is for anyone looking for inspiration or who is curious about the artistic practice. No skills or previous experience necessary. Please bring a favorite notebook and pen or pencil (no phones or laptops) - we’ll have some available for anyone who forgets. 

Class fee: $45 (10% discount for Catamount Arts members) Please contact Anne at 802-748-2600 ext 109 to inquire about financial assistance. 

560 Railroad Community Artist Gnaomi Siemens is a poet and interdisciplinary artist based in New York City who writes about ecology, culture, and art through a queer, ecofeminist lens. Her work can be found in The Believer, Seneca Review, Portland Review, Epiphany Magazine, Poet Lore, and Action, Spectacle, among others in the US and abroad. Her work has been supported by The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The Arctic Circle, Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The British Library, The Poetry Society of New York, American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and The Council For European Studies. Her first poetry collection, The Errant, was a finalist for The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize.