New York-based artists Bill Morrison and Laurie Olinder are in Sarasota on stay at Hermitage Artist Retreat. Artists that visit are nominated and then invited to spend six weeks spread in any increment they choose throughout two years to live and work in Old Florida.

The couple will give a presentation in conjunction with Hermitage Artist Retreat and The John and Mable Ringling Museum’s Art of Our Time, showcasing the work they’ve been creating during their stay.

“It’s been wonderful,” Morrison says. “The Hermitage is a very unique place — I’m looking at the gulf and I’ve been working in a cottage built in 1940.”

Morrison is a self-taught filmmaker who works combining archival footage and original contemporary music, and his films are part of the Ringling Museum permanent collection. He’s known for avant-garde films such as “Decasia” and “The Miners’ Hymns.”

Olinder is on her third installment with Hermitage Artist Retreat . She’s a projection designer, painter and photographer. She’s been working on projections for an upcoming opera as well as large-scale ink drawings featuring repetitive squares, which she calls “blue squares.”

Morrison and Olinder are married and have been collaborating for 23 years. They both work with Ridge Theater, a multimedia theater, opera and new music performance theater. They are working on material for Oliver sacks 80th birthday celebration; Morrison is working on a piece featuring footage shot in 1969 and 1970, and Olinder is working on an opera.

IF YOU GO:
Filmmaker Bill Morrison and Theatrical Designer Laurie Olinder
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, March 14
Where: Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Road.
Cost: $5
Info: Call 359-5700 or visit ringling.org for more information

 

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