Joni Whitworth, a poet, producer and curator based in Portland, will be writing and performing during the upcoming Sou’wester Arts Week.

The Sou’wester Lodge in Seaview, Washington, will bring together more than 30 artists from across the U.S. to explore and create around the theme of “Shifting Cycles” in the collaborative gathering known as Sou’wester Arts Week.

Artists move into the lodge and travel trailer resort a block from the Pacific on Sunday, settling in to spend several days working on their individual crafts and creations, all while interacting with and being inspired by one another.

This year’s artists, who are selected via a juried process, come from eight different states. Some are from the Northwest and others are traveling from New York, Louisiana, Arizona and beyond. They represent a vast array of art forms, including literary, visual and performing arts, to name a few.

“They’re all sleeping, staying, walking around, having coffee, potential potlucks, that kind of stuff where ideas can mix,” Dawn Stetzel, one of the event’s organizers, said. “Seeing what happens after those folks crisscross is going to be really exciting.”

About a third of the artists also will be interacting with students at Waves of the Future, a Montessori-based arts and ecology preschool, during the week. “It’s going to be really powerful and impactful, but it’s also part of an ongoing relationship between working artists and early childhood education,” event organizer Thandi Rosenbaum said.

On March 17 and March 18, the grounds of the Sou’wester open up the public for a weekend full of installations, music, performances and open studios.

‘A distilling’ of the Sou’wester spirit

Sou’wester Arts Week, introduced in 2020, was an evolution of the SPACENESS festival that was organized from 2015 to 2019. In general, The Sou’wester always has been part lodge and part art residence, according to Rosenbaum, which makes Arts Week “the time of year where we’re the most ourselves.”

“It’s the most artistic iteration of The Sou’wester,” she said, adding it’s also “a distilling” of the establishment’s year-round artist residency program.

Stetzel noted that the annual event comes at an opportune seasonal change. On the tail end of winter, “when we’re ready to see the light,” she said, “we cull in creative energy to keep us going — both season-wise and bigger-picture-wise.”

This year’s theme is “Shifting Cycles.” The lodge’s website elaborates: “Our reliance on a known occurrence has been disrupted. This shift is replacing existing patterns and problems. Collective action and individual insight paving our path forward.”

There is little formal structure around the theme, but it is meant to inspire the artists and help guide their projects as they determine what it means to them individually.

Amy Epperson, a diaristic artist from Nebraska, is accustomed to the ideas of fluidity, change, relationality, memory and the grid. “A lot of my work is generally responding to things around me,” they said.

As an interdisciplinary artist, Epperson is confided to one medium, although at different times of their life, they’ve been more immersed in certain artforms over, such as fiber arts, sewing installations and film programming.

During Sou’wester Arts Week, they will be working on a project inspired by designer Jun Takahashi’s 2004 collection for Undercover, titled “Languid.” The show featured pairs of twins on the runway who were wearing almost identical outfits. However, for one, the outfit was normal, while the other’s was distorted in some way: stretched, elongated, ripped or off-kilter.

Epperson plans to draw on wood panels composed of a two-column grid, creating a series of diptychs that portray an object and then an abstracted or devolved version of the same object. Epperson’s done a project with a similar theme, pairing up photos of images that had some sort of relationship to one another, with a marked distinction. “It’s an evolution of this thing I was doing informally,” they said.

‘A gift to our community’

Joni Whitworth, a poet, producer and curator, is still determining how the theme will influence their work during Sou’wester Arts Week. Their writing typically explores themes of nature, future, family and the neurodivergent body, and they plan to work on their writing, including a novella and a collection of poetry and queer love stories.

During the COVID pandemic, they shifted focus to short poems centered on social justice and designed to elevate historically underrepresented voices. Now, Whitworth said, “I’m coming back to my personal poetry practice.” They are drawn to the power of the written word and how poetry can help shed light on a broader point, whether it be moral or aesthetic.

“I think of it as working with mystery and working with language in a way that only a human can do,” as well as calling attention to beauty in unexpected places. Some of their writing features queer relationships and love between transgender people, which they see as an opportunity showcase the beauty and light within relationships that are culturally marginalized.

They will be reading their new work during the weekend. “I’d love to meet anybody who’s interested and would like to hang out after the show,” they said.

In general, they look forward to having time and space to focus on creativity without external pressures, an environment thoughtfully curated during the event.

“It is a time for serious bonding and thought. And if not collaboration, at least that initial exchange of ideas and being a community, literally and physically, with no other demands on your time and attention,” Whitworth said. “It’s an incredible gift to our community.”

Sou’wester Arts Week

Sou’wester Lodge, 3728 J Place, Seaview

Sunday through March 19

www.souwesterlodge.com