Dear Library,

Over the last three months, my artist residency gave me the opportunity to teach papermaking, bookbinding, collage, and portrait-drawing classes. Together, the library community and I produced this collaborative exhibition. It has been an absolute delight to be your inaugural Neighborhood Artist in Residence, and I am thrilled to be able to share this body of work with you now.

To assemble Our Neighborhood, I asked the community to imagine homes with me. What could a house look like if there were no rules? Is it real or mythical? Where would your personality live? These questions were asked to children and adults at the Downtown Library, Ladd Library, and Linn County’s Juvenile Detention & Diversion Services. I gave thoughtful attention to each drawn response while crafting this triptych of collages.

MIRRORS is my ongoing, collaborative drawing project where I ask strangers to draw portraits of me while I draw portraits of them. My drawings are all grayscale sketches, similar in their approach and line quality. Their diversity is in the uniqueness of each model, including participants from a wide range of ages, genders, and backgrounds. The portraits participants draw of me reverse these qualities: they all depict the exact same person and produce wildly different interpretations. The variety of these portraits is borne of each individual perceiving me in a different way, and approaching the task of drawing from a unique place. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to depict someone’s likeness, and no single portrait can fully represent a person’s lived experience. What MIRRORS seeks to do is uplift spontaneous instances of human connection, and make a tangible, visible record of those moments. The experience of drawing one another is an opportunity to see and be seen, to listen and be listened to, and to create a space for acknowledging our togetherness.

Our neighborhood right here in Cedar Rapids can be as vibrant and inclusive as we want it to be. What you see on the walls here is evidence of that — and this is just the beginning.

With joy and gratitude,
Harper Folsom
Your first Neighborhood Artist