Sheila Novak

On Friday my cohort group show “I HAPPEN TO BE ROCK” opened at @oygprojects . It was a delight to work together to build an exhibit that really holds the work of @cornellmfa_art artists together. This group show is a little love letter to each other as we celebrate the work we have all done (both physical and foundational) while in Ithaca. I’m thrilled to have my work live with paintings by @onome_daniella_olotu and @mikemorganart , sculptures by @carla_havaux , @pamintuanfye and @marissaella l, and a family photo archive project by @yun.hsiang.wang . Huge thanks to @pamela_sneed @erikaranee @nidsboson @erichibit @annamariahknox @e.m.ansary @andy_n_li @lilian.shtereva @anndrewgxyz @nino_suave for coming out and to @joannamouseka and @leezameksin for building this community. Official documentation to come of all the work I’ve done this semester/year/degree (lol so bad at posting) soon enough but in the meantime I gotta write my thesissssss 🐍 wish me luck! 📝

From the participatory cooking of onions, to the black locust gallery, to jewelery and the electric soundscape of the blackcurrants, @sheila.studios ’ Dreaming of a Young Forest was brilliant. Photos by Kati Mellor! Gracias Kati!

Birding Man Food Forest Art Show. Thankful for being part of such a beautiful art show 🧡 yeah all the art pieces and installations were exhibited within trees in a agroforestry system. 🌳🌱☀️✨

In the wee hours of my thesis work at @cornellmfa_art I've had the immense pleasure of continuing my collaboration with the trees at Ramble On (Farm) and with @_harry_greene on the inaugural Food Forest Art Show for Birding Man! I've been missing curation - working with other artists and imagining how works can fill a space and speak to each other and to site is a great joy for me. This show, titled "dreaming of a young forest" is named after Wendell Berry's poem, "In a Country Once Forested." Here, the young forest is answering the soils dreams, as the artists answer our own. Featured artists include: @amaturegrownup @andrew.frangella @arden.co9.art Caitlyn Hartzell Carol Green Clare Jones @family_style_diner Jackie Riccio @tannin.tamer @josisisi___ @kateleboff @laroct53 @primitive.root.design @nickel.arts @foragerbee_art viva_acres @sustainablespinster @anndrewgxyz @mikemorganart @juliannehunterart @pamintuanfye @marissaella @annamariahknox @art_yz404 @leezameksin Anna Davidson +++ It's a one day show, tomorrow only! Hope to see you there.

Let us ELEVATE @sheila.studios , curator of The Food Forest Art Show. Sheila has CONJURED collaborations with creators, giving rise to the art of the evening TOMORROW AT 5:15. We extend infinite gratitude to Sheila for her tireless diligence, done *while* finishing an MFA with @cornellaap ; @cornellmfa_art . A childhood spent in the woods grew an arboreal emotional anchor for interdisciplinary artist and independent curator Sheila Novak (she/they, b. 1990). A deep appreciation for the precarity of life, informed by the untimely death of her mother and the two 500-year floods that devastated her neighborhood and childhood home on the Iowa River, Sheila’s artistic practice has returned time and again to the forest as a space of interspecies care and connection. Living and working on Gayogohó:nó (NY), Massa-adchu-es-et (MA), and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (MN) land, Sheila’s creative and (agri)cultural practices are rooted in gratitude for the living world alongside a deep desire to reanimate our interdependence.  Sheila’s curatorial practice has focused on art in the public realm, with a focus on site-specific, contextual, and ecologically engaged artworks. Prior to curating “Dreaming of a Young Forest” at Ramble On Farm, Sheila worked as an Independent Curator with the Design Studio for Social Intervention (2021-2022) and as the Associate Curator of Public Art for The Greenway (2022-2024) in Boston. In these projects, she worked with artists Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, Andy Li, Yu-Wen Wu, Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs, Erin Genia, and Mithsuca Berry, amongst others, to support the creation of new artworks and spaces that championed artists’ visions for a vibrant and safe public realm for all people.

My thesis show opened yesterday - if you’re not in Ithaca I will be doing a little virtual viewing tomorrow afternoon on zoom! DM me for the link or the recording if you want to watch later 🍁 Fittingly, the syrup my kiddo’s favorite part. If you can make it on Thursday evening, you can taste some during the Maple Potluck!

Sweet sap music, sweet sap for ants

From January through the end of March I spent almost every day in these woods. Marking, tapping, measuring, singing, gathering, boiling, bottling, weaving, feeling, and most important listening. Spending so much time with Maple felt, at the onset, like a huge undertaking - an almost burdensome obligation. But every day I was there was a luxury. I went from thinking about how I “have to” go to the kids to how I “get to” go to the woods. And truly what a gift it has been - beyond the immense gift of sap from the tree. It was a chance to feel the spring, to experience the thaw, to haul and touch and practice reciprocity. To become friends, in so many ways, with Maple and with a part of myself that wants to be, in some core sense, (inter)connected with trees. My thesis show goes up in a week. Hoping I can get the gallery to do a fraction of what the woods can do for those who visit and listen. Wish me luck! First photo @giannirenna ✨ #agroforestryart #maplesugaring #cornellmfa #rambleonfarm reciprocity

DEADLINE EXTENDED! The Food Forest Art Show will accept your submission until this Thursday at midnight. Send us your art; DM me with questions. Don’t miss out on a fun chance to present your art outside ✨🍃🪾learn more and apply at propagateag.com/food-forest-art-show

And just like that - maple sugaring season is over. I pulled taps with @marina.k.h and @giannirenna last weekend, but I can’t stay away long. I have been heading back nearly daily to check on the trees, sing, clean up my messes (external and internal lol), remove invasive plants, and listen more. As I prepare to share this work through my thesis (writing and exhibit) I’m thinking about how, in so many ways, this is really the start for me. Looking forward to being back in the woods next year 🍁

Food Forest Art Show Open Call through tomorrow Photosynthesize Message or comment for the link to submit work.

Tomorrow is the “singing sap” community celebration! Come by to enjoy the early spring forest, support a little a forest restoration, and get some hands-on time making maple syrup! Plus bonfires, a sound performance, maple sap and syrup tasting… it’ll be a blast. For accessibility info or requests please send a DM