Susan Richards

A Reception so successful you could hardly see the art!

2012-02-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

The art was almost obscured by the wall-to-wall people at our Artists' Reception last Sunday at MUSE Gallery. People had to be displaced to push the door open. At the same time, people were leaking out the door on to the sidewalk just to breathe. I'm told it was like that the whole afternoon. I didn't stay long.... claustrophobia got to me. But I'm glad I was there, if only to witness the phenomenon. Fortunately I had seen the art previously at the Opening party. It was hard to see at the reception. Hopefully the reviewer from the Philadelphia Inquirer did see it. And the videographer was there before the crowds converged. I'll post the YouTube video once it is up!

My four monotypes are in the vertical row: two purple on top, then green with red circle, and black and white on the bottom. For all the shows I have been in, this is the first time I have shown completely abstract work. I'm enjoying the new direction!

Occupy My Soul! Art About What Matters

2012-02-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

While my monotypes are showing in the trendy Old City section of Philadelphia, far removed from Occupy activity, this over-lifesize panel that I painted on mylar as part of Elise Luce Kraemer's collaborative community project, Occupy My Soul, is one of the panels currently being exhibited at Friends' Center in downtown Philly. The project will be comprised of 99 large panels inspired by the Occupy Movement. Each panel includes a figure representing an Occupier, with a quote provided by an Occupy member. (In this case the quote is by Alyson G., someone I don't know.) Together, the panels create a dance, which will be even more apparent when the 99 panels are finally joined to form a quilt or tent in support of the Movement. It is a joy to make art about what matters, and a good feeling to collaborate creatively with Elise and all the other people making panels for the project!

Here is a video of Elise talking about Occupy My Soul and showing some of the other panels. It gives a sense of the variety, scale, and concept. (I forgive her for calling me Susan Roberts in the video..)

2012-01-26T15:41:00.000-08:00

Collaborative/34

"Collaborative/34" is made up of a group of artists that have been working/showing together for many years. They are a diverse group, which makes the imagery/materials used even more exciting. The works will include paintings, prints and collage.

The format of the show is arrays of 12"x12" elements, with the only similarity between the artists' works being their same size and identical white edges. "Quilts of Canvas" will hang on the walls in various large configurations, creating of Muse Gallery a splendid visual experience.

That's what it says officially on the MUSE Gallery website. Translation: the people who will be hanging this show in the next few days will be creating a complex collage of 136 12" x 12" canvases. No matter where my four are placed, they will be part of a whole, a unity. It's a unique concept. I'm enjoying the idea that my work will be embedded with others, as if woven together.

At the bottom of the invitation, it says "Artists in sync with Francine Shore". http://francineshore.com.

Considering that all of us are "in sync" with her, it's amazing how different our work is from each other. No cookie cutters here... It's the similarity of size and style of the canvases that will create the "Quilts of Canvas". This is going to be a lot of fun!

Girls and Drums

2012-01-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

Girls definitely do play drums! It was astonishing to experience an eighty year old woman drummer, whose passion, energy, and humor was undiminished. We heard Elaine Hoffman Watts play tonight, along with her daughter on trumpet and vocals, and a third woman on accordion: the FabulousShpielkes.com klezmer band. Called "a musical national treasure" and awarded the Heritage Fellowship Award, all I know is that their playing channeled my father, brought me to tears, and renewed my soul!

Stillness is Still Possible

2011-12-29T13:29:00.000-08:00

Heidi Zito documents stillness by observing movement, calmness, and slowed time. Together, her scenes paint a picture of heightened awareness through stillness.

Hers is one of several videos viewable at http://stillspotting.guggenheim.org/video-studies. The Guggenheim Museum collaborated with graduate students in the School of Visual Arts MFA program for Photography, Video and Related Media, who participated in a special seminar to create short video studies of the visual, aural, and sociological ecology of the urban landscape in New York. The works reflect and respond to everyday issues of visual noise, anxiety, and stillness. Heidi Zito's is one of my favorites!

It is a comfort to know that stillness can be found even in the most urban of environments!

Monopoly Revealed

2011-11-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

"Toys: The Art of Play" is the title of the show my mixed media assemblage, Red, White, & Blue, will soon be part of at Main Line Art Center. It was done on a Monopoly board over the summer, before the Occupy Movement began, but shares the zeitgeist that was in the air.

I'm curious to see the other juried work made from or inspired by toys. I imagine a lot of it will be cute, funny, playful. I can't say the same about my entry. But I will say that it it was very satisfying for me to make it! It felt good to include "Go To Jail" cards, bloodied hands, a headless falling child, and of course the pig at the top.

In Art and Fear, Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, David Bayles and Ted Orland note "As a maker of art you are custodian of issues larger than self...In making art you declare what is important." Sometimes we can't help ourselves.

OccupyPhiladelphia occupies my mind

2011-11-07T15:25:00.000-08:00

This child's play tent, complete with toys, continues to occupy my thoughts. What a vivid picture of why the Occupy movement is a force for social justice and social change. What kind of world are children and grandchildren of the 99% growing up in? And what kind of world do we want them to grow up in! I was there for an event at the Interfaith Tent: our Rabbi, Linda Holtzman, spoke about the scriptural basis for taking action to repair the brokenness of the world. In a nutshell: 100% of us are created in God's image, not 1%. A "renegade Baptist minister" also spoke, who had actually been occupying for 29 days. He said, "If you really want to know what this is about, come down and participate in some conversations. Listen to what people are saying."

The young people who were staffing the Interfaith Tent were an inspiration. They had just had their tent stolen that day, along with sleeping bags and sentimental items. Fortunately they had homes to sleep in that night, but were determined to keep on keeping on. They were stressed but undaunted. They couldn't imagine doing anything else, being anywhere else. Our group was able to connect them with someone who wanted to donate a tent. So it goes. I feel hope for the future because of having met them.

Transcendence and Impermanence

2011-10-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

This is the story of the dismantling of a site-specific art installation. The installation itself was a study in transcendence: 1000 hand-cut chimes activated by street traffic. Watching its end was a study in the beauty of impermanence... It was a happy accident that I saw it across the street from the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, one of the many times I was grateful to have my camera with me.

How SoulCollage® Works!

2011-09-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

For a taste of what making and sharing SoulCollage® cards is like, watch this video of our SoulCollage® Facilitator Training made by our Trainer Kat Kirby! It captures the flavor.

A Collage of SoulCollagers

2011-09-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Richness abounded everywhere at the recent 4th International SoulCollage® Facilitator's Conference. This video by Stephanie Anderson Ladd, is truly a remarkable visual meditation. She shared it at the beginning of her workshop, SoulCollage® and the Divine Feminine - one of the many workshops going on while I was taking some other one. And yet the energies of all the workshops infused the atmosphere - because we shared over meals, over laughter, and by osmosis. The synergy was part of the air we breathed.

Reintegrating back into life post-Conference has been a journey for all of us who were there. The shifts - both inward and manifested in our outward lives - are real, continuing, sometimes unexpectedly surprising, and growing. It was a uniquely diverse group of 95 women and one man. The post-Conference journeys, as shared on the list-serv and in other ways, are also uniquely diverse. We were - and are - like the many separate shapes and colors of stained glass pieces that come together into a beautiful window that shines with one image when infused with light, and the many such windows at the beautiful Bon Secours Retreat Center where we met. I am still trying to understand it all. All I know is that I am grateful to be part of this amazing community and that I will be at the 5th International SoulCollage® Facilitators' Conference in Portland in 2013!

Synchronicity Strikes Again...

2011-09-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

Daily Oasis, http://www.dailyoasiscollage.com, is a very aptly named website. Every morning someone's SoulCollage® card arrives in my inbox providing daily food for thought: an incredible visual image combined with an I Am One Who... statement. (You too can sign up for this!). I have submitted cards to be posted, and never know quite the timing of how long they will be in the pipeline and when they will appear. This morning, as we are getting ready to leave for the SoulCollage® Facilitator's Conference, the card of mine above appeared on Daily Oasis, along with this text:

Created & Shared By:
Susan Richards
Ardmore, Pennsylvania
http://www.susanrichardsmultiplevisionsstudio.blogspot.com

"I Am One Who...

...is traditional and contemporary
at the same time.
It is not a conflict or contradiction for me.
Both inform and enrich each other."

The second synchronicity of the morning was the message on the KaleidoSoul SoulCollage listserv , from Anne Marie Bennett, the creator and spiritual force behind http://www.kaleidosoul.com, and co-chair of the Conference:

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." Martin Buber

The words have meaning, for both inward and outward journeys. They have a particularly special meaning for me, as words of Martin Buber. I am ready for the Conference journey, and plunging into all of which I am unaware.

SoulCollage® Facilitators' Conference: a challenge just getting there!

2011-09-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

There's a local weather alert for Baltimore today - flash flood warnings and road closings, but we are undaunted. By tomorrow afternoon when we drive to Bon Secours Spiritual Center outside of Baltimore for The Fourth International SoulCollage® Facilitators' Conference it will merely be thundershowers. Nothing will stop us from gathering together or dampen our spirits. Like a hero / heroine's journey, we will have overcome obstacles just to get there - starting with the drive from Philly.

Above is the SoulCollage® card I made before packing up my card making equipment and personal deck to take with me. I feel calmer about driving just looking at it. I'll remember to breathe, and trust our gang of three will get there safely and have a fabulous time. I'll tell you about it when we get back!

Life Before Text Messaging

2011-08-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

"I love you. P.S. I'll bring a bread home for lunch." Today it would be a text message, abbreviated and eventually deleted. I am touched by the poignancy of my Dad's handwriting, his little drawings, the gold stars stuck on these seemingly daily notes to my mom in the early 1940's. She had saved them all in a heart shaped Whitman's chocolate valentine box, which I discovered when I was cleaning out their apartment ten years ago. These love notes are documentation of a vibrant, loving, and sexy marriage, and also of the zeitgeist of an era. They are a treasure.

I started this altered book project using Sayings of the Fathers / Pirkei Avot, a compilation of Jewish traditional ethical teachings and maxims with many layers

of commentary over the centuries. My altered book is still a work in progress. The more I work on it, the more it feels like I am adding my own contemporary commentary, through the story I am telling from my dad's love notes and doodle poems and my mom's jottings. In Jewish tradition, commentary on any text is also an ongoing work in progress..

The two little girls on the right are my mother and my aunt Judy. I superimposed them on the text that talks about how arguments for the sake of heaven endure. They loved each other fiercely, disagreed and argued often, but held hands to the end of long lives and did anything to help each other.

I will keep you posted as this project unfolds!

Lee Krasner: The Real Story

2011-08-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

I don't want to return Gail Levin's new biography of Lee Krasner to the library. It was such a compelling read, I don't want to let it out of my hands. What a picture of an era: all the ferment of the early development of Abstract Expressionism in America, and the story of Lee Krasner as a complex and powerful woman who was a radical creative explorer in the center of it all before she ever met Jackson Pollock. We learn exactly how Krasner's contribution was rendered invisible by the (non) role of women artists in the 1940's and 50's, as well as a subtle anti-Semitism along with the sexism. How she balanced being Mrs. Jackson Pollock, promoting his work and insuring his legacy after his death, while continuing her own unique painting at the same time is an inspiring story. The images above hardly begin to convey the breadth of her work.

There's also a lot of juicy gossip in this book, like which critics were sleeping with whose wives, which got shows for who at what galleries... For we voyeurs who want the scoop on some of the famous names, this book is a lot of fun. It certainly makes some of the luminaries down to earth and human.

Mostly it makes me deeply appreciate what Lee Krasner's legacy is for every woman artist who has come after her.

The Homage of Irreverence

2011-07-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

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my SoulCollage® card for Kurt Schwitters (above)

the original Kurt Schwitters collage (below)

I need to ice my foot, which turned out to be broken as well as badly sprained. My physical therapist tells me that all will ultimately be well. I try not to be impatient and repeatedly fail. Yet despite being slowed down against my will, much has happened during these weeks of incapacitation.

I immersed in SoulCollage® Facilitator Training in early June at a beautiful retreat center in the countryside outside of Philadelphia. Our Trainer, Kat Kirby, is an art therapist in San Diego, http://www.2katstudios.com. It is ironic that all the years I lived in San Diego we didn't know each other. Only when she flew across the country to train our group of eight, did we meet. SoulCollage®, developed by Seena Frost, taps into the power of intuition, imagination, and the depths reached nonverbally with visual images. No art experience is necessary - all that's needed is scissors, glue, receptivity and trusting the process. Not to mention that it's fun! http://www.soulcollage.com. I am excited about offering SoulCollage® workshops in my studio starting in the Fall.

Since the Facilitator Training I have been on a roll with making cards for my personal SoulCollage® deck. Each person's deck is a unique reflection of their personality, story, and soul. This Kurt Schwitters card was made after three of us made a pilgrimage to the Princeton Museum to see his retrospective before it closed, http://www.princetonartmuseum.org/events/schwitters. We postponed it to the last minute because of my foot. It was more walking than I had done since the break, but I acted like my mom, who went on an Elder Hostel to see the High Sierra Mountains for her 85th birthday. Bedridden afterwards from the exertion, she said "it was worth it." Some things are worth it. To see so much of Kurt Schwitters work close up was a rare privilege. Seeing work on-line, with the best of monitors and the highest resolution cannot capture the subtle textures and the sense of presence and connection with a master, when you are within touching distance, inhaling the essence... The Kurt Schwitters card is part of my SoulCollage® Community Suit: my posse of allies, my support system, and my sources of inspiration.

There are many relatives, friends, and mentors who I know I will gradually make Community Suit cards for. Who knew a Kurt Schwitters card would happen first? The cards seem to have a life of their own, and emerge as they need to.

I can't believe I collaged his collage. Ultimate chutzpah. And my ultimate homage.

Like A Concert Tour, but with Sketchbooks!

2011-06-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

"It's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks." What a great motto! I couldn't resist signing up again. Just pick a theme from their list of forty provocative prompts, pay for the blank sketchbook, they mail it to you, you fill it up however you want, and mail it back by January 31, 2012. That's the drill. Then the hundreds of barcoded sketchbooks tour the country, as well as Vancouver, and Toronto. Every time someone looks at your sketchbook you get an email. After the tour they live permanently in the Brooklyn Art Library. If you pay an extra $ 20 they do a great job of digitizing all your pages, which then become part of their Sketchbook Project searchable virtual archive.

Last year it was exciting to feel part of a community of thousands of people from around the country and around the world who were participating. This year it has become a tradition of sorts. I chose "Writing on the wall" as my theme, or maybe it chose me. I have no idea how I will approach it, or what will evolve. Fortunately there is plenty of time to see what the writing on the wall will reveal...

Join the fun! http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

Laundry Lessons

2011-05-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. I have always loved this title of Jack Kornfeld's book. As I elevate my swollen, bruised, and badly sprained ankle I have plenty of time to reflect on it. There is no choice but a slower paced re-entry from our Jewish Mindfulness Retreat in red rock country, New Mexico.

Twelve souls led by Rabbi Yael Levy wove deep bonds through shared silence, meditation, prayer, song, and hiking together through an elemental and awe inspiring landscape. Simply getting there was a commitment. Being unplugged from all electronics for five full days stilled the chatter and was a wonderful relief. The trails were challenging, especially for someone like me, more accustomed to sea-level beach walking than high altitude wilderness hiking. Mindfulness was very specific and practical in terms of noticing where to place each foot or decide which rocks to step on to get across a stream. We practiced both offering and receiving help over the rough spots in silence.

The morning after returning home, I unpacked directly into a laundry basket. As I carried the overflowing basket down our narrow and steep basement stairs I slipped, missed the last step, and twisted my right ankle. I sat on the floor in a heap with all the spilled laundry, crying in pain and crying at how quickly it seemed the benefits of the retreat and mindfulness about each step had dissipated. After a while the irony and humor hit me, and then gratitude it hadn't been worse and hadn't happened on the retreat.

Scooping up the laundry, I hobbled over to the wash machine. My denim shirt was especially caked with red mud. I had been using it to lay down on while watching sunlight through tree branches, movement of clouds, and changes in qualities of light - a world that suddenly seemed very far away. I rinsed the mud off in the laundry tub before putting it in the machine, watching a swirl of red - the tangible remnant of the retreat - disappear down the drain.

Laundry is now intertwined with mindfulness for me at a muscle-memory level. My ankle is forcing me to slow down and simply notice. I'm watching the alarming misshapenness slowly subside. Observing the colors of the bruise change from purples to reds and yellows and browns is not as much fun as observing the color changes of dawn and dusk of the New Mexico sky. But it is what is, now. I am observing the miracle of healing.

I just ordered After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path. It's time to read it.

Secrets of Creative Aging

2011-04-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

In my latest video, Helen Redman, a pioneer of Feminist Art, speaks about her mixed-media Turtle Diary series. This work is both whimsical and profound, and has much to convey about aging and creativity, creative aging, and the synergy of a loving marriage. Redman has painted self-portraits at every stage of her life. Only as an elder did she start to create double portraits of herself and her husband Kenny Weissberg - as turtles!

As Redman has written,“Turtle medicine includes a connection with the center, navigation skills, self-reliance, tenacity, patience, the ability to respect the boundaries of self and others, and develop new ideas. Originally created with humorous intent, I unknowingly chose an ancient symbol of nurturance, mother energy, determination and longevity.”

It was a privilege to film and interview Helen and Kenny, and to share their wisdom in this video.

Cranes of Hope

2011-03-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

This antique stereopticon image of a mother and her children in the doorway of their Middle-Eastern home is a grounding anchor amidst the surrounding fiery swirl. Their faces are individual, personal, unique. The water jug is a reminder of the simple and ordinary everyday tasks of life.

This piece holds the tension between the metal barrier and the freely flying cranes, while we exchange gazes with this particular mother and her children.

Released into the Wild: Sketchbooks on Tour!

2011-02-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

Unbelieveably, the Sketchbook Project folks at the Brooklyn Art Library have cataloged just under 10,000 sketchbooks, including mine, and are ready to take them on tour around the country. They are now "released into the wild", as they say, but organized, digitized, and bar-coded. I will be getting an email every time someone looks at it in person or on-line. This will be a kick! If you browse at http://arthousecoop.com/submissions you can get a sense of the range and variety of the participating artists from all over the world.

"Visitor Discretion is Advised"

2011-02-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

Combining SEX with "Visitor Discretion is Advised" usually gets people's attention. I'm glad I saw this provocative show at Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery today. You can see more about these audacious artists at http://news.haverford.edu/blogs/sexdrive.

I was especially glad that there was a powerful 4 x 6 foot piece by David Wojnarowicz, in light of his recent censorship by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. As the curator of SEX DRIVE, Stuart Horodner, notes "its inclusion aligns the exhibition with the many arts professionals, institutions, and funding agencies who issued swift and strong responses denouncing the Smithsonian's troubling curatorial decision." He is being both professional and polite to call their decision merely 'troubling.'

Here's their blurb:
Sex Drive presents contemporary artworks that address sexuality across a panoply of forms. Using photography, drawing, painting, video, sculpture, and installation, 22 artists bring their own pleasures and political dispositions to bear on identity and gender, romance and lust, religious and legal strictures, and private and public scandals. Sex Drive asks us to consider the conventions that govern sexuality, as well as its unruly power.

Stuart Horodner, artistic director of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, developed the exhibition in conjunction with the Haverford College humanities seminar, “Sex, State, and Society in the Early Modern World,” which offers an historical perspective for understanding why sex and sexuality remain such volatile issues in contemporary politics around the globe.

Meredith Monk - a Force of Nature

2011-02-01T16:50:00.000-08:00

music by Meredith Monk

It was a rare treat to watch a screening last night at Bryn Mawr College of Meredith Monk: INNER VOICE, a film that celebrates Monk's life and work, and illuminates the role that her Buddhist practice has had in her creative life. She has been called a 'pan-artist': working in so many genres, interweaving them, defying categorization, and creating a transcendence beyond all of them. Best of all, Meredith Monk was there in person!

It was a small intimate group. The discussion after the film was spellbinding. I had gone to experience a performance artist, an avant-garde luminary of the generation following Fluxus. I didn't know she would convey profound teaching about impermanence, time, loss, beauty, joy, and love.

I'm glad I braved driving through the slush to be there. Today I ordered her album "Impermanence."

To find out more: http://www.meredithmonk.org

Studio Space - finally!

2011-01-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

Let it snow! Time stops. Everything is quiet. The usual activities are cancelled. I can retreat into my new studio and hunker down.

I just hung up my Alaskan mukluks on the studio wall. Dating from my old Vista Volunteer days in an Eskimo village, they are forty plus years old. With caribou skin legs and seal skin soles, the trim at the top is plain denim - the everyday work boots that the village people themselves wore - not the fancy designs made for tourists. The message to myself: get to work!

O.K., I admit I'm ready for less snow and warmer weather, but I'll retreat to my studio regardless of the weather!

The Practice of Practice

2011-01-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

"Technique itself springs from play, because we can acquire technique only by the practice of practice, by persistently experimenting and playing with our tools and testing their limits and resistances. Creative work is play; it is free speculation using the materials of one's chosen form." (from Free Play, by Stephen Nachmanovitch)

It is both exciting and scary to be exploring and expanding my tools and materials as an artist. If I can keep discovering anew the mindset that Nachmanovitch is pointing to, then it's all good. Easier said than done. The "practice of practice" helps.

The carefree playfulness of the girl in in the center of my mixed-media monoprint "If the Shoe Fits" is heightened by her context. May I learn from my own image!

Nachmanovitch Nuggets

2011-01-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

I first read Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, by Stephen Nachmanovitch, in 1991. It is an amazing treat to be re-reading it now, with new eyes. Here are some of my favorite nuggets:

"Creativity becomes everything we do and perceive."

"If life is full of joy, joy feeds the creative process. If life is full of grief, grief feeds the creative process."

"...there is no ultimate breakthrough; what we find in the development of a creative life is an open-ended series of provisional breakthroughs. In this journey there is no endpoint, because it is the journey into the soul."

If the Shoe Fits... Take the Leap

2011-01-04T17:01:00.000-08:00

It has to be postmarked by January 15th to meet The Sketchbook Project 2011 Tour deadline. Mine will be finished in time, including the on-line profile. I am one of 28834 artists from 94 countries who are participating... very humbling and exciting at the same time. Everyone picked a theme. Mine is "If You Lived Here". The title is If the Shoe Fits... Take the Leap.

Along with an assemblage using an antique wooden bird cage I got in a thrift shop, this sketchbook is the first work done in the new studio. I'll post it as soon as I scan it.

Starting February 2011 the sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums across the country. Digitized versions will be on the Brooklyn Art Library website, http://www.arthousecoop.com/library.

Road Trip

2010-10-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

Cell phone angles from the passenger seat: Fall leaves, hills, rain, sun, sky: I couldn't stop clicking. Every moment was different, even when the roadscape seemed similar. The space was contained, but the possibilites were endless.

I am fascinated with the shapes outlined by the car interior - something so familiar to all of us. As I was clicking, I thought of having photos to inspire a Road Trip series of watercolors. This will be a fun concept to play with. Meanwhile, the video version is fun too.

Old Dream Gets a New Life

2010-10-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

My art studio is almost ready! My contractor said today, "People are glad to see us and then glad to see us go." I know what he means. I have been obsessed with transforming this double garage space. Fortunately it already had heat, electricity, windows with wonderful light, and its own outside entrance door. It is connected to the house - good in cold weather - but when I close the door to the rest of the house, I will be at work in another world. It will be a relief when the dust, the mess, and the array of workmen's tools are gone.

Then I will move in my tools. I have been itching to spend more time with watercolors, which would be new for me, as well as returning to my mixed media materials of recycled junk, found objects, weird scraps of paper and memorabilia. I need to get back to my visual journal. I will have a separate table dedicated to it, so I can leave the materials out and work on it ongoingly, amidst other projects.

Unpacking my boxes of art supplies will be a joy, finding old friends and new possibilities. I am ready to be surprised. There will be shelves for my art books. A place for music. Curtains on the windows that will allow maximum light yet still provide privacy.

I knew this was the right house for us, as soon as I saw this space and instantly saw a future studio in my mind's eye.

I have been waiting for this moment since I was ten years old.

Sculpture Comes Alive!

2010-08-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

The sculpture comes alive, seen from so many angles, through sunlight and shadow, behind branches and looming beyond the next curve on the trail. One becomes aware of the sculptural qualities of the trees, and of the natural earth qualities of art made from stone, metal, and wood. They breathe together into a whole. It is art's natural habitat, completely integrated with nature.

www.groundsforsculpture.org, is a 35-acre park near Princeton, New Jersey, celebrating its tenth anniversary as a public non-profit. It was fun making this video of our visit. I know we'll be back when the Fall leaves are at their peak, and when the fragrance of wisteria infuses the air in the Spring. If the roads are cleared, maybe we'll even venture out to see sculpture in the snow..

New Wine, New Bottles, Old Memories

2010-08-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

They say the unconscious is timeless. That's for sure. When I walked into the old Pennsylvania Academy building I expected to see the same room filled with white plaster casts of isolated body parts where I used to take drawing classes as a college student. Something was very different. Like paying admission to the galleries now - and at the senior rate. I didn't even know that a whole new building, with wonderful museum galleries and upstairs classrooms is now next door, and that the two buildings are soon to be connected by a sophisticated urban plaza.

The mystery of time and memory hit me hard. The painting that touched me most deeply was a portrait of a young girl by Robert Henri, done in 1926. Next to his name it said "student 1886 - 1894". Just knowing he had once been a student at The Pennsylvania Academy, in between going back and forth to Paris and before becoming a renowned teacher in New York City, a force behind alternative exhibition spaces, and a key player in the avante-garde of his day, was somehow comforting. The brush strokes in this painting could never be captured in a plate or on a monitor. Their lush and sensuous texture was practically edible. I had to restrain myself from touching. The colors vibrated. I was more familiar with The Art Spirit, the book of Robert Henri's philosophy of art, than with his painting. Here was The Art Spirit embodied.

Penn Reflections

2010-08-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

The bronze statue of William Penn atop City Hall tower dominates Philadelphia's skyline. Here my camera caught him reflected in the downtown window of a pharmacy.

The founder of Philadelphia, in 1683 Penn made a peace treaty with the Lenape Turtle Clan Chief Tamanend, saying in the Algonquin language "We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good-will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. We are the same as if one man’s body was to be divided into two parts; we are of one flesh and one blood." Tamanend replied, "We will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the creeks and rivers run, and while the sun, moon, and stars endure."

How different than other white settlers relations with Native Americans in that era of history! The Quaker legacy of justice and non-violence which remains part of Philadelphia's fabric today is one more part of the complexity of my new home, a city also torn by poverty and violence.

I have only just gotten here. My reflections have just begun. I'm sure my understanding will grow with time and as I meet more people. Meanwhile, I will keep taking pictures.

The Bride's Neighbor

2010-08-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Had I not looked up I wouldn't have seen him. At first I thought it was a person on the fire escape of the building next to The Painted Bride Art Center. He is the purveyor of artistic history being made there - very fitting since he is himself artistic history. The Bride's mission statement says it all:

Bride Mission

The Painted Bride Art Center collaborates with emerging and established artists to create, produce and present innovative work that affirms the intrinsic value of all cultures and celebrates the transformative power of the arts. Through performances and exhibitions, education and outreach, the Bride creates a forum for engagement centered on contemporary social issues.

Bride History

Founded in 1969 by a group of visual artists who had recently graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, the Painted Bride Art Center is a presenting arts organization located in Old City, Philadelphia. The Bride is part of the Alternative Art Space movement, which is a small genre of cultural organization in America that grew from a movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This movement sought to establish organizations where artists had greater control over the presentation of their work and were able to present the work of the underrepresented in commercial or larger established institutions such as women, people of color, gay and lesbian artists and the disabled. The Bride has evolved into an innovative, internationally recognized, artist-centered, multi-disciplinary institution.

The artistic goals of the Bride are to: provide a laboratory for “exchanging and exploring” ideas; support the creation of new work; collaborate and work with Philadelphia artists in creating and presenting new work; showcase new work that provides opportunities for community exchange and encourages activities and dialog beyond the stage or gallery; expose audiences to a deeper understanding of the artistic process; and advocate for artists and assist in furthering their careers.

...As the avant-garde has evolved to include more issue-oriented work, so have the efforts of the Bride evolved. The Bride is especially committed to Philadelphia-based artists and to linking them to community groups and issues.

...For 40 years the Painted Bride Art Center has remained an artist-centered space committed to the artistic process, the artist’s role in the community, and diversity. The Bride continues to address the needs of the Philadelphia’s artistic communities while remaining a strongly mission-driven organization.

In just the few weeks since I have been in Philly I have become aware of many more alternative exhibition spaces of all kinds, some a few years old, some just starting. I wonder if The Bride set the template 40 years ago. I feel at home.

Mummer Mystery

2010-08-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

The Mummer's Museum in South Philadelphia is a gem. The guest book was signed by people from all over the world. It badly needed funds for climate control, infrastructure repair, and marketing. The Mummers Parade has been held on New Year's Day in Philadelphia since 1901, with Mummers Clubs competing in one of four categories: Comics, Fancies, String Bands, and Fancy Brigades. Apparently planning for the following year starts January 2nd, not to mention a big annual investment in costumes - a subsuming lifestyle for the people involved. The museum houses costumes and documents the history, music, and stories of the tradition.

It was fascinating to learn of the African-American origins of Mummer's tradition, as well as European. The Mummer's anthem was composed by an African American musician, James Bland. It is ironic that a tradition that has such deep roots in African American history is now comprised of all white Mummers Clubs. Blackface was even used until the early 60's, when the clubs phased it out because of pressure from civil rights groups. It seems like one more aspect of the many ways that Philadelphia is segregated, both overtly and subtlely.

And yet this is a unique form of American Folk Art that belongs to all of us. I know we'll be at the next Mummers Parade. I hope it won't be too cold on January 1, 2011, in Philadelphia.

Yes We Can!

2010-08-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

My photo of this middle-aged middle-class woman, a straight ally at a small-town demonstration in 2008, is one image of why "the arc of history bends towards justice."

The Sketchbook Project

2010-07-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

I just signed up! I'm stimulated by collaborative projects, by putting my own spin on something shared by many. This is going to be fun. It's perfect to do as a person in limbo, before having a house in which I will create a studio, while most of my supplies are in storage. Lo-tech and portable. The theme "If you lived here..." seemed like the right one for me to choose, having just moved and looking at real estate none of which so far is quite right.

The moving van is coming tomorrow. The few boxes of art supplies marked 'open first' will be more than enough for the sketchbook. I've been sketching just with a black pen in my journal. I will never take a few colored pencils, glue, water colors, and scraps of collage papers for granted.

You have until October 31st to sign up, and until January 15, 2011 to mail it in. Participation is international. Join in!

http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

You Can Go Home Again - It's Just a New Experience

2010-07-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

It's day two of life in Philadelphia. This mural on our apartment building (temporary until we find a house) captures the spirit of the Northern Liberties neighborhood. We'll play tourist, Liberty Bell and all, before our cars are delivered and the moving van arrives later this week. The weird glitch in the last hours of escrow's close on the old house is fading like a bad dream. After thirty-three years in San Diego, I have awakened in a new land that is a return home.

Koi Reflections

2010-06-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

Our house has sold, the moving van is arranged, we are surrounded by boxes. We will miss the unique beauty of San Diego. The Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park is most wonderful in cherry blossom season. The Koi fish like it too!

Chihuly Glass!

2010-05-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Seeing a monumental installation of Dale Chihuly's glass in the afternoon sun rather than in a museum or gallery with artificial lighting was a remarkable experience. It was fun to get there as the installation was just finishing up, and we could see how the chandelier pieces were put together. The Salk Institute in La Jolla California, a world class non-profit scientific institute, is an iconic architectural landmark designed by Louis Kahn.

With my studio packed up as we are getting ready to move to Philadelphia, my best art supplies are my camera and computer! No wonder my latest blog entries are all video. Much as I look forward to having new larger studio space, this experience of being without my beloved mixed media materials makes me certain that video will remain a significant part of my life as an artist.

Janet Cooling: Still Life Meditations

2010-04-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Janet Cooling describes these mixed-media works on paper as grounding meditations that represent infinity. It was fun to document both these recent paintings and the dialogue with her about them.

I have footage of Janet and various phases of her painting from 1997 onward. I hope to digitize it and edit it into several YouTube videos, now that I finally have a new iMac. Today I got an updated firewire cable, thinking I would then be able to import it. (The old cable didn't fit the new computer.) For some reason only a few minutes of it imported... Yikes. I'll solve this yet.

When I first started documenting Janet's work, there was only linear video editing, no funding, and I had never heard of YouTube, if it even existed. Now we have easy digital editing, no need for funding, and YouTube! All I need is to get it to work. And get to work...

Who Does She Think She Is?

2010-03-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

This is a great trailer for a documentary film about women balancing their lives as artists and mothers! I can't wait to see the full film, which is in my netflix queue. I already know, these are the voices of my sisters. My friends and I have been living this for decades. We are not alone! www.whodoesshethinksheis.net.

Inside the Magic Circle

2010-01-23T23:46:00.000-08:00

This incredible sculpture garden, Queen Califia's Magic Circle, by Niki de Saint Phalle, is in Escondido, California. Our grandsons, Noah and Charlie, had a blast in this most unusual playground!

Watercolors at Water's Edge

2010-01-12T20:21:00.000-08:00

Landscape painting in its natural context, the source of its inspiration, is a joy to see... so different than framed and hanging on an indoor wall. I happened upon this plein-air class of the San Diego Watercolor Society on my morning walk,and was grateful to have my camera with me. It was fun making it into a video!

Bumper Sticker History

2009-12-26T20:35:00.000-08:00

This video collage of sticker images is a snapshot of an era of history, as well as telling the story of our personal lives over the last fifteen years. I couldn't bear to scrape them off the cupboard doors without a way to remember the layers that slowly accumulated. Soon the doors will be painted white, nice and bland for prospective buyers, as we get ready to move.

The Arc of a Journey

2009-11-24T07:51:00.000-08:00

The arc of a journey, both inner and outer, is embodied by Helen Redman's exhibit at the Women's History Museum in San Diego. The venue couldn't have been more appropriate for this history making pioneer of Feminist Art. The generosity of her spirit as she shared fifty years of experience as an artist with women of all ages, and the dialogical nature of the salon talk's discussion was a paradigm of the Feminist Art Movement itself...and testifies that it's history is still unfolding.

I'm happy that I was there and captured some of the flavor on video. I'm even happier to have been Helen Redman's friend over the years!

WomenArts!

2009-11-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

Want your socks knocked off? Check out http://www.womenarts.org, a non-profit dedicated to helping women artists be seen, celebrated, and compensated. They also organize and support SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now Day), a world-wide celebration that builds awareness of the power and diversity of women's art. This statement by Martha Richards, the Founder and Executive Director of WomenArts says it all: "We dream about what will happen as more and more women artists gain the resources they need to express their creativity fully. We are convinced that they will change the world."

I am delighted that my blog has been added to the list of bloggers on their website: http://www.womenarts.org/news/bloggers.htm. It is lot of fun to see the range of blogs on this site. I am honored to be in such great company!

Mozart Aids AIDS

2009-10-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik I was a one person fan club of my big brother's high school string quartet. I never imagined I would one day arrange for it to be played at his memorial service.

Years later, when my brother died of AIDS, we gathered at chapel in New York City. A Julliard student string quartet were to play Eine Kline Nachtmusik. "We're grateful to play" said the young violinist, her eyes brimming with tears, "because so many of our classmates have died of AIDS and the school doesn't allow us to honor them." The quartet played their hearts out - for my brother and for their classmates whose names I don't know, their destinies woven together on the strands of music, of history, and of Mozart.

Music speaks when words can't, just as my photo of a Dia de los Muertos altar above resonates for more than one unknown violinist.

Greenwich Village Reflections

2009-10-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

Stumbling on the unexpected is part of the fun of walking in New York City. This one-minute video captures the discovery of my last morning in the Big Apple before returning home.

My Heart is Flipping!

2009-09-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is the first video made with my new Flip Video, a mini-camcorder you can put in your pocket. It's a lot of fun...

Free Digital Gallery - a gift from the New York Public Library!

2009-09-24T10:33:00.001-07:00

New York Public Library Digital Gallery

NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. It is a great resource! The site allows you to browse by subject, names, or topic.

The above image is from the Yom Kippur morning liturgy. (14th Century manuscript)

I am grateful to http://artsmedialab.blogspot.com for calling my attention to this incredible resource!

Good For One Fare: Davis Museum Piece

2009-09-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

"Good For One Fare," inscribed on an old New York City subway token, gives this piece its final form and its title.

Second Step - Davis Museum Piece

2009-09-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Like a dream made concrete, surprising imagery that bubbles up in unexpected juxtapositions gives me glimpses into my deeper inner life. At the same time, I enjoy how other people's associations to my work have meaning for them, but can be quite different from my own.

Yes, it's a real dragonfly. I found it several years ago and coated it with acrylic. It has been residing in a jar waiting for the right assemblage moment - this one.

The First Step - Davis Museum Piece

2009-09-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

These papers were carefully saved from our trip to Spain in 2008. I was never knew that paper bags for ordinary items could be so beautiful. I created a platform for my piece for the Davis Museum in Barcelona by collaging this selection of the papers facing upward on the underside of a transparent acryclic square just under the 7" x 7" specified size.

We were in Spain with a traveling university group, in search of La Convivencia, "The Coexistence," - a time when Jews, Muslims, and Catholics not only got along, but experienced a rich and deep cultural interplay. I loved Cordoba for its glimpse into the history of La Convivencia. The triangle of red paper in the corner is a piece of a gift shop bag from the Museo Sefardi in Cordoba.

These papers thus will be sent back home to Spain as part of this yet untititled piece, having been transformed in my heart.

My Kind of Alternative!

2009-09-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled to have been invited by Davis Lisboa to be a participating artist with the Davis Museum in Barcelona! This is all due to the wonders of social networking. My Facebook friend Neda Darzi, an artist in Tehran, posted that she was participating in the Davis Museum. I then looked at the Davis Museum website and wrote on her page congratulating her and saying that I found the alternative concept intriguing and refreshing. Davis found me there, asked if I was an artist, and if so could he see my work. After looking at my website, he invited me to participate!

I have been playing with sketches, and enjoying the challenge of the size limitation: 7" x 7" x 7" (20 x 20 x 20 cm). I will be blogging as I go along, which will help me conceptualize the meaning of each element chosen. With such a mini-assemblage the final choices represent a lot of interesting possibilities eliminated.

Following are excerpts from from the Davis Museum website. You can see why I love the subversive, alternative, collective concept!

"DAVIS MUSEUM - Anthropophagic Davis Lisboa Museum of Contemporary art in Barcelona is a mini museum of contemporary art, with its own permanent art collection. It is also a readymade sculpture and collective work of art. Opened on January 1. 2009, it is a non- profit artistic project that organizes and produces exhibitions, encourages research and promotes contemporary art exhibitions. Davis Museum has traveling exhibitions to other cultural centers, museums and institutions, nationally and internationally, while generating debate,thought and reflection. Its mission is the selection, presentation,study, dissemination and preservation of contemporary art by emerging artists from around the world.

The object selected to create this museum/sculpture/collective work of art was a voting box, a methacrylate bucket used to collect ballots in an election. This object has been selected as representation of the possible critical management processes of the art institutions.

DAVIS MUSEUM is subtitled "anthropophagic" because it is an art space created specifically to promote "cultural cannibalism." It is a work that "swallows" other works of other artists and other disciplines. Its ownership strategy is a legacy of Brazilian Anthropophagy of the Modern Art Week in 1922 and the neo avant-gardes of the 80's and 90's.

DAVIS MUSEUM does not have a single author, it is a collective work of art, therefore, all the artists who participate DAVIS MUSEUM will have their names and works cited in it. From this collectivistic point of view DAVIS MUSEUM is linked to "relational aesthetics", where the old notion of authorship is altered. Precedents are Marcel Duchamp's Boite-en-Valise and Robert Filliou's Galerie Légitime. Both works contain scathing institutional critiques, not without sarcasm.

DAVIS MUSEUM brings, above all, a link to the aesthetic of the New Media Art, in the new context of the digital era."

See more at http://www.davismuseum.com

YES!

Beyond the Border / Over the Edge

2009-09-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

I managed to get to Beyond the Border: International Contemporary Art Fair, San Diego, this afternoon, mainly because it was ten minutes from my house. I knew it would be essentially a market place for wealthy collectors, - not just a fun place for voyeurs like me. I didn't expect to be so exhausted from swinging between enjoying looking and feeling like a misfit outsider to the commercial side of things.

One of the most exciting exhibits was an installation called ReEnvisioning A World Beyond Borders. An entire room was filled with a mobile phone digital photo installation, with large screens and multiple monitors. See the entries at http://www.flickr.com/photos/reenvisioning2009/sets! A great concept, with participation from all countries. The room was also a quiet refreshing place to sit down, rest, and enjoy images that didn't have a price. The kind of images that were posted more than counterbalanced the Mazeratis parked in front of the posh hotel, hoping to find buyers.

PEACES was an exhibit by Debby and Larry Kline combining video and installation, dramatically documenting the creation and destruction of peace in 3 minutes and 32 seconds. It captures the hope and the tears, and hits you in the gut. I'll think of it when I watch the news and read the newspaper.

May artists make a living from their work. May gallery owners survive in these tough times, and thrive enough to take risks on emerging artists. May artists continue to find alternative exhibition spaces outside the conventional gallery system. And may PEACES find it's ultimate home in the right museum where it will be seen by many.

Gayatri Mantra on YouTube!

2009-09-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

First I saw it on a Facebook friend's page. Then I looked on YouTube. There are dozens and dozens of versions on YouTube, with amazing visuals, various translations (all different), various melodies and instrumental arrangements, some with explanations. This one, viewed almost 60,000 times, was posted in response to another one. Another version was viewed over 500,00 times. I am stunned. Slowly trying to get with the 21st century...

For me, a nice Jewish girl, this mantra has a very special meaning. It was given to me in the early 1970's by my yoga teacher, Dr. Vijayendra Pratap. It was only given to a handful of students, in a very private, if not secret, way. When someone asked for the translation of the Sanskrit, he said: do it diligently, daily, sincerely, for a long period of time, and the meaning will dawn upon you. After doing this for several years, the meaning dawned upon me. It changed my life, but that's a story for another time.

I haven't been in touch with Dr. Pratap for a long time now, but still consider him my yoga teacher. During the 1970's I hung out with every teacher around, but always from the home base of SKY Foundation, our ashram. It is named after his teacher, Swami Kuvalayanandaji, of the Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, India.

This morning I lay on the little blue blanket I use for yoga practice and realized that I do feel connected with this lineage. Still. Despite distance, time, and even periods of falling out, disillusionment,and disagreement (at least on my part.) This little blue blanket is the one that my dad was tucked under at the dialysis center. (Dialysis apparently makes people cold.) Over the years it has become my magic carpet.

I don't practice yoga regularly anymore, but know what to do when I need to. I am pretty well recovered from surgery, but know that in more subtle ways the tissues that were traumatized by the knife need a more refined kind of healing now. I'm grateful for the way I was taught: simple, compared to how yoga is mostly taught these days, which is much more gymnastic.

I thought about the Gayatri Mantra videos on YouTube, and all the comments posted under them, mostly along the lines of "thanks" "beautiful" "so peaceful". Did people watch it once and then move on to the next thing? What would happen if someone chose their most compatible version and spent the nine minutes and four seconds with it every day, day after day? I wonder...

Send Rain!!

2009-09-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

Drought, heat, and wildfires are consuming California. Jean Shin's wonderful video excerpt of her installation, "Penumbra" is my prayer for rain.

What is 'Real'?

2009-08-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

This beautiful video of the Omo People has been making the rounds of Facebook, because it is so astonishing we can't resist forwarding it! It was sent to me by my friend Grace Matthews, on whose page another friend commented that while the Omo People traditionally have decorated themselves with clay-based colored pigments, the German photographer, Hans Silvester, created the headresses.

What does this mean? Aside from just enjoying the whole video visually I have a particular view of this controversy of what is 'real' or 'fake'.

I was privileged to take a graduate class in Inuit (Eskimo) art at Columbia University in 1965-66, taught by James Houston, a Canadian artist, author, and filmmaker who had lived among the Inuit for many years. (Little did I know at the time that I would be living with Inuit in Alaska the following year!) James Houston introduced lithography techniques to the Inuit people of Baffin Island, whose prints today are highly prized. Although not an indigenous technique, it was related, since people had been scratching into ivory for millenia. But the concept of printmaking, using paper, and the possibility of multiples was new.

The Inuit people, once they learned printmaking, made it fully their own. It does not matter that it was introduced by a non-Inuit person. Perhaps what does matter is that cooperatives were set up so that the profits went to the Inuit artists.

As an Art History major, I can only say that in these days of globalization, few if any indigenous cultures have not been influenced from the outside. However the new influences may be introduced, once they are learned and appropriated, they are most often integrated in a manner that is consistent with that culture's own history and traditions.

As a mixed-media artist I appropriate images, concepts, techniques, you name it - all the time. Once I have appropriated them I know they are fully mine. The same, I would imagine, as for the Inuit...or the Omo People.

Unexpected Writing

2009-08-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

I don't normally think of myself as a writer of poems. Yesterday I was fortunate to again attend an all-day writing marathon with Judy Reeves at San Diego Writers, Ink, http://www.sandiegowriters.org, of which she is founder and Director. Because of Judy, and the synergy she creates with her being, I wrote a poem:

Susan:
It means passion for life, despite aging and pain.
It is the number sixty-five and looming MediCare.
It is like the horizon in Alaska in the dead of winter, a delicate glow illuminating from below.
It is knowing I was pregnant in that Alaskan wilderness, conceiving in the heart of winter like the caribou.
It is the memory of David
Who taught me adventure and the unexpected
When he became my daughter's father in that arctic wilderness.
My name is Joy.
It means love endures, beyond divorce, beyond re-marriages, like a light glowing from beneath the horizon.

Gratitude

2009-07-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

This passage from the Hebrew daily morning liturgy has greater meaning for me since my surgery:

"Blessed are you, The Architect, our God, the sovereign of all worlds, who shaped the human being with wisdom, making for us all the openings and vessels of the body. It is revealed and known before your Throne of Glory that if one of these passage-ways be open when it should be closed, or blocked up when it should be free, one could not stay alive or stand before you. Blessed are you, Miraculous, the wondrous healer of all flesh."

My Michael Jackson Story

2009-07-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

I'm having surgery next week, and have never been so fearful of anaesthesia. I have lost trust in anaesthesiologists - the ultimate drug dealers. I fear I won't wake up. However, the doctor I met with only warned me that a tooth could get chipped because of the tube down my throat.

Constant media messages do infect our brains. I don't have to be embarrassed to think, wow, I wonder what it feels like to go under like that. I will find out next week.

When I think back on previous surgeries, it felt like non-existence... I think Michael Jackson wanted to non-exist, and stay forever young.

Old Fashioned Fireworks!

2009-07-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

This small town family fireworks celebration is never to be forgotten! Now part of our family's personal mythology, it is also a window into a simpler time in America's history.

My first effort at editing my video footage and putting it on YouTube, in retrospect it is also from a simpler time, just like the fireworks themselves...

Messages in a Bottle!

2009-06-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

Whether random or not, the whole concept of collaborative journal pages, with no rules for content or format, is very intriguing. I have just put this film by Andrea Kreuzhage, http://www.1000journalsfilm.com, at the top of my Netflix queue and can't wait to see it.

In 2006, at the International Women's Writing Guild annual conference at Skidmore College, N.Y.,a member had created several blank journals, which were to be circulated over the coming year, to be filled with text, art, whatever - and returned by the following years' annual conference to then be auctioned as a fundraiser. I was proud and excited to be one of the participants. The following year, all of the journals had been returned except the one I was part of! No one knew what had happened to it. I still don't know. I'd like to think it has taken on a life of its own...still circulating.

Plant Mandalas!

2009-06-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

The maps hidden in mandalas may be maps of internal consciousness, but they are all around us too. The garden at the California Center for Creative Renewal, www.artretreats.com, was spectacular after the rain. The plants were an integral part of our recent Tibetan Mandala workshop.

T-Shirts Have Power!

2009-05-31T18:34:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I ordered two of these t-shirts, designed by our friend Annette, for me and Sharon. I didn't cry over the recent California Supreme Court's decision to uphold Prop. 8 until I saw that a local church was having an Ecumenical Service of Consolation. The word 'consolation' hit home. I realized how badly I needed to be consoled.

After a weekend with the Venerable Tibetan Lama, Lobsang Tsultrim, I am questioning whether I am 'attached' to having equal legal rights, 'attached' to the outcome of ballots and court decisions. The answer is that the Tibetan monks, in their own fight, are our role models. We will carry on our fight, but with love and compassion in our hearts, not anger or bitterness. It is, after all, about love.

You can order your t-shirt from www.cafepress.com/gaymom. (This is one of several designs.) You don't have to be one of the 18,0000, a resident of California, or even gay to take this viral!

T-Shirt Synchronicity

2009-05-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

The Venerable Choeze Lotsel Gyamtso (Lobsang Tsultrim) and me

A day and a half of work on the Compassion Mandala, with plenty of mistakes!

I wore my Gaden Shartse College t-shirt today, which I had gotten from the monks in 2005, hoping it would help me to have more patience. To my surprise, it turned out that Lobsang Tsultrim was the artist who had designed it back in 2001! I was touched that he was the designer, and he was touched to see it worn... a happy synchronicity for both of us. He is not only a Master of traditional mandala sand painting, but also a contemporary painter of Thangkas. I didn't look at his website, www.puremind.org, until after the workshop ended today.

We didn't have time to add color to our mandalas today, but got to see a picture of what it looks like fully colored: overwhelming after experiencing it deconstructed, at the micro level. As performance artist Rachel Rosenthal would say, it was "doing by doing."

Lobsang didn't want to teach certain things about the inner meaning of the mandala, saying this can't be done without initiation and vows, or is otherwise dangerous. On one hand, I would not have learned what little I know of Kabbalah had Jewish Renewal teachers not bent the traditional rules in order to teach people under forty, unmarried, and/or female. On the other hand, those teachers knew me over time. It wasn't hit-and-run. So I appreciate his caution, within which he is most generous.

I'm very glad that Lobsang was granted asylum in the United States in 2002 and is teaching workshops all over the world. I'm happy to be on his email list!

Not Quite Creatively Renewed

2009-05-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of today's workshop telling myself that I don't have to go back tomorrow. It felt like geometry class, measuring with a little piece of paper in units of 8, 4, 2, and 1, re-learning how to use a compass, ruler, pencil, and eraser. There was nothing freehand about drawing the structure for the Compassion Mandala. Having to get it precise didn't feel very compassionate to a dyslexic like me. It seemed like a fine line between obsessionalism, tedium, and meditation, with the emphasis on tedium.

As we broke for lunch, Lobsang told us he spent ten years learning what he had just showed us in two hours. Some things can't be condensed that much.

I had spent time with other monks from from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in South India, Lobsang Tsultrim's home, when they were here in 2005. (My photo above, taken at the local internet cafe, is from that time.)

The strange chanting with horns and cymbals, bells and drum, filled the garden of the Center for Creative Renewal for a special program. Tulku Lobsang Jinpa Rinpoche, an elder with big ears and glasses with yellowish tinted lenses, was the head teacher. I sat in the second row, almost center, but slightly to his left. There was a healing and purification ritual, followed by lecturing and more lecturing. The repetition was boring. My seat grew harder. My mind wandered. Blah, blah. I wondered when it would be over.

Suddenly he was talking about meditation. I started to pay attention. Listening to the translator I realized he was guiding us in a short one, without actually saying so. I did as he said. And then I focussed/unfocussed on the Rinpoche and whoever/whatever he had become at that point. It was dusk. The moon was almost full, and had been rising and getting brighter and brighter in the darkening sky. Rinpoche seemed to be looking in my direction. He was looking at me. I felt as if he was addressing me. I started listening to him. I let the sounds of the Tibetan language wash over me. The message was coming through without translation. The translator’s voice was like a distant addendum to the real event.

The tears flowed and kept flowing, meeting under my chin and wetting my neck. Something got planted/transmitted directly. (Oh yeah, I remembered later. That happened last time I was around these guys too, the White Tara Initiation time. Not the kind of thing you can really talk about...)

Then I heard the translator say something about how to end meditation, “so you are free to do other things.” I appreciated the help, since we were in so deep that it was important to remember how to end. Or to end. I looked up and we were both smiling - by then it was so dark that his teeth shone like a Chesire cat.

So - it is good to remind myself that if I endure the boredom, the repetition, and desire to flee, that something might actually happen (or not). I think I will go back tomorrow... Besides, that is when we will finally add color to our Compassion Mandalas.

Creative Renewal

2009-05-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

Today and Sunday I will be at The California Center for Creative Renewal, www.artretreats.com, at a workshop on "Tibetan Mandala: Introduction to the Art of Mandala as Meditation and the Hidden Symbolism of Tibetan Sacred Art", taught by The Venerable Lobsang Tsultrim. "The map hidden in the mandala is not of external paths, rather the map is an internal path of consciousness."

In the lunar Hebrew calendar, today is also the second day of the holiday in which we remember standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, accepting and receiving the revelation of Torah.

It rained last night and the plants are sparkling with moisture. The garden at the Center will be beautiful. I'll let you know how it goes...

animoto.com

2009-05-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

I learned about animoto.com, the simple video program which created this 30 second video, from the Arts Media Lab of Palomar College Blog. The 30 second format is free, so it is a good exercise in brevity, and letting go of the images that got edited out. This is my first attempt. Next time I'll try fewer images.

This is a good example of why I am starting to follow other people's blogs. I am unashamedly asking all of you to follow mine as well. I want to be networked with all of you. I want to learn from you, laugh with you, and see your art. I would never have heard of animoto.com if I hadn't been a follower of Arts Media Lab's blog.

p.i.c.a.s.s.o. : Guernica in a new way...

2009-05-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

The pictures in this video are originally by Picasso and they all lead to his main painting - Guernica. Sound was written especially for this movie. This is Guernica like we have never seen before. I have spent much time with the original Guernica, as well as with sketches and studies for it I that I saw recently in Spain. There is something however about the combination of animation and music in this brief video that conveys drama and emotion in a completely unique and impactful way.

It was sent to me on Facebook from iArt Galeria de Arte, in a format that did not indicate it was a YouTube video. It was so remarkable that I posted it on my Facebook profile page. My Facebook friend Karen Keimig Warner saw it there and posted it on the Arts Media Lab blog of Palomar College, http://artsmedialab.blogspot.com. When I saw it on the AML blog I realized she had somehow located it's YouTube provenance, which then allowed me to post it here.

I am trying to grasp the webness of the internet. I may never understand it. All I know is that videos like this one are important to keep circulating!

Why I love Nam June Paik

2009-05-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

Need I say more? I received this wonderful image because I subscribe to Vasili Kaliman's Art Patrol, at artpatrol.blogspot.com. It is my virtual way of scoping out contemporary art exhibits world wide, this one of Nam June Paik's work at the James Cohan Gallery in New York. It's easy to subscribe to artpatrol - just plug in your email address. I enjoy anticipating what artpatrol will send next, and especially enjoy exhibits from cities I have never been to and may never get to. Some work appeals to me more than others. And then there are the moments of joyful surprises, gems like this one, that will stay in my brain cells forever! Thank you Vasili Kaliman!

Didn't Go

2009-05-09T11:38:00.001-07:00

Only one day in the Big Apple - a few precious hours! I headed first for the American Folk Art Museum , a little jewel. I then planned to spend the rest of the day at the Museum of Modern Art. Alas, it was closed on Tuesdays to the public. I asked the guard in the lobby who all the people were who appeared to be gathering to go in. She told me that on Tuesdays it is open to autistic children, there by the busload, with increased supervision and an acceptance of noise. What a wonderful idea! This subway poster is a sad reminder of the exhibit that I didn't go to, that I almost got to. I traveled all the way from San Diego to New York City, stood in the lobby and couldn't get in. I only hope that other museums in other cities also have these kind of special closed-to-the-public days!

Stick with me kid

2009-04-15T21:54:00.001-07:00

This is not an image I would have been drawn to, but once it was handed to me, I became drawn to it. The target practice poster, Tactical Encounter No. 3, had been part of an installation by Micki Davis, mickidavis.com, at the University of California at San Diego Visual Arts Department Open Studios. She offered me a copy of the poster to be added to in any way, titled, photographed, and sent to her.

I checked the website of Alco Target Company. It actually does produce targets - this one considered a tactical training target for hostage situations. It's for real..

The title, Stick with me kid, is from the note over the barrel of the gun.

I had used the image of the bound up figurine in a previous installation in which she was actually dangling from her ropes. I printed out a photograph of her on adhesive-backed clear mylar. She is positioned as if a baby on the woman's shoulder, but a falling one. Red adds drama to the sparse understated palette.

I know that my attunement to negative space is greatly sharpened by my recent life-drawing class with Ken Goldman, goldmanfineart.com. I knew that life-drawing would enhance my mixed-media work, but couldn't have forseen it taking this form!

The scrap of paper with days of the week and dates, indicates the ordinary and daily quality of the violence depicted. The erotic edge to it is part of what makes it complicated and disturbing.

This is the original poster, Tactical Encounter No. 3. I love what grows out of collaborative art. Although Miki Davis did not alter this poster herself, she used it conceptually, and challenged others to come up with other concepts. It was a lot of fun!

Dia de los Muertos, American Style

2008-11-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

The smell of marigolds was pervasive. The vendors were almost finished setting up at the Dia de los Muertos Celebration in Oceanside, California, as I rushed to deliver my mixed media piece made from an old guitar to the art gallery. Images of surfing skeletons, skeletons skateboarding, flirting, grinning, bicycling, marrying.. peered out from booths on t-shirts, blankets, buttons, purses, aprons, postcards, match book covers. Then there were the vendors with trinkets like in Tijuana, - maybe Mexican, maybe made in China. And flower vendors. Marigolds everywhere.

A mariachi band started to play. It was 10:00 a.m. and the celebration was officially open. I wandered towards the food. The bakery booth with the special Day of the Dead breads was doing a brisk business. The decorated sugar skulls weren't edible, so I got skulls made of amaranth and honey for my grandsons. Hypnotic drumming of the Aztec Dancers drew me towards the real heart of the celebration.

Past the food, past the vendors pushing their wares, were the altars - the real reason for it all. The marigold smell became heavier, enveloping this sacred space. The local Hispanic community, gathering together to remember loved ones who had passed away, were at the same time sharing this tradition with the rest of us. Teenagers were volunteering, wearing their light blue Dia de los Muertos event staff t-shirts, with its logo graphic on the front. Family groups, babies to elderly, paid hommage to these memorial altars. The mood was reverent but not sad, and overwhelmingly an affirmation of life.

Each altar was unique. One was for a child, less than a year old judging by the photos, toys and size of the little blue plastic shoes.

There was an altar done by the MEChA student group (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) of a local Community College. A history lesson about the Tlatelolco Massacre of unarmed college students by the Mexico City government in 1968, the banner read "Recordando el Movimiento Estudiantil de Tlatelolco." The students' banner in 1968 read "No Queremos Olimpiadas. Queremos Revolucion." (We don't want Olympic Games. We want revolution.) They were gunned down by their own government. The young woman who explained it to me said, with wide eyes, "they were our age." It was so personal to her. It made the history real.

A tall beautiful older woman with a carved wooden cane struck up a conversation with me at the next altar. We stood next to the simple memorial, with a woman's name and dates, and "grandmother, mother, wife, friend" hand-lettered on a sign. Most surprising to me was seeing this woman's steam iron on the altar, realizing her hand had touched it: a making sacred of something so ordinary, and a glimpse of her life. I commented on this to my new friend. "Each altar is different" she said. She told me how when she was growing up there were no Hispanic teachers who could be role models, how she and other children were punished for speaking Spanish. "And now our kids are teachers;.. my son is a dentist." She recalled meeting Cesar Chavez in the early days, when it was just small gatherings in people's homes.

"And now we have Barak" she said. Our eyes met, both filled with tears.

*****************

Constancy & Change

2008-09-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Every morning I had cut the day's weather map out of the newspaper, carefully saving them in a cigar box. I originally started this habit as part of my mixed-media series "Cherish Each Day," using them as collage material. But it also became a form of morning meditation to notice each pattern and remind myself that each day is unique. No two maps are alike, no matter how similar. Some days I would be rushed, or get careless, glance at it, and not cut it out, telling myself that there would always be more in the future.

A few week ago the newspaper changed its format. It took several days for me to grasp that my supply of these patterns is now finite. I am grateful that I have several hundred, but those are all there are. I'm still trying to learn the lesson...

Gay Marriage in California: Red, White, ....& Blue

2008-07-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

Marriage is as American as apple pie, true now in California for same sex couples as well. "If you want to get married, you have to annul your Canadian marriage first, because you can't get married twice" said a gay attorney acquaintance. No way. Our Canadian marriage is our marriage. We would never annul it.

We hope that a majority of Californians will defeat a ballot initiative in November that would overturn gay marriage. People are being told that the same-sex marriages previously performed would remain legal even if the initiative passes, but it still feels uncertain. For ourselves, we just want our Canadian marriage recognized, thgaye same as any other American couple who gets married outside the country and then returns. "Full faith and credit" as they say...

First we registered as Domestic Partners with the City of West Hollywood. Then the California Domestic Partner Registry law was passed. We registered in the first two weeks, our form romantically notarized by the young clerk at Postal Annex. That was before the careful attorney's analysis in the gay press about the legal liabilities we would be signing up for (e.g. taking on each other's debt.) We stayed registered. Then a few years later the state upgraded the Registry and sent us a new certificate with a fancy gold seal. They dated our partnership from the time of the new certificate, rather than honoring the earlier date. Then later on laws shifted again. Our attorney sent out a letter to all her clients outlining the additional legal liabilities that Registered Domestic Partners would incur if they did not dissolve their partnership by December 31st of that year. We laughed and made no changes.

Our straight friends did not throw us showers and give us gifts until we went to Vancouver to get married. They congratulated us on the 'serious commitment' we were making - as if we wouldn't have done it sooner and closer to home if it had been legally available.

I predict the ballot initiative will be defeated, for two reasons. More young people will turn out to vote this time around. And the gay marriage business is big business. Out-of-state couples from cold-in-winter parts of the country will come to California to get married in the sunshine and honeymoon at fabulous resorts. Think of what it will do for creating jobs in the restaurant, hotel, flower, photography, and tourism industries. Think of the tax revenue it will generate for the state.

Meanwhile, even if California does recognizes our Canadian marriage, this will mean nothing if we ever move to another state. May we see full recognition everywhere in our lifetimes!

August 4th addendum: We got another opinion last night from an attorney friend, who said that Canadian marriages were a gray area - not mentioned in the California Supreme Court ruling. She said that we wouldn't have to get divorced in order to get married again in California, and recommended doing so before November 4th. Reason: if Obama is elected, he has said he would rescind the Defense of Marriage Act. This would mean that if we ever move to another state, a California marriage would have a greater chance of someday being recognized than a Canadian one. It all feels so convoluted and legalistic. We didn't get married to make a political point. We got married for the same reasons anyone does. So - we will take it as one more opportunity to renew our vows.

Posted by MultipleVisions

(My mixed media piece above is called "Cigar Box")

Convivencia & Optimism

2008-06-07T15:05:00.001-07:00

In Madrid, there were posters everywhere for a popular current show: "Anne Frank, the Musical." Anne Frank's face smiled out from every billboard and bus stop shelter. It initially felt absurdly surreal. A musical? After a while it felt like a metaphor for the history of Spain that I was struggling to understand. Yes, extermination happened. But as Adin Steinsaltz, a modern Jewish sage has said, "You know, the definition of a Jewish optimist is the one who sees things as bleak as possible - and still hopes." La Convivencia, "The Coexistence," - the past time when Jews, Muslims, and Catholics not only got along, but experienced a rich and deep cultural interplay, did fall apart. But it also did exist. I would like to hear the sound track of Anne Frank, the Musical...

Dreaming of Convivencia

2008-05-30T16:23:00.001-07:00

I didn’t expect the vendors from Nepal, with their beautiful pseudo-Pashmina shawls, to be in the courtyard of the Granada Cathedral on Easter Sunday morning, reminding me that globalization is pervasive on many levels. Nor did I expect to be accosted by a Gypsy woman at the gated side entryway, clearly not dressed like the going to church crowd, offering me a sprig from her pouch full of rosemary, which I accepted. I couldn't understand her language, but I understood the message. She looked me directly in the eyes and grabbed my hands. Her clustered fingers touched the center of my palms with the point they made. We both smiled. It was both a fortune telling and a blessing, and both seemed good.

It was a blessing from a Gypsy woman to a Jewish woman, on Easter Sunday in the courtyard of a Catholic Cathedral. Behind her were vendors with plastic made-in-China souvenirs, Nepalese fabrics, and maybe even some things made in Spain. All as I was about to visit an amazing Moorish palace, The Alhambra. Was this a dream?

The Alhambra, with its mystical architecture, a reflection of the universe, continually opened out levels of consciousness and nourished my soul. Until, that is, when we came to the room where the Edict of Expulsion was signed in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella after they had conquered the area, condemning Jews to expulsion, conversion, or death - and the same fate to Muslims a little later on. The juxtaposition was jarring.

The strange mosaic of Spanish history once again challenged linear understanding. I can’t really begin to put it all together. All I know is that in my dreams I am wide awake. And I am still dreaming of Convivencia. The sprig of rosemary is dried out now, but it is still fragrant...

Looking for Convivencia: Tibet

2008-04-18T16:22:00.001-07:00

Passover: a retelling of the journey from slavery to freedom; the leaving of our internal Egypt, the narrow place of our fears, our narrow ways of thinking, - and moving forward into unchartered territory. Jews everywhere are in a frenzy of cleaning, shopping, and cooking, getting ready for the seder. This family home ritual conducted as part of the Passover observance starts tomorrow night.

Arthur Waskow's Shalom Center sent out the following:
"This year, Roger Kamenitz, who wrote The Jew in the Lotus, and developed the Seders for Tibet, (a 'grandchild' of Arthur Waskow's original Freedom Seder) writes

Suggestions for Tibetan additions to seder:

Symbol: an empty picture frame placed beside the seder plate.
When we tell the story of our own slavery in Egypt we pause to
consider the current oppression in Tibet:

Tibetans are forbidden to have photos of the Dalai Lama in Tibet.
The Chinese government confiscates them. The Tibetans took to hanging empty picture frames. The Chinese police confiscated them as well..."

We embrace this addition to this year's seder. Looking for Convivencia does not only apply to Spain!

Looking for Convivencia: I Left My Heart in Cordoba

2008-04-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

Timelessness happens in Cordoba. The stones of the small, and simple synagogue were cool to the touch. I could feel their roughness surrounding my back and shoulders as I huddled in a corner. This was not the site of a destroyed synagogue, or one 'built over' by a church. It was really still here. One of the Hebrew verses at the top of the North Wall, a plaque told us, was from Psalm 27:4, "one thing have I asked of God, one goal do I pursue: to dwell in the The Eternal's house throughout my days, to know the bliss of The Sublime, to visit in God's temple." The coarse broad stones held me up as the tears flowed. The Psalm in the synagogue of these Medieval Jews who lived The Convivencia, the people who translated the Greeks into Arabic, and from Arabic into Hebrew, who read Arabic love poems, is the same Psalm we recite today every day in the month leading up to the High Holidays in the Fall. A few feet away the guide was saying something to the rest of the group. It was a distant drone.

I was with my people, connected by this spare and humble building, feeling their prayers still inhabiting the space. Were any of my ancestors among them? Or was it a past life? I know I was here before. It was home.

Looking for Convivencia: The View from Toledo

2008-04-06T15:59:00.001-07:00

Light poured through the stained-glass window, pooling on to the stone floor. The Toledo Cathedral was stunning, awesome beyond words. We ended our tour at a small courtyard surrounding what had once been an exit portal. There was a beautifully painted fresco around the archway and surrounding wall, but the content was confusing. It seemed to depict the capture and crucifixion of a young boy. It turned out that the Cathedral's exiting message to the Toledo populace over hundreds of years was the old blood-libel myth that Jews capture and kill young Christian children. And it was so beautifully painted...

La Convivencia, "The Coexistence", has its tensions and contradictions. There was no way to be in Spain during La Semana Santa, Holy Week, without falling under it's spell. Easter here was definitely not about chocolate and bunnies. If I were in India during a major Hindu festival, I would want to learn about it and experience its spirit. We had seen incredible floats depicting the Passion of Christ in Girona on Good Friday, which would be carried in procession on Easter Sunday. We had gone to the Granada Cathedral on Easter Sunday morning hoping to see Granada's floats. And yet, it was the zeal of the Inquisition that expelled my people, or forced them to convert to Catholicism, or burned them alive in auto da fe's. So, it was both like enjoying a Hindu fesival in India as outside observers, and not like it at all. How to reconcile the incredible beauty of the Alhambra with it being the place the Edict of Expulsion was signed in 1492? How to reconcile the fun of the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, with all its wonderful restaurants and shops, learning at the same time that it was a place that people came to watch Jews being burned alive in auto da fe's? And how to reconcile the beauty of Toledo's Cathedral, largely due to it's core of Moorish architecture and it's former life as a Mosque, learning that the Muslims were later also subjected to the same treatment as the Jews? And then the frescoe at its exit portal - essentially fine art used as hate speech?

The weird thing is that I came away in love with Spain, despite all the contradictions and unanswered questions. I understand why people became Conversos rather than leave the warmth and beauty of the land, the people, the climate, the wonderful mix of cultures.

Looking for Convivencia: Santa Maria La Blanca, Toledo

2008-04-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Only a small plaque on the walled entrance indicate that the Church of Santa Maria La Blanca was originally a synagogue in the twelfth century. A visitor wouldn't necessarily be aware of it, except perhaps for some Judaica in the adjoining gift shop. And this one hidden six-pointed star... Off in a corner, high up near the ceiling, added during a renovation, we would never have known it existed, had we not been told.

The Synagogue was considered an example of La Convivencia, "The Coexistence," when it was first built in Toledo in 1180: designed by Moorish architects on Christian soil for use as a Synagogue. The Moorish architecture is very beautiful, uplifting and inspiring. To simply say it became a church in the fifteenth century glosses the truth of the Inquisition.

I am intrigued by the one hidden six-pointed star, added in a later renovation. What is the back story? Was it a Converso workman who snuck it in? (A Converso was a Jew compelled to convert to Catholicism). Was there a Converso overseer who allowed it to slip by? Was it an act of civil disobedience? Why was it allowed to remain? Did La Convivencia go underground ? Did it remain in the hearts of of certain individuals, particularly those who had intermarried over the centuries, whose DNA was more like than unlike each others?

Still looking for Convivencia.

Looking for Convivencia

2008-04-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

We got to the Museum of Jewish History in Girona, Spain, fifteen minutes before it closed early for Good Friday. The employees were Catholic, and were being given time off for the holiday. Worst of all, the bathrooms were out of order. It had been a long bus ride through gridlocked holiday traffic .

The previous evening, some of our group had gone to the synagogue in Barcelona to celebrate the Jewish Holiday of Purim. They reported a festive time, enclosed in careful security. The men were instructed to remove their kippah, (skullcap) upon leaving - that is, to remove overt signs of being Jewish. The group was told to disperse quickly afterwards, or go back into the building while waiting for the bus.

Today, back at work, I was telling my office neighbor about the trip. Her face froze in shock. She had never heard that the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, under threat of forced conversion or extermination. Same for the Muslims a little later on. And that Good Friday had in the past been a time for attacks on Jews.

We had signed up with a traveling university group, in search of La Convivencia, "The Coexistence," - a time when Jews, Muslims, and Catholics not only got along, but experienced a rich and deep cultural interplay. We treasured any glimpses both of Convivencia in the past, and hope for the present and future.

Valentine's Day for All of Us

2008-02-12T21:33:00.000-08:00

I created the Freedom to Marry Angel in 1996 as a gentle warrior, protective of lovers everywhere. Her shield is the pink triangle and her sword a bouquet of flowers. As a copyrighted logo she was printed on buttons and t-shirts, in which there was little interest at the time. Twelve years later I can see how naive I was in those days! I have great faith, however, in the young people who are transforming our country in so many ways. By the time they are in charge, all of this will be so ho-hum...

An Historical Footnote

2008-01-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

“We don’t have school on Monday, because it’s Martin Luther King Day”, my six year old grandson announced. “Who was Martin Luther King?” I asked, curious what his first grade class was being taught. His eyes grew big. “Don’t you know who Martin Luther King was?” he said incredulously.

I told him that when his grandpa and I were married and his mommy was a baby, we were students at The Martin Luther King School for Social Change. As he gets older he’ll learn the rest.

It was a small school, a dozen or so students, founded by radical Quakers, American Gandhians, on the campus of Crozer Seminary outside of Philadelphia. It was an interesting place to be on April 4, 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated. It turned out that Dr. King was an alumni of Crozer Seminary, having gotten his Masters Degree there in 1951. The King School students, together with the Crozer Caucus of Black Seminarians (another dozen or so people), approached the Crozer administration to ask that Dr. King’s picture be hung in the Board Room. The room had a large rectangular dark wood conference table in the middle. The surrounding walls were hung with portraits of eminent alumni - all white.

Today this seems like such an obvious and certainly minimal request. In those days, it was controversial. They actually said no! It appeared that they were not proud of this alumni, that they did not want to acknowledge him as one of theirs, that he was too much of an agitator, a radical troublemaker. Negotiation and tense confrontation went on for a period of time.

Two years later, King School no longer existed and Crozer Seminary had merged with Colgate Rochester. On the present day website of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School they list an abundance of events for Martin Luther King Day, and talk about the life-changing legacy of the social gospel. Under history, the heading about Crozer’s move to affiliate with Colgate Rochester in 1970 reads “Martin Luther King, Jr’s Alma Mater Moves to Rochester.”

It is perhaps in the footnotes of history that its complexity takes shape. Crozer Seminary did want to be on the cutting edge of social change. That is why they shared their campus with The Martin Luther King School for Social Change in the first place. They appear to be carrying on that mission today, in their present incarnation. The people who made the unfortunate decision in 1968 are no longer around. We may never know the back story.

I hope that as my grandson grows older he will learn that Martin Luther King Day is about more than parades and a day off from school!

First Beach Walk of the Year

2008-01-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

A little girl scratched "2008" in the sand with a stick, soon to be washed away by incoming tide. Couples of all ages strolled hand in hand at the water's edge, watching the sky change. Families posed for their New Year's Day snapshot in front of the spot where the sun was spreading a shaft of gold on the water. Children were everywhere: babies wrapped in blankets, toddlers on shoulders, older ones playing in the sand. There were only a handful of surfers and one lone fisherman. I was among the solitary walkers, since my honey had a cold. It was definitely a holiday crowd.

A foreign tourist, a woman walking south as I was coming back north stopped to greet me. "Where does it end?" she asked. I was startled by her question, given the vastness of the shoreline, but it was a language problem, so the answer was not "the tip of South America". I managed to suggest she walk down to Flat Rock and back, the same walk I had just taken.

I snapped this shot on my way home, of the lagoon flowing under the railroad trestle towards the ocean. A good way to start the New Year, with a fresh supply of sand now on the floor of my freshly washed car.

"Right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant"

2007-12-29T18:47:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King said so much more than "I have a dream". "Right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant" were his words that spoke to me most strongly when I visited the Martin Luther King Memorial recently in Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco. The visitor follows a path behind a waterfall flowing from high above, actually getting misted depending on the direction of the breeze. Behind the waterfall are several large plaques, beautifully carved with quotes from Dr. King in English on the top. Each plaque has a translation into a different language below the English. Reading the quotes literally from behind the rush of flowing water was a powerful experience.

As we are entering a New Year with yet another tragic assassination, that of Benazir Bhutto, may we take hope anew from the words of Dr. King: "Right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."

The Missing Peace Project

2007-12-16T17:29:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate to see The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on my recent visit to San Francisco. It is a multi-media art exhibition that brings together 88 respected artists representing 30 countries. With the full life of the Dalai Lama as inspiration, the intention for this project is to shift the world's attention towards peace.

Check out their website at www.tmpp.org, for a virtual tour and further info!

One of the most uplifting pieces for me was a continuous video loop by Marina Abramovic called At the Waterfall. Between the years 2000 and 2003, Abramovic collected 120 video portraits featuring the prayers of monks and nuns representing five Tibetan Buddhist traditions. All of these videos are projected simultaneously on a large wall with the sound of the overlapping prayers from different monasteries resembling a huge waterfall. Low red canvas chairs face the wall, so the viewer sits close to the floor, in a room darkened except for the wall of looping video. May I never forget what it felt like to be enveloped and transported by the cascade of sound...

Over the Border

2007-10-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

It was a relief that yesterday's bus trip to Tijuana and Rosarito, "Artists of the Border," sponsored by the Atheneum Music and Arts Library, http://www.ljathenaeum.org, wasn't cancelled because of the fires. My daughter and I had been looking forward to it, and now it was even more welcome. The high winds, falling ash, and poor air quality of the last week had no respect for national boundaries, but the worst was behind us. I had not been to the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) in several years and was amazed by the building boom in the whole surrounding area, including now McDonalds and Starbucks. Fortunately it also includes a new building going up at the Centro that will house an International Gallery built to museum standards, putting Tijuana on the international circuit of traveling exhibitions. Amazingly, this is sponsored by the National Council for Culture and the Arts: the government!

We also visited the Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, a state sponsored gallery which promotes the work of emerging, even edgy and controversial artists, as well as established artists. My daughter expressed a desire to purchase a small print. The gallery Director took her name and email address to pass along directly to the artist. "You can do business directly with each other" he said. It took me the whole day to wrap my mind around that. The gallery didn't take a percentage of sales, because their overhead is paid by the government. Not worried about survival they can take risks in who they show. As far as I can tell, their role is to provide exposure for the artists, be a cultural resource for the public at large, and connect potential collectors up with the artists. WOW!

I took the photograph above through our bus window, showing a section of the border fence in the upscale gated community where one of the artists we visited lived and worked. The neighboring home had a tree house in the backyard from which one could see over the fence into the United States. My understanding and appreciation of what it means to be part of this vital and rich border culture was deepened on many levels. The dance of inside/outside, who influences who, and just what is a border anyway, became more intricate.

Firestorm

2007-10-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

I thought I would be writing about having pieces in two wonderful shows. Our San Diego Chapter of Women's Caucus for Art is having a show together with the Women's History Museum, www.whmec.org, - hopefully a first annual event. And Studio Maureen/Next Door Gallery, www.studiomaureen.com, is having its fabulous annual Dia de los Muertos exhibit. I am happy to be participating in both shows.

The raging firestorm throws this into quite a different perspective however. We are evacuated, camping out at my daughter's house, who fortunately lives in a safe area. When packing up the car, after selecting photos, videos of family, hard drives, legal & financial papers, and my grandmother's Sabbath candlesticks, which had survived twenty moves in two years in the Old Country before making it to America, I realized I hadn't packed any art. I quickly threw in the CDs of all the digitized slides of my work from 1984 to late 90's. There wasn't room for much. I had no hesitation about packing the wonderful collage by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith which has hung over my work table for many years, giving me joy and inspiration. It was a vote in favor of new work to come, made on a new work table, if necessary. Of my own work, I grabbed the photo etching "She Came to me in a Dream", which includes passages of the Kaddish prayer along with an image of my grandmother. It was close at hand, not too big, and two dimensional - easily packable. And it deals with loss...

Newer work not yet photographed, our collection of other peoples art - mostly friends, some of it trades, and our folk art collection - hopefully will all still be there awaiting our return home. I have complained in the past about my limited studio space - one bedroom chock full of supplies, old work, new sketches. To others it may appear to be a jumble. To me, I know exactly where things are, organized according to my own quirky catalog of visual images. All I have to do is putter in it, attempt to clean it up, and new sketches spring to life. The thought of losing it all is horrifying. I cherish my limited work space, not to be taken for granted. If I had larger space I would enjoy doing larger work, but I have never cherished what I do have as fully as now.

I also packed a piece of melted glass from James Hubbell's former studio which was destroyed in the fires of four years ago, along with a slender book of watercolors he painted after the fires. These amazing watercolors embody the continuity and resurgence of an artist's creative impulse despite losing so much, and his ability to see beauty even in destruction. Some of them were exhibited at the Oceanside Museum in 2005: http://www.oma-online.org/james_hubbell.html

A plastic container with my journals from the last three years or so managed to fit in the back seat. Amazingly, it also included my very first journal, from 1971. All the rest, continuous during the intervening years, are in a box back in the garage. I had been reading a book called Harvesting Your Journals, by Rosalie Deer Heart and Alison Strickland, which makes me appreciate my years of journaling in a way I hadn't fully before. Furniture and clothing can be replaced. Thirty-five years worth of journals can't.

I feel calmer today, because of being with loved ones in a safe area, no longer wondering if or when we will get the order to evacuate. The air here is not too sooty and doesn't sting the throat and eyes. The grandchildren, who are bouncing off the walls with no school today, are a welcome diversion. It definitely beats watching flames on television.

Addendum at 9:00 p.m.: The winds have shifted and the evacuation order lifted. We are deeply grateful to be home again, smoky air and all. As I unpacked the car the first thing I did was hang the Jaune Quick-to-See Smith collage over my work table again.

Ride the Wave

2007-08-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

What fun and what a privilege to participate in Create Change: the first annual Festival of Art and Imagination presented by The Expressive Arts Institute of San Diego, http://www.arts4change.com. As promised, it truly was a five-day road-trip for the soul. How refreshing to immerse in multi-modal expression, alternating between movement, art (acrylics, collage, photography, clay), improv music, and poetry - all in the company of other playful souls. Risks taken, no judgements, batteries recharged, community created: joyfully juicy!

"Ride the Wave" is a detail of the acrylic I did at the Festival. When folded, it formed an eight-page book which was then elaborated with collage. Now that I'm home, I can't quite remember why I haven't explored acrylics more, especially since becoming allergic to oil-based media. Whatever was stopping me isn't there anymore. Hooray for atelier magic! I'm ready to ride the waves.

Remember the Magic!

2007-06-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

“When you are creating there is an added energy that surpasses anything else” said artist Louise Nevelson, in a video that is part of her retrospective at The Jewish Museum in New York City.

Visual arts in the Big Apple, letting the nonverbal part of my brain take over, is my decompression chamber from the week of writing immersion at the International Women Writer’s Guild (IWWG) annual conference at Skidmore College.

In the audio to the Louise Nevelson exhibit, her friend Edward Albee said “she told me that every single piece she ever made was part of one big piece. She referred to herself as a weaver, weaving all the pieces into one huge piece.”

Looking at Nevelson’s sculptural walls, - each section having its own unique shapes, its own shadows and light, yet part of a whole, - made concrete for me what had happened at Skidmore in relation to each other as well as within ourselves.

There is a reason the conference is called “Remember the Magic”. Overflowing notebooks, pens running out of ink; work read, heard, critiqued; poems, novels, memoirs, screenplays; drumming, dream work, laughing, crying - the pieces wove together like Nevelson’s unexpectedly juxtaposed fragments.

The “added energy that surpasses anything else” was pervasive, contagious, exhausting, exhilarating. The "one huge piece" is the IWWG Archive at Smith College, which not only contains documents of the organization's thirty year history, but copies of all the published work of IWWG members.

Whether the art scene in the Big Apple or the array of classes offered at Skidmore, there is a normal human tendency to greed, the desire to sample it all. It is hard to prioritize, yet digging deep rather than wide is what reaches the underground water source... And after all, I'll be back next year.

On the Threshold

2007-06-28T05:24:00.001-07:00

At the Albany State Museum, our respite after traveling from San Diego, my friend Ahouva and I came across the following Native American prayer:

The Threshold

Welcome my kinspeople. Let us refresh you after your long and difficult journey, and let us give thanks to the Creator that we are alive to see one another again.

To travel from Albany to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs to attend the 30th Annual International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG) Conference, "Remember the Magic," was indeed a return to “kinspeople". We were ready to board the bus. The magic had already begun.

Cherish Each Day

2007-05-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

As a member of San Diego Book Arts, http://sandiegobookarts.org, I wanted to paticipate in the upcoming cARTalog exhibit, which will travel to five San Diego area libraries from July 2007 through January 2008. The concept started with the University of Iowa. Thousands of cards from now-retired card catalogs were sent across the country with an invitation to create works of art from them. Of the cards distributed by San Diego Book Arts, this one, as it were, is the hand I was dealt. The synchronicity of this card finding me is beyond words. I completed the year of saying Kaddish (the prayer said in community as part of Jewish mourning practices) for my mother only a few months ago. The process was transformational in ways I could not have forseen.

Like the just-right writing prompt, this library catalog card opened an unexpected door for me. I am led to a new series of work called "Cherish Each Day," which views the simple, the ordinary, the everyday, through a new lens. My mother loved music - it was the last thing that remained with her. To be given a card of a record - this record, of Leonard Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony, - was magical.

"An Open Book" at BorelliSpace Gallery/February 2007

2007-05-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

I was happy to receive the Juror's Choice Award at the Women's Caucus for Art/San Diego exhibition, "An Open Book", juried by Dorothy Annette of BorelliSpace. I am sad that the piece, "The Dow is Up" was triggered by a newspaper photo of a grieving Iraqi mother. The overlaid transparency creates a halo effect above her head...an Iraqi Pieta...

Limbo Fine Arts / Recycled: third time's a charm

2007-05-27T20:17:00.002-07:00

"Recycled: third time's a charm" at Limbo Fine Arts, www.limboarts.com, in September 2006, was a very exciting show to be part of, and was close to my heart on every level. I was happy to be among other artists who make use of flotsm and jetsam and funky found objects, - literally recycling. Then there is the recycling of experience. Pain? Make art out of it. Joy? Make art out of it...