Inspiration at shows in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Boston

   Happy Holiday Season everyone.....
Before I'm off to share the holidays with family, I wanted to end the year
highlighting a few of the wonderful artists I encountered at my final two
shows: American Fine Craft Show Brooklyn  and CraftBoston along
with a trip to St. John the Devine cathedral to take in Xu Bing's 100
foot long phoenixes (shown above)

The Brooklyn show (Nov. 22-23) produced by American Art Marketing
at the Brooklyn museum was beautiful. Better attendance than last year.
Attendees were very enthusiastic and it has all the marks of growing
into the awesome show we know it can be.  The quality was excellent
and range of work exciting. This show is part of a new series of  AMA
shows with museum connections. Look for more of the series in 2015.

I really enjoyed talking to Zaliah Zalkin  about his  luminary vessels in
carved alabaster .

The beautiful vessels have a quiet spiritual presence

Infused occasionally with a sense of light humor.  Zaliah said 

he created the vessel below when his wife was pregnant:

Check out Zaliah Zalkin website: zaliahzalkind.com to learn
more about this second generation sculptor and his process.

On the funkier side - Barrie Rust  was there with his
Great Plains handmade musical instruments

What fun a band would be playing these:

One of my favorite artists/sculptors, Reina Mia Brill , was also
there adding funk and fun.. Reina took off a little time to
give birth to and begin the fun/creative challenge of raising
twins.  Now she's back with more energy than ever with an
added cool twist to her work  reflecting her situation as
an enthusiastic and occasionally crazed co-parent:

Valerie Gladstone of Brooklyn Dollworks  was there,too. It is rarer
and rarer to see dollmakers at these shows, so I was  glad to meet
Valerie and see her work.

The figure below was purchased by the same collector with whom
my Canoby, the canoe paddling librarian found a new home. I trust
they will get along famously.

As I mentioned above, I made it over to St. John the Devine to see
Xu Bing's amazing phoenixes after the show.  I missed them at
Mass MOCA....so didn't want to miss them this time.  They will be
there until the end of February...If you haven't had a chance to
experience them and learn the story behind their creation,
try to manage a trip to the upper West side of Manhattan. It's
definitely worth it!  The use of recycled materials from the Chinese
construction site is  masterful....look closely:

and the setting is spectacular:

If you can't make it to the cathedral, here is a link to a good video piece
on the story behind the phoenixes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu4sD4c6yXA

Finally - a couple mentions of artists at CraftBoston, Dec. 4-7.
Best of show went to Sang Joon Park.  His work is
exquisite, I appreciate  his recognition of the bowl as art.

His design approach to his beautiful place settings is strong, simple yet
complicated.

Finally - artist choice went to contemporary metal worker
Michael Rossi.

We especially loved his airplane shapes:

Happy Holiday to all. May yours be filled with warmth, music,
good food, friends, family and story and the new year be filled
with wondrous adventure!

Hope to see you down the road.....2015 is looking like a busy year
of shows for me beginning with Arisia 2015 Jan. 16-19 and the
American Craft Council show in Baltimore Feb. 18-22.

Adventure on!        Wendy

Traveling librarians -process and completion

As mentioned in previous blog posts.. Inspired by the program

From Words to Wings which our daughter and her husband founded

in Ecuador, I've been making a series of traveling librarians...even

tried my hand at a little poetry to accompany them. 

          Traveling librarians

Some children cuddle at home
To share a book, hear a story
Some children walk down the street                                             
To find a book, hear a story
Some children go in a car or bus
To search for a book, hear a story
Some children go online 
To discover a book, read a story
Some children turn on the tele
To see a book, hear a story

Some children dream and wait
For the traveling librarians
     Who come by jeep
     Who come on horseback
     Who come by canoe
     Who come by skiff
     Who come on dragon’s back
      Who bring books
      And stories 
      And  wings

It's fun to see them emerge in the studio...

Here are some process photos:

A dragon librarian...basic armature:

 

A little further along...polyester and thread

around wire..and designing spokes.

Muslin hand stitched over stuffing....

(small creature in front ended up a winged dragon

named Majestis) 

 

Next leather....






Patina added to leather....and rawhide wet-formed
spokes (and books) added:

Completed Pageante and Roland

Head of another creature...which I thought was going to 

be a dragon...but she had something else in mind

Beaded leggings were definitely requested.

And a basket just perfect to fit between legs and hold mini books..

including a mini dragon book, of course

As I said, thie creature had her own ideas.. These rawhide wings

seemed much more appropriate than dragon wings... and 

Skreeraugh (aka Peggy) came to life..

But it is not just creatures that can bring books...Remember

that wood from the old dock in my last blog post?

 

As I thought it might...it became a skiff with library on
board..



Loofe, the librarian enjoys taking a break to read one
of his books...

Other Star Wandererers prefer to arrive by canoe:

Canoby enjoys paddling  along with books in tow

Next destination for the librarians is the Brooklyn Museum....where

I'll be participating in the American Fine Craft Show, Brooklyn

Nov. 22-23.

There was a fun article by Jenifer Eberhart  on the show  which

appeared  last week with responses by myself and four other 

sculptors to various process and life questions at examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/article/sculptures-to-join-other-works-at-american-fine-craft-show?CID=examiner_alerts_article

All my figures  are looking forward  to greeting folks in

Brooklyn....and sharing the booth - #49  with a new species of mini

creatures called  Taradiddles...(more about  them in a future

post.)

Hope to see some of you at the Brooklyn Museum!

Adventure on!   Wendy

Stories in the Bruce Peninsula

My website opens with the phrase "Life is all about Stories"  After our

recent end of summer trip to  Ontario, Canada I was reminded

 "so are places". 

We drove up to Ontario to visit my sister and brother-in-law in their

cottage in the woods (see above at sunrise) on the Bruce Peninsula.

Their children are the third generation to enjoy the cottage my brother

in-law helped build when he was young. Family photos  of good times 

past and present cover the walls.  The paneling in the kitchen is from

the wood of a tree lost in a storm, then milled locally..as is the

table the family eats on in the sun porch. An anchor pulled up from a

shipwreck sits by a tree with a inviting swing ...The anchor head

looks every bit like  a creature patiently waiting to tell its story. 

The wood of the old dock lays near the new, holding its stories....Some of the

aged, waterlogged wood  came back to Boston, to become a skiff for one of 

my traveling librarians: 

We went to the Keady farmer's market and livestock auction where

young Mennonite farmers looked over the cattle and my husband

talked of his days growing up on a farm in Oregon.

We walked through woods whose roots reached out with tales, undoubtedly

disturbing some of Ari Berk's earthfasting giants.. (If you need  

further info on earthfasting or details re the life cycle of giants, check 

Ari's 2008 "Codex Giganticum".  Every home library should have this

"Secret History of Giants" for reference when heading into ancient realms.)

I explored a cave on the Georgian Bay. My sister was eager for me to 

see it, confident it was one of  the sites  in my story "Sophia's Quest"

she was helping edit.  I agreed. I wondered if  tales told  in  First Nation

reserves on the peninsula  spoke of this opening to the sea. 

As the others patiently waited above, I climbed down into a grotto 

which  held  many, many stories...trying to absorb at least a few:

If I had not had our good camera, I definitely would have dived
in. The depths were calling.

The next day, a magical forest lured us forward 

to Grieg's caves...where again the family was tolerant while I 

climbed in and around dark recesses with a flashlight and

cell phone so I could capture a few photo memories.

We  explored a big open cave with intriguing

abstract designs on the walls. A large bird flew

out, unhappy at being disturbed.

 

Now back home  - I am savoring sites, sensations and precious

time with family...holding sunrise images and flying on.

My series of traveling librarians are coming along nicely getting ready 

to be displayed at the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton

on Columbus Day weekend...process photos - very soon.

Adventure on!  Wendy

Words, Wings and books in Ecuador

What is better than seeing the eyes of a child light up
upon opening a favorite book...hearing  children eagerly
fill in the last word of a sentence in a book read to
them by an adult for the hundredth time...seeing little ones
sharing giggles and smiles at a silly illustration or searching
for a detail about a curious insect...or watching a child's
imagination grow wings and soar into new ideas  thanks to
the worlds books have opened to them?

In our cities, where children and parents can walk/ride/bike
skip to the library down the road or path or fill their homes
with inexpensive books (sometimes discarded by those
libraries or schools), it's hard to imagine a world with few
books for young children.  It is even more difficult to figure
out how to instill a love of reading into a child with the
absence of those  favorite books and  the magic of fantastic
illustrations.

When our daughter, Inga,  moved to Cuenca, Ecuador with her
husband, Diego, and two children two years ago, she knew no
libraries awaited, nor would there be many books for small
children in the schools. Raised in an activist family, she acted.
She put out a call to family and friends for children's books to
share with schools in Cuenca.  They ended up taking down 600
books, 400 in English and 200 in Spanish to begin a mobile
library  program.  Once in Cuenca, she  worked  with the school
her children were attending to figure  out how best to offer her
love of books, her storytelling skills, her experience of working
with young  children and her knowledge of libraries.


News of what Inga was creating at one school quickly spread.
Requests from other schools followed.  And so  Inga and
Diego founded:  From Words to Wings.org  with the motto
" Together we can raise a generation of children who love to
read" and with this cool logo designed by an Ecuadorian friend:

 This past year, Inga and Diego  brought the library  and literacy
program to four schools, including two rural schools high in
the mountains surrounding Cuenca.

Their website. www.wordstowings.org , launched this past
year. It outlines the specifics of the program so I won't go
into too many details here.  Instead I encourage you to
explore its pages to understand the program and view photos.

This past winter when we visited Ecuador we carried with us
more books and posters donated and purchased by generous
friends and family for the  program.  Shipping costs make
personal  delivery the best  method. Additionally, thanks to
donations, Inga and Diego have  been able to purchase some
books through bookstores in Cuenca. It's important to support
local businesses. Perhaps if the market grows for children's
literature there, the high prices will go down.   Although all
schools in Ecuador teach English, Inga and Diego are focusing
on building inventory of books in  Spanish now.

We had the pleasure of accompanying them to visit two
of the mountain schools to see the impact on and enthusiasm
of the children and staff in those schools and to see the program
in action and building networks.

The drive, a bit challenging at times,

offered beautiful views...


The children greeted Inga and Diego with eagerness -
excited to see what new books they would leave that month
and what story pieces might emerge from the story box when
Inga read them one of the books.


She  lays out a "magic river" to set the  mood.



Dinosaurs emerged from her story box when she was treating
the children in this class to a reading of Jane Yolen's book
"Como comen los dinosaurios" (Among the books we took
down were some that Jane had generously taken off her
bookshelves to donate to From Words to Wings.) Then
she followed up with a non fiction books on dinosaurs.



The students chose which poster encouraging reading
they wanted for their classroom.



This year they also set up a partnership with Boston's
The Learning Project  (which Inga attended 3rd-6th
grades) developing a reciprocal relationship between
students in the mountains and the Learning Project students.
The children traded videos to learn about each others worlds,
and created handmade book for each other. The LP kids
shared Readathon funds to help the mountain school establish
a permanent library at their school.

We saw the room the school is going to transform into their
library.  There will be a grand opening when all is in place,
hopefully sometime this Fall..





They are hoping to set up some additional partnerships
this coming year.  There is  much to be gained on both sides
by the effort.

As all of us know, creating a program, coming up with
a name (not already used on the web), a logo, then legally
setting up a  non-profit and website is no small feat,
especially while raising your own small children at the same
time.  Everything always seems to take longer than dreamed.
Running and maintaining the entity requires creativity,
endurance and constant brainstorming re fundraising and
ways of  spreading the word. But there is not much of true
value in this (or any) world which is done quickly with little
effort.

Fortunately, crowd sourcing  opens up new possibilities.
They are hoping to launch a campaign or two in the near future.
Keep an eye out for that.

For my part, this past year, I sold a couple traveling librarian
duos at shows and gave the funds to the program.  I received
great feedback on the concept - both of the figures and the
program, and had so much fun that I'm taking the idea even
further this year. A whole series of traveling librarians will
be venturing forth with me beginning this Fall on various
creatures (including a dragon, of course) and vehicles. My
next few posts will be process photos of them, complete
with a poem or two. I'm on Jane Yolen's  poem a day email
list. Waking to a new poem each morning seems to have stirred
latent musings. I continue amazed, startled, and stumped at
how anyone can write a  poem a  day.

Adventure on...and please do check out the website for
From Words to Wings and spread the good news of
another couple trying to make a difference.  In these
times when media images bombard us with reminders
of  the chaos, misunderstandings, and challenges our world
is facing, remembering the small productive steps that
folks are stubbornly taking to make the world a better,
place is more important than ever.

Peace,  Wendy