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Photos from Art Show
For Mom
By Jasmine Quinsier
13 Archetypes and Goddesses
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Collage, mixed media, bookmaking, illustration and paint. Texts are from various sources, some are written by me, most are taken from inspiration from the web.
For this year’s 31 Days of Art, I started a bit early in December. I always do. I got a little start into the book and cards when my mother had her stroke on Dec. 26th, 2022. The project idea was to create 13 goddesses or female archetypes that resonated with me, that are predominant in my life right now with what I wish to create and what I am working with in conjunction with Psyche and Art. As we went thru the experience of my mother’s stroke and eventual passing, this project started meaning more and more to me, as I was loosing one of the most powerful archetypes in my life, my MOTHER.
So much came up for me with this process, and working on this book during this time was a saving grace of calm in a very disruptive traumatic storm. I never showed my mother the book. I am not sure why.
I chose to create 13 archetypes, instead of 31; One, my mother’s birthday happens on a 13th, it is one of her favorite numbers and I liked that it was a reverse of 31. Two, there is something feminine for me about the number 13. Mysterious and taboo, yet so aware we are, that hotels don’t include a room 13 or a 13th floor.
The Goddesses and Archetypes that came thru this project surprised me a bit and also gave me some good insight into a deeper layer of the matriarchal passing of the torch I am gifted and honored with during this time with the passing of my mother.
For this year’s 31 Days of Art, I started a bit early in December. I always do. I got a little start into the book and cards when my mother had her stroke on Dec. 26th, 2022. The project idea was to create 13 goddesses or female archetypes that resonated with me, that are predominant in my life right now with what I wish to create and what I am working with in conjunction with Psyche and Art. As we went thru the experience of my mother’s stroke and eventual passing, this project started meaning more and more to me, as I was loosing one of the most powerful archetypes in my life, my MOTHER.
So much came up for me with this process, and working on this book during this time was a saving grace of calm in a very disruptive traumatic storm. I never showed my mother the book. I am not sure why.
I chose to create 13 archetypes, instead of 31; One, my mother’s birthday happens on a 13th, it is one of her favorite numbers and I liked that it was a reverse of 31. Two, there is something feminine for me about the number 13. Mysterious and taboo, yet so aware we are, that hotels don’t include a room 13 or a 13th floor.
The Goddesses and Archetypes that came thru this project surprised me a bit and also gave me some good insight into a deeper layer of the matriarchal passing of the torch I am gifted and honored with during this time with the passing of my mother.
Spirit Faces
Needle Felted Wool
By Meagan Chandler
Thirty-one sweet little faces
Teaching me how to listen to wool and muse,
Teaching my needle to shape tiny noses
And mouths and eyes full of life,
With their sun faces and moon faces and dawn faces,
Their rainbow skin, their unique personalities.
This little community, my teachers,
Wait patiently to one day be made whole,
Keeping each other in good company.
Who will they each become?
What medicine will each carry?
What depth will blossom in their future hearts?
Like each of us as life shapes us.
Like each of us as our gifts reveal
And live into the world through us…
If you think you might be interested
in one of these little lovely faces becoming
a special spirit doll just for you,
Please reach out!
(720) 436-1332
[email protected]
Teaching me how to listen to wool and muse,
Teaching my needle to shape tiny noses
And mouths and eyes full of life,
With their sun faces and moon faces and dawn faces,
Their rainbow skin, their unique personalities.
This little community, my teachers,
Wait patiently to one day be made whole,
Keeping each other in good company.
Who will they each become?
What medicine will each carry?
What depth will blossom in their future hearts?
Like each of us as life shapes us.
Like each of us as our gifts reveal
And live into the world through us…
If you think you might be interested
in one of these little lovely faces becoming
a special spirit doll just for you,
Please reach out!
(720) 436-1332
[email protected]
In Balance
By Miko
Natural materials (mobile). Glass.
I extended my work with mobiles from last year's 31 days by exploring larger patterns of natural objects. I love these twisting, unique multi-dimensional seed pod shapes and want to continue exploring patterns with them. I also created a mobile from the broken pieces of a branch, painted bright yellow, that had been part of the shrine along the river by the Commons. One night, someone appeared to have removed all the candles and objects at the shrine; the shattered pieces of this branch were all that were left. I created a simple mobile to resurrect the beauty and harmony of the shrine, and hung the mobile off the nearby bridge over the river. (It is still there as of this writing.) I would love to build more mobiles and hang them off the bridges of the river. Finally, I continued blowing glass during this period. One connection I see between the glass and the mobiles is the element of balance: In creating round glass pieces, a central challenge is to continuously attend to and maintain the balance of the molten bubble or shape as it rotates on the pipe, pauses briefly for a particular move, and starts again. Attaining balance in life is also a challenging art form.
By Ellen Kemper
Again this year’s 31-day Art Challenge inspired me to return to my sewing lair. First I finished a dress begun in the summer, adding my mother’s sweater to winterize it as you see on my dress form. It’s quite practical and comfortable.
At the end I created another dress from a skirt to display my 2023 OPUS – a sewn scene from tiny scraps. I’m wearing it today.
I tackled a few projects on my TO DO list:
And a few others
I missed a few scattered days, was scattered in my approach many days, but am grateful to engage in the Challenge. Join us next year.
At the end I created another dress from a skirt to display my 2023 OPUS – a sewn scene from tiny scraps. I’m wearing it today.
I tackled a few projects on my TO DO list:
- a neck warmer from scraps to match my new coat
- Escondido Restaurant tees needing to be feminized
- a “hip-sister” to wear at the gym
- finishing a potholder from my sewing start in 2013
- a purse from my mom’s top and dad’s tie
- securing a sweater pocket to save my phone
- a NY Times recipe for Onion Squash Tart
And a few others
- pretty pizzas
- snowy photos
- Greece scenes candles
- candles for birthday gifts
I missed a few scattered days, was scattered in my approach many days, but am grateful to engage in the Challenge. Join us next year.
A Catalog of Remembrance
By Brooke Hessler
(Kiln formed glass with copper and silver inclusions or image transfer; found index card filing box; typed impressions from Remington Rand Deluxe portable typewriter c. 1948)
As a medium, glass gives us a way to be brave: to work with fire and breath and metal and hope and chance. As a material, glass has memory, it holds trauma: if glass is fractured or nicked, it will retain that impact forever, perhaps manifesting it visibly over time, perhaps not.
I learned this four years ago as a neophyte glassworker, around the same time I was learning that my mother’s altered personality was not, as we thought, a temporary response to trauma but an irreversible progression of dementia. I soon began making glass objects as a moving meditation on my relationship with my mother and our shared, ever-changing experience of memory. This is an ongoing therapeutic and critically reflective practice that I periodically blog about at https://mind-body-story.com/category/glass-has-memory-project/
The twenty-four objects in A Catalog of Remembrance are kiln formed glass shaped as 3 x 5 cards. My mother spent most of her career as a secretary. The objects reference her expertise with the tools and literacies of a professional office worker. She typed 200 words per minute and won an award for her speed and accuracy in Gregg shorthand. For this project I began learning shorthand as a way to express and reflect upon the struggle to decipher the thoughts my mother is sharing with me today in her evolving modes of self-expression.
The catalog presents memories as pairs:
an object representing a story or memory + a glass index card translating the object.
The RE ASSURANCE objects are things my mother repeats today, often as a form of looping or self-soothing; I’ve composed them in shorthand from copper wire.
The RE COLLECTION objects are fragments of stories my mother used to tell me; I’ve composed them with words typed into copper.
The RE COGNITION objects are an attempt to acknowledge and honor forms of meaning my mother retains and that I cannot decipher; I’ve composed them with precious metal elements held by chemically reactive glass
I learned this four years ago as a neophyte glassworker, around the same time I was learning that my mother’s altered personality was not, as we thought, a temporary response to trauma but an irreversible progression of dementia. I soon began making glass objects as a moving meditation on my relationship with my mother and our shared, ever-changing experience of memory. This is an ongoing therapeutic and critically reflective practice that I periodically blog about at https://mind-body-story.com/category/glass-has-memory-project/
The twenty-four objects in A Catalog of Remembrance are kiln formed glass shaped as 3 x 5 cards. My mother spent most of her career as a secretary. The objects reference her expertise with the tools and literacies of a professional office worker. She typed 200 words per minute and won an award for her speed and accuracy in Gregg shorthand. For this project I began learning shorthand as a way to express and reflect upon the struggle to decipher the thoughts my mother is sharing with me today in her evolving modes of self-expression.
The catalog presents memories as pairs:
an object representing a story or memory + a glass index card translating the object.
The RE ASSURANCE objects are things my mother repeats today, often as a form of looping or self-soothing; I’ve composed them in shorthand from copper wire.
The RE COLLECTION objects are fragments of stories my mother used to tell me; I’ve composed them with words typed into copper.
The RE COGNITION objects are an attempt to acknowledge and honor forms of meaning my mother retains and that I cannot decipher; I’ve composed them with precious metal elements held by chemically reactive glass
Carol Schrader Cyanotypes on Fabric
For this 31 days I experimented with cyanotypes. They are photo prints on fabric, using the sun, which seems like a magical form of alchemy. Some are from drawings on transparencies, some are from photo negatives, and some are from direct objects. I made a number of different prints, thinking about prayer flags and dream states.
In Elemental Beauty, a prayer flag scroll, I represent the 4 elements of earth, air, water and fire. The geode and feathers are prints from actual objects, the snowflake and fire are drawings. I enjoyed experimenting with this process so much, I’m planning to keep making cyanotypes all year. For one thing, it should be much more practical in the summer!
In Elemental Beauty, a prayer flag scroll, I represent the 4 elements of earth, air, water and fire. The geode and feathers are prints from actual objects, the snowflake and fire are drawings. I enjoyed experimenting with this process so much, I’m planning to keep making cyanotypes all year. For one thing, it should be much more practical in the summer!
31 Days of Watercolor Meditation
By Kim Davis
Watercolor
I think of myself of being creative, but I don’t really apply the label of “artist” to myself.
Although I express my creativity in many ways, it is not usually in the typically fine art
traditions of painting or drawing. I cook, knit, notice details, and craft. I decided to
challenge myself with this 31 days of art: first to use a medium I am not really
comfortable with but that I am drawn to (watercolors) and second to complete one small
painting each day of the 31 days in January. This was both technically and emotionally
challenging for me and I did it!
I found myself looking at the details around me on my daily walks through a different
lens, “Could that be my watercolor sketch today?” I really enjoyed this aspect of the
project. I also found my daily painting time in the evenings to be meditative and
enjoyable. While I did not “like” everything I created, I worked hard to not judge what I
created and simply to let it be. This is part of the work, my deeper work, in this and
everything.
Although I express my creativity in many ways, it is not usually in the typically fine art
traditions of painting or drawing. I cook, knit, notice details, and craft. I decided to
challenge myself with this 31 days of art: first to use a medium I am not really
comfortable with but that I am drawn to (watercolors) and second to complete one small
painting each day of the 31 days in January. This was both technically and emotionally
challenging for me and I did it!
I found myself looking at the details around me on my daily walks through a different
lens, “Could that be my watercolor sketch today?” I really enjoyed this aspect of the
project. I also found my daily painting time in the evenings to be meditative and
enjoyable. While I did not “like” everything I created, I worked hard to not judge what I
created and simply to let it be. This is part of the work, my deeper work, in this and
everything.
The View from my Window
By Lynn Ewing
I moved to my home near Pecos 22 years ago. My piece represents the view from my bedroom window when I first moved in. Over the years, trees have grown and blocked some of the view, but in my mind’s eye, this is what a still see each morning when I get up.
The view has held my interest as the shadows, textures and colors change depending on the time of day and year as well as weather conditions. It’s a view that feeds my soul.
The view has held my interest as the shadows, textures and colors change depending on the time of day and year as well as weather conditions. It’s a view that feeds my soul.
By Joe Lambert
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Hand Wringing
From the prompt, Share a story of what a family member gave you as a gift, an inherited trait, a value, a legacy, an heirloom, and how it informs who you are. |
Sacred Space
From the prompt, From the prompt: Share a story of illumination, satori, epiphany, mystery, serendipity, sychonicity, and how it changed you |
First, in viewing this project it is probably good to know about the form. The Digital Story. 30 years ago I and my colleagues at StoryCenter developed a model for the general population to create short video narratives, perhaps best described as the intersection of very personal and self reflective creative writing, the family album, and digital video and image editing. The group process of creating these stories, the digital storytelling workshop, became a method of participatory creativity that we have spread around the world, now 100s of thousands of people have made these movies, and 10s of thousands of educators, artists, media activists have learned our methods and approach.
Like many educators, and me, as the executive director of a constantly evolving international non-profit, I have not had much time to make my own stories. When I do make them, they are often like the examples here, inspired by a singular idea that provokes a relatively singular response.
Like the other participants in this process, I wanted a specific challenge, to try something I had not before. Because of the limits on my time and focus, I knew I had to create in a regimented time each day. So each day, the process was the same. Write for 10 minutes, record the voiceover, and edit the film in 90 minutes. The choices of topics grew from many places, but the first 14 prompts were from my Signpost Story curriculum. From there, I borrowed from a range of prompts I've used as a creative writing teacher over the years, including from my book, Seven Stages: Story and the Human Experience. To some degree, the process had me thinking about these stories, as a new type of autobiography, one in which an author returns to both essential, and whimsical, experiences in this multimedia form.
If you'd like, you can see any of the other 29 stories at https://www.storycenter.org/31days.
Like many educators, and me, as the executive director of a constantly evolving international non-profit, I have not had much time to make my own stories. When I do make them, they are often like the examples here, inspired by a singular idea that provokes a relatively singular response.
Like the other participants in this process, I wanted a specific challenge, to try something I had not before. Because of the limits on my time and focus, I knew I had to create in a regimented time each day. So each day, the process was the same. Write for 10 minutes, record the voiceover, and edit the film in 90 minutes. The choices of topics grew from many places, but the first 14 prompts were from my Signpost Story curriculum. From there, I borrowed from a range of prompts I've used as a creative writing teacher over the years, including from my book, Seven Stages: Story and the Human Experience. To some degree, the process had me thinking about these stories, as a new type of autobiography, one in which an author returns to both essential, and whimsical, experiences in this multimedia form.
If you'd like, you can see any of the other 29 stories at https://www.storycenter.org/31days.
Grey One
By Deborah John
Pencil Drawing
I became an avid doodler in childhood, and continue drawing from an unconscious place.
Grey One emerged from that place.
Grey One emerged from that place.
