Welcome to another episode of the Art of Aperitif. Today I’m joined by two wonderful friends of mine for a conversation. Annie Dugan is a professional curator and art professor. She and her husband also own The Food Farm, an organic, diversified farm in Wrenshall, Minnesota (where we get a number of our botanicals for our distillery from!). Cecilia Ramon is a visual artist who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and found her way to the Northwoods of Minnesota. Here she works in a variety of media including found wood, paper, and natural pigments as well as performance pieces through guided walks. Her work is beautifully unified in her reverence for the natural world and her mindfulness practice. In her artist statement she explains, “The work I make is a response to the beauty of the natural world, the unspeakable subtleties of patterns, from water vortex to molecular structures. It is an inquiry and a walk into the questions of our times. How to protect living systems that nurture our lives? How to protect every human being from inequity and violence? How do we imagine a new way to live together among millions of other species in this water planet?”
Annie and Cecilia have worked together on multiple installations, and, in fact, I was first introduced to Cecilia by Annie when I was looking for thoughtful art, inspired by our place for our distillery. So, I asked Annie to steer the conversation with her brilliant (and professorial int the best way!) questions. We chat about Cecilia’s journey from being a competitive runner to artist, how she found her artistic voice (or more accurately, how she discovered she didn’t need to!), read a poem from Argentinian treasure Gabriela Mistral, explore ideas of permanence and impermanence in art, and more. It was the perfect moment to slow down, breathe deeply, and enjoy the amazing minds and talent of these two ladies.
This conversation pairs well with one of our forever faves, a Frenchie poured into a coupe and spritzed with a lemon peel twist!