There hasn’t been much time to blog. Not a bad thing, actually, as I’ve been focusing on face-to-face community building through art. But do you know about this? Motivates me to dig out my blog account password from the recesses of my memory… One Billion Rising (http://www.onebillionrising.org). Look for your city to join a dance party tomorrow, on Valentine’s Day. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly, this is what 1 billion women and I really want for Valentine’s Day This Year! Join 1 billion women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to violence... Continue reading

Once or twice a year, I offer a free community Intro to Process Painting class. It always surprises me how courageous and willing people are to experience this process, sometimes without having an idea what it is. Each time, I am in awe seeing how far people are willing to go to explore the creative process and themselves. Here is a blog entry written by one of the participants from the March 14 class: Amanda's Evolution Of Consciousness Blog (http://amandaspiral.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/process-painting/ Continue reading

Fremont First Friday Art Walk Venue: Fremont Coffee Company 459 N 36th St. Seattle Youth Artists: Isaac, Deividas, Emma, Natalie, Lukas, Kale, Ben and Angus Stop in and show your support for eight 4th-8th grade students from Billings Middle School, John Hay Elementary, Coe Elementary and Lowell Elementary who are exhibiting their photography in this group show! The students used iPhone and iPod cameras and a variety of applications to capture their unique perspective on the surroundings. Whether alley-side objects or capturing their take on well known sculptures of the Olympic Park, the fascinating visuals they've created give us a... Continue reading

We just finished the 5-week Children’s Free-Express Painting Class. It is amazing to work with kids. And by work in this context, I mean creating a safe space, a studio time, free of commenting, judgment, performance expectations or instruction. What do I do then? I assist with the use of paints, brushes and the studio space. I tape new sheets of paper to the wall, reassure when needed, and support the process. Sometimes, it’s just a word, a nod, a smile. I ask questions, when one starts feeling stuck, bored or does not know what to paint. I ask questions... Continue reading

We greeted the New Year with the theme of Visions, Dreams, Little Deaths, and New Beginnings at the January Open SoulCollage® Studio. For some, new beginnings were about making space, allowing old things to die, a kind of pruning. For some, it was about accessing what was already there, in the form of a seed, image or word. For others, it was about letting go what was and moving into the present. All of it was about movement of some sort, as the creative flow is movement. Allen (2005) said "the Creative Source is trying to get each of us... Continue reading

In pursuing spontaneous and authentic art making, we hold the tension of the opposites: we seek that unflinching sense of self, while at the same time we are expanding the dimension of our being by letting go of what we know the self to be. Art making is also about meaning making at the same time as we let go of the familiar story and the limitations of language. The objective of artistic process is to discover what happens to us while we create and the process of creating has the potential to wake up the unexplored dimensions of our... Continue reading

My art studio backs to the alley. I can see two garbage cans cushioning the neighbors’ Suburu against the world, maybe from acts of random alley violence? Or maybe from my suspect driving? Who walks in this alley? People with dogs, pre-teens, single people, groups of giggling girls and those taking a shortcut to the coffee shop on weekend mornings. I can’t help but compare this alley to the alėja of my childhood summer town that I just visited. There, alėja is the main pedestrian strip in town, where nature and culture meet you… For the last six months I... Continue reading

I have noticed a lot of “art and soul” type of events and opportunities popping up in the recent past in my area alone. What is going on? Obviously, there is a need that is being fulfilled. Is this about seeking balance in life? Is this about the current culture not feeding the soul? Is this about social change? Rollo May back in the mid 20th century observed, “they (artists) are the frontier scouts who go out ahead of the rest of us to explore the future… For we will be better prepared for the future if we can listen... Continue reading

Lets dispel the mystery here and now. Men will do SoulCollage® and engage in other methods of inner explorations. Not in droves, but they are there and soul tending is something they will do. They might not be so hot about the names, the descriptions that contain words that trigger our gender conditioned selves. So we talk about a collage process that explores one’s identity and that works pretty well. Here is a SoulCollage® card and description by Elma Studio student (thank you for the contribution!): "This card reminds me that I am capable of being my own best obstacle... Continue reading

I’ve been thinking about a way to dig into this without the topic getting too heavy or weighted down by all the opinions and strong biases that accumulate over the years. It’s a topic that is already loaded, closely tied to our sense of identity and worldview. But despite it being loaded and all, what is it that guides us, gives us a voice, access to the intuitive, not-strictly rational processes, what brings meaning and clarifies the bigger picture? What is it that brings our focus to the center, like a fireman’s pole that stays solid in the middle during... Continue reading

I have never liked April. It is that being in limbo, being in between, waiting, waiting, waiting for I don’t know what… warmer weather? the sun? to finally figure out the meaning of life? All that while those stubborn hopes of mine start sending out little shoots upward and it becomes hard to be patient. And then one day you get a day where you declare to the world that you have made it, that the winter is over, that you can go ahead and plant your tomatoes and for a moment you believe that your life is all about... Continue reading

Yesterday was a perfect planting day. Look at those neat rows of strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and peas. And now I’ve got a bay tree for my kitchen and a fig tree for the courtyard. Lets not forget the lemon tree with its first blossom. And thorns. I didn’t know lemon trees had thorn-looking things on some branches. Maybe this one is special. Continue reading

As promised, on a lighter theme, a new creative project to report on. I know that the beginning of a new quarter of graduate school should be about research and papers, but why is it that creativity has its own calendar to keep? I had not touched a sewing machine for 12 years or so, so when my friend showed me a cool way to put some journal scraps together by making me encouraging me to sew some paper together, I must have been quite inspired because a) I didn’t run away; and b) on a normal day, you would... Continue reading

I promise some lighter posts ASAP, right after this exhibit info from the website for the Fry Museum in Seattle: In August 1981, Tim Rollins, then twenty-six years old, was recruited by George Gallego, principal of Intermediate School 52 in the South Bronx, to develop a curriculum that incorporated art-making with reading and writing lessons for students classified as academically or emotionally “at risk.” Rollins told his students on that first day, “Today we are going to make art, but we are also going to make history.” Asked what he meant by “making history,” Rollins said: "To dare to make... Continue reading

Can a small art studio make a difference? It cannot alleviate the world hunger, offer universal health care, provide clean drinking water and safe food, but it can make a difference when … one child with a paintbrush in hand steps away from his painting and says :”I love that I don’t have to explain what I paint and that I don’t have to paint anything in particular, just sort of be here…” someone believes she or he can make art… a pre-teen girl finds a collaged image of someone like her to put on a complex world-like background… two... Continue reading

It was going to be a regular Tuesday night (once a month) painting group of wonderful people getting together to paint. And by regular, I mean, we paint, clean up, and go home. Maybe it was the moon, or the two visitors we had for the evening, or maybe a few of us had things to avoid in our paintings, but things got out of hand or off paper, I should say. I think we now have a new canvas curtain for the studio as the result… We really needed it. How great is that! Continue reading