Tag Archives: beck
September 14, 2010 to tell you about painting at the mason jar
[ from a. addair who is listening to Beck (Odelay) ]
When I put an art workshop on the calendar I feel anxious. I’m pretty sure it stems from a lack of confidence or validation. As I’m inviting people via Facebook I’m thinking, “This is shameful. Why should I be teaching anyone about painting?”.
It is from this place that write. First, I am self-taught. I feel the need to make that explicit. Second, I don’t intend to “teach” anyone anything…as “teaching”, in our culture, has come to mean something bureaucratic and one-sided. Rather, I want to invite you to come over and play with me. If you are new to painting, I will share some approaches to entering into the art-making process. If you have more experience, then the workshops are meant to be an opportunity for painting outside of your own art-making patterns and routines. No accreditation, but valuable for those interested.
because a real professional would not post this picture of herself
And to be a bit more concrete, I’ll share an outline of a previous workshop, “Making Art from Knoxville”, which focused on allowing a sense of place to enter the painting process.
Objective: To allow and encourage participants to find their immediate vision and personal language of contemporary experiences rooted in place.
Method:
1. ask questions in order to enter into the objective(participants free write):
Where do my interests lie today?
How are these interests influenced by my surroundings? by people? nature? buildings I live in? work in?
What remembered images most interest me?
What sorts of images am I most exposed to? on TV? in books and magazines? on the computer? advertisements? within my environment?
What questions am I pondering?
(There are more, but you get the idea)
2. participants look through books of images, taking note of the things they connect with
3. free write: How do the selected images connect with my interests and daily experience of living?
4. prompt: form a question from the last free write (something you find troubling, interesting, energized by, etc)
5. prompt: allow this question to remain open as you paint about and within this question. Admit doubts and explore explanations. Use the imagery that resonated with you as starting points for visually processing the question. (At this point I ask participants, and myself, to be present and aware with the act of painting and to trust the initial intellectual work by turning off their censors and operating out of instinct.
That is an abbreviated version and, of course, things went delightfully non-linear as I had an eager and engaged student.
I write this to ease my anxiety over being assumed an expert and also to give you more knowledge about what to expect if you are thinking of joining me for the upcoming workshop on October 5 : Making Art from Science.
Oct 5 art workshop flyer (click here to learn more)
Tags: 2010, art, beck, cerulean, facebook, flyer, free write, goofy picture, knoxville, making art from science, october 5, odelay, painting out of place, painting workshop, professionalism, self-taught, teaching, the mason jar, validation
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- Posted under art workshops with a. addair, Ashley, audacity, mason jar, painting, Uncertainty, Work
March 6, 2010 “to ask and to walk together”
[ from addair who is listening to Beck (Odelay) ]
street art in San Cristobal
A few weeks ago, in San Cristobal de las Casas, we wondered into a shop filled with Zapatista artwork. Levon found an embroidered square that he thought we needed. I thought the work was beautiful but I confess that I cringed at the thought of actually purchasing it. I couldn’t make out the entirety of the embroidered message and hadn’t a clue to the significance of the embroidered snails. I’m all about art for art’s sake but I felt like a doughy devourer of “novel” indigenous struggle buying the thing.
We brought the tapestry to our bilingual friends to help us translate. It reads, “El Caracol significa fortalecer la resistencia de los pueblos para la construccion de su auctonomia, es un intento del EZLN para mostrar nuestras palabras. Espocible construr un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos.” Or, roughly translated (I have no bilingual friend to help me at the moment), “The snail symbolizes the strengthening of the resistance of the people for the construction of one’s autonomy, it is an attempt of The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) to construct a world where many worlds can fit.”
in San Cristobal
Over dinner, with the tapestry as our conversation starter, our more informed friends had a bit of an argument over the use of arms in the Zapatista movement. Hastily, I put the embroidery away, admitting my ignorance and vowing to look into the matter before I hung the work.
The investigation has me reading The Fire and The Word, A History of the Zapatista Movement by Gloria Munoz Ramirez and feeling less silly about our purchase. I’m still no expert and can’t pretend to grasp the entirety of the events leading up to and working in the movement but I feel welcomed by the movement to participate; to weave my story and culture into the struggle and celebration for justice and autonomy.
These are some of my favorite parts of the book:
“finding reflections of your own resistance, threads of connection with other struggles, and even a glimmer of hope”
“without belonging to the EZLN, share, live, and struggle with us for an idea: to build a world in which many worlds fit. To have a birthday that celebrates many birthdays”
“with or without a law we’re going to build our government the way we wanted”
“doing practice first and then developing the theory”
“we are showing the country and the world that to be able to develop a better life, you can do it without the participation of bad government”
“we simply say that the people can plan and decide how their economy and their government should be”
“we create measures without permission from them”
“it takes awareness and courage”
“the people said no to violence and we listened”
“It doesn’t worry us that the government does not listen to the people. It doesn’t worry us because we’ve seen the strength of the people”
de San Cristobal
“The beginning of the construction of a movement that would be characterized by knowing (and learning) how to listen, to have its say, to ask and to walk together”
Tags: beck, bush. nazi, chiapas, ezln, fire and the word, gloria munez ramirez, hope, justice, mexico, odelay, san cristobal, street art, struggle, Travel, zapatistas
