Released!

When I called Mama's nurse to check in on her health and well being, I found that she had been released from her ankle bracelet bound. Set free again with a warning, but they did not want to call it that. I guess she had been reduced to tears and a call was made to my brother to agree upon its removal. I am so relieved. My sister is concerned that she wander and be lost. I know for myself I would rather wander and be lost than be trapped and unhappy. Perhaps that is my philosophy on life and why I have chosen an artistic path, sometimes lost and wandering, but not trapped and I want to have that be my way to the end. Maybe it was a warning to us, her children, that to have her in a facility with many to care for: that she would need to have her freedoms cut if her actions alarmed...then she would be alarmed. I am trying to be reasonable and to understand. The painting posted is one done early at university, which she has kept in her bedroom for 40 years. It is the one painting she wanted with her to be near her bed still. Watercolor and white tempera on paper and how well it has held up. Probably not archival, but loved.

Doesn't seem so long ago

It doesn't seem so long ago that I was in Washington, DC with Mama and my sister Martha. We went for the opening of the Native American Museum because Mama has long been such a supporter of the Native American and, of course, we had to go by the Capital where she walked right up and stood with the Code Pink protesters and spoke her thoughts to them all, including Carolyn Sheedy. Was it really so long ago...when she was free and mindful? I just got the word that she now wears an ankle bracelet, because she was wandering into the outside world to marvel at the trees and the growing world, to listen to the birds, and she wandered too far or was gone too long because now she is a prisoner. Because of the bracelet, an alarm will sound if she nears the door. I am so sad that this is what is going on. Yes, I want her safe, but I also want her to marvel at the wonders of the natural world she so enjoys. My last phone call with her, I could feel her shrinking more inside herself. Mama, Mama, have faith that there are still many delights for you to take in. Maggie, have faith that this will all be bearable.

Improv drawings to jazz

An interesting proposition came to our art group--to paint while Michael Arnowitt played improv jazz, but not just in private. We will be painting while Michael plays a concert at Wood Art Gallery. He has written a grant and been awarded some funds for this event now scheduled for July 12th. To warm up I went to his last concert where he played his own compositions with his 5 piece jazz group ImproVisions and these are some of the resulting drawings. I was seated within the audience for this concert and limited myself to oil pastels on ancient colored paper and pages from an old art magazine which was quite experimental and exciting in itself. So enjoyed the music and my working with it. Like I was an instrument or dancing. I "played" until the end and found myself so exhausted after the output that it was hard to drive home. I was spent. The 3 of us who have promised to "paint" for the concert got together another time "to practice".
I'm quite certain that there is no real way to practice for this event. It will be a happening thing and I hope grace and inspiration are with us and no great mishaps occur. How can one practice for improv?

Isadora Scarf Life

Asked by Lost Nation Theater to put up a display of hand painted silk scarves in the lobby for the production of Love Isadora, I made up a spring series of super long scarves--the Isadora series and installed them this morning. It's a bit like her dressing room after a difficult time choosing just the right one to wear. Ever had one of those days? The performance will run May 28 through June 14, a one woman show as the actress tells Isadora's story and when the words fail then the dance begins. I've heard there will be rich music also.

Trying to undersatnd what is going on in Pakistan

I am trying to understand and was helped
 by this review.  It's like putting together
puzzle pieces, but if the  government can't
 make a believable plan, what are the
 people to do?

Pakistan on the Brink
By Ahmed Rashid
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22730

Ground Shifting beneath our feet

I awoke early with with thoughts tumbling. Was it too early to take all the coverings from the garden...a freeze warning on Memorial Day and I just put in the last tomato yesterday. But it was so cold in the house and the book called for me to finish it first. An excellent book! Still Alice, by Lisa Genova about a woman with early onset Alzheimer's at 50. A brilliant cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and expert in linguistics slowly loses her thoughts and memories, searching for who she still is. So well written, so informative of what it could be like to lose one's thoughts and memories and still find pleasures in one's life. Tears came when she says "I miss myself." So many thoughts for my mother. At one point in the reading of this book, I had to leave the reading and make a phone call to my mother, just to hear her voice. When I told her I had called wanting to hear her voice, she said "And, how does it sound?" "Oh, so lovely! Just what I needed. How does my voice sound?" Our conversations have changed. I have been painting about the ground shifting beneath our feet in my abstract work for years. I am so aware that the ground does shift that I am more able perhaps to follow my mother through her shifting. My sister is more learned of conditions and she has been more fearful and angry. I have rolled with the shifting, but still so hard to watch as someone slips away while the body seems still so strong. I have learned that the neurons are not firing on all their synapses because they are becoming clogged with amyloid-beta 42 which the body is producing at an accelerated rate. Where will this new information take me? Ah! If only I had more time to delve deeper into each passing thought, but my thoughts are like butterflies, and I have silk scarves to iron before my appointment to drape them as display for the Lost Nation production of Isadora....must get to the iron....ah, perhaps too many irons in the fire.

[Flickr] maggie wants you to see a photo

Just last month Faiza wrote to me "Will art survive?" as she awaits the Taliban approach to the capital city...yet she continues painting, an emotional outpouring, and she finds acclaim.Such a friendship is of great value to me and I am so proud of this courageous and talented woman. Exhibit May 23rd by Faiza Ayub © All rights reserved Just follow this link to see the photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/faizaayub/3557700165/ (If the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it from this email into your browser's address bar.) Flickr is almost certainly the best photo management and sharing application in the world. If you'd like to see what I use it for you can check out my profile page or browse my photostream.

Faiza Khan painting in Islamabad finds success

Just had word from Faiza that her opening this weekend was met with much success. She writes that many important figures were present and that many paintings were sold before the show opened. So very proud of her. She has been working so diligently and has such talent.
From the Dawn, a review comes
ISLAMABAD, May 23: The solo exhibition of paintings by Faiza Khan, who is fascinated with figurative and has passion to paint, opened at Hunekada here on Saturday.

“I can express better when I paint figures - females mostly - because the subject inspires me the most,” said the bright young artist at the opening day.

http://epaper.dawn.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=24_05_2009_153_011&typ=0

Painting silks and getting ready for Open Studio

The weather has changed to summer just over night! Today was a magic day for dye drying with sun and breezes and I am trying to get ready for Open Studio this coming weekend. Can it really be tomorrowthat I must set up? Yikes! I'll be demonstrating and displaying at Wood Art Gallery with 6 others and also have my cabin out at Camp Meade (Middlesex) open for viewers. Cheryl Dick will watch over it some and Bruce will be on site until I get there by 3, hoping to bring others from town. On Sunday I'll start out at Cabin studio and travel back into town for the afternoon there. Crazy to have 2 places but when I signed up for Wood, I didn't have a studio. Is this a double bind or is that meant to describe something else? Life can get so busy when Vermont opens up for the season with the flowers and all the activities put off collide. I have missed the writing time, but the garden is growing. I have missed painting with oils, but the silk work is exciting and seems to be selling well in the few galleries I have left. I can hardly keep up with the demands and I really ought to be making more clothing because a fashion show is coming up on June 6 and I must dress 4 models. I also want to write about the work I have been doing in preparation for the improv session with Michael Arnowitt, improvising on piano, as 3 painters paint. Also exciting. Next entry coming soon I hope.

Can we be neutral?

Work at cabin at Camp Meade is surfacing. Finding my way sometimes takes days.

More about Faiza

Faiza is still painting and exhibiting in Islamabad. As it is her wish to bring in some money, she has lowered the prices for quick sale. These paintings are luminous feminine emotional portraits of today in Pakistan and worthy of great walls. Please check them out and consider purchase or to whom to pass on the information.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faizaayub/3530392058/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faizaayub/3530296580/

Spring--new life /new studio!

So exciting to to have a new lease on art making with a new studio. While visiting there on Friday, after a lovely walk and fiddlehead gathering, I began to "put away" some of the supplies I brought out and an unfinished or maybe unresolved piece floated to the surface. A can of paint was handy and the new art making began. Just play on some levels but I could feel myself exploring for shapes and colors, overlapping and making changes. Change can be so exciting while making art. It also can bury something of potential value under a "mess"--part of the process and I can hardly wait to go and make change again. Mother's Day! Let's make more creation and nurture those paintings trying to become.

[Flickr] maggie wants you to see a photo

Another painting by Faiza. A woman so vulnerable, guarded, and protective with so much erupting so very close. How much one can read into a painting or how much does the painting itself speak to us? Faiza's work speaks to me and I wish I couldknow what to do to assist. She is housing 3 families from the Swat valley now---they have nothing, she says. by Faiza Ayub © All rights reserved Just follow this link to see the photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/faizaayub/3508891599/ (If the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it from this email into your browser's address bar.) Flickr is almost certainly the best photo management and sharing application in the world. If you'd like to see what I use it for you can check out my profile page or browse my photostream.

Are we really lost in our own world?

Sometimes I surprise myself...even shock myself.  Am I really so lost in my own world and is everyone else lost in theirs.  It was a rainy morning and I found myself caught in my thoughts.  It is not an active place, so to push myself from thoughts I escaped to pictures, found this one and here I am writing "my thoughts".  I think I will venture off to the coop.  yes, and the sun came out with that mention.  My paint table will now dry!  Ah!

[Flickr] maggie wants you to see a photo

Painting by Faiza Khan by Faiza Ayub  © All rights reserved Just follow this link to see the photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/faizaayub/3490731757/ (If the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it from this email into your browser's address bar.) Flickr is almost certainly the best photo management and sharing application in the world. If you'd like to see what I use it for you can check out my profile page or browse my photostream.

Faiza paints in Pakistan

Through Flickr I have gotten to know the work
and the strength of Faiza Khan. From the
beginning I noticed the powerful presence
of her work and the skill in her techniques.
That she is painting nudes and women's
emotions in Islamabad was astounding to me
and now she writes of her worry of the Taliban
raids in the countryside just outside her city and
she worries about her 2 daughters "Will they be
able to have even a basic education?" And
of art, she queries, "Will art survive?" I fear for
her and these other women expressing themselves
through painting in a country filled with fear,
an "imprisoned society". To read more I am hoping
my linking will come through.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faizaayub/3496639298/

Joyous day

Oh, joyous day!  My son Ezra just called me from Africa.  So lovely to be in communication with him.  He just arrived on Friday to visit with his friend Shannon for the next few weeks and she immediately took him off for a weekend away at a French villa where they relaxed and enjoyed.  Now back in town she has gone back to work--a Fulbright scholarship PHD work--and Ezra is catching up with himself.  He is such a good writer; I've encouraged him to start a blog as a journal for those interested in his adventure and for him to have in a complete form when he returns.  I am realizing how important this blog is for me....no longer do I care if others are making comments because it is becoming my journal of my life and thoughts.  I am feeding myself and happy to share.  These flowers are a happy couple now but will become a vine up the side of the cabin---growth is essential to process.

Artist Colony

A new venture has presented itself and I seem to have been ready to step into this one.  Just 6 miles west of Montpelier, there is an old CCC camp (from the 30's) which has undergone some changes, looking some years ago like an army camp with tanks and army gear called Camp Meade.  With new owners, Red Hen Bakery has come, building a lovely cafe.  Now there is a chocolate shop and a Weavery.  The cabins in the semi circle were needing occupation and Jaquelyn of chocolate has undertaken the challenge of drawing together a group of artist to inhabit the space.  I was looking for a studio situation, for painting and for opening to the public.  Voila!  I am now at Camp Meade.  The past 3 days I have moved over some supplies and painted a wall almost white to lighten the interior.  Bruce and I have put in a garden in the space emptied by the sale of one cabin, complete with scarecrow.  Today I painted the front screen, making my doorway different than all the rest.  It is exciting to make these changes, all without spending any extra money....the act of creation has always been important to me.  I can see the possibilities and run with them.  Still some cabins call for occupants, but enough painters and writers have come forth and we plan on making some happenings in the center space to call in our friends to come play with us there.  Keep in touch for more information.

STIMULUS IN PAINT

Trip to Ohio, a success, and the painting, Bench Conversation, arrived in Vermont.  As mentioned before this painting was my final piece after 4 years of art classes at Bowling Green University.  This had been proudly hung above the couch at my mother's homes for 38 years.  Now with her in a "home", the apartment was dismantled and cleared this past week and an exhibit was scheduled to be hung the day after our arrival back in Vermont.  Now, in Burlington at ARTPATH, this painting hangs with 14 others in a show called STIMULUS IN PAINT for the next 3 months.  Odd and interesting to hang 2 paintings of another era with the abstracts I have been creating for the past several years.  Definitely some resonance and some pleasure that I can relate and feel pride at the work I had been doing 38 years ago.  It's also a good study for me to have this work around again.  As for the exhibit, my 15 pieces hang with 3 other artists who have been in the art field making work for many years also and the show is definitely  worth a visit.