Thursday, February 8, 2024

MY LETTER TO VIDEO DATA BANK; LINDA MARY MONTANO

 MY  LETTER TO VIDEO DATA BANK;  LINDA MARY MONTANO



LETTER TO VIDEO DATA BANK

 

Dear VIDEO DATA BANK,

 

Many years ago, maybe in the early 80's or late 70's I learned about you when KATE HORSFIELD and LYN BLUMENTHAL were your Curators and they accepted my early videos, MITCHELLS DEATH and LEARNING TO TALK.

 

That began a relationship which has lasted until now, 2023, and you, with current Curator TOM COLLEY, have collected probably over 60 of my tapes!!! You will never know how secure and happy I am to be in your video family!!! We go back over 43 years!!

                           

I would like to mention here a few highlights of our time together.

 

1. 1984, Curator Lyn Blumenthal interviewed me for your PROFILE VOL. 4 NO. 6 DECEMBER 1984

2. Curator Abina Manning, in 2017, published a 6 video compilation about DEATH titled: LINDA MONTANO: VIDEOWORKS VOLUME 1. It includes an interview with me and Janet Dees.

3. In February 2020, VDB in collaboration with The Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Film, Video, New Media and Animation Department invited me to present my work as part of the CONVERSATIONS AT THE EDGE series.

4. In 2023 I coordinated with Curator Tom Colley to donate royalties from my work to a charity of VDB's choice after my death.

 

VDB, as I said before, you have over 60 of my tapes!!! How can I thank you for that? You have all of my me as MOTHER TERESA tapes, all of my me as BOB DYLAN tapes, and my MITCHELLS DEATH tape which MOMA collected, and my recent dear to my heart video titled MA AND THE SEVEN CHAKRAS, a response to covid. It is appropriate that I mention here that I am completely "hands off" as far as technology goes and as a result, and for the last 25 years, MASTER video artist TOBE CAREY has edited/animated over 50 of my tapes and almost all of my sound was engineered by JIM BARBARO. Also, Tobe and I have co-created approximately four animated comedies titled LINDA AND TOBE MAKE A TAPE. They are hilarious. With Tobe‘s editing and animating I have been able to share my dreams.

 

To conclude, now that I am 81 years old, I have been feeling a video denouement, a coming to a close of my video making. This might not be true because I have said this before to Tobe. But soon you will receive one of my all-time favorites, WHAT COULD GO WRONG, and our last two; MOTHER HEALERS and my supposed truly last video, DEMENTIA. BTW, I have not contracted the elephant in the room, dementia, but I do want to address this health issue creatively because it is always ART=LIFE for me and using art as a medicinal healing tool for my everyday life issues is mandatory.  

 

I close with bows to Tom and all Staff. Please support VIDEO DATA BANK. Buy/rent videos! And know, VDB, I would like you to always FEEL MY GRATITUDE.

 

In ART=LIFE=LOVE

Linda Mary Montano 3/2023

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

A. To research my work even further these are my books:

1. ART IN EVERYDAY LIFE

2. THE ART LIFE INSTITUTE HANDBOOK

3. A HEART BEFORE AND AFTER ART LIFE COUNSELING

4. PERFORMANCE ARTISTS TALKING IN THE 80’S (also a MONOSKOP PDF)

5. MILDREDS DEATH

6. LETTERS FROM LINDA MARY MONTANO

7. YOU TOO ARE A PERFORMANCE ARTIST

8. MY LAST BOOK (MONOSKOP PDF only)

 

B. FALES LIBRARY NEW YORK UNIVERSITY has collected my extensive archive.

C. My BLOG is at LINDAMARYMONTANO@BLOGSPOT.COM

D. My website is in perpetuity via FALES

E. Lindamontano@hotmail.com

F. Phone 845-399-2502

 

MAY 24, 2023.  Bob Dylan’s 82nd Birthday. 

CONTRACT ADDITION:

 

ADDENDUM TO ALL LINDA MARY MONTANO CONTRACTS WITH VIDEO DATA BANK

ROYALTY PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS AFTER DEATH

           

           

Upon the death of Linda Mary Montano all future royalties generated by the distribution of her work by Video Data Bank shall be donated back to Video Data Bank to be used at its discretion.

To quote from an email sent by Linda on May 24th 2023, “Also after death, $$$ I gain can be used as u wish.  That is 1. a party for all of you each year?  2. It goes to Lyn Scholarship?  3. Feed children? You all decide.”

See also the attached document, LETTER TO VIDEO DATA BANK, for more context.

 

 

Linda Mary Montano                                                            Date        /        /        

LITAL DOTAN INTERVIEWS LINDA MARY MONTANO

 LITAL DOTAN INTERVIEWS LINDA MARY MONTANO




IN FALL 2022 I WAS INTERVIEWING SEMINAL PERFORMANCE ARTIST/LIFIST LINDA MONTANO IN HER LIVING ROOM IN UPSTATE NY. SHE WAS LYING ON HER BACK, HER EYES SHUT, VERY STILL SHE CHRONICLED THE DETAILED STORY OF HER LIFELONG ESCAPE FROM ART INTO LIFE, REVISITING HER WORK THROUGH STORYTELLING, CHANTING AND REPETITION. IN HER KITCHEN, WHILE WE SPEAK, MONTANO SET A POPCORN MACHINE TO TAKE TREAT BAGS HOME FOR MY TODDLER GIRLS. THIS ACT OF MUNDANE GENEROSITY WAS PROVIDING THE RHYTHMIC PULSE AND CINEMATIC SMELL TO THE ARTIST’S LIFE AND ART STORY, BUNDLING OUR DOCUMENTED CONVERSATION, OUR PRESENCE AND EMBODIED ABSENTS AS AN ARCHIVE SET INTO MOTION.

Linda Mary Montano: I begin anything with prayer and I pray that the holy spirits surround us and talk through us and that this becomes beneficial to not only us but others, and benefits performance art and artist angels, Amen.

Lital Dotan: Amen. We are here, at your home in Saugerties, where you grew up. And you came back here after you've had such a journey

LMM: I came back to the Hudson Valley in 1980. I lived in California for 10 years, and then I had been to schools and Europe and a convent 

LD: A lot of your work since coming back to the Hudson Valley was combining art and life. Your studio was named The Art Life Institute, how did your life become an art institution?

LMM: My work was always about life, and always about looking at my life, fixing life, celebrating my life, and therapy; my work was always about life therapy as a celebration. The institute was born when I lived in Kingston, before that I was living at a Zen center. So I was in that center and I thought I would live there forever and ever but then I met Tehching Hsieh and he was looking for someone to be roped to, tied to, for a year (for what would become ‘Art / Life: One Year Performance 1983–1984’ or 'Rope Piece'- LD), so I was on my way to being a Zen practitioner forever and I broke out in order to be with Tehching, in his rope. And after the rope is when the institute was born, in 1984.

LD: Yes that all makes a lot of sense now, putting these events on a timeline. In California you have been doing long durational work, being handcuffed to collaborators for days at a time. How did it feel meeting Tehching and becoming a collaborator in such an iconic work that explored similar ideas or experiences to yours, how did it feel being in another artist’s work for a whole year?

LMM: Well, it was exciting, it felt daring, because I was so wanting to be a big time Roshi in a Zen sense, I think deep down I wanted to be one of those priests with the robes, and the bells and walking around and I was retired from art, I said in 1980 I was retiring. So I came out of retirement because he was so adorable, I couldn't help myself. He was smart, intelligent and the king of endurance. So I bowed to Tehching- I came out of retirement basically. And he is very very strong, very very very very very very strong, and so we danced intensely, and politically it was a very interesting time because America felt there was only one performance artist world and that was in New York, not even California, so he was really struggling, when it was finished, lets say, because it was a feminist, women time, it was a "there are no other artists but American artists" time basically and it was very very hard on him, especially during the end of the piece. During the actual piece I felt honored to be with him, I felt honored to learn from him, I felt honored to collaborate with him, and again, he is very strong minded. I don't know if he felt honored to be with me, let’s put it that way. I was his collaborator and I didn't show him my previous work, I didn't sell myself to him strongly enough to stand up to his power, you know what I mean? Anyway I'm glad I did it, I'm glad I came out of retirement, it led to more and more work, you know, eventually the Fourteen Year Chakra piece, and its almost like now I’m doing the kind of meditation work, it took from 1983 to 2022 to finish up, I’m really retired now, really retired, I'm just doing preparation for death now. And I thought that in a sense I was always preparing for death but now I'm really really really preparing, I promise! I promise! I’m ready!

LD: Well you had a few retirements… the first one already in the 60's when you were a student and you left to join a convent

LMM: That’s right, but I wasn’t specifically an artist then, I was interested in art through my parents who were very artistic but I had not been saved by art yet when I went in the convent. I had not been embraced by art, I had not given my life to art, before the convent. When I left the convent I was saved by art. There were no therapists, I was an anorexic, 80 pounds, I was dying, and I went to a catholic college, and the nun was a beautiful artist and she opened the door to the sculpture room and pushed me in and that was the beginning of using art as a vehicle to heal from life, heal with life.

LD: I read this beautiful interview with you recently, in High Performance magazine from 1978, in which the title was “Matters of Life and Death" and here we are almost 50 years later, still discussing this as the core of what you do. Healing as art, healing yourself from life while healing others, it is so beautiful. I wanted to ask you about your perception of the body in performance, coming out of anorexia and that deletion of the body and then embracing performance which celebrates the existence of the body, channeling art and healing through the physicality of the body. 

LMM:  I make a separation between artist and lifist. An artist does certain things with life as material for their art, a lifist is brave, in the same way an artist is brave, just with life. And I was always very weak as a lifist. I used my body for my art and it didn’t matter how careful I was because it was for art. For example putting acupuncture pins in my face and a catheter up my nose through my mouth. I also did certain kinds of time abuse. I did a lot of blindfold pieces, because I was practicing self healing. I was not dealing with depression in therapy, I wasn't dealing with it in relationships, or in conversations, or communication or working things out, so I just incorporated all that trauma into my art. And that was my way, that was my path. After years of tragedy and my therapy from trauma, I've come down off the horse of art, onto the horse of life. And it’s like I have to hold on tightly, because now I am an elder so I have to grab quickly onto the skills that I've never learned in life… how to communicate, how to love, how to give, how to feel, how to share, how to discern, how to have boundaries, how to deal with my work, how to have the right relationship with the work, how to be an adult, how to be all grown up, and I felt like art allowed me not to be a grown up, and so I just stayed a creative wild child. The wild child is now an old woman, an elder in her eighties. And I feel its so important for artists, this is the speech part now- I feel it is so important that we are balanced, that we try not to bypass. There's a thing called spiritual bypassing, where people push away reality and it’s very important not to bypass all aspects of life. So I'm at that place of preparing to die with more skill. With more skills of life. The body was always to be used and it was a very good partner, it was always a wonderful partner, always did what I wanted it to do, you know. It was wonderful. And now I am preparing to leave it. And I think a lot of elderly artists and a lot of people after Covid are doing the same work, we are all dying. Life is a mess, we all have death on our minds now. I think it's not just me because I’m old. 

LD: Death was also part of your Dorsky Museum show in 2019, ‘The Art/Life Hospital’, then you were again lying down for an extended time. Was that part of the same process of letting go of the body?

LMM: It’s more an imitation. There’s a Hindi, Ramana Maharshi, who as a teenager, laid down and died to the world, and then went into a cave and meditated for years, to understand what life is. So it's a way for me to practice meditation publicly, and to talk about death. So I'm meditating publicly, I'm talking about death, I'm abusing my body because I'm laying still, I'm practicing but the teaching aspect is there. Oh I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die but guess what- you're gonna die too.

LD: How does it feel to practice that preparation for death within an institution, with an audience, is it different than your practice at home? 

LMM: I've forgotten what year it was I started involving the audience, incorporating the audience in my work and playing with the audience, I guess that's the difference. When I was laying in the coffin (during a durational live performance that was part of that show- LD), Carolee Schneemann, who was still alive, came over to me, and said out loud- in public situations, you would always know Carolee was there- she said "I'm next!” and two weeks later she died. I also live a few houses down from a funeral home and when I grew up, bodies were layed out in our houses. I find death such a good teacher of fear, of attachment, of love, of loss, and regret. There are so many aspects that are teaching tools around the concept of death and around facing it. 

LD: I'm curious to know if you ever thought about how your performance work about death could be archived or collected? I’m just thinking out loud of how live performance has modalities that are collectable now, and whether it would make sense at all for you to have that type of work have an after life

LMM: I say that my work doesn't really matter or I say that I am detached and that I don't want to run towards fame but I made sure that the work went to the archive at NYU so there is a double edge there, of attachment and detachment. But I feel that we are all performance artists now, everyone, and we’re all facing the same questions. We're all performing from that same impetus to make sense of the universe right now. And just because I'm 80 and death has been my theme, I repeat that we're all singing the same song. (Montano sings-) I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, one day, one day- it's a song- 

Earth is gonna hold me, earth is gonna eat me, dirt is gonna cover me up one day;

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, some day

Fire is gonna burn, fire is gonna singe me, fire is gonna light me up some day,

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, some day

Water is gonna wash me, water is gonna clean me, water is gonna float me somewhere

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, some day

Air is gonna leave me air is gonna breathe me air is gonna fly me away someday,

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, some day

I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna burn, I'm gonna blow away some day

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, some day

hohohoho hahahaha hihihihi one day one day

I’m gonna die I'm gonna die, we're all gonna die, one day

LD: When I met you at Glasshouse earlier this year, you were laying down inside a boat in our flooded basement, being chicken, embodying chicken for two hours. Your first performance work, as I recall was also inspired by chicken. Could you talk a little about what the chicken means in your work?

LMM: There are many levels, I think to that image, it's like it became my signature, a place I could always go back to and is mine, and that's selfish, that idea that I’m the only one that could do the chicken, owning that image in a way where I don't want anyone to be the chicken, “I'm the chicken, you can be a horse, you can be a dog, but I'm the chicken” (Montano shouts) “is somebody being a chicken here? I'm the only chicken!” — laughs, so that happened… what other artist is trying to be a chicken? tell them I'm the first chicken… The way that chicken image actually happened is that I was in graduate school, during a time in sculpture that everything was very hard edge and large, large large large, and men with big muscles making big works, bigger than this room, bigger than this house, and this is what was happening. But at graduate school, there were three of us, three women, and there was an agricultural school at the University of Wisconsin and so I found myself spending time with chicken, and I remember thinking to myself this is ridiculous, and instead of going to classes I would just go be with the chickens. And my professors were big cowboys, and were all wearing these big cowboy boots, and big pants, and they came up to my studio one day and said hey Montano, what are you gonna do for your MFA show? I said CHICKENS!!! I’m doing CHICKENS. So that’s how that happened. I talked the language at the time and put three huge cages up on the roof of the new art building, and I put the chickens in there, and I gave the chickens to one of the workers at the end of the show. At one point there was a tour of donors coming to the school, and they took my chickens away, they didn't want it to upset the donors, so instead they just wanted them to see the big wire cage sculptures that I made for the chickens. 

So the chicken has become my signature, it has my response to high art, and provides a way for me to transform to an angel. The chicken is spiritual flight and child's play.

LD: My last question is about the Hudson Valley, about a potential archive dedicated to the artists and art that happened here in the 70’s and 80's 

LMM: I moved here to retire and it became a hot spot! I moved here because there was nothing for me here in culture, so I always had retirement in my mind but now how do I retire in a hotspot? Too much going on!

LD: Who were the artists you were collaborating with? who are still around?

LMM: They’ll feel bad if I don’t mention the right names, we'll do that privately, I'll write it on a note (Linda then wrote that note, and I still carry it with me in the pocket of my green leather jacket- LD). 

Lital, Thank you for that generous meeting of our performance hearts. To conclude, let's give honor, let's give respect to all peasants who live life in sacredness, in concern for each other, who give life to their children, to their animals, their relationships, we give love to those with no applause, we thank them. Amen


Wednesday, December 6, 2023

PDF OF PERFORMANCE ARTISTS TALKING IN THE 80'S

 PDF  OF   PERFORMANCE ARTISTS TALKING IN THE 80'S



https://monoskop.org/images/d/d0/Montano_Linda_M_ed_Performance_Artists_Talking_in_the_Eighties.pdf

MONTH OF LINDA IN SAUGERTIES....REPEATED BLOG

 MONTH OF LINDA IN SAUGERTIES....REPEATED  BLOG



      LINDA MARY MONTANO  AT LAMB  CENTER/ EMERGE/ORPHEUM: THOUGHTS
ORIGIN: After seeing the Havey Fite show at the Lamb Center and emerge last year, remembering that I studied stone carving with Harvey Fites teacher, was it Pennington?, I felt encouraged when Shout Out: Suzanne Bennett & Christa Mattia and  Emerge: Robert Langdon asked me last year to consider a show with them. Having performed my funeral and partial Resurrection at the Dorsky some years ago, I was both honored yet foot dragging to be considered to be a once Saugerties  hidden and retired artist......now coming out of hiding.
INFLUENCES;  Both parents MILDRED&HENRY MONTANO for musical &artistic joy; my maternal grandmother MAGDALENA KELLY my first teacher .. an outsider artist; my paternal grandparents MARY&LOUIS MONTANO who spoke no english and influenced my work with personas; my family considered to be new immigrants in Saugerties which created a social isolation and hiddenness in me which made me a practitioner of not life but of art. I speak NOT LIFE, but ART which is an easy language for me ;Montano's shoe store influenced me in discipline and mentored me in the art of healing, the art of helping people; Catholic Church introduced  incense, ritual, soul study, discipline and I wanted to be a priest and being an artist was the next best way to share my version of ECSTASY!! My time in a Convent was a training in performative uniformity and endurance. There I was not speaking for 2 years : practicing the vow of silence. I “ lived“ many years with a Hindu Teacher SHRI BRAVANANDA SARASWATI who introduced me to the Chakras. Gratitude to MITCHELL PAYNE for giving me  unconditional love, gratitude to PAULINE OLIVEROS for mentoring how to listen, gratitude to DR ARUNA MEHTA for loving care. And gratitude to many others for EVERYTHING.
EDUCATION: parents never critiqued, allowed always to create and given money and time to do so. Nun at College opened the door to sculpture lab and i SELF HEALED from an eating disorder.  My art as therapy always there right from the beginning. For MA  sent sculptures home from Italy and they now are going to Museums in memory of MITCHELL PAYNE. My show for MFA  live chickens in gallery and beginning of endurance performances as CHICKEN WOMAN, a chance to endure stillness publically, as art. 
NEW TAKE ON CATHOLICISM:  MATTHEW FOX'S RECEIPE : PATH OF AWE is VIA POSITIVA, PATH OF RELEASE is VIA PURGATIVA, PATH OF CREATIVITY is VIA CREATIVA, PATH OF TRANSFORMATION is VIA TRANSFORMATIVA, a once Catholic priest who resaw the Catholic Mass by inviting all to participate in the ritual as in a Sacred happening. My art is often a response to Catholic rituals and i admire Matthew Fox's bravery in his reseeing the ancient and untouched Catholic rituals even though he was later excommunicated for doing so.
ART WORLD: I am an artist but view myself as an outsider who is not interested in the language or discussion that identifying as an  “artist” entails in order to be part of the tribe.
LANGUAGE OF ART: I was a selective mute as a child and internalized thoughts, words, feelings, ideas and traumas.  Art became and is still my most fluent language.  I speak as art not as a life-language person.
THE OCT 14-NOV19 COLLABORATIVE  SHOW IN SAUGERTIES.
EMERGE: I will collaborate with 14 artists at EMERGE on the theme of the 14 STATIONS OF THE CROSS. I will make a Crucifix for the show and the wall will be an interactive "healing/prayer/miracle" interaction. There will be other life interactions including chairs in front of each Station so people can interact via sitting.   
The collaborating artists will use 14 of my once used museum quality frames ( long story) to interpret their response to the 14 Stations. One of my stone carved sculpture heads will be lying in EMERGE'S front window and I will reference the 7 CHAKRAS at that site. For 14 years,1984-1998, I performed a multi leveled experiment based on the Chakras. 
  14 STATIONS OF THE CROSS: SHOUT OUT AND EMERGE: CURATOR  ROBER LANGDON
                                   Linda Mary Montano
AN INVITATION FOR YOUR PERSONAL AND UNIQUE JOURNEY THROUGH ONE OF THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS. OPENING AT EMERGE GALLERY 3 PM OCTOBER 14, SATURDAY.                                                        CONSIDERATIONS                                       Your art does not need to be confined behind glass. If it reaches over the boundaries of the frame it can extend 7 inches. Please indicate the number of the Station you are referencing on the back. Frames can be picked up at Emerge. The participation fee for the show is $20.                                                STATEMENT.      
Having grown up Roman Catholic in Saugerties, 81 years ago, attending St Mary's grammar school for 8 years, joining , a convent for 2 years to attempt to  become a Maryknoll Sister, attending a Catholic college for 4 years and receiving my MA from a Catholic University in Italy, it is not surprising that many times my art reflects my spiritual training and hunger!!! That is,  I am steeped in Roman Catholic theologies which sustain my need for Cosmic Order! And now, post Covid, pre Armagedón, current climate failures and unspeakable world issues invite me to fall back into a need for "Order" on a daily basis!!!
The 14 STATIONS OF THE CROSS were and are still a structure and way for me to travel through my questions about death, grief, connection and compassion. Post Pandemic, these themes still visit me and I've proposed to Suzanne, Robert and Christa that the Emerge Gallery become a "healing chapel" via YOUR PERSONAL reinterpretations of the 14 Stations. Each of the frames with your art, will be placed on both side walls, 7 on one side, 7 on the other. I will provide a Crucifix for the far wall. Of course, the "prompts" that I have included here are merely "thematic suggestions" that I am proposing and I know that your practice will invite your unique response.
CONSIDERATIONS:
* To show your art, you will be receiving a recycled empty museum quality frame: 11 ½ inches wide, 15 ¼ inches high, 1 inch deep in July.
*In this email, I am listing the 14 Stations and "prompts" that you might find interesting to consider for your "station".                                  Installation fee is $20. 
*We will have a Zoom group meeting in July to discuss details, and of course you can be in touch with me to discuss any of your concerns anytime. lindamontano@hotmail.com     845-399-2502
THE 14 STATIONS OF THE CROSS AND SUGGESTED PROMPTS:
1ST STATION: JESUS IS CONDEMMED TO DEATH
PROMPTS: bullying, incorrect diagnoses, early trauma, etc
2ND STATION: JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS
PROMPTS: overwork, pay discrepancies, irreconcilable differences etc
3RD STATION: JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME
PROMPTS: Divide your life into 3 timeframes. For this first-time frame, is there an event that created a fall? a disaster? a memorable issue? etc
4TH STATION: JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER
PROMPT: mother, anima, feminism, gender etc
5TH STATION: SIMEON OF CYRENE HELPS JESUS CARRY HIS CROSS
PROMPT: physical, emotional, psychological, financial assistance.   birth&death doulas etc
6TH STATION: VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS
PROMPT: medical, professional, emotional positive connection..  the aging body etc
7TH STATION: JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME
PROMPTS: second 1/3rd of life.   events, memories etc
8TH STATION: JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEUM
PROMPTS: birth doula, death doula, feminism, body etc
9TH STATION: JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME
PROMPTS: in this 1/3rd of life, a memorable event etc
10TH STATION: JESUS IS TRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS
PROMPTS: body dysmorphia, anorexia, food issues, influencers, positive self-care etc
11TH STATION: JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS
PROMPTS: negative self talk, unacceptable job&working conditions, gossip, rumors etc
12TH STATION: JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS
PROMPTS: repressed grief, recent death of friend, body lodged trauma, losing hair etc
13TH STATION: JESUS BODY TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS
PROMPTS: nurturing friendships, therapy, swimming etc
14th STATION: JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB
PROMPTS: gardening as a positive response to Now,  new burial possibilities.etc
14 ARTIST-COLLABORATORS AT EMERGE: CARRIE DASHOW/JOAN FFOLLIOTT/JOSEPHA GUTELIUS/ LYNN HERRING/NINA ISABELLE/ VERONICA LAWLOR/MOLLY MACKAMAN/ ELIN MENZIES/DENISE ORZO/TRACY PHILLIPS/ REBECCA RAY/ BONNIE SMITH/ANGELA GAFFNEY SMITH/JENNIFER ZACKIN
GRATITUDE TO SUZANNE , CHRISTA, ROBERT: Curating a show is a gargantuan undertaking...gathering artists, time records, publicity, installing the show, pr for media, keeping show open for a month, selling the art, record keeping, interfacing with the public.  I come away from the is experience with a great APPLAUSE for all of them.
THE LAMB CENTER: Artists who have been influenced by my art-life will be chosen to show at the LAMB CENTER. This was an open call and the 3 curators chose the artists who are:
ORPHEUM: ; The curators have chosen WHAT COULD GO WRONG and ANXIETY IS MY FRIEND .Backstory: for over 24 years i have collaborated with Master Video Artist  TOBE CAREY who has edited and co-created over 60 videos with me. I bring him footage, ideas and sound which I have pre-recorded with JIM BARBARO, sound engineer. Tobe and I then craft my autobiographical life puzzles into art and he does all of this while producing HIS OWN incredible documentaries that are PBS worthy. Both Jim and Tobe are the REASONS i can create videos and I am humbly grateful to them.I could do nothing without them.   WHAT COULD GO WRONG is an interactive OPERA with the ORPHEUM audience who will collaborate throughout this very intense and raw video which talks about the agony of now and the joy of the romance of THEN/THE PAST via my singing the romantic 7 Standards. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, appears 7 times and brings sweet words of comfort . There will be about 7 "conductors\ volunteers” with provided written  signs which will encourage the audience to sing, shout and sonically react during the video because it is so difficult to watch this film without having sonic access to improvisational release.
.For example they might sing ahhhhh,ommmmmm, maaaa, oyyyyy, etc and this opportunity to interact allows for 7 audience mood adjustments:, for example, by interacting they might:
  1. TRANSFORM THE UNSPEAKABLENESS OF NOW
  2. ALCHEMIZE THE UNSPEAKABLE PAINS OF MOTHER EARTH
  3. COLLECTIVELY GRIEVE CHAOS
  4. GROUP PERFORM ALTERNATIVE ANTIDOTES
  5. SONICALLY RELEASE THE GRIEF OF CURRENT CHAOS
  6. FEARLESSLY FACE CATASTROPHIC GLOBAL WARMING
  7. PRACTICE ART AS THERAPY
  8. HOMEOPATICALLY TREAT THE OVERWHELM WITH PERSONAL SONIC OVERWHELM
  9. REFUSE TO BE STIFLED BY TERROR
  10. AESTHETICALLY ADJUST OUR CHAKRAS
EVENTS
OCTOBER 14, Saturday 3-5pm OPENINGS AT LAMB AND EMERGE.MONTANO ,dressed as MOTHER TERESA,  has patches placed  on her eyes by the curators. These will be on her eyes for one week. She will be the guest of Jennifer Zackin and live in Jennifer's studio. While they are together, Jennifer will create a rope sculpture also blindfolded for an undisclosed number of hours a day while Montano is there, blindfolded and in residence. At the LAMB CENTER opening, the performers will be: LAMA LIN LERNER, who prays a Tibetan Invocation; JULIA HAINES will play accordion ILL FLY AWAY and FRE AT LAST with her Rosendale DRUM GROUP will lead ALL to the other opening at EMERGE, processing through the streets of Saugerties.
OCTOBER 21, Saturday, 3-4. Montano’s  EYE PATCHES REMOVED BY CURATORS;  LAMB CENTER. JENNIFER ZACHIN'S rope sculpture placed in a tree and curators remove eye patches. PERFORMERS SHARON PENZ & CELESTE GRAVES will lead all in a group Chicken Dance.
OCTOBER 22, SUNDAY 3-4 ARTISTS DISCUSSION AT  EMERGE for Stations Collaborators.
  
 OCTOBER  28, SATURDAY 3-5  Artists discussion at the LAMB CENTER.                                
 NOVEMBER 8, WEDNESDAY. 5-7 pm ORPHEUM. VIDEO INTERACTION . After videos, SUNY Art History Professor BETH WILSON interviews Montano. 
NOVEMBER 19, 3-5  CLOSING .  PERFORMERS:  MONTANO as BOB DYLAN & PAUL MCMAHON  SING TO THE MOTHER INTERACTIVELY. ADRIANA MAGANA will offer a healing of grief ritual, NINA ISABELLE&BRIAN McCORKLE will lead a CHICKEN DANCE
THEMES:  
  1. I PRACTICE THE ART OF AGING, ASKING FOR COLLABORATIVE HELP
  2. TRAUMA CLEARING VIA PUBLIC DISCLOSURE:ARTISTS DISCLOSE THEIR PERSONAL ISSUES VIA STATIONS OF THE CROSS. EVERYDAY ISSUES AS FOOD FOR CREATION. 
  3. I PRACTIE ENDURANCE VIA EYE PATCHES FOR A WEEK
  4. ENDURANCE IS DEMONSTRATED VIA MONTHS OF CURATORS PLANNING AND ARTISTS CREATING
  5. GENEROSITY OF THE ARTISTS: THEY DONATE THEIR TIME, ART, PERFORMANCES: THE ART OF DONATION
  6. ART AS HEALING VIA HONORING THE SEVEN CHAKRAS AND PERSONAL EXPOSURE OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 
  7. LIFE AS ART DEMONSTRATED VIA EYE PATCHES:LIVING FOR A WEEK DOING NOTHING IS SEEN AS ART. PRAYER AS ART IN THE “ 14 STATIONS TEMPLE” AT EMERGE. 
  8. PERSONA MORPHING: MONTANO AS BOB DYLAN AND MOTHER TERESA. ARTISTS CAN DO ANYTHING AND CALL IT ART. 
  1. FEELING VERY HONORED THAT OTHERS ARE INFLUENCED BY MY ART OF SELF HEALING!!!!!!
MAY ALL BEINGS CELEBRATE THE ART OF LIFE AND MAY THIS OPEN US TO THE ART OF LOVE
LINDA MARY MONTANO