What’s inspiring me now

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I spent a good part of my day working on possible collages for Alchemy Initiative’s  upcoming 10×10 exhibition in Pittsfield. (In between two glorious ice-skating sessions on a lovely pond and then Queechy Lake!)

The exhibit opens on February 16th, from 5-6 pm followed by performances and other events. You can find more info about the 10×10 Festival here.

I was invited, along with a number of other women ages 10-100 to create a work of art that answers the following question:

‘What are the 10 things that inspire you most at this decade of your life?’.

From these inspirations, each girl/woman will create a piece of artwork. The visual exhibit, curated by the amazing Diane Firtell, will read like a timeline of inspiration. Beginning as you enter at one side of Y Bar is the work of young artists under age 10. The artwork and lists of what inspires the artists continue around the room, where it ends with the artwork of women aged 90 to 100. I am so excited to be in this exhibit with some of my favorite Berkshire County women including  Amelia Wood, Jordan Skowron, Rebecca Weinman, Laurie Coyle, Sophia Lee, Gabrielle Senza, Melanie Mowinski, Suzi Banks Baum, Karen Arp-Sandel, Nina Silver, Diane Sullivan, Diane Firtell, and Roselle Chartock, to name a few. I can’t wait to see what everyone makes

So today. I reviewed my list of inspirations, and started to play around with materials. My final compositions will not illustrate these inspirations, instead, will be inspired by it. My list:

  1. Little dots=pathways, words, memories, ideas of journey
  2. Circles=widening/narrowing
  3. Trees=relationship of tree dense space/treeless space to poverty, hunger, wealth
  4. Rilke
  5. Color=juxtaposed with black and white
  6. Standing up for what is right
  7. Mindfulness, meditation, prayer, intention
  8. Repetition, pattern
  9. Overconsumption throughout our society
  10. Slowing down, aging, changing priorities

I have two possibilities at the moment. I’m certain that these will change in the next couple of days and that a third one will be thrown in the mix as an option. The orange/green one with the figure holding the orb will definitely have some text added in–hopefully one of my more favorite lines of Rilke’s. The other may lose the white circles, but the figure and the infrared center pivots will definitely stay. What is your favorite so far?

10x10Collage1 10x10Collage2

 

Woodshed 2013

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100 Hours in the Woodshed is a biannual event hosted by Danny O at MCLA’s Gallery 51. This is my third year as a participant. It begins with an opening reception/meet the artists from 5-7 pm on Thursday night, followed by three hours of art-making. We all leave around 10 pm and return on Friday and Saturday at 10 am working until 10 pm. Sunday we come back for eight more hours, again beginning at 10 am and this day working until 6 pm. At that point we strike the set, break down the tables, pile up the art and wait.

Monday, Ryder Cooley, G51′s new gallery manager and Susan Cross, MASS MoCA curator come onto the scene to curate the exhibit, and then it gets installed. Tuesday, like in two days Tuesday, the show opens to the public, from 5-7 pm. Hope to see you there!!

Please come. Please come to see the book I made. And the other stuff too, but I love this little book. I love everything I made. I haven’t been this excited by work I’ve made in ages. The book uses a structure that Alisa Golden is trying to get everyone who makes it call it the Australian Piano Hinge instead of Flat-Style Australian Reverse Piano Hinge binding. I agree with her. I saw the instructions for this on her blog and have been wanting to make it, and this weekend allowed me that opportunity.

Back of the book QUEST

Back of the book QUEST

Quest pages 1-2

Quest pages 1-2

QUEST pages 3-4

QUEST pages 3-4

QUEST pages 5-6

QUEST pages 5-6

QUEST pages 7-8

QUEST pages 7-8

Two important things happened for me this weekend.

1. It was confirmed to me, something that I already know and have read in countless books on creativity, that inspiration doesn’t just happen. Sure there are those moments of insight, but regular, focused work breeds inspiration. By the time I reached 29 hours into the event, two big huge connections happened. One–that one of the things I am doing in the collages that I really like is pairing the flat with the dimensional. This opened up a huge flood of visual connections and the opportunity to create more mindfully. Two, that the way to bring the God thing that I sort of haphazardly stab at here and there is by going back to the pages and pages of notes and writing that I did while earning my Master’s in Religion at Yale–and picking out text from that writing instead of the more cliche attempts that I’ve been making lately.

2. I am ready to move forward from events of two years ago. (If you know, you know. If you don’t–well, just know that I was very sad two years ago, and that sadness is really, finally and completely lifting. Don’t ask me about it.) While the raven will still be seen from time to time, there is a lightness emerging in my color and image choice that I haven’t seen in years. I even am consciously choosing to work with yellow. Unheard of for me. (Not that you will see it in this imagery, just trust me.)

Here’s the other work I made. I’m thinking it would be very much fun to cancel classes tomorrow, stay home and continue working, but I know I won’t be able to give into that urge. But maybe another day this week…

The work ist better in person–the light wasn’t so great today for these pics. I’ll do my best to update with clearer ones, so come on Tuesday so you get the best view!

Go

Go

Follow

Follow

I shall be released

I shall be released

Six collages, the top middle one is my favorite.

Six collages, the top middle one is my favorite.

 

…and everything matters.

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Right now I am contemplating Ten Things that Inspire me right now for work that will be in an exhibit as part of Pittsfield’s 10x1o Festival in February.

Rilke continues to inspire me. He is one of my ten things.

Ten things, first brainstorm

Ten things, first brainstorm

I first encountered Rilke when I was in college. Someone loaned me a copy of Letters to a Young Poet. And then someone gave me a copy a few years later. I’m not exactly sure who, or when, I just know that I have a copy of it and I reread it from time to time. (Thank you mystery person out there in the world!)

But it wasn’t until I went to Tasmania to visit my friend Peter Adams that I started to read his poetry. Peter suggested I get the Joanna Macy translation. Macy is slowly sliding into first place in my latest role model list. She is an environmental activist, author, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology, and apparently an expert translator. She partnered with Anita Barrows to translate a number of Rilke’s works, and then spent a good amount of time going through all that work, harvesting out sections and compiling them into this wonderful daily reflection, A Year with Rilke.

What is interesting me most though, is her work The Great Turning. The Great Turning is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. As a member of the first world I need to be part of this Great Turning–to turn to practices that will help create a more livable world, a world that includes clean air and water, food and shelter, access to energy. We in the first world know how to do all of this. The question is how to go about sharing this knowledge and helping others around the globe. Four guidelines in the Great Turning remind me of what I want to keep on doing in my own life, as much as possible.

  • Come from gratitude.
  • Don’t be afraid of the dark.
  • Dare to vision.
  • Roll up your sleeves.

Go HERE for more info on how she envisions each of these.

Earlier this week, A Year with Rilke, had the following advice on January 18th, from Letters to a young Poet, Worpswede, July 16, 1903:

The tasks that have been entrusted to us are often difficult. Almost everything that matters is difficult and everything matters.

I have many tasks in front of me, the things that help me make meaning in my life. Sometimes they stress me out, make me a little crazy, and stretch me to do things that are uncomfortable, difficult or challenging. But ultimately, it is these things, these things that matter that ultimately make a difference to the quality of my life, my family’s lives, my student’s lives, and the many random people in the world that I meet. Sometimes they don’t make me happy, but ultimately they help me make a difference in the world and meaning in my life. If this is the best I can do, than it’s gotta be pretty good.

Right now I am trying to figure out what to do for February 14th and ONE BILLION RISING. It will involve something at PRESS and creating a printed inspired poster/card for the kick-off 10×10 event/One Billion Rising event my sister-in-love Nina is coordinating at Spice Dragon. Let this and other things stretch me this year.

What are you going to do that matters this year?

Happy 2013!

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I’m a little behind on the whole New Year’s thing, my intention setting got rolled right into the Haiti pre-trip, trip and post-trip, and now on the other side, life is slowly returning to it’s regular rhythms. Beginning tomorrow, I get back on the regular school schedule of getting up at some ridiculous hour to prepare and then head to work.

So 2013. My days will begin with A Year with Rilke: Daily Reading from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke Translated and Edited by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows. When I first decided to use this book as my morning inspiration, I was going to continue making a collage-a-day in response to the reading. So I bought my $1.99 Kindle edition that I can read on my iphone and have with me no matter where I find myself. But then I had this brilliant idea, why not do a visual response right in the book? Do my own Humement of sorts. So then I ordered a hard copy of the book and today I began.

I visually responded to both January 12 and 13th entries, honing in on the narrowing circles versus the widening circles, and completely focused on one of the lines from January 13th’s entry from Sonnets to Orpheus II, 13:

Be. And know as well the need to not be. 

This is the lesson I want to learn this year. To not always have to be doing something. To be okay with just being sometimes. This is my biggest intention. It doesn’t mean I will do nothing, but that I will, every now and then, really and truly rest and just be.

January 12 +13, A Year with Rilke and fabric circles from Onel

January 12 +13, A Year with Rilke and fabric circles from Onel

Onel discusses his work

Onel discusses his work

What you see pictured here is my visual response along with some fabric circles that I got in an exchange with the artist Onel while in Haiti. I gave him one of my Manifest cards, and I got the fabric circles. They will be in some collage soon. I’ll keep you posted.

I invite you to get your own copy of the Macy/Barrows translation and follow along/do your own altered book. If you do, let me know–we can share at the end of the year.

 

The Responsibility of the Artist

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We left Haiti Monday morning after a short press conference with Haitian news outlets about our trip. The conference focused on the students responses, but at one point, they wanted everyone, including me, to share what stood out the most to us.

What stood out to me was the responsibility of the artist, modeled especially by Philippe Dodard, who took time out of his busy schedule to share the art and culture of his country. He introduced us and made it possible for us to meet all kinds of different Haitian artists, from the street artists, to the artists of the Grand Rue, Saint-Soleil Movement and Croix-de-Bouquets. Within every single one of these groups, there is a commitment to passing on the practice to young people.

Grand Rue creation outside of Andre Eugene's studio

Grand Rue creation outside of Andre Eugene’s studio

Andre Eugene, one of the Grand Rue artists, is an internationally known artist who represented Haiti at the 2011 Venice Biennale and whose work has been compared to Damien Hirst of the diamond skull fame (both who stretch, on opposite ends, what no-budget art-making means). Eugene works with found skulls, as well as other materials that are on the streets. Yes, found skulls. Human skulls, that he finds on the street. He uses these and other materials that he finds to create his sculptures.  This is the epitome of no-budget art making. But more important is the work that he lauds when you visit his studio, the work made by the children of the Grand Rue. He regularly works with them to teach them to find their way into that place of creativity, using similar techniques that he does, more because that is what they can afford–whatever they find on the street.

One of the kids making art at the Grand Rue. Photo thanks to Haiti: The Bradt Travel Guide

One of the kids making art at the Grand Rue. Photo thanks to
Haiti: The Bradt Travel Guide

 

 

What I take away from this trip as an artist and a teacher, is my responsibility to continue to share what I do, and to inspire creative expression, through my teaching.

I was reminded of an experience as a Jesuit Volunteer that continues to formulate many of  my life choices, the hunger banquet. Some of you readers may have participated in one of these at some point in your life. You draw a number at random, a one, two or three. I drew a one. Your number got you a ticket into the first, second or third world. The first world sat down to a ridiculously elegant meal, with meat and all the trimmings. The second world got bowls of rice and beans. The third world got a big pot, no bowls, plates or serving utensils. I remember not wanting to accept my lot in life, being very frustrated, wanting to somehow do something to help the others, change the system, something. On many levels, I felt very powerless–in spite of the fact that I supposedly have so many opportunities at my fingertips. This thought still comes in and out of my mind.

As I thought about that in Haiti, a conversation that comes up between me and Doug surfaced: how do we end up in our families, in our countries? Am I really lucky to have been born to middle-class parents in America? What is it that I am supposed to learn in this family/path of mine? What is my responsibility as a citizen of the Earth?

How does this relate to art? When I studied religion and art at Yale, I read Paul Tillich, and embraced his argument that art is an expression of an ultimate concern. (Read a great essay about it by him here.) The above plus all of his arguments are beginning to come together to help me define the next direction that I want/need to take as an artist, mainly asking how do I address the political in my art. And not political in the sense of work that offends or shocks, but work created with purpose. Work designed to ignite conversation and engage the viewer to action, whether that is action in their hearts, mind or in the world. So this is where I am, how do I take what I do already and engage my world in a different way. I don’t know. But I will explore this through 2013. Stay tuned.

Bon Soleil! Happy New Year! Enjoy the pics below my favorite images from Haiti.

 

A Bon Soleil to you!!

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We spend our days in Haiti being shuttled from one location to another by our amazing driver Joel. Jess Jean-Charles, one of the students on our trip is Haitian American, fluent in Creole and French, so she acts as our translator, she tells him where we need to go, and he gets us there. We are being very safe, doing our best to follow the State Department guidelines. (Minus staying out of the red and yellow zones, don’t tell!)

  1. Stay with your group.
  2. Do not leave your hotel on foot, always go with your driver and your group.
  3. Do not wear flashy jewelry when going certain places, keep smart phones/cameras hidden.
  4. When getting in and out of the van, be quick. Locate where you are entering your destination first, get ready and then go. Apparently this is one of the more dangerous situations—where people get attacked the most. We still struggle with an efficient way of getting 10 people in and out of a mini-bus quickly.
  5. Be street smart. Never let your guard down.

Each place we’ve visited, we’ve been with Haitian superstars. I do not say that lightly. As a result, we’ve been able to visit and meet people that had we done this on our own, its doubtful we would have EVER found them. It has made for a very special trip. Thursday and Friday artist and director of the L’Ecole National D’Arts, Philippe Dodard, guided us, Saturday, the musician BelO was with us.

The view from Soisson-La-Montagne

The view from Soisson-La-Montagne

Friday, we went to Soisson-La-Montagne, an area in Peitionville high in the hills. The Saint Soleil, or Saint Sun school of art was founded here and second and third generation artists still create here. Saint Soleil celebrated its 40th anniversary December 2012, which allowed us to see a spectacular exhibition of all the great Saint Soleil painters at MUPANUH on our first day. Prospere PIERRE-LOUIS might be one of my new favorite artists. Although Leroy Exil, the only first generation Saint Soleil artist still alive is a close second.

Leroy Exil painting that I purchased.

Leroy Exil painting that I purchased.

Prospero Pierre-Louis, not my favorite, but all I can find online. I wasn't able to photograph his work in the museum.

Prospero Pierre-Louis, not my favorite, but all I can find online. I wasn’t able to photograph his work in the museum.

 

We visited the studios of a half-dozen second and third generation Saint Soleil painters. Saint Soleil means Saint Sun. The style sort of mixes elements of Paul Klee, Australian Aboriginals and the graphic arts. Little dots are featured in some way in every single work. These little dots represent words, almost like little prayers to the vodou gods. In some paintings, the vodou pantheon becomes the conceptual center point, in others it is purely the sun and pattern.

At the first studio we visited, I was so overwhelmed and in love with one particular painting that I failed to take any pictures. BUT, because of Philippe Dodard, I was able to get in touch with the artist and he just delivered the painting to me!!! I am thrilled beyond belief.

Michel Maxene with the painting that I obsessed about for two days, and finally was able to get.

Michel Maxene with the painting that I obsessed about for two days, and finally was able to get.

Love, love, love this collage.

Love, love, love this collage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully I was able to recover by the third or fourth studio, and actually took some pics of my favorite pieces. This artist, Onel, my friend Karen Arp-Sandel would l.o.v.e. His studio consists of a pile of scraps of fabric that he cuts carefully and collages on to nearly anything he can find creating high end canvases as well as more commercial pieces that are extremely affordable. I refuse to keep my obsession with dots and circles quiet any longer. They emerge in my work from time to time, but now, I will let them come in more and more and more.

Philippe at the Saint Soleil Cemetery--see bit of mural in background

Philippe at the Saint Soleil Cemetery–see bit of mural in background

About half-way through our visit, we stopped at the cemetery where all the Saint Soleil painters will be/are buried. Some of the walls are covered in murals by my friend Leroy. While in the center point, a monument still in progress, Philippe told us a bit more about the Saint Soleil school and the importance of wishing anyone we meet in the school a Bon Soleil while looking meaningfully into their eyes. This simple wish embodies love, safety, goodness, health and happiness. And not only did we wish it to everyone we met, it was wished to us as well.

I am inspired—maybe this will cure my restlessness. I already was late to a group meeting because I got lost in my painting/making. I can only wish for more of this.

Bon Soleil!

 

I am in Haiti.

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I am in Haiti.

My anxiety level rose a few notches in anticipation of this trip, especially when the State Department upped their warnings for Americans traveling to Haiti on December 28, 2012, five days before our departure. I was grateful for the Bradt posting of how one of those warnings might be written for Haitians traveling to America. That helped, sort of.

This pic from the plane, and the collage inspired by it, also helped.

View from the plane--oh how I love the blue.

View from the plane–oh how I love the blue.

 

 

Sea collage, looking down on the Caribbean

Sea collage, looking down on the Caribbean

So did freshly picked mangos and guava jam. But perhaps the best fix came from meeting with Regine, the Haitian Cultural Attache for the State Department. Our trip is not a State Department sponsored trip, so we don’t have to adhere to the yellow and red zone guidelines, but the State Department has helped make this trip possible. Her briefing on our first full day in Haiti completely eased my mind, as did meeting Phillippe Dodard, who has guided us through the museum and gallery world as well as the Grand Rue, a noted State Department red zone, but home to some of Haitians most well-known contemporary artists.

So why am I in Haiti?

I am accompanying eight MCLA students along with my incredible colleague Jonathan Secor, Director of Special Programs at MCLA, on an arts and culture immersion trip. We are exploring historical and contemporary visual and performing arts in Haiti. Each student researched a different aspect of history, contemporary society or art prior to the trip, and now we are spending our days meeting artists, visiting studios, galleries, and museums. We each have a sketchbook, with the assignment to document, draw and write, as well as the goal to help our fellow artists in Haiti by purchasing art. Tomorrow or later today, I will write about our focused looked at the Saint Soleil artists.

Here are some of the highlights so far.

Our fearless students at the Mupanah Museum du Pantheon National d"Haiti

Our fearless students at the Mupanah Museum du Pantheon National d”Haiti

My new role model at Hotel Oloffson

My new role model at Hotel Oloffson

Gyode studio, Grand Rue, this sculpture is now in my collection.

Gyode studio, Grand Rue, this sculpture is now in my collection.

Philippe Dodard and me at Gyode's studio.

Philippe Dodard and me at Gyode’s studio.

Grand Rue

Grand Rue

All of us at Eugene Andre's studio in the Grand Rue.

All of us at Andre Eugene’s studio in the Grand Rue.

New Year's Inspiration, Grand Rue

New Year’s Inspiration, Grand Rue

 

Out with the old, welcome the new!

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Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve Eve

New Year’s Eve Eve

I am returning to my weekly posting, usually on Sundays–after a great run of Advent posts. I can’t seem to stop the collage making, though! On the 27th I made six more collages, and then today made another in anticipation of the New Year. The Buddha form cut out of different papers fascinates me! I am currently fantasizing about taking my  September 2012 Vogue to a laser cutter and getting thousands of those Buddhas cut.  I have no idea what I would do with them, but 100 Hours in the Woodshed is right around the corner…

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. We will be keeping with our commitment to rest and quiet by staying home, making delicious food, dressing in white and practicing recapitulation. We will be using Sally Kempton’s Out with the Old from December’s Yoga Journal to help guide us.

So recapitulation, or taking a look at the successes and failures of the past, taking stock and then looking to how these successes/failures can help my intentions for the new year. As a teacher, I look at every semester as an opportunity to begin a new, but as this calendar year dawns, I have other intentions that I want to bring to my being from deep within my heart. I’ll be using Kelly McGonigal’s Willpower Instinct to help.

Let me know if you are interested in being part of a discussion group related to this.

I am still restless, and now feel the need to amp up my intentions to work through whatever that restlessness is trying to tell me. One thing for certain, rest and play, and in that order, are higher on my list than ever. And, my mind is backed by my will, so I’m expecting miracles.

 

Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas, thank you for checking out my daily journey through this season of anticipation. I take away the importance of practice from these 25 days of creating and writing. May today be filled with merriment, joy and much peace, and the many days that follow. Let’s us all be open to being the change we want to see in the world, and sharing love and peace to all.  I offer this meditation to you from Thich Nhat Hanh.

Merry Christmas! The end of my Advent Collage Journey.

As we are together, praying for peace, let us be truly with each other.

Let us pay attention to our breathing.

Let us be relaxed in our bodies and our minds.

Let us be at peace with our bodies and our minds.

Let us return to ourselves and become wholly ourselves. Let us maintain a half-smile on our faces.

Let us be aware of the source of being common to us all and to all living things.

Evoking the presence of the Great Compassion, let us fill our hearts with our own compassion–to ourselves and towards all living beings.

Let us pray that all living beings realize that they are all brothers and sisters, all nourished from the same source of life.

Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other.

Let us plead with ourselves to live in a way which will not deprive other beings of air, water, food, shelter or the chance to live.

With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the sufferings that are going on around us, let us pray for the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth.

Amen.

(Practice On.)

Advent Day Twenty-Four

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Today is my sister’s birthday, Happy Birthday Missy! Oh, and Christmas Eve and the night before Christmas.

Growing up we split the day, celebrating my sister in the morning before transitioning to Christmas Eve celebrations in the evening. This split in the day reminds me of the split that so many of us carry in our souls. Today I celebrate my love of disco and my love of prayer–sometimes I think they are one and the same, disco bliss and prayer bliss feel pretty similar sometimes.

I wish you that bliss–through prayer, dance, time with family, giving of love. May your holiday and everyday be infused with it.

Advent Day Twenty-Four