... and this fragile earth, our island home.
Bridgeport - Our Fragile Home,a touring exhibition of art created by the Manchester Center, VT husband / wife artist team of Pat Musick and Jerry Carr will be on view at the Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT beginning Thursday, September 5 and will continue through October 20, 2013. A reception for the artists, free and open to the public, will be held on September 5th from 5:00 – 7:00 pm.
This exhibit, which exhorts us to take care of, nurture and respect our fragile planet, contains a message that has universal appeal. Based on inspiration from the words space travelers use to describe their first glimpse of the earth from outer space, it is a testament to a shared world-view and understanding of how vulnerable we all are. Amazingly, the sight of our earth from space inspires the same words no matter the differences in nationality, language, social, religious or political values of the viewer.
One is reminded too of T.S. Eliot's 1939 essay "In Defense of Christianity"
We are being made aware that the organization of society on the principle of private profit, as well as public destruction, is leading both to the deformation of humanity by unregulated industrialism, and to the exhaustion of natural resources, and that a good deal of our material progress is a progress for which succeeding generations may have to pay dearly. I need only mention, as an instance now very much before the public eye, the results of soil erosion—the exploitation of the earth, on a vast scale. . . , for commercial profit: immediate benefits leading to dearth and desert. . . .
… For a long enough time we have believed in nothing but the values arising in a mechanized, commercialized, urbanized way of life: it would be as well for us to face the permanent conditions upon which God allows us to live on this planet.
Having originated at the Southern Vermont Art Center in May-July, 2013 it will follow Housatonic to the Brattleboro Museum of Art, Vermont in December-February 2014 and will end at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, June 2014.
Musick is the primary artist. Carr, a retired NASA Astronaut, serves as chief engineer and fabricator of the work. The mixed media materials Musick uses are a reflection of the opposites she finds in the natural and man-made environment. Steel, bronze, and paper counterpoint alabaster, stone and wood.
Musick trained at Dartmouth College with Paul Sample and at Cornell University with Allan d'Arcangelo. She holds an MA and a PhD degree from Cornell. Her work is in the permanent collection of more than 50 museums and public spaces nationwide. She is the author of three books and she and Carr collaborated on one book on the subject of The Trail of Tears. Carr holds a Masters degree from Princeton University and Bachelor's degrees from The University of Southern California and is the subject of a book entitled Around the World in 84 Days recalling his Astronaut experiences..
For further information contact Robbin Zella at the Housatonic Museum of Art at or (203) 332-5052.
