Mary Kay Neumann and Helen Klebesadel
“Oye Cómo Va Mi Ritmo (Listen to how my rhythm goes): Coral in Crises Series”
The Flowers Are Burning...Oceans A Rising is an artistic response to the uncertainty of our times — offering beauty and sparking outrage.
The Earth Day-themed exhibit of collaborative watercolors from Mary Kay Neumann and Helen Klebesadel was scheduled to open on April 16 at Holy Wisdom Monastery. It is the second major collaborative exhibit from the artists. Now, due to shelter-at-home orders, the latest exhibit has gone digital. It’s tragic to not see the large, stunningly beautiful images in person, but you can still appreciate the images and words from your own screen. Take some time to do it, and read the accompanying texts, which include poetry, scientific warnings, and statements from environmental and Indigenous activists.
Organized into series such as “Tidepools in Peril,” “Corals in Crises” and “Melting Sea Stars,” the brilliant watercolors evoke sadness for what is lost. And after the brightly hued series comes a sobering duo from Klebesadel titled “The Sounds of Silence,” featuring bleached corals. Throughout the exhibit the undeniable beauty of the paintings complicates the message, creating almost a physical sensation of hope — like the sun shining through a window after a week of cold, gray weather.
Helen Klebesadel
"The Sounds of Silence II"
Neumann says having to cancel the physical show felt like getting “whiplash.” She and Klebesadel worked for two years on the paintings, and spent countless hours organizing the exhibit. “In late February when the virus spread started gaining speed, we began to worry our show would be impacted. Little did we realize how quickly the wondering would evolve into planning a postponement, ending in cancellation altogether,” Neumann says in an email to Isthmus. “It felt like a balloon that was popped. It might have been more depressing if the demands of dealing with a pandemic hadn’t forced our attention towards the physical dangers to us all and the terror of how society around us seemed to be collapsing.”
Neumann draws parallels between the virus that is raging across the globe and the environmental catastrophes that she and Klebesadel depict in their paintings.
Neumann says she became obsessed with the plight of sea stars in 2014 after learning that 95 percent of their population on the Pacific coast has died. “I fell in love with sunflower sea stars 30 years ago when I was approached by one (!), and was heartbroken when I learned that they nearly became extinct,” says Neumann. “Our collaborative project gave me the impetus to study this catastrophe, and talk to scientists from around the country, learning all I could. It has felt like a calling to bring attention to this ocean disease since.”
When the COVID-19 outbreak first appeared in the news, Neumann was reading Ocean Outbreak, a book by Drew Harvell. “It left me literally shaking in my boots at the parallel between the disease that has killed off my favorite ocean animal and the one now killing humans,” says Neumann. “I personally felt it necessary to make this connection visible, and when our show was canceled I was very eager to figure out another way to get our exhibit into the world.”
Klebesadel works as a teacher and a creativity coach and consultant. Since distancing measures have been put in place, she has focused her attention on helping people connect online. “My personal contacts on social media and my contact with clients online showed me that some of my friends and students were feeling very isolated and vulnerable,” says Klebesadel. On March 14 she launched a Facebook group, the Cabin Fever Creative Community. The posts are inspiring, with thousands of artists working in many mediums sharing their work and stories of how they are coping during quarantine. Klebesadel comments on all the posts, creating a sense of intimacy and community.
“Working on getting the exhibition up and online has been very engaging and has helped to stem the disappointment of having to cancel several upcoming exhibitions and workshops,” says Klebesadel, adding that she values having more time to focus on making art in her studio. “As an introvert and an artist, having more time to focus on my creative work is not a hardship. I am getting to work on things that matter to me. I will be interested to see what emerges from this time, because everything really is connected. I expect to see the times we are living in to emerge in my art, because it's where I think about things I do not have words for yet.”
Neumann, who works as a psychotherapist specializing in trauma, says the pandemic challenges us to remain connected while remaining physically distant. “We need to do everything possible to find comfort and care for ourselves so we may, in turn, care for our loved ones and others in our midst,” says Neumann. We will survive this, together. This bears repeating: TOGETHER. IN COLLABORATION.”
