Year's End...

This is how I have felt for much of 2014.  I am both the crazed larger creature and the smaller bound figure.  It hasn't been a bad year, just a year that I am ready to say goodbye to.

And that I offer up tidings of potential happinesses and warm wishes.  Here's to a bright and shiny 2015!

Blue Bird (Happiness) Automata

 I have begun working on a little automata with help from my sweet husband.  This has be more of a collaboration than a solo project: my husband providing the mechanical know how and the logics of the thing.

This first foray is a crude little thing that I do not think will hold up to the masses of First Friday Art Walkers.  However, it has offered us valuable learning opportunities.  The materials for an automata MUST be rigid an durable. The wire we had on hand for the gearing was too pliable.  And the cardboard structure for the bird will not durable enough for use outside a small delicate circle.

This little piece will be shelved and held in esteem for helping us gather information on actually how to make these things (both my husband and myself are learners by doing...).  Hopefully, the new piece will be completed by Friday for the Art Walk in Portland Maine.  If you see me, you know you just need to ask politely to see the new automata.  I would love to share it with you!

Icy Consent

On First Friday I head out onto the street in disguise.  I want to be obvious and still remain somewhat anonymous.  I want people to be drawn and repelled by how I look.  

This past First Friday, December 5, it was very cold and dark here in Portland Maine.  So I layered my self in thick clothes and sewed lights on to the outside of my dress and in my white wig.  I lined my black bow with lights on the inside so that when it was opened it shone out brightly on the darkening street.

If folks who approach me and ask my permission to see what is in the box are able to do so. If they don't ask then they may not have my permission. There are treats in the box. If they ask for permission to have a treat the they are welcome to have it. But if they do not ask and try to take a treat I close the box. If they make snide comments I ignore them or glance at them sidelong. If they are rude and disrespectful I will walk away. 

It is interesting to see folks try to figure it out. Often people think that I am trying to deal with feelings but really I just want people to start using consent.  Although my feelings are important, they are mine.  Consent and permission is that intersectionality between people.  It is the way in which we create safety and trust.  It is more important perhaps sometimes than feelings.

Also during the whole thing I do not talk verbally. I make facial gestures, simple sign language and head shakes. So much of interaction between us is non verbal. But sometimes we get lazy with our words. We forget that some people "speak" in ways different than ourselves.  We forget that people are dragging around all those feelings behind them like chains.  We trip over them and see not the person standing before us but what we think we should see.  We forget to look at people as individuals.  We forget to look and see.

But sometimes we have to take a moment and figure it out. Sometimes we have to see that the person before us is entitled to their own space. But when we see the space between us- when we ask permission to share that space, we can begin a type of communication that involves trust and caring- without having to trip over all those feelings that may or may not be there. 

Then if we ask for consent, we might perhaps be rewarded.  Sometimes the asking is its own reward.

Puppetry thinking

I have been rummaging around both my head and my studio for stories and ideas for a mini portable puppet show.  These dolls are stored on a high shelf in my studio: the casts off for a never finished projects.  They have their own stories and lives up there on that shelf.  I think perhaps these need to be pulled out and told. 

Witch Doll and her minion

I'll being the physical labor on the new puppets today with these dolls overseeing the progress.  I hope to have most of the visuals and the story coalesced by the next First Friday Art Walk in Portland, Maine.  And if you are in the area, come find me on the cold street.  Perhaps a story will warm you up.

minion puppet

Beside myself

Beside Myself
Watercolr, ink, acrylic and pencil on paper
22" X 30"

Light please

This Friday in Portland Maine the First Friday Art Walk folks have arranged to close some of Congress Street to cars traffic.   The street will be for art and folks walking. 

Firewalkers, music makers, drawing sellers, and performance artists.  Heaven. 

I'll be there will my dress sewn up with lights... 

come find me...talk with me ...