I have started reading Sherry Turkle's latest book about loss of intimacy in our rush towards embracing machines and it has reminded me that I remain a squishy Luddite (someone who likes to curse new technologies but who learns reluctantly some of the new rules) who has a blog.
Why do this blog? For me, it is more of an organizational tool and a timid toe-in-the-water for exhibiting in the future. It is also a way to sort through ideas. I do like to type and am very good at it (I can keep up with things coming out of my brain). So this blog functions, in part, like an electronic sketch pad and journal. This way of thinking plays out in the production of my art "work," as well: intermittent explosions of creativity and color, always with an ear turned to the outer world of caregiving responsibilities.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Yesterday I saw two large pigs trotting down route 108 towards Newmarket. They looked happy to be out and about. Otherwise it has been a winter of (too much) snow, ice dams, shoveling, and time for more ruminating.
A woman's work, my needlepoint that has been in progress for over a year, is being shown here. It keeps evolving. I am also rethinking the oldest Irish girl project that includes my great-aunt Helen and myself and others. Finally, I am thinking about grasses and feathers and trying to achieve a feeling here, along with my signature love of color. These are in a very rudimentary stage.
A woman's work, my needlepoint that has been in progress for over a year, is being shown here. It keeps evolving. I am also rethinking the oldest Irish girl project that includes my great-aunt Helen and myself and others. Finally, I am thinking about grasses and feathers and trying to achieve a feeling here, along with my signature love of color. These are in a very rudimentary stage.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
The Foundation RIP, for now
A terrific idea whose time has not come. That is my conclusion about my idea for micro grants for creative respite for social workers. Everywhere I turned (with the exception of a couple of friends and my husband) I got negative feedback, if social work professors and NASW people even responded at all. So this too is on hold as I start to explore other possible avenues for my own non-profit. I am now hooked up with the NH Non-Profit organization and have attended one of their seminars. I may do some volunteering at a local arts program to get some ideas. I am still thinking.
No Action, Much Ruminating
Not much has been happening on the production of art front here. Several months ago, I went through most of the work produced in the past year or two and trashed it or tucked it away. I have been frustrated with my inability to bring to reality the great ideas I have. (Perhaps I am not visualizing well how the final work should look. And there are times I wonder if I am capable of bringing the ideas to fruition.) During this period of reflection (my guilt says it is my laziness) I considered the idea of contacting my painting teacher from the DeCordova and ask if she would be interested in doing an ongoing critique with me. I haven't followed up with that but have not dismissed it out of hand either. I have been working some on my needlepoint, however, bringing part of it to completion and adding some experimental things to it as well. This and my knitting have brought me back to the issue of fiber as art. Not so surprising (there are no coincidences) I recently drove to Andover to see an exhibit of fiber art by Sheila Hicks, and have been reading, in a book about art theory, about "women's arts--and crafts" and questioning whether they are "art" or not. Painting is not everything.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Starting a Foundation
After many months of being unable to absorb the good fortune of having time to do my art work and struggling (yes, it has been a struggle) in not having to "worry about money," I have come upon an idea that will provide me with satisfaction and cash that is independent of my own painting. I am beginning the process of starting a foundation that will distribute micro grants in art respite for social workers. It seems like the perfect fit for me: promoting the arts and the benefits therein along with helping a particular group, social work, which can always use the help, no matter how masochistic we want to be. I will be posting updates here at my art gallery as I move along through the various layers required to set something like this up. All thoughts, suggestions welcome.
By the way, I put three pieces into the Lamprey Arts Community Show (going on now through the month of May 2010). This is my first showing since grad school at UMass in the 1970s. The works include "I Saw a Feather, I" and a reworked abstract that I titled "For Girls Who Think Beyond Pink." I also framed one of my four-color woodcuts of the front porch (this goes back to the mid-seventies) and that worked just fine, too.
By the way, I put three pieces into the Lamprey Arts Community Show (going on now through the month of May 2010). This is my first showing since grad school at UMass in the 1970s. The works include "I Saw a Feather, I" and a reworked abstract that I titled "For Girls Who Think Beyond Pink." I also framed one of my four-color woodcuts of the front porch (this goes back to the mid-seventies) and that worked just fine, too.
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