These last couple of weeks I have been sifting through the drawings, photos, experiences and memories of one of the most inspiring vacations I have ever embarked upon. My family and I made a big decision this year to take a year off from our annual plans in Maine and head west. With the kids getting older, I knew that this might be the year to let them experience how vast this country really is, before they grow up and leave the nest. So with our “tour guide” and dear friend Lisa, we went to Montana, where she grew up, and soaked up everything Big Sky country has to offer.

It’s all too much to put into one blog entry, one sketchbook (I finished one and began another while out there), one body of work. I plan to write and post a lot related to our time out west in the weeks to come. We experienced landscape that defies imagination while in Wyoming and Montana. It’s as if the very Earth is breathing out there. This is a similar sensation I’ve had when visiting live caves and I have a deep sense that my upcoming residency at Mammoth Cave National Park is somehow related to our recent family travels. I am excited to explore all of it in my writing and via the art work that is bubbling at the surface since arriving home.

Above is a simple stop motion video I put together while at Yellowstone. The music is by a Cincinnati based band, the Pomegranates, whose music was in my head and on my i-pod a lot while out west. This particular song, I feel like I’m a million years old, is a good description of how I felt out there. Time and geology have a different story to tell than here in Ohio. I love that. So stay tuned. Distillation takes time.

The summer’s travels are in full swing around here which is a nice way to try and weather the smog and humidity that plagues our region this time of year.  We started with weekend trips to various Irish Dance competitions for Maddie who is working her way up the ladder of this sport.   There was also a trip to Chicago for this year’s Irish Music competition, the Fleadh Cheoil (pron: flah keeole) where Jack competed in solo competitions in mandolin, banjo and fiddle and he and I both played in the band competition.  (Jack placed 1st in banjo, 2nd in mando, and amazingly, 2nd in fiddle, in spite of it being his first year in the highly competitive and crowded 15-18 year old group!!  Our little band got 2nd!)

Last week while Maddie danced her little legs off at dance camp, Jack and I headed to Celtic Week at the Swannanoa Gathering down near Asheville at beautiful Warren Wilson College.  This was our 2nd year there and it was like going back home this time around with all the friendly familiar faces and knowing our way to the best running trails and such.  The week flew by filled with laughter, more tunes than we could possibly digest in one week, new friends and renewed fervor for this relatively obscure hobby of ours.  There was a lot of joking among the lot of us about what nerds we are for traditional Irish music.  And it’s the truth.  We are each more nerdy than the next person and we all learn so much not only from our instructors (who literally travel from all over the world to teach at camps like this one) but from each other as well.  We trade tunes and suggest albums to buy.  More experienced players can sometimes be seen helping newer players around tricky bits of tunes.  I had the opportunity to strap on a set of Uilleann pipes belonging to my talented friend Cathy and after a few minutes, I had squeaked out the ‘a’ part of a simple Jig.  I was delighted!  This could lead me even further into the rabbit hole that is Irish Music.

Occasionally I will take some ribbing from non-Irish-music-loving friends for being such a nerd about it.  And my response is - dare to be a nerd yourself.  About anything!  If you have a hobby, any hobby, dare to dig a little deeper into it and really make a go of it.  Be passionate about something that you are interested in.  You will be led to meet amazing people who share your interest and can further your own knowledge and abilities in your hobby.  If you don’t have a hobby, then find one.  How?  Well, what interests you?  Seek it out.  Do you like books?  Find a local book making club.  How about kayaking?  There are groups in most cities anywhere near bodies of water and you will probably find the people involved open to sharing their love of the sport.

One of the greatest things about being at what we lovingly refer to as ‘band camp’ is simply being around other Trad Nerds who love this music as much as we do.  It’s a place to feel safe in our nerd-dome and to immerse ourselves in it, if only for a week.

Tomorrow we leave for family trip out west where we plan to hit the hot springs and go for a dinosaur dig (I’m just a little nerdy about dinosaurs too…. but I’ll save that for another blog post).  You can bet, I’ll have my flute and whistle with me to practice new tunes under the huge western sky before they try and escape my brain.  Til next time, dare to find something you can get all nerdy about and dig in.  It really makes life worth living.

Special thanks to my friend and phenomenal photographer, Larry Green in Kentucky.  His photos capture the magic that is Celtic Week.

Spent a couple of hours at the zoo again this week….  here’s a few sketches.

This is Rembrandt.  He is a screech owl who lost an eye and is now hanging out at the zoo with his volunteer educating the public.  He is absolutely lovely.  and tiny. Though I think those talons could do some damage if they had to.

There is a feed the giraffe station now at the zoo which is really cool.  For a buck you can give the giraffe a cracker.  The giraffes don’t seem to mind and it brings them right up close for sketching.

We caught this old guy napping.  So tender.  And somewhat human I think.  There is a certain person-ness to primates at the zoo.  Especially the orangutans.

That’s all for now.  Off to practice some music!!

It’s summer.  A new more relaxed schedule involving mostly running kids from here to there in between making art.  I love summer for this.  Ever since my Art Academy class ended in the spring, I have been looking forward to sinking my teeth (and pens and paints) into my new re-purposed sketch-journal that I made with book maker Cody Calhoun.  I finally got into it over the weekend while on a trip to Detroit for a feis (an Irish Dance competition… tis the season right now).  The paper we used to fill the journals is perfection for what I like to do which is write and watercolor.  I am in love.  And feeling productive.  It’s a refreshing breath of fresh air.

There is nothing like a road trip to wake up the senses.  This is especially the case when traveling from one distinct landscape to another very different one.  As we traveled north toward Michigan, the land leveled out and we saw all sorts of tall grasses which were growing in the marshy ground leading up to the lakes.  Some of this grass is apparently invasive but I don’t know enough about it to know the difference.  To an artist’s eye, it just seemed like a nice place for some red winged black birds to perch and swing in the breeze.

Meanwhile, some feisanna are longer than others…. I had some time to sketch while we waited for competitions to start….

I love pines silhouetted against a dusky sky…..

It feels great to be drawing on a daily basis again.  Intellectually I know that drawing everyday is good for me personally and professionally from all of the work with Drawing Down the Vision.  Why I seem to lose my way and get bogged down by life at times forgetting the subtle power of my sketchbook…. I may never know.  Must have something to do with being a human bean.

But enough about the sketchbook for a minute.  Here’s the news…. a few months ago, in the midst of my work on the ArtWorks mural, I applied for a residency at Mammoth Cave National Park on the off chance that I might have the privilege of spending a month there making art and teaching people how to “take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” with a sketchbook and pen.  Today I got the call from them that my application was chosen based on my portfolio and proposal for work I’d like to do there.  I am honored and humbled and tremendously excited to go explore the caves and work with the folks who work at Mammoth Cave all year round.

What a cool thing to look forward to…. I’ll keep you posted.  (I simply cannot stop grinning.)   

Quite a bit of snow has hit our area in the past few weeks.  Depending on who you talk to, this is either a wonderful miracle resulting in snow days, igloo building and soup making or just a huge pain in the keester.  I am of the former camp enjoying the slower pace of kids off school and spontaneous napping.  Art making often takes a different form in the winter.  Things like embroidery and quilting come out of their baskets while drawing (especially sketching outside) tends to take a back seat.  This is all well and good but I get a little squirrelly if I don’t put pencil to paper for too long.  So today I went outside with my camera to capture a few things to bring inside and maybe draw later in my sketchbook.

A snowy day provides a tremendous opportunity for studies in contrast.  I love the play of light versus dark and how this can begin to get abstract, especially when put into a drawing.  Below are a few snapshots…

Could this be a small sign of spring… maybe?

I think the skeletons of these little weeds make nice sketches, they are also fun to embroider.

The dogs love the snow, digging their noses deep in search of interesting scents.

Sometimes they get to play with the neighbor dog Buckley…. if they can catch her.

I hope this finds everyone warm and snug on this snowy day.  I think I’ll go back outside.

This lovely drawing was created by Jessie Henson, the artist chosen unanimously by a group of us who are working to have a large scale sculpture installed in the new School for the Creative and Performing Arts building nearly complete in downtown Cincinnati.  We have been hard at work getting publicity and raising money for what should be an amazing glass installation.  We had a donation’s table at Fame and held a dance party to raise some of the money needed to make this project a reality by spring.  In January, my friend Kim Taylor will put on a concert with many of her talented friends in the music business and there will be silent auction as well.  On the Esme Memorial Sculpture Project website, you can read Jessie’s full statement for the work, as well as make a donation to the project.

But why make a donation?  Well, in other posts here on this lowly little blog, I have written time and again about the healing power of art.  Whether it’s to get myself out of a low place where I can sometimes get fogged in, or if it’s to trudge through a tragedy like we have faced this year, the making of, talking about, viewing, exploring, writing about ART is what gets us through to another day.  To me it is something to have faith in.  I am not a religious person at all, for a variety of reasons I don’t need or want to go into here.  But I do know there is a God-Spirit that resides in all of us and that when I am making art, or music, or poetry - or witnessing the making of it by others - I sense that God-Spirit most of all at these times.  And maybe that is part of why I personally get up and make art every day?

The sculpture Jessie is creating in honor and memory of Esme will include the work of students who want to be involved at SCPA.  It is also intended to honor the memory of anyone whose life is lost too soon, as Esme would want it to be so inclusive.  Jessie will be working with students on the broader topic of memorials as well, for students who may have another loss to process.  In so doing, students, and probably some teachers, will have a chance to peel another onion layer of grief and continue to heal, through the making of art.  The fruition of this project is near and dear to my heart and so I am spending a good deal of time and energy to make it happen.  I urge you to check out the website dedicated to this project and stop back often for more information about upcoming events.  Through music, dancing, making art, writing, we continue the healing process.  We’ll never get over the shock of this event and the loss of our friend, but we can bond together to move through it together.

It’s December, a giving season, and I urge you to consider donating to this project (and check with your employer about matching grants).  It’s not just a sculpture.  It’s an avenue of hope and healing for a community still grappling with loss.  And it will be beautiful.

I’ll keep you posted.

It’s been about a month since my last post as there has been a lot happening around here, not allowing too many blocks of time to sit down and update.  So I’ll catch things up here now, as best I can.  Early in November, my son Jack was in the pit orchestra for the School for Creative and Performing Arts’ performance of the musical Fame. (pardon the pixelated photo).  In this production there is a wonderful song, done in a series of rounds that talks about what “hard work” the arts are, each discipline convinced that theirs is the “hardest profession in the world”.  Our lives have been a lot like this song recently with music, dance and in our case, the visual arts, occupying much of our time and energy.  It’s been wonderful!  Jack’s weeks leading up to Fame meant long hours after school and tons of make up work for the days missed at school for tech-week.  But being part of the major musical at school has been something he’s wanted to do since he began school there.  I think it was worth the wait for him.

Another big event that came to fruition this month is the Mid-America Irish Dance Championships, the Oireachtas, (pron. or-rock-tus).  My daughter Maddie and her teammates at McGing Irish Dancers have worked for months to get to this and they were met with success.  One of her ceili teams (somewhat like Irish square dancing yet judged on precision of the steps of the team) placed third in the Midwest out of over 30 teams!  The girls were overjoyed at how months of hard work and time and effort paid off.  As a parent it was heartwarming to witness.

The kids’ activities have had us running around town quite a bit and it’s important to take a step back now and then and steal away for some quietude just the two of us.  So on Tony’s birthday, we did just that and played hookie for the day to head out for a paddle up the Licking River, one of the Ohio River tributaries.  It was a pretty cold day but once we were bundled into our boats it wasn’t bad.  Luckily we did not get wet, though we were prepared if necessary of course.  It was a wonderful day…

On Thanksgiving, on top of a house full for dinner, my 7 year old nephew decided that it would be fun to make a movie.  And he had it all worked out in his head as to how he wanted it to go.  And so, Indianapolis Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Turkey was born via the group artistic effort of most everyone available.  This might look like goofy non-sense to most folks, but when we showed the movie over pie that evening, we all laughed so hard we cried.  Even Tony tapped into his inner actor and played the evil “Mobile Commander” who was attempting to steal the crystal turkey (foam, packing tape, and rhinestones from the craft box).  I think it’s pretty cool that we can make a movie in a day nowadays.

These are just a few of the things keeping me in “busy” mode.  Often when I get in that mode, artfulness is more fleeting and I let the “busy-ness” take over.  But lately, that is not so much the case.  In spite of a hectic month, work is getting done (ok, so I didn’t blog for a month…but…).  Drawing Down the Vision, the visual communication class I have co-developed with my former student Adam will be unveiled at a home based pilot here on December 17.  We have asked a few friends of Adam’s and Tony’s from the corporate set, and my friend, fellow artist, writer and workshop facilitator Diane Debevec to join us so we can get used to presenting what we have gathered and in turn get some critical feedback before we attempt to offer this workshop in the real world.  It is tremendously exciting to be at this point.  Nerve-racking, but exciting.

My fall semester at the Art Academy of Cincinnati has come to an end.  I taught my six week sketchjournaling course to 10 students.  Among them were non-artists, artists and art teachers.  As usual, I learned so much from them and am already looking forward to next time.  Next semester will be a bit different.  I will be co-teaching with a book-maker named Cody Calhoun.  Together we’ll be offering a class where students will make a blank journal, and then learn how to fill it.  Details about our Make The Book/ Fill the Book class are available in the new Community Education 2010 course catalog which you can download via the link above.  You might recognize the featured faculty member on the cover as well as inside.  My sketchjournaling process is featured in this issue!

Work at the wax table has seen some growth spurts in the month of November, with new layers and processes developing.  I plan to spend the month of December preparing more work for a show at Pleasant Perk in January.  One exciting aspect of the upcoming show is that 20% of the sale proceeds will be donated to the Esme Kenney Sculpture Project.  This is an exciting project that I am involved in and it deserves it’s own post with photos and details to come soon, but I wanted to mention it here and give folks a chance to check it out. I will certainly keep you posted, most likely later this week…. but for now, a sneak peak at some new work.

Last week a friend of mine brought up the never ending question of how are we to give more than we take in the world.  How are we to be more mindful consumers in this consumerism driven economy.  This is a common theme.  My teenage son is even asking it now, and finds himself, often rightly so, disgusted with humanity’s inherent ability to defile the earth… at least I think that is how he put it.  When I was in art school, a teacher/ mentor of mine, Pam Cole gave a copy of a poem to me written by Jeanne Murray Walker:

Looking for Ruby Earrings on Portobello Road

Not to want it all is a sort of defect–
the porcelain cows, socks made out of flags,
scarves fluttering against the blue throat of the sky,
hot dogs, bawdy brooches, paper cockatoos,
an organ grinder with three cats,
and a lover wrapped around a saxophone.
He coaxes it to whine.

The perfect earring, if I could find it
soon enough will tumble into a sidewalk grate,
clink, and lie in its littered grave forever.
And yet I drift across the street waiting
to be gulled, trying to catch fire again.
Then the notes of the full throated saxophone
rise, and my eyes rise with them
to some stones gleaming on black velvet
in a stall stuffed with celestial junk

and I laugh with the saxophone
because the stone is the least of it–
cheap glass or plastic–the instrument
to be played on. And the holy river of desire
runs wide.  I buy the earrings,
which call me to the world we can never keep
but must, nevertheless, adore,
it being all we know of eternity.

~j.m.w.

I think this is a lovely way to think about our relationship with our desires for that next best great thing that we just have to have.  But the trick is, how do we do this responsibly?  How do we pick and choose?  And how do we inspire others to be just a little choosy in their consumerism?

There are a number of ways, and here are a few that came to mind to me this week as I pondered all of this.  First, there are plenty of others who know more than I do about this.  My friend and fellow artist, Michelle Miller, currently based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, has made paring down her own consumerism a lifestyle for years now.  Her blogs, The Nothing New Project (oct 06- oct 07) and the (Almost) Nothing New Project (current) chronicle her relationship to consumerism and how she navigated this in her own life to come to a reasonable balance of needs and wants.  It was the arrival of her birthday gift to me today that inspired me to write this particular blog, as i felt that indeed, this had become a theme.

Michelle went to the shore of Lake Michigan and collected 40 small pebbles and crocheted a pouch for these lovely little stones.  She then packaged up this magical gift and sent them to me.  I almost cried when I received them.  It was a beautiful and thoughtful gift.  Funny thing is, it’s not the first.  I got a box o’ rocks from my dear friends out in Olympia who spent quite a bit of time looking for rocks with holes in them (which I collect).  In that box was also some cool driftwood and other found natural objects. Amy in Maine once sent carefully chosen ocean pebbles which stack on one another.   My friend Anna gave me bug for my birthday.  It has freckles and I love it!  Carol gave me a collection of bird’s nests one time.  Lisa also gave me an incredible nest once.  This list could go on and on. (and on)

One might think that I haven’t received or appreciated anything not natural or “found” in my gift receptions.  Not true.  I got a wetsuit for kayaking from my mom.  My in-laws all chipped in for an amazing purse which I would never have bought for myself.  Gorgeous, crazy color leather.  Love it.  Again, I could go on, and on.  My point is, all of these wonderful gifts were given with love and thoughtfulness.  Gift giving can be a pressure filled consumer conundrum but with a little creativity and thoughtfulness, I believe there is a right gift for every recipient.

By carefully choosing where we shop for gifts as well as for daily items, we can make a huge difference.  One of my gifts came from a fair trade shop here in town.  I try as often as I can to buy local at the grocery store.  There are “green” areas of town that encourage even folks with modest means to start living a little more lightly in the world.  I try as often as I can to buy from fellow makers for things I need, or to barter for services from skilled workers who might be trying to make ends meet.  So many artists, massage therapists, builders, musicians, bar tenders, etc. are without health insurance.  By bringing business to them, it is possible to help them make ends meet.  These are small things that may or may not have a trickle effect of lighting in someone else the desire to do things differently.  We live in a big-box world.  And sometimes you just have to buy some underpants.  or a toothbrush.  But there are little ways we can make a difference by buying local, supporting artists, musicians and craftspeople in their work, and doing our best to recycle, re-use.

As I write this I am fully aware that I am not anyone who can even scratch the surface of these issues facing our society.   It’s just something that has been lurking in the back of my mind and I wanted to pay attention to that.  Tomorrow is my 40th birthday.  Amidst all of the joy of making it this far in my own life, I am sad to report that my pup Caskie, has ended his time in this world.  He died, in my arms, a week ago Sunday, of cancer.  I am at peace with his passing, although I miss his presence in my daily life.

I’ll wrap this post up with another poem, a favorite of mine….

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

p.s.  elliot, in Rochester, has sent me a post card nearly everyday this week of my birthday.  I simply don’t know how he does it.  but I love him for it!  thanks elliot!!  xoxo

One of the problems that plagues a visual artist is the question of what to do with all the art work that gets made.  It’s possible to give some away to unsuspecting, er, supportive loved ones.  And occasionally, a piece of work or two gets sold along the way.  But most of the artists I know, including (and especially) myself, have artwork just sort of laying around, often in pieces.  I have casts of my hands that I made for “In Any Language” propped into some of my house plants.  Sometimes when casting, there are bits that aren’t good enough to put into the work, but are still too cool to toss out.  And so I have creepy looking hands growing out of my houseplants!  And of course, there are the works that are languishing in storage, gathering dust in the attic in boxes or bags.

A favorite of these bagged up works is “Tubular CM“.  It was a pretty successful student work of mine but in spite of all the positive feedback it received, it never sold.  I had it up on my own walls at my old house and even for a bit here at Chez Bogard prior to the renovation.  But mostly the “tubes”, as I lovingly call them, have been in storage.  So fast forward a few years and I’m at the hair stylist with my boy Jack.  Our stylist, Shannon of Salon Cherry Bomb, happened to mention that she needs some art to put on her walls.  “something sculptural, that sort of comes out of the wall a bit, I don’t really even know what I’m looking for, but I’ll know it when I see it.”  The tubes came to mind and I pointed Shannon to my website.  She stopped by the studio the other day to meet the tubes in person and loves them.

So here’s the deal, I’m installing the tubes on her walls for an indefinite period of time.  She gets cool, free art to display.  I get to lay a pile of business cards out on her desk and maybe get some patronage from one of the many varied and interesting clients who come to her salon each day and find themselves (potentially) drawn to my work.  And an interesting work of art gets to come out of the attic.  I am not sure if this is proper artistic protocol, this notion of resurrecting old art work.  But frankly, I don’t really care.  I don’t want to give away my work, but I don’t mind lending it, especially if it brings some traffic my way.  I often say that if you don’t stir the pot, all the good stuff settles to the bottom.  So I’m stirring.

Meanwhile, I continue to find inspiration in other artists.  Kim is working on a new album and I am first in line to get a listen to it.  Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, is my new personal guru, whether she knows it or not.  I have watched her TED talk a number of times when I need a reminder that doing what I do is worthwhile and important, even when it’s undervalued (read, unpaid).

Summer is in full swing around here with a lighter kid-running schedule and a little more room for studio play.  It’s wonderful. I am taking full advantage of the time, finishing up odd projects and tackling new.  Continuing to explore things in the wax world and finding my own voice in that tricky medium.

Happy Summer to you too.  Get out and draw something!

My bags are packed to leave tomorrow to join my friend Kim Taylor on the road for a few days of music and just plain old, gettin’ the hell outta here.  I am a gypsy girl at heart, from constantly being on the move as a kid, to my Navy wife days, to my wanderlust nowadays.  Travel, even just a few days here and there, can recharge my spirit in ways no other thing can.  The above quote is from an artist named Candy Jernigan, whose book Evidence just arrived in the mail today.  One of my amazing students introduced me to her and I love her work as well as her philosophy. Perhaps at the heart of travel is just what Jernigan speaks of; proof that we are really here.  Walking in the world.

Death has been at the door a lot lately and so naturally, all of us around here have been pondering mortality quite a bit; our own and that of those closest to us. First Esme, and now, Whitney Smith.  I did not know Whit personally, but wish I did.  He was held dear by friends of mine whom I hold dear, and that, to me speaks volumes.  Read his blog, get to know him, and his story.  Esme’s and Whit’s passings don’t hold too very much in common.  But two things come to my mind.  The first thing is that there are now parents whose lot in life is to go on living in the world without the presence of their children.  This is simply not the right order of events in life.  We parents are supposed to go first, before our kids. To have borne witness to the grief of my friends in recent weeks and days is an honor and I sincerely hope I have been an adequate vessel to it.

Another, more broad commonality between these two deaths is that both were caused by some glaring glitch in The System.  Only time will tell what sorts of ripples the loss of these two people will cause in the world.  I will certainly try to keep you posted here as the narrow alleys of Activism are navigated.

So where to from here?  Heavy, heavy stuff.  And yet, to pack a back-pack with an extra couple of shirts, spare undies and some sandles seems perfectly natural.  Hitting the road for a few days, more natural still.  Most of what I have packed consists of art supplies.  My matte medium is in a 3 oz. airline approved bottle, my pens are advertised not to explode in flight, I have my sketchbook and my camera and some of my favorite books to read.  I plan to gather evidence:  that the world is still beautiful.  that people are still good.  that my gathering of this evidence is meaningful and worthwhile.  I am hopeful.