Sunday Feb 9th will be full of fun! Join me in darning on ice and then talking about toilet paper. Quite the combo! 

Sunday is the final day of the Art Shanty Projects on Lake Harriet. I am honored to be collaborating with the Holding Shanty and hosting sock darning from 10am-noon. Bring a holey sock and darn it up on the ice with me! 

At 3pm is the artist talk at Hair and Nails for the exhibition Future Future. Join curators Ryan Fontaine and Kristin VanLoon and fellow artists to talk about the excellent exhibition! 

HOLDING SHANTY INFO: 
The Holding Shanty is about finding ways to hold each other better. Better Futures Minnesota, our partner, trains men in the deconstruction of buildings and the reconstruction of their dreams after incarceration. The Holding Shanty’s design was developed in Better Futures’ Makers Space out of recycled materials from their Reuse Warehouse, with input from the Better Futures Men. The Holding Shanty offers experiences of holding as an action of reframing, rebuilding, and creating space for care. Artists: Molly Balcom Raleigh, Jason Burbul, Valentine Cadieux, David Marsh-Pitman, Scott Raleigh, Nik Ranpura, Peter Schulze, Emily Stover, Rachel Swearingen

Accessibility Notes: There are free bus passes available for download on the Art Shanties website. There are wheelchair accessible gender segregated bathrooms in the park building near the Art Shanties. And I *think* there are gender neutral porto-potties on site too (but I didn't see where). It is worth checking the weather and ice conditions for accessibility to the shanties. It can range from slippery to slushy to snow packed and is only variably shoveled. Kicksleds are available to transport folks with limited mobility onto the ice and throughout the village. Two are equipped to accommodate a wheelchair. Most shanties have one step to enter them. The Holding Shanty is not wheelchair accessible. It has two doors, the "front door" is up a series of steep steps and then down a precarious ramp. The "back door" has one large step to enter a relatively packed lower floor where there are 3 benches. This is where the darning will take place. 

Because it is cold, I have been looking back to spring. Here is an image from my installation "Escape to the Country too" from Herkimer in Brooklyn in May. The work was part of the show Hair and Nails so lovingly brought from Minneapolis to Brooklyn. It was a fantastic show and I am so grateful to have been a part of it from a distance. 

If you haven't yet visited Franconia Sculpture Park to see my latest work, make a visit! If you can't make it this month, no pressure, it will be up until September 2020 at least! 

photo by Jaffa Aharonov

For those on the East Coast, I will be giving a talk on Weds Feb 20th at 6:30 at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. 
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Ramstad’s talk considers the intimate collectivity of public bathrooms, domestic grooming implements, and archives of the body. He will discuss his work in the context of considering what it means to care, be cared for, and provide care and how institutions exhibit tenderness towards their public. 

All readings and artist talks will be held in the Stanley Kunitz Common Room, and all exhibitions will be in the Hudson D. Walker Gallery unless otherwise noted. Both venues are located at 24 Pearl Street in Provincetown.

The Stanley Kunitz Common Room and the Hudson D. Walker Gallery are handicapped accessible. If you need assistance, please call the Fine Arts Work Center at 508-487-9960 ext. 101 in advance.

Juried by Nicole Soukup, this group show at Rosalux looks great. It is open from Dec 7th-Dec 30th. Come and see some art if you are in Minneapolis! 

It was a pleasure to work on a bathroom commission at The Minnesota Museum of American Art this fall. They are now open to the public as of December 2nd! It's okay, take your time (water sounds), features waterfall murals in two bathrooms for the whole year.  So when you visit, make sure to take your loo break in the education wing of the museum and enjoy the rushing water imagery! Admission is free, the bathrooms are both single stall, lockable, accessible by wheelchair, with support bars and one has a baby changer. Let me know what you think! 

Francisco J. Galarte featured my work, Touching Each Other, in the Transgender Studies Reader fashion section. Check out all the awesome articles. 

Samuel Steward and the Pursuit of the Erotic is finally available in paperback! Aren Z Aizura and I wrote the chapter "Ungilting the Gold Star Gay." Order from Amazon.com or Ohio State Press.