Meet up with the ‘Mama Mucks’ of the Muck Duck Studio artwork collective | Artwork

Meet up with the ‘Mama Mucks’ of the Muck Duck Studio artwork collective | Artwork

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&#13 Muck Duck Studio is led by Stephe Ferm, Sally Drutman, Casey Arthur, and Ambar de Santiago. - PHOTO BY SHAWN THOMPSON&#13

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  • &#13 &#13 Photo BY SHAWN THOMPSON&#13 &#13
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  • &#13 Muck Duck Studio is led by Stephe Ferm, Sally Drutman, Casey Arthur, and Ambar de Santiago.&#13
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Ahead of there was Rochester’s most recent artwork collective, Muck Duck Studio, there was artist Casey Arthur residing in a compact artwork studio at the Blossom Business Middle and looking for connection throughout the pandemic.

Arthur — who goes by the moniker Overlook Casey — started inviting like-minded folks into her room.

There was yoga instructor Ambar de Santiago, who assisted Arthur phase meditation and wellness workshops out of her studio. Not very long after, Arthur welcomed singer-songwriter and vocal coach Sally Drutman, who performs as Sally Louise, into 1 of the studio’s added rooms for training lessons. Then together came painter and musician Stephe Ferm.

By November 2021, the collective — whose core members phone by themselves “mama mucks” — moved into its existing place in Suite 319 of the similar creating at 595 Blossom Street.

“Ultimately, what I realized is you can find a large amount of effective, artistic people in our town and in our city who don’t have a house that is risk-free or protected enough to do what they like,” Arthur states. “And I preferred to supply that secure base for as many men and women as I could, such as myself, mainly because I knew my needs. And I knew I was not alone in that.”

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&#13 Sally Drutman and Ambar de Santiago at the cozy confines of Muck Duck Studio on Blossom Road. - PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH&#13

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  • &#13 &#13 Image BY JACOB WALSH&#13 &#13
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  • &#13 Sally Drutman and Ambar de Santiago at the cozy confines of Muck Duck Studio on Blossom Street.&#13
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Arthur describes the house as a supportive atmosphere in which artists experience enthusiastic and can develop without having fear of judgment, a location wherever men and women can share their struggles and mend from “the muck in their lifestyle.”

“The require for bodily place is just so that persons can experience the link that rolls among 1 individual and a further person,” she states. “Ideas can feed off of every other, and we can consider it in any direction we pick out when we’re with each other.”

Achieving social and emotional wellness by way of artwork is at the heart of Muck Duck’s mission.

“We all experience like we haven’t quite suit in a mould,” Drutman states. “And we have produced our individual molds, and so we variety of celebrate that.”

The studio is outfitted to accommodate up to 15 folks at a specified time, but extra than 100 guests showed up for the collective’s 12-hour grand opening on Jan. 15.

Arthur was beforehand a humanitarian help worker with the United Nations, in which she assisted at a Bangkok refugee camp, and has worked in Washington, D.C., on behalf of child refugees detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. She has plans for a refugee outreach software in Rochester named Witherless, which would use art as a automobile for wellness. Her top target is to aid refugees who have settled in Rochester to convey to their tales and grow to be extra seen in the local community.

“The Muck Duck really is just a group of people who did not very in good shape in the standard modern society or the norms, or couldn’t stick to the traits,” Arthur claims. “They just type of discovered them selves still left out. And we are kind of building a hub for every person who felt just a tiny little bit displaced, which definitely pairs very well with doing the job with refugees, due to the fact they are globally displaced.”

For the most up-to-date on the art collective, including upcoming functions, go to instagram.com/muckduckstudio.

Daniel J. Kushner is CITY’s arts editor. He can be reached at [email protected].

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