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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Land of Plenty builds layers of meaning

Project unites graphic artists, songwriters, photographers,

The song “Carry Me Home,” recorded by Cami Bradley, inspired a photo by Grace Lindsey with lettering designed by Marlene Silver.

On the Bartlett’s website, tonight’s art and music event Land of Plenty is labeled as a “celebration of collaboration,” and that seems as apt a description as any.

Karli Ingersoll, one of the Bartlett’s owners, is both a musician and a graphic designer, and she devised the event as a way to bridge the gap between the two mediums. It began with her reaching out to several musicians, all of whom submitted a few of their own songs to her.

“I asked (the musicians) to submit something they could be excited about,” Ingersoll said, “songs they were feeling in the moment, songs they were inspired by. Obviously a song with some word pictures would be easier to work with, and some of them responded to that.”

After those songs were chosen, a group of photographers each created a piece that was inspired by a specific song. Then a group of graphic designers took the developed photos and drew and arranged lettering, usually quoting the subject song’s lyrics, to complement the images.

“The photographer is the first person to get the song, and then they create a photograph inspired by it,” Ingersoll explained. “Then the designers took lyrics from the song and finished the piece with some lettering design.”

For instance, the tune “Carry Me Home,” recorded by singer-songwriter Cami Bradley’s musical project the Sweeplings, inspired a photo by Grace Lindsey. It depicts a woman who seems to be levitating off the ground, which evokes the themes present in Bradley’s lyrics; the lettering, by designed Marlene Silveira, directly quotes the song.

Bradley is a photographer and submitted a snapshot inspired by Anna Tivel’s song “Black Balloon”: Some of the song’s lyrics – “Storm coming in” – are scrawled in the photo’s blank space in a font designed by Becca Clason.

“It’s a really hip thing right now – lettering design over photographs,” Ingersoll said. “But I think a lot of people do it haphazardly, so we wanted to something that was directly collaborative.”

The first Land of Plenty show took place Thursday night, and tonight’s event will feature more performances from some of the musical artists who inspired the photography on display. Like the Round, a monthly event also hosted at the Bartlett, Land of Plenty encourages artists in different disciplines to work together for a common purpose.

“I thought it was a cool way to add extra meaning to the designs,” Ingersoll said. “It’s kind of like a mini-festival.”