Save the date! I will be doing a public reading of my work in progress – along with the 7 other writers who were in residence with me at Linden Place – on Thursday, June 2nd from 6:30-8 p.m. at 500 Hope St in Bristol. 

Genesis Barrera reads from her short story about a young civil war veteran here on the 4th of July. Ben Jolivet reads from a play where Samuel P. Colt is visited upon by a variety of ghosts. Kate Lane reads from a romance novella about a fictional DeWolf cousin. Rochelle Leach reads poems about African American barber Daniel Tanner. Elizabeth Maligranda reads from her TV pilot script set in Pre-Civil War New England. Mia Manzotti reads from her horror novel that has Charlotte DeWolf as the central figure. Curtis Perdue reads poems that connect the prosperity of the house’s occupants to the labor of enslaved people. And, Rebecca Siemering reads haiku poems that take inspiration from various objects in the museum’s collection. Young writers from School One and Goat Hill Writers’ program Write Rhode Island will open the event by reading from their short fiction. I hope to see you there!  #LindenPlace #BristolRI #RIWriters #WritersResidency
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/writers-in-residence-public-reading-tickets-338462820407

I carved myself a

knife to butter bread, each slice

a revelation.

I have always admired woodcarving, and having trained as a sculptor originally, you would think I tried my hand at it at some point. Other things took my interest but it renewed recently, I figured out I could take an online class and learn a new skill and make something useful and beautiful. I finished carving a knife today, shaving it bit by bit over the week, when I had a moment here and there. I have ideas and plans, but next- larger utensils, a scoop to practice. Our beautiful lilac tree needs a drastic trim. I hope I can salvage the limbs into something beautiful we can use every day and remember all of the branches climbed and forts made, birds they sheltered, and us. #cherrywood #carving #butterknife #carving #craftersbox #motokosmith

One of my new white line wood block printing pieces is featured in the Packard Group National Exhibition 2021.

“Artists from across the United States of America submitted photographs of their 2D artwork to the Packard Group National Exhibition 2021 to be display at the No. 7 Center gallery in Vermillion, South Dakota. Klaire A. Lockheart curated this exhibition, and she was pleased to include a wide variety of artwork made by professional artists, students, and everyone in between. This second annual exhibition included paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, weavings, and mixed media artwork. This last year was certainly a challenge, but this exhibition proves how resilient and dedicated artists are! 

The drive-in movie reception will happen at No. 7 Center on Friday, April 2nd at 8:30 pm. A movie of the artwork will be projected in the large window so it can be viewed from outside. Patrons are welcome to view the artwork in their vehicles, but if they want to gather on the sidewalk near the window, masks are required.”

Anniversary Apples, 2021. Whiteline Woodblock Print, 8″ x 10″ Print #4

My daughter had an idea in mind to build some little scenes out of the cardboard boxes from Christmas. We had so much fun and made these magnetized vignettes inspired by Benjamin Pollack’s Toy Shop in West End, London’s #cardboardchallenge. They loved it so much, they shared it on Instagram. Enjoy ice skating at Rockefeller Center and going to outer space from our kitchen.

Wish Veil will be for sale to benefit  Movement Education Outdoors 

Regenerative Collective Art + Craft Benefit  |   September 12th 

Where: 18 Ferncrest Ave on September 12, from 9 am-NOON and live on Instagram @regenerative_collective

A little over a month ago, I started to write again. I’ve always loved poetry, especially haiku. In high school I won scholarships to art school with my writing, and my love of fiber and sculptural work took over my time and hands. But, in times of stress, I would find myself using haiku as a way of condensing a moment, pushing me into a broader world outside myself and out of my internal meanderings.

I read that we should document these times of living with COVID, for historians and beyond our own children. I’m a Mom who has a 9 year old I need to be 7 teachers for most of the day, a job, my husband has new challenges in his job…..really everything about being a parent right now is a bit crushing. I missed using my hands. The first month of home “school” I would crash at night. I need my hands to move to feel myself in a spiritual sense. It felt like losing my hands , they lost their memory.

The first haiku came from just sitting. Just sitting and not doing anything for anyone else felt like a vacation, and I was listening to the dryer:

Raining endlessly

listening to the dryer

go round, and round and…

The movement of my hand with a pencil felt great. The next day came another, then another.

Traditional haiku references nature and specifics to the season, drawing out a view of the inner self by being reflective upon a moment. I think of the crisis of COVID19 as a temporary season itself. I found a small notebook and set some limitations to begin writing a poem a day. I find limitations in mediums to be freeing. You have to work against them to express your idea and that can lead to greater creativity. In my fiber based sculpture work, I take a material and study it until its form speaks to me. If I can’t make as much with my hands, I still have my mind and can use my hands to write.

I further set my limitations to writing about my garden and its changes, objects within my house and living with a young child. It’s a way of utilizing the limitation to bring a sense of control and inner calm to my little sphere at the moment. With this intense focus, and using my hand to write out the poems, edit, erase and be off the computer, has been freeing. All are posted to Instagram @rsiemering daily with a short explanation of the origin of the moment.

Here are a few of my favorites:

This is one of my favorite portraits of myself and Asha, taken by my husband @click.erik. It hangs In our living room and I look at it every day. It is two years old, before our current stay at home sheltering. It was an unintended collaboration, and as a parent and an artist, I feel that my current art practice has been deepened by having a child. The inadvertent turns of phrase while she learned language skills, her observations at every age; all have had an impact. On this day, my husband brought home his Graflex and set it up in the yard in late afternoon. He wanted to make some portraits after taking pictures of the changing garden. You can just see the raspberries starting to bloom in the back. My kiddo would not have it; she ran around the yard screaming, no no no…Erik kept begging her to sit for “just a minute.” I thought about how to salvage the situation. My daughter had the first inklings of anxiety issues, and I had to be strong, but bend like a reed to get her back on track in lots of situations. I said, “Ok. Let’s make a deal. You can hide, I will stand with you, too.” I got some blankets and we stood together strong. You can just see the outline of her defiant face, her hand touching mine through the blanket. I keep looking at this portrait, and it changes with every bit of news and life crashing in, but always- there is a Mom and a child sheltering together. That stays the same. I think we all want a security blanket at the moment, if at least, a mental one. Stay safe everyone. Let’s stand together in spirit. #wip#stayingwiththetrouble#airpromptsforpractice2020#graflex#photography#portrait#covid_19#rebeccasiemering#erikgouldphotography#blackandwhitephotography#rhodeisland#momofaredhead