Every Sunday of the What’s Love Got To Do With It? residency, the lead artist Ashley Neese is making a home cooked meal for all of us. Lucky us! This was what she made last Sunday: Vegan carrot and coconut soup, spinach salad, gluten-free corn bread.
Ashley Neese is a multidisciplinary artist from Atlanta, Georgia, who now lives in Portland, Oregon. Her work looks at the theme of love, and I especially related to her pieces about her family. During her artist talk the other day, she played a sound recording of her mother reading a list of things that Ashley would want her mother to know, things that she would want someone she loved to know in case the worst ever happened. She made lists for her brother and father as well, but she only played the one of her mother reading. I don’t know if it was her mother’s voice, which quivered at some points and sounded like she might cry or was crying, or my own thoughts about what I would say to my own mother, but I was very close to tears listening to the audio piece. Quite a few of my fellow “Love” resident artists were also nearly moved to tears.
One of the interesting discussions we’re having during this residency is about the theme of love in art, and how many in the industry don’t see it as a serious enough theme to make work about. We’re having our first reading discussion group tomorrow afternoon, and I’m sure this topic will be touched on and it will be interesting to hear everyone’s opinions, especially as everyone in this group creates work that is related to the theme of love in one form or another.
To see and hear some of Ashley’s work, please visit her website at www.ineedyouso.com