What’s inspiring me now

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?