Mariah’s New Poster

Mariah had emailed me several months ago about our creating a poster together for a window box outside The Baha’i Center in Rochester NY. I had gone into several activities including children’s classes, study circles, luncheons, Unity night as well as others. We wanted an array of people, all shapes, sizes, color, young, old. We wanted them all! We finally were able to get together yesterday to put it together.

She came in the afternoon. I had set up a few basic things, but was going to play it all by ear. I really was interested in her ideas, and me being able to make them happen. Mariah had stopped in to see her husband at lunch time, and they talked about what might be good to bring people into the walkway to read the sign. With this information, the images, the bright paper, quotes, we started creating what we thought would be good for the poster.

At first everything was literally all over the page- jumbled if you will. It didn’t have a flow to it, and quite possibly, you’d miss a lot more than what you saw. So, we changed the approach, and laid out all the words linear to each other, and then added in images that we felt some how corresponded to the words.

It was a neat activity, and Mariah was fun to work with. Here is what we came up with:

Baha’i Poster

The Mediums We Work In: Part One

As part of the 3D tree, I am looking at the different mediums my family members (and I) work in. Some of us have varied interests (i.e. My grandmother Peggy, mother, aunt Barbara, and aunt Robin all sew). I am going to hang from this tree an item that represents for each type of medium. Here is the list I have come up with:

Paint Palette = acrylic/oil painter

Polaroid Film Sheet = photographer

Rubber Stamp = For those who created a rubber stamp.

A Beaded Bracelet = For those who make jewelry

Drawing Pad/Pen = For those who draw

A Mini-Handmade book = For those who do altered books/projects

Fabric on a Hoop = For those who quilt, and/or do embroidery

Something wooden = For those into woodworking

Fabrics/Needle = For those who sew

My intent is to have each person represented by the different work they do. So, say I’m putting my mediums on the tree, I would be represented in several ways, with several items. I am an artist, photographer, sewer, altered artist as well as a jewelry maker. I would get all of those hung from the tree. My purpose in doing this is to show that we are all multi-talented artists. I plan to make all of the items be painted in gold. The tree itself is in the tertiary  colors.

The Beginning of: 3D Tree

For this project I will have two trees. The first one will be 2D on canvas 24″x36″. I will incorporate the first name of each person in the family along with their birth/death dates where appropriate. The colors on this will be organic: various browns and natural summer greens. I plan to use paper, fabrics,altered arts stuff and paint. I want it to have a lot of texture, but without being 3D.

For the second tree, I am currently building the main structure. I have old mailing/poster tubes from my grandfather’s photographic estate, and newspapers/acrylic paints from my parents. I have wire from them as well. The mailing tubes I have had for almost 5 years. I’ve moved them back and for one side of the country to the other, always believing that at some point I would find a way to use them. The time has finally come! The tubes measure:

24″ long

2″ diameter

I am using newspaper and a mix of Aleen’s Tacky Glue with water. I figure I’ll need several sturdy layers and then I’ll start adding on limbs…. I’m not positive how I will be doing it, kind of winging it I suppose… In the end I know it’s going to work out! After the basic structure of the branches I’ll be using wooden twine that I bought for a 3D Sculpture class I took as an undergrad at Nazareth College.

It’s interesting how the different supplies are coming together from different parts of my life! The only thing I am missing is something to set this tree on. I want it to be on a wooden bar chair – perhaps the taller one- I am envisioning the roots to be wrapped around the the legs of the stool… like an octopus holding on to the chair almost… if that makes any sense at all…. In using the tubes I can make the overall size I’d like without the added weight if say I was going to use wood, or clay. I have decided that I will need to weight the bottom of the tree, though I don’t quite know how I will accomplish that yet.

Mailing Tubes

The Tubes

And, the other supplies I have set up:

Wooden Reeds

Newspapers

Mix of Glues

I will use the orange bucket to mix the Aleene’s Tacky Glue and the Matte Modge Podge.

Who is the Self, in a Self-Portrait?

In art therapy group today our directive was to make something about us. A symbol of sorts, or phrase, or item or whatnot… So, I decided to create myself out of felt. I actually am wearing the outfit  I created me in… right down to my black and white striped heart socks! I get soooo many, “OMG I love your SOCKS!!” from people, that I thought out of any outfit, this one is the one that got me the most notice. I am always the wall flower. The one you won’t likely even notice in the room, and if it hadn’t been for being born a redhead, you’d definitely not have seen me…

I had decided a couple years ago on my birthday- that I thought it utterly rediculous that I didn’t wear all these clothes that I wore for going out dancing in, or clubbing, or to parties…. in part because I did those almost never… So now I wear my poofy skirts, and my striped socks and platforms when the weather is right…. or my black lace up boots if the weather isn’t right… and I wear the bracelets Robyn bought me in Seattle and my gothic watch I wear every day, even though I almost never use it to actually tell time… and I have gone back to all my rings, and anything else you can think of… So, here I am, in the felt!!

Me: In Felt!

An Unquiet Mind + Art Therapy Day

The other day I was aimlessly wandering around the web, I happen upon http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/bipolar . There are some very interesting quotes about those who are bipolar, and  how they feeling being such.  The one that resonates with me the most is this:

“There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness. When you’re high it’s tremendous. The ideas and feelings are fast and frequent like shooting stars, and you follow them until you find better and brighter ones. Shyness goes, the right words and gestures are suddenly there, the power to captivate others a felt certainty. There are interests found in uninteresting people. Sensuality is pervasive and the desire to seduce and be seduced irresistible. Feelings of ease, intensity, power, well-being, financial omnipotence, and euphoria pervade one’s marrow. But, somewhere, this changes. The fast ideas are far too fast, and there are far too many; overwhelming confusion replaces clarity. Memory goes. Humor and absorption on friends’ faces are replaced by fear and concern. Everything previously moving with the grain is now against– you are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable, and enmeshed totally in the blackest caves of the mind. You never knew those caves were there. It will never end, for madness carves its own reality.”
― Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

I have put in an order for her book through our school library in hopes of getting my hands on it before the quarter’s end.

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Today was an Art Therapy Studio Day. Our ‘directive’ for lack of a better term was to create something that showed who/what supported us through life. I will upload mine at some point, but for the general idea… A very abstracted  dark blue pastel oval with two eyes, mouth, then a circles of purples, red and then yellow pastels. on the outside I glued on puffy pieces of colored tissue papers- purple, blue, yellow, lime green, pink, magenta. Across the top it says, “Not me without the people around me- a support of people in my darkest days I know won’t ever leave me.” At the bottom I listed people, in no particular order and the date I created it.

My Supporters

Finally got a chance to upload! This hangs in my studio, above myself and Robyn while we are working on our computers. We both have so many great supporters, and though we feel like we left so many of them behind, we have my family who has been our strength over the past couple of years.

Influences (External)

I have broken down the concept of “influences” into two categories. The first being external and the second being internal. When I think of external influences I think about things outside of myself, sometimes they are things I cannot control, while other times, I can control them. Take this example: I am driving alone in my Ford Escape. External influences cause me to wear a seatbelt, use my blinkers and follow the traffic lights and signals. I do these because they are laws that everyone has to follow while driving. Now, the ones I do have control over include: what type of music I am listening to, whether my windows are up or down, and how warm I have the truck temperature.

Other influences I may or may not see while out driving: media/advertising, where I am headed, if I pick someone up, my cell phone rings with a text or a phone call (even who it might be will affect me). We can try all we want, but we can’t always control each and every external influence.

In looking specifically at my artwork, I find quite a few external influences.

~Is my studio warm? or cold? Why does this matter you ask? As someone with chronic pain, if I’m cold, I’m not going to focus as well if at all. Being cold makes chronic pain worse, joints hurt, muscles hurt, everything aches.

~Do I have a drink? No, not alcohol! Think caffeine! I love a good cup of coffee. So, is my coffee hot? cold? I enjoy both. Is my glass or mug full? Or almost empty? Typically I have one near, so this is rather a silly question!

~What did I get in the mail today? Did I get junk mail? Or bills? Or catalogs? Mail can always change one’s attitude just by showing up in their mail box~ I enjoy getting magazines and those ads for stores I will never be able to afford, in fact, their ads are more like miniature books! I love to cut them up and use them for collage work.

~Is my internet working today? I mention this, because generally we pick it up from around us at the house. Much cheaper to go this route, but let me tell you- if you’d planned to work the day on the internet, and you find you don’t have it- it’s not pretty.

~Okay, so the internet is working… I checked my mail, pinterest, Facebook, the menagerie of other places I go… are my friends doing well? Is my family healthy? Or am I getting upsetting news?

~Depending on what semester it is, or was… has its own external influences. Do I like the professor? Do I get along with my fellow students? Do I have a ton of homework?

~I had art classes from first grade all the way through twelfth. I had the same art teacher from first – sixth, and then two from seventh until twelfth. I can tell you, that I learned very early on in elementary school to despise art class. Why you ask? The art teacher put her work on each of ours, so that in the end- they all looked the same. I hated it. I wanted my work to be my work, and to be untouched by her.

When I got to junior high and high school I had two very different teachers. I can’t even remember who I was introduced to first. I think it might have been Miss F. She was the hardest teacher. There were points where I actually thought I hated her! Why you ask? She did not let me slide on anything! She made me work- and if she didn’t think I was working hard enough, she would make me do more work, further beyond what the other students were doing. I had to work my butt off to get an A from her. She knew I could do the work, and pushed me. The other  art teacher Mrs. C. I adored. She basically let me work at my own pace, and in any direction I wanted. If I didn’t like a project she even let me take it a different direction. I had a lot of fun with her, and though I learned a lot, I learned much more from Miss F.

~My grandfather (John T.) taught me the art of taking black and white photographs, and how to develop them the summer I was 10 years old. He would give me an assignment, a hand rolled film canister and the Nikon F with a 50mm lens that he’d given me to use and send me off. I loved coming back to the dark room, watching those images come up on the paper while it floated in a tray of developer. I always got such a thrill to see them come up. It is actually a pretty wild experience. One moment not there, the next moment, there it is!

~When I was about 15 years old, I was given the opportunity to participate in a Summer Scholars/Arts Program at the University of Rochester. I spent two weeks on their campus with other students my age. I took two courses. One of them was an oil painting class taught by a Russian painter. I have no recollection of what the other course was… Anyhow. We started out with just black and white paint on a blank canvas. It was my first experience of being on a stretched canvas and with oil paints. We each had an easel and our own palette and place around this still life set up in the middle of the room. If I remember correctly it had a couple different sized cylindrical containers, a glass bottle, and a flower of some sort that were all on a draped cloth. At the end of the painting we had to add in a touch of color. It was a fun assignment. The second week we had to bring with us a black and white photograph. We learned how to enlarge it, sketch it out on our canvas and then paint it. I did a picture of myself still crossed eyed at 6 months old.

~By the time I made it through high school, I had taken every single art course offered. A couple, I even took twice. If I had a study hall, or a bit of time after school before sports, you’d find me in one of the two art rooms as well. I was always happiest when I was surrounded by art and supplies that were in hand to use at my very whim.

~The first college I attended was GCC in Batavia NY. I was in a theatre technology program. I learned how to do the behind the scenes stuff for plays, and I took acting classes and dance. I worked as House Director my second semester and loved it.

During my Bryant and Stratton (Rochester, NY)experience, I learned some basic web design, as well as creating fonts, and putting together brochures, pamphlets and posters. We also created logos. It was there that I earned my AOS in Graphic Design.

I attended MCC in Rochester NY for about 12 credits to get my full associates degree, and then applied to Nazareth College. At MCC I took several drawing classes. My professor loved what he did, and had a great time with us. It was the first time I ever worked on paper that was 24×32 or larger. Working so large was scary at first, but now, I love it.

I was a Nazareth as an undergrad for just a year. I only took two classes in the arts, and they were Photography 1 and 2. I thought it’d be great to brush up on my darkroom skills. I had a great time, and for the first time was asked why I was not in a photographic career. My response was, “oh, it’s just a hobby- it’s what my grandfather does.” Well, with a bit of a shove I applied to RIT without telling anyone. My grandfather (John T.) had started the Biomedical Photographic Communications program and I didn’t want anyone to know I applied in case I wasn’t accepted. I was! I couldn’t believe it!!

I was at RIT in Rochester NY for about three years. It was the hardest program I had ever been in. I learned so much, from both the professors, and my fellow classmates. I graduated with my Bachelors of Arts in BPC in May of 2009.

All of these experiences have brought me to where I am today. Each person I met, words they said, activities I participated in, they all were influences, each and every one.

*Update*

Somewhere in my discussions, I believe it might even have been with Dr. C, religion is another influence I had not thought of, and yet it was so obvious when the topic came up. I was born into a Baha’i family. I am considered to be third generation Baha’i. We will be celebrating Ayyam-i-Ha at the end of this month. I’ll share more on it later, but briefly need to share that religion for most people, or perhaps the lack of religion impacts our lives. I grew up with different holidays than my friends. I attended Feasts, Holy days, Sunday School, potluck dinners, and had many interracial friends to grow up with.

If you want to know more about the Baha’i Faith you can find lots of information on the web, I have one to suggest however, as it is the official website here in the United States. If you are out of the US, it has links that can take you to your country of origin.

http://www.bahai.us

The First Art Therapy Group with Casey

This afternoon we had our first art therapy group meeting on college campus. It is being run by Casey  in the wellness center. I didn’t count how many came, but I’d guess we had about 10-12. We were a mix of freshman undergrad, to last semester grad (me!). We had a mix of majors, male and female, artists and non-artists. To start out we went over some basic guide lines. Of course the typical waivers were signed as well (no telling personal information of others outside group, what is said there, stays there, privacy is a good thing…etc etc). As a group we put together a list of rules, and created a safe word. The safe word is interesting. I’d never participated in something like this, and I was at first quite intrigued with it. I’m glad we made it. For those who may read this and not know- a safe word is something anyone in the room may use. Perhaps a topic brings up bad memories, or a song in the background makes shivers go down your spine, or something is going on, and you do not feel comfortable, or perhaps you feel unsafe (with yourself, or others). Well, you just say that word, and no matter what it is- it is stopped. No questions asked. That song? it gets skipped over. That topic? It is changed… quite a great idea isn’t it?

Casey told us that most of the time she would not require us to all produce work on the same topic, but for this first week she would. We had to make a collage, or draw or whatnot about ourselves- tell something about you. It was interesting as most of us did some sort of tree. I am going to alter mine a bit before I put it up here, but when I do, this is where you will find it!