kbe

Advent

2011-12-13T00:44:00.000-05:00

Everything changes when you have an almost-three-year-old around the house. For one thing, exhaustion is more frequent (well, count that magnified, with another pregnancy). But on a more joyful, thankful, wonder-inspiring note, Christmas takes on its true magic again: the tree is a marvelous sparkling wonderland of friends who enjoy being taken off to go on adventures around the house; blow up snowmen and Nativity scenes (Carroll Gardens at the height of its decorating prowess, or should I give Halloween that distinction?) are transformed from sinister into sweet; advent candles are special each time; the advent calendar is a mysterious treasure trove; the manger is a holy place again; Jesus is really and truly the sweetest baby Ever.

In honor of seeing the celebration of Jesus's birth through my daughter's eyes, I finally spent some time making--constructing, painting, sewing. All activities that I say I want to do every day, but usually find excuses not to do. For once, the excuses didn't hold up, and I needed to finish these projects:

The Advent Calendar. A fabric monstrosity I had started cutting and sewing a whole year ago, but which I had given up around Dec. 10, 2010, and which gathered dust for much of 2011 until I put it away in a box for safe keeping. This project needed to be finished, simply because three-year-old girls love to find special treasures in little pockets:

Notice many of the squares/pockets are leaning to the right: I don't seem to be able to sew a straight line. As always with my paintings (particularly technical details like "can you paint acrylic over oil? Hmm, I know you're not supposed to but hey, who said this painting is going to end up in the Met?") and many other of my creations: completion wins out over precision.

So then of course I had to make some treasures to go in those pockets:

This nativity set was my first foray into painting those sweet wooden dolls I love.

Arranging, especially when it involves a line of objects, or a family, is one of the top activities these days.

The nativity family grows each day, it keeps getting re-worked into new arrangements, like this one: "Jesus and His family, and a Cup Family."

Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the Angel went to sleep inside a bed made of Tegu blocks. If you can't find Joseph, it's because he's really cozy under that last block on the left. Camel is also having a relaxing moment.

The wreath: made from seeded eucalyptus and seeds of all kinds that Noli and I painted gold, silver and white:

Featured here are the ubiquitous acorn which never gets old, and the amazing Linden which grows all over Brooklyn, with its whimsical collections of seeds that pop out of the leaves themselves.

Of course we had to feature a magnolia pod. Painted white on Magnolia's suggestion. Good call. I had wanted to stick to just gold and silver for the painted seeds, but the white gave more depth to the finished look.

And finally, the stocking. Sean and I have had these lovely felt stockings made by Hable Construction--a stripey and a Peace--for a few years, and I had been wanting to make another comparable stocking for Noli. It finally happened, with this green one on the left:

Here's hoping we can maintain this energy of creating throughout 2012. It's so much more fun this way.

drawn into scripture

2011-10-05T12:47:00.000-04:00

Until recently, I had only been exposed to Jeremy Begbie's work through IAM conferences in NYC, where I had been completely awed by his presentations. This past Spring, I found out that my brother in law Andrew had a friend who was pursuing an M.Div. in the new "Theology and the Arts" program at Duke Divinity, and my ears perked up. So Begbie had brought his great wealth of wisdom and experience honed by writing and presenting on art/faith, and teaching at such prestigious institutions as Cambridge and St. Andrews, to my home state? When I saw that an arts exhibition was related to the upcoming conference, I submitted work.

Fast forward to this coming Monday October 10: I will be exhibiting a selection of collages and screening my film Spirit Ship at the Arts Fair hosted by the 2011 Duke Divinity School's Convocation and Pastor's School, "Drawn into Scripture: Arts and the Life of the Church." While the conference runs both Monday and Tuesday, the Arts Fair will be happening only on Monday, from 9:30am - 5:30pm, in the Great Hall (next to Page Auditorium), on Duke's Main Campus. Dr. Begbie will speak, as well as author Marilynne Robinson, and Anthony Kelley and the BLAK Ensemble will present the "new blues", in a performance entitled "Instantaneous Infinity…or,Thinking Beyond the Page in Musical and Human Connection and Communication.” In preparation I have been reading Begbie's book Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (2007), and I hope to pick up Robinson's Housekeeping, which I have been meaning to read for some time.

"All streams run to the sea but the sea is not full" (Ecclesiastes 1:7). Watercolor on 1918 Encyclopedia page. 6 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches. 2011.

The collages I will be showing will be a combination of works on paper and fabric, with the common theme of incorporating biblical text into the work. The way I use various verses from scripture might be considered "taken out of context," but that is just a way I have found of working that enables me to approach the text in a deeper way. So while I don't hope to comprehend the meaning of the Bible when only taken in fragments, I do want to be open to the Still Small Voice and how it speaks, in whispers and in the unexpected moments.

"I will gather you," (Ezekiel 22:20). Gel medium transfer, seed, silk, thread on canvas. 2008. 7 x 5 inches.

Juxtaposing those bits of text with my images has become a visual and thought-provoking exercise that keeps me coming back to the text as a living and breathing entity. It was before this, but this act of making just gives it fuller life for me, a visual artist who needs to constantly make and remake the world, in order to understand it, to feel and to truly live.

Mental Decoy and Burlap Arms. Wire, fabric, cat scan. 2000.

I also have two very different, sculptural pieces in the current juried exhibition at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church offices, Looking for Transformation: Inner and Outer Sight. This show runs from October through January, with an opening on October 7 at 1359 Broadway, Suite 400.

Ellie Balk: Mapmaking in Color and Sound

2011-09-25T00:32:00.001-04:00

Ellie at the BRIC Kids Art Opening 2006, with the map she created that featured each of her middle school student's buildings and their respective locations on the map of Brooklyn, NY

In 2006 I was commissioned by BRIC Contemporary Art to make a documentary about an arts-in-education residency in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn middle school IS 49. One of the teaching artists I documented for A Partnership Grows in Brooklyn was Ellie Balk, who was making large-scale maps with her classes based on each student's home in the neighborhood. I was struck by her use of color and the bold style that resulted from her very involved collaborative art/teaching process of mapping the neighborhood, placing each student's home on the map, projecting maps onto the wall, mixing colors, and drawing off then painting the finished product on 6-foot-high wooden panels, which later went on to be exhibited at BRIC Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn Heights. I was intrigued by this beautiful, colorful and empowering (to the youth involved) use of mapping, especially because I was personally involved in making my own map paintings at the time.

Double Braids! At Roxy Paine show at James Cohen Gallery.

Ellie and I kept in touch, and began to have fun art adventures around the city . . . here is a video of a case in point: a creative excursion to Eyebeam. We kept comparing notes on our similar art-making tendencies and dreams, and soon our conversation evolved to a plot to create a project together. In late 2007 we began planning a collaborative endeavor called Doll Neighborhood, which took shape in the Spring of 2008. Our call-to-artists, series of sewing/making events with 29 local artists, and culminating exhibition and video proved to be a transformative experience. Through it I could see Ellie come alive in her element of shepherding artists through a collective vision, toward an awe-inspiring product.

Ellie Balk & community, Tillie's Mural Project, 2008

Ever since I have known her, Ellie has been working tirelessly to create community-made murals throughout Brooklyn, particularly in her home neighborhood of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill. She even spearheaded a Mural Arts Fund within the South of the Navy Yard Artist community group, to further her mission of beautifying the public walls in the area. Ellie's murals always involve her community, especially the pre-teen to high school set, and they all carry Ellie's beautiful marks of distinction: that rich, summery, color-field-referencing palette, and those carefully placed lines that create a beautiful symbol of the landscape around the mural, and yet mark a place of their own. This past summer, Ellie took her mural-making to the surface of a piano, and participated as one of artists in Sing for Hope's Pop Up Piano project. Various painted pianos were installed all over the city (see map at link above), and Ellie's was placed near the Prospect Park Carousel in Brooklyn. You can see more information and some videos of people playing Ellie's piano here. Below are some photos I took, and a short video I put together of the culmination of the project, a performance Ellie did with pianist Samantha Bassler on June 26:

It's all in the details: Toni Ann of Brooklyn Treat Shoppe created cupcakes in the color scheme of Ellie's piano, and she and Ellie arranged them as an extension of the painted lines.

E.S. Frushtick of Project Pause films Ellie as one of the featured New Yorkers in Thru|Lines film project.

Ellie is currently working on her largest-scale mural to date, a 130' section of wall located under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE). The Soundwaves Mural project, funded by the NEA, all started with lines that Ellie drew, tracking the distance between the hands of nine pianists as they played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Ellie's mission with this project is to "beautify the landscape in the negative space under the BQE." This monumental undertaking is truly an inspirational extension of her Sing for Hope piano painting/performance project, and a wondrous site to behold (which I did this past week, when I visited and saw her painting with her crew from a local high school). I asked Ellie some questions about her work, and this project:

How do you see this project as an extension of your previous mural projects?

My mural work has been about collecting data and visualizing it in an artistic way. In the form of a map, graph or web, the work is seemingly abstract when you first look at it, but as the viewer gets closer, they can "read" the image and formalize the data. In the Soundwaves mural project, I worked with pianists and drew the distance between their hands as they were playing the Moonlight Sonata. This "data" was then layered together to create an over-all landscape. In this way, I am mapping out the music.

Talk a little bit about the convergence of ugliness and beauty in Brooklyn as a whole (since you live and work here) and upon/under the BQE (since you chose this as the location of your mural)?

In doing research about the BQE, I came across this fact: "Once [Robert] Moses drew his proposed route for the BQE on the map, his engineers were able to transform this "line on a map" into a highway. This often meant clearing block after block of neighborhoods, often in the name of "slum clearance" (source). I was inspired by this insensitive idea of drawing a line on a map to design the highway. In Clinton Hill, the devastation from this "line" is obvious. But there is some life that has been springing up on the cut off block between Park and the Navy Yard. I wanted to create this bright, colorful mural for that community. It's exciting to work in that area and to start to visualize that space in a different way. I hope that we can reclaim and better utilize the area under the BQE.

Talk about the choice of Moonlight Sonata, and the relationship of this piece to the BQE.

I feel like the Moonlight Sonata found me, before this mural project was conceived. Over two years ago I was hanging out with Jazz Musician Mike Brown and I was really inspired by our conversations about improvisation and avant-garde composing. I became really interested in this idea of composing music through drawing line. He worked with me on my initial ideas of just listening to music. I have no music training and when we started I was just trying to separate the instruments that I was hearing in compositions. He started with classical music. On my own, I continued this journey into learning how to listed and I starting listening Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. When I was accepted to paint a piano for the Sing For Hope Piano project, I started concentrating on piano sonatas. When I heard the Moonlight Sonata, I was so moved by its pace and emotion, I didn't put it down. In the beginning of this journey, I was drawing the music through headphones. I was drawing with my left and right hand, trying to get the distance between the hands as it was playing.

But as I mentioned before, I have no musical training, so this line was just as much about pace and emotion as it was about the highs and lows in the tones. When the mural came about, it seemed obvious to keep with my idea and work with pianists in their studios and draw the distance of their hands as they were playing. This was a journey into learning how to listen and the connections I made with these artists were so sincere to that mission. The level of collaboration was incredible. I gave the musicians a line drawing that I composed from just listening to the Moonlight Sonata and they have created a score...based on my line! It's so exciting!

The placement of this piece under the BQE, just makes sense. The lines on the mural match the design of the space under the overpass. The colors are reflective of the buildings near by. And the lyrical base of the line connects with the sound of the bustling traffic above our heads. I really hope that one day, I can get the pianists together for a performance where they can play the lines on the mural and compose a new score!

What are the top two reasons why you love to do community murals?

I love meeting the people who live in the areas that I paint in and the collaborations that grow out of that. I enjoy giving people the opportunity to be part of the piece and claim ownership of their neighborhood. One of my favorite moments was when I was introducing a mural project at a school near where I had organized a collaborative community mural. I was going though some slides and a girl in the room yelled out "I did that!" That's why I love what I do.

Tell us the most amazing thing so far, about this BQE project.

This whole project has come together really smoothly and has been amazing all along the way. I love the collaboration and connections I have made with the pianists and the community. I love that this mural is tucked away and has to be found or discovered, and that it fits so perfectly under the overpass. Working with Meredith from MARP has been great. They have been so supportive and do so much for the community.

What is one thing you are looking forward to in your art and/or teaching?

I am really looking forward to continuing this journey. I feel that this project is a seed growing and I'm excited that the mural is not the end of it. We will see where it goes...

• • • •

Ellie is still seeking volunteers for this amazing Soundwaves Mural. Ellie and crew will be painting Sun, Sept 25, Mon-Wed, Sept 26-28, and Fri Sept 30, from 11am-2pm and 2-5pm each day. Visit the Soundwaves Mural Under the BQE project blog, or just sign up to volunteer. After the 30th, please take some time to visit the mural itself, at Park Avenue, near Steuben/Grand Streets, under the BQE. You will be glad you experienced this slice of Brooklyn life, music and color. Here are more details, if you'd like to pick up a paintbrush:

Get Involved! Pick up a brush and join us!

• Sign up for a shift (11am-2pm or 2pm-5pm) at http://tinyurl.com/BQE-MuralProject

• Organize a group from your organization or civic group to do a volunteer shift as a team

• Bring a group of students (ages 8+) on a field trip to participate for a shift

• Spread the word to your neighbors and friends, and get them to sign up too!

• Contact Ellie Balk at elliebalk (at) gmail.com or at 718-930-7177, or meredith (at) myrtleavenue.org

last known surroundings

2011-06-24T19:20:00.004-04:00

The following video confirms not only that Explosions in the Sky is one of the most mighty, otherworldly bands out there these days, but that their comrades Ptarmak are wonderfully talented as well. Check it out, this will send you out into another dimension:

On that note, Sissy Emmons is my new favorite illustrator. Do you think her amazing piece of work resembles my Village painting at all?

day of the triffids

2011-06-20T15:02:00.001-04:00

One of my paintings was featured in Wintergarden's perfectly beautiful and whimsical Etsy treasury, "Day of the Triffids." I love so many of the other pieces included in this selection . . . for example, Wolfieandthesneak's Pod Poster, which feeds my pod obsession, is something I've been eyeing for a year or more! Also I so love the wonderful watercolors by Gollybard, a shop I check often. Finally, what a wonderful undersea world Magnolia Moonlight created in the aptly named View from a Little Submarine Window! And for any of those out there (like myself) wondering just what a triffid is, why of course, it's " a tall, mobile, carnivorousprolific and highly venomous fictional plant species." Indeed. Worth some further exploration!

CSA: See Some Art

2011-06-18T21:54:00.002-04:00

We joined the Red Hook CSA, and life is looking brighter by the minute. This is week one and it's already feeling like water in the desert, especially after months of missing the Park Slope Food Coop's heavenly cheap and great organic produce (that's another story), compounded by the horrors of Fairway and Trader Joe's produce . . . Needless to say, Community Supported Agriculture is the way to go. And Added Value Community Farm is rocking it out with urban gardening and community activism at is best. These line drawings/watercolor paintings, the first in what will be an ongoing CSA series, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Radishes

Garlic Scape

Snap Pea

little dresses

2011-06-18T14:12:00.000-04:00

So it seems that having a daughter breeds sewing-of-cute-dresses, so I've made a few over the past two and a half years. For one baby dress I used a lovely super-soft Japanese fabric with many cute animals, combined with a silky polka-dot that had begun as a skirt of mine, then been transformed into pillow cases, and finally presented itself as a complementary fabric.

Once I cut up an old sweatshirt and turned it into a dress for both Magnolia and her doll Susie too.

Some that Magnolia hasn't worn now need to find homes, and two are for sale in the Curious Urchin shop. One for a baby, another for a toddler, both featuring beautiful Dwell fabrics.

This next piece was a gift for another baby, an experiment with two fabrics that I loved:

Now, I'm off to deal with this insane pile of fabric that I keep saying I am going to use!

among the thousands

2011-06-16T21:52:00.000-04:00

There we are, second row down, eighth from left

Etsy did a call for sellers to come out for a photo shoot back in the Winter, and so the girl and I went out to the city for an adventure. We had fun waiting our turn and having our picture taken in a light-filled loft in midtown, but then I forgot about it and it only just now occurred to me to look for the magazine. Turns out that we made the cut! And we (yes, Magnolia is there too....looks like the youngest Etsy seller of the bunch!) made our way into the April issue of Inc. magazine. Seeing as how I'm just one of 400,000 Etsy sellers, hundreds of whom were photographed that day, and dozens of whom ended up in a feature spread in the magazine, I'm not surprised that I never received official notification that I had made it to print. My Etsy jewelry shop has not received any spikes in sales (though on Halflight I did sell 7 paintings to one person the other day, what a lovely treat!), so I can't say that this form of press was effective for me personally, but the adventure in the loft was worth doing! See pictures for evidence of one of NYC's hidden treasures, Gary's Loft. And here's a link to the article itself.

love wins

2011-04-19T10:29:00.001-04:00

The Life of Heaven Now, Acrylic on canvas, silk, thread, found objects, 10 x 8 inches

There's heaven here now, somewhere else.
There's heaven here, sometime else.
And then there's Jesus's invitation to heaven
here
and
now,
in this moment,
in this place.

Try and paint that.

(Rob Bell, Love Wins, 2011, page 62)

Rob Bell's book is waking me up. So when I saw the words, try and paint that, I knew that I had to. I've been collecting shards of heaven and hell from NYC streets for years, waiting to one day begin a series of paintings (some combination of Superimposed Cities and Lost Cities series) based around these cryptic, beautiful and heartbreaking objects. So here is the first. My heart beeps (as my 2 year old daughter says) in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a neighborhood with a long history of intergenerational poverty, unemployment, and low levels of high school completion, which is also home to my little friend Heaven, who turns nine today. Here are some things I have discovered on the ground in Red Hook: 1. Sycamore seed pod 2. Heroin bag 3. Shell 4. Nail 5. Sea glass 6. Metal heart pendant with peeling pink paint 7. Plastic gun 8. Puzzle piece. These lost remants remind me that heaven and hell are here, now, with us in Red Hook and beyond, and they act as miniature yet tangible reminders that "if we want hell, if we want heaven, they are ours" (p. 118).

[Taken from the original Occasional Religion post, Kristin Brenneman Eno, April 19, 2011]

occasional religion

2011-03-08T23:20:00.002-05:00

A friend from college, Cabell King, launched a really thoughtful blog, Occasional Religion, and I'm honored to be a part of it. He has invited a fascinating selection of scholars, poets and visual artists to weigh in on current events through the lens of our respective faiths and academic and/or artistic perspectives. Here is the series of collages I made in response to the current conflict in Libya:

"Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing," Ezekiel 47:12.

Wanna hear angel music

2011-01-11T23:52:00.002-05:00

Rember the snow?

It's 1.11.11. You are two, and the snow has returned.

Let me tell you somepin.

Now that you're two, Noli girl, I'm going to play the special Angel Music. It's Múm. It's floaty and scratchy and must have been recorded during another era. Look at the angels in the cemetery. Remember when we saw them? It was October, the light was coming through the trees. We were walking. Angels were everywhere. The ladies were singing "Somewhere over the rainbow" from behind the vines. You watched and you listened. You held an acorn. You didn't know that song yet, but now you do.

Emme hold you a minute?

Why, just because I was looking the other way? Did you think I forgot you? OK, I will hold you.

In the hollow tree.

That's where Nicholas the Bunny lives.

Emme feed you?

Sure, I'll feed you. You means me and me means you. That's right.

Let me hink about it.

You are two. You sing Jesus loves me under your breath, on your exhale. You breathe by singing. That one, and Jesus loves the little children. Did I really sing those enough that you could learn to breathe them? Or were you born knowing these things?

I feeled my heart beep.

Every time I saw you. It beeped. I've felt your heart beep, and it beeps fast. Faster than any human I know. I suppose because you're a miniature human. But that's always relative.

Emme see My-yo-ya.

Yes I know, you kids and technology.

Love you so. Don't forget it.

Spirit Ship :: Heaven Speaks

2010-12-22T12:13:00.000-05:00

first child in the woods

2010-11-03T13:50:00.002-04:00

Another year, another birthday....So strange how it's all rushing out from under us. The things I love in life are so ephemeral, it's hard to remember how precious life is, until I or someone I love has a birthday, or someone I love dies, or our little one says something we didn't know she knew was capable of thinking or saying. Like when we walk outside in the fall light and she says "it's beau-ful." Or when she watches Spirit Ship and says,
I want children right now.
Painting somepin inside.
Rainbow, rainbow, yes!
So just when my hope is faltering, these sweet words bring me back and make it all okay. And I remember that we are living inside a gift.

So I wanted to post something to honor the adventures we've had this year, in the outdoors . . . All too often M and I only went as far as our own ridiculously urban concrete courtyard (Oh Mommy, she must wonder, why do you have so much work? and I answer, it's for the children, for the children. Which children? She wonders . . . I'm a girl, right Mommy, what about me?), but thankfully we experienced some sun-dappled grace throughout the year. And it all makes me wonder, Have we really come to the Last Child in the Woods, as Richard Louv proposed in his book? For once let's see the glass as half full (I'm talking to myself here, with end-of-year resolutions and such) and let's imagine that we're the very First Child in the woods. It's wonderful to be there, light dappling through, crickets chirping, leaves falling. It's so good to be alive.

This last image is a reminder of the artists who do great work to bring the outside in. When we cannot be out there, we can at least honor the outside and reveal aspects of it that invoke a sense of reverence and help us to see the beauty of life and living more fully. So this is Roxy Paine's mushroom world at James Cohen Gallery this fall. And further above you see Patrick Dougherty's work at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden....a fairy house built of sticks, which is up for a year for all ages to run through with all abandon and mystery. This is the stuff....

And just to remember the Little Creatures, the bush babies of the world, here's one more message from "M-Nolia" to take us on our way:
No cryin
No tears coming out
'Pecial treat M-Nolia and a bush baby
M-Nolia's bush baby

hold out two hands to catch the light

2010-09-12T01:00:00.018-04:00

Some pieces from Sean's new What Are Defenders series were featured in a show at Kidd Yellin Gallery (curated by Work Gallery) that opened on September 11, 2010. Yes, that was the date (that one's just out of place). We were so happy to see friends and family including Liz, Mike and company, Jeremy, Shariffa, Masa and Maggie, Damijan and the illustrious Monique, who graced us with her presence on the very week her amazing new novel came out.

We took Magnolia for the first hour and she was immediately drawn into Richard Oliver Wilson's bubble machine, perched atop Yellin's hulking yet elegant old printing press in the doorway of the warehouse, that was sending larger-than life-size bubbles out into the sinking sun at the edge of Red Hook. As she wobbled and skidded to and fro, chasing, popping, jumping at and into shiny orbs, following ponderous glowy globes as they morphed one into another and alighted on the floor, turning to half-moons, as they increasingly took on a supernatural outline from the falling sunlight, I noticed a beautiful thing: she would every so often turn in the direction of the bubble contraption, and stand still and wait. Then she would reach out both hands, turn palms up to the sky, and wait for the bubbles to come. The upturned palms would then cup the air and the fingers would beckon, gimme...come here, those so-sweet fingers we've watched grow from fetus to baby to girl. "Come over here, bubbles, I'mmonna getchyou," the fingers said. "But I'll wait patiently," the stillness of her body said. I was struck by the quiet and mournful and spiritual nature of the pose, and considered the phenomenon of a 20-month-old child raising hands as if praising something or Someone. I whipped out my phone and started snapping a painful amount of pictures, telling myself the whole time, "how ridiculous, to need to document this much, to take so many pictures of my child," but all along never coming close to capturing the bubbles or the golden light or the otherworldly joy on the face of my daughter. The phone camera simply wouldn't do justice to this unbelievably lovely scene in our lives. Dalton, a talented photographer, offered some solutions to this problem. I chatted away with him and others, but all the while I kept doing what I consider pretty rude (even to photographers?): snapping pictures. Was that as bad as texting while having a conversation? Worse? All I could process was that my daughter was tasting heaven and I was trying my best to see through her eyes and behold just a touch of the glory she was feeling. I knew Sean had brought his Real Camera and I tried to get his attention to find out where it was. Later I found it in the bottom of the stroller . . . it stayed there all along, never used by either of us, even throughout this insane display of light and joy, never even then. I kept seeing her body go still with palms upturned, fingers curling sweetly, back and forth. I was riveted--this looked not only beautiful and amazing, but very much like something that I knew well but could not place. When I asked MaryAnne, she said The Red Balloon. Yes yes of course, that wonderful film that is over and under and through everything I ever do, that one, yes. But that wasn't it. That body, prone, straight, not moving, but waiting, standing, looking. Those hands, upturned. I couldn't place it.

Until I was riding home on my bike (every time I ride my bike at night in Red Hook I ask myself why I haven't done this every single night of the five years I've lived in this lost and broken land by the sea). That's when I discovered what it was. My daughter was re-enacting her father's animated film that he made about his father. She stood still, waiting for those bubbles, exactly as Sean had stood when those bubble-like dots came out of his hands and heart, and floated up toward the sky, toward the ghost of his father, toward the future and the past, in his film Father/Son. I've posted both images so you can see for yourself. If you'd like to see Sean's film, I guess you'll have to ask him.

bew-fuls

2010-08-23T20:08:00.012-04:00

My daughter is teaching me how to speak, and by extension, how to see and to feel (abilities I have all but lost).

"Bew-fuls, bew-fuls," she says, while looking at the shells we collected at the beach in NC last week. Does she really say beautiful, now? I can't even believe this. "Water comin," she says, when the ocean is roaring toward us, and there is no way to convey how absolutely perfect that word "comin" sounds when she says it. It is the sweetest thing. "Rainbow fall down" she says while reading and re-reading the Noah story, with which she has become sincerely fascinated. For that matter, "Animals comin" and "Fire comin" also feature prominently in the Noah readings.

Which brings me to the "deep fire," or dehumidifier, which was required when I flooded the bathroom at the beach house (oh no, no, no, but all too true). "Petties, petties (pretties)," she says of the small stones we collected on Martha's Vineyard earlier this summer.

"Rainin, poh-in" she sings, then, "ah, moh-nin, ah, moh-nin." Sean and I can't figure out if this is some song abut Morning that we don't know where she learned, or if she's simply singing in her own language, as sometimes when we say "I love you," and she responds, "Ah Mohnin," and then starts singing this poetic phrase over and over. It's what she sings when feeling happy or comforted, and more than anything, it comforts us. It tells us that it's all going to be alright--really Mommy, really Daddy, really it is.

salvage, redeem

2010-08-06T23:10:00.005-04:00

Whenever the Broken Land feels just too broken to be salvaged, and I want to run away, it is somehow redeemed. Today the Brooklyn Botanic Garden rescued me from slow and steady decline into mommy malaise.

A divine lotus and its roots, some intricate star/leaf formations in the same pool, Magnolia's joy at looking up at trees ("I'm just laying down," she said, while looking up through the branches at the sky beyond), her joy at touching the sprinkler over and over and over, and the wonderful environmental sculptor Patrick Dougherty working on a new installation at the garden:

ruminate

2010-07-25T22:19:00.017-04:00

Two of my Superimposed Cities paintings have been published in Issue 16 of RUMINATE, a gem of a magazine "created in 2006 by a few fellow writers, artists, and believers who wanted a space for the thoughtful expressions of those who are nudged forward, backward, and sideways by faith in God." The images are not in the online issue, but here at least is the Table of Contents with links to a few sections of the issue posted online. I am posting the two paintings here and you can also see them on my site:

Both of the paintings, like the rest of this series (started in '06 and as yet unfinished) feature overlapping city maps. ‘Sow: Jerusalem/New York’ (2006, blue) marks the death and resurrection of Christ and the city where I live; ‘He turned their waters into blood’ (title from Psalm 105:29, 2007, red) marks the cities devastated by Hurricane Katrina and the U.S. War in Iraq. Sheer pockets containing seeds hover in the footprints of historically significant landmarks, from Calvary to the Iraqi National Museum to the New Orleans Superdome. (See key to Waters into Blood here for more details).

I am honored and so happy that these pieces are being published the same month that I sold another piece from the series, Hearing the land that was now of my blood and flesh (title from Faulkner's As I Lay Dying). This piece will eventually go to live with its new owner in Japan--I'm thrilled that what started as a document of and about the place where I make my home, will make its own home in a far away place that intrigues and mystifies me, a place I hope to visit again soon.

Perhaps this convergence means that I need to sit down and take stock of this work, lest I forget to make more of it, forget to continue where I left off (when I had my little creature and became obsessed with making Little Creatures live and breathe). So, while the spotlight is on these pieces that I often think of as my "real work," (as opposed to the many small paintings and mixed media pieces, not to mention the jewelry and mobiles and toys and oh, did I say . . . films? Oh yeah, the other "real work," fill the space around me), it might be worth noting here how many times I have written and rewritten my artist's statement concerning these Superimposed Cities. The pithy statement that ends up in my Ruminate bio, "Using a range of materials to collapse space and time provides a transformative way for me to process meaningful and traumatic events," has come a long way over these past four years. So as if to prove that "artist's statement" were the most ridiculous oxymoron, here are some previous incarnations, from dozens of grant and show applications . . . tracing the idea from its genesis, back in 2000, when I was simply cutting into canvas and suspending seeds within sheer fabric attached to the edges of holes, to 2006, when I started drawing cities one on top of the other, suspending the seeds and other natural materials within footprints of buildings:

• My cuts and stitches into my canvases, my stuffing of bits and pieces of the earth, further connect abstract to real.
• I am intrigued that a painting might rupture and give way to sculptural forms, almost of its own will. Perhaps this is a way that I can reconcile my need to make both two and three-dimensional work. Perhaps this is a rebellion of the will, because I know that painting can always reach for the illusion of beauty or reality or life, but can never truly become something that I can hold in my hands and love. Just as I chase light with strokes of a paintbrush, I chase form so far that I must bring the surface and build out from within.
• I cut into the canvas and stuff sheer pockets of fabric with bits and pieces of the earth and its elements--seeds, twigs, moss, stones and glass, to disrupt the picture plane and create a more dynamic interplay of image and object, and to include the actual reference points of my paintings, in the paintings themselves.
• By combining disparate elements, I am seeking to make sense of life, death, the injustice of war and the possibility of grace.
• The streets of Ancient Rome intersect those of present-day Washington, D.C. ('Seeds of Empire'); the streets of my neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn, intersect those of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, of the 1920's ('Hearing the Land'), collapsing time and space and welcoming stories into dialogue with one another through visual relationships.
• 'Seeds of Empire' asks the viewer, what is empire, where did it begin, where is it going, and will it implode within our lifetime? Buildings represented by roots and seeds shown in their fullness: the Imperial Fora, Colosseum, Basilica Julia and the Capitolium. Buildings represented by seeds shown in late and rotting stages: White House, Capitol, Senate and Congressional Buildings, and the Supreme Court.
• I cut into canvases to stuff and sew sheer pockets of fabric with bits and pieces of organic objects, marking significant points on these maps where the course of history has changed.
• I am incorporating drawings of superimposed city maps to create imaginary cities from disparate yet sociologically relevant urban areas, as seen from above.
• I superimpose city maps on top of one another, such that new, imaginary cities spawn from disparate, yet sociologically relevant, and very real, times and places.
• I superimpose cities, fabricating locales out of disparate times and places. I stuff sheer pockets of fabric with organic objects and sew them into the canvas to mark significant historical points on the maps.
• These pieces serve as the personal account of the horror I have experienced as these cities have crumbled in more ways than one.
• These pieces serve as a personal account of the horror I have felt as these cities have crumbled in more ways than one, and a meditation on the ephemerality of civilizations.
• I create a new reality as a collapsed space-time continuum, where far-flung places and events are inextricably entwined.
• Through these painted and sewn documents, I challenge viewers to see reality as a collapsed space-time continuum, wherein related current and past events are inextricably entwined.
• Through these painted and sewn documents, I challenge viewers to see reality as a collapsed space-time continuum, and to see the beauty and horror of current and past, true and fabricated events for what they are--inextricably entwined.

Much dreaming . . .

2010-04-28T13:18:00.007-04:00

Much dreaming and many words, a show featuring a selection of my paintings and mixed media pieces from 2003-2010, will be on exhibit for one more week at the Brooklyn Creative League in Gowanus. Faith Evans-Sills and her husband Frank Sills put this show together, in collaboration with Neil Carson and Erin Carney who founded BCL, a very inspiring "Workspace + Community for Independent Professionals." I'm grateful for this opportunity to show my work and look forward to seeing more art that Faith and Frank curate in the space.

Missing you, Papaw

2010-03-29T23:35:00.015-04:00

It's been over a week since you left this world. We are missing you.

Trees for Haiti

2010-02-11T18:10:00.006-05:00

It has almost been a month since the earthquake devastated Haiti. Here is the first of a series I am painting in honor of the 230,000 (+) people who lost their lives, and as a gesture of solidarity with the hundreds of thousands more people who are injured and/or left without a home.

How can I hope to make a dent in the overwhelming collective pain that Haiti has experienced?

I really do not know. I'm just painting some pieces and offering 100% of the sales to Partners in Health, the nonprofit medical relief organization that founded its first community clinic in Haiti in 1985. I chose this organization because its co-founder, Jim Yong Kim, is currently president of Dartmouth College, where I spent four years as an undergraduate. From the Partners in Health website: "Zanmi Lasante ('Partners In Health' in Haitian Kreyol) is PIH’s flagship project – the oldest, largest, most ambitious, and most replicated. Today, ZL ranks as one of the largest nongovernmental health care providers in Haiti – and the only provider of comprehensive primary care, regardless of ability to pay, for more than half a million impoverished people living in the mountainous Central Plateau."

This first piece is called "Tree Fern for Haiti." It is a tree fern leaf, painted on a dictionary page that includes the entry "Haitian." This comes out of some research I've just started on the flora and fauna of Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere and one that is over 90 percent deforested. I don't yet know how many tree ferns are still growing in Haiti, but I know they are an indigenous species. When I looked at the digital specimen image library of the Freie Universität Berlin, I found this particular leaf shape as a specimen from Haiti.

This original watercolor painting is on sale in my Etsy Halflight shop for $35. The complete proceeds from the sale of this and following paintings from this series (Trees for Haiti) will go directly to Partners in Health, for their efforts there.

from snow to snow

2009-12-31T18:26:00.007-05:00

2009 came and ended with a snow, and a new life. We'll never be the same.

reference section

2009-11-30T10:59:00.004-05:00

I have begun a new series that I'll be posting for sale in my Halflight/Etsy shop: paintings and drawings on old dictionary and encyclopedia pages. This first piece is an acrylic painting of a juniper branch in a range of greens, on an encyclopedia page from the 20's (though I can't be sure, Sean and I saved a human-sized stack of a set that we rescued from Pacific St. in 2001, until our move in 2005, at which time I tore out the pages that seemed interesting, none of which seems to be a title page with a date). The pages have all been through some weather, so they are brittle, brown around the edges and water-damaged, but this makes for a perfect surface upon which to paint a simple image. So these days I've been asking myself if painting matters anymore, since I don't seem to be doing it (now that Little Creatures and MME have taken over life as I know it)...and we shall see. I'm hoping and praying it that does matter, for if it doesn't, it will be like the death of a dear friend, and nothing less.

One Week Later

2009-09-21T23:07:00.001-04:00

hudson valley pods

2009-09-15T13:58:00.003-04:00

Sean presented me with a milkweed pod from somewhere around Beacon, where I was selling this past Saturday at the Handmade Cavalcade. Then, I found a cousa dogwood (my favorite pod in the whole wide world!) growing in the yard of St. Phillips church in Garrison. . . where we visited our dear friends Tinkie and Blake.

summer in red hook

2009-08-29T12:43:00.005-04:00

Little Creatures in Small Magazine

2009-08-27T15:30:00.005-04:00

Little Creatures has been featured in the Autumn 09 issue of a beautiful online magazine, Small. The article is here. This magazine edited by Olivia Pintos-Lopez and Christine Visneau has a way of revealing the beauty of childhood in a way that I find quite rare. I am so happy that the editors were interested in Little Creatures. They asked wonderful questions, so I hope my answers were effective in explaining some of the story behind my work.

Fall Handmade Cavalcade

2009-08-19T18:35:00.006-04:00

I will be selling jewelry and handcrafted objects for baby at the Fall Handmade Cavalcade in this September 12, from 11 to 7, in the Beacon Bookmarks' Barn at the corner of Main St. and North Cedar in Beacon, NY. This is a {NewNew} event featuring over twenty Etsy sellers from NYC and the Hudson Valley. If you can't be there, perhaps you have a friend in the area who would like to come? It's going to be a great show!

designer of the month: the extended interview

2009-08-18T19:28:00.011-04:00

Look who's designer of the month at Brooklyn Indie Market! Could this be the youngest indie designer ever? Well, lookie here: I just so happen to have an extended interview on hand, and I thought I would post it for any of you out there who were interested in my daughter's creative endeavors. Here it is!:

Magnolia of CURIOUS URCHIN

Tell us a bit about yourself name, location, affiliations, personal stuff.
I’m basically an unwieldy, very chubby yet tall-for-my-age minor, with a whopping 6 months on the planet under my belt.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?
Pee, poop, sleep, laugh, grumble, raise my eyebrows, smile, whimper, moan, execute blood curling screams, semi-crawl, backwards scoot, half-way sit, shake rattles, eat every surface in range, eat peas and carrots, drink Mommy’s milk, sweat to the Oldies (nah, I really prefer Post-Rock), kick my left leg over and over, do power salutes, grow my fingernails out, flirt with strangers, stare at strangers, scratch at the floorboards and fabric patterns, pound on surfaces, scream for joy without letting up, especially from 6-7am.

What first made you want to become an artist?
What’s an artist? My mommy and daddy are kind of crazy, is that what artist means? I was born in a minor snowstorm, under a full moon--do those things make me an artist?

Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc.
I’m a sewing prodigy--basically I’ve been sewing since I was in the womb. I like the machine and all, but mostly I like to sew edges with my pudgy yet elegant fingers. Hand-sewing, that’s what I like. There’s something therapeutic about the repetitive nature of sewing….and eating, plush fabric edges. My inspiration comes from the sweet and beautiful animals, plants, colors and shapes that grow inside cotton fabrics. Especially the ones that come from Japan. I don’t really know what Japan is but it must be a wonderful place if it looks anything like the fabric that comes from there.

What handmade possession do you most cherish?
My first Curious Urchin teether--it's shaped like a puffy flowery star. I like to suck on it until I soak it with my cute baby spit. Then I move on to the next object or surface and put it in my mouth. But I always come back to the Curious Urchin teethers, for some reason. Made at home makes a difference, I guess. I also enjoy handmade and natural/fabric/wood creations from Little Alloutte, Babus, Acorn Toy Shop, Under the Nile (the veggies!), Haba, and Melissa and Doug's wooden toys. My other favorite thing is my mobile! I made one and it kept me entertained for months, so I decided to make more and more, for other babies. They are so fun, cause you can mix and match the shapes, so no two are alike!

What advice would you give to artists new to BIM?
When I’m at BIM the only way to go is to roll with Auntie Kathy. She takes me around to meet the peeps (by the way, I love Peeps, Marshmallow Peeps, even though I can’t eat them yet), by carrying me or pushing my stroller. So my advice for all of you who may never have done BIM: Get in good with Auntie Kathy!

In ten years I’d like to be…
An actor in Little Creatures films. My mommy and daddy don’t know that I want to be this . . . so I’ll have to be sneaky about it.

PS:
I got tired of dictating to my secretary, so here’s a parting word of advice to all you designer people out there:
B v hh j bzz m f b xc 888nm nh ,hnh j uikns sbvyv n nwx bv b

process dictates outcome

2009-08-03T11:42:00.006-04:00

I contributed this piece to the Benefit for Nicole Gagne, the jewelry artist who was injured when a staircase collapsed this past April at the Crane St. Studios in Long Island City. The show was this past Thursday at Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, and 100% of the money from art sales went to Nicole. While I know several artists who have worked in the building, from painter Hein Koh to tintype artist Keliy Anderson-Staley, I do not know Nicole, but I was intrigued to see on her jewelry website that our jewelry has some similarities. . . hammered metal shapes suspended on chains, inspiration from nature, incorporation of natural objects, and a philosophy of work, ‘Process dictates the outcome,' that resonates deeply with my own theories of making and teaching. I painted a watercolor representation of one of her metal shapes and attached seeds onto the FREE WILL entry of an old encyclopedia page. I hear she is doing much better, thankfully. I hope we can meet someday.

tame those wispy summer locks

2009-07-23T11:30:00.005-04:00

From now until this Sunday, all bobby pin sets in my Etsy shop will be 50% off! These are a fun solution to fly-away summer tresses, sun-dried beach-hair, the growing-out-the-bangs phase, the need for a crown of jewels, and everything in between. I have two listings for custom pins, one for a set of two, the other for a set of four. At half price, these unique, made-to-order sets some to just $3 and $6 each! I also have a cute millefiore bobby pin set with a handmade gift bag, only $9 with the discount. Just enter SUMMERPINS in the message box at the checkout, and I will send you a modified Paypal invoice. Thanks for shopping!:

curious urchin :: fabric art

2009-07-16T15:58:00.005-04:00

I have been smitten by the fabric collage bug, which flew into my window when I gave birth to Magnoliagirl. Currently, whether I like it or not, my hands must be kept busy at all times sewing shapes and colors and patterns to each other. I am inspired to the point of obsession by the thousands of possibilities when it comes to printed designs on cotton fabric. I love using miniature printed trees, creatures, flowers, suns, stars, as starting points, cutting out around their inked outlines and re-arranging them, intermarrying them, many fabric origins all in one carefully-crafted pattern of my own, a completely original wall hanging that longs for a child to gaze upon it for years to come. These pieces are available for sale at my new Etsy shop, Curious Urchin. Hope you can visit, especially if you're looking for mobiles or teethers for the 2-8 month-old set.

{newnew}

2009-06-24T20:20:00.005-04:00

I just joined the {NewNew}. What fun! I am happy to be associated with such lovely artists as MaryAnne of Wabisabi Brooklyn:

Anne Arden McDonald:

who is now selling beautiful cast rings on Etsy:

and the illustrious Virginia:

. . . whom I had lost but now have found.

three things

2009-06-23T16:11:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, Cricket featured one of my word painting/collages in her lovely blog, Three Things. I love her work, too. She makes textile neckpiece/necklaces that are quite unusual and beautiful.

cells:::connected

2009-06-05T12:02:00.004-04:00

One of my paintings was featured in a beautiful Etsy treasury this week:

post-trunk show

2009-05-24T18:01:00.015-04:00

Virginia Galvan (pictured below next to her work) and I had a wonderful trunk show.

I was honored to show my work at Cozbi's shop (images above, below and a nice blog about the shop at Allyn Howard's Blipadee), one of my most favorite spots in NYC, and blessed with lots of help from dear Sean (who took many of these pictures) and even little Magnoliagirl, who made friends left and right! The whole thing inspired me to make more pieces and do more jewelry shows . . .

Cozbi and Amanda

One of Cozbi's amazing dolls.

Beautiful bibs, quilts and pillows...and some lovely dresses, for little ones.

Cozbi's multitalented hands.

A Southern Magnolia pod.
Ladies wearing their Pixie Petals:

Roxanne (oval painted wood/silver lariat)

Maggie (silver/wood lariat)

Evelyn (gold and sea urchin earrings)

Maggie (double B/W Venetian glass bead lariat)

Marika (triple teardrop lariat with carnelion and chalcedony)

Cindy and her mom Charl (Silver circle earrings with smokey quartz + Blown glass and LED earrings)

Monique (Vintage bead with silver lariat)

kbe with a sleepy mme (Large brown felted wool bead with silver).
Damijan Saccio took many lovely photos as well, here are a few:

pre-trunk show

2009-05-08T22:13:00.006-04:00

Here are some of the new pieces I am getting ready for tomorrow's Trunk Show at the wonderful Cozbi in Brooklyn:

Virginia Galvan will also be selling her amazing organic forms: silver and vermeil leaves and flowers on beautiful cords for necklaces, and as earrings. See flyer:

in the season of long lost banks

2009-04-26T12:08:00.016-04:00

In the year that all the banks went down, one stood still, or moved just enough to allude to its steady decline in the memory of this city.

This lone haunted sentinel called the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, once filled with dentists, as if written into a Lethem novel, is being transformed as we wake and dream into luxury lofts, so as to defy and deny history, not to claim it or pretend it isn't past.

Once a fancy hall of money exchange, a dependable time piece, a choice venue for taking in a city panorama. Still the tallest building in the Broken Land, but not for long (when it becomes dwarfed by Ratner's Gehryization of this roiling borough's central corridor).

For many years this building was my lanky friend rising up from Flatbush, out of the fog, a needed compass for wandering eyes and thoughts.

As it fills up with luxurious consumers of the urban luxury lifestyle, this lonely muse will offer up its nostalgia in tamer, watered-down bursts, like a shaved ice held in my hand a few moments too long, on a hot city day.

See inside the building on Nathan Kensinger's amazing blog, which inspired me to say a few things on this subject.

pod head

2009-04-07T16:23:00.003-04:00

Pod Heads, as we know, have a way of finding each other. What a beautiful Etsy treasury my green pod painting has been featured in. (I'm ending in a preposition in honor of all the misplaced apostrophes of the world.)

thistlepixie's threads

2009-03-08T20:33:00.001-04:00

Introducing a line of original, hand-embellished shirts featuring whimsical fabric shapes on cotton t's for ladies, gentlemen, girls and boys. For sale in my Etsy/Halflight shop.

southern magnolia

2009-02-24T17:50:00.006-05:00

I grew up climbing Magnolia trees, especially those at Duke Gardens, when we still lived in Durham. The trees were so tall, and the branches perfect for climbing . . . you could go until it was just you and the sky. . . I know there is a picture of me, somewhere in the files, playing far up in one of those glorious trees, circa 1981. I went back with Mom and Dad in 2006, and sat in the branches of one of them, and the nostalgia was pretty heavy.

We planted a Magnolia tree in our yard in Shelby, around 1990. Now it is over forty feet tall and produces perhaps hundreds of giant fragrant flowers a year. Here's a watercolor I did of one of the pods, with one last bright red seed hanging on.

no pale imitation

2009-02-19T15:39:00.006-05:00

I am selling original paintings, monoprints and drawings here. Many sizes and subjects and prices, but you can be certain these are the real thing, nothing copied, nothing scanned in, nothing printed out on my home office inkjet. Selling only originals is my response to the culture of commodification that surrounds us, in every sector, including the world of art commerce, particularly as manifest in the scores of art prints now available from artists who sell their work all over the great wide interweb. I took a hint from one of my wayward muses, Cat Power: if I have to cover my own tune, well, it ain't gonna have the same melody. Seriously folks (to add to that a sentiment from one who is not even my muse, but hey, Knows Things just as well): (since this world is killing me, killing us all) my aim is true.

one and one make three

2009-02-14T20:48:00.002-05:00

These days and forever after, till maybe we make more humans, I have two sweet valentines. Before, two sycamore pods blessed our door, now there are three.

to carry forward that precious gift

2009-01-22T21:38:00.003-05:00

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, January 20, 2009

Three of my paintings are included in a show called You are Here, currently on view at the Hewitt Gallery at Marymount Manhattan College in NYC. The show opens this Thursday, December 11, and continues through January 6. Details of each piece are shown here:

The first depicts an aerial view of New Orleans, after the flood. Collaged under the oil painting are black and white photographic images of the destruction. It is entitled Into the waters they go, the wise and the lovely, after an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem, Dirge Without Music. See NYTimes article that inspired this title.

The next two paintings are part of an ongoing series of large-scale works depicting historically/politically weighted cities, superimposed on one another on the same picture plane. I have cut into these canvases to stuff and sew sheer pockets of fabric with seeds and other organic forms, as a way of marking significant points on these maps where the course of history has changed. Locations I have marked within Seeds of Empire (Rome/D.C.) include the US Capitol Building, the White House, the Forum and the Coliseum. Locations in He turned their waters into blood (Tigris/Mississippi) include the Iraqi National Museum, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, the Superdome and the Lower Ninth Ward. See painting/map key here.

older than jesus

2008-11-03T15:36:00.008-05:00

I suppose I never thought that one day I would actually be older than Jesus ever was when he walked the earth. Age shouldn't mean a single thing when considered against the backdrop of the ever-widening trajectory of all time and space. But the symbolic age of 33 will haunt me from now till I reach the eternal space, as I today I have moved past it. As Sean reminded me, the "Death Threat"/Jesus Year Birthday Card, is still appropriate (an image of a black cross, presented through the mail to him on his 33rd birthday, from the monks of Portsmouth Abbey, where he spent several years when half that sacred age). But isn't every age we all experience sacred? Who am I to have dwelt on 27, because of all the musical geniuses who left us at that age, and who am I to compare myself to the Son of Man, who spent thirty-three years in a physical body, to teach us how to love? It's a stretch.

I am finishing up a body of 33 small paintings, done over the course of this past year, which taken altogether was a extraordinary one. From the land of the rising sun to the ninth ward, from a spiritual shipwreck to the conception of a new life, this year was good, so good, more than good, and I'm praying to hold onto the threads of it and to weave them like seeds of life and light, into the fabric of the next. The one that starts today.

spirit ship(wreck)

2008-09-21T22:27:00.008-04:00

Little Creatures is coming onto the scene with its first HD short film, featuring six children from the Broken Land. It will be a mystery, shot on location at the crumbling waterfront spaces of Red Hook, and, if fate will have it, the Navy Yard's Hospital Campus. This is the first time I will be working with a crew, and I'm very excited to be collaborating with Damaris Cozza (assistant director/co-producer), Roman Jaquez (DP), Sean Eno (Super 8), Henri Falconi (1st AD, 2nd Camera) and Sarah Hoit (costumes...additional designs by Kathy Malone of Fofolle and Elisha Georgiou). Here are images of what is to come:

And an excerpt from the story. . .

Three children are walking along the crumbling shoreline of Brooklyn and stumble upon a pile of detritus from what appears to be a shipwreck. Elements of a ship are interspersed in a pile in which a waterlogged violin in a weathered case, a barely-working music box in the form of a bird in its cage, a cracked magnifying glass, several ancient rusty keys, many water-damaged family photographs, and an old, crushed suitcase, are also strewn. . .

Inside Sophia’s drum is a tiny bird’s nest, which she tends to every few minutes. Anastasia carries a purse, inside of which are some stones and a folded up letter, discolored with age. Milo’s camera takes note of various unusual details--cracks in the ground and in buildings, plants growing from cracks, urban detritus strewn about, and the haunting specter of the post-industrial landscape around him. . .

Heaven tries the last rusty key in the lock and it finally opens, creaking. She and her friends step inside. They venture forth into a darkened room and follow the only light that emanates from a flickering film, projected into the back wall of a cabinet that has been propped open, the door unevenly teetering on falling off. . .

Once finished, Spirit Ship (working title) will function as Little Creatures' prototype/proof-of-concept, a piece that will appeal to potential investors. . . a tangible, beautiful, poetic, mysterious product that will win funders over to a vibrant new film company that produces a completely new kind of media by and for young children.

A tree house, a me house. . .

2008-08-11T20:23:00.004-04:00

. . . a high as you can be house.

I created a Tree House Etsy Treasury in honor of human nesting and my desire to be in a home with branches that scratch the windows on windy nights and cast dappled shadows across the walls on winter mornings. Perhaps I thought of winter because today August in Brooklyn felt strangely balmy and breezy.

Flowers on the Wall

2008-08-07T15:11:00.001-04:00

The bathroom.

Stitching Thoughts

2008-08-04T12:03:00.004-04:00

Some new work I made at my last residency (at VCCA), incorporating verses from the Bible (carefully taken out of context, and sewn into fabric collages, leaving room for questions), images of seeds, actual seeds sewn into fabric, bits of stained fabric and painted cloth, and xerox/gel medium transfers. As my time in Virginia was limited, I decided to limit my materials, in an attempt to see in a new way. . .

This last piece, Virginia in Winter, was my gift to the VCCA collection.

Relocated, Reanimated

2008-07-25T17:25:00.013-04:00

While in Lynchburg, Virginia, down the highway from VCCA, where I spent a two week residency in February, I stumbled into a labyrinthine antique shop with rows and rows of books from every era of this century. Not only that, but this shop had more than one location, and I only got to fully explore one of the two (or three). To make matters even more interesting, the shop was two doors down from one of my new favorite bookshops/cafés of all time: Inklings/The White Hart, named for C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, and the "Inklings"...whose work I have loved for years, even making a pilgrimage to the Eagle and Child, the pub where they used to meet, in Oxford, on Elizabeth's and my trek through England in '97.

So here I stumbled upon such a charming bookshop named after this group of British literary giants, on the main street of old Lynchburg, which seems straight out of an old dusty photograph. The shop itself and its sister café has as their mission "to sell the good, the true and the beautiful," which also include an impressive selection of books on the "war between the states," another of my former obsessions. So I bought some books about Lewis' writings at the White Hart, then had a lovely conversation with Ed Hopkins, the owner, who invited me to look through his great collection of early editions, at Inklings. When I asked him about his most prized book, he retrieved a huge, beautiful fascimile of the Gutenberg Bible, and flipped through it with joy and care.

So getting back to the antique store. . .I have to say that it was an add-on, as I was so happy to have found Inklings and seen what a wonderful world Mr. Hopkins and his family are maintaining. But when I wandered back through the furniture I found a treasure trove of books, several of which had pages that offered themselves up to being source material or surfaces to paint on. Others of which I saw and immediately thought of the Reanimation Library, a treasure of a place, by the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

I knew that Andrew Beccone, the mastermind of the library, had an open call out to interested library users, for donations. . . so I picked up a few that I thought might pass muster:

Note the hilarious title Plant Parenthood (kindly passed over because its innards did not live up to its title) and some remarkable images from the great Kidney and Urinary Tract Infections book (happily accepted into the Library's collection). Such remarkable, unbelievable, over-the-top images are what the Reanimation Library is all about. Visitors are invited not only to peruse this treasure-trove of images we never thought possible or printable, but to scan them so as to use them in their projects, ah yes! What a wonderful place. . . I long for a long span of time to go and browse through the library for wonders unknown, but so far, I have only been able to spend a good long hour with the online image archive, which does not disappoint. Neither do either of these literary fellows, whose comprehensive and heartfelt book projects are there, in Lynchburg and in Brooklyn, to shower lost humans with life and hope.

A World Away

2008-06-07T02:07:00.006-04:00

Japan seems so long ago....and soon it will be. I'm trying to hold onto it as well as I can, with all the duties and schedules wasting away these hours two months later...I can't even manage to organize the memories, much less the images backlogged in my computer. Here is a still from the scene of Mysteries in the Woods we shot in Ome-shi with lovely Noah (7) and Akino (9), with kind help from Graham and Yasuko Fleming, by way of Paul Nethercott, to whom Mako Fujimura, the painter, and his International Arts Movement staff in Tokyo, referred me (in a true illustration of the ever-shrinking nature of the globe). Since we have returned, Sean has taken some time with the hundreds of photographs he shot (and I took several of these too, so if you see any close ups of unbelievably exquisite wedding reception food or unbelievably gorgeous brides....just think of me, snatching Sean's fancy camera away and re-living my high school yearbook staff memories). You can see his stunning collections, all three of them (click on "Japan Adventures" Part I, II and II in his June 1 and 6 posts), at the Problematic Outfit. I need to look at all three sets, over and over again...

Lost and Found

2008-05-30T00:46:00.001-04:00

Broken Land

2008-04-16T02:33:00.006-04:00

Something I meant to say when I saw it this winter, finally on the inside. Outside/inside, dark/light, and crackling paint underfoot. The Brooklyn Navy Yard in all its broken glory, waiting. . .

Hunger pangs. . .

2008-03-24T17:44:00.008-04:00

This little dollie hasn't enough food to eat. She finds it around the town, the detritus of abandoned streets of the post-industrial wasteland that she inhabits. She never gives up looking for something yummy--seed pods, glass shards, rusty hardware, and sections of secret notes. She met all the dollies in Doll Neighborhood and became overwhelmed...there were so many! But there were many nice dollies there, especially the beautiful fairy who came from a forest and fed her a whole meal, into her hungry belly. She is building her very own home in the Doll Neighborhood and hopes to stay for many years.

Doll Neighborhood....Coming Soon

2008-03-10T20:24:00.007-04:00

We have one more meeting of the Doll Neighbors, and some video editing to do...and we'll be ready to host the opening of our multidisciplinary exhibition, at the Village @ Gureje, on April 4. Here's more info, and thanks to Brooklyn Arts Council, Jimi and Karen at Gureje, and those who have donated to this project, so that we could bring an amazing group of artists together to give life to a whole community of dolls!

Dew and Ice

2008-02-18T02:19:00.012-05:00

A week in Virginia: the ice has crunched and melted, a calf has been born, the sliver of the moon has grown round and will soon eclipse, seeds have been sown+sewn, artifacts found, thoughts lost, art made, time reinvented, friendships begun, stories told, plans laid, stars shrouded, snow tempted, life remembered, horses considered, hope regained.

Mapping out mystery

2008-02-08T01:25:00.000-05:00

It has not been so long (a mere four months) since the last time I left town to make art. East Haddam turned into my muse, or, well, I should say it was the Willies and their secrets hanging in the trees, their shards cracking beneath my footsteps, their headstones staring out too innocently. No, here was the real muse, growing up out of the clearing as if it were a regional plant species, known only to the Devil's Hopyard:
So now I go again, to leave the Broken Land for the rolling hills of Virginia, for two brief winter weeks, and I can only hope there are thousands of trees with millions of branches, and that the wind is crisp. I'm taking no oils for the journey, and only one necklace, The Moon, from my dear boy. Paring down for the winter when winter has already been here and gone. I will arrive to a blank slate, four walls, waiting for something to be created within them. New stories to map, new woods to explore, new spaces to breathe.

Lost Carts of Red Hook

2008-01-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

I am truly sorry I missed the Idiatarod yet again. One day. . . and until then, I will dream on as I pass the lone carts that litter the streets of Red Hook, awaiting their next moment of glory. . .

I could not be the true CartPixie I was meant to be because of my heartfelt commitment to the Infinite Line. Here are some images, and a video will be posted soon:

Infinite Line

2008-01-23T18:14:00.001-05:00

Family Drop-In Draw-A-Thon
Sat January 26, 1 – 4pm
BRIC Rotunda Gallery
33 Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights
FREE

Come make art that will become a part of the exhibition! Artist Kristin Brenneman Eno will lead people of all ages in experimenting with drawing techniques on large scrolls. Stop by throughout the afternoon to find your drawing talent. Children and adults are encouraged to attend.

The Doll Neighborhood Comes to Town

2008-01-07T19:27:00.001-05:00

A while back, my fine colleague, Ellie Balk, painter/muralist/teacher, saw "Ark" (2004) and decided it was quite spooky, what with all those dolls reproducing inside boxes and such. Upon hearing this, I looked at Ellie's own dolls and said, "Why Ellie, you are one to talk" (about spooky dolls). What resulted from our ensuing conversation(s), between us ourselves, and well, need we tell you, between our dolls, themselves?

Doll Neighborhood! Coming to a Brooklyn neighborhood near you, that is, to Prospect Heights/Clinton Hill, from this February through April. What is this all about? Well, it's a combination quilting bee-indie film-art show, with lots of socializing among crafty types, sprinkled throughout the experience. It's a prototype for possibly many more to come...to neighborhoods far and wide. Here is the call to artists. Here is our website and blog.

If you live in the City of New York, or somewhere within walking/driving/swimming distance, Ellie and I hope you can be our Doll Neighbor. It's going to get pretty spooky.

Pixie Petals featured on ChaCha-Vintage and in stores around the world

2007-12-18T21:57:00.002-05:00

Dear Reader:
I hereby initiate my little artful blog at thistlepixie.blogspot.com. I want to share tales of art and life on pages made of electronic fibers. So I will do that, whenever and however I can, and at whatever cost.
Welcome.
From now on, life and all its ether shall be further filled with pixie news and diversions, notes on art that is true and/or just, memories of moments, and wonderments of fanatical noise-rock chicks....hmmm. Sounds thrilling! Oh, I forgot, what about musings of Faulkner-obsessed ex-Southerners?

The first item of note is that Pixie Petals is (or should I say, are) not dead! My jewelry line may have hibernated from the cold cold competitive Craft Shows of NYC and the warm fuzzy friendly Jewelry Parties of Shelby NC (a town that continues to nurture me, another of its long lost children), but it has not completely buried its head! On the contrary, my creations have been picked up by my lovely friend Cozbi's shop on Court St. in Carroll Gardens (on the far edge, near my current stomping grounds of Red Hook, and truly my very favorite shop in all of the great wide city of NYC), are being carried by the illustrious glass, metal and fiber maven Tosca Teran of Nanotopia in Toronto, and are still going strong at Shelby's own Buffalo Creek Gallery, a cute cooperative effort on the courtsquare in the Livermush Capital of the World. Also, Etsy continues to send approximately one client per month my way, a point about which I shall not complain (I can sing Etsy's praises for many hours on end)!

Anyway, I write with more pixie news and diversions: my dear college friend Chandra Guglik has featured Pixie Petals on her fine wonderful new webshop, Cha Cha Vintage!! Not only that....we really are in cahoots, as I made this selection of Pixie Petals just for her shop, using a collection of vintage pieces that worked with her shop and also displayed my lariat and clump designs. I will venture to tell you that this was not the only collaboration I have done with Chandra as far as Cha Cha Vintage is concerned...need I say more? (about my frightful forray into modeling? eep!). Here's wishing Chandra all the best with her website, filled with fun vintage finds...and thanks Cha for collaborating on this special selection of Pixies. Here's hoping they fly off the cybershelves!

Sincerely,
Kristin

PS: Arigato gozai mas to Sean Eno, who inspired me to write this blog.

*kbe*