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I recently applied to have my artwork included in a gallery exhibition called Face to Face, and even though my work wasn't accepted into the show (queue disappointment) it at least motivated me to create three multi-media paintings that I'd been meaning to create for awhile. And since I have all this white space sitting right in front of me on my computer screen, I thought I'd have my own little showing as a way to affirm the work I did and also risk letting it be seen...
"Dear John"
"Dear Daughter"
"Dear Mother"
It's no secret that I've harbored a passionate crush for Danielle Krysa (aka: The Jealous Curator) for sometime now, and when I found out earlier this year that Danielle was organizing small get-together's, called Girl Crush, for artists all over the country, I knew I had to be involved. The icing on the cake - not only literally since there will be cupcakes and pastries involved - is that Danielle is bringing Girl Crush to Portland on June 9th, and two of my biggest crushes will be there: Danielle herself and Lisa Golightly (aka: Kiki & Poly). This is a chance for local artists to "to walk away from our computers, and actually meet in person for a glorious, creative, pastry-filled day. To figure out a way to break through artist blocks. To get inspired, and recharged. To celebrate being women artists… and obviously, to have a reason to eat lots of pretty little cakes & tarts in the middle of the day!" And just look at what an amazing day Danielle has planned...
ART WORKSHOP + TEA PARTY
Portland, Saturday June 9th 2012
~ 14 people {including Danielle and Lisa} for an entire Saturday of creative fun!
~ 9am tea & coffee & pastries & chatting {kind of like a "pre-tea party" party!}
~ a talk by Danielle re: women/art/insecurities/inspirations
~ a talk about insecurities/inspirations from Lisa Golightly {a working artist who also feels blocked sometimes - after all, it happens to the best of us!}
~ everyone introduces themselves/share their issues {artist blocks, too many ideas but not executing any!, etc}
~ break into groups and do 2 to 3 exercises to help with these issues {just requires a fancy notebook & pencil, which will be provided}
~ tea party lunch {catered by a local restaurant/bistro ~ sandwiches & salads, followed by lots of fancy little treats!}
~ after lunch we'll make some art with lisa, based on our morning talk, and you can take it home and hang it on your wall - something nice to look at on those days when you are feeling blocked!
~ 6pm whoever wants to go out for dinner together can… but if everyone is pooped, we'll just call it a day. sound good? YES!
And if - God forbid - you're not familiar with Lisa Golightly, here's a sneak-peek at her amazing work...
I recently stumbled upon Bentlily, a blog by Samantha Reynolds, where she writes a poem a day as a reminder to herself to stay present. I don't have a lot of experience with writing poetry but it's something I'm very interested in; so when I discovered Samantha's Instapoem feature where all I had to do was answer a few questions and she would create a lovely poem from my answers it was a no-brainer. Here is my poem:
It was the day we laughed so hard
we made the lilacs bloom
I was seven
it was warm
we were running like sea turtles
a game of fort building
happiness all balled up in our hearts
shooting out of us in shrieks and bellows
I'm a cheetah
she declared
and I decided I was too
a generous cheetah
with nothing to do
but chase the wind
they say it whips you in the face
but this isn’t how it works
if you run hard enough
the wind bores right into you
I don’t remember anything else
except the smell of the grass
sweet as wine
the wind carried the rest away.
Isn't it beautiful? I think it's time for me to stop sitting on the sidelines and give poetry a real try...
