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

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.

Birds of a Feather

I have had a most wonderful week working with art students at the gifted and talented zone in Old Donation Center... here is one of the projects that I introduced...and some sweet results...sculptural birds from recycled materials...

Flow-ers

Before going into the Old Donation Center art studio the 4th graders stood out in the hall and played an intuitive game that I call 'How observant are you?' In this instance the idea was to look at and talk about 'The Wish Fulfilling Tree' a large painting that I brought along to hang in the hall outside the art room during my week at the school. Together we addressed the concepts of symbolism, where artist's find ideas, varied techniques, color choices, etc.

After a good round of discussion and terrific insights we went into the art room, closed the door and I asked each artist to now see how much of the painting they could recall from memory using the colors they like and simply having fun with the process.

It's a Wrap

Saturday in the Studio: the 'gang' (sans one little guy who had already split) as they prepare to head home after 7 weeks of creating what they want as they want. What a riot. There was not a moment of them being bored or wondering what to do. Their last day was a zippy joyful blast of learning. They were hot on the trail wondering what additonal interesting and exciting materials they could work with in the studio to then pack into their portfolios, held here.