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.
Read MoreInterview with Artist Libby Rowe
FICK: HOW DID YOU FEEL SEEING YOUR YEARS OF IDEAS AS A WHOLE, MADE TANGIBLE IN YOUR DESIGNED ENVIRONMENT?
This show represents relatively new ideas in respect to the overall body of work entitled "Pink". Most of these ideas have been conceived within the last 2 years and were conceived of to work together in this exhibition. I am pleased with how these specific pieces communicate with each other. I have been working on "Pink" since 1996. I knew, eventually, there would be enough pieces to really make a conversation about being female. With this exhibition I feel I have finally hit a critical mass in this work.
FICK: DID YOU REALIZE ANY FURTHER CATHARSIS IN THE CREATION OF THE WORKS THAT YOU DIDN'T EXPECT?
Hmmm...there are always some pleasant surprises. I normally have a pretty good idea of how a piece will look/function before I can even begin the physical making process. I would say that with some of these pieces, I took a bit of a leap of artistic faith. The web ["Web of Lies"], for instance, began as a pretty straight forward idea. To begin, I sent an email out to women who have participated in my work in the past - friends, family...asking them to send me a lie they tell themselves. I expected different levels of commitment to the internalization of that request. Everyone is in a different place after all. I was surprised at how deep some women went and that they were willing to share that with me. The piece took on a deeper poignancy. Ultimately, I am pleased with the final piece and am excited about it being filled with lies that eventually cover the web itself.
"It Sucks" Diptych is another one that ended up holding more meaning than I first thought it could. For me there was a lot there, but I didn't know if it would translate to other people. Most of my work comes from my own experiences, so they are really personal on some level. That often becomes second to the physicality of the piece as it ends up. I am coming to understand the opportunity [of participation] that is embedded in my work. Not everyone takes advantage, but those who do make the work that much richer.
FICK: DO YOU HAVE MORE IDEAS FOR ADDITIONAL PIECES OR SERIES WHICH WILL BE OFF-SHOOTS OF THIS EXHIBITION?
I started using myself in my photographic work as an undergraduate at the University of Northern Iowa. During Grad School I went all out and did a series of photographs that really put me out there. I haven't done that so blatantly since then. I seem like a pretty outgoing person, but getting back on the horse, so to speak, was a challenge. One of the things that has always interested me in this work is facing my own taboos and demons. I never ask a viewer to take part in a piece that I haven't done myself. I believe this is why people are so willing to participate in my work. Without total exposure, total honesty on my end, I can't expect it from them.
How does it feel? It is nerve-wrecking, exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. I guess younger generations should just take risks and be OK with failures when they happen. I have been interested by many comments from people who are younger who seem to be getting the message, before seeing my work. The feminism challenge ebbs and flows. I would like to see them figure out how to stop the ebb, those decades where we move too far backwards. I try not to be preachy about my feminist/humanist beliefs, with the work or in talks/interviews. I have my beliefs, one of which is that you can draw more flies with honey than with angry feminist diatribes...wait, is that how that one goes? My main goal is to get people to think about what they believe, where their beliefs come from, [and] possibly change along the way.