A text-imagery exhibition that over three years…

grew into a festival of creativity, community, and art.

How is creativity influenced by landscape?  How do artists of different genres see differently?

Text flows into image, flows back out again.  You stand in the gallery, drinking in the image of the supermoon rising over the water, then move to a poem capturing the beauty of an osprey, golden light on its wings.  Magic photographic moments, poetic words, the water, trees, rivers of Westport: all this comes alive in Meditations on Landscape.  

In this unique, innovative exhibit, the work of local writers and photographers answers the question: “What does your home landscape mean to you?”

Meditations on Landscape 2023 at the Dedee Shattuck Gallery

Frederick Thurber responded, ‘"Midori's evocative photograph of a wind-swept tree on Main Rd. inspired me to write about the southwest wind and how important this seabreeze has been for our community over the ages."

One of the photographers, who has since moved to Duxbury, laughed when she thought about the time she captured her image of clouds over the Westport River. “It was just with my Iphone!” And someone said, hey you should really get into photography!” Ten years later, she is an established photographer, looking back fondly at the Westport image that sparked her new career.

Midori Evans, founder of Midori Creativity, conceived of this idea and started with a phone call to Dedee Shattuck to see if anything like this had been done before.  Locating writers to participate was the next step. She reached out to writers through Westport Facebook groups, chatted with her writer-neighbor Margot Greene, networked at Groundwork, a co-working space in New Bedford, and through Elizabeth Lane at Partners, where they feature the works of local authors.

Steve Connors, outreach coordinator at the Westport River Watershed Alliance, was an invaluable piece of the puzzle. He coordinated finding photographers for the show, all of whom were previous winners of a contest, their work gracing the calendars of the Westport River Watershed Alliance in years past.  

The exhibit is a true community endeavor, with funding from the Westport Cultural Council and help from lots of people. 

Midori calls herself a creative explorer.  Juggling creative projects, writing, photographic work, and the launch of her new business, she is a certified creativity coach with a deep love of the natural world.  And what does community mean to her?  “It’s all about the people, the animals, the connections in your life. It’s about sharing stories and helping strengthen the bonds that connect us.”