look a little closer blog

Once a week, I volunteer with the blind creating art projects and I’m constantly amazed at their talent! We set these projects up so mostly everything is done by the student. The point is to make them feel successful in the art that they are making and let their creativity speak. Last semester we worked on a mural and it turned out great. I still have to post the final photos!

This semester we’ve been working in clay, basket making (kind of hard~actually), and decorating hats.

I am working with a new student and she is amazing! We sing Italian arias to each other, she teaches me words in the five languages she knows, and I watch in awe as she skillfully molds clay into birds.

This is actually our second bird. The first bird was too wet, the wings broke, and we had to start over. I think this bird is even prettier than the first, as we’re really working together to create patterns for the feathers (made from beads). She creates the pattern on one side and I mirror it — all while singing.

She inspired me to set up a singing program for the Greenwich Village Singers to come in and do some volunteer singing. I told her we’d be performing this summer and she was thrilled!

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Do you ever have those moments where you realize how BIG the world is?
And how each person has their own story?

I do, and I love hearing other people’s!
And of course, sharing my experience from their stories.

I recently became a team leader for the New York Cares Art Explorers project. My project is on Saturday mornings at the Ravenswood Community Center.

I’m excited about my lesson plan for tomorrow! We’re going to make pop up Mother’s Day cards. These are some quick phone pics, but I had to share.

I’ve been making art out of all of my office’s leftover materials.

what is green?
the grass is green
money is green
jealousy is green
i don’t like green jelly beans
i like lime green sherbet
green is a pretty color
it’s the center of ROY G BIV
apparently, the heart chakra is also green
is love green?
will i find a green glass love? (this is a thoroughly modern millie reference)

Last Friday I participated in my first art installation piece ~ meaning it was up for about two hours before I took it down, leaving only rose petals behind.

If you were anywhere near Strawberry Fields you probably saw a path of streamers…

If you followed it, you were invited to interact and explore my exhibit which represented what “green” meant to me.

It was a path to all the parts of love…(from my point of view)…

…including the bubbly, sparkly parts…

…and the times when it’s a little more tangled.

The piece really represented “self love”, which I have learned is the most important. If you have this, everything else falls into place.

My art piece was only the beginning. A guided mediation was led by Anthony, which encouraged participants to explore “giving” and “receiving” love through touch.

There was music…

dancing and meditation.

It appeared quite peaceful from this point of view…

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The event itself was new to me. It was really interesting, but fun. You had to let yourself go a bit, but once you did it was refreshing in a way. A bunch of strangers saying hello with a touch of a hand surrounded by the trees. It really provided a break from the city.

There were many people involved, including dancers, artists, healing artists, musicians, and every day people walking by. It was hosted by TREeplays and the ID project.

Concept and Direction by Kristen Schifferdecker of Red Novae.

Thanks for letting me be part of such an interesting experience, and teaching me to let go a bit.

Kristen asked me to create a visual piece for this event tonight. The event itself will be interesting. It’s a combination of meditation, dance, music, movement, and art. She asked me to visually represent the color “Green” , it’s relation to love, and the heart chakra.

After a few weeks of struggling, my final “piece” is actually about my creative process in making it.

It’s a reflection of my thoughts on love, self-love, healing, green, and in the end it’s just bigger and happier exploding book.

The actual installation is difficult to describe, but it will be a heart hanging from a tree…

*the heart*

…Which will be filled with thoughts and flower petals…

*thoughts*

…And underneath it, the petals and notes will fall into a basket and a bouquet of live flowers with be ribbons coming out in six points (the six points of the heart chakra). The idea is that you have to find “self love” before anything else can work.

As I get ready for the installation, it makes me wonder if this is art and how it will relate to the “audience” of this event? Since it’s really just my “self expression”, I may be the only one that can understand it. I suppose we’ll see!

At least it was fun to make!

And I had some great help.

Until she was too tired.

Happy Friday!

Last night I had my volunteering at Visions and we started putting the pieces of our mural together. Our goal is to assemble the entire thing by March 23, so it’s ready for the “class party.” The team leaders and I will hand stitch the pieces together. We each took a “finished” row and will stitch all the sewn rows together before the last class.

I am so excited about the way this project turned out and think it was a huge success! I’m constantly amazed at the creativity of the students and am so happy to work with them. I’d like to do this project again, but this time painting “mini murals” so the students can take them home (this was their request!). I know it’s a big goal, but maybe I can finish them before the next semester begins.

Here are the latest pictures!
Enjoy!

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*It all started with this sketch…*

*And then turned to a watercolor…*

*Then to the painting…*

*Once the pieces were cut, we had lots of creativity!*

*Now we’re putting it all together…*

*Good thing we numbered these!*

I love how creative the students were!

*birds, suns, stars, moons, hearts, and glitter for buildings*

*trees of buttons, surrounded by flowers*

*Rainbows, boats, and lots of moons!*

*But it’s really coming together!*

*You can really see their personalities in each piece*

**Sorry for the blur, I was just so excited!**

I can’t wait to see what the finished piece turns out to be!

Calee asked me to help with some album art for Flow and the Mingos.

Thanks for sharing my art girly!

Theme: changing seasons and time.

Here are some concept sketches:

My favorite..

i love hearts
i love anything sweet
i love making things

katie’s kiss in your pocket idea was so sweet i had to make my own.

so i did..

i started off with my photoshoot.

lavi even joined me.

lots of kisses.

then i drew on all the hearts into the sequence

to make it my own, i personalized my book a bit..

“for those days your feeling a little blue..”

“i picked a kiss for your pocket– just for you!”

then you can flip through it!

for all the kisses!

and the end.

my valentine also treated me. to some lovely roses.

which are a nice addition to my desk.

Hope you had a lovely valentine’s day!

The sketchbook project tour has begun!

Books were meant to be touched. The exhibitions will be treated “library-style”, complete with library cards for each visitor who can check books out and view them while in the galleries. There are no frames hanging on a wall. This is a purely tactile experience.

**

My sketchbook is a little different. It is pretty, sweet, ugly, awful, human, pure emotion, and the rawest piece of art I have ever done.

It is 100% complete honest.

I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing, but if they did, they would see what exactly what I felt in overcoming a broken heart.

Anytime I felt anything; I wrote, sketched, drew, scribbled, tore paper. I used my art to help me get through the worst of it. It honestly helped. I realized this when I wasn’t writing in it every five seconds. I think I took a break on day 14. That was when it started to get better.

I don’t have a copy of the book, but I do have some photos. I planned on scanning the whole book, but never did. I wasn’t even sure that I would send it. But on the last day of the second extension, I sent it. I am a different person than when I wrote the book. I even start the book with that disclaimer. Who knows if anyone will even pick it up?

That said, the schedule of the book’s tour is above.

Cheers to emotion and using art to release!

Last night we introduced the project to the students and they loved it! It was well received by the volunteers and the students! I’m really excited to see how the final piece will look. It will be much different than the original.

The students have asked that I create individual murals for them all to take home. They loved the fact that it was already painted out and that they could just add elements on top. We will also be stringing beads to wire, which I will add once the mural is stitched together. These will be used for the bridge.

I love the creativity the students have!

Here’s the latest on the Visions Mural!

My original plan changed a bit. I actually decided to paint out the entire mural on the canvas and outline everything in puffy paint. This way, it’s easier for the volunteers to help the students with adding the colored tactile material on top.

I was up until 4:00 painting this out, in my shoebox room (under the quilt is a full size piano, and my bed is rolled up against my clothing rack). The cat helped, you can’t see it, but there are paw prints everywhere! I’ll take some better pics soon.

The plan *modified*-

• Paint the mural out on canvas with color and puffy paint
• Cut up sketched mural into squares (this will be a large mural, probably 3 x 5 feet)
• Number the squares, so we know how to piece it together again
• Give each student individual squares with guidelines on colors to paint
• Students can add tactile objects on top with the same colors (beads, ceramic pieces, fabric, sand, etc)
• When the mural is completed, I will sew it together
• Final mural will be sewn onto a bar so it can be easily hung

They get to see the piece tonight! hopefully they like it!