May Apples, Sliders and Cherry Blossoms

may apple
unfurl
sliders
sun
cherry blossoms fall
like rain

Isle Be Green for the Birds

Today was the fourth annual celebration of SWAN Day. A day set aside to honor the work and value of women in all facets of the arts. SWAN being an acronym for Support Women Artists Now. So to every woman who may read this, and to every woman who won't, I honor you and your creative soul and I am so happy that we are on this amazing planet at the same time. May we all continue to raise our creative voice in whatever way we may!
To honor the holiday (it is being called a holiday :-) I spent the last two weekends with a group of girls who gathered with me to make art from recyclables.



Isle Be Green is a plastic bag recycle
education project in Isle of Wight. I was invited by the fabulous Rachel, Director of the program, to come to the beautiful bright and colorful Smithfield Art Center to present a two part workshop in turning trash into treasure.
Our group of eager young girls each designed their piece of animal art during our first session. We had a lesson in breaking form down into simple shapes. A drawing was then created. After a demonstration the girls stuffed plastic bags and cut cereal boxes to 'sculpt' their animal. Masking tape holds everything together. A time honored and obvious next step is using recycled newspaper for a top layer of paper mache. Finally when all is dry we add a layer of gesso and... ta da the glorious paint.
Here you see Hunter the dog in his early and then in his finished stage...isn't he one handsome hound. His person sits in the center row beaming with joy. She explained to me how much she missed her dog. The real Hunter had been taken away from her over a year ago with no explanation.















A day like this reminds me of how very grateful I am for the teachers and mentors who nurtured my early love of nature and making things with my hands. My dad helped to form my character by taking me and my dog for walks in a nearby woods. I realize now that my dad was pretty tapped in. He set a great example for me because he always carried a folded paper bag in his back pocket for picking up trash as we walked among the trees. He also collected other peoples cast offs and so our home environment was rich in materials for building and experimenting. He made us stilts to walk with, brought huge wooden spools home that we could do 'circus acts' on and he allowed me to construct all sorts of obstacles and 'chutes and ladders' for my dog training experiments in the back yard. When I was really young he offered me a huge old spike and suggested that I carve pictures into the hot asphalt alley that we lived on during the summer afternoons. Now I love sharing this 'inventor and detective' aspect of life as artist in every workshop and studio I design.

When I work with a group of young ones I invariably sense the expanse of life challenges and adventures that lie before them. It reminds me to wrap my arms around the beauty that life has given me, embracing it all. After enduring extreme violence and trauma I discovered yoga and solitude. I 'went back to the land' planted a garden and went to work. I've been working in the studio for over 40 years. During that time I've owned and managed a saucy little gallery that focused on exhibiting the works of emerging artists in a teeming arts district. I had a mammoth studio space (more than 20 rooms!) in what had long been a high security lock up ward for women in an old psychiatric hospital. I started Creativity Salons held the first Saturday of the month open it to anyone in the community who wanted to come and be creative. A core group of about 12 of us met for 5 1/2 years and forged friendships that will last our lifetime. I've traveled to the top of the world and sipped yak butter tea with Tibetan monks. I've danced with the mask makers in Bali and snorkeled in the Java Sea. Now, in my sixth decade, I'm considering the value of leaving a 'trail of art studios' for young ones to follow. I design all my studios to bring attention to nature and our relationship with the environment so this two part adventure was a great fit. Thank you Rachel.

Don't you love when you can offer discovery, adventure and creative problem solving while inventing something never before seen? I adore sharing that experiment with young ones in an open studio/apprentice setting. It reminds me of a favorite line from Thoreau "To affect the quality of the day is the highest of arts." I'm so grateful I get to do that. I'm so happy I was able to do that today on a day that is being set aside each year to honor women making art no matter where, no matter with what. That reminds me of the women artists of Mithila...how great to honor them and their tradition on SWAN Day. I'll share images of the pieces I brought home from Nepal in an upcoming post.

~Sing the Day

Michaelangelo at the Muscarelle

"Let this be plain to all: design, or as it is called by another name, drawing, constitutes the fountainhead and substance of painting and sculpture and architecture and is the root of all the sciences. Let him who has attained possessing this be assured that he possesses a great treasure; he will be able to make figures taller than any tower, both painted and carved, and he will find no wall or side of building that will prove narrow and small for his imaginings."

Michelangelo

In learning anatomy I would draw the masters from memory...left: Muscarelle catalog / right: just for fun... Drozda graphite/ink notebook drawing from memory 1979.

I received a belated birthday present today. My sister Linda gifted me with an outing to the College of William and Mary and the Muscarelle Museum of Art to view 'Anatomy as Architecture, Drawings by the Master'. Linda's friend Sharon, a weekend docent at the museum, happened to be passing by as we approached the front door. She graciously offered to come in and walk us through the intimate collection of Michelangelo's drawings. Her enthusiasm and knowledge provided insight as well as the storyline that makes each of the twelve works really fit within a context of his time.

She pointed out that Michelangelo rebelled against the Vitruvian Canon used as the standared for anatomical proportion popularized by Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Michelangelo chose to break out and exaggerate form seeing the human body as the inspiration for his architectural designs and in the monumental way that we associate with his style.

The upper level special exhibitions gallery at the Muscarelle is always serene. I've been there many times over the years and rarely encounter any other patrons. Today was no exception. Linda and I had a private tour of rare and magnificently intimate pages of this masters poems, writings and sketches...the installation is beautifully augmented by a series of engravings that, like the work of the master are rarely seen outside of Florence, Italy. All on loan from the Casa Buonarroti.

This is the only stop in America for these exceptional works, all of them appearing to be torn right from the master's sketchbook. The March 17 Wall Street Journal article states that "...it is actually possible to have the drawings to yourself. This doubles the intimacy of the experience__ you can see the artist at work, as if peering over his shoulder."

That's how it felt... like a private hour looking over the shoulder of 'genius at work'.

~Sing the day~

Affecting the Quality of the Day

I love my life as an artist! No two days are alike and adventure always visits. Like this past week on Thursday afternoon.

For the last 5 years I've been so pleased to be invited to spend time with the youth who participate in a non profit community program called 'Park Place Child Life Center'. The program, which has a literacy and arts focus, assists kids who have challenges to face on a daily basis. It's run by my friend Charlotte Moon, her husband and their amazing team. April brings the PPCLC Spring Festival and I have the chance to get the kids involved in an art activity that can be part of the celebration.
Each year it's a different group and I never know the ages. This year it was middle school girls.

My schedule only allowed me to be with the group for one afternoon, that's much less time than in years past. The focus of the 2010 Spring Festival is Community. With four hours to 'make it happen' I pulled out a canvas that I had painted in 1989 while on a 4 month solitary retreat on an island...I wish I had thought to shoot the image to show you the before and after but you know how it goes when everything is happening at once and there are time issues.

I offered the girls the idea of creating a tree that would hold leaves that displayed their wishes and hopes for their community.

First they made pencil drawings then they agreed upon the direction they would go and together they drew a chalked image over my work. Aprons on they each dove right in mixing colors and applying pigment from all directions with such exuberance and enthusiam that I wished they never had to stop. While the paint dried they began to cut the tree leaves out of fabric. We had discussed the many ways that leaves shape themselves and when I mentioned that the Redbud tree has heart shape leaves they all agreed to go in that direction. Each of them made a paper pattern and began cutting fabric. The two pieces of fabric were stuffed with a recycled grocery bag to add dimension and then hot glued to close. we would have stitched them but the fabric was mostly upholsery grade and difficult to push a needle through and none of them had ever sewed therefor the learning curve would have meant we needed more time. After the leaves were complete the artists pierced the canvas with an awl and stitched the leaves to the tree.

Here is their 72x48" canvas.

Don't you love the name they gave the project, the 'Communa Tree' and check out the beaming faces of accomplishment and joy...yup..we let the afternoon sing.

I've been discovering wonderful books this past month and adding to my studio collection. I thought to share one with you this week and hope that it offers you a similar level of delight and uplift as I am finding...

if you're looking for a fascinating, buoyant, fiesty and creatively charged read check out: Pronoia is the antidote to Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings by Rob Brezsny...I've been familiar with Brezsny's weekly column in our arts paper for years but recently began to read excerpts from his newly revised edition of this fabulous workbook.

The back liner notes read:
"888 Tricks for becoming a wildly disciplined, fiercely tender, ironically sincere, scrupulously curious, aggressively sensitive, blasphemously reverent, lyrically logical, lustfully compassionate Master of Rowdy Bliss."

Utne Reader says "This wild, wise, and subversive book is a must read for those who want to live a more imaginative and free life...Rob Brezsny is a Culture Hero.

From page 8: You need regular doses of unreasonable beauty, sublime anomalies, beguiling ephemera, and inexplicable joys.

And on page 85: Tweakable Pronoia Therapy/experiments and exercises in becoming a radically curious, wildly disciplined, ironically sincere Master of Uproar.

There's terrific graphics from modern and ancient arts and cultures smattered throughout so it's also a treat to thumb through randomly.

May your day sing ~

I have come to be inspired and well fed by the postings of mixed media collage artist Donna Watson. Some days ago she invited readers of her blog to visit the serenity of her home .

Peaceful surroundings are important to me and being able to glimpse the attention to detail and the grace of placement that she shares is for me a true healing balm.

My dear artist friend Che'usa has been renovating a cottage with a view of Mount Etna. She recently set up her sewing studio and singing bowl (here's a youtube of my friend Calby playing the bowls) room. Pictured is the silk duvet cover that Che'usa stitched up today inside her cozy little nest.

Che' introduced me to the work of Gail Rieke. I was most smitten by a glimpse inside her studio... here.

Naturally our artist homes are often sanctuary for our four legged friends as seen here at my pal Betsy's...you may enjoy her amazing vegan recipes too.

Art Classes for Children

I love this time of year when the Contemporary Art Center kids art classes conclude and I have the chance to share a few of the results.

These images are from the 9-11 year old 'Saturday in the Studio'. Each of the ten artists design their own project, do research, develop drawings and then bring their concept to a successful conclusion. Those working in 2D end up with a portfolio of work.

The Beauty that Surrounds

Woke up to another Virginia Beach winter wonderland...here some garden views.