thelmasmith

Or is this just shameless boasting of a grandmother?

You may be able to see my DIL’s note that my grand daughter, Ava, had her bookmark design selected for the library’s bookmarks. Pretty neat for such a beautiful young lady.

Here are more dragons. I had sent Ava books from the Jackson Museum of Art. The big hit are the tiny ones. Smaller than a playing card they are magical movie books from the zoo.

Pictured above are Sonji Hunt and Rhonda Blasingame. Do go to Sonji Says for a much more complete description of the class. Rhonda, please contact me; I’m unable to find how to email you.

Among the things I firmly believe is the idea that textile art is not well served by being kept to itself. We use the words art quilt and wonder why no other artists are interested in our work.

I went to the Tougaloo Art Colony in Jackson, Mississippi, last week because the words said art colony. I have never spent a week so joyously.

Ceramicists, painters, enamelers, textile workers, all noted and acclaimed instructors, most who were professors at other institutions came together for a week of very intense study. Very intense study was combined with very intense discussions, meals, trips out here and there.

Adding to the mix of intelligent conversation and hard work was the multi cultural aspect of Tougaloo. Above are Debbie, Sonji half hidden, and Annie from Chicago. Sonji will have much better pictures and more details.

I think this was about the point when we had all painted yards and yards of fabric and were beginning the next step in Sonji’s process.

It was quite interesting; each of us immediately had a recognizable painting style. We were creating layer after layer of painted fabric. Each layer from the big stack related to the painting before it.

Rosalind, our teaching assistant, is backed by Rhonda’s rust dyed works just behind Rosalind and on the left. The bright multi colors to the right are all Sonji’s brought to give us some idea of what and how the process goes along.

Do not be fooled by Rosalind’s seemingly plain pink fabric; when done it was a gorgeous blue fabric with pink underlays.

I’ll be more on my game tomorrow and the next few days. In the last eight weeks I have made fourteen separate flights. The airlines are fourteen for fourteen. Every flight was either delayed, double booked, canceled, delayed for mechanical problems, delayed for lack of crew, or delayed by weather. In spite of the cost of fuel I think next time I will drive.

That means I plan to go back to Tougaloo next Art Colony. It will be an entirely different group of professors. I have no idea what I will sign up for. I do know that I wanted to get my hands in to every medium that was taught next week. I’m hoping they will extend the Art Colony beyond one week

Several things today. Do go and see this YouTube video.

This one called Elektro.

This image is compliments of Google.

The following is a request from the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Please take time, make time, to continue each day by voting for this project with the American Express Member’s Project.
URGENT REQUEST to help NMWA:
June 17th is the DEADLINE to RATE our project!
NMWA / American Express Members Project : ID: 04062

WOMEN ARTISTS: NOT IN THE BOOKS? PUT THEM ON-LINE!

The winning American Express Members Project will receive up to $5 million in funding and visibility with millions of people and the media.

Please go to www.membersproject.com for complete details and clear, simple instructions on how to REGISTER and RATE our project (it takes less than ten minutes).

Please register ASAP and give a FIVE STAR RATING to:

Project # 04062: WOMEN ARTISTS: NOT IN THE BOOKS? PUT THEM ON-LINE!
Help us attract funding and gain UNPRECEDENTED visibility for NMWA through a program that American Express estimates could attract 5 million of their cardholders and countless more through media coverage.

The DEADLINE is June 17th, but please REGISTER and RATE us with 5 STARS TODAY, so we stay high on the list, have a greater chance to become known by more people, attract their support and rank in the top 50 project finalists. The Top 50 Projects will be announced July 3rd, the VOTING begins then, and the winning project will be announced August 7th. Please forward this to your friends! Thank you.

Contact:
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202.783.5000

The Mothers - No More Tears

Make some time and take some time to watch this YouTube introduction to a film in progress. The complete documentary will be called A Trail of Thread.

The haunting music in the film clip is called Water in the Desert.

I live in the Sonoran Desert. I know many of the immigrants. I learned long ago that I cared little what language was spoken as I saw good people who worked hard for a living and loved and disciplined their children.

Maybe I’ll be a better role model about posting to blogs on a regular basis. I’m off to a week long birthday party. House sitters and puddy tat caregivers and mail collectors have all been arranged. My house will be more inhabited than when I’m at home.

I’m taking my camera and my laptop. Here’s hoping that I remember to take photos of the interesting things I see.

Last week I missed an albizia tree in full bloom. It was in a truckstop of all places. It’s a tree that grows happily in both the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. Here’s an image borrowed from Google to show you what I missed.

I’m off on a red eye flight this evening, cheap woman that I am. I like to leave some pocket money. If I find a nice gallery or a used book store I really need to be prepared.

Remember, the other week I told you that I had read Art Is a Way of Knowing? It was particularly challenging for me. The minute I was done I took Women Who Run With the Wolves off the shelf.

I have finished reading the book by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D. The hotlink will take you to one of the 225,000 Google references on Dr. Estés. The book was originally published in 1992. The image and copyright quotes used here are under the fair use for educational purposes clause of the copyright law. I encourage you to find a used copy of the book.

Remember the day I posted about Baba Yaga? She is probably the most pantheistic archetype spoken about in this book. I guess I know her because she is someone I know. It’s not a typo; just a contradiction in terms. Here are some of the quotations that have been important enough for me to note inside the fly cover.

“It is true, I will not lie to you; it is easier to throw away the light and go to sleep. It is true, It is hard to hold the skull-light out before us sometimes. For with it, we see all sides of ourselves and others, both the disfigured and the divine and all conditions in between.”

“. . . . we throw a burst of fire into the darkness of psyche so we can see what we’re doing . . . what we’re truly doing, not what we wish to think we’re doing.”

“Ignorance s not knowing anything and being attracted to the good. Innocence if knowing everything, and still being attracted to the good.”

“Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.”  © Bruce Mau Design

I’ve finally finished reading Art is a Way of Knowing by Pat B. Allen. It was published in and copyright 1995 by Shambhala Publications. IBSN 1-57062-078-4 No doubt you can find it second hand.  The cover image is provided here under the fair use for education clause of the copyright law.

It is a book for reading but more importantly I find that it is a book that should be a book for doing.  It is in five parts.  The first three parts are  designed for you to  actually do the exercises as you read.   I found them very challenging.  That probably comes from growing up in a very non standard family.

I will be reading it a second time.  However at the end of the first reading it has prompted me to take the first edition of Women Who Run With the Wolves off the bookshelf.  I find, looking just inside the end papers that my penciled notes stop at page 152.  I think this time I ought to read the whole book.  Fifteen years is enough seasoning.  It’s time.