Diving with the Dumpster Divers

This wonderful mixed media assemblage called Pedal to the Metal is by Jim Ulrich, a member of Dumpster Divers of Philadelphia.  As soon as I  moved back to Philly and heard about the Dumpster Divers I felt like I had found my tribe!  I had been making art from re-cycled found objects, discarded or broken things, and thrift shop and garage sale treasures for years in San Diego, in isolation from other assemblage artists.  Amazingly, I reconnected with a friend I knew from early Philadelphia days decades ago, who turned out to be a Dumpster Diver and brought me into the group.  I just attended my second monthly meeting, and feel like I have come home!  http://www.dumpsterdivers.org/.

Isaiah Zagar, the well known mosaic artist and muralist behind  http://www.phillymagicgardens.org/, was at this month's Diver meeting, along with his dog Blue.   I recognized him, but was too shy to speak to him.  As we were leaving, he held out his hands to me and asked my name.  I told him and he enfolded me in a warm close hug.  I said "I never expected to ever be able to meet you in person."  "You're a good girl," he said.  I am farklempt.

Isaiah Zagar

Honored and Happy

A little boy dressed in his cowboy outfit was a  dramatic foil to the President of the Board of Da Vinci Art Alliance, as she gave the  curatorial talk at last Sunday's reception for  Da Vinci's Annual Members Exhibition.  He strutted, hammed it up, and stole the show, enjoying every minute.

I found out later he was Pat Burns' grandson, there with his father, Pat's son.  I was touched and surprised when my mixed-media piece (above) was awarded the first annual Pat Burns Memorial Prize, (a cash prize).  Pat Burns, who passed away last year, was an extraordinary painter and apparently an equally extraordinary person.

I met a long-time friend of hers at the reception, who by chance happens to live two blocks away from me. The synchronicity of meeting someone who was a close friend of Pat's for forty years and then finding out we are neighbors, felt like something that is meant to be.   I look forward to getting  together with my new friend and neighbor and learning about the the very special person whose legacy I am now connected to and honored by, including viewing a CD of all of Pat's art  that she photographed. 

How could I not feel connected to Pat after being congratulated several times by Pat's son,  and seen her grandson collapsed on his father's shoulder, a worn out little cowboy?

The Traveler's Eye

The Traveler's Eye is definitely sharpened, so it seemed the right title for my mixed-media piece above.  The transparent image transfers in The Traveler's Eye are from photographs of street grates in Cordoba, Spain, including my own shadow clicking away.  I strive to see my everyday ordinary world with the same wonder and awareness of detail that I notice when in a new place.

I just delivered The Traveler's Eye to The Da Vinci Art Alliance for its Annual Members Exhibition, titled Summer in the City.  The Opening Awards Reception is next Sunday, July 8, 1-4 p.m and should be a lot of fun.  Da Vinci is a venerable non-profit artists' organization that has been around since 1931.  Its South Philly location is definitely funkier than the trendy and posh Old City galleries.  I like the funk.

Just for fun, here are some photos from my Spanish Street Grate series.  Beautiful, no?

 

Monopoly Revealed

"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.

Cranes of Hope

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. 

Studio Space - finally!

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

"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!

If the Shoe Fits... Take the Leap

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.