Thursday, May 31, 2007

the list



Been absent from blogging for two weeks. Reasons, out of head, below:

-Open Studios: went wonderfully, entirely for myself. It was quite nice to pause and see my work in a simple and clear way. Responses were interesting and I felt really supported. I've not shown my work in over one year, and it's an interesting feeling to be building a building on the one hand, be a massage therapist on the other, and be an artist overall.

-The building project: Full steam ahead! Our baby's got a colon! The sewer connection got installed starting Monday...gigantic hole in the road, all shored up and exposed...but we've got a connection, the first teet on the grid. Exciting stuff.

-Re-creating a relationship with our lender for the construction loan now that we are the "owner/builder"...thinking about writing a book about our experiences from the ground up, literally.

-Trying not to forclose on our other property. Think good thoughts!!

-Property exorcism...to shun away bad spirits

-Dreaming about shorn sheep, wolf in sheep's clothing, the underside of a cat

-Motorcycling around the Catskills and camping on mountainsides with no blankets and lots of hyenas. Super fun

-Trying not to let depression ruin a good run. Just keep on pressing on.

-Summer: always a bonus but somehow I get more sad with the upswing of the season. By the time I shake it off, it's usually Autumn again. Only in Capetown did I truly love the hot weather.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Open Studios this weekend!

43-01 22nd Street, studio 413
LIC, NY 11101

Hope to see you there my dear!!
Angela

Sunday, May 13, 2007

History of Mother's Day

Found an interesting proclamation when I researched the history of this holiday.

"Mother's Day Proclamation


Arise, then, women of this day!Arise, all women who have hearts,Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearnAll that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another countryTo allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the meansWhereby the great human family can live in peace,Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly askThat a general congress of women without limit of nationalityMay be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenientAnd at the earliest period consistent with its objects,To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,The amicable settlement of international questions,The great and general interests of peace."

by Julia Ward Howe

thought it interesting in these times

Space, when underpainting is enough

Angela, you once posted the thought; when is under painting enough?

For me space and this question are intimately related. What is space and what is matter?
That and it questions mass itself.


I ask, what is the essence of form? Can I paint that?


Then it asks, what are we? particles, color.

Paint, what a wonderful medium to express this in.


I am thinking of my mother's mother. We talked earlier this morning, her voice clear in my ear although she is a world away. What a gift to have listened to it this Mother's Day.


Sending an image of her sitting in her garden almost ten years ago. One would never know there is a busy road right behind those bushes. She is one of those people that lights up the environment wherever she goes.


Monday, May 7, 2007

space



mental space
space in between pieces of art on a wall
space to act
space to react
space to observe
seeing space

collapsing space
uncomfortable

Thursday, May 3, 2007

today

going to an opening tonight..seeing friends. will report tomorrow.

Tereza, why first aid labels on jars? Interested in hearing more,
A

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Keeping perspective

My mood plumets- I feel like the gray outside. The wind is brutal and cold rain falls. It comes suddenly. I feel like crying with the rain.

I have no reason-logically and tears still fall.

I hardly have the list of errands like you have, Angela, yet I ache in my body. But I am glad you wrote them down. I will do the same hoping that my focus stays clear and I can look at things from the bird's eye perspective, bot getting bogged down with the daily grind.

Sit every morning- keeping still.
Make breakfast sitting with Alenka, talking
(food preperation is getting out of hand, as soon as we finish a meal I am preparing snacks, lunch, snacks, dinner, a late dinner for Ali- besides this she still asks to nurse about 5x a day, mamma mia!)
relax about food- keep the nutrition up but lose the stress
keep and expand the garden
install the rain barrels and finish the compost
keep the house as it should be, a ready place for us and Ali to do our work
rotate the toys- Ali's work
rotate the books, order new Czech ones
work on Ali's Czech citizenship
write the proposal for a sketchbook, drawing, painting classes at the community center
comitt to time in the studio- not only to paint

list of ideas for the studio
continue Women marks, and Umbillical cords
First Aid transfers on jars
Video- roots as hair- washing it in a tub
child witnesses - old idea from photos I took of my kids in NY
myself mirrored (idea already posted)
Relabeling- transfers on jars
Herstory- taking images from Century- work with,on, through them
Slaveship- proposal for a lifesize image of a ship that carried slaves- people stamped next to each other
The many folded human- people cutouts holding hands (painting)
Videos- 360 degrees indoor landscape (saw a beautiful painitng on one of alenka's baloons as it slowly rotated and projected our living space)
Alenka's laughs
Flying dresses- flying my grandmother's and mother's dress in the sky like a kite
River series- (large paintings) from above



am interested in looking at the sky (Earth's aura) and the reverse, back at the Earth from above