Michelle Stuart: Voyager

Very few artists have the capacity to create a body of work that only expands exponentially into the zeitgeist during their lifetime. American artist Michelle Stuart is one of those rare few.

Michelle Stuart: Voyager​, a feature-length documentary, ​will reflect the grand themes found in her work – an intense celebration of nature, a revelation of perception, a path to a deeper memory and a profound understanding of ourselves within the cosmos. While unveiling both the prescient and timely nature of Stuart’s work, the film will explore the uniqueness of her journey and her humanity in creating it. Her long body of work is so relevant in this decisive moment on earth. The documentary will unfold as a metaphorical journey, a universal human tapestry woven from the personal ephemera and physical imprinting of Stuart’s own life and times.  Now is the perfect time to share her story.  Stuart’s art urges us to ask questions and to see ourselves in context of the larger world, and our crucial impact upon it.  In the wake of COVID-19 we realize just how fundamentally interconnected we all are now; interdependent with the natural world.

“What traces do I leave upon the earth, and how is my identity shaped through contact with the physical world?”

Stuart has long been heralded as a true pioneer, known first for her nature-based art dating back to the late 1960’s and 1970’s, and one of the very few female practitioners of Land Art. In an expansive and illustrious career spanning five decades, her work seamlessly merges the fields of history, ecology and archaeology, reflecting intimate personal memory within the context of sweeping environmental and cultural events.

She came of age as an artist in New York when both the feminist and environmental movements were being forged into the culture. For others, the ideals and core beliefs of these movements might have dissipated after first flush, but for Stuart the connection between humanity, the animal kingdom, our planet, and the greater spheres we revolve within, have only strengthened and solidified throughout the lifetime of her work.

“…The feeling that the landscape is my silent garden”

Stuart has traveled extensively over the course of her career, much of it over bodies of water, from sites in the Americas and Europe, to Australia, New Zealand and the South Sea Islands. Her universal visual poetry has both a micro and a macro point of view, all rooted in physical traces found in the natural world – from plants and planets, oceans and mountains, insects and skies, animals and earth, manifest through multiple disciplines of drawing, sculpture, collage and photography.

Stuart’s life-long journeying to capture and reveal the stories of our collective imprinting is invaluable to bear witness to now. As art imitates life, life can also imitate art, and in Stuart’s life story a perfect balance is struck between expression of both personal and universal story. Michelle Stuart is part poet, part scientist and part visionary oracle, urging us to see ourselves in context of the larger world, and our crucial impact upon it.

Karen Bellone is a filmmaker, photographer and educator. Born in Brooklyn NY, and now residing in Italy, Karen’s work is unified by navigating between the eternal poles of the profane & the sacred, rough & holy, order & chaos. She is a storyteller utilizing multi-sensory information to unlock the unconscious. Karen studied experimental cinema at SUNY Binghamton, and received a BFA from New York University. After a decade of making music videos and establishing her eponymous film production company, she entered the Actors Studio MFA at the New School in NY. She has received MTV, Billboard, VMA awards, and been recognized at film festivals including Sundance, Chicago, LA Outfest, and Cork. Her film for PETA helped to establish an animal rights law in British Parliament. After years of concentrating on collaborative filmmaking intensely, she chose the solitude of still photography, primarily working in archival processes. She has shot images of great diversity for magazines, books, album cover art, and created title sequences for film & TV. Her work is collected internationally. Recently Karen’s process directly led to the work she would initiate as a transition guide. Modifying tools she learned while studying Stanislavski’s Method, she has created a unique program utilizing sense memory, sound healing and guided imagery. Karen desires to be an integral part of the change in perception and consciousness that embraces transmutation of the material.

Karen S. Shapiro has a diverse and extensive background producing award- winning film, television, theatre and music.  Her feature films include the critically acclaimed documentary, Eva Hesse (which in addition to its international theatrical release was chosen to be included in the PBS series American Masters), the film festival hit Beat the Drum, the romantic comedy, The Neighbor and the drama, The Low Life.  Her short films include the Academy Award winning, Violet, The Hero and the two documentaries Together as One and Awake and Sing.  Karen has also produced several television movies including the Emmy Award winning Other Mothers, Between Mother and Daughter, winner of the prestigious Humanitas Award, Private Affairs, winner of the American Women in Media Award, Dying to be Perfect: the Ellen Hart Pena Story, Chance of a Lifetime and To Face Her Past.  Karen was the Senior Producer overseeing the development, production and post-production of the reality series Unsolved Mysteries as well as the syndicated reality series Arrest and Trial. Karen’s theatre credits include a season at the CAST Theatre in Hollywood as well as the musical Woman of Valor performed at the Matrix Theatre.  Karen has produced several recordings and concerts including the original choral orchestral piece, Liberation ’95 with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.