Redefined

New England in the Fall

Last week, my husband and I travelled to New England for a 20th anniversary trip. We flew into the White Plains airport in NY and stayed overnight with Jeri Riggs. Jeri is a dear friend who I met through art, even though she lives just a few blocks from my childhood home in Dobbs Ferry. Here's a picture of us together and Jeri is wearing the hand dyed cotton scarf that she won in my blog contest. This scarf was displayed on the "corkboard" during my recent solo exhibit. She was one of three winners, but the only one who had her prize hand-delivered.

While we were in Dobbs Ferry, we had lunch at Sam's Italian Restaurant and ordered a specialty pizza. It was the best pizza I've ever eaten and even better than what I remembered from eating there as a child. If you are in the area, go try it yourself!

The next day, Tuesday, we travelled north along the Hudson River Valley and had a wine tasting at the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, the oldest winery in America. We stayed overnight at the Minnewaska Lodge at the base of the Shawangunk Mountains and had a spectacular view of the Shawangunk Ridge. Here's a picture of my husband, Steve, on the back porch for our room. As with all our accomodations on this trip, we walked in around 3 pm and asked if there were any rooms available. Most of the time, we were given a discount, often for an extra special room.

Wednesday, we stopped at the Culinary Institute of America, famous for training top chefs. We had a wonderful lunch at one of their restaurants and the mushroom soup will haunt my dreams for a long time to come. We drove over into Connecticut that afternoon, stopped at another winery for a tasting, then stayed overnight at the Tollgate Hill Inn, which dates back to the mid-1700s. This is the view of the inn from our porch.

Thursday, we drove through CT and stopped at the University of Connecticut bookstore. I had attended UConn for 3 semesters of graduate school, but the campus had totally changed since I was there and it was almost disorienting. We ended up on the shore near Mystic Seaport and found a wonderful place to stay at the Inn at Stonington. We ate dinner at a gourmet Mexican restaurant up the street, enjoyed the posh room and the quiet surroundings. Here are pictures of the lobster boats at the dock and the sunset from the back door of the inn.

Friday, we did the tourist thing and toured Mystic Seaport. They were preparing to restore one of the large sailing ships and we had the opportunity to see them dismantling parts of it so they can take it out of the water. A ride on a steam train in Essex completed the day.Our stay that night was at the Griswold Inn, the oldest inn in the country. The room did not have many of the usual hotel amentities, but we had met a wonderful family from England and had a great discussion with them. We even sat with them at breakfast the next morning and they will remain one of the highlights of the trip.

We returned home on Saturday evening and I would be remiss if I didn't include at least one picture of the glorious Fall foliage, which was at its peak during our trip. As an artist who loves color, I couldn't get enough of it. What a fantastic experience!

Art and meaning

After my recent solo show at Newman University ended, the gallery director told me that the students particularly enjoyed my exhibit because it was "political". I had never thought of my work that way, but there were some pieces in it that definitely had a political point of view, particularly Dispensed, Awarded and Segregated (shown here). These were the works that the students remembered, even though there were many more that were not political in nature. What made these pieces particularly memorable?

I have always been up front about the fact that I do not have any formal art education. A few months ago, I heard the word "narrative" being applied to art for the first time, even though that concept is probably taught in Art 101. It was quite an eye opener and I began to think about the narrative within my own art. Does it speak to people? Does it tell a story of some kind? Do I put sufficient meaning into my work to make the viewer think about what I am saying to them? If not, is my work forgettable, inconsequential or merely pretty?

When I was a junior at Hofstra University, I was required to take a course called Philosophy of Education. It was taught by Dr. Ignacio Gotz, who retired a few years ago with the reputation of being one of the greatest philosophers in the education field. For every class, we had to write an essay that addressed such seemingly simple questions as "What is education?" or "What is teaching?". Being the very literal-minded person that I am, I would often respond with the dictionary definition of the word. He never let me get away with that, of course. I recently realized that I was doing the same thing with much of the artwork in my Definitions series. Once again, I was presenting a very literal version of the word and not much more.

At the sculpture conference I attended last week, the keynote speaker was Jaume Plensa. I was very impressed with the depth of thought and heart he put into each artwork, whether it was immediately obvious to the viewer or not. This idea really resonated with me and I realized that I needed to do this, too. For me, this is what separates the truly great artists from those who merely make stuff. I have several pieces that are partially completed and need to be finished, but I believe that any new work I start after that will come from a lot deeper in my soul. The narrative will be there, to draw in the viewers and hopefully stay with them long after they have walked away from my exhibit.

The mark of a great teacher is that you are still learning from them years later. The mark of a great artist should be the same. Perhaps, to be a memorable artist, you really need to be a philosopher first.

International Sculpture Center Conference

On Saturday, I returned from the International Sculpture Center conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have been a member of the ISC for several years, but this was the first sculpture conference I attended. It's part of my general move from the art quilt community into the greater art world.

The conference was held on the grounds of the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and they couldn't have chosen a better location. If you are ever in the area, I suggest you visit the gardens, which has sculpture from some of the best artists in the world. Many of the sculptures are very large scale.

I arrived on Wednesday and that evening, I went to a pre-conference party at the home of a longtime arts advocate in the area. The house was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and had a wonderful lake view. The place was so crowded that I was often stuck in a hallway when trying to move around. It wasn't really a problem because it actually gave me the opportunity to talk to some wonderful artists and get to know them as we were stuck there together.

On Thursday morning, there was a preconference panel discussion at the hotel where I was staying. The topic was creating a city dedicated to public art. One sculpture they talked about in particular was a large Alexander Calder sculpture located about two blocks away. At very moment, there was a crowd of about a quarter of a million people surrounding that sculpture listening to a speech by Barack Obama. When I left the hotel to go to the sculpture gardens for the start of the conference, I was caught in the traffic leaving the speech. It was a little strange to see security personnel on the sidewalk just a few feet away from me who were obviously wearing about 60 pounds worth of large weaponry.

The general topic for the conference was public art, which really didn't pertain to me. However, I still learned a lot. The keynote address was given by Jaume Plensa, who creates wonderful sculptures like the Crown Fountain at Millenium Park in Chicago. I was really inspired by the meaning he infuses into his work.

Optional events included the opportunity to participate in an Art Slam. Up to six artists could present their work within the space of an hour. A number of other people turned up to listen to the presentations, too. Here's a picture of me giving my talk. The editor of Sculpture magazine was in the audience and I was glad in many ways that I was showing work that was so different than the others.

The last night of the conference was the monthly gallery hop in Grand Rapids. Here I am with Pam RuBert at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art. It is a great gallery and I plan to submit my portfolio in the near future, hoping to be considered for a show in one of their spaces. The most impressive exhibit was the Big Art Party, a once a year event held in an unused building in Grand Rapids. The Grand Rapids Art Museum had recently moved into a new building, so the party was held in their old location. All the marble and wood rooms (and there were a lot of them) were filled with some really impressive contemporary artwork. The music was pumping and the place was crowded. I wish we had an event like that in Wichita.

Overall, I would do it again in a heartbeat.