Bug-Maineia Photos of Vivien Russe and Mary Hart at the Maine State Museum

 Ant Girl Vivien Russe and honorary Ant Girl Mary Hart(who assisted us in making the giant Ant scrolls for our Ant Farm exhibition last April), worked all day long at BUG -Maineia, a project that merged art and science at the Maine State Museum on Sept. 13th!  
Parents, teachers and kids were very involved and enthusiastic. Participants use pre-made Ant Girl stamps to make a new scroll of leafcutter ants.  Mary Hart was a champ not only providing materials, good ideas and a lot of enthusiasm.  Mary had the good idea of take-away index cards(see below). Thank you to Vivian and Mary Hart for their hard work!

The Bug Maine-ia project helped create a new ant scroll!

 

SEPT. 10th Ant Girl Vivien Russe at BUG-MAINE-ia + Maine State Museum 9am -3pm

SEPT. 10th  9am -3pm

Ant Girl Vivien Russe at BUG-MAINE-ia 

+ Maine State Museum in Augusta

 Don't miss out on Vivien Russe's workshop on leaf cutter ants.

Click here for questions and directions.

 

The leaf cutter ants and humans are two species that are farmers. The leaf cutter ants cut leaves and carry them back to the colony to be used as a substrate to grow a fungus that is the food source for the colony.

At Bug-Maine-ia, kids can participate in making an ant scroll to capture this activity. Using soft block images of ants, they will print a column of ants on a long roll of paper and will then attach the leaf fragments to each ant. At the end of the day, the scroll will show just how busy these ants and these kids can be.

A similar activity was done by Ant Girls of Maine, as part of Ant Farm; at the nexus of Art and Science, a multimedia installation supported by the Maine Arts Commission.

!!Ant Party!! 4.11.14

Ant Party April 11th 6-8pm USM Lewiston-Auburn Campus    directions here
Listen to "Ant Farm" composed and performed by Elliott Schwartz and Caleb Mulkerin with Colleen Kinsella here

Atrium Gallery Installation complete!

Working with curator Robyn Holman and Facilites Manager Randy Estes for the installation of the Ant Girls "Ant Farm" was a great experience. They were open to all our ideas and we problem solved any hanging issues. Thank you both for your tireless work on the lift and on the ground!

No Sad Songs + Dorothy Schwartz 1938 - 2014

   Friends and family are mourning the loss of our beloved Ant Sister Deedee Schwartz who passed away on March 3, 2014. The Ant Farm Project is a testament to her love of life. We began meeting 2 years ago thanks to Rebecca Goodale. At Deedee's suggestion we looked to E.O Wilson and the leafcutter ants because of their cooperative nature as a Superorganism. Working together ant-style our colony of 4 created works we never could have imagined or achieved on our own. Deedee worked with infectious enthusiasm, making beautiful woodcuts(see below) and co authoring a A MAC Artists in Commuinity grant with our honorary Ant Girl USM Curator Robyn Holman which we received in February 2014.
  Deedee had been sick since mid November but with her indomitable spirit continued, despite severe pain, to attend work meetings for our project. 
She died peacefully within days, surrounded by her loving family. We are all grateful for knowing Dorothy "Deedee" Schwartz. She was a force of nature. 
Her creative spirit was boundless, compassionate, intelligent and irreplaceable.
   Deedee and her husband, avant garde composer Elliott Schwartz were a creative team. They supported each others individual endeavors and  collaborated on "Darwin's Dream", 
a multi- media performance. Elliott will be composing "Ant Girls" with Caleb Mulkerin for the upcoming exhibit. She made it clear she wanted “No Sad Songs”, feeling she had lived a very full life, with so much joy. Dorothy was a champion of  literature & literacy. She established the Harriet P. Henry Maine Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress. A quote from a collague during her time as Executive Directeor at the Maine Humanities Council, " Deedee’s energy, commitment and vision enriched not only the Council, but the state of Maine.
 This past October in 2013 the Maine Jewish Museum held her solo exhibition "Dorothy Schwartz: Evolution of a Printmaker" , beginning from her days with Leonard Baskin  in 1958 until present . Printmakers everywhere have lost a edgy contemporary whose elegant and compelling  legacy spans 7 decades. 

Ant Girls working hard and giving thanks!

So much work over the past few months that I thought it best to describe our sessions in pictures instead of words...

The Queen's Eggs in process:

Ant Girls received funding for our project "Ant Farm".
Thanks to the  Maine Arts Commission's Artists in Communities Grant we will be able to install our piece in different iterations throughout the state. Handmade cards went out to all those who made this possible.
Huge thanks to Robyn Holman, curator at the USM Atrium Gallery where our show opens this coming April 2014.

Nuptial Flight revisited.

This summer  the winged males were constructed.

Nuptial Flight realized! 
A few weeks ago we took the assembled males and hung them. So much fun!