Rita’s kite was the inspiration for the title and this video.

This is the first video created from footage shot in May 2025 at the Riverhouse Artist Residency, Coon Rapids, Iowa.

• LeAnn Erickson

Sandy and I are excited to share that Homegrown Stories has been selected for an artist residency! In May we attended a week long residency in an old farm house situated on the edge of the White Rock Conservancy, located near Coon Rapids, Iowa.

This conservancy is a 5500 acre nonprofit land trust that protects native landscape and promotes sustainable farming. Sandy and I shot footage all over the area, wandering along the Raccoon River, exploring fields of prairie grass, meadows of wild flowers, and bur oak savannas.

During the remainder of 2025, we will create videos inspired by the residency. We will also collaborate with Pieta Brown on a musical video titled “Riverhouse”.

Thank you Liz Garst for selecting Homegrown Stories for the 2025 Riverhouse Artist Residency!

Homegrown Stories has been nurturing creative collaborations for many years.  This year we were interested in creating a more hands-on collaborative project among our loyal and talented collaborators. We invited sound and image artists who have contributed great work in the past to take part in this year’s Homegrown Stories theme – The Serendipity Project.

Twelve individuals were formed into six collaborative pairs. The pair of artists selected a title for their video piece and a designated length. They then worked separately with one collaborator creating a soundtrack inspired by the title and the other creating a silent image track.  At a designated time, these two separate tracks were combined.

Using collage, organic image, music as sound, and a variety of structural schemes, these collaborative videos reveal the random magic of Serendipity.

Burst II, Markus Haala and Patrick deCaumette

Grapefruit Parts, LeAnn Erickson and Sandy Dyas

Transference, Jim Havercamp and Adam Vidiksis

The Moon and The Chalice, Kristine Heykants and Miriam Bennett

First, I Flipped, Todd Kimm and Jeff Caplan

Confluence, Sonali Gulati and Pieta Brown

For this first Serendipity project, collaborators embraced the spontaneous and unplanned nature of chance.