I was so lucky to be invited as a Feature Artist in Jules Sterp's 7 Before 7 Blog Review http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1461#comment-61390
It was quite an honor and the page turned out beautifully - thanks so much!
MY ART WEEK:
This has been a busy "art" week with last Friday's opening at the Renaissance Center in Dickson, TN for their Regional Exhibition, plus electrician in the studio working on the new lighting and expanded outlets (encaustic work uses A LOT of electricity), and to cap off the week, I attended a great workshop with my art buddy, Aletha Carr (www.alethacarr.com) at the Nashville Public Library. It was co-taught by Ellen Rust (a poet/educator www.awakeningthewriter.com ) and visual artist Sue Mulcahy (whose work/series "Open To The Night" is now on exhibit at the library gallery).
We began with responsive mark making using graphite. We learned to express, through marks, the sound of music and the smell of ginger, lemon, banana. It was enlightening to view the similarities of another artist's expression of the same sense.
At left is my exercise, directions were: beginning with graphite mark, create a lifeline without lifting the graphite from the surface.
I began in the lower right hand corner, dragging and twisting the graphite to create "blooms" which represent my children and other major relationships, as I near the end at the upper left, my line becomes stronger and more focused - a direct correlation to my life.
Following a lovely lunch from the Provence Cafe, we began the writing responses, writing free-style about objects provided (roots/pine cone/antler, of which we chose one) and a word ticket drawn from an envelope (I used root and the word "good").
Here is my response to the visual image of the ROOT and my word ticket/GOOD:
Roots can be good.
Roots can be bad.
Fed from the well where I am found.
Layers upon layers,
filtered through time.
Good for cleansing or poisoning the vine.
Good for growth - spreading wide,
Infiltration,
rooted in time.
Knotted and twisted,
grasping for air -
held in the hands of earth's mellow fair.
Tangled and battered,
growing and spreading -
tripping me up, trials above.
Roots condescend and fed with bile,
cutting them out can take quite a while.
Pulling and digging,
Cutting, then mending,
Roots can be good, but mine are offending.
Offending the nurture needed and expected,
tainting the cord of mother to child.
Uprooting the past to discard in time.
Toxic. Burning. Poisonous vine.
Uprooted now,
seeking new earth,
re-birthed and replanted - unrooted divine
Free now to spread, to grow and to grasp.
Now unencumbered of poisonous past.
Growing inward and outward,
Good has been summoned,
sweetness of new water erasing the past.
Antidote found.
Time will allow,
roots will hold onto good things
that last.
Roots will refine,
no longer confine.
After several responses we adjourned to the gallery and wrote responses to various of Sue Mulcahy's Exhibit http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/ENTERTAINMENT0507/809210326/1069/ENTERTAINMENT05 and then shared with one another.
Here is my response to Sue Mulcahy's "Close Is Not Enough" drawing:
Internal scapes
Chasms divide
Peering at memories
Revealing and reveling
Veering forward
Pulled from the past
Grasping transcendence
Clasping remnants.
Traversing
Dissolving
Signposts and markers
misleading, benign.
Sequence chaotic
Silhouetted and open
deluge divine
Unbalanced, then broken
Sutured and knifed
Evoking wholeness
bound by time.
I attempted another response to "Open To The Night":
Veiled in the darkness
Formless and thick.
Coating the earth
Clinging and clawing.
Queries are spoken
Descending and dim
Near far
remembrance
echo and utterance
Filtering bright
sky meets earth
horizon enlighten
breaking the dearth
the spirits
soaring and sighing
Upward and outward
absorbing moments
cradling time
unseen, unspoken
protected from site
needless emotions
bound and unbroken
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was an amazing day shared by all.
It was quite an honor and the page turned out beautifully - thanks so much!
MY ART WEEK:
This has been a busy "art" week with last Friday's opening at the Renaissance Center in Dickson, TN for their Regional Exhibition, plus electrician in the studio working on the new lighting and expanded outlets (encaustic work uses A LOT of electricity), and to cap off the week, I attended a great workshop with my art buddy, Aletha Carr (www.alethacarr.com) at the Nashville Public Library. It was co-taught by Ellen Rust (a poet/educator www.awakeningthewriter.com ) and visual artist Sue Mulcahy (whose work/series "Open To The Night" is now on exhibit at the library gallery).
We began with responsive mark making using graphite. We learned to express, through marks, the sound of music and the smell of ginger, lemon, banana. It was enlightening to view the similarities of another artist's expression of the same sense.
At left is my exercise, directions were: beginning with graphite mark, create a lifeline without lifting the graphite from the surface.
I began in the lower right hand corner, dragging and twisting the graphite to create "blooms" which represent my children and other major relationships, as I near the end at the upper left, my line becomes stronger and more focused - a direct correlation to my life.
Following a lovely lunch from the Provence Cafe, we began the writing responses, writing free-style about objects provided (roots/pine cone/antler, of which we chose one) and a word ticket drawn from an envelope (I used root and the word "good").
Here is my response to the visual image of the ROOT and my word ticket/GOOD:
Roots can be good.
Roots can be bad.
Fed from the well where I am found.
Layers upon layers,
filtered through time.
Good for cleansing or poisoning the vine.
Good for growth - spreading wide,
Infiltration,
rooted in time.
Knotted and twisted,
grasping for air -
held in the hands of earth's mellow fair.
Tangled and battered,
growing and spreading -
tripping me up, trials above.
Roots condescend and fed with bile,
cutting them out can take quite a while.
Pulling and digging,
Cutting, then mending,
Roots can be good, but mine are offending.
Offending the nurture needed and expected,
tainting the cord of mother to child.
Uprooting the past to discard in time.
Toxic. Burning. Poisonous vine.
Uprooted now,
seeking new earth,
re-birthed and replanted - unrooted divine
Free now to spread, to grow and to grasp.
Now unencumbered of poisonous past.
Growing inward and outward,
Good has been summoned,
sweetness of new water erasing the past.
Antidote found.
Time will allow,
roots will hold onto good things
that last.
Roots will refine,
no longer confine.
After several responses we adjourned to the gallery and wrote responses to various of Sue Mulcahy's Exhibit http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/ENTERTAINMENT0507/809210326/1069/ENTERTAINMENT05 and then shared with one another.
Here is my response to Sue Mulcahy's "Close Is Not Enough" drawing:
Internal scapes
Chasms divide
Peering at memories
Revealing and reveling
Veering forward
Pulled from the past
Grasping transcendence
Clasping remnants.
Traversing
Dissolving
Signposts and markers
misleading, benign.
Sequence chaotic
Silhouetted and open
deluge divine
Unbalanced, then broken
Sutured and knifed
Evoking wholeness
bound by time.
I attempted another response to "Open To The Night":
Veiled in the darkness
Formless and thick.
Coating the earth
Clinging and clawing.
Queries are spoken
Descending and dim
Near far
remembrance
echo and utterance
Filtering bright
sky meets earth
horizon enlighten
breaking the dearth
the spirits
soaring and sighing
Upward and outward
absorbing moments
cradling time
unseen, unspoken
protected from site
needless emotions
bound and unbroken
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was an amazing day shared by all.