12.21.2012

Assurances

Sometimes, as artists, we are more productive during or right
after difficult times in our lives. And then, we wonder. Would I be
an artist without distress and discomfort? Does drama follow me?
But the truth is that difficulties will come, and we all need ways to
survive and deal with them. As artists, we have this additional
language that emerges from the subconscious to help ourselves 
and others. My current project is taking on a new direction with 
recent diagnoses of cancer among friends, and needing 
reassurances of safety after a horrific school shooting.

Below is a sneak peek at my current project, a collaboration with
poet LouAnn Shepard Muhm. My job is to create rather large
translucent bowls out of sewing pattern tissue paper and various
hardening agents--still experimenting. LouAnn's is to write poems
against fears, assurances that our fears will not win. Next, I will
paint a poem and an image inside of each bowl.


This project is being partially funded by a
Minnesota State Arts Board grant,
and is inspired by ancient incantation bowls.