Archive for March, 2009
Happy Birthday Delia (Lemon Tree)
In the time I am not blogging, playing with clay, photos, paint or paper or being a wife and mom, I am writing. Since it’s part of my creative self, I’ve decided to talk more about my writing projects here on my blog. I haven’t done that much in the past because I tend to like to be a bit free-wheelin’ with the bloggy chatter. I don’t like having to check and double-check my grammar and syntax. It feels like the minute I start to say I am a writer in the blog, I then have to start blogging perfect and eloquent blogs each and every time. This has prevented me from talking about my writing much, however, I am at the “Oh, well fuck it…” point now where I am thinking life is short, so just do it.
I wrote a play about seven years ago titled Happy Birthday Delia (Lemon Tree). Last year Leon Levinson of Calliope Arts & Theatre called me to go over my play again. He’d read it the first year I’d drafted it and asked if I could arrange a reading for him to view. I was able to appeal to some actor friends to give it a proper reading – which, by the way, is nerve-wracking. That initial reading was done some seven years ago by Jim Kleyle, Karen Kleyle, Suzanne Donohue (at the time she was Fehl) and Brian Donohue. The play was in it’s second or third draft at the time. I was really happy when Jim talked to me at Casey’s after the reading and told me some of the things he understood about the play. It felt great to feel as though somebody “got it.” I don’t think everybody understood what I was going for, but he really did. Some of my other friends came out to watch the reading and give me critical feedback, too, which I greatly appreciated.
I tinkered with it again a little and then put it to bed for a while. It was on the back-burner for many years while I drafted shorter plays for contests and continued honing my photography, clay and painting skills. Then, one day last year Leon re-read it and wanted to talk about it some more. We met and I got more perspective and answered some questions for him. He then arranged a staged reading in November 2008 with some wonderfully talented actors from the DC area. There was a read-through/rehearsal, then there was the staged reading performance. For any non-theatre folks who might be reading this, you can find some definitions here.
The November 2008 reading cast was as follows:
Karen Toth as Delia Dash
John Morogiello as Weston Dash
Tom Witherspoon as Ashton Dash
Linda Gabriel Deutsch as Lissa Dash
It was directed by Catherine Aselford, a pragmatic and straight-forward woman who communicated clear ideas about what she felt the play was saying. She consulted me for plenty of feedback and respected my voice as well. I enjoyed her energy and advice.
Will came along and recorded the staged reading which was held at the Bethesda Writer’s Center. Since I have yet to get a real digital video camera and had to use my regular camera, the video is in smallish chunks. Some of it even got missed a little. Overall though, it’s pretty great and valuable as a tool in order to refine my work.
Also valuable was the discussion after the reading. I don’t know if Will managed to get any of that onto the video. I haven’t looked at all of them yet. There was one woman there who told me she was in the counseling or psychology field who understood so many layers of what I was writing I wanted to hug her.
I am going to upload each video into its own blog since they take up some memory, I don’t want it to slow load-times or anything.
Happy Birthday Delia (Lemon Tree)
Reading – Bethesda Writer’s Center
Video #1
Ok – I went to upload it and it won’t do it – I will have to check with Robert tomorrow night and see what he can do for me!
*****UPDATE******
I uploaded it to Facebook, but I don’t want to upload all of them to Facebook. First of all, there is some adult content in the rest of the play. They already took down one of my works of art because she didn’t have top on. So, I’m sure they will take it down. For now, this is part one.
OY VEY – as you can see below – unless it changes AGAIN – FB will not allow it to show. It’s showing on FB, so they didn’t remove it. I will find a way to post it here at some point. And all of the others too! Sheesh!
Il Giardino Dei Tarocchi & Pearl’s Garden Too
If I have goals as an artist they are mostly to create beautiful and thought-provoking work. Of course, something thought-provoking might not always be beautiful, but I will take either, when I can get them.
There are many things that are life-affirming. Creating a beautiful thing. Making love. Getting married. Giving birth. Watching your children fall in love. Helping others. Finding simple joys in small things.
One thing that always strikes me is when a person has a driven mission. It helps if the person is free of money worries of course. If they can just do what they do best without incumberences. But sometimes, it’s seeing a person persue that which feels greater than them and seems against the odds of possibility, is what is truly extraordinary.
On Facebook one day the avatar of a person I didn’t know caught my eye. The icon looked like a statue of some sort, but it was hard to tell in the smallish format of the avatar. I asked the person about it and she told me it was from a wonderful place she visited in Italy called “The Tarot Garden.”
Here is the Wiki about the artist responsible for The Tarot Garden – Niki de Saint Phalle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle
Click the image below to go to the official website.
Related Links
http://www.nikidesaintphalle.org/
http://www.niki-museum.jp/english/index.htm
Here is a nice blog entry about Niki and her work.
*****
The evening before last I got another dose of life-affirming by watching a documentary – “A Man Named Pearl.”
Pearl Fryar is a very cool, very energetic dude who created a beautiful garden in his yard from discarded plants tossed out by a local nursery.
I recommend sitting down with some hot tea and being prepared to feel as though you are a very lazy slug when you’re all done watching it. He’s just one of those beautiful amazing spirits out there in the world who keeps shining no matter what. He’s an inspiration and an artist.
You can see the trailer: http://www.amannamedpearl.com/
Southern Maryland Woman
I am in the Feb-April 2009 edition of Southern Maryland Woman magazine.
Just FYI, I’m going to add it to the press page.
Peace!
Click the images to enlarge.
****
More Fairy Photo Play
I was tinkering with Photoshop again this week. I am finding that some of the work comes out very much like I managed to catch a photo of a fairy from a dream. Other images come across more like portraits that have been msytical-fairy-ized. I don’t dislike the portrait ones – in fact I rather like them as something that would make a great keepsake. However, my ultimate goal is to have photos that look like I was on safari in a magickal land, thick with a veil of the faerie realm and I happened upon creatures and caught their photos. Or that they even were curious, angry or posed. I will keep working the medium until I get what I want. The image of Jackie reaching up towards the camera is very much along the lines of what I am looking for. I like some of the color combination in my experiments as well. I think the subject will have to direct what I end up with in regards to color.
Here are the two images I worked on this week – click to enlarge.
This is another of Jackie. I think it looks sort of “Stevie Nicks.” I like the muted tones and the mystical quality. It very much has a portrait look, unlike the other image of her reaching up, where she looks very much like a fairy I found.
Again, tinkering with color. Christiana’s hair is really a lovely light brownish/blond color. I layered images of koi and water plants. It still looks a bit like a portrait, but if I do say so, a good one. I think that perhaps more staging with a specific composition in mind might help. I still have many photos of Jackie and Christiana to play with, so I will keep trying out my techniques and hopefully hone the skills I need to get exactly what I am looking for.
Tile-Making Workshop by Parran Collery
I took a tile-making workshop this past weekend with artist and instructor Parran Collery at Annmarie Garden. That’s a bit of a jaunt for me, but it was worth it. My friend Jackie had forwarded the Annmarie Garden e-newsletter to me noting the many classes they offer. In scrolling down through the newsletter I saw a tile I recognized as a Parran Collery tile. Though it didn’t have her name anywhere in the newsletter. On their website however, it did list her name and I signed up right away. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to take two classes in my birthday month! WOO HOO! Happy birthday to me!
I think it was two years ago when I took my first tile class with Tammy Vitale. Since then I have tinkered in clay making tile art and also some clay yoni art. From that one class and by renting kiln space, I have managed to make a good number of fun, spiritual and whimsical tiles. I also have been distracted by many other mediums trying to figure out what I like best. I’ve pretty much decided that clay is very likely to be one of my main art mediums and decided to learn as much as I could about it this year. I promised myself to take notes, buy books, read and take as many workshops as I could in order to determine how much I loved the medium and how plausible it would be to be more full-time with the clay. If I managed to learn enough this year and feel confident in my abilities to perform, I would perhaps treat myself to my own kiln next year. Just in the three classes I have taken – two by Tammy and one from Parran, I have learned so much. Addi tonally, it was totally cool to take classes from two artists whose work and spirit I truly admire.
There are aspects of both teachers that appeal to my own artistic style. In the classes that I took, I would consider Tammy as having immediate inspiration, going on raw energy and impulsive composition – which appeals greatly to the part of me that desires immediate results and works from unadulterated vision. Parran’s technique involves specific planning of some or all of the composition ahead of time, depending on your preference. I can see easily how a melding of these two techniques will very much shape the clay artist I will become. I think that for me, these are the two best teachers I could have had. I hope to take at least one more class from each of them this year.
In this photo Ms. Collery is demonstrating the sgraffito technique.
My sgrafitto piece is in the foreground. The hand isn’t shaped correctly and on the the dragonfly piece, I would have made the borders thinner if I did it over again, but I am pretty happy with the results having only just done them for the first time. The dragonfly tile took the longest. I would get quicker if I did that style more often, I’m sure. I also made a plaster cast of a tile I made with stamps – which I also made (except the lettering).
I have also found that I love both clay types that Tammy and Parran use. They both use a cone 04 clay – which made me happy to know, since it keeps things simple. I love the smoothness and background of the white clay for lots of reasons and especially with the cold finishing. However, I like the earthiness and grit of the red/brown clay that Parran uses. I have decided I will use both of these clays. I also like the idea of pit firing with both of them as well, to see the different results I can maybe get with them. Though pit firing might be off into the fall sometime. But I’m anxious to try it.
For now I’ve decided to just use commercial glazes, colored slip and under-glazing. However, I have a feeling that some day in the distance, when I grow tired of the same colors, I might like to try and mix some of my own signature colors. We’ll see! For now, just learning the clay keeps me busy enough!
When the pieces are all done – fired, glazed, etc. I will be sure to post images of the final work.
And then saving the best for last, is Uma, Parran’s pet and the clay class mascot. As sweet a doggy as you’d ever want to meet and by the end of the second day, she was pushing her head against my hand for a little bit of sugar, which I LOVE! Uma, like several of my pets, is a rescued animal. Please consider adopting shelter animals.
Working Out the Kinks
Robert is still tweaking things from our server move this weekend. I can’t upload photos at this moment, but I am editing photos from my Annmarie Garden tile-making workshop taught by Parran Collery this past weekend. I highly recommend it if you are interested in making tiles. She and Tammy Vitale are both excellent teachers. If they are teaching a class and you are remotely interested in clay art then sign up!
I am still trying to figure out what size folks prefer to see images within the blog at. I have been making them largish unless they are linked to an image that launches into a larger image. However, I’m not sure I like the asthetic of it. Also, we are working on the new Heather Bartlett Art store which will be run by Zen Cart.
I will post images and talk more about the class when Robert is done tweaking things.
PEACE!
More Clay Play for Me – YAY!!!
My pal Jackie sent me the Annmarie Garden’s E-newsletter and as I rolled through it I recognized a particular tile art style:
I figured that HAD to be a Parran Collery piece, but the newletter didn’t say who was teaching the tile class. I went to the website and sho’nuf – Ms. Collery is teaching the class next weekend, which is good birthday timing for me, so I signed up! I got to take a Tammy class this month and now a Parran class! WOO HOO!
I’ll be sure to take a dust mask with me with all my recent lung drama. I’d rather wear a mask than miss out!
Press Page
Every now and then I get a little ink, so I added a “Press” page to the site.
I’ve just added this:
Below is a May 2008 article about the Body Politics project Tammy Vitale and I are working on.
You can either click on the image below and see an image uploaded on my server. Or you can go HERE to the article at Southern Maryland Online as long as it stays up there.
Fairy Fantasy Photo Fiddling
I have been playing around with Photoshop to see the different sorts of effects I can make on a photo. I have enjoyed playing with the lighting, the color, the layering. The backgrounds are of landscape, sky and plant photos taken by Robert, Will and me. My daughter Jade has taken some pretty teriffic flower photos, I may use some of those too. It’s been fun finally getting to use the images I’ve been amassing for so long!
I am also doing all of this in preperation for for my Snow White photo project I’m planning on. Can’t wait!
This is the original photo that I took in the summer of 2002 when I was just starting out with my little 2 or 3mp camera. Rob and Jackie did a great job as models. I have some great friends who like to play with photography as much as I do! Good times.
“Wake Up Little Fairy”
Below are the various incarnations of me toying with the image. You can click on them to see them larger.
This one has a very "romance novel" look to it. Some people think the purple wings are a bit over-the-top. Maybe I do too a little, but I still think like it! What's wrong with over-the-top sometimes?
This one is duskier in color. I how everything looks like it has a veil over it. It's a bit dreamy.
This one is sort of sepia-toned with a "hand colored" look to parts of it.
I did a hue saturation on this and I LOVE what it did to Jackie's hair. This crazy unreal coloring makes me feel like this really could be in some kind of fairy realm.
Fern of the Dragonflies
I took a class given by artist Tammy Vitale who I also am doing Body Politics with, which we hope to exhibit at Artomatic this year again as we did last year. The class was to learn how to make a clay torso from beginning to end. I am very happy with the way my torso came out. Even as I took photos of her, I realized she’s a whole world unto herself. The photos alone were worth the effort of making the torso. Since we finished our torsos so quickly we also made a tile. I love how that came out too. I especially love the sage green with the slightly rusty color together. My parents had come up for the day to collect my daughter Amber for a visit. They got to the house ahead of me and my mother very much liked both items. I asked her if she wanted the tile and she was very happy to take it home.
Above is my mother holding her new tile.
This is a close up of the tile, which was made mostly with stamps. I love the swirly-ness! I did make the same mistake on both pieces, which Tammy warned me might happen if I wasn’t careful. I missed a few spots where the glaze didn’t fill in. It didn’t look bad really, so I didn’t mind – which is what Tammy said was all that mattered!
Here I am with my girl. I am calling her Fern. I just need to find a place to hang her!
Here is a detailed image of the butterfly that occupies the space that her yoni would be.
Here is a close up image of one of the several dragonfly impressions on the piece.
If you get a chance to take one of Tammy’s classes, I highly recommend it!
An admirer from Belgium