From beneath the soil in Lithuania, voices emanate from artists of
various ethnicities and backgrounds. The woman who planted floral bulbs and
her exhibit's verbal sound bytes hails from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
During the normal school year, Patricia Goodrich plants ideas in the
minds of English and reading students at Lenape Middle School in
Doylestown. But it was during her fourteen-month sabbatical that she planted
her installation "Voices Underground," in Europos Parkas, an open-air
museum in Lithuania.

Goodrich said, "'Voices Underground' is an earthwork inspired by the
site itself." Europos Parkas is an open-air, contemporary museum
displaying the works of artists from twenty-seven countries. It spans an area
of 55 hectares.

"The installation-- here at the geographic center of Europe," she said,
"reflects the desire to embody the power of art and artists to
communicate and to connect."

The earthwork features the voices and ideas of forty-four artists from
fifteen countries. Spliced audiocassettes mingle in the ground with
perennial wildflowers in this exhibition funded by the Puffin Foundation.

Goodrich continued, "The words of these artists confirm that art
connects us to nature, to society, to ourselves-- and that the creation of
art produces an energy that extends beyond the particular work itself."

The recipient of the 2003 Window of Opportunity Award from The Leeway
Foundation which supports women artists and their individual
opportunities, Goodrich received funding for her endeavors in sculpture as she
traveled to Russia to exhibit at the Hudson-Volga CONTACT Exhibition in
Nizhni Novgorad & Moscow.

She summed up, "However, the commentaries are more than mere
confirmation. The unique vision of each artist provides the stimuli of new
possibilities, new questions and quests."

Goodrich's "Her Cathedral", "Arc & Sphere", and "Solace" were exhibited
at the Great Rivers of the World Conference in the Russian Century
Gallery in Nizhny Novgorod and the Belyaevio State Exhibition Hall in
Moscow. Impacted strongly by her Russian counterparts, Goodrich noted their
creativity, their warmth.

"They are the most creative, wonderful people, especially right after
we were involved in war," she said.

Some of her fellow participants will travel to the United States for
artist exchanges. She was impressed that the Russian artists had such
flexibility to travel and to show their artwork.

"They were able to create beautiful catalogues and to create truly
contemporary work," Goodrich said.

During her sabbatical, Goodrich also served as an Artist-in-Residence
in her fellowship at the Santa Fe Arts Institute in Santa Fe, New
Mexico. She also was granted a Sculpture Residency in Europos Parkas,
Lithuania where she planted "Voices Underground." The previous year, 2002,
Goodrich won a Fellowship for Sculpture from the Vermont Studio Center
located in Johnson, Vermont.

Spliced audiocassettes mingle in the ground with perennial wildflowers
in "Voices Underground" "photo,  www.patriciagoodrich.com

"Whether one is following the path of flowers, hearing the voices rise
from the ground, or reading the text quietly in another part of the
earth," Goodrich concluded, "viewers are invited to consider how artists
and all people-- creating without boundaries, enrich our lives and prove
that we are all connected."

Goodrich will be appearing at a Poetry Reading at the Barnes and Noble
Bookstore in Oxford Valley Mall located in Langhorne, PA on April 2,
2004. She will be a part of the VSA (Very Special Arts) show in
Washington, DC for artists with disabilities.

More information about Goodrich and "Voices Underground" can be
obtained at  www.patriciagoodrich.com

All rights belong to the author. printed with pemission.
Bio:
Bonnie MacAllister is: the Membership and Publicity Chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art and a freelance writer, filmmaker, and performance artist. You can find me at:
www.livejournal.com/users/bonniemac