More.…..Valentines Zentangle®

VZ…..Valentines Zentangle®

I seriously can’t stop.  Perhaps I need a 12-step program.  Maybe later…….

VZ…..Valentines Zentangle®

No offense to Hallmark or American Greetings, but sending cards on special occasions is getting, well, cost-prohibitive, so sad since many of us enjoy sending all those pink and red cards, slathered with all sappy and sticky sentiments.

Those of us of a certain age may remember our elementary days celebrating Valentine’s Day.  A few days before our party we’d decorate paper lunch sacks with crayons and stickers and white paper doilies, with our names BOLDLY reminding the cute little boy we had a crush on which bag was ours.  God forbid he could accidentally put MY card in the wrong bag! 

We’d secure our bags on the tack board, or on a rope along the wall, or perhaps right on our desk.  The day of we’d break in the afternoon for our party.   Everyone proudly deposited their secret cards into each bag.  We’d enjoy freshly baked and brightly colored cupcakes, more simple than today’s versions along with boxes of warm milk.  We hit the mother lode if someone gave out boxes of candy hearts with cute sayings, or boxes of red hots.  Or better yet….chocolate foiled wrapped hearts.  And then we’d painstakingly read through every card to be sure that one special card in fact was there. 

Hearts could soar, or be broken in an instant.  Whichever side of the coin toss you ended up on, it’s a wonderful childhood memory.  I loved it.  I wish I could decorate a lunch sack today and have it filled up with mushy poems of love.

This year I decided to opt out of the purchased option replacing it with functional cards of a different kind.  So here I am…..tangling up a storm inside while it’s blowing snow and cold outside.  I decided to design Zentangle® bookmarks in lieu of cards.  The tools are simple and on hand….heavy vellum card stock, pens and markers, along with the sleeves for the finished product.  I still need to pick up a bunch of red corded ribbons that hang off the ends. 

So here they are, handmade, crafted by hand…..minus the ribbons, ready for Valentine’s Day. 

ROUND ROBIN, the sequel

Reluctantly I’m posting about our ROUND ROBIN, holding out hope for a happy ending for everyone involved, not just myself.  So it began…..

Late 2013 two quilters from the US and Germany decided it would be a fun idea to organize what in the quilting world is called a ROUND ROBIN.  Both sought 7 quilting friends to make 2 even groups of 8 each.  We kept the parameters simple…..each quilter committed to create a 12-14” finished block of her choice method.  They would be sent as a group to the opposite country, where their quilters would add 4 borders to each block, each border being no larger than 8” wide to keep the finished size a manageable mid-size quilt.

Along with our blocks we could send ‘selfies’ and journals with a short bio, where they could add something of their choosing, and small meaningful gift for each new quilting BFF.  When our package came we randomly selected who would work on each block.  Then the work and anxiousness began.  We received our blocks, assignments were announced and work began to create a design that would complement and enhance the center block.  Each of us labored over what to do.  The easiest border was the first, but this was very important as it would set the tone for the remaining borders in large part.

During the startup, one of our quilting friends was diagnosed with Liver Cancer.  She fought her disease hard, and wanted to stay with the project remaining hopeful she would finish it.  Sadly, she lost her fight February 16, 2014.  Another quilter friend stepped in completing her rounds.  You can see all the participants on my August 12, 2014 ROUND ROBIN RALLY post.

We finished our tops ahead of our German friends, and enjoyed a late summer dinner party at our Organizers Lake Michigan home for the unveiling and celebrating our part of the project being finished.   The tops were boxed and shipped to Germany, where they would remain unopened until they finished and unveiled their work to each other late October.

Then we waited.  Weeks passed.  We knew they were mailed late October, but they didn’t arrive.  So we waited more.  Then suddenly a package showed up at one of our gal’s home, but not the organizer, and looking not ‘quite right’.   Some of the quilt tops were inside, but not all.  After much sleuthing we concluded 3 tops were safe, but five still remain ‘MIA’. Our group leaders did everything humanly possible to locate the missing tops, tracking them thru every department possible within the USPS.  Super human attempts were made and many tears were lost.

Fast forward…..yes, we are very sad we don’t have all the tops.  But we are also sad for our German friends that invested their time and money on our quilts.  They must be very disappointed, knowing all their work was lost.  Just sad all around……to think 5 quilt tops are sitting somewhere, either lost, stolen or destroyed.  Who would do such a thing?  To think there are websites for lost and found quilts just amazes me.  Seriously?

Thankfully, pictures were taken before they sent them from Germany so we could at least see what they looked like, plus use the photos for identification.  So……without further ado, below are theirs blocks and the finished tops we sent to them: 

Next are our blocks sent to Germany, followed by the tops they sent back, noting which are still MIA:

(The following are still missing)

In closing, aside from the missing quilts, this was a wonderful project.  The blocks were all beautiful, with such interesting and varied inspiration.  I’m grateful to be a participant.  Thanks Denice (and Elke) for all your organizing and keeping us on track…..like herding mice sometimes!

40,075 (km, earth's circumference)

40,075 – First Solo Show for Micah Schippa (km, earth’s circumference)

Opening Reception Saturday, October 1, 2014 at BORN NUDE Gallery, 1711 S. Halsted St., Suite #2, Chicago

Recently Aaron (aka Micah) was selected for his first solo exhibition in Chicago.  It looked at beginnings and endings, starts and finishes.  Many of you contributed to his Indiegogo crowdfunding project……thank you for your support and generosity.  As I understand it, Chicago is a hard art scene to break thru as its population is more about Finance and Commerce than Art, so getting this type of exposure is hard to come by at such a young age.  This is especially true when the focus is experimental art.

AVANT-GARDE MAGAZINE describes experimental art this way:

For many people who look at experimental art, it can be difficult to identify between the artists that are pursuing genuine artistic paths and those that are being obtuse or awkward in their work or medium simply for the purpose of standing out and being different from the established norms, so there is a fine balancing act to be done in identifying experimental arts. Generally anything that takes an existing artistic medium and does something different with it that hasn't been done before, or creating an entirely new artistic medium can be considered experimental, but there is a lot more to it than that.

In terms of the different types of art that can be considered experimental, and the various fields in which experimentation can take place is really very wide, and whether it is in breaking new ground in a stale or traditional art form, or being entirely new and redefining what can even be considered art, the experimental art really is a very broad church. The definitions will also vary from person to person and their own individual definitions for what they can consider to be experimental, so getting an exact handle on the subject is really quite difficult.

What has very much become a part of the avant-garde movement is that although it was originally used to promote specific political or social views, it is much more about experimenting for the sake of pushing the boundaries of art, and doing so simply to see how much these boundaries can actually be changed. Doing something experimental in art is less about trying to get tributes and glory as an artist, but is rather more about the mediums that are being used, and experimenting with the rules and restrictions normally found in the field.

In terms of the experimental aspects of art, there are certain artists who have truly been revolutionary for their time, and have changed the goalposts in terms of what can be done with a specific medium, and movements have sprung up from such work such as the impressionism of Monet, and the surrealism of Dali. These artists helped to develop their own part of experimental art culture, which would go on to become a big part of the recognized culture as their experimentation and work within the avant-garde was recognized by a much larger audience.

Trying to go out specifically to be experimental and to push the boundaries of a chosen medium will often prove to be a fruitless task unless there is an artistic motivation behind it, and for those who have specifically been experimental simply to try and achieve recognition their work can often come across as being crass and self-serving. However, for those who are genuinely trying to push the borders of the art form that they love, and to make art that is genuine and that people will be able to see is sincere, it can have a striking and bold look that will make the audience stand up and take notice, even if the experimental isn't entirely successful.

Micah was drawn to experimental art from a very young age, fascinated by untried and non-traditional mediums and techniques.  To those of us less inclined, this can sometimes be a head-scratcher.  That may be the point.  This body of work was about experimentation. The large canvas achieved thru unconventional materials and processes required a great deal of trial and error before achieving the final outcome, as well as the candles, glass the weight of the human brain and heart, photographs and lights.  The music played on the outer walkway supported these objects.  The gallery was packed throughout the evening.  Here is a snippet of the work.  Micah is in the white, Dan is next to him, proud mom and dad flanking the ends.