Inspiration from other artists and varying venues

Is it just my imagination, or does time move faster as we age?

Here we are already in August, although after the almost golf 

ball hail ice storm day before yesterday,  I wonder what season

this is.  I've been  busy leading workshops and updating my

website,but didn't want to ignore sharing some images from 

Spring shows as promised in my last blog. So in another attempt

to catch up - Here's a quick summary of artists and their work and

settings that inspired me April to June.

In  April I participated in the new Art of American Craft in 

Hartford,  CT  linked to the Hartford Wadsworth Museum. I hadn't 

been in a CT show in a while, so why not see what can happen.

Attendance was low, but sales reasonable for me and lots of customers

asking us to hang in  there since Hartford needs a high quality fine craft

show.  It was worth  it for me to meet Gerard Ferrari and see his series 

of orphaned teapots and other work.  Definitely cool, edgy, and inspiring. 

I was pleased to see that Gerard will be in Northampton at the 

Paradise City shows in October.  I look forward to reconnecting 

with  him there. Come on out Columbus Day weekend to see for 

yourself! He's being chosen as a featured artist. 

Speaking of Paradise City Shows -  I returned to Northampton for 

their May Memorial Day show.  I was curious to see if May brought

a different customer base from October.  Although there is overlap,

I connected with folks I hadn't seen in a long time and new customers

as well.  Sold lots of small work which was a wake up call for the

volume of inventory I will need for the December  One of

a Kind Show in Chicago that I have decided to do.  OAAK/ Chicago

gets 40,000+ folks in attendance!!!

In Northampton, I was drawn in by the smooth, restful lines of

David Talley's furniture His business name: Dharma Design 

Furniture shows his orientation. 

Although Chris Williams sculpture  -  avian rather than dragon 

this year, is always a draw for me.  (This eagle flew off to a client by

the end of the show.) 

And I returned home with a new creature - thanks to Dale Rogers.

I've loved watching Dale grow and evolve into the amazing sculptor

he is.  It's fun to have a mini Rogers creature in our garden. 

In June - a new venue for three of my winged sculptures. I participated
in the"Inspired Art" show at Boston Symphony Hall - a collaboration of

Discover Roxbury with the Boston Pops Gospel night performance
including the legendary Blind Boys of Alabama.  Three of my winged 

sculptures were included. 

(The dressed up young lady in the photo is the daughter of one of

 the other artist and one of the children who attended the after

school program where I worked this year. Multi-generational 

cultural events are wonderful!) 

Speaking of multi-generational - my next post will be about the

workshops I helped lead in July for Families Creating Together.

Have a great summer everyone....Adventure on!     Wendy   

Journeys by Hand - bridging neighborhoods through art

Artists together, showing, working and laughing...what more
could you ask for to stir up creative energies? As mentioned in
my last blog post, I joined two other  Roxbury artists to share a
gallery space on Beacon Hill in Boston for two weeks in November.
Lisa Lee, Kristen Belton Willis and I are all connected with
 Discover Roxbury's ArtRox . The aim of this effort was to
bridge neighborhoods through art.

We showed under the collective name "Journeys by Hand" -
All of us do extensive hand work in our art.Our hands
have taken us on many journeys - together and individually.
The three of us live within a block of each other. The
hours in the gallery gave us an opportunity to share
stories about our individual journeys  and to get to know
each other better.   We all work with the children at the
Hawthorne Youth and Community Center in our
neighborhood - stay tuned for a blog post about Lisa and my
First Night project this year with HYCC.   In December,
Kristen led the kids in an improv performance of the Black
Snowman by Phil Mendez at the neighborhood Christmas
tree lighting as part of her work on literacy with the after
school children.

The space at 98 W. Cedar Street used to be the office of
Barry Reality Group.   Skip Barry had talked to Derek Lumpkins
of Discover Roxbury about renting it to artists in an effort
to bridge neighborhoods through art.  Derek proposed the idea
the all in the ArtROX group. We thought it sounded promising.

Of course, a few folks dropped in asking about apartments, but
then enjoyed the art.  We were the  second artists to occupy the
space, two more set up after us.  By in large our experience was
very positive, although comments by a few individuals made us
realize how important this sort of exchange is.  We're hoping the
effort can continue.

 We were able to set up displays and create workspaces.

 Kristen displayed and worked on  some of  her Abena Family
rag dolls, her  jumping brooms, tuxedos for wine bottles and more
 including scrumptious sweets for our gatherings. (She does
 catering  as well as visual art!)

 Lisa was their with her "ladies" of leather, leather trees and bugs,
and exquisite jewelry. The name of her art business is "Royal
Dainties". Lisa is also an awesome spoken word artist!

I set up my creatures and books on the other side of the room
and stitched up miniature books and worked on inventory for
December shows:

We used social media and posters to let folks know we were there
and held Friday night  parties welcoming all.  (The photo of us
laughing at the beginning of this post was taken by the
photographer, Windy Seven at the first party. Thanks Windy,
it really captures the spirit of the experience!)

A great group of  friends and family came out to support
our efforts.

 

 

 Across the street from the space is the Advent School annex
building for art and language. Turns out Saskia Van Vactor, the art
teacher at the Advent was raised in our Fort Hill Roxbury
neighborhood. Journeys have a way of intertwining. Each of us
did a workshop with a  class of the  Advent - Lisa made leather
bugs with first graders studying the rain forest; I made mythic
creature books of paper and wire with the  fourth grade
investigating"cultures" and Kristen made "jumping brooms"
with the third  graders and talked about the creativity shown by
people who figure out ways  to maintain ceremony in spite of
obstacles.  These are some of the creature books which emerged
during  my workshop with the Advent School children:

 Since we were up on Beacon Hill, we took the opportunity
 to  join the Artists Under the Dome event at the state house
and visited our legislators.  Here we are in Tito Jackson's office.

It's important for the voices of artists to be heard!

I feel blessed to be connected with such a dynamic
neighborhood art community.  Here's hoping  everyone's
journeys  are filled with fun and  surprises  in 2014.
I'm hoping we Journeys by Hand ladies can figure
out more joint projects!

 Adventure on!   Wendy

HYCC community wakes the watery world

 
The first Saturday in May, Boston celebrates with a "Wake up the
Earth"  parade and festival in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
The festival  began in 1979 as a celebration of community success
in halting the  extension of I95 which would have divided Boston
neighborhoods.  Many  houses had been torn down by the time the
eight-lane highway was finally stopped.  Activists who
worked on this issue in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury subsequently
started community gardens and worked for the creation of new
parks on the vacant lots left by the destruction of the houses.The
result is a series of parks, depressed subway line, and a bike path
greenway into downtown Boston. 

 
Since '79 with the leadership of community organizations like
Spontaneous Celebrations: www.spontaneouscelebrations.org
the festival has grown as a event affirming community, diversity
and the importance of green space in an urban environment.
For years there were two streams of the parade, one beginning in
Roxbury and another at the  monument on Center Street in JP.
But for the last 10 years, there has been just one parade. With
active development growing on both sides of  Columbus Ave.,
it was time to reinvigorate both streams.  With the encouragement
of Discover Roxbury : www.discoverroxbury.org  a lot of
Roxbury groups joined in.   I helped facilitate Hawthorne
Youth and Community Center's part.


We opted to "Wake up" the watery world.

Stuffed paper water creatures were designed and made by

the afterschool program kids as well as by families in Saturday

community workshops.

Starfish:

Catfish:

Grinning sharks:

Jelly Fish:



Turtles, dolphins, seahorses and more... We attached dowels
with two tone blue streamers (from plastic table cloths)so
the creatures could swim down the streets.

Some families added items made from home - like  waves with blue
paper streamers

And so we marched down the streets waking the water and seas
accompanied by other groups playing music, dancing, carrying
puppets, holding signs (no more bullying), walking within a dragon
and more...

Once at the festival on the greenway, HYCC set up a table to keep
the water theme going.  Children and adults decorated paper
fish,  seahorses, turtles and sharks:

They were put into our HYCC "pond"

or carried around the festival swimming in their blue ribbon
water:

The weather was cooperative.  A fun day of music, dance,
play, and communities gathering.  Can't ask for more.

Next blog - more work with HYCC - transforming
discarded chairs into thrones for Community Creations
exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Adventure on.  Wendy