Horses overcoming abuse creates stirring exhibit at Creamery

Friday, 30 July 2010

Front page ~ News ~ North Fork Times ~ Horses overcoming abuse creates stirring exhibit at Creamery

Written by Kathy Browning

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 00:00

Vendla Stockdale’s photographs evoke dramatic images of the horses saved by Spirit Wind Horse Rescue, which was formed just three years ago. The exhibit will be at the Creamery Arts Center in Hotchkiss through the first week in November.

The photographs and writings presented in the Peach Gallery at the Creamery Arts Center require attention. They draw you in to a world governed by the best of spirits in horses to live and the people who helped to bring them back for the edge of destruction. Neglect and abuse may have damaged the horses, but they triumphed anyway. Thought-provoking, stirring, moving, inspirational and gut-wrenching, this exhibit titled, "Spirit Made Whole," is one that should be seen and digested.

Photographer Vendla Stockdale and writer Danielle Kemper have captured something special that needs to be shared with others. The artistic work has the ability to touch those who take the time to fully take in the exhibit, photograph by photograph with their accompanying poems and essays. Stockdale and Kemper are both members of Spirit Wind Horse Rescue. They credit the rescued horses as the artists of the exhibit and share their stories.

"They were our inspiration," Stockdale said at the Oct. 9 opening. "Without them this exhibit would never have been. They all play a part and they all play their own role."

Stockdale wanted to involve elements of the earth, the beginning of creation and dreaming in the exhibit. Here beginning is based on Greek mythology as well as creation. Dreamtime comes from the Aboriginal belief that what you dream comes into being. The horses seen in the gallery are in foster homes.

Poems and essays by Danielle Kemper provide depth to the exhibit by sharing critical moments in the life of an abused or neglected horse and then what it was like after the horse was rescued. Give yourself extra time in the Peach Gallery to not only study the photographs but to read Kemper’s writings.

"What we are trying to do is to make people more aware," Stockdale shared. "We have used the horses as a metaphor for us because they are the ones that have taught us we really need to value life. We see these horses in their neglectful states and you wonder how someone can go out everyday and not see it. It's like people are almost blind.... This is about people seeing something and making a change."

Danielle Kemper does horse therapy helping the horse to trust people again. Kemper has rescued horses herself. She wrote the poems and essays in the last month. "The great thing about [the horses] is that they go on, and they have lives and they have stories they share with us," Kemper explained. "There is sadness, but they move on."

Kemper sees that horses live in the moment. "Because they live in the present, they don't hold on to things like we do. Maybe that is faith. Maybe that is will." Stockdale and Kemper have invested three months in putting the exhibit together. "It was a real partnership, which is the point of our show that we want to get across. This is about partnering, and what happens when we do partnership," Kemper said.

The Creamery Arts Center is located in downtown Hotchkiss.

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