The Slow Money Conference in Shelburne, Vermont was an enthusiastically attended event with over 600 activists, organizers, investors and farmers participating. The primary focus of the 2 days of talks, sessions, tours and networking was food, food production and investment strategies for food. Organic and local, small scale farms are the major players in this arena.
Organized and inspired by Woody Tasche, author of the book Slow Money, the slow money movement is in keeping with the slow food movement.
Woody Tasche and Martin Ping, executive director of Hawthorne Valley Farm
A rousing talk by Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stoneyfield Farms inspired the group with he called “pathological optimism”.
As an artist and small business owner, I view the slow money movement as growing evidence that a critical mass is being achieved, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but that there are growing numbers of participants in solution driven action. Call me a pathological optimist!
Part of my interest and commitment in the sustainability movement is to continue to emphasize the importance of how and where things are made, by whom and of what. Food is clearly at the center of the movement but stuff is the next tier of importance in bringing economic sustainability into being. Our goods support us in ways we often take for granted. We need to bring our attention to this realm as well.
Lilacs outside the studio door
Spring has fully sprung in upstate New York. It was close to 80*F this past weekend! I spent time in the garden with my assistant, James, a high school student with a passion for art. We finished reclaiming about 30 gallons of fine porcelain slip and then went outside in the glorious warm sunshiny day to prepare garden beds for spring planting after Mother’s Day. I am planning a somewhat better organized entrance to the studio this summer. In years past, I’m afraid the outside has taken a back seat to the endeavors on the inside. Being open for visitors one day a week has been on the agenda for over 6 years now, starting Memorial Day weekend and running through Labor Day. I post open studio hours Saturdays from 12noon - 4PM. This year I am making it more welcoming.
I have Thomas Hobbs “Shocking Beauty” in my shopping cart at Amazon. Maybe this year will be the one that takes my garden to the next level!
Come visit on Saturdays this summer if you are upstate. I’d love to see you! I will be serving coffee and tea and bite of something delicious.
I recently went across the river to Saugerties, NY where I visited old friend Zazel Lovin and partner
Robert Sherman. Zazel and I worked together years ago when she was an editor at Country Living Gardner.
Robert makes beautiful furniture and accessories out of barnwood, a wonderfully reclaimed material we have in abundance in upstate NY. Lots of old barns are falling down and new ones need to be made from new wood or synthetic materials. The old wood is often burned but it makes a fabulous material for tables, chairs and anything else the artist imagines.
Robert was kind enough to fabricate this box for a 4 piece place setting of my cake plates, juice cups and miso bowls with 4 linen napkins. It was auctioned off at the
Eco-Artspace benefit last week in New York City. The event was called “What Matters Most.” Almost 300 artists participated and Amy Lipton and Tricia Watts were quite the belles of the ball having attracted so much good attention and
press.I look forward to doing more work with Robert. I think my simple white dishes are quite fitting on his rustic old barnwood tables. What do you think?
I’m leaving, on a jet plane…. Tomorrow I pack up and head to Austin, Texas where the craziest tech, music and film conference/festival/all out creative bash takes place. The annual South by Southwest (affectionately called SXSW) begins today. I have the great good fortune to be speaking on a panel Monday, March 15th with Hugh MacLeod, John Unger and Amrita Chandra. Hugh and John are both artists and Amrita is an art dealer and forward thinker re. art and the web. She is also the organizer of the panel.
What the 4 of us have most in common, besides the whole art thing, is the passion to reconcile art and commerce. In an honest and upfront manner. Art and commerce have been uncomfortable bed fellows for many people over the eons. The love of money and all that. We will argue and explain how that is pure rubish and it is the empowered artist, making a living, that will truly change the game.
If you are at the event this year, do stop by. Otherwise, bug me to write more. 
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Saturday, February 20th, 5:30-9pm
$35, limit 40 guests. BYOB.
For reservations: (413) 442-1622 or info@ferringallery.com
DISH & DINE @ Ferrin Gallery - the first in a series of evening dinners in the gallery pairing local food with local artists.
In conjunction with Jason Houston’s solo show of photography, Family of Mine,the gallery teams up with our new neighbor THE MARKET for a catered dinner featuring a menu from locally grown produce served on dinnerware by MARY ANNE DAVIS.The evening will include a viewing of new work from his farm series, a visual presentation and dinner conversation with JASON HOUSTON based on contemporary photography, documentary, and personal perspectives.
ONVIEW: JASON HOUSTON Photography: Food and Farming
Jason Houston, an independent documentary photographer, focuses on social and environmental issues across the country and around the world. He has photographed the small family farms throughout the Berkshire region for over a decade and traveled to over a dozen countries documenting community-based conservation in the developing world. His environmental portraits, landscapes, and elemental details focus the viewer on the global issues and processes that define how we live on this planet. Houston is a frequent contributor to Berkshire Living Magazine and serves as the photo editor of Orion Magazine.
DISH – Mary Anne Davis out of nearby Chatham, NY makes functional porcelain dishware intended for daily use. She shares thoughts on making and using functional tableware – “Art and life come together at a table. Using handmade dishes to set a table provides the opportunity to express private creativity: ephemeral and memorable. The social fabric, the relationships built one meal at a time becomes the real art and the meal has an energy of a higher order. Conversation is magic, bringing each individual at the table into a personal bond.”
DINE – The Market, a new neighborhood corner store, creates a dinner based on the range of products carried at the store.
MENU:Equinox Farms mixed greens w/ balsamic vinaigrette
Seasonal Root vegetable puree
Woodstock Farms mustard-rubbed roast pork loin
Seasonal grilled local vegetables
Homemade mini-cupcakes, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert
(from the Ferrin Gallery website)
