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Ann Arbor 200

AADL Talks To: Chris Reising, Former Costume/Set Designer & Artist

When: August 1, 2024

Chris Reising
Chris Reising

In this episode AADL Talks To Christine Reising. Chris talks to us about designing Avant-garde costumes and sets for multiple local theaters, her involvement in the Bookfest from its iteration, and her work as an artist in a range of mediums.

Transcript

  • [00:00:10] KATRINA ANBENDER: [MUSIC] Hi. This is Katrina.
  • [00:00:11] ELIZABETH SMITH: And this is Elizabeth. In this episode, AADL talks to Christine Reising. Chris talks to us about designing costumes and sets for multiple local theaters, her involvement in the Bookfest from its iteration, and her work as an artist in a range of mediums.
  • [00:00:25] ELIZABETH SMITH: Thank you for joining us today, Chris. Usually, we start by asking where you grew up and what brought you to Ann Arbor.
  • [00:00:35] CHRISTINE REISING: Well, I grew up on the east side of Detroit. When I got my teaching position at Siena Heights and Adrian, I lived two hours away from Adrian. For the first year, I commuted. I spent two nights of the week [LAUGHTER] in Adrian. At the end of the first year, I said to my husband, either we move or I can't do this another year. He worked in Southfield. We drew a line between Adrian and Southfield, and guess where it was, Ann Arbor. In 1985, we moved here, and I've been here ever since. We've been here ever since.
  • [00:01:16] KATRINA ANBENDER: In your art practice, what mediums do you work with now and how has that changed over the years?
  • [00:01:23] CHRISTINE REISING: I would say, currently, printmaking and book arts are the prime ones. That doesn't mean I don't do an occasional other project [LAUGHTER] of installation type, but I have not done any theater in many years now. That was a large part of my practice, and it led me into the installation work. That's how that developed.
  • [00:01:48] ELIZABETH SMITH: On the topic of theater productions, you've created costuming and set designs for over 30 productions locally. How did your involvement begin with that? How did that progress over time?
  • [00:01:59] CHRISTINE REISING: It was very interesting. I was at the market on Saturday, and I ran into this woman who I had seen on campus. She said, Hi. My name is Simone Yehuda. Have you ever thought about doing costumes? I said, actually, no, but I do sew, and it sounds like a fun idea, so she invited me to do a show. It was Puss in Boots for Young People's Theater, and that was the first one. I think, in '86 or so, some--late '80s. That's how it happened. Then it just progressed over time. It became a lot of Performance Network work in the old building and some in the new building. But that's probably the extent of how it developed.
  • [00:02:46] KATRINA ANBENDER: Did you have a relationship with her before she approached--
  • [00:02:48] CHRISTINE REISING: No. I never. I'd only seen her on campus. I didn't even know who she was. It was very weird [LAUGHTER] It really was. I mean, it was sort of fated, you know what I mean? It felt like that to me. From the second I started doing it. It was completely natural like I had always done it. And I hadn't, ever. In fact, you can ask anyone who knows me that I've worked in theater with. They'll tell you I would never ever go out on stage. But I'm very comfortable in the back doing lots of important things, but not ever as an actor, ever.
  • [00:03:25] ELIZABETH SMITH: The Young People's Theater, was that connected to the Performance Network back when it first started?
  • [00:03:30] CHRISTINE REISING: No, and they never were. They would rent the space. We did a couple of shows there if I remember right. But no, they're not connected in any way. I met some people who also volunteered at YPT who were Performance Network people. That's how the link happened.
  • [00:03:48] KATRINA ANBENDER: Just to cover what theaters you have worked with, you said Young People's Theater, Performance Network, what others are there?
  • [00:03:55] CHRISTINE REISING: Ann Arbor Civic Theater. Some independent smaller theater groups I've worked with over the years. But those are the primary ones. Actually, those are the primary ones in Ann Arbor except now Performance Network is no longer active.
  • [00:04:13] KATRINA ANBENDER: How did you adapt your work based on which theater it was for and how were they distinct from one another?
  • [00:04:21] CHRISTINE REISING: Very. [LAUGHTER] The kids shows were always a lot of fun because of the theme of the show, like Wrinkle in Time, for example, and I got to make those crazy, witchy costumes, and so they were really fun to do. Not fun was having to probably costume 30 people or more for every show. That was a lot of work. But performance network did Avant-garde theater. I loved it. I remember one time when I went to New York, I saw Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and I came back and I said to them, you got to do the show, and they got the rights and did it. I loved doing those shows because they were very edgy. Then Ann Arbor Civic Theater did kind of classic things, Three Sisters. I loved doing work there as well, but it was very different theater. My favorite was always the Avant-garde theater. The Public by García Lorca was my by far favorite play I've ever done.
  • [00:05:20] ELIZABETH SMITH: I was going to ask you about that. You also wrote for that play, is that correct? You wrote The Garden of the Moon's Grapefruit?
  • [00:05:28] CHRISTINE REISING: How'd you find that out?
  • [00:05:29] ELIZABETH SMITH: It was in the Ann Arbor News.
  • [00:05:31] CHRISTINE REISING: No kidding, I wrote a separate piece that some of the characters came out of--very few, but it was mostly out of García Lorca's poetry. That was a performance that actually never happened. It was written, but it never was performed.
  • [00:05:51] KATRINA ANBENDER: Had you had an interest in theater prior to this, and then, did other theater inspire you? I mean, you said you went to New York and you saw something--
  • [00:06:01] CHRISTINE REISING: I still go to New York as often as I can. While I'm there, I always see theater. Not particularly. No, not really. It was just that initial step in. Then after that, I just kept following it, and followed wherever I went, and I would look at theater. Sometimes, I actually even produced and worked with another person to do a complete show that was just ours. It was like, part of the Performance Network summer series. But it was our show. It was not a Network show. It was just in their space. That was Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, based on the poem by Christina Rossetti. As you can see, literature has a lot to do with this. Before I decided to be an art professor, art teacher, prior to that, I was interested in literature. I thought I would be an English teacher, but that didn't happen [LAUGHTER]. Art came along instead, so visual art that is.
  • [00:07:04] ELIZABETH SMITH: What are some of your favorite costumes or set designs that you did for the Performance Network?
  • [00:07:09] CHRISTINE REISING: Well, The Public by Lorca was particularly interesting because they had characters that were costumes. It was great, it was a very strange--well, you know, Lorca's plays tend to be a little on the odd-edge side. They, for example, there was a harlequin, who was a character in the play, and then there was a harlequin character that was in the play. All of those two people had the identical costumes. There were other things, like, there was a character who ended up being, a six foot man who had white tights covered in little gold bells. There were just such unique things with that Lorca play that--there was a goddess, and I crocheted breasts for her so she could be naked without being naked. Although there was a character who, the Red Christ was actually naked in that show. They had to put a warning on the door, and they were being protested. It was just ridiculous. See why I like the network? [LAUGHTER]. Those are things that appeal to me.
  • [00:08:19] ELIZABETH SMITH: For the Civic Theater, were there any that stood out for that role there? You did more costume design work there, or was it a bit of both?
  • [00:08:27] CHRISTINE REISING: Yes. Mostly costume. I would say, yeah. I really never did any set work for--the first real big set that I did was at the Performance Network. It was a play called, ready? The Shriveled Arm of Uma Kimball.
  • [00:08:43] CHRISTINE REISING: It was crazy. It had a helicopter, it was just crazy. And I did, it was a 1950s bedroom for the lead character. Everything in there was '50s, and it was all pink. Everything, all the walls were pink, and the pattern that went up the stairs was pink, and the bedspread was pink. That was a really fun show to do. That was my first, like, big set, that was all the parts were mine.
  • [00:09:15] KATRINA ANBENDER: Can you talk about, were there any frequent collaborators? Were there repeated directors or other people that you worked with?
  • [00:09:25] CHRISTINE REISING: Both YPT--there are a number of directors, but Simone wrote and directed a number of things. I would say, and she was the artistic director at the time. I worked with her. At the Network, the people who were running the place were the people who directed, who acted, so it was that group, and they just had multiple roles that--I did work with very similar people at both organizations. Neither are huge organizations, so you work with who's there and the plays that interest them.
  • [00:10:02] ELIZABETH SMITH: Do you still have any communication with anybody from those days?
  • [00:10:05] CHRISTINE REISING: Yeah, the Network has, a web page, I mean a Facebook page, old Networkers. On Facebook, I would say that I occasionally, a lot of them are still my friends, and I know what's going on, but I don't see them. The theater, when you're seriously in theater and I was, you're there all the time. You're there for every rehearsal. At least I was. I studied the script with the people that were in it, and then after that was gone. That creative, crazy, and before it became unionized, became official when it moved to that other space, the kind of plays they were doing were of no interest to me, really. The last play I did there was called A Stop Kiss, and it was just like shopping. That started a decline in my interest in doing theater. It had to be very original and very interesting and thematically unique before I was really interested in doing it.
  • [00:11:14] KATRINA ANBENDER: When you were designing costumes or sets, were you looking at other previous iterations or other local theaters to get inspiration or was it really just imaginative from the start?
  • [00:11:27] CHRISTINE REISING: I never looked to other theaters. I looked to Taymor, do you know who she is? She did Lion King and, Julie Taymor, I loved her work. Although I didn't really involve puppetry, her sensibility was really strong. I would say, also opera influenced me, the kind of costumes that were in opera. Theater in the broad sense of the word, maybe, but not anyone particularly. Each play presents itself for me with a particular way of going--in collaboration with the director, of course. You always, it's the director's show, and sometimes you do things just to please them. Other times, if you're friends, it's more collaborative. In fact, that's really probably the thing I loved most about the theater was collaboration because as a studio artist, guess what you are? Alone, so collaborating felt really good for me right from the beginning.
  • [00:12:34] ELIZABETH SMITH: I was curious if your fine art practice had any influence on how you approached the design of costuming and sets?
  • [00:12:42] CHRISTINE REISING: Fine art? [LAUGHTER] You know what I'm going to say to you. It affects everything in my life. It's like in your brain, and it's there, and it just comes out as needed. It isn't separate for me at all, it's all of one thing. It's like design. I don't think about design. I know design so well that I just do it, and I do it well. You do, after 50 years, you get it.
  • [00:13:15] KATRINA ANBENDER: To talk about another medium that you've been involved with is bookmaking. You were involved with Bookfest or Kerrytown Bookfest?
  • [00:13:25] CHRISTINE REISING: I've been involved--I attended the first Bookfest, and I'll be here this year. We've gone, my collaborator, David Burkam and I have been doing Bookfest together. We have a shop on Etsy together called Moon Moth Press. With the exception of a couple of years for odd reasons, we didn't attend, but right from the very beginning, yeah.
  • [00:13:47] KATRINA ANBENDER: Can you talk about how you became involved with that and how it has changed over time?
  • [00:13:56] CHRISTINE REISING: If it weren't for the Hollanders and the Hollander store in Kerrytown, this would not have happened. My relationship with Tom and Cindy had everything to do with why. I used to bring my students in and we'd buy all the stuff for our books together. They got to pick out their own papers. But I had been shopping at their store when it was the tiny little thing on the second floor. I knew them for many years. When I started teaching book arts, then I even had a closer relationship with them. I took some of their classes, too. In the beginning. I didn't know how to make a book.
  • [00:14:36] ELIZABETH SMITH: Is that where you learned how to make books initially?
  • [00:14:39] CHRISTINE REISING: I think the first book, the first hard bound hand sewn book I did at a Hollander's workshop. I think it was Cindy, who taught it to me. [LAUGHTER]
  • [00:14:50] ELIZABETH SMITH: Then you ended up teaching classes at Hollander's, is that correct?
  • [00:14:53] CHRISTINE REISING: Yeah.
  • [00:14:53] ELIZABETH SMITH: What kind of classes did you teach there?
  • [00:14:56] CHRISTINE REISING: I taught altered books, found books. That's what our Etsy business does. We take really old books that are, nobody's reading, that have fabulous old covers, and reclaim them to be journals, and some are blank with art papers, and some are just blank journals that you would just write in. That's what I taught there. I also taught a book called a Concertina. Do you know that one? It's got an accordion fold spine. You can grow it. When you put items in it, it can get bigger. When I used to take my students to Italy, they all had to make one of those and then collect things on their trip, which proved that they had been there. We made ties for them because they would get maybe 4 inches high by the time, we were done with our trip in Italy. I did the same, I did the same with them. That's how I discovered that, but I think it was Jean Buescher who taught me that particular style at Hollander's. But the altar book was mine. Nobody taught me that, I figured that out myself.
  • [00:16:03] KATRINA ANBENDER: That was how you got started in the book arts and the festival. How has the festival changed over time?
  • [00:16:12] CHRISTINE REISING: Well, it used to be at Kerrytown, outdoors under the awnings. We were lucky, I don't think I ever had one year where the weather was really bad. Then they moved it, a couple of years ago now to Washtenaw. I did not participate that year. I thought that was not a good idea. It was not [LAUGHTER]. Then they did it here, and we were here, and now we'll be here again. I think this is the absolute perfect venue. What better to sell books and book art-related things, like prints and handmade paper and things, but in a library. I hope that they found a permanent home. I think it's a great idea.
  • [00:16:58] ELIZABETH SMITH: You're also interested in paper making. How did that come about, and did you ever do any of that in this area in Ann Arbor?
  • [00:17:07] CHRISTINE REISING: When I was in grad school back in the old days, the guy that was one of my printmaking instructors also did paper making. That was my first introduction to paper. The first thing I did when I got out of graduate school was I applied for a Michigan artist grant to work as an apprentice under an artist who was a paper maker. I would go to her studio every day and I'd take care of all the schlepping and her name was Nancy Thayer. What it did was encouraged me by doing her work to go into making large scale cast paper, or poured paper, actually, they were thick, but poured paper artworks that I painted and drew on and attached things to. That was the link to paper making. The thing that we've not talked about is printmaking. Are we going to get there? Because that's the big one that got me even to book arts.
  • [00:18:08] ELIZABETH SMITH: Let's just dive in right now.
  • [00:18:10] CHRISTINE REISING: That was my concentration in graduate school. I started off in Intaglio, and then I ended up in lithography, which was a much more fluid method, which for me was great. When I got out of grad school, I never did another print because it is, at the time, it was the most toxic thing that you could do. In addition to that, I smoked. That was really smart. I'd be smoking late in the studio and using acetone, and it was really stupid. I knew that. Some containers of chemicals even said carcinogen. I said I got to stop that. I also quit smoking, but it took a few years. I found out that there you know what Penland is. It's a craft school in West Virginia [Asheville, North Carolina]. It's a very famous craft school. There was a course called non-toxic printmaking. I thought oh, so I applied. I got in, and I took it, and it changed my life, and it changed the direction of my art. I went back there was some change of faculty going on in the art department at Siena, and I said, I'll take on the printmaking if you let me do it my way, and if you let me include book arts. "Do whatever you want [LAUGHTER]." That was what was great about teaching at Siena. It was a very fluid place. The art department, anyway. So I did. I also then took the etching process, used chemicals and water, no acid, whatever, which is what you used to use for etching. I also took a course in solar plate printing, which was even better because you could do photographic images, you could do text, you could do everything. The first project I did at a workshop I went to in New Mexico, was a book where I got to typeset, solar plate the plates, print a book. It was such a perfect connection between the two. I've done numerous books where I have used text. The next thing that happened was the digital world came into my lap. I'm part of the generation, I'm a baby boomer, who had to be trained [LAUGHTER]. I didn't know anything. I learned a lot, and now the books that I make are primarily digital with a lot of photoshop work, and things like that. That's the progression of the books. And you can see that, now that I'm retired, and I don't have a studio with huge printing presses, although I do have a friend in Ann Arbor John Gutoskey who has great press. He and I work together a lot of times, but the reason that books are so great is for me, they're small objects. Prints are generally fairly small objects, and I can do all of those in my studio at home. The thing that I discovered about printmaking recently, the most recent discovery is soft plate printing. You don't need a press. I'm able to do all of the things I want to do in my studio, which is not small, by the way, because I've done lots of huge installations and things in my studio, but it's good now to occasionally do one of those really big projects, and then to do the smaller projects most of the time.
  • [00:21:33] KATRINA ANBENDER: Found or collected objects are a big part of your work. Are there places in town that you frequented?
  • [00:21:40] CHRISTINE REISING: Well, in the old days, there were great antique shops. Every Friday, I didn't have to work on most Fridays. I'd frequent a lot of them, and I found many things over the years that I used in my work. Now, where does everybody go? eBay. There's my antique shops, primarily.
  • [00:22:01] ELIZABETH SMITH: What were the names of some of those shops that you like to go to?
  • [00:22:04] CHRISTINE REISING: I can't remember. You know where the bar is over on 5th? That's two stories, and it's got the cave-y thing underneath. They used to be a huge antique store. Huge, multi-story. I went there every Friday. I'd go to the restaurant, that looked like--a Chinese restaurant that looked like a cave on Stadium, whose name is lost to me. Then I'd go over to that store and shop [LAUGHTER]. Actually, sometimes strange things happen when you shop by, I call it radar. So intuition, synchronicity. Those are all important things to me. I was doing a project at Siena about St. Catherine of Siena, who is the patron of Siena Heights University. St. Dominic, it's the order of sisters who are there are Dominicans. I had this installation going, and I just didn't quite know. I walked in the front door and I looked to the left, and there was a damaged statue of St. Dominic about 4.5 feet high. Like an idiot, I bought it, and it was perfect for the installation, and it still sits in the corner in my studio with a dried lei from Hawaii and a gold key in his hand. He's still with me. I'll never get rid of him. I don't know where--who'd want it. [LAUGHTER]. Sometimes those kind of things happened or I'd find something that would inspire a whole piece, that just suited it.
  • [00:23:35] ELIZABETH SMITH: You've exhibited at galleries in Ann Arbor over the years. How have those changed, and do you find that there are more or less opportunities to exhibit locally now?
  • [00:23:45] CHRISTINE REISING: I never exhibited a lot in Ann Arbor. A few times. At The Gallery [Project] once. Do you remember that used to be over on Washtenaw? [Washington] It was really super cool place to exhibit. Ann Arbor Art Center a couple of times. I've not really been, I hate to admit it. I shouldn't hate to admit it. The truth is that I've not really been an active participant in the art scene in Ann Arbor. Theater yeah, a lot, but not the visual art scene. I really haven't. I've exhibited all around the country, a little bit in Canada, but no, sorry. That's the best answer I can give you. It's honest.
  • [00:24:25] ELIZABETH SMITH: What goes into your decision to apply for an exhibit?
  • [00:24:28] CHRISTINE REISING: Theme.
  • [00:24:30] CHRISTINE REISING: I find themes difficult, actually, and so sometimes they're print shows, and that's a very broad open thing. I like those kinds of things. One of the most recent shows is a show called Illumination at the Wilmington Museum of Art. Each year, they have a new theme. They're pretty general and pretty open ended, which suits me. For the last two years, my friend Garin Horner, who's a photographer, an Ann Arbor photographer, pretty famous photographer, actually. I have collaborated on two small installation pieces, which we did at that museum. Sometimes it's an open ended theme, sometimes it's a technical thing, which makes me want to exhibit. Sometimes I'm asked, that happens too. You get to be asked to participate in a show. That happens also.
  • [00:25:27] KATRINA ANBENDER: You just mentioned one collaborator. Do you have relationships with other local artists or other local artists that have inspired your work?
  • [00:25:34] CHRISTINE REISING: No. The reason I have a relationship with Garin Horner is he was one of my first students at Siena. He graduated from Siena and we became friends. I've collaborated with him on some other, a book project also, but they're really, besides theater, I have not really collaborated with any Ann Arbor artists. I know them. It's not like I don't know them, but--
  • [00:26:02] ELIZABETH SMITH: How has Ann Arbor as a whole changed?
  • [00:26:05] CHRISTINE REISING: Well, when I used to drive to Adrian, there was nothing down Main Street, past Scio Church, seriously. There was nothing. So as a result of that, I completely changed the way I used to drive to work. That was crazy going through town like that. I used to be able to just zip right through, but that's changed. I don't think the politics have changed a lot, in the sort of liberal politics, although it's not a totally liberal city, suit me. The size suits me. That has not really changed a lot. The latest changes are all these multi-rise buildings, which I am not fond of at all. They're creating lots of issues in this town that are changing it from its kind of small town, but pretty culturally astute town to something else, and I'm not sure how much I like that. I would say that's the most current big change that I see and it's continuing. Every time I turn around, there's another one. Right over there.
  • [00:27:14] ELIZABETH SMITH: Right next to us.
  • [00:27:17] KATRINA ANBENDER: This is going back aways, but you talked about Hollander's, and the relationship you had with them and also just the supplies that they provided and the access they provided to that. Now Hollander's doesn't have a storefront anymore. Is there anywhere else in Ann Arbor, you see that--
  • [00:27:40] CHRISTINE REISING: They have an online store.
  • [00:27:41] KATRINA ANBENDER: Yes.
  • [00:27:42] CHRISTINE REISING: Let's not forget that.
  • [00:27:43] KATRINA ANBENDER: Yes. Store front. They don't have a physical store anymore. Has that changed where--
  • [00:27:53] CHRISTINE REISING: They were primary, the sole source for that material in Ann Arbor. You could go to Paper Source, there are a couple of those around, but that's about it, and that there is no comparison between them. I have a couple of sources when I buy printmaking paper and other more decorative papers, online sources that I use. Occasionally, I buy stuff from them still and go to the where their store is now and pick it up. I don't have to have anything shipped. It's great.
  • [00:28:26] ELIZABETH SMITH: Is there another source that you had locally for found books rather than just found objects or was it still at the antique stores?
  • [00:28:34] CHRISTINE REISING: Antique stores have some books but not exclusively. I've gone down to Detroit. What's the giant--?
  • [00:28:44] KATRINA ANBENDER: John K. King.
  • [00:28:46] CHRISTINE REISING: King's books. I've walked out with lots. For the Moon Moth Press projects that David and I do, he shops online and buys all the old books online, mostly from eBay, because they post photographs of them so you can see what--since we are actually use them for their artistic look that's necessary to have, but a number of the books that I made, the altered books, the handmade books in the beginning, were from bookstores. When I travel, I go to bookstores, if there are any anymore. That's another sad result of the Internet, although there are a lot of positive things. I'm not a negative person on the Internet.
  • [00:29:34] ELIZABETH SMITH: And Ann Arbor itself has a lot of bookstores still. Maybe not compared to what it used to have, but we do have a good amount of bookstores here.
  • [00:29:43] CHRISTINE REISING: Well, in the people that are selling used books at Bookfest, there's a lot of them.
  • [00:29:48] ELIZABETH SMITH: Did you ever make any purchases there? Or were you mostly selling?
  • [00:29:53] CHRISTINE REISING: No.
  • [00:29:53] KATRINA ANBENDER: That's restraint.
  • [00:29:55] CHRISTINE REISING: No, I hide behind the table in the books. Actually, I'm not a real public--believe it or not. Very forward as a teacher, but personality wise, my friend, David is far better. It doesn't mean I don't chat with people and stuff, but no.
  • [00:30:12] ELIZABETH SMITH: Was there anything that we missed that you wanted to discuss about your past here in Ann Arbor or your work?
  • [00:30:18] CHRISTINE REISING: No, you guys covered it pretty well. The whole found object thing has a huge impact on my work. I've been sticking small antique little cards and things on prints from 1978 when I was finishing up my undergrad. When I discovered how that looked, that was it. Then it's been probably the prime source of my work has been those little objects that I've collected over the years.
  • [00:30:54] KATRINA ANBENDER: That must be very different now, though. If you're looking for things online, you have to start from somewhere that you're searching rather than happenstance as much.
  • [00:31:05] CHRISTINE REISING: Oh, yeah, so I had a total knee replacement recently and so I wanted, all things in my life I make art about. Nice and not nice. I wanted to do a piece where I hung stockings that I could embroider the wound, the incision on. I had to find, I had the old stockings, believe it or not, they were stuck in a drawer from probably 25 years ago. Seriously. They like the '50s version with the seam down the back and the toes. I went specifically looking for garter belts because I figured, well, that's how I'm going to hang these things. However, that whole thing just stopped. I had it all lined up to do, and it just it just stopped. It just didn't go anywhere. But I do go for specific things that suit the concept that I'm that's how I do it now more than accidentally finding things. Although, you never know what you find when you're searching. The other thing I would say about my work, and I don't think people realize how much research is involved in work. I did a sabbatical project on the Spiritualist Movement and its relationship to feminism. I did a graduate level research project. I think I read what you do for a PhD. I don't think people realize just how much art is related to a whole intellectual research source and that also is another really important part of my work. I think I taught that way.
  • [00:32:47] ELIZABETH SMITH: Yes, you did. Definitely instilled that in me. What are you most proud of?
  • [00:32:54] CHRISTINE REISING: In my whole life? Well, they're personal things that I'm most proud of. I've been married since 1968. I'm really proud of that. He was my high school sweetheart. I'm really proud of that. We had one son who I'm very proud of. He's become quite a man. I now have a granddaughter who's almost 12, and I adore her. Those are personal things. In terms of my work, I would say that that Spiritualist installation that I did at Siena, and the book that accompanied it was probably like the Lorca project, my favorite installation project that I've ever done. Not just favorite, but that I'm most proud of, as well as the Lorca play. Those are the two that I am I think of with pride and also accomplishment. They were big things to do, they were big projects to do. [MUSIC]
  • [00:34:03] ELIZABETH SMITH: AADL Talks To is a production of the Ann Arbor District Library.